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Where we are and where we go from here

18 Mar

Life moves fast … And the older I get, the faster it seems to move.  You wake up one day, and it is ten years later and the world in which we live has changed dramatically.  Sadly, the world keeps moving away from God.  Sometimes the changes are breath taking.  And we wonder how we got to this place …

We (the church) can blame the devil, we can blame the world, we can blame everyone in sight.  But the last time I checked, OUR GOD is far more powerful than the devil, than any force on this earth, than any prince or government or social system.  And we are called to be His presence on this earth.  In this culture.  We are called to be IN the world, but NOT OF the world.  We are called to be salt to a decaying world, and to be light to a darkened world.  So we need to stop playing the blame game and BE THE CHURCH God has called us to be!!

I don’t think this is a calling to thrown stones or to burn the current system down.  We need to BE salt and light.  We need to LIVE as people with hope and peace.  If we are the genuine article, people will see.  And they will want to know the difference we know!!  If they look at our lives and can see no difference, they naturally ask themselves “What is the point??”  And, quite frankly, they have every right to ask that.

Are you unhappy about our government??  THEN VOTE.  Seek out those who honor God and vote for them!  This will require all of us to get to know candidates, get to know issues, and be involved.  And if there are no candidates worthy of your vote, maybe YOU need to run??  NO MORE EXCUSES.  If you are unhappy about the way things are, the only way you can make a difference is get involved!!!

And if we get involved in all of these things, and do it in the name of Jesus Christ, WE WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE.  AND if we are following Him, we can get all of these things in our world headed in the right direction.  But it takes time.  And it takes OUR WILLINGNESS TO BE INVOLVED.  ALL OF US.

Where do we go from here?  YOU will determine the answer to that question.

Should the Church be involved in foreign missions?

3 Mar

Believe it or not, that question is often in the hearts and minds of some.  I’ve heard it many times in many different ways, and not only in my church but in churches across the US:  “Why are we going to __________ when there are needs right here at home?”  That is a really good question.  Here, I believe, is God’s answer to that question from His word.

WHY be involved in foreign missions?

In Matthew 28, Jesus said these words just before He ascended into Heaven after the resurrection:  “19 Go therefore and make disciples of ALL NATIONS, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (NIV)  In the second half of Acts 1:8, Jesus said “you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the END OF THE EARTH.”  So the first, simple answer is that Christ COMMANDED us to be involved in GLOBAL MISSIONS.

But a deeper look at Acts 1:8b tells us that He not only commanded us to be involved globally, but LOCALLY as well.  So the biblical answer to this question is He commanded us to DO BOTH LOCAL AND GLOBAL MISSIONS.

So, WHERE ARE YOU INVOLVED?  When someone questions a church’s response to global missions, a legitimate question to ask is “What are YOU doing locally to build the Kingdom of God?”  I have never believed it is enough to state publicly what your church should be doing … If you have a heart for something that needs to be done, GET INVOLVED AND DO IT.  It is not enough to alert leaders to a need, but (to borrow a page from the Purpose Driven Church) if you have a passion for a ministry YOU need to help make it happen.  And that involves more than just alerting others to the need and expecting them to make it happen.

One of the things that makes our Honduras partnership work so well is we have leaders in that ministry who are passionate about it.  For a mission project and a partnership to endure, you must have passion.  You must pray and seek God’s face and allow Him to lead.  When we take the reigns away from Him and guide things in our own directions, we often make a mess.

Another element in this is God’s timing.  God’s timing is always perfect, but rarely what WE want it to be.  When we enter into a new ministry at Ebenezer, it takes time to allow God to work on the hearts and minds of His people.  At times, this can be very frustrating.  Over and over in God’s word we see examples of the Children of Israel in the most hopeless places… And then they turn to God.  And He does things of which we cannot even DREAM!!!  (1 Samuel 7 is a great example of that)

So, the real question here is not  “Should the church be involved in foreign missions?” or even “Should the church be involved in MISSIONS?”  The REAL question is this:  “WHERE ARE YOU INVOLVED?”

So you want to lead??

13 Feb

Why?? Why do you want to lead??

When I first surrendered to ministry, I found myself receiving advice from every minister in the woods around Greenville, SC. Some of it was priceless. Some… Well, let’s not go there. And one puzzled me for YEARS. One minister looked me dead in the eyes, quite dramatically, and said “If you can be happy doing anything else, don’t do this.” And that was all.

I wondered about that for years… I’d like to think this is what he meant:

Leaders will be held to a higher standard one day when we stand before Christ. I firmly believe Jesus will hold me accountable for every church I serve. If this doesn’t make a pastor quake in his boots, something is wrong with him. So you want to lead?? Remember, God will hold you accountable.

Others will look up to you. And about that, Jesus warned in Mark 9:42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.” (NASB). Wow! We WILL be held accountable for EVERYTHING. ESPECIALLY the influence you have over young ones in Christ.

Leadership is a heavy mantle. Honestly, if I ever get it figured out I will let you know. If God truly calls you to it, He will make it happen. As long as you trust Him and follow as tightly as you can, you will make it through. But if you seek leadership for the pride or “fame” of it, now is the time to run and run like crazy.

An Open Letter to the Parents of young children

1 Feb

Specifically, I hope every parent of a young child at Ebenezer will read this.  But it applies to every parent I know.  There is a battle waging for the hearts of your children.  Satan is trying everything he knows to steer them away from a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  And much of his success or failure will be placed in YOUR HANDS.

Been praying and thinking a lot today.  Thinking about my role at Ebenezer.  Thinking about how one day, I will stand before God and He will not only ask me about how I lived my life, He will hold me accountable for how I shepherded His flocks at the churches I have served.  One huge truth swelled up in my heart today and, even though I seldom EVER blog on a Saturday, I had to write this down.  One of my jobs is to remind parents of this fact:

YOU will teach your children FAR MORE about the reality of a relationship with Christ than I ever will.  

Your children will see if God is real to you in how YOU SERVE HIM.  HOW YOU REVERE HIM.  HOW YOU WORSHIP HIM.  Makes me wonder about what the children of parents who send them to church but never make time for it themselves REALLY think about God.  I KNOW there are parents with jobs that prevent them from being at church, and I KNOW there are circumstances that sometimes prevent it.  But how about those times when parents do the drive-by and then go out with friends or do their own thing??  Those that deep down, if they really would admit it, don’t find a relationship with God to be all that??  What are they teaching their children about LIVING FOR CHRIST?

But those are not the only parents who need to think about this.  WE ALL DO.  Because how we handle adversity and how we deal with crises and how ethically we do business with others ALL teach our children about how people live and conduct themselves.  We are teaching our children the realities of God by HOW WE LIVE.  No excuses.  No bones to be made about it.

Even when we do our best,  ULTIMATELY, each child will grow into an adult and be responsible for their own decision. All a parent can do it do their best to show Christ to their children. Some parents do the best they can to show their children Christ and the children still grow up and go their own way … Don’t ever stop loving, praying, and showing them Christ!!

What are YOU teaching your children about God?  Because you will teach them far more than I ever will …

Something bigger than the sum of us

27 Jan

Human nature is a funny thing.  It pulls us to focus on what WE want … on OUR needs … which would be great if that was the meaning of life.  But it is not.  One of the lies of the world is “all that matters is what matters to ME!!”  There is more to this life, but the devil doesn’t even want you to THINK about that.

When I accepted Christ, I made a commitment.  A commitment to be part of the family of God, the KINGDOM of God, and His kingdom truly is something bigger than me and my wants.  His kingdom is bigger than my family.  Actually, His kingdom is bigger than the sum of ALL of us.  And we not only BELONG to this kingdom, we are charged with BUILDING and ADVANCING this kingdom.  The only way we will glorify Him is to take this commitment seriously.

Kingdom thinking will lead us to consider how our actions impact those around us.  Just as we SHOULD think before we do anything that would bring shame or harm to our own families, we need to live with a discipline and wisdom that guides us away from harming the kingdom of God.  We need to be careful of what we do, what we say, and where we go.  It’s really not as hard as it seems.

This wisdom is freely available to all who will listen in the leadership of the Holy Spirit.  It is written as plain as day in the Bible.  It is here for us … The question is, ‘will we listen?’

If Christ is your Savior, you belong to something bigger than the sum of us all.  Today and everyday we need to renew our commitment to live like that is true!

A Short Time to Get There

22 Jan

Can you hear Jerry Reed singing the theme from “Smokey and the Bandit”??  Can you hear Burt Reynolds laughing at Jackie Gleason??  If not, you might be one of my blog readers who doesn’t see what I did with the title of yesterday’s and today’s blogs.

To be honest, they are not really related to each other.  I just had to do it.  But today I wanted to write about the urgency we, the church, MUST have in doing the work God put us here to do.  IF we believe we were created with purpose … IF we believe we were created to do good works God created for us in advance to do … then we also MUST believe what Jesus said when He told us the end would come like a thief in the night, when none of us expect it.  And wouldn’t it be a shame for Christ to return and find that we have made NO PROGRESS toward the work God made for us??  Don’t we need to get busy?

Add to this a world around us that moves farther and farther from God every day.  A predominate cultural influence that continues to paint a picture of the church as a joke, and God as dead.  More and more people become aware of these things every day, and yet no one is showing them or telling them about the Love of God.  And statistics that prognosticate the conventional church might not even exist in 30-50 years.

I am convinced that as long as we DO the things God has called us to do, this will not come true.  If we slip into the ruts of our traditions, if we continue down some of the paths the North American church is on, we might just make that prediction come true.  And what a sad day if that happened.  Because the influence we can potentially wield in our communities and in the world will be gone, too.  What a sad day that would be.

Yes, we as a church do have a looooong way to go and a short time to get there.  And we need to put the pedal to the metal and move in the right direction.  The direction in which He is calling each of us.

Grace? REALLY??

20 Jan

If anyone is undeserving of the love of God, it is me.  And I guess all of us could make that statement if we are honest about things and it be true.  We do not deserve and cannot earn salvation.  We cannot clean our own lives up enough, we cannot live a good enough life.  If left to our own devices, we CANNOT succeed.  But God had a plan.  His plan is GRACE, extended through us by the sacrifice of His Son for our sins.  And our lives should never be the same.

Jesus talked about love.  He talked about forgiveness.  He leads us to forgive and love each other, and reminds us to do it in the same manner it has been done to us.  With that truth in mind, why do you think there are times in life when WE, the recipients of His grace, His disciples, find it so hard to extend grace to others?

My heart breaks when I hear stories of people who looked for grace in the one place where they thought they would find it, the one group that should understand it, and they found none.  Ironic?  Maybe a little hypocritical?  Why don’t we do it?

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:21-35 tells this story.  This parable about forgiveness tells the story of a master who forgives a tremendous debt to one of his servants.  The servant immediately goes out and starts shaking people who owed him down.  Threatening the full extent of the law.  For almost nothing.  When the master hears of the servant’s wickedness, he reverses his decision and hands the man over to the jailers to be tortured until he pays back every penny.

Jesus ends this parable by saying  35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Hmmm …. something to think about on a Monday morning.

God uses difficulties for good

31 Dec

Many times I have quoted Romans 8:28 in times of difficulty … I believe God uses all things for the good of His kingdom.  That verse doesn’t mean that everything that happens to us will be good.  But can God even take the bad things that happen to us and use them for the building of His kingdom??  I submit this:

Over the past four years now (yes, it has been four years) I have learned much about NPH, dementia, and dealing with those types of patients.  What happened with my dad four years ago was not a good thing.  In fact, it has been a source of great struggle for him along with my entire family.  I would call it a tragedy.  But God has used that tragedy time and time again in my ministry.

Again, recently I found myself in a place where I could help a family dealing with a family member with short-term memory issues.  It it almost second nature to me now to be able to talk to someone who is struggling in those ways and be able to calm them down and help.  Is this an ability I would’ve chosen??  Probably not.  But God has equipped me and I will do my best with what He has given me.

God is able to even bring good results out of our difficulties.  Are there things in your life which He can use??  Are you willing to let Him?

Making the Most of it all

19 Nov

Every year around this time we start hearing and thinking about the meaning of the season.  Well, seasons … Thanksgiving is a time when we think about the spirit of the first Thanksgiving, a time to be thankful for where we are and how we got here!!  Thankful for the provision of God in our lives.  This really meant something to the first Pilgrims to celebrate Thanksgiving… They had survived and were beginning to thrive in a harsh land.  Truth is, we should be most thankful for their determination and spirit!!

And then, of course, Christmas is upon us.  The celebration of Christ’s miraculous birth!!  We will be reminded that Jesus is the Reason for the Season.  We will honor our traditions of exchanging gifts with those we love.  It will all come and go so quickly, if we blink we will almost miss it!!  December is definitely the fastest-moving month on the calendar…

To keep this as simple as possible, what if all of this meant a little more to us this year.  What if, at the forefront of our hearts, we kept the spirit of the holiday (Holiday is a word derived from the fact that it is a HOLY DAY, a day set apart) and knew in our hearts that God and His blessing is what these days are all about??

I challenge you:  Find a way to put God first in these holiday seasons!!!

Veteran’s Day 2013

11 Nov

As I have contemplated the meaning of Veteran’s Day today, I was quickly drawn to the veterans who have had a strong impact on my life…  Friends who have served.  Several uncles.  And two men who have a DIRECT impact on my existence, my grandfather and my dad.  I am thankful for the sacrifices they made, both while in the service of our nation and generally in life.  They taught me a work ethic and a life ethic that made me the man I am today.

This afternoon I was thinking about what today means and I decided to watch Toby Keith’s Angry American video.  Powerful images of men and women who serve our nation TODAY.  Lyrics that remind us of a day, not too far in our past, in which our nation was cut to the core.  Challenged.  And America accepted.

September 11, 2001 was another day that will live in infamy in modern history.  A day in which America was dealt a deadly blow on our own shores.  As horrible as that day was, we emerged like the majestic eagle that is our symbol of freedom.  Immediately after one of the weakest points of our history, we were strong in that weakness.  We were together.  United.  We loved our country and we grieved with those among us who lost loved ones as if they were our own.  But there was a unity of spirit in the post-911 days that reminded us all that Uncle Sam wasn’t dead.  That the rumors of his demise were much exaggerated.

Fast forward 12 years and today it seems to me that we are about as far from united as possible.  We cast stones at each other over nothing.  Our allegiances to sports teams and political parties even over-shadow our willingness to obey Christ.  Our economy is almost in ruins and we are reeling to find leaders to trust.  It is hard to find a good man or woman who is willing to serve in the public arena, and WE are to blame for it.  Some good men and women still serve.  I am thankful to know several of these who, by virtue of their service, paint targets on their backs and on their homes.  And yet they are willing.  But good men and women are becoming harder and harder to find.

WE, the church, hold a great deal of responsibility for this.  The United States has gone from being ONE NATION UNDER GOD to a nation ashamed of God, and ironically He should look upon US and feel ashamed of His people.  Our nation has thumbed its nose at God, at His Word, at His commands, and it seems some take great pleasure in doing so.  I believe in our lifetime we will see attempts to prevent the reading of certain passages of the Bible and possibly the censorship of those passages.  And it is all because we have kept our heads in the sand and done nothing.

Okay, so what am I getting at??  Am I about to call for some massive revolution, for a military resistance?? NO.  But, church, I am asking you this:  Are YOU willing to BE OBEDIENT to God and TELL OTHERS ABOUT HIM??

As we have chosen NOT to tell others about Him over the last few decades, we have allowed the fabric of America to weaken.  WE have NOT trusted God enough and now we are in a fix.  Do what HE commands.  If you are unclear about what He is commanding, please PRAY and READ YOUR BIBLE.  He will show you what He wants YOU to do.

Edmund Burke once said “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  Let’s not test this to find out if it is true.

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