One Person at a Time...

Next Step #5!

Hard to believe we're already at Next Step #5!  Do you remember what the believers did on the first Christian Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and filled them?  They ran out into the streets of  Jerusalem and started telling everyone they could find about Jesus--and they did it in tongues!  The result was that everyone in the city, regardless of their country of origin heard the Good News of Jesus in their own language.  While, we may not (or we may!) be able to speak in another language so that someone from another nation may understand the Good News, we CAN speak in English to those around us who need to hear it.  Remember, the Holy Spirit was given so that we would have the power to be WITNESSES, the actual Greek word is "martyrs" for Jesus!  If we get baptized in the Holy Spirit and don't use the power we've received to share the Good News, then we'll find the power waning in our lives.  Jesus wants all of us to know the joy of the Spirit's presence, but not just for the feeling we receive. He wants us to know the far deeper joy that comes from being obedient to His commands.  As we use His power to tell others the Good News, as we use His power to LIVE out the fruit of the Spirit, others will both hear and see the reality of Jesus' salvation in and through us.  About now, some of you are probably noticing that the "novelty" of praying in tongues is wearing off and you're wondering, "What's next?"  What's next is witnessing?  That doesn't mean you have to get your Bible and go out to the nearest street corner and start preaching.  It means that you need to listen to the Spirit's voice and when He tells you or nudges you to talk with a friend, relative, neighbor, co-worker or stranger to DO IT!  The more we obey, the more clearly we will hear the Spirit's voice in our lives, and the more we want to tell and show others the Good News.  It becomes a great cycle that advances the Kingdom of God, and the "side effect" is that we will experience a greater fulfillment in living than we have ever known before.  Let's DO IT!

Cool!

We've done a lot of cool stuff this week, but I just had the opportunity to drive a 1957 MG convertible.  Our friends Everett and Sandy Foss, who've been gracious enough to open their home to us all this week, just got out Everett's "baby."  I've been to their home twice now and the MG has always sat in the garage with a cover over it.  Today, we got it out and took it for a spin.  He let me drive!  I got to take Nancy, Abby and Emmy for a ride as well.  It's a tricky 4 speed, and the engine is a little out tune, but what fun!  Here's a picture of it: 

Major Praise!

In case you haven't heard--CLYDE CAMPBELL got HOME today!  He still needs our prayers for healing, but his being home today puts him about SEVEN WEEKS ahead of schedule!  Praise the Lord!  Thanks for His miraculous touch and may He continue to bring healing to Clyde.

The Fraternity of Runners...

Abby has been hanging out a lot with a "runner."  She's a basketball player and she said to me, "You know what's weird about runners?  They all talk to each other before the races and hang out with each other.  They go to each other's schools and run with each other.  They all like each other."  What's "weird" about that is that basketball players from opposing schools don't typically like each other and hang out together.  Why?

I've thought about that and think I may have figured out why.  Runners aren't really competing against each other as much as they are competing with themselves.  Sure, every runner wants to win the race, but if a runner does a personal best in a race and doesn't win, that runner is usually okay with that.  On the other hand if a basketball player scores a personal best number of points, or has a personal best number of rebonds, assists, or blocked shots, but LOSES the game, then it's really not okay.  At least it's not okay for a basketball player with any amount of competitive spirit at all. 

I tested out my theory this morning while doing my morning run on the beach.  As I ran, I said, "Hi!" and waved to every runner who I passed coming from the opposite direction.  EVERY one of them said, "Hi!" back.  What's so significant about that?  I said, "Hi!" to many of the folks who were just walking and most of them did not say, "Hi!" back.  In fact, after my run, I was walking back up the beach, and not a single runner said, "Hi!" to me.  There's a "fraternity" of runners, a bond that holds us together.  I use the term "us" loosely since my daily runs are both short and slow these days, but that's the thing about runners--you don't have to be the best, or the fastest, you just have to be a runner. 

The parallels to the body of Jesus OUGHT to be obvious and many.  We are ALL brothers and sisters in Jesus.  When we see one another, we ought to be saying, "Hi!" and encouraging one another.  Maybe, if we were easier to identity as runners are--after all you always know a runner when you see one RUNNING!  Hey! That's it--the fraternity of Christians will recognize and encourage each other WHEN we start doing what Jesus said---loving one another.  That's the application for each of us who read this post -- make ourselves more identifiable as followers of Jesus.  Then we'll get along like runners--at least the runners Abby's friend hangs out, and the one's who run along the beach in New Smyrna Beach!

A Full Day!

I rolled out of bed at 5:00 a.m. and this is the first moment I've had to sit down at the computer!  Worship prep started after a quick shower, and I was enthusiastic about today's "tough question," which was actually two tough questions--Can we lose our salvation? How do we prevent backsliding?"  You can hear the message at our website www.newlifexn.org, and someday I'll figure out (or have our webservant Lisa Johns take care of) making it possible to click to the messages from my blog.  After worship it was lunch with the family and then off to the hospital for a visit, and then to a graduation party and youth fellowship graduation celebration.  The pace of the day was a bit more hectic than I like, but everything I had the opportunity to participate in made a difference.  Bill Hybels often says that when the local church is going right there's nothing else like it.  Right now, it was one of those days when the local church was and is going right.  It was great to be part of New Life.  We had some new guests at worship who seemed excited about the service.  We enjoyed a new worship leader, Elaine, for the day, who will be back with us next Sunday, and I'm always amazed at our "veteran" worship team each of whom is 20 years old or younger.  They come early and stay late every Sunday morning, and they just impress the heck out of me with their commitment to see that our worship is glorifying to God.

As I sit here right now, literally pausing in the day, I'm glad to be the pastor of New LIfe.  The future holds promise.  New folks are joining us and getting involved in the life and ministry of New Life.  Long time participants are seeking the power and presence of the Holy Spirit for daily living. I had the opportunity to talk with a few folks about some preliminary plans for our mission outpost this afternoon and this evening, and it's fun to dream dreams about what God is going to do. 

I'll be taking a brief hiatus from "bloggin" this week.  I may not have access to a computer until next Sunday.  If that's the case then, I'll catch up with you then. If I have the opportunity, I'll check in periodically.  In the meantime, check out New Life's website and the blogs on my blogroll.  Have a great week and God's blessings!

Pastor Steve's been at it again!

Pastor Steven Furtick had another great post on June 6.  I just caught up with it.  It's called  Trainers and Partners and the analogy is OUTSTANDING!  You gotta read it.  Do you have a trainer OR a PARTNER? 

Not too Smart!

A couple of you have responded about how helpful yesterday's post titled, "Going the 4th Mile" was for you.  Thanks for the input.  But I have to follow up with something I did after yesterday's run--or actually didn't do--that wasn't too smart!  I got a little later start than usual on the day yesterday, so before running and praying I didn't take the time to get hydrated--runner talk for drink some water!  After the run, I was off to Pittsburgh to make a couple of hospital visits, so I didn't take the time to get re-hydrated--runner talk again for drink some water.  At about noon I was talking with someone about having been to Shadyside Hospital a little earlier and I couldn't say the word "Shadyside."  I knew what I wanted to say, but it came out WEIRD.  I thought, "Come on, Lord.  Don't tell me you let me make it to 50 yesterday and now you're going to take me home TODAY!"  I was thinking it was a stroke, because my speech was messed up.  The person with whom I was speaking asked, "Are you okay?"  I said, "I think I'm dehydrated.  I ran this morning and haven't drunk anything since."  Maybe that we were standing outside in the humid upper 80 degree heat was adding to it.  She told me she had a bottle of water and offered it to me.  I drank the water and almost instantly my thinking and speaking started returning to normal.  That has never happened to me before.  I still felt a bit strange, so I drank another bottle of water, and about half an hour later followed that up with a 16oz Gatorade.  By late afternoon, I felt perfectly fine, and have been ever since. 

So, what did I learn from that?  Two things: always stay hydrated, especially when running on hot days! AND an image came to mind of what it's like when we don't get filled up spiritually on a regular basis.  Think about it.  We're in a hurry.  We start the day with a brief prayer or no prayer at all.  We get going and there's no time to ask the Spirit to fill us.  We continue to forget about prayer and it happens---we know what we want to say or do, but it doesn't come out right.  We know something isn't right, but we're not sure what it is.  That's when we need to "drink" in the Spirit.  That's when we need to stop and take care of ourselves, so that we'll be able to care for others.  When I was a boy scout and took the life saving merit badge our instructor taught us the first rule of lifesaving on the very first day, "Save yourself first."  While it may seem selfish, it's actually quite practical.  One can't save another person unless he or she is alive to do it.  The same reality applies spiritually:  Get "hydrated" with the Spirit, so that you'll be "flowing" over and then you'll be able to minister to others out of the "overflow." 

So, God spoke to me DURING the run yesterday, and then He used the circumstances to speak to me AFTER the run as well.  Thankfully, some lessons are easy to remember.  BEFORE I went out to run this morning I drank some water, and as soon as I came back from running and praying I drank some water, too.  Not only was the running and praying fruitful--the rest of the day has been as well.  Remember, we're a "tri-partite" people:  body, soul and spirit.  It pays to keep all three "hydrated"!

Next Step #4--"Going the '4th' Mile

It's Friday, and time for the 4th "Next Step" for those who have been seeking to live in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.  The title "Going the '4th' Mile" actually came to me during my prayer/running time this morning on rails-to-trails between Sarver Road and Bear Creek Road.  My run for today was two miles out and then walk two miles back.  As I was walking the 4th mile, I prayed about today's next step update and God gave me this word:  Living in the Spirit is going beyond the second mile.  You may remember that in Matthew 5:41 Jesus said, "If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two."  Jesus' point is that we are to go beyond what we are obliged to do--in that day a Roman soldier had the right to "conscript" anyone to carry his gear for a mile--and take it to the next level, which is the "second mile."  We speak of going the second mile when we have gone beyond our duty or obligation.  Sometimes we have "second mile giving" opportunities in the church to fund special causes.  These give us the opportunity to go beyond the obligation of the tithe.

So, what's the "4th mile"?  As I was praying and running this morning, my prayer followed a pattern that I didn't realize until I was walking the 4th mile.  The first mile was the "obligatory" prayer--I praised God for who He is and for all He created.  I thanked Jesus for coming to the earth to bring salvation to me and to all who will receive it.  I asked the Holy Spirit to fill me (as we are commanded to do in Ephesians 5:18).  Then as I moved into the second mile, I started to offer petitions for others--mostly family members.  I thanked God for the opportunities that He was giving each of them--Nancy, Abby and Emmy today, and asked Him to bless them.  Then as I moved to the third mile--the mile beyond going beyond our obligation, and realized that while it was a time of petition and intercession, it was mostly prayer in the Spirit.  It was a deeper level of intercession, and it moved out beyond my family, to the elders and leaders of New Life, to those who are sick, and others that the Lord brought to my mind.  Then I got to the "fourth mile."  This is when it hit me that my prayers had been either for me, or for others, but that I hadn't got to the point of asking God, "What's going on in Your day?  What do You have for me today?"  So I did it.  I asked God, "What are You doing today?"  Immediately a scriptural response came to me, "I am pouring out my Spirit on all people so that my young men will have visions and my old men will dream dreams."  Cool!  As I pondered this a little more I realized something:  I had moved to the prayer of FRIENDSHIP with God.  We were interacting as friends.  I wasn't just offering Him the praise He deserves, or asking for the the things that I need, or even the things that others need.  I was relating as a friend!  That's the "4th mile." 

To go back to Jesus' command, if I carried a soldier's pack for one mile, the mile of obligation, I may not say a word to him.  In fact, I may be muttering and grumbling under my breath the whole time.  But if I carried it the second mile, I might start to notice that he wasn't all that different from me, and he may start asking me questions about my motivation:  "Why carry the pack farther than you're required?" Then if I carried it the third mile, he would probably really become interested, and by the fourth mile we would probably be talking about each other's families and maybe even common interests.  If that's the case in interactions between humans, how much more is it the case in our relationship with God!  He wants us to know Him deeply.  He wants us not only to serve Him, because He deserves our service, but because we love Him.  In living the life in the Holy Spirit, we need to be sure that we are going beyond the "1st mile," what we think God expects; and even beyond the "2nd mile" serving in Jesus' name.  We need to walk with God to the "3rd mile" the "4th mile" and beyond, because only then will we get so close to God that He starts revealing His plans to us!  As we go the 4th mile we'll find that our spirits are connected more and more with His Spirit, and that leads to living in the Holy Spirit at a deeper level.  God's blessings as you move beyond the second mile to friendship with God!

Can People Lose Their Salvation?

This Sunday we're going to tackle two tough questions that you supplied for our "Tough Questions:  What Does the Bible Say About _______?" series.  The questions are "Can People Lose Their Salvation?" and "How Do We Prevent Backsliding?"  We'll consider what kind of "house" we're building on the FOUNDATION of Jesus, and remember that as long as we're FORGETTING the past, and LOOKING FORWARD to what lies ahead, backsliding won't be a major issue for us.  Join us as we look at the theology and the PRACTICAL REALITIES of these important matters for everyday living as fully-devoted followers of Jesus!

Stop Hitting the People On Your Team

I just read a great post by Perry Noble titled Stop Hitting the People on Your Team.  Take the time to read it!