True things.

I believe that part of my responsibility in the body of Christ is to help set the pace for the church by listening and obeying and living Christ. Knowing that God has called us each to live a faithful and devoted life before Him, by the power of His Holy Spirit. You do not need to preach to your pastor or congregation; you simply need to live out in your daily life the love and obedience that Christ has asked of you.

Francis Chan

I took a sharpie marker, and wrote that in the front of my Bible. It's not something I ever want to forget....ever. I don't think I have ever been punched so hard spiritually by such completely simple, but life changing profound words from a person, other then when I heard the Gospel and was saved.

I've thought of this often as I've gone about serving my church the last few months. No one will ever fully agree with everything a church does, no matter what church it is. And my church is no exception. There are things that I don't agree with, things I don't think are handled in a scriptural way, things I think need to change. And for awhile, I tried to change them. But it didn't work. So then I tried going to other churches to find one that "I" liked. But even that didn't do anything for me. Sure, the excitement of a new church, with new people, a new pastor, that did things differently was something that I liked. However, as the layers kept being peeled back, I soon discovered that the problem wasn't with my church, the pastor, that I wasn't "getting fed". It wasn't that they were doing things that I didn't think were scriptural....it was my own heart.

And God used the above quote by Francis, to help me see that. My problem was my dis-satisfaction with God, my misunderstanding of the Gospel, and what I was living my life for and around. When I began to understand that I was not in the church to be fed, that I wasn't there to be a taker, but in fact, I was supposed to be there to be a giver. Encouragement of others is in my estimation from what I've seen, basically a lost function of a true Follower of Christ. Yes I said "Follower of Christ" instead of Christian. Everyone is a "christian", few follow Christ. But back to the current subject. Few people are true encourager's. I realized this was something that I wasn't. When I say encourager, I don't mean someone that's always patting you on the back telling you how good you are, my term for those people is generally this, "suck ups". I'm talking about encouragement that is centered around building someone up as you magnify the complete awesomeness of God.

To be more specific, you encourage them with Christ, and His word. Knowing how to apply the Word of God to different situations that people may be in, resulting the Christ being magnified in the eye's of the person whoever it may be, and them that person living in the truth, freedom and power that is theirs in Christ Jesus.

However, to do this, we ourselves must be walking with God on our own, in our private lives apart from everyone else. People need to be fed in their church, because they have no real relationship with Christ, because of this, they don't get the strength and energy they need, the food they need. I believe that the pastor of a church is supposed to lead his people and feed them from the word. But that is not supposed to be our main source of food. Our main source is to be in our one on one relationship with God throughout the week. Some people just simply want a "more skilled Pastor". Ak.a. someone who can give me a lot of cool information about the Bible, and they think that that is the measure of a good pastor. I'd have to say wrong again. I would rather be in a church where the pastor was not the best speaker/preacher, but loved the Lord, and loved his neighbor as himself, then to be in a church where the pastor could exposit scripture like no one's business, yet his life didn't back it up.

Those of us who don't have that relationship with God, wont get fed like we need to. We will become dis-satisfied with our church, with the people of our church, with the pastors, elders, carpet or whatever else it may be. To simply know alot about God, about the Bible, is not enough. But knowing God, and God knowing you, and having that real relationship is what makes all the difference.

So here is the quote one again.

I believe that part of my responsibility in the body of Christ is to help set the pace for the church by listening and obeying and living Christ. Knowing that God has called us each to live a faithful and devoted life before Him, by the power of His Holy Spirit. You do not need to preach to your pastor or congregation; you simply need to live out in your daily life the love and obedience that Christ has asked of you.

Francis Chan

I say to you, the person that is considering going to another church, check your hear and your motives. Here's how.

1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.

2. Love your neighbor as yourself. (treat your neighbor (the people in your church) the way you treat yourself.)

If your following these, You'll know if God is leading you to another church, or if it's just your selfish deceitful heart, because you'll be following God. I ask you to search your heart before God.

Mike

Continuing...

It's been sometime since I've started blogging. I started a few years ago, but never really had anything worth saying as I read back over all my old posts (which still exist on xanga). Growing up has been quite the experience for me, and for anyone who has done it, and I find that it's good to sometimes look back on the past, and look for the ways that God has moved in your life, lessons you have learned, friends you made, friendships that are still very much in contact even though they may have moved away. Once you hit 23, you actually have a bit of time under your belt. I personally feel old at times when I am able to tell someone, "Oh, I read that book series when I was 15....).

God has done more amazing things in my life then I could write on here for sure. But the No. 1 things He did within the last two years was to save me. Save me from myself, from sin. A lot of you who grew up watching me might be kinda shocked to hear that, but that's ok. I'm a living example of someone who grew up in the church, was know as the "good kid", but in actuality, inside was a nasty sinner. And getting me to a point where I came to realize that took awhile. I had been brought up in a legalistic church, where the exterior was the deciding factor of weather or not you were a "christian", weather or not you were "holy".

If there is one word that could define my life, and way our church functioned on many different levels, if would be this. Hypocrite.

My church has changed drastically for the better since that time, and I love my church! But growing up the a church that didn't really care that much about the heart had it's impact on a lot of the young people at my church, including myself. And one of those things was growing up, without ever hearing the whole gospel preached. All I heard growing up was this. Confession + belief = forgiveness and salvation from hell. At face value that doesn't seem bad. Look at it though through scripture, and you see that salvation is this. Confession + repentance + belief = forgiveness and salvation from sin.

I grew up hearing preaching that scared me into wanting to accepting Christ because of hell. It was a nasty horrible place that I didn't want to go, and so I asked Jesus into my heart so that I would be safe. But that's all it was. Then just before I was about to turn 21, I heard Paul Washer preach a sermon. He brought to life the reality that it wasn't hell that Jesus came to save us from primarily, but He came to save us from our sin, and ourselves. Sin resided in our flesh, and sin rules our lives. We love it, and want it, and will do anything to keep it. But when you hear the true gospel preached in light of what you really are, and how gross your sin is, the Holy Spirit moves, opens your eyes, and you see yourself as nothing, and Jesus as everything. Jesus become the only hope you have, because He is the only hope you have.

Realizing this, I repented from my sin, and received the gift that God had granted to me, salvation. And I'll tell you, it was night and day for this guy. Seriously, everything was viewed in a new light, Jesus was precious, wanted and completely needed in my life every moment of every day, and it is still that way. When I fall yo sin, I know I am saved, because He will not let me rest until it is dealt with. When the hardest things in life happen, such my parents divorce this last year, He is there guarding, guiding, giving life, comforting, giving purpose and reason in the middle of chaos, bringing peace to otherwise out of control emotions.

I look back on the two years of truly walking with Jesus. I know I am a young Christian, but God is moving in such ways and empowering me to do things I never thought I'd be doing. Being in charge of the Uprising Youth Group at my church is something I never thought I would be doing. But I am, and I'll always admit that it's by God's grace alone, and not myself. I know this man, and on his own only evil would come out. It is the Spirit of God working in me to will and to do His good pleasure, and I praise Him so much for it!

Think about it everyone. Do you really know Christ, more importantly, does He know you?

Find Him if you don't know Him, He is the only life that actually gives life, and that is worth pursuing.

Mike

Finding God, in everything.

Life can be a million different things, and can happen in a million different ways. So how do you know which way is the right way, which choice is the right choice. Some have said "pray and ask God to show You what His will is". But I have to think, that God already has shown us what His will is. His will is that He be glorified and magnified in the life of the believer that He resides in, and the we go and make disciples of every nation.

These things are God's will. We have so taken "what is the will of God" I think to a dangerous extreme. Applying it to everything. Yet we don't realize that no matter what we do, in the end, everything is going to work out, just the way God wants it to. His Will will be done. There's nothing we can do to stop it, and all to often we think that God for some reason "needs" us to accomplish His work. The reality, He doesn't. Never did, and never will. But graciously He has decided to let us be used by Him, to accomplish His plans. Mind blowing.

So here's what I getting at. Don't worry about weather or not your going to choose the right college, or the right person for marriage. Let it all go. Fix your eyes alone of Christ, and obey what He tells you to do. Glorify Him in everything you do, and make disciples. I promise you, decision making will come quite easily as you begin to see the decisions that will glorify God (even if it costs you something) and the decisions that glorify you.

Sitting at the feet of Jesus,

Mike