Pause: with Pastor Aaron

I hate when I mess up.  In my desire to do the right thing, I hate when I give up the fight and simply resort selfishness.  I know better, and I should do better.  It separates me from fellowship with God.  I'm left to do life on my own.  I can live in this state, disappointed in myself and embarrassed to see God, or I can not... Today I choose to not.   Today I choose to not let the enemy have one more moment interfering with my fellowship with God.   Today I choose to say yes to God and no to sin and its influence and its authority in my life.  Today I embrace a God who promises He will never leave us, and He will never let us go (Heb 13:5b).  Today I embrace forgiveness. Forgiveness is not an every depleting vault.  Forgiveness is a state of being.  Forgiveness is a statue or a tower standing tall against the skyline.   Forgiveness is about reconciliation.  Forgiveness occurs when I turn from my own direction to...

I have noticed something about the church.  There are times when we ask people to speak about what God is doing in their lives yet much of the time what we get in return is either a blank stare or a historical record.  Each of these actions concern me.  It concerns me that some believers either don't know what God is doing in their lives or do not know enough to give him the credit for what has been done. The contrast is the believer who wants to tell the story of a historical event, something God certainly did, but something buried in the past. God is working still today! We need to praise God for His intervention into our daily lives.  Remember this is the 'eternal life' we experience until we go to heaven. God gets involved! He is helping us daily live and thrive in a world that is decaying and lost. How should we speak of it?  I believe we can be guided by a phrase that appears only about 3x in the Bible.   Isaiah 12:2 states, "...the Lord is my...

Temperament can be described as the way you have been wired by God.  In some people God has wired them to be doers, others thinking, others feelers and yet others lovers.  There is not a bad temperament.  There is not a temperament that is greater than another.   There is only how God has wired you (the strengths and the weaknesses) and what will you do with it, for good and for bad. As a combination doer and thinker,  I often fight the battle of engaging before I know the strength of my enemy.   After failing in this area so many times in my life, I came to a conclusion that I will no longer attempt to fight a spiritual problem with a physical solution.   There would no longer be moves to flank my foe with better logic and tactics until I had taken the problem to the Lord and sought His solution.  See when I fought the battle without the Lord, I didn't use the weapons of OUR warfare (2 Cor 10:3-5).  I fought using the same tactics of my en...

This week I went through a new experience.  On August 1, a college roommate and a dear friend died.  August 1 I began my own journey in grief.  As I am sure you understand I have buried dozens of people as a pastor.  When it's someone who has predated your ministry, who loved you and you returned that love for as young men, its just different.  It effects you a whole different way. Had the opportunity to connect with several others who fall into this category of friendship.  In my own moments of processing, I realized something.  I was given true gifts, in the friendships I made with these men.  I have never had the like again in 20 years.  Sure I have loved and been loved since then, but it was different. These guys loved a man without a title. These men loved a guy who's faults were large. These men loved a guy they could have easily walked away from. These men stuck through it - any and all of the events that forced others awa...