Rachel's mission trip

Here is a video detailing what Rachel Johnson is doing on her YWAM Disciple Training school. Rachel has been with us since since her days in high school. God is truly doing great things in her life. If you would like to contribute to her mission, let us know. teens@worshipplace.org

A Father loving His kids

Most of the time our two boys, Zachary and Jason really get along excellently. They play together and genuinely enjoy each other. As I watch them play, in this case football, I often think of the truth in Psalm 133. "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity.... For there the Lord bestows his blessing."

When our boys are playing well together, I love it and I want to do anything to encourage that behavior. That usually means getting down on the floor with them and doing some tackling myself. I as their father am extremely pleased with them. I think that is exactly how God, our Father feels when His Children are walking in Unity. He desires to reward that behavior and I think it also makes Him want to get down on the floor with us and join in the play. How about that for an image of our loving Father in Heaven.

Visionaries

Sunday morning I asked the people at Praise Fellowship to answer this question: If money were not an issue, what is your vision? What do you want to see God do?

We had people write their visions down on 3x5 cards in keeping in line with Habakkuk 2:2 "Write the vision down and make it plain on tables, That he may run who reads it...."

I just got done reading about 75 of the visions that some of our people wrote down. Wow!!!! I am hanging out with some amazing visionaries. There is such a hunger and desire to see God be who He says He is. This is indeed a season to dream. No matter how great our plans are, God's are bigger. He has the audacity to desire that the "whole earth be filled with His Glory." :-)

So, my encouragement to you is to dream dreams that God has put on your heart. Share them with other people and then take action as He leads.

Why not here, why not now, why not us?

I love the Fall

There is something about the amazing Autumn season that we enjoy in northwestern, PA. Now mind you, it also means a lot of work as seemingly millions of leaves fall. But as long as you have a couple kids nothing is really work. Pretty much everything's a game and everything is fun. Maybe we should learn a lesson from them and have a great attitude toward whatever it is that we have to do. Enjoy the pics of Zachary and Jason working/playing in the leaves at Nani's house. She is my grandmother.

School Buildings?

Right now in Warren County there is a huge battle about consolidating schools. We currently have 4 high schools and there are proposals to either move to two or three. If you know anything about small towns, this is a passionately debated issue that dominates our local paper. In response to this debate I write the following:

For those of you passionately trying to save school buildings, I commend you. However, let me suggest you are fighting the wrong battle. Schools are a symptom of a community at large. Consolidation is only an issue because enrollment and cost are issues. Enrollment is an issue because of population decrease. Population decrease is caused by lack of jobs and dare I say, a lack of love and vision for a region. Let me encourage all of us to put our energy into making Warren County a much more desirable place. Catch a vision for the county that looks beyond a 1976 mentality. Work hard to speak and think well about our area. (Would you want to move to a city where everyone was against everything?) Love our region. Love the people of our region. Do anything we can to encourage growth, businesses and development in Warren. And then watch the school situation take care of itself.

A big family

I have been a part of Praise Fellowship since it began in 1993. I have to say that one of my favorite things that God has done over those years is create a family atmosphere where people genuinely love each other and care about each other's needs. I saw that truly come to life on Sunday morning. There was such a strong sense of Jesus "baptizing" us with His Love it was remarkable. And then the natural response to the Love of Jesus is to love His Body.

I John 4:12 says, "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." May we be a people completely dominated by His love for us and our love for one another. It makes for a very good life and it is ridiculously contagious.

And by the way, I love the Family at PF. You are truly the best sample of the Body of Christ that I would ever want to be involved with. I am so excited about the journey God has for us.

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