Pastor Jay //

April 2008 010 Originally uploaded by pastorjay_photoalbum

11:00 am - Today I had some time to head toward the library. One nice thing about William Jewell is that no one else seems to be using the religion books :-). There really does seem to be more of a selection of available books for me to study and I can even check them out to bring home!

One the left is a pile of books on Proverbs that I was hoping to go through for dissertation research. In the center is a grande Pike’s Place from Starbucks and on the right - well, my whole filing cabinet is hidden in there. I have about 10 dissertations, 3 chapters worth of research including dozens of articles and notes files, and every other computer file that I have made in the last 8 years. It’s time to get to work and shrink this pile of books.

Gathering 4

Originally uploaded by pastorjay_photoalbum

This seems like such a long time ago! Believe it or not, that’s Trent on the left with the basketball! I think that’s Felicia in the background. We had to move The Gathering in that night because we were afraid it would rain. I am trying to add some of our pictures to flickr. If you would like to create a Yahoo! account and join our church group to display your pictures let me know. It would be nice to see some of your pictures from church activities.

Conventional wisdom says that contemporary building styles are prefered. However, a recent survey may show otherwise:

Unchurched Americans prefer churches that look more like a medieval cathedral over contemporary church buildings, a new study showed. (more…)

This bunny is dressed and ready to face the world… we’ll dressed, anyway. This bunny gets very little down time. By that I mean, she hardly ever gets put down, but when she does, she runs around and hops excitedly. It’s really rather strange to realize that a bunny can actually make a very good pet.

1. it lives outside!
2. it makes practically no noise!
3. poop is compressed, dry, and pellet size!
4. and she’s edible! (just kidding, but she’d make a great coat!)

Wow! A movie from Ben Stein about Intelligent Design and the war being waged by Neo-Evolutionists against these scientists that allow room for the possibility of a creator. They are discredited, bullied, and told to shut-up. What happened to open discussion?

Watch the movie trailer here.

This is dedicated to our 20 graduating seniors this year.

I remember my first day of college. I had the privilege of attending a wonderful baptist college in Belton, Texas (University of Mary Hardin-Baylor). I had been looking forward to this day for so long. I had no idea how detailed God could be about orchestrating that day. My Ford pickup was loaded with my things as I headed to the campus on that Saturday afternoon. Parents were there with their children unloading things into the dorm. My roommate was arranging his things as we divied up the square footage of the room in Getty’s Hall. (more…)

You know I love reading Oswald Chambers. Take a look at the April, 4, 2008 devotional. Here’s a quote:

After we have the perfect relationship with God, through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, our faith must be exercised in the realities of everyday life. We will be scattered, not into service but into the emptiness of our lives where we will see ruin and barrenness, to know what internal death to God’s blessings means. Are we prepared for this? It is certainly not of our own choosing, but God engineers our circumstances to take us there. Until we have been through that experience, our faith is sustained only by feelings and by blessings…Until Jesus Christ is truly our Lord, we each have goals of our own which we serve. Our faith is real, but it is not yet permanent. And God is never in a hurry. If we are willing to wait, we will see God pointing out that we have been interested only in His blessings, instead of in God Himself.

I am reminded again how much pruning my life needs even after 25+ years of salvation.

Good Humor: Things you never hear in church:… (more…)

April 6, 2008 - Wisdom for Fools: Six Guidelines for Wise Living

Proverbs 3:1-12

Discussion Questions:

1. What is one of the dumbest things you have ever done? (Don’t think you haven’t!)

2. How do we know that something is foolish?

3. What are some reasons that Christians are considered foolish?

4. Name three people in your life whose opinion matters to you most. Why those three?

Good Humor: Children’s comments about how to decide who to marry… (more…)

We had a wonderful weekend with the bivocational minister’s conference hosted here at FBC. It was a very encouraging time. I had the wonderful privilege of preaching in the closing session. Steve helped lead music and Casey did a youth ministry clinic. Dr. John Marshall from Second Baptist in Springfield was the keynote speaker for the Friday evening session. See his blog comment about the evening here. I love to preach and had great joy in preaching to fellow pastors to encourage them.

They’ve done it again. A baptist church in Georgia has produced another great film. Here is the movie trailer. See the official webpage for Fireproof.

Also, Prince Caspian from the Narnia series is coming May 16. (more…)