A Building and a Band

After spending over a year of fellowship at Doug and Jackie's home we decided to step out and move into a more public location. I scouted around the community and found a small room available in a small underground mall adjacent to the local community bank. This location was central to the community because of the bank, the barber shop and a small cafe' called Rock's. Our room used to house a craft store and a number of other retail businesses. We were adjacent to a laundry mat and a plumbing company.

Our little room could hold about 50 people and so it was a cozy little spot. We were an underground Vineyard for sure. You would never know that this place existed from the outside. In hindsight that might have limited us a bit but we were very excited to have a place of our own. It did generate some enthusiasm. I remember running an ad in a local paper for musicians for a church plant. I will never forget the evening when a young couple named George and Julia showed up at our place. They were there in response to the ad and I was kind of taken back when they stopped in. There was an immediate connection. They were precious and hungry to do something for the Lord. I was convinced that God had sent them and we immediately united in worship and praise to the Lord.

So here we were, We had a small building and the beginnings of a band. This was really exciting for Doug and Jackie and others. We didn't have services at first. We would just get together and jam with our instruments. That was a precious time. There was so much hope and anticipation. I can see the necessity to birth things now. Birth brings life and rejoicing. It brings unity and purpose. The Lord gave us a boost of energy and we were so thankful for our meager beginning. I still had my insurance agency and I still had to put three kids through college but having a place to worship and having a spiritual cause and purpose was so gratifying.

Next up.....

Marty and Pat

Peace on Earth

I remember as a child the wondrous view that I had of Christmas. I loved everything about Christmas. It seemed to always have this dual purpose. We had a manger scene under the tree. I understood the birth of Jesus. My mother and father never attended church but they seemed to have a deep understanding and respect for the birth of the Christ child. Santa Claus was the other thing going on at the same time. I never quite understood how these two events related to one another but as a child I didn't try to figure that out. I thought that Jesus was the serious and Holy part of Christmas and that Santa was the fun and magical part of Christmas. The innocence of that approach was healthy when I was a child. As you get older you start to form all of these adult opinions and you no longer accept things as simply as you did as a little child.

The loss of that kind of innocence is kind of sad because for many of us Christmas now becomes something we analyze instead of something we accept and enjoy. That's why children are such a great remedy and reminder to all of us of the simplicity and innocence that we once knew. I guess that as adults we have to stop the music around us so that we can begin to sing our own song once again. Raising appreciation and lowering expectations is a great way to enjoy the season. Peace on earth and good will to all men seems to be real the message of Christmas. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. I wish all of you His peace.

Merry Christmas!

Random Mid-Week Thoughts

1. The Steelers are at it again. Super Bowl bound?

2. Another guy swindled 50 Billion dollars from the American Public

3. The Illinois governor is in big trouble trying to pawn off Obama's Senate seat

4. Everybody wants bailed out!

5. Our Christmas tree is perfect again.

6. Starbuck's in Gibsonia is jam packed in the morning.

7. I hate winter colds

8. God's love has to be extravagant to let us go on like this.

9. Some Christmas lights look like the neighborhood bar.

10. I'm ready for another diet

11. I love Beatle music

12. and a partridge in a pear tree

Have a great week!

The Simple Life

The end of the year Holiday Season is upon us and the stress that is often associated with this time of year always seems to strip us of the heart felt joy that we desire during Christmas. As a child Christmas was very simple. That's because everybody in the adult world is working overtime to make Christmas special for the children. The kids just wait and let it all happen. They are filled with fantasy and expectations while Mom and dad are out there doing all that they can to meet them.

You will read a lot of articles in the paper about how commercial Christmas has become etc and how we need to dig deep for its meaning. The fallacy in all of that is that it is very difficult to change an ongoing lifestyle for just one day of the year. Our life in America is so driven economically that we rarely have time to enjoy the simple heart felt gifts of life. I loved living in West Virginia because the folks down there lived a much simpler life style than we do in the Pittsburgh area. It seems that having less in the material gives you more time to enjoy the intangible gifts of life. The way we we spend our time is a clear indicator of the choices we have made. The American dream is temporal and fleeting at best because at the end none of it really matters.

What we really need life to be on this side of eternity is simple. We don't have to live in a cave or regress or try to re-invent the peaceful 1950's. We just need more time. More time to enjoy friendship. More time to give ourselves to others. Most people want to do these things but their time is pre-occupied primarily to sustain their life style. I have to admit that I have lost a lot of valuable opportunities for friendship because I too have an economic nut to crack. I am seriously considering changing all of this because as they say, the suns a burning. Time is fleeting and so is life.

The material world in itself is not good or bad. The portion of it that you seek after and eventually obtain will determine your lifestyle. It will also have an affect on your true relationship with God and with others. We fall away from the most important gifts of life when we succumb to economic striving. I can see it all around me. I couldn't see it when I was in the cycle myself. I didn't have the time to see it.

Psalm 116:6-8

The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.

Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.

For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

Seeing the Light in a Dark World

I once read that darkness was an obscurity that leads into gloom. That doesn't sound very encouraging. It sounds like that old country song, "Gloom, despair, agony on me, deep dark depression, excessive misery." I don't think that too many of us would walk right into a dark room very quickly. We would at least have some apprehension and try and find a light switch. I also think that most of us can be trapped when we encounter places and situations that are not real clear to us and are rather obscure.

I've also recognized how vulnerable we all are to the darkness of this world. The obscurity is ever so subtle. In America we are enamored by so many things that in the very end mean very little. These things pre-occupy our time day in and day out but they eat away the opportunities to let the light shine on the darkness. Darkness keeps you busy. You are always trying to find your way out. If you light a match in a dark place you might get about one minute of insight as to where you really are.

This is one of my favorites in the Bible

1 John 1:5-7

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Here's what I learn from this scripture.

1. If God is Light then nothing is obscure and unclear in Him

2. We cannot live in the obscurity and darkness of the kosmos(world) and be rightly related to God.

3. We cannot have fellowship with other Christians(fellowship is different than friendship) if we are in darkness.

4. Our sin is not being cleansed while living in the darkness.

The first step out of the darkness is being truthful with ourselves about where we are in the light of these verses.

Questions that I ask myself

1. Is God clear to me? Is He real to me?

2. Am I fooling myself with my present life style? Am I operating in the Kosmos(this world) or am I living in the Kingdom of God?

3. Do I have real community and fellowship with believers or am a I alone and isolated in my deepest thoughts?

4. Am I deceived about where I really am? Is there bondage and sin that I am not willing to identify?

Walking in the Light is an upper! It is exhilarating and helps us live freely in this world and yet not succumb to it's gloom and doom. Groping around in the dark is no place to be. I've stubbed my toe one too many times doing that.