Random Thought

"There is a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when it's convenient. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results. " -Kenneth Blanchard

Wouldn't it be amazing if all of us Christians were committed to Christ and His church instead of just being interested?

Sunday ReCap (Week One)

Over the next several weeks I will be preaching about the various attributes of God. This series has been titled "Closer". I believe this is an important study because we usually only think of three qualities when discussing His attributes: omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience. These are awesome qualities of our God, but He is so much more than that.

One of the reasons that God reveals Himself so vividly is because He wants His children to follow the example He has set. This not only shows His wisdom, but gives us no reason to live as if we don't know what God expects of us.

The sermon this past week was called 'Our Faithful God'. I answered the questions: What is faithfulness? Why should we trust God to be faithful? and Why does God expect His followers to be faithful?

I hope you have an opportunity to listen.

Implications of Abraham's Footsteps of Faith

What do Abraham’s footsteps of faith have to do with spiritual formation today?

1) We must be open to the revelation of God. God is constantly calling us into fellowship with Him. It is His desire to reveal His will for our live to us. Generally the problem is that we are not expecting God to reveal anything to us. Without the expectation of revelation we are placed on a path of trying to figure out our life for ourselves. This can be messy. There have been times in my life where I truly wanted to follow God, but I was not doing anything to hear Him. I was not praying. I was not studying His word. My desire alone was not enough. It was not until I purposely sought Him that I became open to His revelation. I do not think we find God on accident. We don’t just wake up one day and just happen to be serving Him. There must be effort and openness on my behalf to have a relationship with Him.

2) We must obey the call of God. Just having knowledge of what God wants me to do will never be enough. When God called Noah to build the ark He had a particular plan in mind (Genesis 6). When God finished speaking to Noah there was no doubt in Noah’s mind about what he needed to do. The faith of Noah was shown when he began to do what God called him to do. I know of so many people who know God’s purpose for them, but choose not to follow God. I am sure we have all been there before. Bad experiences, trust issues, fear, and many other barriers have deterred some good people from following God, but His call remains the same. We know that prayer, Bible study, fasting, and other spiritual disciplines are ways to be in fellowship and communication with God, but there is a deep lack of obedience to this call. It is in our obedience that God is able to use us to spread His glory throughout this world.

3) We must allow God to grow our faith. Spiritual formation is a process. We will never do it perfectly. Our flesh will continue to fight our spirit as we seek growth (Romans 7:15-25). I believe that at times we will respond to God the same way Abraham did. We will seek shortcuts in our spiritual formation. We will try to get God to bless situations that do not need to be blessed. Thankfully God can use our weaknesses to help us to become stronger in our faith.

4) We must make God our top priority in life. Due to our lives being directed by school schedules, work, children, marriages, and many other distractions, we leave God little time to work in our life. It is going to take time and effort to practice any of the spiritual disciplines. We will have to make God our priority in order for transformation to take place. If I only give God five minutes a day to work on me He can still use that time to develop us, but we should not expect much. When I make His will and the disciplines priority one in my life my schedule and everything about me will point to God. This is not to say that I will spend 24 hours a day in prayer and fasting. The balanced spiritual life finds time to deal with all of its responsibilities, but God is given precedence in all things.

Spiritual formation is serious business. It cannot be approached lightly. God wants to see us changed, but it begins with us being open to His revelation, being obedient to His call, allowing Him to grow our faith, and making Him our top priority in life. I hope you are ready to begin this journey with Him.

Abraham's Footsteps of Faith

What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
Romans 4:1-3 (NIV)

I have wondered why we still talk about Abraham in 2007. Why is his name always brought up when the topic of faith is mentioned? It is my belief that he continues to be brought up because the actions he took were so unrealistic and impractical in the human perspective, but necessary in order to follow God.

1) Abraham was open to the revelation of God. Genesis 12 is the first place you see God communicating with Abram. It does not tell of their past relationship. It does not tell of the blessings that God had already given him. Here you see a picture of a man whose life was in a place where he was willing to listen to the revelation of God. He was open to the possibility that God had a plan for him and was ready to hear it. I do not believe that Abram responded that way on a whim. I believe that Abram had an attitude that allowed him to be ready to listen to God when the time was right.

2) Abraham obeyed the call of God. Genesis 12:4 says “so Abram left.” He followed God to an unknown destination. He traveled in a distant land. He did not wait around for a sign. He did not come up with excuses to offer God. He did not even question where he was going. He just did it. The only way he could have responded in this way was because he trusted God. Trust does not necessarily mean that all our fears are gone. Trust means that we know that someone is looking out for our best interest. God was looking out for Abram and he laid his confidence upon that fact.

3) Abraham allowed God to grow his faith. It is tempting to forget that Abraham made some mistakes while following God. He had Sarah his wife tell a lie (Gen 12:11-20; 20:1-18). He questioned God when he and Sarah did not have children (Gen 15:2-3). He showed weak faith in the case of Hagar (Gen 16:1-4). Through each of these instances God continued to work on him and through him. God did not give up even though Abraham’s faith was not where it needed to be. God used these weaknesses to help Abraham to become stronger.

4) Abraham made God his top priority in life. It took Abraham and Sarah late into their lives to have the child they always wanted. They prayed for him and about him. God answers this prayer and allows this blessing to come into their life. God now tests Abram to see if his faith is real. He tells Abraham to sacrifices the thing that was the most precious to him (Gen. 22:1-18). Once again Abraham had to trust God’s voice even though it did not agree with common sense. Through this and all of his other actions he showed God that he trusted him fully.

How is all of this practical in view of spiritual formation today? Come back tomorrow to see.

A Word of Encouragement

Welcome to 2007! I hope that this year will be a blessing to you and your family. Regardless of what you experienced in 2006 you can start today living a changed life. Each of us has a past that we are either proud of or wish to hide. Although we may still live under the consequences of yesterday we do not have to be controlled by our actions from yesterday. God reminds us that He has the power to make all things new. Trust Him this year to bring that about in your life. When you come across people who wish to remind you of shameful things in your past be quick to remember that your Father in Heaven loves you and is willing to forgive you.

You will experience hard times, pain, sorrow, laughter, and joy this year. Never forget that this life is temporary and that Heaven boasts of greater days ahead. God bless you this year and stay focused on Him.

Sometime I feel like Chicken Little

I finally got the chance to watch Chicken Little. I do realize that it came out over a year ago, but I do have other things to do besides watch cartoons. It was hilarious and had a great message.
Chicken Little had it rough! The guy had information that was extremely important. He knew that the sky was falling and he wanted people to know about it. He spent his time trying to warn everyone about the impending danger, but was ignored. His friends did not believe him and his family thought he was crazy. He was absolutely dedicated to spreading the truth but it was repeatedly rejected. Little did the naysayers know that they should have listened to him.
There are many times that I feel that preaching is the same way. I have a message that I know is true. The sky may not be falling, but Jesus did say that He was coming back. He wants us all to be ready for that day. Regardless of how simple the message is made people continue to ignore it. Most people think that Christians are crazy and that the things they say will never come true. It is sad to know that so many will be lost because they are too busy to listen to the life saving message of the cross. I will not give up on them. There was a time when I also ignored the message, but by the grace of God I listened. I pray that each of will have the dedication of Chicken Little and keep on sceaming that "The sky is falling" until Jesus comes back again.

30 is great!

I have been 30 years old for a week now and it is not as exciting as I was told it would be. I thought that instantly wisdom would somehow seep into my brain when I made it to this age. I was most confident that by 30 I would be famous, well reknown in my field, and writing books about why my life has been so successful so that others could be like me. Those things have not happened yet. I have however recieved a notice from my health insurance company to congratulate me on becoming 30 and to let me know that my insurance rate would increase significantly because I was "maturing". That made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I must admit that God has been more than good to me in this life. I can remember being 10 or 12 years old and planning out my life. By age 30 I planned on being married, having 2-3 children, having a Ph. D in something, being able to provide for my family financially so that my wife could be a stay at home mom, and being active in the church. Well minus 1-2 children and the Ph. D, God has more than blessed me with what I thought I would have at this time. The funny part about all of this is that God gave me what I needed when I needed it. I am still learning that lesson more and more everyday. I am very impatient and like having things my way on my terms. God has been "blessing" me with experiences to help me get over my control issues. I will not say that it has always been fun or desirable but I have truly been blessed. I feel for the first time in my life I am finally starting to let go of some of my "baggage" and letting God use me. This is a freeing, but scary process yet God is faithful.

So what do the next 30 years hold for my family and me? I will not even begin to speculate, but I do know that God has already seen ahead, blessed it, and is patiently waiting for me to follow where He leads. I pray for the wisdom and courage to listen to God's call and go WHEREVER He may lead. I must say that this journey has been an interesting one so far. I wonder what is going to happen next.......

Tired

Today I realized that the last nine weeks of my life have been a total blur. I have been so busy with my youth group this summer. I just returned from Six Flags in St. Louis. It was fun, but was physically and mentally exhausting. It was my last major trip for the summer. I feel like some good was done at Holmes Road this summer, but I have been paying for it with a lack of sleep, random moments of irritability, stress, and frustration. Things are beginning to slow down due to school being back in session in about two weeks. I am painfully aware that life will continue to be hectic due to us moving in only 26 days. I prefer to express time in days rather than weeks because it makes it feel like I have longer to wrap up things here. I am still in denial about moving, but August 24th will be here before I know it!

We are currently in the process of practicing our faith in God. We are attempting to buy our first house from 1000 miles away. I do not suggest this to anyone! I am very independent and a control freak (Many of you were not surprised to see that). It has been very difficult having to trust other people with a major life decision like purchasing a house without me being able to see exactly what I am getting into. Now I probably would not even trust my mother to pick out a tie for me at this point in my life, so househunting from 1000 miles away has been no picnic at all. I have just been telling myself over and over that God will work it all out. I am sure that is the reason why we are in this situation to begin with. I think God wants us in a place where we can only trust in Him. My controlling side is not liking this transition, but it has been good for me. Please pray that I continue trusting God because I will go crazy if I continue to try and be in control.

Transitions

Tomorrow morning I will be announcing to the Holmes Road congregation that I will be leaving to begin my ministry as a pulpit minister. This is a ministry move that I have prayed about for years, but it is finally coming to fruition. I will begin working with the Lebanon Valley congregation in Lebanon, PA on August 27th. The announcement will be bittersweet because I am sad to leave behind such a great group of people, but excited about the potential in this new congregation.

The members of Holmes Road have been nothing but loving and supportive to my family for the past two years. We struggled a long time about this decision, but feel it is where God is calling us. There are so many good things that we will be leaving behind, but I am confident that God has many more blessings that lie ahead of us. I will be 1000 miles (that is three zeros) away from my parents. It has been nice having them close to us, but I feel a strong call to minister where the church is not as well known. They will definitely miss being an active part in Mikayla's life.

The Northeast is definitely a mission field. The county of Lebanon has a population of over 120,000 people with only one Church of Christ there. It will be nice ministering to a congregation of people who can't 'church hop' due to the 30-40 minute drive to find a new church. This area will be very challenging, but I have been praying for a challenging ministry.
It is my prayer that I will be open to God to use me in anyway that He sees fit. I am excited about my future in God's kingdom and hope that each of you will be praying for my family as we step out on faith.