Monday morning check in

Monday morning check in — Faith and Works

/ The Pastor / 4 Comments

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. (James 2:14-26)

The above verses are the latest to slap me in the face.  They are verses I have read many times.  They are verses that I have heard preached or have preached on myself.  But this morning they convict me…

There is a woman in my congregation who I will call J.  J is a sweet woman who is not as mentally/emotionally developed as others.  Everyday she is at the nursing home to visit her “mommy” and on Sunday she heads up there after worship to have lunch with her.  But here’s the thing…someone here at Salem has to give her a ride on Sunday since she can’t drive.  My wife is usually the one since she picks up/drops off someone from the nursing home already, but yesterday my wife was gone.  I didn’t think about that until J came in for worship and reminded me (as she does every week) that she is going to the nursing home to “have lunch with mommy” and made reference to Connie giving her a ride.  When I told her that Connie was gone, J got a little concerned and wondered who was going to give her a ride.  I told her not to worry about it (but inside I was hoping she would just ask someone herself).

After worship I spent some time greeting people, listening to some memory work from a confirmation student and cleaning up a little.  All I wanted to do after that was go home and rest, but J was still here.  So I grudgingly got my car to give her a ride.  All the way up to the nursing home she kept telling me how much her and her mom like me.  She kept saying “We really like you.  You are a good pastor.  We hope you stay for a long time”.  J was enjoying the time with her pastor and I just wanted to go home.

Now this morning…I read James…

…and James is indeed right…it is not good enough to say we have faith, but it must be shown through our actions.  Maybe I was tired.  Maybe I just simply let my needs get in the way of J’s needs.  Whatever the case, my faith did not shine through to J…even though she would say it did (if she could understand the question).  J had no idea what I was thinking and feeling yesterday, but I sure do.   So I pray for patience and hope that I will get another chance to show my faith to J.  I pray for forgiveness through Jesus Christ my Lord.  I pray that when given a chance again, I WILL show my faith through my actions.

I think we all need a dose of James every now and then (I know I do).  So take some time right now and read through James.  It is a short 5 chapters but ones that pack a punch.  But all the while you are reading, remember God’s grace and pray for more opportunities to show your faith to others.

-edh-

Monday morning check in — Sewing day

/ The Pastor / 4 Comments

Coffee and coffee cake with the sewing group is a time I look forward to every month.  On the first Monday of each month, the sewing group gets together to make quilts.  These quilts end up in the cities and get distributed to people who need them (sometimes these quilts head over seas).  It’s a sacred time…one that never gets messed with (unless of course there is an emergency.  Even then…it has to be a life or death situation).  At 9am Lucille emerges from the Fellowship Hall and calls out from the bottom of the stairs “IT’S READY!”  At this my secretary and I make our way downstairs (Lucille’s coffee cake is not to be missed (unless, like I said, there is a life or death emergency).  Each month, Lucille says that she tried something new with the recipe (who knew there were so many ways to make coffee cake).  And each month her coffee cake is absolutely delicious.  Even though I want to have more, I know I need to behave myself.  If there is enough left, Lucille will sometimes send a couple pieces home for Connie and I (which rarely makes it back to Connie…sorry honey). 

While we have our hot cup of coffee and warm piece of coffee cake, we discuss the “important” matters of the day.  “How is so and so doing?”  “Did you hear about that <news from the radio> this morning?”  Sometimes they look to me for some “inside information” (which I rarely give unless the other party has given me express permission to divulge the information).  It’s a sacred and intimate time even though to the untrained ear it looks and sounds like a gossip time, but it is so much more than that.  Some months it is just casual conversation.  But other times I hear questions that I normally don’t get to hear from people.  These question are sometimes hard, but always honest questions about what is going on in the church.  I guess they figure they have the pastor’s ear for a moment…and I am always happy to listen.

That is the morning gathering time.  At noon they have a little potluck where the husbands show up to eat and, of course, I am there.  It is during this time I learn the most about people.  It is where I learn who is related to whom (I am always amazed at what I learn here).  It’s where I learn about the church’s history.  I hear stories of the good ole days.  And, of course, there is the typical BS that is often heard when guys get together.  This is a sacred and intimate time.

Now…as I sit here typing this, I find myself getting more and more anxious about lunch; when the guys will show up; great food will be served; and stronger connections are made over coffee and hot dish.  We won’t solve the world’s problems today.  We won’t get into deep political discussions.  But one thing is for sure…this sacred and intimate time won’t be wasted.

Got to love sewing day 🙂

-edh-

Monday morning check in

/ The Pastor

Summer is unofficially over.  Are we all sad now?  I have mixed feelings about that.  I am sad that the “freedom” that summer brings is gone for 9 months, but I am also excited for things to start up again.  Next week Release Time (grades 3 – 5) begins.  In two weeks, Wednesday Night Live (age 3 – grade 5), 6th grade Bible class and Confirmation (grades seven and eight) begin.  The unofficial end of summer also means I have to re-adjust my routine.  Everything will change next week with the addition of class preparation.  It usually takes me a few weeks to get back into the swing of things, hence, September is usually a busy and stressful (but a good stressful) month for me.  So I am going to prepare my Release Time lesson this week as sort of a practice run before the real thing begins next week.  How are the rest of you viewing September?  Is it stressful, exciting, etc?

LifeLight
The LifeLight Festival was this past weekend.  LifeLight is a free Christian music festival just outside of Sioux Falls, SD at the Wild Water West water park.  I think is it absolutely amazing that they can put on a festival like this and not charge admission.  We were told that it costs about $800,000 to put on LifeLight.  Businesses, churches and other faithful supporters make this weekend possible.  If you haven’t been to LifeLight plan on checking it out sometime.  It is held over Labor Day weekend every year. 

On Friday night of the festival this year the headliner was Switchfoot; Saturday it was Michael W. Smith and Sunday night Casting Crowns closed things out.  On Saturday night the crowd was in excess of 100,000 people.  Standing up and surveying the sea of people definitely made me me feel very small.  Other artists we heard throughout the weekend included: Matthew West, Lincoln Brewster, Sanctus Real, Natalie Grant, Family Force 5, and much more.  It was indeed a very fun weekend.

Rain
Today I am thanking and praising God for rain.  It has been dreadfully dry here for a long time.  When I walked on my grass last night it crunched beneath my feet.  But today I can here a collective “sigh” from all the lawns in town.  And according to radar this rain will last for quite a while.  God is indeed faithful.  We go through these dry spells every year and every year we get nervous and wonder if this is the year we will need to replace the lawn.  But every year God brings the rain to nourish the crops and the grass and everything else.  God proves to be faithful year in and year out.  Maybe one of these years I will learn to trust God.

Heavenly Father, I believe, help my unbelief.  You prove to be faithful yet we worry about tomorrow.  You prove to be loving yet we often fail to show love toward our neighbors.  You prove to be gracious yet we fail to show grace to others.  Thank you God for your Son who died for us despite our shortcomings and rose to New Life so we may live.    Lord God, thank you for your faithfulness, in Christ name we pray, Amen.

Take care and God bless!

-edh-

Monday morning check-in — Ramp project among other things

/ The Pastor / 8 Comments

We are off to a great start on a beautiful and cool Monday morning.  Now I am praying for some rain because my lawn continues to turn the dreaded brownish color (and our crops could definitely use a drink as well).  But according to the “weather experts” (I always use that title loosely) we should get some rain this week.  Maybe I should be a weather dude; then I could say “there is a 50% chance for rain this week” and have a 50% chance of being right.  Not bad odds.

Ramp project
I know it has been a while since I have given an update on our ramp project.  So here’s an update…it’s done:


We still have some landscaping to do on the north and south sides.  On Sunday, September 14 we will be having a short dedication service right before worship.  The idea right now is to ask people to gather outside before worship.  I will then have a short litany and then “J” will cut the ribbon (her and her husband, “G” gave the money for this project but “G” died shortly after they gave us the money, but did express his wish for a new ramp .  “G” would be so happy to see this done…I wish he could be here).  I am not sure how the litany will go right now.  Does any have any suggestions of what you have used or seen used for something like this?

What’s next?
Next year Salem Lutheran Church will be celebrating it’s 125th anniversary of ministry.  So with that in mind we will be continuing to fix up some things around the church.  Our next big projects will be to repaint the sancuary and the Fellowship Hall.  We have a professional coming in to paint the sanctuary because of the high ceiling but we as a church will handle the Fellowship Hall painting.  After those projects we have some other minor ones to do to get ready for next year. 

But right now my frustration is that we are having a hard time getting people to volunteer to serve on a planning committee for this anniversary celebration.  I know people are busy, but this is a big deal for the church.  I wrote a newsletter article for September so that combined with my persistent president asking people hopefully will produce a committee.

[If you’re a Salem member reading this, please, please volunteer and share your gifts].

Training update
6 weeks and counting until the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon.  Training is going well, but my wife is still a little nervous.  There are days when I wonder what the heck I am doing and then there are days when I feel super confident.  But either way, I know this is going to be a difficult race, but I am still looking forward to tackling this goal and accomplishing it.  God has been with me through all the ups and downs and I am confident God will give me the strength to finish the race.

Coming up…
(1) I am working on part 3 of my Ministry model vs. Business model series; a series talking about a new structure for my church council.

(2) Last week I failed to post a Coffee Shop Ponderings post, but I will be back with one this Thursday.

(3) This weekend I am heading to the LifeLight Christian Music Festival in Sioux Falls, SD with a bunch of friends.  It is a free festival with many big name Christian artists like: Micheal W. Smith, Casting Crowns, Jeremy Camp and many more.  I will post more about this weekend and might even have some pictures.

With that I pray you have a very happy and blessed day.  Take joy in the Lord for He is good. 

Take care!
-edh-

Monday morning (or should I say “afternoon”) check in

/ The Pastor / 3 Comments

I am finally back in the office…but a little late on getting to my blog.  If you could have seen the pile of stuff I had to deal with I think you would understand.  I enjoy getting away for awhile; its just the getting caught up that I don’t like.  But I think I am there.

Last night I had an AWESOME night…

…that is Point of Grace and I had third row, center aisle seats for this concert.  AND…it was free.  This was the finale of the Okoboji Lakes Bible and Missionary Conference that I attended this past week…and everything is free…it has been that way for 74 years.  This is an amazing conference and I am always blown away that they can put on such an event based solely on the contributions of generous supporters. 

Each morning started with prayer and then a Bible study.  At 10am we have some fellowship time before we head to the “communities” (small group sessions) at 10:30.  There isn’t anything going on in the afternoon but we reconvene at 7:15pm for the evening worship celebration time with a different (usually a nationally known) speaker (i.e.  Tuesday night was Phil Vischer, the founder of Veggie Tales).  And did I say that all of this is FREE?

The “community” I attended in the mornings was lead by Phil Vischer and his brother Rob (a law professor at St. Thomas Law School in the Twin Cities).  They spoke about Christ and Culture.  I missed the Monday and Tuesday communities but I am glad I made it to Wednesday’s.  Here Rob Vischer spoke about the Christian perspective on family law.  The basic premise was the evolution of the same sex marriage debate.  This is something that has been brewing for quite a few decades.  But what was really scary is where the law is headed in the future.  Basically the family unit is being de-valued and more emphasis is being placed on individual liberty.  Hence…people starting to be allowed to decided who’s in their family.  Rob said that on the horizon the next debate will be polygamy because if two men or two women want to get married, why not expand that definition to include more people.  The direction that family law is headed is very scary.  This was indeed an eye opening “community”.

So much more happened this past week but I am still trying to process everything.  I got a feeling that as other learnings begin to bubble up that they will soon find themselves on the pages of this blog.  But in the mean time I will take my leave of this topic.

In the future
There are some other blog topics that I have started that I haven’t dealt with for a while…and I am going to be returning to these topics shortly:
(1) Evangelism — at the end of July I was invited to participate in a meeting at the ELCA headquarters in Chicago.  My bishop along with a synod minister and our synod V.P. attended this meeting.  We heard a number of presentations and participated in some fruitful brainstorming for the synod.  I also got appointed to the “Serving in God’s World” board (evangelism and outreach) for the SW MN synod.  I am looking forward to writing more about my involvement here.

(2) Business meeting model vs. Ministry meeting model — this was something concerning church councils.  Wrote a while back about my efforts of changing how our church council looks at themselves.  We need to be a group of people focused on advancing the mission of Christ in the world around us.  Someone commented and asked me how I was going to do this and I responded that I was still working on it.  Well…I want to return to this topic in the near future.  I have a council meeting this week and I hope to implement a new “agenda item”.  I will say more about this later.

(3) Learnings from the Okoboji Lakes Bible and Missionary Conference.

Whew…that’s a lot of stuff coming up and I am excited to get started writing.  I guess time off really did me some good.

Anyway…take care and God bless!

-edh-

Monday morning check in — The law at work in us

/ The Pastor / 3 Comments

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:15-25)

Yesterday (July 6) I preached on the above text.  Actually…I am spending the summer in Romans with the congregation.  I haven’t done a preaching series for a while, but after preaching in Romans the last couple weeks, I decided to look ahead and mapped out a plan that takes us through August.  I taught an adult class on Romans a few years ago, but never spent this much time preaching in Romans.  This is going to be fun.

In the above text I italicized a couple phrases that really hit home for me.  The first one is Paul’s frustration that when he wants to do good, evil is always right there with us.  Paul goes on to lament about what a wretched man he is…who will rescue us?  “Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord”.  Paul’s frustration is also my frustration.  But what really bothers me is when we take this “law” (as Paul states) and take it to heart a little too much.  I mean…how many times have you said (or heard it said) “The devil made me do it“?  We resign ourselves to the fact that we are wretched and sinful people and give up.  We simply throw up our hands and go on sinning saying (or thinking) “I can’t help help it…I’m a sinner“.  Does this “law” at work in us give us an excuse to keep on sinning?  As Paul would say, “By no means!  We have died to sin, why do you live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:2) 

We have a powerful law working against us, but it doesn’t mean we just give in and give up.  We have an awesome God that through Jesus Christ gives us eternal life.  That right there should be motivation enough to fight this law at work in ourselves for the glory of God.  God fought the hard fight for us so we may have life.  I mean…the cross was not easy.

Our fight against sin is one we can not win on our own.  We will lose many battles.  We will grow frustrated.  But “thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Thanks be to God that the war has been won.  Thanks be to God that God does not abandon us.  Thanks be to God that we are loved beyond measure.  Thanks be to God!

Next week the Romans text is chapter 8 verses 1 – 11.  This talks about living according to the Spirit verses living according to the flesh.  This should prove to be a good follow up and hopefully a source of strength and encouragement for the fight against sin.

Other stuff
It is going to be an ugly day here in SW MN.  The humidity is at 100% with a 73 degree dew point.  That makes for a tropical day.  With the early morning rain and the threat of severe weather looming, no work is being done on our ramp project today.  Currently the forms are set for the deck to be poured; we just need some nice weather for that part to proceed.  So because of that I don’t have any updated pictures.  When they start pouring the cement I will post some more pictures.  If you want to see some more pictures of the project, visit our church’s website at www.salemjackson.org and click on the “ramp construction” link.  It has been fasination watching this project but people are starting to get a little anixous to get back into the sanctuary (and I am too).  Another month or so and we will be back in. 

So with that…God bless you and have a marvelous day 🙂

-edh-

Monday morning check-in

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

Sermon prep-less week

I know "prep-less" is not a word but like I am fond of telling my wife, "If it comes out of my mouth, then it is a word".  That may or may not be a good idea, but I am going to apply that logic here. 

Today begins a sermon prep-less week.  For those of you who are not solo pastors this may not seem like a big deal.  But if you are used to preparing a sermon (nearly) every single week of the year…a week off seems kind of strange.  This weekend is the SW MN Synod Assembly.  It's been called the synod's "business" meeting (I don't like that title).  Others have called this weekend a "forced day off" for pastors (that may be closer to the truth…the "forced" part not the "day off" part).  Whatever the weekend is "officially" called, it is a time for me to re-fuel a little bit.  I enjoy preparing and preaching sermons, but I still need a week off now and then to help me appreciate this craft more.  But even though I am not engaging in my "official" sermon prep routine, I still think I am still going to go to my favorite coffee house on Thursday for lunch (with my laptop) to do some writing.  I guess some habits are just too hard to break.

Prince Caspian

Yesterday the churches in Jackson hosted a day at the movies for people to come and watch The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.  A number of businesses donated door prizes which we gave away before and after the movie.  After the movie we also had a time for questions and answers. 

Without giving too much of the movie away I thought there was a lot of violence in the movie (epsecially for younger kids).  There was one family that walked out during the movie for that very reason.  Granted…the violence was not as bad as most movies; there was no blood and gore, but a lot of people/characters died.   The first Narina movie did not have this much violence and the books don't have the violence either.  Hollywood definitely took a lot of creative liberties with the movie.  Even though it is rumored that the C.S Lewis family approved how these stories were protrayed, I find it hard to believe C.S. Lewis himself would have approved.  These stories were written as children's stories.  And the last time I checked, "children's stories" generally don't contain that much violence.  But that aside…I still really enjoyed the movie and recommend it.  I just don't recommend it for young children.  Please preview the movie before letting children see it.  And that is all I will say about it.  I don't want to ruin it for anyone.

Training

117 days, 19 hours and 14 minutes (give or take a few minutes, hours or days…depending on when you read this) until the Medtronic Twin Cities marathon.  This past week or so my running has been a little slow.  My right hip has really been hurting me lately, but is feeling better today.  I can still run, but it takes a few miles for my hip to loosen up enough for me to get up to pace.  Maybe this is a sign that I am indeed getting old (but let's not tell my body or my wife…I still plan to run this marathon).

With that I take my leave of you.  Since this is a sermon prep-less week, I am going to take advantage of it and get some things done that I haven't done for a while.  I am also going to try to get outside this afternoon and enjoy this blue sky that I haven't seen for awhile.

So take care and have a very blessed day!

-edh-

Monday morning check in – “Eric in a fog”

/ The Pastor / 1 Comment

Sorry to those who stopped by yesterday for the Sunday morning prayer and found none.  I was running a little behind yesterday morning.  Actually I felt a little discombobulated (Wow…I can't believe I actually used that word.  Pretty cool).  Anyway…an hour before I was to leave for Belmont to lead worship I was in the Salem sanctuary to practice my sermon one last time.  As I was running through the sermon I came to a realization:  "This sermon is crap."  So I changed it (I am still not sure if that was a good idea or not), but I think that is what started me down the road to discombobluation. 

Worship at Belmont went fine, but I still found myself feeling my way through the sermon; a little unsure of it.  During worship at Salem things did not get better for me.  I was leading the congregation in the Nicene Creed and about half way through I caught myself thinking ahead about what was coming up next in worship (communion).  That right there was a mistake because as the congregation continued with the NICENE Creed I started into the APOSTLE'S Creed around the third article.  Of course people were slightly confused but luckily I caught myself after "…the Holy catholic church…".  But before that, though, I got confused as I was standing up front during the last few words of the hymn of the day.  "What's next?" I pondered.  There was an awkward pause for a couple seconds until I realized I should be facing the congregation and not the altar to lead them in the Nicene Creed.  I have no clue where my head was.  Right now I am chalking it up to the fact that I am still getting used to the ELW.  Yea…that's sounds good :)  But hopefully I am not the only one who has have ever gotten confused while leading worship.  Please share a funny story of your own about worship confusion so I don't feel alone.

So with that I am going to end this post to make sure I am out of my fog.  At least I don't have anything too major on my calendar today.  But then again, maybe I do.  Hmmm…

-edh-

Monday morning check-in

/ The Pastor / 7 Comments

A friend of mine left me a message recently and commented that I must be experiencing some writers block due to the inactivity of new posts on my blog.  And he is partly right…but I have had some things brewing in my head these past couple days.  I just haven’t been sure how to approach them.

What would I do?
One of the things I have been pondering is a recent story I heard on KARE 11 news out of Minneapolis.  It is about a Catholic Church in the cities that has gained a temporary injunction against a family, who has an extremely autistic child, from attending mass (Follow this link for the Star Tribune story).  On the surface it seems to contradict the essence of the Gospel to bar someone from attending worship/mass.  The Church has tried to accommodate the family better the family did not like the church’s suggestion (having them in a different room with a video feed).  Now this family is faced with jail time if they violate the injunction, going to mass elsewhere or not attend mass at all.  I wonder if there is more this church could do.  I wonder what I would do to minister to this family.  What would you do (knowing the limited facts that we have)?

What WILL I do?
Starting this week, the ramp that leads up our sanctuary, is going to be torn out and replaced.  The time table is going to be anywhere from 1 to 2 months (depending on what they find underneath).  All of this means that we will be worshiping downstairs in the Fellowship Hall where there is a ground entrance (handicap accessible).  Otherwise, people would have to trek up stairs to get to the sanctuary and that won’t work well with some people.  Now the question is how worship is going to look in a new location for a couple months.  What will I do?  My worship and music team is meeting today to discuss the logistics of leading worship downstairs.  One thought was to keep the tables up and make worship very "informal".  Maybe we’ll have the coffee on and people can grab a cup before, during and after worship.  But I wonder if this will be too informal for people.

What I AM going to do.
This sounded like a logical and cute three heading to put here but I have learned from experience that the best plans often do not work out.  We make plans and God laughs.  So I am going to be careful here and say…what I AM going to do is…

…anyway…

Have a very blessed day and check back soon for a new meme that I have been tagged to do.  Take care.

-edh-

A mighty wind (and I am not talking about me)

/ The Pastor / 4 Comments

Grown up
I don’t know if this will make a lot of sense to people, but part of me feels more "grown up" now.  Allow me to explain…

…my wife is the stage manger for a musical that is being put on by a couple churches in town.  The musical is called "The First Actions Heroes".  I don’t know much about the musical, but based on what my wife is doing behind the scenes, it looks like it is going to be good.  Anyway, my wife needed a prop built…a light pole.  So we started brainstorming.  I had a couple 2x4s in the garage so we thought we could use them along with a old cardboard carpet roll tube.  But one thing was missing…I didn’t own a saw.  Well…I do now.  When we were at Menard’s this past weekend my wife said something to me that I think most guys would love to hear, "Honey, I think you should buy a circular saw."  WHOO HOO!  Power tools!  So I bought a Black n Decker circular saw.  And for some strange reason I feel more "grown up" now.  Combine that with the fact I bought a cordless drill a couple weeks earlier…well…I really feel "grown up".  (WHOO HOO! Did I mention I have pool tools?)

Marathon update
This past Saturday I ran my longest run to date…8 miles.  Part of me was excited to see how I would last and another part of me was a little nervous.  I was a little nervous because of a nagging voice in the back of my brain that tells me to be careful of injuries.  Would my legs hold up?  They did and I felt great afterward.  Praise be to God!  This Saturday I have a 9 mile run and the following week is 10 miles.  Then I drop down for a week to rest before increasing my mileage some more.  Starting June 1 I begin the official marathon training program.  Up to then I am simply in a mileage build up program to prepare me for the longer run I will have this summer. 

Without God, there is no way I could do what I am doing.  It sounds strange to say that God is helping me train for such a grueling race, but I don’t feel I am doing this alone.  Whatever God’s purpose is, I am in this for the long haul…and so far I am feeling great.

Pentecost Sunday
There is a verse from Acts 2 that always makes me smile.  Maybe you know what I am referring to.  The Holy Spirit comes over the disciples and they start speaking in the various languages of the people: "Amazed and perplex, they (the crowd) asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’ Some, however, made fun of them (the disciples) and said, ‘They have had too much wine.’  Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd, ‘Fellow Jews all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.  These men are not drunk, as you suppose.  It’s only nine in the morning…"  But if it were 3 in the afternoon, then we might have a different story 🙂

So in that "spirit", allow me to suggest a couple possible sermon titles for this week:
(1) High on God
(2) Drunk on the Holy Spirit
(3) No whining [get it?  wine-ing]
(4) God has good breath – no breath mint needed
(5) God breaks wind [this is my favorite]
Any other suggestions?

On that note…it time to accomplish something this morning.  God bless you on this beautiful spring day and may you sense the Mighty Wind (Holy Spirit) "blowing" in your life.  Take care.

-edh-