A Pastor in The Northwest

This has become one of my favorite poetic stanzas from the ancient collection of Hebrew songs: Unfailing love and truth have met together.      Righteousness and peace have kissed! 11  Truth springs up from the earth,      and righteousness smiles down from heaven. 12  Yes, the  Lord  pours down his blessings.      Our land will yield its bountiful harvest. 13  Righteousness goes as a herald before him,      preparing the way for his steps. I'm still discovering meaning in this text, but, it just makes me feel good!  I tend to smile every time I read it.  It sings of God's provision and of goodness, truth and blessing. What a life song! Photo by Denise L on Unsplash  

This morning (Monday) I read this in my devotional time: When we encounter trouble, we tend to look wherever we can for help: We turn in whatever direction seems most promising at the moment. In doing so, we may unwittingly walk away from Yahweh. Should practicality or convenience stand between God and us?  Barry, J. D., & Kruyswijk, R. (2012). Connect the Testaments: A One-Year Daily Devotional with Bible Reading Plan . Lexham Press. How are you doing with that? Sometimes it is very difficult to wait for the Lord when we want to just try and fix things ourselves right? Our big takeaway Sunday was TRUST, WATCH and WAIT for the Lord to come through and believe that He will! Remember that to trust God, to be alert for Him to work and to wait for His timing is ACTIVE and takes courage and tenacity! Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living. Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for...

 I wanted to share a phrase that occurs in Psalm 119:36 and 119:112: 36 Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain. And again, 112 Incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end. Incline - that is to be bent toward.  In The Message version, Eugene Peterson translated it as 'grant me an appetite.'  The Psalmist is praying that God would grant a desire to be obedient and that the Lord would turn the heart toward doing God's will. May that be our prayer today as well, "Lord, enable us to be leaning toward your righteous commands every day!" Photo by Enrico Naletto on Unsplash

Sometimes I'm at a loss for words when it comes to prayer. Changing moods, circumstances, struggles, etc. all seem to affect my prayer times. Can you relate? We're not alone! In Romans 8 (NLT) we read this, 26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. For a bit more encouragement in prayer today, here's a prayer that shows up 4 times in Psalm 107: "Lord, help!" Maybe that's all we can muster some days - so let's muster it up with all our might! Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Six days ago was the 18th anniversary of the official launch of Dallas Church. Looking back to that day at Whitworth Elementary's gymnasium, I wasn't sure what God was going to do with a new church in this city. Our launch team knew we wanted to be a church where questions were ok and a family where people who were far from the Lord would want to take new steps toward Him. We wanted everyone to discover God's dream - a dream of heaven meets earth walking with the Lord! I pray that God will continue to shape us into the church He called to order back on October 21st, 2007. To inspire us, here's something I found amazing, challenging, AND encouraging! Enjoy this glimpse of the early church! Pastor Ben The ancient Letter to Diognetus records these observations about the early church: “ The Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor by language, nor by the customs that they observe; for they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a pecul...

The Psalms are full of this phrase. What does it mean? Are we to stop all activity, sit down, and passively do absolutely nothing? Or, is there something else here for us? Let us think on this for a bit...if someone asks you to wait up, you know what that means right? You've gone ahead and they are trying to catch up with you. Other times we might think of someone running late to a party or dinner and they ask for you to wait until they arrive. I'm not sure either of these really capture the meaning. To help us, let's hear some of the ways the Psalms use this phrase: Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly. -Psalm 5:3 NLT Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord. -Psalm 27:14 NLT Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes. -Psalm 37:7 NLT For I am waiting fo...