What is a rut? The definition according to the "good book" (Webster), is: 1 a: a track worn by a wheel or by habitual passage b: a groove in which something runs; 2: a usual or fixed practice; especially : a monotonous routine.
Look at the last three words in that definition..."a monotonous routine." I am definitely described as a routine guy. I get up every morning except Fridays at the same time. I put on the coffee to brew, make my bed, take a shower and get ready for the day, fix breakfast (which also includes the exact same thing everyday), go to my home office, study the Word and pray, and of course check my home email, and then on Sunday through Thursday off to the office to get there by 7:00 AM.
As structured as my morning routine is, God is calling you AND me all out of our monotonous routine. What would happen if we came to the service next Sunday and all we did was pray? No music, no preaching? What would we do? But what if we came back that night and the same thing happened? What if all we did was sing? What if all we did was listen to an hour and half message that God laid on Al's heart to give? We might, and I say might make it through one Sunday morning. But what if that happened two Sundays in a row? By the third Sunday we have people looking for a new place to call their home church. Why? Because we are comfortable in our box of Christianity.
So what will it take for us to let God do something with Wedgwood that is totally different than what we have ever seen before? I don't know much, but what I do know is that it begins and ends with prayer.
This Thursday at 6:30 PM, we are meeting in the worship rehearsal room behind the worship center to pray specifically for God to do something through our Easter Musical. As we join together in one force bombarding heaven, crying out for God to do specific "God things," the words of Scripture will be fulfilled that say: "if my people pray..."
Come, be a part!
Love you,
pb
Monday, March 30, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
"That I May Know Him"
Philippians 3:10 continues a very long sentence that begins in verse 8. Apostle Paul stated that he counted everything as loss for the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. The first five words of verse 10 has become my personal life purpose statement...."that I may know Him." There is no better words that can be used to describe what Paul meant by the word "greatness" in verse 8. "That I may know Him" says it all. It says what the real meaning of life is. It gives purpose, direction, and strength to our life.
Several years ago, Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California wrote a book called "The Purpose Driven Life." This book started a chain reaction of other books filling the bookstore shelves capitalizing on the word "purpose."
The purpose for life is a huge struggle for many; for both the believer and unbeliever of Jesus Christ. The unbeliever obviously struggles because the pursuit of happiness built around things will never satisfy. But the believer also has struggles at times. I find one of the main culprits that pulls us off course is our busyness. To simplify our lives is a nice buzz word, but we just don't have much success at it. We work long hours thinking that next week will be different and we can devote more time to the "important" things but we just don't quite ever get there. But still the real key to focusing on the True Purpose in life is to slow down. Psalm 46:10 in the NASB reads to "cease striving and know that I am God." The word "know" is a word that means to be intimate. Let go...slow down, and spend intimate time with the Creator. It makes all the difference in life.
Like always,
Think about it.
Love you,
pb
Several years ago, Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California wrote a book called "The Purpose Driven Life." This book started a chain reaction of other books filling the bookstore shelves capitalizing on the word "purpose."
The purpose for life is a huge struggle for many; for both the believer and unbeliever of Jesus Christ. The unbeliever obviously struggles because the pursuit of happiness built around things will never satisfy. But the believer also has struggles at times. I find one of the main culprits that pulls us off course is our busyness. To simplify our lives is a nice buzz word, but we just don't have much success at it. We work long hours thinking that next week will be different and we can devote more time to the "important" things but we just don't quite ever get there. But still the real key to focusing on the True Purpose in life is to slow down. Psalm 46:10 in the NASB reads to "cease striving and know that I am God." The word "know" is a word that means to be intimate. Let go...slow down, and spend intimate time with the Creator. It makes all the difference in life.
Like always,
Think about it.
Love you,
pb
Monday, March 16, 2009
Strength
This will be the last in this series on Loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and and strength. For the past three weeks we have been discussing what this verse means. The heart is the emotions....love the Lord with our emotions. Sometimes we have this concept that God is always serious. Scripture tells us that we have been made or fashioned in God's image. We laugh. We cry. We are silly sometimes. All of those are emotions and come straight from the Author of emotions that fashioned us in His own image. The soul is the center of our personality. Again, some of us are more serious and subdued than others. But whatever personality traits God has blessed an individual with can love Him. Our mind is obviously the center of thought. Our thoughts can absolutely glorify and magnify the King of kings.
Now we come to the last in the series....strength. The word strength is usually aligned with a physical aspect. When I am leading a group of children in worship and we do movements to the songs, I always hold up my arms to show my muscles (as little as they are) for the word strength. In fact this past weekend, I led a group of adults and children on the song by Lincoln Brewster that is based on this verse. When we got to the word strength, I did just that...raised my arms making my huge muscles pop up. But the word here in this verse means so much more than physical strength. Its definition means power and force.
The old Star Wars line that everyone used to quote is "may the force be with you." The definition here is not a person or army, but it means to strongly persuade. So how can we love the Lord with force? There is a line we hear quite frequently these days...using the "power of persuasion." It could be said the "power of force." Loving the Lord with power and force simply means to use our influence on whomever we come in contact with for the sake of the kingdom. Love the Lord by influencing people for Him. God can use us to make a difference in 2009 by loving the Lord through power and force. NOW, this doesn't mean to be confrontational. Influence has to be tempered with the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. It can be said like this: we can use our influence to love people while leading them to the real joy and peace in life, while patiently praying and waiting for the Spirit to move, approaching every situation in kindness therefore watching God bring goodness, trusting Him in faith, while we gently go through life. This is all under self-control.
Like always...think about it.
Love you,
pb
Now we come to the last in the series....strength. The word strength is usually aligned with a physical aspect. When I am leading a group of children in worship and we do movements to the songs, I always hold up my arms to show my muscles (as little as they are) for the word strength. In fact this past weekend, I led a group of adults and children on the song by Lincoln Brewster that is based on this verse. When we got to the word strength, I did just that...raised my arms making my huge muscles pop up. But the word here in this verse means so much more than physical strength. Its definition means power and force.
The old Star Wars line that everyone used to quote is "may the force be with you." The definition here is not a person or army, but it means to strongly persuade. So how can we love the Lord with force? There is a line we hear quite frequently these days...using the "power of persuasion." It could be said the "power of force." Loving the Lord with power and force simply means to use our influence on whomever we come in contact with for the sake of the kingdom. Love the Lord by influencing people for Him. God can use us to make a difference in 2009 by loving the Lord through power and force. NOW, this doesn't mean to be confrontational. Influence has to be tempered with the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. It can be said like this: we can use our influence to love people while leading them to the real joy and peace in life, while patiently praying and waiting for the Spirit to move, approaching every situation in kindness therefore watching God bring goodness, trusting Him in faith, while we gently go through life. This is all under self-control.
Like always...think about it.
Love you,
pb
Monday, March 9, 2009
In Your Mind!
For the past two weeks, I have talked about the first two parts of loving the Lord with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. The heart is the center of the emotions...loving the Lord with all of our emotions. Secondly the soul is the center of who we are...what forms our personality. We are to love the Lord with all of our personality.
Today I want to talk about the mind. The is the place where our thoughts are. There is a little phrase that goes around in Christian circles that sin is anything we think, do, or say that is against God's will. Well, I want to challenge that a little bit. In the book of James, Chapter 1, we see the three things leading up to sin. It is plainly seen here that the mere thought going through our head is not the actual sin. What makes it become sin is what we do with it once it gets there. We can't control what comes in to our minds...oh yes, we can choose to stay out of places that will feed thoughts, but still, we can't control the air waves. James 1:14 and 15 tells us the three steps. "But each one is tempted when he is carrried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished , it brings forth death." See the three parts? It is not the thought that is sin. It is when we allow the thought to manifest itself in our minds and we are carried away by our own lust. Then that lust gives birth to sin and then death occurs by the hands of that sin.
So what happens to us when our thoughts are not under His control...when we take our mind's eye off of the Lord. Well, look at Peter. Peter walked on the water....let me say that again! Peter walked on the water!!!!!! As he was walking, his mistake was looking around instead of straight ahead at Jesus. Then and only then did he begin to sink. Joshua 1:8 tells us to not look to the left or to the right but look straight ahead. That way we can be strong and courageous. Peter was absolutely courageous in his attempts. Let's face it. He was the only disciple to get out of the boat. The rest just sat in the boat and watched as this courageous man looking straight ahead at his source of strength started walking on water.
There is a second thing that happens when our thoughts are not on Jesus, but on other things, people, and of course ourselves. It is called STRESS!!! I have to admit, and be totally transparent with you here that there is not one person without stress, and sometimes overwhelming stress. Countless books have been written on how to put up boundaries and release the stress in our lives. I think it is interesting. We think that stress is brought on by all of the things we have to do in a 21st century society. Maybe that is part of it. I certainly don't want to minimize this sinful hold on us. But I think it comes back to something that Scripture talked about a long time ago. So how do we get rid of the stress? In Isaiah 26:3 Scripture says "He will keep you in perfect peace if your mind is fixed on Him." When we start feeling stress or even sense the effects of stress, our first course of action needs to check what our mind is thinking on. Is is fixed on Him or do we have the Peter syndrome? Secondly, in 2 Corinthians 10:5, the Word says "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." Wow! Do we really have that ability? YES!
The mind! The thoughts! Love the Lord with all of your thoughts! How? Look straight ahead. His eyes are fixed on you!
As always, think about it.
pb
Today I want to talk about the mind. The is the place where our thoughts are. There is a little phrase that goes around in Christian circles that sin is anything we think, do, or say that is against God's will. Well, I want to challenge that a little bit. In the book of James, Chapter 1, we see the three things leading up to sin. It is plainly seen here that the mere thought going through our head is not the actual sin. What makes it become sin is what we do with it once it gets there. We can't control what comes in to our minds...oh yes, we can choose to stay out of places that will feed thoughts, but still, we can't control the air waves. James 1:14 and 15 tells us the three steps. "But each one is tempted when he is carrried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished , it brings forth death." See the three parts? It is not the thought that is sin. It is when we allow the thought to manifest itself in our minds and we are carried away by our own lust. Then that lust gives birth to sin and then death occurs by the hands of that sin.
So what happens to us when our thoughts are not under His control...when we take our mind's eye off of the Lord. Well, look at Peter. Peter walked on the water....let me say that again! Peter walked on the water!!!!!! As he was walking, his mistake was looking around instead of straight ahead at Jesus. Then and only then did he begin to sink. Joshua 1:8 tells us to not look to the left or to the right but look straight ahead. That way we can be strong and courageous. Peter was absolutely courageous in his attempts. Let's face it. He was the only disciple to get out of the boat. The rest just sat in the boat and watched as this courageous man looking straight ahead at his source of strength started walking on water.
There is a second thing that happens when our thoughts are not on Jesus, but on other things, people, and of course ourselves. It is called STRESS!!! I have to admit, and be totally transparent with you here that there is not one person without stress, and sometimes overwhelming stress. Countless books have been written on how to put up boundaries and release the stress in our lives. I think it is interesting. We think that stress is brought on by all of the things we have to do in a 21st century society. Maybe that is part of it. I certainly don't want to minimize this sinful hold on us. But I think it comes back to something that Scripture talked about a long time ago. So how do we get rid of the stress? In Isaiah 26:3 Scripture says "He will keep you in perfect peace if your mind is fixed on Him." When we start feeling stress or even sense the effects of stress, our first course of action needs to check what our mind is thinking on. Is is fixed on Him or do we have the Peter syndrome? Secondly, in 2 Corinthians 10:5, the Word says "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." Wow! Do we really have that ability? YES!
The mind! The thoughts! Love the Lord with all of your thoughts! How? Look straight ahead. His eyes are fixed on you!
As always, think about it.
pb
Monday, March 2, 2009
Our Life!
Last week we talked about loving the Lord with all our heart, or emotions. This week is the next part of that verse...love the Lord with all our soul. By definition, the soul is life or spirit. The soul is where our very life is. So what does it mean to love the Lord with our life? The life or spirit really describes who we are...the very person that this earthly body holds, the real person that no one can see with their eye. The word person is the root word of person-ality. When Jesus said to love the Lord with all of your soul, He was saying to love the Lord with everything you personally are. Let your personality love him.
I am kidded and sometimes outright mocked because my personality from as long as I can remember has been well let's just say, "animated." Almost everything I do I am very demonstrative in my outward-ness toward it. I tell people all the time when they mention how much I move when I worship that they haven't seen anything of what is going on inside and being restrained on the outside. If you think what I do now is animated, just envision what it would be like if I let everything that is in my soul, my life, my spirit, my personality come out. The subject at Sunday lunch would shift from the Pastor's sermon to "did you see Phil Beck this morning?"
As restrained as I have to be in front of people as not to cause extreme attention, is exactly what Jesus was saying...love the Lord with everything that I have made you. Love me with you.
In Romans 12:1, Paul exhorts us to lay our body down as a living sacrifice. As we carefully read that verse we can see that Paul was saying "you"(your life, spirit, soul) lay down your body. You and body are two different things. He could have worded it like this. Paul, by the mercies of God, urge "your spirit" to lay down "your spirit's body" as a living sacrifice...
It all comes back to freedom. Galatians 5:1 says "it was for freedom that Christ set us free..." A question comes up as we take a look at the soul part of loving the Lord. Have we surrendered our life, spirit, personality to the Lord?
Love the Lord with all our emotions and life/spirit.
Like always...think about it.
Till next week when we will discuss the mind.
pb
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