Northern Expositor

Acceptance by a Holy God Requires Holiness

2009-07-14T11:47:00.001-05:00

On Sunday I preached on Psalm 15 as part of our series through the first book in the Psalms entitled "The Spiritual Life." In Psalm 15 the main point as it applies to us today is "Acceptance by a holy God requires holiness." If you would like to listen to the sermon click here.

By God's Grace, Jeff

Bully Sticks Rock

2009-07-14T10:36:00.003-05:00

So I think I mentioned last week that from about 7-9pm each night our cute, cuddly puppy Lewis transforms into "Lewis-a-fur," a wound up, jumping and biting terror. The only remedy that we have discovered to calm him down is the "bully stick." Bully sticks are a hard, smelly, "Slim Jim" looking treat that (as I understand) are made from bull's testicles. And dogs go crazy for them. In addition we've started taking him for walks around the neighborhood that seem to help as well. If anyone has additional advice about how to deal with a rambunctious pooch let me know.

On Saturday my wife and I drove over to Turtle Lake (15 miles east) for their annual "Turtle Days" celebration that includes turtle races. For a town of only around 400 residents I think they had about 250 turtles registered to race. They "ran" them in heats of about 8 from a round starting gate that was raised and the first two turtles that cross a chalk drawn white circle about 15' from the start advanced to the next round. There were large turtle and small ones, fast turtles and ones that decided to remain in their shells long after the starting gate had been raised. We only stayed for a half dozen heats or so but it was fun to enjoy another aspect of small town life.

Sunday night we had a deacon and elder meeting and spent a good deal of time talking about our church's financial situation. Please pray for wisdom for myself, the elders and deacons as we seek to addresses some issues regarding our expenses and income. Also, please pray specifically for me to grow in my leadership of this congregation. After the meeting I felt like there were numerous things that I should have done and said differently. Pray that I would truly entrust God with both the church's and our family's finances. I struggle with thinking I can control these myself instead of giving them wholly over to God's sovereign, loving care.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) our congregation will be participating in the first of two "Prayer Walks." We'll be dividing up into groups and walking around Underwood, stopping at each block to pray for the community, businesses and revival. Please pray for good weather, good turnout and that God would hear our prayers and answer them according to His perfect will.

By God's Grace, Jeff

Fools Hope in Themselves; the Wise Hope in God

2009-07-09T10:35:00.002-05:00

In our current sermon series "The Spiritual Life," through the first book in Psalms, this past Sunday I preached Psalm 14 and the main point as I saw it applying to us today is "Fools hope in themselves; the wise hope in God." If you would like to listen to it, click here.

By God's Grace, Jeff

How Far is the East from the West?

2009-07-07T13:22:00.005-05:00

Jesus can you show me just how the far the east is from the west
'Cause I can't bear to see the man I've been rising up in me again
In the arms of your mercy I find rest
'Cause you know just how far the east is from the west
One scarred hand to the other

- Casting Crowns "East to West"

Of Boxes and Ice-Cubes

2009-07-07T13:04:00.004-05:00

So I don't know why we bought toys for our goldendoodle puppy when his favorites seem to be towels, cardboard boxes and ice-cubes. He's gone through at least two "Amazon.com" boxes already and is currently working on two more (one upstairs and one downstairs). Fortunately being a pastor and bibliophile we have plenty of boxes to keep him occupied for awhile. And he enjoys knocking an ice-cube across our linoleum floors until it melts enough to eat.

The sleep situation has been trying but last night he slept through the night, so let's hope this is a trend. For a couple hours each day he also turns into "Lewis-a-fer" and is wound-up and out-of-control. Hopefully this is just a puppy thing and he'll grow out of it.

Having a puppy in our home for just over a week now has already greatly change our daily routine. Instead of being able to enjoy time together whenever we want, we're at the mercy of the dog's schedule. I went ahead and reduced our monthly Netflix from 3 at a time to 2 because we've realized that it's now taking us twice as long to make it through a movie. Ah the joys of owning a dog!

I wish I had more to blog about but Lewis is pretty much taking up most of our time.

By God's Grace, Jeff

Confessing Sin & God's Presence

2009-07-02T10:15:00.002-05:00

...why is it so much eaiser to confess sins to God than to your pastor? Why is there more shame when another sinful human being observes my weakness than when I pronounce them before an all-holy God? Could it be because God's presence is so weak in our lives? If we truly understood and cherished the beauty and holiness of God, we would shake a little bit more when approaching him." (From "Sacred Marriage" by Gary Thomas)

Get "Crazy Love" FREE

2009-07-01T10:20:00.002-05:00

Recently I have been reading the book "Crazy Love" by southern California pastor Francis Chan and it has really challenged my life and faith. Then this morning I found out Christianaudio.com is offering the audio recording of this book for FREE this month. If you're interested (and I highly recommend it!) click here for the details. For more on this book check out the clip below.

By God's Grace, Jeff

God's Faithfulness Answers Our Questions

2009-06-30T11:08:00.005-05:00

A couple weeks ago I preached on Psalm 13 in our current sermon series through the first book in the Psalms entitled "The Spiritual Life." The main point I saw in Psalm 13 as it relates to us today is that "God's past faithfulness answers our present questions." If you'd like to listen to the sermon, you can do so by clicking here.

By God's Grace, Jeff

Black Hills/Minot Vacation

2009-06-30T10:06:00.003-05:00

My wife and I returned recently from a week of vacation with her folks to the Black Hill area of South Dakota. We toured historic Deadwood, visited the Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse monuments, and drove through the beautiful Black Hills countryside, including the Needles Highway. In addition we tasted wine at the Prairie Berry Winery in Hill City and went on a behind-the-scenes tour to see how Black Hills gold is made. Except possibly for the long hours in the car we had a great trip.

Then this past Saturday, my wife and I drove up to Minot, stayed at a wonderful B&B, went out to dinner and a movie, attended the worship service at Trinity Evangelical Free Church, walked around the zoo and picked up our new puppy before returning home (see previous post). It was a very nice getaway for the two of us.

By God's Grace, Jeff

Introducing Lewis

2009-06-30T09:58:00.002-05:00

On Sunday afternoon, my wife and I picked up our new puppy "Lewis." He's a male goldendoodle who has black wavy hair that may eventually turn silver. He's named after Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis and Clark fame, who wintered in our area of ND in 1704 and 1706) and Christian author C.S. Lewis (of "Mere Christiniaty" and "The Screwtape Letters" fame). We'll keep you updated.

Busy Weekend of Ministry

2009-06-16T10:42:00.004-05:00

Thursday through Saturday was the McLean County Fair. Our church hosted a booth in which we offered a free carnival ball toss game for kids. Members of the church put together a wonderful game board that received numerous compliments and made for an attractive booth display. I worked the booth on Thursday afternoon and Friday evening. Attendance at the fair seemed quite good this year as we had great weather and a legitimate carnival in town. At our booth kids tossed balls into three different holes in the game board. If in five tries they made one in each hole they could choose a prize, otherwise they received either a super bouncy ball or blowing bubbles.

One funny story: A 3-4 years-old girl who was showing some animals with her siblings kept coming up to the booth and asking "Watcha Doing?" When it was slow we let her play the game even though she'd already won a prize. Finally, her sister came by and said (I kid you not), "Sally, come on, time to go water pigs." Maybe it's because I'm a city boy but I find the phrase "water pigs" hilarious (by the way, it means give the pigs water to drink).

Then on Sunday our church hosted a "Worship-in-the-Park" and community BBQ event. Instead of our normal service we held our service outdoors at one of the parks in town and invited people to join us for the worship service and BBQ afterward. We had three families from the community join us and we had a beautiful day for this event. Please pray that we might be able to get these families plugged into the church. And we had tons of good food!

And yesterday I was planning on spending a relaxing day at home but instead got roped into helping one of the ranchers in our church put in new fence. He had me start by tromping through a field swinging a measuring tool the size of half a rod (8' 3") marking off distances. Then I drove the ATV while Dan dug holes with a post hole digger on the back of a tractor. We through some old railroad ties on the back of his pick-up and stuck them in the holes for posts. The hard part was tamping down the ground in the holes using an old drive shaft. Fortunately after the first two, a storm system came through and so that ended our work for the day.

My wife's parents are coming into town this weekend and after the service on Sunday we'll be heading down to the Black Hills in South Dakota for vacation. Then a week from Sunday (God willing) my wife and I will be able to pick up our goldendoodle puppy north of Minot!

By God's Grace, Jeff

Confidence in the Midst of Crisis

2009-06-10T11:41:00.001-05:00

This Sunday I preached on Psalm 11 in our series "The Spiritual Life." The main point of Psalm 11 as I saw it relating to us today is providing us "Confidence in the midst of Crisis" through the refuge of faith in Christ. If you would like to listen to the sermon, click here.

By God's Grace, Jeff

June Snow Showers bring July...

2009-06-09T11:08:00.004-05:00

This past weekend was cold. We went to Bismarck on Saturday and it rained the whole time we were there. We were planning on attending a classic car show but it was canceled due to the rain. The high temperature for the day in Bismarck was 47 degrees. On June 6th the "high" was below 50! In fact, closer to the Montana border some places in ND has up to three inches of snow! Sunday wasn't a whole lot warmer and we're just starting to more in the right direction. In case you're thinking that this is normal for North Dakota, our average this time of year is 75. And as my wife asked, "If May showers bring June flowers, what will June snow bring?"

Well, we are getting things ready for the arrival of our puppy later this month. For those of you who haven't heard, we're getting a goldendoodle puppy. This breed is a mix between a golden retriever and a poodle. I have some allegories to dog dander and poodle coats are less shedding and therefore produce less dander. So while we were in Bismarck on Saturday we picked up (hopefully) all of the basics we need in order to welcome our new pet into our home.

On Saturday and Sunday (since I couldn't do much outside) I enjoyed watching Tiger Woods storm back from 4 back at the Memorial golf tournament to win by one stroke; birding the last two holes and being helped by a unexpected eagle chip-in on the backside. The most exciting aspect of his tournament was hitting every fairway on Sunday and only missing a handful total. I agree with Jack Nicholas; if Tiger drives like that, everyone else is playing for second.

My wife and I have been watching old seasons of "The Amazing Race" this summer. We've enjoyed picking teams at the beginning of the season and rooting them on to victory. But I've also been "amazed" at how the stress of competition brings out people's sins. Couples yelling at each other and friends bickering are not a result of the race but a revealing of what's already in their hearts. The race is merely the arena that the sins in their hearts show themselves.

Please pray for our booth at the County Fair this weekend and our Worship-in-the-Park and community BBQ this Sunday.

By God's Grace, Jeff

First Round of the Season

2009-06-02T10:37:00.004-05:00

My wife had a library conference in Minot on Friday so another pastor from town and I got in 18 holes. It was my first round of the season (although I did golf some in April while in LA). I shot very well for barely having picked up a golf club in nearly nine months. I shot 54 through the first nine and 47 from 10-18 (with back-to-back pars) for a grand total of 101. My goal is to shoot consistently under 100 so I'd say I'm not too far away from that. I even had to take one shot left-handed as my ball was in the well of a tree. Fortunately I began golfing left-handed since my Dad's a lefty and Pastor Dean carries a left-handed club in his bag for times like these. We had fun (except for the mosquitoes) and it was a good break from sermon prep.

Well keeping with the sports theme, on Sunday I made it back out to the school gym for pick-up basketball. There were at least 16 guys this week as we were able to run two games of 4 on 4. There were also quite a few tall, fast and athletic players there (things I am not). My strengths lie in being a smart defender, opportunistic scorer, decent 3-point shooter and above average rebounder. Even though I'm certainly not one of the better players out there, I'm able to contribute and I enjoy a good challenge. Of course, after being off for two weeks whatever legs I had gained from playing earlier this spring were all but gone. I was already pooped after the first game from having to chase a high school age guard up and down the floor.

I am getting excited about our church's summer events. Next weekend we'll have a booth at the McLean County Fair and we'll host a free carnival game for kids. Our goal is to build good will in the community, show that we're here to serve them for Jesus and engage community members in spiritual conversations. Then next Sunday we're hosting a summer kick-off worship-in-the-park and community BBQ. I'm amazed at how many people from the congregation have already signed-up to contribute toward this event and took fliers to pass out to friends, neighbors and co-workers. In July we're planning some prayers walks around the community and in August will have a booth at Harvest Fest and possibly an end of the summer worship-in-the-park. It will be a busy summer and God-willing productive.

By God's Grace, Jeff

Perceptions of the Wicked vs. Realities of God

2009-06-02T10:33:00.002-05:00

In our ongoing series through the first 41 psalms entitled "The Spiritual Life," this past Sunday I preached through Psalm 10. The main point as I saw it relating to us today is in contrasting the faulty perceptions of the wicked versus the true realities of God. Even when God seems distant we must remind ourselves of the truth about God instead of falling for the lies of sin. If you would like to listen to the sermon, click here.

By God's Grace, Jeff

First Ice-Cream Cone of the Season

2009-05-26T14:56:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a rainy and overall dreary Memorial Day in our area so instead of celebrating with the traditional BBQ, my wife and I drove up to Pick City and got ice-cream cones at The Crab Apple. Pick City is a very small community that picks up during the summer as it's near the lake and camping grounds. As a result, some of its business (including the aforementioned Crab Apple) are only open during the summer months. They have very good ice-cream and it makes for a pleasant outing on an otherwise "indoor" kind of day.

Sunday was Underwood High's graduation. This year there were twenty seniors that received their diplomas. It's neat to experience the difference between a large high school graduation (and college for that matter) and a small town commencement. It included a PowerPoint slide show featuring pictures of each of the graduate's family, friends and memories, as well as shots of the whole class. Unlike larger graduations, we were encouraged to applaud as each student was handed the diploma (their diplomas were actually in the covers; they didn't have to go somewhere after the ceremony to get the real thing). At the end of the festivities the graduates formed a greeting line so that friends and family members could extend congratulations personally. The students also had graduations parties later in the day of which my wife and I were invited to one of the guys that I got to know through basketball coaching.

For those of you who are familiar with the board game "Settlers of Catan" (and if you're not I highly recommend going out to Barnes and Noble and buying it), my wife and I have recently been playing around with a few rule changes. We first played a game by placing our opening two settlements and roads for each other. The only rule was that each settlement had to be bordering at least two numbered tiles. That didn't go so well (I got whomped). Yesterday we played a two-person game but used the expanded board (for 5-6 players). I did quite a bit better that time around.

Our Congregations is going to be quite busy this summer. We're planning on hosting a couple "Worship-in-the-Park & Community BBQ" events (including a summer kick-off one June 14th), we'll be hosting a booth at the County Fair again this year but this time instead of giving away bottles of water we're going to have a carnival-style game for kids and give away prizes, in July we'll be organizing some prayer walks around the community and in August (in addition to an end of the summer "Worship-in-the-Park") we'll be hosting a booth at Harvest Fest again. The Elder Board recently came up with a slogan for the banner that we'll display at these events: "Serving Our Community for Jesus" What do you think about that?

By God's Grace, Jeff

Give God Glory even Before He gives Victory

2009-05-26T10:30:00.002-05:00

On Sunday I preached on Psalm 9 as part of our series through the first section in the Psalms entitled "The Spiritual Life." The main point of Psalm 9 as I saw it applying to us today is that we're to give God His due glory even before He gives us the ultimate victory in our struggles. If you'd like to listen to the sermon, click here.

By God's Grace, Jeff

Knowing God's Glory Evokes God's Praise

2009-05-22T10:44:00.001-05:00

Last Sunday I preached on Psalm 8 as part of the series "The Spiritual Life" through the first book in the Psalms. The main point I saw in Psalm 8 as it relates to us is, "Knowing God's Glory Evokes God's praise." If you'd like to listen to the sermon, click here.

By God's Grace, Jeff

What a Week!

2009-05-19T10:17:00.003-05:00

Before recounting our full week, I wanted to mention something that I forgot about from last week. My wife and I were invited out to lunch at the Great River Energy Plant. I guess each month Great River hosts a luncheon in which they invite representative from each of the local communities as well as the Ethanol Plant and Coal Mine operation. It was neat to see the facilities up close. I had no idea of how large a place the Coal Creek Power Plant is. The highlight for me was definitely having to wear a hard hat as we walked through the facilities to the dining room. It made me long (if only for a moment) to have a job in which I could wear a hard hat each day.

On Friday my wife and I drove straight east 150 miles to Cooperstown, ND where our district's bible camp is located. Carrington was the largest town we drove past (probably about 3000). There towns spread out along highway 200 about ever 15 miles but many of them were nothing more than a few houses and a gas station. We arrived at Cooperstown Bible Camp at about 6:30 Friday night and were busy painting cabins by 7:30. The Bible Camp suffered quite a bit of damage as a result of the flooding earlier this spring and so Saturday we spent most of our time cleaning up the camp. We worked with some teens from First Free in Bismarck locating and organizing firewood that had been washed all over the camp and removing wet insulation from under some cabins that were affected by the floods. We left at 3:00 and were back in Underwood by 6:00 Saturday night.

After church on Sunday we hoped in the car again and drove up to Minot to celebrate our sixth anniversary. We stayed the night at a hotel, ate dinner at a Mexican restuarant and watched the new X-men movie. Then Monday we drove another 30 miles northwest to visit a goldendoodle breeder. We've been talking about getting a dog for awhile and finally settled on getting a doodle because of my allergies. We found a breeder north of Minot who recently had a litter and we went to see the puppies. The largest male of the litter, a black curly-coated guy, chose us. So we put down a deposit and should be able to bring him home at the end of June.

By God's Grace, Jeff

The Affect of God's Righteousness

2009-05-13T11:04:00.002-05:00

This past Sunday I preached on Psalm 7 as part of our series through the first book of the psalms entitled "The Spiritual Life." In Psalm 7 I pointed out how God's righteousness (His holiness lived out) affects how we deal with the unrighteousness in our lives; especially untrue, unfair criticism. If you'd like to listen to the sermon, click here.

By God's Grace, Jeff

Ducks in a Ditch

2009-05-13T10:30:00.002-05:00

Because of all the snow North Dakota had, there are literally lakes where there shouldn't be. And as a result there are ducks where you wouldn't expect them. Now ducks usually prefer to swim in actual lakes or ponds but in our case some ducks seem to be fine with swimming in ditches off the side of the road that are filled with water. It's quite amusing to be driving down the highway and see ducks congregating just off the shoulder of the road.

Well, I feel like I have taken another big step into becoming fully immersed in the agrarian culture. On Monday I rented equipment for the first time from the Farm Supply store in town. No, I did not actually rent a farm implement per se, but I did borrow a power rake in order to prep our lawn for fertilizer. If you don't know what a power rake is (and I didn't until Monday), it's the size of a lawn mower and kicks up all the dead material under the lawn. So I mowed our lawn and then power raked it. Then my wife and I spent most of the afternoon "manually" raking up the dead vegetation. After watering the lawn, I put together the spreader I picked up in Bismarck over the weekend and prepared to fertilze the lawn. Unfortunately we didn't have near enough fertilizer to go around so I'll to have to pick some more up to finish the job.

On Sunday night I played basketball for the second week in a row and was quite a bit less soar on Monday than I had been last week. We had a few less guys this week so we played 4 on 4. I have always done better offenseively playing 4 on 4 rather than the traditional 5 on 5. I can remember back to elementary basketball how I used to score significantly more when there were two less guys on the court...which isn't saying much in terms of total output!

By God's Grace, Jeff

Humility & God's Glory

2009-05-05T11:26:00.001-05:00

"Humble people know who God is - and who they are; where God stands, and where they stand. We were made for God's glory and pleasure; it's not the other way around."
- Tom Garasha ("Vital Signs")

Confidence is Found in God's Mercy

2009-05-05T11:22:00.003-05:00

This past Sunday I preached on psalm 6 and the main message that I saw as it related to our lives is that "Confidence is found in the mercy of God." Whether it is physical suffering or spiritual affliction, the confidence to respond in a way that please God is available because of God's mercy and specifically through what His Son Jesus accomplished on the cross for us. If you would like to listen to this sermon, click here.

By God's Grace, Jeff

Beautifying Underwood

2009-05-04T10:54:00.002-05:00

This Saturday my wife and I participated in "Beautification Day". A bunch of people from the community got together to improve the looks of Underwood. Originally the plan included installing a new highway sign and planting rows of trees from the highway into town. Both of these projects had to be postponed until a later date but we were still able to do quite a bit to beautify Underwood. My wife and I spent time collecting trash, preparing large flower pots to be dispersed around town and plating trees in some empty lots downtown. Even though some of our plans had to be changed, I believe we accomplished a lot and had fun doing it.

Well, I thought this week was going to be a quieter one, after finishing my basketball coaching duties. But on Sunday night I heard that a family in town who tragically had lost a member a year ago, suffered another loss. If any of you remember a post of mine from last April you may recall that I was asked to officiate a funeral for a family in the community because I had a connection with them through basketball. Believe it or not, but it was the same family that suffered this loss. How do you even begin to minister to a mom who's lost two children, a sister who's lost two siblings and children who have lost a mother and now a beloved uncle? Even more so that the funeral a year ago, this one proved to be immensely more challenging. I was able to visit the family each day last week and the funeral was held on Friday. Please pray for my ongoing ministry to this family in their time of unimaginable grief.

Last night I joined a bunch of other guys for some basketball at the school gym. Each Sunday night high school guys and guys my age and older get together for some hoops. Let me just say this: my legs are quite soar today after playing for nearly two hours straight last night! I had a great time re-connecting with some of the high school guys that I helped coach last year and getting to know some other guys from the community.

By God's Grace, Jeff

Swinging Into Spring

2009-04-28T10:32:00.002-05:00

This past Saturday my wife and I participated in Underwood's "Swing into Spring" event. This event was put together by one of our economic development organizations and included a free meal, info about upcoming economic development opportunities and Swing lessons and dancing. It was a ton of fun as many couples from the community came out for free food and to work on their dancing moves. My wife and I had taken a dance class at a community center a few years back and so it was a great refresher for us and opportunity to enjoy some social dancing. Now I know dancing is not for everyone but I can think of few activities as beneficial to marriages than dancing.

Well, if I had to describe this week in a nut-shell it would be "driving to Bismarck and back." We were in Bismarck for some part of five days this past week. Remember, Bismarck is 50 miles south of us, so we spent a lot of time on the road this past week. Our final trip to Bismarck was on Saturday to attend Child Evangelism's "Big Event Carnival". My wife and I help out with the Kids' Club here in Underwood and the regional director organized a huge gathering of families at the Bismarck Civic Center. There were three rows of carnival games hosted by various churches and ministries and the walls were lined with inflatable bounce house games. And they had about 2200 people in only four hours!

Elementary basketball is finally over for the year. It seemed like a shorter season that last year and even though I enjoyed working with the kids, I'm glad it's over. The sixth grade team (mostly fifth graders) only won one game but the fifth grade team (all fourth graders) won three times including their last game. I think this bodes well for the future of Underwood basketball.

By God's Grace, Jeff