More love, O Christ, to Thee

I think if we are honest as believers we will all admit to times where our love for God seemed lacking.  It is not as if we denounced the faith or denied Christ, but we have all gone through times where it seemed God was distant and our love and worship of Him seemed stale.  Chances are we have all seen this season of life and we probably will see times of it again in the future.  So the question has to be answered, what do we do in this situation.  The answer I am going to give is not a catch all answer, as there may be unrepentant sin, etc. that you need to deal with, but I do think it applies to most, if not all of these situations in some shape or form.

First, let's evaluate how not to increase our love for God.  Often times people get in this stage and they immediately feel guilty about it and they want to try harder to love God.  They will make themselves busy in church and doing other things and think that a love for God will just develop from their business.  Or some look at John 14.15 where Jesus says if you love me you will keep my commandments and think that if they just start following all the rules that they will love God.  But here is the problem with this, they are all based upon you seeking to work for God's love, both in receiving and giving of it.  You can't work your way to loving God more.  So if we can't work our way into a love for God what are we to do?

To me, a large part of the answer to this question is found in Luke 7.36-50.  Here there is a sinful woman who falls at the feet of Jesus, amid much social mockery, and washes his feet with her tears and dries his feet with her hair.  In the midst of this situation Jesus, speaking to the self-righteous pharisees, says that her love flowed from the reality of her great sins being forgiven, whereas those who had been forgiven little loved little.  Jesus is not saying that some are really in need of forgiveness, rather he was pointing out the hardness of the heart in the self righteous.  From this we see the answer to growing in our love for God, this being that we dwell upon His great forgiveness for us in Christ.  We often lose sight of just how sinful and depraved and in need of grace we were when Christ saved us, and how sinful and depraved and in need of grace we are now.  We lose sight of God's great grace and mercy for us and the great work of Christ on our behalf.  May we all fall on our faces and pray that our Father in Heaven would draw us back to our dependency upon him and His great forgiveness for us in Christ.  Would the doctrine of grace and the reality of our salvation not merely be theological statements that we affirm, but may they be life changing truth that draws us deeper into a love of and worship to God the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.

Recounting the great works of God

I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.  I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. 

Psalm 9.1-2

Give thanks to the LORD for He is good.  How many times have I spoken these words, either in reading Scripture or singing this truth in song?  It seems these words flow from my mouth and I often hear them flowing from the mouth of other church goers as well, as they should.  It is good for us to give thanks to the LORD and acknowledge His goodness.  But over the past few days the Spirit, through circumstances in my life, has been pressing me on this and my truthfulness and meaning in making such a statement.  Do I really trust that He is good?  Do I really, honestly take time to give Him true thanks and praise and to "tell among the people His deeds?" (Psalm 9.11)  

More times than not I find myself giving a generic thanks to God at appointed times and only reclaiming his goodness during certain times, yet we are called to always do this.  It seems more often than recounting all of his wonderful deeds I am more concerned with what I don't have and what I am seeking Him to give me.  Again, please do not misunderstand me, it is not wrong for us to make our request known to God, in fact we are commanded to do so, but as believers, those who have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1), may we not lose sight of what God has done for us in the shadow of what we are asking Him to do.  May we not forget His goodnes and grace for us.

Maybe this is just me.  Maybe I am the only one who seems to lose sight of this, but for some reason I doubt it.  May we who call upon the LORD take time to truly recount His wonderful deeds, and more than the surface level heatlth and family.  May we truly take time to sit and give thanks to God for what He has done.  May we rest in His faithfulness and goodness.  And above all else, as we recount the great things He has done, may they draw us into a satisfaction and dependency upon the good God who has given them to us, not the things themselves.

God will not give us more than we can handle....will He?

"God will not put more on you than you can handle." This is a saying that we have all heard more times than we can possibly count. I was even in a conversation the other day when the person conversing with me made this statement. This is a statement that has always rubbed me the wrong way, if for no other reason because it is a cheap cliche that people seem to say just to try to make themselves feel better in the moment. However, lately it has been rubbing me the wrong way theologically. It gets me thinking, is this true? Is there biblical text that teaches such a statement, or does the Bible proclaim a truth that actually teaches the exact opposite? II Corinthians 12.1-10 is a key text in seeing a biblical view of this statement, but it is not the only one. In this text Paul is referring to a "thorn" that is in his flesh. Paul is not referring to a literal thorn that is irritating his skin, but rather some affliction that is upon him that he cannot overcome or bear. The identity of this thorn is highly debated, and for the sake of time and relevance I will not go into hasing out my interpretation of the thorn. Rather I want us to focus on what takes place between God and Paul regarding the thorn. Three times Paul pleaded with God to take this "thorn" from him. The ability to overcome or "handle" this thorn was beyond Paul's ability, so he was pleading with God to take it away from Him. So how does God respond? Does he tell Paul, "Don't worry, I will not give you more than you can handle?" No. He says, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is make perfect in weakness." (emphasis mine) Christ Jesus, not Paul, is the one with the strength to handle the situation. If you look at the context, God gave Paul the thorn to keep him from getting boastful in the first place. God placed the thorn in the side of Paul to show him that he couldn't do it on his own strength and to draw him into a deeper realization of his need of Christ Jesus. God's power, grace, and goodness are displayed, not in keeping us from more than we can handle, but rather showing us we can't handle it and bringing us to Him through Christ Jesus. Think about the mindset that truly lies behind the statement that God will not give us more than we can handle. On the surface it seems that we are putting trust in God that he wouldn't do something harsh to us. But the main heart behind this statement is one of pride. Ultimately, we are saying that we don't need God's help, because after all we can handle it. So let us be sure of this, God will give us more than we can handle, but he will not leave us in the midst of it. May we embrace our inability to be God and therefore our inability to have the power, wisdom and strength to overcome all things. May we rest in the truth of the Psalmist when he writes, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling." May we stop resting in our strength and may we rejoice in our weakness. May we cling to the power of God whose weakness is stronger than our strength (I Cor.1.25). May we trust in Christ as our strength and righteousness.

My response to the Jesus>Religion debate.

It seems that the video of the guy performing a poetry piece about how Jesus is greater than religion has spread like wildfire, and has caused some to promote it and some to stand against it.  I think both sides (at least the ones I have seen and talked to, can't speak for all) are coming from the same heart, it is just a matter of what they mean by religion.

First, let me clarify something.  Are there guidelines that God has clearly laid out for life and worship? Absolutely.  Do performing these have anything to do with our righteous standing before God?  Nope.  These are performed out of who we already are in Christ, not in hopes of earning salvation.  So if what you mean by religion is that God is holy and has laid out guidelines for worshiping Him and that as those who are in Him through Christ, we are to seek to live out through the Holy Spirit, then yes I will agree with you that this "religion" is not different from the gospel.

However, this definition of religion is not what the majority of society, nor from what I can tell, the guy in the video have in mind.  The guy never says in the video that it's just you and Jesus so who needs the church.  He never said if you've got Jesus it doesn't matter how you live so don't put any guidelines on your life.  What he does speak against is doing things laid out in Scripture or things we make up for ourselves in order to cover up the truth of who we really are, which is a dead, rotting corpse in our depravity.  We have people enslaved to the mindset that God loves them because they show up and sit in a pew every week, or because they wear a suite and tie (or because they don't), or because they sing songs a certain way, whether that be hymns or contemporary.  This needs to die, and Jesus is greater than this. We often fear that if we promote the doctrine of grace to much that people will live an immoral life with no regard to holiness before God.  Grace does not lead to rebellion, moralism does.

The gospel, nor the poem mentioned above, promotes a life without restraint, accountability, or fellowship with a local body of believers.  What the gospel does it put to death any hope we have in our own ability to please God and atone for our sins by any act or duty, and point us to the righteousness that is found in Christ Jesus.  I pray that many will become convicted of their striving to earn their salvation and reconciliation with God through their own merits, but instead will be overcome by what Christ has already accomplished on their behalf. 

What is your authority?

Authority seems to have become taboo in our culture. No one wants to sit under it and everyone wants to have it. Regardless of whether or not we want to acknowledge it, we all sit under some form of authority. Now I am not talking here of the reality that we all sit under the authority of God, though this is true and one day this will be made known. No, rather I am speaking of the authority on which we all base our views, our beliefs and convictions, our actions, our likes and dislikes. As we grow and form these areas of our life, we are all forming theme based around the authority of our life in that area. So the question is, what is our authority. This authority can take on many different forms.

For some, their authority comes from their emotions. They base their beliefs, their interest, their worldview around the emotions that these things invoke. If something stirs up inside of us a feeling of joy and happiness, well then it must be right. Life decisions, world-views even thoughts of God are based around their emotions and feelings and how they want things to be. Emotions are not bad, in fact they are good as they are given us from God. However, emotions are not meant to be our guiding force in life or our authority. The problem with this authority is it deceives you. Your emotions change from situation to situation. What may seem like certain truth and lead you to a strong conviction in one situation will lead you into changing your mind when the variables of a situation change. You base moral decisions and convictions based on the situation rather than truth.

Others find their authority based on experience. Often this view of authority is based largely around pragmatism. If I have experienced something in the past and it produced positive results, then it must be right. Views of right and wrong, good and bad, and even most beliefs and convictions are based around has it produced results. The problem is, everything that produces results is not by default right. This method also is deceiving and shifting. What happens when this "truth" no longer produces results, is it no longer a truth to which we are to hold? What if something that is counter opposite to this result producing truth or worldview also produces results or shows evidence that it "works?" Are they both true and worthy though they are opposed to one another?

For others, their authority comes from their logic or intellect. They analyze every situation and evaluate it to see if it logically adds up, and if it makes sense, then it is true and they will hold to it, but if it doesn't it must be rejected. If I am honest, I struggle with falling into this category. This sounds good on the surface, but this only works if the persons intellect and mindset is based around a logical set of truths and values by which to judge. If the persons intellect is based on faulty information, or worse, no information just their own wisdom, then what they conclude will also be skewed. Also, there are many very intelligent, educated people who diametrically disagree on any number of issues, so still this gives us no set standard of authority, but rather a shifting changing authority that is based on each persons thoughts.

The main problem with all of these authorities is that they make the individual the ultimate authority. It's the person's emotions, or experience or intellect that becomes the basis by which all things are judged. People cling to these authorities because it gives us a sense of control. If emotions, or experience or intellect are the authority, then ultimately I can shape right and wrong, my worldview, even my views of God to be exactly like I want them to be. This is dangerous and does not lead to truth that is absolute, but rather a truth that is weak and relative.

Rather, truth and authority must be set around something that is absolute and unchanging. Something that comes from the ultimate standard of truth, this being God. God is the source of all truth. He is to be the ultimate molder of our worldview. And He has not left who He is up to our imagination. He has revealed all these things through the Holy Scriptures. It is the scripture that is "breathed out by God and profitable" (2 Timothy 3:16). It is through His word, the Bible, that God has revealed the truth of morality, the truth of who He is and how one is reconciled to Him through Christ alone. It is through Scripture that God has laid out the truth of His bride the church and how she is to function and be lead. It is through His word that He has made known to us the ultimate authority on all these things. So the questions now becomes, will we submit these lesser authorities (our emotions, experience/pragmatism, and intellect) to the ultimate authority of Scripture? Will we allow the truths of Scripture to guide our emotions, not our emotions the truths of Scripture? Will we seek out of what the Bible teaches about our experiences and whether this thing or world view that "works" actually lines up with who God is and what He has revealed? Will we allow our intellects and worldviews to be shaped by the truth of God's word, not the things of this world? Will the Bible be the ultimate authority in our lives as believers, as it is intended to be, or will it simply become a slave to these other authorities that we have established?

Should we even try?

This morning I was reading an article from cnn.com entitled "Why young Christians aren't waiting anymore."  The article was written to show the vast similarity between Christians and non-Christians in the area of pre-marital sex.  The numbers were shocking to read.  There seems to be no difference in practicing sex outside of marriage for professing Christians as there non-Christian peers.  But what was even more staggering to me was the paragraph that closed out the article.  Here the writer posed the questions:

"So what should a Christian parent or youth pastor do? How do they convince more young Christians to wait until marriage, or should they stop even trying?

I fear the answer to this question for most parents and pastors, both student pastors and lead pastors alike, is that we should just accept the facts and not try anymore.  I fear we have just accepted the immorality of church goers as a whole (because this issue goes far beyond those rebellious teenagers) and adopted the mentality that there is nothing we can do.  So, what should we do?  How are we as parents and pastors to raise up a generation of disciples of Christ who are marked by holiness not conformity?  

Before I address how we should do this, I want to address how we should not do this.  First, we should not use the "because Christians don't do that sort of thing" argument.  This gives no reason for life change and breeds either religion or rebellion.  Either the person will obey this order out of duty and compulsion rather than love or they will reject the teaching all together because they see no legitimate reason to adhere to it.  

Also, we must not reduce ourselves to using the fear technique (Have sex and you will die!) to manipulate sexual purity and holiness.  Anyone who has ever been involved in a youth group or sat under any teaching on abstinence has encountered this.  The person teaching gives all these statistics on teen pregnancy and tells you how bad STD's are and then proceeds to tell you that this is why you shouldn't have sex until you are married. 

There are two main problems with this approach.  One, nobody ever really believes this will happen to them.  This type of teaching may have an effect for a short while, but then they will realize that their peers are engaging in sexual activity and the majority of them are not pregnant nor disease ridden.  The fear that leads to purity slowly dwindles and the commitment to abstinence dwindles with it.  Second, one's personal health and safety should not be the reason we follow Christ commands as believers.  Our motivation for obedience and holiness on any level should flow from the love of Christ for us and His work on our behalf, not from a fear of sickness or pregnancy.  

So what should are response be as parents and the church to this reality that more and more professing Christians are being conformed to the way of the world?  To put it simply, preach Christ and Him crucified.  Teach as Paul did in 1 Corinthians 6:20 "for you were bought with a price.  So glorify God in your body."  If we are going to see the church follow Christ in holiness, specifically dealing with the issue of sexual purity, it has to be in light of the completed work of Christ and who we are in Him, no through fear.  Raise believers up in the gracious gospel of Christ and teach them who they are in Him.  People who are consumed with the glorious work and person of Christ Jesus will follow Him and seek purity for they know that He is good and His commands are from love not oppression.

So to answer the question posed in the title of this post, "Should we even try?", absolutely we should.  As parents and the church, we should not sit by why those who profess to be believers in Christ sit in the filth of their sins, rather we should proclaim the work of Christ and the reality of who they are in Him and loving lead them through the power of the Spirit from conformity to the world to a holiness in Christ Jesus.  So the question to be ask now is not should we try, rather will we?

An article every Christian parent must read

I came across this post from Joshua Harris on parenting and wanted to pass it along.  It is written to homeschoolers, but is not limited to them.  This is an article that speaks to every Christian parent who desires to see their child follow after Christ.  It was very convicting to me as I begin the venture known as parenting and I think back on the teaching and counseling I have done to parents in the past.  May we seek to capture the hearts of our children, not their behavior.

Read the article here.

Worship or behavior modification?

Having always attended and served in your typical SBC church, the issues of music style and ways we worship always seem to be a recurring conversation that takes place.  And if you are thinking that this is going to be a post promoting one side or the other, you are wrong.  Sorry to disappoint you.  The issue at hand is not the style of music that is sung or not sung as the church gathers for corporate worship,rather the heart of the people doing the "worshiping."  It seems we are more treating the symptoms and leading people to appear as if they are worshiping rather than treating the core issue and leading people into true worship.  If a person is truly not worshiping, it has nothing to do with the style of music being played )with the exceptions of screamo music, music so heavily distorted I can't understand anything, and the old lady playing the upright piano that has not been tuned in 3 decades playing every song the same tempo to make it even more irritating) rather it is, for the most part, the persons low view of the God toward whom the worship is directed.  However, when I have these conversations with people it seems they are more concerned with getting people to perform certain actions, i.e clap/raise their hands, smile, or like newer upbeat music.  Do not misunderstand me, these things are not bad, but these should simply be the outpourings of true worship not mistaken for being true worship.

In Matthew 23:13-36, Jesus is condemning the Pharisees for appearing righteous on the outside yet remaing unclean on the inside.  I fear that when it comes to this issue, and many others in the church, we are producing people who sit in a pew and perform certain actions we want them to perform, appear righteous and worshipful, yet have no true worship and affection for God in them.

The key to changing a lifeless and worshipless congregation is not to get them to clap or raise their hands or smile when they sing praise songs.  Likewise, the key to getting the younger generation to truly worship is not to do away with hymns and sings cool and trendy praise songs.  Hymns are great and so are contemporary worship songs (well there are some in both categories that need to be done away with, but that is a different post.)  We as pastors, worship leaders, and believers in the church hungry to see the church be the vibrant bride of Christ must not mistake getting people to sing a certain style song or to perform certain actions in the midst of their singing as the key to getting the church to worship.  John Piper has said "You can't praise what you don't prize."  They key to leading a church to be a congregation of true worshipers is to get them to prize the resurrected Christ above all else.  To see God as Isaiah did, high and lifted up.  If we make much of the resurrected Savior and lead people to His glory and splendor, we will not need to sing a certain type of song or coerce them to performing actions, rather simply sing the truth of who He is and what He has done for us in Christ Jesus and worship will come in light of the truth of who He is.

Update from Team Macedonia

The trip so far is going extremely well.  It is a different mission trip in the aspect that we are not doing a "project" but rather we are meeting people.  Most times we think of mission trips and we think of building a house or accomplishing a project that at the end of the day we can look back and see tangible things we have accomplished.  This is not the case with what we are doing.  Our primary goal is the engage the locals here and build relationships with them leading to the gospel of Christ Jesus.  Everyone in the group has made connections with at least one, and yesterday was really the first day we were out to where we could do this.  Be praying for us as we continue to engage these people, and pray we can be faithful to walk along side Brian and Charlie as they reach these people with the gospel of Christ.

I hope to be able to write more later today, but I at least wanted to touch base and give everyone a brief update on our status.  Thank you all for  your prayers and we can't wait to get back home and share what God has done.

We have arrived

Well we are here.  It is 3pm Monday local time now but this is the first opportunity I have had to connect to the internet.  Just wanted to post and let everyone know we have arrived safely and things are flowing nicely.  I will post more later today when the opportunity comes.

Macedonia Mission Trip

Well the time for departure has arrived.  Tomorrow, Saturday, July 16, I leave for my first overseas mission trip.  There are many emotions stirring in me, but mostly anticipation in what the LORD is going to do while we are there.  I covet the prayers of you all in the specific request below.

1. That the LORD will lead us to those in whose heart He is stirring.
2. That the LORD will open their hearts to pay attention to the gospel we
     proclaim (Acts 16:14)
3. That we will see at least one submit to Christ as Savior and will be able to plant the seed of the gospel to many more
4. For our families as we are away
5. For our safety  (pray over the planes, the pilots, the 4 hr. van ride, etc)

I will be updating the website with information regarding what we are doing and hopefully upload some pictures/videos, so keep checking back for information on the trip.  Thanks for your prayers.

Phantom of the Opera or the local church?

As much as I love a good western or war movie, if I'm honest I love the occasional musical as well.  The other night Jess and I were having an at home date night and decided to watch The Phantom of the Opera, which I must say is one of my favorites.  As I was watching there was one scene in particular that reminded me of how the local church acts at times.  No, this is not a reference to how there is often one or group in the church who would rather see the place burn down than operate differently than they think it should.  The scene to which I am referring is the scene during the party where everyone starts singing the song "Masquerade."  The lyrics of this song I fear ring true in the minds of church goers as they hang around the "church friends" or prepare to attend the corporate worship gathering on Sunday morning.  Some of the lyrics that stood out to me were:

Masquerade! You can fool any friend who ever knew you!

and

Masquerade! Hide your face, so the world will never find you!

I am concerned as I serve in the church that the members of the congregations which we attend, and at times even I myself, sing this song inadvertently every time we gather as the church.  We come to church and we hide behind our smiles and every time someone ask us how we are we say some cheesy Christian answer like "I'm blessed" or the generic "I'm fine" when in reality we are facing something horrible or we are struggling in sin or just plain having a bad day.  But we dare not let our mask down, for after all, if people knew who we really were there is no way they would still love us.  This is one of the major problems I see facing the church today, especially in the south.  We are so fake in our love for one another and in our relationships that we just stay behind our mask, and so when new people come, they feel they have to get their own mask if they are going to fit into a place where everyone seems to have it together.

No wonder people are sitting in their sins and stagnant in their relationship with God and with their Christian brethren, because if they cry out for help their facade will be exposed.  If we are the church are truly going to display the gospel of Christ and effectively walk along side our brothers and sisters in Christ and reach this community, we have to throw down our mask and be real and genuine and make ourselves vulnerable.  After all is the gospel not about a God who loves us and died for us in spite of our sin and offers us forgiveness and sanctification through Christ Jesus?  Why then does the church relate to each other in a way that says unless you have everything together you are not welcome here.  What if we dared to truly be the church in this?  To truly open up to one another and share ones burdens with the body.  What if we were open and honest about our struggles in our relationship about God and our sins with which we struggle and stopped acting as if we have everything together.  Would this not make God look more glorious?  Would this not display to the world His unconditional love through Christ?  If we are truly going to be the church we have to start with this, being in genuine community with one another through an open, transparent relationship.

Church, it is time we left the Masquerade party and starting being real with one another.  Let us love one another through the lens of the gospel and not the lens of false religion.

Learn your rules, you'd better learn your rules!!!

I have a confession to make, I love the tv show "The Office."  And while I am confessing this bit of information, I will make another confession, Dwight K. Schrute is my favorite character on the show.  There is a scene (in clip below) where Dwight talks about learning his rules as a child.



While this is funny, the thought hits me as I watch this, how many Christian parents raise their children in the same way.  Now of course we would never tell our children they will get eaten in their sleep, well at least most of us, but how often do we still use fear, especially fear of rejection and loss of love, to manipulate our children's behavior to meet our standard.  I fear, and in fact I see evidence to support this is true, that many children are raised in a way that they view God as one who loves them or rejects them based on their goodness.  And what troubles me even more is they get this from the picture of God that they get from their parents.  This view of God completely destroys the beauty of the gospel.  The gospel is that God loves us in spite of our rebellion through the righteousness of Christ.  God doesn't love us based on how well we "learn our rules" but rather based on the righteousness of Christ imparted to us.  Are we raising "godly" children who live a life in fear of rejection if they do not meet a standard?  Or are we raising  a generation of students engulfed with the love of God through the work of Christ Jesus?  We must strive as parents to display the gospel to our children in how we raise them, not behavior modified religion.

Who gets the glory?

Over the past few days I have spent some time reading through Paul's letter to the churches of Galatia.  While I was reading yesterday, there was a verse I read, one I have read many times before that stuck out to me and made me think: Think about my life, my ministry, my witness to the lost.

In chapter 1 Paul is writing of his conversion experience in verses 11-24, and in verse 24 he writes, "And they glorified God because of me."  As Paul was changed, God was glorified.  If you read back through the preceding verses, there is only one person performing the verbs that are taking place in Paul's conversion, and that is God.    It was God who set Paul apart, God who called him by His grace and God how was pleased to reveal His Son. And this is no different for anyone who is saved in Christ Jesus.

Paul never got past his radical depravity and his glorious salvation.  As Paul recounted his conversion, as the people in Paul's life saw his changed life, and as Paul proclaimed the gospel of Christ, there was one thing that prevailed; this being the God's glorious grace towards him.  As I read this my mind immediately began to think through my life and my ministry.  Who gets the glory?  As I tell of my conversion, am I the main character?  Am I the one who figured it out?  Am I the one who just decided to turn over a new leaf?  Or is God the main character?  Is God the one that gets full credit for my salvation, or is He simply a supporting role?  And beyond this, what gospel am I preaching?  Am I preaching a gospel that revolves around the mercy and grace of a glorious God, or am I preaching a gospel that downplays our sinfulness and teaches just cleaning up our act?

As we look at our lives as believers, our witness to the lost world, we must keep the glory of God at the center.  We must cling to the truth of the gospel, and daily live in the truth that it is simply through the mercy and goodness of God that we are saved and live in a way that people, as they see our lives and hear our story, glorify God because of us.

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." 1  Corinthians 10:31 ESV

What Kind of Men are We Raising?

This morning, while I was getting ready, I was listening to the popular sports talk radio program "Mike and Mike in the Morning" as is my custom.  This morning the conversation came up about the amount of time their assistants spent playing video games every week.  This particular man, who is grown, married, and has a full-time job, played an average of 20 hours of video games every week.  Later in the show people were emailing justifying this amount of time or more being spent by grown men every week playing video games.  As I was listening to this, I began to think about if this is the kind of men we are raising in the church.  As I look around, I sadly have to conclude for the most part it is.  Maybe it's not video games  (though often it is), but it seems we have created a culture of boys who never grow up and truly become men.  Do not misunderstand me, I am not speaking against playing video games or having fun, but I am speaking against a culture in the church that grows men who sit around and play war/fantasy video games for hours on end, and never step up to the plate to join in on the battle for the gospel and for their families.  We seem to have created an atmosphere of adolescence and complacency in men, to the point that they never put on their big boy pants and become the men that God is calling them to become.

As I reflected upon this, the challenge became two-fold for me.  First, am I striving to become  a man who is truly a man, sold out for the gospel and is strong in leading my family, or am I still a boy caught up in video games and model cars.  Am I leaving behind the childish things and striving for maturity, or am I staying back in a state of immaturity where it is nice and comfortable.  Secondly, what kind of men ma I building up in ministry?  Are we as a church creating an atmosphere that allows men to sit by idly on the sidelines playing games, or are we creating an atmosphere that demands men step up to the plate and be leaders.

Men, which describes you?  Are you truly stepping up to the plate and seeking to become a true man of the gospel?  Fathers, are you raising up men, or boys who sit by and watch others take charge while they simply play games?  If, in the mission of God we are truly going to have an impact , it is imperative that we be men, and raise a generation of men.  So put down your Xbox controller and step up to the plate.

Men, Step Up

Men, what legacy are we leaving?

A Story of Salvation from NY: Austin Wilkins

Wednesday, June 17, 2010, our youth group set off to go door to door inviting people to a local block party. In doing this, we had doors shut in our faces, and people yelling at us for no apparent reason. Despite all of this, God gave us the strength we needed to continue on and invite people to the block party. What all of us prayed to accomplish that day was to share the gospel with those who had never heard. Most of the people we talked to made it sound quite obvious that they did not know the gospel, nor did they wish to. In saying that, there was one man who we found that did not act at all like those we had meet that day.

Born and raised in Staten Island, NY, Dan did not know who Jesus was. When Laura, a member of the mission team from Virginia, and I approached him with our Block Party invitations, he seemed really exited but regretful to tell us that he could not make it. He said he was going to be in a missions bike ride on Saturday. Of course, this led us to ask him if he went to Church and if he knew who Jesus was. What followed after that question was completely surprising to me. Dan said that he was Catholic and for sometime attended church regularly, but had absolutly not clue who Jesus was, so we asked if we could share with him. Dan then did something that we had not seen all day, he actually sat down and ask us to please tell him. The tone of his voice and the look on his face made us realize that we had found someone who really wanted to hear of Gods wonderful gift.

We then sat there and told him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I will tell  you this with total confidence, when he prayed to God, accepting Christ into his heart, we knew that he was truly sincere. The sound in his voice, the look on his face, and that he almost seemed to act as if a 100 lb. weight was taken off his back. He then thanked Laura, Tim, Andrea, and my self for doing what we had been doing that day (Tim and Andrea were also in our group and joined in the conversation about 10 minutes in). For a good 30 more minutes we stayed there and continued to answer any questions he had.

Some things that you might want to know about Dan is that he is a former alcoholic, who is going to AA. We told him that he should not blame God that he was an alcoholic but that he should use what he has gone through to help others get away from alcohol. God has a plan for this man, and all of us could tell it. I just want to thank everyone at OCBC and at Salem Church for putting this together. What is being done up here is truly a great thing.

~Austin

A Students View on the NY Mission Trip: DeAnna McEntire and Emily Pate

Every day is an opportunity for ministry, but not many of us always take that opportunity. Today, we had the chance and took the opportunity to share. We divided into groups of four that were mixed with the other church groups. Our goal was to go door to door throughout Staten Island and invite people to Salem Church's block party. Not only this, but we also hoped to take the opportunity to share the gospel of Christ.

We had a surprising mix of results. Our experience involved many mean dogs, many slammed doors, and many unfriendly people, and also a few that were receptive. By lunchtime we were already somewhat discouraged, but we remembered the words of John Welborn the night before, when he spoke of how God made the footsteps of three lepers sound like an army in 2 Kings 7. In the same way, the flyers we passed out to a few unreceptive people in New York City could bring people to Christ.

God always works in mighty ways, even when it is unexpected. One person in our group, Austin Wilkins, had the opportunity to lead someone to Christ. He shared the story of the conversion with all the youth and it was very encouraging. Austin will write more about this tomorrow.  After a tiring day of dealing with people who brush us off, it was great to know that someone came to Christ. This is the entire reason we came here to New York, even if it was just one person.

Emily and DeAnna

NY Trip: Day 2

Today was a tiring day. We spent the day painting the apartment of a local family, or should I say family. There were to families sharing a 3 room apartment, with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and a small kitchen. Each family had a bedroom to essentially serve as their house. there were three beds in one room and a crib and two beds in the other. It was a humbling experience as we often complain about not having the newest, nicest things, while these families were essentially living in an 8x10 room. Because of the language barrier we were unable to strongly communicate with them residents, though we were able to tell the story of Jesus as best we could to the little girl that lived in the house who spoke English very well. Overall, the youth put forth a great days work and we are excited about tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will be going throughout the community, mainly knocking door to door, inviting people to the block party on Saturday and hopefully having the opportunity to share the gospel of Christ Jesus with them. I trust in the Sovereignty of God and know that there will be some among those with which we will talk that He is calling to Himself and that we will be able to share the gospel with some and see some come to salvation. Please be in prayer for us, that we will have boldness and will clearly communicate the gospel and God will save some. Tomorrow will be a report from one of the students on what has taken so place over the week so far.

NY Trip: Day 1

Today was a day of travel. We arrived to the hotel around 4:45pm and headed out the church around 5:30. The trip overall went alot smoother and seemed alot shorter than I had imagined it would. I have to say the most surprising part of the day was the food they had for us tonight. The food is being cooked by an actual chef that works in the city. I am used to pizza or other food that is thrown together, but not tonight. We had roast beef with a mushroom sauce, peas, and garlic mashed potatoes.

After dinner we got together for a time of worship. Pastor Eddie did a great job of laying out again why we are here, pointing us back to the power of the gospel and how proclaiming it to the people here is the purpose in us coming. I covet your prayers for us while we are here. Tomorrow we will be painting a house in the community and the rest of the week we will be out in the community engaging the people of the area. Pray that God move in a mighty way among the people we encounter.