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.

Story and a Makeover

A well told story can capture the imagination, and inspire a people. There is evidence of this from long ago and now. It doesn’t take much to capture the imagination of the American people. The new Indiana Jones movie released in theatres last month, is breaking records and will stand to be among the top grossing films for a long time. It is a fairly simple story; a professor/archaeologist seeks to save his friends and family from the evil antagonists’ plot to gain infinite knowledge and use it against capitalist America for the sake of communism. I watched it, marveled at it, and left the theater feeling like a kid again.

The new Indiana Jones movie won’t be the last blockbuster movie to enter theatres this summer. More movies will tell gripping stories of love lost, struggles overcome, battles fought, and all will inspire, captivate and motivate us in ways that little else can.

We love stories. We fell in love with stories at an early stage in life. We would sit on our parent’s laps and hear stories of green eggs, and Horton’s hearing things. We simply love a good story.

People are as captivated by a story today as they were thousands of years ago. The Old Testament is predominately a story. It is in these stories we hear about people who were faithful to God and how he changed their lives because of it. Within the Old Testament, we see the unfolding of God’s redemptive plan throughout history. We see a God who is active, and participating with his creation.

These stories in the first testament often go forgotten, and neglected. I thought that since many of us would be spending time this summer enjoying inspiring stories on the big screen we also ought to enjoy life-altering stories in our fellowship. The communion crackers won’t have anything on the popcorn, but the stories have the potential of changing our lives.

I will be spending the summer preaching throughout the Old Testament sharing inspirational, faith-filled stories about people who loved God.

Many of the stories will be familiar, some less, but all will be beneficial. God working through faithful people is a wonderful thing, and I pray that we might aspire to be the same kind of faithful people that God uses today. The world needs people who love God. In times of economic woes and widespread warfare, a people who trust in God with all their heart, soul and strength is crucial.

So the question is: will the Etna Green Church of Christ be that people? Will a church rise above its culture, out from the depths of uncertainty and skepticism and declare that its God reigns? Will people be faithful and trust in God like never before seen? It is very simple, we need to know where we came from to understand how strong we can be. Please join us throughout the summer in this faith training series about loving God more, and trusting him with all that we are. We have shining examples of people throughout scripture, let’s hear their story.

For me Mum

A Mother’s Day Promise

It was the second semester of second grade when I made the single most important promise I would ever give to my mother. It would change my relationship with her forever. I would continually walk through the house with my shoes on and that didn’t bode well for me because mother was a stickler for clean carpet. With three boys and a dog, clean carpet was a difficult task. After continual lectures to take my shoes off upon entering the house, and seeing how upset my mother would get after neglecting her wish, I decided I would try my best to make certain I took my shoes off upon entering the house. The opportunity to seal my commitment came when my class was asked to write a promise in the local newspaper to our mothers out of recognition of Mother’s day. I thought it appropriate to reveal my newfound commitment through the newspaper. With thousands reading my promise, I spent the rest of my days trying to fulfill it.

I did fairly well with it too. To this day, the first thing I do upon entering my home is take off my shoes. I made the promise to obey my mom’s wishes because she struck fear into the depths of my soul. I wasn’t going to walk through the house anymore because, at that age, my mom was my world. She cooked, cleaned and loved me like any wonderful mother would and walking through her house with dirty shoes would risk losing everything, possibly my life.

I have been thinking a lot about the New Life and the commitment we should have to God because of it. The current sermon series deals with the New Life in Christ and because of it, my eyes and heart are open to a whole realm of scripture that challenges and causes great conviction. In the early portions of Deuteronomy, the Israelites are going to enter into the land God promised them. This is after the wanderings in the desert and Moses recaps their story to remind them how they got to where they are and what they need to do. The message is quite simply, “have no other gods, and love the one true Lord God Almighty.” Obedience and trust in God was at the heart of the message for the Israelites. Moses stressed obedience and trust because it was disobedience and failure to trust in God that caused so many problems before and after the Israelites entrance into the Promised Land. It doesn’t make sense to us why they could be disobedient after all the miraculous things God revealed to his people, but it was a continual problem for them.

You might be wondering what this has to do with me not taking off my shoes. I bring that story to light, because it’s an example of love causing obedience. I obeyed because of fear and love. I don’t know if I truly thought I was going to be kicked out of the house for not taking my shoes off, but I certainly wasn’t going to try her on the threat. And that, fear and love, is quite simply the type of attitude we need to have towards God. We struggle with obedience and trust in the New Life in Christ because we have lost the sense of fear and awe in God. We are told so much about a gushy lovey-dovey god who serves our every need and somehow we come to think the New Life is all about getting what we want, when we want it. This, in spite of the truth, has wreaked havoc on our faith and fellow Christian’s faith around the world. Obedience and true trust seem to be at an all time low. We trust God to do what will best suit us, but fail to trust in him to help us with drastically making known the kingdom of God. By that, I mean we offer up prayer for sicknesses of friends and family, which is fine, but we neglect prayer for the diligence, strength, and faith to turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, and give the shirt off our back.

God wanted the Israelites to be faithful, obedient and trusting because He had plans of using them as a witness to the world. This witness was through a nation that was different, set apart and holy, unlike any nations of the world. People would come to know God through the reverent obedience of this faithful people. This position is now held within the Church, only as more than a holy nation, we are a holy people who are salt and light to the world and witnesses of the kingdom of God. This is no easy task. If as God’s holy people we fail to fear and love God with all that we are, I worry obedience and trust in God will never rebound. In a world where there are so many different ways to supposed happiness, we know there is only one way to a life with real meaning, and true joy. But the world tries convincing us otherwise, with false gods and prophets, telling us to trust and worship in things of this world and time (Fortune & Fame). Moses says in Deuteronomy 13:3-4 “The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.”

We hold fast to our God and his ways. The New Life in Christ isn’t about what our God can do for us, its what he has already done to invite us in to live life belonging to him. I ask one thing: make a promise to love God with all that you are and make appropriate steps to commit to that promise. We have a difficult task before us, but we must prove faithful, and be the true exemplars of fear, love, trust and obedience.

- Jordan

New LIFE

Your New Life Now

April is an interesting time of year, there is evidence things are changing yet there are still remnants of the past. We experience the pleasant, warm, and gleeful feeling of summertime one day and the next day, sometimes within the same day, have the cold, gloomy and rainy days reminiscent of previous months. We all hope for better weather in April, but gloomy days are still very much present.

Our spiritual lives are much the same. It seems like our new life in God is in a perpetual state of April; our lives are at the crossroads of new and old. As evidence of our past life, our old selves linger like piles of snow and discourage us with rainy dreary days, while at the same time we see hope of a new life evident in the sun-laden days with cloudless skies and greening grass. Our old selves linger with occasional glimpses of the new.

Is this true for you? Do you wonder when this new life will happen that the preachers always preach about? Maybe I am wrong. Maybe there isn’t anyone in limbo concerning their spiritual growth and relationship with God. Maybe all Christians are living the new life now… I have a sneaking suspicion that I am not wrong (it happens, but not now). Every day is marked with opportunities to turn from God, to live for self, to promote ourselves, and live the old life, while at the same time, within the same day, in every situation we can live for God, praise God and promote his Kingdom. Every day is a day we can live to gratify the desires of our heart or God’s. So what do we do? What’s wrong with us that our old selves loiter? When does our new life begin?

In a world that tells you that you can have your best life now, we know better. We know that as long as this world exists as it is, with its hate, its debauchery, anger, lust, selfishness, envy and sin, it doesn’t mind rearing it ugly face in our life. As the people of God, we are to rise above the temptations of this world and live for God. But in this fast changing, and always misleading world, it always seems to find newer and better ways to bring down the people of God. There are continual reminders of a fallen world all around us, the question is, what will the Church do to reveal the new life now?

Spring prepares for the summer. We aren’t gearing up for winter at spring time. We clean up the house, prepare fields for sowing and get a fresh new wardrobe. We might all be in a perpetual state of April in our spiritual life, but what are we gearing up for? Are we preparing for the summer of Salvation? Are we cleaning our spiritual house? Are our fields prepared to hear and understand the word of God? Are we clothing ourselves with Righteousness? A new sermon series is beginning this month: “Your New life Now!” It is for those of us who long for the day of Jesus’ return, who need encouragement in the days to come; helping us realize we can live the new life now. The cornerstone verse is 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, 6:2:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God…I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”

Christ died for all. This is our hope; this is the beginning of new life. Christ is our future hope, today!

New Year

Every New Year is accompanied with new resolutions. We resolve to do better in the many aspects of our life. We say we will try to lose weight, spend less money, save more money, work out, run a mile every day, read more, stop smoking, stop drinking, or something as simple as watch less television, yet our New Year resolutions most often fail.

The same seems to happen with our spiritual life. Every New Year is joined with a desire to pray and study the Bible more. We try reading through the Bible in a year, get to Exodus and the enjoyable task turns toilsome. Much like the physical resolutions, the spiritual are hard to make habitual. If you are anything like me, failure always seems lurking around the corner. We try hard to change things that need changing, but most often we fail to reach our mark.

So what is your resolution this year? Is it to stop smoking? Or get out of debt? Every New Year is connected with a sense of new beginning, and hope that the year to come will bring more blessing then hardship, less pain and more joy. But the truth is, we don’t know what the year will actually bring. If we all came together and talked about the past year, we could find things we did well, along with things we could do better. What are you going to do to make this year different then the last? We all could use some help in the coming year. The beauty of a community of believers is you can find such help. It is hard doing anything on your own. God understands our frailty in this regard and finding strength in the faithful is what being a part of a community is about.

As a community of believers, we are beginning a new series on Wednesday nights that will prove extremely beneficial for those who attend. Andy Stanley is a respected communicator, who will bring us to a new level of understanding of what God has given us, and how we use it. If you are stretched to the max, and your wallet feels the same way, Stanley stands to provide helpful insights into the world of finances, time management, and most importantly, Godly living. If you don’t have time for this, you need to come.

Resolve this year, to commit to 8 Wednesday nights in the new year, beginning on January 9^th. Spend 8 weeks with us, it’s the best possible way you could start the new year.

May God Bless you this New Year, and May we continue to grow in our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ