MetroMonk

Nothing is worse than sitting through a long-winded sermon. It's agony. It's labor. I prefer my sermons (that I'm sitting through) to be short and concise. If the sermon breaks the 20min. marker then consider me tuned out. I get twitchy at 15min, but at 20....chances are my attention has left the building. Get to the point! I am a tweeter [If you don't know what that is then at this moment just go ahead and click to another site. Thanks for stopping by], and I am not the only one. There are currently  500 million  Twitter users. I could go on and on with statistics on the very large numbers of people on social media. I'm sure you get that already. If you don't, just do a web search on "social media by the numbers" or something like that. You'll find all kinds of stuff.  The numbers are huge. So preachers, my encouragement to you is to take advantage of this. I don't know any preacher who thinks their words aren't worth a darn liste...

This is a picture of grass with weeds in it. That's crabgrass in the picture. This isn't a picture from my lawn, but my yard does have weeds in it. Some weeds more easily removed than others. Crabgrass is fairly easy to kill off, but some put up a great fight to stay alive. My yard has has the fighting kind. My North Carolina lawn has wonderful fescue with some bermuda sprinkles around randomly and fighting weeds. I don't know what kind they are...I'm still learning my NC "weedology." My life right now is like my lawn, it has weeds. The fighting kind.   So let me get real and make a transition from a real tangible example to a more spiritually one. Let's call my "weeds" sin. No, scratch that. My weeds are more like demons- spiritual demons. They don't leave me alone. They always call out and persecute me. It's very much like hearing voices, but there is another I hear too. That other voice is the voice of Christ. I am always hea...

Scripture this week includes: Acts 9:36-43 Ps. 23 Rev. 7:9-17 Jn. 10:22-30 May the peace our Lord be with you.

May the peace of The Lord be with you.

Empty Space by  Ann Hamilton Can God meet you in the wilderness? Is God out in the desert places? Does God even prepare a table in the wilderness? Sure, maybe, I just never want to wait around long enough to find out. “The Desert” for the the Christian used to mean a literal desert, like the desert where the ancient Hebrew people had to wander.  Today, “desert” has taken on a more figurative meaning. What does a “spiritual desert” mean to you? I know that there are different meanings and interpretations for every single person out there. Sometimes “a desert place” can mean a time period of waiting, other times a literal geographic place of unfamiliarity, even other times it can mean a feeling of being lost - having no idea where to go or how to survive. I can relate to all of those scenarios. I feel like I’m in a desert now, but this time it’s different. It’s longer; it feels more intense; I have no direction, no support; I feel totally alone with no clue how to get ou...

Image not my own I don't know if being drunk makes life better. There are a lot of people that believe this. Being drunk can certainly make a night more fun, but it can also ruin things. I know there are a lot of recovering substance abusers who would agree that the above image is a lie. Read today's scripture: Luke 21:25-36 2 Peter 3:10-13 There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars. On the earth, there will be dismay among the nations in their confusion over the roaring of the sea and surging waves. The planets and other heavenly bodies will be shaken, causing people to faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world. Then they will see the Human One coming on a cloud with power and great splendor. Now when these things happen, stand up straight and raise your heads because your redemption is near. Jesus told them a parable. "Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that ...

Father help me,   I'm torn,     So torn, The beauty of this world   & You. Hopeless wanderer,   I'm a hopeless wanderer, But you know this,   You know,     You know me. You know all of me,   Father of lights     you know me. I love that,   It's freeing. I don't want anyone to see,   but with you it's different. I feel you,   you fill me.     Fill me more.     Fill me again.     Fill me.     Fill me up. Turn my loneliness to solitude,   My hostility to hospitality, Set my ever wandering eyes   to a gaze, Turn my curiosity to contentment, Turn my usefulness to useful. I have gifts too, I have value too, I have worth, Lord help me,   Use me,     Help. You are the Lord, You are the Lord- Amen! Tweet

Sometimes, just sometimes we are still enough to hear, to listen. What has the Lord spoken to you about lately? I encourage you next time that you are praying and spending devoted time to God, listen and stop in your petitions/requests. The Lord will speak. Listening prayer changes everything. May the peace of the Lord be with you.

My son started kindergarten today. He is my oldest, and today, like most kids, he started school. He was so excited today (what a blessing for me), but there is also some apprehension within me. I believe it's natural for that fear to be there. Will he be ok? Will other kids be nice? Will he be bullied? Will he be scared? Will he get embarrassed? There are so many things that could happen, BUUUTTT , I can't really let that fear control me. I must breathe. Inhale. Exhale.  Today my son starts a new school in a new place that we just moved to 3 weeks ago. Getting here (to NC) has been quite the faith journey and story. The Lord has been with us the whole way- in big ways and little. I believe he's with my son as well as the rest of the children in school. He's with all of us. He's near, so very near. I was thinking, shortly after I dropped him off, about some of the great ironies of parenting. For instance, the first 0-6 years of life for a child are...

Sometimes faith makes no sense. At the same time, faith doesn't always transcend experience and reason. God is reasonable, and sometimes, he is not. Right? It is definitely true that the Lord speaks to use through common sense and knowledge, but what happens when what you feel and hear make no logical sense?  This is what has been happening to me and my family. But this post isn't about trying to make sense of it or trying to explain faith- this post is about my decision to LIVE OUT LOUD.  When we began this journey to move I really didn't want to tell anyone. I just wanted to head out at the 11th hour and tell people once I had everything all figured out, but nothing went according to my plan. Looking back on it, I suppose the Lord did answer my prayer and have his way. People found out. Everyone found out it seemed. Random people my wife and I never really talked to came up to us and said, "so I hear you're moving." We were surprised at how fast the ...