Pastor Bruce’s blog

Hey, I had a great trip to Brownsville, Texas this past week!  The picture I put here isn’t really fair; I only saw cactus off in a field of scrub brush.  Brownsville is a thriving city of mostly hispanic people, being on the border with Mexico.  I didn’t go down to see the sights, though, I went to spend time with our friends the Ordemans and their amazing church family.  I love spending time with Pastor Bob, his wife Libby, and their senior leaders because they are really reaching their city for Jesus.  The church has about 2,000 members and every week 25 to 35 people come to Christ in their services.  They have a leadership development school called “Vision Academy” and I witnessed a graduation service for the end of a term, last Wednesday night.  It was a real celebration!  They, like us, have small groups meeting weekly for discipleship and outreach.  There are many things that they do that contribute to great success in building God’s Kingdom, both in Brownsville and in Mexico, which they consider their prime mission field.  But you know where their success really lies?  It’s in their prayer life.  Every day their staff gets together and prays for an hour.  They pray together before services.  They have monthly church wide prayer meetings and weekly early morning men’s prayer meetings.  For the first three weeks of the year they have a 21 day fast and every week night they met as a church for prayer.  No wonder! No wonder they see so much happening in the Spirit and have so many coming to the Lord!  That’s the reason I went down, because I love these people and want what they have to rub off on all of us.  But hey; do you hang out with people more mature in the Lord?  Have you said to someone more mature, “please give me what you have?”  It makes a huge difference as to how much and how fast you’ll grow!  PB

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It’s so predictable that life will be unpredictable.  Life has these ups and downs and the mountain top can be followed by the deep valley in a very short time, it seems.  A project you thought was going great crashes and burns; and then it resurrects from the dead!  The stock market with your retirement funds invested in it takes a nosedive.  A relationship that you really care about may be up one day and down the next.  Mood swings are just that, swings!  They rise and fall with the next event or phone call or email.  If we attach ourselves to them, our emotional selves that is, we will rise or fall with the events of the day. 

But what if we connected our hearts to a secure place that never changes?  Ah, see what I’m getting at?  What if our lives, futures, pasts, our sense of well being were attached to the Lord Himself?  The Bible says He never changes.  So unlike our lives, God does not go up and down with every wave.  And if we have a personal, strong and current relationship with Him, we’ll be steadier, more able to handle the good and the difficult.  Reconnect with the Lord.  Set your treasures down next to His throne and trust Him.  Rely on the Lord for wisdom, for strength, for a rescue or for a reality check.  He is a Rock to all who anchor their lives with Him.  PB

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When we think that the God of the universe, the One Who holds all of life in His Hands, would come and live among men, we ought to be astounded.  God is so large, magnificent, and to think He would condescend to our status is almost beyond thinking.  He made plans to be with us, to feel what we feel and to understand what we understand.  But wouldn’t you have expected Him to come as a full grown man?  Like the angels that appeared in the Old and New Testament stories.  You know, one minute here and another gone, but in between doing business effectively.  God actually chose the higher way; go figure!  He completely humbled Himself and took on the form of a man and came the way we all come, as a baby.  A baby.  So that means He experienced all that we experience and can relate to everything we go through.  And He did it sinlessly, aiming to be the sacrificial lamb on the cross, literally carrying all of man’s sins on His back.  How great is this God?  So great that He humbled Himself and became one of us in order to relate to and then save as many as would repent and believe.  He came to us…as a Baby.  PB

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With a little less than three weeks left in the year, I’m beginning to mentally put the year 2007 to rest.  Wow.  It seems like yesterday that we started this year with prayers and plans and, yes, the Lord was faithful to bless what we did this past year in so many ways.  We’ve seen Him move, saving some, healing others, restoring relationships and renewing hearts.   But is His work “done” for the year?  He is so great that He transcends time and space and reaches into the hearts and lives of people, no matter what time of year it is.  It seems to me at this moment that the calendar is, well, so artificial.  Because to the Lord Who lives outside of time, His work is continuous.  In other words, He is always saving, healing and delivering, without interuption.  So is the year gone and His work finished in some way?  Yes and no.  The calendar year is almost done.  But He continues on until the return of His Son, acting as the High Priest, the Great Shepherd, the Redeemer of mankind.   There are people that God is working directly with right now.  May we see it and be His willing vessels to be used in His continual work.  PB 

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The Christmas Extravaganza.  This is so huge for us.  Pastor Mark is running around taking care of details.  There are lots of people involved, not only in the actual performances but in the background.  And there’s everyone else, inviting friends and family, just getting the word out.  There’s a group of us praying and fasting today to ask the Lord to bring many to Himself through what’s said and done.  This is big.

Lord Jesus, we pray for this community and the communities around us.  We ask that you would reach the hurting, the lonely, the people who are caught in destructive habits and those who have lost much this year.  We pray for kids and families, marriages and homes, businesses and local government.  May the Light of the World shine here…. PB

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I really don’t like Christmas.  Yeah, I know, I’m a pastor and I’m supposed to like Christmas!  But if I’m going to be honest with you and let you know what’s on my heart, I’ve got to tell you that the period of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is not my favorite!  Oh don’t get me completely wrong.  I love that Jesus was born and it’s right to celebrate His birth, that’s a no brainer!  And I love my family, natural and church family, that we spend more time with.  But all the expectations, the commercialization of the season, the disappointments many folks feel around the holidays and the way that many valuable pursuits get put on hold, just drag me down.  Do any of you feel that way too?  What can we do to change all of this?

Well, I think the first thing we can do is to focus on the Lord Himself.  So that’s going to call for some honest to goodness prayer time.  Time where we refuse to allow the busyness to pull us away from Him personally.  And the next thing we can do is to simplify.  I’m actually going to attempt to refuse some of the expectations of the season, especially the unspoken ones, and just do what’s meaningful in a Kingdom and family way.  And next, I’m going to laugh a little more and celebrate what the Lord has done all year long.  Our enemy wants to take away from us the taste of victory, the thrill of knowing that God has been and is working with us.  Like this weekend, for instance.  I’m hoping that we all are totally thrilled over the 11 water baptisms this weekend, young and older alike.  For another, we’ve got the Extravaganza next weekend and I’m believing that we’ll see the Lord change some lives through that production.  Bottom line?  We can’t let the enemy take away our joys over what the Lord has done and is doing.  Hey, I’m feeling better already!

So yeah, Christmas isn’t my biggest thrill.  But seeing Jesus work in lives is.  I think that I’ll try to get my eyes and heart in the right place this year and look to see a difference.  Join me?   Forget the cookies and let’s take His Presence in our world as our preoccupation.  PB

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This is a great holiday.  It always brings good emotions to the surface in me and I just can’t stop being, well, grateful.  The fact that Jesus would have a relationship with me.  My sweet wife Robin.  Our kids and now we have a daughter-in-law, Chelsea, who is such a perfect addition to our family.  The church and the growing family that’s constantly impressing me and encouraging me to go on.  My partner in ministry, Mark DuPre. 

Isn’t the Lord good to us?  We have so much!  A few years ago Robin and I found a decoarative plate while vacationing in Indiana.  It simply says “Gratitude.”  Gratitude to Whom?  To the Lord Himself, the Source of all life.  No, the Pilgrims didn’t give thanks to the Indians, primarily.  They and we give thanks to the Lord.  For everything.  PB

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Robin and I are home!  And we had a great time, albeit exhausting, with brethren in Washington, DC and in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The picture here is of the trees on the mountains outside of Vancouver. 

The bottom line is that God is faithful!  We shared our hearts out with all these wonderful folks and the Lord moved.  There were precious times with leadership and significant times with everyone.  Robin and I were able to give out some of what the Lord has given us and it really felt good to do that.  Rob and I tag teamed in Vancouver to share some of the principles regarding male/female relationships with a group of young folks in their church.  That was especially gratifying, as we have a passion in that area of life. 

We’re so glad to be home, however!  We were so happy to see the kids and to be with our friends here.  Rob and I took the girls out for breakfast the morning after we arrived home and let them go to school late so that we could catch them up on our adventures.  Thank you Lord for speaking to our hearts that we should go in the first place, for going with us and for taking us home, having made a difference in precious lives in other parts of the continent!  PB

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I’m sitting here in the Charlotte, NC airport just waiting for the next plane.  I planned this visit to see our friends the Arendas’ before I knew the challenges that lay before me. I’m really glad that I could pray with Larry and Carole and have the Lord speak to me through them.   You see, I have two ministry opportunities the next two weekends and well, frankly, I’m a little nervous.  I love ministering in our own church.  I know our folks and I love them and anyone who comes in the door who is new is at least a friend in the making.  It’s home.  But now I’m being asked by the Lord to go to 2 other cities and give them what He gives me for them, not really knowing them or how they will receive what Robin and I say.  That’s a bit nerve wracking! And I know I can’t do it on my own!  Hey, I don’t have what it takes at home, let alone somewhere else with people who are culturally different than I am.  It’s beyond me.  But isn’t that good?  Shouldn’t we consider that we don’t really have it so all together in life and turn to the Lord for His supply?  Yes, I think so.  So uncomfortable as life’s opportunities can be sometimes, we can be successful in what we do if we seek the Lord for the supply we need at the right time.  His grace is sufficient for the ordinary or the extraordinary.  I won’t be sufficient in myself, but He gives His great sufficiency to those who rely on Him.  And I can be comfortable with relying on Him.  As long as He’s with us, we can do anything any one of us is called to do.  PB

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I’ve been thinking about outreach and that “E” word, evangelism.  I know, it conjures up all kinds of thoughts, mostly fearful ones, and include an image of guys standing on the street corner with bullhorns, shouting at passerbys.  Is that really what we should be thinking about when it comes to reaching beyond ourselves to those who don’t know Him?  Do we fall into the same category as the folks who knock on your door and try to engage you in religious conversation with no relationship?  No, but we do cringe at the thought of becoming like that.  And rightly so, I think.

Jesus told us to go and tell the world about Him, beginning with those closest to us geographically.  But how do we do that?  By being real.  And by honestly caring about someone else, anyone else, enough that we would just ”cross the room” as Bill Hybels puts it, and say hello.  Jesus cared with compassion that few of us have.  His compassion drove Him to obedience on the Cross.  Is is possible that with a measure of His compassion that we could care enough about others to the point that we would temporarily leave our friends and find a way to establish a friendship that could lead to that person’s changed eternity?  How I would love for that to be all of our lifestyles.  PB 

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