How do you press on when you feel tired and isolated? We are soldiers, fighting a spiritual battle. But what can the soldier do when he his comrades have moved on? Either way he is a soldier, and he is expected to press on and continue to fight. That is the choice we made; when Christ redeemed us, he required that we fight on for him, even when we feel alone. So the question is how? How, when you feel like your team has deserted you? God only knows. So why ask me? Why ask others? Go straight to the source of truth, veritas, ask HIM. Only there will you find peace and reassurance.
If this is the refining fire, why don't I see a difference? Why do I still seem the same? I'm supposed to be a fighter, but all I see is the impossible. My child, you can only see the enemy in front of you, you cannot see the whole battle field. You cannot see the difference you are making.
Where is our King to strengthen us? Where is the Lord's love when you most need it? Where is this Father who will never leave you or forsake you? It is there, you just aren't looking for it. Come to the fountain, refresh your weary spirit. You cannot see the love of God, unless you are seeking after him. He has always been there, you just never took the time to be with him.
Don't you understand? You are not deserted! You are not fighting for nothing! You only need to seek out God's love to find it.
Father, we thank you for your word, the Bible. For the encouragement and strength it provides when we feel like we can't go on. Thank you that you are El Roi, the God who sees, and Jehovah-shammah, the Lord is there. You see what we are going through, and you are there. You hear us, whenever we cry out to you. And thank you for your love that is constant and never ceasing. Help us to hold fast onto you, for you are the only firm footing. You are the rock in the floods. Amen.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Relying on God
Wow, I haven't posted anything here for a while. I mean, I highly doubt the world will end because I haven't posted anything here for a couple months..............but still......
First off, I have to say that: God is great, root beer is good, and college is crazy. (If you read that with Billy Currington's song "People are Crazy" going through your head, then I applaud you).
Anyway God has been so good this year; the corn is tall and should produce a good yield. However as the son of a farmer, I have experienced first hand how completely we rely on God. We rely on him for the right amount of rain at the right times, for dry weather when it is needed, and that he will take care of us when times seem rough.
What I have been learning now, in my heart, is that we must rely on God in more than just financial matters. I mean, any person who grows up in the church will tell you that, "we must rely on God's strength, we aren't strong enough on our own". However sometimes it is just a Christianism, something we say to sound like we are spiritually mature. It is a completely different matter to know this in our hearts, often we don't truly know it in our heart until life knocks the wind out of us.
This is what I have been learning these past weeks, college just started up two weeks ago, and like many college students I've got plenty of work (and to spare). It is exhausting.
Today as I was lying on my bed praying when I realized is that I have been acting like Martha.
"Gotta cook, gotta clean"; except in my case its "Gotta study, gotta research, gotta work out". And I have been leaving my spiritual life as an afterthought.
What I should have been doing is acting like Mary, being with God first.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33
There is a coffee cup verse for y'all. And sometimes it becomes no more than that. What I need to do is to see to my relationship with God first and foremost, and then trust that God will take care of me.
This is not to say that we have an excuse to be lazy about our home work, I'm not saying that at all. Only to say that we cannot get so caught up in our work load that we forget what is truly important.
Well, that's about it for now. Later y'all!!!
What I have been learning now, in my heart, is that we must rely on God in more than just financial matters. I mean, any person who grows up in the church will tell you that, "we must rely on God's strength, we aren't strong enough on our own". However sometimes it is just a Christianism, something we say to sound like we are spiritually mature. It is a completely different matter to know this in our hearts, often we don't truly know it in our heart until life knocks the wind out of us.
This is what I have been learning these past weeks, college just started up two weeks ago, and like many college students I've got plenty of work (and to spare). It is exhausting.
Today as I was lying on my bed praying when I realized is that I have been acting like Martha.
"Gotta cook, gotta clean"; except in my case its "Gotta study, gotta research, gotta work out". And I have been leaving my spiritual life as an afterthought.
What I should have been doing is acting like Mary, being with God first.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33
There is a coffee cup verse for y'all. And sometimes it becomes no more than that. What I need to do is to see to my relationship with God first and foremost, and then trust that God will take care of me.
This is not to say that we have an excuse to be lazy about our home work, I'm not saying that at all. Only to say that we cannot get so caught up in our work load that we forget what is truly important.
Well, that's about it for now. Later y'all!!!
Monday, July 8, 2013
Priority Check
Ok, I've let this blog go far too long without a post; time to get typing.
So, it is 80 degrees with humidity, and Ma has finally broke down and asked Dad to put up the AC units. The dog days of summer have officially begun. On the bright side the corn is growing tall and green, PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!
Okay there is the farmer part, now for the faith part.
Over this summer I have been having a particular lesson drilled into my head, a lesson which I now share with you all. In your life as a Christian, balance is critical. I repeat; balance is critical.
As young men and women who are on fire for the Lord we tend to focus on aspects of ministry that are obvious; leading a youth group, being involved in a small group, hanging out with and ministering to those who are Barnabas and Timothy in you life. But something we need to remember is balance!
One thing we don't typically think about in terms of ministry is the ministry at home. Especially to those who have younger siblings, we tend to think of our duties at home as annoyances. But the truth is that the ministry at home is more important than our ministry to the church.
Don't get me wrong, you should be doing both. We are plenty capable of being able to handle both in our lives. That is where balance comes in.
You see both are important, it just so happens that the ministry at home requires your attention first. I'm not going to tell you how to balance your life, that would deprive you of the pleasure of learning to do it yourself. There are other reasons as well, no two people have the same responsibilities, thus it would be pointless for me to tell you how to balance your life.
In general there are four aspects of life that need to be balanced out. I will use my life for examples.
The first part of our lives is our personal walk with the Lord. This is something we "know" is critical, we even may use it as an excuse to get out of an unpleasant chore, but how seriously do you take your time with God?
The second part of our lives is service to the church; for me it is being a leader for Jr. High and leading worship in College group. This is the aspect of our Christian lives we primarily tend to think of as our "main ministry and Christian service". Now, just being plain honest here, we make time in our lives for this sort of thing. However we must be careful that we don't let this good service consume all our time, there is a point at which we must say, "I'm sorry, but I can't do anything else right now."
The third part of our lives is the responsibilities of home, this includes our everyday chores, odd jobs that just need to be done, and ministry to family members. This is the aspect of life I personally tend to put on the back burner, and so do many other people. But, as stated before, our ministry to our families comes first before our other ministries.
The forth and last main aspect of life is fellowship or "hang time". This is time we spend with our friends just chilling out. Again Christian fellowship is a very Biblical thing, but we must be careful to ensure that it does not get in the way of our responsibilities back home.
Make sense? Bueno.
Till next time; may the love, and joy, and peace of our Lord be with you all.
Later y-all!
So, it is 80 degrees with humidity, and Ma has finally broke down and asked Dad to put up the AC units. The dog days of summer have officially begun. On the bright side the corn is growing tall and green, PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!!
Okay there is the farmer part, now for the faith part.
Over this summer I have been having a particular lesson drilled into my head, a lesson which I now share with you all. In your life as a Christian, balance is critical. I repeat; balance is critical.
As young men and women who are on fire for the Lord we tend to focus on aspects of ministry that are obvious; leading a youth group, being involved in a small group, hanging out with and ministering to those who are Barnabas and Timothy in you life. But something we need to remember is balance!
One thing we don't typically think about in terms of ministry is the ministry at home. Especially to those who have younger siblings, we tend to think of our duties at home as annoyances. But the truth is that the ministry at home is more important than our ministry to the church.
Don't get me wrong, you should be doing both. We are plenty capable of being able to handle both in our lives. That is where balance comes in.
You see both are important, it just so happens that the ministry at home requires your attention first. I'm not going to tell you how to balance your life, that would deprive you of the pleasure of learning to do it yourself. There are other reasons as well, no two people have the same responsibilities, thus it would be pointless for me to tell you how to balance your life.
In general there are four aspects of life that need to be balanced out. I will use my life for examples.
The first part of our lives is our personal walk with the Lord. This is something we "know" is critical, we even may use it as an excuse to get out of an unpleasant chore, but how seriously do you take your time with God?
The second part of our lives is service to the church; for me it is being a leader for Jr. High and leading worship in College group. This is the aspect of our Christian lives we primarily tend to think of as our "main ministry and Christian service". Now, just being plain honest here, we make time in our lives for this sort of thing. However we must be careful that we don't let this good service consume all our time, there is a point at which we must say, "I'm sorry, but I can't do anything else right now."
The third part of our lives is the responsibilities of home, this includes our everyday chores, odd jobs that just need to be done, and ministry to family members. This is the aspect of life I personally tend to put on the back burner, and so do many other people. But, as stated before, our ministry to our families comes first before our other ministries.
The forth and last main aspect of life is fellowship or "hang time". This is time we spend with our friends just chilling out. Again Christian fellowship is a very Biblical thing, but we must be careful to ensure that it does not get in the way of our responsibilities back home.
Make sense? Bueno.
Till next time; may the love, and joy, and peace of our Lord be with you all.
Later y-all!
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Jealousy VS Unity
While I will not say that jealousy is the most destructive of vices to plague the Church, it is detrimental and causes division among the Church.
At one church one family will not attend unless the grandmother of that family plays piano on sunday morning.
At first glance this seems harmless, petty and childish, but harmless.
However let me be clear, jealousy is a poison that causes bitterness and resentment in everything it touches. When at its worst jealousy causes rifts in the church; this is devastating because the Bible itself says that "a house divided against itself cannot stand". What is more I can assure you that the World, which already view Christianity as a divided religion, is not impressed either.
The Lord cannot use us to the utmost until we get rid of the jealousy we may carry. Remember that as the body of Christ we have each been given different gifts to use for the glory of God and that we must work together in order for the church to run smoothly (Romans 12:4-8). The clock is continueing to tick towards the day when Christ comes back and takes us to the wedding supper, until then it is our responsibility to continue the work he has left us with. This can only be done effectively by using the gifts he has given us.
Think of it this way, everyone is working together to build a kingdom. Some are stone cutters, some are masons, some are supervisors. Each has his own set of tools he has been given. The stone cutters go find stones and quarry them out and bring them to the kingdom. The Masons build up the stones and strengthen them. And the supervisors are the coordinators and make sure everything runs according to the instructions which the King left.
It does the Mason no good to wish for the job of the supervisor when he is better equipped to be a Mason, the same goes for all the other jobs.
At one church one family will not attend unless the grandmother of that family plays piano on sunday morning.
At first glance this seems harmless, petty and childish, but harmless.
However let me be clear, jealousy is a poison that causes bitterness and resentment in everything it touches. When at its worst jealousy causes rifts in the church; this is devastating because the Bible itself says that "a house divided against itself cannot stand". What is more I can assure you that the World, which already view Christianity as a divided religion, is not impressed either.
The Lord cannot use us to the utmost until we get rid of the jealousy we may carry. Remember that as the body of Christ we have each been given different gifts to use for the glory of God and that we must work together in order for the church to run smoothly (Romans 12:4-8). The clock is continueing to tick towards the day when Christ comes back and takes us to the wedding supper, until then it is our responsibility to continue the work he has left us with. This can only be done effectively by using the gifts he has given us.
Think of it this way, everyone is working together to build a kingdom. Some are stone cutters, some are masons, some are supervisors. Each has his own set of tools he has been given. The stone cutters go find stones and quarry them out and bring them to the kingdom. The Masons build up the stones and strengthen them. And the supervisors are the coordinators and make sure everything runs according to the instructions which the King left.
It does the Mason no good to wish for the job of the supervisor when he is better equipped to be a Mason, the same goes for all the other jobs.
Now apply this to the real world. The King has given us instructions to forward his Kingdom. The Evangelists go forth and find people and witness to them the Gospel and bring them to the Kingdom. The Encouragers come beside the people of the Kingdom and encourage, build up, and help strengthen them. Lastly the Pastors are left with the task of instructing and leading the church. And the beauty is that there are so many more tasks to be done and gifts that have been given to us, there just isn't time to go over them in this post. The main thing is that we work together in unity to accomplish the mission set before us, and jealousy is especially effective at throwing a monkey wrench in the works.
One last thing to keep in mind, in the parable of the talents Jesus tells of three servants who were given talents by their master. When the master came back he rewarded the two servants who had used their talents faithfully. The third servant however, seeing that he only had one talent, went and hid it and did not use it faithfully. The master rebuked him and took away his talent and gave it to the first servant.
The point of the parable is this, God expects us to use the gifts and talents he has given us to build up the Church and to bring him glory. If we refuse to use the talents he has given us for him, he will take them away. So use it or loose it.
Till next time, later y-all!
One last thing to keep in mind, in the parable of the talents Jesus tells of three servants who were given talents by their master. When the master came back he rewarded the two servants who had used their talents faithfully. The third servant however, seeing that he only had one talent, went and hid it and did not use it faithfully. The master rebuked him and took away his talent and gave it to the first servant.
The point of the parable is this, God expects us to use the gifts and talents he has given us to build up the Church and to bring him glory. If we refuse to use the talents he has given us for him, he will take them away. So use it or loose it.
Till next time, later y-all!
Thursday, May 23, 2013
The Dangers and Pitfalls of Leadership
God is good, I have recently started serving in leadership positions, something I have been wanting to do for a long LONG time. But in the past few weeks I've been thinking (yes, yes I know; thinking: always a dangerous pass-time). But seriously, the opening thought was "What are my motives in taking these leadership opportunities?" From that one question came the talking points for this blog entry.
There are two pitfalls that a Christian leader (well any leader really, but I'm talking to Christians in specific) can fall into.
The first pitfall that Christian leaders can fall into is becoming a leader for the right reasons, but then letting that opportunity become all about the wrong reasons. For instance, someone (we'll call him Joe) hears that their church is in need of youth leaders (yes, there are more leadership opportunities than just youth leaders, this is just the most obvious. Joe feels like the Lord is leading him to volunteer as a youth leader, so he does. However, Joe finds that serving is becoming less about being a godly role model for the youth, and more about "hanging out with the cool people" or "feeling important".
If you find yourself in such a mind set, we need to stop and ask the Lord for his forgiveness, and then seek his will about how to continue. Chances are if we have the wrong motives then we are failing at our task of being a godly leader and setting an example.
The second pitfall that is a hazard for Christian leaders is the mindset where we allow arrogance to start creeping in and we start to think more of ourselves than what is truthful or healthy.
This pitfall and the previous are especially dangerous because they often go unnoticed. Oh, we might start to believe that we are not as humble as we should like, but the true severity of our arrogance does not cross our minds until we mess up big-time in public and are called out on it. Even then, it is a very real danger that we just brush it aside with some excuse, when in reality they are probably right.
The Bible says that God hates arrogance (Proverbs 8:13) and as Christians we are called to be humble servants in fact Jesus said that if we wish to be great in God's eyes we should be servants to all. Something else to keep in mind is that, as Christians we are called to love others as Christ has loved us, and love is not arrogant (1st Corinthians 13).
Lastly in attempting to humble yourself, do not fall for the lie that your work is unimportant and that there is no point to what you do. If this thought pops into your head, remember the analogy of the church as a body (1st Corinthians 12). Every position in the church is important, whether you will acknowledge it or not, God calls us all to serve in different ways; the fact that God has called you to serve in some way should be enough to persuade you that what you do is important.
The Bible says that God hates arrogance (Proverbs 8:13) and as Christians we are called to be humble servants in fact Jesus said that if we wish to be great in God's eyes we should be servants to all. Something else to keep in mind is that, as Christians we are called to love others as Christ has loved us, and love is not arrogant (1st Corinthians 13).
Lastly in attempting to humble yourself, do not fall for the lie that your work is unimportant and that there is no point to what you do. If this thought pops into your head, remember the analogy of the church as a body (1st Corinthians 12). Every position in the church is important, whether you will acknowledge it or not, God calls us all to serve in different ways; the fact that God has called you to serve in some way should be enough to persuade you that what you do is important.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Why are our live so rough?
One day two farmers were talking, one was a Christian, the other an agnostic. Despite their differences, the two farmers were very good friends and often talked about subjects such as God, the meaning of life, morality, and other such tough subjects. On this particular instance the agnostic had initiate the conversation and had asked the other farmer: "Friend, if your God is all that you say that he is, then why are you going through such a hard time with your farm?" In response the Christian farmer looked at his friend and replied "I will answer you after you show me, in the Bible, where it says that Christians are supposed to have easy lives." The agnostic wasn't about to let the Christian get off that easy though, so he asked "Doesn't it make sense though? If God really existed and loved you, wouldn't he make life comfortable for you here?" After thinking for a good long while, the Christian responded "When I go to ship my hogs off to market each Tuesday morning I have noticed something. It is almost impossible to get my teenage son out of bed to come help as long as he keeps the blankets on the bed. But if you yank the covers off of the bed and open the windows to allow the cold, early morning air in, he jumps out of bed like a rocket and races to get his warm clothes on; once he is up its easy to get him outside and working."
Our life is kind of like that story about the farmer and his boy. As Christians, we need to remember that we have a job to do, and limited time to do it in. Remember that throughout history, the Church has been most effective during persecution. Why is that? Because when we get comfortable we tend to slack off on the work Christ has called us to. Another thing is that God uses tough times to teach us many lessons, not the least of which is to be able to rely on him. So the next time we feel tempted to ask God why life is so hard, maybe instead we should ask "Have I been lying down on the job, or is God trying to teach me something?"
Our life is kind of like that story about the farmer and his boy. As Christians, we need to remember that we have a job to do, and limited time to do it in. Remember that throughout history, the Church has been most effective during persecution. Why is that? Because when we get comfortable we tend to slack off on the work Christ has called us to. Another thing is that God uses tough times to teach us many lessons, not the least of which is to be able to rely on him. So the next time we feel tempted to ask God why life is so hard, maybe instead we should ask "Have I been lying down on the job, or is God trying to teach me something?"
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