Weblogs

Writing Poetry

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

To write poetry draws me deeper into the Word or closer to whatever I am writing about. It challenges me to think more deeply and to reflect more clearly. Words matter. Nothing is simply random. And so I praise my God for inflaming the heart of this pastor to draw closer to Him in such a way.

With that being said, I am working on two more poems. One is based on Psalm 119:81-88 and the second one is the final installment in the Lord’s Prayer poem series, “The Doxology”. I look forward to sharing these with you soon. May these poems, written to the glory of God, also draw you closer to our Father as they have drawn me.

11

/ The Pastor / 5 Comments

On May 4, 2006, this blog, The Heart of a Pastor, was born. I didn’t pick this day because it is Star Wars Day. You know what a I mean, right? “May the 4th be with you“. Dorky I know, but even though I like Star Wars, this day was completely arbitrary 11 years ago.

Eleven years ago my wife showed me this thing that the pastor at her former church was doing. I had never heard of a blog before so I explored this “thing”. I liked what I saw so I decided to give this blogging thing a whirl. I started at Type Pad and wrote there for a while. I liked it but I had to pay for it, so when I eventually discovered WordPress, I transferred everything over.

My blogging over the years has been up and down, and this blog has gone through a number of changes. Through it all, though, I have grown with this blog. Even though the readership of this blog may not be all that large, I do enjoy writing; even if only for one person. So if you’re reading this, thank you for stopping by. I hope and pray that God is glorified through my writing. How long will I keep this up? I don’t know. As long as God keeps giving me things to writing, I will write.

So there you have it. The eleven year anniversary of this little blog. My God bless your day and May the 4th be with you.

Sorry, I had to say it 🙂

The Pastor -|—

 

.blog

/ The Pastor

Hey all,

The Heart of a Pastor is now the owner of http://www.heartofapastor.blog.  I decided to streamline my blog address as the new .blog domain names just became available. This shouldn’t mess people up (too much). I believe my old (and longer) address will redirect you to my site.

In any case, nothing is changing with this site, just the shorter address. So to close, I am not going to leave with you just an administrative update but rather with the Word of God:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Romans 15:13

Have a great day 🙂

The Pastor -|—

Redesign

/ The Pastor

If you are a returning visitor and wondering if you have arrived at the correct spot, don’t fret, it’s still me, The Pastor. My page is just undergoing a redesign. The content is staying the same but I am playing with some new themes. Feel free to let me know what you think.

God Bless!

The Pastor -|—

The force

/ The Pastor

I was glancing over my calendar for the week and noticed that on this day, 8 years ago, “The Heart of a Pastor” was birthed.  Yes, I actually wrote that in my calendar and yes, I am a nerd.

But 8 years, though…8.  The big 0-8.  A second grader.

Wow!

I can’t believe I have been writing that long.  So many times I thought I was going to give up writing on this blog but then something clicks and off I go again.  But then again, as a “second grader” I get distracted easily with other things.

Now I am approaching the 10 year anniversary of my ordination and my ministry here in Jackson.

10 years…10. The big 1-0. A fourth grader.

I can’t believe that one either. And what makes that number more amazing is that this is still my first call. But maybe I should be more impressed that my congregations haven’t run me out of town yet.

Or maybe my longevity in Jackson and in this little corner of cyberspace is because the force is strong with this pastor.  I mean, it can’t be a coincidence that I started this blog on this day 8 years ago; on Star Wars Day.  You know what I am talking about, right.

May the fourth be with you 🙂

I guess the fourth (I mean the force) is strong in this one.

Happy “The Heart of a Pastor” Day AND Star Wars Day.

The pastor (a.k.a. ~ A nerd who needs more sleep) -|—

Daddy

/ The Pastor / 4 Comments

Wow, it has been a while since I have posted here but believe me ~ I have a good reason:

I’m a daddy!

On April 26 my wife and I adopted the cutest little baby girl you will ever see.  We received a call on the 23rd that this baby was born on April 18 and that the birth mother has selected us to raise her daughter.  We were overjoyed, scared, nervous, thankful and a host of other emotions.  My wife and I packed up and left for Houston on Wednesday, April 24 at 10:30 p.m.  We drove through the night and arrived in Houston on Thursday afternoon.  Our daughter was placed in our arms on Friday night.

Her name is Mayah Jo.  Mayah is a Hebrew name meaning “close to God“.  And considering the ups and downs and ups we have been on, Mayah’s name is very appropriate and meaningful to us.  Our prayer is that Mayah grows up to realize this for herself; that God is close to her.

My wife and I will be sharing more about this amazing experience on our adoption blog ~ Adopted as an Heir.  We haven’t updated there for a while but it is coming.  And because of some privacy issues with adoption I will not be posting pictures of Mayah online (but like I said, she is cute).  I may sound over-protective but I am O.K. with that.  So I hope you understand.

Wow ~ daddy ~ it just boggles my mind that I can be referred as that.
God is so good!
God is so awesome!
God is so faithful (even when I’m not)!

Let all people praise and worship Him.

Let’s prayer together…
Loving God…you are so good.  You are so awesome.  Even when times are tough and the road looks bleak, you are there.  Even when the valley is dark and long, even when the storms rage oh so strong, you are there. Even when the hurt hurts so bad and the outlook looks so dim, you are there.  On the highest mountain top and lowest valley, you are there.  Satan would have us forget your goodness in the midst of despair; trying to convince us that you are some cosmic bully.  Satan would have us forget you in the good times; trying to convince us that we don’t need You.  But the Good News is that you reign supreme and you have chosen us.  We belong to you and Satan has no claim on us.  Help us to see you near us in the dark and tough times.  Help us to see you near in the bright and joyous times.  You are close to us always and forever.  God, Oh God, you are so, so good and we praise your holy name.  Through Jesus Christ I pray, Amen.

The Pastor a.k.a. Daddy -|—

Adoption blog

/ The Pastor / 1 Comment

Greetings one and all…what a beautiful morning 🙂

[Please excuse my chipperness (my new word for the day)…I am enjoying my morning coffee]

I wanted to let you know of a project my wife and I are working on.  We have started an adoption blog called Adopted as an Heir.  I wanted to have a central place for adoption related content instead of it getting lost in the shuffle with everything I write about here.

Our goal for this new blog is:
(1) To share what we have learned along our adoption journey.
(2) To share resources we have found helpful.
(3) To share how we have grown closer together.
(4) To share how we have grown closer to God.
(5) To educate
(6) To encourage
(7) And…whatever else God reveals to us in our journey.  The door is wide open.

I have written a few posts here already about our adoption journey (If you go to the “My Adoption Story” page above you can quickly find those posts). I (along with my wife) will be writing adoption related content on our new blog but you may still find adoption related posts here from time to time.

So feel free to stop by our new sight and share it with others.  We are still learning and growing and we are by no means experts.  My wife and I are just a couple of God’s children stumbling along in this process and seeing God’s blessings along the way.

I hope you enjoy 🙂

The pastor -|—

Writing…

/ The Pastor

I need to start writing again.  It’s funny how I always seem to be drawn back. Not that I am trying to get away but I had felt I had nothing more to say after 6 years of posting here.

But lately…

…I have felt that God is not done with me yet.  So stand (or sit) by…

edh-|—

New design

/ The Pastor / 1 Comment

Those of you who came here expecting to find “The Heart of a Pastor” you are in the right place.  I did some re-designing yesterday after a couple years with the same theme design.  In the recent past the most I had done was maybe move some items around and change the theme color.  Yesterday I felt a complete overhaul was in order to spice things up.

So…what do you think?

-edh-

All good things…

/ The Pastor / 4 Comments

The above title was the title of the series finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  The day that episode ran was a sad day for me being a huge fan of the series, but as the title suggests all good things come to an end.

This past month of so (of inactivity on this blog) I have once again been doing some soul searching about the future of this blog.  I went through a period of soul searching not so long ago and decided to keep blogging.  I felt then that was what I was meant to do, but things are changing.  I am not exactly sure what it is.  It might be that this blog has just run it’s course.  But I think a larger part of my decision involves trying to focus more energy on my ministry here at Salem and Belmont.  I am a firm believer that to have a “successful” blog (and I am being careful to claim any success here), one needs to put a lot of time and energy into it.  And my energy for blogging is waning.  So I guess as the writers of Star Trek have said, all good things must come to an end 😦

My plan is to keep this blog active for those who stumble across the many ramblings I have posted here.  When comments are left I will respond (I get email notifications).  And who knows…maybe something will strike me and I will post something, but I am not going to commit to regular posting anymore.

There are so many of you out there that have been so encouraging to me.
When I went through dry periods, you hung with me.
When I had questions you put in your two cents.
When I needed to vent, you listened.
When I needed to flush something out, you where there.

I have learned a lot about faith from many of you.  Your comments to things I have written have challenged me and I will never forget that.

Thank you for this awesome experience and for sharing yourself with me and with the world on this blog.  I pray for God to bless your ministries as you serve this awesome God that we have.  And….I look forward to crossing paths with you someday…if not in this life then in the next, because as Christians…redeemed through the cross…we know that we WILL see each other again…so this is not “good bye”…this is only “see you later”.

So with that…until we meet again.  God bless!

-edh-