Tyler Paul Wolfe

[tylerpaulwolfe]

I am Starting a Running Streak!

Yes. I am going streaking! I have decided to start a running streak on this 21st day of December in the year 2015 (fully clothed). Why not wait until the new year or at least a milestone date like Christmas? Two reasons: I want to start NOW!....and there is something I don’t like about the pressure of starting on January 1 (though it would certainly make counting the streak a little easier).

What is a running streak? 

The official definition of a running streak is to run at least one mile  within each calendar day. Running may occur on either the roads, a track, over hill and dale, or on a treadmill. 

Because of a left foot that you would have to see to believe, I am giving myself the “out” of replacing the 1 mile run with at least a half mile swim, or 5 mile bike ride. If I ever have to resort to those inferior activities, I guess this will technically become an “activity” streak, which is lame...but like I said, I got foot problems. Because I like the idea of a streamlined consistency, I am going to do the best that I can to keep this a running streak. 

Why am I Doing This? 

I love to run! Also, I just like the idea of the challenge of trying to get in my mile in midst of this crazy busy life. I also look forward to the milestone days on this streak...this sort of thing gets me excited! 

As with most things, I also hope to turn this into something even greater than a running streak. Maybe I can use this to fundraise for missionaries through Speed the Light? For now though, I will just be doing it for the challenge. 

Why am I Posting About This??!?!

Because I am excited about it! However, I will spare my non-running friends and family from daily posting about running. From here on out, the majority of any posts about this streak other running thoughts will be from my small videography business’ twitter account: @LFPwisco 

Here is the first run my streak! 

https://www.strava.com/activities/454189928

[tylerpaulwolfe]

North to South

Tonight we wrapped up our series, “Master the Noise,” based on Eric Samuel Timm’s Static Jedi. 

We have discussed the noise and the clarity. The noise is the things in life that don’t matter. It is the things that distract and can keep us from growing. 

Clarity is the things that help us grow. The clarity makes us more like Jesus. 

The key to clarity is mastering the noise. Not letting our schedule, wallet, and distraction be in control of us. 

One thing we have to realize though, is that one of the biggest sources of noise can be ourselves. We can become static.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer said “Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.” What does this mean? It means we have to not only do something with all we know about mastering the noise; we have to continually do something. We have to make taking action against the noise a part of our identity. Being a “Master of the Noise” should become a deeply ingrained part of who we are. Timm calls this being a static jedi. 

Here is the problem though: We are deeply goal oriented people. We want the end result and we want it now! In Ecclesiastes 3:9-12, the author begs the question, “What is the point of all that we do in life?” He resolves that the goals that we set aren’t as important as the journey getting to them. 

We get so focused on the destination at the end of our million mile journey that we never take the first step.  

So to close our series, “Master the Noise,” I encourage with a few action steps: 

1. Don’t sit still! 

Humans are 70 % water. What does a body of water look like when it is motionless? Glass. This may look pretty appealing over hot cup of coffee in the morning…but really what fun is that? Make waves! Get out do something. Move your knowledge of what is good from north to south….From your head to your feet. Do something! 

2. Stay plugged in. 

Ask yourself the question: “Does keeping secrets about myself help anything?” The answer will always be no. Find someone you trust and commit to honesty about yourself, your doubt, and your struggle. 

3. Take your first step! 

There is no step harder than the first! But you have to take it. In order to do this, you will have to:

4. Punch fear in the face. 

More on this next month! 

[tylerpaulwolfe]

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Preview of new #ism promo "Milk Sports" coming at ya this Wednesday. #waupaca

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Tonight at ISM 4/9/14

Philipians 2:12-13

Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.  For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

God works in, We work out. 

I love these 2 verses. I think of a run down town. The crime rate is up and spirits are down. One day someone decided to change the city. They were going to make a difference. So what they did was found an architect to build a building in the center of the city. This building would be a sign of hope for everyone there. 

So the architect went to work for years and years, designing this building. But one day the architect got very sick and was about to die. He gathered up his team who were helping build this building and he instructed them. He told them how important this project was. He explained that this building project was the greatest thing that he had ever done. He told them that he had poured his life into this building and how important it was that they finish it with the excellence they had worked with up to that point. 

The architect commended them for how hard they had worked, but now that he was dying, it was even more important that they make this building amazing. 

In Philippians 2:12-13, Paul is like this architect. He had started a great community in Philippi, but was now in jail and about to killed for being a disciple of Jesus. He was addressing the people in the church, telling them that they have to commit to faithfulness especially now that he was going to be gone. 

Tonight at ISM, we discussed the sometimes big, sometimes small buildings scattered around town. We call these buildings churches. 

Why are there so many churches? 

What is the point of all these buildings? What are they for? 

Paul tell us one of the points of these buildings in verse 13. He is addressing a local church when he says “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

Essentially, he is saying that God is working in these “buildings,” or the people in the buildings, rather; so the people in the buildings take what God is doing in them and they work it out toward others. 

God works in, we work out. 

This is why these buildings exist. 

So what does this mean for you? What do we mean when we say “God is working in?” If God is “working” then He must be making something right? When we work we always have something to show for it. 

In Galatians 5:22-23, it talks about the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the things that God is producing as He works in people…And these are the things these people are to work out toward others. 

God works in, we work out. 

I leave you with a little practical piece of advice: 

Surround yourself with the opposite of what you are sick of. 

Sick of being lied to? Surround yourself with truthfulness.

Sick of selfish people? Surround yourself with selfessness.

Sick of being walked on? Surround yourself with a constructive environment.

God works in, we work out. 

Do you need to be worked in? Do you struggle to find the fruit of the spirit in your life? 

Do you know that God has worked in you, but you have failed to work what he is producing out toward others? 

[tylerpaulwolfe]

To Give is to Love, to Love is to Give

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters" 1 John 3:16. 

To give is to love and to love is to give

-Eric Samuel Timm. 

Tonight we talked about our morning routines. When we give God an undivided piece of our day, He gives us an undivided piece of Himself.

This is called revelation. The making known that which was once unknown. 

Two different types of revelation are personal and general revelation. Though these are not the only 2 classifications, we will stick with these in our discussion. 

Personal revelation is when God reveals Himself to you personally. This is when we realize something completely new about God and His character that we never had a grip on before. 

General revelation is when God is revealed to us through the world around us and in His Word. We can look at our high functioning bodies, the world around us, and the solid truth in the Bible, and realize that God’s goodness. 

Revelation is a privilege! Have you experienced this privilege? 

Often times, when we see people experiencing this, we get a “grass is greener” mentality. We wish we could have dramatic experiences with God all the time. 

As I have grown in my faith, I have come to realize something, and Eric Samuel Timm puts it very well when he says “The grass is green where you water it.” 

To give is love and to love is to give. 

When we “water our faith” by giving God an undivided piece of our routines, He will give us a piece of Himself. 

God will reveal Himself to you, if you let Him! 

[tylerpaulwolfe]

3-29-14 #newlifecross

[tylerpaulwolfe]

The Danger of Living in The Mix!

Have you heard of Oil Pulling? I have. My wife and I heard about it and as generally healthy people, we thought we would give it a try. She tried it first, before I got home from work. We were going to use coconut oil…my wife HATES coconut. This was a miserable experience for her. 

I got home and put a gob of the coconut oil on a spoon and I asked, “You think this is enough?” She proceeded to tell me that I need waaaaay more. Next thing I knew I was swishing coconut oil around in my mouth. There were big chunks of the oil that refused to melt. It was comparable to swishing curdled, chunky milk around. Food. Water. Things that are SUPPOSED to go in your mouth did not feel like this. 

This felt wrong. 

This felt unnatural. 

The mixture mixture of melted oil, chunks of oil, and saliva was gross! 

Tonight at ISM, we discussed the different ways that we can view the world. We talked about the Christian worldview, the non-christian worldview, and then we spent most of our time on the mix between the two. 

The Christian worldview sees the world as a place created by God, and He is reaching into it in order to bring it back to the way it was intended it to be. 

The Christian view of self says that we humans are vessels through which God is reaching. 

Then there is the non-christian worldview. This is not as easy to briefly define as there are hundreds of different non-christian worldview (Hindu Worldview, Islam worldview, atheist worldview, etc.) 

Finally we discussed THE MIX. 

THE MIX is discussed in Revelation 3:15-16. 

15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

The Mix is the lifestyle that does tries to be two things at once; hot and cold. But that just leaves us with lukewarm water, which is useful for nothing. 

I like to think of as oil and water. Oil being the non-christian life and water being the Christian life. The two simply do not mix. 

When one tries to combine the 2 substances, you see very clearly that there are 2 substances in one vessel. 

You have a 2-faced person. 

You have a fake. 

You have a person who goes one place and acts like oil, and goes somewhere else and acts like water. 

You have a person living in The Mix! 

Jesus asks us for every part of ourselves, and in return gives us every part of Him. 

When choose to live in The Mix, we are holding parts of ourselves from God, thus not receiving all that we are able from God. 

[philblohm]

To be honest, I haven’t been this excited since my Junior High School burned down and my alibi held up.

Over the years people have said nice things about my writing such as, “when you write I hardly notice that you’re ugly” or “you have an, uh, unusual sense of humor.” Sometimes they are...

[tylerpaulwolfe]

Phil Blohm's blog. Good stuff.

[tylerpaulwolfe]

[tylerpaulwolfe]

Sunrise-7:22 am- 3-13-14 #waupaca

[tylerpaulwolfe]

Tag teamin this sermon with @danielbrinkman at @ismwaupaca tonight. #stumin

[tylerpaulwolfe]

Master the Noise-Week 2 Recap

"Time is money!" In a way this is true. One key difference is that we can get more of one and not the other. Time and money are two things in life that we protect, cherish, and do our best to use wisely. 

But this is not so much about time & money, as it is about fear. 

See, time and money can either be a blessing or burden; depending on how you use them. Eric Samuel Timm illustrates this by discussing that a coin (money) and a ship anchor are made of the same thing; metal. An anchor is blessing when you are out to sea, but a burden if you have to drag it across a beach. The key difference is proper use, the other is misuse.

My good friend Jason says that “misuse will always turn to abuse.” The thing about money, is that if you misuse money it will always abuse you, not the other way around. 

In “Static Jedi,” Timm states that we don’t spend time. We don’t spend money. We invest it. And every investment yield some sort of return. Some good.

Some bad. 

So, how we spend/invest our time and money will determine the return we get.

If you invest your money in a pack of gum, your return will be fresh breath. 

If you invest your money in a guitar, your return will be a girlfriend. Girls love guys who shred the guitar. 

Then on the other, more negative side of the spectrum: if you invest in drugs, the return will be addiction.

If you invest in destructive relationship, the return will be destruction. 

All of this depends on how you invest! And how you invest will determine  what is really in control in your life.

So with time: Will you be in control of your schedule, or will your schedule be in charge of you? 

Will you be in control of your money, or will your money be in control of you? 

I said earlier that all of this is really more about fear than it is about time or money. Here is what I mean: 

The more we accumulate, the more we have to be scared of losing. The remedy for fear is giving! 

When we give our time/money/resources, we will always see that we never had anything to fear in the first place and that we can live without the things we feel that we need. 

We have to shift from accumulation to distribution! 

The love of God is a self-giving love. Will you choose to reflect this? 

If money has accumulated in your wallet or even just in your heart…give!

If your schedule is the puppet master and you are the puppet…give. 

If you have built up unforgiveness…give forgiveness. 

[tylerpaulwolfe]

Throwback to "The Rut" for Talin Scheuermann's thoughts on relationships

Since the beginning, we have been destined for greatness in our relationships, but as humans, we have been ducking that destiny by doing the things that God has demanded us not to do (Genesis 3:6). How do we go from ducking our destiny to living in the greatness that God has designed for us? Relationships are supposed to be good, right!? Here are a couple of steps to help establish GOOD relationships- Learn from other people’s mistakes: Talk to your parents and your pastors about relationships they have been in. You can save a lot of heartbreak by not assuming that you know it all and by taking others advice. Think of others before yourself: Ladies - don’t use your body and the way you dress to gain attention, capture guy’s eyes, and manipulate their emotions. Your bodies are called to be holy not fish hooks. Guys - Treat the ladies you date with love and respect. What if things don't work out? Will her future husband thank you or hate you? Establish good habits: Read your Bible and learn from the good and the bad relationships outlined in it. This book is a source of LIFE and offers godly relationship advice. Recognize your need for a SAVIOR - not a boyfriend or girlfriend: The incomplete feelings you have in your relationships will not be met by any person…they will only be appropriately and ultimately met by Christ. The fact is we have all messed up and we have all sinned…and we know the consequence of sin is death (Mathew 5:28). So, what hope do we have? Just like the woman in John 8 (this woman had messed up in a relationship) we have sinned and deserve death, but Jesus stepped in the gap and paid the penalty for us. He has given us new life and a second chance. However with this comes the command, “Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11 NIV). So, regardless of how bad we have messed up, and how much we have ducked our destiny, Jesus still loves us and he has paid the price for our sin. Live up to the greatness He has called you to by getting up and LEAVING your life of sin. Follow Christ’s example and your earthly relationships will fall into place. -Talin Scheuermann

[tylerpaulwolfe]

Crazy awesome coasters made by Lexi Tripp. On sale to raise money for her trip to serve in orphanages in India.

[tylerpaulwolfe]

My wife @alyssajwolfe makes getting groceries an art form. List & calculator in hand, she dominates the isle.

[tylerpaulwolfe]

Sunrise-6:26 am 3/7 #waupaca #wisconsin

[tylerpaulwolfe]

Master the Noise-Week 1 summary. 

The next several weeks we are going to be taking a look at Eric Samuel Timm’s “Static Jedi,” in a series called “Master the Noise.” Here is what we discussed this week: 

We took this week to define a couple of terms: 

Noise: the things we spend our time on that simply do. not. matter. 

Clarity: the things we spend our time on that make us grow. 

Think about your average week, how much time to do you spend on noise? How much time do waste on the things that simply don’t matter? Timm encourages us to be honest and generous with our answer as it is so easy rationalize the noise; morphing it into this crazy version of clarity morphed by our own need to not give anything up.  If we do that math, which thankfully I have my own copy of "Static Jedi" to do it for me…we see that if waste on just 2 hours of each day on noise, we end up wasting about an entire year of every ten years that we are alive. 

Now ask yourself how much time you spend on clarity. How much time do you really invest in your relationship with Jesus? In Mark 8:34-35, Jesus talks about the cost of being a follower. We have to “lose our life.” We truly have to be sacrificial with our noise. Giving up the things that consume and waste our time that simply don’t matter is a part of following Jesus. 

To finish this up, it is not about removing tv, Facebook, twitter, movies, friends, and fun from your life. It is about really determining what sits on the throne of your heart.

Noise or clarity? 

Invest more in your relationship with Jesus! Here are some ways that will help you: 

1. Join an ISM small group! For the 6 weeks leading up to Easter we will be getting together to get deeper into God’s word, here is some info: 

Jr. Highers-Meet at First Assembly Sunday nights at 6 pm.

11-12 Grades-Meet at First Assembly Sunday nights at 6 pm.

9-10 Grades-Meet at Pastor Tyler and Alyssa’s house Thursday night at 6 pm. 

2. Read God’s word! The Christian life is one of good habit forming! Check out 29 Plans for a great way to form a habit of reading the bible. This is reading plan that will come through your Facebook, twitter, and instagram to let you know what that days reading is. It comes with a picture to look and a song to listen to while you meditate on your reading.