Puttin' Up The Christmas Lights

It's that time again. Time to drag out the Christmas lights. This is my job. Mechelle decorates the inside of the house. I do the outside. The lights we brought from Florida fit that house perfectly. My challenge this year is to figure out how to put up the lights on a new house. My friend and boss from Sears, John, let me borrow his extention ladder. I've never had to put lights on a two story house. Well, the challenge was met and the house looks pretty good...if I do say so myself.

This reminds me of something I read this morning in Luke 11. One of the challenges of being a Christ-follower is being authentic...being real and honest about our struggles. The opposite of authenticity is hypocrisy. That's one of the things that Jesus challenged the Pharisees about...their hypocrisy. They looked pretty good on the outside, but on the inside Jesus said they were like a graveyard. I'm not saying our house looked bad on the inside...Mechelle's done a great job, but you get my point. Our lives can look pretty good on the outside, just like my house. But on the inside we can have sins, struggles, doubts, secret addictions, that we don't won't anyone else to know about. Oh, we look like we've got it all together, but... Our challenge as Christ-followers is to be real, honest, authentic. The book of James in the New Testament tells us to confess our sins to each other. Now that's being real. People need to see how Christ is helping you with your "stuff". The world is hungry for authenticity. Its had enough of the other.

Duane

Thanksgiving With The Neighbor

Thanksgiving morning started off with our tradition of enjoying Mechelle's homemade Monkey Bread. Yum! After breakfast we started a new tradition. Here in Virginia there are Christmas tree farms all around. So instead of buying our tree from the Lions Club in the park in Okeechobee like we've done the last 10 years, we decided to go to the Glen Gary Tree Farm to cut our own fresh tree. When we got back to the house our neighbors were outside with friends they had invited over, but we noticed our neighbor across the street was by herself. Miss Lucy is in her eighties and was out bagging the leaves in her yard for her garden. While Becca and I took the tree in the house, Mechelle and Bryce walked across the street and invited Miss Lucy to have Thanksgiving Dinner with us. A few hours later, Joel, Dana, and the kids came over, then over came Miss Lucy. As we sat and talked with Miss Lucy while the turkey was frying, we learned a lot about her past. She grew up in a convent, had two husbands who both had passed away, and had three children who seldom came around. She had lived in the same house here in Culpeper for 25 years and had seen a lot of changes. Suprisingly she told us that when she lived in the convent she knew God but she didn't know Jesus. But the most suprising thing she told us was that in 25 years of living in the same house on the same street we were the first to invite her over for a meal. Imagine that! Someone could live in the same home for years and no one reach out to them. But, sadly that's the way it is for many. We felt honored to have Miss Lucy sit down at our table and share Thanksgiving with us.

Thanks to all of you who have been a part of sending us to reach the Miss Lucy's of Culpeper.

Duane

Workin' In The "Real" World

It's been a long time since I had what some people call a "real" job. But I have to admit I haven't stood on my feet for eight hours straight in many years. Yet, I'm kinda enjoying being a bi-vocational pastor for the time being. One of the challenges of being a full-time pastor is that you can sometimes isolate yourself from people outside of "church". So its been fun to work again outside of the walls of the church building. Each day I meet new people from our community and I've made some new friends with my fellow employees at Sears. On the way to work these last 5 days I have prayed that Christ would live His life through me as I work...that I would be a good employee...that I would be kind to everyone, even the one employee that the others can't seem to get along with. I also pray that Christ will show me ways to share Him with the people I come in contact with...even if it's just through an act of kindness.

"Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:16

Duane

A ride in the country

This morning I went to Substitute Teacher Orientation at the Culpeper County School Board building. I sat in a conference room with about 25 other people who were being taught along with me about the "do's" and "don'ts" of being a good "sub". Now that's some exciting stuff! I met some interesting people, some of which I'm sure I'll see in the halls and classrooms of Culpeper's schools. Some of the people I met were confident, others were nervous and a little unsure of themselves. But everyone is looking to make some income and to help better their financial situation in life. People from all walks of life. Some retired teachers and some who hadn't been out of high school for too many years. But all were looking to better their situation and maybe to make a difference in the classroom also.

This scene reminded me that everyone wants to better their situation financially, but unless Christ betters our situation its all futile...vanity...a chasing after the wind. When Christ forgives us and gives us His life to live through us, then life has meaning and hope.

After sub orientation, Mechelle and I took Bryce to his art class which takes place at a home in Reva which is about 10 miles out in the country. After we dropped him off, we turned right out their driveway and just started to drive to see where the road would take us. The scenery was amazing. Mountains off in the distance...rolling hills and valleys filled with all the colors of autumn leaves...something we missed living in Florida. There is something peaceful about a ride in the country. It turns my thoughts to God and ignites my imagination as to what heaven might be like. I know it will be a place of peace and beauty...maybe just like our ride in the country. So lets take as many people with us, because as I read in Hebrews 8 this morning, "He is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he ever lives to intercede for us."

PRAYER REQUEST: Pray for me as I start a job working at Sears tomorrow. I definitley will be bi-vocational until Mosaic Church gets going and is able to support us. The owner of Sears is a great Christian guy who we met through our homeschool organization. I will also begin substitute teaching by the end of this month.

Pray for Joel. He's trying to get another job working as a police dispatcher for Fairfax County. It's a job that pays really well and will really help out their financial situation. He needs this job...so pray!

Pray for Mechelle as she begins taking on-line classes to become a Medical Transcriptionist. A great job for a home-schooling, stay-at-home mom.

Pray for wisdom on what the next steps are for Mosaic Church.

I want to do, as my dear friend Scott Brown told me recently, "God's thing, God's way." Not "my thing, my way" and not even "God's thing, my way"...but, "God's thing, God's way!"

Making it hard to go to hell from Culpeper!
Duane

You Just Never Know

Everyday is an adventure, because you just never know what God is going to do. He is always working behind the scenes where we don't see and then He shows up when we don't expect Him. What a cool God we serve! I have been praying for God to continue to make Himself known to me and to help me to trust Him more.

Today, I was reading in 2 Kings 19 about how Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and his people were trapped. There was no way out. All looked hopeless. The king of Assyria had brought his mighty armies against Judah. Assyria had destoyed all of the surrounding nations and was about to descend upon Judah. The king sent a representative to demand that Hezekiah surrender or be destroyed. Hezekiah went to the temple and laid it before the Lord. God spoke to Hezekiah through His prophet Isaiah. Isaiah prophesied that Sennacherib (king of Assyria) and his armies would be destroyed, and that is exactly what happened.

But, the most amazing thing to me, was what God said through Isaiah. He said (talking about Assyria and what they had done and all the nations they had destroyed up to that point), "Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass" (2 Kings 19:25).

Did you get that? God had brought Assyria to Judah's gates. God had planned it! Sennacherib just thought He was in charge. Why did God bring Assyria to come against Judah? Maybe one reason is so that Hezekiah would have no other recourse that to trust His God...the only true and living God.

Why does stuff happen in our lives? Maybe God just wants us to trust Him and realize that He IS in charge. He's got it all worked out...planned out...ordained...and He will bring it to pass!

You just never know what God is going to do. Today, Mechelle and I walked into The Raven's Nest Coffee House here in Culpeper. Gordon, a member of Culpeper United Methodist Church was standing at the counter and we were greeted by Jessica the owner. She began to tell us that several people had asked here about the informational meeting we are having at her place this Thursday night. Then she gave me a business card that a lawyer from Richmond had left wanting me to contact him about Mosaic Church.

At first I was kinda nervous wandering why a lawyer would want me to call him. But Jessica said it was cool. He wanted to find out more about Mosaic. So I gave Him a call. His name is J.C. He said He was a Christ-follower first and a lawyer second. He had been in Culpeper to represent a young lady whose dad was a pastor but she had got into some trouble. Before going to court, he had been praying about what to say to this girl, being a Christian, and how he could get her some help here locally. He said that he was walking by a building and saw our flyer advertising our meeting. He liked what he read, so he wrote down the information and after the court appearance he prayed with the young lady and then encouraged her to come to our meeting and check us out.
He also met another young lady who worked at one of the resturants downtown and encouraged her to come check out Mosaic Church.

God is using a guy I have never met to bring people to Mosaic. Isn't God amazing! He's coming back to Culpeper on the 16th, and we're getting together to share the vision of Mosaic Church.

You just never know!

Duane