Share Your World 2016 Week #20

Posted on May 18, 2016 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

It’s time to get my sharing of the world done today as the rest of the week is filling up fast.

I have been doing this challenge since shortly after I started blogging and it is one of the activities I hate to miss. Share Your World has been a wonderful way to get to know people across the blogosphere. In fact I met many of my current followers through this forum.

Let me encourage you, if you are new to blogging or even thinking of trying it, add Cee’s five questions to your weekly regimen.

Now here are the five questions of the week and my answers:

When do you feel most connected with others?

Oh my! This is a hard question there are so many wonderful connections life has afforded me: Sunday service, church growth groups, family activities, music and arts groups, blogging….I think though I would have to say I feel most connected when I am in the small group setting at church. It is there that many of my really deep conversations can begin.

What daily habit would you like to introduce to your life?

Oh that is easy. I need to start playing the guitar to get ready for summer camp.

What one mini-little-adventure would you like to have in the coming week?

I am looking forward to going to the movies to see XMEN Apocalypse and Alice Through the Looking Glass. I might make it a double header. I haven’t done that in thirty years or so.

List things or events that changed your Life: It could be as simple as a book or meeting a certain person?

Meeting Jesus

Being called into the ministry at a worship concert

Getting married

Going to Bible college

Entering Ministry

Having children

Getting divorced

Writing a book

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am so grateful that our Pentecost services were well attended and people were baptized in the Holy Spirit. I am looking forward to going to our Network Council next week (I don’t imagine I will be sharing my world again until I have returned from that).

Now see how everyone else answered by clicking here!

Share Your World 2016 Week 17

Posted on April 29, 2016 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

Blogging has taught me that writing is really about two things: words and relationships, not necessarily in that order.

For that reason SHARE YOUR WORLD has become one of my favorite posts to write. It is an opportunity every week to answer five simple questions using the written word and to connect those words to people around the world.

You can discover more about sharing your world by traveling to CEE’S SITE USING THIS LINK.

Here are this week’s SHARE YOUR WORLD questions and my answers:

When writing by hand do you prefer to use a pencil or pen?

I almost always use pen. I find pencil smudges and fades too quickly for my taste. I like a sense of permanency. That said my friend Jody is always after me about how I write on my sheet music in pen. It makes him sort of crazy because in his opinion music should only ever be written 0n in pencil.

What’s your choice: jigsaw, word, maze or numeric puzzles?

Oh I am so bad at puzzles! I get so impatient with them. My mother loves crossword puzzles and does one everyday. Sometimes I help her with words but I don’t think I would have the patience to do a whole puzzle of any kind by myself.

Do you prefer long hair or short hair for yourself?

Short hair is my choice. My hair tends to get puffy and now that I am losing more off the top,letting it grow long makes me look just weird.

List five some of your favorite blogs.

This is a really hard question. I have so many favs. But here are five I frequent on a very regular basis:

Cee’s Photography

Another Red Letter Day

Jennifer Nichole Wells

Becoming the Oil and the Wine

Artist Day Apart

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am so grateful I had the opportunity to preach on Sunday morning at Cornerstone Church. This week has been really busy and I haven’t even had time to post the transcripts of that sermon but it was so much fun to preach.

I am looking forward to a night off tonight (last one for a while). I think I will go to the movies. I might see this

Share Your World 2016 Week 10

Posted on March 8, 2016 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

We just crossed into double digits with SYW 2016 can you believe it? Only 42 more weeks to go until 2017. Click the underlined link to be transported to a great sharing space at Cee’s Blog.

This week Cee has asked us five sharing questions and given us a warning. The warning is

With your answers, please remember we are in the SYW world which may not always match our reality.

The questions are:

What would you ask for if a genie granted you three wishes?

I think I would ask the genie to make me strong enough to cover all the bases that need covering in my section of the human sea of need. I do realize however that genies are quite literal and I would probably be given a huge baseball diamond in the middle of an ocean along with super speed so that I could run on top of the water and thereby cover all the bases. I think I will just continue to ask God for the strength. He gets the metaphor.

What experiences are most meaningful to you?

I love our times around the altar of the church. There is nothing like being in the presence of God.

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

As a young child I wanted to be a zoo keeper, a naturalist, an ornithologist or something else that would keep me near animals and the natural world. From the eighth grade on though I pretty much knew I was going to be a pastor. It was an innate sense I guess you could say…a calling I couldn’t deny.

Complete this sentence: The best day of my life was….

the day I received Jesus as Savior and Lord. The second best day was the day I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am so grateful that our lead pastor, Pastor Risto was back to lead staff meeting last week. He had been away and then had Network staff meetings in Sturbridge . So I was running meetings for a few weeks. This week I am looking forward to ministering in two concerts.

Share Your World 2016 Week #9

Posted on March 4, 2016 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun, Uncategorized

It’s past time for me to

Every week Cee invites her contributors to SHARE BITS OF THEIR LIVES.

You can discover how the rest of the world is sharing by clicking the underlined link. Here are the questions we are all answering along with my answers.

Have you done something you truly want to do today?

I get to do lots of things I want to do everyday. I love my job of pastoring and while there are pieces of it that get pushed to the back burner because of the craziness of everyday life I do really enjoy it all. Today is a day of office cleaning and administrating . I am finally getting to organize my desk and my office and that feels really good! Currently it looks like my desk blew up and that makes me sad.

What can you help the world with?

I believe I am called to help the world by bringing them to the knowledge of God.

If life was ‘just a bowl of cherries’… which fruit other than a cherry would you be..?

I would be a kiwi. Sweet, fuzzy and a little odd.

Quotes List: At least three of your favorite quotes?

I have so many favorite quotes narrowing it down to three is really hard, but I shall try. Here are three quotes on joy I really like shared by my friend and fellow artist Betty Knowlton:

What a witness to the world Christians would be, if only we were evidently very happy people
.
Our sense of joy, satisfaction and fulfillment in life increases, no matter what the circumstances, if we are in the center of God’s will.
Joy is NOT the absence of trouble, but the presence of God.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am so grateful that last week I got to preach at Cornerstone and that four people came to Jesus. This next week I am looking forward to leading worship at Cornerstone!

Share Your World 2016 Week 5

Posted on February 6, 2016 by joseph elon lillie under For Family & Fun

I am a bit late this week (with next week starting tomorrow and all), but late or not I didn’t want to miss a chance to SHARE MY WORLD.

Cee’s five questions and my answers are below. If you would like to see how others answered the questions or if you would like to join in the fun you can do so by clicking the underlined link above.

CEE’S QUESTIONS & MY ANSWERS

If you had a shelf for your three most special possessions (not including photos, electronic devices and things stored on them, people or animals), what would you put on it?

My shelf would contain my family tree, the current journal I am writing in and my Bible. Past, present and future.

If you had a box labelled ‘happiness’, what would you put in it?

I guess I would start with two questions: How big is the box? Can you only put material things in it?

If the answers are “a small box and yes”, then I would put a picture of Jesus, a picture of my family and two 3×5 cards. One 3×5 card would say “Be content with what you have and where you are.”. The other would say, “Remember only relationships last into eternity.”

If the answers are ” the size of the Universe and no you can put immaterial things in the box too”, then I would put God in the box remembering that the box would still not be big enough to contain Him. The Psalmist wrote, “In Thy presence (O Lord) is fullness of joy.”

What do you want more of in your life?

God, His presence and love.

Daily Life List: What do you do on an average day? Make a list of your usual activities you do each day.

I generally get up between 5 and 6 to walk the dogs. I pray and study Scripture. I get ready for work and then I head off. Most mornings I do a bit of paper work until morning prayer meeting. After an hour of prayer I usually have meetings until 11 or lunch time. In the afternoon I do paperwork, write and usually once a week I am out doing a service at a nursing home or dayhab. Sometimes I throw in the occasional meeting. I go home for 3 and walk the dogs. I usually rest for a bit and try to get something done around the house before I return to the church. Most evenings I have a meeting followed by a rehearsal or a service and then I head home for 8 walk the dogs, eat supper and watch a little television to unwind before bed.

On days off I try to do as little as possible.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am mindful that I am a week behind so I will share one things from this vacation week that was special and do the same next week. I am grateful that I got to watch the sunrise at Ogungquit Beach, Maine. It has been years since I did that. Next week I am looking forward to getting back into the routine of work. Here are some shots of the Beach.