So I have heard it before from people in church that they are not called to serve or not called to ministry, that that is the job of the pastors of the church.  I tend to disagree, from my humble point of view it is the pastors’ job to provide the opportunity for the church to use their gifts in ministry, because all who are saved are called to ministry, no matter who you are or what  your skill set is.  You don’t need a fancy degree to lead a ministry, just a willing heart to follow God’s leading in your life.  To those who say they are not called to ministry, may I remind you of 2 verses: Matthew 28:19-29 which says: 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (NLT).

So you see we are to reach ALL People. Only you can reach certain people, not your pastor. You are the minister, the visible representation of Christ to those in your life.  Your pastors only provide the opportunity to for you to do ministry. Look at 1 Peter 2:9-10:

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
See once we were not a people, we were once not God’s, but now that we are we are all priest, or ministers, for Him to share his message with everyone. So next time remember, you are called to ministry, you just gotta find that right spot for you. If your church does not have what you are passionate about, get with your pastor to make it happen! You can do it!  Remember your ministry is for God, not for Man.  Don’t let others intimidate or discourage you from your passion, make it happen!

Ok then what is church work?  Well in my view church work is the stuff that pastors do to provide the opportunities for the church to serve others.  It is the “Dirty Job” of the church.  It really isn’t that bad, but it is the pastors figuring out the nuts and bolts of how to make the church work, how to make opportunities for those in the church, how to train the church to serve, and how to encourage them to use the gifts that they have been given.

So next time remember that you are a holy priest of God, His minister to the world, and the influence to those in your life.  You may be the only Christ they see.  Let your pastors do church work, and you minister to those around you!

Ok i think all these Occupy Movements are a little silly.  So I though i would start my own.  #OccupyTechnology.  I am kinda old school, I love the feel and texture of my newspaper over the internet, the feel of a good book over a kindle or nook, a record over MP3, corded house phones over cell phones.  So let us throw away all our technology and get old school!  No more black fridays with the crazy prices on tv’s and such!  #OCCUPYTECHNOLOGY! lol

The Generals Series continues to not disappoint!  This book, Pershing Commander of the Great War by John Perry is by far the best one I have read.  I did know of Pershing, but like mentioned in the opening, he is relegated to second fiddle to Generals Eisenhower, Patton, McArther, when he trained them all and laid the groundwork for their success.  He also outranked all of them!  Pershing was the first to receive the Rank of General of the Armies, the HIGHEST rank anyone could receive.  George Washington received the honor, but it was not until 1978, so Pershing is the only one to have it during his life time.  It is amazing how this mighty general who influenced so many would be relegated to second fiddle to those who he taught, yet was considered greater than any other.

Pershing was born during the civil war in Missouri, a key battle ground state.  His father ran a general store, and supplied the army with many things.  After a confederate raid, the city elected the elder Pershing to Captain of the Guard, and his son tagged along, playing soldier.  Being in the military was not Pershing’s passion, education was.  He attended West Point to further his education, and in hopes of becoming a lawyer.  All throughout his military career, Pershing was strict with those in his command, making sure everything was perfect, everything ran well, everyone well trained.  He was also a very skilled diplomat, who resorted to fighting last, as evident with the Indains,  Pancho Villia, the Philippines, and even during World War I.  Pershing waited during the war for 2 reasons.  One to make sure all diplomatic options were exhausted, and two to build up an Great American Army, one that was well supplied, well trained, and under American only command.  There were many bouts with Allied commanders who tried to integrate Pershing’s Army, but he never waivered.  His actions everywhere he went paved the way for Patton (Pancho Villia), MacArther (Philippines), and Eisenhower (Europe).  But despite his harsh exterior with his troops, he was a different persona away from his men, one few ever saw.  Until his marriage, he was considered a ladies man, and quite the dancer.  He eventually fell in love with Helen Warren, and they had 4 children.  He wrote many love letters to Helen, expressing how much he cared for her.  He spent as much time as possible with his family.  When his wife and 3 daughters died in a house fire in San Francisco, his only boy Warren the only survivor, he became even more dotting than before.  When in Europe, he did develop a secret romance with Micheline Resco, whom he would later marry in a secret service.  Pershing served the country till the day he died in July 15th, 1948.

Pershing was a very interesting character who was brilliant in strategy, but more importantly how to effectively run a large scale army.  His 2 sided personality made him such a unique character, one that you wanted to know more about.  This was a highly enjoyable book that i suggest you pick up for a quick read on a great General.  I give it 5 tank shells!  BOOM!

Thank you to Thomas Nelson Publishing for providing this book to me Free of Charge via the Book Sneeze program.  This in no way ensures a positive review.

I know you were thinking, DANG JOHN WHEN WERE YOU GONNA REVIEW CAPTAIN AMERICA! YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT AT 12:01!  Well I finally did see it, on glorious Blu-ray at home thanks to my Most Beautiful Wife!  I will go ahead and give my rating now, 5 Tank Shells!  BEST SUPER HERO MOVIE EVER (until the Avengers that is)!  WOW!  Beautifully shot, great story, some AWESOME CGI!  Making Chris Evens look so small and puny, then turning him into Cap…was awesome!  I found the story very interesting.  A bit of a departure if your a comic book purist, and we will discuss some of those changes, but still a great story!

OK SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAD NOT WATCHED THIS MOVIE!

I did find some of the changes for the movie quite interesting, especially 2 HUGE ones.  The first was making the Red Skull the head of Hydra, in the comics a terrorist organization with no national ties, but in the movie it was the Nazi’s Deep Science program.  They did change it with Red Skull killing his Nazi handlers, showing they have grown beyond Nazi’s to world domination, building what would be the movie version of what I am sure will resemble the comic book.  The second was that James “Bucky” Buchannan was much older than what is in the comics.  In the Comics Bucky was a teenager sidekick, who fought with Cap till the end.  Their friendship was still real and strong, but it was interesting that they choose to kill Bucky on the train to capture Armin Zola rather than have him die when Cap did at the end.  But it does not mean that he still could later on become the Winter Soldier!

Ok some things I thought were ok.  I did not like that Cap had to win over Tommy Lee Jones character, Col. Phillips.  As a military commander, it would seem dumb to waste any talent that you had, especially one like Cap.  The fact that it took the whole movie to win him over was kind of dumb.  Also the Agent Carter love interest was really dry.  There really was not passion for me, or even a hint of sadness that he did not get to be with her.  Honestly it just seemed like 2 people hanging out.

Over all though, it is a great movie!  One you can take the whole family too and really enjoy!  I suggest that you go and watch it today!

The Generals series focuses it’s eye on William Tecumseh Sherman, famous for his March to the Sea during the Civil War.  It is a very well read, concise history of what turns out to be a very complex general.  Born to a judge and his mother, his father died when he was at a young age, leaving behind 11 children.  The 2 oldest were already out of the home, and the 3 youngest the mom could not give up, so William and his 6 siblings were divided amongst others in the community.  William was taken in by the Ewing family, headed by father Tom, which would be an interesting relationship for the rest of his life.  Having feeling of indebtedness to Tom Ewing, Sherman spent his life trying to separate from him, but at the same time, would rely on him for choices in his life.  Ewing shaped his views on politics, slavery (he was pro slavery), helped him get into West Point, helped him get jobs, and even get his commission back after a period of time of being out of the army.  Sherman also had a history of mental illness in his family, and it could have contributed to his viciousness and bouts of depression.  Interestingly after the war, Sherman was treated like a rock star, for that time period.  Also his strategies are still studied today, and made famous by the Germans, who they based their blitzkrieg off off.

Writers Agostino Von Hassell and Ed Breslin do a great job of presenting the facts of Sherman’s life, from his beginnings to the Civil War and life after.  The present a clean, clear history of the man and his actions.  It is a great read and one that you should check out.  It had a personal interest for me, as aparently some of my relatives faced the wrath of Sherman.

This book was provided to me for free by Thomas Nelson and the Book Sneeze program.  It does not guarantee a positive review.

So what do you consider worship?  There is no right or wrong answer,  just what gets you to the feet of the Father?

OK, I got this book, only because I LOVED the title, and it had me very intrigued on what it was.  FINALLY I thought a Christian book with some creativity.  And BOY did it not disappoint!  The book takes on 2 forms, episodes and chapters.  The episodes are a fiction book about how zombies have entered our modern day life, as seen through the eyes of Ben Forman, a mid twenties graphic designer for a skateboarding magazine.  He has a girlfriend, Crystal, his mom Patrica, and an older brother Daniel.  Daniel is a member of the elite ZTF (aka Zombie Task Force).  Zombies show up sporadically in the beginning, and there are protocols in place for dealing with it.  Later in the episodes we find out there are even communities designed to withstand zombie hordes.  The chapters deal with how we can kill zombies in our lives, also know as our sin self, or flesh.  How they lurk within us all the time, ready to pounce.  They feed off brains, or temptations.  And how Jesus will eventually be the ultimate zombie killer.

I really enjoyed this book, as it was a creative way to tell and equate our old self to 0ur new life in Christ.  The old self is subdued, but not destroyed.  It is always there lurking like a predator, waiting to strike.  How we need to renew our minds daily to hold them off, to not feed it with temptations from TV, Movies, or the Internet.  How we can have idols that replace God.  Using the fiction story of how zombies interact with society was a great way to illustrate it.  The book begins with an episode, then a chapter and follows this form thorough out.  One negative I did find though that the fiction part was so good, engaging and thought out that I kind of wanted to skim through the practical parts to get back to the story.  But over all it is a creative, well thought out book that helps make a tough subject easier to relate to.  I give it 5 tank shells!  GO GET IT!

Thanks to Book Sneeze and Thomas Nelson publishing for letting me have this great book to review!  I understand this in no way requires me to write a positive review, but I did because it deserved it!

2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.

God spoke these words to Hosea, knowing full well how hard it would be.  God was using Hosea’s relationship with his wife as an example of how Israel was treating God in their relationship.  What faith Hosea had to follow such a command.  Today we can’t even follow the one of going and helping those in need, we just throw money at them so we can spend more time with our friends at our comfortable church.  God has called us to do hard things, and we need to do them.  I say this to my self as much as to those that I have worked with, pastors who were more interested in serving the rich to build up themselves in the name of the church, people who think out reach ministry is putting up stuff in your driveway and telling people to come and get it.  If Hosea can marry Gomer and deal with all he had to do for God, then why can’t we go and serve those in need, the homeless, the poor, the widowed, the orphaned?  We need to go to these people and meet them where they are at, let them know they are truly loved.  Care for them.  It breaks my heart to hear that Bob Sturm,  local radio personality on a sports radio station, has such conviction of his faith that he has not only been going to Hondouras for years for mission trips to help an orphanage down there, that he is now adopting a boy to help improve his life, because that is what he feels God has called him to do.  I may not be serving at a church anymore, but that does not mean I cannot still do those things.  So i encourage you to do what I am doing, and helping all those truly in need, but go out to do it.

The Generals:MacArthur is an extraordinarily, easy to read biography of who many consider Douglas MacArthur America’s General.  The biography interestingly enough does not start with MacArthur, but his GRANDFATHER Judge MacArthur.  A man who was very influential in young Douglas’ life growing up.  His father was a famous Civil War General, Arther MacArthur who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Civil War.  The interesting thing is how a man of war was a serious statesmen, and that is thanks to his very close relationship with his mother.  She was apart of his life for just about every major milestone of his life, up until he took command of the Philippeans before World War II.  The man was a true warrior, from both World Wars to Korea leading from the front with his men, a radically different approach than most Generals.  Brash, brazen, outspoken, and a bit of a clothes horse, he would become the symbol of the American Forces in the Pacific, and people would love him for years.

The book itself was an incredible read.  Well crafted, it did not provide opinions or speculation, just the facts as know through through research and through the General’s own corresponding and books.  There was also not much in the actual description of his manuvers, just the brief telling of them and the outcome, which i did find kind of a weak spot.  But this book was more about the overall man than his military career, and it did a great job of capturing who he was.  I highly recommend this book.  Thank you to Thomas Nelson Publishing through thier Book Sneeze program for letting me read and review this book free of charge.

So i have been plagued with rejections for church jobs, with each on telling me how great I am, but they would be going with someone else.  Also they say that they know God has the right place for me, but for 3 years now i have not gotten anywhere, even though there have been places that would have been a great fit, but nothing.   I think the phrase that we know God has the perfect place for you hurts the most.  I am and will continue to be patient, but it kind of feels like a knife in the hear every time i get that phrase.  So how do you deal with waiting and disappointment?  How do you make it not hurt so bad.