Ready or not

1 Peter 4:18 "And if it is with difficuty that the righteous is Saved, what will become of the Godless man and the sinner?"

Now pair this with Acts 20:28-30 "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them."

I am so challenged that it is clear all throughout Scripture that it is going to be very difficult and trying before we come into the presence of our Lord and Savior at judgement time! So, the challenge is to lead others as the Lord leads me in His word and not just according to my thoughts. We must test everything with Scripture and not ever take anything for granted because it comes from someone we trust. I even test my own self and teaching with Scripture and have found fault in my teaching and corrected, repented, and confessed immediately. The scary thing in the latter passage is that the people that are being exhorted here are those elders as chosen by the Holy Spirit. WHOOAAAA, so if these elders of old who were chosen very carefully are going to rise up and teach perverse things then the truth of the Word is where we must go always.

Now with all this said we have to take Peter's warning in 2 Peter 2:1-2 seriously, "But, false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;"(bolding added for emphasis)

So, basically these heresies will be disquised, will not be obvious, will look good. But, PRAISE GOD there is hope in His word as we test everything with the Truth. Part of the difficulty that we are told of in 1 Peter is going to be discerning what is truth and what are the enemies schemes. Again we know that the enemy is not going to make it obvious, look at Masons, Jehovahs Witnesses, Mormons, The unitarian church, these heresies are already in play and people are being deceived. Unfortunately for us it is not only happening in these cults that I named it will come front and center in the true body of Christ and we must be aware.

Ready or not it will come!!

WHo is God in my life??

1 Samuel 12:12 "When you saw that Nahash the king of the sons of Ammon came against you, you said to me, 'No, but a king shall reign over us,' although the Lord your God was your king."

I am challenged by this one verse which as I read the entire context of this passage and book I see how much meaning there is in it to the life and surrender of a follower of the Lord. It is so crazy that the Israelites even thought of following Nahash, but just as verse 21 in this same chapter says, "You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which can not profit or deliver, because they are futile,"  the Israelites had turned aside and to them it really seemed that this would be good.  Again this is crazy as Nahash's terms were that the right eye of all the Israelites would have to be gouged out in order for them to serve him, who would want to follow them. Praise God for Saul!  This goes on in many ways today in the world and in the church.  People are deceived!! Many don't allow God to be King, but turn to the Nahashs or even the Sauls of today and leave the true King behind as just a savior!

The problem is that obedience is taught, which is definitely something that is needed in a relationship with the Lord.  But, to have obedience you must know the Lord and hear His voice otherwise you are being obedient to other things.  These things may all be good in nature like, pastors, bible teacher, professors, or friends.  So, if we are obedient to these things because we haven't learned who God is in our lives and haven't submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and only surrendered to Him as Savior and not Lord we are going to be missing the key to a life with Him.  I am convicted that I have functioned in the knowledge that I have gained from others and not really learned who the Lord is to me and for me until recently.  As I grow in Him and learn more and more how to function in His Spirit and listen to His voice I am drawn nearer to Him and farther away from myself and my own knowledge. So, how does Samuel challenge to follow the Lord.  "If you will fear the Lord and serve Him, and listen to His voice and not rebel against the command of the Lord, then both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God."(1 Sam 12:14)  

We must fear Him, serve Him, Listen to Him, and not rebel against Him.  This would all be impossible if we never learned who He is.  So, as I study and pray my motives have definitely changed from a mode of seeking intellectual knowledge to seeking spiritual knowledge.  God is faithful and wants us to know Him. So, He will not be silent if you are seeking to know Him more.  We can definitely use all the things we are taught by others, but must first and foremost plug into the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives.  I definitely want to seek the voice of the Lord for personal edification as I hope to be used as part of the body to help encourage and edify others.

Verse 20 is also challenging as Samuel lays out more challenge, "Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart."  REDEMPTION IN THE LORD!!!!  Even if there have been evil acts committed, don't turn aside, but stay on the path of the Lord and serve Him.  I have definitely seen myself with little grace for those that commit evil things, but we can challenge those who are caught in sin not to turn aside and know that they can serve the Lord and be delivered of their sins by His awesome heart for us!!  Praise God for His amazing Love and Grace!!

Martha, Martha

Luke 10:40   "But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me. But the Lord answered and said to her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things;"

Shall I call myself Martha?  This is the question I ask myself often as I follow Philippians 4:6 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."  I often pray and ask the Lord for the things of myself, my flesh, my own fleshly desire, which I often confuse with the Lord's voice.  I am so distracted, plain and simple, DISTRACTED!!!  I dwell on so many things that are preparations.  By preparations I mean those things that I can think of to draw me closer to the Lord, but often forget to allow the Lord to teach me and draw me closer to Him through His perfect Spirit. What are these distractions?  In my life it is often the things that seem good in nature.  First would be, how to better equip the saints in the gathering of the Body of Christ.  I absolutely love the people of the Lord that He has brought around us to minister to us and for us to minister to, but often I(note the I) work and attempt to prepare things instead of going to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and allowing Him to show me exactly what He wants.  Next, would be my job.  I am praying and hoping that the Lord will grant me favor in going at least part time in ministering and challenging those that I am involved with in life and others that He may allow me to build relationships with. So, with this goal I often attempt to find a better job which pays more, but allows more time off, instead of being content with the awesome job that He has given which allows major free time. Finally, my own pursuit of God.  Pursuing God is our job and life, but often I am pharisaical and use legalism or other forms of structure to attempt to grow nearer to the Lord.  The funny thing is I know this is absolutely not the way to pursue Jesus Christ who is more in love with me than I can imagine.  The times I am fasting from everything are the times I'm closest to Him, but often I try to fill my life with things that seem good. "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things, but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." I am choosing to follow the "good part" which is Jesus Christ who WILL NOT BE TAKEN FROM ME, for He is faithful and trustworthy of my life and salvation!!!  So, as I pray and supplicate I will walk in "the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension"(Phil 4:7)

Our Life Guide

I have been challenged lately in leadership that we are not to just teach the Word of God, but challenge people to live by it as their guide.  I have used the example of trail riding if you go off of the path their are thorns, stickers, holes, and drop offs that you don't know about and it is very likely that you will get hurt.  The hurt may not be severe, but is simply painful and irritating.  We don't have to go off of the path, we can stay on it by following the Word as our guide and truly submitting our lives to follow God through the Word He has given us in Scripture!!! So, my challenge is not just to teach, but to live out God's word everyday of my life no matter what the cost and how foolish it may look to the world!!  Here we go, this is another fun adventure that the Lord will prevail in and He will bless immensely through!!

Discipleship or Spirit?

One thing I have been facing in the last few weeks is the question of pursuit. Everyone is screaming the term, "discipleship". I love discipleship and disciples making disciples and the ministry I am leading is doing this, but is my pursuit discipleship or is it the Spirit? My pursuit has absolutely been rapidly multiplying disciples and that is it. But, the problem is if I don't have disciplers that are passionately seeking Christ in every part of their lives. Then, I am going to have luke warm lines of disciples with messed up DNA. Many of my friends and brothers in Christ have taken discipleship and ran with it and I believe have left many undisciplined people in the dust as disciplers. I have felt more convicted in the last few weeks to focus more on my disciples lives in Christ first and then allow the Spirit to lead them as disciplers not me pushing them to disciple some one. God wants them to make disciples more than I do, so why do I feel it necessary to push someone into a discipling relationship!! Without allowing the Spirit of God to work we have nothing, just another hip ministry technique that no one will know anything about in 10 years!!! I hope that this discipleship movement will stay directly behind the lead of the Spirit and not go off into it's own little movement!!

LET'S GIVE UP

What in the world could I mean by this??? What I mean is let's give up and let God take control!!! I know, we've all said this before this is no profound statement in the least. But, I've been in many situations lately that show me that I am nothing, reminding me of 1 Cor. 3:6-8. I may water and/or plant, but it doesn't matter at all, GOD MAKES IT GROW!!! So, what does this mean to me? It means I need to GO and MAKE and BAPTIZE in the name of Jesus Christ!! Let's step out and make a difference and look different!!! God should not ever be put into a box, so let Him out. Let's give up and let God take us on the wildest adventure we'll ever go on, with Him in control!!! You may look weird, dumb, funny, abnormal, but if it is of God, you will be redeemed and God will make the seeds grow!!!

In the Dumps

Yesterday while working security at the mall, myself and another officer came upon a guy in an overflow parking lot who had cuyt his wrist and was trying to cut it deeper with a box knife. Now, being a pastor and in ministry I understand the oppression that the enemy has. So, coming upon a situation like this I almost hate to call the police and EMS because I know that this guy is going to see a psychiatrist and get some drugs and then everyone will be happy. But, looking into this guy's eyes was scary. They were completely dialated, completely black. As I talked with him I asked him about drug use and all that and he seemed alert and oriented and stated that he wasn't on any drug or anything. I just wanted to scream, 'In the name of Jesus I command you to leave," to the enemy in this guy's life, but that's not very kosher in the law enforcement/security world and this is when I started thinking. Does it really matter if it is kosher in the world?? Surely if I am following the great commission and following the spirit's lead I will be taken care of. I think I am really starting to grasp this reckless abandon thing!1 Which I don't know if I ever would have if I weren't called to be bi-vocational. God is good and we need to make a stand for Him, not being a crazy or always doing really outrageous things, but when He speaks we need to have immediate obedience no matter what the cost. The cause of Christ is greater than any cost we will face!!!!