Archive for the ‘Jesus’ Category

1. I love the holidays! They remind me that tradition means something and that new traditions are essential for creating new memories.

2. Basketball provides lots of life lessons for me.

3. I may be addicted to social media. Determining boundaries has proven to be difficult.

4. Emotion can be your worst enemy or your best friend and sometimes it’s one disguised as the other.

5. Learning and Mentoring go hand in hand. Keeping what you learn to yourself is arrogant and self serving.

6. I haven’t written a song in 15+ years. Disappointing

7. “If you build it, they will come” is not a biblical concept, neither is “God helps those who help themselves”. Both are quotes, one from a movie the other from a founding father.

8.The Matrix was a revolutionary Movie… to bad the sequels were not. A lesson we could all learn from.

9. The experiences God used to change our lives will not be the same experiences He uses to change the lives of those around us. We are not called to recreate for others what God created for us.

10. My life is a musical.

11. Only God can change your life. No church, religion, government or person can change your existence, no matter what they promise. No they can’t.

12. I have many pet peeves… most of which are things I hate about myself.

13. Exaggeration is just a rationalization for lying.

14. I need Jesus as much as anyone.

15. To ignore any one part of the Gospel is to ignore the whole.

16. You cannot claim to follow Christ and reject His body. Quit pretending that you can. If you are not a part of a church body find one or finally admit you just hate the fact that Christ died for all the people you can’t stand.

17. When we are in the worst economic crises since the great depression, discourage your wife from wearing the dress made with real sterling silver.

18. When God invests in you, make sure you provide a good return on His investment.

19. I love my job but it can be very hard at times.

20. Love God more than you love your spouse, love your spouse more than you love your kids and love your kids more than you love anything left in life. Not the other way around.

21. Creativity is.

Advertisement

BREAKFAST! It’s meaning is deeper than just the first meal in the morning. It actually signifies the end of a prolonged period without eating or fasting. It literally means to break your fast. Since fasting can be abstaining from more than just food I decided early this month to fast from blogging. Today is my blog breakfast! Twisted logic I know but you get the meaning I am sure.

Mad props this week goes out to my boy Wes Schaefer.

Since high school Wes has dealt with one addiction after another. Each new addiction would eventually leave him wanting more than the drugs had to offer. After searching for a “high” bigger and better than the last one, Wes eventually found himself addicted to Meth and ultimately close to destroying his own life. With the help of his family, friends and church, Wes entered a drug rehabilitation facility and one year later stood before those same people and proclaimed God’s victory in his life. You can see him in this video holding up a sign that says “Addicted to Meth” and then “Clean And Sober! & Forgiven”.

His sign was ginormous and rightfully so. God had done a major work in his life. Afterwards Wes sent me a text thanking me for asking him to participate in the event and wrote “That was a better high than any drug had ever given me”. Wes had experienced the life changing power of the Gospel and it was powerful to witness.

For most people this would be enough. Enough because their lives were changed by God and they were now free to go about living their lives, building their careers, raising families and going to church. This has not been the case for Wes. Wes recognizes the power of God to change his life. He understood the power of addiction that he was under was significant but that God’s power was greater and as a result, he wants everyone to experience that same saving power in their own lives. Now Wes is actively sharing the power of God with others. He recently hosted an event at the church building to help raise awareness about the destructive nature of Meth addiction and is constantly on the lookout for ways to share the Gospel with people who are far from God.

So Mad Prop’s to Wes. He is exhibiting the true nature of the Christ. He knows first hand the power of the Gospel and desires to share its life changing power with others. He is an inspiration to me and many others around him. I can’t wait to see what God does with him next…

Everyone join me in giving Mad Prop’s to Wes.


Hello! It has been over three weeks since we last met and we have so much to catch up on! I don’t have a lot of time so let me try to catch you up on the last twenty seven days of my life as quickly as possible.

  • Avalon was incredible! Made some new friends through the process ( Cathy Freeman and Chris Kelly with Spirit 102.3, Greg Long with Avalon) and watched our church do a tremendous job in helping with the event.
  • Mad Prop’s to Cathy Killion for all her hard work on the Avalon show! She was my hostess and really went out of her way to take care of the group.
  • Christmas services FREAKING ROCKED! Jana Gorham had almost thirty people in the orchestra this year and as usual they were incredible, the Choir was bigger and better than ever, Brittany Bolt sang her guts out and rocked our faces off and as always the band was awesome. This had to be the best Christmas service EVER in our church.
  • Christmas Eve services were great as well. We did some things a little different but somehow throwing acoustic worship, Charlie Brown, a live nativity, the Christmas story read by grandpa Tom, communion and candle lighting in to one service worked!
  • Mad Props to my boy Mitch who managed to focus his attention to leading worship on one of the hardest days in his life.
  • Christmas at the Tibbles was awesome! I will always love Christmas morning with my kids more than any other day of the year! This year was awesome… there were nice lessons learned by my youngest. More on this later…
  • In-laws came to our place for Christmas #2. It was nice…
  • Spent more time with my grandparents in two days than all of 2008 combined. I love them so much. They are great examples to us in all aspects of their lives.
  • Had a great Christmas with my small group. I am so appreciative of them and their love for us and each other. Its great to be a part of a group where we are “Tim and April”.
  • I somehow ended up catching a cold that turned into a fever and sore throat… I hate being sick. Then again, who doesn’t?
  • Our Church Basketball League starts up soon… I am uber excited about this. I’m not a great player but I love basketball to a fault.

So that’s my life over the past three and a half weeks. Sorry we were not able to connect. What’s that you ask? What are my feelings on Rick Warren praying for the inauguration? Funny you should ask! What amazes me is the two opposing views of this prayer.
1. The “Liberal Left” is ticked at Obama for inviting a “gay hating”, “anti-abortion”, “narrow-minded conservative” to be a part of his inauguration. It’s funny to me because Obama is doing what he said he would do. Did these people think that he would unite only the Americans who agreed with them?
2. The “Conservative Right” is ticked at Warren because he has accepted the invitation to participate in Obama’s inauguration. This is funny to me because Warren is doing exactly what he is supposed to do as a Christian. Does this group think that Warren should stand up and call Obama a “hypocritical”, “gay loving”, “baby-killing” heathen like a lot of other so called Christian leaders? Isn’t Warren doing exactly what the rest of us should be doing… praying for Obama?

It was great to see you again! Lets meet up tomorrow. I would like to share my 2009 New Year’s Resolutions. Before you go let me give you my question of the week:

What is your top resolution for 2009?

See you tomorrow!

Oriinally Posted by Scott Thorn | MLive.com December 02, 2008 10:45AM

Okay, I’ve seen the face of Jesus appear on toast, crepes, window panes…but now a guitar?

Ludington music store employee Jeff Hoyer noticed it after others commented on it

November 28, 2008: Ludington Daily News: “The reason that I didn’t discover it when I was setting the guitar up, is when you look at it from this angle (from the neck down) the face disappears, which is proof that it cannot have been faked, that it is actually in the grain, because if it were airbrushed in there, or somehow faked, no matter what angle you looked at it, it would still be there,” Hoyer said.

Hoyer then explained the process of making such a guitar.

The guitar has spalta maple front, sides and back and was made was through a process called bookmatching, Hoyer said.

Bookmatching means a piece of wood was and cut down the middle and opened up like a book, so that the patterns in the wood grain are mirror images.

“So basically what happens is half of that face was in this half and when they open it up like a book it’s a mirror image of the other side of the face,” he said.

When asked if he had ever come across anything quite as mystical as this Jesus guitar in his life, Hoyer had this to say.

December 2, 2008: MusicRadar: “I’ve been here for 27 years and I’ve never seen anything close to that… the face is so clear,” shop employee Jeff Hoyer told the Ludington News. It reminded me, and a couple of other people, of the Shroud of Turin and we know who that was.”

“It also reminds me of my brother, he’s a biker.”

Healing Rain

Posted: September 29, 2008 in church, emotion, FCC Owasso, Jesus, sunday morning, worship

We got this idea from Hillside Christian Church in Amarillo, TX. This ended up being a powerful way of communicating how far God is willing to go to change lives.

I was moved to tears… made it very difficult to sing. God is incredible!

If you were a part of this group of people, what would you have written on your cardboard?

This may come as a surprise to some of you but, just in case you don’t know, your pet has no soul. This of course leaves millions of people wondering “What will happen to my pet after the rapture?”
Unfortunately millions of pets will suddenly find themselves without owners, unattended and left to starve within their own homes and backyards. Assuming you believe in the rapture of all Christians will happen, how should a pet owner then plan for the care of their pets after the rapture?

Check out this guy I found on Craigslist>Kansas City

Pet Rapture Insurance

Who knew Jesus was a pet hater?

Get ready, I’m going to bust a little theology on you. I had a friend ask me a question this week that provoked some serious thought and study. Hopefully it will do the same for you.

Tuesday Question of the Week #4

Is it ok to pray to Jesus?

Let’s hear it…