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.