Category: Ministry

Christian Living, Encouragement, Ministry, Preaching

It’s Friday…

Hey North Boulevard Christian Church!

I wanted to take a few minutes today to update you and where we are at with regards to services and leave you some encouragement.

These are fluid and difficult times. With Governor Tate Reeves’ announcement this week of the statewide shelter in place order, along with much prayer and contemplation, we have decided that for the foreseeable future, we will only be hosting our services online. We are asking you to stay home and join us on Facebook each Sunday. 

We are asking that you set aside time to have communion with your family. Read a devotion and have prayer on your own, and spend time with God. If you don’t have juice and communion bread, that’s fine. Use what you can. The important thing is focusing on the sacrifice of Christ, not the bread and juice. 

Also, we want to encourage you to continue to give to the church if you so choose. You can do that by sending it to our P.O. Box 472 Amory, MS 38821. If that doesn’t work for you, contact me and we’ll make some arrangements.

This week, I will be preaching at 11:00 AM, and we hope that you will all join us on Facebook live if at all possible.

This is a very tough decision, and it is not one that we take lightly. It is not that we feel the government should be telling us what to do as a religious organization. But we feel that it is prudent to encourage all of us to stay home whenever possible. 

Here is the other side of it. We live in an age of public opinion and outrage. We’ve been talking at great length about living on mission and sharing Jesus with as many as possible. We don’t want to do anything to hurt our witness or mission either. Seeing and hearing the opinions of many either online or at other workplaces about churches that are continuing to meet has made us realize that we might actually be doing more harm than good by continuing to offer live, in person gatherings.

I’ll be the first to admit I despise that it has come to this. It pains me to not see each and every one of you at least weekly. But it’s time to go this route for the time being. Without going into a lot of detail, this virus has gotten close to home this week. We have always pushed caution, but it’s time to take it a step further. Kelley and I are fine. We have not been experiencing any symptoms or anything like that, but the spread of this virus has potentially hit very close to home in Amory.

Here’s the great thing. We are the church. The church is not a building. The church is the people. And we can worship and fellowship from afar. We live in an age of technology that allows us more connectivity than ever before. While we never want to encourage you to stop meeting together as Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us; 

24 And let us watch out for one another to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

Hebrews 10:24-25 CSB

We don’t have to be physically together to stay connected. Call, video chat, or write letters to one another. Be the church without being gathered. We can get through this together because we know the God we serve is ultimately in control of this whole situation. Maybe He saw that this world, all of us included, needed to take a step back and slow down.

I know this is a scary time. It’s not a time that any of us saw coming, and the fear of the unknown is a real thing. I challenged you last week to look for the good in this situation. Likely, it seems to be getting harder to find the good. But I promise you there is good coming out of this situation. We are getting a chance to slow down and reconnect with God in a deeper way if nothing else.

You may be asking with all the uncertainty, fear, and panic going on, how can you ask us to stay positive. Well, I want to take you to one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite professors from my time in Bible college. I know that it is not exclusive to him, and likely you have heard it before. But it was Dr. Jon Weatherly that I first heard this from in my Introduction to the Gospels class. With Easter being just next week, I think it an appropriate reminder for us today.

We would be discussing something in class that seemed like bad news, whether it be the status of the people, the rage and plotting of the religious leaders, or even the despair of the disciples after Christ’s arrest. Those are all dark times, and it seems that there is nothing good to come out of those situations if you don’t know the rest of the story. Dr. Weatherly would pause, and tell us “It’s Friday…but Sunday is coming!”

Do you get what he is saying? Christ died and was put in a tomb on Friday. Satan and all of Hell thought they had won. The world looked lost. But Sunday came, and Christ defeated death, Satan, and Hell once and for all. A lot can change in three days. 

Now, I know that this situation we are in is probably going to last for longer than three days, but I promise you when the disciples were in their state of despair between Friday and Sunday, it felt like an eternity. This may feel like it will never be over. That our world is going to continue to spin out of control. 

But you see, Easter is not going to be cancelled. Yes, we may be having to do something different, but nothing is going to cancel the real meaning of Easter; Jesus Christ being raised from the dead! My mom sent me a picture on Facebook the other day that said “Easter cannot be cancelled. 2,000 years ago, all the forces of hell tried that. They failed.” And it contained a picture of an empty tomb.

So, I want to leave you with this thought. This world is in turmoil. And it may get worse before it gets better. It may seem that there is nothing but despair, fear, and panic. But our God has got this under control. He sees the big picture. It’s Friday…BUT SUNDAY IS COMING!”

Christian Living, Encouragement, Life, Ministry, Preaching, Sermons

Spiritual Gifts Survey

We are talking about what gifts we can have as Christ followers this Sunday evening at North Boulevard Christian Church.  If you have never taken a Spiritual Gifts Assessment, feel free to take one of these below.

It is important to not only figure out what our Spiritual Gifts are, but it is equally important to develop and use them. I recommend not only taking this survey, but also retaking it annually, as our gifts grow, develop, and change as we grow in Jesus.

Spiritual Gifts List (Lifeway)

Spirtual Gifts Survey (Lifeway)

Spiritual Gifts Assessment (1)

Christian Living, Encouragement, God, Life, Ministry

There is Still Good in This World

If you look at the media or even social media sites today, you could literally think the world is falling apart. There is so much negativity, arguing, blaming, and just flat out nastiness being thrown around. And it gets really heavy at times if you let it.

Depending on where you look, the two sides in American politics are blaming each other and claiming that the other side is trying to destroy America. Either “they” are going to come take all the guns, or “they” just want this country to turn into the wild west where we just go around shooting anyone we disagree with. Either “they” want to turn this country into a socialist nation, or “they” only care about the rich getting richer. I could go on, but getting too much into politics just drives me crazy.

But it’s not just in politics that you see all of the negativity. It even boils over into sports, something that should be a fun past time. Arguments over which team is the best, or even worse, arguments from fans of the same team because they don’t think the organization made the right decisions. I love my TN Volunteers, but I cannot stand to read comments on fan groups on Facebook most of the time. They are either calling for a particular coach to be fired, complaining about how a certain team is playing, or finding something else to complain about. They forget that the men’s basketball team made it into the “Sweet 16” for the first time in a long time. They just had one of the best seasons in school history, yet there is always something to complain about.

And if you’re anything like me, all this negativity that fills our society today weighs really heavy at times. I don’t know exactly why, but part of my personality sees all the little negative things taking place and forgets that there are still great things going on in this world. I have to purposefully look for the good. So, that’s my challenge for you this month. What are some good things that are taking place in your life, in your town, state, this country, or around the world? Find them. Focus on them. Yes, we have to deal with negatives sometimes, but we need to focus on the positives.

In fact, I truly believe this world is in a better place than what the media would have us believe. They focus only on the negative, very rarely giving us any good or positive news. There is a quote attributed to comedian Rob Schneider that I believe has a lot of truth in it. He says, “If you turn off the news and just talk to your neighbors you’ll find that our great country is far more harmonious than you’re being told.” I’m not saying there are not problems. There are. But what are good things that are going on?

So here is my answer to the challenge I laid out for you. There are a lot of positives taking place, especially here in Canton. One of our own led the SWOSU Lady Bulldogs to second place in the nation in NCAA Division II Basketball. While they didn’t win the final game, they turned in a magical season, and had this whole area united in pulling for them. 

There are groups of students preparing to clean areas of our town. And speaking of our town, I can honestly say that I have never lived in a more generous community. If anyone is in need of anything, it seems that the need is taken care of immediately. Now let me get to some specifics.

We had a “love” offering for our summer intern, Kody Haas, to help with some car needs he has. This church body stepped up and gave around $2,000 to help him out. Kelley was trying to sell turtle backpacks to donate to kids battling cancer at Children’s in OKC. In just over a week, this town stepped in and bought ten backpacks that we were able to personally deliver (unfortunately, we did not get to give them directly to the kids).

But most of all, I want to highlight the most positive, good news of all. In the last few weeks, we have seen two young people give their life to Christ! That’s what this is all about. That is why our church exists; to make other disciples. And it should be celebrated every time it happens. In view of that, I want to take a minute and say congratulations to Maddy Acre and Nate Lang on making the best decision of your lives.  This church body celebrates with you, and we commit to helping you in your walk with Jesus. But I also want to thank you. Thank you for reminding us that there are good, positive things happening in our world, and especially here in our community!

Christian Living, Encouragement, God, Life, Ministry

A Reminder: Why We Do What We Do

God did it again. I really shouldn’t be surprised, but He never ceases to amaze me. This past week was a little rough. It came at a time that I had purposefully taken some time away to reconnect and refresh my relationship with God. When I came back from that time, it just seemed like there was just some things working against me to get me down.

I was feeling a little discouraged in my ministry. Nothing big. But a few small things were popping up here and there and I let that distract me from all of the good things that were happening. Then, on top of all of that, NW Oklahoma caught on fire. It hasn’t really hit the Canton area, at least not yet. But there is devastation to the west of us. People losing homes, fields, farms, entire herds, and even a couple of lives, with no real end in sight unless we get some rain.

All of this just led to even more discouragement. That’s what I felt when I woke up this morning (Sunday). I didn’t know exactly what was going on, but I just felt down. So I spent a lot of time asking God to help my attitude and to be able to preach with conviction. I didn’t want to let a little discouragement to cause me to just go through the motions, which I tend to do every now and then.

As our service ended this morning, and people were leaving, I finally understood why I had been feeling the way I was feeling. The enemy didn’t want me on my game today. He wanted me to just go through the motions or to phone it in. I had noticed while I was preaching that a couple of teens were in the back and seemed pretty emotional. At the time, I didn’t know what was going on, but I quickly found out.

They were both feeling the call to give their lives to Jesus and surrender to Him in baptism. After the service was over, I was able to talk with them about why they wanted to be baptized and to get things ready for tonight. They didn’t even want to wait until next Sunday. So as I write this, our baptistry is getting filled, and during our adult evening service tonight, we will have two new sisters in Christ and they surrender their lives to Christ through the act of baptism. (This won’t be published until Monday morning, so celebrate with us after the fact!)

That’s God’s perfect time again. That’s God reminding me that this is why I have given my life to serving Him. Watching these two girls come to an understanding of who Jesus is and what He has done for them makes all of the down times worth it. There is nothing better this side of heaven than getting to be a part of someone giving their life to Jesus. All the struggle, all the discouragement, all the restless nights are made worth it when we get to be a part of someone finally understanding that Jesus is the only thing that is worth anything in this life.

As I was talking with these two this morning, I congratulated them and then reminded them that this was the best decision that they were ever going to make in their entire lives. And that is all the encouragement I need to carry on in this calling of ministry that I have in my life. Even a Crosseyed Jesus Freak needs that reminder occasionally, so if you’re reading this and feeling discouraged in your walk with Jesus or in your ministry, take heart. There is a reason we do what we do. We have a Savior that loves us and died on the cross for us. That is the only chance that anyone has, so share Him with any and all who will listen! It’s all worth it in the end!

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Christian Living, Encouragement, Life, Ministry, Preaching

Why I Do What I Do

I love Paul’s letter to the Romans. I find myself going back to it over and over again in my personal quiet times. There is just something about it that resonates with me. Recently, as I was reading, a thought stuck out to me, and I realized it is exactly why I do what I do. Before I get lost in that, let’s look at the section of Romans that I was reading through. Paul is making his plea for his fellow Israelites to come to faith in Christ. To be saved through the blood of Jesus. He wants to see them accept who Jesus is. Romans 10:11-13 reads;

11 For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, 12 since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (CSB)

Paul is telling us that there is no distinction between Jews and everyone else, which is great news for us. Salvation through Jesus Christ is open to all! And that was a hard lesson for those of Jewish backgrounds to accept. But Paul continues his argument, and it is the next few verses that really stuck out to me. Romans 10:14-17 reads;

14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. 16 But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ. (CSB)

That’s why I do what I do. That’s why I write here on Thoughts from a Crosseyed Jesus Freak. That’s why I teach Sunday school, Bible study on Sunday evenings, and youth group for the teens on Wednesday evenings. That’s why I preach!

Jesus is our only hope!

This world needs Jesus. He is the only thing that can heal the brokenness of this world. Jesus is our only hope! And the world needs to hear about Him. Like Paul says, how can they call on Him if they haven’t believed? And how can they believe without hearing? And how can they hear without a preacher? God called me to preach His word. I didn’t choose this life. I accepted His call. And I don’t take that lightly.

There is nothing special about me. I’m an imperfect human being that tries his best to follow the call of God on his life. I’m not writing this post as a “look at me”. I’m writing this to remind us all that this world needs Jesus. He is our only hope. This world is broken and dying, and only in Jesus Christ, and His redemption of us on the cross, do we stand any chance.

So, if you are someone that Christ has called to preach His word, stand strong! And let me just say this. If you are a Christ follower, you have a story to tell. You might not be called to preach full time, but you can tell others about Jesus. You can show them that faith in Christ is the only way to navigate this world.

There is nothing special about the people who preach Christ. It is their message that is special. It is their message that is important. It is the gospel…the salvation offered to those that might give their lives to follow Jesus. That’s why I do what I do. Honestly, I could care less if anyone knows my name. It is my desire to step out of the way and let Jesus shine through me.

Every Sunday, those that lead our service where I serve gather to pray just before our worship service begins. It’s a practice that I started because I wanted us all to have our minds focused on God and glorifying Him. Part of my prayer is the same every time. “God, help us to lead well. Help us to step out of our own way, and let You shine through us. May it be your words that are heard this morning, and not ours. May everything we do this morning be for your glory”.

This world needs Jesus.

In other words, my prayer is always, “Help me to not make this about me. This is about You God, and You alone.” This world needs Jesus. There is no doubt about that to me. So, let me ask this. What are you doing to spread His word to those you come in contact with? Preachers, remember that it is not about us. It’s about pointing others to Him!

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Christian Living, Encouragement, God, Life, Ministry, Newspaper

He Must Become Greater

“He must become greater; I must become less.”

This quote is found in John 3:30, and is actually said by John the Baptist, referring to the person of Jesus Christ. I read this in my quiet time just recently, and it stood out. I was familiar with it before this, but for some reason it struck a chord with me in a great way this time.

John was the person that was sent ahead of Jesus to proclaim the coming of the Messiah. That is a very important job. It would be easy to think really highly of oneself when you are the one sent to proclaim that the Messiah is here. And people thought that John was either the Messiah or a great prophet of old. It would not have been hard for John to take some of that praise and the accolades that some were willing to give, and say, “I deserve this”.

But that is not what John did. In fact, he very straightforwardly stated that he was not the Messiah. In fact that happened in the same conversation where we see him saying “He must become greater; I must become less.”

It seems to be really easy these days to think more highly of yourself than you should. I know that’s a struggle of mine anyway. Preaching and teaching is something that I really enjoy, and God seems to have given me these things as strengths. And believe me, it would be really easy to start getting a little conceited about that.

What things are you really good at? Surely something comes to your mind when you read that question. But do you put those things in the proper place. That is where this conversation that the disciple John records about John the Baptist is so important for us. John the Baptist knew he had an important job, but the most important thing to him was showing Jesus for who He really was.

In other words, John the Baptist knew that the only thing that really mattered was Christ being exalted, even if that meant he was not as important as is human nature told him he was. And the same thing should be true for us. We should desire nothing above glorifying Christ. Use your gifts. Use them well. By all means. But do so not to exalt yourself, but to lift up Jesus Christ to others.

“HE MUST BECOME GREATER; I MUST BECOME LESS.”

May we all make that our goal in life.

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Christian Living, Encouragement, God, Life, Ministry

Missing Our Mission?

Are we missing our mission? And by that I mean are we, as Christ followers, forgetting that our primary mission is to introduce others to Jesus? There is more to it than that as we grow, but if we try to make it as simple as we can, we should be living in such a way that we are able to share Jesus with other people.

Their acceptance or rejection of Jesus is then up to them. That’s not on us. But what is on us is sharing His love with all those that we can. As I look around our world today, however, I’m afraid that the answer to my first question is a resounding ‘YES’! We are missing our mission. But before I go any further, let’s take a look at some of Jesus’ last words, both before and after His crucifixion.

After washing His disciples’ feet and commanding them through His own actions to become servants, Jesus added what He called a “new command”. John records it this way in John 13:34-35:

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

People will know you are Christ followers by the way you love one another.  That’s basically what Jesus is getting at here. Pretty simple.  William Barclay, in his commentary on this passage added some good information. Jesus is calling His disciples to love each other as Christ has loved them. In other words, for us, it is a call to love those we come in contact with, especially other Christ followers, the way that Christ has loved us.

But how has Christ loved? Barclay added four ways that Christ has loved us; Selflessly, sacrificially, understandingly, and forgivingly. That’s how we are to love one another if we want to be known as His followers.

Then, on the mountainside after His resurrection, just before ascending to Heaven, Jesus leaves us with His final command.  Matthew records it in chapter 28, and most of us know it as “The Great Commission”. These are His final words to His disciples, and it is a command that is passed to us as Christ followers. Verses 18-20 read:

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Sharing Christ with others, making disciples, and baptizing them into Christ. That’s our mission. It’s not complicated, although, I think we make it complicated. One note, baptizing others is something we are commanded, and we get caught up on that, however, we miss another essential part of this command. Making disciples. That means helping others grow in their relationship with Christ. Christ followers make other Christ followers.

But back to my first question. Are we hitting this mission? Maybe to some degree, but I have to admit, my heart aches as I continue to watch Christians rip each other apart because they interpret passages from the Bible differently than one another. I am a part of a few different minister and restoration movement pages on social media. Instead of encouraging one another, what I see more often is attack after attack.

I’m all for a good debate. Debate is healthy. But what I see all too often is the attitude of “I am right and there is no room for anyone to disagree with me. If you disagree with me you are completely WRONG, and therefore are less of a Christ follower than I”. And let me just say this: I am sick of it.

Disciples make other disciples

We are called to make disciples. You can’t make disciples if you are not a disciple yourself. Disciples make other disciples or Christ followers make other Christ followers. Remember what Jesus said in John 13. I’m paraphrasing, “Love one another as I have loved you. By your love they will know you are My disciple”. How did Jesus love us? Selflessly, sacrificially, understandingly, and forgivingly.


What I am seeing from other Christ followers is anything but loving one another. And I’m talking to both sides of the debate. Most recently it has been over the topic of “women in leadership”. I’m not going to get into the debate. I’ve got friends and respected minds on both sides of the issue. For my purpose today, however, where you land on this topic is not the important part. It’s how you choose to present your interpretation.

We should be better than the world around us!

We focus so much on our differences. We are saturated by that in out culture today. It’s not just in the Church. But we should be better than the world around us! None of us are going to have it all figured out correctly. And we’re never going to agree 100% with anyone. But just because you disagree with someone doesn’t mean that you can just completely rip them apart either.

I’ll wrap up with this. Again, I’m talking to both sides of any debate, especially debates among Christ followers.

John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

thoughts-from-a-crosseyed-jesus-freak

Christian Living, Encouragement, Life, Ministry

Living in a Small Town

Canton CC logoWe’ve been in Canton, OK for almost three weeks now.  To say that it is a small town would almost be an understatement.  When we decided to move here, I really believed that I would like it, but that it would take some time to adjust.  I was a little off in my belief though.

I absolutely love it here.  Living in a small town is different than most places I’ve been, but I feel right at home.  It is amazing to me how this community is a true community.  We watch out for one another.  We speak to one another in town.  It really seems that people genuinely care for one another.

Let me tell you about a couple of our experiences so far.  There is a grocery store here in town, which means we don’t have to drive 30 miles to the nearest Walmart all the time.  Kelley and I went shopping the other day to get some groceries.  We were getting enough that we needed a buggy.  When we got up to the checkout, there was a high school age girl working.  She checked us out and then did something that completely blew my mind.  She didn’t even ask.  She picked up all our grocery bags and started out the door with them.  The only question she asked was where we were parked.

I had never had that happen before.  Most stores will help you take your things out if you ask, but this was different.  I’ve been in a few other times to get a few things, and when I tell them that I can take my things out myself, they almost insist on doing it for you. 

Yesterday was probably the most eventful day that we’ve had since the move.  We had our normal church activities in the morning, went to lunch with a couple from the church, and then was back at the church by 2 for a retirement reception for the previous minister here.  This was open to the entire community, not just those that attend church with us.  And this community did not disappoint.  For two solid hours people came and went, congratulating Steve and Betty, and welcoming Kelley and I to the community.  And it didn’t matter if they went to church here or not, they were genuinely excited to meet us and welcome us.

Here’s my point.  This is what true Christian community should look like.  If you are a Christ follower, then we are all on the same team.  It doesn’t matter if you go to the Christian Church, the Baptist Church, or whatever church.  One of my favorite statements about the Restoration Movement is “We are not the only Christians, but we are Christians only.”  We are all in this together, and in a small town in Oklahoma, I’m starting to see that actually play out.  Is it perfect?  No, because we are human and we will never reach perfection this side of Heaven.  But when a Christian Church minister and a First Baptist Church minister can sit down with their spouses around a dinner table and talk for hours, I think we’re headed in the right direction.

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Christian Living, Encouragement, God, Life, Ministry

God is Always Faithful: Times of Transition

You may have noticed that I have been unusually silent on Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak.  Life has been a little hectic to say the least over the last couple of months.  With all the craziness, however, one thing has remained perfectly clear.  God’s plan and timing so perfect, especially when we don’t understand exactly what is going on.

At the beginning of July, I was informed that my job in Carlsbad would be ending at the end of the month.  Around the same time that that happened, I was contacted by two different churches asking me to come visit with them for potential preaching positions.  We worked out the details to travel to these two church beginning in August and began fervently praying that God would open the doors to where He had in store for us next.

Well, God never disappoints.  I knew that in my head, but I also knew that His timing is not always when we want things.  I was preparing myself for the possibility that I would not step directly into another ministry position right away.  But this time, God had different plans. 

These past couple of months have been an whirlwind of emotion as we have said goodbye to friends and the town that we have called home for the last three years, and as we have moved to Canton, Oklahoma to begin preaching at Canton Christian Church.  Canton CC logoWhile I understand God’s faithfulness to us, I am absolutely blown away at how quickly He led us here to Canton.  We arrived in town just under a week ago, and I preached this past Sunday to officially begin my ministry here.

 

I don’t know what you are going through.  Times are tough and life has a way of throwing curve ball after curve ball at us.  Don’t lose hope.  God’s timing and plan is perfect.  He has proven that to me over and over again.  If you are going through something that you need prayer to help keep you focused on God, please reach out to me or someone else you trust.  I would be honored to pray with and for you.  Above all, never lose sight of the fact that God loves you!  Life is never promised to be easy, but it is worth it when we follow Him with our whole lives. 

As I get settled in here in Canton, I plan on trying to get back to regularly posting.  I’ve missed writing the last couple of months as life has just been crazy.  As my wife said after this past Sunday, “The best is yet to come!”

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