So it Begins!

Our 24 hours of prayer has started!  One of the elders here at Ontario Christian Church kicked things off this morning!  I am thrilled that people are still devoted to prayer!  Out of all the slots of time to fill, only 2 remained unfilled as of this morning: midnight Saturday and 4 am Sunday!  That is exciting!

I have encouraged our people to fast during this time also.  We don’t talk a whole lot about fasting, but Jesus assumed we would do it just like he assumed we would pray!  Matthew 6 says, “When you fast” not if.  We assume that fasting is supposed to be completely private, but it is shown by Jesus to be just as private as praying, and we don’t hesitate to tell someone that we are praying for them.  Maybe we need to encourage one another to fast more regularly and offer ourselves as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God!

WHEN YOU PRAY!

WHEN YOU FAST!

Power of Prayer

This weekend Ontario Christian Church will be participating in our 2nd 24 hours of prayer.  This is an incredible time of corporate and individual prayer where I have asked members of this body to sign up for 1 hour time slots to come to the building and pray.  While they are here, they are asked to pray for the lost, pray for our community, pray for this church, pray for the universal Church, and really anything that comes to mind!

Too often we ignore Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount regarding prayer.  Jesus never said, “If you pray” he said, “When you pray.”  How often do we spend an entire hour in prayer?  I mean really in prayer.  Last year, after I had been at this church for just over 2 months, we organized the 1st 24 hours of prayer and the reaction was the same from almost everyone, “1 hour?  How can I pray for a whole hour?”  The reaction afterwards was the same also, “That hour went by so fast – I could have gone for another hour with no problem!” 

Amazing things happen when we enter the throne room of God!  Time seems to either stand still, or fly by!  Allow God to meet you in prayer this weekend as our church meets God on Saturday and Sunday!

 WHEN YOU PRAY!

Memorial Day

I am not entirely certain what happened on Sunday!  I had prepared a sermon on Gideon and his battle with the Midianite army.  I thought this was going to be the perfect Memorial Day sermon.  Before I preached, there was a video shown with all of the people associated with our church who have served in the armed forces.  Somewhere in the middle was a picture of an elderly lady in our church named Mary.  Mary is just a tiny little thing, and is getting up there in years.  On the screen was this beautiful young woman, and it said she was a nurse during WWII.  Immediately my mind began racing about the stories she must have, and I wondered how many people listened!

The way my mind works, that got me thinking about our own stories…the stories that we have about our redemption…the stories about what God has done in our life, and God kept taking me to Deuteronomy 6.

“Deuteronomy 6:4-9

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. “

We have a responsiblity to tell our children…to tell them every opportunity we get about the One God whom we serve!

Tell your story!

It was painful, but I scrapped my sermon on Sunday, and spoke briefly about this passage…I have never abandoned a sermon completely 2 minutes before I was supposed to preach it, but I couldn’t do anything else!

Impress your story on the people around you!

Thoughts thanks to Fishing & Catching

OK…if you read my last post, you know where I was going in stating the differences between fishing and catching.  Jesus called us to both fish for men, and to catch men. 

Honestly, that was the basis of last weeks Bible Study on the Life of Christ.  This whole week something has been rolling around in my head (and unfortunately, there is far too much room for that).  In keeping with the fishing theme, I wondered to myself, and involved some people in a discussion of whether or not we are actually involved in a catch & release program.  I don’t know if it is the same in other countries, but here in the US, there is a sad trend going on in the church to get people to “cross a line” and then we seem to forget about them.

Let me explain what I mean by “cross a line.”  For some, it is that trip down the aisle, or the sinner’s prayer.  Maybe it is baptism.  For some, it might even be membership into a certain church.  What happens then?  Where is the discipleship? 

When was the last time someone asked you what you were reading in the Bible for your own benefit?  When was the last time you asked that of someone else?  What is God showing you about his character?  How is your prayer life?  These are questions that should be asked as the beginnings of discipleship, and they aren’t even asked down the road. 

Let’s step out of our comfort zones, quit this catch & release junk, and start making disciples!

Fishing or Catching?

How do we respond to the battle call?I was studying Jesus encounter with a few fishermen and a miraculous catch. I noticed that both Matthew and Mark say that Jesus said, “I will make you fishers of men.” Luke, who includes more detail anyway says, “From now on you will catch men.”

If you have ever been hunting or fishing, you know that there is a difference between fishing and catching! I remember spending days fishing with my dad in Colorado mountain streams, and catching nothing…I was doing a lot of fishing though!

We are called to fish, and we are called to catch!

It doesn’t stop there though! The Greek word that the good Dr. uses is literally “to catch alive.” It is only used elsewhere in 2 Timothy 2:26 “that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” We have got to realize that we are living behind enemy lines, and we are called to free those captives!

Not only is there a difference between fishing and catchiing, but one other big difference…when we fish, we take those fish from life to death; when we go after men, we take them from death to life…the only true life worth living!

Answer the battle cry!

CT Scans & Robins

What a crazy time this last few weeks has been!  I was reminded last week of how much the Father truly does love us!  My 2 month old baby has a lump on her head from when she was born (She was trying to come out sideways) so the Dr. wanted us to go to Akron Children’s Hospital for a CT scan.  Even though the Dr. was sure it was nothing I was still pretty nervous about this test!  She was lying there completely helpless, and I was only able to watch as she slid back into this machine scared.  I don’t want to even begin to intimate that only a parent can understand the love of God, but I think that day I understood it a little more clearly!  I understood how great the love the Father has lavished on us is, and I was even more keenly aware of 2 Peter 3:9 – “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

During all of this, I have been trying to figure out a Robin at the church.  We have windows down both sides of our auditorium, and starting last Monday, I heard a knocking on the windows on one side.  I stood to watch for a while, and saw a Robin fly up and hit the window a few times.  This literally went on all week.  You can even walk down the row of windows and see marks from his beak where he has been trying to get in on every window! 

Still today, this Robin is trying to get in!  I have shewed him away many times thinking he is going to hurt himself, but he still comes at the window.  Our church has been growing recently both numerically and spiritually, but I would still love for people to be so anxious to hear the Word of God that they are knocking on our windows.  Unfortunately, I don’t think this is what God intended…I think we are supposed to be out there telling them about Jesus so they will ask us more, not waiting for them to knock on our windows.  I guess I will relegate this bird to knocking on our doors status, and encourage our church to go out and be the church, and start knocking on the hearts of the lost!

Where 2 or 3 Come Together?

Ok, I just read a blog that said it, and I have heard it in church services more than half a million times.  “Jesus said that where 2 or more are gathered in my name, there I will be also, so Jesus is here in this service with us.”  That grates on me a bit!  Is it just that people have heard it the half a million times, or are they convinced that is what it means? 

If I learned anything in Bible College, it is that context is King!  (Thank you David Fish, Matt Proctor, Jim Johnson, and Mark Scott for pounding that into my head.)  If we look at the context of Matthew 18:19-20 what do we see?  We see Jesus talking about disciplining a brother who sins against us!  If we are in agreement as believers, Jesus is in agreement also!

Jesus has promised to be with us, and he has even sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in us, so even as I sit here all alone, Jesus is here!  Why do we make Bible passages say what we want them to say! 

Sorry everybody! Am I just straining the gnats here, or is it as bad exegesis (or actually eisegesis) as I think it is?

rant is done…all this because the person didn’t allow comments on their blog.  This would have been easier for all involved if I could have just mentioned it to that person!

Lovin’ God or Lovin’ Others

Why does it seem that too often I hear about people who are either loving God, or they are loving on others?  I had a friend whose ministry was called LOGALOO – Loving On God And Loving On Others.  As I prepare a sermon this weekend on John 21 I realize that it is not an either or thing!  We have got to be doing both!  I have seen churches that are great at loving God through their worship, and through their faithfulness to His Word.  I have seen other churches who have got the loving other part figured out, but it is to the point that it has become simply a social gospel.  Not the gospel that calls men out of their sin!

Church, we have got to be doing both!  We must love God, and that has to be our motivator to love others.  Even our motivation can mess things up.  I asked my 8 year old daughter today why we are supposed to trust Jesus, and her answer was so that we could spend forever with him in heaven.  I said that is true, but I explained to her that our motivation has to come strictly from our love for God.  We cannot be serving the people God loves because it will benefit us, or our church, and we can’t even do it because we think we will be given some extra jewels in our crown!  Our motivation has to be love – love for God!

“Do you love me?  Feed my sheep.” 

Still in Love

Things have begun to quiet down after a crazy week, and I realized something this morning…I am still madly in love with my wife!  It has been almost 10 years, and a wild 10 years it has been!  4 states, 4 ministries, 5 children, going back to school, 6 weeks in a motorhome, ups and downs of ministry, countless episodes of vomitting children, all this and she still loves me too!

God knew exactly what he was doing when he gave me this incredible woman, and there is no doubt that I married up!  She is beautiful, an incredible mother, a loving wife, a great ministry partner, she can cook like there is no tomorrow, she puts up with her in-laws!  Wow!

You know what though, all that could change tomorrow, and I would still love her!  She could have a horrible disfiguring accident that leaves her looking like the Phantom of the Opera!  She could be left like a potato and unable to be the incredible mother or the loving wife!  She could stop loving being a ministry partner because she has seen too many of the bride’s warts!  She could forget how to cook!  I would still love her!

Why?  Because I chose to love her!  That will never change!   I like to tell her that I have to love our children because we conceived them, but I chose to love my wife and I always will!

 Our relationship with God is the same!  God has chosen to love us!  Ephesians 1:5 says, “he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—”  He adopted us as his children!  Adoption is a choice…Jesus Christ is his true son, but we have been brought into that incredible family at God’s will!  Verse 11 goes on to say we were chosen!

God chose you!  You may not be anything to look at, you might not be able to cook, and you certainly aren’t always pleasant to be around, but God chose you!  He chose you because he wants to look good through you!  God chose us, adopted us, and marked us for one reason…for the praise of His glorious grace!

God chose you, and is still in love with you!

Easter is Over!?

So, the eggs have all been found; the tomb has been shown to be empty; Jesus has appeared to his disciples…now what?

We had an incredible easter weekend with a record number of people in attendance at our current building!  What do we do now?  Hopefully, somewhere on your journey this weekend, or before, you have encountered the living God!  Even the angels, when the followers of Jesus were looking for him, asked, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here.  He has risen.” 

Don’t just stay looking longingly into the empty tomb, go out into the world and tell about how encountering the risen savior has changed your life! 

No one leaves an encounter with God unchanged!  Allow people to encounter God through you this week!

Quit looking for the living among the dead, and quit acting dead when you should be living!