Life

Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get!

I think Forest Gump's momma must have been on to something when she said this. As much as we would love to know every step and reason for everything in life, we just aren't going to find them most days. Sure I can look at God's manual for life, the Bible, and I can see that God has purpose for my life; specifically for me and specifically for you. But even knowing that purpose doesn't guarantee that I will always understand everything I go through of the reasons why I go through them. On our best and worst days the best we can do is simply trust that God's plans will be accomplished in our lives and his faithfulness will never cease. I'm reminded of a few select verses from Psalm 25.

Psalm 25 (New Living Translation)
¹ O Lord, I give my life to you.
² I trust in you, my God!
³ No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced......
⁴ Show me the right path, O Lord;
point out the road for me to follow.
⁵ Lead me by your truth and teach me,
for you are the God who saves me.
All day long I put my hope in you..........
⁸ The Lord is good and does what is right;
he shows the proper path to those who go astray.
⁹ He leads the humble in doing right,
teaching them his way.
¹⁰ The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness
all who keep his covenant and obey his demands........
¹² Who are those who fear the Lord?
He will show them the path they should choose.
¹³ They will live in prosperity,
and their children will inherit the land.
¹⁴ The Lord is a friend to those who fear him.

Life may seem uncertain or even like a roller coaster at times, but trust in God. His plans will not fail as long as we hold firmly to him!

Have a great week!
Pastor Mark

The Mouth of CHRIST

These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God. - Matthew 15:8-9 (NLT)

Do you want to know what makes being a Christian most difficult? Well here's my answer, and strictly my opinion. I believe what makes being a Christian most difficult are other people who publicize themselves as Christians in public but their private actions and public words don't match the truth of God's Word. Based on this verse I think Jesus may have felt the same way. Jesus was quoting Isaiah 29:13 from the Old Testament when he said these words in Matthew 15.

How did we get to the place where so-called Christians can proclaim Christ but deny the moral & spiritual absolutes of his Word? I think it starts with the abandoning of absolute truth. What is truth for a Christian? Truth is whatever God says; therefore the Bible IS absolute & ultimate truth. Anything that contradicts Biblical truth is not truth; it's a lie! Will the Bible contradict my opinion? In most cases, absolutely! And in those instances, what's suppose to change; my opinion or God's Word? My opinion is supposed to adjust to the truth! When I try to change truth to fit my opinion I will always become like the people Jesus and Isaiah were describing and our view of absolute truth becomes subjective. This is when Christians start saying things like, "I believe that some people are born with homosexual tendencies.....or.....In some situations it's ok to tell a lie if it doesn't hurt someone else." And those are just the beginnings of our spiritual delusions.

Why is this my choice for what makes it most difficult to be a Christian? Simple. It's because these people encounter people who aren't Christians, they spew their version of truth, then mislead people and misrepresent God. The end result is a person who now believes a diluted truth, thus making it harder for them to be reached with the accurate and honest gospel message. The Bible says that we as Christians are supposed to make up the body of Christ. The illustration in scripture is that of the parts of a body coming together and working together for God's purpose with Christ as the head. My complaint is that we've become the mouth of Christ instead of the body of Christ. We want to talk a lot but what we often have to say doesn't line up with God's truth.

What's the solution? Before you brag about your Christian status consider this checklist for faith. Do I read God's Word and talk to him daily? Am I committed to joining other believers for weekly worship & teaching? Am I doing life together with other believers through small group settings? Am I using my talents & abilities within the church to serve the other believers? Am I passionate and active in reaching the unsaved both locally and globally? If you can't answer these questions affirmatively, then you are neglecting the most basic of God's commands for Christian life. Thus, I plead with you.....STOP verbally proclaiming your Christianity until you are physically willing to live out God's commands. St. Francis of Assisi once said, "Preach the gospel at all times--if necessary, use words! Well said!

Have a great week!

Making Sense Of The Chaos

An Update From Convoy Of Hope...........
Hundreds of desperate Haitians are in line waiting for food at Quisqueya Chapel—Convoy of Hope’s main distribution point in Port-au-Prince. Yesterday, the Convoy of Hope team distributed 100,000 meals here and at five other distribution points.

“Having partners like Haiti, the national Assemblies of God church and Mission of Hope has allowed us access to parts of the city we could have never gotten into,” says Paul Coroleuski, Convoy of Hope’s director of field services who is in Haiti. “Without our partners we would be like many other relief organizations who have food and supplies in country but are facing enormous logistical and security problems getting those items distributed.”

Food supplies are running low in Haiti and show no signs of improving anytime soon. But even when food is available—as it is in limited amounts on some street corners from vendors—many families simply do not have the cash to pay for it.

“My house is damaged, I need food, but I have no money to buy it,” says Ralph, a twenty-something-year-old who could be speaking for tens of thousands of hungry Haitians.

“The situation regarding food and water remains dire,” says Kevin Rose, Haiti director for Convoy of Hope. “The lack of fuel and security issues has made it very difficult to move food around the city. But through our network of partners we are getting food into some of the most desperate places.”

Rose says the food being distributed to earthquake victims is inventory from Convoy of Hope’s warehouse that is used to feed 7,000 children each day who are a part of Convoy of Hope’s feeding initiative in Haiti.

“That supply will last 10 to 14 more days,” admits Rose. “So, we need to replenish the warehouse as fast as we can to ensure that we can keep feeding the children in our program while also continuing to provide food for those who are suffering from the earthquake.”

If the condition of the earthquake-damaged neighborhood that surrounds the distribution point at Quisqueya Chapel is any indicator—Sunday’s distribution of food will only be one of many more to come in the months ahead.

If you are looking for a trusted organization to contribute to for Haitian relief, Convoy of Hope is the organization I wholeheartedly suggest to you. Click on the link below to go to their website and make a contribution.

Hope

Optimism says “It’s not so bad!” Hope admits “Yes, it’s bad. Really bad. But I still believe & trust in God!”, Rick Warren

People say all the time that we should be more optimistic. Optimistic about the weather, the economy, our jobs, our families, & the Packers. But the tendency with optimism is that it suggests we should pretend that our current situations really don't exist. And if we do acknowledge them, we are in some way pessimistic or lack faith. That's mindset is just silly.

If you had the symptoms of asthma and it was confirmed by a doctor, is it logical or fair for me to say you lacked faith simply because you told me you had asthma? You are just stating one side of the facts. Optimism tries to get us to deny the facts. Hope on the other hand accepts the facts, but understands the facts are only part of the story. Hope not only sees the problem, but more importantly, hope sees the answer. You can be optimistic about your cancer diagnosis, but that doesn't change the fact that you still have cancer. But hope not only accepts the diagnosis it recognizes that there is a solution that is bigger than the problem.

Hope only works when it's placed in a reliable source. And the only truly reliable source is God. As you go through this next week, it's ok to identify your life situations. But realize that your hope is firmly established in a God who is bigger, greater, and better than all your problems.

Psalm 25:5 You are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.
Psalm 31:24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.
Psalm 33:20 We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.
Psalm 62:5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.
Psalm 71:14 But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.

Primal: Quest For The Lost Soul Of Christianity

With my first post of the new year, I wanted to share a book with you that I believe would be a great read for the beginning of the year. The book is "Primal" by Mark Batterson. Mark pastor's National Community Church, a hugely successful and growing church on Capital Hill in Washington D.C. Tricia and I had the impromptu opportunity to meet Mark at their Capital Hill coffee house Ebenezer's, on our trip to D.C. in October 2008. His kindness, generosity, and humble heart as well as his proven writing in 2 previous books makes me comfortable to share this book with you and to encourage you to rush out and purchase it for your own personal spiritual growth. You can purchase it at Amazon or ask for it at your local Christian bookstore.

We're all familiar with the Ten Commandments, if not at least the concepts they convey. But what we tend to forget is Jesus words in Mark 12:30 where he says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Jesus classified this as the first and greatest commandment while not abolishing the former. In the book Primal, Mark steers us back to this often forgotten commandment that at it's core should be the bulls-eye of life for every self-professing Christian. If we can't get this commandment right the rest just simply doesn't matter. Mark takes the opportunity to take people beyond the surface level of this verse to the depth of really understanding what it means to live this verse out in our everyday lives. In the chapter 5 as he targets how we love God with our soul, Mark talks about what happens when we read God's Word.

"The quest for the lost soul of Christianity always leads us back to the Bible. But rediscovering the wonders of Scripture requires more than reading. That's where the quest begins, but that's not where it ends. Not if you want to get it into your soul. You have to meditate on it (think about God's Word). Then you have to live it out. Meditating on it turns one-dimensional knowledge into two-dimensional understanding. Living it out turns two-dimensional understanding into three-dimensional obedience."

Allowing the Word to get into our soul is more than just reading it, it also involves applying it. He goes on to use the analogy of the radio waves that are all around us on a daily basis. If you tune your radio to AM 1460, as long as you're on that wavelength, a world of information is available to you.

"...the Spirit of God is always broadcasting. But we've got to tune in to his frequency. The Holy Spirit has multiple channels of communication.......But His primary channel of communication is Scripture. When we open the Bible, it's like God opens His mouth. That's how we get on His frequency. That's how we tune into his voice."

What a powerful yet simplistic way to understand how God connects with our soul. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the book for yourself and enjoy the journey.

Have a great week!
Pastor Mark