The Layoff

Here I am! I still exist! What a layoff. We went to Ohio for Thanksgiving and I've been so busy with other stuff that blogging hasn't been a priority! Here's the skinny on what you've missed:

Our church volleyball team won the season championship!

My parents bought us a wii for Christmas (when we tell people, they seem uninterested considering everybody else has had one for years now)

My Bengals have lost like 9 in a row

My fantasy football team is in the playoffs starting next week. I could win $300!!

We had 58 in youth group this past Wednesday

Those are essentially the highlights.

Here are a few thoughts for you. Paul refers to his Christian life as a "race" a number of times. What I find fascinating with this thought is the fact that he says "I have finished the race..." (2nd Timothy 4:7)... What is important to note is the fact that he says he FINISHED and didn't say he WON... Our Christian life can be referred to as a Christian WALK or a Christian RUN. The problem is, if we're just walking through our ministry, we show no energy, passion, and devotion much like Paul did.  When your pastor asks for volunteers for a particular ministry, are you the first to step up or do you sit back and say to yourself "there are plenty of other people who will help out with that." You're considered the Christian who just WALKS through your ministry. Be a go-getter! You wonder why your sports coach always required you to give 100% on every practice and every game! If you don't, you'll let your team, your coach and your family down. In your church, give 100% percent every day! If you don't, you'll let your church, your pastor and your Jesus down.

And guess what, we don't have to WIN anything! We just have to FINISH. Jesus doesn't care if you're the BEST at what you do, He only cares that you give it your all and FINISH.

Run the Race, and Finish!

Chapter 4- A Revolutionary Prayer

Ok, so this is a book about starting a revolution in your heart. You didn’t possibly think I could write this whole thing without talking about prayer, did you? Well, let me attempt to make it a little more interesting than any way you’ve ever heard it before.

            We started everything off by telling a story about George Washington. What was he doing again? He was praying! Now let us talk about somebody in scripture that we would consider a prayer warrior. His name is Elijah. To make a long story short, Elijah often found himself in sticky situations. One particular situation was when he challenged   450 prophets of Baal. Alright, what does this mean? Baal was a god that was worshipped by many people during the Old Testament time. Even the King and Queen, Ahab and Jezebel worshipped him. Elijah, who was a prophet of God, got upset and challenge 450 prophets of Baal to a competition. They all went on top of a mountain, called Mt. Carmel (sounds like something from a candy factory) and built altars. The rules: Have your god send fire down from Heaven. The P.O.B (Prophets of Baal, if you will) danced, cried, screamed, went emo and cut themselves all day long and no fire came down. Now Elijah’s turn! He did a few things, prayed fire from Heaven and WAHLAH, it worked. Good story huh? Well let us dissect a few things so this could be made practical to all of us.

            I said Elijah did a “few things.” What did he do? Lets find out: 1st Kings 18:30-35

And Elijah said unto all the people, "Come near unto me." And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the LORD came, saying, "Israel shall be thy name." And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD, and he made a trench about the altar as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood and said, "Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood."And he said, "Do it the second time." And they did it the second time. And he said, "Do it the third time." And they did it the third time. And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water.

            The first thing Elijah does before he ever prays fire from Heaven is he repairs the altar (vs 30). There are area’s in our life that need to be repaired. It is easy for us to pray and ask God to provide for us a great wife, or husband, but if there are other relationships in our life that need repaired, to you think He will answer that prayer the way that we want Him to? We can pray to God for a lot of money but if you have a gambling problem that needs repaired or aren’t a wise steward with finances, do you think God will answer that prayer? Eljiah repaired the altar because it was essential to be repaired before he ever prayed to God.

            The second thing he does is put the wood in order (vs 33). There are priorities in our life that need to be put in order before God can ever answer a prayer that we send his way. The order of these priorities should be: My God, My Family, My Ministry, Myself! Can we possibly expect God to answer our prayer the way we want Him to if our priorities are wrong? If I put myself above my family or my God? No way! If we are attempting to have a revolution in our life, our prayer life needs to be right and this includes putting priorities in our life that is essential to God’s plan.

            The third thing that Elijah did was he challenged God (vs 33-35). He ordered water to be poured on the wood and the altar. Now I don’t know about you, but, the few times that I have been camping, pouring water on the wood that I plan to use for my campfire wasn’t always a practice that I purposely used. Now, there have been many times that I’ve had to put out fires using water, but never have I tried to start a fire using water. However, Elijah knew the power of his God. He knew the sovereignty of his God. He personally challenged God! Do we challenge God when we pray? Are there things in our life that we don’t think that even God could control? I mean, this is the reason our hearts need a revolution anyway, isn’t it? The power of our God is limitless and undefined. Paul talks a little about God’s power in Ephesians 1:19-21

“And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:”

You want a revolution in your heart? Challenge God and His power.

            The fourth thing that Elijah did before he called fire down from Heaven is he had faith. Faith can do a lot of things. Matthew 17: 20 tells us:

“...assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you”

In fact, a few chapter earlier in Matthew 13, we read that the mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds. Jesus tells us that if we truly had just the tiniest bit of faith, great things can happen!  Do you think Elijah had faith? In front of hundreds of people he prayed that God would send fire down from heaven! How about our faith? Do we have faith that God will bless our marriage? Do we have faith that God will heal our loved one of that disease? What about our finances? Can God possibly bless them? He can, if we have faith that He can.

            I heard it said once that when we sit in a chair, it takes faith to believe that it will hold us up. Well, I argue this. If you have a completely empty room and I tell you to sit down and the chair that you don’t see will hold you up, that is faith. The writer of Hebrews tells us that faith is the “ substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Your heart doesn’t see God physically! He doesn’t reveal Himself like that to us. If He did, it wouldn’t take any faith to believe that He exists. Instead, He allows us to believe that He lives and can answer our prayers. Do you want a revolution in your heart? Consider the prayer life of Elijah and apply it to yourself.

Serious Coffee House Stuff

So, while in college at Baptist Bible College, a group of friends and myself would find ourselves engaged in what we considered "legit theological conversations." We'd hang out at coffee houses, the snack shack on campus or even in the cafeteria and it was at the locations our deepest thoughts were revealed. We seriously thought we knew it all.

The phrase "Coffee House Theology" was coined at some point, but I first heard in said by a professor. I thought "That's exactly what we are right now. Coffee House Theologians." The thought came to my mind a few months ago and I thought, how appropriate for my blog!

Deep inside, I really hate coffee. I'm a pansy-man when it comes to it! Hot Chocolate has always been my winter beverage of choice. This morning our pastor took the staff to get coffee at the local coffee house. How can I order a hot chocolate in front of the guys? That will fly if its just me and the wife, but real men are supposed to drink coffee. So what did I do? I ordered a white chocolate mocha! I felt them holding their laughter inside. I mean, it's probably as feminine as a hot chocolate anyway. What a lame duck I am!

It's Been Awhile

Good Morning to my blogging friends! It's been a week and a half since I've been on, but I have good reason! I took a group of my students to Baptist Bible College this past week for their College Days! High school students get a chance to live on campus, go to class, meet friends and see the city of Springfield Missouri. It was a fantastic trip!!

In one of the chapel services, the speaker (Duke Haggard) challenged us with the question "What Is Cool?" He's an old hippie who endured '69 and Woodstock, but accepted Christ in the 70's and now has a great ministry in New York. His thoughts were this: Society constantly tells us what is cool. Expensive clothes, new cars, facebook, good looks, beer, etc. is cool according to our world. But if we look at our world with a Biblical Worldview, we'd see that the "cool" things in our society are the things Christ would consider cool. Things like "Love", and "Truth", and "Serving Jesus." Seriously, what is cooler than Love? 1st Corinthians 13 tells us that we can have knowledge, faith and a whole lot of things, but if we don't have love then none of it matters. Love is cool.

Who likes being lied to? Do you like when your husband lies to you? What about when your best friend lies to you? No way! Truth is a very cool thing. I joke around a lot and sometimes my students don't know when I'm telling the truth or lying about something. In all reality, I've told them, I've never lied to you about anything. If I tell them some cool story about something I've done, they normally don't believe me and they investigate by asking my wife, talking to my friends and family, etc. only to find out that I was telling the truth. Truth is real cool.

And, serving Jesus is real cool. Read John 13. This is the story of Jesus washing the disciples feet. Check this out, customarily, the host of the home would have their servant wash the feet of his guest. Sandles mixed with lack of pavement (dirt roads) and absence of cars (lots of walking) meant really, really dirty feet. So, it was custom to have your servant wash the feet of your guest. Well, in John 13, they were in a borrowed room. There was no host. So, when it was time to have feet washed, none of the disciples stepped up. Jesus took off His outer robe and took the water and wash cloth into His own hands. He showed them what it meant to truly serve others and encouraged them to follow after His example. Serving Jesus is really cool!

Anyway, hope this was encouraged to you today. Be Cool!

Good Morning

What a good morning! Of course, today is my birthday. As a child, you always look forward to birthdays. Mom and dad give you gifts and there's birthday cake. Now that I'm an adult and married, I still find that boyhood excitement. Call me selfish, but who doesn't like getting birthday wishes on facebook from friends you haven't heard from in months? Who doesn't enjoy the birthday text messages? Plus, Rachelle bought me some new Air Max shoes! Alright, as pathetic as I sound right now, I think the true joy I get is the fact that I have so many people in my life that care for me.

I think of the Apostle Paul. He was always around people that cared for him. From Barnabas, to Timothy, to Mark, to Luke, etc... In fact, while Paul was in prison, Luke was spending time visiting him. Paul wrote a letter to Timothy (2nd Timothy) and tells him "bring Mark with you..." He understood the importance of having godly people in his life. Edification was important even to Paul.

I think thats why I enjoy my birthday. Not because I'm getting older, but because its the day I am edified the most. Call me selfish, but I like having godly friends!

Don't You Love New Days?

You know, as much as I'm not a morning person, I've realized as I become older that the morning is my favorite time of the day! Rachelle gets up super early to get ready for work so I find myself up earlier than usual. This allows me to actually enjoy the morning instead of missing it while I'm sleeping!

Here's another reason why I like the morning, its brand new! Check this out, Max Lucado, in his book Everyday Deserves a Chance  Max tells us that every day is a brand new 24 hours. Yesterday's disappointments, attitude, regrets, etc. don't enter into today unless you take it with you. I pulled clip from his 30 Days of Thoughts blog:

Next time your day goes south, here is what you do: Steep yourself in the grace of God. Saturate your day in His love. Marinate your mind in His mercy. He has settled your accounts, paid your debt.

“Christ carried our sins in His body on the cross.”
1 Peter 2:24 NCV

Thats good stuff! Why should we worry about our failures when downfalls and sins when Christ already took care of them? A fulfilled life is merely acquired when you completely put your trust in Him! Allow Jesus to bless today, and guess what, you get another chance tomorrow!

Remember the woman that God used to assist Elijah? 1st Kings 17:7-16 tells you the story. She was poor and there was a draught. She lived with her son but neither was in good health. God instructed her to provide food for Elijah but she only had a handful of flower and a little oil in her jar yet she obeyed. Scripture tells us that every day God replenished the flour and oil. Every morning she woke up with just enough food to get through the day. Then, eventually, the rain came again and she was overwhelmed with blessings.

Allow Christ to give you enough flour and oil to make it through today. You may be at the bottom of your barrel, but He can provide if you trust in Him. 

Last verse to dwell upon: Philippians  4:19- But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

My Sermon from Earlier this Month

Me Preaching