enough whining about the weather. I've got a lot of great stuff going on around me. From Judy's work with foreign exchange, which keeps us in contact with people around the world, to my kids' school and daily skateboarding and stuff like that... to Sam, who lives on our 3rd floor and lights up this house with so much love. thanks for allt he dishes you do, bro.

this winterr has been so much different from so many that came before. I'm not sick, thanks be to God, for the first January in forever. I really do think it was the wisdom teeth, afterr all. I got out my last 2 last march, and I gotta say, that really hurt for a long time, but feelign is almost back in my tongue on that side, and I'm not sick and dragging all the time.

I'm getting more and more involved in efforts to get skateparks built in our city, too. I've been talking with a lot o fpeople lately and I see a coalescence of people who would like there to be good spots set aside for skateboarding in the cityscape. Why aren't there quality provisions for skateboarding within the reach of our metro routes? There should be, and hopefully will be, soon.

working on the Northside Park will be a start, I hope.

Well, I hope you're all okay. really. Peace.

this snowy morning

this morning, the kids went back to school. what a crime. 7:25 wake up for a 6-yrs. old of a kid. i can't wait. that's just one more small thing that won't be going on in the kingdom of Jesus...

holy cold, Batman!!! like 8 degrees with snow coming down sideways in the wind... and the driving? INSANE! What an insanity that people would drive on these frozen roads! Yet drive we did, and there were tons of accidents on the traffic report this morning.

Growing up in New York, we had a thing we called a "delay" that we'd use on days like this to let the roads get warmed up, so the frozen chemicals and water could get thawed... working folks also used a technique called the "personal day", and also "coming in late" to fend off the risk of roadway death and whatnot...

I think Ohio should make a discovery of the use of this "delay" thing. That should help our nation become great. I have also heard that in lands far away there is something called the "snow day". I'm not sure I believe it, it sounds so fantastical, but people tell me that when the roads are so dangerous that people's lives are risked in daily transit, many institutions--especially schools--actually close for the day.

These are foreign ideas, I know, but that's what makes great cultural understandings in U.S. and A.

church

yesterday morning's church time was...well, we're the church. No matter how it "goes", we belong to Jesus. There is something there that is much greater than anything else. so how do we measure it?

I'll tell you what. The Word came. There was a word shared by several people. It took form as they each shared their part, or asked their question. JP and Lew preached, some commented, some questioned...

I left the time together freshly amazed at the God who has chosen us for His dwelling on the sole basis of his pleasure: he is pleased to have us! That from Ps.132:13-14

We stood amazed as God clothed Jeshua the high priest in Zech. 3

...marveled at Jesus calling us his friends in John 15:15

...rejoiced in Romans 5's good news that God has loved us while we were still His enemies, how much more now that our hearts yearn to love Him back?

Colossians 2:12-14 spoke of the "death warrant" being cancelled--God is now longer angry at us!

Micah 7:8-9 spoke of how Jesus has plead our legal case before the Father. We are fully reconciled.

All of this bundles with words from Zech 3 and Isaiah 6 that show that, as Jesus said, we did not choose Him. He has chosen us.

Please, read through these scriptures this week and think on the very GOODNESS of the news in Christ! No matter how you may have failed Him, He is on your side. Just turn to him in your heart, trust His atonement on the cross for your sins, and start fresh WITH HIM, TODAY.
String together a bunch of TODAYs and we'll catch up on the other side...

and happy new year.

A Quote for you...

got this quote off another blog. interesting and good for us... it is from G.K. Chesterton, whose work I haven't read.

‘The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world … The reason is obvious. In a large community we can choose our companions. In a small community our companions are chosen for us.’ Community has been insightfully defined as the place where the person you least want to live with always lives! Responding to this Philip Yancey says: ‘we often surround ourselves with the people we most want to live with, thus forming a club or clique, not a community. Anyone can form a club; it takes grace, shared vision, and hard work to form a community.’ We might also add that it takes a miracle that only God himself can perform. But it is in such a community that disciples are made. To be a community of light from which the light of Christ will emanate we need to be intentional in our relationships: to love the unlovely, forgive the unforgivable, embrace the repulsive, include the awkward, accept the weird. It is in contexts such as this that sinners are transformed into disciples who obey everything King Jesus has commanded.'

Quick Morning update.

Its hard for me to believe it has been six days since I published to the blog... We've had a LOT going on around us. Seth has been sick, but got better. I got a little sick and had a sleepless night. We got new carpet in the downstairs guest quarters and third floor community quarters...

We've had Sam around for a while now, and we're seeing a great potential for a small community of men on the third floor. We're talking 3 to six men. Living together and walking a daily walk of Christian community and intentional mission among the church and our neighbors, here...

The roof is leaking because it is raining. I've been promising Judy to go up there, every day, but I'm actually kind of scared to. It is just soooo steep and 36 feet off the ground. cleaning a gutter at that hight is really daunting. Getting a ladder up there alone is a huge task for a... for a lew...

The leaks are coming through the guttering, onto the sill of a window, and down a wall in the house.

I got some inquiries aobut the boiler situation. Mostly about what is going on, not offers of help. Some kind folks have offered us used boilers and forced-air units, but whether or not they fit is in question, and a forced air unit will require us to rework our whole house with ductwork. A new boiler in the basement is what we're really praying for, here.

Thanks to all of you who lift us up in prayer. Our NEEDS are hard to discern, since each little trial we face drives us to fresh dependence on God. I suspect that He is working in each difficulty to bring us into faith, love and thereby holiness. We are filled with hope...

Just pray that we won't get swamped in the "daily", fretting about how to pull off this life together.

Someone got shot and killed on the street the other night.

Last night all the emergency vehicles were around the corner.

The City has required us to do some external repairs.

A number of the people who have come to our meetings over the years have wandered from the faith. Not the community itself, but visitors who were challenged and gave the faith "a try".

We're plotting to remove a lot of stuff from our basement this Saturday. We're on a push to de-clutter and refresh the inner workings of the house.

We would welcome your visits, all you church who speak well of us but haven't spent time here to feel what its like. We love you and need your prayers for all of us over here...

That One Article (click for article)

Well, you may be here because of a certain article, today. If you are, I need to set a thing or two straight.

First:
that picture made me look like clergy. I'm not. I mean I am, technically, able to marry people because of some paper I got when I presented some papers I got to some people in Columbus and paid a modest fee... eeew. i am a "pastor" and a "preacher"--somethign that's easy to misunderstand for many of the very people for whom Jesus came.

I'm not different from anybody. I am the same as you... except maybe that I bear the stigmatizing name "Christian" in a generation whose image of that consists mostly of the waste of Millions of dollars in building funds, and scandals involving drugs, sex and money. I am a Christian. I'm not a "Christ Follower". You may hear that term around town. if that term is chosen because of shame at the term "Christian", I'm not one of those. I do want to follow Christ, and in my better moments, that's going on... But I am a Christian: someone who believes in Jesus and tries to obey Him. That obedience is the least I can do, in view of the great price of His cross...

I'm ashamed to have held a Bible like that for a picture... The Bible's not for holding, or even just for reading. It's for Listening to, and believing. Listen to the story of Jesus. Listen to what He taught. listen to who he Is! Go away from it changed.

Second:
The furnace is on "last legs" and is old. It could give out any minute, or last another few years. It DOES tend to leak Carbon Monoxide, but the house is drafty enough to keep that from killing us (kind of a joke, but actually true). We are keeping it way warmer than 52. Come over and see. We did keep it at 52 one winter, because of the problems and the potential of a boiler failure, and the very very high heating bill, but we aren't doin that now. Now, we keep it about 60. So pleaase understand that if you come over on a cold day and its 60 in here, we didn't intend to mislead... We trust that if the boiler fails, something will be provided in God's time to remedy that.

Third:
I guess we are open to help people all the time, but it isn't like that isn't something that Jesus taught ALL his Christians to do. In fact, the very point of our mission is to impart to believers that Jesus has taught and commanded us to live in a very different, generous way as a matter of course. It is nothing other than basic Christian obedience to welcome the poor and stranger in love. We don't run a household that's any different from the way that All Christian household's ought to run. I was ashamed that it seems rare for Christians to do this.

Fourth: Thanks!
I appreciate the intentions and efforts of all the people who have intended to help us here, in Northside. Thanks to John and Leigh for the article and the photos. Thanks to Cathy and Erwin and all you guys around us who think well of us. All of us who use this house hope to... well all we want to do is please Jesus. There are so many Christians in this city who are more courageous and more obedient, and more clear examples than I am or we are. But still, we only want to please Jesus.

That's right. Its all about Him. jesus is real. He really did come, live and die on the cross for us. All who take shelter in Him are spared judgment. All who come to Him, He will in no wise turn away. I'm just a preacher, trying to convince people not to go to hell. I had no idea when I started that it'd be so difficult a job.

So please forget about me with my sanctimonious Bible-holding, and the vain immodesty of my silly beard. Think about Jesus. Think about the Cross. He really really does love you.

We hope you can come and see... That's so much better than hearing and reading.

Emailing Tom Jewell in prison

Click the title, or click HERE to find out how to send emails to our dear incarcerated brother, Tom (clicking "Tom" will give you all the posts on him, up to this point).

His inmate number is 174893. He is in the Roederer Correctional Complex. That's all you'll need, outside a credit card, to do this thing...

love.