Just Do It!

Sometimes we are hesitant to move forward because we want a cue from God. We want God to send us a miraculous Outlook Calendar event that reads: "Thursday noon, Take Bobby to Lunch and Share Gospel."

Sometimes God works that way, but most of the time, He doesn't.

The majority of "walking in faith" is the actual walking part. James 2:20 says, "But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?"

Consider the hemorrhaging woman in Matthew 9...

A distressed woman who had had an incurable blood hemorrhage for twelve years secretly approached Jesus as he was mingling with a crowd of followers. Her thought was that Jesus would be able to heal her. But instead of asking to be healed as many others were doing in that time, she snuck up behind him to touch the hem of his garment. She thought to herself, "If I only touch His garment, I will get well." (Matt 9:21b)

Yes, she believed that she could be healed by touching the hem of Jesus garment (which, incidentally, is a pretty bold faith!) and Jesus indeed exhorted her by saying, "Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well." (italics mine).

But it was her actions that brought her to that point.

Is there something that you believe God wants you to do? Is there some way you need to give of your time, your energy, yourself? Is there someone God would like you to minister to? If you have even an inkling of it, I challenge you to JUST DO IT! and see if God doesn't turn your faithful action into a miracle.

I will do the same!

Press on.

Testing the Spirit

I recently came across a YouTube video of a man named Todd Bentley who is a part of a new "ministry" that is unlike any I've ever seen.

While I was initially shocked by the graphic violence he talks about as being inspired by the Holy Spirit, I ultimately did not feel threatened or disturbed by his claims. In the short video below, Bentley describes tackling, punching and even kicking the faces of people he alleges the Holy Spirit asked him to.

Though I personally don't believe the Holy Spirit is behind this new "movement", I don't have a lot of evidence to prove it is unholy. All I have in my defense is the record of what miracles the Spirit has taken part in as described by scriptures and my own gut feeling. Neither of those defenses are particularly strong when held under scrutiny because many of the miracles that were performed in Jesus' time and during the time of the early church were all without precedent. (I'm sure the whole speaking in tongues thing was pretty strange to those observing for the first time!)

But my comfort is found in Paul's exhortation that as mature Christians, "we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; (Ephesians 4:14)"

New fads of ministry will come and go. Whether they are legitimate or not, we needn't be swayed by what the current crop of popular Christians might be involved in.



Paul says to a young Timothy,

You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned {them,} and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

I don't know if the whole Todd Bentley thing is real or not (I suspect it is not) but it doesn't matter to me. According to what Paul says, I am to continue in the things I have learned... things that I am convinced of and have known since childhood. My theology is clear. The scripture that I know is adequate - I don't need a new add-on.

The new trends of the season may be legitimate additions to God's repertoire of ministry techniques, but if all I ever do is hold on to what I already know to be true, then I needn't worry about the latest fads. I don't have to worry I'm missing out on God's "new instructions". I already have His old instructions.

And those will work fine from now until He comes again.

Press on.

Revive Us Again!

In light of the last few years in our church, it is obvious we are in desperate need of revival! We need the Living Waters flowing through us so that we can be refreshed and energized. But in order to be revived, we need to be willing to lay every aspect of our lives before the altar of God. That means there is nothing we will withhold from Jesus. We need to confess our sins and repent.

No longer can we be ok with "it's not that bad" in our lives. No longer can we be ok with, "I know I should but..." in our lives. No longer can we be ok with putting ethnic culture above God's. God and his ways need to come first all the time, every time. At the very least, we need to truly desire that above all else. Until we get to that point, we kid ourselves if we expect God to refresh us. Instead, we will continue to be a stagnating pool as we continue to hold onto the things that block the Living Waters from flowing in.

Let us decide this day as a church that we will not be satisfied with nothing less than God's best in our lives.

American Idol

Christians across the nation were pleasantly surprised on Wednesday when the hit TV reality series, American Idol, concluded their show with a rendition of the the praise song, "Shout to the Lord."

In this day and age, that a secular show with such wide appeal would feature a Christian anthem in it's closing act is no short of miraculous. On top of the fact that American Idol regularly draws 30 million + viewers on a weekly basis, they selected Shout to the Lord to be sung on their mid-season gala show, "Idol Gives Back", their celebrity-studded charity telethon which earned over $60 million in just a few nights. The "Idol Gives Back" episode likely drew millions more viewers than their normal numbers.

One peculiarity that many observers noticed was that Idol replaced the name "Jesus" in the opening verse of the song with "shepherd." To their credit, when they encored the performance on Thursday night's show (that's right! they sang it TWICE in one week! Amazing!), they rightly sang the verse by addressing the praise song to "my Jesus, my savior."

Here is Thursday night's performance with "Jesus":


I may be a little cynical most days, so I doubt myself when I make this speculation, but I wonder if there is a certain element in today's culture that is tired of the removal of God from all thing public and are simply ready for revival.

Pray that it is so!

Here is Wednesday' (inferior) performance with the word "shepherd":

Heal Our Land Part II - Walk in the Light

From darkness to light

At the dedication of God's temple, God responded to Solomon's prayer with this: if my people, who are called by my name (e.g., CHRIST-ian), will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

To humble yourself and pray means to seek God. After all, isn't the main point of prayer to be in God's presence? But we must also repent. We are all sinful, and must repent from something. Some must repent from the bad things that they've done, some must repent because of the good things they haven't done. The bigger problem might be the good that we are supposed to do, we don't do. Not that we never think, say, or do bad things; we do them all the time. But for some reason the other aspect of sin, "missing the mark," is not talked about so much. I think the most telling fact is that most non-believers can easily identify what we are against, not what we are for. What is/are the good thing(s) that you have been neglecting lately? Choose this moment to walk in the light. And when we do this, God will bring revival in our hearts and heal our land.

Heal Our Land Part I - Go to Prayer. . . Meeting!

Guess who came to prayer meeting last Wednesday?

Prayer meeting attendance has been very. . . shall we say. . . not so good, lately. Last week we had just 2! Including me! But let's be honest here: attendance has never been good. At best, we'd get 10 English congregation members. Coming together as a community of believers to pray for our ministries, our members, as well as other needs in our area, or even the world is important and does make a difference. At the dedication of God's temple, God responded to Solomon's prayer with this: if my people, who are called by my name (e.g., CHRIST-ian), will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14) Can you imagine what our world would look like if all churches were truly "Houses of Prayer"? Would God not heal our churches, families, communities, nation, and even the world? Prayer matters. Maybe you can't make it every week, but what about every other week, or even once a month? Every little bit matters. Revival on a large scale will never happen without starting on a small scale - with you and me. Come to prayer meeting. No matter what you've allowed yourself to believe previously, your presence matters.

Schedule change: Starting 4/16, we will start prayer meeting at 7:30 PM instead of 8:00.