What's your influencer...

Have you considered what influences you daily? Is it the news of the day? Today (Friday) all of the buzz is about the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the health care bill passed by congress. Each media outlet wants to tell us what it will mean and how it will play out in days and week and years to come. It is a powerful attention grabber as a subject and will influence many. What about you how much does the latest topic in the media influence you day to day or your world view overall? What about your feelings?

Get up today and you feel bad. How does that influence your day? Or at least your outlook for the day? Usually, feeling bad makes for a bad day! Does it have to? Feelings are fickle things. I may feel bad now but in a few moments or hours I could feel worse or I could feel great. Depending upon how I allow that to influence me my outlook on the day and life in general could go from the dumpster to the heavens in moments and then back again to the dumpster. What is my influencer? What about opinions!

Everybody’s got one whether they know what they are talking about or not. Usually the open their mouth and prove they have no idea what they are talking about. I learned a phrase “Opinions are like rear ends. Everybody’s got one and most of the time we need to sit on them.” It is rampant this opinion thing. You can blog about anything and don’t have to know anything about what you blog about. If you are influenced greatly buy the opinions of others you may get angry with their I-don’t-know-what-I-am-talking-about opinion. I mean really how much influence should that have over you? Really? There is only one opinion that matters really.

The opinion of God is all that matters. If you are with Jesus then God has a GREAT opinion of you. You are a joint heir with Jesus to all of the riches and glory of heaven through grace. Who you will be is set in the foundations of the throne of God again because of Jesus. God’s opinion does not change. It is not fickle based on your behavior. Sure you and I disappoint him, but we are still his children through Jesus our savior. How do you feel about that?

You feelings on the subject or any subject don’t really matter when we trust God and His opinion. If we consider our identities in the end (we will be like Jesus) are set, then the time we are in now is designed to shape us to the image of Christ the perfection of creation in righteousness, majesty and holiness. That could be our influence.

It is a choice we make almost every minute of what we allow to influence us. Do we choose the things that last for an eternity or those that last for but a brief while like smoke and fog?

² Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2 NIV 1984       

In HIS Service and Yours,

The Rev

What's the point?

I concluded my message series Mission Impossible based on the Great Commission and four key points Jesus communicated to every follower of his, as you go, make disciples, baptize and teach. With a “preacher’s license” I reorganized the order. It was really just the last two as I had the honor of baptizing two men as part of the service. One thing struck me as I completed the rental form for the Assembly. There are four blanks at the bottom of the page. They are:

       It is our hope that your stay with us was both meaningful and enjoyable.  Please provide the following information.

      1.  Number of Professions of Faith ________             2.  Number of Commitment Decisions _______

       3.  Number of Rededications _____________            4.  Other ______________________________

Well, no place for baptism so I used other. We use the pool in the summer and an inflatable pool in the cooler times of the year.

I must admit I am human, just ask my wife! I like to see results for my labor. Goals met for my investment strategy and lately I have not seen too much for my investment. Please key in on the personal pronoun “I” in that statement. “I” is what gets most of us in trouble. So my question is “what’s the point?” Have you said that, wrote that, thought that? Be honest you have and not just about faith and “spiritual” things.

But, I’m the preacher and not supposed to think those things or at least say them out loud. So, being a preacher I had not said them out loud. I had thought about them though, in fact, way too much. You know how that goes. My heavenly Father knew that as well, so two weeks ago from out of the blue one of our attendees with a colorful past came to me following the service and said “I want to be baptized.” I was surprised, caught off guard and so we talked. His story was of God at work in his life as he ran away, God at work when he did all the wrong things in the wrong ways with the wrong people. His story is of grace and peace as he faced difficult punishment. His story of giving up and in to the grace God was offering him. His story is of his grown daughter and her family there to witness his baptism and his responsibility to live in honor of Jesus for them.

Well, I did not know all of this then but as I drove home that day it struck me that I would baptize two men one in his 40’s and one in his 50’s. Now you don’t baptize women of those ages much and men well that is virtually unheard of. I was struck by that as I drove home.  It was then when I knew what the point was. Those two men and the countless like them are the point. God has not given up on them. That’s the point. He has called me to be faithful to Him and His purposes and nothing more or less. It’s hard work being faithful. There are so many distractions to call your attention away. Faithfulness is the point.

In an article titled You don't have to be a celebrity pastor to have influence. Eugene Cho writes to pastors but it applies to any follower of Jesus who asks “what’s the point?”

Hear this well:

You don't have to be "the most influential" in the nation. Just seek to be the most influential and loving pastor and leader to the church you're called to. That will not likely get you on any special lists but you'll serve your people well. You'll be faithful to your flock and calling.

The rest of this article can be found at http://www.catalystspace.com/content/read/you_dont_have_to_be_a_celebrity_pastor_to_have_influence/

My Father has been faithful and he asks me to be faithful as well.

He is my example.

I can play follow the leader.

The question we must answer is “will I?”

Happy Father’s day!       

In HIS Service and Yours,

The Rev

I read this morning...

The cross shows that God’s wisdom is not man’s wisdom by any means

¹⁹ It is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent’.

^20-25 For consider, what have the philosopher, the writer and the critic of this world to show for all their wisdom? Has not God made the wisdom of this world look foolish? for it was after the world in its wisdom failed to know God, that he in his wisdom chose to save all who would believe by the “simple-mindedness” of the Gospel message. For the Jews ask for miraculous proofs and the Greeks an intellectual panacea, but all we preach is Christ crucified—a stumbling block to the Jews and sheer nonsense to the Gentiles, but for those who are called, whether Jews or Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. And this is really only natural, for God’s foolishness” is wiser than men, and his “weakness” is stronger than men.

Nor are God’s values the same as man’s

^26-31 For look at your own calling as Christians, my brothers. You don’t see among you many of the wise (according to this world’s judgment) nor many of the ruling class, nor many from the noblest families. But God has chosen what the world calls foolish to shame the wise; he has chosen what the world calls weak to shame the strong. He has chosen things of little strength and small repute, yes and even things which have no real existence to explode the pretensions of the things that are—that no man may boast in the presence of God. 1 Corinthians 1:19-30 J.B. Phillips

Preaching is a high calling and many weeks a difficult task. What is there to say to the folks who gather that will in effect transform their very lives. Not just impart knowledge although that is done, but to make a difference Monday morning. How could I put it or say it in a new way? It is not easy and many days overwhelming. As I prepare this week for Sunday the topic is baptism from the Great Commission. I have been preaching a series from the Great Commission called Mission Impossible. Each week we focus on the four commands, Go, Make disciples, Teach and this week Baptize. Teach and baptize are out of verse order because I have the opportunity to baptize two adult men this week (WOW).

Yesterday I prepared my outline as to why we do it and its meaning. This morning I was considering that it was too simple. I want to say smart, deep and important words and thoughts to smart people. My outline seemed too easy and simple. God has a way of jumping in there to say “this is what I want to say, it is not simple.” The greatest things in scripture a child can grab hold of and then never understand even over a lifetime of study. They are always simple and yet so complex, thoughts and concepts clear and yet deeper than the deepest sea overflowing with the mystery of God.

This past week I asked “do you believe what you believe.” That to say do you live what you believe. Do you act based on your beliefs. DO you act like you love God and love other people all day every day? Do you believe what you believe?

It really is simple       

 

In HIS Service and Yours,

The Rev

I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane...

Ffor my 50^th birthday my family gave me a gift certificate to tandem skydive. Saturday the 26^th I used it. All I can say is OUTRAGEOUS! We jumped at a little airfield in St. Mary’s, GA. The plane takes you to 11,500 feet. On the way up you can see Kings Bay Naval Base, Cumberland Island, Fernandina, FL, the Atlantic Ocean and numerous rivers as they dump into the Atlantic. The view from 5,000 and 8,000 and 10,000 feet is breath taking. It is also much cooler up there than the mid 90’s on the ground.

Speaking of the ground, Barbara, Carolyn, her boyfriend Garrison and my Mom and Dad watched from the ground as Elizabeth, my brother Karl and I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane. As an aside an aviation industry insider let me know there is no such thing as a perfectly good airplane all of them have something wrong with them. I guess you hope and pray it is minor. I had been watching people jump before us and while they are in freefall they are but specks in the big blue sky. Most of the time invisible to my eye until that moment when the chute deploys and then they appear for the first time floating gently and quietly to the earth (unless they are screaming). I never did see the jumpers until their chutes opened others more practiced said they did.

The plane is small and cramped going to altitude and then it was time to exit. I had to place both feet on a small step outside the door as the wind rushed by resting in the door way looking at the ground far below. For just a split second I wondered what was I doing then came one, two, and three as we sailed out the door tumbling end over end (at my request) until my instructor stabled our descent and we flew. To let you know, it felt like standing in the back of a truck with the wind rushing by your face. The wind was the only way I knew we were moving and even then it felt like the wind was moving not me. I was then a speck in the great big blue sky just like the others before me whom I had looked so hard to see.

In the plane as the view widened and the beauty surrounded me I was overwhelmed by the majestic grandeur of the sight. The water, the shore, the vast expanse of God’s creation and this was but a little piece of the coastline visible from 10,000 feet. God had created this amazing wonder and for but a few minutes I could see it laid out before me as the heavens are laid out before God.

Isaiah 40:22
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. NIV 1984

Now I was outside of the plane with the wind rushing by and I could see it all with not plane and I was incredibly small, not even visible from the ground and the family that loved me. Oh, but the God who created this grandeur knows me by name and can see me in the vast expanse of His creation. I was not alone. Well, there was this guy connected to my back at five points with a parachute. We were not alone. I was at first overwhelmed by the vastness of my view and then by my insignificance in that scene. Then I thought of God the creator of both. He made both and keeps up with both.

I liked the freefall and wanted it to last longer when the chute deployed and it became so quiet and peaceful. We did some spirals first to the right and then to the left. That was good and the view was amazing (did I say that already?) well it was. The landing was not perfect but fine as I ended up face-planting in the St. Mary’s grass. It was all good no grass was injured in the making of this storied landing.

Are you feeling small like a speck in the world? Well, you are! But you are known and loved by the creator of the vast expanse! You are not alone! I think the perspective of our smallness and God’s greatness sets us on course again. I am but a speck and He is most certainly not!        

In HIS Service and Yours,

The Rev

P.S. We made some video. It should be up on you-tube soon at the Crossroads Church Channel.