Uncategorized | Bad Days Better

Aug 10

Wow My Guest Post Was Accepted

Posted by Josh

A few days ago my wife sent me an email that said you should try this.  When I looked at the email it was about Joshua Griffin’s website and how he was looking for guest posts.  Joshua Griffin  is the High School Pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA. Anyways I really did not think I would be able to write and article that was good enough to be accepted nor did I think I had much to share that people would want to read.  I can imagine he has alot more readers than I do.  Albeit I have had alot of people coming to my site to download my resume lately primarily because they want a sample.  Anyway I thought about it and decided to at least give it a shot.

I sat at my computer and to be honest I just kept drawing blanks.  I had no idea what I was going to right about and my mind just kept going back to my experiences over the last year.  Finally it came to me.  I thought about alot of people coming to my site to see a sample resume which in turn made me realize their are alot of people looking for positions right now.  If these people are anything like me they may have been looking for awhile or they may end up looking for awhile.  So that is what I decided to right about.  My post goes live august 17th if you want to read it you can check it out here when it goes live.

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Aug 03

Missions Trip To Chalchuapa El Salvador

Posted by Josh

I just recently returned from a World changer Missions trip that took place down in Daytona Beach Florida.  We had a great time serving dow there.  Some of our people painted houses while others worked on roofing projects throughout the city.  We had a great time and I personally feel that our group bonded well and it was a nice chance for me to hang out with some teens.  I love going on Missions trips and seeing how God works through the lives of those who attend.

Well next month I will have the opportunity to serve on another Missions Trip however this one is a little further away.  You see we will be going to Chalchuapa El Salvador and we will be serving the Lord there.  This is not my first foreign missions trip however it is my first on with First Baptist Church Macon.  I am looking forward to what God is going to do on this trip and I am also looking forward to meeting the people in Chalchuapa.  In addition to this I am excited to build deeper and stronger relationships with those in our church.  However we all know that in order to serve on a missions trip it takes support.  If you would like to support me I have included a donation button below.  However if you would like to read my letter on how you can make a tax deductible contribution you can do so here.

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Life, My Thoughts, Spiritual Application, Uncategorized

Jul 21

Homiletic

Posted by Josh

You might be wondering what in the world am I talking about.  What do I mean. Homiletic is actually the art of preaching.  I am always looking at things and reading blogs of different pastors.  Part of that is also looking at things that may help pastors as well.  I have been a pastor for over 15 years.  The other day I was doing some market research for a project I want to start and I ran across a resource that I thought could be helpful for pastors.  I know there are times when pastor just do not have the time to get a sermon ready.  So rather then snag one from John MaCarthur or Rick Warren and then claim it as you own why not use this Resource.  I mean it is discrete and not some recycled sermon that perhaps your church has already heard on the radio and it is nice fresh content plus it has powerpoint included.  Sure it may not be a substitute for preparing your own but it could be an awesome resource when you are in a crunch.  Why not check out the Free Sermons they offer and go from there.  I also wrote about this on this page .  Check out the resources below.

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Jul 16

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Posted by Josh

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Jun 27

Youth Pastor and Pastor Resume

Posted by Josh

Over the course of the last few months I have felt God directing me to look at becoming a Sr. Pastor of a church.  Trust me this was never in my though process and I never had any desire to ever become a Sr. Pastor.  However I also can’t deny when God appears to be working in my life.  After the counsel of several close friends telling me that I should at least consider the option of a Sr. Pastor I decided to jump in.  I have sent my resume out to a few churches and have had some churches interested in me but they were not a good fit.  If you know of a church looking for a Pastor and would like to pass along my resume you can find it here or by just clicking on Pastor Resume on the right side of this site.  You may also feel free to download the resume and jut check it out to see how I have put it together.  Trust me I am no expert but feel free to use my resume for a guide if you would like.

I was recently checking my stats on google and I was floored that I have had around 68 hits last month for people just searching for youth pastor resume.  So I went to google and typed in youth pastor resume  and was surprised to see that my site landed number 8 on the first page.  Wow that is cool.  Apparently there are some people looking for help with their resumes.  If you ever want to talk about your resume or would like some help please feel free to send me an email. If you have any questions about ministry and would like to ask me I would love to talk with you.  Well if you want to check out my youth pastor resume you can check it out here feel free to download it and check it out.  Use it as a guide or whatever you want.

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Jun 21

The Best Fathers Day Present

Posted by Josh

Today was fathers day and it was a wonderful and great day.  This is a fathers day I will never forget.  Sure I had the usual fathers day steak and the good food, I got the fathers day cards and it was awesome to be with my son on fathers day.  In addition to this we had an awesome church picnic and swimming at the lake, there was a whole hog smoked it was awesome even thoughI did not eat any hog (diet).

Though all of this was awesome it pails in comparison to the best fathers day present I could get.  You see a few months back my daughter came to know Jesus Christ as her personal Savior.  After talking with her on several occasions she decided that she wanted to be baptized and tonight I had the most wonderful privilege of baptizing my daughter.  This is a fathers day I will ever forget and that I will remember until the day I die.  Thanks so much Pastor Tim you will never know how much this has meant to me.

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Jun 11

Rap Music Theology?

Posted by Josh

I know that is seems that there is controversy over Rap Music in fact I know of some people that would hate rap music no matter how Godly the lyrics might be.  However I do not fall into that camp.  In fact I love Rap Music.  That reminds me of an old DC Talk song that said  ”I luv rap music, I always have, and I always will”.

A little over a year ago I started listening to Shai Linne and was immediately blown away by the lyrics.  This guy’s music in one song typically has more then you hear in one year of some churches.  This morning while exercising on of his songs came on the ipod.  The name of the song is Atonement Q and A.  I have to tell you as I was going through my exercise and listened to the song I could not help but think how often our churches are failing at teaching any type of theology from the pulpit yet in one song a lot is taught.  I may not agree with every minor point but at least and attempt is made.  So look at the lyrics below and perhaps learn some Theology from a rap song.

Verse 1

Who is God? God is the universe’s Creator

And Sustainer plus the only Savior, there is no one greater

He is triune, holy, omnipotent, omniscient, absolute

Loving, sovereign and righteous are a few of His attributes

How do we know this? Well, we know this from the Bible

Where God has revealed Himself- anything else is just an idol

What’s the Bible about? Man’s complete ruin in sin

And what God has done in Christ to bring us to Him again

What is sin? Sin is the breaking of God’s law

Plus our condition, which means from birth we all got flaws

What’s the result? The result is by nature we’re God’s enemies

And must pay the penalty unless God provides the remedy

What’s the remedy? The remedy is the cross of Christ

Where He suffered all the strikes for the lawless type

I’ve been rescued by the Lamb, I’m convinced that He’s risen

And blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven!

Chorus

Just fall back, and with the eyes of faith

Behold the beauty of surprising grace

Because the Lamb has died, third day He had to rise

He’s magnified- God’s wrath is satisfied

Just fall back- there’s an atonement now

The cross of Christ is holy ground

Because the Lamb has died, third day He had to rise

He’s magnified- God’s wrath is satisfied

Verse 2

Regeneration- the Holy Spirit’s true work in His love

To the elect, who receive new birth from above

Expiation- expiation means God’s removed my filthiness

The old testament type was the goat into the wilderness

Redemption- we’ve been freed from slavery to sin

And His very own blood is the price He paid, my friend

Propitiation- Propitiation means since the Lamb has died

His work is finished- God’s wrath is satisfied

Adoption- adoption means God is now my Father

I got the hottest Poppa and by the Spirit holler Abba

Reconciliation means there’s no more enmity

God is now a friend to me, we’re no longer enemies

Justification- God declares us righteous

Sanctification– we’re being made into His likeness

Glorification– that’s what happens at the finish

When God conforms believers perfectly to Christ’s image!

Chorus

Verse 3

God’s grace is magnificent, He slayed His innocent

Son- through faith and repentance we get the benefits

What is faith? Faith is a gift from God- when we receive this

We trust and treasure the person and finished work of Jesus

Repentance? Repentance is turning from your sin

And trusting Christ as the Spirit cleanses you within

What is grace? Oh, grace is unmerited favor

Our inheritance major ‘cause we cherish the Savior

Right, and if I may quote again, we were doomed with Satan

But believers get Jesus’ righteousness through imputation

Imputation? God takes Jesus’ righteousness amount

Through faith He credits it into the Christian’s account

Anything else? Well, I guess this overview must suffice

But none of this is possible apart from union with Christ

And finally, once you know the ways of the Lord than the

only thing that you can say is Soli Deo Gloria!

Chorus

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May 26

My Ordination, Where God is leading, and so forth.

Posted by Josh

It was a long time coming.  I still remember the early days in my ministry after I had been ministering at First Baptist Church in Atlanta MO and right before I went to Exeter Bible Church in PA I was going to be ordained.  However Exeter wanted to ordain me so I held off.  The problem came when 9 months after I arrived at Exeter the pastor left and we began a rather long search for a pastor.  We did find a Pastor and a few years after that I thought it might be a good time to go through the ordination process.  Once again it was halted by my resignation and my subsequent move back to Missouri.

This all leads me up to where God may possibly be leading me.  After moving back to Missouri I began to try to find a church to minister in as a youth pastor with little success.  During this this time of looking for a youth pastorate I had many friends and family ask me if I had ever considered beign a Sr. Pastor.  To be honest that has never even really been on my radar.  So often my response has simply been no and God has called me to youth ministry.  However that began to change for me over time.

I became a member at FBC macon nearly a year ago.  I needed a place where my wife and myself could find healing and a place that we could call home.  We found it at FBC macon.   I have had the priviledge t osit under some great teachign while being there and have had the awesome privledge to have to pastors I consider friends.  I know these men love me and I feel the same way about them.  It was at this church that God began to change my though process.  It was here that God let minister.  It was a few months ago that I had a conversation with Pastor Tim and we began to talk and he said “i believe God may be calling you to be Sr. Pastor”  and htough I had heard this many times before this time it was sinking in.

After that conversation I began to pray even harder and seek what God could be saying to me.  Though I did not feel I had a clear answer from God I did feel that if God wanted this He would reveal it to me.  So I decided to pursue it a little farther and I submitted my resume to a couple pf church that I felt would be a good fit for me.  I really did not expect to get a call.  One of those churches called me within minutes after receiveing my resume, in addition I have been contacted by other church that received my resume from others.  Could htis be the Lord’s leading?  Right now I believe it is indeed God’s direction.  God has given me a peace about this which I never though I would have.  I pray for god to lead me to the right place.

To top all of this off I had a wonderful ordination service this past Sunday night.  The encouragement I recieved form the deacons and other pastors was overwhelming to me.  I am honored the FBC Macon has seen qualities in me worthy of Ordination.  I want to be where God wants me and nowhere else and if that mean I am a Sr. Pastor that is what I want.  Please pray for God’s direction.

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May 19

God’s Miracle to us

Posted by Josh

One year ago today my son was born. Micah John Monda was a surprise to both my wife and I. After nearly 8 years of trying to have a second child Micah came along. What miracle he was then and still is. He brings joy to our lives on an everyday basis with our daughter Sarai. There is nothing quite like seeing a baby develop and begin to smile and in some cases to see their daddy in them. I hope people see my daddy in me I hope my life point to my heavenly father. I will write more later on some amazing things God is doing in my life right now. Here are some pics of my son.

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Apr 18

Don’t Waste Your Life

Posted by Josh

Came across this video a little while ago and really liked it.

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Homiletic | Bad Days Better

Do you have a good homiletic. Perhaps you have never been asked that question before or perhaps you do not know what I am talking about.  I remember when I was first asked about homiletics I really did not know what it mean.  Homiletics is the art of preaching.  I have been a pastor for over 15 years and I know that there are times that pastors do not have time to prepare a sermon.  They have been visiting shut-ins or been to the nursing home or have had an extremely busy week outside of the office.  I think at times a Pastor May have to go to a resource to help them to prepare a message so I wanted to just quickly show you a good quality resource.  This resource has some great messages just check out there free ones and what’s more they come with the powerpoint and everything else you will need to deliver a great sermon.  This is very discrete for you so why not check it out.

Homiletic | Bad Days Better

Jul 21

Posted by Josh

You might be wondering what in the world am I talking about.  What do I mean. Homiletic is actually the art of preaching.  I am always looking at things and reading blogs of different pastors.  Part of that is also looking at things that may help pastors as well.  I have been a pastor for over 15 years.  The other day I was doing some market research for a project I want to start and I ran across a resource that I thought could be helpful for pastors.  I know there are times when pastor just do not have the time to get a sermon ready.  So rather then snag one from John MaCarthur or Rick Warren and then claim it as you own why not use this Resource.  I mean it is discrete and not some recycled sermon that perhaps your church has already heard on the radio and it is nice fresh content plus it has powerpoint included.  Sure it may not be a substitute for preparing your own but it could be an awesome resource when you are in a crunch.  Why not check out the Free Sermons they offer and go from there.  I also wrote about this on this page .  Check out the resources below.

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Mike Erre | Bad Days Better

It has been a week since I have had a post so I thought I would get in gear.  I have been watching some basketball games of the local High School here.  The girls team is ranked numbers in the state for 3a ball and they are undefeated they have a good club I hope they do well.  Well anyways I am not going write about basketball but continue my series from the book Why Guys Need God by Mike Erre.  Today I want to share a couple of quotes from chapter 10 and talk about them a little bit.

When we come out of hiding in front of each other, relationship will take hard work and lots of grace.  The church gets lots of criticism because of its imperfections.

So many times we hide who we really are.  Sometimes it is like we have to put on some sort of facade  so people do not see the real us.  I am not sure what drives this perhaps it  is fear of people seeing the real us or fear that we are not good enough.  Rarely do we tell people our real struggles or the things that are keeping us from being all we want to be in Christ or all we can be in Christ.  The truth is if we really do be ourselves then in fact it will take alot of hard work and lots of grace.  Grace to forgive others even when we really do not want to and grace to ask for forgiveness even when we do not want to.  But if we continue to pretend to be someone we are not then the church is just a place where we go to be fake.  The church definitley is not perfect and we are indeed a bunch of reformed sinners going thorug the process of sanctification yet many times we act like we have already been fully sanctified and that we have no problems whatsoever.

I often wonder what would church be like if people were real.  What if a man walked into Sunday school and said I am struggling with pornography and I need help, or what if a woman walked in and said I struggle with gossiping I need help, or how about I have bitterness in my heart I need help.  The church is supposed to be a community loving each other and holding each other accountable but I am afraid we have become a community where everything is based on only what we want people to perceive us to be and not who we really are.  We don’t want people to know our secret sins what will is take for us to stop being superficial and just be honest.  It is so hard.  Here us the second quote.

Most churches teach men how to pretend behind religious fig leaves.  We learn to act in the right religious ways, look the right religious ways, sing the right religious ways, and so on.  We usually are not encouraged to actually share how things really are.  So even though we need to connect with other guys at a really deep level, the church actually often hinders this process.

Prayer isn’t a place to be good; it is a place to be honest.

I already spoke about this above.  I do not think this is a problem for just men either.  I think often we go to church to pretend.  Pretend to be someone we are not and we rarely go just to be honest and admit our struggles.

Love | Bad Days Better

Many times I feel one of the greatest failures in Christian live is our inability to love one another.  In addition it is also our inability to show the world that we love one another.  We all know the verse right  ”By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).  I know alot of Christians that say they love one another.  I mean that is an easy thing to say right “I love you” well it might be easier for some then others.  The reality of it is we do not have to work that heard many times to tell someone we love them.  We hear it from Christians all the time “I love you in the Lord”  not sure why we need to add in the Lord, but we say that.  I think it has become all to common place to say it and not really show it.  

I often think of this when someone is hurting and I hear someone say “they love the person” and often I want to ask “really how are you showing it”.   Why do we get caught into this trap of saying we love others but not displaying that love.  I am so often reminded of

James 2:15-16 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?

Sure we may not do something that seems so drastic but we do this very thing all the time.  We know someone hurting or in need and we know we are called to show love but instead we make excuse.

This verse has been on my mind lately “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8)

This verse very plainly and clearly ells us to have a “fervent” love for one another.  The word for fervent ther is (eketenes) which is an athletic word.  It means to stretch and to reach out; to strain and exert to the utmost degree just like an athlete in a race.  This is telling us to be passionate about loving our brothers and sisters in Christ.  This is not just some warm fuzzy feeling that we often have or that we say to one another it goes beyond that.  It is more then just even having some sentimental or caring feeling for another person.  

This verse is commanding us to love with this great love this love of fervency.  But here is what is even greater the verse says “above all” this love is to be put in front of anything else.  This is the most important duty of a believer in Jesus Christ.  We are to put every once of energy in our minds and hearts to love.  This means that we love others even when they have hurt us, or abuse us, or persecute us, or oppose us, or ridicule us, or speak bad about us, or injure us, or make fun of us.  We choose to love regardless of circumstances.

You know what the greatest part about all of this is.  When we love each other with this fervent love “it covers a multitude of sins.” Wow only if Christians to grasp on to this.  Only if we could understand what it means to love in this way. what does it mean?

  1. It means that we are not saying we love and at the same time hating, and reacting, and sinning.
  2. it means that we are loving with a spirit of forgiveness, not living with some sort of sinful unforgiving spirit.
  3. It means that this kind of love will help us to reach those who do evil to us and win them to Christ.  

I pray I will love like this love with a fervent love instead of the typical love I see christians proclaiming.

 

 

 

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