Brick prayers

The misses and I have been fixing up our house for the past 15 years... I mean, 2 1/2. With the arrival of summer we've been tossing around the idea of doing some work in the yard. We would love to put in a brick patio in the backyard so we can sit like lizards in the sun drinking lemonade and saying things like, "when I was a kid we didn't have sunshine...." The problem was that we didn't want to spend the money on bricks (isn't that often the issue?). We prayed for awhile and searched with no success until out of the blue we get an email from someone in the neighborhood getting rid of a bunch of bricks. Boo-yeah!!!

So, we went over to her house that night with a wheel barrel to pick up the bricks and there were plenty. We were giddy like kids in the candy store. We finished loading up the wheel barrel it was getting pretty dark outside. We rolled the wheel barrel backwards to start heading home when all of a sudden we heard a "ssssssssssssssssssssssssss" sound. That "ssssssssssssssssssssss" sound turned out the be the wheel of our wheel barrel deflating. Not good. Realizing we had to get what we could that night we started jogging back to our place to get the car. We also realized that anyone jogging in non-jogging clothes late at night looks rather suspicious so we changed our strategy to a brisk walk. After getting the car, driving back over to the house, loading up the trunk (and they're still in the trunk), driving home and also walking the deflated wheel barrel home we were happy with our new found bricks.

God had provided us with bricks for free. It might sound like a little thing but for us it was a reminder that God cares for even the little things. Even when I think something seems ridiculously small to pray for I remember that God is God. If anyone can make it happen it's Him. Well, we could have made it happen too but somewhere on a German Village street there would have been a really large pothole.

Worship Overload

Alive Festival 2006.
Canal Fulton, Ohio. June 21st - 24th. List of bands here.

Jesus was a poet

Our church just finished a series from the Sermon on the Mount which has been called the most important sermon preached ever. As we evaluate the life of Christ we can make several observations but not too often do you hear about Jesus the poet. That's right, I said Jesus the poet. Let me explain.

Our culture places a high value on rhyme in poetry and lyrics (see any pop song for reference... no wait, avoid pop music at all costs). In Hebrew culture the "rhyme" is in thought, not sound. Parallelism is the primary form of poetic expression. That just means that lines of the poem carry the same thought or is repeated in a different way. There are many variations of parallelism but here's a simple illustration:

Psalm 103:3
(a) The forgiver (b) of all your iniquities.
(a) The healer (b) of all your diseases.

or Proverbs 17:4
(a) A wicked doer (b) gives heed (c) to false lips
(a) And a liar (b) gives ear (c) to a naughty tongue

What is cool about this is that it happens between verses, paragraphs, and even chapters within a book. A book in the Old Testament can follow an ABCBA structure. Craziness I tell ya. Pure craziness. Anyway, Jesus, being the good Jew that he was, would have also known about Hebrew poetry and seeing how he was always relevant he incorporated this into his teaching. Just look at the Beatitudes:

(a)Blessed are the poor in spirit (b)for theirs in the kingdom of heaven.
(a)Blessed are those who mourn (b)for they will be comforted.

(a) Blessed are the merciful (b)for they will be shown mercy
(b) Blessed are the peacemakers, (b) for they will be called sons of God.

Jesus found poetry important enough to include in the most influential and significant sermon ever given. Not only was He relevant in topic but He was also relevant in His delivery. We must always strive to be relevant to our culture.

Baby's Room Murals

Sarah DeAngulo recently completed these murals for a baby's room. For more information contact Sarah at sarahD.artwork@yahoo.com.

Ohhh, you figure it out

"A little bit of creativity from the Holy Spirit goes a long way."
- Bill Christensen (Associate Pastor, Vineyard Church of Columbus

Bill said this at one of our Small Group Ministry team meetings a week or so ago. He said it just in passing but that was enough for me to write it down and I've been thinking about it ever since. To me this means that when we partner with what God is already doing and how He is leading things don't seem to be as much of an uphill climb. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that life will always be peaches n' cream when you follow God (where did the phrase "peaches n' cream" come from anyway?). I'm just saying... uhhhh... I don't know what I'm saying.

Oh yeah, now I remember... oops. I lost it again. Nevermind.