Losing Your First Love

I will be preaching next Sunday at 8:30 and 10:00 at our church as the Teaching Pastor is away on vacation. I've been wrestling with the whole topic of keeping your relationship with God fresh...not letting it get stale or falling away completely. I guess this led me to teach on the topic of "Losing Your First Love". I guess in reality we are all just a few steps away from doing just that...for some maybe you're even closer.

We all remember our first love don't we...it's kind of hard to forget. We all tend to remember most of our firsts in life. The first car, first house, first vacation etc...But what about our first love...not a boyfriend or girlfriend but that relationship formed with the God of the universe.

In Rev. 2:1-5, as Jesus looked at that church, He saw many positive things.

"These are the words of Him who holds the 7 stars in his right hand & walks among the 7 golden lampstands: `I know your deeds, your hard work & your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, & have found them false. You have persevered & have endured hardships for my name, & have not grown weary.’"

Isn’t that a great description of a church? We’d be proud to have Jesus say something like that about us, wouldn’t we? But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He goes on in vs. 4, "Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love."

I don’t imagine that their forsaking their first love happened in one giant step. It wasn’t that just one day they decided not to love God any more. It was a gradual thing.

For a while their love for God was so great & so infectious that people were drawn into their fellowship. Great sermons were preached, & wonderful things were happening. And they were known far & wide for their steadfast faithfulness, even in the face of persecution.

But then, people who used to pray a lot gradually stopped praying. People who may have been giving a lot gradually stopped giving. People who used to witness to the lost gradually stopped witnessing. Until finally, when Jesus looks at this church, He says, "This I have against you. You have forsaken your first love."

What is "first love" in God’s eyes? It is the love that first brought you to God. It is the love that you experienced when you saw the cross as it really was. It was when you realized that the blood of Jesus Christ was shed for your sin & you were overwhelmed with His amazing love.

You became a child of God, & you experienced His forgiveness. That’s first love.

First love looks at mountains of troubles & sees them as hills to conquer. First love looks at rivers of grief & worry that may arise in life & says, "That’s nothing. God & I together can swim through that."

First love looks at stumbling blocks & sees them as stepping stones that prove the power of God. First love cries out, "Just give us a mountain to climb. Give us a river to swim. Give us something to do to prove the greatness of God’s love & how powerful He really is." That’s first love.

How do you lose something as exciting & as wonderful as first love? I would think that we would take very good care of it, & never take a chance on losing it. But we can lose it. Sometimes it just disappears, vanishes, goes away. But how does that happen?

Find out next Sunday August 10th as we take a look at Losing Your First Love. I hope to see you in church...let's explore this together and help each other as we walk through these crazy times.

Teen Leadership Retreat 2008

Our Teen Leadership Team is heading off for a two day retreat starting next Tuesday. We are looking forward to a great time of planning, training and fun. We will be staying at Seven Springs Resort in the new Southwind Townhouses. They are pretty sweet. I have high hopes and expectations for this years Leadership Team.

Sean Toohey, Brea Siler, Matt Keller, Doug Maronde, Matt Prosser, Megan Quinlan, Sarah Prosser, Alex Simon

We also say goodbye to Alex Rockwell and his mom Sandi who are moving on to State College.

I'll keep you posted on the outcome of our retreat and the things you can expect to see as we move into the fall programming.

Under Pressure

You ever feel like the walls are closing in? Things have to be done now, not later, not in a little bit...but now. The bar has been raised, expectations are high. Time is running out...the clock is ticking...it will be here before you know it...are you ready....is everything together...is everyone and everything in place.

Pressure...it's coming down on you it's coming down on me...under pressure.

That's what I feel right now...pressure...some might say...hey just turn it over to God...let Him carry the load and the burden...relax...He will take care of it.

Really...really...is that how it works? Or does God let us walk through some times of uncertainty and let us experience a little pressure to help mold us and make us into the kind of Disciples He wants us to be.

Well...when you listen to the song Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie you hear these words:

Mm ba ba de
Um bum ba de
Um bu bu bum da de
Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you no man ask for
Under pressure - that burns a building down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets
Um ba ba be
Um ba ba be
De day da
Ee day da - that's o.k.
It's the terror of knowing
What the world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming 'Let me out'
Pray tomorrow - gets me higher
Pressure on people - people on streets
Day day de mm hm
Da da da ba ba
O.k.
Chippin' around - kick my brains around the floor
These are the days it never rains but it pours
Ee do ba be
Ee da ba ba ba
Um bo bo
Be lap
People on streets - ee da de da de
People on streets - ee da de da de da de da
It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming 'Let me out'
Pray tomorrow - gets me higher high high
Pressure on people - people on streets
Turned away from it all like a blind man
Sat on a fence but it don't work
Keep coming up with love
but it's so slashed and torn
Why - why - why ?
Love love love love love
Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking
Can't we give ourselves one more chance
Why can't we give love that one more chance
Why can't we give love give love give love give love
give love give love give love give love give love
'Cause love's such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the edge of the night
And loves dares you to change our way of
Caring about ourselves
This is our last dance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure
Under pressure
Pressure

Lord God please help me this day to deal with this pressure...Lord some of it is pressure from others and some of it is self imposed pressure. Lord ease the burden and help shape me into the Christ follower you have called me to be. Thank you for your love, your grace and your Son...amen...

Cedar Point 2008

It was fun...

ATTACKED

The day started out innocent enough, breakfast, some time at the office, and a trip home to enjoy some of my day off with the family. I got home and started to unwind and relax when I got the call from the backyard...there it is. I jumped up off the couch and headed out the back door and sure enough there it was...standing in the middle of the backyard. With much fear and trembling I put one foot in front of the other and headed down the steps of the deck and down into the backyard to face the beast. As I drew closer I noticed that it was dragging the back half of it's body across the yard. I decided that I needed to capture the beast and get it some help. The time had finally come...I had to face my fear and capture the beast. I stood over the beast reached down to pick him up and that's when it happened...ATTACK...that's right it bit me right on my thumb. The wild animal had actually bitten me. Blood ran down my hand and I had to take a time out to stop the bleeding and bandage the wound. I ran inside and applied some basic first aid and headed out to finish the job that I had started. This time I was successful in capturing the beast and getting him in the box. I called Animal Control and they came out and subdued the animal. They took my information and said they would have the beast tested for rabies and let me know my fate. I in turn hopped in the car and headed off to the emergency room to take care of my wound. They gave me an antibiotic and said to soak the wound twice a day. We'll see Monday if the beast was rabid. So much for helping the beast...see the picture below...CAUTION...this may give you nightmares!!

Looking for Normalcy

I'm exhausted...
Is there such a thing as normalcy? I don't know...things have kind of been all over the place this week. Maybe it's the return from vacation and jumping back into things with both feet. It seems like we have a thousand things going at once but not really getting anywhere with any of them. This week I've been putting the finishing touches on our Cedar Point trip for next week and getting everyone signed up. Spent a good amount of time on getting a logo, website and marketing strategy together for our upcoming Saturday night service. It's a lot like planting a church with all the odds and ends and little details that you take for granted. It's that time of year when we do our staff reviews and I'll start calling everyone in next week to do that...that's a basket of fun. Our new Music Pastor starts next Monday and that will be really cool...in the meantime just getting all the little details for that squared away. Tomorrow is the memorial service for Dr. Jack so we've been getting everything ready for that with the anticipation of a rather large crowd. The family has been away at Jen's parents so things have been insanely quiet around the house and frankly quite boring. The thought keeps rolling around in my head that we need to take a serious look at what the Student Ministry will look like this fall with the addition of the Saturday night service and the loss of one of our prized leaders to a move out east. Sermon planning for August 10th and the Fall Saturday night service. Teen Leadership retreat planning and preparation for the first week in August.

Sometimes it just feels good to vent a little bit...Like I've said before one thing I love about my job is the diversity and flexibility. Sometimes it can become a little overwhelming and just plain crazy. That's this week in a nutshell. Welcome back from vacation and welcome back to reality.

Is it Friday yet?

4th of July

Today was a very uneventful 4th of July. It rained all day...all day...just a nice steady consistent rain that lasted all day. We just took it easy today and checked out a few farm markets with all kinds of good Amish cooking. The neighbor provided the fireworks entertainment for us and we finished out the day the same way it started quietly...you gotta love the country. I suspect tomorrow will be much of the same with a buggy ride thrown in for the boys. Happy Independence Day!!

Chasing Fire Flies

Well Day 3 was another full day in South East Pa. We were up early again today...early enough to catch another sunrise and headed off to Gettysburg for the morning. We were back by early afternoon and set out to do some outlet shopping...woohoo!! We had dinner at Jakey's Authentic Amish Barbecue...(never knew there was such a thing as Authentic Amish Barbecue) whatever it was pretty tasty nonetheless. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and chasing fire flies with the boys...oh to be young again...everything is just so simple and fun.

Hunter has spent the week trying to befriend a steer he named moo moo. He is probably heading off to hamburger land before too long but for now Hunter's mission is to make friends.



Tomorrow we'll be up early again heading off to some Farmer's Markets...I'll let you know how that goes...until then....

A Time For Everything

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NIV


There is a time for everything, and
a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,
time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time
to gather them, a time to embrace and
a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace

You never know what each day will bring...today was no different. I awoke to a beautiful sunrise over the farm and sat on the porch soaking in the warmth of the son and sun. No more than an hour later I received an email that a dear friend of our church family had passed away after an extended illness. Dr Howard Jack. What an incredible man of faith and a mentor to many. He will be sorely missed but we know that he is home with the Lord right now and in no more pain. He is finally at home and at peace.

Today was a good day for the Such family despite the sad news we received early in the day. We spent the day traveling around Lancaster, Bird in Hand and Strasburg. We rode the Strasburg Steam Train that took us to Paradise...we went to the town with that name Dr. Jack went to the real thing!! I would say Dr. Jack definitely got the better deal!! Here are a few pictures from Paradise, Pa...I wish Dr. Jack could shoot us down some sweet pictures of the real deal!!



That's all for today...we're thinking about heading over to Gettysburg in the a.m. to see what's up over there...I'll give another update tomorrow...leave a comment or two...I'd like to hear from you.



Good Night Dr. Jack

Vacation- Day #1

We left at o'dark thirty this morning for Hershey Park. We arrived around 10:30 and had a blast with the kids. Brandt made it till about 2:30 and was done with the park for the day. We left and headed to our house in Strasburg just outside Lancaster. What a beautiful, quiet and relaxing place!! We got settled in had dinner and spent some time relaxing on the front porch. Hunter and I went for a walk and enjoyed the scenery and countryside in Amish country. I have attached some pictures of our first day. The sunset tonight was incredible and was the icing on the cake for a great day 1.