Pastor Tom's Journal

God has been speaking to my heart this week deeply, profoundly, and lovingly through my own devotional times and through the ministry of Dr. Richard Blackaby. The same messages can be heard at the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary website under Chapel. As we were preparing for worhip today, I was remembering one of our saints who recently went home to be with Jesus. Caryl Borges lived a life that reflected God's love and that took her around the country and to Yemen in the service of the Master. As she fought cancer, she did so with valiant faith. I was honored to be with her during various stages of that disease process. While I wish I had been more of a support along the way, the greatest blessings came during the last two weeks of her life as I witnessed her slipping away, but enjoying every moment God gave her with family. At the same time, she was genuinely excited about going to Heaven. I was sitting in that seminary chapel this morning, waiting for students to arrive, prepa...

For Those Who Take Life Too Seriously 1. Save the whales. Collect the whole set 2. A day without sunshine is like, night. 3. On the other hand, you have different fingers. 4. I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory. 5. 42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot. 6. 99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name. 7. I feel like I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe. 8. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you. 9. I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be without sponges 10. Honk if you love peace and quiet. 11. Remember half the people you know are below average. 12. Despite the cost of living, have you noticed how popular it remains? 13. Nothing is fool-proof to a talented fool. 14. Atheism is a non-prophet organization. 15. He who laughs last thinks slowest. 16. Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm. 17. Eag...

GROUP Ministry: Growing Reconciling Obeying Understanding Proclaiming God has called us to a lifestyle that embraces all these dimensions of being: We are expected to G ROW because that is what life generates. We will be growing until we die. We are commissioned with a word of R ECONCILIATION according to II Corinthians 5. It is God’s desire to bring people back into proper relationship with Him, A life of O BEDIENCE is how we can be most useful to God and live in His will. U NDERSTANDING is what happens as we gradually comprehend and act upon God’s will in our lives. P ROCLAMATION is the natural outflow of an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. We must grow individually and in community. Each strengthens the other. Group Ministry Materials - Copyright, 2006, Thomas B. Sims

Builders or Destroyers God has called us to be builders: Proverbs 14 1 The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down. Builders have certain characteristics. 2 He whose walk is upright fears the LORD , but he whose ways are devious despises him. B = Basis for Life (foundation). We must start with a solid foundation for our lives. 3 A fool's talk brings a rod to his back, but the lips of the wise protect them. U = Use of Tools - Words are useful and necessary tools in building toward our goals. 4 Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest. I = Investment - Wise builders invest wisely in their growth. The ox pulls the plow that grows the wheat that is placed in the manger for him to eat which gives him strength to plow. 5 A truthful witness does not deceive, but a false witness pours out lies. L= Line (Plumbline - Truth) ...

Bruce Alderman is meditating here about the basic core issues of belief in his own life - namely why he believes in God and why, further, he embraces a belief in Jesus Christ. It Seems to Me... : " So who is right and who is wrong? Isn't that what religion is all about? In a word, no. It's not fundamentally about being more right than anyone else. It's about responding to God's call and being faithful to that call, however the call comes and wherever the call leads. " Rightness and wrongness might appear to be essential questions, but Bruce suggests that the relational question trumps them. It is what E. Stanley Jones called, "The Divine Yes." We start there with God and we can sort out the details as we go along.

Christianbook.com Home One of the timeless truths that young pastors need to grasp is the stewardship of study. Reading is at the core of our study. Reading the Bible comes first. We need to read it regularly, voraciously, and systematically. Find a process whereby you can read the Bible from cover to cover rather quickly and then, at least once a year, preferably more often. As you read this way, include a program of reading books of the Bible slowly and meditatively. This is in addition to Bible reading for specific sermon preparation. What else should leaders and preacher read? Read stories because they teach us out to flesh out truth and tell stories ourselves. They express human emotion and experience in ways that we can grasp. They also provide a source of inspiration. Read both fiction and true life stories, especially biographies. Read current events in newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other Internet sources. If you are a prophet, you must understand the times. Read current r...

Saturday night - anticipation, inspiration, perspiration (It is hot in Fresno), exasperation (Andrea is preparing the church finance report), motivation (some, but not much - I'm ready for bed), temptation (Saturday Night Live really does give me a chuckle, but I should sleep and pray), elation (Andrea just finished the finance report)., aggravation (I just read this to Andrea and she walked away), termination (I'm going to save this and go to the other room), inflation, salvation, one nation under God. Good night.

A Little Searching and we caught up with Jess Moody. Thanks to Natala for drawing him into cyberspace (though I suspect he is there all the time). And that has made all the difference. : "what is the emerging church? Postmodernity" : "Anonymous said... Noted that you mentioned me. Doris and I are retired, but working all the time. Old Jess Moody is eighty, and preaching every Sunday, and will be teaching at Palm Beach Atlantic (The university I founded 38 years ago.)Everything is great. We were blown out of our condo on the seventeenth floor, and are now living happily in a new condo here in West Palm Beach. Thanks for quoting me. Love to you, and praying deep, healing prayers in your behalf. I am expecting a miracle. You are special...Jess Moody, 3630 Whitehall Drive, W. Palm Beach, FL"

Moody Blog: Jessays Jess Moody last posted here in March, but it is worth reading - anything by Jess Moody is worth reading/hearing/celebrating.

It is good to see my friend's life remembered anywhere in the blogsphere. Thanks for the tribute: http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2004/02/238-keep-your-friendsthe-columbus.htm l My own offering is on my principle blog: Georgia on Pastortomsims.com

(Jeremiah 31:3 KJV) The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Everlasting love. It is as much of a quality as it is an expression of duration. In fact, what makes God’s love endure is that it is durable, patient, passionate, and aggressive. That is the character of His love. God actively pursues the object of His love in the way described by Francis Thompson in his immortal poem, “The Hound of Heaven.” God appears to us of old with this romantic word of wooing, He has been loving us all along. It is new only by its freshness. “Yes, I have loved you …” He affirms with conviction and passion, “and my love never ends.” Not only does He love us, but He courts us. With loving kindness He reaches out to us and draws us to Himself. Loving kindness is an inadequate English translation of a Hebrew word, which is best translated, “covenant love.” It means that God’s own characte...

Real Heroes are Overcomers! 32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. – (Hebrews 11:32-34 , The Message, Copyright 2002, Eugene Peterson ) People who overcome great obstacles make great heroes. We stand back observing their lives and find hope that we can also overcome. People who seemingly live without problems offer us little encouragement. In our ignorance of their true struggles, we chalk up their successes to luck, privilege, or fate. The heroes of faith were people who faced tragedy, distress, doubts, and even disaster. Staring death in the face, the heroes of the Old Testament harbored a hope that Go...

Just Charlie: It's a Movie, For Crying Out Loud... Charlie makes a good point. I've blogged on this phenomenon at pastortomsims.com . Specifically, I wrote a resource article called Da Vinci Codes and Overloads and another related to some of the issues raised by the film/book: This Article . Finally, I was surprised and amused that more Christians take the "Code" seriously than non-Christians as evidenced by two polls on the Religion and Christian Fellowship Forums. Check the results. They might be informative. I will be posting this at pastortomsims.com as well.

Time has eyes. In this case, it is I-Z-E: Sanitize Prioritize Optimize Strategize Energize I could throw in a few more just to be cute and thorough, but these may do. We can revisit categorize, synthesize, and scutinize later. (c) 2006, Thomas B. Sims

I was asked today a searching question: What are you going to do? My friend was referring to the struggles of pastoring a church in a declining neighborhood, hosting sevceral thriving ministries/congregations, collecting less and less financial help as the bills rise, and doing the work of a mission center while living the life of a small congregation. Here is our situation: We have a tiny church doing great work, influencing the city, ministering to many people, and struggling to survive. Every week, we touch lives - lives that do not bring in the resources to support the ministry, lives that are not ready for leadership at the level we need. What are we going to do? Well, we seem to have some orders in place and, I suppose, until they change, we will keep following them.

It was a pleasure to initiate the Fresno Quality of Life Initiative this week at the Fellowship of Joy. Darryl Curry will be leading our effort to rid our neighborhoods of unwanted grafitti. We will be there to remove the tags and hope to accomplish several things as a result: Number 1 - We are in this to love our neighbors. They have been victimized and we want to be part of restoring them. Thus, we share the love of Jesus. Number 2 - We want to restore the pride in community that is lost when vandalism takes over in a neighborhood. Number 3 - We want to serve. That is our calling. That is what our Master did and it is what we want to do with Him and for Him. Number 4 - We want to reach out to kids at risk for the "tagging" lifestyle and those engaged in it to show them that their are other and better ways to build upi their self-esteem, have a sense of belonging, and be loved. That is why we are doing this in conjunction with our Skate Church ministry which is about to laun...

The Fresno/Clovis Prayer breakfast was a tremendous opportunity to see the spiritual, business, political, and educational leadership of the city come together as one entity to pray for the welfare of the city, celebrate the accomplishments of the past, and be challenged to continue the taks of rebuilding the walls that are constantly being threatened by violence, addiction, and complacency. I did say complacency. We do like to congratulate ourselves and we have reason to. Fresno is a model of what positive things can happen when the faith community joins hands and hearts together to pray or the city and take its civic responsibilities city. In 14 years, Fresno moved from the least livable city in the country with the second highest murder rate to an All American City with vibrant inner city ministries, and safe and thriving downtown, and people of faith who care. But the mayor and police chief were correct to ask us not to grow satisfied. We have real problems at the street level and ...

Most of my journal entries are being made at my other site : pastortomsims.com, but I am going to be organizing things here at Blogger. Check my profile to see a list of the blogs I am setting up. Perhaps one will be interesting to you.

I need to start posting here and will make it one of my disciplines from this point on. My principle blog is The Dream Factory and I am quite involved with two CompuServe/Netscape forums and a number of Yahoo groups. Maybe today... maybe tomorrow ... I'll be back. In the meantime ...