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