sacred moments

Sometimes the moments I get to share with others are sacred. Moments that will be remembered. Here is just a glimpse into one of those moments. I officiated at a funeral service for a mom and dad who had lost their 20 year old son in a motorcycle accident. They have three other sons. We started at the funeral home and moved to the cemetery and after I spoke a few words at the gravesite I stepped aside. Friends moved in to say a word or two to the family and after a short time the lid was placed on the burial vault. Then the dad and three brothers grabbed a shovel and in an act of love filled the grave in with dirt that had been excavated. I know it would not be right for a lot of people. But for this dad and his three sons it seemed the perfect thing to do. The dad was quiet through most of the service as is his nature. But the simple act of shoveling dirt spoke volumes as he did the last thing he could to honor his son.

web tools

For those of you who use the web to search and or study here are some tools that I use…

Bible Gateway is an online searchable Bible with some study tools. You can pick the version or look at multiple versions. In the search window type in a word that you would like to view and it will search the entire Bible. 

Blue Letter Bible  is also an online searchable Bible. I use it for doing word lookups in Greek and or Hebrew. It has some commentary type stuff that can be useful as well.

You Version is an online Bible. It is catching on and is useful for use on your phone and or computer.

Itunes for listening to podcasts (online messages). You need to download and install itunes (free) then subscribe to podcasts at the itunes store. Here is a look at some of the podcasts I download…

I read blogs from other people in ministry. Some blogs I read consistently and others I read for a while and then delete them from my reading list. Google reader is a tool that checks the sites I want to read and lets me know when there are new things to read. I use blogs to gain a different perspective and as an idea starter. You will need to create an account. Below is a pic of the Blogs I read on Googreader…

the man I used to be

I came across a quote by Chris Donato on his blog that struck me as being sooo true: ”It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” Isn’t it so? My sister dropped off some pictures that my parents had of me as I was growing up. Pictures of me as a baby and the progression through the years. I am not the same as I was. Physically I have changed. More than that I have changed in other ways as well. In my understanding of Jesus and the way he works in our world my understanding has changed as well. To mature means my understanding has to change. Yet myself at times and others I have observed can get so unnerved at the change which maturity brings. Paul says, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.” 1 Cor 13.11 

I have heard credit given to Augustine for a quote that goes something like this: “I am no longer the man you knew.” when he was approached by a person who knew him prior too his conversion to being a follower of Jesus Christ. the same is true of me. When I run into old classmates from school who ask what I do now, I tell them I am a pastor. Sometimes the look in their eyes betrays the thought they are thinking, You, a pastor. “I am not the man you knew”

To all of that I say, Thank You Lord for rescuing me and bringing about transformation in my life, so that I am not the man I used to be.