A Couple Of Thoughts

Greetings everyone! Once again sorry for the long period of time between blog posts. I’ll get better on that.

Here are a couple of things I was thinking about today. I plan to expand on both of these thoughts in future posts.

First thought, when should someone be baptized? Is the time when someone knows right from wrong? Is it when someone knows what sin is and what it means? Is it when someone knows and understands Jesus died to save sinners from their sins? Is it when God holds someone accountable for their sin? I don’t know the right answer to these questions. Just looking for feedback right now. I hope to expand on this in a future post.

Second thought, what does it mean to follow Jesus? I purchased and started reading One Life by Scot Mcnight and immediately started reading it today. This question was purposed in the book. I thought it was very though-provoking as well. Again, just looking for further thoughts here. I hope to expand on this in a future blog post as well.

I would love to read your thoughts on these questions. Your thoughts, comments, questions, etc are always welcomed and encouraged. God bless you all. Grace and Peace.

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What Would It Mean To You…

Greetings one and all. Once again I am sorry I haven’t blogged very much lately. Last week I was ill with a sinus infection. I’m all better now. This week has been busy. So I apologize for my absence.

The following is a follow-up of sorts to a post I made some time earlier. I thought of this during a conversation I had earlier today over lunch.

What would it mean to you if you could meet the needs of every person in the church where you are? What would it mean to you if you could draw them into a better relationship with Jesus and with the others in their life? What would it mean to you if you could study the Bible with everyone you met, and that every one of them came to know Jesus and be baptized into Him, and their lives be written in the Lamb’s book of life? It would feel pretty good wouldn’t it?

But what would it mean to you if all of that meant you didn’t spend any time with your family? What would it mean to you if your family grew to hate you, hate God, and hate the church because you were always gone doing something for somebody else?

Borrowing from a scripture in the Bible, what would it mean to you if you could win the whole world for Christ and the gospel, but you lost your family? What would that mean to you?

As I’ve said before, several of my classmates at Sunset are married and have children. This is something that they worry about. Even though I am single and have never been married, I am concerned about families and marriages. Even though I’m not married, I have family and friends who are, and I’m concerned about them.

God bless us all as we strive to be God’s people and as we love our families.

Of course any and all thoughts, comments, questions, etc are always encouraged and welcomed.

Grace and Peace.

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2nd Class Members of God’s Kingdom?

Greetings everyone! Here are some thoughts I had. I have heard a lot of people in our brotherhood say some pretty condemning statements about other people who don’t agree with them about certain things. That is something that really, REALLY bothers me. And this is from both sides (conservatives about progressives, and progressives about progressives).

I think we treat treat those with whom we disagree like they are second class members of God’s kingdom. I would like for us to focus our attention on the last chapter in John’s gospel. I hope to help us understand with this.

In John’s Gospel chapter 21, after Peter and his fellow apostles meet Jesus on the seashore and make a miraculous catch of fish, and Jesus serves them breakfast. After they all had breakfast, Jesus restores Peter to the apostleship and gives him his identity back.

Then Jesus tells Peter how he’s going to to die and give glory to God. At this point Jesus and Peter are walking along the shore. Peter looks behind him and sees the apostle John following them. Peter asks Jesus about him and how he would die. Jesus tells Peter, “What is that to you? You must follow Me.”. In essence, I believe, Jesus tells Peter to mind his business. I believe Jesus tells Peter, “This man is My servant and My brother. What he does to serve Me that brings Me glory is of no concern of yours. You should focus your attention and time on serving Me too”.

Of course this doesn’t mean we can’t have disagreements about how we do things at our respective congregations. But I believe we should be brotherly enough to say, “You guys are doing somethings that make us uncomfortable, but obviously works for y’all, and y’all are baptizing people and growing in God’s love and grace. We recognize you guys as our brothers and sisters. So we give y’all the right to do what you do. But we do things differently, and therefore we can’t participate with y’all in good conscious. Y’all keep doing what your doing, and we’ll keep doing what we’re doing, and we’ll all be together in heaven”.

I hope I’m making since here. Of course any and all comments, questions, etc are always encouraged and welcomed.

God bless you all. Grace and Peace.

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Marriage, Family, and Ministry.

Greetings everyone! I attempted to write about this two or three weeks ago and my computer crashed on me. So hopefully this time will work.

Before I write on this, it is extremely important for me to state the following: I am the most unqualified person to write on marriage and family. That’s because I’ve never been married before. Be that as it may, here are my thoughts.

When we were at Sunset, most of my classmates were married and had families of their own. A few got married while we were in school. It was very encouraging when I heard a few married classmates say “what good will it be to save the whole world with the gospel, yet loose our family” or something to that effect. While ministry and evangelism are very important, it is also very important for all of us to remember God made the family before He made the church. Therefore our first and primary responsibility is to our families.

When I was in school, I read and wrote a book report on a book called ExPastors (it was published in 1969). It was about some of the reasons why ministers of many denominations left the pastorate for secular work. Many of those reasons had to do with lack of respect the church had for their minister and his family, they had no time for their families, and many others.

I have heard of ministers taking their families on vacation only to be called and requested they return because someone in the church passed away and he was requested to do the funeral. Or on his day off. I’m thankful the church where my Dad has served has, for the most part respected Dad and our family enough in this regard. I would hope that any minister that gets a call like this while he is on vacation would be able to say the following: “I promised my family a vacation. My family and I need this time away right now. If the family wants me to do the funeral, they will have to wait until we return”. If anyone (even members of the church) can’t respect their minister, his family, and their need for time together, and vacation time then they should reevaluate their expectations of their minister. I’m sorry if that “offends” anyone, but that’s how I feel.

That even goes for ministers and their families living in a church-owned house. Church members may feel the right to visit the family at all hours of the day and night, and demand the house be used in a certain way like entertaining people there all the time, or hosting the church supported missionaries while they are on furlough, etc; the church had better respect their minister and his family’s privacy.

Like I said above, I hope this doesn’t “offend” anyone. Our families come first, even in the midst of ministry.

Any and all comments, questions, etc are always encouraged and welcomed. God bless you all.

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Acts, The Missional Church: Part 10

So sorry once again for the break in between blogs there. I will do better this week.

It’s high time for the next installment of Acts, The Missional Church. I’m going to skip ahead in Acts to chapter eleven verses 19 through 30.

In verses 19 through 21 we see that many disciples dispersed to Antioch preaching the word to Jews in that place. Many of them gave their lives to Jesus. The Lord blessed their work. The church there was rapidly growing so much that the church in Jerusalem learned of it, and sent Barnabus there to check it out. When he arrived in Antioch, he discovered the new church was growing in the grace and knowledge of God. Barnabus was so encouraged that he wanted to stay there longer, but he knew he needed help. He knew Saul (who would be named Paul, if he hadn’t been so by then) and bring him to Antioch, so they could work together.

So that’s what Barnabus did. He got Saul and brought him to Antioch and the two of them greatly encouraged the churches they worked with to continue to grow in God’s grace and love.

Then in verse 27 through 30, some prophets traveled to Antioch from Jerusalem and declared a great famine was coming that would affect the whole Roman world. So all the brethren took up a collection on behalf of the brethren in Judea. They decided to send their gift through Barnabus and Saul.

Acts is a great book because we can learn of the early history of the church from this book. History is so important. All churches through out the ages, and churches today will do well to study the book of Acts so we can refresh our memories of the history of the church.

I plan and hope to do a lot more blogging this week. God bless you all. Grace and Peace

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