I thought about blogging a meaningful post and deeply spiritual blog but then I realized that since it is after the holidays I should share a couple funny stories.
One of the funniest moment I can think of was this past December. I was recruited to play music for the annual Christmas play at the parish. I practiced and rehearsed and the day was getting near. The play consisted of children playing the parts, and they had been practicing for a few weeks. The director had an idea that on the day of the play she would invite any children in the audience who weren't in the play to come up and create a children's choir and sing with me. I thought this was an interesting idea but I went with it. The day of the play arrived and I was excited to play and show my music skills. Plus I love to sing Christmas carols. The Director of the play invited the children to come and sing with me and no one moved . There must have been 30 kids in the audience and not one child budged. I thought wow do I look that scary, what could it be, but I shook it off and was ready to start the play. I was about to start singing when a group of three kids came running over to me and asked if they could sing with me. I was truly touched that these three kids from the same family wanted to sing with me. One of the children motioned for me to come to him like he wanted to tell me something. So I leaned in and the 9 year old boy said in the most loving voice, "My dad felt sorry for you and told each of us that he we would give us $5 if we came and sang with you." It was a time that I will never forget.
The other brief story I would like to share is from our recent retreat. My fiance came on retreat and led a small group. She is one of the best at relational ministry and I cant wait to marry her. That is besides the point, but she was leading a group of 9-10 grade girls. She was their small group leader the entire weekend. At the the end of the weekend one of her small group girls came up to me and told me she had a funny story for me.
She proceeded to tell me about an instance on Saturday when her small group was asking Nikki how she liked her job. Nikki said she really enjoyed it except for the fact that it so far from Joey. This girl who we will name Bri (for all intensive purposes) thought that was very strange since Joey was engaged, but Bri just let it go. Later on that weekend after hearing about Joey a lot from Nikki and seeing them together on retreat started to think this is not ok, Joey is engaged to someone and this girl Nikki is hitting on him, but Bri just kept to herself. That is until Sunday when Nikki mentioned in small group that she was engaged and, Bri just couldnt control it anymore and said something about it not being ok that Nikki likes Joey when they were both engaged to someone else. All the girls looked confused and had to explained to Bri that Joey and Nikki were engaged to each other. Bri told me this story on the way home from retreat, and she said I quote, "Im sure glad you weren't cheating on your finace that could have been real awkward."
So all in all it was a good Christmas season, I experienced kids being paid to sing with me and a teen who thought I was cheating on my fiance....Hopefully the new year brings more great stories!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Light & Darkness
I was going into the school gym the other day to turn on the lights for one of the youth nights. We were playing a game there and it had just switched from daylight saving time to standard time. When I went into the gym it was pitch black, I could not see a thing. It was the first time that I had gone in the gym with the lights off and I was disoriented. While I was in there it was interesting to experience that everything was tougher in the dark. I was tripping over things, feeling around for a light switch, and stumbling....and then it hit me...this is just like our faith. Light and Darkness.
We have heard that Jesus is the Light of the World yet do we allow that to penetrate our hearts? One of my favorite songs is "Prepare the Way." One of the verses says, "You are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world Jesus!" I don't think we realize how much he is the light until we realize that we are in darkness. Sin covers our view and makes everything tougher, yet we settle for it. We are all searching for the light in our life. Yet we are tired, stressed, and unhappy...but we must not let the darkness overcome us! We hear in the Bible that, "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." And it will never overcome the darkness. No matter what situation we are in, no matter how bad our lives get, we still have the light of Christ waiting to consume us. Now does that mean that our lives are going to be perfect or without any trouble.....NO! But what it does mean is that through the tough times we have a Savior who is waiting to save us! All we have to do is ask.
Im glad that such a simple act of stumbling in the dark trying to find a light would bring me so close the Lord....and it made me personally want to always walk in the light of the Christ. I want to close with some lyrics from Hillsong in a song called "With Everything." They sing this, "Let Hope rise, and darkness tremble at Your Holy light, and every eye will see Jesus our God, great and mighty to be praised!" Join me brothers and sisters in walking in the light of Christ!
We have heard that Jesus is the Light of the World yet do we allow that to penetrate our hearts? One of my favorite songs is "Prepare the Way." One of the verses says, "You are the light of the world, you are the light of the world, you are the light of the world Jesus!" I don't think we realize how much he is the light until we realize that we are in darkness. Sin covers our view and makes everything tougher, yet we settle for it. We are all searching for the light in our life. Yet we are tired, stressed, and unhappy...but we must not let the darkness overcome us! We hear in the Bible that, "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." And it will never overcome the darkness. No matter what situation we are in, no matter how bad our lives get, we still have the light of Christ waiting to consume us. Now does that mean that our lives are going to be perfect or without any trouble.....NO! But what it does mean is that through the tough times we have a Savior who is waiting to save us! All we have to do is ask.
Im glad that such a simple act of stumbling in the dark trying to find a light would bring me so close the Lord....and it made me personally want to always walk in the light of the Christ. I want to close with some lyrics from Hillsong in a song called "With Everything." They sing this, "Let Hope rise, and darkness tremble at Your Holy light, and every eye will see Jesus our God, great and mighty to be praised!" Join me brothers and sisters in walking in the light of Christ!
Monday, October 18, 2010
Jesus and Baseball
I was blessed with the opportunity to go see the Rangers vs. Yankees in game 1 of the ALCS at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. I was born and raised in New Jersey as a die hard Yankees fan. Now you may be asking yourself why in a somewhat religious blog am I talking about baseball. Let me explain.
I was sitting in the upper deck with a lot of die hard Ranger fans. Now there are a lot of Yankee fans in the United States and the world but for some reason they did not show up very well to this game....and especially not in my section. The Ranger fans were a little rough. Every time a Yankees fan would walk to get a soda, beer, or hotdog they would be boo'd by the entire crowd. Profanity and chants of "Yankees Suck" would soon follow after. What amazed me during this entire process was the passion of these fans. Now, yes they were rooting for the team that I was rooting against but they were passionate to a fault. The attendance was 50,930 for the game and everyone was on the edge of their seats not wanting to leave the stadium. And as I sat there in the stadium with my girlfriend Nikki, I found myself asking the question why isn't Church this packed. Really we have a God that cannot disappoint us. A God who wont give up a lead in the 8th inning, wont ever strikeout, or miss a play yet most Church's including the one I have the privilege to serve at is not even close to being packed. It breaks my heart.
From the early days of the jewish people the word for Church "ekklesia" meant a people gathered together for God. Why is it that we do not gather for God anymore. It seems that people want to go to Church and experience a sporting event instead of experiencing the living God! I will always have a place for sports in my life especially the New York Yankees, but not at the expense of my religious beliefs and not at the expense of my God. I pray that more can gather together each week for God. And even when our sports team, family, or friends fail us we can turn our hope to our God, a God who can fill us, a God who never disappoints!
Romans 5:5 "Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us"
I was sitting in the upper deck with a lot of die hard Ranger fans. Now there are a lot of Yankee fans in the United States and the world but for some reason they did not show up very well to this game....and especially not in my section. The Ranger fans were a little rough. Every time a Yankees fan would walk to get a soda, beer, or hotdog they would be boo'd by the entire crowd. Profanity and chants of "Yankees Suck" would soon follow after. What amazed me during this entire process was the passion of these fans. Now, yes they were rooting for the team that I was rooting against but they were passionate to a fault. The attendance was 50,930 for the game and everyone was on the edge of their seats not wanting to leave the stadium. And as I sat there in the stadium with my girlfriend Nikki, I found myself asking the question why isn't Church this packed. Really we have a God that cannot disappoint us. A God who wont give up a lead in the 8th inning, wont ever strikeout, or miss a play yet most Church's including the one I have the privilege to serve at is not even close to being packed. It breaks my heart.
From the early days of the jewish people the word for Church "ekklesia" meant a people gathered together for God. Why is it that we do not gather for God anymore. It seems that people want to go to Church and experience a sporting event instead of experiencing the living God! I will always have a place for sports in my life especially the New York Yankees, but not at the expense of my religious beliefs and not at the expense of my God. I pray that more can gather together each week for God. And even when our sports team, family, or friends fail us we can turn our hope to our God, a God who can fill us, a God who never disappoints!
Romans 5:5 "Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us"
Thursday, September 16, 2010
From the shore of Jersey to the plains of Texas
The Jersey shore is my first home. It is were I grew up and spent all my childhood. Despite all this the Lord called me out of my east coast comfort and to the flatlands of Texas for something greater. There have been many transitions since moving to Texas:
Hearing people say howdy, fixin' to, and y'all
Eating my first piece of brisket/Texas BBQ
and the southern culture in general
Change is good but when everything in your life is uprooted it can quickly change from good to chaos. Driving 27 hours in two days, moving into a new apartment, and yes the joys of paying all my own bills(thank you to my mom and dad for not making me pay any part of the electricity bills these past 24 years, I owe you!). Even though it was chaos the Lord was present throughout the entire time.
The Lord only placed one word on my heart as I prepared to uproot my life and head to Texas and that word was "faithful." I have done some other years of missionary work yet it was just that "me" doing missionary work not the Lord working through me...I thought it was all this guy.
I promised the Lord that this time would be different, this time when I serve the Lord I will allow him to do everything and allow me to simple be his humble instrument. The hard thing about this is that it is a lot harder to do than to say. But in that moment I came to realize we are called to greatness...And we achieve that greatness through our faithfulness. No, this is not greatness on a football field under the Friday lights in Texas, instead this greatness is being the best Christian we can be. Benedict says an awesome quote that has inspired me, "The world offers you comfort, but you were not made for comfort, you were made for greatness."
What act of faithfulness is God calling me to today?
Do I want to be great for God?
These are the questions I ask myself everyday since starting full time ministry in Texas. I had to come to the realization that I cant be superman....and He doesn't want me to be...all I have to do is be faithful and he will take care of the rest!
Peace In Christ,
Joey
Hearing people say howdy, fixin' to, and y'all
Eating my first piece of brisket/Texas BBQ
and the southern culture in general
Change is good but when everything in your life is uprooted it can quickly change from good to chaos. Driving 27 hours in two days, moving into a new apartment, and yes the joys of paying all my own bills(thank you to my mom and dad for not making me pay any part of the electricity bills these past 24 years, I owe you!). Even though it was chaos the Lord was present throughout the entire time.
The Lord only placed one word on my heart as I prepared to uproot my life and head to Texas and that word was "faithful." I have done some other years of missionary work yet it was just that "me" doing missionary work not the Lord working through me...I thought it was all this guy.
I promised the Lord that this time would be different, this time when I serve the Lord I will allow him to do everything and allow me to simple be his humble instrument. The hard thing about this is that it is a lot harder to do than to say. But in that moment I came to realize we are called to greatness...And we achieve that greatness through our faithfulness. No, this is not greatness on a football field under the Friday lights in Texas, instead this greatness is being the best Christian we can be. Benedict says an awesome quote that has inspired me, "The world offers you comfort, but you were not made for comfort, you were made for greatness."
What act of faithfulness is God calling me to today?
Do I want to be great for God?
These are the questions I ask myself everyday since starting full time ministry in Texas. I had to come to the realization that I cant be superman....and He doesn't want me to be...all I have to do is be faithful and he will take care of the rest!
Peace In Christ,
Joey
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