Diss - A - Plin

God always has lessons for us. Yesterday in church the all wise oracle (Orin Borgelt) said something to the effect of "when God has a lesson for us he usually wraps it in a problem and if it is a big lesson it is wrapped in a big problem." I like that thought, it certainly echoes Paul's notion in Philippians when he was suggesting to rejoice in everything and especially in the "problems". Well i know that God has been teaching me some very necessary lessons lately, and it is actually not because I see this problem facing me, but it is because of increased responsibility and strategies and disciplines I am being forced to establish. Yes, forced.
My wife and I have been so blessed since moving back to Olathe, and it has been so wonderful. We really lucked out and got into an awesome house when we shouldn't have been able to do so, and since we got this house in a not so great financial position, we are now being told that we need to establish a very strict budget and account for all of our spending and prove that our financial position is consistently improving. Wow! It is difficult to do that and I really appreciate Orin's sermon series at just the right time and trying to execute something like that really makes me admire someone like him. So God is forcing me to learn a great deal of financial discipline in order to pull this thing off.
I am also being forced to learn new disciplines at work. I got a promotion, which is awesome! I have only been at this job for three months and technically am still in a probationary period, but that said that they have been so impressed with my work that they want promote we to a supervisor, even though there are people who have been there for years and years, some more than a decade, who have been waiting and working for this promotion. That was undoubtedly the favor of God in my life. Praise God. With this position though comes some serious responsibilities. I am kinda nervous and excited at the same time.
Now the most difficult thing is being a bachelor again for a while. My wife and my daughter went on vacation to stay with my family for a while. (isn't that awesome that my family is strong enough and close enough that my wife goes and stays with her in-laws without me. I wish i could be there too, but that is life sometimes.) Whenever my wife goes away for a period of time i am tempted to be a bum for a while. Just spend $$$ and play video games and get out of my routine. Today God convicted me about that, telling me to be a disciplined person and stick to a routine, maybe be even more strict about it.

The really cool things about discipline and learning discipline is that be learning discipline we are assured that we will be better people and be in a better situation later down the road in life as a result of our learned discipline. Welcome discipline. Seek out discipline and increased responsibility.

Hebrews 12:5-13 says...
5And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
6because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."^[a]

7Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

12Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13"Make level paths for your feet,"^[b] so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Thats an awesome truth about God and about humanity.

Be cool!

Seek God!

In Christ,

Geoff Lundy

1Corinthians 3:4-6

4Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. 5Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

I love this passage. It has helped me so many times through out my years in ministry. I am not naturally a confident or bold person so I often 2nd guess myself and I tend to get pretty insecure. (I know what a sissy, huh!) But, thats me and I hate it and I have to allow God to use me with all my insufficiencies. Since coming to Olathe Life fellowship, I have all the confidence in the world. I am confident that we will be okay, I am confident that OLF will grow and do incredible things for the Kingdom of God. I am confident that //epidemic will explode onto the scene and transform student's lives in awesome ways. I am full of faith and confidence, which is so uncharacteristic for me. But, I realize my confidence is so overwhelming because the Spirit of God is so overwhelming in what we are doing. OLF and //epidemic are doing God's work free from any restraints. No religious restraints, no tradition to consider. We are just calling on God asking for His Spirit and His direction and we are going. We are receiving vision from God and going in that direction with great confidence. Not confidence in ourselves, just in God and His Spirit.

Apply that principle in your lives and wow, what a difference it makes. It feels so good to actually be confident in what you are doing in life because you know you are doing God's will and you know God is blessing everything you do.

Seek God

In Christ,
Pastor Geoff Lundy

Life IS Good

Life is so good. We are soo blessed. It is just ringing in my Head.... "Blessing and Honor Glory and Power be unto the ancient of Days". Can hear the inflections and the music going. Ever since our family has moved back to Olathe and started up with Olathe Life Fellowship. our lives have been filled with blessings and good things. God id so awesome and He has made himself evident in such amazing ways. When our family left here and went to Michigan things were so difficult for us. We had such a hard time and so many things seemed to go wrong for us and to go against us. I remember that there were so many of those Sunday school answer Christian-ease type people that would say to, "well that is how you know that you are doing God's will and that God is in this, because Satan is coming against it s strongly " They would say, "God's work is never easy and when things go wrong constantly and it seems unbearable that's when you know you're doing the work of God"
Well, now we have moved back to Olathe and we truly feel in our hearts, in the core of my being, that this is God's will for us and that we are truly involved in God's work, and things are going wonderfully for us. Each day I wake up with a smile and filled with joy. There are countless practical blessings that I can look at and rejoice. More than that I can rejoice and be filled with joy and peace and love and etc even when there arent material things staring me in the face to be thankful for.

All through the book of Philippians there is a theme of Joy. Even Joy in tough times. I am thankful for our tough times in the past because God has taught me so much and I thankful for this time of rejuvenation and blessing. Life Is Good.

I dare you, read the book of Philippians and then try to have self pity and sorrow. If you read it and open your heart and mind to it you cant.



In Christ,
Pastor Geoff