Retreat

I’m off on our annual staff retreat near St. Augustine, Florida. Life has been flying by lately! I’m excited that I’m getting married in 47 days!! I’m super excited about beginning life with Cassidy on June 14th! I’m a blessed dude.

I don’t know about you, but I need “retreat” at times in my life. Life can and has become so fast lately that I miss out on listening to God. God desires a close and intimate relationship with us and looks straight at our hearts. In Psalm 62:8 it tells of how we are to “pour out our hearts to the Lord” and how a true spiritual revival begins in our hearts.

In church today, much emphasis is placed on the outward expressions of life but Jesus always points to our motives. When my heart is out of sync with God, I miss out on His blessing and direction for my life. My prayer is that I will truly retreat from “doing” to “being” in my relationship with God.

I am finding daily that God is speaking, but I am not always listening. My prayer is that I become in tune with Him and live from the outflow of Jesus’ heart in my life.

Isaiah 55:2-3 says, “Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.”

My prayer is that we as the church will become filled with Jesus and emptied of our own selves so we can hear God’s voice.

I know I sure need to slow down and listen.

What about you?

Intelligent Design…

It has been a little while since I’ve posted. Life has been quite busy lately with ministry, planning a wedding and finding time to relax the mind.

I was really encouraged by a movie that I saw on Saturday afternoon. It is called “Expelled.“

I would encourage every believer to go and watch this awesome movie. It depicts the reality of the science world and how many people do not want to ask the hard questions. I do not want to give it all away for you if you haven’t seen it, but go and check it out. I hope that it opens up dialogue with people on the issues of darwinism and that we as believers can love and be willing to discuss the issues of Intelligent Design and Evolution.

For many people, they think this issue of Darwinism and Creationism is out-dated and overdone. I have been learning more and more of how vital the word, “foundation” is to life. The church needs to respond to the world’s questions (Why am I here? Is God real? What is truth?). The foundation of darwinism is that we are made from primordal sludge and that ultimately there is no purpose to life. You live, you work, you die, that is it. The foundation of God’s Word teaches us that we are created in the image of God and we have a purpose in this life. I’m thankful that God reveals Himself in nature, through DNA, and his intricate creation all the way down to a singe cell.

Many reject this whole line of thought because Christians are many times viewed as ignorant. Go check out the movie and if you were inspired as I am, you will continue to study God’s Word and our culture so that we have an answer to the confusion that is running rampant in our culture.

Paul writes that we must be prepared to give an answer. Notice the last two words used…we are not to argue, but love people with our words and actions while standing on the foundation of Christ.

15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” 1 Peter 3:15

What do you think?

New video…Family Reunion!

Once again my younger brothers made a quality video…check it out!

How do we respond to the world’s disbelief?

I simply believe…servant evangelism.

The postmodern society that we are in revolves around authenticity. People do not want anyone to judge another person based on being authentic, but they inwardly want it from each other. In order for the church to impact the world and their search for truth, we need to be listeners. People desire to be heard, not matter how off-track and lost they are in their life. Jesus always responded with questions (besides some of his face-offs with the Pharisees).

If we are to model servant-evangelism, people need to know we care. Many lost people stereotype believers as uncaring, defensive, judgmental and close-minded. We must be counter-culture and look at the postmodern questions like, “Is Jesus the only way to God?” as an opportunity rather than an argument. We must re-train our attitude towards the lost and be students of the culture so that we can rightly divide the Word of Truth in real-life situations. Simply, people want to see us respond with patience and kindness in everyday situations.

The important part for believers is that we should love each other with a sacrificial and encouraging love. Lost people need to see churches reveal their love for each other outwardly and verbally. We spend too much time talking about loving each other. For example, when a believer needs prayer, we usually tell them we are praying for them rather than praying for them on the spot.

Jesus was the ultimate example of servant evangelism. He gave of himself not based on feelings, but on his love for others.

Although the world is constantly changing, we must offer people an alternative to life that uses every chance we get to model service to unbelievers and be ready with an answer for the hope we have in Christ.

What do you think?