Branches are nothing without the vine.  This is painfully obvious when talking about a plant but so easy for us to get wrong in real life.  You and I are like branches and Jesus is the vine.  Just as a branch cannot produce fruit if it has been disconnected from the vine, we can do nothing good for God's kingdom if we are disconnected from Jesus.  Try as we might, if we aren't spending time with Jesus and allowing Him to fill us up, then we won't be able to impact people's lives for God's kingdom.  Jesus says that we must abide or remain in Him.  Unless we do that, we might as well be a branch all by itself trying to grow fruit by sheer willpower.  It doesn't work that way.  Pray that our group, myself included, would stay close to Jesus in order to impact the Lamon community.

Abiding is a process of Love and Obedience.  The Dude abides.  But how?  What does it take to abide in Jesus?  It's a nice thought, but it is pretty vague.  Jesus clarifies by saying that to remain in Him we must love Him and obey Him.  What does that look like?  Because I love my wife, I make time for her, talk to her, pray with her, pray for her, ask questions to get to know her and what she is thinking, tell her what I love about her, and serve her.  It's not so different with Jesus.  To love Him, we serve Him and His church, we pray to Him, we read the Bible to learn about Him and what He is thinking, we worship Him.  The more we know Him and spend time with Him, the more His love, thoughts, and servanthood will rub off on us.  The more we choose to obey Him in all areas, the more we will see Him working through us and producing fruit.  Pray that our group will love and obey Jesus ourselves that we might impact others.

The Gardener is here to help.   Jesus tells us that God the Father is like a gardener who comes along and prunes the branches that are bearing some fruit so that they would eventually produce more fruit.  That's encouraging!  God Himself is working on us, cutting the bad habits and sins out of our lives, in order to help us produce better and better fruit.  Pruning is a tough process where the plant gets cut.  Sometimes it hurts when God prunes us, but He knows what He is doing.  Pray that God would keep His promise to prune us and that we would not squirm against His hand but submit to His pruning.

Producing fruit for Jesus leads to Joy for us.  Jesus tells us that this whole process of producing fruit for God's glory will cause our joy to be made complete.  One thing I love about God is that He only asks us to do things that will lead us to deeper and greater joy.  Knowing that we have been used by God to do work for His kingdom that will last for all eternity is an incredibly exciting thought.  Pray that God would help us to be filled with joy from Him as we serve in the coming week.

Yes, I know that is lightning and not thunder...
Boanerges.  It means sons of thunder.  Jesus gave that nickname to James and John in Matthew 3.  This is just speculation, but I think He chose that name for a reason.  I think James and John were energetic and loud.  I think they were the kind of guys that were the life of the party.  They brought the boom and the noise with them wherever they went.  They were used to the spotlight.  They craved the spotlight.  That's what I think at least. 

Summer has been VERY busy and sporadic for me.  Instead of updating Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, I'm just going to put up a new post whenever I can over the summer.  No promises, but hopefully, when I do get to them, you'll find them helpful and encouraging.

I found this on my Facebook wall the other day:

Hey Mark! Do you mind addressing how the Bible treats women in your next blog post? Specifically, 1 Cor. 14:33-35 

This is a great question. So let's look at the passage.

For God is not a God of disorder but of peace. As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. -- 1 Corinthians 14:33-35

**Teensy Weensy Spoiler Alert: I'm gonna use a quote from the movie but nothing that really ruins the plot.  Just wanted to give fair warning to my spoiler paranoid friends.

Finally, a movie that has it all!  Its been a long time since I saw a movie this good.  Obviously,Avengers is an action packed flick with loads of special effects and crazy combat scenes.  But its more than just an explosion fest to herald in the epic summer movie season.  This movie actually has substance.  The dialogue is great and the movie touches on some great themes such as the strength of teamwork and the question of what makes a true hero.  Be warned, there is some swearing and obviously violence, but nothing over the top.  I highly recommend it and give it two thumbs up!

*I've decided to move Theology Thursday to Theology Tuesday (or maybe Tough Tuesday...).  Thursdays have become a more and more busy day for me lately with meetings and weekend preparations.  Tuesdays are less packed and it will be easier to tackle the tough questions then.  So, Proving God Exists Part 6 will be up on Tuesday.*

I was reading a bit in Colossians today when an old verse struck me in a new way.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men... -- Colossians 3:23

Do I really have to go to church on Sundays?  As a youth pastor, I get this question a lot.  Teens in particular struggle with waking up early on Sundays, sitting through a sermon that is primarily geared toward adults, and being deprived from their video games for hours on end.

But, if we adults are honest, we struggle with those things too.  Sometimes its just been a long week and it would be so much simpler and easier to just stay home on Sunday morning.  There are Sundays when we attend church and for whatever reason just don't feel like we got much out of the sermon.  And that's not even mentioning the fact that going to church causes us to miss the first half of the game on TV.  These things are normal.  So... do I really have to go to church on Sundays?

So last week, a lot of people from my church took part in a Labor Day Basketball tournament.  The younger division's speaker had to cancel at the last minute and for a minute there, I thought I was going to have to share a message.  As I prayed and looked through the Bible for ideas, I stumbled across this incredible and amazing verse.

Now, before I give you the verse I have a question for you.  Are you a competitive person?  I used to think that I wasn't.  When I play sports, I do like to win.  But I've never been the guy who is losing his temper on the court.  Even when I'm playing against people that are a lot smaller than I am, I usually get walked all over because I just plain don't get aggressive enough.

Michaela Lynn Brunke is here!!!!  I want to thank all of you for your prayers and support. 

Let me tell you, I absolutely love this little girl!  You know how I know?  I’ve never been a baby person.  All of my life, I have always thought and said that all babies look alike and none of them are cute.  They are just kind of weird looking and chubby.  But guess what?  I think Michaela is beautiful!  I don’t think I have every changed a diaper in my life.  Even when my nephew Malikai was a baby, I avoided diaper duty like the plague because that’s just gross!  But guess what?  Not only do I change Michaela’s diapers . . . I enjoy doing it!  It’s the strangest thing.  I enjoy cleaning her poopy diapers.  I love rocking her to sleep late at night when I’m tired and exhausted.  I love giving her attention when she wakes up, even when it interrupts important or fun things I’m doing.

I’m sure that those of you who are parents know what I’m talking about.  Things that I thought were going to feel like a duty, chore, or burden don’t feel that way at all.  Instead, I enjoy serving my little girl for the most part.  Why?  Because I love her!  When I don’t feel like taking care of her, it just takes one look at the big eyes to change my mind and invigorate me to serve her.

I think that’s the way our relationship with Jesus should be as well.