Friday Fun: 10/29/2010

Hey It's Friday!  

It is time for the joke & cartoon of the week.

   One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Alex standing in the foyer of the church staring up at a large plaque. It was covered with names and small American flags mounted on either side of it. The six-year old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the pastor walked up, stood beside the little boy, and said quietly, "Good morning Alex."  "Good morning Pastor," he replied, still focused on the plaque.

   "Pastor, what is this?"  The pastor said, "Well son, it's a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service."  Soberly, they just stood together, staring at the large plaque. Finally, little Alex's voice, barely audible and trembling with fear asked, "Which service...the 8:30 or the 10:30?"

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OK, have a wonderful & blessed weekend!

  

Full Of God!

   My heart is to see a people so full of God that they become: 

Sold Out, Instead of Sell Outs!

Passion Driven, Instead of Fear Driven!

Spirit Led, Instead of Self Led!

Bible Reading, over Author Reading! (Books are GREAT, Bibles are BETTER)

Prayer Focused, Instead of Problem Focused!

Outward Reaching, Instead of Inward Quenching!

Jesus Loving & Devil Shoving!

  

OK, you get the picture!  

   There is such a need for faithful, committed Christians (Christ Followers) to stand up passionately, courageously & contagiously.  Motivated not for Religion but from Relationship.   Here, let me put it this way;       

Religion Says:
DO The Right Things!

Relationship Says:

Become so full of God That You BECOME The Right Things!

   Have a wonderful & blessed weekend!

~ Matt

Faith...It's What Pleases God!

Faith...It's what pleases God! 

Remember that slogan from the 1990's, "Beef, it's what's for dinner"? Well, it's kinda like that...I guess. "Faith, it's what pleases God!"   

  Hebrews 11(the faith chapter) makes it very clear how vital faith is in bringing pleasure to God.  Hebrews 11:6, But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  Now there is a lot in here (ie. Faith, Pleasure, Reward, diligently seeking, etc.).  We could break this verse down in many ways.  But today I am dealing with Faith that pleases God!

   Now, notice it doesn't say, "Without faith it is very difficult to please Him."  No, it says that without faith it's IMPOSSIBLE to please Him.  We must learn to trust God if we are to bring a smile to his face!  I don't know about you...but I live to put a smile on God's face.  Now I know that there is a lot of teaching on faith...rightfully so.  Because it takes faith to please God. Without it, we have no chance at all of pleasing Him.

Hebrews 10:38, Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.

Now, that's pretty black and white, isn't it? If you desire to please God, it begins with faith.  It begins with trusting God fully in your life!

   Today, I want to encourage & challenge you to ask yourself, "Am I trusting God in every area of my life?"  "Am I placing my faith in Him day by day, minute by minute?"  If you find yourself struggling in this area, commit & resolve today to simply TRUST HIM!  Spend time in His Word.  As the Bible says in Romans 10:17, So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.   Be encouraged today, as you study in, stand on & live by His word!  As you do, your faith in Him will grow & in return will continue bringing Him pleasure!  

Inquire of the Lord!

   The Wednesday challenge is simply this: Inquire of the Lord! In everything you do, every situation you face, every unknown you go throughy…”Inquire of the Lord”.

   David was facing a dilemma in which he had to strengthen himself in the Lord.  And as he did, we read the following in 1 Samuel 30:8. "So David inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?” And He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.”

   It says that, David inquired of the Lord!

   There is another example in the book of Joshua where the opposite takes place. It goes to show the importance of inquiring of God, of seeking His will, direction & guidance, first, no matter how things may seem.  The nation of Israel had entered the Promised Land and winning battles after battles. One day a group of Gibeonites showed up. They had bags full of old moldy bread, their sandals worn out, their water skins cracked, and their clothing old and worn.  They told Joshua and the leaders of Israel that they had come from far away. They told them about how they’ve heard about all the great things God was doing for them and they wanted to make sure they would not be attacked. So they said they had traveled from far away to make a covenant with them. So that, when Israel eventually reached them in the future, they wouldn’t be attacked.

   The Bible says in Joshua 9:14, The men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the LORD.  It says specifically, that Joshua and his men did not inquire of the Lord. Instead, they looked at the people’s provisions... the moldy bread, the old sandals, the old water skins... and they made a covenant with them.   Now, as it turns out, they were not from a far off but rather next door neighbors. Israel had been deceived. And it caused huge problems in Israel’s future.

   Let me challenge you to inquire of the Lord TODAY!
Do it now, before you make your situation worse.
Inquire of the Lord and let Him lead you!

~ Matt

Now to finish up this "Blog Series" on becoming a Missional church of Action. 

Action: “Equipping 2 Engage”.
   We serve a God of Action! Jesus saw a lost and dieing world in need of a savior, and then did something about it. He didn’t look down from His throne and say, “WOW, They’re really messed up, somebody should do something!” No, He saw, and then He acted! He humbly stepped off His throne and chose to follow the mission through to the end…TO DEATH! Jesus is ALL ABOUT ACTION!  Now, if Jesus Christ is all about action, and if being a Christian means being like Christ, then we too need to be ALL ABOUT ACTION!
  
   When Jesus addressed Peter as “Rock” and He says, “upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.”(Matthew 16:1 This is a picture of what the church ought to be…On The Offence! I am sick & tired of the church being just a place of retreat. We use the church as a way of escaping the world when in actuality it was built to TAKE THE WORLD & to ADVANCE THE KINGDOM! The Bible says that the Gates of Hell will not prevail against it. We have always looked at this as if, all Hell is after us, so we need to retreat to our safe little churches, so that it won’t prevail. Get the picture here; Hell has to put up gates to stop US!  We, as the church, are to kick down those gates and rescue those enslaved within it’s grasps.

   We are called to be a church of Action, a church of Movement, and a church on the offense knocking down the gates of Hell. The question is, are you ready to be apart of that church. Are you ready to move from church of safety to the church of action? If we’re going to reach this community, we are going to have to “Engage” the culture that resides here. We need to find “well environments”.  Jesus met the women at the well, not the temple. In the same way, we need to find “wells” throughout our areas of influence.  We need to find ways to engage the businesses, schools & homes within our communities.  When we speak of Action, it means movement outside our walls.

   Our churches need to equip our members with knowledge & opportunities to engage their world and accomplish the mission God has given them. To arm them with knowledge & opportunities to go on the offence!

Missional Church of Action - Pt.2

I'm now going to continue the "Blog Series" Missional Church of Action.  In my last entry I wrote briefly about what it means to be "missional". I'm now going to define in short, what a church is.

Church: I think the definition of “Church” is one that needs to be defined. We just assume everyone knows what a church is. The problem is, the church is being redefined in an improper way. There are Liberal churches that are trying to downgrade everything possible in order to not be offensive.  Just because two guys meet in a coffee shop and say Jesus, doesn’t make that a church. It is the whole anything goes mentality. Mark Driscoll says it well in his book, confessions of a reformation rev., "One well known expert promoting this new undefined, undisciplined, and unbiblical ecclesiology was once asked how we can possibly define what a church is if his advice of not having elders, deacons, members, discipline, or doctrine was heeded. His response was simply, If it smells like a church, it is a church. My response was that sometimes a whore wears the same perfume as a wife, and it's no different with the bride of Christ.” 

   In defining in detail about what constitutes a church, we could write an entire book. We could go into the fact that WE are the church, that it’s not as much of a place as it is a people that are connected to Christ (this is the invisible church). Which would be correct. But there is also a visible church that is structured in a way to help build lives, reach people & worship Christ. The Bible is clear on not forsaking the assembly. We need to be apart of a local church & it’s mission.
  

   So let me clarify the definition of a Church:

   The local church is a community of regenerated (born again) believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. In obedience to Scripture they organize under qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching, teaching & worship. They observe the biblical sacraments of baptism and communion, are unified by the spirit, are disciplined for holiness and scatter to fulfill the great commission as missionaries to the world.

    This is the definition of “church” that we should be defined by!

Missional Church of Action - Pt.1

This is part 1 of a 3 part "Blog-Series" 

Missional Church of Action. 

I will be Breaking down 

1) Missional 2) Church 3) Action

Missional: A missional church knows that God has sent it on a mission to a time, a place and a people such as this.  As a missional church, we need to be engaged in the culture in which we live, in understanding of the culture outside the areas of influence & involved in the expansion of the gospel throughout the world. We call this Local, National & World Missions. Most importantly we need to get past the thought that missions & missionaries are those who go to the distant lands of the earth (other countries). That is part of it, but not all. Missions & Missionaries are everyday Christians who go out and engage the community & world in which they live. We are ALL Missionaries on a mission from God (yes, like the blues brothers). A missionary is someone who can bring the gospel to people in an effective cultural way. We do this with a Go, See, Feel, Do approach.

Go: This is the command given by Jesus at His ascension. It is the missional command from Jesus to go and make disciples. This means sharing the gospel with them. Telling them who Jesus is, what He has done, and walking with them as their relationship with Jesus grows. We need to stop looking at our culture from a distance, retreating in fear, holding a cross out from our bodies rebuking everyone & everything that gets close to us. We MUST Engage! Not become them, but engage them. Build relationships, build trust, pray for, pray with, talk to, care for, & share with them all.

See: This is the process of investigating the diverse culture aspects of the community in effort to uncover the obstacles we have in reaching them (being an observer). This is called, being strategic. So we engage culture not for entertainment but for missional observation. We do this for the purpose of finding the sins that are enslaving the people in our area. In doing so, we need to become missiologists (the study of the mission). This could be asking the store clerk about who shops there, noticing what kind of businesses have come and gone, sitting in your car and just watching people or driving around looking at homes. It is just getting to know your mission area, in order to serve it better and become more effective.
          
So we need to “Go” (get out of our comfort zones), then See” the needs of the area. Next, we must:

Feel: This which is the process of breaking for the people. This is done through prayer & fasting. This is where your heart begins to break as you witness the hurt, failures, sins, bondages, etc. of those the Lord has sovereignty placed within your area of influence. We must get the since of responsibility. If you are a Christian, God has placed you in your home, your town, your job, your life as a missionary to those around you. So get in the game!
                                                        

This leads us to the 4th stage, which is:

Do: It is time to become a church of Action and “Just Do It”. As you know, there are sins of commission (When we do what we know we shouldn’t do) AND sins of Omission (NOT Doing what we know we SHOULD do). I will just leave it at that. It is not enough to feel, we must act on it as well. This is the aproach Jesus took.  He WENT, He SAW, He FELT & Then He DIED (He did something about it)!

   Let me encourage you today to Go, See, Feel & Do Ministry!  This is where you start putting the planning together, partnering with others & strategically doing, in order to reach those in need. 

So, that is in part what I mean by being a "Missional" Church!

Monday Missions: Is It Worth It?

Is It Worth It?

By: Joyce Wells Booze

   The Time,
          money,
          energy expended,
          to preach the gospel,
          to the ends of the earth-
   To Leave Native Land,
          aged parents,
          familier places,
          to live in an alian culure,
          to learn a difficult language,
          to eat strange food-

   Is It Worth It?

   Those Who Receive The Gospel,
           for the first time,
           recongnize it’s worth-
   To Them, It Brings,
          enlightenment to the mind,
          cleaning to the soul,
          healing to the body-
   They Know The Barrenness
          of life without His Word-
   Perhaps Only Those,
          who have become accomplished,
          to the gospel’s blessing,
          ever ask, “Is It Worth It?”

                                 ~Joyce Wells Booze

So is it worth it? As for me…YES!

PGIF (Praise God It's Friday)!  

Well, it's time for the "Friday Fun" post. 

INSTALLING A HUSBAND

Dear Tech Support,

This year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry
applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0. In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5,and installed undesirable programs such as NBA 5.0,NFL 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?
Signed, Desperate

DEAR DESPERATE,
First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package while Husband 1.0 is an operating system. Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.
If that application works as designed, Husband1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.) In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0. In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking 3.0 and Lingerie 7.7.

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Give God Your Best!

Psalm 116:12-19 What can I offer the LORD for all he has done for me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and praise the LORD’s name for saving me. I will keep my promises to the LORD in the presence of all his people. The LORD cares deeply when his loved ones die. O LORD, I am your servant; yes, I am your servant, born into your household; you have freed me from my chains. I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD. I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people in the house of the LORD in the heart of Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!

   A farmer who was known for being frugal owned a cow that gave birth to two calves. He said to his wife, "I'm going to dedicate one of these calves to the Lord." Knowing her husband, she was very surprised and asked which one he was planning to give to the Lord. "I haven't decided yet, but I'll let you know," he said. A few days went by, and again she asked which calf he was giving to the Lord. "I'm still thinking about it," he told her. Then one day, one of the calves got sick. It grew worse and worse, until one night the farmer walked up on the porch with the calf draped over his arms. He said to his wife, "Honey, I have bad news. The Lord's calf just died."

   Many times, we tend to give God what we don't really want ourselves. Think about a typical day. What place does God get?  1st, 2nd, 3rd, last?  Do you just blab a quick prayer while rolling out of bed?  Maybe a few hurried words of thanks over breakfast? Then off we go rushing to our responsibilities. Then at the end of the day, we stop and say, "Oh ya, I'll give God these last four minutes as I'm dozing off."

   If God is important, which I know He is, then why do we give Him our leftovers? God doesn't want nor does he deserve our leftovers.  God says to Israel in Malachi 1:7-8, "You have despised my name by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar. Then you ask, "How have we defiled the sacrifices?" You defile them by saying the altar of the Lord deserves no respect.”

Realize today that, God gave us His best!  So in return...Let's give Him ours!

He died for me…So I’m going to live for Him!

Eternal Perspective!

Ephesians 3:1-13 1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— 2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. 7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. 8 Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 13 I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.

   There’s nothing like a good dose of perspective to keep us grounded in life. That can be true when things are going well and we’re tempted to think too much of ourselves. And it is true when things are not going well and we’re tempted to become discouraged and let our circumstances get the best of us. Apparently this was the case for many believers in Paul’s day. Many believers were grieved over Paul’s time in prison and over the continual suffering he endured because of his ministry. So, in the first part of chapter 3, Paul helps his friends put things into perspective, divine perspective.

   In verse 1 Paul begins “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—" But then he stops himself in mid-sentence. He doesn’t even return to his thought until verse 14. And he does this because he realized that he needed to address the needs of discouragement that many were facing. Their discouragement was over what was happening with Paul. So he writes in verse 13 (NLT) So please don’t lose heart because of my trials here. I am suffering for you, so you should feel honored. He knows that his imprisonment and his sufferings have been hard on them. So he presses the pause button on what he was going to say long enough to speak perspective into their lives, perspective that will encourage their hearts.

   This is something that every one of us needs as followers of Jesus. A divine perspective, an eternal perspective! How we view and react to circumstances is more important than the actual circumstances themselves. If all we can see is our immediate situation, then our circumstances control us. We feel good when our circumstances are good but miserable when they are not. But when we keep a divine perspective in the midst of our circumstances, then our circumstances don’t get the best of us and we stay on track with God’s purposes for our lives.

   Let me encourage you today, whatever your circumstances, whatever your trials, whatever your situation may be, just know that GOD IS IN CONTROL! Put everything in perspective…divine & eternal perspective!

~ Matt