The church member that usually takes care of the sound and the video for me each week was out sick yesterday. So, of course, that meant my Music Minister and I were trying to figure out who could run things for us. Not only was the primary person out, but the backup person was too!! Various illnesses are making their way through Louisville and ELBC was missing some vital folks because of it. What were we going to do?!
Enter Tanner - the day-saver! I brought him over, let him listen to what needed to be done and *presto* - everything went like clockwork.
Now, I will say that I had some difficulty concentration on this evening sermon, so if it's a little rocky - you have my apologies. I looked up during the hymns and saw the same day-saver turning the camera back and forth like a TV news crew and was terrified at what the video was going to look like.
What's that? Did I watch it to see? Heck no! But, you can...
Hope you enjoy. As always - feel free to comment about anything. Agree, disagree, like, don't like... whatever. I'm still playing with the captions and things on here. I like the scripture reference, but not sure about the "title" part. Maybe I'll play around some more.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
When do we say "enough"?
Read an article today on the FoxNews website that says British doctors have been advised to tell women seeking an abortion that it's "safer than continuing a pregnancy to term" and that most women who go on to have an abortion DO NOT suffer any psychological harm.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/02/27/advise-women-abortion-safer-giving-birth-british-doctors-told/?test=latestnews
Will we ever get tired of this? Will we ever say that this is too much? Will we ever tire of glorifying sin and calling it freedom?
My children will become adults in this world. I will grow old and die, but they will live in the tatters of society that WE chose to leave them... God may not be ashamed, but we certainly should be. And it isn't enough to throw our hands in the air and say "But what can we do?!" - because, for too long, we have known exactly what to do. But it costs us; physically and mentally.
And we have decided that our personal comfort is more important than this work. We have decided that it is better to cherish our own lives than those most innocent and precious. We have fed our "self image," we have become gluttons on the inward focus of mankind. And what have we gotten in return? A bankrupt world where the obvious is ignored and things like honor, integrity, and Truth have been sacrificed to the gods of Tolerance and Understanding.
My hands are not without blood, but I grow ever more tired of not washing them clean.
When will it be "enough"? How much will we sit through before we are driven to stand?
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/02/27/advise-women-abortion-safer-giving-birth-british-doctors-told/?test=latestnews
Will we ever get tired of this? Will we ever say that this is too much? Will we ever tire of glorifying sin and calling it freedom?
My children will become adults in this world. I will grow old and die, but they will live in the tatters of society that WE chose to leave them... God may not be ashamed, but we certainly should be. And it isn't enough to throw our hands in the air and say "But what can we do?!" - because, for too long, we have known exactly what to do. But it costs us; physically and mentally.
And we have decided that our personal comfort is more important than this work. We have decided that it is better to cherish our own lives than those most innocent and precious. We have fed our "self image," we have become gluttons on the inward focus of mankind. And what have we gotten in return? A bankrupt world where the obvious is ignored and things like honor, integrity, and Truth have been sacrificed to the gods of Tolerance and Understanding.
My hands are not without blood, but I grow ever more tired of not washing them clean.
When will it be "enough"? How much will we sit through before we are driven to stand?
Thursday, February 24, 2011
New and Improved!!
I have been blessed today.
Uploading the videos of my sermons, while not a huge difficulty, were hindered by YouTube's 15 minute limit on any given movie file. Because I don't have the ability to preach a short sermon, I was having to cut up the videos into two or three pieces - taking time on my end and making it a chopped up process for anyone wishing to watch a sermon.
Well, friends... no longer!! I was given a membership to the video hosting website Vimeo in honor of my late grandmother, Anne Williams. Now I'll be able to upload a single file and you'll be able to watch an entire sermon without having to make any page changes or extra clicks. All two of you!! (Just kidding, I meant all three of you)
So - many, MANY thanks for this wonderful gift to the ministry of ELBC! You know who you are and you can not be thanked enough!
Without further contemplations, I give you both the morning and the evening sermon from February 20th.
PS - I've been playing around with adding titles and Scripture references to the videos. Comment and let me know what you think!
Uploading the videos of my sermons, while not a huge difficulty, were hindered by YouTube's 15 minute limit on any given movie file. Because I don't have the ability to preach a short sermon, I was having to cut up the videos into two or three pieces - taking time on my end and making it a chopped up process for anyone wishing to watch a sermon.
Well, friends... no longer!! I was given a membership to the video hosting website Vimeo in honor of my late grandmother, Anne Williams. Now I'll be able to upload a single file and you'll be able to watch an entire sermon without having to make any page changes or extra clicks. All two of you!! (Just kidding, I meant all three of you)
So - many, MANY thanks for this wonderful gift to the ministry of ELBC! You know who you are and you can not be thanked enough!
Without further contemplations, I give you both the morning and the evening sermon from February 20th.
PS - I've been playing around with adding titles and Scripture references to the videos. Comment and let me know what you think!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Look what the dog brought in
An interesting and heart-breaking day today.
A neighborhood puppy seemed to have broken out of his backyard today and then proceeded to mosey over to my back yard. Lucky for him, Macy and Braden were in love with the new stranger and stayed outside with him from 11am until some time around 5pm. They fed him the cat food, gave him water, and even laid in the driveway with him when he wanted to take a nap.
The whole family even got into the game as we took the dog for a walk with us around the neighborhood. Try as I might, even Daddy enjoyed the thought that this dog might stick around for a little while... Macy and I talked about naming him during our walk, all the while he just walked along side us without a care in the world. "Ace?" "Jack?" "Buck?"
We finally settled on "Boomer" about halfway back to the house. If Macy called his name once, she called it 15,000 times in those 1000ft back to the house. She was in love.
Alas, it was not meant to be... "Boomer" was actually "Little Bear" and lived about 5 houses over from us around the corner. The family was driving around looking for him and were excited to see that he was being cared for by some strangers. Little Bear had an owner, and a child of his own. Macy took it like... well, like a little girl. She cried. A lot. For a long time.
It was sure fun while it lasted. I was in love with the easy going attitude of Little Bear and thought he was a good fit for my crew. I confess I wanted him to hang around for a while. But, like Mommy said, at least we got to spend the day with him.
See ya' later Little Bear. Come back when you can stay a while.
A neighborhood puppy seemed to have broken out of his backyard today and then proceeded to mosey over to my back yard. Lucky for him, Macy and Braden were in love with the new stranger and stayed outside with him from 11am until some time around 5pm. They fed him the cat food, gave him water, and even laid in the driveway with him when he wanted to take a nap.
The whole family even got into the game as we took the dog for a walk with us around the neighborhood. Try as I might, even Daddy enjoyed the thought that this dog might stick around for a little while... Macy and I talked about naming him during our walk, all the while he just walked along side us without a care in the world. "Ace?" "Jack?" "Buck?"
We finally settled on "Boomer" about halfway back to the house. If Macy called his name once, she called it 15,000 times in those 1000ft back to the house. She was in love.
Alas, it was not meant to be... "Boomer" was actually "Little Bear" and lived about 5 houses over from us around the corner. The family was driving around looking for him and were excited to see that he was being cared for by some strangers. Little Bear had an owner, and a child of his own. Macy took it like... well, like a little girl. She cried. A lot. For a long time.
It was sure fun while it lasted. I was in love with the easy going attitude of Little Bear and thought he was a good fit for my crew. I confess I wanted him to hang around for a while. But, like Mommy said, at least we got to spend the day with him.
See ya' later Little Bear. Come back when you can stay a while.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Race Relations Sunday
Here's a new sermon, for your viewing pleasure. This was Sunday morning, February 13 and was set aside to be "Race Relations" Sunday. I hoped to allow God to speak through me and tell us ALL what we needed to hear about this subject. I don't know if I said it all, or said it all "right," but Becky liked it. :)
I apologize if it's hard to hear. I forgot to put the external mic on the camera and didn't realize it until it was much too late to do anything about it. I hope it's worth hearing, even if you have to strain a little.
BTW - I really appreciate your comments on here. I love hearing other opinions and the uplifting things you say are a great support to me. Make sure you let everyone know about this blog and that they're free to comment on anything at any time!
I apologize if it's hard to hear. I forgot to put the external mic on the camera and didn't realize it until it was much too late to do anything about it. I hope it's worth hearing, even if you have to strain a little.
BTW - I really appreciate your comments on here. I love hearing other opinions and the uplifting things you say are a great support to me. Make sure you let everyone know about this blog and that they're free to comment on anything at any time!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
A proud moment.
Here's a little video of this morning's special music. I sang a simple song called "Give Me Jesus," but it had a long part in the middle that needed something extra. Tanner really impressed me by being so willing to help me out and read from Philippians. We practiced earlier in them morning and he got a little nervous. When I asked him why, he said "Because it's a big honor to be up here with you and get to read from your Bible."
That's my boy... :)
That's my boy... :)
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
These words live forever...
Facebook is an interesting animal.
For whatever reason, be it an assumption that people want to know or a complete lack of sense, we go on there and often post the most personal and private things that we would never think of speaking out loud in a public forum. And if, by some chance of fate, we don't post information like that, we certainly can see others doing it.
Why is this? Is it the anonymity that Facebook provides us that makes us think we can say most anything without suffering the repercussions of what's been said that, in turn, makes us so bold to say things best left unsaid? Do we forget that, along with our rant or public faux-pas, there is a cute little picture next to our words that clearly defines who we are in this online world?
Or worse... is this faux-pas becoming something that, in a few years, or perhaps even now, is no longer considered out of place or improper...?
Either way, like the Field of Dreams, if you post it - it will be read. And by read I mean scrutinized, and by scrutinized, I mean I'm going to talk about it here.
It seems to me that if we were to take the sum total of all the comments made on Facebook and filter them through the rules of "positive" comment and "negative" comment, then we would be left with one pile that looked something like a mound of raked leaves after a Delta windstorm and another pile that mirrored something like, oh I don't know... Mount Everest. Can you guess which pile would be which?
I understand having a bad day, or even a bad week. Heck - some people might shake their heads in agreement if we even discussed the finer points of having a bad few years... but consistently perpetuating that "badness" by posting it all over the internet is just bad taste. And if it's not bad taste, it's at least poor decision making.
Here's why: That statement lives forever!
I realize that by the nature of putting it on the internet you're making the proclamation that you don't care if anyone sees what you've said, but what about 1 day from now when you're not as angry... or maybe 1 month from now when you've reconciled with the issue you were once dealing with... or maybe 1 year from now when an employer asks if you have any sort of online presence. Does any of this go through the mind of the younger generation? Granted, by even asking that question I have A) disassociated myself with the generation and B) called myself old (Dang Mason, how can you call me that?!) - but my life was impacted immensely by the lives of young people not too long ago and I simply hate to see them live this way.
I can't mention anything specific here without risking the fact that someone I mention might actually be reading this and be offended that I talked about them - but even that judgement would be made in error. I'm only mentioning this BECAUSE I care, not because I don't.
You know, we call a thing "normal" because that's what happens most often in a given circumstance. It's "normal" to be upset when you lose a game. It's "normal" to speak your mind offensively when someone disrespects you. It's "normal"... But that's not right. What we've done is call a common thing "normal." We've imparted acceptance onto commonality. In other words - if enough people do a thing, it's okay for me to do it too... WRONG.
Don't be "normal" - be good! Be willing to be "abnormal" and swim upstream. Be willing to hang onto that which makes you kind and positive even when it's no longer "cool" to be happy. The world is making a mold around you of negativity and sorrow. Break that mold!!
Think on this - if Jesus had a Facebook page, and I believe he would, would he post any of the things you've posted in the past? Would he take time and effort to say some of the things you've said to THE WHOLE WORLD? Would he? In all the times that Jesus had a conversation with another person - did he ever come close to spewing vile words? Nope... but we do. And we claim to be remade in his image. His actions and our actions often look nothing alike. What's that say about us?
Listen... I know this is a rant. I apologize if you came looking for deep Spiritual insights and found this instead. But I am burdened over and over again by reading negative things. Could I not read them - sure. But I don't read them for entertainment, I read them to be involved in a person's life. Like Jesus sitting over Jerusalem, I look at "my" family and cry over them because I know the way for everything to be better - but they, too often, seem happy wallowing in their unhappy and unfulfilled lives.
We have to wake up from this sleep - we have to change the "norm" and that starts with something as simple as deciding not to waste time speaking negative.
Don't let life happen to you - instead, happen to life.
For whatever reason, be it an assumption that people want to know or a complete lack of sense, we go on there and often post the most personal and private things that we would never think of speaking out loud in a public forum. And if, by some chance of fate, we don't post information like that, we certainly can see others doing it.
Why is this? Is it the anonymity that Facebook provides us that makes us think we can say most anything without suffering the repercussions of what's been said that, in turn, makes us so bold to say things best left unsaid? Do we forget that, along with our rant or public faux-pas, there is a cute little picture next to our words that clearly defines who we are in this online world?
Or worse... is this faux-pas becoming something that, in a few years, or perhaps even now, is no longer considered out of place or improper...?
Either way, like the Field of Dreams, if you post it - it will be read. And by read I mean scrutinized, and by scrutinized, I mean I'm going to talk about it here.
It seems to me that if we were to take the sum total of all the comments made on Facebook and filter them through the rules of "positive" comment and "negative" comment, then we would be left with one pile that looked something like a mound of raked leaves after a Delta windstorm and another pile that mirrored something like, oh I don't know... Mount Everest. Can you guess which pile would be which?
I understand having a bad day, or even a bad week. Heck - some people might shake their heads in agreement if we even discussed the finer points of having a bad few years... but consistently perpetuating that "badness" by posting it all over the internet is just bad taste. And if it's not bad taste, it's at least poor decision making.
Here's why: That statement lives forever!
I realize that by the nature of putting it on the internet you're making the proclamation that you don't care if anyone sees what you've said, but what about 1 day from now when you're not as angry... or maybe 1 month from now when you've reconciled with the issue you were once dealing with... or maybe 1 year from now when an employer asks if you have any sort of online presence. Does any of this go through the mind of the younger generation? Granted, by even asking that question I have A) disassociated myself with the generation and B) called myself old (Dang Mason, how can you call me that?!) - but my life was impacted immensely by the lives of young people not too long ago and I simply hate to see them live this way.
I can't mention anything specific here without risking the fact that someone I mention might actually be reading this and be offended that I talked about them - but even that judgement would be made in error. I'm only mentioning this BECAUSE I care, not because I don't.
You know, we call a thing "normal" because that's what happens most often in a given circumstance. It's "normal" to be upset when you lose a game. It's "normal" to speak your mind offensively when someone disrespects you. It's "normal"... But that's not right. What we've done is call a common thing "normal." We've imparted acceptance onto commonality. In other words - if enough people do a thing, it's okay for me to do it too... WRONG.
Don't be "normal" - be good! Be willing to be "abnormal" and swim upstream. Be willing to hang onto that which makes you kind and positive even when it's no longer "cool" to be happy. The world is making a mold around you of negativity and sorrow. Break that mold!!
Think on this - if Jesus had a Facebook page, and I believe he would, would he post any of the things you've posted in the past? Would he take time and effort to say some of the things you've said to THE WHOLE WORLD? Would he? In all the times that Jesus had a conversation with another person - did he ever come close to spewing vile words? Nope... but we do. And we claim to be remade in his image. His actions and our actions often look nothing alike. What's that say about us?
Listen... I know this is a rant. I apologize if you came looking for deep Spiritual insights and found this instead. But I am burdened over and over again by reading negative things. Could I not read them - sure. But I don't read them for entertainment, I read them to be involved in a person's life. Like Jesus sitting over Jerusalem, I look at "my" family and cry over them because I know the way for everything to be better - but they, too often, seem happy wallowing in their unhappy and unfulfilled lives.
We have to wake up from this sleep - we have to change the "norm" and that starts with something as simple as deciding not to waste time speaking negative.
Don't let life happen to you - instead, happen to life.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Super Bowl Sermon
Yes, it was Super Bowl Sunday and, no, we did not cancel church for it! However, I did make the statement that I was going to let everyone out early so that they could go see most of the game if they wanted to... you'll have to watch to see how that played out.
But seriously, how does a 60 minute game take 4 hours on TV? I think 45 minute sermons should be allowed to take at least that long.
But seriously, how does a 60 minute game take 4 hours on TV? I think 45 minute sermons should be allowed to take at least that long.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Blamin' the Devil
Here's this morning's sermon on the incorrect practice we have of blaming the Devil for all our bad choices. I hope it's worth listening to. It was a long, yet wonderful week leading up to this sermon.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
You blink your eyes
And they're gone.
My alarm goes off each morning at 5:45. Maybe 5 seconds after I had silenced it, the phone rang. A phone call at 5:45 in the morning is either A) a wrong number or B) bad news. There in the darkness of the bedroom I looked at the phone and saw the name "Dad" on the caller ID. Now I knew...
I said an audible, "uh oh..." and picked up the phone.
"Just a few minutes ago..." he said. "We got here just after..." he said. "I just wanted to tell you that Nanny passed away."
Make sure you take each chance you have to tell people you love them. Because, though you have all the warning in the world and though you see the cloud of death lowly approaching on the horizon - that 5:45am call still seems to be too soon.
But I do not mourn for her. I know Christ because of my grandmother - and I know exactly where she is.
And one day... I'll be there too.
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." John 14:1-3
My alarm goes off each morning at 5:45. Maybe 5 seconds after I had silenced it, the phone rang. A phone call at 5:45 in the morning is either A) a wrong number or B) bad news. There in the darkness of the bedroom I looked at the phone and saw the name "Dad" on the caller ID. Now I knew...
I said an audible, "uh oh..." and picked up the phone.
"Just a few minutes ago..." he said. "We got here just after..." he said. "I just wanted to tell you that Nanny passed away."
Make sure you take each chance you have to tell people you love them. Because, though you have all the warning in the world and though you see the cloud of death lowly approaching on the horizon - that 5:45am call still seems to be too soon.
But I do not mourn for her. I know Christ because of my grandmother - and I know exactly where she is.
And one day... I'll be there too.
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." John 14:1-3
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