Archive for April, 2010

Hey guys, I recently was introduced to this program.  Falling Whistles is an organization working towards saving children from being forced into warfare in the Congo.  I feel like we are sometimes safe in our little bubble here in South-Central Kentucky, but there’s a lot going on in the world.  We might be called to reach out past where we are comfortable with.  Take a look.

http://www.fallingwhistles.com/splash/index.php

It was the apostle Paul who said, “For we walk by faith and not by sight,” (2 Corinthians 5: 7).

I have heard it said, “Unbelief puts circumstances between us and God. But, faith puts God between us and our circumstances.”  That is a life changing statement, but it’s not always easy to walk by faith!  However, in this walk with Christ, faith has got to be your compass. Why?  The answer is simply because seasons change.  Relationships change.  Circumstances change.  Goals change.  Faith should never change.  And, like a compass, faith always points to the magnetic north!  It is our faith in Christ and hope of His glory that keeps us pushing forward!

Just a few weeks ago on Easter Sunday, I was driving home to spend the day with my family. It seems every time I pass through my hometown, I am immediately flooded with all kinds of memories.  This time, I giggled to myself and thought, “Wow! It’s funny how life and time changes everything!”  Take a look back throughout your life.  I believe we all could say, “Everything seems so different in my life, and it is time, circumstances, and relationships that have all changed.”  Yet, there is one thing that remains—Faith in Jesus Christ. We may not always know where we are going, or how we are gonna get there, but we have hope!  Whether the past is filled with good memories or bad memories, faith will carry us on.  J.G. Holland, former Prime Minister of New Zealand said, “Faith draws the poison from every grief, takes the sting from every loss, and quenches the fire of every pain, and only faith can do it!”

In our walk with Christ, we will encounter many life changing decisions, but it’s time we walk by faith, allowing God to be between us and our circumstances!  How do I get faith?  Romans 10:17 teaches, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God!  Get into the word of God, hear His voice, and you will find your faith growing stronger and stronger!  A Matthew 17:20 kind of faith, “If your have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there; and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you!”  The Lord is teaching me more and more the promise of Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths!”  May we have faith to step out of our comfort zone, into the realm of the unknown, where Jesus is!

Check out this music video—It’s an oldie, but a goodie!
Casting Crowns – Voice of Truth

Not knowing what you will be doing in the future can be very scary.  I know it certainly is for me.  I am reminded that time does not belong to me—it is only a gift. I want to use that gift of time to be as productive as possible without becoming overwhelmed. This decision looming over my head has left me feeling lonely—as this is my decision and no one else’s.

But, I want to encourage someone, if for no one else than myself.  When God brings you to a place of decision, don’t take it lightly. He has brought you there for a reason—-even if you have no idea what it is. Romans 8:28 says that everything works together for the good of those who love God. But, it’s not always easy to see if things will work out just the way you anticipated.

Today as I was thinking about the past and the decisions I’ve made that have brought me up to this point, I also thought about the future. Where do I go from here? Am I even where I’m supposed to be now? Then a line popped into my head from a song. I didn’t know what the song was, but I knew the first line said, “there must be more than this.” I looked up the song and found it is called, “Consuming Fire.”

Wow—what a revelation!  All this junk that has been swirling around me and bogging me down can simply be consumed by the fire of God, if only I let it go. In my daily reading today, I read a few things from Psalms 4 and 5 that really apply to me right now: “Answer me when I call to you, O God who declares me innocent. Free me from my troubles. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer.” “Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for I pray to no one but you.” “Lead me in the right path, O Lord, or my enemies will conquer me. Make your way plain for me to follow.”

God does hear us when we pray, and He will answer those prayers in His own time. Remember that when Mary and Martha had given up hope on their dead brother, Lazarus, Jesus showed up late on the scene by human standards. But, by God’s standard, He was right on time.  While Lazarus was dead in that grave, Jesus called him back to life.  If you feel like a part of you is dying, or you’re just bogged down with confusion, Jesus knows all about it.  Even if you do give up hope, He won’t.  He’ll roll back the gravestone of your situation and call you back to life.  So, there is “more than this.”  Just turn it all over to the all consuming fire of God.

“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’    Matthew 7:21-23

“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence, and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home.  I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ “Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’ “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’ “And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’ “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.”  Matthew 25:31-46

I find it interesting, that in the first story, the people who think they are righteous because of the works they do don’t get in, and in the second story, the righteous ones are shocked when they are told to go in and are told they have good works. When I read Matthew 25 31-46 last night, the fact on how much God cares about us helping others hit me so hard that it was scary to me.  I literally started rolling situations over in my mind of times I should have helped people, but I didn’t.  I could see people who were asking for money, but I held it for myself.  I started realizing that the people that went into the kingdom in this story didn’t live for themselves.  The people who went to hell just lived for themselves with no concern for anyone.

God started saying to me, “Son, this is what I care about. This is what’s important to me, and this will be important to me on that day.”  Jesus is saying if you will just give up concern for yourself and help others, then it’s like you are doing it to me.  I have always tried to give to people and help others, but the longer I walk with Jesus, the more I am seeing what is important in eternity.  Some of the things we think are important to God are really small to Him, and the things we think are small to God are really the important things to Him.  He cares greatly about the times we help the poor, the widows and orphans.  He cares so much that He even said that if you just give them a glass of water, then He will reward you.  Or, if you do something for someone else, it is just like doing it for Him.  He sees the homeless and poor, and then looks at how He has given us what we need, and He knows we should, in turn, help those around us in need.  Even if you don’t have money to give away, you can give of your time and of yourself, giving attention and love to others which can often mean more to a person than money.  Mother Theresa was quoted as saying this, “Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace.  Money will come if we seek first the Kingdom of God – the rest will be given.”  She also said this about giving, “Let us not be satisfied with just giving money.  Money is not enough.  Money can be gotten, but they need your hearts to love them.  So, spread your love everywhere you go”.  She understood that it is good to give money, but love and a giving of yourself is what the world needs as well. 

We often overlook little opportunities to show the love of  God to others by helping people with little things in life, such as mowing grass for your grandma, who is a widow, or just spending time with her.  God isn’t thinking about the times we got to minister to a large congregation or the things we do in public.  God will remember the little times when we stopped and gave someone ten dollars or bought someone a meal.  He remembers the times when you stopped watching TV and went and helped your grandma or mother wash dishes, and let her sit down because you love her.  It’s the small times that you gave up things that you wanted in order to help someone else. God will cherish and remember that in eternity.

When I stand before Him on that day, I don’t want to try to hand Him my works in order to get in.  I want to say, “Father, I don’t deserve to be here, and I have no reason of my own to bring.  I don’t have anything Father, but my soul sings that I love you, I love your son, and I spent my life trying to live and love like Him!  That’s all.”  I want my heart to be full and my hands to be empty on that day because I gave it all away.

And, as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.  So, we will not be afraid on the Day of Judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first.   1 John 4:17-19

Saturday is our big Captivate event and I believe that I will be busy from now until Sunday. I don’t know that I will get my post on for Saturday, so I am writing one now.

Last night, I read these verses:

^18-20My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. 1 John 3:18-20

I couldn’t help but think, “that describes Captivate”. Captivate is the essence of practicing the love that we often talk about.  And how about the rest of this verse?  Do you want to find the quickest way to cure your personal issues? The quickest way is to do something for someone else, to care about someone else’s problems. Soon enough, you will overlook your own. Spending a day working in a mission like Captivate is a great attitude adjustment!  You can never be around that many people in that setting without learning some lesson to take with you.

I hope everyone comes out to support Captivate! See you there!!

Matthew 6:25-34, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?  28″And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Do you worry too much?  We are all human; we all struggle with worry at some point. Some of us worry a little too much. Have you ever sat in your car and just watched everybody driving around everywhere, going about their business?  We are so consumed by our plans, goals, and future. We are so concentrated on where we are at spiritually and where we are going. We are even sometimes so consumed this day for planning on tomorrow.  When our focus is on tomorrow and the future, or where we are at spiritually, we miss the significance of now!  Trust in the Lord.  Look at the birds—He takes care of them.  You are worth more than they are.  Of course, He will take care of you!  Don’t worry about tomorrow; it will worry about itself.  Trust Him—He is with you!  Focus on the significance of now.  Love God and love others!  It’s not who you are underneath, or what you want to be.  It’s what you do that defines you!

As we continue our story about Snow White, we find that she has stumbled upon a little house where seven small men live, commonly known as the “Seven Dwarfs”:  Sneezy, Sleepy, Doc, Dopey, Happy, Bashful and Grumpy.  Found a way to  remember their names (info from Internet):  two S’s, two D’s, and three emotions. 

Often times, we may surround ourselves with different people with different personalities or character traits—some more so than others.  Each person unique in their own way.  Let’s look at the Seven Dwarfs and see who you may most resemble:

SNEEZY — He must have lived in KY with the high pollen count.   He was always sneezing, so he must have had allergies.  Do you?

SLEEPY —  He was always yawning. Probably a bit (or a lot) on the lazy side. Do you always look like you just “rolled out of bed”?  Always feeling tired?

DOC —  the intellectual one of the group.  I guess people with glasses are suppose to look smart.   Do you like to study?  Consider yourself intelligent?  Keep up those grades—learn as much as you can. 

DOPEY —  the youngest, sweetest, and silliest of the group.   I know some of you can relate to this one, or least know someone who is.  Have a sense of humor—have fun!

HAPPY — He was the most rotund (or heaviest) of the group, but he was happy.  He was jolly.  He didn’t allow his size to get him down.  Take a lesson from that.   

BASHFUL — He was very shy; kept his eyes averted upwards.  Are you quiet and bashful?  Do you feel intimidated around others? 

GRUMPY— Met a few of those!  Ever been around someone who is always grouchy and in a bad mood?  Not much fun to hang around with.  Hope you’re not one of those. 

Different people—different traits.   Some are qualities that come by nature; others are learned behavior or influenced by environment.  If you fall into one of the negative categories, then do something about it.  Strive to be the best you can be!  But, also, allow yourself to be who you are, and who God created you to be—YOU!

Every year, 3trees Church reaches out to our community in an annual event called Captivate. Captivate is designed to find needs and meet them……for FREE, no strings attached! In the past, Hillside students have attended and volunteered in several different areas. This year though, we are going with a purpose. We are going to Captivate to reach OUR generation and guess what – we need your help!  We need volunteers from our students ministry to help us reach out to our community.

This year, Hillside Students Ministry will be hosting a FREE entry 3 on 3 tournament with a $200 cash prize to the winner. In order to make this happen, we are going to need you to spread the word, and not only spread the word, but to show up and volunteer! Details are listed below, I hope you can join us!  There will be a volunteer meeting following the Hillside service Thursday for any student that wants to help.

Captivate 2010 – April 24th

Place: Columbia Fairgrounds

Time: 10:00am-1:00pm

Agony by Leonard Ravenhill

The Judgment Seat Of Christ by Leonard Ravenhill

Holiness by Leonard Ravenhill

If through a broken heart God can bring His purposes to pass in the world, then thank Him for breaking your heart. Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest.

I am forever grateful that God can use the darkest times of my life for His glory. I am thankful that my tears can be used to help aid someone else’s healing at times. In the same respect, there has not been one time in my life that I did anything worth doing for God that He didn’t “break” me before He sent me to do it.

As I wrote on facebook one time, pain often reminds us of what is important to us. God knows that we will not be motivated to perform His works if we don’t feel it strongly. God is not looking for people who are indifferent to everything going on around them. God is looking for people who are heartbroken over what is going on around them. Being heartbroken is not a fun place to be. It doesn’t matter if your heart is broken over the way someone treated you, the school system, of the earthquake in China; if something has touched you enough to break your heart, then it will hurt.

I think Jesus was the ultimate example of living this out. Jesus spent His entire life loving mankind. Then, we broke His heart. We simply broke His heart. I have no doubt that this hurt Him. Yet, it was this strong love that brought about the emotional pain which led to the physical pain and ultimately his willingness to die on our behalf. At the same time that He was dying on a cross for OUR sins, He was begging for our forgiveness. That was the ultimate use of a broken heart!

God uses strong and painful moments in our lives to motivate us to make a difference in our world. I am not saying that God caused the moments, but they wouldn’t have happened if He didn’t allow them. Every single moment of our lives, happy or sad, shape who we are as a person. From there, who we are as a person directly corresponds with what gifting God gives us. Don’t say that you are an exception because you don’t have any gifting. Every single person has something to build on in their character. Every person is clay for God to mold. Every person has been given a gift of some type that can be used to advance the kingdom of God.

Some people were born into happiness and have experienced it all of their lives. Maybe those people are best at motivating others through positive words. Others have endured struggles in their lives and overcome things with God’s help. If you are that person, thank God for giving you an opportunity to relate to someone else. There is someone else out there who is now going through exactly what you did at one time, and now you can help them find their way out of the darkness. If you are watching the news one day and suddenly your heart breaks for children of Haiti, then just maybe you will be broken enough to become motivated enough to do something about it.

You are thinking, “but I am just one person.” Everything starts with one person. Don’t forget we serve a God who can multiply. He can multiply one person’s efforts just as he did the fishes and the loaves. Everything worthwhile in God starts with a price, and it is paid out of your heart—a heart of commitment, a heart of desire, a heart of compassion, a heart of empathy, a heart of strength, and, yes, sometimes a broken heart.

As for me, I thank God for allowing my heart to be broken many times and for continuing to do so. The fact that God continues to allow my heart to be broken from time to time encourages me that He still wants to use me. For that, I am thankful. Don’t be sad about what you feel—be sad if you don’t feel anything.