The Thoughts of a Young Preacher

I would like to introduce you to a good friend of mine. His name is Alan Loomis and he is a 13 year old boy. I first met Alan when I started my first ministry position in Billings, Montana. The church needed a teacher for the Junior high kids on Wed night and I had some experience in that area from my youth ministry days so I jumped at the chance. Little did I know that I would meet someone that would change my life forever. Alan is really one of those special kids. Anyone that has ever taught no matter whether it is in the school system or in the Bible class knows that you naturally pick your favorites. I try not to do this and yet I can't help it. Alan was always kind to the other kids. Here always was thrilled to be in Bible class and always was ready to answer the questions. He never seemed to be swayed by the crowd and this impressed me. I think my favorite thing about Alan is his big smile. He always has this huge smile on his face. In late Jan of 2005 Alan got really sick and after some testing the doctors discovered that Alan had a very rare form of Leukemia. The call it A.L.L. with the Philadelphia Chromosome,If you don't know what that means just know that is a very rare form of blood cancer that mutates and makes it very difficult to treat. As you can imagine this is very tough on Alan and his family. They are all really great Christian people. So today on this blog I wanted to share with you a couple of their journal entries about their experiences with reveals their faith as well as the struggle to make it through this tough time.

The first journal entry:
Thursday, March 19, 2005 9:37 AM CST
This is to let you all know where we have been and are hoping to go from here. First Alan was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) with the Philadelphia Chromosome on Jan 31 2005. Todd, Alan and I left for the Denver Childrens Hospital on Feb 1 2005. He was in the hospital till Feb 8. He had a central line put in for all the chemo and blood draws to come
from. He had a bone marrow tap and a spinal tap. He started his first round of chemo on Feb 4. Then we returned home and on Feb 11 he had more chemo in Billings. Feb 18 he had more. On Feb 22 he was admitted to the hospital because his liver was not working right. He stayed till Feb 26 then on March 3 Todd, Alan and I went to Denver again. Todd, Makayla and I were being tested to see if one of us could be a bone marrow donor. None of us matched. It is rare for children to get the Philadelphia Chromosome and also for it to be (ALL). Anyway he is now waiting to start the next phase which will start out by being in the hospital in Billings for five days and then a shot an medicine for the next three weeks. We get the plan only weeks at a time. His liver level is still to high to start the next phase so we are hoping that on Monday March 21 it will be down and he can continue on with the next step. We do what to thank everyone for everything. It does make it easier. He has a great spirit and he is very positive! As we know more I will let you all know. Thanks for all the cards! WE LOVE THEM!


The most recent journal entry:
Monday, February 27, 2006 2:55 PM CST
Hello,
Well Alan is finally feeling good. He still gets sick everynight. We may have to try to change the time of his medicine again. It seems that we have to move it around to keep him from getting so sick. He was able to help Todd at the show they had this weekend. He had a great time! He was also able to attend worship. He went to school today for the morning classes. He had a great time! He is doing a math test tomorrow afternoon. We are going to ride ATV's this afternoon. It is so nice here we wanted to do something before he starts again. His counts are up enough that he will start the next round of chemo on Wed. It is early we have the surgery at 8:00 and then check in to St. Vincent after that. This one is a five day treatment. We only have five more to go. We are counting down the time. Hope you all have a great week. We love you all.
Love, Tammy


I would like to ask that you pray for Alan. Lift his name up to the Lord. I know that God can heal anyone! I believe that with all of my heart and I ask that you pray for Alan today! Instead of leaving comments on this post, I ask that you go to Alan's website. There is a place on there where you can sign his guestbook. It doesn't matter if you don't know he just tell him who you are and let him know that you will be praying for him. This really encourages him.

Click here for Alan's website!

Thanks so much for doing this!

Ok well I am not exactly down I am just a little thrown off. I was gone for 5 days because of a death in our family and it has really thrown me off. I am becoming aware that I really am a planner and I tend to enjoy structure more and more. Each month I try to plan the topics for my sermons for the next month. They are not set in stone and I change them often but I like to have a common thread throughout my sermons each month. So any ideas? Any sermons that you would like to hear preached?? I am excited about a Youth rally that is coming up this weekend. Our church is growing and along with that our youth group is growing. We have Van full of teen that will be going to Baton Rouge this weekend and Ruth and I are looking forward to taking them. Now after telling you how much I like planning and structure I must also admit that one thing I love about ministry is that it is so different everyday. I rarely have a day where someone new and unexpected comes up. I know this is random and really short but hey I have a lot to do! Happy blogging! Oh and don't forget to sign our guestbook. The link is to the left in our links section.

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You!

BALANCE
What does it mean to have balance? If you want to get technical Dictionary.com says: A state of equilibrium or parity characterized by cancellation of all forces by equal opposing forces. I guess that would help shed some light on the topic. The reason I write about this topic is that I really try had to be a balanced person. To never find myself in the extremes on a topic or argument. Sometimes I find that people accuse people like me of being spineless and never having a stance on anything. If that is balance then I know that I don't have it. I see balance more as a disciplined effort to see both sides of an issue. To make sure that you don't dive off into a discussion without fully understanding both sides of an issue. Lets take for example theological beliefs. I used to consider myself a conservative until I found that to that to some my conservative theological views were considered liberal by some. Labels really are useless. We need to learn to look past them and see that we can never really live by them. I know that you have heard this before but I really think it is more important then even that we just be Christians. Not liberals or conservatives but Christians. If you want to be liberal then be liberal in love, liberal in forgiveness, liberal in the time you give to the Lord. You want to be a conservative or an "anti" then be anti sin, anti hate, anti pride. Let us be people that are more worried about how we look to God then how we look to each other. A lot of the blocs that I am reading by Christians are of men and women struggling with issues. They are struggling on the right stance of these issues. I say trust God. Trust is His Word. Trust Him in prayer. Let us know that we will never have it all figured out. We will have things that we believe today that we may look back on in 20 years and say I am not sure why I struggled with that. If you are struggling then that is ok. Just don't struggle alone, let Jesus walk with you and guide you. Let us focus on Jesus.

Ok now back to something else I wanted to talk about as long as I am talking about balance. I need some advice on something. Maybe from another minister or maybe from someone that can help slap some common sense in my head. How do you balance theology and practical everyday living. Some of the things I discuss with my ministry buddies I would never discuss in lets say a Junior High Bible class ( which is what I am currently teaching on Wed nights.)or really in my sermons for that matter. I see the need for theology because it helps me develop my faith. Sometimes thought I struggle with all of our theological talk because I wonder how it helps me reach out to the average person that does not know Jesus Christ. I guess you could say that I have been thinking about this because after 3 years of full time ministry I am thinking about doing some grad work part time. I will stay in ministry full time ( I am hooked!) and try to get an MDIV part time, at least I think. I struggle with where to do my schooling and what type of training I should seek. It all boils down to the whole balance issue. Anyone able to make any sense of this or am I just to far all over the place today ??

I have decided my favorite thing about blogging has been my connection with tons of people that I haven't talked with in a long time. Blogs give you a small glimpse into the lives of people that you have known at different stages in your life. It is cool to see how everyone is doing! I like keeping in touch with people but I am bad about it and it has been good to hear from some people that I havent seen since high school(mostly my football gang) and others since college. So I want to start making links to various blogs. So if you want me to link to your blog ( the only requirement is that I actually know you! :) please comment on this post and include your link. Also I have noticed that many people come to the blog but never comment. I understand this because you don't always have something to say about some posts. Yet I want to hear from everyone! So please take a moment and sign our guestbook so that we can connect with as many as possible. I have included the link in my links section so please take a moment to do so. Thanks for checking out the blog and I hope to hear from more of you soon!
Oh and here is the link for the guestbook! Sign it please! I love to hear from everyone no matter how long it has been.

Click here for the Guestbook

P.s. If you are wondering why I have not been blogging it is because I was out of town for several days. I am back and so is the blog!

This past Thursday morning I got a call from my family telling about me about my Aunt Hazel passing away.(She is really my great Aunt but I was close to her so I always called her Aunt Hazel.)I felt a mix of emotions ranging from sadness to peace. Sadness because Hazel was always a great example to me and peace because she was in a lot of pain. Her body was worn out and it was time for her to leave this Earth. Peace because she lived her life with great dedication to the Lord. Peace because I have no doubt that she is now with the Lord. Hazel was not a success as far as the world is concerned. She never made a lot of money, never drove a fancy car, and never lived in a huge house. As far as the Lord is concerned I imagine that she has many great treasures stored in heaven. I can't wait to see her mansion in the Lord's kingdom one day. Hazel lived for the Lord every single day and she displayed the fruits of her faith. She always looked for ways to serve and no one would mistake her first love which was Jesus Christ or her second love for that matter, her family. She always encouraged me when I got the chance to spend some time with her. Even as her life was coming to the end should would give me a big smile when I visited and say, " Michael, I love you and pray for you every day!" This meant so much to me because I knew that it was true. She always kept up with me and lifted my name up to the Lord. My family asked me to take part in the memorial service by speaking about Hazel and I gladly accepted. To speak about Hazel was an honor and a humbling experience. Yet I did so not with sorrow but with great joy. Joy because she honored the Lord and now I had the chance to honor her. Hazel left for our family a great example. A legacy not of great worldly accomplishments but of spirtual accomplishments. I will do my best to continue this legacy. I will do my best to serve the Lord first and my family second. To serve the Lord with great Joy. Thank you Hazel for the life you lived! You pointed us all to Jesus with your life. We are eternally grateful.

I believe that Christians at times become blinded by religion. We get caught up in everyday church stuff. Not that church stuff is bad , I mean after all I am a minister, but we must have a heart for all people. We cannot afford to always be looking inward because if we are not careful we develop a tunnel-vision of sorts that blocks out the people that we really need to be focused on. Last week I had a convicting experience. One of the things that I enjoy about living here is that I live in a area where people are not too concerned about what kind of car your drive or clothes you wear. It is refreshing to me. Last week we had middle-aged couple come to the church in the morning. I could tell they were some what embarrassed to be here. They needed help with food and clothing. They were struggling like so many at least in part because of the hurricane. The lady with tears in her eyes said we really just need some help. I was so glad to say anyway that this church can help you we will. I helped them with some food and filled their car with gas. As were gathering some food from our church pantry the woman kept repeating I am soo sorry. Finally I had to stop. I told her that she had no need to be sorry. I explained that many in this church struggled to put food on the table ( which is true, my guess is that 1/3 of our members are at our below poverty level.)and that we were thrilled to be able to help them. Without hesitation she asked why? I told her because we tried our best to be people that show Jesus to others. We don't always do it like we should but we try to honor God by helping out. She burst out in tears and her husband just kept looking uncomfortable and uncertain about what he should do. We stopped and sat in our fellowship hall and talked for about 45 mins. They explained there struggles and I just listened. Finally the woman asked , "Can you talk to God for us about all of this?" I smiled and said we can all talk to Him together. We spent about 15 mins in prayer together. Both thanked me and said they would maybe come to worship with us sometimes. I told them they were welcome and wanted. It made me feel so good to be with them. It convicted me also that we are not doing enough to reach out to the poor in our area. We are really good at taking care of each other in our church family. When we have a member in great need their needs are always meet. This past Sunday our in the elders meeting I brought the topic and the elders agreed that we need to do some more to reach out to the poor in our community. I am excited about this. We are looking into becoming a part of Angel food ministries which helps provide food to families. We want to do this in addition to our normal food pantry. Pray about this. I am excited about digging deeper and doing more to show all people the love of Jesus Christ.

Matt 25:34-40

34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Who are the least of these? I think as we answer that question will we be able to understand how we can show Jesus to more people. We need to make sure that we reach out to all people everywhere. I want to make this church a place where people know they can go for help. We there know they can belong no matter how there life is going.

Pray for me! I want to be a real man of God in action. Not because I am a preacher but because I love Jesus with all my heart! I don't ever want to get caught in religion! I want to be focused on Jesus and all that he desires of my life.

Today is a very interesting day! Today is St. Valentines Day! A day to celebrate love or at least expressions of love. I must say that for a long time I really dreaded this day because as a teen it meant getting together enough money to take the girl you might be dating for the week out to dinner and if she is really special you might even through in some flowers. I am proud to say that has all changed for me. I enjoy valentine's day. I have the love of my life to celebrate the day with! That makes me so thrilled to celebrate this day. Let me explain why: I am not be any stretch of the imagination a romantic. I don't naturally think of romance and to be honest I still struggle with the concept of how to be romantic! Don't get me wrong! I love my wife, I have no problem telling my wife just how much I really love her. In fact I make it a point to make sure that I express that daily. I also have no problem showing affection or telling her just how beautiful she is to me. Yet I still feel like I struggle to be romantic. So this day is a good day for me. It helps the romantically challenged people like myself to get up and do something romantic. I am learning everyday what it means to be romantic. Guys and girls have such different ideas about what is romantic and it is up to us to try to figure on what they view as romantic. Ruth and I have been married almost 4 years now and I can honestly say that I fall more in love with her every single day. I know her in so many different ways now and I love everything! It love it all, the good days, the bad days and everything in between. God's design of marriage is such an awesome thing!

Now here is my Top ten reasons that I am hopelessly in love with my wife:

10. The Sound of her voice!
9. Her calm sweet nature.
8. Her beautiful smile.
7. Her amazing servant spirit.
6. Her amazing compassion for all people.
5. Her physical beauty really does reflect her inner beauty. I love her heart!
4. Her blue eyes!
3. The way she laughs out loud at most of my cheesy humor.
2. Her never ending encouragement and support of my ministry.
1. Her undeniable love for her Lord Jesus Christ!

I hope you all have an great valentines day! Also guys calls you mom's on this day! It should be a rule for life!

I had to share something that I did this afternoon! Everyday I usual spend the morning in study, research, and administration and then in the afternoon I make visits throughout the community which can include bible studies, hospital visits, times of prayer and things of that nature. Today is the first afternoon since I have been in DeQuincy that I have absolutely nothing planned! Some minister I am ! If you know me well you know that I cannot stand sitting around. So I decided to spend some time in prayer for friends and family. I got an e-mail today from a friends from ACU and it included his blog. Being fairly new to this blog deal I checked it out and found tons of others that have blogs. I went from blog to blog reading and praying for each person! It was really a neat experience! One of the things that I realize that I took for granted at ACU was being around so many great Christian friends. I miss you all so much sometimes! Good news, Ruth and I will be going to Tulsa this year for the Soul winning workshop! I am excited to see many of you there! God richest blessings to you all!

This past Sunday was a great time for the church. We had a great worship service, I felt good about the sermon, we had several visitors from the community, things were just really good anyway I looked at it. After service though several members were in a buzz about something. I wasn't really sure what it was until one of them pointed it out to me. "Did you know that we had 122 people here today?" (This might not seem like a lot of people to some of you but when we first started here the numbers were around 60 or so.) In fact I did not know how many had been there that Sunday. I could tell we had a pretty good crowd. We have someone that counts the number in the service and then posts it on a bulletin board in the back of the church building along with the giving for that Sunday. It was good news for me and yet I was shocked about how excited people got over it. It made me happy to see some of them so excited about the way things are going at church but it surprised me that a number could spur on such excitement! Then it hit me numbers drive so much of our lives. We have SAT scores, GPA's , credit scores, bank accounts, and so many other things where numbers determine how the things are rated. We have numbers that tell us how popular a president is , what movies you should see, what music you should listen to, and what products to by. It is funny how something as small as a number can have such an effect on your life. I am glad that our church members are excited about the growing number of people in our church services but I don't want us to become too focused on numbers. We are looking to save souls and not just fill our building with warm bodies. Does anyone know how to put a number to spiritual maturity ? If you do let me know I want to look at the numbers! :)

Here is my new profile picture!

Yes the dancing chicken. I have done this for two reasons.
First I have been watching the news to much and there are just too many people out there on the net doing bad stuff for me to be putting real pics up on the net.
Two several friends have commented on the serious nature of this blog. LOL surprise, surprise I have a serious side!!! I hope to balance this blog with my theological thoughts as well as they off the wall humor that spins around in my mind.

P.s. We had such a good bible study last night. I was one of those lightbulb moments for some people that Ruth and I really think are going to develop into servant leaders in the church. God is good and I love the power of His word!

Now how is that for balance!!

My posts at this point have primarily been serious. For those of you that really know me probably are wondering who is really writing this blog ??? Mike is one of the biggest goofballs that we know and what is with all of this serious stuff! So that leads me to my post for the day. Three videos that you must watch! Three videos that will cause you to laugh or at the very minimum bring you some sort of entertainment.

Disclaimer: A preacher should never have to do this but I promise you that all of these videos are more then safe to watch and have nothing inappropriate . Also they will download faster if you right click and save as. Save them on your desktop in you are one of those that can never seem to find where the computer puts your files! Also you have to have your sound on to fully appreciate these!

1. The Trunk Monkey #1 

2. The Trunk Monkey #2

3. How we fish in Louisiana!

Ok they had to make you laugh or at least smile! I am hoping to bring some more people to the blog so share the link to this blog with others. Or if you are really nice include a link to this blog on your blog! I will be happy to do the same!

1. Yesterday was a good day for me. It was an extremely busy day and yet I really enjoyed it. I spent the entire day with people. Some were Christians and some were not. Two needed rides to places they needed to go. 1 family was in desperate need of prayer and encouragement. I am so blessed to get to do what I do. To be a minister has been a dream of mine in so many ways and as I live out that dream I don't want to lose sight of what a privilege it is to be a full time minister. One of my favorite things is that I never have to tell someone, "Sorry, I can't spend that much time with you, because I have to get back to work." My privilege is that the people in my congregation have empowered my to be able to do this full time. To always have time for people. To always be able to be with them. Not that I have some special gift to share with them, it is just that I serve an awesome God that always gets me excited!
2. This past Sunday night I was flipping though the channels and I ended up on one that I have never actually watched. CSPAN! Yes I actually watched CSPAN for about 45 mins! Something caught my attention as I was flipping through the channels which caused me to stop on CSPAN. It was the title National Prayer Breakfast. This is basically a group of people that meet to encourage and pray with the president. It has been going on for a while now and I personally think that it is a great idea. Someone that had just finished speaking was stepping down from the podium and someone that I did not expect to see got up to the pulpit. BONO from U2. I had heard rumors that he was a Christian but I always thought it might just be wishful thinking by a few. BONO preceded to preach a sermon to both Bush and Christians around the world. He included some of the struggles that he has had in his life but his closing remark really struck me. He recalled a meeting with a minister and shared the minister's recent advice: Stop asking God to bless what you're doing. Find out what God's doing. It's already blessed. "That's what I want," Bono said. "I want to align my life with that." AMEN BONO ! I never thought I would say that but AMEN! I to want to align my life with that. Apparently it is a quote that has been used before but I have never heard and it really hit home with me. Maybe TV isn't so bad after all!
   

I got a call yesterday from a fellow minister. His question is one that I have been asked many times before mostly by teens when I was doing youth ministry in Abiliene. He told me that he was struggling to answer this question. Are we allowed to Question God ? My friend told me that a college student that is an active part of his college ministry was really struggling with the loss of a teammate on his college soccer team. The student was angry because he felt like his teammate was getting close to becoming a Christian and yet because of a drunk driver will never get the chance. If my friends had called me a year ago I would have probably answered this question much differently then I do today. When I was a minister in Montana I was shown something that I have never seen before. It was one of those things that was right in my face and yet I failed to see the significance of the bigger picture. A woman in our congregation in Montana had lost a child several years before to SIDS. If you don't know anything about SIDS just know that it causes babies very suddenly and unexpectedly to pass away. There is no way to detect and there is no medical explanation for this as far as I know. To make a long story short this woman after losing her child had a very difficult time with her faith. She talked about how one day she was feeling guilty for asking God why he had let her child die and then she read some scriptures that opened her heart. In Matthew 27:46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"-which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" NIV If the very son of God is supposed to be our example in everything then he would not have questioned the Father if it was not ok with the Lord. Hear I was a Bible major, studied the word in depth under some amazing teachers and I had never thought of such an obvious example. For the record I agree with this women. After looking at the scripture and the entire setting of what happened during the crucifixion I believe that Jesus really wanted to know why this is the way it had to be. Why did he have to suffer so much? Why could salvation not be passed on some other way? I know that there are several other scriptures that involve this topic but I think that we serve a God that wants to hear our hearts in both amazing times and desperate times. He wants a real relationship with us more then just about anything else. I say if you are really struggling with the things of this life and wonder why they have happened then go to the Lord. He may not answer you in the time frame that you want, He may not give you the answer you want. I do believe that the Lord can handle any question. That He can stand and answer anything that happens to us in this life when we just cannot understand. I am confident that our Lord can take anything that has gone wrong and turn it into something good. More then that I am grateful that he allows sinners like himself into His presence with open arms!

There are some days in ministry where you just feel drained. In sports when you where completely exhausted the coaches also used to try to teach us to simply dig deeper. To mentally decided that you will not be tired even though your body is screaming at you that you have nothing left. Sometimes I feel that way in ministry. Yesterday was one of those days. So many people to see and just not enough time to do it all as effectively as I would have liked. I love this thing called ministry both in the days when it is a joy and the days when it is a great challenge. Some days though you are vividly reminded that you cannot do it on your own. I must be constantly dependent on God. I cannot afford to not have a really great prayer life. I cannot afford to fail to let scripture be the authority in my life. LOL, if this sounds like a rant it is not it just that sometimes when people come to you and they explain how bad sin has messed up their life I feel like God is slapping me in the face with a reminder about the beauty of holiness. Yes the beauty, the peace, the comfort knowing that you are living in a way that is consistent with the creator. When you see the stress, the pain , the suffering that sin causes it really contrasts to the joy of holiness. Don't get me wrong. I am in no way saying that I am some special holy man or that I don't sin and fall short. The people in our church will be the first to tell you that I am not afraid to be tramper with my own sins and temptations. (Otherwise how can I expect them to do the same ?) Yet there is a certain clarity that comes from dealing with people everyday. You see the joy of those with a right relationship with God. You also see the pain in those that for whatever reason have chosen to serve themselves. I feel like part of my role is to somehow help people experience that clarity. To share the horrors of sin and also the wonders of Grace. To expose the people lost in the darkness to the transforming experience of being in the light for the very first time. So as for me and my ministry I am not going to try and dig deeper no I am simply going to try and be more dependent. More consistent in my walk, my prayer life, my study of the word. After all I believe that when the lord says to Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind is the greatest commandment, when I hear is that He wants a real relationship with us. I am committing this day to being more focused on my actually relationship with God. To be less focused on programs and activities and more focused on developing a stronger and deeper relationship with God. I really think that there are time in life when we need to say no to ministry and yes to prayer instead. We cannot do this on our own. The fastest we grasp that concept the longer we will be able to be effective ministers to others. Pray for me. It is the greatest gift that you can give me. Ask God to continually renew me, to shape me, to mold me into the man that He wants to see in me. Oh yeah ask him to shake some of this pride out of me as well. This blog thing is great, it really allows me to share the thoughts of me heart and feel like people that really care are reading those. God bless you all!