Reese is Here!!!!

 Life has kept me from posting any new updates, but life has been crazy yet very good at the same time. A lot has changed since I posted Reese Part 2 in June. For starters, Reese is here! He was born July 25,2010. He is five months old and we just celebrated his very first christmas. Watching Robin the last five months in her new role as mommy has been amazing. She is so loving and kind to our son. Through it all she has battled health issues with her feet,back, and all around illness. But her circumstances never made her stop caring for Reese. She may be a new mom,but she’s a great mom. I am humbled to have the title daddy, and to see my son watching me is a great challenge and joy. He is so beautiful. I LOVE him so much. He has such a sweet happy spirit. I’m blessed to be his daddy. We are learning to be good parents together and through all the ups and downs of married life, Jesus Christ remains the glue that keeps us together.

At Work:

    In August I received a promotion at TRIPIL. My new job as Independent Living Supervisor  has been rewarding on many levels. TRIPIL is trusting me to help lead the changes in our CIL   that will help our community members become more independent. As I learn to be a supervisor I’m learning what weaknesses and strengths I have as an employee and leader. This part has been a hard learning experience but one I have enjoyed. I’m very happy to be at TRIPIL.

In Ministry:

   In October I was hired at Friendship Community Church as the youth and young adult pastor. My duties are to oversee the youth ministry and develop Friendship’s young adult ministries. Robin and I are both excited to be back at Friendship and I’m pumped to be where the Lord wants me as a preacher and teacher. I love the teens at the church and looking forward to 2011 when we kick off the young adult ministry.

To Wrap it up:

    The Lord has trusted me with a lot. Pray that I remain faithful to Him and my family in it all. I am a very blessed man.

28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.-Mark 12:28:34

       God desires that all that we are to be centered on Him. He wants a all out devoted heart that loves God, and his fellow man. The Lord does not want religion.  Notice that Jesus tells the scribe to Love God. Also notice how he doesn’t say you must read only the King James Bible, you must wear a suit when at church, hey new guy take off that hat, your in church, no tattoos, or that crazy rock music.  In over 2000 years how did we get from a simple, but perplexing command from Jesus, to man trying to control people with religion?  I’m learning that  we are in an age where people are growing up with no knowledge of God or church. So, if a man come in off the street with tattoos all over his body wearing hat, what do you do as a christian if he accepts the gospel of Jesus Christ? God gives him a new heart that loves Jesus but his outward appearance never changes?  Or if you’re a person that believes we should only read the KJV Bible, but your child that you been praying for gets saved, and loves the NIV version. He grows in wisdom and becomes a great man of God, is that enough for you? Or  do you argue with him about why you think the KJV is the only true word of God leaving him confused and not wanting to read any bible?  I been a Christian since I been 19, and sadly I have seen people do this and worst. I see people giving others a list of rules and religion. Just give them Jesus. It’s about control. A person may not be able to walk in personal holiness but they can control what bible to read, how to dress, what music to listen to, and if they can get others to do the same, than they must be godly. We tell people come as you are, but I think it’s more like come as you are, and we’ll tell you how you should be. In Christ, God did everything for us on the cross so we can have a relationship with him. God cares more about changing a person’s heart than a person’s shirt. Christians should feel the same way. I love God, but hate religion. We go to church, read the bible, worship, pray, and serve because we get to do these things because we love God and the fact he loves us. If you take this love out of these things you merely have religion. I hate religion. Religion is man’s attempt to be made right with God by keeping a list of dos and don’ts. Love God, love your neighbor, hate religion.

Prayer

“Father, heal my own heart from being religious and give me a heart that follows hard after you. I pray for your church. May we as a whole give people Jesus. Not our favorite Bible, our prefered worship style, or any type of religion. Help us to love. Amen.

http://www.catalystconference.com/index2.php

      I have to be honest, I struggle with acceptance. I realize that as a Christ follower, His love for me should be enough. But of as late, I been forgetting how much God does love me. Last night I went to my church for a meeting of Christian businessman, and at first felt really overwhelmed. A few ran their own business, and being the only one in the room with a clear disability left me feeling alone. I think all men struggle with the question “How do I measure up?” to other men, and for a man who had a loving father speaking in to his life, that question is easier to answer. But for me and guys like me who didn’t have their dads we can feel adrift in the sea of life.  We feel like we are alone to figure this thing called manhood out on our own. Add a disability to the mix, and you can imagine the storm that goes on in a person’s heart. I have always felt rejected. My father chose a life of drugs and alcohol over me. When he died, his obituary listed my five half-sisters but not me. His side of the family has never reached out to me. So, driving home last night from church my heart was heavy. I was thinking about all of that and started to cry. I tried fighting it trying to be tough but cried anyway. Sometimes, the best prayers are our tears. Fast forward to today I was reading my men’s devotional bible Robin got me and Isaiah 41:10 was the key verse. It reminded me that  through Jesus, I’m accepted by God. As I read this verse I was filled with God’s love. I heard him saying to my heart, Michael, I am with you. I will strengthen you and help you. God is a good daddy. He is there for his children and this verse speaks of that truth. I just feel a weight lifted off of me today. O how I wished i had a dad growing up, but It humbles me to know that the Living God knows me and is Fathering me to true manhood in him.

When your mother and father forsaken you.

I am with you

When people reject you.

I am with you.

When you feel alone

I am with you.

When burdened by your circumstances

I am with you.

Praise God for his unending love.

Back in Youth Ministry

Robin and I have been busy, so I have not had time to blog much. But I wanted to take a moment to tell everyone how God is working in our lives. We have accepted to be the youth leaders at the Bible Chapel’s  Robinson township campus.  We met with the campus Pastor Scott Arvay and Director of Youth Nathan Lee last week, and had a great meeting. The Robinson Team starts meeting this wednesday to prepare for our launch in November. It’s been almost two years since Robin and I have stepped down as youth leaders at Friendship and we are very grateful that we are getting a chance to get back into youth ministry. We both have the desire to reach teens with the love of God and are determined to help  youth come to find their purpose in God. Also, we are starting a Youth for Christ Campus Life Club for Mcguffey students later this month. We are praying for more adults to help out with the club, but we know God will provide. We are pumped to be working with kids again. Here’s the link to our church:

http://www.biblechapel.org/robinson

Getting to Preach

The Lord  is opening more doors for me to preach. Yesterday I preached for the first time at First Baptist Church in Canonsburg, PA. The people there are very loving and accepting. I preach there again this Sunday and can’t wait. I need to be faithful and God will send me to the places he wants me to go. I’m stoked! God is so good.Please keep Robin and I in your prayers.

    As I write this my Uncle Tom Matthews is in the Critical Care Unit in Washington hospital. He’s been in there for two weeks. He went to the hospital for a bed sore but it turn into problems with his heart and lungs. Since the weekend he’s been under sedation and on a ventilator. I wanted to take this time on my blog to write about how much Tommy means to me. I was born in 1981 with cerebral palsy. The same year Tommy was paralyzed from an car accident. I learned from Tommy to never let my disability stop me from living life. Since I was a child we have had many heart to heart conversations about life that I’ll never forget. Tommy has encouraged me and at times flat out ticked me off about how to live life with a disability and I praise God for putting him in my life. The greatest gift Tommy gave me was  Jesus Christ. Tommy is not a perfect man. He has faults but he keeps going back to God for strength and hope. It was him that always kept dragging me to church as a teen. I thought church was boring but I got to hang out with him so I went. I was far from God but would listen to Tommy’s Kirk Franklin cds and even “stole” a few to listen whenever i was down. When I was 19 I went to church with Tommy and for the first time heard the message of Jesus. I came to faith because God kept using Tommy to reach me. But it wasn’t till my early twenties that I got serious about my faith, and again it was Tommy who got me to start going to church and Bible Study. I loved his NIV Study Bible and we would talk about Scripture. I would take his bible to my bedroom and read it all night long. Finally, one year for my birthday he bought me my own NIV study bible. He teased me and said he did it to get his bible back. I have used this Bible for over the last 5 years and its the greatest gift I ever received. I study from it, teach from it, and preach from it. I now own almost 25 bibles but I never stop using the bible Tommy gave me. Tommy is a example of  a Perfect God using imperfect people. Because of Tommy I’m in ministry now and preaching the Gospel. Tommy said to me once that he feels like he can’t be used by God but I’m the “good works” God gave Tommy to do. Because Tommy had enough faith to not give up on me, I’m continuing the work of the Gospel that Tommy started in me. I’m praying that Tommy will get better, and don’t know what the final outcome will be, but I’m trusting God. The Lord is in control of this.

Tommy,

I love you. Thank you for not giving up on me. Your my hero.

Love,

Michael

-  1 Corinthians 15:42-49

    As we continue our study of the resurrection I pray you have been encouraged so far. This is part 3 of a 4 part lesson on the resurrection. Today we are looking at the question “What kind of body will the dead have when they rise?” I’ll pray and then we can get to work.

Prayer:

Father, I thank you for the grace that is coming in the resurrection. One day our bodies which is marked by sickness,pain, and even disability will be changed forever to your glory. I long for that day when we leave all this behind and enter into everlasting life. As I teach today, please help me make clear the truths of Scripture. In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen

    Does God heal today? Yes, but not always. In his love and great wisdom he chooses to not heal or heal for his glory and our good. In my case, God has chose not to heal me from my cerebral palsy. As I walk trough life and people see the joy I have in Jesus no matter my circumstances he gets glory in that and my joy is increased because more people are attracted to my savior. I don’t the full picture why He allowed me to have cp, but I do know that one day soon I’ll be with Jesus in a body free from death,pain, sin, and even my cerebral palsy. The resurrection is our ultimate hope when it comes to healing. Deep down we crave this. Any person saying they don’t want this is blind to the truth or is filled with pride. If healing in this life was our only hope we should be pitied, but  hear Paul in Romans:

23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.-Romans 8:23

Focus back on the key scripture today now:

42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; [5] the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall  also bear the image of the man of heaven.

  There is coming a day when the dead are raised imperishable. We will bear the image of Christ who is from heaven. Our natural body that is filled with death, pain,sin, and sickness will be raised a spiritual body free from all of these things. When the Bible means here about spiritual body is not that we will be ghost, but have a body similar to Christ’s resurrected, glorified body. For more on this, see  part 1 of “The Resurrection:God’s Truth, Our Hope”.  We will not be fat angel babies floating on clouds playing harps. I will remain Michael Matthews, but my body will be glorified like Jesus after his resurrection. We do not become all powerful or all knowing. He is still God and we remain human. Let’s now look at the remaining verses of chapter 15.

50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
 O death, where is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

      We all must die, but we don’t lose hope.  One day I will die and my body will be put in the grave or Jesus will come back and I will be changed without death. But either way I will be raised free from death, sin, pain, and my cp. Our hope is not in this life, it’s in the life to come. So we press on knowing that this is not it! Whatever circumstances we are in, they will not last forever even if they never change in this lifetime.We were made to live with God forever. It will be better then we can imagine.

5:1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on [1] we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.- 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

I want to wrap this up by saying that when we die, our spirit does go to be with Lord. Don’t think we will be in some type of soul sleep in the grave. We will of an experience with the Lord, but won’t be a complete one till our spirits and bodies are reunited in the resurrection. We will eat, play, serve,worship,learn, all to the glory to God through Jesus. It’s awesome to know that my God will be the first person to see me without cerebral palsy. I pray you have enjoy these lessons. Next week in part 4 I will talk about how this all applies to the disability community. God bless.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; [2] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.- 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

       It’s one thing to teach others about loving God and people but to walk the walk is another. We who are in ministry get so caught up in doing ministry that we forget to check our hearts. I realized this during the past week that i lost focus of God and my identity in Him. It does not matter how much I know about God if I’m not trusting him and loving him. A man of God must give up all his selfish childish ways if he is going to fulfill the life God is calling him to.  He has to be kind,patient, not cocky,not rude, not irritable, not resentful, and don’t delight in wrongdoing but rejoice with the truth.When things get hard he bears it. He believes in all things will turn out good. He has hope and endures. Like love he never stops living out the marks of love found in the bible.  God does not care what gifts and talents you have if your heart does not love him or others. God is love, and will help his men carry out the call of love. I don’t have this down yet, and know I won’t till heaven but I’m asking Jesus to help me kill my childish ways and step up to the challenge of Love. I pray this for all men

Psalm 120

A song of ascents.

    ¹ I call on the LORD in my distress,
       and he answers me.

    ² Save me, O LORD, from lying lips
       and from deceitful tongues.

    ³ What will he do to you,
       and what more besides, O deceitful tongue?

    ⁴ He will punish you with a warrior’s sharp arrows,
       with burning coals of the broom tree.

    ⁵ Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech,
       that I live among the tents of Kedar!

    ⁶ Too long have I lived
       among those who hate peace.

    ⁷ I am a man of peace;
       but when I speak, they are for war.

    I was studying last night about how God promises us that He’ll equip us with the Spiritual weapons and Armor that we need to fight the good fight of faith. Psalm 120 was my key scripture in my study and it blessed me so much. I learned from that scripture that the Father will deliver me from every lie that is said about me. He gives me the weapons for war and stands in the battle with me.No foe has a chance for victory when I stand in the will of God. I gained so much last night about God as my Father and how any good father might respond to someone who is messing with their kids. It brought me peace that any enemy that faces me, even the devil, must face my Father. I also learned alot about the times I fall short and sin. I fall because I don’t have my focus on the Lord and I don’t listen to His Word. When I’m digging in the Word for truth and letting the Spirit lead me I can spot the devil’s schemes a mile away. It’s the times I try doing this life on my own that I start losing battles. Everyday, every moment and every breath we take, we have a choice to trust God with our lives or allow Satan to get us to doubt God. I think every sin starts with doubting the goodness of God. Does God really love me? Is His way really best for my life? Is God better than this sin? Is God good?  I can go on and on, but I think you get the picture, As Christians, we need to know that we are His children and he knows what’s best for us. That He fights for us, and prepares us to also fight. We have victory in Jesus. Verse 7 is my favorite in this Psalm:

⁷ I am a man of peace;
       but when I speak, they are for war.

    “I’m not looking for a fight”, the psalmist is saying, “but if fight I must, the warrior in me will rise with the power of the Word and release a deadly arsenal”. The Christian life is not a passive life, we must, with God’s help ,be involved in the fight for our faith. If we don’t we’ll be lukewarm at best and be worthless for the Kingdom. Whatever you are facing, Never give up! Never Stop Fighting!