The Event-WJACC 4

The Event-WJACC 3

Acts 28

Acts 28 in the New Testament is a great testimony about the sovereignty of God. The Apostle Paul is a prisoner on a ship. The ship is wrecked. They make it to land. While stoking a fire to get warm a venomous snake bites Paul's hand. Then because of the bite the people around assume Paul is a murderer.

This is a bad day!!!

Yet as things progress Paul meets a government official named Publius. Heals his father. Performs many healings and revival breaks out all over the land of Malta.

So Paul goes through a REALLY bad day and in the end people are praising God and glorifying Him.

So if God can do this great turn around with Paul's day like this what can He do when I simply did not get enough sleep the night before?
Or we run out of my favorite cereal?
Or traffic is thick and I can't get to work?
Or...?
I mean seriously...what have you whined about lately?
Read Acts 28 and praise your sovereign God today!!!!

WJACC-the event

The Event-WJACC 2

Moses and Aaron and Pharaoh

So I'm reading Exodus 5 & 6 this morning and here's the scene.

Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and tell him to let the people of Israel go into the wilderness so they may celebrate a feast to God.

Pharaoh not only says no but then makes the work load of the people more difficult than it was before. He does then on top of calling the people lazy.

Which brings me to my question of the day. Would it have been more productive for Pharaoh if he had granted a short break for the people and required the same amount of work to be done or to withdraw resources (which he did) and then require the same work to be done?

Some things just seem silly to me.

Quote of the day

"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."

-Flannery O'Connor

Apology

To all of our friends, family, and especially WJACC folks...

I apologize if you have left messages on our home phone over the last month. We made a change in our phone service and we now have voice mail on our home phone. We noticed that we had not been receiving any messages lately but didn't think much of it.

Then today Allison realized the we had not set up the voice mail yet and when she did she discovered a whole list of messages that were waiting for us from the last month. So please know that we did not intentionally ignore you. We just didn't realize you had called.

Thanks for understanding.

Hearing from God and seeing Pastor Jones pt.3

#3-Is this idea something born out of prayer or something prayed on to be born?

Here's what I mean by this in a nut shell.

Am I experiencing intimate time with God so that I may hear and recognize His voice above all of the busy-ness and chaos that surrounds me? Or am I trying to come up with ideas that would be cool and relevant and praying that they are God's will?

God is such a creative and relevant God. He is better able to supply all we need including ideas and plans for His ministry. The question is are we still enough and quiet enough to hear Him?

#4-When you think God is telling you something is it confirmed by other believers?

First let me say this. If God wants to give you a message He'll tell you first before someone else. I had a well-meaning lady one time tell me, "God told me to tell you...". What was funny about that experience was God had not revealed to me anything like the message she was trying to convey. This is not the type of person I'm talking about here.

Here are the type of people that you want to seek out for confirmation.

a) Does this person have a track record of holy obedience to God's word?

b) Does this person have a track record of being still and quiet before God?

c) Does this person have a track record of living in and by the grace and love of God?

d) Is this someone who you find yourself submitted to in a discipling relationship?

e) Is this person coo-coo for cocoa puffs or do they tend to make sense?

Hearing from God is not an exact science and is not completely defined or described by anyone but I hope some of these things do help.

The big thing is...if you are never still you will rarely if ever hear the voice of God.

Like I said before, I don't know Pastor Jones personally so I can not speak to his ability to be still. However, I do know how still or not still I am. Now let me shut up and go listen for a while.

Hearing from God and seeing Pastor Jones pt.2

So how do we know if we are hearing from God?

Here's some thoughts on that.

#1-THE BIBLE...the WORD, the WORD, the WORD!!!

God never ever contradicts Himself. So if you want to know if God is telling you to do something the first question you need to ask is "does it line up with the Bible?" But in order to answer that you must know what the Bible says. Spend time in it. Soak it up. Read it. Meditate on it. Study it. Memorize it. Share it. Talk about it. Pray it. Am I making my point?

The Bible is living and active (Hebrews 4:12) and relevant every day in every way.

Another pastor once said, "if you can't hear God, read God." That's a great suggestion! Listen to God through His word...the Bible.

#2-Does this line up with Jesus' commands?

This one is closely related to the first. Jesus gave us two great instructions in scripture. Love God with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:36-40)

Go and make disciples. (Matthew 28:18-20)

If believe God is telling you to do something and it does not line up with one of these two instructions then you know it is not God talking. Plain and simple.

more to come...

Hearing from God and seeing Pastor Jones pt.1

As a lot of you know Pastor Jones is a pastor of a church in Gainesville, FL who over the last few weeks has dominated headlines with his plans to perform a Koran book burning on September 11th.

His reasoning is that this will communicate to the world the evils of Islam and that he believes God told him to do it.

This story has bothered me so much that I changed gears yesterday and preached on hearing from God and the examples of burning and fire in the Bible. Here is my take on Pastor Jones.

(Just to clarify...I do not know Pastor Jones personally and have never met him so what little I know about him has come from the media.)

Through out several interviews Pastor Jones stated that God told him to have a "Koran book burning."

Then he stated that they would cancel the burning if the Islamic leaders in New York would cancel and/or move the building of a mosque further away from ground zero. After what seemed like plans to meet with these leaders in NY the pastor said the burning had been suspended until further notice. The last news story I saw reported that no meeting ever came about but yet now Pastor Jones is saying that God does not want the burning to happen "now or ever".

So here's my questions.

If God tells you to do something and then you change plans based on striking a deal with a religion that you are convinced is evil then what does that say about what you think of God's word?

Is God's word just a bargaining chip? Is it a negotiable word?

If you truly believe you are hearing from God then is God just wishy washy and changes His plans on a whim?

OR in light of all of this, are you really hearing from God or are you coming up with some ideas and tagging God's name on it?

So how do we know if we are hearing from God? I'm going to offer some suggestions over the next couple of post. Stay tuned.

The Event-WJACC

WJACC folks...be on the look out for more info on what "The Event" is and how it may impact your life!!!!

Happy Birthday Micah!!!

Today my little man turns one! Wow! This past year he has spent the majority of his time with me in the office and going where I go. We have been companions and friends, working, playing, and sometimes even snoozing together. In a couple of weeks he starts going to a daycare class. There's a part of me that is excited to get my office back. I won't have to worry about books being pulled off of shelves or papers being thrown everywhere. I won't have to worry about stepping on toys, blocks, or balls. I can set up my office the way I want it.

Then again, in a couple of weeks this office will get a little more quiet and it will remind me once again that my kids are growing up way faster than I will ever be comfortable with. I am thankful that I have a God who loves my son much more than I do. And that says a lot.

I love you little man and I can not wait to see what all God does in and through your life. Happy Birthday!

website editing

I'm in the midst of trying to learn the all of the editing process for our church website. Here is a taste of what I've started working on.

Friday links

Here's a few links that I have come across lately...

1) Perry offers some encouragement here.
2) We all know someone who is strugggling in one way or another. Young and old have challenges that raise all types of questions in our minds and hearts. Here is one from Mark Beeson.
3) Now that you are all probably a little teary eyed let me lighten the mood a little. I feel a special connection to this blog entry since we drive a toyota sienna mini-van. Check out the video found here. The scary part is I identify with quite a bit of this video. We even have that little piano he's holding.

things I don't understand

Here are a couple of things that do not make sense to me.

1) Why do people leave witness tracts on the urinal in the men's bathroom? To be honest I've never seen a piece of paper stuck in a urinal pipe or sitting up on top and thought "hey I think that might have something to do with eternity and life and might be something I should consider taking home."

2) Why do some people leave a witness tract on the table at a restaurant and leave either a lousy tip or no tip at all? I can tell you from personal experience that the wait staff at your local restaurant are not busting their tails to serve you so that they may gather more reading material.

Here's the thing...tracts NEVER take the place of personal conversations so unless you are will to sit down with someone and walk them through the message of a witness track then please just keep it in your pocket. To leave it in the bathroom or to leave it with little to no tip communicates just how little you think about the message inside of it.

There, that feels a little better.

PS. Christians...please!!!! I beg you! Stop leaving lousy tips when you go out to eat. It's ridiculous the reputation we have. We should be known for our generosity. Not our stenginous!!!

There, that feels even better.

Dying to Live and Radical

I just finished ordering two books that I anticipate making an impact on a lot of my teaching and preaching coming up.

The first book is by a friend of mine, Clayton King. His book "Dying to Live" looks to be a call of total surrender to Jesus Christ with everything we have.

The second is one that was recommend to me just today. "Radical" seems to be carrying the same message as Clayton's book but throught the voice of David Platt, a pastor in Alabama.

I can't wait to get my hands on both of these. Below is a short video clip of Clayton's thoughts behind the book. Enjoy.

Grace quote

Check out this quote from Watchman Nee!

"Praise God, the blood of Christ not only washes all our sins away but at the same time it bears witness for us before God. In the face of such a witness, He can never cast us away. Christ has died and been raised from among the dead. Who then can accuse us? We do praise and thank our God." (from the book Grace for Grace)

Amen and amen!

Today's Prayer

I read this prayer today and wanted to share it here...

"Therefore, let us desire nothing else,
Let us wish for nothing else,
Let nothing else please us and cause us delight,
Except our Creator and Redeemer and Savior, the one true God,
Who is the Fullness of Good, all good, every good,
The true and supreme good,
Who alone is Good, merciful, and gentle, delectable and sweet,
Who alone is holy and just and true, holy and right,
Who alone is kind, innocent, pure,
From Whom and through Whom and in Whom is all pardon,
All grace, all glory of all the penitent and the just,
Of all the blessed who rejoice together in heaven.
Therefore, let nothing hinder us, nothing separate us,
Or nothing come between us."

Author unknown

Happy Birthday Natalie!!!

4 years ago you entered my life. Before that day I never really liked the word "princess". However over the last four years that's exactly what you have become to me. My princess. I pray that as you grow in wisdom, discernment, strength, and beauty that one day God will supply that proper prince that will love you unconditionally. I love you baby girl! Happy Birthday!!!! Enjoy.