New Year Plan

In Jeremiah 29 God said to His people , "I know the plans that I have for you."

Do you know the plans that God has for you?  Do you have any plans for you?  The first week of the New Year is a good time to evaluate the past year and pray about the new one.  Ask God to lead you in setting goals for the coming year and beyond.

The Bible talks about Goals.

Luke 13:32 Jesus replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’

Romans 9:31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal.

2 Corinthians 5:9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Philippians 3:14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Set some godly goals for 2012, and Happy New Year!

-Pastor Ken

Puppy Lesson 3: Relationships

My “puppy” is now 5 months old and weighs almost 60 pounds.  Emotionally, she is still a puppy but physically she is fast becoming a dog!  She experienced her first snow yesterday.  And she LOVES snow!  She doesn’t mind rain and she loves the snow.  Thursday night it got dark before I could walk her so I took her downtown where there is plenty of light.  She likes to walk in the city; she likes to walk in the city park; she likes to play in the woods; she is even happy in our small back yard.

So what has she taught me?  That relationship is more important circumstance.  As long as she is with me (or another family member, including “Chance”, our other dog), nothing else seems to matter to her.  As much as she likes to be outside, she doesn’t like to be out there alone.

To God, a personal relationship with Him is more important than the good deeds that we do (Matthew 7:22-24).  From the human standpoint, a relationship with Him will carry us through any and every circumstance.  Do you have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ?  You can have it.  God wants you to have it.  If you don’t know how, contact me.  I want to keep this short, so I won’t talk about all the other relationships that are more important than circumstances: friends, family, marriage, parent-child, child-parent, etc.

I thank God for my German Shepherd puppy.  She reminds me of important things, like “relationship is more important than circumstance.”

-pk

Puppy Lesson 2: Evangelism or Discipleship

As I was walking the puppy (12 week old German Shepherd) and the dog (4 year old terrier-mix) yesterday morning, I had time to think and reflect.  I realized (again) that “Stormie” would mentally be a puppy for three years.  The weight and responsibility of training her for three years hit me again.  At less than 30 pounds, she is easy to physically control….now.  But it won’t always be that way.  When she is full-grown, I may not be able to beat her in a physical struggle.  I MUST TRAIN HER!  In order to have a well-behaved and likeable and SAFE pet, I must be diligent to train her.  And if I do (which I gladly will), I will have a great adult dog—one that people will like, one that will protect our family, one that will bring us years of enjoyment, etc., etc.  If I were training her for service, she could be a seeing-eye dog or a police dog or a great sheep herder, but only after years of training.

In Matthew 28, Jesus did not say, “Go and evangelize.”  He said, “Go and make disciples.”  And then He explained Himself, “baptizing them and teaching them to obey.”  When did we as Christians think that our responsibility to the lost was to quickly offend them with the message of salvation or eternal damnation and then move on to the next lost person?  Jesus commanded us to “disciple” which comes from the Latin word meaning “learner”.  We are to create students.  Evangelism means to “preach, share, proclaim.”  We need to evangelize, but we need to do more than that.  We are to share with people and then be willing to show them by our example.  Jesus spent three and half years with His disciples, teaching them how to live.  Like Jesus, we need to invite others to share in our lives and thereby learn by what we say and by how we act.  There are no shortcuts.

It is going to take me three years of effort to develop my puppy into a well-behaved, dependable German Shepherd Dog.  It may also take me years of spending time developing a genuine friendship with my non-Christian neighbor before they will become the kind of Christian God wants them to be.

If you want to see non-believers become believers, are you willing to spend years (if necessary) in the process?  Are you willing to invest in the lives of those that don’t share your beliefs?  Or are you too busy with your Christian friends and your other ministries and your whatever?

Let’s “seek first His kingdom” (Matthew 6:33).

-PK

Pray in the Spirit

“But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.” (Jude 20 NIV)  “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” (Ephesians 6:18a NIV)

The Apostles through the Scriptures encourage us to pray in the Holy Spirit.  Paul briefly explains this in two other passages:

·         Romans 8:26 (NIV) In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

·         1 Corinthians 14:14-15 (NIV) For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. ¹⁵ So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.

There is value in praying in the prayer language of tongues that you received when you were baptized with power in the Holy Spirit.  Pray in the Spirit!  Get alone with God and allow the Spirit of God to intercede for you in a supernatural way.  Jude says that we are to build ourselves up.  We all have days when it seems that we or someone is tearing us down.  We need to be built up in our faith.  The spiritual disciplines of prayer and Bible reading are important, invaluable.  But also take the time to “Pray in the Spirit” and allow God to minister to you.

Puppy Lesson 1: Counting the Cost

A week ago, we brought home a new German Shepherd puppy.  We had planned it for more than four weeks, when we put a deposit on the new family member.  Before that, we thought about it a lot and I counted the cost.  I remarked to my family more than once: “Do you realize how much work this is going to be?”  I think the only one that truly understood was my wife.  Well, after a week, it is just as I expected.  She has to be carefully watched whenever she is not in her crate.  She whines in the middle of the night, waking me up to take her outside to “go potty”.  She has already interfered with some possible spontaneous plans that we could have made as a family.  Walking her is easy…a VERY slow pace.  I “run” with her.  It resembles running in place.  She is costing us time, sleep and freedom.  She doesn’t eat a lot….yet.  She weighs less than 20 pounds.  But when she weighs nearly 100 pounds, it will cost us something to feed her.  We had to buy her a crate, her own water & food dishes, and lots of chew toys.  She costs us money.

Her name is “Stormie” and she is cute.  But she is a lot of work.  She is fun to play with.  And she is a lot of work.  Her coat is soft and she can be cuddly.  Yet she requires a lot of work.  She is warm and friendly.  But did I mention that she is a lot of work?

And she is worth the work.  We chose to have a puppy, knowing that it would be both a blessing and a chore.

Most wonderful things in life cost you something.  Having a good marriage will cost you something.  Excelling at work will cost you something.  Athletes know that victory comes at a cost.  Everything worthwhile is costly.  Jesus taught that before starting any adventure that we should “count the cost.”  He even said that we should count the cost of being one of His disciples.

Have you counted the cost?  Are you willing to pay the price?  So many people accept Jesus Christ as their savior and then are reluctant to fully serve Him.  When we accept His FREE gift of salvation, it will cost us everything.  At the end of talking about the cost of being a disciple, Jesus says "In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:33 NIV)  We must be willing to give up everything when we come to Christ.  Most of the time, God doesn’t ask us for much.  But He might.  He may ask you to enter the ministry.  He may ask you to change jobs.  He may ask you to change your relationships.  He may ask for your money.  Are you willing to give God whatever He wants?

In life, expect the unexpected.  I have learned as a computer programmer that “It always takes longer than you expect even when you expect it to take longer than you expect.”  Builders like to say “Measure twice, cut once.”  Count the cost!

Following the Crowd

Mark 15:9-15 (NIV) “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate, 10 knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.
12 “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.
13 “Crucify him!” they shouted.
14 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

Most of us know that this is the same crowd that shouted “Hosanna” less than a week earlier.  Why did the crowd have a change of heart?  Because of the influence of chief priests.  Also notice that no one answered Pilate’s question of “Why?”.  They did not have a good reason.  They did not have to please the chief priests; they could have stood up for Jesus.

Pilate had the power and authority to release Jesus but he chose not to.  Why?  Verse 15 says that he wanted to “satisfy the crowd”.

Jesus’ death was part of God’s plan for our salvation.  What bothers me is that Pilate did not stand up for what he believed and neither did the crowd.

Who in our lives has the power or influence to change our minds?  Are you willing to stand up against the crowd, against your friends, against leaders for what is right?  Or will you be influenced against what is right?

God wants His children to take a stand for Him!  God wants us to stand for right.

There is an old chorus that we used to sing:  “I have decided to follow Jesus” with words like “Though none go with me, still I will follow.” and “no turning back” and “the cross before me, the world behind me.”

Acts 5:29 (NIV) Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men!

Galatians 1:10 (NIV) Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Always do the right thing, even if you have to stand alone!

Humble Persistence

Mark 7:24-30 (NIV)

²⁴ Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. ²⁵ In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. ²⁶ The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷ “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”

²⁸ “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

²⁹ Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

³⁰ She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Did Jesus just call this woman a dog?  Did He just say that she didn’t deserve a miracle from Him?  Not exactly, but He did turn her down.

What would you have done?  Would you have walked away insulted or offended?  Would you have gotten angry?  Would you have sought some means of retaliation?  Would you have spread the word that Jesus was unkind?  What did this lady do?

She took it in stride.  She did not let it discourage or dissuade her.  She persisted with humility.  She accepted the criticism but would not give up.

When faced with criticism, how do we react?  Do we get our feelings hurt and become discouraged?  When criticized, we should carefully and humbly consider the criticism.  Any truth that we find in it, we should take to heart.  If we don’t agree with it, simply discard it.  But don’t let it derail you.  Don’t let it stop you.  Don’t be offended.  In fact, if it came from someone who cares about you, be GRATEFUL that they had the courage and concern for you to take the risk to tell you something they knew you wouldn’t want to hear.

Humble persistence.  Press on.  Let nothing move you.  With God, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!

-pk

  

Nicknames

In the Gospel of Mark, chapter three, the original 12 apostles are listed.  Among them are: “Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter);  James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder)” and the list goes on.

It is interesting to me that Jesus gave nicknames to three of the twelve.  He called them Rocky (technically, Rock) and Sons of Thunder.  You have to admit, those are pretty cool names.

In my childhood and teen years, I had nick names too.  Most of them weren’t very nice.  I was called “Geek” in high school but I didn’t mind.  Today, it would be a compliment but “back in the day”, it was not.  Good nicknames usually say something about the person.

The point here is simple. Jesus was familiar enough with these men to give them pet names.  He knew them.  He cared for them.  They were his dear friends.  Jesus wants to know you that way too.  God longs to have a relationship with us.  Jesus made it possible by dying on the cross for our sins and returning to life.

Does God know you?  Does He have a nickname for you?  Do you spend time with Him, getting to know Him?  If not, you could start today.  (If you want to and don’t know how, contact me.)  God loves you.  He knows your name.  He has time for you.  Will you make time for Him?

PK (that stands for “Pastor Ken”, btw)

Tattoos and Body Piercings ("Disputable Matters")

What does the Bible say about tattoos and body piercings?  Is it okay?

I get that question a lot, especially from teenagers and young adults.  Well, I'm not going to answer that directly, at least not today.  But Romans 14 (in the New Testament of the Bible) has a lot to say about this subject indirectly.

Romans 14:1-4 (NIV) Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. 2 One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 

Tattoos and body piercings are “disputable matters”.  There are lots of disputable matters like long hair on men, dress code, the style of music—especially worship music, women in leadership, movie ratings, gambling, dancing, swim attire, and restaurants that serve alcohol, just to name a whole bunch.

What does the Bible say?  That is a very good question.  Verse 4 answers the question with a question.  “Who are you to judge?”  We are not to judge others who participate in questionable behavior since the Scripture doesn’t clearly forbid it.  Here is a contemporary translation of verse three: “The person who participates in questionable behavior must not look down on those that do not, and those that do not must not condemn those that do.”

So how can we get all get along?  When we have different views and different standards, how can we have unity?  It is simple, actually.  We must obey the Scriptures.  We must not look down on others nor condemn others. 

So, let’s do it!

Finally, a quote from 1 Peter 4:8…”Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”

-PK