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WSM High School Lesson for 10/06/11

November 7th, 2011 · Christianity, Ministry, Youth

Note: portions of this were taken from Rick Warren’s devotional on conflict resolution.

Conflict is inevitable, misery is optional.

Ephesians 4:26 NLT 26 And ?don?t sin by letting anger control you.? Don?t let the sun go down while you are still angry,

Relationships are always worth restoring!

What was the core of Jesus’ ministry? Not a trick question, not rhetorical… What was it?

Loving people, forgiving people, and guiding people to a right relationship w/God.

Today I want to talk about resolving conflict. I want you to be able to not live a life of arguments. Full of resentment and negativity, but rather one of peace and happiness. Neither of those things come easily nor quickly unfortunately. But today I want to discuss the opportunity you have to pursue that life. So with no further ado, I give you the step by step guide to resolving conflict with those around you.

Step 1: Pray!

James 4:1-2 NLT What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don?t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don?t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can?t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don?t have what you want because you don?t ask God for it.

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Why the Square Patty Matters

October 25th, 2011 · Ministry, Youth

I have heard it said that the reason Wendy’s has square patties is because they refuse to cut corners (especially just because of what other people think is more appealing.)

I appreciate this thought. I hate cutting corners. Not that I prefer to pack on extra work by any means, but rather that I attempt to do things the way that goes both most efficiently, and with the highest quality. In my sales work this comes out with how I treat customers and the perspectives of how they are dispensing their money.

I could speed through a sale, taking their multiple cues for “free” products and get them into a poor device chosen on price over the 2 year commitment, and be done with it. But my integrity wouldn’t stand for it. I see these same type of customers come from ordering these phones off the internet and being upset because now the phone they are exchanging for has a restocking fee on top of paying for it. I try and warn them when they use me for research, but sometimes my warnings are unheeded.

On the other side I could spend so much time with a customer trying to persuade them to go with something so powerful that is ahead of its time and way more powerful than they may need. And I could do so much that I lose the sale entirely just because I am not listening to any cues from the customer. Trying to do what is best for me.

Both of those are cutting corners, not really do what is best. And this goes beyond my occupation as a salesman, it goes into what I do for the students I minister to. They have cues I have to listen to, they want to be heard, to do events that they want, to be taught on things important to them. And on the same side, I have to be ready to communicate to them the way they need to hear it. I cannot cut the corners on my message just to make it a little friendlier to digest. So I speak to them in a very direct manner. I don’t sugar coat it, I don’t feed them any crap, I just give them the truth and I am ready to support them after they have heard it.

I love my students enough to not cut the corners off of their patties.

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When Your Dreams Disappear God’s Dream Sets In

October 10th, 2011 · Ministry

2002 I went to college with the dream of coming out 4 years later an all-knowing Youth Pastor.

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The Miracle of Youth Ministry

April 3rd, 2011 · Faith, Ministry, Youth

I have found the great humor that comes from teaching students about God. That despite my 27 years of life I am still barely scratching at the surface of my faith. Every time I have gotten up to teach I am reminded of my love for learning about God. It is amazing how it feels like I am giving a narrative of an active conversation between God and myself as it is happening. Like a player providing a play by play to a crowd during the middle of a game.

I hope that every man or woman who speaks to students about God gets to experience this.

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Back to the heart

April 1st, 2011 · Ministry

I can’t help but realize how skewed my thoughts on ministry had become. I thought I had to be a youth pastor in order to fulfill my calling for youth ministry. I was angry and upset and extremely frustrated with God. I couldn’t understand why he kept shutting the doors to being a youth pastor on me. Then it dawned on me…

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Back in the Saddle

March 12th, 2011 · Uncategorized

I am happy to say that I have been brought back to something I have missed so much. I am teaching the bible again for Young Peoples. More specifically the students at Westside Community Church. And it feels so good.

No I am not a Youth Pastor, I am exactly what I have always wanted to be, I am a teacher, a counselor, a friend, a mentor, a servant. I volunteer my knowledge, my time, and my talents for a greater good, and a greater GOD!

I hope to actually have something to post about more regularly now that I have something with a bit more purpose to blog about.

Zach

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New Blogger in the Blogosphere

November 15th, 2010 · Uncategorized

Well my corruption is nearly complete now! My wife has started a blog. And this might be my personal bias speaking here, but it is pretty awesome. I feel like her content has a level of authenticity to it that is rarely matched in todays blogging world.

Her Blog is:
Life According To His Purpose

Go check it out!

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3 Things that make me Awesome!

August 29th, 2010 · Uncategorized

I am making a stand against self-deprecation today!

So in honor of me, here are three great things that I love about who I am!

1) I am a extrovert, and I love it: I can talk with anyone, become your friend if you let me, and always be enthusiastic about other peoples lives!

2) I am a total geek! And its great. I embrace my desire to know more about technology and the way things work, and I still love comic books because they let my imagination run wild.

3) I am loyal: I will remains steadfast in what I commit to be whether it is as a husband for Karina, a friend for many of you, or even as an employee, as long as you keep me in that position I will do everything I can to maintain it and keep doing it even if a few bad days roll along.

If you have a blog, by all means, do yourself a favor and put something similar up. Remind yourself on why you love who you are, because most people are going to be ready to let you know the opposite side of things.

Cheers!

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Faith of the Failures

August 25th, 2010 · Christianity, Church, Faith

It isn’t interesting that we look up to those in our present day who seem to be getting it all right. Why wouldn’t and why shouldn’t we? They are doing well, they show us we can do better than we are currently achieving. It is not per-se inspirational… but it is something to try and achieve. It would almost be absurd not to applaud those who have done well, we should congratulate them and learn from what they are doing that seems to just work.

However, if I continued down that vein of thought it would be a steaming pile of platitudes that would more or less reaffirm how crappy I might be feeling and that would get tossed around like chimpanzees having a tantrum.

My mind drifts over to the failures who have pulled themselves out of their self-pitying muck-ridden mire and risen above the challenges that use to bog them down. Remember some guys who were given a chance by Jesus? A bunch of fishermen, who though they enjoyed their lives on the boats I am sure, probably realized they would never have the authority to challenge anyone on their beliefs or questions on their faith. They were sheep.

But then one day, one crazy bearded fellow, who has an undeniable authority that needs no declaration comes up, says, “Drop what you are doing and come with me.” And they do. They didn’t have to, but they did. They knew the jig was up and the world was about to be turned upside down. Kings would be toppled and peasants would assume the throne. They followed him throughout the one kingdom who should have embraced him with open arms, rallied behind him with proclamations of joy and faith, existing leadership and all. But instead that leadership, that kingdom, out of fear of losing their positions of success, insulted this man of divine authority. They tried to set him up for failure, they questioned his truth, they conspired to kill, and to set his people apart from him. And why? Because they were trapped in their personal success.

And when the time passed, and the divine authority died, rose again, and returned to his kingdom above, he passed his authority onto those who had been successes… Wrong… He passed it onto The Sheep who broke away from the rest of the herd. He gave them unbelievable authority over the very nature of the world, defying all natural precepts. And they too would pay for the authority given to them. But they would succeed in the end.

This is obviously an extremely truncated concept of Jesus, the Disciples, and the events of their ministry. But the major question we should be asking ourselves are… If Jesus came, would we recognize him for who he is? And if we did (because I believe many of the Pharisees did but did not want to lose their authority) would we lay down all of our trappings of success and allow ourselves to become his sheep. Would we let ourselves be seen as failures in order to rise above and be successes? Or would we stand in the way, and look to those who would promote our successes in order to stand in the way of HIM?

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Back in Oregon… Again

June 7th, 2010 · Authenticity, Marriage, Money, Moving, Prayer

Well its been a heck of a week as Karina and I moved 85% of our material posessions up to my parents place in Oregon last Sunday, and then I traveled back to finish my last week of work to collect my severance pay and now we are back again in Oregon. 15% of our stuff is still with Karina’s folks in Redding, but we will deal with that when the time comes.

I want to apologize to my readers because I have pretty much not blogged in the past 6 months… I like blogging and I am going to make a concerted effort to do more of it in this next season of Karina and my life.

I am taking a week off of hunting down jobs after the move to Oregon, not because I am lazy and want to collect UI benefits, but because I have a wedding to officiate this weekend and I need a week just to figure out what I am going to say.

I have a few prayer requests for this new season

1. Please pray for Karina and I as we deal with what is probably Karina’s biggest permanent move she has ever made and is getting used to not having her folks so close, pray that we have patience with one another as no doubt stress will be a factor in the next several weeks.

2. Pray for Karina and I as we attempt to find jobs that allow us some financial peace and security.

3. Pray for Karina and I as we also attempt to find a church to call our home and as we get involved in various ministries, youth and missions at the top of the list, though no doubt my bass will get dusted off here soon.

4. Pray for Karina and she is being such a trooper and attending atleast 2 schools simultaneously for the next year trying to finish her degree and still walk from CSU Chico next may.

Thanks for being around for me everybody,

 

Zach

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