Field of Blog

Graceless

• The longer you are a Christian, the harder it is to think like a non-Christian
• When you first met Christ, you were in awe of His love and grace

Where did that awe go?  Too many Christians are so full of judgement and selfrighteousness that they have completely forgotten how empty they are without Christ.  Before we judge others, we need to remember that we are all hopeless with Christ.   Be totally irresponsible when giving Grace (just like Christ is.)

Bittersweet

Dear ZJ, Coy, Robert, Logan, Courtney, Bobby, Andrew, and John Kevin (not pictured),

I’m so proud of you all.  Congratulations on entering this new chapter of life.   So excited for you, but hate to see you go.  God Bless you all.

Balaam’s um Donkey

Numbers 22:
Balak is scared. He knows that if a fight happens, he’ll lose (reminds me of a certain time I was getting picked on in 7th grade. I prayed and prayed and the next morning the kid who was going to destroy me moved. I’m not kidding. That is a whole other blog post…)

Balak requests the services of Balaam.  If you read this, you may think that Balaam knew God (he uses some language that sure makes it seem like he did.  The truth is he was a sorcer using people’s beliefs to gain whatever he could.  He was Internationally known.  A “spiritual rockstar” indeed.

In verse 9 we see that God came to Balaam and spoke to him.  He wasn’t freaked out about it at all, which seems odd.   I’m guessing he must’ve known there was something to this Yahweh God.  

God tells Balaam to go with them, so he does.  Then God gets really angry at him.  It doesn’t say why.  It just says an angel of the Lord came to kill him, but his donkey saved him.  Balaam did what God told him to, yet God was very unhappy.  It makes you wonder what was God so angry about.  He said go, and Balaam went.

Maybe it was his thoughts, attitude, or  motives.  I don’t know.  Simply following God’s orders externally aren’t enough.   Look for God (I mean, a donkey saw his presence before Balaam did.)  Otherwise a donkey may break your foot…or worse, but don’t focus on the negatives if you don’t follow- FOCUS ON THE POSITIVES IF YOU DO FOLLOW!

May you follow God with your thoughts, actions, and words.

BTW-Balaam is changed through his encounter-check verse 34-confession/realization of sin is so powerful and painful.

Generations

Parents, remember that the way you parent/raise your kids will impact every generation of your family between today, and when Christ comes back. If that doesn’t put some pressure on us, nothing will.

You have no excuses. Be Great at what you do.

Complex isn’t possible without simple.

When I try to think about the last several months of my life, I don’t remember much. I know that sounds crazy, but it is the truth. It has been so busy and so crazy. We are without a pastor at our church, so I have been helping to fulfill some of those duties (which I absolutely love.) I love to preach, so it has been much fun. It also has been very stressful. Often preparing two sermons per week (I recognize that you may say “there are pastors who write three a week.” I know. Newsflash: at least two of them are probably crappy.) When I write a sermon I try my best to give it what it deserves, which is a lot. If you have never written a sermon, you should try it. I won’t even go into how exhausted/broken/empty I become after preaching (don’t sweat it, I’m usually fine the next morning. You just have to pour so much of yourself into it if you are truly preaching.)
What is happening is that my best hours, best creativity, etc has been going to those sermons, and other issues our great church is currently dealing with. The youth and young adult ministries have been getting my sloppy seconds.
I can easily justify this. Everything I have been doing is for good causes and good reasons. Things are great at church. Numbers good, God changing lives, offering is great, I guess I should mention that the youth ministry hasn’t been so hot.

So last week I decided to make my job description my priority. I went back to doing the simple things that used to just be natural. Praying over every single student daily, pouring out to God to bless and be with our adult volunteers, praying for our meeting times in depth, seeking the BEST ways to communicate a point, message, etc.

Tonight we had the highest attendance since before the ice storms, and probably top 5 services in the past year. Extremely Complex results, that were gained because of simple truths being applied.

What are you called to? You can get busy doing several great things for God. Pretty soon you are mediocre at several things, and great at none. I don’t want mediocrity. I serve the God who spoke this world into existence. He lives in me. There is no place in that for mediocrity. I refuse to settle. I refuse to justify lack of excellence for God, no matter how easy or obvious the justification may be.

I write this empty and broken, yet motivated and excited.

Mediocrity, go back to where you belong (not heaven.)
Is Mediocrity attacking your life? Than you are probably avoiding simple. Without the simple, complex is unachievable. Simplify.

Colossians 3:23
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,

He said it

Walking in Darkness

I  get to go to many different events and activities to watch and support my students.  I really enjoy seeing them in their element, doing what they love to do.  several weeks ago I went to a recital that was being held at an auditorium.  It was a bright sunny day, I entered the lobby, then walked through the doors into the auditorium.  They were showing pictures on a screen, and all other light sources were turned off.  I went from “bright sunny day” to total darkness in less than 5 seconds.  We’ll just say it was an adventure finding my seat.  

Going from light to dark or dark to light can be and usually is difficult and frustrating.  As Christians we forget what it is like to live without Christ (in darkness.)  We use language that we don’t even understand, we use cliche that is just annoying, and we judge others without even realizing it.  When we forget what it is like to walk in darkness  we lose effectiviness because we can’t relate very well with those we are showing Christ. 

We need to Pray that God will help us to  not forgot what He has done for us, and what life was life before we knew Him.   We do this so we can better understand those we get to minister to.

PS  if you are in charge of an event, leave some lights on when people are coming in for crying out loud.

Sometimes

Tomorrow I hope to post on what God did at PVBC last night, but I found something I want to share. Sometimes I open my Bible, start a conversation, or just click a link and God has something waiting for me that is EXACTLY what I needed. Today it was this:

Exactly What I Needed

Honoring leaders

So I went to the Thr3e conference in Charlotte with Lucas Harris.    It was an incredible day of hearing the vision/leadership/wisdom of God through pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation church.  This church grew from 8 families to over 5000 regular attenders in 3 YEARS.  

One thing that he spoke on that really screamed to me was honor.  Christians tend to not honor our leaders.  We complain about the power they have, who they are, and the decisions they make.  We often don’t have the backbone to voice our complaints to the person or to someone who can do anything about it (If you feel the need to voice a complaint, voice it to someone who has power to make  a change-otherwise you are just gossipping.)

When we don’t honor our leaders, we limit what God can do through them and what HE HAS CALLED THEM TO DO.  If you don’t believe me, read it for your self:

Matthew 13:
 ⁵³When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. ⁵⁴Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. ⁵⁵“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? ⁵⁶Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” ⁵⁷And they took offense at him. 
      But Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor.”
 ⁵⁸And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. 
Honor your leadership.  Don’t be a debbie downer, negativity is contagious.  If your friends are all overly negative, find new friends or you will be come just like them.  

“show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future.”-quote from the dugger lady who has like 75 kids.