Dream!

Gen 37:4-5 but when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more.

I woke up this morning thinking about this passage of scripture. It’s a famous passage of scripture and has been preached in pulpits across the world by way more articulate communicators than me. In the margin of my bible I have this written:


“Joseph should have been able to share his dream with his brothers and family”.

This is dated February 15 2009. I didn’t realize that I had written this until I came into the office and opened up to this passage.

You know life is tough, unfair at times, hard, difficult and with many sufferings. It’s the dream that is in our hearts that gives us the ability many times to believe God and put our trust in Christ. Knowing this, I want to be a husband, father, friend and pastor that let’s people dream and dream out loud. Who am I to say that God is not showing a certain person things or speaking to them? In wanting to help guide people and help them make the right choices I don’t want to become one of Joseph’s brothers. Some of you may know the end of the story; when Joseph says years and years later to his brothers after they sold him into slavery “So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.” He is saying this perhaps while his brothers are still kneeling before him.



Joseph didn’t know the end of the story-neither do we. Let’s not be the voice of Joseph brothers to our brothers and sisters. I am not saying we don’t help guide and challenge but we shouldn’t try to destroy the dream in someone’s heart because we don’t see it or don’t understand it. Let people dream. Dreams are powerful, dreams are awesome, and dreams can change people’s lives for eternity. When our dreams are intertwined with God’s purpose for His people-He has a way of making dreams come true…..



Live in Grace,

Jared

talk

Just had a great talk with a good friend and I was thinking, life is to short not to have great friends around you. As we are in this process of preparing to move to Miami and not so much to plant a church but plant our lives in a new city and new community, I am looking forward to meeting new people who we will become friends and share our lives with. Who are you sharing your life with? That's a pretty good question to ponder.
Live in Grace!

The Logo

Well, we are a few days into the logo design. We are using 99designs.com to design our logo, thanks to the tip from my good friend Bryan Rees. It’s a pretty sweet concept. If you want you can go there and check out what’s being offered to us so far. Just to the web site click on browse contest and then do a search with the word “church” and our listing will pop up. You will figure it out from there. So far we have like 250+ logo designs to choose from. Any suggestions would be great.

I will write more soooon… peace peace.
JH

Wow, 18 years today we got hitched on 2/1/92

Just sitting in my office doing some studying and praying. Thinking about my wife Angie. I remember the day we got married. I was 21 and she was 18. We had two young sons, Anthony was a big 2yrs and Niko was 5 months old. My brother Daniel was my best man. We decided to get married a week prior. My brother was home on leave from the Marines and his leave was cut short. We went and had a little house wedding in Seattle with my brother 2 boys and my grandparents. Married by my grandfather.
No honeymoon, no big gathering, no pomp and all of that-shoot, nothing wrong with that at all..we just didn't have the money or the time.

We were doomed from the beginning if you look at all the statistics. Teen-parents, high school drop outs, no job skills, no real future. 18 years later I look back and scratch my fresh shaven bald head and think...whoa God, you pretty awesome.

I think how Ang (that's what we call her for years) has turned into this mighty women of God, an awesome wife, tremendous mother, hard worker, caring and loving pastor. There is not to many women that could handle me the way she does. My driven personality and ADD qualities. I am as quirky as they come. Though Ang, she really is amazing. One of her favorite sayings is "Babe, what can you do about it?"...usually over something that has ticked me off and really bothering me. I remember just the other week when we were talking about this move to Miami to plant churches. She said to me "dude, God is speaking to you. I am with you, lets do it." I hope every man reading this can have a wife that looks you in the eye and says "dude, I am with you." Scary and exciting all at the same time.

As I sit and look back over the last 18 years and this marriage that has been graced and redeemed by Jesus. I would not change a thing. Sure there are things that I wish we didn't do or things that I wish I didn't say. But, I have learned in my young 39 years. What doesn't kill ya, just makes stronger and if God is with you, who can be against you. I am looking forward to the 18 years. We will have trials, sufferings and pain I am sure. But I think there is no one else I would rather go thru the next seasons of life then with Ang!