Pastor Joe, How do we figure out exactly what God's will is for our lives?

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.

Trust God and do all you need to do and He will point you in the right direction. He doesn't always show us where we are going, but he always shows us the path or direction. Continue to seek God and you will end up where you need to go :)

Ask me anything

This morning was talking about the laws & grace of God. I understand the laws, but how do u explain the grace part. I'm kinda glad I dont know about having the grace so that I am not one of those who say I have the grace I dont have to tithe

Gods grace is a hard thing to understand because it is so different than human grace. One concept I understand about God is that when He gives us grace its so that we can become something greater. This is not a conditional grace, He doesn't give us grace when we become something greater. If God gives you grace he is giving you the freedom to make better choices and be the person you should be in Him.

Ask me anything

I Will Run

Pray for my family please. They fight ALL the time. I'm 13 and it really upsets me.

I will pray for peace in your family.

The Bible says " Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. Philippians 4:6-7 (MSG)

Know that with God, in the middle of the storm you can still feel peace.

Ask me anything

Is you being a youth pastor a stepping stone for another calling, or is this it?

God didn't call me to be a youth pastor, He called me to serve Him. I have no clue what shape that will take. I will gladly do what ever he wants me to do :)

Ask me anything

had a bad day? good for you

So I must say the last 10 days have been extremely challenging for me. As some of you may know I have struggled with clinical depression for much of my life. Depression has such a stigma attached to it but in actuality it is nothing more than low levels of certain brain chemicals. It can be triggered by stress, weather,sickness, or like in my current case nothing at all. Some of you may think "Pastor Joe, don't you have the joy of the Lord" Heck yeah I do! but that doesn't mean you wont go through things mentally, emotionally, or physically from time to time. I am happy that I am depressed.(paradox...I know)

I often tell people to stop running from the things that threaten to destroy them (sickness,sadness,shame,pain, fear,all the bad stuff) things can't chase you unless you are running from them. We must stop running, turn around and stand up to the things that threaten us. When you stand up to bullies you take away there power! I don't have to run from my depression, my depression has to run from me.

I could spend my days suffering from depression but I've decided that my depression will suffer instead. listen people, we are constantly asking God for strength and then wine and complain when he gives us opportunity to prove the strength that he has given us. How do you know you have more strength unless its tested by something heavy.

Is my life darker than usual? yes, so I gotta shine brighter. Does it feel like hard work just to crack a smile? Yes, so I gotta work harder. I am grateful that the Lord sees so much potential in me that he would trust me with this training. Training? yes training. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Heb 12:10-11 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. You may think this only applies to when we are in the wrong... not so. We get the word discipline from the ancient Greek word paideuo this simply means to correct, educate,and nurture. Do you remember how your favorite coach or teacher would push you to do hard things so that your full potential would be realized. thats what the Lord does in our lives. The end of this passage states that the process is not pleasant, as a matter of fact it is painful. but later, if you learn from it, you will harvest righteousness and peace. According to this passage the Lord does this so that I may share in His holiness!!!

Maybe you never realized this but God uses the most challenging things in our life to make us more like Him. He,Just like your favorite coach or teacher, will constantly push us to higher levels of greatness.

So again, I'm glad I'm depressed. This depression is giving me an opportunity to test out the strength the Lord has blessed me with...Oh, and by the way, I'm doing alright (for being miserable at least). When I felt like this years ago I was constantly thinking about suicide. now, I'm thinking about what new victories lie around the corner. So I will continue to force a smile knowing that an authentic one is on its way :-)

In closing I say this. In God our worst days allow us to make our best days.

The bible says there will be no tears or heartache in heaven...but most of us will have friends and family who don't make it to heaven. How are we supposed to rejoice in that?

Perspective is an interesting thing...I would imagine we would be at peace with the situation because of the perspective we are viewing it from.

Lets be specific In Revelations 21:1-4 the Bible shows how we will be united with the Lord in the new heaven and earth. verse 4 then says:

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

It appears that If they are tears they will be wiped away once and for all never to return.

This is where perspective comes in. If God is all powerful, why wouldn't he have the power to comfort us over our lost loved ones. We would no longer be in the natural world with natural emotions the old order has passed away :)

Ask me anything