Children Doing Ministry – The Melheimian Sabbatiblog

Children Doing Ministry – The Melheimian Sabbatiblog.

 

Is it possible to think of a Sunday School where every family member comes!  Not only is welcome but is actually there?  No more dropping off the kids and running to a coffee shop, or sitting in the narthex, or standing out side on the parking lot, but all people of the family actually participating in christian education?

Your Body is a temple…

It is easy for us to talk about our job and our money and our children and our possessions as gifts from God.  However do we realize that our bodies are a gift too?

And if we do realize this, are we doing what we need to to take care of them?  The country we live in believes in biggie sizing everything.  We go get a double cheese burger with a humongous french fries and a large DIET coke.  We drink diet drinks to make our selves feel better about eating a days worth of calories in one meal!  Now I am to blame for doing this.  When running in a hectic day, I love to stop at Sonic and get a cheeseburger and a large tator tots.  Tator tots are one of my weaknesses, I love tator tots…  But I do get a diet Dr. Pepper now.  I drink the diet drink, because I started it a while back to help with my weight, and because now I really can not take the sugery taste of regular soft drinks…  Now some will argue the chemical they use to sweeten diet drinks is worse for you than the sugar, which could be true, but my clothes are fitting a lot better now, than they did 2 months ago.

And that could be because I cut out all the high test soft drinks, and I also think the fact I have been walking almost everyday has something to do with it.  It is a hard thing to motivate ourselves to get up and to go.  To get up and to do something different.  And physical activity for me was something different. Now I do not have the excuse of 100 channels to watch, my family does not have cable, satellite, or dish tv, and have not had it for over 4 years…  and yes we have survived.  I find it humorous now that Dish Network says you will never have to pay for HD TV, because the President did not have to pay for Color Tv when he was a kid, well that is right, they did not pay for TV at all… but I digress….

I have started getting up at 4:30 every morning to get to the YMCA by 5:00, so I can walk for an hour, and get home shower, make breakfast and then take my girls to school before going to work.  Would it be easier for me to stay in bed an extra 1:30. You bet ya!  But I do no, because my body is the temple of God, and I am way to young to be taking all the pills I do, and I got there because I have been lazy.  And one day it hit me, that I would not be around to see my girls graduate from high school, or go to prom, or their weddings, if I continued down the path I was on. So I get my but out of bed, and go walk.  I started then end of July, but the first recorded walk I have on my iPod is from August 2 in 48’32” I walked 5,388 steps and burned 462 calories… This morning October 7 in 1:05’07” I walked 8,139 steps and burned 663 calories.  This morning I added incline to my walking, not much, I got up to a 3.0 on the incline, but it increased the workout, because I feel it…

During the month of August I walked 177,330 steps. In September I walked 180,185 steps. So far in October I have walked 35,030 steps (and I missed 2 days of walking, that is an average of 5004 per day (including those I did not walk) and one of the days I exercised, it was biking for 30 minutes).  Walking has made a huge impact on my life, and has changed my whole outlook. I feel better on the days I walk verses the days I miss.  I have an energy that was not there before.

This morning at the YMCA, a man whom I have seen almost every day I’ve been there said to me that I inspire him to come, because if I can be there, than he knows he can be there, and others have commented to me on FaceBook about my constant posting of my walking and how they look each morning to see how far I’ve gone. I do that to hopefully show others, that if I can do this, so can they.  I say nothing above to puff myself up, but only to encourage you, that if you are sitting on the couch, glued to the TV, than you  are not handling the greatest gift you have been given by God with respect, and you need to take care of that gift. And you need to do that, not only for yourself, but for the body of Christ that depends on the gift you give to the body, and the role you play in the mission of God.  You owe it to yourself, your spouse, your children, your grand children…

I was hit by the fear of never seeing my grand children, and Now I am hoping that with continued effort, I might get to see Great Grand Children!  Take care of the greatest gift you have been given, your body, and do your part in the mission of God.

What Love Really Means

Yesterday I taught a class on Philippians 2:1-4.  It was a continuation of a class I have been teaching on Philippians.  In this passage, Paul talks about the power and love we have received from Christ and the community we have through the spirit, and in this we need to make the joy of being of one mind and one spirit complete. We are to be of one mind, that does not mean that we always agree or think the same things, but that we are focused on what truly matters.  We do not get puffed up by vain rivalry, or our own self absorption.  We are just as concerned with our neighbor as we are with our selves.  The Message put it this way, “Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.”  And in this study one of the members of the class brought up a passage from last week, Philippians 1:29, which the NRSV has as, “For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well”  He graciously granted you the privilege!  He did that for you! He gave you the ability to believe, and not only that, but you get to suffer for him as well, isn’t that great!  God gave each of us the privilege of believing in him.  Us!  Does he know us? Has he seen the things that I have done? Yes he has, and he still gives us the privilege to believe in him…

It reminded me of a song and I found the video for it this morning.  It is by JJ Haller, and should be song of the year.  It is called What Love Really Means and is going to be released on the up coming album When I’m With You to be released on October 19.

This song speaks of the way we are all treated in this world, and yet also of the great and wonderful love that God has for all of us…

http://www.youtube.com/v/PgGUKWiw7Wk?fs=1&hl=en_US

“My Feet Are Off The Ground” from Tyler Perry

Someone sent this to me this morning in an email and I had to share…

“My Feet Are Off The Ground”
From Tyler Perry: writer and actor
This morning I awoke and was so frustrated about all of the stuff that I’m dealing with in trying to get this studio open. I was about to open my mouth and start complaining when I remembered something that happened to me about a year ago.
On that day, I was walking to my car when this woman who appeared to be homeless started walking towards me. I’m ashamed to say this but I thought, “I don’t feel like being hustled today.”
I felt guilty so I started digging in my pocket for some money. As she got closer I noticed that she had the kindest eyes that I had ever seen. As I was reaching into my pocket she started to speak. I thought, “Here goes the sales pitch”. She said “Excuse me sir, I need some shoes. Can you help me?” I was taken aback…instead of the sob story this woman had asked for something she genuinely needed.
I took her inside the studio and had my wardrobe people find shoes in her size. As she put the shoes on she started crying, praising God and saying, “My feet are off the ground! My feet are off the ground!” Several of the wardrobe people started crying. I was crying. But I never forgot those words. “My feet are off the ground!”
I thought, “Wow! All she wanted was some shoes.” She quickly disappeared and never asked me for a dime. I realized that I still had the money in my hand so I went out looking for her. She was gone just that quick so I looked all around the neighborhood for her.
I found her standing on a corner looking down at her shoes, still crying. I was so touched. I asked her how she had gotten homeless. She told me that she had AIDS and that she was waiting to get into a shelter. She said that her family had turned their backs on her and that she had no place to go, but she knew that God would make a way for her.
I said to myself, “He just did.” Her faith and her praise moved me. I took her to a nearby hotel and put her up until she was able to get on her feet. After about a month or so we lost touch, but I never forgot her.
This past summer, this woman walks up to me smiling. I didn’t recognize her face, but her eyes were familiar. She had on a really nice dress and her hair was done. She introduced herself to me and lo and behold – It was her! She told me that the little help that I had given her had changed her life. She was in a house now and doing very well.
I said all of that to say this:
After I met this woman, every time I think about complaining and mumbling I remember, “My feet are off the ground!”
I wanted to share this with you just – when you say you are thankful – mean it.
When you say you are blessed – mean it.
Remember that there are many people whose feet are NOT off the ground so be grateful that yours are!

October 2010 Front Page

Ebert Path EditedAs I sit and write my newsletter after a year as a called pastor at First English Evangelical Lutheran Church I have to reflect on the road that got us to this place. I have to say us, because of my family. It was not an easy road to come along. There were several times I wondered if it was the right road for me to be on. I wondered what in the world I was doing to my family. Was this the actual path we were to be walking down, or had we missed the boat, or the carriage, or the bus? We traveled a lot of roads it seems, talking to a lot of different people about ministry possibilities, but none of them seemed right. It seemed the path we were on was heading in the wrong direction. Maybe Robert Frost would say we were on the path more traveled…

I also have to say us because of all of you, the worshiping community that is First English Evangelical Lutheran Church. You are involved and have been traveling a road or two over this time as well. Your former senior pastor announces he has ALS, and creates an opening at First English for a new leader and possibly (& hopefully) new ministry.

A year ago today as I type this, my family and I were on the road from Grand Rapids, OH to Victoria TX.  To continue down the path that God had set before us.  I wondered again if this was the right path for us, but we have been truly blessed to be a part of this community here at First English. God knew what was going on when Jerry Wirtley was matched with First English Evangelical Lutheran Church. My family and I truly are blessed to be here in Victoria with such great people. You have blessed us from the moment our conversations have begun.

Thank you to everyone who has stepped up to the plate and helped us here at FEELC to move forward in the ministry that God has placed before us.  The past year has been a wonderful time for my family and I and we look forward to many years to come here in Victoria, doing ministry with all of you at FEELC.

So as I think of the paths and roads we have come down to get us to the place we are now at, I pause only for a moment, to say thank you, we have made it this far, yet we can not always look back, but also must look towards the future. What will our path hold for us now? I really do not know what the future holds, yet I know God brought us to First English, and God will help guide through the years and paths ahead of us, as we journey through ministry together here. So let’s decide together on the path we shall take and move forward with God, stepping out on faith, even more than we have, living in the hope of our time with God. Let us take that road less traveled by and then in the end hopefully we all will hear, “welcome home, my good and faithful servant!”