…bill’s front porch…

are you going through something that is really tough, some pain even and you are wondering that maybe you didn’t read the small print when you became a CHRIST follower? you thought that you would no longer have to go through the tough stuff, or pain in life so you signed up.

listen, you will experience pain in this life; there’s no way around that. but when the tough times come, we can depend on the protection of God to save us from the power of evil and give us the victory through the trial. whatever happens, HE is there.

what the small print says is, “I will be with you and I will bring you through it and I will make good stuff out of it. it is all in MY power. i like what bruce wilkinson says,“for the CHRISTian, dependence is just another word for power. if we trust, depend, HE give us the power to make it through and the power to make something good out of it.

we went with 2 of our kids to so cal for a little break. i am worn out. it was the disneyland that did it but it was fun. we made 15 different rides/shows. that was a lot of work.

we also made it to saddleback and mosaic for church. they both were great. rick and erwin were gone but tom and eric were great.

that is what vacation is to me. i preach 2 times every sunday, i love doing it, but i also love to go to other churches. saddleback and mosaic are my churches i go to at least once every year. i love them both. they are both different but the way they both do church speaks to me. they help to round me out in my perspective on this old world.

now i’m ready to come back to harvest and the harvest. God has given me a personal purpose that no disneyland or saddleback or mosaic can do. i am not built to be a vacationer, i built to be an harvester. i need the deviation because it helps me to do my purpose. now to me harvest is more exciting than anywhere else because harvest is the purpose and the dream that God has personally built for me. i am glad to be home and i am tired.

do you ever sit on your front porch in your rockin chair and talk about what you really, really want to do.

• i really want to lose 30 lbs. i know i’m taking years off of my life…but i really like that sweet stuff and that bread, oh, that bread.
• i really want to quit smoking.  i know it is slowly killing my family and friends…but i don’t want to gain any weight.
• i really want my marriage to get stronger.  it seems we are going apart…but i really need to work the hours that i am working.
• i really want to get closer to GOD.  there is so much more i want to know about HIM and to experience with HIM…but it is soooo hard to get up in the morning to get into the Word and i’m sooo tired at night, i can’t seem to stay awake when i’m reading the Bible.
• i really want to…but it…

the truth is you gotta really, really want it more than the but or you won’t do it. you gotta, really, really want it.  if you don’t, it’s all talk.  if you really, really want it then you will get off the front porch and go do something about it.

…do not retaliate when someone says something that really hurts you
…do not quit giving people your trust when someone misuses it
…do keep up emotionally when satan tried to get you down
…do keep risking when everything around you says, “play it safe”
…do believe in people when they don’t even believe in themselves
…do give people the benefit of doubt when it would be easier to judge them
…do feel excited for other’s victories when it may come from your loses
…do trust GOD even when life kicks you in the stomach
…do not quit even though you really would like to
…do love when life says hate
…do face the day cool even though it is going to be over 100.
it is HIS SPIRT in us that truely makes us free…

how do you reach a place like vegas?  how do you make a difference with hurting people who believe vegas is the answer, who believe pleasure is the answer, who believe everything else but GOD is the answer?  oh GOD, give me wisdom…give me courage, give me strength, reinforce my resolve, reafirm my call, reenergize my passion.  the load is heavy today!

thanks!!!!

i love our dna, the dna of our church.  this month we are a church on the move.  our elementary school that we meet in didn’t renew our contract and we couldn’t get into our new school, molasky middle school, til july but no big deal we are meeting in 4 different locations in june.  last week up on mt. charleston, tomorrow at a mercedes dealership, next week a clubhouse beside a pool, and then the next week in a park in a large group sight.  no big deal, our people are excited.

oh, also 40 to 50 of us meet every wednesday in a park.  last week there was the threat of rain, the week before 100+ degrees.  no big deal they were there.  awesome group of people.  nobody has told them that they are suppose to meet only in a buidling, the same one each week.

i love being the pastor of a group of people who really know what is important, not a building, but people.  the church is people.  people who love God and who love people more than a building.

wow, are they ever weird.  i’m sure glad i am their pastor.

do you ever feel like you are the weak one at the end? i mean everyone else can do so much more but you are the weak one at the end. i mean you have nooooo confidence at all.

what were your parents like? were they perfectionists? you couldn’t do anything right so they made you feel like you were the weakest one in your family. you never could arrive in their eyes so you feel that you were a mistake.

but GOD said that “HE made you inferior only to HIMself; HE crowned you with glory and honor.” (Psalm 8:5 GNB) your mom and dad were an instrument but GOD made you and HE doesn’t make junk. people try to mess it all up but GOD doesn’t mess up. in HIS eyes i am only weak, inferior, to HIM. so i am not a weakend and HE has made this weekend for me to make a difference.

have you ever said that, i’m ready to quit? oh i know you have thought it. satan makes sure that you’ve thought it, but have you ever said it and then did it?

now the good thing is that GOD still loves me even when i quit, even when i quit on HIM. now of course there are some things that i should quit, like those vanilla creme filled doughnuts at dunkin doughnut. i am sure glad they don’t have dunkin doughnuts in las vegas. it sure helps my resolution to quit eating them, ha! it is good to quit some things but those good things, those things that when we do them makes us dangerous to satan, the resolve must be to not quit. what about my marriage to margaret…no way! what about when it really gets tuff as the pastor of harvest…no way.

i just live with the resolve that i can do all things, even the tuff stuff, through CHRIST who gives me the strength to handle the tuff stuff.

if CHRIST didn’t quit while HE was walking up that road to HIS death then by HIS power i’m not going to quit when satan hits me with major tuff stuff. tuff stuff thrown at me just means that satan knows i’m dangerous when i doing CHRIST stuff so with CHRIST in me i will not quit because CHRIST is not a quiter. and i’m a CHRIST follwer.

i wonder what JESUS was thinking on the wednesday night
…before HIS very meaningful meal with HIS closest friends,
…before HIS very excruciatingly painful day
- painful emotionally because HIS closest friends baled on HIM
- painful physically with all of the torture he would go through
- painful spiritually because HE took all the sins of everyone on HIMself?

i wonder if HE really knew all of that on wednesday? i wonder? if HE did, i wonder if HE slept? i wonder?

i love my kids, i really do. they are both gone now but margaret is still with me at home. we have been together now for over 31 years and i really am glad that she is still with me. and that is the way it is suppose to be.

27 years ago, one week from today, brett came to live with us. i remember that saturday night so well. but he now lives in boulder, co and he and marissa are expecting their first little one in sept. and now stef got married last sat. so it is margaret and me for the first time for 27 years. we are now alone but i have no regrets because that is the way it all started. me and my best friend, the love of my life, the one GOD chose for me, margaret.

i told her the other night, that i was at peace with our kids now both gone but it would have been totally different if it would have been her leaving. that would have been a totally different story.

thanks margaret for being the best friend i have ever had and the only wife i have ever wanted. we still have some great years ahead don’t we?

i love our kids, but you are my life. thanks GOD for giving her to me.