Burning the Chaff

I just got home from the Oasis youth rally in Americus. This was my last fling with my good friends in the Friendship Association. Although I knew the guy that was coming to preach was honest and straight to the point, I did not assume that there would be so much conviction in my own life. After all; this was for the youth.

Ive come to realization that I'm more worldly and water-downed than I give myself credit for. That's a hard thing to say about myself. It's an easy statement to make about others from a pulpit but to make that accusation against my own person stings a little. My heart is just so heavy, to say the least. I find it most difficult to lay down and sleep although my body demands it my soul compells me to think and reflect. Why is the modern church so worthless? Why are we so afraid? There are people who die for their faith but we can't freely give of our time. There where preachers who preached for hours in extreame conditions until blood came from their mouths, but we preach for 25 or 30 minutes and speak softly for fear we will offend.

Where are the Spurgeons, Weselys and Whitfields? Where is the Church of Jesus Christ? Its kind of hard to see because of the circus that many of our churches have become.

Refreshing

I got a text message this past Sunday night from a church member. This text was an apology on behalf of a spouse who fell asleep during the service. In this person's defense they work odd hours and they had gotten a few hours of sleep but they came to church anyway. I was not offended, as a matter of fact I got a little board that night (my sermon was putting me to sleep). Text back and said that I didn't even notice.

Well the next night at church both people in the couple came and apologized to me again. It was just refreshing to see people who were serious about things. You know I never apologized once for falling asleep during a message. Maybe I need to make a few calls today.

Time

The longer I am the pastor the more and more I realize how precious my time is. Sometimes there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to some important things. Sometimes certain things just have to be put to the side....like this blog...I have not written any thoughts since the 14th.

As I have been contemplating this issue of time management I have had to come to one conclusion. In short I waste a lot of time. The challenge for myself is to only do those things which really matter; spend time with my amazing daughter and wife, study and preach the Word, minister to the flock God has given me, and sleep. Because the reality is that how I use my time is a reflection of my worship.

God At Work

One of the greatest and most encouraging things a pastor can hear is that God is bringing conviction and challenge in the life of his people. I have been blessed this week to hear that He is doing exactly that in several people at my church. For the average person in church the word "conviction" is a dirty word that you are not supposed to speak of but nothing could be further from the truth. Conviction is a good thing in the life of a believer. It means that God is at work in their life; stripping away the old and replacing with the new. I praise God for the conversations I have had this week and I pray that I hear more of them in the future.

Why Do I Love Christ?

I had a great breakfast meeting yesterday with a good friend of mine who is in ministry. We talked about many things but only one thing really stands out to me. We began to discuss the average Christian, as we see in our churches and my friend made a profound statement. He said, "Many people love Christ for the wrong reason. As a matter of fact we the church often teaches the people to love Jesus for the wrong reason." He went on to explain by asking me a question. "What if Christ neve would have endured the Cross and died for our sins, would that change the nature of who He is?" The answer to my friends question was no it would not change.

The point here is that we should not love Christ simply for the things He has done for us but we should love Him because of who He is. This was something I had never contemplated before but it makes sense. If I only loved Mary Kathryn for the things she did for me then my love for her would change on the days she doesn't really do anything. A sad truth, I believe, is that many Christians treat Christ the same way. Our love is contingent on what He does in our lives when it should be based on who Christ is.

Feeling The Love

Yesterday a nice lady from my church said that she need to see me so right after I picked Cooper up from daycare I swung by her house for a quick visit. When I set foot in her house she handed me a big white bag and inside was a blanket that she had made herself. It was even UGA color; red and black. It really brightened up my day. I am truely feeling the love here in Byromville. The cards, calls and comments that my famlily and I hear keep us encouraged and motivated. I just cant say enough how excited we are to be in Byromville.

Eating Scraps

One highway 90, just before you get into Byromville, there is a little black and white dog that is always out near the road. He doesn't appear to have a home, yet he never wonders away from this particualr 5 mile stretch of road. Ive noticed him many times and have not really thought about him until today as a question occurs to me. How is this little dog surviving out here in the middle of nowhere? The answer came to me as I continued to ride down 90 on my way back into Byromville. You see this dog is living off the trash that people are throwing out the window. I know this is true because most of the time when I see this little dog he has his nose in something right next to the road. His survival is based on the scraps of this world. I imagine this little guys would be much better off at a home where people love him and feed him on a regular basis as opposed to a few McDonalds french fries.

You know a lot of Christians are like this little dog; there are barely getting by. They are just eating the scraps of this world when God is inviting them to come and eat as His table. Im tired of scraps; I am ready to feast. How about you?

Exciting Times

You can tell when there is true excitment in your church. The atmosphere is just different. The expressions on the faces are different. When excitment is in the air, for lack of a better term, church is just better.

This is certainly the case for yesterday's services. The Spirit was thick and the attitude of the whole church was wonderful. I felt a freedom in the pulpit that I had not experienced before. People lingered and talked to each other after both services as opposed to the usual Sunday in a Baptist church when everyone runs to their car as fast as their legs will carry them. The whole day brought much joy to my heart.

Maybe God is begining to answer the prayers of His people for unity. Maybe we are experiencing the beginning stages of a wonderful work of God in our church. Whatever is going on I certainly pray and hope that it continues.

Joy of Children

The more I get to know my daughter the more I realize what a blessing she is. This week has been a little stressful and somewhat disheartening. However, when I got home yesterday Cooper had these bunny ears on and I just couldn't help but laugh. She is so funny. I hope I never take her forgranted but I hope that I always remember that she is a gift from God that I get to take care of. I hope this picture will brighten your day as you look at it.

Labels

Its amazing to me to see how postmodern people are and they don't even now it. Someone emailed me a journal entry or blog of a college student who says he "believes in Christ but he doesn't label himself as a Christian." His reason for this, according to the blog, is that "there is so much negativity around the word Chrisitan or Baptist or Methodist. I am simply a follower of Christ."

Let me just take this moment and tye out what I would say to this young man or anyone else who holds this type of view.

You better be concerned about labels because Christ is. He is concernced with whether or not you are a "sheep" or a "goat", "sinner" or "saint", "holy" or "unholy". Now I understand that Chrisitans and those of various denominations have a certain stigma attached to them but to reject labels is impossible for certain labels are a matter of life or death. This attempt to escape from labels is nothing more than postmodern thinking and an attempt to make his faith sound and appear more culturally relavant. The whole thing just makes my head hurt. Does anyone have any tylenol?

At War or Warrior

In the few months I have been pastor at Byromville I have taken the opportunity to do a little teaching on prayer during prayer meeting. It is nothing facy; just the reading of a few verses on the topic of prayer and a short dicussion. However, these few passages of scripture have brought much conviction in my life. I have realized....Im not a prayer warrior!

Most ministers I know have a handful of guys they can call for prayer; I know I certainly do. There are 2 or 3 men that I call for advice and prayer about everything. But as I began to examine my life I realized that no one really calls me for prayer. This leaves me to ask myself the difficult and probing questions. Am I not a prayer warrior? If I had shown myself to be one then wouldn't these same guys I call, call me as well?

Needless to say I feel horrible. How can the pastor not be a prayer warrior? The difficult thing about conviction is the bad taste it can leave in your mouth. But Im not going to wallow in self pity, on the contrary I am declaring war on this enemy and my God will give me the victory. Pray for me as I learn to pray.

Planks and Specks

Its weird how a certain day or week can have a theme to it. For example a few weeks ago I was bombarded by people going through difficult times. People where coming to me with the difficulty they were facing for prayer and encouragement. It just seemed like everyone was anxious about things and lacked contentment. For the past few days the theme has been complaining about others or pointing out fault in others. It appears that some Christians have a hard time dealing with each other, go figure.

As I replayed, in my mind (that's what pastors do; we replay over and over the difficult things we face in ministry) the conversations I had in people's homes and over the phone I realized something. Most of us are flamming hypocrites! Many of the people I talked to were mad or upset because others where judging them and treating them unfairly. They had no trouble pointing out the flaws in other; seeing the speck in their eyes, thats how Jesus put it. Yet none of the people I spoke with could see the plank in their own eye. Most of these kind people were doing the same thing to others that they where accussing others of doing to them; they where passing judgement and as a result they where harboring agression and bitterness.

I wonder why it is that we can see the wrong of others but we can't see the wrong in ourselves. Why can't we see the forest for the trees? As much as I dislike visits and talks filled wiht negativity, I did learn something valuable. If I spent half as much time looking at and examining myself as I do examining others, I would be a much better man of God.

Hypocritical Intolerance

I had a conversation with a lady who claims to be agnostic (she believes in a higher power but not a God that you can know). As begain to share the Gospel she stopped me in my tracks and said, "you are so intolerant sir" and she stormed off. Now I must admitt that I got a little upset and fleshly at this point. I hate when people hide behind tolerance and they refuse to discuss the issues. So I chased the lady down and asked her if I could ask her one question. She reluctantly stopped. The conversation when as follows.

"What makes me intolerant?"
"You Chrisitans are always condeming other view points"
"Why does that bother you?"
"We can all be right without having to say the other side is wrong."
"Do you know how ludicrous that sounds?"
"Can my shoe laces be banna peels at the same time?"
"Thats different."
"Do you think I am wrong?"
"Of course I do!"
"You are being very intolerant of me aren't you?"

The conversation went on for a little while longer and the lady refused to give in to reality. There was no reasoning with her. She is a flamming hypocrite and doesn't even realize it. She labels me intolerant because I think Christianity is correct and all other religions are false. Yet she tells me I am wrong. What is so funny about the postermodern thinker is that they are very intolerant of the people they label intolerant. I hope that as you may be reading this you find that fact helpful. It will help to level the playing field as you encounter these people and attempt to share Christ.

No Wonder Jesus Prayed

I recently spent some with a group of guys that, for lack of a better term, are not very holy. They claim to be Christians, and they attend church a few times a year, but man are they lost or at least very backslidden. Some of the language and jokes made this preacher very uncomfortable at times, even a little red in the face. But Jesus spent time with lost people on a regular basis. Often in Scripture He would rub elbows with the lowest people in society; loving them unconditonally and teaching them about the Kingdom which is what I wish to do as well. But I can't help but wonder...How did He handle the blasphemy and corse joking?

The longer I am a pastor the more and more I realize the deep need in my life for prayer. No wonder Jesus prayed all the time; He had so much to deal with during His ministry here on earth. Prayer and intimacy with the Father is the only thing that got Him through. Charles Spurgeon said, "I think we should make it a rule, whenever we hear a foul or blasphemous word in the street, always pray for the person who utters it. Perhaps the devil might find it expedient not to stir up people to swear, if he knew that it excited Christians to pray." What a great statement! I will be praying more for the lost people I spend time with as I am with them and I look forward to seeing what will happen.