Thursday, January 31, 2008

New Lead Pastor!

Well, in case you're wondering, we have hired a new lead pastor! We're really excited about his family moving here. He'll be moving out here soon. If you want to know more, check out the link to the right for Meridian Point Church and catch up with what's going on in our lives in ministry.

Today I spent some time reading a book called The Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne. Right now I'm only in chapter 4 or 5...he was just talking about his trip to Calcutta. You know, I'm not really big on leprosy. I don't know if I could bring myself to shake Shane's hand because he said he touched them. But as I was reading he made a very clear point:

Jesus had the ability to heal people of this disease. Jesus had the power to heal anyone of anything, even raise people from the dead. But even those rose from the dead died again. And those who were healed from sicknesses got sick again. What imprinted Jesus in people's minds was the love He showed. Jesus said that we are known as His disciples by our love. We may not have the ability to touch people and heal them physically, but we do have the ability to touch them with love. It was Jesus' love for people that brought Him to touch them. What kind of love do we have...do I have if my love doesn't match this, if I can't bring myself to a point of humility before someone else and value them as an equal no matter what they've become, how they look, or their past!

I was also reading about the disciples and them fighting about who was the greatest in Luke 9. Jesus told them that in order to be the greatest you must be the least; receive the least. Another mention was a parable that Jesus was telling people about the Kingdom of Heaven. He said that whatever we do to the least of these we do it unto Him.

The point is that those of us who claim to know and love God need to realize that we only love Him as much as we love the least person. It's easy to love those who love us, but to "lower" ouselves to love the unlovable, to touch the untouchable, demonstrates who Christ really was and who He really is now. The Jesus of the Bible loved unconditionally. Do we...really?

Thursday, January 17, 2008

I'll Be Praying For You...

How many times have we said that phrase? People pour out their souls to us and that's the best we can come up with in response. I know that I've said it multiple times. Have you ever come accross someone that you said that to and then realized that you could have been an answer to their prayer?

This whole thing comes from James 2:14-17. If you want to read it, at the bottom of this page there is a link to Biblegateway where you can type in the reference and it'll bring up the verses in a new window. James is talking about our faith and living it out. I'm going to allow it to shoot from a different angle...try and get to where we are now and make it applicable to us today; our copping out of living out our faith by telling people that we're praying for them. I know what you're thinking and I also know that some of you will comment on how I'm reading this wrong. But bear with me for a moment.

We all pray for ourselves and sometimes for other people. Have you ever said that you'd pray for someone and then forgot to do it? I've done it. Here's the reason why we forget: their needs are not all that important us.

Basically it all boils down to our lack of faith. No matter what we believe our actions should convey to others that we actually believe what we say. I say I believe in God, that He exists, and that He has a purpose for my life and yours. If I truly do believe in God then I'll do what He says. I'll proclaim what He says verbally and physically. God will have an impact on my life if I believe Him. That's faith. Faith has to do with living out what we believe. James uses a very practical analogy that still sticks with us. In his day people would call out blessings to others. We do the same thing. They would ask for things to pray about. We do the same thing.

Now don't get me wrong. Praying for people and their needs are very important and I'm not bashing that at all. The thing is that we really do cop out by telling people that we'll pray for them. Half the time we don't because we forget. We end up doing nothing at all. You've heard, "It's the thought that counts." Well that's not true. It may be true to us, but not to the one who has the need. The only thing they can see is the need before them. The only thing we can see is the time they're taking, so we tell them that we'll pray for them. Some of us do remember to pray and some of us even pray with them right then and there. I'll tell you from experience, if you say you're going to pray for them do it now. Do it while they're with you, now. Don't let them leave without praying for them, now. That has a bigger impact than telling them that you'll keep them in your prayers. The importance of immediate prayer with them can encourage them to see that we have faith that God will help them if we can't. How blind can we be when someone tells us what is on their heart or stirring in their home and we can actually do something about it and don't!

Another thing we're basically doing when we tell others that we'll simply pray for them is telling God that it's His problem to deal with. We're telling them that it's a problem that they'll have to take up with God. What kind of faith is that? Then we suddenly put ourselves in a position to allow God to be mocked, to give them opportunity to lose hope, to allow our faith to be trampled on. They will blame God! Their whole situation could be used as an opportunity for God to show them His power, an opportunity for Him to work in their lives. But even we end up mocking God when we don't do anything when His power could be working through us! It's blindness.

Here's the deal; some of you probably heard me tell this story before about a homeless guy I met in St. Louis, Missouri. There was a large group of us out there for a Christian convention and we were on our way to lunch. The homeless man stopped us for a second asking for help. He didn't have any food. Instead of taking him with us (and believe me, we had enough money to feed him the left half of the menu) we gave him a dollar and told him to "take care"...another one of those blessings we say half-heartedly without any meaning or sincerity but do it anyways because it's a nice thing to do. It hurts me to think that that was an opportunity wasted. There are others that have happened in my life too. I bet you can think of something that you could do to help someone in need. You know someone you work with or go to school with or are even related to that has a need that you can meet. But instead of doing the right thing, meeting that need, we bring them up in prayer circles, tell them we'll be praying for them, or tell them to "take care".

It's time for our faith to take action!! I'm convicted by this, people. If I can't possibly do anything outside of copping out of meeting a need, then my faith is small. I think part of this active faith that should be living through us is being the answer to their prayers. And if I can't do it myself I definately know someone who could help me. People don't just come to us because we are the nearest person to them, they come to us because they believe we can help. Jesus did something during His ministry on earth: He met people's needs. How can I claim to be a follower of Jesus if I don't make it a point to do the same? Being human or having an interruption in my daily "priorities" is no excuse. And if meeting someone's needs is interrupting my priorities then they're screwed up. God calls us to reach out. How can we do that as beleivers?

The world all around us is suffering because of a lack of Christ in their lives. Our faith shouldn't be something that simply puts everything at the feet of God and say, "Deal with it." No, we need to take everything to God and ask Him for wisdom in how to deal with it. God is on our side. Our responsibility to them would be not only to pray but to meet the need. I believe this passage is intended to stir the passive believer, and it's definately stirred me. What do you think?

Friday, January 11, 2008

The Response

"Hello!" Normally people respond with a "hello" back... It sure seems like it's been forever since I put anything up on this ol' thing. But something struck me as interesting this past week and I have to share it with you.

Are you a parent? A boss? Or want to be a boss? I actually do know some things about parenting...I want my kids to respond when I call them. We're getting to a point now where if I call their name they better come running and find out what daddy wants. Sometimes in a relationship with others we hold a conversation about things that are going on in life, explaining situations and our response to those situations hoping for our friend's approval of our choice. Lots of times they reply with what their response would have been if they went through the same thing you did...as if what they would do would have been the "better" choice, and it always ends up being exaggerated. When you think about it, just about everything we do stimulates a response from someone else, doesn't it? If we're walking straight toward someone either they're going to move out of the way or you will, or both of you will consent to the other's presence respectfully and slightly turn. When we hear a joke that's funny we laugh. When we're told bad news we cry or show sympathy. When we're told good news we rejoice. Do you get where I'm coming from?

I'm reading in Luke 5 and in the first 11 verses there is quite the intriguing story about Jesus and Peter's first encounter with each other. The Rabbi just started His ministry and was preaching to, evidentally, a very large crowd by a lake. So, Jesus got into a boat that belonged to Simon, later to be called Peter (for short?). I don't know how long Jesus talked but I bet what He was saying was delivered from a different perspective than from what a majority of the listeners were taught growing up. Simon heard it all. He listened. He had to. Some teacher that he'd never met before took his boat into the water and was speaking from it.

After the "lesson" Jesus, the newly respected Teacher, the man with great wisdom so it seemed, told a weary fisherman to go out and fish. It seemed like this "wise guy" doesn't really know what He's talking about. Any fisherman knows that midday isn't the best time to out. Peter's response was basically, "I don't want to, but if you say so..." He did it. He caught a huge amount of fish! So many he needed help! So many that both the boats they filled were sinking!!

Stop for a minute... Here's this guy that was teaching and suddenly earned a following that hung on every word He said. Teacher's had that kind of respect in the Jewish culture and if the teacher valued you at all he'd teach you what he knew. Jesus valued all of them. He was teaching them. It feels good to be respected doesn't it? I mean, when people respect you a little you end up responding with some respect for them. Jesus told Simon to do something and I think, from what I can tell from the tone of his response to Him, Jesus earned Simon's respect. He followed through. His response to Jesus' command ended up with a blessing, a big blessing. It's almost as if Jesus showed Simon a little about who He is in His teaching and asked him to try out Jesus' words. "Just try it. See what happens when you follow My commands." Simon responded accordingly, reluctantly.

You know, sometimes God's commands aren't all that exciting or even attractive, but He does ask us just to taste it, just to see if God will really live up to His Word. Simon found out that there's a blessing that results. Do you think that if we just take some time and try out God and His Word that there will be a similar result? Let me encourage you to try God out. Just try doing something that He commands in His Word and see what happens. Let me help... in John 8 Jesus talks about how God doesn't like lying. He covers deceit in a lot of chapters in the Bible. It seems to be something that He doesn't like and is against His nature to do or even to have any part of. God asks that we don't lie. Try it. Don't lie or be deceitful for a day or longer and see what happens.

Well, back to the story. Simon saw the power of God in a very physical way. His response once again was realizing who he is compared to Jesus - unworthy. Simon's response was total humility. He realized that he was in the very presence of Someone great, Someone capable of so much, Someone holy, Someone worthy of a capital "S" at the beginning of the pronoun "Someone". Notice Jesus' response to Simon's obedience, to Simon's agreeing to try out Jesus' words: don't be afraid. Well, hang on a second. Jesus is telling him not to be afraid of Someone capable of miracles? Someone with so much power to create a large catch of fish like that? When we are confronted with the very power of God and see it for ourselves our response needs to be similar to Simon's; falling on our knees in front of a Holy God. In Hebrews it says that we have the opportunity now because of Jesus to enter into God's throne room (in prayer) with confidence. The Creator of the world deserves our humility and fear of Who He is and yet He tells us not to be afraid. Isn't that interesting?

And it's only when the heart is humble before Him that God can commission us to do great things for Him with purpose and calling. Jesus didn't just say "don't be afraid" but commissioned Simon to do something great. Isn't it neat that God would take time out for us, consider us valuable enough to share what His idea of life is all about through the Bible, to ask us or give us an option to try Him out (which that seems odd. Isn't He God? Shouldn't He be commanding us to try Him out?), and then when we are brought to humility, a state of recognizing who God is in a very real way, for Him to commission us to be a part of His great plan for the universe!

Even the commission needs a response. Notice that they left everything and followed Him! God gives us opportunity to respond to the commission...we can do what we want with the new option He has given us. God calls for committment now.

God's Word calls for a response from each of us. How are you going to respond? Are you going to try Him out? You know that He exists. If you say you don't, or say you don't believe in Him, you end up using His Name every day. If we aren't praying to Him we're using God in a state of astonishment or cursing. Who hasn't said "Oh my God"? He exists doesn't He? How will you respond? Just try Him out and see what He is capable of in your life. And when He shows Himself to you how are you going to respond? When He commissions you, will commit to Him? He's already committed to you.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Please Pray!

Hi all! I know, it has been an extremely long time since I've written anything, but lots of things have been happening. Currently our church is seeking a new lead pastor. Please be in prayer over this. Our late pastor has resigned and is seeking new ministry or a job. Please also really be in prayer for him and his family. Right now he doesn't have a job but does have a wife and two children to take care of. Thanks a bunch for lifting us up to God! Let me know how you're doing. Send me an email! God bless.