Filed under: Journey Church
I cannot believe what I’m doing this Sunday to illustrate this message entitled ‘Cross Trainers’ – but IT MUST BE DONE! 
This Sunday I will be preaching the entire message from a treadmill. You know, just as running a race takes training and discipline to prepare you (as I’m experiencing now that I’m only 11 days out from the O’Fallon Fall Festival 5K!!! Holla!) as Christians we must understand that in order to run after Jesus with our lives – it takes much of same dedication and preparation to allow us to not only run this race called Christianity – but finish it to the best of our ability – and finishing is what matters in this race.
I can’t go too deep into it or I’ll never leave this keyboard – I hope to see ya Sunday @ Journey!
Jesse (Pastor – Journey Church)
Filed under: Journey Church
In Missouri – we’re already starting to see the leaves changing into those beautiful reds, yellows, and browns – just before they detach from their branches and fall to the ground.
The other morning as I was running – I came past this sight (shown in the picture above) and had to go get my camera and take a pic. This is right in the front yard of one of our neighbors – it seems to be the remains of what used to be a rather large tree – now just a stumpy tree trunk that was apparently cut down. But what interested me so much was what was coming out of that dead, cut down, stumpy trunk – ANOTHER TREE!!! It may be hard to see – but the ‘new’ tree is coming directly out from the center of the stump.
I personally have never seen that before and several people I asked hadn’t either. As I looked at it – I just began to think how that scene illustrates just how amazing God can be in our lives. If you’re in a situation where pain is the only feeling you have or you’re life has literally been cut down and you feel completely hopeless – know that God can bring NEW life to you – and that NEW LIFE can come right out from the very middle of where you’ve been cut down.
Romans 6:4 “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a NEW LIFE.”
Don’t give in – don’t give up – quitting isn’t an option…because NEW LIFE is on it’s way out from what has been cut down or destroyed.
Jesse (Pastor – Journey Church)
Filed under: Family
Mariah, Javan, & Micah
I took this picture this morning before we left for school – I absolutely love hanging with these guys in the morning. We get to sit and have breakfast, read books, rush to find lost items that need to be in their backpacks before we’re gonna be late (maybe that’s not one of the ‘fun’ parts), and just talk about what their goals and expectations are for the day.
These kids bring such joy to my mornings and for that – I’m so thankful! Short blog today – but incredibly meaningful.
Jesse
Filed under: Journey Church
This Sunday I’m going to dive into a series of messages that will be rather…unusual.
You know, as much as we’d like for Christianity to be considered normal or ‘accepted’ in our modern day culture – the fact of the matter is – it never has been nor will it ever be normal – in fact – if you look at it – Christianity is rather abnormal or unusual when viewing it through the eyes of our modern day culture.
As liberal waves of secularism are quickly rising in popularity and sweeping through our nation’s culture bringing challenge after challenge to the faith and beliefs that we hold so dear to our hearts as Christians – it is causing many in the church to become discouraged – because let’s get honest here – no one likes being viewed as the ‘weirdo’.
But the reality of the matter is that Christians must come to terms with this very important fact – CHRISTIANITY IS UNUSUAL…and that is something we must be proud of.
My response to our culture is that if by ‘usual’ you mean I need to place my faith in a belief that claims the origin of mankind came through very complex (unexplained, unproven) processes of evolution – there is no God, no creator, and this life we live (the morals we hold to) has all come to be through chance…then allow me to say that I want to be UNusual! I want to be ABnormal! I am proud to be the ‘weirdo’…by all means.
This Sunday and for the next few weeks – we will be looking at alot of the ‘unusual’ aspects of God, our faith, and Christianity in general – and it’s something you won’t want to miss – because it’s something we all need to know and BE PROUD OF. We’ll see ya Sunday!
Jesse (Pastor – Journey Church)
Filed under: Family
You’ve probably heard me say on this blog that I love my family – about a hundred times actually or more on previous posts – but I simply cannot help it – they’re my everything – they’re my family.
In my opinion, one of the great things about having a family is the ’sense of belonging’ that it brings to us all – that connection that we feel with the people in our family is something that is so precious and brings such strength to our lives as individuals.
I think one of the saddest things we do too often as families in America is we tend to lose that ’sense of belonging’ by allowing so many things to seperate us.
I was meeting with Jesse and Sarah (our music and creative arts directors at Journey Church) at St. Louis Bread Co earlier this week and I happened to arrive a little early for our appointment – so I ordered my food and sat down to wait for them to arrive. As I sat – I casually watched the room around me – and to my right was a married couple sitting next to each other – each with their own Macbooks typing away…I kid you not – they sat there for 2 hours and said not a word to each other. I watched countless others in the room on cell phones texting away communicating to someone OTHER than the people they were sitting directly in front of.
I just began to think how sad is it that we’ve allowed so many things to come in and seperate the genuine bond we should be holding to in our families.
These past few weeks have been one of the busiest times I’ve had since I’ve moved back to Missouri – I mean there wasn’t much time for anything but catching up on what I’ve been falling behind on – no time for free time – only time for overtime if you know what I mean. Literally every hour of every day was filled with something and I didn’t have much time to sit down and just connect with the old family.
This past Sunday after I got home from church – I crashed on the couch and said ‘Ohhhhhh!!!! Finally a little time to just relax – what do we want to do?’ when my wife quickly responded – ‘Micah’s got a soccer game in about an hour – that’s what we’re gonna do.’
My first instinct was to respond with frustration and say when is this madness going to end?! When I realized that we should take EVERY opportunity we have to spend time together as a family – even if it’s attending a soccer game – we have to treasure each moment.
When we arrived to the game we (Missy, Javan, and I) actually went and sat on the other side of the field where it was basically just us away from everyone else. It was the most amazing time as the three of us sat side by side and cheered Micah on from the sidelines – watching him earn his Dairy Queen Cookie Dough Blizzard as he had a shot on goal – you would have thought we were at the Super Bowl – even Javan was getting into this game.
Anyways – they’re little team ended up losing 15-1…but I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything – because being with family keeps that ’sense of belonging’ – and that is what makes us strong. I don’t know if you’re like us and ‘busy’ just seems to be the theme of your house – I would encourage you to find every opportunity you can – and make the best of it…it’ll be a memory you’ll not soon forget.
Jesse
Filed under: Journey Church
It’s hard to believe that it was 8 years ago today when we all were stuck staring at our television sets watching history unfold before our eyes as we were witnessing the most horrific attack on American soil – and watching it live.
I remember (as does everyone) where I was the moment I heard the news. I was youth pastoring in Lake St. Louis at the time and at about 8:30am that Tuesday – I received a call from one of our youth leaders Debbie who said ‘Are you watching TV?’ I responded ‘No, why?‘ she stated ‘History is being made as we speak…turn it on!’ my reply was ‘What? Did Bonds hit another one?’ (Mind you at the time, Barry Bonds was on his way to breaking Mark McGwire’s 70 homerun record – and St. Louisans weren’t happy about it).
The moment I turned on the TV – shock begin to set in as I saw ppl running frantically down New York streets (like you would only see in a movie) with firefighters and policeman placing their lives on the line by running into the burning towers that were about to collapse rescuing ppl while news anchors seemed to be without words – it was a massive time of confusion as to why all of this was happening.
You know, it’s impossible to give just one reason why we love America so much – but one of the things that seem to be the biggest reason for my love for this country is that we are built on the principle of freedom. And when you see ‘Freedom’ attacked – as much as it scares us – it does nothing but make you love it more – it makes you want to do whatever it takes to defend it even more – it causes you to thank God for the freedom that we have in this nation…even more. I don’t know how many flags begin to fly in the yards of American’s after that day – but I think ‘tens of millions’ would be a safe guess – as we made a statement to say – I’m proud to be an American – a ‘free’ American.
The fact that we are free is one of the very reasons we were attacked in the first place – by an ideology that is strictly demonic in nature – and many nations in this world sit underneath that type of ideology – but not us – we’re free.
As we remember today – may we continue to pray for our nation’s safety and protection and our soldiers overseas still fighting for our freedom – and that the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks would feel the comfort of God wrapped around them as they continue to mourn their loss. My prayers and the prayers of Journey Church are with you today.
Jesse (Pastor – Journey Church)
Filed under: Journey Church
Do you remember that game Trivial Pursuit by Parker? In my opinion, that was one of the most challenging board games I ever played – I think I, along with everyone else answered maybe 25% of the questions correctly (except there’s always that one guy that knows every answer to every ridiculous question thrown at him – and then throws it in our faces – it always made me so MAD!).
Christianity (in a way) has been morphed into a type of board game where it seems that if you don’t know ‘all the answers’ you’re simply not going to win…and thus RELIGION has created this ‘club’ that so many ppl are leaving and giving up on because we don’t know all the answers or how to even play the game correctly.
Well this Sunday – we’re going to be playing Biblical Pursuit by Journey – the ultimate game of challenge where your faith will be tested and your brain will be quizzed! But don’t worry – it’s not what you think – trust me, when we play THIS game – you’ll win…I’m sure of it.
Join us this Sunday @ 10am at Bonfil’s Auditorium for Biblical Pursuit – a message that every member of your family needs to hear – churched or unchurched.
Jesse (Pastor – Journey Church)
Filed under: MISC Posts
It’s been a while since I’ve posted any updates on my weight-loss endeavor so I thought I’d take this beautiful Labor Day and do so.
25lbs down baby!
Running has been something I’ve enjoyed doing more than anything. Eating healthy and making the right decisions with food have been a little difficult to do consistently (especially with Imo’s Pizza being so close now) - but nonetheless I’m making them.
I’ve decided to enter the O’Fallon Fall Fest 5k Run coming in just 4 weeks to test my ‘running’ ability. Right now – I can casually run 5k in about 27:30 (min) – and I’d like to be under 23 min for the O’Fallon Run – so I’m sure it will take some training.
But training in my opinion is a great form of accountability in meeting your goals. If it’s running a 5k in a certain time or aiming to pray for an hour a day – train yourself…start somewhere…hold your goal accountable through the discipline of training – and you WILL see your goal met…promised.
I’ll keep you updated on my progress!
Jesse
Filed under: Journey Church
This Sunday I will be sharing a messgae that will be illustrated from the life of Jonah – and one of my favorite bible stories might I add ‘Jonah and the Whale’.
I don’t know why – but we tend to run (myself included) from alot of the things God calls us to do…it’s like we instantly disqualify ourselves from being able to accomplish what He wants us to do – or we think He’s completely off or wrong…because after all – who knows us better than us, am I right?
That fact of the matter is that God wants to use US…and He feels so passionately about it that He is willing to take extreme measures to ensure that He indeed will use us. In Jonah’s case – he ran from God (literally) – hopped on a boat and headed in the complete opposite direction from where God was calling him to go…so what does God do – uses a whale as a ‘taxi’ and carries Jonah to Nineveh where God used him mightily!
Wow!
But…a big question I’ve always had was – what was Jonah going through while he was actually IN the whale? I mean – 3 days IN A WHALE!!!
The answer I found is pretty interesting – come and find out this Sunday at Journey!
Jesse (Pastor – Journey Church)
