The Follow Up Talk

A couple Sundays ago Pastor gave a teaching on Reconciliation that was quite the scorcher. He talked about being reconciled with people who may have hurt you. We learned that reconciliation means "bringing the balance to zero." Pastor emphasized how this means letting go of grudges and not expecting the person who's hurt you to apologize and accept that they've wronged you. In essence, there's no score to settle - we just zero it out and call it good. I literally was saying, "But what if they never say sorry?," just before Pastor stated NOT to wait on someone to tell you sorry, because that sorry may never come. Sometimes, God's reminders are not beautiful epiphanies. They don't give you warm fuzzies and an "oh that's good " feeling. Sometimes they are just words you hear or read on a page. That's how this teaching affected me. I knew and believed the words were true, but it was something I would have to think about and ac

God has a way of placing things in your mind to ponder over that you at first think are just interesting thoughts. Then later you realize, whoa - I needed that reminder for this situation I'm facing right now! You can look at it as God having quite the sense of humor, or call it discernment. Since Christmas I've been tinkering over thoughts about thankfulness. This was spurred on by Madam Blueberry who realized that a happy heart cannot be bought. Madam Blueberry is a sad blueberry who thought that having more stuff would make her happy. (This is the first Veggie Tale that my two year old has watched all the way through and he loves it!) She later realizes that "a thankful heart is a happy heart," and didn't let herself get carried away with having stuff . On Tuesday I got gifts that really excited me. Aloe plants that I can use to create my hair sprays and pomades. A coffee table that was never high enough of on our list of needs purchase. I received and gave

For a few years I've toyed with the idea of blogging. I never followed through because blogging is kind of like an online diary and I was never a good diary writer. I always felt the desire to write down my thoughts, but never had the day to day follow through. I've known people who could faithfully fill pages upon pages and pour their hearts out in a super secret book, but I could never find the patience and fortitude to do the same. Blogging sounded fun, but I had no passion urging me to do it. That is, until now. My worship leader was talking to our team about unity and he had a cool way of picturing it. He described how we are like Power Rangers who "morph" into one mega robot and tied that thought to 1 Corinthians 12:12. That's the verse that says we are all part of one body - the "body" being the church of God. We all play different parts and have different roles, yet no one person is more important than the other. Likewise, no one can say that

December 16, 2018 " Dumb Decisions " (12/16/18 sermon link) After listening to Pastor's sermon on "Dumb Decisions" and digesting the teaching for a while, little nuggets of thought came to me reinforcing and adding to the lesson. Today it was through Psalm 27:14. Sunday service was all about being aware of the process  of making good decisions. When we are careless about the process, we can end up in situations where we are asking God to give us His will through the choices that we pick out. This isn't leaning on God's wisdom and trusting God. This leads to us making dumb decisions. Pastor encouraged us to not be so anxious to come up with solutions to the obstacles, desires, or "gaps" that we have. It is important to recognize that God is doing something in you and in your situation during your period of waiting and expectation. "Sometimes God creates a void so that He can fill it." The teaching was in tune with other refle