If you are a fan of Benny Hinn, sorry...

If not, lol i got to tell you, i can't get enough of this, lol.

Good things...

Things as so good now, and i just can't complain. I say this because God is teaching me to live a life of contentment. This week we re concluding our sermon series on Philippians titled "The Life You Were Meant To Live" and i am working on chapter 4, which is about how Paul challenges us to be content and joyful always. It made me think about my own life, and how much i long for the "better things" in life. I dont mean tropical vacations or expensive cars, but i just mean better situations. Like to live in a world where those around me can just get along or for a life with no monthly payments (haha, YEAH). But instead i need to understand that i am unbelievably blessed, so i thought i would list some really good areas where God has blessed my life.

One thing lately that God blessed me with was with an awesome church. Our leaders at South Side car so much about Jesus. They really do. Change comes easy to them because they understand that to reach people for Christ you have to do whatever it takes. This involves taking a chance on a goofball like me, starting a ministry like the contemporary service/small groups, and having a great youth program led by a very mature, seasoned and called minister (Dave Plumley)

Speaking of Dave South Side has an amazing staff. Ray is the most ridiculously intelligent man i have ever met (seriously, ask him ANYTHING) and Danny has a grasp of relating to people that i only hope to attain someday. Plus South Side has such a great and supportive community of believers that it just makes getting out of bed worth it most days.

Another huge blessing is my family. I LOVE my family. My daughter is the most hilarious combination of Emily and I, and she is getting so old is is almost scary. My wife is a picture of God's grace to me because just like Grace, i don't deserve Emily for how often i mess up, but she loves me anyway. More about them on a later post, or well, most of my posts.

Also i must mention the blessing of my college friends. I got to go to a wedding this past weekend and catch up with a group of people that i love more than life itself. We can not speak for 2 years at a time and then instantly its like we never were separated. That group of people represents everything that is holy about me, and i will never, ever completely lose touch with them (Lord Willing).

Another is a recent one, you may have saw the picture at the top of the page and thought that the post was a review of Fireproof, well its not, but if it was it would be a long one. I saw this movie with a group from our church last night and i LOVED IT. I cried like 3 times, and identified completely with the lead character. Small budget, yes, but amazing film nonetheless. Every actor did this movie for free, but it gave me so much to think about as far as how i treat Emily, and i hope i grown from it.

so that is a list of just a few of my blessings, what are some of yours?

Favorite new internet video

I couldn't endorse this more. LOL

Politics, oh boy..

Politics in No Time @ Yahoo! Video

Do we really have to vote?

Oh, How I love Kirk

The very mention of the name Kirk Cameron sparks opinion these days. A great deal of Hollywood liberal types can't stand him for his views, many Christians aren't fans of him because they think the product he puts out (Way of the Master, Left Behind, etc.) there today is sub-par (i strongly disagree) but also many people of faith simply love the man, and i am one of them.

Many will also get visions of Mike Seaver when they hear his name, and also many who have seen the new film FIREPROOF will instantly give a film review when his name is uttered, but for me, when i think of Kirk, i simply think, authentic.

He wasnt like most child stars. He was HUGE when Growing Pains was on, and then suddenly, one day he noticed a need for knowledge of the TRUTH in the world. So he found Jesus and CHOSE to give up the A-List Hollywood life. Now he is nothing but contraversial because he never seems to stop ministering, or stop sharing what he stands for. He is still an amazing actor, and I only wonder what he would be today if he had not chose to leave the mainstream.

Here are two interviews he did recently, one on The View, the other on Good Morning America. Watch and enjoy,

Monday morning weekend recap

I have to say that i just came off one of the best weekends of my life. It was just, wonderful. I guess the reason being for that can be summed up into one word, love.

On thursday night i picked up Gretchen from her sitters around 4:30pm and then gave her dinner/played until it was time for Em to come home, and (like every night) as soon as Em got home i had just enough time to give her a kiss and go do the Pastor thing. That night i went to teach one of our small groups. It is actaully one of my favorite to hang out with. Our topic was mothers, and how God is so much like a mother to us, with his compassion, caring and nuturing nature. It is an interesting study because we don't often see God with female characteristics, but so often he will say things like "like a mother comforts a child so will i comfort you" and so many other things that make you understand how much God can be bother mother and father to us. It was a really good meeting, a little tears, laughing and alot of study/sharing.

Then when i got home from small groups my mom was there visiting with us, so i got to see her, and she made us chili, which was AMAZING. Then we watched the move "The Happening" which was a disappointment for me, but still better than alot out there.

Friday morning, we were leaving to go to Circle S Pumpkin Farm and Em was jumping around, acting goofy and twisted her ankle on the curb in front of our house. This was really funny actually, but i felt really bad for her. The more she sat down she felt it was okay, so we still went to the pumkin farm.

The pumpkin farm was easily one of the best times i have had, ever. We played in the hay barn for a long time, and Gretchen just loved it. She loved running in the deep hay, she loved going down the slides, she even loved falling down into the hay, and she just giggled and grinned the whole time. We also got to go to the Corn Maze, which was fun because we I kept running into the corn to try and make Gretchen giggle, Em would have too, but the ankle injury kind of kept her on the IR more of the day, my mom played a bit too though. We also went through the sunflower maze, G went through a hay maze, and we pet some animals and at homemade pumpkin doughnuts. It was more than a blast.

That night we went home, Gretchen just crashed most of the night and we watched some more movies. The next morning we planned to go the a KCU soccer game in Hillsboro, but Em had to go the the doctor to see if her ankle was sprained/twisted/broken. They checked her out and just wrapped her ankle and told her to stay off of it for a bit.

By the time we got out of the Dr.'s we had already missed our chance to see the soccer game, so my mom went home and Me/Em/Gretchen went to the Circleville Pumpkin Show. It was so huge!! I mean tons upon tons of people, and rides, vendors, games galor. Gretchen just loved people watching, much like her mommy and daddy, but we also go to taste pumpkin bugers and pumpkin ice cream. Both were delicious.

Then on Sunday we went to church and i got to preach twice. I think it went okay, i got the point across that i intended too, talking about Philippians Chapter 2, and how God is calling us to consider others better than ourselves, and our goal should be more to be a servant than a CEO. Had great conversations at church, and the praise team did an amazing job leading people in worship.

Overall, it was just a fantastic weekend. And it just got the chance to realize how much i love my wife and daughter, and how much i love my other family, our church. So thank you to everyone who was a part of this past weekend.

Love you,
Matt

The Bridge

Thank God I Didn't Do Something Like This

The Artist I am Gaa Gaa Over Right Now...

Jason Gray singing "Grace"

Lol, well, okay...

About yesterday's post, a few things.
Sorry for anyone who make be offended by my opinion of Southern Gospel, Michael W. Smith (okay, not that sorry for that one) or K-Love. I will admit, that it truly is an opinion that these are all poor quality art that we put up with within the church. And ONLY my opinion. The church is an imperfect, adulterous bride, and i am one of if not THE most imperfect of all of it. So for the one's who may not have enjoyed some of those remarks, sorry about that.
That is mostly the reason I rarely put actual thoughts of mine of my blog anymore, because it seems once i do, people get offended by some of it. But i mean no harm, no matter how it may look.

Another thing to mention is that I in no way, shape or form hate Christians. I am one, first and foremost in my life. We are the Bride of Christ, and for me to love Jesus and not love his bride is like loving my best friend by despising his wife, if i did that, he may not be my best friend anymore. I have issues with the American church, huge issues, but anyone who has heard me preach, hung out with me, or been in one of my classes fully well knows that. I would be more than happy to sit down with anyone and explain those things to them as well, because they are on my heart constantly.

I get so many comments about every post i do, but 99.9% of them go to my e-mail, not my actual blog, so if anyone has an issue, but doesnt want others to know they do, send me an e-mail or call me about it. My phone number is 740-606-7347, work 740-335-3107, e-mail hafe4osu@gmail.com. Can't really think of any other ways to contact me off the top of my head, but if i could, i would.

So in closing for today, i am sorry to all that took what i had to say in an offensive way, but i do thank those of you who sent encouragements as well, i meant no harm only hoped for maybe a cheap laugh or a discussion starter.

My bad,

Matt.

Reflections while sitting in the library...

Okay, so right now i am in the library here in Court House. I extremely love Tuesdays because this is my 'office but out of the office day" when i get to work on my sermon, but all the while being with people. It is an amazing thing to get to do because for some reason people always tend to strike up a conversation with the guy taking notes from a Bible, using commentaries, typing on his laptop and playing a combo of Shane & Shane, 33 Miles and Jason Gray a little too loud. So i get to meet people, just learn their story a bit, and then towards the end let them know that i am actually a pastor working on a sermon for that sunday (which thus far has surprised EVERYONE). I love Tuesdays. I actually has now finished my sermon for Sunday, although i am sure to change the end, because frankly, its weak and sort of sucks. But all in all, good day.

The reason i want to reflect on this situation is, there is a particular person in here that i think God may be leading me towards meeting, but i kind of don't want to because I borderline hate him, even before meeting him. See he is this kid who has a small little mustache, kind of Zorro thin (which is cool) and he is falling asleep on the couch (which, in context of the library, is also cool) but he is on head phones and listening to Gangsta Rap, and I am on the other side of the room, and can hear every word of it. I know God wants me to love this guy, he obviously does, but WOW he is driving me nuts. I know what Jesus would do, i think. I think he would most likely ask him what he is listening to, and then find a creaive way of using a parable involving Lil Wayne to teach him about what the Kingdom of God is like, but, well, I'm not yet Jesus. Before i leave i will at least say hey to him and ask him his name, but for now i will just take the typical way out and despise him.

Another thing of note, there is no better artist alive to me than Jason Gray. I have his new CD "Acoustic Storytime" on my iTunes, which i am using to drowned out Def Jam over there. His lyrics are 50 times more theological than anything on K-Love (did i mention K-Love sucks?) and the arrangements and vocals are soul stirring to say the least. If you are someone who likes good Christian music (not Michael W. Smith, i mean good music) download his tracks "Grace" and "This Far", you won't be let down at all.

I guess one more to reflect on would be that I think even now in my Christian walk i am more in tune with non-Christians than Christians. I have to admit it, Christian drive me bonkers. For a million reasons. They still sacrifice quality for the Christian culture, meaning they do "skits" that are horrible, enjoy and sing "music" that is horrible (i'm talking to you Southern Gospel guy) and speak their own language. Hanging out with non-Christians is like leaving a Comic Book convention and realizing you were a nerd for the past two days of your weekend. non-Christians are the Kingdom of God of tomorrow, they just haven't met Jesus yet. Hopefully we wont make them more like "us". Hopefully.

UPDATE:
Also, update, talked to the "Loud Rap Music Guy" cool guy actually, and he even turned down his music. Gave me a creepy five before he left and we talked Hip Hop for a minute. Turned out better than i thought it might.

Something nice on the news for once

"I was wanting to know, if you might, want to marry me"

A little too weathermanny, but still, nice.

I love being a daddy

New Sermon Series

Hey all you South Side fans, I have a little update for you. This coming sunday we will be starting a new sermon series titled "The Life You Were Meant To Live". It will cover the book of Philippians, chapter by chapter and will deal with some HUGE issues that we death with in this life.

You might be saying to yourself "so how do you know the life that I am meant to live?" well, i dont, but the Bible does, and the Apostle Paul devoted much of his writing towards how we should live.

I will be preaching every week of this series, so please come hang out with us as we discuss just what God intended for us when this whole thing started.

P.S. I am guaranteed to at LEAST once a week.

Huge bit of advice for anyone who is literate...

Go to a bookstore, library, friend, anyone you can and find a copy of "JESUS FOR PRESIDENT" and read it, cover to cover. It will not dissappoint.

Baptism over the internet

Is it possible for a pastor to baptize someone who is physically several hundred miles away?

Evidently one pastor thinks so. Rusty Hutson, the pastor of Cornerstone Methodist Church in Auburn, Alabama was in Granger, Indiana for the Innovate Conference last week. He believed it was important to baptize Cindy Wall via the internet so she wouldn't have to wait until they returned to town.

Five days later, Cindy died suddenly of an aortic aneurysm. I am guessing that Rusty and his team are grateful they listened to God, stepped out in an innovative move of faith, and conducted this baptism. I love their creativity and sensitivity to do the right thing. (Although i wonder why he didnt just have anyone at the pool do it, dah well)

Here is the clip. Its a little over 9 minutes, but you could stop it at about 6:20