Thursday, April 22, 2010

04/21/2010 - Let Your Light Shine - Part 1

Last night, at prayer meeting, Marj told me that she was listening to Joyce Meyer yesterday and was interested to hear that she was preaching along the similar lines that we have been at LPC for the past few months.

So I listened to her this morning online (while i was "working out..." woo) IT IS VERY WORTH YOUR TIME TO LISTEN to this message (over two days). You can find it here!

Listen a be encouraged, blessed, convicted and MOTIVATED!

-PK

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

NEW SONG for Sunday

Hey everyone...
Laura is going to be teaching us this new song on Sunday " Lord I Give You Me".
Verse 1:
Lord I give you me, I give you my all
I hold nothing back, I'm answering your call
Though I live or die, your glory is my life
My royal destiny

Verse 2:
Lord I give you me, it may not look like much
I know that I need changed, I know I need your touch
So take me as I am, mold me in your plan
That's where I want to be

Verse 3:
Lord I give you me, I give you my all
I worship you in life, and I worship you in death
I lay down my heart, It's all I have to give
As long as I live


Watch it here on you tube.

Blessings!

Monday, April 19, 2010

MORE MISSIONAL LEARNING

Hello everyone...
I am going to post different links and video's that relate to the the direction we have been going in our sermon series.

Watch it and please feel free to comment...
-PK

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

10 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Was 21

Here is an article by Mark Rutland (the president of Oral Roberts University and author of 13 books. He also leads a missions and church-planting organization, Global Servant). Please let me know what you think? Comment ok?
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You might think you're smart when you get out of college, but I suggest that the real education is only just the beginning.
In an Amish kitchen in Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, in the heart of Dutch country, I saw a sign I’ll never forget: “Too soon old, too late smart.” When I saw it, I thought it was memorable but hardly meaningful. I was 21. Now the words are meaningful, but I can barely remember the farmhouse. I am 62.

Sometimes I have the fantasy that I will sit up on my deathbed and cry out, “Oh, I get it,” and lie down again and die. The Amish have it right.

Recently a friend said he wished he were 21 again. The thought held little interest for me, but he made an intriguing counteroffer: What if you could be 21 and know what you know now?

That held more allure, but it begged a question: What, if anything, do I now know that I wish I had known at 21?

I came up with 10 things, none of which I think I would have placed on my priority list at age 21.

1. Inner healing is greater than outward success. It is probably impossible to arrive at 21, let alone 62, without wounds in the inner person—deep wounds that need God’s healing grace. The more I see of inner healing and the more I face up to my own inner wounds, the more I wish I had let Messiah touch my deepest hurts earlier in life. That childhood hurt, that hidden outrage, that long-suppressed horrific memory can lurk like a monster in the basement waiting for years, even decades, to rise and wreak havoc.

Hiding the monster, denying that it’s down there, is a dangerous game. The temptation is to create an alternative reality where success and accomplishment and appearances seem so very real and the monster but a mirage. If I were 21 again I would bore down into the inner world of me and find Christ’s healing touch in the darkness under the floorboards.


2. Mercy is greater than justice. I have found that many in the church want the wayward to “get what’s coming to them.” Too often, there is a shortage of mercy among the followers of Christ, who blessed the merciful in His most famous message, the Sermon on the Mount. Were I 21 again, I would learn and practice mercy, knowing that later I would need it.

Churches, boards, denominations and individual believers who hanker for justice when a colleague stumbles may be planting for a bitter harvest. They gloat over the sins of others, humiliate the fallen and demand their administrative pound of flesh.

Competitiveness and legalism are the death of mercy. Mercy makes love real, acceptance and understanding a practice, and tenderness a way of life.


3. Kindness is better than being right. Just before my friend Jamie Buckingham died, I asked him for a word of wisdom. He said, “It is better to be kind than to be right.”

At 21, I advocated my positions too aggressively. I argued with an eye toward winning, unconcerned about the heart of my “adversary,” who may not have been adversarial at all. I made debate a contact sport. In preaching I let the bad dog off the chain, to the applause of the gallery.

Should time travel be mine and were I to be back in the land of 21, I would be kinder and less concerned with being right. Too many young adults give little thought to kindness.

They Twitter hurtful words like poisonous birds. Their humor is mocking, acidic and unkind. And they are more concerned with being thought clever than with being kind. The value of gentleness has declined on the world market; if I were 21 again I would wish to know the worth of a kind word.

4. Serving is better than being served. Encircled by their entourages, the “success” merchants of modern Christianity place high dividends on being catered to. When I was a pastor, the church I led invited a singing group to come minister. Their list of special demands, including a particular type of orange cut into equal fourths (I kid you not), was five pages long. We canceled.

I wish I had known at 21 how hollow is all that outward stuff. I wish I had known that caring, not being cared for, is what Christ had in mind.

I wish I had changed more diapers instead of leaving that to my wife. I wish I had served more meals, carried more bags, held more doors and lightened more burdens.

5. Brokenness is the doorway to wholeness. This mysterious paradox was hidden from me at 21. I feared brokenness. I ran from it, and when it got too close fought it off with all my might.

If I had but known brokenness was the key to my healing, it would have lifted such fear from me. I thought it would maim me at least and maybe even kill me. Now I know that there is very little real wholeness that does not emerge from real brokenness.


6. Truth is liberating and devastating. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” My friend Jamie tacked on, “But first it will make you miserable.”

How true. There is a phrase popular among many young adults that I quite like despite my usual distaste for pop jingoes. It is, “Keep it real.” I am not sure of all that is meant by it, but I know what I mean by it.

I wish I had known not to fear the truth about myself. I wish I had known that the temporary misery of the truth was worth going through to find the freedom that it brings.

7. Learning is greater than education. I am a university president, and Oral Roberts University (ORU) is a great university. I am not saying that higher education is unimportant. What I am saying is, I hated getting educated.

At 21, I was a miserable college senior. I was a miserable student from the first grade right through high school and on through three degrees. I was miserable because I did not understand the connection between education and learning.

If I were 21 again, I would still go to college. But this time I would go to learn not just to graduate. I would unleash my curiosity, embrace the process, worry less about my grades and enjoy learning.

How strange that I love to learn at the age I am now. I read voraciously—any subject. I want to know, to understand, to go deeper. If I were 21 again I would take that to college.

8. Giving is sweeter than gaining. I believe in the laws of the harvest. If there is any place in the world that understands “seed faith” it is ORU. Seed faith is not a new idea to me. I believed it at 21. I practiced it and am blessed today because it is real.

Yet I wish that at 21 I had known the sheer joy of giving. I know God will bless us when we give, and sometimes we have made this merely a method to gain. I wish I had realized the joy of generosity. I would have given more and delighted more in the good that giving does and less in the returns it provides.

9. Forgiveness doesn’t fix everything. Not the happiest truth I wish I had known, but it’s among the most sobering. Had I known this I might have been less callous, less reckless and more mindful of the cost.

There are things, relationships and hearts that once broken cannot be fully “fixed” by forgiveness. The wound, the uncaring and insensitive word—they may be forgiven, but the damage from them may never quite be right again.

When I was 21 I just wanted to be forgiven. I wish I had known to do less damage.

10. Prayer is more powerful than persuasion. In all of life, at every age, conflict is an inescapable reality. I wish I had known younger that in conflict and crisis talking to God works better than talking to people. At 21, due perhaps to youthful arrogance, I thought that I could talk my way through everything.

Self-sufficiency, a dangerous habit, breeds prayerlessness. The older I get I find that crisis drives me faster to my knees and more slowly to the phone.

I have seen God turn hearts around, change organizations and melt opposition by prayer alone—when no persuasive speech could have made a difference. If I were 21 again, I would spend more time talking with God and less (far less) persuading others to do what I want.

I wish I had known more than I did at 21. I might have considered one or two of these truths, but I doubt I would have fully appreciated their value.

I do not think I want to be 21 again. But if I had to, if some evil genie made me go back and live it all over, then these are the things I would want to know and the things I would want to believe.

Read more click: http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/component/content/article/1078-features/26518-10-things-i-wish-id-known-when-i-was-21#ixzz0l6x6cjl5

TOM's Shoes

Here is some information on Tom's shoes that I talked about on Sunday April 11th/10.
Find it here!
-PK

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Sweetly Broken

Listen and learned a new song tonight by Jeremy Riddle called Sweetly Broken. Listen to it on you tube here.

What do you think???
-PK


Jeremy Riddle - Sweetly Broken
From the album Sweetly Broken

To the cross I look, to the cross I cling
Of its suffering I do drink
Of its work I do sing

For on it my Savior both bruised and crushed
Showed that God is love
And God is just

Chorus:
At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

What a priceless gift, undeserved life
Have I been given
Through Christ crucified

You’ve called me out of death
You’ve called me into life
And I was under Your wrath
Now through the cross I’m reconciled

Chorus:

In awe of the cross I must confess
How wondrous Your redeeming love and
How great is Your faithfulness

(2x’s)
Chorus:

Label: Vineyard Music

Thursday, April 08, 2010

“…And Thy Household”

Here is my lastest Ministerial Message for the local paper.  I hope you enjoy it.



Often, in past ministerial messages, I have told Biblical stories of people who really lived, thousands of years ago.  I like those true life stories because some of the best lessons we can learn can be learned through the lives of others.  Learning from others is not restricted to just Biblical people.  One of the best teachers in life I had, was my Grandfather, Albert Pariseau.  This past week he slipped into eternity.  I loved him dearly and I want to honor him today by telling you a little about this godly, wonderful man.  Albert, or Bert, as he was known, was always a giant of a man to me.  Not only in stature, as he was over 6’ 4” tall, but also in personality.  In trying to describe him on paper it seems almost impossible, but I will tell you a few things about his life that affected me deeply. One would be his commitment to integrity.  My Grandfather was of the generation that promises were made to be kept, that freedom and country is literally worth dying for, that life is what you make of it, so do the work to make it good.  For example, Albert went to war in the 1940s when he was just a kid.  He left his new bride and went to Europe as part of the national Canadian marching band and played in marches and parades and for troops in battle.  He was there to encourage and refresh the soldiers and he walked and played carrying a double Bb bass for THOUSANDS of kilometers in all weather.  I never ever heard him complain about doing that for his country. For him it was an honor.  His personal integrity and honesty were never doubted by anyone I knew.  He worked in a garage for his father-in-law when he came back to Canada, and raised a family in Winnipeg in the house he still owns today.  He never had lots of money, but was always quick to spend it on us as grandkids.  He married His wife Mae, almost 70 years ago, and never stopped loving her dearly.  I mean it… he loved her with a love that was unceasing.  He would always say to us whenever we got together and always out of the blue, “you kids have got the greatest grandmother in the world” and he meant it every time.  He also kept his lifelong commitment to love and serve the Lord with His whole heart.  I often remember getting up early when we came to visit them and finding him in his favorite chair reading the scripture and praying for his family and friends.  His favorite verse that he would quote often to me was from Acts 16: 31 "And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved… and thy household".  He pleaded to the Lord for His family because he knew that God answers prayer.   He was a godly man who loved and honored the Lord with his whole life.  He left me a legacy of great integrity.  My Grandfather was also an artist and musician.  I could really go on about this. His love for music and concert bands never left and he played a horn up to just a few years ago in a local band. He also was a painter and had many oil paintings to his credit.  The artist in him, made him so creative.  One day at the cottage, which he built from the ground up, he found a piece of drift wood.  He painted it green and put eyes on it and mounted it at the entrance of his property as a sea monster.  The funny thing was that next to it was a chair he built out of old wagon wheels and from a distance the two together looked like a cannon!  He was given a hard time about that as it concerned a few of his neighbors.  He laughed a lot about it.  I guess that would be last thing I would tell you about would be his joyful heart.  He loved to laugh and laughed easily. He would tell the same jokes over and over and laugh as hard as if he had never heard them before.  His joyful heart was also directed to us as grandkids… he could not wait to have them come close and hug us and then off we would go to play games.  As I got older, he knew I loved to eat, as every teen does, so he would ALWAYS take me to these greasy spoon restaurants.  He had several that he loved…with  huge portions and lots of onions. What great fun it was to have him close!
You know, we all are teaching and leaving a legacy everyday we live that others are learning from.  What is your legacy that you are creating?  What lessons are you leaving your friends, your kids and grandkids?    Are you teaching them that a commitment to integrity, to promise keeping, to selflessness, to following God… that these things are of GREAT value?  Our lives are a great gift that God has given us.   The good news of Christ is that even if we have made a mess of what we have been given up to now, God is able to give you a new start and you can begin creating a NEW legacy that will be a blessing.  God loves to do that.  He is the God of fresh starts as Easter reminds us.   I am thankful that grandpa chose to leave me with such an amazing legacy. I hope we can do the same for those following us.  Albert “Bert” Pariseau, Deceased April 6th/10.  He was 89 years old.