We have it made.

I mean, sure economic times are not that great but we have a Sovereign God that not only has everything under control, He is using all this to increase and add to His own Glory.  Nothing happens outside of His will, so rejoice and praise Him that He caused all of this to happen.

There is a lot of evil being perpetuated in this world also.  That should really give us reason to praise Him.  It might seem weird to us that He would use something as vile as a mother murdering her own child to increase our awareness of His control, but who are we to question His mysterious ways.  Since He fore-saw and fore-ordained all that is or is to come, we just have to trust that He knows something we don’t.

Our president is already making great strides towards taking us down a path as a nation that we will not even recognize but it is for the best.  God placed Obama in that position so again, why question it.  Or Him.  He knows what He is doing.  Hallelujah.

We have it made.

Sure, our kids may not be doing what we perceive to be right or good for them or society, but remember, none of this can happen outside of His great will.  God is in control.  He is on the throne.  And for all of those that don’t believe it, then tough.  They don’t believe it because He does not want them to believe it.

We may not be seeing much growth in the churches we attend but really, does that matter.  At least we are there.  The seats are comfortable, we all like a few people and maybe even love one or two, the temperatures are comfortable, the messages are generic and not convicting or challenging like they used to be, and the worship is just the way we like it or we can fire somebody and get it that way.  Even if the growth is stalled, we can at least be sure that we are right with God because we are there.

Again, we have it made and we don’t have much left to do.

We have it made because God has it all the way He wants it.  Our seeming self-centeredness is actually God-centeredness.  What else could it be because we can be assured that His purposes, His plans, His will can never be thwarted.  And since everyone, either in or out of church, is just doing as He foreordained, how much can we really have left to do.

RIGHT?

Love you all

Tags: Believe, Church, economic times, Evil, hallelujah, Murder, Obama, Self, self centeredness, Sin, sovereign god, Trust, War

I have been praying and thinking a lot lately.  There are a few decisions that have to be made soon concerning life in general and my placement in the ranks of the army of God.  I have not written very much because I am very concerned about being a stumbling block or an instrument of offense.  Some seem to think I have been the instigator of division in the Body already.  So I have waited, prayed, and pondered.

I thought that I wanted to see my church grow.  I was wrong. What I really want to see is transformed lives.  My true desire is not just to see more people in church, not just to add more to the number of inwardly focused bodies sitting on pews, but to see instead a radical group of servant-soldiers interested in what God is interested in.  And willing to fight for it.

I want to see the arms of the Body of Christ reach out to grab, hug, hold and comfort a dying world.  I want to see the legs of the Body of Christ start running to get to the place where those trapped in service to our enemy are, wherever that may be.  I want to see the eyes of the Body of Christ constantly gazing beyond the walls surrounding our assembly to seek those desperately in need of a new Lord.  I want to see the lips of the Body of Christ speaking the words of love and acceptance that the lost and lonely want and need to hear.  I want to see the heart of the Body of Christ beating passionately for the mission that is being sidetracked by selfishness.  I want to see the tears of the Body of Christ that should flow from our current inability to effect change in the community around us.

I want to see the atheist become a believer, the sinner become a saint, the unchurched become attendees, and the disillusioned become enlightened.  But what I want the most is to see the self-centered become sacrificially concerned with the harvest of souls all around us.  We must stop being so concerned with our own comfort and desire and turn those concerns towards the ones that Jesus is concerned about.

When ‘church growth’ is mentioned anymore it is usually about figuring out how to get people to switch from church A to church B or how to get more people like ourselves in the pews.  We have become a double minded and apathetic church.  Double minded in our wonderful but empty words about growth and apathetic in our solicitude towards the lost.

I feel that I have not been effective in my service to the Kingdom.  As a teacher I believe that there should be a lot more evidence of transformation in the lives of those that have been entrusted to me than I have seen.  I believe it is time for me to re-evaluate my position in the Body to make sure I have not failed too badly and am in the right place.  I hope and pray that I have not caused irreparable damage.  I have no one to blame and am not looking for consoling words.  This is a struggle in me to determine what steps I may need to take next.

I am writing this to let all of you who do care know some of what is going on.  I am saddened but still at peace.  I struggle for answers but I rejoice in God’s grace.  Serving Christ is always sweet but I have to say, it is also sometimes bittersweet.

Pray with me.

Love you all

Tags: army of god, atheist, Body of Christ, Church, Grace, Hope, jesus, Kingdom, mission, Self, Selfishness, Servant, Service, Sinner, Trust, War

I am constantly amazed with the way God seems to enrich my life.  I have played a small part recently in the development of a young adult fellowship in my church.  It was sorely needed so that relationships, growth, and  discipleship could be established among the few couples and singles that we have in attendance.  A few of them did not have a lot of opportunities for these things in church because of worldly interference such as work and children or mission interference such as working in the children’s departments and ministries.

The new group has a name and it is The Bridge.  This name was chosen because a bridge is something that connects.  A few people in my church have looked at this new group with concern, having let their minds go to thoughts such as division, separation or even revolution.  The Bridge has none of these things as an agenda.  The Bridge is a place for fellowship, for accountability, for biblical discussion amongst peers, and simply to celebrate our King in a way that is relevant to their age group.  As a bridge it is decidedly connective.  Connecting the individuals in this group to each other and the group to the lost in the community of like mind and interest and finally to the older generations in our church are the main goals we have in mind.  As one of the group, Wayne, put it; The Bridge is an addition and not a subtraction in our church.

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Heb 10:25NIV

As some of you already know, I used to be a loner.  I was introverted and pretty much hated everyone.  Then I met Jesus and entered his Kingdom as a child and servant of God and started the process of change.  As all of us know, God sometimes makes supernatural changes in us in certain ways immediately but he seems to do this in various ways.  Some may be miraculously delivered from addictions to tobacco for instance while another may not.  One way I was not changed was in my attitude towards assemblies, groups, fellowships, and even church.

I immediately started going to church but only for the Word of God, not for the people.  I would be the first to my vehicle when church was over, waiting sometimes not very patiently for my wife to finally be ready to leave.  I did not need anyone but Jesus and that was fine with me.  The roles have now reversed.  My wife often is waiting on me.  Somewhere along the line in my concerted attempt to love everyone, a bridge was built.  I was connected to the rest of the Body.

As the verse in Hebrews states, we all need to be connected to each other and never stop meeting or assembling with each other.  Why is this so important?

The main reason is, of course, the mission.  We are not a bunch of spiritual Rambo’s, furtively making our way through the jungles of life attacking all the spiritual forces we find aligned against us.  We are instead part of a unit of elite, trusted soldiers that must train, fight, and rest together.  The enemy is out there and he likes nothing better than finding one of us cut off and alone.  We cannot make it alone, even if God is there with us, simply because God decided long ago to work through us.  And the work he does through us is for others, not ourselves.

Another reason is the thing that brought this post about.  We need each other for the joy it can bring.  The relationships between believers enrich us, fulfill us, and mature us.  I was pretty good at being alone at one time.  But most of you probably don’t need to be told, being alone is not very fun or fulfilling.  Some of you also know the terrible, depressing feelings that come from loneliness.  I no longer fight depression.

And love is simply amazing.  Not the emotion but the true attribute called agape.  Intentional love, as it grows from being something we make ourselves do, to something we want to do, and finally to that thing we just do, does so much good for each of us individually and for the Kingdom that it just naturally spills over and flows out.  It is contagious.  It is life changing.  It is life enhancing.  It is rewarding and enriches not only ourselves but others, and especially the Body of Christ.

We need each other and even more so as we see the Day approaching because the enemy’s activities are ramping up.  I believe the final onslaught is here.  For our adversary, it is all or nothing.  We must stand and even more, continue to advance the Kingdom and we cannot do it or make it alone.

Build a bridge.  Be a bridge.  Protect your bridge.

Blowing up bridges is one way all enemies seek to divide and conquer.

Love you all

Tags: accountability, Believe, Body of Christ, Church, Enemy, Fellowship, jesus, joy, Kingdom, Life, loner, Love, mission, peers, Relationships, Relevant, Servant, Trust, Work

There was a time not too long ago when I did not believe in very much, especially not God.  I believed in myself and that was about it.  The belief I am talking about I simply define as the ability to trust, and rely on someone or something. 

I did not know it then, but have come to realize now, that we all are missing something.  There is a place in our “heart” that is empty, until we fill it.  That place is meant to be filled with God.  He is what we are all missing until we get on board with Him.

If we do not fill it with Him then we all find something else to replace Him or we just feel empty.  I have been there and you may have also.  The problem is that the things we fill it with are not everlasting.  They will eventually lose the ability to satisfy. 

When I joined the army I found something bigger than myself to fill that place to a degree.  It’s called patriotism.  I gained a sense of pride for and love of the nation I live in.   Emotions seemed to well up in me when the flag was raised, when the anthem was sung, and when patriots were honored. 

Just a few months after I first got saved and joined my church, on Memorial Day weekend, my pastor called up all the veterans in my church and recognized them honorably for the service they had performed.  It was the first time anyone had ever given me an honorable mention, I believe, in my life.  As I have noted before, I was a loner and as such, just didn’t “belong” or “join” in very much.

But that felt good.  The sense of being a part of something bigger than myself gave me one of the first glimpses of how good it was to “belong”.  And I mistakenly grabbed hold of that patriotism again.  I was newly saved but God had not yet filled the empty places in my heart to the limits.  I squeezed a little bit of that old sense of pride in this nation into the recesses, the nooks and crannies where God was not, yet.

But, as anyone who is actively seeking to grow in relationship with God can attest, He will fill and overfill that place I am talking about.  He will squeeze out all of the empty things we try to fill ourselves with, if we let Him.  And when we do let Him, we will be better for it.      

Thinking of all that I just said, I have come to realize that America is not a “Christian nation”, though at one time it may have been close.  A nation cannot be a Christian.  Only people can.  A Christian is simply a member of the family and the army of God.  A nation cannot be a family member.  A nation is simply a place.  And I do believe we should aspire to be a nation of Christians.  A nation of true Christians, as I have been saying, truly could change the world. 

Some think that just because we are not all Christians then we must allow this country to be the change agent.  That somehow a nation, that has no soul, no morality in itself, can affect change.  The people are the soul of the nation.  And that should show us quickly that this is not a Christian nation because it has been quite a while since the people of this nation were mostly Christians.   

America is not a “shining city on a hill”.   We are a free nation and one of the very best examples of freedom in the world.  We should let our light of freedom be a shining example for the entire world.  But never think that this alone makes us good.  The very freedom we enjoy has also led to the very godlessness that we see on display. 

America is not the “greatest blessing God gave mankind”, though it is a great nation, even somewhat worthy, of our conditional adoration.   But we must remember the greatest blessing God gave man was His Son.  And the greatest benefit of that is that we have become citizens of a new nation, a better nation. 

Patriotic sentiment has its place but we mustn’t let it expand beyond its acceptable borders. We mustn’t let a belief that changing laws, changing elected officials, and changing what political party is in control, is actually going to change people.  Only Jesus changes people. 

We are citizens of both a country and a Kingdom.  Born into the USA but reborn into the Kingdom of God.  And that rebirth is the better of the two.  We must be careful not to confuse the one for the other.

America is not.  It is not going to make you happy.  It is not going to give you peace.  It is not helping you prepare for eternity.  It is not going to get your child, your grandchild, saved. 

America is not. 

Love you all

Tags: America, Belief, Believe, Christians, Church, Eternity, God, Good, King, Kingdom, Law, Lie, Life, Love, Rebirth, Self, Service, Sin, Trust, Worth