transition number one.
i have officially resigned as minister to students and young single at first rosenberg. for the past 6 years i have been serving at my home church. that makes this transition so bittersweet. over the past month i have looked church members in the eyes and told them that i was confident God was calling me in a different direction. each time i did that, it was equally hard. it never got easier. but God gave me the grace to make it though. this sunday is the last time i will be in first baptist church rosenberg as a staff member. sad, but good.

transition number two.
this coming sunday, may 15th, at 2pm, my wife will be graduating form grad school. i cannot tell you how excited i am for her. this is such a huge accomplishment and i am very, very proud of her.

transition number three.
right now i am currently sitting in my office at crosspoint church in bellaire. this is where God has been leading kimb and i for the last couple of months. i have accepted a position as their student pastor and will start towards the end of may.

these three transitions have sent our lives into a whirlwind of emotions of the past couple months and now that i am close to the end…i can tell you that God is good. without him, there is no way that i would have been able to make it through these two months of transition.

i know what you are saying, and i know that we all have to have faith for salvation, for we are “saved by grace, through faith”.  but people with the gift of faith just have the ability to know that God is going to provide a way and they are not swayed.  Looking back…this is what God is molding me in to, and trust me, it is awesome.

but, there are just some of those days were i have a hard time believing it.

Today is one of those days.

and when i feel like this, it messes up the whole day.  it’s all i think about.  i can’t get away from it.  i feel useless.  i feel like i let down my wife because i am not being strong for her.

there is a little glimpse into the mind of joel.  thats what im dealing with today.  i dont like it, but im learning.

“Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called ‘walking’” – G.W.B.

“You might give some serious thought to thanking your lucky stars you’re in Texas” – Goode Co.

“Texas is a state of mind.  Texas is an obsession.  Above all, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word” – John Steinbeck

“I must say as to what I have seen of Texas, it is the garden spot of the world,  the best land and the best prospects for health I ever saw, and I do believe it is a fortune to any man to come here.” – Davy Crockett

“Texas is the finest portion of the globe that has blessed my vision” – Sam Houston

“Texas is neither southern nor western. Texas is Texas”- Senator William Blakley

God is good.

i was able to be on staff during the retirement of a beloved pastor who had been on staff here for 18 years.

I was able to be on staff during the 2 year interim period where the search for a new pastor took place. (hopefully these were the two hardest years of ministry that i will have for a long time)

since bro. zach has been on staff, multiple times he has said something along these lines, “joel, i need you for about an hour later.” at first i admit, i was nervous. it was almost like getting called into the principals office. now, when i hear those words, i grab my moleskin and get ready to take notes. it is an exciting time, because i know that the time im sitting in that office, i will be questioned, and encouraged; molded, served, and affirmed.

i’m grateful for these times. it is these times that help me get back on track and help me focus again on the ministry i have here at the church.

zach told me this today in our meeting…”when i arrived, you carried yourself like you were defeated. lift up your head, we are not defeated.”

i needed that conversation today. it was good. i’m looking forward to our staff retreat the next couple of days.

now i’m reading “the prodigal god” by tim keller. i just finished chapter 3 which was entitled “redefining sin”. towards the end of the chapter tim keller writes this in speaking of the second son…

why doesn’t he go into the party? the elder brother is not losing the father’s love in spite of his goodness, but because of it. it is not his sins that create the barrier between him and his father, it’s the pride he has in his moral record; it’s not his wrong doing but his righteousness that is keeping him from sharing in the feast with the father.

all of my life, this parable has been about the first son who basically tells his father that he wishes he was dead. “give me my share of the inheritance” he says! then he goes, and blows it all on reckless living. we all know the story. but i have never heard the fact that this parable is more about the second son.

luke points out in the first verse of chapter 15 that there were both tax collectors and sinners coming to jesus, and the pharisees and the scribes were already there. each of the sons relates to one of these groups. the first son, relates to the tax collectors and sinners. the second son, the elder, relates to the pharisees and scribes. jesus ends this parable with a cliff hanger. this has to be frustrating to the pharisees! im sure that by the end of this parable they have caught on to the fact that Jesus is talking about them. so by the end of the parable they see that God loves the first son (the tax collectors and sinners if you will) and accepts him back, but what about the other son? He is extended an invitation, but we don’t know if he goes in. his pride is holding him back. he has done all he could to do “earn” the fathers love. “Look, these many years i have served you, and i never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat…” (Lk. 15:29). One thing that has escaped him though is that he has had the love of the father the entire time, “son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” (Lk. 15:31)!

looking at what keller writes, i am reminded of all the times that i try to put my “moralism” as the goal of my salvation. many times i think that jesus died on the cross so i could be “good”, or so i could “behave”. i constantly have to remind myself that jesus died that brutal death so i could have Him, so that i could be restored to a right relationship with God the father.

so this week i am trying to focus on the fact that Jesus is my righteousness, because my personal attempts at righteousness are like filthy rags to God.

I have been invited to the feast. There is a table with a place set just for me. I just need to go in and take a seat.

we had planned that evening to have the usual friends over to go to grimaldi’s pizza but because of the frozen roads we postponed the festivities until saturday night. i cannot tell you how glad i am to have a good core group of friends. there is never a dull time with them.

sunday morning, our pastor talked about giving thanks to god for everything. i love our new pastor here at the church and think that he is an excellent fit for our church, but the thing i enjoy the most is how often he encourages us as a staff and us as a church to stop and give thanks. so i have made it a point simply to stop more often and give thanks. doing this constantly reminds me of the sovereignty of God. every breath i have is because he decides to give it to me. every word i speak is because he decides to let me speak. every thing i have, i have because he has so graciously given it.

im convinced that if we all start to think this way more, we will be better off.

Much of the time, church work is focused on the next thing. Well, work in general is usually always focused on the next thing. The next goal. The next event. But looking at the Old Testament, God often tells his people to stop and remember what He had done, the blessings He had given.

So tonight at church, we stopped. We stopped and looked back at the blessings of God throughout the month of January. We celebrated birthdays and thanked God for life. We celebrated anniversaries and thanked God for love. We celebrated salvations and new church members and we had a time of prayer for our children.

I needed tonight. Life is a little stressful for me right now and sometimes it seems like I’m moving at 1000 mph. I needed to stop and look back. I needed to say thanks. I needed to realize that even when I’m moving along and forgetting to look around, God is moving. He is doing something.

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

there are certain times in our lives that we can only rely on grace. times where we need grace, and times where we need to give grace. there have been multiple events in my life in the last few months that have caused me to only rely on the grace i have been given. the actions of others have disappointed me, but the weirdest thing is that my natural response in each circumstance has been grace instead of anger or frustration.

the only reason for this is that i have started recently to really understand the grace that i have been given. though i am disappointed in the actions of others i have been able to see that every single day, i disappoint a perfect and holy God.

as Christians, i think that it is very important to show grace to other believers. it can be very easy to paint ourselves at “better” than others but if we cannot show grace to another brother or sister in Christ, why would someone outside of the body of Christ believe that we could show grace to them? I have realized through these events the amazing things that grace can do.

I have seen first hand the freedom that grace brings. I have seen that when grace is given, there is liberation and that those who are given the grace, get a glimpse of what love really is. The moment when that love is realized, it is such a great sight.

I read this passage of scripture earlier today. 1 Corinthians 12:9. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” In this passage Jesus is responding to Pauls request to remove this “thorn” that he has been given. We need to realize that for most of us, there are certain things that we just always struggle with. There are certain sins that have a hold of us and just wont let go. The great thing about Jesus is that he says that in these circumstances, His grace is enough. Though we are weak in these areas, He will prove to be strong.

So in these circumstances from the last few months i can see that i, as well as these individuals, have thorns. but the great thing about it is that grace has proven to be enough. Grace has been a relationship builder. Grace has been the tool used to show the love of Christ to one another.

I love the fact that grace has been my natural reaction in all of these circumstances. When people disappoint me, grace is our common bond and that common bond quickly makes the disappointment disappear.

may you realize that none of us are to far gone to receive grace. may you realize that God’s grace is sufficient for you.