Tag: Christianity

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Unprepared

Have you ever felt unprepared for something?

I remember it wasn’t too long after I said ‘I Do‘ that I realized marriage was much more complicated and required much more responsibility than dating. The closer Nicki got to giving birth to our first child, I remember thinking that I was definitely not prepared to be a father, then Tristan came, even less prepared for two, oh yeah, then we had Hailey…three kids!? I’m still unprepared.

Have you ever just stopped and thought, “How much preparation would it require for me to feel prepared?” Maybe you feel unprepared because someone told you they didn’t think you were ready or qualified for a certain responsibility. What would it take for those people to see you as ‘prepared?’ Many times we don’t have a gauge at which those people would be pleased, but we allow them to point us in their direction for our lives.

I’ve never felt more unprepared for something than I do in my new role as a pastor and church planter. I am constantly facing new challenges and struggles that I’ve never experienced in other roles. You can tell me that you think I am unprepared for this role, and I’d agree, in fact you’d only be preaching to the choir. Although there are times I feel unprepared and I know that there are areas in my life where I am definitely unprepared, I had to make a choice whether I would listen to my feelings or past voices in my life or would I be obedient to God by listening to his voice. If I based having children on a timetable of feeling ‘prepared’ Nicki and I probably wouldn’t have the three amazing children God’s blessed us with.

We started a new series this past Sunday called ‘Ready, Set, Go!!!‘ – In the series we are exploring the journey that Christ calls his Church to and how he wants us to be obedient to that call.

We started off by looking at Jeremiah and the mission God sent him on as a Prophet to Jerusalem. There were several reasons why Jeremiah felt unprepared to fulfill this mission God had called him to. If Jeremiah were in our present time, I am sure there would be a “Prophet Assessor” or a “Senior Prophet” that would give Jeremiah a failing grade in this mission God called him to, but God declared him as prepared.

My encouragement to New Passion on Sunday is that when it comes to obeying the instructions of Christ #1 We are Prepared Because We are Called (Matthew 28:16-20) and #2 We are Prepared Because We are Gifted (1 Corinthians 12) – It was the same for Jeremiah. God Called him (Jeremiah 1:4-5) and God Gifted him for the mission (Jeremiah 1:7-10).For some of us, our obedience in pursuing Christ may not be anything huge (I.E. Planting a Church, Foreign Missions, Etc.), it may just be simple obedience in things like sharing the Gospel with a friend, loving those who are in distress, providing for those who are in desperate need.

Join the Conversation…Is there something that you are standing still on because you feel unprepared? Have you allowed other people’s opinions to hold you back from pursuing what Christ has called you to?

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Legalism at its Best

judges-gavelI try to take my Bible with me to lunch to get some bonus study time in for Sunday’s message since I am bi-vocational and only have so many hours in a day. I swear that book brings out all kinds of people, including the weirdos.

Most of my encounters have happened at McDonald’s in downtown Augusta. I’ve had run-ins with weird pastors, a homeless man that sat down in my booth, didn’t say a word and fell asleep. I didn’t say a thing. I knew that McD’s would kick him out into the Summer heat, if he was all by himself, so why not let him get some rest in the A/C? Today, was a new encounter.

A guy stopped by and asked me if I knew of a church that worshiped on Saturday like the Seventh Day Adventist, but that was not Seventh Day Adventist. I questioned why he was looking for a Saturday worshiping non-Seventh Day Adventist Church and he explained that they have other Doctrinal issues that he did not agree with, which I agree with him on. However, as soon as I explained that I do not know of any type churches that he was seeking out, he asked if he could sit down and show me something, to which I agreed. Let me just say, this man knew scripture.

He takes me all over the Bible showing me the old Covenant and the new Covenant. 99% of the stuff he was saying was right on and true. I do believe this guy was well intentioned , but totally misguided. Of course he was putting his case together as to why Christians should keep Saturday as the Sabbath. I gave him time to make his case, and then I asked him a few questions:

1. What about Jesus? In the eyes of the Pharisees Jesus worked on the Sabbath and even defended those who labored on the Sabbath. (Matthew 12)
2. What about the first church? They worshiped God and met DAILY. I do believe daily is everyday including Saturday. Now of course, his angle was that we should rest and worship on the Sabbath, but this verse through him off and he started talking about how 300 years after Christ’s resurrection Christians still recognized the Sabbath as Saturday until the evil Catholics came along and brutally murdered Christians for worshiping on Saturday and forced them to worship on Sunday, for which this awful tradition began. He then quoted John 15:20 and declared that the Catholics fulfilled Jesus’ prophecy because Saturday worshipers were persecuted by the Catholics for their recognition of Saturday as the Sabbath.

3. What about the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law? Once again, he attempted to answer this one, but was angling to twist Scripture to back up his view. This time  it was my turn to share. I explained that the letter of the law declares that one must recognize the Sabbath on Saturday (a specific day) whereas the spirit of the law declares that we still honor that which we were commanded in Exodus 20:8 but that God’s desire is that we simply do it. We make sure we have A Sabbath, but to be dogmatic about the day is legalism, for which he declared Jesus was the ultimate Legalist. Hmm! Okay!

I could see him boiling at this point. He then went for Pharisee approach. He asked me what day did I think the Pagans who worshiped the sun god had for their Sabbath? For which I played dumb to his question and responded, “I don’t know, which day?” With a big smile he responded “Sunday!” As if he had cornered me. I responded, “Well, I guess that could be true!” For which he replied, “Oh no, its true, I’ve studied it!” – I responded that God was not worried about the day, just that we have a Sabbath.

Here’s Legalism at its best worst…When the man could not control me or move me towards his thinking or his religion, he got angry and he attacked me. He called me a pagan sun worshiper and got up to pack his Bible back into his book bag. When I refuted his claim he asked me to read 1 John 2:3-4, and tried to use Scripture to guilt me into believing his way, when I still did not bow at the alter of his religion, he declared once again that I worshiped the sun and took off. And then I sent a tweet 🙂

Join the Conversation…When was a time someone tried to use Scripture to point you in the wrong direction?

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Where Have All the Christians Gone?

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I just read an article on Fox by Ben Feiler that was talking about the decline of Christianity in America. The article does not spend all of its time pointing out the downfall of Christianity in America, but also points out some of the solutions to the problem based on their study. Here are a few of the issues or wake-up calls that arose from the study:

First, catering to older believers is a recipe for failure; younger Americans are tuning out.

Second, Americans are interested in God, but they don’t think existing institutions are helping them draw closer to God.

Finally, Americans’ interest in religion has not always been stable. It dipped following the Revolution and again following Civil War. In both cases it rebounded because religious institutions adapted and found new ways of relating to everyday Americans.

Go read the entire article HERE and then come back and Join the Conversation.

What do you see as the biggest decline in the church? Where is the biggest disconnect between the church & everyday Americans?

What’s the solution?

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Christ-Awareness

natureI was reading the daily devotional for August 20th today from Oswald Chambers. It’s called “Christ-Awareness.” You can read the entire devotional below, but I particularly liked this section:

When I am fully conscious of my awareness of Christ, there is something wrong. It is the sick person who really knows what health is. A child of God is not aware of the will of God because he is the will of God. When we have deviated even slightly from the will of God, we begin to ask, “Lord, what is your will?” A child of God never prays to be made aware of the fact that God answers prayer, because he is so restfully certain that God always answers prayer.

Full devotion:

Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once, asking Him to re-establish your rest. Never allow anything to remain in your life that is causing the unrest. Think of every detail of your life that is causing the disintegration as something to fight against, not as something you should allow to remain. Ask the Lord to put awareness of Himself in you, and your self-awareness will disappear. Then He will be your all in all. Beware of allowing your self-awareness to continue, because slowly but surely it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is satanic. Don’t allow yourself to say, “Well, they have just misunderstood me, and this is something over which they should be apologizing to me; I’m sure I must have this cleared up with them already.” Learn to leave others alone regarding this. Simply ask the Lord to give you Christ-awareness, and He will steady you until your completeness in Him is absolute.

A complete life is the life of a child. When I am fully conscious of my awareness of Christ, there is something wrong. It is the sick person who really knows what health is. A child of God is not aware of the will of God because he is the will of God. When we have deviated even slightly from the will of God, we begin to ask, “Lord, what is your will?” A child of God never prays to be made aware of the fact that God answers prayer, because he is so restfully certain that God always answers prayer.

If we try to overcome our self-awareness through any of our own commonsense methods, we will only serve to strengthen our self-awareness tremendously. Jesus says, “Come to Me . . . and I will give you rest,” that is, Christ-awareness will take the place of self-awareness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest- the rest of the completion of activity in our lives that is never aware of itself.

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Horizontal Religion

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I went to a “campmeeting” tonight. I went because my parents were in town and they love the week long revival that a local church puts on every year. I spent several years of my life at this church, made many friends, met my wife there, got saved there, felt the call into full time ministry there; so it has played a large role in my life.

This week they are celebrating their 34th consecutive homecoming and camp meeting. The preacher that preached has done so for 34 straight years. He’s 79 years old and though he has slowed down in his older age, he is still passionately doing what God called him to do, preach.

However, I left a little disappointed tonight. Although this pastor loves Jesus, gives him 100% of his life, and  preaches like there is no tomorow; he often resorts to horizontal religion. Early in the message he ripped Rick Warren because Rick has purposely led his church to be “seeker sensitive” in their worship services, in order to reach the lost. The assumption was made, that the seeker sensitive approach is only to build a large church (basically to put butts in the seats) versus a true motive to preach the Gospel to see those outside the faith get saved. Do I agree with everything Rick Warren says or does? No! Do I agree with everything this pastor who is ripping on him says or does? No! In fact, I want to be very careful not to participate in horizontal religion myself through this post. I do however know many people at Saddleback and with first hand knowledge of their church and how they operate and their hearts for the lost, I can say, this pastor simply does not know what he is talking about.

I believe Horizontal Religion is when we put more focus on earthly things that we do on heavenly things. In this case, the pastor was attacking flesh and blood versus going after the evil in the world that is our true enemy. In another instance, I wanted to say a loud Amen when the pastor said that Al Gore was a ‘one-eyed idiot.’ Now, outside of the pulpit I totally agree! However, from the pulpit, the focus was turned away from Jesus and placed on a man that clearly needs Jesus. I am the first to admit, when I am debating politics on my personal time, I am passionate and to some I may be considered polarizing. However, I would never use my opportunity to preach the Gospel, to grow fellow believers, or to share the truths from God’s word to attack someone I disagree with politically. Its like saying Liberals are all ‘one-eyed idiots and are not Christians.’ Funny a Conservative would defend a liberal 🙂
But, this one statement helps make my case. The Gospel is not “Al Gore is a one-eyed idiot,” that is clearly an opinion. So, what if the biggest Al Gore fan was sitting in the audience, he was lost and needed Jesus? Did we marginalize him and turn him off with the opinionated statement? Or did we draw him closer to Jesus? Being seeker sensitive has nothing to do with changing the Gospel message, but because I am sensitive to the fact that their are lost people in my crowd, I am going to choose not to attack someone I politically disagree with. (My next post will be “Why Al Gore is a One Eyed Idiot!”) I believe issues like these build walls between believers and those outside the faith versus tearing walls down.

By writing this I am sure there will be some who totally shun me. Some may call me a liberal. I really don’t care. I am not ripping on this pastor. In fact, when I am 79 years old, I pray that I am as passionate about Jesus as this pastor is. I pray that the doctors give me an additional outlook of 10-15 years to keep sharing Jesus with everyone that I can. This man has been a spiritual mentor to the pastor who leads the church that hosts this camp meeting. Both pastors have been in the ministry and serving Jesus for over 40 years. I cannot criticize or complain about that, Wow! That is awesome! We need more influences like that in our culture. Like I said in the beginning, it was through this ministry hosting this revival that a lot of my spiritual journey began and a lot of my personal life has been wrapped up in. So, this pastor I am talking about has had an integral part of helping shape a church and a ministry that has molded part of me.

I am however tired of the Horizontal Religion. Christians, we already have a big enough battle on our hands with our enemy, Satan. Ephesians is as clear as can be, “Our enemy is NOT flesh and blood!” What part of that don’t we understand? Apparently, we are not devoured enough by the enemy, because we cannibalize those on our own side. We ravish each other and shred ourselves apart. This pastor should have just taken a knife and cut his own right arm off. There is no difference, 1 Corinthians 12 tells us that we are all the body of Christ. When we attack another Christian, we are attacking our own body. Ephesians 4 says, “There is ONE body and ONE faith.” Whether we all agree or disagree on certain opinions, we are all of the same body and faith. Trust me, I am not ripping on this pastor, he is just a fresh case for my argument. There are hundreds of Christians doing the same thing! We will never be effective for Christ in the way he has called us to be effective when we have a civil war going on within our own faith. One of my favorite chapters in the Bible is Philippians 1, where a report gets back to Paul (who is in prison) that some Christians are preaching the Gospel with selfish motives. They were using the Gospel to gain personally from it versus to see people saved. Paul says, “How can I complain? I must rejoice because Jesus is being preached!” Why do we feel like we are above Paul? One of the greatest preachers of all times? I think the issue is, we have control issues. We want everyone to do things our way. Trust me, if I had my way, they would have been playing some Passion and Hillsong music instead of the Gospel group and the choir, but is my way any more effective? No! Paul could not control “How” these preachers delivered the Gospel, but he understood that the Gospel is truth and once it is spoken and delivered, there is no stopping it. So, what if I do something in my church that you do not like because I feel we can reach more lost people? What good does it do you to sit around and criticize me and complain? If I am preaching the Gospel, the Bible says, His Word will not return void. Believe me! I am speaking to myself as much as anyone else. I am as guilty as anyone. I struggle with this too. I have my opinions and sometimes I believe they are better than your opinion. Therefore I believe we need to extend Grace to one another as well, but at the same time we need to wake up! (See THIS story to read about my own struggle with this very topic!)

Jude tells us to defend the Gospel. To protect the faith from false teachers who have wormed their way into the faith. I am all about protecting our faith and if we hear someone preaching in error and leading people astray, we better speak up. However, Horizontal Religion, tearing people down in our own faith will never benefit Christ. I love this pastor who I’ve used as an example. I will not speak an ill word against him. I know God uses him, it is evident, so I praise God! Let’s agree together to quit tearing each other apart and hold each other up, lets decrease so Jesus can increase in our lives and in our influence!

Join the Conversation…What’s Your Thoughts?