We usually give the first day of each week to God, and that’s a good thing. I want us to give the first week of the year to God too. We have to be people of prayer.
Not talking about prayer, but praying.
Not talking about our needs, but casting our cares on God.
Not talking about others’ needs, but interceding for them.
Join us in prayer all throughout this week. If you can come to the church at 6:30pm on any night, please do. But even if you can’t, then just pray on!
My wife is a beautiful, talented woman, but she tends to be, uh, directionally-challenged. That is to say, it’s not hard for her to get on the wrong road, heading the wrong direction. So a wonderful Christmas gift from my folks this year was a TomTom GPS unit.
Yesterday I took a trip and borrowed her TomTom. My first destination was a familiar one, but my second stop was somewhere I hadn’t been before. So I’m driving along when all of a sudden I hear a pleasant female voice tell me, “In two miles, exit to the right.”
Cool!
The Bible tells us that we can have a moral GPS system just like my wife’s TomTom. Check this out:
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a Voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
That Voice is the Holy Spirit. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would guide us in the right ways to go:
But when the Father sends the Advocate as My representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
You have this moral GPS system at your disposal. Are you using it? Prayer is the power supply that activates the Voice. Turn Him on and make better decisions, live a better life, and do greater things for God.
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After reading Mark Batterson’s book Primal, I started thinking quite a bit about the “stuff” that gets accumulated in our walk with Christ. Especially church traditions.
I find it amazing that neither Jesus nor Paul nor Peter nor any other biblical writer gave us a format for how we should “do” church. Over time we’ve just come to expect that a church service will have some songs, announcements, an offering time, some special music, and a sermon. But even changing the order of the service is so jarring to some people that they treat it like one of the Ten Commandments has been broken.
We can’t just keep doing church the way we’ve always done church. Sometimes we need to step back to ask, “Why do we do what we do?”
So I’ve been spending some time reading through the Book of Psalms. I want to get back to the essence of worship.
Since I love sports, I frequently go back to sports analogies. Several years ago I read David Maraniss’ excellent biography on Vince Lombardi. Every year the Green Bay Packers coach went into pre-season drills with a stronger and stronger passion to win. Here’s how Maraniss describes it:
“He began a tradition of starting from scratch, assuming that the players were blank slates who carried over no knowledge from the year before. He reviewed the fundamentals of blocking and tackling, the basic plays, how to study the playbook. He began with the most elemental statement of all. ’Gentleman,’ he said, holding a pigskin in his right hand, ’this is a football.’”
I know it is highly personal.
I know it is based on what attributes of God I have experienced firsthand.
I know God loves it when I worship Him.
As for the other details, well, I’m still wrestling with that.
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Last night we held our first Rock In The New Year. It was a great night of local Christian bands and a lot of fun. Best of all, we raised some money for the families of the two children we sponsor through Latin America Child Care. I want to give a BIG shout-out to Josh Schram for his excellent organization skills. He was the vision behind this wonderful night.
Pictures of the festivities are here.
Hangin’ with my best friend
I love to spend time with Betsy. Even if I just have a quick jaunt to Meijer for some milk and eggs, I want her to come along with me. Or an appointment I had that was an hour away, I was grateful that her schedule was freed up so we could be together. Today we had a looong, important but unexciting meeting; just being there together made it bearable.
I love the inside jokes, the “look” that speak volumes, the “squeeze” that tells me when I’m supposed to speak up (or keep quiet), the “smile” that’s so meaningful.
I truly believe that love is best spelled T-I-M-E.
Are you spending enough of this precious commodity with those closest to you? Are you hangin’ with those you love? If not, try it, and just wait to see what happens!
Prayer works. This phrase is powerful on so many levels—
Most Christians give the first day of each week to God. I’m challenging myself and our congregation to give the first week of the new year to God. January 3-9 will be a week of working in prayer. We’ve called this week Total Access: When we pray, we have total access to all of God’s blessings. He wants to bless us so that…
1. We can be more fruitful.
2. We can bless others out of our overflow.
3. We can glorify God.
Why don’t you join us in giving your first week of the year to God. It’s work to pray, but prayer works.
Last night my two young nephews were staying at our house. After dinner (and ice cream!) my youngest nephew decided he would rather go back home to sleep in his own bed. As I was driving him back toward his house, we had a fascinating conversation.
Fascinating for me because of the sincere simplicity of his young mind. He sees the world so innocently, and yet so sincerely as well. It reminded me of… me.
When I was a kid, my Grandfather offered me my choice of a dollar bill or a single penny. Without any hesitation, I chose the penny. “Why do you want just one penny,” my Grandfather asked, “Don’t you know that a dollar is worth 100 pennies?”
“Yes,” I replied in all my 3-year-old wisdom, “But you can’t put a dollar in a gumball machine.”
I robbed myself of a greater blessing because of my innocent simplicity. I saw only the immediate gain and not the greater blessing. I might have to go through an extra step to exchange the dollar for 100 pennies, but wouldn’t the effort be worth it?
Here’s what C.S. Lewis said:
“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Are you too easily pleased? Can you believe God for greater blessings? You might have to give up the immediate gain, but won’t it be worth it to trade mud pies in a slum for a holiday at the sea? Don’t settle for a single penny, when there are immeasurable treasures waiting for you!
If you have heard about Dr. Gary Chapman’s book The Five Love Languages, then the love language of “words of affirmation” will be familiar to you. This is the primary way that some people both express their love and want to receive their love. My youngest son definitely has this as one of his primary love languages.
He is at the age now where he has started writing more notes. They are intended as love notes, but they are actually powerful epistles. Short messages with weighty impact…
Simple. Profound. Encouraging. I’m challenged to be a better Dad and a better pastor today because of these heartfelt, Holy Spirit-inspired notes.
Have you ever noticed the overarching message throughout the Christmas story? In both Matthew’s and Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus there is a repeated angelic message to humankind: “Do not be afraid.”
Why all this fear? Quite simply sin brings fear: Fear of God’s impending judgment. But the canceling power is Jesus. In the Christmas carol Joy To The World there are powerful, fear-lifting words in the third verse:
His blessing comes to bring joy wherever the curse of sin has brought fear! Jesus defeats sin, and so therefore His joy displaces all fear!
Sin forgiven. Curse canceled. Fear removed. Joy has come because Jesus has come.
My prayer for you is that you are living without fear because you are living without sin. It’s only possible because Jesus came for you. Merry CHRISTmas!
There are times when it’s not so nice to have someone behind me who is pushing me forward. Like when I’m standing in the check-out line at the grocery store. After all, I can only go as fast as the person in front of me, right? So I start to have this imaginary conversation with the shopper behind me, “Look, you can nudge and prod and bump me all you want, but I can’t go any faster.”
But it’s a whole different story when the way in front of me is wide open. Now my imaginary conversation changes, “Okay, here we go! You’re nudging and prodding is really going to make me fly now!”
I think this is might have been what the Apostle Paul was thinking when he wrote, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” In essence, it was a thank you note to those behind him, “Thank you for spurring me on to preach better, teach better, live better, be better.”
Here’s what Jesus did for us: He was spurred on both by those of us who would be following Him and by the calling of His Heavenly Father. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting Him, He endured the Cross, disregarding its shame. Now He is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.
So Paul said he could follow that example in his own life. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
I’m in awe of what God has called me to do.
I’m grateful for the way Jesus has opened up the way for me.
I’m thankful for those who spur me on every day. Especially my family and my congregation. You make me want to preach better, teach better, live better, be better. Thank you!
Who’s spurring you on?
Craig T. Owens 