Resurgent Grace

Where God's Grace Triumphs

  • It’s amazing how time flies by so quickly. It’s like the older I get the faster time goes. It’s not that big of a deal though because life is so good…confusing…complicated…obviously. 

    Tyler is my 4th child. He is blessed with 3 older sisters. People ask us if we are finished and I always wonder, “finished what?” We never really planned on having 2 when we had 1. Our philosophy has always been to take one at a time. Is life challenging? Absolutely! 

    Tyler is totally dependent on me and Allison. There is really nothing that he can do on his own. He is the very definition of “needy.” But above these things, in many ways he reminds me of how I am to approach the father. No, I don’t cry when I am hungry or anything like that (o.k. maybe sometimes), but I am to come before the Lord recognizing my neediness. I realize that Tyler may not recognize his neediness but he understands when Allison or I am with him and he understands that we are the ones who provide what it is that he needs to survive. I may be able to speak more eloquently and do more for myself, but sometimes I don’t recognize my extreme need for God and consequently overlook God as the one who provides what I need daily, moment by moment to survive. 

    I will be the first to telly you that the analogy isn’t perfect, I am not trying to say that it is. All I am trying to say is that there is a lot I am learning from a 4 week old…..

  • I thought a garbage truck ran into something out front because something shook the whole house…even rocked our refrigerator….I realized that it was an earthquake so I went outside…this is the one I felt…a 5.8!

    Magnitude 5.8 – local magnitude (ML)
    Time Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 11:42:15 AM (PDT)
    Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 18:42:15 (UTC)
    Distance from Chino Hills, CA – 3 km (2 miles) SW (235 degrees)
    Diamond Bar, CA – 8 km (5 miles) SE (127 degrees)
    Yorba Linda, CA – 9 km (5 miles) NNE (23 degrees)
    Pomona, CA – 11 km (7 miles) S (178 degrees)
    Los Angeles Civic Center, CA – 47 km (29 miles) ESE (103 degrees)
    Coordinates 33 deg. 57.5 min. N (33.959N), 117 deg. 45.1 min. W (117.752W)
    Depth 12.3 km (7.6 miles)
    Location Quality Good
    Location Quality Parameters Nst=144, Nph=144, Dmin=8 km, Rmss=0.42 sec, Erho=0.3 km, Erzz=1.3 km, Gp=18 degrees
    Event ID# ci14383980
    Additional Information 2-degree map 
    Google Earth KML (Requires Google Earth.)
    Waveforms 
  • I was at a conference for a couple of days and something that was said began a series of thoughts in my head. I am processing them as I type and am allowing you, the reader, in to a personal place to help me process these thoughts.

    I believe that all of my life, my examples have been personalities. I mean, its pretty hard to get around it. If an example is a human, then that human is a personality. I believe that I have been under the leadership of huge personalities who have been pastors. I know, most “big-named” pastors are huge personalities.

    I have seen success in my life as the “achievement of a big personality”……that is what has been modeled and what has been reinforced as success by every conference main speaker, book author…etc., etc…. not many pastors of normal size churches ever get a call from the majors to pinch hit-

    I believe that I recognized a big flaw in myself today. I believe that I have limited God’s ability to work in my life by my focus being limited. You see, my focus has largely been myself. Let me say it this way. My focus has been “What Can I do for God’s kingdom?” What mark can “I” leave…what legacy can “I” leave?

    So how is this limiting? It all has to do with what “I” can do or who “I” can become. It’ the cart pulling the horse and its the wrong motive leading me.

    When I left Saddleback, I am beginning to see that a part of my “big personality” left. I think that there may have been a part of me that was very excited to be a part of the staff out West because of what I was going to be able to do and be. Did God do some amazing things in the hearts of many single adults? Absolutely. Did the ministry grow? Absolutely. Were Single adults valued like never before? Absolutely. Did we build a great team? 1000 times yes. But with that being said, there was something very comfortable knowing that when I made a phone call, people would answer and give me the time of the day. Now it is different.

    I am at a church that was declining due to many factors. God is doing amazing things in and through me. The church is trending in a positive direction and I am beginning to see that God has given me a big personality, but it has little to do with the size of church where I am of what I have done. It has so much more to do with God using that personality, my giftings for His glory.

    The biggest thing I ever may do is see my children graduate high-school, college (if they choose), get married (if God calls) – and that is 100% o.k.
    The biggest thing I ever may do may be pouring into a young pastor that God has his hand on and be his support-and that o.k.
    The biggest thing I ever may do is help those that follow me do bigger and better things…and that’s o.k.
    The biggest thing I ever may do I may already have done…and that’s o.k.
    I may not right a great book
    I may not pastor the largest church in the country
    I may never be asked to speak at a conference…..o how I want these things….but if they never happen….that’s o.k.
    If the biggest thing I ever do is be obedient to the Lord and His calling on my life- that’s “well done”

    I am a complicated pastor with a complicated mind- I have many battles that I wage war against daily. Thanks for processing this with me….

    fame focus inner thoughts personal
  • Our second daughter, Karis, has a wonderful heart. She is acting out a little these days but still has these moments of incredible insight, warmth, and care. I was having a time the Lord at the dinner table (not as we were eating- that would be odd, but just at the actual table) when she came up to me asking me what I was doing. She has seen me read, pray, etc., etc., but this time I had a workbook out and it just looked different to her. I told Karis that daddy was trying to be more like Jesus. She looked at me and walked off kind-of talking under her breath and skipping to her own beat. This morning when she saw me in the same posture, she said, “Daddy, you trying to be more like Jesus?” I responded, “Yes Karis….trying…but I am not doing that great of a job.” She said “Oh,” and walked off. 

    I few minutes later I passed by her room and there she was, in a similar posture, “reading” a little book (she can’t read yet) and saying “Jesus…I love you…you love me…thank you….help me be like you” I walked in and sat down and asked her about Jesus and what He was like. We talked about His love for us and our love for Him. I walked away with a greater understanding of just how much I model for my children. You have heard that things are more easily “caught” than “taught” and boy….that is the truth. 

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Forgiveness and healing

  • June 24, 2008
  • by claytoncoates
  • · christianity · church · family · living · single

I was studying for a talk that I gave on Saturday night to a group of single adults. The talk was titled “awkward-free dating.” As I have been a singles pastor, one thing has become really clear…a lot of single adults love talking about and hearing talks on dating. So I began what has really turned into a book called “to date or not to date”…that is the question. I never had any intention on speaking so much on a topic but God led me to the place of understanding that God loves to be glorified in all relationships…God IS relationships…..and this means that God desires to be glorified in DATING…but first DATING had to be defined…so I defined it….

A point in my talk was “to DEAL before the DATE.” The point was that the date was not the place where people need to “relationally or emotionally DUMP” on the other person. As I was studying, I came across a passage that I had read and memorized many many years ago. In 2 Chronicles we read, “If my people, who are called by My name will humble themselves, will pray, and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, then will I hear from heaven and heal their land.” 

God is so ready to heal our hurts, bad habits, and destructive hangups. But we have to come before him and ask for forgiveness so that He can heal us. The same is true in many many relationships. We have to come to a place of forgiving past hurts before we will ever find healing from those past hurts. 

I don’t know too many people that don’t desire healing…but the desire is not enough. We have to first ask for forgiveness or we have to forgive….don’t forget Jesus’ model prayer. “….forgive us our debts just as we forgive those who have debts towards us…..

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