Lessons Learned Along the Way

I believe the year of 2010 has held a lot of firsts for me.  Some in my personal life, some in in emotional life and maybe more importantly, in my spiritual life.  I can't go in detail about all of them, but here are a few...

First, God has taught me a lot about loving people when you don't want to love them. (You can read my previous post for a further explanation).  God tested me and tested my obedience to what he was calling me too.  I had preached on loving my enemies and praying for those who persecute you, but had never fully understood this until this fall.  And let me tell you obedience is hard especially when you don't want to do what you're being asked to do.

Second, God has been moving in my heart telling me I need to repent of my prideful attitude.  I was talking to another friend about this and I think I can say with completely honesty that I have never truly repented before.  Sure I've been remorseful and I've talked about repentance, but I don't think I have ever been convicted before and truly followed through with an act of walking the other way.  I am thankful that God is teaching me these things and testing my obedience to him.  Yet again it is not fun, but I know that I will be better off then I am now once I've submitted to His will.

Lastly, God has started using me to really share my faith.  This is a first again for me.  Today while I sat in a coffee shop drinking my coffee, a man approached me and made a comment about my shirt I was wearing (go SOONERS!) and we struck up a conversation.  We talked about his job and family and then he asked what I do, which led to a good conversation about Jesus and the church.  He was a Christian, so I wasn't sharing my faith with a non-Christian, but I still think God was teaching me a lesson--its not as hard as people make it out to be.  

     

It is my hope in the next year I can follow God's voice and guiding more, and continue in the long, hard road of obedience so that His kingdom might be advanced, one act at a time.

Loving Through Obedience

I never really understood what Jesus meant when he said “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”  I never thought I would have to face and real enemies or persecution.  I don’t live in a impoverished nation.  I don’t leave in hostility towards the gospel.  But rather, I live in the Bible Belt of America, in a small rural town in southwest Missouri.  So how could I really have any persecutors that I must love? 

Let me explain…

Ministry is hard.  No one said it was going to be easy, but I didn’t know exactly how hard it was going to be, and any time one deals with people he should expect it hard.  People make things difficult, not intentionally, but make it hard.  Everyone doesn’t agree with decisions that are made or the direction the church should go.  Everyone has an opinion, including myself. 

Last Sunday’s sermon was on forgiveness, and I felt God nudging me to forgive some individuals from the church where I work.  I didn’t really want to, but knew that I needed to if I was going to grow in my faith and truly move forward in who God is molding me to be.  I have forgiven before but there was something that happened this time.  It was if I truly felt a burden lifted from my shoulders.  I was finally set free from trying to convince them my opinion was the right one or that I had to live up to their expectations of me. 

Don’t let me fool you though, it was a tough and humbling experience for me.  I didn’t want to forgive them and I didn’t want to swallow my pride, and yet as I sat down at my desk and wrote out cards to each of them, I knew that I was doing exactly what God had called me to do.  God needed me to learn this lesson of humility and leadership, but more importantly he needed me to be obedient to his calling and nudging in my life so that I could continue in my sanctification as a Christ follower. 

My sense of gratitude for these individuals has greatly grown larger because I was forced to honestly evaluate their positions, their opinions and see that I am not always right.  I learned how to love my enemies and how to pray for those who persecute me by obedience. 

Will you join me?  Will you too, learn to love those who hurt your feelings; those individuals that may make your life difficult?  Will you learn to love others by being obedient?

What Am I Supposed To Do?

What does one do when you work at a church and are trying to serve God and grow the kingdom and the church, and someone comes up to you and asks your girlfriend (who just started coming down to serve alongside you in ministry) “What are you doing here?  You like burning fuel?  Its a waste of gas!”? How do you do ministry with/to people when this is their attitude?

Common Denominator

I have been reading in the Proverbs a lot this past few days, and yet again I have been struck by simplicity and complexity of the proverbs when applying them in our Christian walk.  Today I read Proverbs 27 and 28.  Here are the verses that stuck out to me.

“Better is open rebuke then hidden love…As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another…As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man…He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy…Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.” (Proverbs 27:5, 17, 19; 28:13, 14)

These verses all can be taken apart or together.  Some might find it difficult to see what they have in common, but to me they all boil down to our instinct to want, and yet run from community. 

No one likes to be alone or feel lonely.  No one likes to feel like they don’t have anyone to run to in times of hurt or times of tragedy.  God created us to have this desire of community.  He created Adam and Eve.  He knew that we couldn’t make it by ourselves.  When the nation of Israel was created, and when the Church was born, God created community.  Their were laws of protection for outsiders.  There were times of celebration, times of worship as a community.  In the Church, believers shared their belongings.  They gave to one another so that everyone would have.  God created humanity to be in community.

And yet for some reason when times get really hard, or things get personal, we flee from community.  We try to hide.  Whether we are caught in sin or hiding sin, we don’t want it to get out for fear of what the community will do or say.  The community that was created for good has now become a community for judging and a place of fear of rejection, the very thing community was created to get rid of.

So as I read these verses, I am struck with the fact that I must be in community with other believers.  I must be willing to be challenged when I need challenged, to be sharpened in my faith when I need sharpened so that I might start reflecting God in my life.  If my heart reflects me, then I want my reflection to look like Jesus.

Common denominator.  A commonality found among a particular group of items by which the whole group can be divisible by.  These verses, when dividing why the common denominator (accountability) equals community!

May we all strive to have this denominator in our life so that we live in true, Godly community.  So that we can begin to look like the Church as God designed it to be.

Grace and Peace

Are we there yet?

Every parent and children with younger siblings hate to hear this dreaded question.  Okay maybe hate is too strong a word, but most don’t like, especially when it is repeated every 3 minutes.  But sometimes, I wonder if God ever gets tired of hearing us ask this same question.

In my daily devotional time the other day, I was reading in Proverbs 19.  These two verses stood out to me.

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purposes that prevails.”—Proverbs 19:21

“The fear of the Lord leads to life:Then one rests content, untouched by trouble.”—Proverbs 19:23

So many times we want to have everything figured out in life.  We want our questions answered, we want our directions set and we like our life plans and dreams to be set.  Maybe I’m the only one, but I love being spontaneous but hate not knowing my future.  It is so hard for me to rest in God’s plans for my life.  Like the Solomon says I have tons of plans in my heart.  Things I’d like to accomplish, places I’d like to go and it gets frustrating when God’s ideas and his plans don’t match up with mine.

If only I could learn to trust fully in God.  Then I might have the rest and contentment that I need to not go insane.  When we start to focus on ourselves, it is too easy to get distracted and to forget to find God.  It is then, when we seem not to be content but rather always searching for the next and brightest idea to entertain us.  I am reminded of a passage from Colossians 3 where Paul writes “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”  If only I can remember this when I get distracted.

So are we there yet?  Only God knows the answer.  Just like a parent who knows the directions, the time of travel and the mileage one must go to reach his destination, so God is the one who knows about our journey, our plans and our dreams.  May we always learn to trust in God and find our satisfaction in his timing and contentment in His plans.

Grace and Peace

I Met God Tonight

I think I met God tonight…

Before you think I’m crazy, let me explain…

Tonight I was invited to a friend’s house for dinner and cards and just some plain ole fun.  Dinner was great and was followed by a time of laughter, a little sarcasm but mostly love.  Tonight as the conversations waned, I couldn’t help but look back and see that God was there.  He was there in the conversations.  There in the relationships.  There in the encouraging words from friends and their in the challenging words too.

I thought I had felt community before, but tonight marks a first for me.  I was able to be open, honest and lay my heart bare before an older man in my life, one whom I’m starting to consider more, and more as a mentor.

We sat outside on his driveway, watching the lightning and discussing life.  A lot about my future plans and goals in life.  He said some challenging words, but very encouraging ones at the same time.  And as he talked, I couldn’t help but know that what he was saying was heartfelt and genuine and was what I needed to hear. 

The most important thing he said to me tonight, was to rely on God, to let God take away any stress and frustrations I have and let Him take care of it.  Trust in God’s plan. 

So simple, yet so true.  I hope that all of this babbling will serve as a reminder to all who read this to stay strong, to listen to God and give any frustrations or disappointments you may have to God.  Trust in his ways and see where he leads.  You never know you might be surprised!

I met God tonight…

No it wasn’t an audible voice, but it was through community.  Through my adopted Christian family.  Thank you for all the guidance and wisdom and prayers you have said to me and for me.  It is my prayer now that I will keep my own challenge and to rely on God. 

No Matter What

This week I am trying to get everything lined up for this upcoming school year in Third Race.  I have worked the stage set and it is almost finished, I am finishing preparing my lesson for next week and I am almost done planning out the next couple of months teaching schedule.  I think it is going to be a a great semester and I know the possibilities are endless for what God is going to do here in Cassville.

This fall's theme is going to be "borrowed" from CIY.  We are focusing on the idea that God can use us and wants to and to never give up on his grace and the influence we have around us.  Our theme is NO MATTER WHAT.

I'm very excited to see how God will use these students and challenge them to go the distance no matter what, and to claim Christ in their lives and not live in their past or in their man made religious ideas.  Our key verse throughout the semester is going to Philippians 3:13-14, which says "But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."  

Our goal is to get to the students to realize that God has forgiven them of the their past and that when we let go of it, then we can truly become the people that God created us to be.  We want to create students who will cling to Jesus and Jesus only.  We want to help the students rid their lives of the their pasts and their preconceived ideas of Christianity.

Road Trip-- Where God's Story and Our's Meets!

Last week during our youth worship service, we started a new series called "Road Trip."  We are exploring the the story of the bible and seeing how it relates to each of us and our spiritual journey.  Just like in any trip, you have beginning, you must start somewhere.  So last week we looked at Genesis 1-3 and discussed creation and how God created us, but more important then getting bogged down in the details of the account we discussed how God created us to be in relationship with others and with himself.  I tried to really drive home that God wants a relationship with us more than anything, and that relationship is our beginning.

This week's message is going to be more of a challenge, at least for me personally.  We are calling it ROAD BLOCK.  Like so many trips, I have been on there seems to be last one thing that goes wrong.  Either the car breaks down or you have an unexpected accident or road that's out, so we have to take a detour.  This week we are discussing sin.  Showing that God created us to be in relationship with him, but we hit a road block, we sin.  I want to show the students what sin is and what it is not, and discuss with them that we all have road blocks in life.

Our third week, we will cover the rest of the Old Testament...or at least try!  We are calling it DETOUR.  Just like the Israelites who were always on a detour, trying to get back on the path that God had designed them for.  The whole OT is a story of God providing for his people, yet their stubbornness to turn to him.  It is the story of mankind trying to get back to that relationship that God had created us to have with him.  And just like the Israelites who seemed to be in the desert, wandering and failing at their attempts to get close to God, so we too have struggles and failures in our life that seem to get us from God.  We try and we try, and we feel all alone sometimes, and we are on that detour so unexpected.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN is the title of our fourth week.  We will have finally discuss the good news of Jesus!  Just like after you drive a detour and finally get back on the road again, so we in our spiritual lives experience this.  We may take our time to find him, but once we do we are back on the path that God created us to be on.  Through Jesus we are able to have a relationship with God again.

Our last week of the school year of before summer programming, is called ARRIVING.  We will take a look at Paul's teaching of what it means to be Christ follower and what it means to live a life in view of heaven.  We never quite arrive while here on the earth, but we are always arriving, always moving closer to that goal of being called heavenward.

Road Trip, a journey where God's story and our story meet!

Easter Message

What is Easter all about?  As weird as this may sound, I don't know exactly what to preach on Easter Sunday.  I know that Easter is about Jesus' resurrection and I know that this is what we base our whole faith upon, for if this did not happen, then our faith is futile, says Paul.  So what do I preach when the congregation has all heard this message before?  How do you take a story so well known and reinvent it to the listener's ears to keep them attentive and move them to action?

When I was home last week, we heard a sermon entitled, The Upside Down Way of Jesus: Death is Life.  It really got me thinking.  Everything Jesus did while he was on earth was shake things up, from top down, from down up.  No one could ever get a step ahead of him.  Jesus' message was totally different then what the people were used to hearing from their religious leaders, yet when the leaders confronted him, they couldn't deny what he was saying.  The liked there traditions more then really getting at the heart of the message of God.  Jesus lived an upside down life.

Jesus whole ministry always turned heads.  From the very beginning at the temple as a boy to his death and resurrection, Jesus shook heads and made people think.  He made them think so much that they knew he was the Messiah.  He didn't hid it from them.  He told them many times that they were going to see him die and rise again, that he would leave them, but when the day actually happened, they couldn't believe it.  Was Jesus not the Messiah?  Was he not the one sent from God to set things straight?  Their hearts and hope in a Messiah probably started to disappear.  Yet Jesus knew what God was doing, he knew that once again, he would do something upside down, something contrary to anyone's thinking, he was going to rise from the dead!

Jesus disciples were left without hope.  They placed all their hope in this man, and now he was gone.  What were they do?  Some probably went back to work, others still in mourning just wept.  Had they forgotten Jesus' message throughout his minister?  Did they forget the warnings that Jesus told them?  They didn't even believe it when they heard he had risen and was alive.  They had to see him, touch him, and eat with him.  Their hope had been restored and their faith built even stronger.  They now knew they served a risen God, a risen Savior, and a man who set the whole world upside down.

Are you like the disciples?  Do you forget from time to time Jesus' message of forgiveness and loving others?  Do you forget that Jesus' death gives us life, and that we must die to ourselves to get this life that Jesus calls us too?  In a day and age that doesn't believe in life after death, it is quite odd that in so many places we see this.  Take flowers and tress for instance.  Every fall we see them die, but we know that life will come from this death.  Jesus even said in John 12:24-26 "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.  But if it dies, it produces many seeds.  The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."

The resurrection of Jesus gives us hope again.  When we are down trodden and in despair, we can find hope in Jesus' resurrection.  We have a God who turned everyone's idea of God upside down, a God who was willing to send his son to die for us so that we wouldn't have too one day.  No other religions have this belief.  Aren't you glad that we serve and upside down God!

Journey to the Cross

      Last night at Third Race we did something out of the ordinary (which I hear is now becoming my normal!).  We did prayer stations through the last week of Jesus' life.  There were 12 stations in all.  We start with Palm Sunday and move to Easter Sunday.  It was a pretty moving experience, and most of the students seemed to really get a lot out of it, if even it was there anger or confusion at God, they had quite a few outlets to let it go.  We had 40 plus students again which is so encouraging and so humbling, to know that these students look up to me is quite a load to bear.  God is really starting to get things moving here at Third Race and in the city of Cassville and I can't wait to be a part of it.

      I know the students are ready to have a "normal" youth group time, so for the next 5 weeks we are going to get back in the word and study the whole Bible!  We are going to do series comparing the sequence of the bible to our own personal walk and our lives.  I am pretty stoked about it.  It is called ROADTRIP!  Should prove to be a lot of fun.

Drawing Near

Last week in youth group, I had the students fill out a small survey.  One of the questions was what would they like to hear me teach on.  The overwhelming majority of them responded with something along the lines of what our relationship with God should look like, how to make it better, etc.  So tonight I am going to start teaching thru a series I am calling "Drawing Near."  We are going to dig deep into our relationship and try to give some real practical advice and solutions to help us draw near to God, so that he will draw near to us.  We will discuss topics that range from solitude, prayer, study and service.  We are going to examine Jesus and God's relationship and see what we can learn from that.

Tonight we are going all the way back to Genesis and examining what our relationship should look like and how Adam and Eve walked with God, how they were intimate with him.  I hope this goes over well.  It is a huge ambiguous topic so hopefully we will learn together what God would have us to do as we draw near to Him.

Another Sunday, Another Beginning

I am sitting in my office awaiting the time when people start showing up to church.  For once I have some time to sit and reflect with no interruptions, nothing to do, no meetings.  I don't think I have ever had this kind of time before.  As I sit and reflect, I can't help but feel helpless.  Helpless that I am no more in charge than child is in a classroom.  We stress and stress about trying to "pull off" a Sunday morning service, as if we need to impress someone.  We want guests and members alike to be impressed with our show.  How terrible is that?  And I fall victim to it as well.

This past week I had a chance to grab dinner with a close friend of mine who was teaching a Winter term class, teaching on Youth and Missions.  We had some great discussions in class about about what the church should look like in terms of taking care of one another and social injustices in the world.  I can't help but think that so much of that conversation is correct. 

We looked at Acts 2 and 4 and looked at the community that took place.  We live in such an individual sociey, one free from community and true relationships, even though those are the very things we are yearning for and fill our life with substitutes, even in the church body we do this.  We live out our lives trying to be individuals, trying not to live in community, but when we examine the church in Acts we see that the body is a very communal, life giving body.

Acts 2:44-47, Luke writes

"All the believers were together and had everything in common.  Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.  They broke bread together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.  And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." 

And again in Acts 4:32-35, he writes

"All the believers were one in heart and mind.  No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.  With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.  There were no needy persons among them.  For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need."

Luke wanted us to see how the body of Christ is supposed to be.  It is much easier for other cultures to live this way, but in America it is so easy to fall prey to believe that everything is for my benefit and to stop at nothing to get what we want.  I wonder what it would like if we would truly learn what community is about, what the church body should like and how people would react differently to us.  The body of Christ is supposed to be in communion, in community, sharing our belongings, opening up our homes to those in need, giving up our pantry for someone else.

As I write this, I am in Cassville, MO.  I wonder what would change here in this small town in SW Missouri, if we and other churches started to live like the body was supposed?  I wonder what impact we might have on the state, country and world?  This year I resolve this...I will try to take off my individual tendencies and live in open community, sharing my life and my belongings to those in need.  Will you join me?