Patience in Pregnancy

I was reminded yesterday morning as we were worshipping God through music and our voices, about being patient and waiting on Him. A few months ago I shared how I believe God is birthing something new here at the NLC and in the community just like He gave a son to Abraham and Sarah, though they thought that they were to old to have children. My thoughts were on how this church has been in Ford City since 1978 but that does not make us to old to give birth to something new here. It only takes us believing in Jesus Christ and what He can do in and through us.

Those dreams of giving birth to something new have brought an increased desire for God and His supernatural power to work in our church and the community. But it has also brought about anxiety on my part. I want to see what He is going to do NOW! which can bring about anxiety or even disappointment because we haven't seen great big tangible evidence of this whole process. (We have seen some wonderful things happen during this time and I do not want to take anything from those things, but in human perspective they have been small and not the great big things that we all long for.)

I know that it led me to some disappointment of not seeing bigger things. But God reminded me this past week that for an expectant mother, thanks to Bethany who shares with me what she is going through during her pregnancy, they don't feel anything for the first few months of the pregnancy but that doesn't mean something is not there. It's there all the time, growing and maturing. And that is where I believe we are. We are in a growing and maturing time where we don't always know if something is growing or not. But I believe the KICK is coming soon. Just like the expectant mother gets that first kick to let them know "Mommy I'm here," I believe that God is going to give us a kick to let us know "NLC/Armstrong County I'm here." It's coming, do you believe?

Let us not grow disappointed with not seeing BIG things because God is doing things little by little. Let us not take for granted those little things that He is doing but appreciate that God is at work and that He is birthing something new here in all of us. The process has started and He will bring it to completion. I BELIEVE!

Beauty in Ugliness

I recently watched part of a movie called Nanny McPhee. It was a very interesting movie, at least for the part that I watched. It is about a very ugly looking nanny who takes care of the children of a very big family. The interesting part is that as the children learn the lessons that Nanny McPhee is trying to teach them - such as learning to work together, care for one another, etc. - one of the ugly features of Nanny McPhee becomes an attractive feature. Her ugly features such as a big mole on her cheek, uni-brow, big tooth that hangs out over her lip, big round nose, and a few others go away and at the end she becomes a beautiful person.

This hit me because so many times we look at everyone, whether in the church or outside the church, and all that we want to see is their ugliness. But deep inside is a beauty that only Jesus can bring out. And it can only be brought out by us learning the lessons that He (Jesus) wants to teach us in His Word, such as being faithful in prayer, killing selfishness, being a servant to all, and much more. As we learn and grow we become the beautiful men and women of God that He created us to be. It is truly a wonderful process.

This is the key, however. It is a process. It doesn't happen over night. We all struggle with so much in our lives and as God brings those struggles to the surface it is up to us to learn from them and let Him get rid of each and every one of them. But many times we become frustrated when we don't see people growing the way that we think that they should grow. (Pastors can struggle with this a lot.) We must only remember that it isn't up to us to make someone grow or mature. It is up to us to preach and live the Word and let God do the rest. The scripture is true where it says, "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6). Can we all just be patient as God does His work?

So let us look at one another and see who we can become and then let us encourage one another in that. Let each of our ugly characteristics turn to beautiful traits as God deals with us. And may none of us get in the way of what Jesus wants to do by our thoughts, words, and attitudes.

Keep us all open to You, Lord, that we can become the beautiful people you are coming back for. Finish the work in each of us. Amen.

The Uglier the Better!

Check this out. I thought it was funny...

St. Petersburg, Russia - A recent study conducted by the TBNN research group revealed a possible connection between looks and theology. The survey was conducted over the course of three months during which time 2,000 people were shown pictures of various religious and theological figures and were asked to rate the individuals' beauty on a scale of one to ten. In the end 80% of those who held to bad theological perspectives were considered to be on the "attractive" or "good looking" side while 76% of those who held to sound evangelical theology were considered "unattractive" or "not pleasing to the eye."

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"We were shocked when we began to show people photos and pictures of good theologians" stated Slawson." Very few rated over five." A sampling of the ratings from the "Good Theology" category clearly showed that with improved theology often comes less attractive looks.
George Whitfield - 4.97
C.H. Spurgeon - 4.23
Martin Luther - 4.15
John Owen - 3.99
Jonathan Edwards - 3.98
"When it was all said and done the evidence was pretty overwhelming" said Slawson." The better one's looks the worse his or her theology will be, and the less attractive one is the better his or her theology will be. We are now trying to figure out a possible reason for this. One theory is that perhaps those with good theology are so occupied with studying God's Word that they don't have time to visit hair salons and beauty parlors and such." "Of course there are exceptions, that's always the case" stated Slawson." But the paradigm seems pretty consistent. If you're visiting churches out there, or are perhaps unhappy with your current church situation I'd take a look at your pastor. If he's a handsome guy, I'd be careful."

What do you think? Just thought this was funny.

TOO TIRED!

After 4 1/2 hours of testing for my ordination, my mind is fried. I want to continue with what I've been typing but it will have to wait another day or so. Enjoy the day. I know I will as I will be celebrating my wifes birthday.

More Thoughts...

I just did my first conference call. It was exciting but different. I was in a meeting but could not see any of the people and you had to take turns talking. That is hard to do when you get a bunch of pastors together. HA HA

These thoughts come from a conference that was held in Ohio that a few of the people from NLC went to. Take time to think about them.

To rightly judge your own flesh you need to see yourself as Christ sees you.

To rightly discern others you need to see their potential in Christ.

You need to love yourself first and see yourself as God sees you before you can love others.

You need to discern yourself properly before you can discern others.

There is authority in love !!!

Some powerful thoughts as we take time to think about how we should love one another. It all starts with me. And when I speak about one another I mean our brothers and sisters in Christ. Yes, scripture says to judge those in the church, but I think we have abused that privilege and have taken it more as a right to look down my nose at those who do not measure up to my standards of Christianity. Not that the standards God has set are wrong, I just think we throw in some of our own standards and then hammer people with those. A thought came to me yesterday as I was talking to one of the people who went to the conference and gave me these quotes. We don't see in the Spirit or hear in the Spirit when it comes to prophecy because we can't look at the potential everyone around us has. We only see the ugliness that needs changed. But if we want to speak hope into peoples lives we need to see what God is doing in everyone, and especially ourselves. This opens us up to speak God's Word into peoples lives to see them built up in Jesus. I have some great spiritual fathers as examples who live this out in their everyday lives.

Thank You Jesus for the example Pastor Gerry, Pastor Jeff, and Pastor Art have been to me. May I take their example, put it into practice in my own life, and be an example to those who You have placed here in the NLC of how to love and see the best in everyone around me.

Still more to come...

More Thoughts from Wed.

This is an excerpt from the devotion for Friday, October 12 from "The Word for You Today." Think about it...

John 21:22 says
22Jesus answered, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me."

Peter had strong opinions about others. Maybe you are like him. One day he started meddling in John's business, saying, "Lord, what about him?" Jesus answered, "What is that to you?...follow me."

There's an important lesson here. Learn to identify 'who owns what.' If it's their garden let them mow it, or live with the weeds. If someone can only get what they want by playing the martyr or guilt tripping and manipulating others, that's their issue; don't make it yours! If they're living with consequences, it's their consequences not yours! If they deny their problems or can't think clearly on a particular issue, the confusion is theirs. It's your responsibility to love and pray for them, even offer help, but it's not your responsibility to fix or rescue them. If they don't seem capable of showing appreciation or apologizing when they're wrong, that's their problem. Only when they have an attitude of gratitude and the humility to acknowledge their mistakes, will they grow. In the meantime it's their garden, stop trying to mow it! If your hopes your peace and your happiness are dependant on anyone other than God, learn to detach. You're a joint-heir with Christ, not a joint-tenant with Him (see Romans 8:17).

This goes along with my post from yesterday. Let us start examining ourselves. Let us start praying for God to begin to point out others faults and failures instead of us thinking we have to do it. God is more than capable. Let us start seeing the good that God is doing in others and spur one another on in what Jesus is doing. Yes, there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. But it's only by God's grace that we will be able to do both. Let Him continue the work that He began in us.

To Be Continued...

Thoughts from Last Wed.

One of the thoughts that came out of last Wednesday nights discussion was Agape and Unconditional love. We looked at how God loves us all unconditionally but to truly experience God's love there are conditions that require our obediance to Him. It's like a relationship. I love Bethany unconditionally but in order for our love to grow their are conditions. Like the fact that I shouldn't be looking at other women and she shouldn't be looking at other men, etc.


The problem lies in when we try to replace God with ourselves and push the conditions that God requires. Loving God can not be pushed on anybody. There lies unconditional love. He loves us so much He gives us the right to choose to love Him or not. The same is true in a relationship. I cannot make Bethany love me, no matter what I might say or do. She has to choose on her own. I can point out to her why she should love me but I can't make her love me.


We can try to take the Holy Spirit's job.


In a devotion by Bob Gass in "The Word for You Today" he says how many times we as Christians try and mow other peoples grass instead of taking care of our own yard. This is a fatal flaw in Christian people. We want others to be where we are at but there are steps that God is taking us all through to get us to that point. Yesterday I used this illustration: Picture yourself as a hamburger with tomatoe, pickle, and ketchup. It's easy to see when someone doesn't have tomatoe, pickle, and ketchup because you have it. But it isn't easy to see that they have bacon, lettuce, and onion. Something that you don't have yet. So we constantly point out the fact that they are missing tomatoe, pickle, and ketchup all the while not realizing that we are missing bacon, lettuce, and onion.


And I do agree that their needs to be repentance and it does need to start with the church. But I cannot convict anybody. That is God's job. I must only PRAY for them and myself. If God would lead me to talking to them then I must do it with a humble heart and much love and compassion so as to not to destroy the friendship. Love should be what motivates us to encourage others to see their potential in Jesus. Not to condemn them because we think we are better. Which sometimes can be the underlying factor to why we speak the way we do.


To be continued...