Saturday, February 27, 2010

In God We Trust

coin-in-god-we-trust.jpg I really wish this were true. You may think that I'm going to talk about the state of our society in America in reference to this statement. You may think I'm going to talk about keeping this statement on our coins. However, I'm not going to talk about either of these things. Instead of looking outward on this statement let's look inward.

Let's start by changing the statement to 'In God I Trust.' Then let's ask the following question: Is this REALLY true in my life? When I take away the lip Questions-Man.jpgservice and the cool (not really that cool), catchy (not really that catchy) but highly overused (this is definitely true) Christian slogans, what is left? Are the slogans merely something that's printed on the front of my T-shirt? Or is it actually a part of my life? Are the slogans merely words to play Buzz Word Bingo so I can impress my friends at church? Or do I really living these slogans out?

I love asking myself questions like these. Questions like these, when answered honestly, can help me to grow by leaps and bounds. Answering them dishonestly really limits my opportunity for growth. I have come to the conclusion that I don't trust God very much. This is evident by my actions, not my words. I may sing songs about trusting God and talk to my friends about trusting God but the true evidence is found in my actions.

Over the past few years, my trust in the Lord has been tested by the fires of starting a new church. About 6 months after going to weekly services in September '08, I lost my 'other' job. This was the job that helped to pay the bills and take care of my family. It allowed the church to have 0 on the payroll. This job represented my way to pay-bills-300x287.jpgtake care of myself and my family. That's not a bad thing unless I begin to rely on myself and not God. After losing my job, I felt like I was placing too much trust in myself and not enough in God. This job also helped us to build up some savings. Now, I find it a little hard to touch those savings. Recently, I discussed this with God and got that feeling that I'm back to relying on the savings instead of Him.

So, it seems that I need to start taking risks again. NO RISK...NO REWARD!! (This is better slogan!)risk blocks.jpgIts time to start placing my trust in the ONE and not myself. Risks always require faith. More importantly, risks always require trust. My trust won't grow unless I take more risks.

risky sign.jpg What are your thoughts about the questions above? How do you measure up on the trusttest? In what ways are you being asked to trust more? In what areas of your life do you need to build up more trust?

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Immovable Objects

Are we willing to move when God says move? Church planting is an endeavor where you really find out what people are made of. Personally, I think it shows how much we're willing to be obedient to God and the call he has to reach people who don't have a personal relationship with him. There's the planter and their family (if they have one) that is given the call. Then of course there is the team of people that the planter tries to gather. Everyone involved has to have a heart totally set on God.

A heart set on God lives in tents not houses. The writer of Hebrews says in the "Hall of Faith" chapter that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all lived in tents. The casual reader would pass over this statement without thinking twice about what this means. The patriarchs of our faith lived in tents. A tent can be torn down just as quickly as it can be set up. Let's call it tent-living. Tent-living means we set up shop where God tells us to. But when he tells us to move, then we can move. Tent-living means that we can uproot ourselves when God calls us to move on. This is one of the reasons why I hold folks who are willing to move across the country to start a church in such high regard. I admire their team members even more. I'm usually their biggest cheerleaders, pom-poms and all!


Tent-living is only metaphorical. Does that mean we shouldn't buy houses? ... NO! We should buy houses. We should attempt to root ourselves in our community. However, we don't get so firmly rooted that we're unwilling to move when God calls us to move. By the way, this includes leaving one church to start another one. In my opinion, this is one of the only few reasons someone should leave their church.



What are your thoughts about tent-living? Are you REALLY willing to move when God says move?

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

How Goes The War?

So, how goes the war? This is a common question I want to ask fellow church planters and pastors. Unfortunately, I don't ask it because I feel that it may be taken out of context and I will have to explain what I mean by the question. So here's what I mean by that question.


The Bible is pretty clear that we're in a war. This war has been going on since sin entered our world. God said that there would be conflict between the woman's and serpent's offspring. Scholars also consider the ten plagues against the Egyptians to be God's attack on their false gods. Job experienced an attack on his faith. The angel Michael reported that he was being held up by the 'dark side.' Jesus entered our world and did battle with disease, sin, death, and demons. Paul talks about spiritual battles. John in Revelation speaks of a final war. There seems to be an overarching theme of war in the Bible.


By asking, how goes the war? I'm asking, are you winning or are you losing spiritual war that is going on around us all the time? Are you advancing the kingdom of God into the dark places of your city and community? Are you pushing back the gates of hell in your city? Are people experiencing life change through meeting corporately on Sunday and throughout the week in Life Group? Are you seeing people healed spiritually, physically, and emotionally?


Let's get personal. Are you winning the war with your mind (pornography and other sexually explicit material)? Are you winning the war with your mouth? (or are you letting your words fly without much thought about the consequences.)


So, how goes the war? Are you winning or losing? If you feel like you losing then remember that you're on the winning team. Don't ever forget this! Also...let me know how I can pray for you!! We're in this war together. I GOT YOUR BACK!!



Saturday, February 20, 2010

It's Complicated!!

Question: Are you in a relationship? Answer: It's complicated! That seems to be the popular response nowadays amongst people who are in relationships. I'm not sure when, where, or even why this answer was used but I find it pretty interesting.


We were created for relationships (friendships, dating, & marriage) with each other. I wonder if we are complicating our relationships. Are we making our relationships, especially dating relationships, more complicated than they need to be? I think we are.


I wasn't raised in church. Therefore, I wasn't taught that sex is more than a physical encounter. I wasn't taught that sex was more than an activity. As I look back on my life one question comes to mind. Has my life been easier or more complicated as a result of premarital sex? Of course, my answer would be the latter and not the former.


Truthfully, we don't need to believe that the Bible is true to know that premarital or extra marital sex doesn't make our lives easier. All you have to do is look at your life and ask the same question. All you have to do is look at our society and ask if it's making marriages last longer. There's a whole list of questions that can be asked about our society. I doubt very many of them would be answered positively.


When we reflect on our current culture we can easily see that our sex has made our lives more complicated. Tiger Woods would be a prime example. One of the world's most adored athlete's life was brought down in flames because of extra marital sex. If Woods were to answer our question, what do you think he would say? I doubt he would say that his life is easier. If this causes the break up of his family then this will affect him in the later stages of his life.


The Woods story is just one of many that have surfaced over the years. Unfortunately, we don't see that sex before marriage doesn't make our lives more complicated now. In most cases it affects us in later stages of our lives. What we do or did in our teens, twenties, and thirties can come back to haunt us in twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, and even sixties.


Sex within God's design can be truly amazing. His design was for us to enjoy sex within the context of a committed relationship called marriage. God's design for sex was not for the context of a complicated relationship called dating or friend with benefits. His idea for sex was show how a man and a woman can create an intimate connection through a physical activity. The act of sex begins with the physical connection and then it extends to a spiritual, emotional, and mental connection. It's the deepest connection we can make with the opposite sex.


Life gets complicated when we make these connections with many different people. It's very hard to break these connections or bonds once they are formed. We carry this bonds into our future relationships. We call this relational baggage. Hurts or pain from past relationships is the reason we guard ourselves in new relationships. Each connection we make outside of marriage causes our intimacy factor for our spouse to become lower and lower and lower. If you're married and are struggling with an intimate connection with your spouse, then premarital sex may be the reason. Again, our lives were affected in a different stage of our lives. Unfortunately, it is affecting the marriage stage of our lives.


At least this has been my experience in life. What has been your experience? Has sex before marriage made your life easier or more complicated?


Tuesday, February 16, 2010

So....I Was Reading 'Blogging for Dummies'

The "(Fill in the Blank) for Dummies" books are all the rave. Only can a book legitimately call us dummies and we still pay money for it. I figured reading this book would help me with this whole blogging thing. My main problem with blogging isn't topics or content. I mean...God is doing so much in my life that I have tons of things to talk about. My main problem is being a full time student.


Please...allow me to explain. I'm no longer in college but taking online classes for has had a major impact on how I write on the Net. Online classes require you to make posts and respond to other student's posts. Usually, I had to respond to at least two other people. I also had to respond to the people who responded to me. Furthermore, I had to add quotes from the textbook or outside sources. Of course this also meant adding footnotes in the MLA or Turabian style. I love schooling!! I'm one of the biggest proponents of education. Unfortunately, though...my experience with online classes has seeped into my blogosphere world.


My problem is spending too much proofing the blog. Checking and double checking my references. Sometimes I even want to add footnotes. I know this may be a little overboard but let's face it. I'm a knowledge hound...I'm the kind of guy that hated to be sick because I would miss a day of school. This side of me has made blogging very difficult because I spend too much on them. I don't had have the bandwidth to spend a lot of time writing a blog.


Recently, I heard a friend quote her husband as saying, "If I can't write a blog in 15 minutes then I'm not going to do it!" Now I must fight the urge to annotate my quote!! :-)


That being said...it's time to take his philosophy for blogging. If it takes too long then I won't do it! I simply don't have the time. However, if I really keep it to a certain time limit then this can be a great experience for me and hopefully for you!! Therefore, some blogs won't be grammatically accurate. Some will have misspellings but I will make every effort to clean all that up before I post. Until next time!!