blog and podcast

We are so inclined to hide from discipline. We don't want to get caught and get punished. We experience at a very early age that punishment follows disobedience. I learned this the hard way just last week when I got a speeding ticket :(. I was so embarrassed and I felt really guilty. The ticket cost me $125 and 5 hours of driving school. Whether we are being punished by the law, our parents, or God it's never enjoyable. The Bible encourages us to endure hardship as discipline from God. Every one of us mess up and get punished for it, God wants us to use this opportunity to get closer to him and learn from our mistakes. Scripture is clear that God disciplines His children because He loves them. God does not discipline out of hatred or with a motive to harm, but out of love and care. Check out Proverbs 3:11-12. God is our Father. A father teaches His children. Sometimes, the father must correct or punish his children. Is something troubling you today? Are things not going right? Stop and listen to what God is saying to you, He loves you and is allowing these events to happen in your life to benefit you. I know it may seem hard at the moment, but "no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those that have been trained by it." (Hebrews 12:11). The struggles that God is bringing you through today will strengthen you into the man or women that God desires for you to be. Accept His discipline, do not run from it, but ask Him to use this hardship to bring you closer to Him.-PETE

What is the hardest decision that you've ever had to make? Chances are, the choices that we have to make will only get more difficult as we get older and have more responsibilities. Proverbs 3:5-6 reads: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him,and he will make your paths straight." I believe this is a pretty good remedy for those times in our life when we don't know what to do. Daniel was a man in the Bible that faced a pretty tough decision; a decision that I don't know if I would be able to make. Read Daniel 6 for the story. King Darius put into law that anyone caught praying to anyone other than himself would be thrown into the lion's den. When Daniel heard of this he went to his room, opened his windows to Jerusalem and prayed on his knees three times a day to God, just as he had done before. Daniel was caught and thrown into the lion's den, but was never harmed by the lions. God rewarded Daniel for his trust in God. Daniel never compromised his faith, even when he was threatened with death. Our common sense would tell us that we would not be able to survive such a punishment. That is why we must refer to Proverbs 3:5-6. We shouldn't lean on our own common sense but we should get into the habit of bringing God into every decision that we make. What is a tough decision that you need to make today? Maybe there is bitterness between a friend, or maybe you're in a compromising situation that you need to get out of. In these times we must stop and ask: "God, what do you want me to do?" God holds true to His promise: "..and he will make your paths straight." God will find a way for us to survive the tough decisions in our life. He will always come through and hold true to His promise for us, we can trust Him and lean on Him. Acknowledging God means that we bring Him into our decision making. Don't make a move without Him. Listen to the podcast and leave a comment, I'd love to know your thoughts - PETE

The fifth commandment is the one specific commandment given to children: "honor your father and your mother..." A child's greatest duty, second to honoring God, is honoring their parents. I believe that when we are honoring our parents we're honoring God. The opposite is also true, if we dishonor and disobey our parents, we're disobeying God. I think it's easy to pin down that when we are getting along with our parents, we experience more peace in our relationship with God. Think about it...when you're fighting with your mom or dad, is it easy to settle down and talk with God? If you're like me, then you're probably so distracted and frustrated by the fight that you just had with your parents that you don't think to go to God. Scripture tells us that life will actually go well with us if we honor our parents (exodus 20:12; deuteronomy 5:16). Since it's Mother's day, I want to focus on moms. I believe that a mother's love for her children is a great analogy of God's love for us. Sometimes it seems as if our mother is nagging us a lot and always correcting us and pointing out the errors of our decisions...but the nagging comes from a deeper reality - Our mom's desire the best for us and they know that the best thing that we can have is a strong relationship with Christ. One mother that I talked to this past week even said: "If my children are walking with the Lord, I don't have to worry about their school, friends, anything!" Remember that our obedience to our parents is a mirror image of our obedience to God. Just as a beautiful necklace can finish off a beautiful dress, Proverbs 1:7 states that honoring our parents' teaching will actually beautify and improve our life. Your mother wants the best for you...give her a hug today! PETE

Last Chance Beach Trip sign-ups this sunday! The trip is filling up fast so make sure you sign up and get a deposit in as soon as you can! We will be traveling to Southern California on august 1st and spend a day at the beach and a day at Magic Mountain. Sign up this sunday.

The Fear of The Lord. Should we be afraid of God? Most of us are afraid of something, whether it be the fear of heights, tight spaces, spiders, or snakes, our fear or phobia hinders us from drawing closer to the very things that we're afraid of. So should we fear God? We must first ask, is it Biblical? King Solomon states in Ecclesiastes 12:13 "Fear God and keep his commandments,for this is the whole duty of man". And his father, Kind David says: in Psalm 147:11, "the LORD delights in those who fear him..." The Bible is pretty clear that every Christian must fear God. In this weeks podcast, I define what this fear looks like. It's different than a phobia - which pushes you away from the thing that you're afraid of, but a fear of the Lord should actually do the opposite, it should bring us closer. For us, the first step in knowing God is to first take Him seriously - to fear Him and respect his position as creator of all things, all-powerful and all-knowing, and his ability to destroy us, but His decision to love us and show mercy to us. We should be afraid of what our lives would look like if we did not have a relationship with God. We cannot fully understand God's love for us without realizing what our live would be like without Him. The God that we should fear is the same God that says "for I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." We serve a dangerous God, but He's a good God who loves us and cares for us. God wants us to take Him seriously so to keep us from sinning and hurting ourselves - he cares for you. Do you take God seriously? Do you fear the Lord? Our life with God starts here. Email me, or leave a comment if you would like to discuss this further. God Bless you! -PETE

Listen to the Podcast and here are study guide questions to accompany the message:
1. What are the different ways we know the things we know?
Consider our personal experiences, our senses, our thinking, etc.
2. How much we do we all rely on the testimony (or the say-so)
of others - teachers, parents, friends, magazines, textbooks,
television, internet - for what we know?
a.What could you claim to know if you could only rely
on your own personal experiences - and not the recorded experiences of others?
3. Read John 20:27-29, 30-31. What way of knowing does the
apostle John expect his readers to rely on in order to believe
him?
4. Why must we be discerning about who we believe, about which
testimonies we rely on?
5. What difference does it make if we put our trust in the
wrong people?
6. What lesson(s) did you learn from the reading of Prince
Caspian?
7. How does that story shed light on your reading of John
14:21?
a.How do you know if you love Jesus and have put your
trust in Him?
b.What does He say will happen in the course of
obeying Him?
8. Bonus Question: What comes first - trusting or knowing? Do
we have to trust Jesus in order to know Jesus, or must we
know Jesus in order to trust Him, or is it somehow both? What do
you think?

Hope these help!
Comment to this blog if any of these questions ring true to you.

Allen