Deal with Your Own Sin First

This morning I read from Leviticus 9 where the priests (Aaron) began their ministry the prescribed way God commanded. What I noticed about this account was that God instructed Aaron to offer a sin and burnt offering for himself before he was to offer sin and burnt offerings for the people. In other words he was to take care of the sin in his life before he was to take care of the sin in others.

As Pastors and church leaders we are not exempt from sin. Before we minister to other people we have to take care of the sin in our lives. I frequently say in my prayer time, "God help me to stand behind the pulpit with my sins canceled." On a consistent basis I always ask the Lord to forgive me of my sins, especially during my prayer time on Sunday mornings before I minister to the congregation.

If we don't take care of the sin in our lives as ministers we will end up like Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu toasted and burnt. If we don't deal with sin in our life, God will take care of it. Sin will eventually destroy our lives and ministry.

Have you dealt with your sins?

Racquetball and Spring Break

This past week was Spring Break for our kids. We experienced several things and I thought I would post a few pictures. On Tuesday we went to the YMCA. On this blog I will post some pictures of us playing racquetball. It was the first time Taylor and Kennedy had ever played. They enjoyed it so much that they wanted to get out of the pool to play again. I attached a video segment of them playing racquetball. I moved at the last minute because the ball was hit directly at me. Check it out.

By the way I beat my kids pretty good!

Diskectomy

I thought you might be interested in a couple of pictures from my wives Diskectomy. For those of you who do not know, Heidi had major lower back and leg pain since the first of the year.

After many doctor visits, x-ray's and an MRI, we eventually found out that her L5 disc was bulging and was pressing against her sciatic nerve thus effecting her right leg making it very painful to walk. After several consultation's we decided that surgery was the best option.

The Doctor made about a two and half inch incision and a mere hour and fifteen minutes later gave me a souvenir for show and tell. The picture reveals what was causing the major pain she was experiencing. I was amazed that something so small (about the size of a nickel) was crippling my wife.

Needless to say she had almost instant relief and is doing a lot better. Praise The Lord! It's amazing what doctors can do.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and let it be a reminder that it can only take one small act of sin to cause you a lot of pain. Just remember God can preform a Diskectomy and bring you relief!

Pink Elephants & Pornography

I have been going through a sermon series called Fireproofing Your Marriage. This past Sunday I dealt with a topic that has destroyed so many marriages. Pornography. Pornography is like the pink elephant in the closet, everybody knows it's there but nobody says anything about it. Pornography is a subject that is avoided in the church. It is too much of a dangerous subject to not say anything about.

As I began to do some research on the subject, I came across a great website that opened my eyes to the accessibility of pornography especially to our kids. Do you know that the average age for people to look at pornography is eleven! That is exactly how old Taylor, my son is. That means that even younger children are viewing pornographic material and they are viewing it through the Internet.

We have a lady in our church who teaches third grade at a local school. This past year she found that her eight and nine year old boys were exchanging and viewing pornographic websites at school!! The website http://www.theporntalk.com/ affected me so much that we spent over $200.00 on a small desk and chair so we could put the computer, which was in my son's room, in our family room. We had to put our computer in his room because it was the only place our computer and desk would fit in our small house.

We have to do what we can to protect our kids from the perils of pornography. Please check out the website http://www.theporntalk.com/. It was designed to equip parents on how to talk to their kids about porn. We can't afford to avoid this pink elephant. Check it out.

Welcome to the Blog

Welcome to my blog. Thanks for being connected to me by way of this blog.

I'm taking a new adventure and stepping out into the "blog" world. I've developed this blog to be connected to those who are interested in what's going on in my life. We have developed many friends as well as enemies:) and I would like to stay connected to people in my life from old high school friends from North Central and college friends from CBC; to the people we ministered to in Oklahoma and to our church and friends in Kirklin, Indiana.

On this blog I will be sharing from three areas of interest. First, from my Christian faith. I am a follower of Christ and I will be posting things that will hopefully benefit your Christian walk. Secondly I will posting about my family. The post will entail anything from my kids sporting activities to family vacations. Thirdly, I will be posting frivolous issues such as fantasy football and our dog named Missy. Some of these will be appealing to you and others not so much. I hope that this blog will be enjoyable and will benefit you. If you are interested in my blog please subscribe at www.jeremy-turner.blogspot.com.

Happy blogging!