A while ago I had an interesting conversation that has stuck with me. A woman was talking to me about living with her boyfriend and then she looked at me with a guilty glance and said, “I know, I know, I know. It’s wrong, but you just don’t understand.” First of all, it’s not about ME understanding. My opinion of your living situation is completely irrelevant. What is important to remember is that it’s about a Holy God who set up boundaries, structure, and a plan for our lives. We find joy and satisfaction when we live our lives in a way that honors Him and we find the opposite when we choose to do what’s wrong when we know better.

That conversation is replicated in my life many times over with many different people. I see a trend that we fall into so easily…we feel that if God just UNDERSTOOD our story, the rules would be different. Purity in our sexuality would just no longer matter if God only KNEW what we’d been through. Choosing not to cheat, lie, or steal would be EASY if we were smarter, richer, or better looking. Honoring our parents wouldn’t be a problem is we had THOSE parents. And on and on and on…

A couple of things to remember: God does understand…and He still says, “Trust me! Choose the RIGHT way every time regardless of all of the reasons to choose the wrong way and I will BLESS you!” As Americans I think we have an entitlement issue when it comes to our needs. If we feel like our physical, emotional, or psychological needs aren’t met, then certainly we have the right to meet them however we deem necessary. That’s just a lie! God never said that He would satisfy your needs now. He said to obey and He will satisfy you when it’s best for you.

Dear Christian, wake up! If you know better, for the love of God, do better. We should be the last people holding on to the leftovers of this world when we have an invitation to the best of God! This world has sold you a truckload of manure and you are building your home in it. If God says that purity is the standard, then pack your bags, draw the line, and do whatever it takes to live according to that standard. Don’t wait another day to watch God unfold His plan for your life.

Another rainy Sunday! It must be officially fall in the Northwest!

Church was good! We had several families who ran the Portland Marathon, so congrats to all of you who did it! Our youth pastor, Kris, was one of them, so we are pretty proud of her.

Jace is one of our Tiny Town Kids. He always has jewels of wisdom, so here is the life lesson from yesterday: “Sharing is hard. And life isn’t always fair.” Yep, that about sums it up! The wisdom of a four year old…

Mark spoke on giving people grace…tough subject! It seems so simple until you think of all the things that you stand for that other people may not agree with. What is the balance between having your own standards and unconditionally loving others in spite of theirs? And how to we make each other better people in the midst of that? Interesting stuff to think about and study on!

Worship rocked! Love the songs, love the style, love it all.

The next series is called Weird. I’m excited about it! Brace yourselves! It will mess with your opinions and lifestyles. The simple fact is that Christianity should push against what the world considers to be normal. Does your life push against it? Can’t wait…

My mom is in town visiting right now. She’s amazing! We eat fresh, gooey cinnamon rolls and she runs my kids the whole time until they are exhausted! It’s always fun!

We had lots of new guests this weekend and some old friends came back to visit as well. We have a lot of people in our church that probably didn’t think that church was ever going to be a part of their lives. We are honored that they consider North Creek their home and are hearing about Jesus!

Simply Worship is Friday, Oct. 14 from 7-8:00 pm. Bring the kids from birth-8 years old in the jammies! We’ve got a movie and popcorn planned for them. Older kids are welcome to worship with us! Also, if you want to bring some cookies, we’ll plan on staying a while afterward to drink coffee and eat cookies together. Chris Harold has promised some spiced cider, too, so we’ll see what he whips up!

I hope that you have a gracious week! Give somebody grace who really doesn’t deserve it because you don’t either!

This week, our youth pastor and one of my favorite people, Kris Gray, will run a marathon. It’s one of her life goals and I’m so proud of her for doing it! Kris and I share a deep desire within us to achieve in spite of obstacles and we live by the motto, “Laziness is not an option.” In that vein, she is hard working, determined, and relentless in her pursuit of a goal. In fact, if you’d like to get her to do something, just tell her she can’t. It will ignite in her an unstoppable focus!

I am sure that many of those miles she will be talking to herself, pushing herself, and arguing with herself. She will be happy, miserable, content, and struggling within those hours. It will be a mini-version of what real life is like! Sometimes we want to believe that we should have it easy, never suffer, and be riding on some sort of a cloud, but it isn’t so. We’ve got to fight, face our weakness, and push pass the urge to give up. It’s reality that we’ve got to stop whining and just run. Run when it hurts and run when we want to stop. Run when it’s all uphill and run when it’s rocky. Just run.

So, Kris, my cheers and prayers go with you out on that course. I am so impressed by how you live your life and the passion that pours out of you! I know you can do this and I know that no matter what it takes, you’ll cross that finish line, one way or another. When it’s tough, remember that we are all behind you…shouting loudly! And just between the two of us – I’m so relieved I chose the cake! 🙂

YAY! We had the floors finished this week and what an awesome sight it was to see everybody standing on them. You don’t appreciate things until you don’t have them! Thanks to Rain City Companies for great work and such funny to guys to work with. We spent a month with them side by side and truly loved the experience!

Rip it out and they will come…guess it’s true. One of our highest attendances ever this week and again they wouldn’t have fit with the old bar.

This might be my favorite quote yet:
I am totally loving my new church: North Creek Church! It’s the kind of place where Jesus doesn’t stay pinned to the wall on a couple of sticks.

Also liked this one from Facebook:
My Pastor can really sing… who knew? : )

That’s so funny! Mark helped the worship team sing Amazing Grace at the end of the service. Yes, it’s really a pastor that can belt out a tune without scaring away the Holy Spirit….HA HA HA! Little known fact: Mark sang to me on our wedding day!

We now have almost full kids classes. What’s our plan? Well, believe it or not, the building behind us was once a place for kids when the previous church was here. With renovation, it could be a spacious, secure kid’s area for our ever-expanding crew. We will continue to raise funds for 19 Cents of Faith and tackle that mountain next! Anything for seats…

I have REALLY been enjoying getting to know some of our new families. It’s always nice to have new faces around and find out about them. People are so interesting and each one adds a new layer to our church family! Welcome and jump in with both feet!

We are going to just keep going on the fix-ups and we’ll tackle most of the nursing mom’s room this week. It’s mostly cosmetic changes, but we are adding a video feed so our mom’s can watch the service. That will be a nice upgrade!

Mark spoke on the grace of God. What a gift we have been given! If we can just keep His unconditional love for us in focus, everything we do and say would be in alignment with His heart.

On that note, I’ve been praying that God would take what North Creek Church hears and turn it into action. We are accountable for what we know is right and it breaks my heart when people settle for excuses rather than God’s best. Just a thought…

Live right, live well! Have a great week!