14 years... can't wait for more

Fourteen years ago, my wife and I stood before our families and God and said our wedding vows. I have to say right from the start, where did the time go... I know that is a very cliche thing to say but it really does fly. As I stood facing my bride with tears in my eyes and a weird sensation in my stomach, I had no idea we would find ourselves in the places we are now. We are still married!!!! and that alone is reason to celebrate. As two very young, dare I say kids, we faced a huge uphill battle, but we are still happy and very much in love. We are the parents of six wonderful children. That is something I never would have pictured, although I am thankful to God for each one of them. The most import thing however is my relationship with God. I would have told you 14 years ago that I was close to God and that I was doing well in my spiritual walk ( praying, reading the Bible, learning about Him, etc.) but I can see now that I have grown so much more than I ever thought possible. This then got me thinking. How awesome it is that in 14 years from now I will be a month shy from 50 (wow that's old) and my relationship with the Creator of the universe could and should be even better than it is today. That my friends is flat out amazing. To think that I might know God even more intimately than I do now... makes we want to fast forward time.

I love my wife and I am excited to spend the next 14 years (and many more) by her side. The things that I will experience with her, both the good and the bad will be more than I could dream up. Knowing that I will spend those years with her as we walk together seeking God and His will for our lives... priceless

death and eternal life

Richard E. Steffy, my grandfather died today. He was 89 and a half. I had an opportunity to sit and talk with him a few days ago. It was late in the evening and we were the only two in the room so he talked and I listened. He shared with me the history of my church, his 40 years working for the dairy delivering milk, his service in WWII, his family, and his love for his house (which my family and I live in). There were many things shared that night, some things I have heard hundreds of times and some things I was surprised I had never heard about. The stories, the humorous ones, the painful ones, and the encouraging ones all weaved together a picture of his life. A picture of a man that leaves behind a legacy that I am honored to be his grandson. I have never met a person that could say anything negative about my grandfather. He genuinely cared for people. He was honest and hard working, he always was concerned with how you were doing and then would listen to you tell hem everything. He loved nature and saw beauty in plants and animals. Most importantly my grandfather love God. As I looked back over his life with him it was clear that he lived the way he did because of the love of God. Often as he laid in the hospital bed he would say "Scotty I just want to see God's face, I just want to die so I can be in heaven". So many people are afraid of death, unsure of their salvation and destination. My grandfather had no doubts about it. As I write this I rejoice in the fact that my grandfather is in the presence of God, he is able to see God's face. Praise God!!

I am thinking back over my 36 years of life and wonder if my children would look at my life as a legacy? I recall so many things I have done out of anger, selfishness, pride, hate, and so few things that I have done out of love, true genuine love. I also am confident in my salvation and destination, but I also know that I still will be accountable for my deeds. That thought alone brings me to my knees. I am not naive, I know my grandfather was not a perfect man, but his life sure points to the One who did live a perfect life.

For the wages of sin is death... this is something we will all face.

but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord... this is something that we can all have, but it is up to you to accept this gift of life from Christ Jesus.

I give God thanks for the life of Richard Steffy, but more importantly I give thanks to God for sacrificing His Son for you and me.

Relationships... not just for Dr. Phil

Last week Pyro Student Ministries began a study on relationships during our Pyro Meeting. Tonight we looked at the relationships in our lives (parent/child, teacher/student, sibling/sibling, peer/peer, etc). As we discussed our best friends and why we are friends with them, we uncovered a very important point throughout or close relationships. The thread that ran throughout these relationships was experiences. Experiences that you share with one another help to lay a foundation of those relationships. Often times of tragedy or times of great joy bring us closer together. We also see this when we spend more time together (mission trips, retreats, events, weekly meetings, etc.).

Now I have some very close friends and when I look at those relationships I can see that the reason we are close is because we have shared experiences both good and bad with each others lives. The other major factor is time, we make time for each other, a conscious decision to spend our time with each other.

So how is your relationship with Jesus Christ?

This is where the rubber meets the road. Our relationship with Jesus will continue to grow stronger when we spend time with Him. The more time we spend with Him the better the relationship will be. How is the foundation of your relationship? Are you sharing your experiences with Christ? It is easy to go to Him in prayer when the bottom drops out, but are we sharing the positive experiences with Him as well? I know for me it is too easy to take credit for those positive things.

We spend so much time working on our relationships with each other, countless books have been written on the subject and many a daytime talk show has discussed the topic. Maybe we should be putting as much, or better yet, more effort in the relationship we have with our Savior, Jesus Christ.

one of those weeks...

can I get an amen?

Who Do You Love?

It is not often that an illustration during a sermon causes me to miss the rest of the message. I had a moment like that yesterday during a message on love. The illustration itself was not original to me, I had heard the story before, but it was the comment the pastor made during it that hit me between the eyes. The story highlighted a teacher and a difficult student, when the teacher learned more about the child, she understood his background and began to reach the child. The comment that was said was that she stopped teaching subjects and began teaching students. Okay maybe for you it isn't life changing but for me it was.

How often do I pastor a church and not pastor it's members?

It all comes down to love. If I love the members of my church the way that Jesus loves me, then I would be less concerned about my own agenda, or personal feelings and I would be more concerned with showing them love. Just loving them. I can be honest and say there are a lot of people that I do not love, and some that frankly I don't want to love. But if this is how I feel, this feeling of not loving or even not wanting to love them, then how can I tell them about the love of Christ? How can I stand up and proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus and not truly love them?

I know that I am not worthy of the love that I have received from Jesus Christ, yet I still take it and embrace it, I even build my foundation on it. So maybe I stop loving only the people who agree with me, look like me, or are easy to love, and start just loving everybody for the simple reason that Jesus commanded it.

I just need to write it down, I do appoligize if it was hard to follow or understand... it really wasn't for you, it was for me put it down and make this a priority in my life and ministry.

A Few Questions...

Five questions...
First question...Who are you?
Hold on for one second, you answered that way too quickly. Take a moment and think about your answer. Okay, now answer. I would love to know what your answer is. What do you use to define who you are? Is it your last name? I know I often remind myself that I am a Harrison and that means I have to act a certain way. Is it your job? We often find ourselves using are jobs to describe who we are, such as, I am a teacher, I am doctor, I am a student, etc. Is it something you accomplished? I am the third place pinewood derby champion of 1980, I can dunk a basketball (its my blog, so I can dunk if I want). So what did you base your answer on? Your faith? Are you a Christian or a follower of Joel Olsteen (that is different than a Christian) or maybe Jewish, Atheist? Maybe you side with the coffee drinkers or the non-coffee drinkers, those who like cheese and those who think it's yucky. Whatever you used to define who you are is normally based on what is important to you.
Second question...Who do other people say you are?
When they describe you, do they see you the same way you see yourself? Do they talk about your family background, your schooling, your job, your accomplishments, or even your faith when they describe you? We work so hard on creating the person we want others to see, by what we wear, how we talk, the friends we have, the job we have, even the possessions we have all help to show people the person we want them to see.
Third question... How would you describe Jesus?
Fourth question... Does your description of yourself sound anything like His?
Fifth question... Why not... Should we not be striving for people to look at us and see Christ.

I was just wondering.

It Comes Down To What You Crave

What do you crave?
When you wake up in the morning what is the first thing you crave? For me it is a trip to the bathroom. Bathroom business aside, what is it? Is it coffee (mmmm)? Is it something to eat (any sugar coated cereal will do)? Is it more sleep (how many times do you hit the snooze button)? Did anyone say they crave time with God? When your eyes open after a night of sleep, do you wake up wanting to be in the presence of God?
I want to feel that way. I want to say that He is the first thing that comes to my mind. But He is not. I know that I am very quick to put my own needs and wants first, eating, sleeping, coffee, instead I give my Creator and Savior my seconds.
This was just looking at the morning, but what about the rest of your day. What is it you are craving?
Friends, your job, money, popularity, more coffee(mmmm), how about family, sports, maybe even sin. Some of these things are important in our lives and we should look to spend time with them, others such as craving money, popularity, and sin, should not be so high on our lists.
When do you begin to crave God?
Do you crave Him at all during the day, or are we too consumed with what we think is so much more important. Do we crave Him on Sundays? You know for that hour and a half or so when we feel we need to be at church because ____________ (you fill in the blank).
Maybe its different for you, maybe you read this and you wake up wanting to be with God, maybe your focus throughout your day is on the Heavenly Father, maybe you wake up Sunday and you don't care who is playing football but you get to worship our Lord with a community of other believers, but most don't feel that way. We are selfish, prideful people who are concerned with getting "ours" first and worrying about the rest later. That has to change, we need to put aside our selfishness and grab hold of a craving for God. This all comes back to giving God what He deserves, and that is your best. Not the attempt at some quiet time as you fall asleep in your bed. He deserves so much more, and we are so sinful we often don't see it.
So what do you crave?
Are you willing to change the things you crave and begin craving the One who breathed the breath of life into us?