A week out and a 10 year blog accounting

 


A week out and I am adjusting to my new schedule.  Part of my routine is a morning walk, about 5 miles around the perimeter of the park in the early hours.  The picture above is a memorial pond which gave me a pause this morning with its reflection of the sunrise and landscape.  The walks help me in so many ways.  Not only do I need them physically but mentally.  

I have an old walkman type cassette player with a radio that I tune to Moody Radio and listen to the Kurt and Kate morning show.  News, weather, chit-chat and music fill my ears but what I key in on is the music.  I multi-task so much that music just becomes background noise to help me focus on the task before me.  It has been awhile since I have listened to a song solely to hear it for its own worth.  

I pull out an ear bud when a fellow walker approaches so I can say "good morning" and some of the faces are becoming familiar to me.  It is a good way to start these days of waiting.  Praying for a future assignment, family members, and my new friends back in Machias fill my mind each turn down another street of Betmar as I make the big circle back to "home base."  I guess I am still multi-tasking because I usually have a list of things to attempt to accomplish before hitting the steps of our beloved "tiny house."

Let me share with you something I learned this week from my online masters class.  It seems odd to have extra time to devote to study without a sermon lurking in the back of my mind.  Theological terms help us to teach about God and His redemptive plan.  Those theological terms need definitions and those definitions must be based on Biblical support.  What happens when two Christians are using the same terms but they have different definitions and what if one or both of those definitions haven't been thoroughly vetted by the Scriptures?  The two Christians can be talking two different languages because they are using different definitions but speaking the same terms.  The terms we use need definitions that we explain from the Scripture before going forward.  We might find more common ground after we have taken the time to define the terms we are using.  Maybe, as Dr. Tim Sansbury states, "And so even if they take different words to describe that one reality, it's still that one reality that they're aimed at."  Maybe we are aimed at the same thing but haven't taken the time to ask the other how they are defining the terms they are using and from what passages do they build that definition.  Does this all sound deep?  I'm glad I have the extra time for this class.

Lastly, I blew past the 10 year anniversary of this blog in December 2020.  I have been tending it for a decade.  My first post was Christmas Day, 2010.  Here is the link to that post:  https://pastorwolfgang.blogspot.com/2010/12/start-of-new-habit.html 

Here are some stats:

Overall views:  almost 60,000

Overall posts:  including this one, 1,833

Most posts in a year:  320 - 2018

Fewest posts in a year:  79 - 2020

Most views of any post:  216 

To those who read these thoughts of mine, I am humbled for you giving some of your time to read what I write.  I am still just "a simple man serving a great God" as my profile states but I am thankful for all the experiences and people God puts in my path.  You are some of those people.

Adam

A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians #15 - Galatians 6:11-18 - "On The Road Again..."

Image
  Another week closer and it involves some more travel for the Wolfgangs.  I feel like the Willy Nelson song, " On the road again... "  I don't know if I agree with the next line though. " ...I can't wait to get on the road again. " One of the members of the church in Wisconsin calculated that I will travel well over 10,000 miles to make this transition.  Traveling mercies prayers please. Last Sunday we will look at Paul's final words to the churches in Galatia.  He brought them the gospel (good news) message of Jesus and what resulted were churches forming throughout the region.  The letter is to defend that message that our salvation comes from and is in Christ alone.  Christ's sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.  The summary statement of the letter is found in  Galatians 6:15 (LSB) .  " For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. "  Translated another way earlie...
Read more

God gave us a good weather window to travel...yeah God!!!

Image
  Berthoud Pass Here we are at the top of Berthoud Pass.  It was a whirlwind week to conduct a " hand off " service in Wisconsin on 3/17 and then preach a Palm Sunday sermon in Colorado on 3/24.  We give God all the glory for this happening.  So there are two video links at the bottom of this blog.  One is for the Wisconsin service and the other is for the Colorado service.  I racked up over 12,000 in the last 7 weeks.   I love to take these pictures sitting from the front row of chairs and listening to the one God has provided for the church I had been serving for 20 months.  I now have 3 and I am so thankful for the opportunity God gave us to serve Him in this type of ministry over the last 5 years.  It has been great to add to our daily prayer list Zach in Maine, Chris in Ohio and now Stephen in Wisconsin. This was our set up for the 2000+ mile trip.  No " hiccups " except for the strong eastern winds in Kansas.  Of course e...
Read more

Resurrection Sunday in a new space...Matthew 27.62-28.20

Image
  Resurrection Sunday has come and gone but it was a sweet day to be with the gathered saints of the Stillwater Community Chapel .  We are venturing through the Gospel of Matthew and this Sunday will take us back to Matthew 1.1 but last Sunday we were in Matthew 27.62-28.20.  It was a lot to cover so the white board was truly a help to keep me on track.  This year in my Resurrection Sunday message, I focused on the contrast of the cover-up story of the disciples stealing the body of Jesus fueled by a bride and the commission of speaking of a risen Lord fueled by boldness . After the service upstairs, we ventured downstairs to the lower level and had a great meal together.  The conversations around the tables allowed us to continue to talk about the passage of Scripture we covered upstairs.  Maybe this is a very informal picture of what happens at the  Waushara Community Church called the " Going Deeper " classes of the Come For More hour following t...
Read more