Praise God For Pain!

Paul’s letter to the Romans hit me in a fresh way this morning. Paul uses the early chapters to lay a foundation of grace. Paul’s bottomline: You don’t deserve God; but you have access to him in spite of yourself. The reason? GRACE! That’s the foundation of our hope in Christ. It is a hope that should inspire us every day. It is cause for rejoicing. Paul even says so in Romans 5:2. But his next phrase is what got me…..

“More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings…”

Come again? He rejoices in the hope of the glory of God; the hope that we can exist in human form, but have access to the glory only found in God; the hope that someday we shall all experience his glory in a depth that only eternity can describe. Paul says that is cause for celebration….but not as much as the cause to celebrate suffering. Is he serious? What is he saying?

His explanation brought knew light for me. He suggests in verses 3-5 that suffering is the catalyst God uses to create hope in us. Suffering produces endurance; endurance produces character; character produces hope. Hope is supported by the love of God that is poured into us by the Holy Spirit. But it all starts with suffering. God’s means of bringing hope into a desperate situation is pain. God’s means of accomplishing his glory in this life through our lives is pain. So Paul suggests that when we encounter suffering, it is a cause for rejoicing, because it is the guarantee that God is up to something that will ultimately produce a deeper hope, saturated by the Holy Spirit.

Thanks for the reminder Paul…I needed that this morning.

Why Do We Reach Out?

This Sunday, March 7, 2010, we will take a 1-week break from our “7″ Series, and touch on the subject of outreach, in preparation for a week long initiative that we are calliing “Reach Week.” Here’s the deal:

During the week of March 14-20, we are challenging every member of Florence First Church of God to engage in multiple outreach efforts. We have several events scheduled that you can take part in (more on those in a moment), but we also are encouraging everyone to commit to performing various acts of kindness throughout that week. On Sunday, March 7th you will receive a list of recommended outreach ideas that everyone can do, as well as info regarding some events we are hosting. Those include:

Thursday, March 18th, 6-8 PM – Baby Shower for a young mother and baby. Bring a gift and come support this family!

Friday, March 19th, 6-10 PM – Parents’ Night Out for families in our area.

With all that said, the natural question for many may be “Why are we doing all this outreach stuff? What’s in it for me? What’s in it for the church?” I’m glad you asked! Those are questions we will be trying answer this Sunday from 2 Corinthians 2:14-17.

Reputations. Week 5 of “7″ Series – Sardis

This Sunday, February 28th, we will land on week 5 of our current sermon series that covers the 7 letters of Revelation 2 and 3. It has been a great journey thus far. I can’t wait to see what Christ does in us, through his word this week.

This week’s letter, found in Rev. 3:1-6, is addressed to a church with a great reputation. It was considered by those that attended and by those that observed it as a really “lively” church. They had all the visible signs of a church where God was on the move. Yet, Jesus has a very succinct word for them, “You are dead.” Compare that to the word he gave to Smyrna (Week 2, Rev. 2:8-11). They had the reputation of being poor, but Jesus proclaimed them as rich. Here’s the pattern that I think we need to see: Jesus doesn’t see the church through our eyes. He has a different perspective. He judges success much differently than we. This Sunday we will do our best to dive into why Jesus would say things that defy appearances, and how we can begin to see the church through his eyes.

In the meantime, I would challenge us all to ask what preconceptions or assumptions have we made about our church that are wrong. Would Jesus look at aspects of things that we have deemed “successful” and proclaim them as colossal failures? Would he look at efforts that seemed to have flopped and say that they were successful?

These are key questions. Because the answers will determine how we are to pursue the future. Let’s be ready to allow Christ to help us see his church through his eyes.

Finish Strong! Week 4 of “7″ Series

This Sunday, February 21st is Week 4 of our series on the 7 letters of Revelation 2 & 3. We are halfway home! This week’s letter is addressed to the church in Thyatira. They like most of the other churches have some issues that Christ calls to their attention. But they have a unique quality that I believe should be the dream of every church. Jesus says that their “latter works exceed the first” (Rev. 2:19). In other words, they are getting better with age. Their works, love, faith, service, and endurance is increasing each passing day!

I compare this to two realities of our day. First, most believers will agree that although their knowledge of Scripture generally increases as they follow Christ, their passion and excitement does not. It has become normal for seasoned Christians to be less enthusiastic about sharing their faith than new converts. Second, statistics consistently show that the overwhelming majority of new converts (around 80%) come to Christ through churches that are less than 3 years old.

Conclusion: The 21st Century American church has much to learn from our brothers and sisters from Thyatira.

I for one want to throw a wrench in that status quo! I want my passion for God’s kingdom to expand as I get older. I want to be part of a church that is getting stronger week by week! Let’s come together this Sunday in search of God’s word to accomplish that very goal!

Stay The Course…..

We are nearly 2 months into the new year (not sure we can call it “new” anymore.) Many of you set a goal of reading through the bible in this calendar year. That is a great goal that I too am pursuing. It is not too late to start! Here is a link to a few popular reading plans. I use the Discipleship Journal Reading Plan, because it gives me 5 “catch-up days” per month.

Usually this time of year is when staying on course with your reading plan gets a little challenging. There are lots of reasons for that. First, we all tend to get distracted. It requires discipline and determination to stick with our daily reading plan. One of the other reasons is often the difficulty with understanding portions of the Old Testament. Regardless of your particular reading plan, you are probably reading through the latter part of Exodus or Leviticus now. On the surface, these texts can seem obscure, boring, and just plain weird. Here are a few tips that I hope will keep you on track.

1. Read these texts as an exercise in your faithfulness, not to understand every word. Even if you do not understand the context, or cultural references that you read…..you still are making progress when you press through keep reading. The bible has an accumulative effect that is intangible at times. Think of it as spiritual exercise. You just have to keep pressing, and in time you will begin to see that all that perseverance is making you stronger.

2. A word about the intricate details we read about in Exodus, Leviticus and others. These texts contribute to our understanding of God, even if we do not fully understand what they are saying. For example, the last 10 chapters of Exodus are filled with intricate details about the design, and construction of the Tabernacle, and even the clothing worn by the priests. A natural question to ask while reading this section is, “Why do I need to know this stuff?” The most important answer to that is simply this, This story reveals to me just how detailed, holy, and particular our God really is. Whenever we are reading a seemingly useless text, stop and ask yourself, “What does this say about the character, values, and passion of God?” God used these events to reveal himself to his people thousands of years ago. They still accomplish that same purpose through the reading of them today.

3. If you want to go deeper, there are some great resources out there. First off, anything in my library is available to you. You will make your nerdy pastor really excited if you ask to borrow a bible dictionary! There are some solid resources online as well. But be careful! All free internet info is not created equally. Here are some sites I recommend:

http://www.biblestudytools.com/
http://www.blueletterbible.org/

The single best resource for in-depth bible study available today is the ESV Study Bible. I recommend the the cheap, hardback version. Don’t waste money on expensive leather. This thing weighs 10 pounds, so your not going to be packing it to church anyway (unless you want to knock somebody out with it).

Hang in there church! God is shaping us to be more like him, through his word. I love the quote by an Old Testament professor at Asbury Seminary. “Do not seek to master the bible, seek to allow the bible master you.”