Ministering

Is it possible that the greatest enemy to God's men who are called to preach His truth might be the believers they are called to lead? I have often sat and pondered the notion of how to be effective in leading God's people into revival, ministry, change, growth; the same arguments come back to me. They are not ready, or they will not want to do it, or it is too much like work to them. Sometimes the shortcoming of the plan is in me; I'm not willing, they'll get mad at me, I am not qualified. So the philisophical question of the day: is the greatest enemy to ministers today, the people they minister to, our themselves?

At a Loss

You ever been at a loss before in a situation? Where you could not see the right way out and then nobody gave you any help, only complained or nagged or gave their opinion on what you had done wrong so far? I have been there, I am sure you have too. Well I hope that we can hold true to the promise of Scripture that He is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble, a cleft in the rock, a shelter in the time of storm, He will carry our burdens His yoke is easy and His burden light. The point is, allow your faith to grow & to trust Him in the situation, and He will see you out of it. Good parenting requires good advice, God has the best, so take it from Him.

Wrong Way

You ever driven down the wrong way on one way street? You know you get that feeling that at anytime you will either get caught or someone will pop out and hit you? Well in our pursuit of God, I think sometimes we drive down the wrong way on our path towards God. We all know about the straight and narrow way, but we often forget the purpose of a path is to lead us forward towards new things. So many of us I fear have fallen in love with where we either are on the path, or where we have been. Many of us have pulled up a rock and have planted ourselves on the path refusing to move forward, others are actually trying to go back to where they were. If the path leads to God? The wouldn't turning around lead away from God? Just a few simple thoughts from a not so bright person who is tired of not getting farther down the path that God is leading him on.

E is for Effort

You know I loved the sign that Lanes Chapel had up a few weeks ago. (and that is ironic because usually I make fun of there signs because they are pretty corny) This one read, "Any plan will work if you will." I love the thought behind this simple plan of action. If you are dealing with a child and don't know how to handle it, try something new. I would say exercise caution by doing some research, look up on the web answers, ask trusted friends who have children a few years older than yours, or ask your youth pastor; he may not have raised a teenager yet, but he does a lot of baby sitting with them :)

Not only can we apply this principle to raising children, but also to raising ourselves in Christ. If want to see God at work in our lives then we need to be willing to put forth some effort. How many of us search the wall for the most comfortable place to serve at VBS? Or anywhere else for that matter. We often want acknowledgment for doing a mediocre job, but with God only a full onslaught of effort will really bring the spiritual value and reward that we all are searching for.

Youthfullness

Timothy 4:12 clearly teaches us that youthfullness is not something to be thought of as a hindrance to ministry. If we search the Scriptures we will find a vast amount of evidence of young men and women serving God thru faithful actions. The men Jesus chose were younger men, evidence to support this would come from the lack of any family being mentioned by any of these men, they could simply leave what they were doing. Christ Himself was 33 when His ministry ended in earthly human form. Elisha was without a family, adn king David was merely a young boy whenever he defeated Goliath. Do not allow yourself to get caught in the very thing that you despised when you were young, rather lead your children to a strong outpouring of faithful actions. never again will they have the time they have now to serve God. So we should not get in their way and more importantly His way in their lives.

No Offense BUT...

OK, so why do I bother doing blogging and newsletters and emails and lesson after bloomin lesson if nobody is going to respond read keep or care? I do the music every week and all I hear is: "when we gonna get more hymns?" I do a presentation and I hear, "why didn't you do such and such?" I beleive the problem with this line of thinking is that we have fallen desperately in love with us and our way of doing. I would love for people to come into worship on Sunday morning and not be so cynical, critical, and overrly analytical! We need to come before GOD on Sunday mornings prepared to be inhabited by the Holy Spirit! We expect for things to be done well and correct, but church is not supposed to the end game nor the climax of our worship, it should be where we shelter ourselves from a week spent in His Word on our knees before His throne, with hoarse throats from proclaiming His message. We should have to drag ourselves into the sanctuary with a weary grin on our faces not because we have submitted to the world all week and now need a dose of make me feel good about myself, but instead we should drag ourselves totthe altar of grace praising God that we were able to lay it all on the line this week for Him, that we spent so much energy trying to be consumed by His Spirit during the week that all we have left on Sunday is a total prostrate surrender before the Lord of Lords and King of Kings! This is His servant; so be it!

Wake Up!

Hey this was my senior message from last night with the youth, hope you enjoy it, sorry for those who have already heard it.

Genesis 2:1-3 (You will need to read this first)

In the first 6 days of creation God created a lot of stuff. (If we were in class right now I would ask you to list some things created from the first 6 days) We are not in class, so I will simply name a few: animals, birds, fish, continents, oceans, day and night, light, plants, universe, & people. God created all of this and more in just 6 days. (I believe literally 6 days, you can be wrong if you'd like.) The word then tells us that on the 7th day He rested. God had done some good work and then found Himself deserving of a rest. Now some folks have asked if this limits God's power because He needed rest. (Silly people with their questions, to rest means to cease)God had done good and was able to cease His creating. Now this in itself has very little to do with being a graduating senior, until you ask the question: "God created everything in 6 days, what have you done with your ____ years of life?"

(long pause for added drama)

To this there was some stunned silence of. I know it is not always popular to ask ourselves what we as Christian are actually "doing for God", not saying or thinking, but actually "doing". But I want to ask. What have you done for God? He has creation to His credit, do we even bare fruit? It is tought to look at ones own life and judge it. We all have plenty of skill in pointing out the lackings in others, but can we see the need for action in our own lives?

Vulnerability

Vulnerable has 3 definitions or usages: to be susceptible to harm by a weapon; to be open to attack of moral character; and to have a position open or susceptible to attack. (it is also a bridge term for those who play) As parents we are vulnerable to a lot of attacks by our children. They can harm us greatly by their actions and by their words.

However we usually see this as a great weakness in our defenses. I see it as a great weapon for us to be wielded. One of the greatest truths you can teach your children is the human qualities of their parents. Though allowing your children to see you as vulnerable may scare you, because you think they will see it as an open door to criticize and run all over you. I see it as an opportunity to share the image of Christ to your children. Jesus did not withold His emotions and vulnerability to His disciples, He showed them what He was feeling. He wept when John was killed. He grew angry at the desecration of His Fathers House. He showed concern upon the cross for the well being of His mother.

Jesus being God, lowered Himself to our weaknesses by becoming flesh, making Himself vulnerable to His children to the point that we killed Him with our sin. Are we as parents willing to be as vulnerable in our dealings with our children?

Dry Bones Need Power

The concepts of Godly living we are trying to instill into the next generation must first and foremost become evident in our lives as adults. I keep reading book after book on how to rejuvenate our churches for God. Some popular ideas revolve around: hire an outreach minister, start a new program, update the music services, get a new young pastor, build some more buildings, feed everybody, and my favorite one- well what is "Green Acres" (GABC being representative of the mega church in every community) doing? Well I have a different idea. What if we as a people chosen of God, set apart for adoption as heirs under Christ, a priestly nation, called to be holy and righteous simply asked God to do it for us? This would make it a lot easier. He has done it before, He has experience, He knows the best way, He has seen many churches fall, and He has the time and energy to accomplish the task. So how do we then ask God to do this? We pray. Then we pray some more, then we pray till our knees ache, till our hearts throb, till we cry and sob and groan with anguish for the lost, we pray so hard that we forget to DVR our favorite show, we miss dessert, we pray so much that people begin to look at our lives and say, "well all they do is pray"! What if we pray? Today is the national day of prayer, a day that our government recognizes as a day of prayer for all people of faith and belief. My challenge is that we pray today, but then we also pray tomorrow, and all next week and all next month, and all this year. We pray until we forget what we were doing before we began praying. We pray so much that we have to be reminded it is time for supper. Let us as a people of God... Pray.

Great God

You know we learn more every day. God gives us knowledge thru both amazing interesting circumstances, and also thru the mundane everyday ways. I had been praying for God to reveal something to me for months now, and really thought I had it planned out how it would happen. I assumed that it would be this big deal where there were meetings and conflict, but then thru a simple conversation I saw God reveal to me how HE was planning on accomplishing HIS task in my life. God is great! I am so excited about the future of our church! I know that some people may not think God is working mightily in our congregation, but despite it being full of us sinners, HE has great plans and is already putting them into practice.

Kids mess up.

So this morning had a heart to heart with my 2 year old. She woke up cranky and wouldn't eat breakfast. This has been going on for about 2 weeks now at every meal. The problem is she won't take naps, so she is always completely exhausted during the day which cause her to irritable.
So why do I write this?
Because Kylie is 2 years old, I have to be realistic in my expectations of her. She does not understand the benefits of a nap, she only sees what she is missing while she is going to be asleep.
This principle exist in all of God's children regardless of age. We don't want to miss anything out there, and end up being cranky and irritable due to our lack of rest. Let's take more time to do less. find rest in the Lord, and you will find Him giving you more strength.

Isa 40:29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Isa 40:30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
Isa 40:31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.

Spiritual influence begins on the home.

Hear the Words of the OT prophet Moses this morning:

Dt 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
Dt 6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Dt 6:6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
Dt 6:7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Dt 6:8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
Dt 6:9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

This is one of the most influential passages in the history of God's people. For the nation of Israel today Verse 4 is still something quoted on a daily basis. Verse 4 & 5 was repeated by Christ in the NT. Mk 12:29-30. What I want you as parents to focus on today is the latter statements. Verses 7- 9 are the pivotal teachings in Scripture that lead us to know that God's best plan for training the youth in our lives is thru the PARENTS. We as parents should be placing the Word of God everywhere in our lives, making it visible all around us. Look at the language of "when you walk along the road", we must be in close relationships with our children. Interaction is a must for Spiritual development. Make your house a billboard for the Word of God, "Write them on your doorframes". We often fear pushing away our children from the Lord, but the teachings of Scripture are to continually remind them visibly of the Word of God.

The tough part of this passage for parents however is found in verse 6. In order for your children to take the teaching well and to grow spiritually, it is imperative that "these commandments... are to be upon your heart".

"The difficulty of ministry is that we cannot minister people

to a place that we have never been."

Bro. J

Parenting Today

So how do we then reach Americas youth today? Do we spend time engaging in activity of entertainment value with teens? Do we try and allow them freedoms that they feel they deserve? Do we ignore them and hope they grow out of it? Parents today are struck with a difficult task of molding young men and women into productive useful members of both their home churces and the world. We desire for teenagers to: act like adults, do everything we demand, never complain, & become what we never could. I believe that perhaps we as Christians have demanded the wrong outcome of our youth groups. Parenting today is so difficult because parenting in the past has fallen short of the Biblical model passed down thru the word of God. I therefore do not blame society for the shortcomings of teens, and I don't blame their parents either. I blame us all for not being able to step aside- evaluate the situation in our congregations- and then take the necessary steps to begin the process of recapturing our identities in Christ. This will then pass down to our youth.