Turkey take away

I had an exciting night of ministry. We've been planning for the last couple of weeks the 25 Turkey Drive. I asked the congregation to donate to 25 families, 25 Thanksgiving meals. Tonight was the night we would deliver the meals to the families in need.
At 6:15 we were to meet up, grab some grub, break out into groups and hit the streets. It was 6:10, and there were maybe a half dozen folks who showed up. I thought it was going to be a long night of turkey delivery. About 10 minutes later we had nearly 70 people. 20 were young kids, ready for a meal and a lesson. 17 were in the youth group, and 30 were adults ready to distribute some turks.
At first, my lack of organization skills were noticed. I just didn't know how many people were going to show, so it was hard telling how to go about doing it. I never did it before either, I should have a better grasp of it next year.
It was a great evening though. I really did not know what to expect. I had a hard time finding the houses that we designated, and others weren't home to receive their turkeys. It was kind of frustrating. I took the youth around with me, they were anxious to distribute turkeys, it was cool. Eventually, we found who we were to give turkeys too. The first house was a guy that was totally out of it, he said like two words. It was weird though, the door swung wide open, and their was no one at the door, the teen that opened it hid behind the door. From our perspective it looked like the door swung open magically because the guy was way inside in his living room and their was no sign of the person who opened it.
Eventually he popped out from behind the door, i think he was trying to scare me.
One turkey down, four to go. We then went trekking through the trailer court trying to find the right lot number. That was half the battle. The problem was half the trailers didn't have numbers showing which lot they were, and there was terrible lighting. Eventually i just stopped and asked where people lived, i got sent in the right direction, and the turkeys started finding a home. The next person we went to hardly said anything at all either. It was some kid that was just watching the place while the owner was out "doing s#%*" I thought that was interesting. We gave them the turkey, and wished them a happy Thanksgiving.
The next house was almost the exact same way.
There was a house that we missed before, the owner wasn't home, but before we called it a night, i decided i needed to try again.
The guy was outside of his house, locked out, and broken. He said he lost faith in people, he didn't think i was coming.
Without going into great detail, the guy was going through a lot of struggles, looking for answers in all the wrong places, and he was left with the question "will it ever get better?" I proceeded to tell him about a way that life could be better.
I don't feel like recapping the whole conversation, but I shared the beginnings of the gospel message. He belonged to a "church" a long time ago, but he had too many tattoos to be a Christian, and he smoked to top it all off. the nerve...
He knew a lot of scriptures, he knew about Jesus, he just hasn't seen the hope of a life following Christ. I challenged him that if he showed up to church on Sunday, i could share with him a lot more about a way to start getting things better, a way to find answers he was looking for.
It's exciting when you are in the place God wants you to be, doing what he calls you to do. God didn't suddenly inspire us in some crazy, out of this world way to pass out turkey's, he just called us all to deny ourselves. The congregation i serve had a little taste of what its like to deny self. I certainly did. and I'm left hoping that it will catch on, and we will do it more, and find ourselves more and more often in the place God has called us to be, abiding in his will.

Great insights at a minister meeting

I went to my monthly minister meeting today. There were some great thoughts, none better than:

when ministry becomes a job, you can:

Prepare without praying
Call without caring
Lead without loving

I have only been at this ministry thing for a little over a year, but I really needed to hear those truths. I haven't felt like ministry was a job yet, but I know its within me to feel that way. Hopefully these thoughts will guard against that.

maybe blog more

Well, i said i would start blogging more, then i stopped blogging. So i guess i should clarify, i will TRY to blog more.

At EGCC this week, we are going to do something pretty cool. WE have raised enough money to buy more then 25 Turkey dinners and give them to family's in need. I am really excited about it. I have spent the past few weeks preaching about the change that happens within us by following Christ, and what it ought to inspire us to do. The call has been for the whole church to shift from "consumers" to "Contributors." People who give, and not take, its a call to out serve one another.

I hope this is the beginning of a monumental shift in the congregation, for me: to think of others before myself, to give of self, and start denying self for the cause of Christ. I'm excited to see what God will do with such a congregation.

That seems like a tall order from a bunch of turkeys, but my prayer is he will multiply our efforts.

blogging more

I guess I'm going to start blogging more. A lot of preachers are doing it, and I am a young guy so I guess I ought to make this a channel for some of my thoughts. I will try not to make my entries as long as the previous.

My previous post has resulted in some hostility and was misinterpreted on Facebook. I was offering it up as a suggestion to minister's and really all people to have a fuller view of God, not just enjoy the characteristics we like. I guess its a process of my own discovery of more of God. Today in my study I noticed a lot about God and his anger. I guess I was especially attuned to it today in light of my previous post.

It was beneficial to look at, a lot of scripture jumped out to me, i guess i leave my studies from today thinking i have a long ways to go in discovering our great God.

Forget the hellfire and Brimstone, we just need to fear God

I was at a minister meeting Tuesday. It was a fine meeting, good fellowship and good material from a trusted minister in Frank Weller. Before his teaching, we were asked to pray, and take a few minutes to pray about the characteristics of God. I was game for that, when we, as a collective group of ministers were asked to share some of those characteristics of God, we shared the typical attributes of our almighty Living God.
His All-Powerful-Knowing-Presence, mercy, compassion, patience, sovereignty and love. It was nice to think of, but I was left waiting for someone to bring up his anger. It's funny we don't think too often about God's anger.
We were then asked to thank God for his attributes before we got into our prayer concerns. In my prayer, I thanked God for his burning anger against unrighteousness in the world.
I left the meeting thinking a lot about how me, and other ministers have a tendency to trivialize our God.
In my lessons for Wednesday night youth group, I have been taking the students through the book of Hebrews. In Chapter 10:31 it says "it is dreadful to be left in the hands of the living God." That's an awfully different statement then what we are hearing from many preachers. We often talk about the comfort and passion of God's hands.
I went on to explain the passage as such - the book of Hebrews was written to a group of people who were being persecuted for their belief in Jesus Christ. They faced life threatening situations every day. The obvious temptation then for those people would have been for the followers to turn away from God, and pursue a "safer" life.
The Hebrews author then talking about the dreadfulness of God's hands is for those who turn away. It is certainly good for the Christians of this world to find solace, strength and provision in the hand's of God, but it is also vitally important we are reminded of what a life of sin will lead us down. To know the love of God and turn from his ways will leave you in the dreadful hands of an angered God.
These words are a message of hope and a call to perseverance.
I went on to tell the kids this evening, that they may not face persecution the same way as Christians did centuries ago, but today, they still face threats on their life, every day. Every day they are called to go down a path that will lead them away from God. Every day they are tempted down path's that threaten their life. The scripture goes on to call us to perseverance, and endurance and a reward for those who are faithful. It's truly a message of hope.
As I come home from my lesson, and think further about our minister's in America, I am overwhelmed by how many quit ministry within five years. The statistic is 1 in 2. 50% of all ministers within the first 5 years quit. I am uncertain of how many others drop out of ministry because of some moral issue beyond those five years. All I know is, minister's seem to be dropping like flies. I have a close friend also in ministry, we both graduated at the same time, and entered into ministry at the same time. That statistic says that in four years, one of us will drop out of ministry.
the more i think about the overwhelming truth of drop-out ministers, the more I come back to my view of God.
I certainly serve a loving God, but i think a healthy dose of fear can go a long ways. If we would restore our view of God to a biblical perspective, not one defined by popular contemporary music "you are beautiful my sweet sweet song." God is a lot more then some melody to my life, he is the God of VICTORY; conquering evil. He is the God in whom the whole world should fear, and we call him a melody.
Maybe, just maybe, more ministers would stay in ministry, guard themselves against unrighteousness, if we restored within us a healthy fear in God. Where we get away from this girly-man of a god and restore a biblical view where sinners tremble at the thought of what would happen to a sinner in the hand's of God.
This isn't a commission to start hellfire and brimstone preaching, its a call to all of us to start thinking seriously about who our God really is, and what he deserves from us.
All I know is this, I told the kids tonight, to remain faithful, and no matter the persecution on the outside, its not worth turning away from God over, no matter what. The same ought to be true for ministers, for me. There is nothing worth trading my God for, for trading my ministry for (or my marriage). Nothing. Not 15 minutes of "pleasure" in adultery. Not 15 minutes of pornography. Not lying, not cheating, not manipulating, not making more money, not having more "security". There is nothing in this world, no pleasure, no comfort, nothing that is worth turning my back on God for, nothing that is worth risking my ministry for; and a healthy view of God will guard me from all of what the world says is worth trading him in for.
Friends in ministry, friends in Christ, let's make a commitment, to restore a proper perspective of God. For it's a dreadful thing to fall into the hand's of the living God, when you have known of his love, his mercy, his grace, his sovereignty, and disregard it to experience the fleeting ways of this world. Friends, it's not worth it. Don't turn, but draw close, and bow down to a God whom we must fear.

Camping For Jesus

I had the privilege of working a high school week of camp up to Lake James last month. It was a wonderful opportunity to serve the kingdom in a different way than what I am used to. I typically steer clear of camp. I was honestly not looking forward to it at all and I made no secret of my feelings either.

Thankfully, God used me regardless of my poor attitude. I know for a fact that God’s Spirit is active and powerful at Lake James Christian Assembly, because it softened the hardest of hearts towards camp and its ministry. I don’t think I could do another week for awhile, it really still isn’t my thing, but I really felt like God was using me there.

I had an interesting experience while there. I was the leader of a group, a dorm dad and I also taught a workshop. The workshop was what I was most excited about. I enjoy teaching, and that was going to be my opportunity to reach the most kids and get to know them.

My workshop was entitled “The Importance of Daily Bible Study.” Everyone else had the really exciting topics; one guy got to burn stuff…the new guy (me) was given the daunting task of convincing kids that they should read their Bibles more then play their video games. Now that’s what I call “Fun!” I figured no one would come with more exciting choices offered. I was wrong. Over 40 kids showed up for the first offering, and 30 for the second. I was excited, and I thought the lesson went really well on Tuesday. I thought for sure the rest of the campers would show up on Thursday for the next offerings. I calculated that was enough time to get them to tell all their friends about the best workshop with the coolest title. I thought for sure there would be 50 kids for Thursday’s lesson.

There was one. His name was Kyle. I didn’t know what to do. I asked him if he wanted to go to a different group and come back when I offered it the next hour. He didn’t care. But then something came over me like I needed to share my lesson with him one on one. So, I did. And we had a wonderful conversation. I will probably see him again next year. We won’t be best buds. We didn’t have a heart wrenching moment where we will forever be united. We simply spoke about Christ, what he is doing in our life, and how we can encourage that relationship every day.

I’m really glad I didn’t pawn him off to some other group. To think I was well on my way to doing that frightens me, but also assures me that God was a part of that camp, especially that week in that very moment. Thank goodness he is, because otherwise, my ego would have prevented an opportunity to share with a young man who is contemplating a life of Christian service. I never would have met him, shared with him, or encouraged him if it weren’t for the activity of God.

I could have talked my way out of going to camp. I could have come up with something else that I much rather of done, but I would have missed an opportunity to share with students about God and encourage them, and for that, I am forever thankful that God uses us even when we are stubborn, grumpy, egotistical and think there are more important things to be done. I don’t know how many times God is going to teach me this lesson, hopefully I will learn sooner than later. At the end of the week, I believe God used me. I made some good relationships with the students and I was able to challenge them. As I think about it more now, I wonder how much more God could have used me had my heart not been as hard as it was. We are truly fortunate to have a patient God who uses us even when our actions and our thoughts can be so distant from what he expects of our life. God is truly gracious. It seems every day is a reminder that “I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power.” (Ephesians 3:7)

- Jordan

FRUITY

Since reading Dallas Willard’s The Great Omission, I have had a strange obsession with the mention of “fruit” and its usage throughout scripture, specifically in the Gospels. Willard had a statement that made a significant impact on my life and my own spiritual journey, the statement being “If you tend to the tree, the fruit will take care of itself.” His statement was in the context of Luke 6 in regards to the good and bad trees bearing their respective fruit. The statement hit me in the heart. Am I putting my life in the way of God, the One with the pruning sheers, who can shape my life into one that bears the fruit of righteousness, goodness, patience, self-control, wisdom, peacefulness and gentleness? The statement made me ask the question, “Am I becoming the good tree?”

I recently read a scripture verse that never before stood out at all. I have read over it multiple times, in one of my favorite books of the Bible, yet the words never spoke to me until now. The scripture verse, Matthew 3:8, is quite simple and therefore, easily overlooked: “Therefore, bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”(NASB)

The context is John the Baptist speaking to the Sadducees and Pharisees who approached him while he was performing a baptism of repentance. John’s initial greeting for the Sadducees and Pharisees wasn’t charming, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” It sounds like John is upset that someone let the cat-out-of-the-bag about a special event like a surprise birthday party. John, it seems, would like to know who told the Sadducees and Pharisees that now was the time to repent and turn to God.

John continues in his message saying essentially that God can make up new children who belong to him out of anything, even inanimate objects like stones. So don’t think because of who you are (Pharisees and/or Sadducees) that you can live as you please and be children of God.

I started with talking about fruit. We enjoy summer and its fruit, with fond memories of scavenging berry bushes, spitting cherry pits, and eating strawberry shortcake…lots of strawberry shortcake. These are the conventional thoughts on fruit. Obviously, there is more in mind in the biblical sense of “fruit.” It has to do with the fruit of our life, which is essentially our “works.” I believe our works are not what make us righteous; rather, works are a response out of our righteousness. Our good fruit comes out of a life made good by God through Christ Jesus. The word “fruit” has captured my attention lately and I think that’s why the scripture jumped out at me like never before. I like how the NLT translates it: “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.” I had one of those “wow!” moments that you always enjoy when reading scripture.

If every confessing Christian took this scripture seriously and started living to its command of “proving by the way you live that you have turned to God” then maybe people might begin to see a difference in Christians, maybe even some fruit would come of what it is like to live in the kingdom of God and belong to God as his children.

But so often we don’t set out to prove we live for God. We try proving the things that simply don’t need our pathetic pontificating. We set out to prove: the existence of God, the creation of the world, why we take communion every week, the essentiality of baptism, the importance of coming to church services on Sunday, why people shouldn’t drink, smoke…Christians seem to get so enveloped with arbitrary things, if we actually set out to prove that we have repented of our sins and live for God then maybe people might see a different sort of faith where Christians no longer live a life of “sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy and drunkenness,” Paul warns us, “those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

We need to take serious the way we live our life, and what we set out to prove. When we set out to prove we live for God and have repented of sins, we will bear fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. My point then is what are we setting out to prove? That we are right? Or that we live for God? I think there is a drastic difference, one that separates the Christ followers from the Pharisees. For one, they set to prove their ways were right, for the other, that God can be trusted and is who we all ought to live for.

This verse climbed the ranks of my favorite verses. It once wasn’t even in the running, now it sits before me at my desk. “bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” In other words, live like you love God. Write this verse down and put it in places where it is always before you, where you walk through the door, open the fridge, look at the speedometer… Always have before you words that encourage you to bear the fruit of a godly life. Ask yourself this question, “What am I trying to prove?” The answer is the fruit.