First Communion...

Here's the sermon from this past Sunday. It was my first time officiating the Lord's Supper (not recorded) and I was nervous as to how to do it.
Everyone at the church was so supportive and encouraging! I felt like the whole service was meaningful and I hope that the message was fitting for such an occasion.
Take a look...



I really do appreciate all of you who come here and participate in our services by watching the message. I don't ever know who you are - but I cherish you.

By popular request*

*or - My wife pointed out that I had failed to post these and politely reminded me that I needed to put these videos up so that people could see them. :)

Without further ado, I present Ms. Macy Joy and her brother, Mr. Braden Joy.






Cute and talented... just like their mom.

A difficult truth

Being wrong is hard. Of course, the "being" of wrong is different in different situations.

That's oddly put - let me explain.

When you answer incorrectly on a test, you're wrong - but that's not really a difficult position to be in. All you really care about is the final grade. If that grade is what you expected, or better, then you really couldn't care less about being wrong on that question. Let's call this type of wrong Type One.

Maybe you make a judgement call on something and later realize that you were wrong. That's a little more difficult. There's no test to pass, other than the moral test that is within all mankind. Normally, this test doesn't "average out" - though we pretend that it does. So, we make a wrong judgement on something, learn we're wrong, and then attempt to explain (to ourselves and others) our judgement as some sort of "right, but not right" issue that provides a salve to our wounded sense of understanding. We're more familiar with this type of "wrong" than we might realize. For example - we judge harshly the mistakes of others until we find ourselves at the incorrect end of the same sort of mistake. That's when it's hard. That's when we have difficulty adapting our previous judgement to our current situation. This is Type Two.

But then there's another sort of "wrong." Type Three.
This is the wrong that you believe with all your heart as right. You think you know it, you think it's right beyond a shadow of a doubt, and you're willing to lose everything and to be persecuted endlessly over it because it's right! You know it in your very core!! In fact, you begin to build your very identity and purpose on the foundation of this truth. You see God in it - it can't possibly be wrong!!
And suddenly, it becomes obvious that it is wrong. That, folks, is a hard that not many of us will ever experience, much less understand.

I want you to watch this video - it's 10 minutes long, so if you don't have that kind of time, let the video buffer up and then skip to about 5:45 - that's where I want you to really watch:



His name, if you didn't already know, is Robert Fitzpatrick. Harold Camping is the man who runs Family Radio International and who is now infamous for running an expensive campaign to inform people of the (now false) prophecy that the world would end on May 21, 2011. The man in the video is not Harold Camping.

Instead, Mr. Fitzpatrick is the author of "The Doomsday Code," a book that was printed to spread the message of Camping's prophecy. Well - more like a mathematical calculation than a prophecy I suppose. I digress...

Do you hear his hurt? Maybe not - because there's always a little monster in us that wants to cackle at those who are in a difficult position and secretly revel in the fact that it is not us... but can you see this man's confusion? Can you hear his faith shaking?

Do you feel sorry for him or the thousands like him?

Because, aside from the obvious blunder of trying to speak with certainty on a topic that even Christ Himself said no man could be certain of, I believe that the greater lesson in this is what it teaches us about our LACK OF COMPASSION. All we can do is laugh, scoff, and scorn people who make mistakes. What happened to feeling sorry? What happened to compassionate understanding that could say, "wow - that was a mess-up, but we can move on past it and be better for what we're going to learn." What happened to the fellow sinner who beat his chest before God and begged for forgiveness?

No... we're all too often the Pharisee who thanked God that he was not like that foolish sinner. We're too busy celebrating that we're not "him" that we fail to see that we really are. We blind our eyes with worldly things and convince ourselves that we look like the rest of the world and that God will have to judge us on the average, even on the curve, and we'll be okay then... We even begin to preach this and write books about it. Just like Mr. Fitzpatrick. "Hell is not real," we say, "Everyone goes to heaven." We start to believe it. We start to build our very foundations upon the truths that we have created and we being to know, in our very core, that we have a hold on something true!

Maybe we too will learn just how wrong we really are about a whole host of things.

And being wrong is hard.

Well, since there was no rapture...

We had church :)

Here's the sermon for Sunday morning, May 22. the topic was interesting to me, but little did I know how much I was preparing a sermon for my own family. God certainly is faithful to speak to us in our times of need. I hope that this sermon speaks to you as well.



There was no evening service because we had our "Summer Kick-off" celebration with hot dogs and sundaes and games. We had such a good time!! I don't know who played harder, the kids or the adults! It was a blessing and I know that God is going to use that celebration to accomplish great things in the life of our church. How amazing that He would care so much for us...

Long time since

It's been a little minute since I last posted something here for you to watch. But, in fairness - I did try to sit down and post some things up the other day and Blogger was down (the dashboard part, anyway).
Things are going at a fast pace around here with school ending, summer plans beginning, and God perhaps opening a door for our family. I hope to be able to say more about it very, very soon - but until then, please know that my family and I appreciate the prayers that are being said on our behalf. Pray for Becky!! You don't have to know why, or what for - you never really do for anyone. Just pray that God gives her focus, peace, and ability to do what she hopes to do!

How about some videos? I've got three for your viewing pleasure this afternoon.

Starting with: Mother's Day...



I've long wanted to preach from Proverbs 31 - so I was glad to have the chance on this beautiful day.

Next - we've got both the morning and evening sermons from last Sunday.





The evening sermon was especially powerful for me.I was not only challenged as I prepared it, but i was awed by the movement of the Spirit as I preached. As we start this series together and take a good, hard look at what we've become "ok" with - I hope and pray that God will break us apart and put us back together - better than ever before.

Not because we deserve it - but because He's good like that.

For Real?

Are we seriously to the point in this country where we are actually, no joke, having a conversation about whether or not the First Amendment protects a person's right to go into a public library and view internet pornography via the computers there that are designated for public use?

For Real?

I could not BELIEVE that the story I was hearing on the radio yesterday was actually true until I was able to get home and check it out for myself. And, yep - much to my disbelief, they really are having this conversation in New York. I laugh a little even typing this... I mean, seriously. THIS is a First Amendment issue?

I've got to believe that, were they still alive, the founding fathers and all those involved with penning our nation's documents would be very ashamed at what we've done with the wisdom and words that they left us. We live in a country where the rights of debase individuals are put above those of innocent children and patrons who might just want to use the library for, oh I don't know... READING BOOKS.

Consider this... I remember watching TV with my parents on the weekdays, after dinner, where we would see things like "The Cosby Show," "Family Ties," "Who's the Boss," and those other shows that now get played on Nick @ Night. I even remember the episode of "Murphy Brown" that caused such a stink because she was a single mother being portrayed on TV in a positive way... but that's NOTHING compared to what was on TV just last night. My family didn't have cable TV for the past 5 years, so we still watch a lot of CBS out of habit. Last night, every single show that was on made some reference, had some suggestion, or specifically dealt with sexual activity.

Some of the wiser among you might say, "Well, preacher boy, just change the channel if you're worried about it." Yeah - you try that. Unless I want to watch non-stop CSPAN or QVC, the non-stop sexual barrage of TV is impossible to escape. And now, we get to add to that the fact that we're going to ALLOW people to publicly watch pornography in libraries?!

This isn't where the bad stuff ends, folks - this is where it starts.

The normal response to this is "Well, I just won't go to the library anymore..." But - have we stopped to consider that this response simply doesn't work? Giving in and walking away doesn't help your cause - it destroys it! In a battle, you don't give ground, you take ground. And make no mistake at all - this is a battle. It's a battle for the minds and morals of all those who come behind us.

I don't know that I have anything profound to say about this - just that the shock of the state of things is still sinking in. I can't believe that we're actually, as a nation, having this conversation. We have walked so far away from good and right and righteous that we wouldn't recognize it if it were shoved down our throat. You know this is true because every week, in good churches all over the world, the Righteous is shown to us through the Bible and we, sitting like stones, all too often let it bounce off of us like so much garbage.

What will it take to stir the good people of this nation into action? When will looking at something like this and shaking our head in disgust cease to be the average response? When will we act?

Or will we? Maybe that's what bothers me the most. We've allowed the world to breed all desire of fight out of us to the point that, as long as you're famous enough when you say it, we'll believe and accept anything dished out by those who seek to harm us. "But Mason," you say, "Jesus was a hippie who loved everyone and said turn the other cheek and all that..."

Read Matthew 21. You'll eventually stumble over verses 12ff. Jesus didn't see the people taking advantage of worship and profaning the temple and simply shake his head and say "Man that's terrible..."

He drove them out - he turned over tables - he kicked over chairs. He reclaimed his ground.

Shouldn't we?

Happy Easter!!

I hope that all of you had a wonderful time in worship yesterday! I was blessed to be with my church family and more blessed by their attitude of worship and the WONDERFUL breakfast that was prepared for us all. Our schedule was a lot different than normal; starting at 7am and being home by 10:45. It was nice! Different is good for a little while, normally... but we'll be back to normal in no time. :)

How about a sermon? This was during our Sunrise Service, from 7-7:30. I got really excited and had to slow myself down... correctly use the word resurrection, not rapture... and bust myself for saying "things" - but I really enjoyed being with folks this early in the morning.



Next up, the Adult Easter Cantata. My apologies for singing too loud! I didn't realize I was sticking out that much until I listened to this recording... the phrase "like a sore thumb" comes to mind. But - that one thing aside, Melanie certainly does a super job with us and really makes us sound good! I though this went great and really closed our Easter Worship in a wonderful way.





So, there you have it. I hope you spent the day with a church family, or reflecting on the beauty and wonderment of an empty tomb. Jesus did all of that for each and every one of us. How awesome!