ourTable

You Leave Me Breathless

2011-04-18T23:15:00.000-05:00

As Easter approaches, I find myself drawn to the exquisite joy that is called Love.

Love created the universe. Love created life. Love created perfection. Love is timeless. Love created us; you and I. Love never gave up. Love always yearns for the best. Love is God. Love is limitless. Love sacrificed all, for you and I.

Love is Jesus. Love moved into our neighborhood. Love gave everything so that we could be restored. Love never fails. Love is with us now.

I stumbled upon a video that took my breath away. It is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. And to think that Love made this for us, you and I. Amazing!

The video is entitled "The Mountain" and be be viewed by CLICKING HERE. Turn up the sound and watch full screen. Enjoy.

Do You Love Me?

2011-04-11T22:36:00.005-05:00

Jesus asked Peter a question; "Peter, do you love me?" In fact, Jesus asked that same question of Peter in the Gospel of John not once, but three times.

Now this all took place after Jesus' resurection. Jesus met Peter and a handful of other close friends on a beach and cooked them breakfast. It was after they had all eaten that Jesus asked Peter the same question...three times. "Peter, do you love me?" Each time, Peter answered yes. Each time Jesus then reminded Peter to feed His lambs.

In plain English, Jesus was asking Peter to show his love by taking care of those people that were in his circle of friends and community, and even to those who Peter hardly even knew. So, what does this mean to us who are followers of Christ?

Tonight as I was getting ready for bed, I decided to check in at our church's high school youth group's Facebook page (click here). Part of my "administrative duties" (chuckle, chuckle) is seeing if what we're doing at TrinityShine is helping our friends and our community, and even those who we hardly know. One of the things that I use is Facebook's built-in analysis tool called "Insights".

As of tonight, the TrinityShine page has 71 friends. That's pretty good considering we just started this page about 6 weeks ago. Each week, there are about 4,000 "post views". According to Facebook, that is the number of times that people have viewed a News Feed story posted by our page.

4,000 times!

Well, that got me thinking. We have 71 friends on our TrinityShine page. Each of those friends have on average 100 or so friends (actually the number is way higher). Each of their friend's friends also have about 100 friends. That's a huge number of people, even considering that my personal circle of friends over-laps your circle of friends and so-forth.

Just for giggles, humor me. Let's assume that any 1 person's group of friends overlaps another person's group of friends alot. So that in my group of 100 friends, you are friends with 75 of them. If I did the math right, that would mean we have a potential of over 40,000 unique individuals that could become a friend of the TrinityShine page.

40,000 individuals that we could minister to as part of our outreach!

Do you think that maybe some of those 40,000 individuals are hurting tonight?

I think very few of us are motivated by guilt or fear. Certainly, we would not do our best if our motivation came from these darker feelings.

But love motivates us differently. Love brings out our best. Love even gets me to take dance lessons because I know that my beautiful wife Kat enjoys dancing. Love makes us "SHINE"...eh?

What would happen if each one of us, the 71 friends of the TrinityShine page; invited all our Facebook friends to "Like" our page?

What would happen if we encouraged each of our friends to also encourage their friends and so forth and so on?

Do you think that there might be 1 student out there that is thinking of suicide tomorrow? Might we reach this person? I wonder what his name is?

Or how about a student's mom that is drinking too much? I wonder how lonely she is?

You can probably come up with a bunch of examples yourself. Could Jesus use us to reach out in love by simply inviting your friends to "Like" our page?

I'll say this. It took a wonderful old lady thay I did not know to reach out to me back when I was a student. She simply asked me whether or not I was ready to accept the love of Jesus.

What might happen?

Please "Like" the TrinityShine page (click here).

"Do you love me?"

John 21: 15-19

can you explain God ???

2011-04-02T16:32:00.000-05:00

My sister forwarded an email to me today that I thought was awesome. It's suppose to be written by an 8 year old and maybe that's true and maybe it ain't. I really don't care. The message is still cool.

Enjoy,
The Tallman

Subject: can you explain God ????

It was written by an 8-year-old named Danny Dutton, who lives in Chula Vista , CA . He wrote it for his third grade homework assignment, to 'explain God.'

EXPLANATION OF GOD: 'One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn't make grownups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way he doesn't have to take up his valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.'

'God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times beside bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because he hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in his ears, unless he has thought of a way to turn it off.'

'God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting his time by going over your mom and dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have.'

'Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chula Vista . At least there aren't any who come to our church.'

'Jesus is God's Son. He used to do all the hard work, like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't want to learn about God. They finally got tired of him preaching to them and they crucified him. But he was good and kind, like his father, and he told his father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said O.K.'

'His dad (God) appreciated everything that he had done and all his hard work on earth so he told him he didn't have to go out on the road anymore. He could stay in heaven. So he did. And now he helps his dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones he can take care of himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important.'

'You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to help you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time.'

'You should always go to church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God!

Don't skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong. And besides the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon anyway.'

'If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can. It is good to know He's around you when you're scared, in the dark or when you can't swim and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids.'

'But...you shouldn't just always think of what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and he can take me back anytime he pleases.

And...that's why I believe in God.'

April Fool's Day

2011-04-01T00:29:00.000-05:00

The early bird might get the worm,

but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Nothing...really.

If I agreed with you we'd both be wrong.

I see you.

xoxo

Have a great day!

The Tallman

There is NO GOD and please stop kicking me.

2011-03-29T09:03:00.000-05:00

I came across the above poster and it got me thinking. How many times have I acted in such a way that caused a person to feel like I just kicked them? Worse yet, did my words or actions actually give that person one more reason to NOT believe in God?

Those that know me the best have seen me at my worst. I have hurt others. I have condemned others. I have been blatantly arrogant.

Although I find it fruitless to dwell on this, I sometimes wonder why Jesus decided to reach out to me personally? There are certainly people out there who are better than I am. Or to be more accurate, they are "less bad".

Atheism is a belief. I cannot prove or disprove the existence of God. Both sides find many reasons to support their beliefs.

And so, I find myself back where I started. How many times have I done or not done something and given Joe or Mary another reason NOT to believe?

I am sorry if I kicked you.

Gary Lenke

Painter God

2011-03-25T08:59:00.000-05:00

No words needed, enjoy!

Peace,
The Tallman

Real Strength

2011-03-24T09:19:00.000-05:00

Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.

I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me.

Christ gives me the strength to face anything.

I can endure all these things through the power of the one who gives me strength.

I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me.

Earlier today, I happened upon a picture of a tattoo that someone had gotten on their back. It wasn't just anyone; it was a student that I know. The tattoo was artistic and I'm sure it had deep meaning. The tattoo pictured a cross with Phil 4.13 written inside the cross. It got me thinking.

What is Jesus promising us here?

At first reading Jesus seems to say that I am capable of doing anything & everything; as long as it's done through Him. Because...well, He's the one with all the strength and power.

Up to now I had looked at these words as an external expression of works. I was thinking along the lines of the old Superman description: "Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound."

But as I read some additional translations, something even more amazing jumped out to me. Jesus does indeed promise us the ability to do amazing things; even miraculous things at times AND He promises something more. He is with us. He is for us. He will hold us. He will give me and you the strength to face anything.

He will never leave us.

Peace,

The Tallman

Seeing into the Future

2011-03-23T11:53:00.001-05:00

God uses us where we are at today; to help others 50 years later!

I received an email from a friend at church yesterday. One of our elderly members, Milan Krajnovich had died. This was a charter member of our church and he had been actively engaged as an usher for our early service for many, many years.

This got my mind thinking about Milan. Here is a man who 50 years ago decided to help plant a church where none existed. I've heard stories from the "old-timers" that Milan and his friends were told that a Lutheran church would not do so well in this area because of the predominant Roman Catholic presence in the surrounding area.

So Milan and his friends trust God, despite some negativity. God blesses their shared vision. Trinity Lutheran Church thrives for 50 years and here we are today.

As some of you know, I help out with our high school youth ministry, TrinityShine. I'm wondering what plans does God have for our students? What blessings does God already envision 50 years from now?

Has God been nudging you to trust Him? Do you think God wants to partner with you and build something like a Trinity Lutheran Church for the future...50 years on?

Gary

Is Jesus coming soon?

2011-03-22T15:55:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I read an interesting article at CNN's website. The full article can be read HERE.

Basically, the article cited the Reverend Franklin Graham as saying the earthquake and tsunami in Japan could be a sign of the end times.

The article went on to talk about the dangers of predicting exactly when the end times would occur. No big news here.

What I did like about the article was a quote from Darrell Bock, a research professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary;
“I think you have to be careful. Jesus is trying to do two things at once,” Bock said. Jesus is talking about the end times and using these examples “to create in people a responsibility of not knowing when the end will come.”

"[Jesus] is telling [his disciples] to persevere because they don’t know when the end will be," Bock said. “It’s never an attempt to have us calendar out when the end is going to happen.
“I actually think what Graham is doing is raising the accountability issue,” Bock added.

Well said and I agree!

Gary

undignified

2011-03-21T18:32:00.000-05:00

Last night at TrinityShine Kayleigh gave a powerful message. In a nutshell, her message to us was this: Stop being so concerned about how other people see you, lighten up, laugh out loud, go hug somebody, go outside and yell out how much you love Jesus! Another words, it's OK to be undignified...stop trying to impress others with make-believe manners. Live, Love, Dance!!!
Hey Kayleigh...thanks for the message!

Feel free to visit The Prayer Wall at our TrinityShine Facebook Page.

Peace & Love,
The Tallman

TrinityShine Worship Service

2011-03-21T00:54:00.000-05:00

Wow, our high school worship was powerful tonight. The band was way cool. I particularly liked how authentic & personal Kayleigh was when she taught the lesson.

I wonder how others felt?

Gary

My heart was warmed last night

2011-03-20T16:07:00.000-05:00

Last night Kat & I hosted 6 high school students from Living Word Lutheran High School in Jackson, Wisconsin. They & about 55 other students gave a concert at our church, Trinity Kimberly Way in Lisle, Illinois. It was oustanding! The young men that stayed with us were wonderful!

As many know, Kat loves being a host & does not like to draw attention to her ministry of helps/hosting. The 6 young men left us a handwritten note of thanksgiving for Kat's homemade treats & amazing breakfast.

Kat was so excited by this simple note of gratitude, and my heart was again warmed by Kat's joy.

Thank you Jesus.

The Tallman (gary)

2011-03-18T18:45:00.000-05:00

So...today is the first day of the rest of my life and I'm really happy about it!

I sometimes wonder why God loves me. I guess that's a silly question; 'cause I never asked my mom & dad why they loved me.

I wonder if others have thoughts like this?