Selah

I thought that this would be a very fitting topic for our 2twenty students during spring break. Most students are very busy throughout the school year with academics and extracurricular activities that sometimes they feel overwhelmed. I have seen students come into church on Wednesday night looking exhausted from that day's activities. I ask them, "Did you have a long day at school?" and I am given a blank stare with a very tired nod of yes. I think the key component to the daily grind is balance. We all deal with this at times, some more so than others. I know that personally I have not achieved the pinnacle of success in this area. I am still learning how to balance my marriage, parenthood, ministry and graduate school. I have tried several things over the years to get a release from everyday activities. I have went to the gym, played basketball, hit a punching bag, went to the lake, read some scripture, read a book, wrote a song or poem (in my teenage and college years), or just played a video game. I think that we need to find our "thing". Whatever it is to get away mentally from the stuff going on in our life. I believe that it helps us to come back refreshed, even if we only spend 5-10 minutes to unwind. Then we need to spend the same amount of time, if not more, in our devotion time with God.

In the book of Psalms, David models this for us through his songs and poems. He used this as his devotion time and his "unwind from the day" time because he was a songwriter, musician, and poet. At times he shows his frustration with a situation that he is in and then with the word Selah, he takes a break from that thought and moves towards praising God. I love how he shares his raw emotion in Psalms. I believe that God wants us to be authentic with him at all times, but have an underlining faith in him to provide for our needs.

For my message on Wednesday, March 18, I used Psalm 3 for my point of reference in conjunction with an article from Relevant Magazine. The article was written by Mark Driscoll, Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. He talks about the busyness of life and how to take time to spend with God and to reflect on what he is doing in our lives. The following is a portion of my message outline from Wednesday, March 18:

Selah is a Hebrew word and translated it means to praise or to think about it. It is used in scripture so that the reader will pause and reflect on the previous verse and then to move onto the next verse. This word occurs 71 times in 39 of the Psalms, and 3 times in Habakkuk 3.

Psalm 3
1 O LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! 2 Many are saying of me, "God will not deliver him." Selah 3 But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. 4 To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah 5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. 6 I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side. 7 Arise, O LORD! Deliver me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked. 8 From the LORD comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people. Selah

I recently read this article in Relevant Magazine that inspired me to pause and reflect on what God is doing in my life. I would like to share this with you. The following link will direct you to an article from Relevant Magazine. The article is located on page 33. The author of the article is Mark Driscoll, Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. http://www.mygazines.com/issue/353

Realife Youth Leader's Conference

Janna and I will be attending the Realife Youth Worker's Conference at James River Assembly in Springfield, Missouri this week. I was able to attend in the inaugural year of 2007 and enjoyed it. The conference delivered practical information that I have been able to use in my youth ministry over the past couple of years. Scotty Gibbons is the youth pastor at Realife and has been for 15 years. I was encouraged by his longevity at the same church and by his testimony. When he first started at James River, there was barely enough kids to fill a church van and now their youth group has grown to over a thousand students. I'm also a part of the Realife Network, which is a youth pastor's mentoring group. The Realife Network was started a couple years ago by Scotty and the staff at Realife. It's a small community of 20 youth pastors from all over the nation. We have monthly conference calls where we discuss various topics from disciplining students to outreach ideas. We are also able to communicate through group forums, discussions and blogs. The network allows us to download some resources from Realife and we get a great discount at the Youth Worker's Conference, which is cool. I'm heading to Realife a day early so that I can check out their youth service and how they minister to students. I pray that God continues to mold me to be a better Christ follower, husband, father, friend, minister, and youth pastor. God has blessed me with great students at Lakeside. My goal in youth ministry is to do my best at assisting parents in developing the spiritual of lives of their students and mentoring their students. I have a great responsibility and I want to make the most of it!

North Carolina: ACC champions...again!

My favorite college basketball team behind OU is North Carolina. I've had several people ask me how that came to pass and I explain that I was a Michael Jordan fan growing up and his Alma mater is UNC. So I began to follow the team in the early 90's and have been a fan ever since. When many of my peers were intrigued by the talented teams at UNLV (University of Nevada Las Vegas) or the Fab 5 at the University of Michigan, I became a fan of a program with a long history of tradition. Janna and I had the opportunity last summer to go to the UNC campus, but unfortunately the Dean Smith Center was closed because it was a Sunday. We didn't get to go inside, but it was cool to look in and see the court, the sea of Carolina blue chairs that surrounded the court and the multiple championship banners hanging from the rafters. Yesterday UNC beat their in state rivals Duke 79-71 to capture the regular season ACC championship. Put another banner up for the Tarheels!

I saved $600

Recently I went into an auto mechanic shop to get my car checked out because it had been leaking fluid. After the mechanics did their $44 routine check-up it appeared that my water pump was needing to be replaced along with several other things. They wanted to replace something called my tie rod ends which they said had been worn down and were almost broken. The tie rod ends purpose is to keep the steering functioning. (I found this out by hearing a rough explanation from the raspy voiced mechanic and by looking it up on the web.) They also told me in order to replace the water pump that they would need to replace my timing belt. Then they tell me the importance and urgency of the situation and I asked for the price. "It will be $1131 to replace the water pump and timing belt. It will be $425 to replace the tie rod ends, but we have already taken off the tie rod ends since they need to be replaced so badly." Hmm...well okay I guess "ya got me on the tie rod ends" is what is going on in my mind, but I'm not getting the other stuff done by you. I will go to another shop.

I thought that this was just a bad business decision. They put me in a spot that I wasn't happy to be in. I came to them so they could do a routine check-up and correct the problem of the leaking fluid. How did the tie rod ends become more important? I hadn't even heard of this auto part before this phone call. I told them to go ahead and replace the tie rod ends, but not to fix the main problem. They were confused over the phone and even when I went back in there to pick up the car. I told them that I would get it taken care of and I did. A couple days ago I went to another shop and they replaced my timing belt, water pump, thermostat and even the radiator cap for $520. Over $600 cheaper than than the other joint. Ridiculous. I can't believe that people are getting ripped off from that place. I was mainly disappointed in the fact that the first company claims to be "Christian". They were considerably higher than the second shop and I felt that they were taking advantage of the situation that I was in with a part that I didn't even know about. Often times we will get a second opinion when it comes to a physician about a medical condition and I would suggest the same when it comes from a mechanic. My wallet is thicker because I didn't feel pressured to fork over the money when they had my car in the garage and that is how I saved $600.