A new adventure!

Good evening,

I was sitting tonight listening to a sermon preached by a friend of mine, so while he is speaking about the Lord, let me update you on all the wonderful (and rapidly changing) things taking place in our lives.

Jennifer and I have been blessed to be a part of a church family at Pleasant Union General Baptist Church in Lewisburg, KY for almost seven years. On August 30, 2009, we will complete our time serving the Lord in that community and church as we follow the next step of God's calling for what we hope is the rest of our lives.

In February, 2009, we attended the General Baptist National Missions assessment center for church planting, and following our approval began the steps of transition into a new ministry for 2010. This required a move, and on Memorial Day weekend we bought a house in White House, TN, and moved closer to the place where both of us were raised in Sumner County.

We have also accepted the partnership with the newest association in the General Baptist family, Genesis Association, and will be planting a church in Tennessee that will launch (tentatively) Sept. 12, 2010. Praise the Lord! We are being connected with some great people who will be serving with us in this exciting venture as we reach people in a brand new world with the Jesus that is the same yesterday, today and forever! It's a Revolution of ministry (more to come about that later!)

Things have been very busy at church, however, as we transition our time at Pleasant Union. We are blessed to have felt the wonderful love and support of many of our church family and though it is sad to have to leave, we are so thankful for the friendships we have developed that can last forever. We are thankful for those who will pray for and support us in our new ministry.

In the meantime, we are taking a HUGE step on faith. I have been in full-time ministry for almost 10 years, and at the end of August, I will get the opportunity to have a different view of things for a change. I will be substitute teaching at White House High School in September through the end of the year thanks to my good friends Principal Jeff Cordell and head coach Jeff Porter. I will be training with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes as a Character Coach and continue my work as a volunteer staff member of the Blue Devils football team. And I hope to help my buddy Drew in the local media and with his screen printing. So it's a mix and match, but we are trusting the Lord to open the doors for us to continue our ministry transition.

We will be training with General Baptist National Missions at the end of September in Tampa, FL, and we also will get the opportunity to continue to work with the great folks at Freedom Church in Gallatin, TN, where we have been attending on Saturday night since November.

Finally, I hope to get an opportunity to share our vision with you. If you are a church pastor, or part of a local church family, we'd love for the opportunity to share with you how you can partner with us in prayer and support as we prepare for a great adventure in the kingdom of God!

In January (tentatively) we plan to begin full-time ministry work with GB National Missions as a church planter for 2010 with director Stephen Gray and a partnership with many local churches and Genesis Association.

So there's a quick update. I have lots of folks to thank, and lots of time to be thankful and humble.

Most of all, I thank my Savior Jesus Christ for dying on the cross for me.

I'm excited, saddened, scared, fired up, impatient, patient, determined, dedicated, can't wait, slowing down, speeding up and unsure yet confident! How's that for an awesome emotion!

God's going to do a great work through His people! Let's start a Revolution in 2010 and I look forward to hearing from you how you can be a part of it.

Live, love, communicate and worship in the name of Jesus!

Pastor K

P.S. I have a new cell number, if you don't have it, send me a message through email, FB, Twitter, etc. and I'll get it to you.

What is he thinking?

Photo by Sarah Hughson
Sunday, June 28, 2009

I realize my son is in this picture, but I hope you would agree that this is an incredible photo! Wow, what a perspective. And to know what was going through his head.

He's my little associate pastor...you just have to be there to understand it.

Be blessed and enjoy!

"Daddy" K

My Jesus is "Faithful and True"

"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason." - Benjamin Franklin

I have no context to the above quote, but it sure caught my attention. Today at Pleasant Union, we talked about being true and faithful. We are the bride of Christ, and in finishing our series on Relationships, we modeled our marriage relationships after the covenant between Christ and the church.

In Ephesians chapter five, God gives the order and structure for the marital relationship, reminding us how we treat our spouse should mirror how Christ loves the church and gave himself for it. There is no doubt we are called to be faithful and true to one another, and to him.

This brought us Sunday night to the final four chapters of Revelation. We took a quick run through the scriptures, reading all of chapters 19, 21 and 22. Three times, John was reminded to write for "these words are true and faithful." But that phrase was also mentioned a fourth time in scripture: it was the proper name "Faithful and True" attributed to Jesus as he appears riding the white horse and ready to conquer evil for all time.

Reason causes us to think, and that is a good thing. But be careful that our faith is not so constrained by philosophical reason that we lose the essence and the power of what faith really is: faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Can I prove everything the Bible says about God? No, but that is the power of my faith. It is my choice, my belief and my testimony. I have the right, responsibility and privilege of telling my story and being faithful and true to what God has done for me. But how I perceive God is based solely on matching my life experiences with His Word and trusting Him to fulfill His promises. That is faith, and when I see His promises come to pass, I can know that they are true.

I shut the eye of reason with faith when I see God keep His Word. When He tells us to "test Me in this, and see if I will not open the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing, so that there will not be room enough to receive it," He is issuing a challenge to our faith, stewardship and obedience. And God always comes through. Tonight, he came through 30-fold for me. Thirty-fold! A simple offering of faith, he multiplied in return to me by 30 times, from an unexpected and unassuming source, no doubt! Praise the Lord!

I shut the eye of reason with faith when I see God act in His Word. When He tells us to "bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ," He challenges us to help others through life's toughest battles. I see people rise to the opportunity and do things beyond their reach and outside their means, but God by His grace provides and blesses both the burdened and the one who bears it.

I shut the eye of reason with faith when I see God heal with His Word. When He tells us "I am the God that heals you" and "by His stripes are we healed," He challenges us to call on Him in our time of deepest need. I see God release addiction, break bondage of sin (and what a spiritual sickness it is) and set people free who are captive to chains of poor health that doctors have no key. This is the power of a Mighty God who alters reports, confounds the wisest of physicians and heals the harshest of disease all in a blink of His eye that cost Him no effort. And I see my faith strengthened when families and friends pray and it appears God doesn't hear because the disease never parts on earth, but in Revelation 21 He promises a healing so great that death, pain and sorrow will never come again.

I shut the eye of reason with faith when I see children believe in Him greater than adults ever could. When I hear my daughter singing in the car on the way home, I hear the power of the Holy Spirit coming through in her simple words - words she is making up to the tune of FFH's "Fly Away." And then I read Revelation 19 and realize every word she said, God promised to do.

I am not interested in arguing about reason. I have heard all the philosophical and scientific arguments to cast doubt on the validity of scripture and its infallibility in today's modern world. But He told John, "write, for these words are true and faithful." And I believe that, every word, even the mysteries of scripture I cannot explain, the tough translational phrasing I can't comprehend and the powerful promises I have yet to see.

"For the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who perish, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God."

I kind of like that, and I believe it.

Be true to Him, and He will be true to you. He does, because He is faithful.

It's OK if you don't believe in my Jesus - as long as you understand that while you are searching for answers, He still believes in you.

Be blessed!

Pastor K

Sometimes, people make big mistakes

Good morning,

This morning I woke up to a scary, nasty set of messages through my inbox called "your payment has been returned." Immediately, all the signals went off in my head. Was there an error? Did someone steal my identity? Did someone steal my money? Did my wife write a bunch of bad checks to buy shoes (OK, that one's a joke).

The truth was, we recently began the process of changing banks and through our new institution, received checks with new account and routing numbers. The problem was, however, that the new checks had someone else's closed account number on them and not ours. Being a new account, we didn't know that until it was too late and by then, at least two checks and one online payment had been returned unpaid.

Later this evening after work, I will get my first introduction to the bad check department at the nation's largest retailer. With a new check in hand (corrected) and a letter from the corporate office of the bank, I'm praying to be removed from the list of bad check writers which are rejected by their system. Needless to say, I am a little embarrassed and also tempted to be pretty angry at the same time.

So then I considered how the Lord would want me to handle this. Have I ever made a mistake? Absolutely, all of us have. Someone at the corporate headquarters made a terrible error in printing these checks. The local branch has the right account number and they are both apologetic and regretful, but it was truthfully out of their hands.

My favorite book of the Bible is Luke. He was a physician and his writing about the poor and suffering proves he had an incredible compassion for those in need. He also reminded us of the direct words of Jesus in Luke 6:37: "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven."

Those words refused to leave my mind this morning as I read all those terrible messages and heard a helpless bank employee apologize to me for something she didn't do. The money is there, the account numbers will be corrected and they have written letters to ensure each of the businesses I paid do not hold me responsible.

But if I hold unforgiveness or maintain sinful anger and resentment against them, am I really any better than the person who made a mistake? No, in fact, I'm worse. Maybe I would feel different if they cost me thousands of dollars or destroyed my credit. But even then, though the test might be tougher, the same principle still applies. People make mistakes and when it's made right, we need to forgive.

This is called grace: Merit for something we do not deserve. A second chance when we haven't earned it. Another opportunity when we mess up the first one. I guess I could call all my buddies, bad mouth the bank, report them to the BBB, complain and write nasty things online, or I could simply say "someone messed up, and let them fix it and make it right."

That seems so much easier.

And now I just pray that the bad check police don't come and whisk me away the next time I check out at the big supercenter which shall not be named. Jesus would forgive them, I must forgive the bank and hopefully with the letter, they will forgive me.

That's what Jesus would do. Of course, they'd probably take a check from him without asking any questions...

Have a blessed day...and forgive others!

Pastor K