Taking a bigger step in life

When we are born our parents try to accomplish two things for their children to acheive.  One, to have them speak their first word; and two, for the child to be able to walk.  When we grow up, we begin to learn new things about languages and some even want to persue other languages of Spanish, Latin, and German. 

Our next step then, to be able to walk on our own.  We want to have our own job, our own car, etc.  We want to grow up, go away to college and begin a life on our own.  But, as we grow up, the process never really ends.  We continue to want to do more things, walk on our own, and try and live a happy life. We all like to continue doing bigger and better things. 

Unfortunatly, we have things that hold us back from doing bigger and better things.  I love what Alex and Brett Harris are doing with the Rebelution movment.  You can find what they are doing on their site at: http://therebelution.com/. 

In their book, Do Hard Things, they give an example of slave elephants in Africa.  These elephants are used to move and carry the heavy things for buildings and the like.  But, how could they get these elephants to do all of these things? 

As the elephant is a child, the workers tie the elephant down with a heavy chain that is tied down to a large tree.  The little elephant pulls and pulls against the chain and cannot break free.  Sooner or later, the elephant gives up and when the elephant is an adult, the workers tie the elephant down with a rope that is tied to a 2x4 piece of wood.

 



 

A lot of us, like these young elephants, tell ourselves that we are not able to do great things as we are younger.  When we are young we have so many amazing opputunities to do great things. 

Proverbs 20:29 says, "The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old".  We are able to do so many great things as we are young and the "old" have so many things to teach us from when they were young. 

 

Many may misunderstand this to think that we can do whatever we want as we are young.  This is why we need the older people to speak into our lives and we need to be willing to listen. 

I hope this encourages you to want to do greater things that may just be cleaning your room or mowing your lawn (or your neighbor's lawn).  You can do this and begin to point people to God, not by your words, but by your actions.  Talk to the elderly around you and be encouraged to do great things for God.

Is worship the same today as it was before?

You walk into a church and people gather around into their seats. People begin to chatter about their weeks. There is laughter and smiles all around you until a group comes out of a back room and begin to grab their instruments on stage. A man in a nice suit walks to center stage to greet the audience. After a short warm welcoming, another man (or woman) wearing jeans, a nice flannel shirt, and the a scruffy look (not a lot of women have this characteristic to them) walks to the microphone and welcomes you to join them in something called worship. After the welcome to worship, a song by the lastest Christian rock artist is played.

This is what a lot of us are used to when we walk into church. A lot of us even expect this when we walk into church. We plan on sitting down finding out about the week your friends have had, followed by a "hip" song to get things started. Sometimes worship does not feel right, we think that there is more to this whole worship thing. Acts 2:42 is no doubt my favorite verse to mention whenever I talk about worship. The verse says, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."

  The "they" here applies to the early Church founded by the disciples who were awakened by the Holy Spirit. These people were "those who accepted his (Peter) message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day". The key components that I want to emphazie are not the amazing message that Peter said, or the great music they probably sang after the message. I believe worship is based off of four key themes that are: the apostle's teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer.

1) Apostle's teaching. The apostle's teaching based off this passage is like the message that Peter proclaimed a little bit before this verse (vv. 14-41). In our churches today, the Pastor has a great oppurtunity to proclaim the message of Christ that is hope, grace, peace, and salvation for all humans who are willing to accept Him. But, I believe the pastor is not the only one who has this job; it is also the people in the Church. Those of us who teach Sunday School, lead small groups, and teach the children's ministry.

2) Fellowship. Fellowship is a great part of worship and which is why I am happy when I walk into Church and see people talking to one another. I believe it is not only a great way to get into people's lives, but also to find those people that you can confess to and have them walk with you through the rough parts of your spiritual journey. Fellowship is also a great way to find discipleship and mentoring partners that will teach us how we can truly worship God through their own walk with God.

3) Breaking of Bread. Many people believe that this only refers to that of communion. While I personally believe that communion has an important part in worship, this is not the only thing this verse could be referencing. This could just be feasting in general, like our Wednesday spaghetti dinners. I believe communion is a good way to serve in worship to God because it not only involves this breaking of bread, but it is something done in fellowship with one another.

4) Prayer. Prayer is a crucial time in worship that involves an act of communicating to God what the struggles in your life are. Prayer brings us on our knees before God to give Him praise for the week and to seek His guidance throughout the service. This is also done through fellowship with others through the pastoral prayer, and the closing prayer. This is also an important aspect that needs taught to many people of the Church.

All of these are all very important to a worship service. When we come to worship, one is not greater than the other. I encourage you as you finish this blog to find someone to talk to, ask someone to talk you through what worship means, and even have some questions ready for them. Find those people in your Church that seem to be in such a close relationship with God. Our goal is not to be like these people, but to worship in the way that leads us to a relationship with God.

Seeking and being vulnerable

I always dreamed of growing up whenever I was younger. I could not wait to reach the age of 30 and be able to do so many more things. Now, I am 21 and I have to much to do! Personally, I love having things to do; however, paying bills and looking for jobs and also maintaining a job is a lot of hard work. The world's economics is not helping that much with how the stock market is going as well as how our nation's leaders seem to not care as much to help out. There are many thing's that we are not prepared for whenever we grow up. I really wish I would have listened to the many people in my life who told me what being a grown up was going to be like. Many times I was told to save my money instead of spending it on things that I never really needed like I thought I did. When we are younger, I believe a lot of us think we have everything right. We are never wrong, and are always right. But, we are missing the bigger picture of life. A rich young ruler come's to Jesus in the same state as many of us do today. The young man ask's "What must I do to get eternal life?" Jesus replies, "Obey the commandments. Do not murder, or commit adultery, or steal, or give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor". The younger ruler replies in excitment (my addition) "All these I have kept!...But, what do I lack?"

There are two reasons why I like the young ruler. One, he seeks out Jesus to find out how he is supposed to live his life, and two, he admits that he does not have it all together. These are two important characteristic's that I wish so many people had. But, we neither want to search for help nor admit we need help when we find it. Here are a few reasons why I think these two characteristics are so important to discipleship. 1. They make us the seeker's. A seeker's job, in this case, is similar to the job of a seeker in the Harry Potter novel's. But, in this case, we seek out accountablity partner's in our lives and we go and talk to them. We need to become humble as Christ did. All human's on earth have been sought out by Christ because he created us and he loves us as his creation, and he did that by humbling himself to die on a cross. 2. We need to be vulnerable. The only way to become humble is when we are vulnerable to teaching, and being willing to listen and obey. It may start with just obeying your parent's, or it may go on to when someone say's to save your money for your future, to then simply obey. Another aspect of vulnerability can be in giving away your money to the poor as well. When we humble ourselves to the idea that we need help as other's in the world, when we begin to involve ourselves in the lives of others and recognize that we are just as messed up as they are, then I believe we have reached a humble state.