Christian Living, Encouragement, God, Life

I Despise Politics

If you know me at all, you know that I despise politics, in any form or fashion.  I rarely if ever engage in political talk with anyone, especially people that I do not know well.  Political arguments have been known to destroy good friendships, as well as turn into knock-down, drag out fights.  It just seems like nothing good ever comes from talking politics, yet all you see in our society at the present time is political ads, debates, arguments, and more…everywhere. 

I guess that is natural with the presidential election coming up in just over a month, but I have to admit, this is my least favorite time of the year, news wise, because all you see or hear is politically charged.

Well, like I said, I despise politics, but I am going to break for and write about the election coming up in just over a month.  Before you get too far ahead of me, I will not be “endorsing” anyone.  In fact, I really do not think that we have any good choice this year when it comes to the candidates for president, and I will not even name a single candidate by name.  You know who they are anyway. 

What I want to write to you this month is about all the doom and gloom that seems to be present on both sides of the election process.  Democrats are talking about how horrible it would be if the Republican candidate were to be elected.  Republicans are talking just as much about how horrible it would be if the Democrat candidate were to be elected.  Both are completely ignoring any third party candidates that have gotten into the race. 

Here is the problem as I see it.  I see just as many Christians talking about how horrible it would be if one or the other were to win the election.  The problem with that is it seems that they are putting all of their hope in a political party, instead of trusting in the only One that we can truly have hope in; Jesus Christ.

This world seems to be in a bad place.  But I have news for you.  A republican is not going to fix things.  A democrat is not going to fix things.  Only Jesus Christ, and people fully committed to following Him are going to fix the problems of the world.  I am not trying to tell you not to be involved in the election.  By all means, vote, but do not hang your hope in a political party.  In fact, scripture tells us that our hope is not on anything in this world. 

Paul writes in Philippians 3:19-21; “19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

Our hope is in heaven.  Jesus is the only hope this world has.  Never lose sight of that.  A fellow minister that I went to school with sent this out today on Twitter.  Ben Stroup wrote, “God isn’t desperate to ‘MAGA’ (Make America Great Again) nor is He ‘With her.’  The kingdom is about way more than one election in one country. Relax”.

Christian Living, Encouragement

Attacks Will Come

Paul’s letters to Timothy have always been encouraging to me.  I read them fairly often, and I found myself this morning reading II Timothy.  Just about all of my Bibles that I read from regularly have numerous hi lighted or underlined areas, especially in both letters to Timothy, yet I still find myself continuing to mark new verses or remark verses every time I read them.  Today, in II Timothy was no exception.  There is just comfort that I find in the words penned from Paul to Timothy, especially as a minister.  Not only do I find comfort, but I also find encouragement to continue preaching and teaching, because it is my calling.

As I was reading this morning, however, I came across a verse that I was somewhat unfamiliar with.  There were no hi lights or underlinings to be found.  Maybe because it was toward the end of the letter, and a lot of times I find myself skimming the closings of Paul’s letters, because he is just closing out with greetings from fellow Christians.  Or I had read it but it just never really stuck out to me before.  But in the Bible I was reading from this morning, I hi lighted II Timothy 4:18. 

In the two verses previous to it, Paul is explaining that no one came to his defense when he was on trial in Rome the first time.  That is, no one except God, and God had “delivered him from the lion’s mouth”.  Then Paul wrote the verse that struck me in a great way this morning.  He wrote, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

After reading that, Paul’s words there have been rolling around in the back of my mind the rest of the day.  While I was busy finishing my sermon for Sunday, and reading other things to help build my leadership, this verse just stayed floating in the back of my mind.  I was not concentrating on it, or even really thinking about it at all, but there it was. 

As Christians, we face attacks almost on a daily basis anymore.  They are increasing more and more in this country as well.  We are told all the time that we need to be tolerant of everyone else, without any understanding of why we do not support things.  We are seen more for what we might be against, than what we are for.  And for that last part, we have created that and need to change that perception as much as we can.

But none the less, we are facing more and more attacks from those that do not believe in God, or do not put Him first in their lives.  It is easy to get beat down by that as well.  The more the attacks come, the easier it is to believe that we are on our own.  Sometimes, as Christians, we attack each because we are hurt by the attack of the world as well.  We have to stop doing that.  We need to be united under Jesus.

Paul’s words here have stuck out to me today because it is a great reminder that no matter what comes our way in this world, God has our backs.  One way or another, He is going to rescue us from every evil attack, and we have heaven awaiting us at the end of this life, no matter how tough this life actually gets. 

That is why Paul can write a few verses earlier something that I think we all want to be able to say at the end of our lives.  II Timothy 4:7-8 reads, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Encouragement, God, Newspaper

I Will Never Forget

There are a few days from my past that stand out.  The one’s that are hard to forget.  Getting baptized, feeling God’s call on my life to go into ministry, meeting my wife for the first time, asking her to marry me, and our wedding day.  Those are all days that I will never forget. 

There are two dates, however, that are etched in my mind, that were not good days.  For some reason, they stand out so much more.  June 4, 1999, the day I lost my dad to a massive heart attack when I was 15-years old.  That day was a shock, and one that will always stand out.  I have a feeling that the other day that stands out in my mind is one that many of you remember well.  September 11, 2001 is my generations December 7, 1942.  The day airplanes were used to crash into buildings, on purpose, and kill thousands of people. 

I was a senior in high school on 9-11, and I do not think I will ever forget where I was, what I was doing, and the general emptiness that I felt when I heard about the World Trade Center and Pentagon.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day in East TN that day, and the sky was a crisp fall blue color.  But it was so erie seeing that beautiful day, knowing what was happening in our country. 

I will never forget the pit in my stomach the next week at a high school football game, when an airplane, coming in to the local airport for landing, flew over the stadium, and it got dead quiet.  There is something more that I will always remember, however, about 9-11 and the response to this tragedy.  Local churches were a little fuller the next few weeks.  There were community wide prayer services.  This nation forgot our differences and came together supporting one another and crying out to God. 

This Sunday, we come to the 15th anniversary of 9-11.  Can it really be 15 years?  I long to see a return to unity and crying out to God in this country.  No, I do not want another 9-11 type event, but we need to come together again, and turn to God.  Jesus is the only hope we have in this world.  That is why this Sunday, at Central Christian Church, we are starting a sermon series about becoming a follower of Jesus. 

We are also following that service with a cookout, and would absolutely love for you to join us at 10:30 for our worship service.  There will be hamburgers and hotdogs provided by the church, and church members will be bringing sides, desserts, and drinks.  You are welcome to come, and just bring yourself.  Better yet, bring some friends.  It is time that we come together and cry out to God, not because of a tragedy, but because we realize our great need for Him.  Join us!

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Christian Living, God, Life, Ministry

The Church’s Job

We are beginning a sermon series all about discipleship on September 11.  This is a series that I am really excited about, and one that I think can help us all in how we interact with each other and those that do not have a relationship with Jesus yet.  In fact, I think we all need a reminder of this from time to time, the first part of discipleship is actually sharing your faith with someone. 

When we hear discipleship, our first thought is usually something about gaining deeper understanding of scripture, a better prayer life, or something along those lines.  Those things are definitely a part of discipleship, and something that we should all be striving for.  But we are called to make disciples.  Not just help each other that are already in a relationship with Jesus be a better disciple.  This is something that I am just now really starting to understand, and something that I think has the potential to change how we interact with other people that we come into contact with in the world.

Think about it.  Matthew 28:18-20 states, “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.’”  We talk about this passage all the time.  You know what it is usually referred to.  “The Great Commission”.  It is Jesus’ final command to His disciples (and us) after His resurrection before His return to Heaven. 

All to often, however, I have missed the command here.  We talk about “going” and “baptizing” and many other things in this passage.  Or we focus on the promise at the end that Jesus will be with us always.  And that is a great promise.  One that we should talk about and should give us the courage to live for Him in this broken world. 

We seem to miss the “make disciples” part of this though.  I know I have missed it many times.  But that is the central command here.  Go and make disciples.  Not wait for them to come to us, not just help each other grow that already know Jesus, but go and make new disciples.  That can get messy though, because we are dealing with imperfect people that carry baggage of hurts and failures with them, along with our own baggage as well.  It does not give us a pass, however, from not attempting to follow this command. 

I saw a friend post this quote from John Ortberg earlier today, and it kind of brought all of this into perspective for me.  Ortberg wrote, “The mission of the church is not to go out into the world of disgust and shape it up.  It’s to go into the world with compassion and help it out.”  In other words, God has extended you grace, even when you did not deserve it, and His grace is available to others that are still mixed up in the world of disgust out there.  Our job is to help them find Jesus, not condemn the world for acting immoral. 

Paul put it this way in his writing to the church in Corinth; “12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked person from among you.’” (I Cor. 5:12-13).  Our job is not to judge and look down at those outside the church.  It is to try to find a way to help them become a disciple, and that is what our 4-week series starting on September 11 is going to deal with!  I cannot wait.  Please invite your friends, family, coworkers, neighbors…anyone who does not have a relationship with Jesus yet.  Who knows, they might say yes.

Newspaper

Fueling Our Souls (8-20-16)

My wife and I have really started trying to take our health seriously.  One of my first articles that I submitted for the faith section here, I wrote about the fact that we had joined a gym, and how all of us should not only take our physical health seriously, but more importantly we all need to take our spiritual health seriously.

On top of joining a gym and working out, we have recently tried to nail down our nutrition as well.  This means tracking our calorie intake each day and really cutting back on “junk” food.  While it is not always easy to stay away from the not so healthy choices around us, we have both been committed to making this change, and are staying faithful to it.  I am starting to see a big difference.  My body is getting smaller, and the number on the scale is gradually going down.  More importantly, I am feeling better, with more energy.

While we track what we eat on a daily basis, we allow ourselves what we call a “cheat” day each week, where we can eat whatever we want, no matter if we go over our desired calorie count for the day.  And it seems to be working.  That is until this week.  We normally have our “cheat” day on Sunday, and we did.  Then Monday evening came around, and we were both craving pizza, instead of the healthier option that we had planned.

We caved and ordered pizza.  And it tasted so good.  In fact, I completely blew my healthy eating for the day, and finished an entire medium pizza on my own.  Then I got up for the gym the next morning.  I could not figure out for a while why I felt sluggish and just not myself with no energy.  All of a sudden, while finishing my workout, it dawned on me.  I had eaten junk the night before, and a lot of it.  It caused me to have no real energy the next morning.  While that pizza tasted good, and satisfied a craving, I felt like junk the next day.  It was not because I felt guilty either.  I had not missed a calorie count except for a cheat day in over a month, so I did not feel guilty about missing it on just one occasion.  I know that is going to happen from time to time.  I felt like junk because I did not fuel my body correctly.

This all got me thinking about what our souls consume on a daily basis.  We are doing a new series at Central Christian right now titled “Soul Detox: Clean Living in a Contaminated World”.  The premise is that our souls become toxic because of the “junk” that is going on around us in the world.  Think about it this way.  When we eat junk, it changes how we feel.  How much more do our souls get affected when we are not conscious about what we allow ourselves to consume spiritually and emotionally? 

We all need to make a conscious effort to change what our souls consume, as well as our bodies.  What is weighing your soul down?  Do you need to cut something out of your life so that your soul can thrive?  Just like cutting out junk food, therefore “detoxing” our bodies, we need to cut out the toxins that poison our souls, and detox them.  And there is only one thing that can really help detox our souls: Jesus Christ.  I Timothy 4:7,8 reads, 7 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. 8 For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

Let’s get serious about our spiritual health!

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Christian Living, Encouragement, Ministry

A Challenge to My Ministry Friends (and Everyone Else as Well)

The book of Hebrews and multiple writings of Paul make it pretty clear.  The longer you are a Christ follower, you should be growing deeper and deeper in your faith and walk with Christ.  You should not need to be taught the same thing over and over again.  In fact, you should get to a point where you are feeding yourself instead of relying on someone else to feed you. 

Hebrews 5:12-14 puts it this way; 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

In other words, you should get to a point in your walk with Christ that you are responsible for feeding yourself.  Your own Bible study and prayer life should be helping you grow in Jesus.  It even says that you should become teachers.  I am not trying to argue that everyone who is a Christ follower is supposed to preach and teach, but you should be able to explain your relationship with Christ to someone who asks, instead of relying on someone else to do it for you. 

At the same time, I have made a realization in my own walk, and in the way that I grow in my relationship with Jesus.  Those of you that preach on a regular basis, I think you will get what I am about to say.  Between our own personal devotion time, prayer life (for the church we serve and our own time with God), prepping Bible studies, Sunday School classes, and our sermons each week, it is easy to just feel drained spiritually by the end of the week.  We are always teaching or preparing to teach. 

Before you get the wrong idea, I am not complaining.  I absolutely love my calling.  There is nothing else that I want to do.  Preaching the word of God is my passion.  But when all we do is prepare to teach, and then teach, it is sometimes hard to find ways to continue to grow yourself.  Yes, reading Scripture, spending time with God, and even reading books can help, but there is just something about hearing the word of God preached that speaks to my soul.

What I am getting out, fellow preachers and teachers, is that we need to find an outlet in which we get to hear the word of God preached.  That is one of the reasons I love the age of technology that we are living in.  You can easily find sermons on the internet, either audio or video files, and can listen to someone else teach God’s word. 

I have not always been great at doing this though.  My guess is that most of us struggle with this from time to time as well.  Maybe it is that we just do not think we have the time, or that our pride gets in the way because we fear someone will be a better preacher than us.  Or it could be that we just do not realize that we are struggling to refuel.  That is what I realized just over the last couple of weeks.  I was struggling to refuel and did not even realize it.  I also thought that I did not have the time to block out everything and listen to a sermon or two.

Well now I realize that I actually do not have the time to not do this.  It is vital for me to hear God’s word being presented by someone else, and for no other reason than my own personal growth.  It is not for prepping an upcoming sermon or series, although I may find things that give me a new idea on how to present a certain passage or topic.  It is not for me to compare my preaching to someone else.  I need it for my own growth as a Christ follower. 

So, I have built time into my weekly schedule to listen to one or two (or more) sermons from other ministers in the effort to help refuel, and feed my relationship with Jesus.  Will I always be perfect at this?  You know the answer.  No!  Things in ministry pop up out of nowhere, and schedules have to be flexible enough to handle the unexpected.  But when I can (more often than not), I will be finding ways to listen to others preach.  There are a couple of churches/ministers that I plan to start with on a weekly basis, and will go from there.

My challenge to you.  Find someone you can listen to on a regular basis.  Not for sermon prep, but for your own personal growth.  If you are already doing this, great!  If not, what is stopping you?  In one of my first ministries, I had a preaching minister tell me that he preached because he could not stand to listen to anyone else preach.  After I left that ministry, I found out that there were some other major issues in his life.  Do not let pride get in the way.  Do not let a busy schedule get in the way.  Do not let the fact that you do not realize you need to be listening to others get in the way.  Refuel.  Listen to others present the word of God.  Continue to develop your own personal walk with Christ, because if you are not filled with Him, how can you help fill others through preaching and teaching. 

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Ministry

Follow Me on SoundCloud

Over the last few months, we have been trying to find a reasonable option of uploading audio recordings of the sermons each week at Central Christian Church.  I have been broadcasting live almost every week through the app called Periscope, but the problem with that is the recordings are only available for about 48-hours after broadcast, meaning that those that want to listen have a very short timeframe to do so.

I have also been recording my sermons on my iPad each week, I just did not have a way of uploading them.  Today, however, we think we may have found an option that will work.  Have you heard of SoundCloud?  It is an online streaming app, mostly for music, but it can double as a podcast as well.  What this means is that we are going to be trying it out.  I have yesterdays message “The Restless Soul”, the first sermon of our “Soul Detox” series uploaded on my personal SoundCloud account.  We are looking into all the options, and we may create an account specifically for the church.

This is a very exciting thing, as we can keep a recording of all the sermons from our congregation, and if someone has to miss a Sunday for whatever reason, they can keep up with the series on their own time.  It will also let our Children’s church workers listen to messages from the Sundays that they are teaching our kids, so they can keep up with each series as well.

If you are interested in checking it out, you can click here.  You can also create your own SoundCloud account, and follow mine, meaning you will get updates every time we upload new content.  I have said this recently, but I just want to say it again; I love technology!

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Christian Living

Nowhere But In Christ

I have been glued to my television every night for the past week, watching the prime time cover of the 2016 Olympic Games from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.  Even though I am exhausted trying to stay up and watch all the coverage, I absolutely love the Olympics.  It does not matter if it is the summer games, winter games, if I know anything about the sport, or anything about any of the athletes competing.  It is just fun to watch

There have been a few reports over the last week about some of the prominent American athletes that put God above even their competitions, and it is refreshing to hear that.  Of course, the broadcasters try to stay away from reporting things like that, but some Christian organizations have been trying to make sure they get the word out about how God impacts the lives of these athletes that we get to enjoy watching.

After an event a few nights ago, however, not even the reporters could keep the name of Jesus being proclaimed!  I do not know if you saw it or not, but was one of the best things that I have seen on television in a long time.  David Boudia and Steele Johnson are American divers that competed in the Men’s 10-Meter Platform Synchronized Diving competition, the finals being on Monday, August 8.  Both men have a strong Christian faith that I had already heard about from some acquaintances that have met them in person. 

They had the competition of their lives, winning the Silver Medal behind the heavily favored Chinese team.  Winning Silver in the Olympic games in any sport has got to be an incredible feeling, especially when you know that the team that beat you was supposed to beat you.  As usual, the broadcast quickly interviewed the American team, to get their thoughts on what had just occurred and if they were pleased with the results.  The interviewer also asked how the pair was able to stay so in sync with each other, and not succumb to the nerves that had to accompany competing at this top level.

And that was when God was brought to the front of the stage!  Boudia and Johnson both let their faith in God shine on a world stage that night.  Surprisingly to me, the company covering the Olympics actually aired the interview, but I am so glad that they did.  Boudia started the interview stating that the way he handled the nerves was realizing that his identity did not lie in how well he did in the competition.  He said something along the lines of “When your identity if found in Christ, as long as you give your maximum effort, nothing else matters.”  Wow, what great perspective!

Then the interview turned to Johnson.  I got the impression that the interviewer turned to him so quickly trying to move past the mention of the name of Jesus, but it did not work out that way.  Johnson doubled down on giving God all the glory.  He echoed Boudia’s statement of his identity being found in Christ alone, not in the outcome of the diving competition.  Jesus was being proclaimed in a great and powerful way.  Watching the broadcast, it literally had chills running up and down my spine.

If we claim to be followers of Christ, then we have to realize the truth behind what Boudia and Johnson shared.  Our identity is found in nothing other than Jesus Christ.  It is when we get our focus blurred, or our priorities misplaced, and try to make our identity in our own accomplishments that life gets messy.  And it may not be your accomplishments; it may be your relationships, the size of your bank account, or whatever else you try to identify yourself by.  Paul writes in II Corinthians 5:16-21;

16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

In Christ Jesus, we are a new creation.  That should be encouraging to us!  We do not have to worry about where our identity comes from.  Our worth is not found in anything other than being a child of God.  No matter what comes our way, we can claim our identity in Christ as a Christ follower.  Then and only then can we live out the words of Paul in Philippians 4:10-13;

10 I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

The last verse there is one that you are probably familiar with.  It is one that many use to make the claim that they can do anything with the help of Jesus, especially in sports.  While there may or may not be truth in that, in context Paul is telling us that we can live in a state of contentment, no matter what is happening in our lives at the time, through the strength found in Jesus.  This is possible only when we make the conscious decision to find our identity in Jesus and Jesus alone.  When we can keep that perspective, then nothing can rattle us!  Of course, we are all human, and will lose that perspective from time to time, but just remember, our identity is in Christ and in Christ alone!

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Christian Living, Encouragement, Life

Heart Surgery, ALS, and a 12-Year Old’s Birthday Request

For my last newspaper article, I wrote about the idea of encouragement.  You can read that article here.  It is no secret that there are many many things in this world that can get us down, and it is also not a secret that if we do not look for the good in things, then most of the time the negative is going to win out.  It is just the nature of the way things are.  I wish it was easier to find encouragement, but you know as well as I do that it is not easy at all.  You can have multiple people telling you what a good job you have done on something, and that one critical person pops up.  Then all the positive things go right out the window, and we focus on the negative.  For some reason, it seems that it is human nature to care more about what someone is criticizing us over than to remember all the positive reinforcements we might get.

Over the last few days, after writing about one of the ways that I look for encouragement (notecards that others have written to me over the years), I have come across a couple of really  encouraging stories, both of which have continued to help me see that there is good still in this world.  We just have to look for it.  Let me share these stories with you.

I want to write about the most recent one first.  We have a couple in our church here in New Mexico that for the last few months were not really sure what the future would hold for them.  They are in their late 70’s or early 80’s, and he was going to have to have a stint put in one of his arteries last October.  When the doctors attempted the stint, they were unable to complete the procedure, and he was then scheduled for a single bypass to fix the blockage in his artery.  The concern was his age and the fact that he had had a bypass 10-years before, so the surgery was somewhat of a risk. 

The surgery went better than expected, and he was then expected to make a full recovery without complication.  That is until he ended up with a very serious infection in his digestive system.  Months and months of antibiotics and a couple of other procedures took place, and we were all praying and hoping that he would pull through.  He did, and has been back faithfully at church the last few months, saying he has not felt this good in a long time (Praise God!).  That is encouraging in and of itself.

This past Sunday, however, this couple came into the church carrying a couple of good size boxes, and he stopped me and asked that I make an announcement that no-one leave without seeing them after the service.  It is not unusual for them to do something like this, as they bring candy for everyone on a few different holidays throughout the year, so I did not think much about it, even forgetting that on the monthly newsletter I had recently published I had noted that Sunday was his birthday.

Well come to find out, the box contained a variety of very large, and delicious pieces of birthday cake.  They had brought cake to give out to everyone because it was his birthday.  Isn’t it usually the other way around?  People give you things for your birthday, not you giving others gifts because it is your birthday!  Here is the encouraging part, however, and it almost brought good tears to my eyes that morning (and now as I relive the moment).  Tearfully, with a catch in his throat, he stated that over the last year, this birthday that he was celebrating was many times doubtful, but that it was through the encouragement, prayers, and support of our faith family that he was still here to celebrate it with us!  Yes, the doctors faithfully and successfully treated him, but he also was giving glory to our God for bringing him through the last year. 

Now, for the second story.  There is a man in East Tennessee that I have had the pleasure of meeting and hearing speak on a couple of different occasions before moving to New Mexico.  His name is Josh Wandell, and a few years back he was diagnosed with ALS.  At the time, Wandell was the principal of a local elementary school, and a very active person.  He has been using his battle with ALS to bring awareness to the disease, but more than that, he has been traveling to local churches, speaking about how he may be losing control of his muscles, but the battle of this disease is strengthening his faith in God.  Wendell is a role model for anyone that is facing struggles in their own lives (which is all of us). 

He has since had to retire from working, as he just physically cannot do the job anymore, but that has not stopped his influence.  Wandell’s story is encouraging enough, however, seeing how his influence has spread is what I want to tell you about today.  There is a page on Facebook called Team Wandell.  Find it here or their website here.  Over the weekend, the Team Wandell page relayed a story that completely blew me away.  There was a student turning 12-years old.  In lieu of presents for his birthday party, this young made made a simple request.  Make donations to “Team Wandell”.  How incredible is that?  A 12 year old wanting do help someone else out through donations instead of receiving birthday presents for himself.  It just blows me away, puts a huge smile on my face, and warms my heart. 

May we all find encouragement in this world.  There are good things taking place everywhere, we just have to look for them.

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak

Christian Living, God, Life, Ministry

Family Calling

I grew up as an only child, so when my wife and I got married, I not only gained a spouse, but I gained a brother that I had never had before.  Kelley has a brother that is a few years younger than her, and he became my brother.

The family I grew up in is very faithful in being Christ followers, but when I answered God’s call after high school to go into ministry, I am pretty sure I was the first in my family to do so.  I might be wrong, because I do not really know our family’s history past my grandparents on each side, for the most part.  I did not really have a legacy of ministers in my family line, although I never even thought about that because it did not seem strange to me.

Then Kelley and I got married.  Her dad, Kevin, is in ministry, and multiple grandparents, uncles, and cousins on both sides of her family are as well.  I gained a legacy of ministry when our families joined together through our marriage.  The incredible thing to me is that her younger brother is now studying to go into ministry as well. In other words, I now have a younger brother answering the call from God to go into the ministry.

While I was in school for ministry, I did an internship at Kelley’s home church in Georgetown, OH.  That is actually how we met, as she was finishing her time in the youth group while I was there, and we started dating when my internship officialy ended that summer.  While I was there as a student ministry intern, working with the teens mostly, I was given the opportunity to preach in the main adult worship service near the end of my time there.  That was the first time I preached in front of a group of more than 100 people, and I got to do it twice, as there are two services every Sunday.  It is an experience that I will never forget. It is also from this stage that Kelley and I got married as well.  The stage at Georgetown Church of Christ has been a pretty special place in my life.

As I was stating earlier, Korey (Kelley’s brother) is currently working on his ministry degree at Johnson University.  A few months ago, he had the opportunity to preach at Georgetown as well, as part of the requirements for a preaching class he was taking.  Kelley and I were unfortunately unable to attend, as we live in New Mexico, but the church uploads the sermons every week, so we were both able to watch Korey preach.  Sidenote, I love technology!  While I was watching him preach, I was struck with an incredible thought.  I have had the honor and privilege to share the same stage or pulpit with not only Kevin (Kelley’s dad), who is the preaching minister in Georgetown, but now with my brother as well.  That is a very cool realization to make, and it is also very humbling. (I have also gotten to preach from the same stage as some of my biggest mentors in ministry as well, which is pretty awesome as well).

What got me thinking of all of this again is that Korey just preached at Georgetown again this past weekend, and again, I was able to listen to his sermon thanks to technology.  I found out the morning of that he was going to be preaching, and immediately posted something about it on Twitter, offering a prayer of encouragement to Korey, and ended the tweet with the #FamilyCalling.  When I got to listen to his sermon today (Monday), I was so proud of the growth that he is having in his communication skills, and the fact that he is so willing to use his talents for God.  It again got me thinking about the idea of a family calling. I got to marry into a family that has many that have answered the call to ministry.

It is truly a calling as well.  I do not believe that you can be successful in ministry if you make the decision on your own that you want to do it.  As I listened to his sermon today, I was struck by the theme of his message, because it is something that I have been trying to stress in my own ministry as well.  It is the idea that as Christ followers, we have work to do. We have a calling. Our faith in Jesus should lead us to put in some major hard work and dedication for Him.

I will not give away too much of what he had to say, because I am going to provide a link at the end of this for you to go check his message out yourself, but he was preaching on Ephesians 2.  It is a very beautiful and powerful passage from Paul, and Korey nailed the idea from my favorite part of the passage, Ephesians 2:10.  It states, “10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”(NIV)

Other translations use the word masterpiece instead of handiwork. We are God’s masterpiece! And the fact that we are His masterpiece means that we were created for a specific purpose. We have a job to do; bringing glory to God. God has this work in mind for every single one of us.  I mentioned earlier that those of us in ministry have “answered a calling”, that you cannot really be successful in ministry if you have not been called.  What I did not mention then, I want to stress now. While you may not have been called to be in vocational ministry, if you are a Christ follower, you are called into some kind of ministry. It could be anything that you do to bring glory to your Creator, who created you as His masterpiece.

Korey made a statement in the middle of his sermon that was so dead on I just sat here in my office shaking my head in agreement. In fact, I have made very similar statements multiple times to my faith family here in New Mexico.  He said, “Everywhere you go should be your mission field.” Think about that. You should be sharing Jesus and His love everywhere you go. Here is how I have tried to stress that idea here; I had signs made that are now hanging beside every exit door we have in our church building. They simply read, “You are now entering your mission field” and then quote Matthew 28:19-20, which reads, “‘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.'” 

In other words, we all have a family calling if we are in the family of God. If you claim to be a Christ follower, answer your calling, and get busy in your mission field. It could be in your own back yard, or it could be half way around the world. Where it is does not really matter. What matters is that none of us sit idly by and expect someone else to do it for us. Let us all answer our “family calling”!

Click here to listen to Korey’s message on Vimeo.

Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak