Bye Bye Blogger

I am hosting my blog at a new location, so please update your bookmarks (is that prideful?) Thank you to all both of you who read my blog!

Anyway, you can find my blog located at mawtin.wordpress.com

Awesome!

My blog has been down a few days - I messed up the code. My bad.

God is most certainly good. I have been praying for a youth pastor for some time, and we have just hired a young man to fill that position. I believe that God ordains the steps of those who seek Him. Not only the steps, but the timing is God's, too. Being the lead pastor and youth pastor at the same time - craziness!

I have been praying that we would see people give their lives to Christ. In the past few weeks we have seen three or four people do so. How exciting is that? Nothing makes Heaven as joyous as when someone make Jesus the Lord of their lives!

We serve an awesome God!

Landslide

I haven't blogged in a few days - and for good reason. If you are local to Pittsburgh, perhaps you have seen on the news about the Pitcairn landslide. Just so happens that it is about 200 yards from the church. The church is in no danger at this point, but the fire chief and his wife had to have their house torn down to save the others on the street. It has been a nightmare for them and their neighbors - as 5 houses have been evacuated.

Our parking lot was filled with emergency personnel, satellite vans from local TV stations, family, and one too many gawkers. It was great to see how people from the town pulled together to help these folks. The mayor and I have started a fund to help the victims. You can go to any Citizen's Bank branch and donate to the Pitcairn Landslide Victim's Fund, and those will be distributed to the families as needed.

Check out the video below.

http://kdka.com/video/?id=39304@kdka.dayport.com

Recovering Pessimist

Hi, my name is David and I'm a recovering pessimist. I used to see everything from a negative point of view. I was best friends with Murphy - you know, the guy who wrote the laws of pessimism. In fact, I had a girl in my youth group growing up who once pointed out how negative I was about everything, including myself. My hopes had been dashed one too many times, and I just gave up easily on things.

I am happy to say that I am a recovering pessimist today. I still have moments of "how is this going to work out" and "nobody knows the trouble I seen", but all in all, God has helped me to see things more through His eyes than my own. And sometimes I have to "faith" it, because in myself, I can't see how some things will happen. And I have found that the more I trust God, the more positive I become.

Any other recovering pessimists out there?

Challenge For Life

I came across this video today - what a positive attitude!

30 Day Challenge

I've been filling in as Youth Pastor for the past two months, and have enjoyed my time with the youth - it has helped me grow my relationship with them and understand where they are in their walks with God.

Tonight I presented a challenge to them. I asked them to commit to pray for 30 days - God, make yourself real to me. Here I am with all I am. And see what God will do in your life.

I will be fasting and praying for them, and sending them texts to remind them of their commitment. I'm praying that God will impact their lives in a genuine, eternal way, that they will be filled with the Spirit, and that it will set the course for the youth in the coming years.

A number of the kids signed up, and I look forward to what they will share about what God has done in their lives.

Back To The Altar

I often tell people that I'm an old-fashioned preacher in a new-fashioned body. I believe that at times for the sake of "relevance" we can lose our Pentecostal heritage, feeling that people may be scared off by us praying for them. Truth is, that is often what drew people in - sensing the power of God working in them as we prayed.

I began a series this weekend called "Back to the Altar". The altar is always a place of giving something up. This week I dealt with our sin. God wants us to have a fresh revelation of who He is - awesome, holy, powerful, just. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. From that revelation, God desires restoration - that has been His heart since the sin of Adam and Eve. I never thought about it before, but God said that in the day that they eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they would die. But they didn't - in God's mercy, He killed an animal and allowed them to live - and told of His redemption plan. Obviously they eventually died, but God could have taken their lives right then and there. But His heart is always restoration. And following the restoration He wants regeneration - a metamorphosis - if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creature. Why would a butterfly ever want to be a caterpillar again?

Our time at our altar spent with God will be directly proportionate to our success in ministry - for without Him, we can do nothing.