Pause: with Pastor Aaron

It's been a long 5 years.  Five years ago much of what I valued was ripped away from me savagely.  People I thought I could trust and had long experiences with made decisions that left deep wounds; for myself and for my family.  God was gracious.  When everything inside me screamed to quit, He said no.  He fought both for me and with me.  Where the Bible says, "I will never leave you or forsake you" became something especially real to me.  It continues to be real these past few months. In May I received word that my heart disease had improved and my heart function had doubled. This was not supposed to happen.  It had been 23% for 5 years, but all the sudden, tests came back at 46%.  I was convinced of a screw up.  I was dead wrong (no pun intended).  God has restored what Satan tried to steal.  I can say "It is well with my soul." In June I had the opportunity to go home again.  God opened the door for me to speak at a...

Blind Spots (Part 1): By Aaron Peternel Some of my recent reading has forced my thinking into a time of personal reflection. Seasons of looking inside are good things. They are part of what God uses to make us holy; to look more like Jesus. Why do we do the things that we do; specifically why do we continue in unhealthy patterns of behavior? These are patterns that we are taught are wrong, and know are wrong. Many times we fight to control the urges or tendencies and fare well for a while, yet when we are tired, hungry, lonely or or emotionally exhausted, we can often fall. Then the guilt-confession cycle begins and we hate the fact that we failed and have not yet grown beyond it. A simple reason we fall into these patterns is that we choose to say yes to self and no to God. The Scriptures make it clear that we do not have to fall to sin, "13 No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God ...

In the last four years I have seen a lot relationships in my life change.  There were people who I was very close to who went a different direction, just because of life.   There was the reality of leaving Pittsburgh; moving far away.   That would naturally change some relationships.   There was also those relationships I thought were solid and would stand the test of time.   Many of those have drastically changed.  Of all of these, these hurt the worst.   These were the ones I poured the most into.  These were the ones I thought I could take the most from. I try to find the lesson from these relationships that ended in a form of betrayal.  You may think that to be a strong word, but how else should I  interpret it?  The church leader who promised ABC and then reneged.   The church leader who joined me in guise of love and then in my moment of greatest need sought only their best perceived inte...

          As you begin to read this, you need to know that this is not an a+b=c plan.  While sometimes I wish that God would move that way, I feel like it would take away the mystery and turn God into our vending machine.  That is not what we should want, nor is it what He wants.  God is in this for a long term relationship.  The question my friend is, "What are you in for?"      If you are in for relationship, understand that it is God who reached out first to you.  We call this reaching out 'prevenient grace'.  He does this because we can not grasp Him without it because we are totally depraved, unable to connect with God.      So God reaches out, and as He does He supplies all that is needed for us to reach back.  We call that moment conversion.  It is when we come to the conclusion, "I am a sinner and I need a savior.  Jesus is the savior that I need."   This i...

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...

God doesn't love American's greater than people from other lands, but I think it safe to say that America holds a special place in God's heart.  Where we have traveled and what we have overcome in these last 230 years is nothing short of remarkable.  I believe we must acknowledge God's hand in our success as a nation. Yet there are those who are doing all they can to remove God from not just the present discussion but also the pages of history.  They want to talk about a county founded by deists and forget that a number of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence were men of the pulpit, perhaps the best know being the Rev. John Hancock. Why I bring that up is because we can not divorce ourselves from our heritage as a client nation of the Lord, created to do His will.   While I will readily acknowledge that not all will be Christian who govern, we should not diminish, condemn or push out those who are.  We should not flee the influence of our ...

I believe that the Lord has moved me into a new place regarding my devotional reading; the book of the Judges. Today in chapter 2 the Lord gave me pause in 2 verses: Judges 2:10 - Also, all [the people of] that generation were gathered to their fathers [in death]; and another generation arose after them who did not know (recognize, understand) the Lord, nor even the work which He had done for Israel. (Amp) Judges 2:20-21 - So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He said, “Because this nation has transgressed (violated) My covenant (binding agreement) which I commanded their fathers, and has not listened to My voice, I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left [to be conquered] when he died.  (Amp ) One of the things that frightens me is that people have adopted the 'come and see' approach to church.  Pastors and leaders often treat is as they would an entertainment venue, focusing on the presentation so as to compete w...

The Easter story goes back now well over 2000 years.   It has been talked about, written about, sung about and expressed in just about every medium possible.  The sad thing of so much exposure is that it can often turn the most beautiful thing into the mundane, turning glory into white noise. One way we can see the power brought back for the hearer is to turn the story to its relevance in the speakers life.  Go beyond the facts of history.  Go beyond the theology of faith.  Talk about what the Easter story means to you, for as believers you are its' most powerful testimony. I grew up in a pastors home, so from a tender age I learned the facts about Jesus.  I was one who had many experiences at the proverbial altar; many times confessing my sins and many times receiving Jesus into my heart.   Some might ask me which one 'stuck' but I would point them to each one being a part of my journey.  Each time I resolved to know Jesus more I grew in Hi...

Why did we quit being a people who came up against a problem and pushed it over? Why have we allowed the 'wall', standing in the way of progress, to define or hinder our momentum? Why have we become a people who quit instead of overcoming? The culture of today is to be defined by something. I saw this first hand in my previous youth ministry where so many talked about 'their' anxiety, depression, learning disability or disadvantage. What I loved about these teens is that, at least they were honest with themselves. Many adults either A. Ignore the issues in the lives, B. Play the victim card or C. Let busy-ness keep them occupied, ignoring the wall to forward progress. So we have raised generations who will sit as the base of the wall, and never progress further. They will accept mediocrity in their homes, jobs and lives. They will rationalize it saying that "This is what I deserve" or "This is the best I can get." We as believer in Jesus Christ...

The are inherent qualities that are necessary to leadership. What I love about working for the Lord, is that when He calls us to a higher place of influence, He prepares us for that higher place. In God's economy, we never have to worry that we don't possess the skills to achieve. What we do have to be concerned about is this, "Do we have the obedience to achieve." Will we be apt learners of the lessons God will teach us to prepare us for the task we are called to do? Learn and we will thrive. Ignore the lessons and we are destined to repeat them. Live in rejection of the lessons and we will lead others down failures path into a place of corporate destruction. Leadership is hard. When you stand in the front of the people you become a target. Everyone who thinks they either can do it better or perhaps deserved the position you now find yourself in is now proverbially gunning for you. In our context of leading other believers, you face the additional rea...

Most of us can probably talk about a level of injustice that they have personally witnessed.  You may have seen or been the victim of some type of abuse.  You may have seen people mistreated financially.  You may have known of cases where someone close to you was personally attacked by people whose sole purpose seemed to have been the outright destruction of character. They used every lie, slander and manipulation.  Their efforts may have even worked with others, peeling people away from truth. It's easy in those moments to ask the question, "Where was God in all of this?"  In some ways I think that every believer has a picture in their heads of Jesus riding a white steed into the battle and setting right the enemies of truth.  We want God to raise His mighty 'smiter' and do justice on our enemies in a timely and quick fashion that ends the suffering and sleepless nights that we experience.  We want this, yet it can be argued that this is often not...

How is forgiveness gained?  I remember a conversation with a young man in my church in Monongahela who was convinced that forgiveness was a result of an apology.   It had to be sought, and could not be offered unless it was.  Others have proposed to me that we have a state of forgiveness before the Lord and when we sin we only need reconcile to that state and we are made right again with Him.  In that case no real apology is needed - simply a turning away from the previous deed and an awareness of identity in Christ.  Still yet others look to Scripture and see verses of a God who can withhold forgiveness based upon our withholding forgiveness from others.  Thus a person must be practicing the very thing they are asking God to do for them. This may be one of those places where each position is a little right.  Each position may be a lot of wrong dependent upon what the outcome is that the person who forgives wants.  Some truths we have to fa...