I feel the need to start out my blog with pointing out to all you men that there are only 3 more days for you to celebrate your manliness before we enter a month filled with chocolates, rhyming cards and Breathtaking Women. 3 days.
Just for reference I did look up the definition of “manly” which is as follows: Having qualities traditionally attributed to a man; belonging to or befitting a man; masculine. Pretty sure love poetry & tea time do not fit the definition of manly. Save that for next month. Now, to help all of you out, I do have a pretty extensive collection of manly movies at my house….mixed in between the chick flicks…… feel free to borrow them.
Every time Jason brings a message I learn something new. Sunday night I learned about his fear of podiums. I’m still not convinced that his fears are rational, but for the safety of my pastor I will personally inspect this free thinking podium that may or may not be conspiring against him every Sunday before the start of service. I somehow think that will lead to more paranoia….. Tim and I were discussing how funny we thought it was that some may think a church’s love for their pastor is measurable by how big that pastor’s podium is. At which time my 6 year old Caroline insisted that her father personally build Jason a “big, big, BIG” podium. Turns out Caroline agrees with the podium theory.
Jason has a talent for bringing just the right sermons at just the right time. Or he follows the leading of the Holy Spirit. Either way, Sunday night’s message was very much needed. A lot of times we view Christian suffering as a punishment for something we must be doing wrong, but Jason showed us that a lot of times it’s actually the opposite. We saw that God will LEAD us through trials for His sake. Isaiah 43:2 states “When thou passes through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walks through the fire, thou shall not be burned….”. Wow. Knowing that God is with me, I’m good to go. Bring it on.
Oh, and great news: there’s only 2 1/2 more weeks until the Breathtaking Women series! I am getting monumentally pumped!
~~Brandy Malachowsky
I’m going to start out my blog by admitting that I was really saddened to learn that Face to Face was not going to be serving at Sunday night’s service. I have come to enjoy them leading us in worship on Sunday nights, and I’m not one for change, so I came up with a plan. It was brilliant. I was going to follow them to Penuel Baptist Church, equipped with lighters and signs that were to read “FACE TO FACE ROCKS!”. I was about ready to sit down Sunday afternoon and make my signs when I realized that I have no idea how to get to Penuel Baptist church. I also remembered that I had to actually sit in on Jason’s sermon if I wanted to write the blog, so my dream of becoming Face to Face’s first ever groupie was killed almost as quickly as it had begun.
I walked into the service, my dream of nearly 6 months newly crushed to bits, and sat down, wallowing in my sorrows. The worship service started and it took all of 3 seconds for me to realize that these guys were good. Donald and Beau really rocked the worship service…..thanks so much guys! We really do appreciate you!
The theme of Sunday night’s service was “New Direction”. I had anticipated Jason going a different route with this one, but I was pleasantly surprised. This message just floored me (I will admit that I was a little worried when he started to hand out paper). Just the concept of the church being the damsel in distress and Jesus coming on to the scene as our Savior and hero is so awesome (yeah, I said it)! And then you take it further and realize that he doesn’t do just that. Salvation doesn’t just end there. He also redeems and reconciles us! Like Jason pointed out, a lot of times we think Jesus’ work ends with salvation, but the last 2 points are so necessary, even crucial, to lead us to our ultimate job……Ambassadors of Reconciliation! Jason did a smashing job showing us that and I honestly cannot wait to see what he brings us next week for “New Trials”.
~~Brandy Malachowsky, resident guest blogger
I absolutely love Sundays. The whole day just rocks. I get to spend Sunday morning temporarily teaching the 3 year old class. There is nothing better in this world than to listen to about 40 preschoolers singing “How Great Is Our God”. Really.
Then I get to come back in to experience life at 6pm. Our services are no less than stupefying…..
Joe rocked the glasses look Sunday night. He really did.
Manly month has indeed seen many setbacks. I would personally like to thank all you men out there that are just leading the way into our Breathtaking Women’s series. You guys are doing a great job. Some of you men have mentioned going to ”Preparing Ourselves For the King” to get “man”icures. Great idea! Matt keeps insisting on wearing his sweater vests. Even better. A group of unnamed brothers gather together to watch High School Musical. These same brothers sing Hannah Montana songs on buses. Love it! Jason has resorted to writing poetry. Now that is just disturbing. I’m going to ask him to please stop that….now. It seems that the only manly man around here is Alex Treebark. Some of you already know Alex. Those of you who do not, please feel free to ask Jason to introduce you. He’s a great man.
Speaking of persecuting great Christian men, Jason’s series on Paul is really catching my interest (for the record, I am also going to check to see if I can use this series for history credits in school). It was hard for me to concentrate at first because I was too confused about why he would have chosen that particular color of tie with the blazer he was wearing, but let’s move on. I used to hear the story of Paul and think “that’s a nice story”. Now I see the grace of God all through the life of Paul and stand amazed. I am learning so much and cannot wait to see where Jason takes this series!
~~Brandy Malachowsky, guest blogger and fashion expert
