Unity in our Day

UNITY IN OUR DAY

BLOG HOST, 12-1-2010

HOST:  JAY MARTIN

JOHN 17

            I recently heard a political commentator talking about the fact that divisiveness and debate is part of our heritage as Americans—it is in our national DNA.  He pointed out that throughout American history, there have been two and sometimes three sides to many very important national debates.  To the suggestion that Americans want political leaders who compromise and work together, the commentator’s answer was simple—we want to be right, not get along!

            If we are not careful, this divisiveness can creep in to the church, also. Actually it already has.  As a matter of fact, like American history, the history of the church has been one of division and debate.  We can see it in the multiple denominations in our nation and world today. 

            While things weren’t that different in Jesus’ day, Jesus had a simple idea—complete unity!  As He approached the weekend of torture and crucifixion, Jesus took time to pray for unity!  Verse 23: “I in them and you in me.  May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

                This teaching goes beyond the mandates to forgive, even leave the altar to make it right with others—this is calling for the same kind of unity that God the Father and God the Son have with the Holy Spirit, as they make up the Trinity.  This is pretty heavy stuff.  As a matter of fact, I believe it is one of the core concepts Jesus taught—unity! 

            It involves conflict resolution—focusing on the essentials instead of traditions and opinions—but it goes much deeper than that.  What does complete unity look like?  For Jesus, it looked like the Cross of Calvary—for God it looked like sending His precious Son, and for the Holy Spirit, it looked like coming to earth when Jesus ascended in to heaven.  This was a difficult assignment, and yet the Trinity, because of their love for us, performed salvation’s plan.

            Are we willing to sacrifice to achieve unity of purpose?  Are we willing to forego our individual desires and identity for the cause of Christ?  Are we willing to give ourselves to each other so that the world will have an accurate picture of Jesus?  Or will we live self-centered, selfish lives, wrapped up in ourselves, and die someday having aided Jesus’ prayer not being answered?  This is hard for me, and yet I dare to believe that right here today, in a world that values debate and being right even over relationship, that we can have unity in our day.  I know that is Jesus’ will for you and me!

love to be hated?

I have spent the majority of my life striving to be loved.  Don’t get the wrong idea…..my life has always been filled with people who love me, but I couldn’t stand the thought of someone disliking me.  It drove me crazy!  At school, I went out of my way and did things I wouldn’t normally do so that people would like me.  At church, I would put on a face so people would like me.  I would spend my days paranoid at the thought of someone disliking me. 

As I read this:  ¹⁸ “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹ If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you”……..I don’t think this is saying that we should desire for everyone to hate us, but I do believe it is saying that we do not belong to this world.  It’s obvious that our world doesn’t love Christ.  So, if I am living like Christ, should everyone love me?  If the world does love me, I may need to reevaluate my life.   Shouldn’t I be focused on being more like Christ and showing His love to the world, instead of focusing on whether or not people love me?  Shouldn’t my desire be impressing Christ rather than impressing the world?  If I am being like Christ, there are people who aren’t going to like me, and I’m OK with that.

Follow Jesus---all the way Home!

"And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."

I gotta say, I think I would have been just as confused as the disciples. How could they follow if they didn't know where he was going?  Looking back on it now, it's easy for us to know what Jesus was talking about.  There's a song I remember from church when I was very young. It went "Heaven is a wonderful plaaaaace. Filled with glory and graaaaaaace. I'm gonna see my Savior's face cuz heaven is a wonderful place." I'm excited that I get to follow Jesus while I'm here on Earth. But I get even more excited, giddy even, when I think about Jesus calling us all home. We talked about it tonight. No more pain and suffering. No more tears. We get to see Him face to face. Heaven is going to be a wonderful place! And I want to follow Him now, so that I can follow Him all the way home!

Ray Bob

I Know Who I Am

I KNOW WHO I AM

BLOG HOST, 11-24-2010

HOST:  JAY MARTIN

JOHN 8

            The religious leaders wanted to know—“Jesus, who are you?”  They saw the miracles, they heard Him call God, Father.  They wanted to know.  In verse 58, Jesus makes it clear—Jesus identified Himself as the Great “I Am.”  He identifies Himself with the God who told Moses to identify Him as “I Am.”  Jesus is God the Son.  He is the Messiah.  He knew His identity, and He made it clear to the religious leaders.

We can become sons of God also.  We have a choice:  Verses 31-36 make it clear:  “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,”  Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’”

We have the choice of being slave or sons and daughters.  Sin makes us slaves, but through repentance, and discipleship, we become sons and daughters—free to pursue all of the benefits and responsibilities of being in God’s family!

It is amazing--I know who I am!  I don't have to wonder about my identity.  I am Jesus' disciple, Jesus is my big brother!  God is my father!  Other believers are my brothers and sisters!  Glory!  Thanks Lord.  I am not perfect, and sometimes I sin.  Forgive me!  Break the tendency to move towards slavery and away from kinship with You.  I want to be free in You!  I want to be a Son of God!  I choose freedom in You.  Thanks for making that possible!  My heart is filled with thanksgiving during this season because although you were in heaven with God being celebrated as God the Son, you chose to come to earth!  You did it for me!  Thank you!  In Jesus' Name!  Amen.

are we excited?

scripture:  john 6.5-70

The disciples and those following Jesus got to be first-hand witnesses to Jesus performing a mind-blowing miracle when He fed 5,000 with a few loafs and a couple of fish.  But the more mind-blowing part of this for me is that the next day, when Jesus told them “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.", the crowd grumbles and responds with "How can you be the Son of God....This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"  It says "⁶⁶ From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him."  REALLY!!  After such an amazing miraculous experience, your still not excited about this Jesus?  What is it going to take?  How can you not be excited about following Christ?

We're supposed to talk about what these scriptures mean to us personally, and I know I'm seriously digressing from what this passage is conveying, but I want to tell you the challenge I received from this personally.  So many church services I have left excited about being a life long follow of Jesus and telling others about Him.  So many camps I returned from "on fire" for for Christ.  Then a month, and week, or a day later....yeah I say I love Him, but I'm not as excited.  I think we've all been there. 

I started thinking, if I do not have a constant excitement about following Christ and that excitement is not expressed through my love and actions to others, do I truly know Christ and the hope that comes through a relationship with Him?  Do I have the joy that comes with knowing Him, if people can't see it?  If my faith isn't daily growing and obvious to those around me, have I really given my life over to the One who died to give me a hope of eternity with Him....and therefore, can I call myself a Christian.  Question:  Are we TRULY excited?

dustin

On the 7th day...

If Jesus did it, then it's good. Right? Absolutely. If I were to ask the question, "Where and when was the last place you tried to show Christ in your life?" I imagine I'd hear "at work" or "eating lunch last week", and these are both great. Let's not forget that we can have a HUGE impact on Sunday, too. Today's story shows Jesus healing an invalid on the Sabbath. Back then, you weren't supposed to do any "work" on the Sabbath. It was a day of rest. Some rules were made up to go as far as to say how many steps you could go in that one day. I mean come on! Sunday's I think more than any other we are on display when we go out into the world. We're dressed up, and most people in central Arkansas are going to assume you just came from or are headed to church. So immediately you have an oppertunity to SMILE, have a good attitude, and maybe strike up a conversation about how church was. We have oppertunties to change some people's stereotype that church-goers are rude, don't care about others, impatient, only look out for themselves...the list could go on and on. Let's be different EVERY day of the week, especially when all eyes are on us. And I'm in no way trying to preach or accuse anyone. I think we already do a great job of this. A few weeks ago Laura and I went out to eat with Pastor Gary and Chelsey after PM service. I remember that PG spent time talking to our waitress, asking how her night was going, smiling, laughing, and showing her that a few couples from church cared about her. I don't know how the rest of her day/night went, but I know for the hour we were there she had a table that showed an interest in her as a person, not just as our waitress. So remember to take EVERY oppertunity, EVERY day, to show people that we love them. In doing that, we show Christ's love to them as well.

Ray Bob

Chase Light

I’m ashamed to admit this, but growing up I was very acquainted with roaches. And, I’m not talking about the little small ones, but the big, fat, ones that fly! I think they are called, “water bugs.” Picture below:

Searching for pictures online, brought back horrible memories and made my skin crawl many times. Anyway, I was afraid of them, especially walking into a dark room. It seemed they lived in darkness. It was rare they would scurry into the room while I had the light on, but if I walked into a dark room, flicked on the light; they would scatter. If I was lucky, the roach would run in my opposite direction. Yet, I was rarely lucky (at least my memory of it). It would take off in an awkward, out of control flight, and I would scream, in fear, like a 5 year old girl! Truth: Roaches would rather hide in darkness and exposure to light sends them running!

Here’s the contrast. We didn’t live in a great neighborhood growing up, so we had 3 locks on the front door to our home, from the outside – a deadbolt, the door knob lock, and a latch-lock with a dangling padlock. After evening church, our whole family would exit the car, run to the porch of our home and wait while mom or dad commenced the routine of unlocking our home. Part of that routine was to battle the moths that would kamikaze our heads! You see, the porch light was on and moths are attracted to the light. I don’t really understand why, but they are. Inevitably, when we walked in the door, a moth would slip in with us. As soon as we turned on the light to the room, guess what happened? The moth would fly right to the bulb – pinging the bulb with relentless passion!  And do you know what else might happen if a roach were there? That’s right it would run. Interesting huh? Two insects. Two different responses to the light.

John 3:19-“And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

The Light should draw us closer to Itself – passionately enough that we would give up our life to chase It.

Power and Purpose 2

POWER AND PURPOSE 2

BLOG HOST, 11-17-2010

HOST:  JAY MARTIN

LUKE 23 and 24

            Jesus accomplished His purpose—He demonstrated His love and compassion by dying for us.  But He didn’t stop there!  He rose from the grave.  Luke 24 is the story of Jesus meeting again with His disciples.

           

            Here’s the final words of Luke:  “⁴⁶He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

            One of the key ideas from Jesus’ words is this:  power and purpose.  We need God’s power to accomplish God’s purpose!  Here’s the idea:  God’s power + My purpose = blasphemy;. My power + God’s purpose = burnout; My power + My purpose = a wasted life, but God’s power + God’s purpose = My destiny in Christ!

            The world needed to hear the good news that salvation through repentance was available.  But before they could spread the message, the disciples must wait until they received the “power from on high!”  That power, we learn in the Book of Acts, is the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit empowered them, and still empowers us today to share the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection!  Let’s couple God’s power with His purpose, and reach our world for Him!

the Last Supper

Scripture:  Luke 22.8-22

Wow....can you imagine the emotion in that room....when Jesus broke the bread and passed the cup.  I think when the disciples took communion, they felt a bit differently than we do when we take communnion.  They had all the sadness, confusion and worry going through their minds at the thought of the Son of God, their leader, teacher, mentor, and friend dying and leaving them.  Today we have a gratefullness that we have a hope and freedom in the sacrifice He made for us, and an excitement for when he returns for us to be with Him for eternity.  I don't have much more to say about this that we haven't heard a thousand times, but I challenge us in our personal time with Jesus, to take communion and spend time thanking Him for the hope He made for us on the Cross. 

The End?

I'll be perfectly honest in that I have no idea what to write about this one. I know Jesus is talking about things to come...but did he mean in his disciples life time? ³²"I tell you the truth, this generation^[b] will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." I'm not a biblical scholar, but I more think he's talking about the time we refer to as the great tribulation. If Jesus says its going to be bad, then you KNOW its going to be really, really bad. However, does it do us any good to worry about it? No. We need to keep doing what we've been doing, and that's spread the love of Christ to all the Earth. I've heard from a very reliable source that we'll be talking about things like this the next two Sunday nights in our "What We Believe" series. So come listen as someone with a lot more theological knowledge than me talks about the end times.

Ray Bob

Opportunity Doesn’t Always Knock

Sometimes it’s on the other side of the door, silently, waiting for you to open it. I grew up in church, but I don’t ever remember the song of Zacchaeus sung in kid’s church. I’ve heard many people sing it as they reminisce about their childhood, but I don’t know the tune. Here are the lyrics (I won’t list them all):

“Zacchaeus was a wee little man
And a wee little man was he
He climbed up in a sycamore tree
For the Lord he wanted to see”

Looking at Jesus’ words [Luke 19:1-10], gives us a glimpse into his perspective and persona.  At the beginning of this chapter we learn that Jesus was only passing through Jericho when he met Zacchaeus. He had other places to go; other things to do. Then, we learn that Zacchaeus was a short guy, so in order for him to see Jesus passing by, he had to climb a tree.  Here are a few points I want to pull out: 1.) Jesus took time to notice his surroundings, even though it wasn’t his destination. 2.) Because of Zacchaeus’ height, he could have been looked over [even though he was in a tree] 3.) I believe Jesus wanted to see Zachaeus more than Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus.

Think through your own life, schedule, and see the busyness.  Often times we get so caught up in the to-do list that many other opportunities, like the one Jesus was presented, get missed, because we’ve got our head down hurrying the next item on the to-do list. Zacchaeus' height is important, because for many of us, especially me, it can easily fly under the radar undetected.  Unless we’re looking for it, we might miss it. That’s what makes Jesus so amazing. Jesus was looking for it, him. I’m sure people are looking for you, to talk to, to share their problems with, to laugh with, but are you noticing them as much as they are noticing you? Jesus is; he was looking for Zacchaeus that’s why he saw him in the tree. And to pull from another story, that’s how he saw the woman who bled for years. He was looking. Are you looking for opportunities, even at inopportune times?

Steve

Unity and Humility

UNITY AND HUMILITY
BLOG HOST, 11-10-2010
HOST:  JAY MARTIN
LUKE 17

Recently, I was in Target wearing a red shirt.  A woman turned to me, and in not the best tone asked me, “Hey will you please help me find something?”  I wondered why she seemed upset.  Then, I realized she thought I was an employee.  I was tempted to tell her I was not an employee there, but instead, I simply tried to help her find what she was looking for.  Kind of funny, and not always the easiest thing to do.  It is not easy when we are treated as a servant.

It is even harder when we are treated bad generally.  I can remember my first finance (I was engaged before Dawn, but we never got married because she broke off the engagement).  She never asked for forgiveness, and it was a rough deal.  It also took me years to forgive her, but when I did, I was over her.

Jesus said in verses 3 and 4:  “So watch yourselves. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.  If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him."

Jesus also said in verses 7 through 10:  "Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?  So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.' "

Here’s two tough things:  being wronged and being treated like a servant.  Jesus says the issue of forgiving wrongs is not optional—we must forgive, and we must do it as often as we are wronged.  And, we had better be recklessly abandoned to the Lord.  Why?  We are His servants, and we might be treated like servants.  Humility is required so that when we do what the Lord tells us to do, we do not think we are “Best Christian of the Week.”  Instead, we did nothing special—we simply did our duty.  

Maybe you guys have these two principles down, but I struggle with both sometimes.  If you struggle, you will enjoy joining me in praying today:  Lord, so often I am not like You.  I don’t like being treated as a servant, and I have trouble forgiving others.  Will you help me?  Will you let repentance so radically change my life that I will agree with you both in attitude but also actions?  Thanks for Your help.    

Celebrate!!!

You know, I've seen some people get downright silly when the Hogs score a touchdown. And by some people, I include myself. But do I yell and scream and jump up and down when someone comes to church for the first time? I should! (well, not standing right beside them...but maybe in an empty Sunday School class?) I don't ever want to get to the point where someone coming to church, or better yet, accepting Jesus, becomes something of a "Oh that's great" moment and move on. If the angels in heaven are throwing a party over one lost soul, I think we should be doing the same. And I think we are doing a good job of that, especially with our baptism services. It's a huge celebration, and I think the people need to know that we are super excited for the public decision they've made.

Tonight's service was a GREAT encouragement for me. Sometimes you read things, and you know it, but it helps when you hear someone else say it. I have two very close family members that I have been praying for for a LONG TIME. And I have to admit, I was getting really discouraged. It seemed like anytime they would make a step forward, they would always turn around and take 3 back. Pastor Randy reminded us to pray, and keep praying. I needed the encouragement to keep praying. Don't give up! Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son. He didn't say how long the son was gone. But I have to think it wasn't a short trip. I think it may have been more along the lines of months or years instead of days. And you know that his dad did not miss ONE SINGLE DAY going out and looking and praying for his son to return. He didn't give up. I can't give up. When I get discouraged, I have to keep praying. When you get discouraged, keep praying. Expect God to move in that person's life. And when He does, and the prodigal comes home, CELEBRATE!

Ray Bob

God Longs

Blog Host: Steve Flores

Passage: Luke 13:2-39

This passage talks about people who we don’t think would actually make it to heaven.  Jesus addresses it and basically says, “Stop thinking about that!  It’s not yours to worry about and judge.”  When we think like that we sit on a high and mighty horse called, “Arrogance,” and, based on this scripture, it’s annoying to God.  Plus, Jesus makes it seem like we are going to be surprised when we get to heaven anyway with a scripture like this, verse 30, “Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last." 

I think one scripture we can rest on, that would give us purpose and guide our heart is this, verse 34, “how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,”  What a picture of God!  He LONGS to gather us and protect us.  What a motivation factor to reach out to others – communicating this AMAZING God who LONGS to be close to them.

Who can you show that aspect of God’s nature to this weekend?

The Power Of Repentance

THE POWER OF REPENTANCE
BLOG HOST, 11-3-2010

HOST:  JAY MARTIN

Luke 11


Sometimes a few words convey more meaning than many!

Jesus distinguished between:

 the former sinners who were full of the light of repentance

and

the current religious leaders who were outwardly holy, but also current sinners

REPENTANCE CLEANS US UP FROM THE INSIDE OUT!

HYPOCRISY HIDES OUR SIN FROM EVERYONE BUT GOD!

Lord, help us to choose the power of repentance!  Authenticity before
You is the most important thing!  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.

justification

Scripture: Luke 10.18-42
Dustin


You know, it’s interesting how I try to justify the good things I do as “enough”. How I give a certain portion of my time, energy and emotion, and I roll it around in my mind trying to justify what I have done as “good enough” or “I’ve done enough”. Or love the people around me who love me back, and say “Yeah, I love enough people” The expert in the law in verses 25-37 does, what sound like me, the same thing. After Jesus told Him to go and ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself’ the Bible says: 29 “But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?””, or “am I loving enough people”?

If we have truly given our lives to Christ, we will never have a justification point….a point where we ask “is this is good enough”. Jesus didn’t ask for the part of our lives we don’t have currently tied down, but He asks for all of it. And if I am devoted to following Christ, I will never reach a point where something is simply good enough….”I love enough”, “I give enough”, “I sacrifice enough”. When we say this, it’s a slap in the face of Christ who never said it was “enough” when he was being mocked, or spit on, or whipped, or beat, or crucified.