At one time in my life when I was younger I struggled with the concept of God being real even though my parents poured God all over me like syrup on pancakes. I knew the Bible, participated in every church activity, sang all the hymns, attended Sunday school, youth group, family night, you name it. As I started to grow into my teen years I became aware that there was something missing in my life but I did not know what it was I was seeking. I felt lost, confused, and alone, even though I was surrounded by my family, my church, and friends who were strong in their faith. I was going through the motions but the realness of God was not something I completely owned as the Truth. It was not until I grasped the magnitude of God’s gift of His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins on the cross and the resurrection and its impact on the disciples did my faith grow into a complete conviction of God’s true existence. For me it was the juxtaposition of the disciples place in the culture of the day, The Roman Empire, and their movement from nobodies to fearless spreaders of the Word. You see, it hit me that those people, those common folk chosen by Jesus to be his followers, had to actually see His death with their own eyes and then see Him alive free from the tomb and the binds of death. This miracle of all miracles convicted these men to sacrifice all and fearlessly go in service to Him even at the risk of their own deaths. The resurrection was real, Jesus was real, and therefore God was truly real!
For many people though, especially those who are hurting, or lost, or just struggling with this whole concept called God, it is difficult for them to believe. When you are hurting it is hard to grasp something that you can not physically touch, feel, hold, or see.
So what does God do then to make his presence known in these forms?
He calls on His followers. He Lives in us and uses us.
When we reach out to the lost and hurting He touches them.
When we share our love with them they feel His presence in our lives.
When we allow those who have trouble standing on their own to hold onto us for support He is holding them up as well.
And when they see our love for them as brothers or sisters in Christ they will see God.
So, if you have someone you know that is lost, who is hurting, or who is seeking this thing called God but is just not there yet what can you do?
Keep touching that person with God’s love. Keep letting them feel God’s presence in your life. Keep being strong in Christ so that they can hold onto you. And let them see God through the love you pour out onto them.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
On This Rock....
Jesus referred to Peter as the rock on which He would build His church. I love that visual, that solid foundation that Jesus was going to establish through Peter. Throughout the Bible the rock metaphor is used time and again to symbolize strength, a firm foundation, and an unmoving foothold for us as Christ followers on which to stand.
What ever you are going through this day remember that symbol of the rock and how God's love through the sending of his Son Jesus to die for our sins provides that solid foundation on which to stand, cling to, and feel safe in the storm.
Psalm 27:5 (New International Version)
5 For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.
What ever you are going through this day remember that symbol of the rock and how God's love through the sending of his Son Jesus to die for our sins provides that solid foundation on which to stand, cling to, and feel safe in the storm.
Psalm 27:5 (New International Version)
5 For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.
Friday, February 6, 2009
The Beginnings of a Lay Ministry
Editors Note: This was written back in November but never made it to this blog.
The Beginning of a Lay Ministry
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 12:44am
Over the last two years I have been stuck in neutral. Not really moving forward in my spiritual life but not really moving back either. I have known for a long time that God has had a plan for me (like He has for all of us) but I have been trying to guide that plan, direct that plan, and look for that plan in the place I wanted to be. What I found during that effort is that was not what He had in mind. Earlier in the year my minister Mike told me that I had to get off of neutral and just plug in with service. Just plug in, get moving forward and God's direction would be revealed.
I did that, volunteering for the set up team for Remix a contemporary service on steroids. Rather than trying to choose the direction I was suppose to be going I just became submissive to God's will. Things started to become clearer and I felt like I was finally on track with the direction. Serving and working and still searching for that direction.
Challenges began to get in the way. For many of those who know me are aware that my small property management company ran into some serious financial challenges. Combine that with an extracted pitched battle with obtaining building permits, the downturn in the economy affecting my recruiting business, and health issues in my household, my direction quickly started being totally side tracked and led away. After months of depression, frustration, and severe unhappiness, I was at my wits end, only holding things together because my family and my staff needed me to do so. It was a challenge just to stay motivated enough to go to work each day and give an effort.
Finally , when I was almost completely broke down, one night at the Sunday service I became single mindedly focused on putting in a prayer request during the response time (we have a box up front in the auditorium that during the response time you can go and put prayer request in) for God to resolve my bank issue. You see, the bank that told us they would finance our two big projects withdrew from the process and put us in jeopardy of losing our properties. I had decided that when I went up I was going to ask God to help us get the loans from another bank.
When the time came I went to the front, got down at the stage, and began to write my request. I closed my eyes and said a prayer asking for God's help and then when I was finished opened my eyes and looked down at the paper. When I read the writing on the paper that was in my hand writing I had not written one word about the loan, our business, and the need for help. Instead the words on the paper said "Dear God, if it be your will, lead me into a lay ministry".
I was dumbfounded. For the last three hours all I had thought about was writing a prayer request for a loan. All I could think about was my selfish need of that project loan. But here, on the paper, in my hand, was this request. I was so rattled I hardly spoke to anyone during the tear down after the service except to tell Chad what had happened.
The next day, still rattled by this experience, an experience like no other I had ever had in my life, I went to work still wondering where this was all coming from. And then it hit me. There was an email from George the CFO of our church asking me if I would be interested in helping with advising some of the people in our church that were job hunting due to being unemployed or seriously underemployed.
With that email and that submission to God's direction, a new lay ministry was born.
Now after teaching the second of what is to become the first phase of a Career focused ministry (tonight), a class called Job Search Basics, it is very clear that the new lay ministry is to work with a variety of career related programs that can assist our church membership and community. We hope to develop a full on career/job centered program that will offer a wide array of career development initiatives, skills training, job search skills, resume writing training, building value in the workplace, and even possibly ad full on GED program for the community at large.
I am writing this in hopes that all of my friends pray for that there be guidance and direction with this ministry and my involvement. Also, as we develop the plan, I look forward to any suggestions or ideas that you may have that could add to the different types of programs and services we develop.
It is just a start, but that direction I have been looking for and have frankly been avoiding is now clear. Now, it's all about being submissive and doing God's will. He's done all the hard work. Now it's just time to follow Him.
The Beginning of a Lay Ministry
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 12:44am
Over the last two years I have been stuck in neutral. Not really moving forward in my spiritual life but not really moving back either. I have known for a long time that God has had a plan for me (like He has for all of us) but I have been trying to guide that plan, direct that plan, and look for that plan in the place I wanted to be. What I found during that effort is that was not what He had in mind. Earlier in the year my minister Mike told me that I had to get off of neutral and just plug in with service. Just plug in, get moving forward and God's direction would be revealed.
I did that, volunteering for the set up team for Remix a contemporary service on steroids. Rather than trying to choose the direction I was suppose to be going I just became submissive to God's will. Things started to become clearer and I felt like I was finally on track with the direction. Serving and working and still searching for that direction.
Challenges began to get in the way. For many of those who know me are aware that my small property management company ran into some serious financial challenges. Combine that with an extracted pitched battle with obtaining building permits, the downturn in the economy affecting my recruiting business, and health issues in my household, my direction quickly started being totally side tracked and led away. After months of depression, frustration, and severe unhappiness, I was at my wits end, only holding things together because my family and my staff needed me to do so. It was a challenge just to stay motivated enough to go to work each day and give an effort.
Finally , when I was almost completely broke down, one night at the Sunday service I became single mindedly focused on putting in a prayer request during the response time (we have a box up front in the auditorium that during the response time you can go and put prayer request in) for God to resolve my bank issue. You see, the bank that told us they would finance our two big projects withdrew from the process and put us in jeopardy of losing our properties. I had decided that when I went up I was going to ask God to help us get the loans from another bank.
When the time came I went to the front, got down at the stage, and began to write my request. I closed my eyes and said a prayer asking for God's help and then when I was finished opened my eyes and looked down at the paper. When I read the writing on the paper that was in my hand writing I had not written one word about the loan, our business, and the need for help. Instead the words on the paper said "Dear God, if it be your will, lead me into a lay ministry".
I was dumbfounded. For the last three hours all I had thought about was writing a prayer request for a loan. All I could think about was my selfish need of that project loan. But here, on the paper, in my hand, was this request. I was so rattled I hardly spoke to anyone during the tear down after the service except to tell Chad what had happened.
The next day, still rattled by this experience, an experience like no other I had ever had in my life, I went to work still wondering where this was all coming from. And then it hit me. There was an email from George the CFO of our church asking me if I would be interested in helping with advising some of the people in our church that were job hunting due to being unemployed or seriously underemployed.
With that email and that submission to God's direction, a new lay ministry was born.
Now after teaching the second of what is to become the first phase of a Career focused ministry (tonight), a class called Job Search Basics, it is very clear that the new lay ministry is to work with a variety of career related programs that can assist our church membership and community. We hope to develop a full on career/job centered program that will offer a wide array of career development initiatives, skills training, job search skills, resume writing training, building value in the workplace, and even possibly ad full on GED program for the community at large.
I am writing this in hopes that all of my friends pray for that there be guidance and direction with this ministry and my involvement. Also, as we develop the plan, I look forward to any suggestions or ideas that you may have that could add to the different types of programs and services we develop.
It is just a start, but that direction I have been looking for and have frankly been avoiding is now clear. Now, it's all about being submissive and doing God's will. He's done all the hard work. Now it's just time to follow Him.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Practice Makes Perfect
Today was a long day. It started early and of course now is ending early the next morning. I did not get to bed last night until very late and I couldn't fall asleep for the longest time. Needless to say I am tired. But there has been something on my heart and mind all day that I just had to get down before collapsing and doing it all again in a few hours.
Today was the day I was to teach the Job Search Basics Class for the Cove Church. This is the beginning of what I hope becomes a full lay directed ministry for our church focused on employment call Career Life Ministry. It will evolve into a comprehensive outreach that will assist those unemployed or under employed, people trying to improve themselves in their current employment, or help educate those who want to better there opportunities in the workplace. The timing of this ministry could not have been better in light of the current economic challenges we are facing.
On my way to my office this morning I stopped by "It Don't Matter" Cafe to grab a tea. I was in a hurry but being that this is a small town being in a hurry and stopping in a place like "It Don't Matter" doesn't match up. It's like Cheers in that everyone knows your name and will want to talk to you. Those of you that know me well know I never met a conversation that I couldn't extend. And today was one of those days.
I ran into a friend of mine who was sitting with a young minister and through various diatribes and exchanges about all of the crazy stuff I have going on somehow the discussion turned to people suffering in despair. I am sure it came up because I talked about the Career Life Ministry inviting her to share it with her flock. In the conversation it hit me that in despair we cry out to God to save us but it doesn't always have the quick result we crave. . In that darkest hour we finally are broken to the point that we yell out to God imploring Him to come save us. We are looking for some instant "beam me up Scotty" experience where by which God just snatches us out of or misery and makes everything right again. More often than not, that immediate rescue does not happen. Matter of fact, often times it seems as though that God didn't hear us at all and just leaves us there alone. We feel abandoned and lost and our depair is quickly magnified. Discouragement combines with our misery and often times our thoughts turn to questions about God's existence and participation in our lives. Hitting the prayer panic button it seems is a waste of our time and our hope no longer is there.
As I left the conversation and began walking to my office I thought about this and about a situation a friend of mine is facing right now and I wondered why God does not answer us in our time and it hit me that maybe the problem lies not in God's timing but our understanding of how God works in time.
Maybe, I surmised, had we been the obedient followers of Him and had practiced turning everything over to God, that we would have a better sense for God's timing and through that understanding manage our despair differently. Maybe, if we gave everything to Him, lifted up all of our anxieties, fears, problems, stress, failures, successes, blessings, gifts, family, everything God would use that continual dialogue to reveal time and again how He works in our lives not by our clock but by His timepiece. By practicing our followership of our Father through submitting everything to Him and praising Him for the blessings in our lives we would gather experience in God's timing. This understanding would help sustain us and motivate us to stand strong in our despair, submit to Him, and wait patiently for God to reveal His plan for us.
They say Practice makes Perfect. Practice turning everything over to God. You will be amazed at how Perfect God's plan is for your life.
1 Peter 1 3-9
.
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Today was the day I was to teach the Job Search Basics Class for the Cove Church. This is the beginning of what I hope becomes a full lay directed ministry for our church focused on employment call Career Life Ministry. It will evolve into a comprehensive outreach that will assist those unemployed or under employed, people trying to improve themselves in their current employment, or help educate those who want to better there opportunities in the workplace. The timing of this ministry could not have been better in light of the current economic challenges we are facing.
On my way to my office this morning I stopped by "It Don't Matter" Cafe to grab a tea. I was in a hurry but being that this is a small town being in a hurry and stopping in a place like "It Don't Matter" doesn't match up. It's like Cheers in that everyone knows your name and will want to talk to you. Those of you that know me well know I never met a conversation that I couldn't extend. And today was one of those days.
I ran into a friend of mine who was sitting with a young minister and through various diatribes and exchanges about all of the crazy stuff I have going on somehow the discussion turned to people suffering in despair. I am sure it came up because I talked about the Career Life Ministry inviting her to share it with her flock. In the conversation it hit me that in despair we cry out to God to save us but it doesn't always have the quick result we crave. . In that darkest hour we finally are broken to the point that we yell out to God imploring Him to come save us. We are looking for some instant "beam me up Scotty" experience where by which God just snatches us out of or misery and makes everything right again. More often than not, that immediate rescue does not happen. Matter of fact, often times it seems as though that God didn't hear us at all and just leaves us there alone. We feel abandoned and lost and our depair is quickly magnified. Discouragement combines with our misery and often times our thoughts turn to questions about God's existence and participation in our lives. Hitting the prayer panic button it seems is a waste of our time and our hope no longer is there.
As I left the conversation and began walking to my office I thought about this and about a situation a friend of mine is facing right now and I wondered why God does not answer us in our time and it hit me that maybe the problem lies not in God's timing but our understanding of how God works in time.
Maybe, I surmised, had we been the obedient followers of Him and had practiced turning everything over to God, that we would have a better sense for God's timing and through that understanding manage our despair differently. Maybe, if we gave everything to Him, lifted up all of our anxieties, fears, problems, stress, failures, successes, blessings, gifts, family, everything God would use that continual dialogue to reveal time and again how He works in our lives not by our clock but by His timepiece. By practicing our followership of our Father through submitting everything to Him and praising Him for the blessings in our lives we would gather experience in God's timing. This understanding would help sustain us and motivate us to stand strong in our despair, submit to Him, and wait patiently for God to reveal His plan for us.
They say Practice makes Perfect. Practice turning everything over to God. You will be amazed at how Perfect God's plan is for your life.
1 Peter 1 3-9
.
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
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