It’s Going to get Worse Before it gets Better

There are lots of things in the news this week. Things that trouble me greatly. Our President sits down with two men and the Vice-President for beer to discuss his inappropriate comments over an arrest. Unemployment is up even though the President says his nearly trillion dollar stimulus plan is working. Our country is sinking lower and lower and heading closer and closer to a socialist state. You don’t thnk so? Have you read the proposed healthcare bill?

So what’s a guy to do? You can get angry, you can move to another country (it would be Romania for me), you can call your elected officials and tell them what you think (I do regularly), or you can do what Jesus says to do.  Pray. It is the most effective tool in getting the job done. Pray for your President to exercise godly wisdom, patience, strength, compassion and all the characteristics Jesus wants us to have. Sometimes it’s hard for God to get our attention. Sometimes we have to reach the bottom for us to see the light of God’s truth. Maybe you’ve reached that point and you fully embrace the truth of God’s Word and His instructions and biblical principles. I hope you don’t have to sink to the bottom before you realize the level of commitment it takes to be a Christ follower.

As a church, we are converted, but not committed. That’s not a good place to be.

Wordless Wednesday

We Have a Guest Blogger!

Here is a post from Pastor Jay Alexander. He is one of our Mission Team members here in New Orleans and our Assistant Pastor at C4. You can find his blog here.

“Christians either don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care about what’s going on in the Hood.”
July 23, 2009 by resolutebuffoonery

Well, its now day three of our mission trip. Some of the things that I have learned so far is:

“You can put Tony Chachere’s Famous Creole Seasoning on anything.

Crystal hot sauce makes everything taste better.

If a kid threatens to bite you, give them the jump rope.

If you give a three year old a jump rope to play with in the projects, you are not getting it back.

Getting a big hug from the same girl in exchange for the jump rope is a good feeling.

Chanting is a great way to get teens to unite together.

Turkey necks and pig tails are wicked awesome!

Ms. Brenda makes the best potato salad in the world.

Hearing Ms. Brenda’s story over lunch, of how she lost her home and some of her family during Katrina was really sad.

Loving on Brenda by helping her get her home back is really good.

I can’t hula hoop anymore and I don’t know when I forgot how.

Getting the opportunity to be taught how to hula hoop by a 7 year old in the neighborhood was pretty cool.

Caulk fixes almost anything, but it can’t build relationships.

Volunteers from Indiana should not volunteer [in construction]. (You know who you are)

Alysha Sutton is the best Construction Supervisor Team leader ever.

Getting a chance to share a little of my time with someone so selfless, reminds me why I should be more like that.

You don’t tell seven kids “free ice cream” unless you plan to feed the 30 that heard you from inside the neighbor’s house.

Getting the opportunity to give 30 kids ice cream when you know they don’t have much, makes you feel blessed.

People are still hurting from Hurricane Katrina.

People are still hurting from where I live too, and I should make a better effort to help them too.

Getting to know people is the first step to meeting their needs.”

Thanks Jay for taking the time to be a part of our team. You have been great fun to be with and have demonstrated the immeasurable love of Christ by serving others.

Wordless Wednesday

At What Cost?

New Orleans. Devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Here we are, eight people from a small church in Southeast Georgia. What in the world can we do to help? Alone, probably not much. That’s why we’ve partnered with EFCA Crisis Response. They’ve been here since Katrina hit in 2005. Hundreds of teams from around the country have descended on Crisis Response headquaters in Covington,LA located on the campus of Trinity Church. Teams have volunteered over 450,000 hours over the last four years.

And here we are. Eight people among a group of about 120 people this week trying to make a difference in the world by rebuilding homes that were destroyed or seriously damaged by Katrina. At the same time, we’re building relationships with people whose lives were turned upside down by Katrina. We’re learning their stories, their tragedies, and their triumps. Through it all, we’re serving Jesus by serving others.

The cost for us is a week of hard labor; the benefits? Indescribable joy.

What About the Dead?

Last week we talked about love and how it is supposed to work. We looked at the biblical definition of love and how love without action is not really love. Paul encouraged a strong work ethic so as not to be burdensome on others. Paul moves to another seemingly random topic.

Once again, get your Bible and read 1 Thes. 4:13-18.

If you’ve followed along with us you’ve got to ask, why now? Why would Paul address this issue at this point in his letter? That’s a good question. Why does Paul change up topics from work to death? From love to death? If you look closely, you’ll see that Paul has made a reference to the coming of our Lord in every chapter. It seems from the context that there was some confusion over death and the coming of Jesus. Before Paul describes what happens when you die, he takes the time to review some important truths.

He begins in v. 13 with the encouragement to not be ignorant. This is a recurring theme for Paul. In Acts 17:23, Paul told the Athenians they worshiped in ignorance. In Romans 1:13, Paul didn’t want the Romans to be unaware of his desire for them to grow. In Romans 2:4, they didn’t know the kindness that leads to repentance. In 1 Cor. 12, Paul didn’t want the Corinthians to be ignorant of spiritual gifts. In 2 Cor. 1, Paul didn’t want them to be unaware of his afflictions in Asia. Now Paul tells the Thessalonians he doesn’t want them to be unaware of what happens when someone dies.

Don’t be ignorant, “about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.” Asleep or sleep refers to death. Obviously it can mean sleep as in slumber too. The meaning of the word depends on the context. Paul doesn’t want us to grieve the deaths of those we love like the rest do. The rest who have no hope would refer to those people who do not have a relationship with Christ. Paul reminds them of one of the most fundamental doctrinal truths: Jesus died and was raised again. Paul didn’t say “don’t grieve” he said don’t grieve like those who have no hope. Our hope is in the resurrection of Christ. Especially in light of recent event, we ought not grieve as those who have no hope.

I want to make one distinction. We’re talking about the dead in Christ; those who are asleep. The Bible is clear that when you die, it is your physical body that dies. In 2 Cor. 5:1-8, Paul explains that our body is simply a vessel to hold our soul.  He refers to it as an earthly tent. He says, “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith, not by sight.  We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” Body and soul are not the same.

What is going to happen when the Lord comes? Paul is very clear that there is an order in the Lord’s coming and he sets it up in v. 15: “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.”Maybe the word of the Lord Paul refers to is Matthew 24:30-31 that says, “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.” Paul includes himself in those that remain. There is speculation that Paul anticipated the Lord’s return in his lifetime. Paul elaborates on that point in his second letter to the Thessalonians. Basically he says that we need to eagerly anticipate His return, but be zealous to serve the Lord as though we won’t live to see His return. Those people that have a personal relationship with Christ who are alive when the Lord comes won’t precede those that are dead in Christ. In other words, there is no advantage to being alive when the Lord comes.

Verse 16 provides the plan. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven.” Not an angel. Not a prophet. He’s leaving heaven again to come here. He’s coming, “With a shout.” It is a cry of encouragement. It is the cry of soldiers rushing into battle. “With the voice of the archangel.” The article “the” is not in the original Greek so this really means He’s coming with the voice of someone who’s in charge of others. Don’t get hung up on that because John 5:28 says, “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice.” Jesus is the One who is leading the charge. He’s coming, “with the trumpet of God.” In the old days, Jewish assemblies were called together by the sound of the trumpet. That’s what the church bells were for in the colonial days – to call people together. Maybe there was a shortage of talented trumpet players. “The dead in Christ will rise first.” This can only mean Christians. First means first, the dead will rise. It’s the same word used for the resurrection of Christ.

The next step in the process happens in v. 17. After the dead in Christ rise, “Then we who are alive and remain.” The not dead in Christ; those that are left on the earth, that haven’t died. “Will be caught up.” It is a promise. Caught up means taken by force, or snatched away. Rapture comes from the Latin verb rapere which means to carry off. Rapture the noun is the Latin word rapio. After that, everyone will be together with them – the dead in Christ who rose first – to meet for the very first time, face to face, with the One who died for the sins of the world, the One who died for our sins. After that, “We shall always be with the Lord.” Paul encourages us to, “Comfort one another with these words.” There should be great comfort in that.

In 1 Cor. 15:52, Paul says this is going to happen, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” Will there be time to react? An eye twinkling is pretty fast. It is the time it takes for light to reflect off someone’s retina and for your eye to see it. Mathematically, this twinkling has been calculated based on the speed of light and the size of an average person’s eye. The numbers crunch out to be 1.6 x 10^-9 seconds. That’s essentially a billionth of a second. You can Google it for yourself and yes, someone really did take the time to calculate it.

What’s the point? There won’t be time to make a decision. This is supposed to be comforting. Those who have no hope are not comforted by this. Will you be snatched away, or left behind?

This One Did Not Get Away

Check out this amazing article about an 11 year old that caught a 193 lb catfish. Yes it is true.

Do you have an iPhone? If you’re in Washington, D.C., you might want to avoid this application.

Wordless Wednesday

Is It Worth It?

Life is hard. It seems as though everyone around me is going through something. Sometimes you want to give up, you want to quit, you want all of the problems and challenges to go away. I’m no different than you. The past couple of months have been extraordinarily challenging for me. Hurts, attacks, disappointments, frustrations, periods of depression and anxiousness. As a pastor, I am in the firing line. I have relatively thick skin, but I am not invinceable. But a lot of people think I am. They think that no matter what they say to me, do to me, or don’t do to me doesn’t affect me. As life plays out, we must make a decision. Am I going to let circumstances dictate my life? Am I going to let circumstances dictate what I know about God? Am I going to let circumstances dictate my actions? Am I going to let circumstances dictate my love and passion for people?

My answer should be no different than yours. If you’re a Christian, a true follower of Christ, then the answer should be a resounding NO! Life is not going to live me; I am going to live life serving a holy and perfect God to the very best of my ability with a passion and drive that no one will be able to crush. The Bible says that trouble is coming, it is inevitable, but as a follower of Christ, I need to be ready and recognize where the problems are coming from. It is not from people in the community, or the flock of God that I am charged to shepherd, and it doesn’t come from my family. Problems come because Satan and his demons do not want me to serve God with all my heart, soul, and mind. They want me to slide, they want me to be average, they want me to be defeated, they want to crush the very essence of what and who God made me to be.

I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. I am a student of the Word. I can confidently say with Paul, “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12) I will keep going. What about you? Are you going to let circumstances dictate your life?

The Apostle Paul has been a great encouragement to me and I believe the central purpose for all the problems and challeges and suffering and pain in our lives can be summed up in the following passage: “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:10-12)

Each day that I can serve God, I can boldy say, yes, it is worth it.

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Chapter 4 began with the word finally, but Paul is not done. He began with an instruction to abstain from sexual immorality and this is the will of God for all of our lives. The main theme of the rest of this letter is that we excel still more. Today the question is, “What’s Love Got to do With It?” Can love be taught? Can it be learned? Can it excel? Can it endure?

Grab your Bible and read 1 Thes. 4:9-12.

I want to look at love in action. If we look back through this letter, we’ll see there’s been a whole lotta love goin’ on. In 1:3, Paul spoke of their labor of love. In 1:4, Paul says they are “beloved of God” which gives us the source of their love. Chapter 3 gives us the picture of Paul’s longing for them and his desire to know how they are doing.  This comes from his deep love for them. Paul and his companions displayed the love of God to the Thessalonians by imparting their lives and love to the church. The church then demonstrated their love throughout Macedonia and Achaia.

When you look at love in the Scriptures, there are some interesting things that you’ll find out.  I’d like you to take the time and read 1 John 3:10 – 5:3. There is so much there, but there isn’t enough space to go into detail so here’s a synopsis.

• Children of the devil are the ones that don’t love their brothers.
• The person that doesn’t love abides in death and doesn’t know God.
• Those who hate are called murderers and murderers don’t have eternal life.
• The command to love one another is repeated in John’s letter. Since it’s a command, we have the choice to obey.
• We are to love one another to the point that we would lay down our life for a brother.
• We aren’t to love with just words, we are to love in action, to love in deed.
• Love is demonstrated when we share what we have with those in need.
• God is love and love is from Him.
• Christians, followers of Christ can love because God first loved us.
• Christians should love because God loves us.
• God’s love is perfected in us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
• There is no fear in perfect love.
• Love is demonstrated to God by keeping His commandments.
• No one is able to fully understand the love of God without a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Those are some pretty specific aspects of love. Is that the kind of love you have? Is that the kind of love that you demonstrate?

Love is a process. A person doesn’t wake up one morning and decide to love. God first loved. Even though people hate Him, He still loves. Even though people do Him wrong, He still loves. Even though people may not love Him, He still loves.God didn’t just talk about how much He loved the world; He demonstrated His love by sending His Son to die for sinners. Not only did He send His Son, but He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell those who would place their trust in the finished work of Christ. God’s love is demonstrated in and through believers to others. This love is shown to God by obeying His commands, by sharing what we have with others, and by laying down our life for a brother.

If you go to the Bible’s love chapter (1 Cor. 13:4-8a), you’ll see some other aspects of love and you might ask yourself, “Am I demonstrating this kind of love?” Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, doesn’t brag, isn’t arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, doesn’t seek its own, is not provoked and doesn’t take into account a wrong suffered, love doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness. Love does rejoice with truth. Love bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things. This is the way we are to love. If you claim you can’t love this way then you make God a liar because He says you can do these things with the help of the Holy Spirit that lives within you.

Here’s another Scripture passage. Check out Romans 13:8-10. When you really get a hold of this passage, you see that you cannot do wrong to anybody, because the love of Christ oozes out of your body. Adultery, murder, stealing, covetousness – none of that would ever be thought of because the overwhelming principle is summed up for us: love your neighbor as yourself. Neighbor comes from the word that means a neighbor, friend, or anyone else. Love in action – Paul speaks of love throughout his letters and we need to get a firm grasp on what love is and then demonstrate it. The Thessalonians were a loving people, but Paul encouraged them to excel still more. Excel comes from the word that means exceed a fixed number of measure.

The next things Paul covers is the necessity of work.  Look at 4:11-12. Work became a burden back in the garden. Genesis 3 tells us, “Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground.” We’ve been sweating ever since.

Everyone has a responsibility to work and our attitude about work reveals a lot about where we are spiritually. When you look into the context of this letter, you’ll get some interesting perspectives from Paul. In chapter 2, Paul, Timothy, and Silvanus worked and labored; they worked night and day so they wouldn’t be a burden to any of them. They behaved uprightly and blamelessly toward them. In chapter 4, Paul told them to provide for themselves so that people outside the church (outsiders, non-Christians, lost people) would be shown proper behavior and so that believers would not be in need. There are three themes Paul addresses in this area of work.

First, Paul encourages each of them to, “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life.” Literally it means make it your ambition to have no ambition. It gives us the idea to pursue life calmly, to be peaceful, not bothering anybody.

Second, “attend to your own business.” This means exactly what it says – mind your own business. The Thessalonians had become busybodies according to 2 Thes. 3:11. Make sure your business is squared away. Too often we’re so involved in what others are doing that our own lives are in complete chaos. We worry about what everyone else’s kids are doing and ours are playing in the streets.

Third, “work with your hands.” Work was ordained by God before the fall, “Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” (Gen 2:15) The Greeks despised manual labor. They considered it beneath them. In fact Acts 17:21 says, “Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.” Their life’s goal was to hang out. This is not what Paul is going for. When Paul says so no one will be in need in v. 12, he’s talking about working so that when people are in need, we’ll be able to help. He’s not talking about people who can work, but don’t want to. We are to be a working people. Our job is our primary ministry.

In these verses, Paul has called us to growth. We are to please God more and more and we are to love God more and more. Complacency is the worst condition to be in. In life we never finally arrive. We continue to press on towards the goal. Our justification is once and for all, but our sanctification is more and more.