Tuesday, May 26, 2009

But we have the mind of Christ.

Whew! What a long weekend. Out of the 72 hour long memorial day weekend, I was only able to spend 3 of those hours with my family. Most of this was due to the fact that I was at the Fire Station for a cumulative 48 hours.

Things went well on Sunday morning as I filled the pulpit in a neighboring church. I did learn a valuable lesson though. If I am ever asked to preach at another church again, I will ask if they are expecting me to teach Sunday School as well. Next time I won't be surprised when they turn Sunday School over to me.

I must say that it was pretty "freeing" to preach in another church. I didn't know anyone there so I had no worries about who might be offended by the message. It was also not a concern that anyone would wonder about my motives. These factors made it easy to just let the Bible flow!

I did teach on discernment. I was able to use an article from the Omaha newspaper for my illustration. Karen thought I lacked discernment in bringing the story up at church. To fill you in, there was a story about a little boy (8 yrs old) in Omaha that has decided he would rather be a girl. The Catholic school that he attends will not support him so his parents are enrolling him in the Omaha Public School System for next year. They have bought him new outfits (dresses, shoes, and pink clothes) and started calling him Katie rather than Ben.
The fact that Ben would rather be a girl than a boy was not really the issue that I was dealing with in my sermon. Instead I dealt with a couple of letters regarding the story that were published in the paper a few days later. In one letter, a man wrote that he hoped the Catholic Chancellor had misspoken when he stated that people are either male or female and cannot change.
This man went on to say the statement made by the Chancellor was "equal parts ignorance and arrogance". Ignorance because animals can change gender, and arrogance because the purpose of the church is to explain salvation, not to comment on subjects that they know nothing about.

I spent some time talking about the responsibility of believers to strive for holiness. It is also the responsibility of the Pastor to "feed the flock" not just introduce unbelievers to Christ. In our church, our purpose statement is "...to introduce people to Jesus Christ...to instruct them in Christlike maturity, and to inspire them to serve him."

We do have a plethora of churches that are only concerned with the gospel. The New Testament however, has many things to say regarding the growth of the believer after salvation. Our change has only just begun after coming to know Christ. There is still much to learn.
The man writing the letter lacked spiritual discernment.

The first thing required for spiritual discernment is a relationship with Christ. Hebrews 5:1-10

Secondly, in order to have discernment, we need to get past the basics of the gospel and delve into the meat of the Word. Hebrews 5:11 - 6:3

What was the third point? It can be found in I Corinthians 2:9-16

In order to "have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" I read a second letter.
This was written by a Christian woman. She said that she hoped the Christian community would show support to the family because of their courage in caring for their daughter. She reminded us that the first command is to treat everyone with love and the second is not to judge.


Friday, May 22, 2009

Which Two?

I received a call last night at 10:47. The purpose of the phone call was to ask me to fill the pulpit this Sunday in a neighboring town. Of course I said that I would.

During the course of our short conversation (I have never been to the church and don't believe that I know anyone there) I asked if there were specific topics or passages that they are asking their pulpit supply to stick to. I was told "No, but spiritual discernment might be good."

Does this mean that I should preach on spiritual discernment two days from now or does it mean that I need spiritual discernment over the next two days in order to know what to preach on?

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Time is Short

I was asked a few days ago to speak at a graduation next week. The graduation is for a young lady who has been home schooled so the family is putting on the graduation party. Both parents work at a retail store and have invited everyone at the store to come to the graduation. The family is expecting a large number to attend (possibly over 100) so they have rented a gym for the evening.
If the parents prediction of attendees is correct, then most of those that will be in attendance will not be believers.

I have been asked to give a charge to their daughter, give a summation as to why one would home school, and clearly present the gospel message for those that may not have heard what Christ has done for them. If anyone has input to share, I am receptive. I was asked to keep it around 15 minutes.

On a related note,

If I talk for 25 minutes but make it feel like 12, am I still okay?

Friday, May 15, 2009

PER U SE Philippians 1

Karen and I took the girls on a canoe trip last Saturday with some other families from our home school group. What perfect weather we had for our trip! I must say that it has really gotten me into the camping mood. In fact, I would have liked to have gone camping this weekend but we have too many things going on to be able to get away.
Tonight the girls are going to a play at one of the Community Theaters in town while Karen and I are going out to dinner (we had pizza from the gas station last week on our anniversary). We also have a church league softball game to participate in at 9:30 p.m. Tomorrow we have two graduation parties to attend, a bike ride scheduled with Karen's dad, and a dinner to put on for her family (She is making Rueben's, one of my favorite meals!).
Right now we are toying with the possibility of going camping on Monday and Tuesday but Emily has driver's education classes every morning next week and we would rather she not miss them.

For those of you that don't know, our church is sending a group of people on a mission's trip to Peru this summer. I am excited that my brother Chad is going with the group. Unfortunately I have not had much time to talk with him about this, but the Lord has been bringing him to my mind frequently. I know from personal experience how much something like this can impact his life and I want to be faithful in praying to that end. I know that many of you are also praying for him too. I would ask that you not just pray for his safety, or for his family as he is away, but that you would commit to praying for his spiritual well being and growth.
On Wednesday nights at church we have been memorizing the book of Philippians together. The purpose of this is to learn to pray for spiritual things rather than temporal. I would like to share some of my thoughts from chapter one regarding Chad and his upcoming trip.

Paul says in verses 3-4 "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy... " and I want to ask that God remind me as well to remember Chad and to joyfully pray for him.

In verse 7 "...I have you in my heart...and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace." I know that Chad will have the opportunity to defend and confirm the gospel by his testimony and work ethic on this trip. I know that the Lord will provide him the grace to do everything required of him, and I pray that he will draw on it.

In verse 9 "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more..." I pray that Chad will not only have a love for the people of Peru but also for the members on his team. It can be difficult traveling and living for two weeks with people that you hardly know.

In verse 10 "That ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense..." I pray that Chad will be supportive of others and their ideas. I pray that the sincerity of his heart will be evident to those that he works with and those that he meets.

In verse 11 "Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ..." I pray that his fruits will be sweet to others.

Verse 12 "But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;" Most of all, I want to pray that regardless of what happens; whether the Lord chooses to keep him healthy or even whether the Lord chooses to keep him safe, that the things which happen unto him will be for the furtherance of the gospel!

Verse 21 "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
Verse 25-26 "And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith; That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.

What can you find in Philippians chapter 1 to pray for Chad with me?

Thursday, May 7, 2009

No Longer Aloft

Well, I promised some pictures by this week sometime. Unfortunately, I do not have the time to figure out how to format all of these pictures. In other words, the pictures are in reverse order so it will appear that the barn was built rather than torn down.

I have also not included pictures of the stack of lumber that is now located on my property. I will try to upload more pictures in the week ahead.

Enjoy browsing the photos, I know it doesn't look like much yet (especially because these were taken on my phone). Bear with me, I'll communicate more soon.