Real Treasure

Wouldn’t it be fun to be a a pirate for a day looking for treasure?  Of course I would want that one day to be the day I found the treasure!  That’s the issue isn’t it?  We are all looking for treasure.  Finding it is the challenge.  My experience has been that when I think I have found something valuable it turns out to not last.  What I am searching for, and probably what you are looking for is what is real. 

In order for treasure to be real it has to last.  Jesus said that we are to store up treasure that doesn’t disentegrate over time or that can be stolen (See Matthew 6:19-20).  Because I think Jesus is really smart, I bet he knows where the real treasure is.  Real treasure is what Jesus treasures. 

So, what do you think Jesus treasures?  Respond and put your two cents into the pot.

Faith in Action 2009

It was an awesome day!  There was the threat of rain and the threat of the cold, but by the end of the day faith triumphed.  Thank you to all the people who stepped out in faith and spent their morning and for some the day out in our community.  Here is the video of Zillah Nazarene putting their faith in action.  Our prayer is that the human effort and time will be multiplied by the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and lives of people.  Ultimately it is always about God and his love for people.

Check out the video of this year’s Faith in Action in Zillah, WA

Imagine what could happen…

I have heard people say, “I can’t see God, how can I know he is real?”  It’s a valid question.  I believe there is an answer, but that answer starts with me.  It starts with people like me and you being the hands and feet of Jesus to others by the way we live our lives in our world.  Imagine what could happen if a group of people decided to go beyond words and put their faith in action?  Action that demonstrates the love of Jesus to the world.

On  October 11 we are attempting to do just that.  We are going to put our faith in action by going out into our community and neighborhoods and be the hands and feet of Jesus.  Join us!

Zillah FIA from 2008

Friends are Important

I recently was directed to a friend’s blog.  My friend lives in a truck.  Check it out at,  http://www.joshua24-15.blogspot.com/  If you scroll down the page a ways there is a post titled, “An Ode to Dorothy.”  There she gives tribute to a friend and shares her heart about their meeting, their adventures together, and the reality of how distance and time separates friends.  So if you have a moment… read her post, reflect on your friendships, and make a decision to reconnect if needed.  I remember a night of sharing stories, laughing, playing cards (I think it was spoons) on our living room floor with good friends many years ago.  May we use our living room floor more often in the days to come!

It’s Not Complicated…

I’ts not complicated… simply invite.  Don’t judge, point fingers, or put down, simply invite.  Invite people to experience what you have experienced in your own life.  I think people are asking, even begging us to not talk about Jesus, but show them Jesus, by loving them.  We can love people by inviting them.  Invite them into your life.  Invite them into your home.  Invite them into your pain and struggle.  Invite them into the gatherings you attend.  Invite them to discover the one who gives you joy.  Invite and don’t give up on them.  Don’t give up and invite them.

Swamp Gas and Crocs

Wow…what a week.  We have been hanging out at Crocodile Dock learning to fear not!  God’s story of hearing the cry of his people and freeing them from slavery is what we need to hear today.  Consider all that can hold us captive.  Money, relationships gone bad,  addictions, crippling fear, and the list goes on and on.  It’s a great thing to share with children that they can live their lives free from fear and full of life from an early age.  It’s a truth that applies to all of us regardless of our age.  We all can be kids at heart, and that’s what makes a place like Crocodile Dock the place to be no matter who we are.

So Busy

This morning I was in the backyard making sure all the plants were watered.  My mind was spinning trying to order the day’s events and tasks and I allowed the thought to enter my mind, “I am so busy.”  The reason that bothered me so much is that I have made a commitment to not use the word “busy” and instead replace it with the word “active.”  I want to be active.  I want to order my life around living every moment strategically and with purpose.  May I use every waking minute effectively to bring about good and and say yes to everything that is beautiful in the world. 

The problem with having a mindset of always being busy is that we become too busy.  It’s easy to fall into the trap of being too busy to stop and chat with a neighbor, too busy to celebrate God’s creation (that’s way it’s ok to take time to water the backyard), too busy to listen to someone who is lonely, too busy to invest in the life of a kid without a father, too busy to pray, too busy to worship, and on and on the list goes.  I know it is true for me…if I feel too busy, hurried, that life’s out of control, or begin to think I’m in a rat race…then I end up being just that, a rat!  A rat that ends up going nowhere, but in circles or at a dead end.

May we live in a way that allows us to live free and never too busy.  May we live free to bring about good and beauty.

New and Fresh

What’s new in your life?   It seems so easy to live day after day and miss all that is good and full of beauty that is all around us.  Last evening I watched a humminbird sitting on a dangling drip line a few inches from a feeder.  I have seen many humminbirds, but it was like I was seeing one for the first time.  The little creature was amazing!  It quickly flew away, and if birds have thoughts, the little guy probably was thinking, “That big creature is amazing!”  May I live today not only seeing beauty, but creating and nurturing it as well in the way I live my life toward others and all of God’s creation.

The Washing

There he was.  Down in the river called Jordan.  Stringy hair, wooly beard, and hairy.  Hair everywhere.  He was known mostly as The Washer.  It seemed like his eyes were staring at you no matter which direction he was looking.  Common folk were drawn to him, religious leaders were conspiring against him, and the King was fuming.  He wasn’t actually yelling, but you could hear every word as if he was…”Turn, turn to God.  His kingdom is here.”  It caught everyone off guard when all of a sudden he fell silent and his gaze turned away from the people and to the lone figure walking down the bank toward the water’s edge.  It was as if the air itself stopped moving to pay homage to the one approaching The Washer.  The crowd made room as the wild man gently lowered the man into the water and then raised him up.  With water streaming down both of them, the clouds parted and a dove maybe, or wind, or maybe just our imagination, but something or someone it seemed had come from the heavens and covered the man who had just been washed.  The voice we heard next could not be missed, “This is my son, I am pleased with him.”  Then The Washer went one way and the man went another.  The Washer kept pointing people toward the one he kept calling the lamb.

What do you think about Baptism?  Share your thoughts.

Hope for Finances

Crisis, lowest since, hard times, bailout, job loss, bankruptcy, fear, recession…depression!  These are the words that we hear while we listen to the news.  And as we look at our personal account balance it might be what comes to mind as well.  As I listen to God’s voice in the scriptures I hear another story…food, blessing, open floodgates (in a good way), delightful land (see Malachi 3).  It’s not that God is living in a fantasy land either, these words of hope are found in the context of judgment, poverty, perverted justice, bondage, corruption, and in a landscape that sounds like the one we hear on cable news.  In the midst of fear and depression God springs into the scene with HOPE!  The challenge is that we are called by God to trust him.  One of the central ways we show that our trust is real is the way we use our money.  It sounds old fashioned, but giving our tithes and offerings to God first is an act of trust.  And God promises to bring blessing into our lives when we do.  That’s been my real life experience.

What do you think?  Leave a comment.