Looking Forward to 2010

I know where God has taken me this year, but what is more important is where He wants me to go next year.

I put that up on my Twitter and Facebook accounts earlier today and the thought has kind of not gone away.

As I look at the statement, I see three parts:
1. Assessing what and where God has taken me this year.
2. Being able to understand what and where God has taken me.
3. Being able to allow those things to help me to do what God wants me to do, and where He wants me to go.

For a lot of people this has been a hard year and I am no exception. I have had to learn how to be a better husband, father, leader, but more importantly a better follower of Christ.

Problem is that for some,they just want to move on and forget. Others want to continually focus on it. Both are problematic and don't help. God did not bring those things in our lives for us to do either. They were brought to bring us closer to Him and to make us more like Jesus. They also lead us to where God wants us to go next in our spiritual journey with Him.

So I am looking forward to what God is going to do in my life, the life of my church, my family, and my friends in 2010. Hopefully so are you.

Your Servant,
Rich

Parents and the Unintended Consequences of a Lump of Coal

You have all been there; it is the crazy time of year we lovingly, stressfully, sometimes painfully call Christmas season. Our overcrowded calendars seem to find more time to do something else during which any other time of year we would say no. Then there are the issues of presents and gifts.

If you are like me you have already gotten the Christmas list from the kids, or maybe you have taken you kids to the mall already for the yearly photo op with someone dressed up in a funny red suit. That is where we run into unintended consequences.

What does the person say to the kid on his lap…”have you been a good boy/girl this year?” Translation: Have you earned the right to get a gift?

How about this one for those of us a little older….”If you are not careful, you will just get a lump of coal in you stocking.”

Gifts/presents become tools for behavior modification rather than what we call them, gifts. It leads me to ask what we are teaching our kids about Jesus at Christmas? What are we teaching them about His grace?

If the presents we put under the tree are there because they have earned them, then are they really gifts?

Aren’t we glad that God does not work that way! Jesus coming to earth as a baby and dying for us is something that was done by His grace; we never could have earned it and never will be able to earn it.

We don’t intend on teaching wrong things about Jesus to our kids, but isn’t it amazing how much more is caught that taught by our kids. They here us constantly teach earn, earn, earn. Or speak to them in conditional sentences. If you do this then….


Then they wonder what grace means.

Pastor Rich

Christian Assurance

August Montague Toplady is a name that you are not probably familiar with. He was a hymn writer and pastor in England in the mid to late 1700’s. He is known in hymn circles as the hymn writer of Christian assurance. We don’t sing a lot of his songs any more but he does have on that most of us know; “Rock of Ages”. The words that follow are from one of his other hymns and they beautifully articulate the victory that we have in Jesus Christ.

As Debtors to Mercy Alone

1 As debtors to mercy alone, Of heavenly mercy we sing; Nor fear to draw near to the throne,
Our praise and our worship to bring: The wrath of a sin-hating God, With us can have nothing to do;
The Saviour's obedience and blood Hide all our transgressions from view.

2 The work which His goodness began, The arm of His strength will complete: His promise is Yea and Amen, And never was forfeited yet: Things future, nor things that are now,
Nor all things below nor above, Can make Him His purpose forgo, Or sever our souls from His love.

3 Our names from the palms of His hands Eternity will not erase: Impressed on His heart they remain
In marks of indelible grace: And we to the end shall endure, As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure, The spirits departed to heaven.

Your Servant,

Pastor Rich

Jehovah Jireh The Lord Provides (Sees)

While Krista and I were in seminary, the church we attended and were members of did a series on the names of God as part of a time of commitment to do some needed improvements and renovations to the churches facilities. Every week we would focus on a different name of God. Banners were made that reflected each name and the banner was placed on the stage as the church sang a song we have sung here a couple of times in the last few months, “Lift High the Lord Our Banner”. When commitment Sunday came all of the banners were in front of the stage and at the appropriate time the congregation came forward and placed there commitment card under the name of God that they could most identify with. Krista and I placed our card under Jehovah Jireh.

We were led to that particular name because at that point in our lives we could already see how God was providing for us and blessing us beyond what we could ever have hoped for. Now a few years later, a few different places later, a few kids later, He is still showing us that He is Jehovah Jireh.

The more literal translation of Jehovah Jireh is “the Lord Sees”. God saw that Abraham needed a sacrifice and He provided one in a ram in a thicket. An English word that gives us the best picture of what is described in Genesis 22 is provision. Provision is taken from 2 Latin words “pro” which means beforehand and “vision” which means to see. Hence, to see beforehand.

God sees beforehand and promises to provide for us even in spite of our bad decisions, lack of faith, and lack of obedience. I am sure that if you look back on you life as I have mine, you will see that to be true.

In Him,

Pastor Rich

Powerful Then, Powerless Now?

It is sometimes hard to look at the book of Acts. You go through the only divinely inspired church history ever recorded and you cannot help but come to a crisis of belief. As you read you see how God worked in power. They went from 11 scared and confused disciples to 120 to the day of Pentecost where the church went from 120 to over 3000! You see God work in power in the lives of people like Peter, Paul, Stephen, Phillip. You see the church begin its quest to do what Jesus told them to do, to go from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, to the ends of the earth. How did they do it? They had power!

Jesus told them that they “will receive power” and on that day when the power came their world and our world changed forever. Now we know looking back that the “power” was the Holy Spirit. We read and believe that the Holy Spirit is working today in us and through us. Yet how come we don’t see the similar results? We can come up with our own answers to that question and quietly frankly as I tried to come up with some myself, they excuses just fell short. What the early church faced is not really all that much different than the world we live in now. So why are we powerless, or are we?

The answer to the difference between then and now is prayer. The early church was a praying church. When they got together in prayer times the power of God moved in their lives. When they prayed it was together, it was continuous, it was for communion with God and each other. It was prayer for God to work in their lives, it was for boldness to do what Jesus told them to do and they believed He could do it!

Let’s be honest, most people don’t pray that way. For a lot of people prayer is nothing more than a way to sooth there conscious, or perhaps just a religious ritual. It could be argued that most Christians don’t even theoretically believe in prayer. The don’t really believe that their prayers matter. The truth of the matter is that we are powerless now because of powerless prayer!

The question you need to wrestle with today is do you really believe what Ephesians 3:20-21 says:

20 Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think—according to the power that works in you— 21 to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. • Amen. (HCSB)

Your Servant,

Pastor Rich

SBC 2009 Part 2

The SBC convention yesterday was summed up best by Dr. Danny Akin, when he said it was the best and the worst of the SBC.

I am going to focus on the best. The convention passed the formation of a task appointed by Dr. Hunt to examine whether or not we are using the resources of the convention in the most efficient manner to fulfill the Great Commission. It passed by a considerable margin.

Another great event was the Baptist21 panel at Sojourn church. That was the about the best $5 I have ever spent at an SBC. Very engaging discussion about the future of the SBC.

It is my hope that just as in 1979 when the battle for the Bible in the conventions began, that 2010 in Louisville, Ky will be remembered as a such an equally historic event.

Rich

SBC Pastor's Conference 2009 Louisville Part 1

I am in Louisville for the 2009 Pastor's Conference and SBC Convention. I am actually looking forward to this one more the others because I think we may actually begin to address real issues related to our convention.

The Pastor's Conference was very good last night and today. The line was very good and diverse. I loved the theme, "What if..." What if we as Southern Baptists were of one mind, one unity, and loving the way Christ expects us?

I am always challenged and inspired by the conference. It gives me a lot to think about and try to apply to my life, my church, my ministry, and my family.

It challenges my life because I spend the week around some of the most godly people I know and admire what God is doing in their lives. It challenges my church because I hear about churches in which God is doing great things and would love to seem Him do in my church. It challenges my ministry because I constantly ask myself if I am doing what I can to equip the saints, disciple the sheep, and put them in positions to allow God to do the remarkable things I would love to see Him do. It challenges my family because one of the areas that is always emphasized it seems like is that my first responsibility is to my family.

I look at all of these things and see how much farther I need to go to be all that God wants me to be. So I will be challenged this week but I will also be inspired to press on toward that goal and be recharged as I look to the larger issues of the kingdom of God and fulfilling His mission in this world until He returns.

Rich

Millennial Maze

In the current times we live in, new president, North Korea nuclear testing, Middle East turmoil, economic crisis, government bailouts, etc.,etc., etc. It seems that it is a new season of end times speculations in the church.

I say that cautiously because since I have given my life to the Lord there has always been eschatological fervor in the church. It just got more amplified when God called me to the ministry as I am now, it seems, constantly asked about this and that when it come to eschatology. It seems there was a season of "quiet" after the "Left Behind" series, but it is now back in full force.

As a pastor I get kind of frustrated that if I do a study on Revelation, that will draw a crowd, but James well maybe, Leviticus, forget it!!! So much energy is put into figuring out what Jesus said is not for us to know. What is an especially hot topic is who is the "anti-christ". But let us not forget about when the tribulation is, the nature of the millennium, or when that rapture will take place.

Of course these speculations are nothing new. They have been throughout the history of the church. I have a question though, is all this study of eschatology really helping the church accomplish it's mission to bring glory to God and advance His kingdom?

People spend hours upon hours in study trying to figure out who the enemy is when we already know who the enemy is, it is Satan. All this focus on what he is going to do when we already know what he is trying to do.

We cannot honestly say that all this focus on eschatology has helped our zeal to share our faith. My own denomination's (Southern Baptist) latest profile shows that. It has not helped to build unity in the body of Christ, in fact it could be argued that it has caused more harm than good on that front in my opinion. I wonder if Satan has not quietly pulled a fast one on the church. Distracting us from what we are supposed to be about.

Eschatology is intended to give us hope and peace. That there is more to our existence then what this life has to offer. That death is not the end but rather a transition to a better existence, in a better place, for eternity. But that reality is only for those who put their faith in Jesus. That is where eschatology should focus, not on matters that are at best debatable, at worse speculative causing more harm that good.

Parenthood from this Father’s Perspective

Sons are indeed a heritage from the LORD, children, a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons born in one’s youth. 5 Happy is the man who has filled his quiver with them. Such men will never be put to shame when they speak with [their] enemies at the city gate. Psalms 127:3-5 (HCSB)

I come from a small family, only one brother. So when I got married and it came to the time to have children I was going on the assumption that I to would have a small family. Well as I write this article Krista and I and just recently discovered the number FOUR is on the way! That is right, I said FOUR!!!! I don’t know many people who would define FOUR children as a small family, and I would definitely fit into that demographic group.

I have had my reasons for not wanting a large family. The first is that I personally wrestle with whether or not I am a good father. Second, I wonder how in the world am I going to be able to provide for them when it seems like you barely make it now. Third, all of that responsibility! I have a hard enough time taking care of myself! The list go could go on and on and on.

As I start to look and these reasons, I begin to see a lot of “I”. I see a lot of selfishness, fear, and pride. I do not see a lot of trust, faith, dependence, or joy. That is where the passage above has always been given to me by God when He informs me that I am going to be a father again. They are good lessons for parent’s to remember.

1. Children are a gift from God.
2. Children bring happiness.
3. Children bring respect from even your enemies.

I am sure my fears are not much different from any other parent. What we have to realize is that God in His wisdom has blessed us with children. He will provide for us and for our families as we put our trust and faith in Him and take seriously the stewardship He has given us of being parents.

Now don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoy being a father. The rewards do indeed outweigh the difficulties. If we think about it, it ought to give us pause to think about how the Father looks down upon us as His children and knows that the rewards will outweigh the difficulties.

So moms and dads, let us remember that children are a blessing and being a parent is a blessing too!

Be Courageous

Before the 12 men went into Canaan to scout it out, Moses gave them several instructions as to what they were to do to carry out their mission. In the middle of these instructions about what to look for and what to bring back, is one that has nothing to do with logistics but was absolutely essential for them to be able to carry out the mission, “be courageous” (Num. 13:20).

That phrase in the original language is a verb which means to strengthen oneself, to put forth strength, or to withstand. The twelve scouts needed to do this as they were to about to embark on seeing a place they had not seen before and interact with people they had never interacted with before as free people out from slavery.

Courage is an essential part of the Christian life. That is because God is always in the process of challenging us and stretching to go beyond our comfort zones and to do greater things as we grow in our faith and become more mature followers of Jesus. We need not worry as believers because the Holy Spirit is with us and in us. The courage we need to go and do what God wants us to do and accomplish His purpose for our lives comes through yielding ourselves to Him. When we do that, then we go not in our strength, but in His strength!

Look at what God says in His Word:

6 Be strong and courageous; don’t be terrified or afraid of them. For it is the Lord your God who goes with you; He will not leave you or forsake you.”
Deut 31:6 (HCSB)

13 I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.
Phil 4:13 (HCSB)