Mike Erre Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 11, 2013 | Uncategorized

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.

Today I want to talk about what I got out of chapter 9 of Mike Erre’s book why guys need God.  THis paragraph from page 120 hit me pretty hard.

I can’t be grateful unless I see myself as small, dependant, and undeserving.

Today I am going to continue from my series of posts from the book Why Guys Need God by Mike Erre.  I am going to discuss something out of chapter 3 which is titled Naming The Animals.  Here it is

Even the American ideal of retirement reflects a self-interested, materialistic bias.  The Bible never encourages a stage of life where we are independent enough to simply do what we want to do.  Many men do use retirement as an opportunity to given and serve.  But more often than not, retirement becomes and excuse for indulgence.  Maybe we think we’ve earned the right to do absolutely nothing because we’ve worked for years at a job we’ve hated.  Or maybe we just want to try new things.  Either way, if we focus exclusively on our pursuits and ourselves, something starts to die within us.  This is the stage of life when the community around us needs us the most.  The younger generations need those at this stage to be active, more involved, and more willing to serve as spiritual mentors and fathers.

I am not sure why our mentality is often skewed when it comes to retirement.  I know for the longest time I looked at retirement as a time to just sit back and relax and spend the day doing what I wanted on my terms how selfish is that.  I believe in many churches across america that spiritual mentors need to rise up.  I have seen this personally in some peoples lives.  They did not decide just to disappear into retirement but have decided to give themselves in service to the king.  When I grow older and approach my retirement years I do not want to have the idea that I am somehow done that my life is not complete.  I pray that God will give me the strength and energy to keep on influencing others for Him.

There was one man that effected my life probably more then he will ever know and that man was retired but he stayed faithful serving the Lord.  He was one of the most humble individuals I had ever met and to sit back and watch his energy and vigor for the Lord impacted me profoundly.  I often remember hearing him preach the word and saying to myself when I am that age I pray I have the same vigor he has.  I pray that by God’s grace one day when I hit that age of retirement that I will influence someone as much as he influenced me.

judgmental Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 11, 2013 | Uncategorized

Welcome to part 6 the final part of Who are you to judge?  Remember we are talking about  Matthew 7:1-6.  Today we want to look at the fact that this critical judgmental person is not worthy of the gospel.

 In Matthew 7:6 we read “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”  Christ is very simply stating to us that we should not be foolish and jeopardize ourselves.  When we know that a person is not going to receive us or the instruction of the gospel, we are not to approach them.  To make it simple there are some criticizers ad some people that are so full of criticism that we just should not go to them.  These people will only abuse the glorious message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This language that Christ used was very strong.  There are unbelievers that are so wicked and so nasty that they can be compared to dogs and pigs.  I have known some of these very people.  These people are said to be unworthy of the gospel.  Well who are these people.

• The widely known sinner
• Those that ridicule and are filled with disrespect
• Those that are filled with rage.
• Those that are openly wicked and stand against God.
• Those that are hardened themselves and are filled with judgment and criticism.
• Those that hate and despise
• Those that persecute.

If the question is can they be saved?  The answer is absolutely.  for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” (Romans 10:13)

Anyone that call on the Lord will be saved.  However, there is a hard reality that must be faced: there are people that have reached such a high level of evil they are very unlikely to turn from their wickedness and to call upon the Lord.  These people seek to take their words and 

wound others, they ridicule, they trample, the tear apart, they scorn, they attack, they are filled with rage, they defy.

These same people take there minds and their hand and their power and they

trample others, they strike other people, they tear others down. the persecute others, they beat them, kill, and even torture them.

Now I am not saying that everyone commits all of these sins, but hey we all know that many people are guilty of some of them.  These sins destroy the reputation and work of a person.  Here is the real tragedy, there are so many so called believers that are caught up in this criticism and judgments of others.  Believer are all to often the very ones that are guilty of taking their word and hands to damage the reputation and work of others.

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers,disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:1-4)

Well that’s it.  If you have read this series I hope maybe something has helped you.  

Well here we are with part 4 of our series on Who are you to judge?  Once again this is all coming from Matthew 7:1-6.  This stemmed from a conversation I had with a friend when he said that Matthew 7:1 was the most popular verse among teens (according to him).  So I wondered why and decided to launch this study on the verses found in Matthew.  If you want to use anything I have written be my guest.

What we are going to see today is that the judgmental critical person is actually deceived about themselves.  This is seen in verse 4 when it states ”Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?”  

It is quite clear that the critical judgmental person has not given any thought to what they are doing.  How can we say this?  Well a person that actually puts thought into it realizes that they are just as human and just as sinful as anyone else.  This person has just as many motes in their eye as anyone else, and because of  this they have lost their right to criticize and be judgmental.

This person that is judgmental and critical is deceived on some many different levels here are a few.

This person is overlooking, denying, or ignoring that they also have sin.

1.  When we judge others we exalt ourselves as gods.  It is God’s right and who are we to take that right from Him.  We are not worthy nor do we have the right to judge another (Romans 14:4; James 4:11-12)

2.  Our judgment of others only pushes a brother down and tears him to pieces.  It does not embrace him in compassion nor does it build him up.

3.  When we judge others it becomes the beam in our eye.  All sin is great including the judging and criticizing of a brother that has failed.

We also must take careful notice that the criticizer is not fit to judge.

The person that judges and criticizes is just as sinful as the next person but does not consider their own life.  However, it is interesting that this same person feels free to be critical of other who come short and fail, but refuses to look inward.  They spend a great deal of time condemning others, and then justify their own actions.

We also should not that the person doing the judging and criticizing is the weaker of the two.  The person that is weak is the one who judges and criticizes the most, they do this because of their need to boost themselves over others all to feel good about themselves.

The critical judgmental person does not take time to examine themselves and this is for one primary reason.  It hurts.  It hurts to look deep within yourself and to see if their is anything that God needs to deel with and that is why so few people do it yet look at what God says “But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31)

Many people are deceiving their own consciences when they judge and criticize others.  Let me give you a few things people do when being judgmental and critical they do these things because they think it makes it ok to judge and be critical (deceiving their conscience).

1.  When they are judgmental and critical they try to be nice, and soft spoken, using soft words thinking this must make it ok to judge.  

2.  They will give some commendable strengths as well as passing along the other person failings. Somehow thinking this makes it ok as long as we pass something good along with the judgmental spirit.

3.  By prefacing the criticism with a statement that is it “constructive” we have all heard it.  Can you take “constructive criticism”?  Somehow we take what we have to say and twist and ad the words constructive to it and think that makes it ok.

I want this to be the last verse I leave with

There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes, Yet is not washed from his filthiness. (Proverbs 30:20)

Come back tomorrow as we see that this person that is being judgmental and critical is really a hypocrite.

Well here we are with part 3 of the series “Who are you to Judge?  It was questionable whether or not I should take the few minutes and right this out.  Right now my wife is in the hospital with the possibility of our second child coming early.  Our first Sarai was born at 30 weeks and now Micah just over 30 weeks seems to want to come out.  But I have a quick break and thought I would do part 3.  Once again this is all coming from  Matthew 7:1-6

We have covered alot of ground but today I want to look at verse 3 which clearly tells us that the judgmental critical person fails to look at themselves.  This person is very inconsistent in how they criticize and judge others as they refuse to look within first.  Here is the problem all too often we continue to look at everyone else’s failures and shortcomings, and we criticize, and backbite, and love to engage in the bad news.

You see when we do this we show that we have a very serious problem and that problem is this there is a giant beam in our own eye.  We are blind to the truth that we are no better than anyone else.  We too fail and fall short and we do it often.  

In Matthew 7:5 we are call hypocrites for not taking the beam out of our own eye

In Romans 3:10 we are told no one is righteous so why do we think we can judge?

In 1 Corinthians 11:28 we are told to examine ourselves not examine others first.

In Isaiah 53:6 we are told that every last one of us has gone astray. Yet we want to judge others that have gone astray?

If “Christians” would stop looking at everyone elses faults and stop making feeble attempts to judge their motives and their thoughts and why maybe they did a certain thing and we just focussed on show the world that we are the disciples of Jesus Christ by our love for one another (John 13:35) then maybe we could make progress.  Until then it will be much more of the same. 

Come tomorrow when we hopefully have part 4.  We will see how the critical, judgmental person is deceived about themselves.

Called Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 11, 2013 | Uncategorized

I have always felt that God has called me to be a Youth Pastor in addition I have always been against those that merely use Youth Ministry to aspire to something better meaning a Sr. Pastor role.  But what if you feel maybe God is calling you to a Sr. Pastor role.  This has entered into my thinking and something I never thought I would think about is dominating my thought process.  I really have never desired to be a Sr. Pastor.  I guess all of the headaches that come with it I would like to avoid.  However there are just as many headaches within Youth Ministry.  I however have always liked dealing with teens and have not necessarily liked dealing with many adults.  However I have to ask myself has God been preparing me for this, preparing me for something different, even something I never dreamed I would do.

I have always said to my wife if I was going to be a Sr. Pastor I don’t want to do it in a small town.  I have just felt the potential for growth is so low.  However over the last few weeks I have begun to see that there are many smaller towns that either do not have a good church or they have a church without a Pastor.  Many people here in MO are forced to drive several miles if they live in a small town in order to find a good church.  In addition I have had several people recently ask me if I would consider being a Sr. Pastor.  I just struggle with decision.  Am I ready?

Sometimes God calls us to do things that we never though were possible.  Sometimes God wants us to think outside of ourselves and to focus on Him.  I am not saying I am call to be a Sr. Pastor but I decided today I should at least be open to the idea.  If you are reading this I would ask that you pray fro direction in my life.

I recently was talking with a pastor and this question was asked of me.  We had talked for quite awhile and he then stopped me and asked me so why do you still want to be a Youth Pastor.  The answer for me was actually simple.  Here was my response.  ”Because God called me to be a Youth Pastor.” 

In my years of being a Youth Pastor I have seen many use youth ministry as a stepping stone into something bigger.  Often times they may have what they feel is a good reason for this.  However, does God call us to use one ministry as a mere stepping stone into another.  Why do we seem so often to want to climb the career ladder in church?  Always wanting to move to the bigger or “better” church.  

I must confess youth ministry is often difficult.  It is hard to juggle everything that we must do in addition in having to deal with church life.  However I believe God allows us to go through things to only make us stronger and more moldable in his hands.

resume Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 11, 2013 | Uncategorized

It has been a long time since I have posted.  The primary reason for this has been related to my lack of funds.  You see my hosting renewal came up and I did not have the money to renew my hosting.  I pulled the trigger a few hours ago and purchased my hosting.

Not much new here in northwest Missouri.  The job hunt still continues. I have updated my resume I can’t tell you how many times but I know the best way for your resume to be noticed is for someone else to deliver it.  However I still keep plugging away.  Some people have asked if I want to be a youth pastor or a senior pastor and right now I am kind of in the either one camp.  I have 15 years of experience as a youth pastor and that is something I enjoy doing.  So in the right circumstance I would take a youth pastor postion.  However most of the churches I have submitted to have been senior pastor postions.  All of this to say the search continues.  It has been 2 years since I have ministered in a full time capacity and trust me I am ready.  But it is God’s timing so i will continue to wait upon the Lord.

Ok I will admit it this is a shameless plug for my e-book I have completed.  Yes it is for sale.  I noticed that in one months time I have had well over 100 people come and download my resume and this tells me something.  It says that there are plenty of pastors and youth pastors out there that are looking for a way to write a resume and to write on that will stand out from the crowd.

Because of this I decided to put together a book that will help you.  Why is it for sale?  Well I have it for sale to earn some money hopefully to be able to pay for hosting an some other things.  You could go to one of these other site and pay up to 100 bucks to have your resume done or you could pay 10 and do it yourself.  This is ebook will give you everything you need to know.  This is not just for pastors and youth pastors either.  This information is good for any job and will help you out no matter what you are writig your resume for.  So if you are interested then check it out.

Over the course of the last few months I have felt God directing me to look at becoming a Sr. Pastor of a church. However I know the Pastor Search is a difficult one.  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.

forgiveness Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 11, 2013 | Uncategorized

I read a book that changed my life.  It changed how I look at things and how I do things and how I think.  It was call “The heart of the Problem”  below is kind of some thoughts.

I am not sure why it is so hard for us to say we are sorry or to simply ask for forgiveness.  I am assuming it really boils down to pride and for whatever reason our fear.  We never want to admit that perhaps we said something wrong or did something wrong.  We don’t want to admit that perhaps we handled something wrong or that perhaps we should have our could have handled things differently.  We don’t want to admit that perhaps we had a bad attitude, or a wrong attitude, or a critical spirit when we should not have.  Why?  Why do we carry around strange feeling for other people.  Why do we want that baggage with us.  Why do we sit and wonder what others are thinking about us or whether they think about us at all.  Why are we so willing to harbor bitterness or to deny that we are at fault in anything.

To many times Christians have broken relationships and for whatever reason we think it is ok or that it will just go away.  I find nowhere in scripture that it is just ok.  I can not find anywhere where if we have offended our brother or sister that the best way we handle it is to do nothing.  I also do not find anywhere in scripture that if we have offended another or sinned against them and they ask for forgiveness that we can just assume that we have no responsibility.

The world looks at us as Christians and the very thing that we are to show them we lack.  We lack the desire to truly forgive, we lack the desire to love our neighbor as ourself, we lack the desire to ask for forgiveness.  Really we lack humility and somehow we gloss over it and we think that it is all ok.  Well it is not all ok.  It is sin and there is no human remedy for it.  It will not just fix itself.

I am sure there are people that dont like me much and I am sure there are those that are holding a grudge against me or even are bitter towards me.  I wish I knew who they were I wish they would be brave enough just to tell me so I could say I am sorry so I could ask for forgiveness, so restoration could take place.  So they could deal with any sin of bitterness or anger they have towards me, and so we could display to a world that is looking for christians to be real could see what Christianity is truly about.

So if you are reading this and I have offended you or you are angry at me or bitter towards me for some reason.  Wherever you are, whatever your thoughts I would ask for your forgiveness and say I am sorry for anything that I have done that may have caused harm.

I have been giving some thought to wisdom lately.  God’s word tells us that the wisdom of man is foolishness.  I have often wondered if I have used my own wisdom (I use that term loosely) in making decisions or how often we have relied on our own wisdom instead of God’s.

Today I read this verse in 2 Corinthians 1:12

For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.

You know we have to be so careful that when we make decision that we are not acting out of fleshly wisdom.  Fleshly wisdom really flies in the face of God.  Think about it we are told to love our enemies is that what fleshly wisdom says to do?  Or we are told to turn the other cheek however fleshly wisdom says get even.  God has continued to remind me of His grave over these past weeks.

You see sometimes I want to get angry or upset about something.  There are times that I want to be frustrated but I realize what is the point.  When I fail to forgive I am reminded of how much I have been forgiven.  You see god is calling us to look at others as he sees them.  He sees the heart and so often we fail to look inward and focus on the outward.  You see it does not make any sense to forgive someone that has wronged, or has talked bad about us, or even done things to harm us.  Fleshly wisdom says do not forgive  but when I decide to act according to how God would have me respond I remember I have been forgiven much.  Because I have been forgiven mush I must forgive much.

Last night our youth pastor spoke using Matthew 5:21-26 as his text.  I wanted to write about this because not only have their been timed that I have not forgiven others but there have been times when others have not forgiven me.  This will be along post but I hope you can benefit from it if you read it through.  I have given several messages over this text to my memory although I believe the last time I preached on this text was way back in 2006 when I lived in PA.  Anyway this passage just got me to thinking about how we often act and react as Christians.  I wish I could say I have always acted and reacted perfectly but the truth is I have not.  I have also witnessed others not acting or reacting appropriately to problems and situation.  Some of these have been just regular church attenders all the way up to pastors in the church.

In Matthew 5:21-26 Jesus starts out by telling us that murder is against the law.  This seems weird because it is kind of like duh.  In addition we know that murder is wrong and against the law and in reality none of us are thinking about going out and murdering someone.

But the next thing you know Jesus starts talking about being angry.  What we are reading when Christ starts talking about anger is that we have indeed misinterpreted the law.  Which is really no surprise because we do this quite often when we don’t want to obey scripture we just misinterpret it so it does not apply to us.  What we have done is taken the law and applied it to only murder to say well murder is really the sin but that is not what Christ teaches us.

You see murder runs so much deeper than the actual act of murder.  Murder is often hidden within us and anger is murder.  Have you ever thought that anger is a sin.  I remember thinking I had righteous anger once and a young lady checked me on it.  I of course at that time defended myself but later came to realize she was right how could I say I had a right to be angry.  Anger and its components is sin bitterness, indignation, striking out against someone, slandering someone, saying things that hurt others, saying things that will cause someone to think negative of someone else, rage, desiring hurt for someone else, killing another person’s happiness these are all sin.  and it does not matter how much we try to justify it they are all sin.

In addition we see the progression of anger in these verses.  When we do not deal with anger or the components as mentioned above it just sits in us and festers up.  Soon we cant forget what someone has done to us and soon all we want is revenge.  We want that person to pay.

Secondly the next thing we know is our has caused us to despise others.  Now we begin to make fund of and belittle other people every chance we get.  We are so filled with pride that we think we can get away with our sinful behavior.  Now we are waling all over and trampling others and we literally begin to tell ourselves that the person we are angry with deserves any bad thing that may happen to them.

Finally when not dealt with he move to the point that our anger causes us to try to destroy another person and their reputation.  We want to destroy them morally, intellectually, and spiritually.

All too often we try to justify our anger.  We think somehow we have the right to be angry with someone because after all they hurt us or they did something to us.  Yet how often Christ forgives us when we have continually turned our back on Him.  Too often Christians have hurt feelings between each other or neighbors, or spouses, or friends and they refuse to deal with their feelings.  Instead they have anger and in reality murder in their heart.

Here is the deal.  God’s word makes it clear that our anger will be judged and yet we refuse to do anything about it.  He even makes it clear that our anger is judged by danger of hell fire.  Yet we justify our anger and excuse.  We justify our unforgiveness  and think it is ok.  Now before you think I have done nothing wrong you need to bear with me.

Here is the deal if we have anger or unforgiveness then we need to be reconciled.  In fact reconciliation must always precede worship.  In fact even if we are waling into church to worship and realize there is a problem with a brother or sister we need to turn around from worship and be reconciled.  Christ is saying that reconciliation is more important than worship.  How often do we his our unforgiviness in worship.  We go to church and we sing nice little worship songs that make us feel all nice and warm inside, we may even raise our hands and its all fake because deep down inside we have unfrogiveness in our heart and therefore our worship is in vain.

God does not accept the worship of a person that has anger or unforgiveness in their heart towards him or towards any of His people.  If we have broken fellowship with others we have broken fellowship with God.  If we are not right with another person then we are not right with God.  If we have bad feelings towards another person that we have bad feelings towards God.  This is strong.  We cant just hope to be right with God when we are no right with others.  If we want to be reconciled with God we must be reconciled with God.

Instead of thinking about the damage that we feel has been done to use we must be reconciled to others.  If not we are merely wasting our time.  I cant help but think how often I have come into worship God in vain all because of unfrogiveness.  What is wrong with picking up a phone, or writing an email, or writing a letter.

I know what it is like to feel wronged and still ask forgiveness, and not have it recriprocated but that is what I love about about verse 23 is it does not tell us if we remember that we have a problem with out brother but it says we remember our brother has a problem with us.  Man that blows me away.  If we remember that our brother has a problem with us then we are supposed seek reconciliation.

I just want to challenge you if you have unforgiveness in your heart or you know someone is upset with you why not get make it right?  Just some thoughts from a former Youth Pastor and a future Pastor.

As  I watched this testimony I could not help feel how powerful this testimony is not only to the grace of God but also the saving work of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday was a busy day for me.  I spent the day seeing patients for the first time and spent the day with several people.  I had a good day it was fun to spend time with some people yet at the same time difficult knowing that these people are in the last days of their lives. 

I enjoyed my time with one patient in particular.  We took time to look at an old car magazine together and I read to him about some of the cars.  We looked at the prices of some of the cars when they first came out and I shared with him what the horsepower was.  Even though he could not speak well enough fro me to understand him I could see in his expression and in his eyes that he liked the fact that I took the time to be with him.  It saddened me to know that perhaps this guy had a very little interaction with men now that he was in a nursing home and more then likely he was lonely and wanted a man to just show some interest in him and who he was.  I knew he liked cars because he had a picture of an old car hanging on his board.  My time with him was valuable.

However, this got me to thinking.  What would it be like to talk to someone and to know that they can not understand you.  I know his mind works but it must be difficult to know you can not communicate in a way that people understand you.  For some reason my thoughts turned to forgiveness.  What would it be like to want to say to someone “I forgive you yet not be able to”.  How difficult that must be.

My thoughts have turned to my father.  My father was alcoholic and that is really all I knew him as.  In fact it was a rare moment that my father was sober.  I remember the yelling and the screaming I remember the violent way he behaved when he was drunk.  I could not stand it.  I wanted an escape a way out.  Eventually my mother and father were divorced and I rarely saw my dad.  It got to the point where I never say him and in fact did not even know where he was.  I remember when my dad first found where I was and I m in that first letter he wrote and asked if I would ever be able to forgive him.  My response was “dad I forgave you long ago”  It was barely a year later that my father was murdered on the street of Arizona for a measly 11 dollars.  But what if I had never had the opportunity to tell him I forgave him and what I he never had the opportunity to ask.

This has been on my mind.  Forgiveness can be a powerful thing and I am so thankful that I have been forgiven by Jesus Christ.  I am so thankful for the grace that is experienced through the blood of Jesus Christ.  It took me a long time to get to the point where have forgiven some in my old congregation and how things were handled.  In fact if I am honest bitterness began to take root in me.  Do I agree with how things were handled?  The answer is a resounding no.  Do I forgive how things were handled the answer is yes.  I did not want to forgive but God began to break me and I got to the point where I knew without forgiveness my life would eventually be useless in the hands of the potter.  Now perhaps there are those that think they have done nothing wrong but regardless of the fact I forgive, and have forgiven those that have hurt me.  I pray God’s grace may abound.

I also know that in my life I am not so naive to think that I do not need forgiveness.  I know I have screwed up many times and many times my errors have hurt others maybe those I have hurt will forgive me.  This I know without forgiveness we are not following Christ.  It would be a terrible thing to want to tell someone you forgive them and not be able to say a thing.  

Tomorrow I will spend some time with a man that will most likely be dead very soon I am responsible for his spiritual care.  What would it be like to pass away without forgiving I pray I never know.

son Archives | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Dec 11, 2013 | Uncategorized

If you have ever had a premature baby you know that there are definitely many ups and many downs.  Our daughter was born premature she was born at 30 weeks and had to spend 48 days in the hospital.  That was a little over 8 years ago.  For y wife and I that was an emotional roller coaster one visit everything was great and the next everything was not good at all.  It was a very difficult time for us and our faith was stretched to great lengths.

Once again with the birth of Micah John Monda we had another early birth.  Micah was born at 33 weeks and 3 days which is very good as far as premies are concerned.  He came out doing great right from the start.  He cried quickly and looked healthy.  During his first check ups in the NICU the doctor told us he was doing better then expected.  Tomorrow will mark is seventh day in the hospital and the doctors are telling us it looks like he can come home Tuesday.  Wow this is great news for us.  We have had people literally all around this world praying not only for the birth of our son but praying for his health.

 I remember the day my son was born I sat and looked at him and wept to think God would bless us so greatly and I often think of the faith of that little preemie daughter we had and how very early on she began to pray every day that her mommy would have a baby.  What faith and what and awesome testimony of prayer she already has at 8 years old to see an answer to prayer that she constantly prayed for for years. How awesome is our GOD.

In addition to all this we are in the middle of a move.  We had a group of teens show up at our house to hel us move and that was a true blessing.  In addition we had Keith Stutzman and Jim Smith show up.  They really helped us a great deal in packing a 26 foot Penske truck full.  Everything has been loaded and is on its way to Missouri.  My wife and I are sleeping on air mattresses and doing some final cleaning and then we will wait word from the doctors before heading for Missouri.  

On a crazier side we were told we had to find an infant car seat that would hold a child for 4 pounds.  Are you aware that most car seat are rated at 5 pounds and up.  Here is the kicker we found only two car seat stroller combos that are rated at 4 pounds an up.  1 was and Eddie Bauer stroller System the cost for it was 229 ouch compared the one I had picked out at 169.  I did not like the Eddie Bauer system it was not user friendly.   So our only other option was this Chicco System it was a measly 279.  That was 279 I did not plan on spending.  So I am thankful for Laura Smith who found me a coupon and I saved 10 percent at Baby Depot which helped.  Why don’t more companies make these things for smaller babies and help us out.

 The hospital told us they are going through some sort of thing right now where they don’t have the car seats to give away.  So what do they do with people that cant afford to spend this kind of money?  I couldn’t afford it but I want my child home.  On top of that the brakes on the only vehicle I have here are shot.  Actually I think the Caliper is frozen up do I have to get it fixed before we leave but it is the only vehicle we have in PA so I will probably have to rent something while it gets repaired.  Man this is all too crazy.  But Praise the Lord my son is coming home.  Sorry for all this depressing stuff that went along with it.

It was 4am when the phone rang.  As I picked it up my wife was on the other end and she told me her water broke.  Our first child was a fast labor so I woke up my daughter and we headed off to the hospital.  And about 2 hours later Micah John Monda was born.  he was born at 6:17 am and my was at 33 weeks 3 days.  Micah weighed in at 4lbs. 9 1/2 ounce and was 17 1/4 inches long.  My daughter has prayed, and prayed, and prayed for this moment.  Her faith was always so strong believing God would give her a brother or sister.  It took  wife and I over 6 years to have this child and God poured out his blessing on us.

 Its interesting to see how God has brought blessing, after blessing into our lives.  I have been blown away.  Well I could right alot more but to be honest I need some rest and tomorrow I have alot of work to do.  Here is a picture.