Turning Hearts – Pastor Tim Salzarulo

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Rise up (week 2)

“…that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2b What does “by testing” mean? What does “discern” mean? What is “the will of God”? Are you choosing what is “good”, “acceptable”, and “perfect” in your life? What are some things that are not good in your life? What are some things that are not acceptable in your life? What are some things that are not perfect in your life? How can you begin to change those “not good” choices in your life to be what the verse is talking about (“good”, “acceptable” and “perfect”)?

Posted By Tim Salzarulo At 3:13 PM •

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Rise up (week 1)

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Week one: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind… What does it mean to not be conformed to this world? What world are we to conform to? What are the expectations, laws, culture we are to conform to? How do we not conform to this world, but to another world we cannot see? What does it mean to be transformed, transformed into what? What do we need to renew our minds from? What does a renewed mind look like? How do we stay renewed if the world around us is not? How do we live, function, and not reject the world but at the same time not conform to it?

Posted By Tim Salzarulo At 2:40 PM •

Psummer Psalms (week 9)

Psalm 150 1 Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heaven! 2 Praise him for his mighty works; praise his unequaled greatness! 3 Praise him with a blast of the ram’s horn; praise him with the lyre and harp! 4 Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes! 5 Praise him with a clash of cymbals; praise him with loud clanging cymbals. 6 Let everything that breathes sing praises to the LORD! Praise the LORD! After reading this psalm a few times, what are some verses or phrases that stand out as particularly meaningful? Explain why. What is confusing or difficult to understand? What “path have you chosen” (the example from Psalm 1), have you made your life a life of praise (Psalm 150)? Do you only go to God when you are in trouble, depressed or disappointed? Why do you “praise” (and I don’t want just a pat answer be honest, if you don’t know really think about it)? Is it important to you? Have you made “praise” a priority in you life? (Again be honest, this is a safe place) Do you want to be better at praising? What are some specific areas that you chose to Praise God? What are other areas YOU (be specific to your personality) can praise God?

Posted By Tim Salzarulo At 2:39 PM •

Psummer Psalms (week 8)

lesson 8 - psalm 116 PSALM 116 1 I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. 2 Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. 3 The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow. 4 Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, save me!” 5 The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. 6 The Lord protects the simple-hearted; when I was in great need, he saved me. 7 Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you. 8 For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, 9 that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living. 10 I believed; therefore I said, “I am greatly afflicted.” 11 And in my dismay I said, “All men are liars.” 12 How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. 14 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. 15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. 16 O Lord , truly I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant; you have freed me from my chains. 17 I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the Lord. 18 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, 19 in the courts of the house of the Lord — in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord. After reading this psalm a few times, what are some verses or phrases that stand out as particularly meaningful? Explain why. What is confusing or difficult to understand? What has God done in your life to “save” and help you? Describe a time in your life when you were overcome with “trouble and sorrow.” What happened? What did you do? Did you turn first to God for help? Did you only rely on your own strength? What does it mean to be simple or simple-hearted (verse 6)? How does this verse help answer this question? How can verse 7 be powerful for your life? Reread verse 18. What does it mean to “fulfill your vows”? What are some clues from the text that help answer this question? This passage repeats the same verse twice . . . what is it? Why is this important? What would it mean for you to “fulfill your vows” to the Lord? Have you made any commitments to Him that you need to “make good” on? How does this psalm challenge or encourage you to worship God better?

Posted By Tim Salzarulo At 2:37 PM •

Psummer Psalms (week 7)

PSALM 32 1 Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 2 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. 3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah 5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”— and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah 6 Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found; surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him. 7 You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah 8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. 9 Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. 10 Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him. 11 Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart! After reading this psalm a few times, what are some verses or phrases that stand out as particularly meaningful? Explain why. According to this psalm, how does one achieve the blessings of God? What does it mean to “deal” with your sin? What are some roadblocks that hinder you from dealing with it? How does this passage describe physical effects that happen when a person doesn’t deal with sin? Do these really happen? Has this ever happened to you? Has it caused you to change? If so what/how has it caused you to change? Is the covering in verse 1 the same as covering in verse 5? Why is it good for the sin to be covered in one verse, but not the other? This psalm encourages the godly to pray while God can still be found. Obviously the part about prayer makes sense, but what about the second part? What does it mean, “while you can be found”? Since God is loving, won’t we always be able to find Him? Explain the metaphor of the horse and mule. Considering where you stand with your faith right now, how is this psalm personally inspiring or challenging for you?

Posted By Tim Salzarulo At 2:36 PM •

Underachievement and Overachievement Part 2

Some causes of under and over achievement can be, 1. personality, lifestyle factors, like emotional immaturity, inability to adjust, excessive fear and anxiety, low self-esteem, deep-seated feelings of hostility, resentment, negativism, perceptions of unfair treatment, and rejection of adult authority. 2. Societal and economic factors, according to Richard Jaeger, a professor of educational research at the University of North Carolina, “economic support and family stability are…essential to school success.” 3. Family factors such as; parental pressure, uninvolvement, parental disharmony, or conflict, and parents who are not consistent or in agreement with discipline. Another family factor is parental indifference to their child’s accomplishments. “At the very heart of the cause for nonachievement or overachievement are unmet emotional needs of children.” Some very important emotional needs are, unconditional love, consistency and predictability, congeniality, approval, accountability, an example of excellence (kids do what they see). I think the consequences are obvious like poor grades, limited options, and loss of confidence, social problems, and health problems. It is important to work hard, but we must also work smart and toward the goal that God has placed before us. Every Christian is given a gift, to allow God to use through us. It is up to us to figure out what that gift is and to continue to develop it. If we are a teacher than learn to teach as best that we can without anxiety, frustration, unrealistic goals, and on the flip side if our gift is teaching we don’t just waist the gift. We must study and work towards His goal for our lives. love you all _pastor tim

Posted By Tim Salzarulo At 2:35 PM •

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Psummer Psalms (week 6)

lesson 6 - psalm 84 Psalm 84 1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young— a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Selah 5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. 6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. 7 They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. 8 Hear my prayer, O Lord God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob. Selah 9 Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one. 10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. 12 O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you. After reading this psalm, what are some verses or phrases that stand out as particularly meaningful? Explain why. What is confusing or difficult to understand? What kinds of attitudes are described in this psalm? (Use specific words from the text.) Which of these attitudes are difficult for you to display in your own life? What would it take for you to “get there”? Why does the psalmist talk about the sparrow? What do you think it means to go from “strength to strength”? Consider what it means to be a pilgrim. Have you ever undertaken a “pilgrimage” with your faith? How did it end up? What did you find? Is it time for you to take one? Can you honestly say you’ve discovered God? How is this psalm comforting?

Posted By Tim Salzarulo At 4:04 PM •

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Cursing Under Cover

I found this article below on Plugged in Online and it was very interesting so i thought i might pass it on to you, our Parents. Love ya all. _pastor tim Cursing Under Cover One of the more tedious duties I have, as a Plugged In movie reviewer, is counting profanities. Trust me, people, it's harder than you'd think. While the folks around me are laughing and crying and screaming, I'm making messy little scribbles in my notebook and asking myself, "Did he just say what I thought he said?" That happened a lot just recently as I was watching Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. All through it, my swear-o-meter was buzzing. It wasn't so much because it contained lots of f-words—technically, it steered clear of those. What gave me writer's cramp was all the f-word euphemisms: "Frigging," "fricking," "effing," even "pork." Ultimately I was confronted with a bewildering array of cuss substitutes. How many were there? Twenty? Thirty? I lost count somewhere in all the explosions. But there were enough to make me think that the PG-13 Transformers film—already one of the summer's biggest blockbusters—is really an R-rated movie in disguise. Turns out, Transformers 2 is hardly alone. According to Melissa Henson, director of communications and public education for the Parents Television Council, f-word euphemisms are on the rise in both movies and television. And the PTC doesn't like it one bit. "It creates an environment that promotes and cedes ground, that it's OK to drop in that kind of language in normal conversation," she told Plugged In. "And I don't think we should stand for that." Curses! Foiled Again! Using euphemisms as swear word stand-ins is nothing new, of course. It's as old as swearing itself, and that likely dates back to the origins of language ("The Tower of Babel will never be finished now, dagnabit!"). The very word euphemism goes back to ancient Greece—eupheme being the sunnier, happier antonym forblaspheme. And, because language changes all the time, today's euphemism might well be tomorrow's blasphemy, or vice versa. And you don't have to look any farther than the King James translation of the Bible for proof. That widely revered manuscript uses a few perfectly acceptable 17th century words that, if I were to write them here—out of context—my editor would feel compelled to bleep them out with little hyphens before you were allowed to read this column. Historically, euphemisms were designed to protect society from unwanted, unneeded vulgarity. The British so hated talking about going to the "toilet room" (in itself a euphemism) that they changed the term to "bathroom," then "water closet," then "W.C." It was their way of distancing themselves from the impolite activities that often take place behind the W.C.'s closed doors—the very same instinct that leads us to say that we're "going to see a man about a horse." Phrases like "passed away," "differently abled," "enhanced interrogation" and pert near everything that comes out of Yosemite Sam's mouth are euphemisms. Even reverently using the word God is a euphemistic stand-in, of sorts, for His true name—a name so sacred and holy that, for millennia, few dared utter it at all. Plugged In Online's typographical use of "the f-word" is itself a euphemism—one that alerts our readers to the presence of a salacious swear word without (hopefully) offending their sensibilities. But today's Hollywood screenplay writers appear to be using f-word euphemisms for a different purpose: to skirt the censors, wink to their audience and swear under the radar. What's in a Name? The f-word, despite its growing acceptance in some societal circles, is still linguistic radon in most public forums. Use more than two in a movie, and you can kiss your PG-13 rating good-bye. Use one in prime-time broadcast television, and you'll subject your station to a potential Federal Communications Commission fine. The Supreme Court ruled this spring that even a fleeting use of the f-word on broadcast TV—in an awards show, for example—can legitimately bring down the wrath of the FCC. Because of this, television broadcasters—even many on basic cable—are very cautious about introducing the f-bomb into regular programming. Movie studios, too, know R ratings can hurt a movie's bottom line: The new Transformers movie, which made more than $200 million its first week in theaters, would've likely banked a fourth or fifth of that had the film been given an R. The result? Well, in the case of Revenge of the Fallen, we get Autobots that talk about "frigging" and "freaking" and a character who runs a website called "The Real Effing Deal." In the Sci Fi channel's landmark series Battlestar Galactica, we hear characters regularly use the word "frak" as a noun, verb, adjective and interjection—much as its inspiration, the f-word, would be used. In NBC's 30 Rock, we learn of a fictional TV series titledMILF, which is a sexualized acronym involving the f-word that I can't even begin to detail here. And then there's Scrubs, in which Dr. Elliot Reid (played by Sarah Chalke) has a fondness for the word "frik." "There have been episodes where she strings five or six of them together," Henson of the PTC said. In these instances, euphemisms aren't used to soften a vulgarity: Rather, they're designed to call that very vulgarity to mind—making them not so much euphemisms as profanity placeholders: We'll use this word, the creators seem to say, and you insert the real one. "It's not so much the word itself [that's offensive]," Henson continued. "It's the meaning behind it, the feeling behind it. It's the emotion behind it that carries the weight." Or, as Shakespeare might say, What's in a name? An f-word by any other name will still sound as foul. Word Up There's very little relief in sight from such creative use of euphemisms. The FCC, when it's tried to enforce decency standards, has run into significant interference, so it's unlikely the agency will zealously tackle words that aren't technically indecent. And the truth is, even if the FCC or the Motion Picture Association of America did decide to clamp down on the word "frik," another made-up term would spawn to take its place. Language—particularly profane language—is like that. But it does give us a chance to learn—and teach—something about the nature of language itself: that words have power. We invest that power into the words we use and wield it every time we open our mouths. And, as Spider-Man always says, "With great power comes great responsibility." So my issue with the f-word and all its derivatives is three-fold: First, it's offensive—that's a given. Second, it's unneeded. I'd submit that few people, even the most crass among us, decided to see Revenge of the Fallen because they heard the producers employed a lot of almost-swear words. Third, it's simply downright lazy. In a language filled with hundreds of thousands of beautiful, powerful words, it's a crying shame to see talented people resort to this vulgar crutch again and again and again. To me, it signals a paradoxical lack of creativity—a cinematic security blanket that retards any ability to grapple with the world's ideas, problems and people in bigger, better ways. If the English language is a Ferrari, it's as if the entertainment industry insists on disengaging most of the cylinders, powering the beautiful chassis with an engine that weakly putters along on monosyllabic micro-explosions.

Posted By Tim Salzarulo At 11:34 AM •