Advent Conspiracy–”Come”

Many years of Christmas, the anticipation is on Christmas day as a child running to the tree in the morning with great excitement and joy to see what presents I got.  My heart was beating fast.  I could hardly sleep the night before.  It was the greatest time of the year.  The tree was at the center of our home and it symbolizes what is at the center of our season in some cases.

The Psalmist writes:  “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” (Psalm 95:6-7)

Today as I open up the Word of God and read, I am reminded of this simple truth.  It’s not about centering our life around a season or a tree, we are invited to “come and worship.”  In the first chapter of John, when we read about Jesus and His disciples…the invitation was to COME.  When that babe was lying in the manger, the shepherds were invited to COME.  We are to come with great excitement and joy. 

If we are to come and worship – the writer of this Psalm shares the action of the worship in these few passages of Scripture – bow down and kneel before God!  What a sight in the manger of the shepherds coming and gazing on the Savior, the Messiah having a chance to worship the King of Kings.  Wow! 

The Conspiracy for this Advent Season is a call to come worship Him. It’s a call to place value in the person Jesus Christ, God who became Man.  It’s a call to leave all the junk of life behind to focus on Him.  It’s a call to simply come - Bow and kneel before Jesus.  What holds us back?  Why don’t we have time?  We have gotten so busy, we don’t have the eagerness or the want to.  There are other things that are more important.

We set aside a day or two to set out our Christmas décor and prepare our homes for this season - What are people around seeing about the priorities in your life? what really is the focus of this season?  What do your children see in your walk everyday?  Do you want to be a part of the Conspiracy this Advent to simply COME AND WORSHIP?

God Bless, Sleepy Disciple 

Advent Conspiracy–Worship Fully

“Let’s face it; God has a big ego problem.  Why do we always have to worship Him?” – Bill Maher

It seems as if mankind always had a sense of worship, but to many different things.  Let’s blow this up, shall we?  Worship is giving something value – adoration and submission to.  I can go to Best Buy and drool over media and surround sound and IPad’s and I can go to the hardware store and lick my chops at power drills and saws and hammers and nails – oh my! - and when I go to work I can give great value to immersing myself in the job that I do and give it my all.  I can do the same with family, with church, and friends.

Christmas was an interruption!  It came at a dark time in a dark place.  Evil leaders/kings were in control of the land, there was an unbelievable amount of poverty because of high government taxation and something amazing was about to happen – Christmas.  The temple system in Israel was spiraling out of control – it became a corrupted religion with Pharisees at the helm barking at people about religious lifestyles and priests were profiting from the temple in excess.  There was a great divide between rich and poor – no middle class per se. 

Christmas was about to happen – an interruption by God.  He was sending His Son to earth to be a Savior and Messiah – to give hope to the poor and suffering, to bring Good News to the poor in spirit for the now and the future of the world. So that we may be able to “worship” God fully.  Because in our disobedience (sin) we cannot.  We don’t fully grasp what God did through Jesus thousands of years ago – to interrupt our lives for the better!  So that we can worship Him fully by receiving the Savior, Jesus.  Many that worship other things, don’t want to be interrupted.  Gain a perspective – hurry to the manger and see!  Believe!  Worship Him!

Advent Conspiracy Part 1 – Peace, Sleepy Disciple   

Connect...to what?

We are always using key words in the church and community as to the desire of the Body of Christ from God's Word. Let's look at principle #1.....Connecting: The Church is a Family.

"So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." Acts 2:41-42

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, a Family, with God as our Father. Believers should love, support, and encourage one another under the Heavenly Father. Church membership is about people not procedure. Is there a clear path to connect with the body of Christ? There should be! We should work on expanding our family every year.

Principle #2.......Connecting: The Church is the Body of Christ
Paul writes to the Romans 12:4-5: “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” We need to understand that there are members with different gifts here. God has placed us here together to accomplish His purpose as a church."

God expects us to join a church.  Rick Warren writes in the Purpose Driven Life that “you are called to belong, not just to believe” and that “God does not call anyone to be orphans.” "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household," Ephesians 2:19

”household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.” 1 Timothy 3:15
There is a connection for the believer in the community you are called to: the Body of Christ. God designed us to be social beings, ones who desire fellowship. God noticed when He created Adam He said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” In Ephesians, Paul writes about the church, the body of Christ being together many times to show that believers are to be together. It is simple, if you want to live a healthy Christian lifestyle, then you need to be a part of a healthy Christian church.

Principle #3: Joining a church should have responsibilities: Growth and Ministry
Commitment to Christ and commitment to growth and ministry. "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her;” Ephesians 5:25 Christ died for the church and we in turn should have the same commitment. Each one of us should be committed to growth and ministry. As you join this fellowship of believers, that should be a statement that you should commit to.

"....not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near." Hebrews 10:25
First of all, as we meet together and worship each week, we should never forsake that, like others Paul talks about, but it is to be encouraging when we do meet. A Christian is not to forsake the times we meet as a body of Christ, because we worship our Lord "together" and that practice encourages us.

Second, we are to be accountable to each in our Christian walk. If someone is missing each week, we should find out why they are missing because we are concerned with a missing family member. We totally let this fall through the cracks many times. It's not like the FBI or CIA kind of missing, but in care and concern that someone missed meeting with the Lord in a body of believers that week. You cant be accountable to those that you do not see from week to week.

So we see that membership should have its responsibilities as we are to CONNECT to the family of God to the community of Christ and that we need to commit to growth and ministry!!

God Bless, Sleepy Disciple

Control…

We seek to control everything in our life.  Why do we crave it and work hard to make everything work according to our plan and then we crumble when it doesn’t work out.  Some have made a profession from “control”.  They are good managers according to their strengths and talents and can handle taking control well.  In our households, we control it all and make sure things get done around there.  We spend lots of time controlling our lives and our relationships.

There is a different kind of control in the Bible….”self-control”.  2 Peter 1:5-7 talks about supplementing our faith with self-control….it is listed as knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness.  The key is found in verse 8:  this should increase for our effectiveness in our faith in the Lord.  What is this and how do I get it?

This self-control is a sober, temperate, calm, and dispassionate approach to life, having mastered personal desires and passions. – Holman Bible Dictionary.  It is simply having control in your life.

Did you know people who exercise self-control properly are happier?  The research, which was published in the Journal of Personality, showed that self-control isn’t just about deprivation, but more about managing conflicting goals. Since most people associate highly disciplined folks with being more task-oriented — they’re not likely to be the life of the party, for example, or eager to act on a whim — the scientists decided to correlate self-control with people’s happiness, to determine if being self-disciplined leaves people feeling less joyful.

The answer, it seems, lies in being a good manager. Self-control, for one, may not consist so much of being better at resisting temptation, but at finding better ways to avoid it. “High self-control does make you happy,” the authors conclude.  - Time Magazine (June 2013)

Now, apply this to your faith and controlling the desires of your flesh to be out of control.  In order for “faith, hope and love” to be abundant in your life, self-control would dictate that we remain calm to situations, we don’t lose our temper, and seek to serve God and others over ourselves.  To think about the kingdom of God perspective in all things instead of ourselves all the time.  Even when we don’t like it, but we know we need to do something that doesn’t serve ourselves.

Exercise Self-Control and Be Happy…Sleepy Disciple

Christianity and the American Dream

“We are settling for a Christianity that revolves around catering to ourselves when the central message of Christianity is actually about abandoning ourselves.” - ― David Platt, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

Platt does a great job in pointing out what comfortable and casual Christians are suffering from.  Maybe they believe that they are Christians and have been deceived that all they had to do is walk an aisle and pray a prayer.

The average disciple of Christ today is materialistic and consumer driven.  We have built the community of Christ around these two things.  Here are the reasons I think so:

1.  We INVITE everyone to COME to church.  We don’t obey the Great Commission to “GO” or “As you are GOING” anymore.  We ask everyone to COME to us.  Our attendance board depends on counting the ones that are there.  So we have built a faith of ATTENDANCE.

2.  Because we are pushed to INVITE people to the church services, “the PASTOR will save them with his message.”  Church has changed the focus to one that can share the gospel and one event that will save them instead of being the witnesses in Acts 1:8 that we were meant to be.  That’s why we have to create these clever evangelism strategies because we have lost our passion to reach the lost…just INVITE them and leave it up to someone else to witness.

2.  We ask folks to be a part of Bible Study.  The Bible Study part is great – our church has some good teachers and the pastor may preach a great sermon – but we are not challenging folks to APPLY the message.  We aren’t challenging them to work what they have learned out in their life.  Lack of ACCOUNTABILITY in many ways.

3.  We have massive BUILDINGS in the community – we are more concerned with maintaining what we have instead of REACHING OUT to the poor right across the street from the “buildings”.  We feed the machine.  Wouldn’t it be great to spend the maintenance money on reaching the community or helping one family in poverty with resources to succeed?

4.  The church is built on programs not on true discipleship.  An  organic view of discipleship where people shed their old self to the new creation in Christ.  We are so program driven, some churches have forgotten what the program is for and what the bottom line is for having it.  For example, most churches have three Children’s Ministry programs in a week to share three different stories with children a week – all three may not be effective and we confuse children with the gospel as we are force feeding them three lessons – (too much information in a week), instead of growing a disciple we are too focused on getting the lesson in.  Why don’t we make sure they learn and apply just one basic thing for their life and live it out.  Isn’t that a better direction?

We don’t like change in anything.  When Christ calls on us in salvation, we are to “surrender all” – give up everything!.  The disciples did it – Matt. 4:17.  We are to change in our devotions – once to the world and now to Him.  That’s a pretty big change.  Many want to “ride the fence” so to speak, because it’s too much to change everything in our life.  It is about “abandoning ourselves” – Platt makes a great point there.  What are you doing in following Jesus everyday?  Quit being casual with your faith and become radical with your life in abandoning things for Christ to become closer to Him.

Sleepy Disciple

How we view God…….

I woke and spent some time with the Lord this morning and several things popped out at me. (including a topic in a great Bible Study I attended wed. night with our youth, directed by the great Derekola!).

How do we view God?  It’s simple.  Some have made it complicated.  Some have no clue what I am talking about.  Some whine about it.  Some have actually embraced this knowledge. 

Proverbs 1:7 says “The fear of The Lord is the beginning of knowledge.”  Where does this really sink in?  When does this start to transform our life?  The fear of God….produces wisdom that leads to obedience! (as my Facebook friend has said)

Our relationship with God should lead like this: Belief ---> Obedience ----> Commitment ---> Responsibility ---> Selfless Humility ---> God is Made Famous by YOU! 

The problem today with many folks who call themselves Christians is that they know God by name only.  God is like a cool action figure in our toy box or the bobble head figure in our car on the dashboard.  When we see Him, hey, that’s fun to play with for a while until I get tired of playing.  They don’t really have a “relationship with God”. 

How do I know…because it shows….with RELATIONSHIP there is a fear of the Lord….there is godly wisdom…there is a humility there…a sense of commitment and responsibility….a pure selflessness.  This is the Disease of False Belief…and the Lord Jesus, “Not everyone who calls me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.” – Why – He who does the WILL OF MY FATHER in heaven who is in heaven will enter.  Matthew 7:21  Belief should lead to obedience because it is God’s will!!  And our lives should show it! – Sleepy Disciple

National Day of Prayer

Today is the National Day of Prayer, May 2. I would like to encourage you to pray today for our nation even though you may not be able to make a prayer service in your community. Here is the list to pray for:
1. Government: We must continue to pray that God protects our way of life, asking that He would embed men and women in office who are committed to serving their constituents with integrity. We must remain in prayer for our elections, beseeching God to prompt our fellow citizens to become involved in this process.
Pray for our leaders, as well as the judges in our courts. Ask God to grant them wisdom to act with integrity.
2. Military: As the heroic men and women in our armed services secure our liberty both at home and abroad, pray the Lord’s protection will go before them. In addition, lift up the chaplains stationed around the world, along with the Christian servicemen who unofficially fulfill a role of spiritual leadership. Ask that these believers would faithfully represent Christ among their comrades-in-arms.
Please don’t forget to pray also for those who have lost a loved one in battle. These grieving families have paid the ultimate price, and we must ask that God’s comfort would be upon them in a special way.
3. Media: Ask the Lord to provide the television, radio and print mediums with staff members and executives who are committed to accuracy and integrity.
We must also remember to intercede on behalf of the actors, musicians and athletes our young people seek to emulate. Pray that more of Hollywood’s celebrities will be worthy of our respect and admiration. And as you watch your favorite sport, ask the Lord to strengthen and embolden any Christians on the team or coaching staff. Nothing is too difficult for God ­ and though the industry often seems unprincipled, we know the Lord is able to use the media to accomplish His purposes.
4. Business: In recent years, greater numbers of large corporations are becoming characterized by deception, greed, and even fraudulent activity with godless principles and they are being vocal about their stance. In this climate, companies with strong biblical ethics are especially deserving of our recognition and patronage.
5. Schools: it’s especially critical that we pray for our nation’s public school teachers, administrators and students. Ask the Lord to raise up a new generation of dedicated educators who will commit themselves not only to an honest, accurate presentation of all subject matter, but who will also serve as positive role models for their students. In addition, let’s not forget to uphold our local school boards in prayer as they make decisions about the various curricula that are used across the country.
6. Church: Pray for the Lord to spark a revival throughout our nation, protect the witness of our pastors, and continue to sanctify and purify Christians around the world. We know that the spiritual condition of homes, communities and countries often points back to the believers within those regions. That being the case, it’s all the more important that we strive after righteousness, corporately as well as individually.
7. Family: Please pray for the family to be preserved as the Lord intended the marital union of one man and one woman devoted to each other and to raising the children in their home to be responsible, caring adults. Also keep in mind our elected leaders and the members of our judicial system as they consider proposed legislation and various court cases related to marriage and the family. This is one of the most crucial matters facing our nation, and it’s imperative that God’s people remain diligent in intercession for these concerns.

My prayer: May God receive glory today as Christians within this nation pray and intercede for these things that are critical in the environment in which we live. We pour our hearts out to you O Lord, to awaken this nation to its sin and repent and may you break my heart first so that I may surrender all unto you O Lord. Help me to be the salt and light you have called me to be in this dying world that is not my home. I serve You and You alone O Lord.....In Jesus Name, Amen!

My Time in the Word: What to do, How to do it?

Lifeway Research has continuously put forth in the past few years that many American Christians are not reading their Bibles.

Here is the statement: “The survey found 90 percent of churchgoers agree "I desire to please and honor Jesus in all I do," and 59 percent agree with the statement: "Throughout the day I find myself thinking about biblical truths." While the majority agree with both statements, there is a significant difference in the strength of agreement. Nearly two-thirds of churchgoers (64 percent) strongly agree with the first statement, but only 20 percent strongly agree with the second.

However, when asked how often they personally (not as part of a church worship service) read the Bible, a similar number respond "Every Day" (19 percent) as respond "Rarely/Never" (18 percent). A quarter indicate they read the Bible a few times a week. Fourteen percent say they read the Bible "Once a Week" and another 22 percent say "Once a Month" or "A Few Times a Month."

"Bible engagement has an impact in just about every area of spiritual growth," said Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research. "You can follow Christ and see Christianity as your source of truth, but if that truth does not permeate your thoughts, aspirations and actions, you are not fully engaging the truth.”

Simple steps need to be taken:
1.  READ…just take a few minutes a day to read a few verses if you don’t have daily reading habits.  There are plenty ways to do this.  You can sign up for a daily devotional by email, there are apps you can get for free to read on your phone, our church offers a Open Windows devotional book for free every quarter, or just pick up the Word and open it.

2.  LISTEN….to what you have read.  Let it soak in, let it resonate in you and become wisdom to your heart.  What does this mean?  How does this effect you?  Is this leading you to obedience in your relationship with the Lord?  Spend time meditating on what you have read during the day.

3.  SHARE….find time through the day to share what you have read with your spouse, with friends, with coworkers, your children or family, post it on facebook or tweet it!  If it impacts your life, which it should, God’s Word needs to be shared. 

We all should be accountable to reading God’s Word.  His Word guides our lives and shares the life changing message of the Gospel, the message of salvation and hope through His Son, Jesus.  Read, Listen and Share!  God Bless, Bro. B

Prayer…a healthy church depends on it!!

Recently I read an article on prayer and the church.  Are we a praying church?  Someone who has done research on the church in the US has said that this is one of the characteristics of a thriving and growing church is the matter of prayer.  A praying church is a growing and thriving church I guess would be the sentiment.  We find in Acts 2 the church was a praying church.  So, here are some of my thoughts on this: 

How are we supposed to evaluate that question?  Are we to have a prayer counter in the sanctuary so we can count the numbers of prayers and their efficiency?  I think some would go as far as to do so. 

The preacher can deliver some messages on prayer to spur on a believer’s prayer life.  Jesus said in Matthew 6:5…”When you pray”, so its not really an option.  Pastors should share their prayer life with others to spur others on through their experiences in their time of prayer.  Bible Study Teachers can teach a lesson on prayer which happens several times a year.  They can also share their experiences from their prayer life.

What about testimonies in worship of how God answers prayers?  We have lost this in our services in giving God the praise and glory for this because of our one-hour time limit.  Also, we don’t want to hand the microphone over to John who may talk for 15 minutes because he is preaching a mini-sermon on answered prayer in his life.  YIKES!

Determining Factors:  David writes in the Psalm….”I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies.” (Psalm 18:3)  A church NEEDS to Praise God constantly.  Paul writes:  “We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers;”  (1Thess. 1:2)  We SHOULD be praying for each other to give thanks for our brothers and sisters in Christ.  And the list goes on…praying for missions, lost folks, specific needs, etc.  The KEY is in the RESULTS of our prayers.  Even though they may be answered in victory, yes, we praise God, but what if God doesn’t answer or tells us no, yes, we praise God….it is the result of our prayers.  But the health of this whole thing….is actually praying in the first place to see and experience results of our time spent with our Heavenly Father whether positive or negative.  How is your prayer life?

The Sleepy Disciple, B

Political, no Biblical Rant.....

When a woman conceives and becomes pregnant, goes to Wal Mart and buys a cheap pregnancy test, visits her doctor to verify her pregnancy, different emotions come and true thinking begins about a baby being born, a life that is conceived inside of her.  Is it here that human life begins at conception?  Is it here that life becomes meaningful?  According to Roe vs. Wade in 1973 at the Supreme Court of the United States, the Justices determined that life was not meaningful at this stage.  How do they determine when life begins?  The medical community has differing views as does the scientific.

In our history, Randy Alcorn points out, “Whites decided blacks were less human.  Men decided women had fewer rights.  Nazis decided Jews’ lives weren’t meaningful.  Now big people have decided that little people aren’t meaningful enough to have rights.”  Newsweek even reports, “With no hype at all, a fetus can rightly be called a marvel of cognition, consciousness and sentience (self-awareness).”  Think about the development of the fetus as time goes on and the growth process that special child has.  It is absolutely amazing!

As a follower of Jesus Christ, the Bible teaches that we are all created in God’s image.  So if I was conceived and my mother carried me to birth for around 9 months, and as I was delivered my parents held me as a creation of God.  King David records, “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.” (Psalm 139:13-14)  Let us value life and value God’s creation and handiwork in the command to “be fruitful and multiply” to mankind – He has a purpose for each one of us.  He is the One that gives meaning to life.  God believes in life, so should we!

Runaway Ramblings

First of the year, first blog....yea, yea, yea

I ran away from home the summer I was about to turn 17 for about a week.  I was running because I did not like the rules my parents had in the house where I was living.  I didn't care about what they thought!  I thought I could live how I wanted.  I slept on a couch on a friends house.  I went to work on a farm with a friend to make some money.  We stayed up till whatever time we wanted and didn't have to worry about being home or being anywhere for that matter.  I didn't care.  Maybe I was living the "hippie" dream, I don't know.  My parents went out looking for me and actually found where I was living but didn't find me.  They were concerned about where I was and what I was doing.  I was living the free life and loving it.

One day at work, I stepped on a nail.  I was moving some old furniture for this farmer and a rusty 16 penny nail went through my foot.  Ouch!  I panicked.  I didn't know what to do.  My foot was throbbing and within an hour I was getting sick.  I didn't know what to do.  So, after the lack of caring from my "friends", I had some immediate concerns.  I finally decided to break down and call my father......ouch!.....no doubt.....at work.  He heard my sob story and came and got me.  BUT before I was taken for medical treatment, Dad took me to a undisclosed location in the country.....(I thought he was going to end my life and dump my body somewhere...lol), he TALKED to me!  I had to have an understanding before he was going to do anything.  In other words, I will help you, BUT, you have to come home and abide by my rules.

When we rebel, it's because we don't want to follow the rules or way of life we are to follow.  They are set for us to keep us safe, teach us responsibility, and to build character in our lives...we read about this plenty in the Bible.  The OT shows how God's people rebelled and God's response to the rebellion.  The NT shows how Christ desires for us to live as believers and children of God.

My outer young man was selfish and that ruled my life.  I didn't know how good I had it at home and I had loved ones who cared about me and cared about my future in life.  Paul does the same treatment in 2 Corinthians:  "Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day."  (2 Cor. 4:16)  When Dad took me to the doctor to get fixed up and crutches, I was renewed physically.  Even though my boo-boos were worked on though, it was really my spirit that was lifted and renewed because I got to go home.  The Father (Heavenly) doesn't want us to rebel against Him, He wants to have faith in Him to take care of us and encourage us in Christ, so that we may be renewed daily.  He is waiting for us to call on Him and to stop running away.  So, don't lose heart, and if you are a child of God, COME HOME!  Call the Father and confess that you need Him!