Pugs!

My wife loves pugs! She has wanted one since I first met here and on Monday we had to go to the pet store to get food for our cat. On our way there as I am about to pull out onto the road, she screamed. With adrenaline pumping through my veins and eyes as big as saucers I looked at her and with an elevated voice asked her what was wrong. With joy and delight she said back, "they have pugs at the pet store." We got there and for 15 minutes she watched with delight as they laid on one another. They were pretty cute and after having to say no about 30 times to the question, "can we get one?" It is safe to say that in the near future there will be a puppy pug in the Warren household.

The ditches of prayer and the Word

I don’t know about you but I can tend to be an extremist. When I find a hobby I like I go to the extreme in that hobby and pursue only that hobby leaving my previous hobbies left to mourn my absence. When it comes to my times with God I have found the same to be true. I go through seasons where I am very Word focused and all of my time is spent reading the Word and times where I am prayer focused and all of my time is spent in prayer and recently God has been showing me that a balance is necessary.

Picture with me if you will that you are walking down a road. This road represents your spiritual journey. The easiest and quickest route is in the middle of the road. This is because it is the healthiest place for you to be. On either side of the road are two ditches. One ditch is the Word the other is prayer. (I cannot believe I am referring to the Word and prayer as a ditch, but go with me). It is extremely easy to find yourself only focusing on one and ending up in a ditch. While it may be the best ditch you’ve ever been in it still slows you down spiritually and creates an unbalanced spiritual diet.

In John 7:37-39 Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Water we drink when we find ourselves thirsting. The Holy Spirit is the water. Psalms 16:11 says that in God’s presence is fullness of Joy and Nehemiah 8:10 says the joy of the Lord is our strength. This means when we are weak we get into God’s presence, drink of the water, and get filled with joy and that joy becomes strength to us.

In John 6:35 and 48 Jesus says that He is the bread of life. Earlier in the book of John in the first chapter it says that Jesus is the word in flesh. Matthew 4:4 tells us not to live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (the Bible). All this tells us that the Word is our bread. When we read the word we stand in authority. Jesus used the Word to repel the devils temptation. When we read the Word we also receive faith Romans 10:17.

What does all this mean? Our natural bodies need both bread (food) and water to survive. If we only drink water we will become weak and eventually die and if we only eat bread the same fate awaits us. Spiritually if we only read the bible and leave no time for prayer or vice versa we will become spiritually weak and struggle to survive spiritually. Reading only the Word and not taking the time to pray leaves you in a thirsty place with little or no joy and grace. Praying only and not reading the Word leaves you in a place with little or no faith and authority. We need both. If you find yourself in a place lacking strength, joy, authority, faith, grace, evaluate your water and bread intake, get in the middle of the road and run faster than you’ve ever run before.

Tire Trouble

As I was lounging around on my day off enjoying the football highlights on Sports Center and praying that the Yankee's would lose that night I got a call from my beautiful and incredibly talented wife. As she used the ever troubling, "you'll never guess what happened line," my mind ran through a gambit of thoughts and potential horror until she revealed the purpose for the call. "Um babe, my tire blew up and I'm on I-5 near Mountlake Terrace." She revealed that her friends husband was on the way and would fix the problem. Unfortunately I was relived that I wouldn't have to leave the comfort of my lay-z boy and Sports Center.

After a failed attempt to remove the tire, I was called out of the bullpen to retire the side. Annoyed I hoped into my car toting a hammer and some other tools, showed up onto the scene and pounded the tire off the car. Before this the gentleman helping proclaimed that I would be his hero if I could get the tire off. About 10 Seconds later the tire was off and I was another persons hero. We ended up a Les Schwab in Lynnwood and $270 later she had some new tires and I had new (badly needed) windshield wipers.

After we got home and I had a chance to process my reaction and emotions to the whole situation I realized something. I had changed. When we were dating if she had the littlest hang nail she couldn't fix, I would mount my trusty stead and don my shinning armor and come to her rescue. Now after two years of marriage she's in a real crisis and I'm annoyed. God began to confront me on this issue. Often serving others is not difficult, but serving those closest to you and who you love the most is. It's as if you get so comfortable being around them all the time you forget they need help too. It's often more difficult to serve a parent, a spouse, a sibling or a close friend than a total stranger and yet we should serve all regardless of how much they love us.

It's funny this happened because a week ago I preached on picking up a towel and serving others. We cannot sit at the table of life and just wait to be loved and serve, but rather we must get up from the table, pick up the towel, as Jesus did and serve. Where was my towel yesterday? It shows all of us need to keep growing even after we think we have it down. I learned a valuable lesson yesterday and died to self a little more. I will note however that I redeemed myself by vacuuming and doing laundry when we got home. :-)

My blog, my blog where for art my blog?

To be totally honest, I struggle to blog on a consistent basis. If you've ever visited this page you can observe that I have not blogged in nearly five months. This makes me a bloser or blog poser. I have decide however that from here on out I will post on my blog about something every week. My goal is to work up to every day, but for now it will be every week. Sorry to those who have waited in patient anticipation for me post. I vow to thee that I will blog or my name is not TRAVIS LEE WARREN. Sorry got a little dramatic and theatric there.

Halo 3

Last Tuesday at 10:30pm I walked into Wal-Mart to purchase my very own copy of this years hottest game. The last time they released a Halo game I was there. Needless to say I am a fan and thoroughly enjoy the first person shooter. As we walked to the electronics section we discovered that a store open 24 hours was forcing us to wait outside in the cold to buy the game. Quickly I found myself an $8 fleece blanket purchased it and waited outside. Come midnight they began to let us in, in groups of twenty. I saw several people attempt to sneak in line and were met with contempt as the gaming community or nerd herd looked out for it's fellowman by protecting those who waited. At around 12:30 I purchased my copy and left with fellow gamers Pastor Rory and Shaun my brother. I took the following day off to play the game with the brotherhood of Halo fans. While have barely played the game it has lived up to the hype and continues to be a great avenue for fun!

TVM Saturday Nights

On March 24th we took a HUGE risk and changed our weekly youth service (6th to 12th grade) from Wednesday night at 7pm to Saturday night at 8pm for 9th grade to 24 years old. We also added more emphasis and man power (namely a band) to our Sunday morning Jr. High Service (6th - 8th grade). It has been an incredible ride and God has continued to show his faithfulness. Last year when I took over the youth ministry and became the full time youth pastor at The Rock Church we were touching 60 people a week. Now, a year later, we touch nearly 150 people a week with our Grid Friday Night outreach (40+ and most that come do not attend church), our Saturday Night Service (70+) and our Sunday Morning Jr. High (35+). All three have a different dynamic and are a lot of fun. Saturday nights, however, are crazy. From the foyer setup, to the music and lights, to the preaching it is an amazing service. One person came to me a few weeks ago and said, "I don't understand why this place is not packed with students." I told them that it would be an that it would take time. If you are a TVMer and have not been you need to come check it out. If you do come you need to invite everyone you know. God is going to grow this thing like crazy, so sit down, buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Worship

Sick Guitar shot

National Day of Prayer Sedro Woolley

Last Thursday five of my guy leaders and I went to Sedro Woolley High School to preach the word for the National Day of Prayer. A young lady in our youth ministry (Gina) set up a prayer rally in their auditorium and asked me to preach for 20 minutes. To my knowledge this is unheard of in this state. A school allowing a student to have a pastor come in and preach Jesus Christ and give an alter call before school. Maybe this is allowed, but rarely does a student put it together like Gina did. Huge props to her, I pray more young people in all youth ministries will begin to do the same.

At the event there were about 20 people, most of which were not Christ followers. In fact, there were several atheists there, including one teacher who was strongly against this event. There was even one person that professed to be a Buddhist. Side note when I gave the alter call I mentioned that the only way is Jesus Christ and he looked up and seemed to receive it. The title of my message was the side of the road. I told a story about blowing up my car and ending up on the side of the road. I also told a story about running my Dad over on the side of the road. Then I talked about the blind men on the side of the road. Many people have been run over by divorce, depression, drugs, situations, life and find themselves on the side of the road of life, blind and lost, waiting for someone to help them. The two blind me cried out, "Son of David have mercy on me." In doing so they received help. I encouraged them to cry out to Jesus when they are on the side of the road or when someone they love is in that place.

It was well received and afterwards three girls came to Gina and told here that they wanted to come to her church. One even told her that she was broken and in need. It was an incredible day with a ton of potential to grow. I am so proud of Gina and the team. Keep up the great work!

Sedro Woolley High School














The Auditorium














Me preaching














My brother and Adam














The infamous Justin Crouch

Different levels of faith?

Pastor Jeff gave me these scriptures outlining the different levels of faith.

Weak faith (Romans 4:9; 14:1)
Lacking faith (1 Thess 3:10)
Little Faith (Matt 16:8; 14:31)
Seed Faith (Matt 17:20)
Increasing Faith (2 Cor 10:15)
Exceedingly Growing Faith (2 Thess 1:3)
Rich Faith (James 2:5)
Strong Faith (Romans 4:20)
Great Faith (Luke 7:9; Matt 8:10; 15:28)
Perfect Faith (James 2:22)

There are different levels of faith outlined in scripture. Faith needs to be obtained and built.
As I preached on Saturday, you obtain faith through the Word (Romans 10:17). You reach for the Word, listen to and apply inspired preaching and take part in sound teaching. You build your faith through prayer (Jude 1:20).

What a weekend

WOW! This is all I can say after experiencing what I experienced this weekend. It all started with our TVM High School and College age service on Saturday night. I preached a message on the door of fulfillment and how it is unlocked and opened with obedience. John 14 says if you love me obey my commandments. The point of my message was that if you fulfill the commands of Christ then you'll be fulfilled. The commands I was talking about are Baptism and Communion. After the alter call I challenged the young people to get baptized if they needed to. We did not announce the week before that we would be doing this, so it was completely spontaneous. 5 young people stood up and we sent them back to change (we had shorts, shirts and towels waiting). We then took communion together at the alter which was a somber and powerful moment. After communion I took the mic, walked over to the tube and began to talk some more as I took my shoes and socks off. I then got into the tub fully clothed and challenged those sitting down that needed to be in the tub to get over here fully clothed and get in. 11 people responded! This was my first time ever baptizing people and I got the opportunity to baptize my sister and her fiancé. Just thinking about it right now is getting me fired up and I probably won’t be able to sleep.

The story continues. This morning during first service Pastor Jeff Knight preached a similar message (we prepared them together) and we saw people respond like crazy. After he baptized those who had changes, he being fully clothed in the water, he put out the call to those still fully clothed and we saw such a powerful response I could not stop the tears from flowing. The next service was our Jr. High service, which had close to 30 students in it. I preached the same message as the night before and had an alter call. We prayed the prayer of salvation and I asked if this was anyone's first time. 6 kids stood up. That's 6 first time salvations! I then told them they needed to get baptized, so they went and changed. Like the night before I encouraged others to get baptized and 7 more students responded a total of 13. We all went over to the Worship Center and Pastor Jeff baptized the Jr. High students and the adults that were there. He asked for those fully clothed to come that needed to be baptized and again many came. It was unbelievable.

I was sitting next to a guy that was sitting next to his friend that just got saved the week before. He kept trying to get his friend to go up and get baptized, but he'd have none of it, so he turned to me and asked me to pray with him that God would work on his friend’s heart. We quietly did so, said amen and continued to watch. All of the sudden out of the corner of my eye there was his friend. He had snuck out and changed because God was working on his heart.

This weekend was incredible. God is doing amazing things at The Rock Church. I heard many people say they had never seen anything like it and I concur. There were eyes filled with tears, people standing and shouting for joy, and real life change happening at the waters of baptism. Today proves why all that we do is all about the weekend… because that is where all of our prayers and hard work produce a harvest in people’s lives. I love this place!

Working out?!

What am I thinking? I don’t really know, but I know that I need to get into shape. I gained 30 pounds last year and am struggling to keep up on the basketball court. Today was the third day of a workout and diet that my wife and I are doing. The workout program is called P90X (the x stands for extreme). The first day we did chest and back, it was crazy. It was full of pull ups and push ups and I don’t know that I have ever been sorer in my life. The next day we did plyometrics which is a jumping cardio exercise and I could only do 30 minutes out of 55, it’s intense. Today I got up at 6am with Gia and we worked our arms and shoulders. It is really hard and crazy. I have been limping around for three days in pain as my body attempts to recuperate. It’s a lot of fun but intense and the diet sucks :-). It’s a 90 day program, we’re three days in and in 87 days I will have a fine bod! Maybe… :-)