Wednesday's Four Silly Questions

Okay, here we go. I want to know your answers.

1. Do you sleep with the TV on or off?

2. World Series or Football?

3. A good book or a good dinner?

4. Your favorite: Winter clothes or Summer Clothes?

Bonus Question: If you could only pick one, what would it be: free pizza for life or free tank of gas per month for life?

My answers: TV on, World Series, good book, winter clothes BQ: Free Pizza, who cares about gas, I'm a pizza-holic. :-)

Do You Love the Bible?

This morning in my personal time of Bible study and prayer I was reading from Colossians. I love reading the Scriptures and letting God preach to me. I fill up on His Word daily. I always read with a notebook and pen handy because I'm constantly writing down things that God is both revealing about me and revealing about our world and circumstances in general.

This morning I was just struck by two particular pieces of the Scripture I read. I read Colossians 1:1-14

* The first thing that caused me to stop and take notice was an often skipped and ignored section of this passage. In vs. 7 Paul is talking about how the church in Colossae had learned from Epaphras. Then Paul gives this description of Epaphras: He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. When I read that I just paused and wondered to myself, "How great would it be that my legacy when all is said and done would be these words: He is a faithful minister of Christ? That is a legacy worth having and one that Epaphras has forever been remember by.

* The second thing that caused me to stop and erupt into praise of God was and is vs. 13-14. It reads, "13He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." The thing that overwhelmed me was the phrase: He has delivered us. He did it. It is author of our salvation. He is the one that has delivered us from darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his Son. Through the Son, Jesus, we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. I don't know about you, but I'm eternally grateful for a God that has provided, offered, and granted me forgiveness of my sin.

I'm a man who can live with gratitude today because I'm a man of freedom and hope because of Jesus. I love the Bible. I love that I can hear the words of God to me anytime I choose to open the Scriptures. I'm grateful that God preaches to us every moment we approach him with ears to hear and hearts to receive.

Question for Discussion: How often do you get into the Bible to read it and allow God to speak to you? What are some of the study techniques you use?

Sermon Outline for: God Can Rescue

Last week was a crazy week for me. My little daughter Kaleigh Grace entered the world and she has been wrecking me ever since. Because of her birth, I didn't get a chance to develop the outline for my message this past Sunday. So, here it is for those who want it.

Highly Flammable: God Can Rescue (Week 3)

Highlighted passage that we are unpacking: Daniel 3:16-17

Four questions that help us to understand more about God's ability to rescue:

1. How do we know God can rescue?

God is Sovereign. Sovereignty means that God is in control of all of his creation. He is all-powerful. Nothing is impossible with God, because God is above all things.

Two aspects of God's Sovereignty:

i. Transcendent otherness: God is beyond us. He is over and above the creation. He is not dependent on the creation to be God. His throne is in heaven and the earth is his footstool (Isaiah 66:1).

ii. Immanent nearness: God is at work within his creation. Though he is above that which he has created, he is at work in that which he has created.

Because of these two things, we know that God can rescue. Our God is Sovereign above all things. He can rescue because he is both above and beyond his creation, yet he is immanent in that he works intimately in his creation.

2. In what ways does God rescue?

i. Miracles

A miracle is God changes a set of circumstances that were deemed as unchangeable. A miracle is not God's intervention because this would imply his absence or distance from the situation (deism).

ii. Decrees

A decree is when God speaks forth his words and they set into motion that which he has spoken. We see this in the creation of the world (Genesis 1). God can still decree our rescue and it will set into motion the changes that are necessary.

3. How can we evoke God's rescuing action?

i. Prayer

Prayer changes how God acts. God has ordained that the prayers of his people will shape how the world we be.

ii. Faithfulness

Living a life of faithfulness means to live a life devoted, loyal, and obedient to Jesus Christ. Faithfulness is not church attendance, its moment by moment relationship to the Savior.

4. Why does God rescue?

i. God rescues to point us to the reality of the Kingdom's advancement.

ii. God rescues to bring himself greater glory.

iii. God rescues because of his love and compassion for his children.

Ultimately, if you want to know if God can rescue you from your circumstances and trials, look no further than the cross. For the cross of Jesus Christ is the greatest demonstration of God's ability to rescue.

Kaleb's Baptism

This was definitely one of my most memorable weekends in a long time. There were many reasons why it was so good, but the number one reason had to be my son being baptized. He got baptized Friday night, October 16th, at The Journey Praise and Worship night. It was a special opportunity for me to be a part of that. There have many conversations around the Reed house with Kaleb about following Jesus and being baptized. He has wanted to get baptized for a couple of months now and I have been hesitant because of his age. The more I talk to him the more I realize that he really does understand what Jesus has done and why he did it. He may not be ready to write a doctrinal dissertation on the dynamics of the Trinity, but neither are most. He has much to learn, and being a child, he needs to do it at his pace and timing.

The one thing that I feel especially burdened for is discipling him. Too often children come to Jesus and commit their life to him and they fade away as they get older. Why does this happen? Is it because they didn't really know what they were doing? No. It is because they stay at their same level of faith and it is not enough to equip them to overcome the trials, tribulation, temptations, and other things that will test your faith. In other words, children who come to faith often stay children in their faith, even though they get older. I have a book I'm doing with him that I'm tailoring especially to him. The book is called Big Truths for Young Hearts by Bruce Ware. It is a book that helps parents/adults teach children theological truths and concepts, not just Bible stories, though telling Bible stories is important.

Several weeks ago I was thinking about the whole conversation of Kaleb getting baptized. As I was thinking about it, the thought the came to my mind, "what if something happened to him and I never had the opportunity to do this?" I knew then that if he truly understood the basics and he was willing to make that very public step in front of everyone, then I needed to do it. The rest is history. Now comes the real journey: a life-long process of helping to form my son into a warrior for the Kingdom.

Vamos a España.

Vamos a España. You better get use to learning what those words mean and more because we are going to be a Spanish speaking church! Why? Because, vamos a España! We are going to Spain! That's right. After months of praying and meeting, our missions coalition team has pinpointed Spain as the Journey's global mission focus. There are many exciting things to share about how this particular country made it on our radar, but God is in it in big ways!

You will be learning more details soon about the exciting opportunities we are going to have in the days ahead. To give you some backdrop to our global missions strategy. We want to be a church that invests over a long period of time in an area, not just short-term, in and out trips. We want to be married to an area. In this way, we can plant churches, partner with existing churches, send missionaries, send teams from the church, and have a long-lasting impact in that area. There will be many more details to come in the days ahead, but there are some exciting times in our future.

One of things we are going to be offering soon are Spanish courses online via Rosetta Stone. Throughout the year(s) we will be providing opportunities for people to lean to speak the language of the area we feel God has called us to invest in. I hope you are excited, we feel The Journey can have a huge impact in this area of the world that is the second largest Western European country, yet is increasingly more and more unchurched. The gospel would radically change this area, we feel we can do something about it.

Wednesday's Four Silly Questions

We missed last week's 4 Silly Questions so we have some ground to make up today. Like always, pick one of the two possible answers for the questions. You can even give some explanation to your answer if you're ashamed and feel the need to explain yourself.

4 Questions with a Bonus Question:

1. Morning Beverage: Coffee or Soda?

2. Navigation: Main Roads or Back Roads?

3. Vacations: Beach or Other (Mountains, Cities, Etc.)?

4. Favorite Shows: Reality T.V. or Other (Sitcoms, Drama, Etc.)?

**Bonus Question - Sleep Habits: Night Owl or Morning Person?

I'm interested in hearing your answers. Here are mine:

1. Coffee 2. Back Roads 3. Beach 4. Other (LOST, The Office) Bonus: Morning Person

Pastoral Confession: I Struggle with Comparison

I have a confession to make: if I'm not careful, I will compare myself to others. To some degree I think this is a natural part of human nature, but it is an unhealthy one, and can lead to discouragement. I will hear of things going on at different churches across the country and I'm happy for their success and God's Kingdom moving forward, but I will also have a part of me that gets discouraged because I'll compare myself to them. Questions that arise: Am I not as good of a leader as them? Am I not a good enough communicator as them? Am I too young? Any many more.

The comparison game is never healthy. First off, it keeps you from appreciating and enjoying the fruits of what God is doing in your life. Second, none of us were created to be carbon copies of other people, we are called to be who God created us to be. Our "sameness" should only be in the realm of becoming Christ-like. Comparing ourselves to others will keep us frustrated and wondering why our lives don't look like others. For me, I can get discouraged at not being where someone else is.

So there is my confession. Here are some actions I have taken to help with it: 1. I've quit trying to keep up with or follow after too many different people or churches because it can lead to a constant comparison game. 2. I have decided to keep all of my focus on the things that I can control (my hard work, the responsibilities God has given me, etc.) and not things I cannot control (other people's churches, buildings, budgets, etc.). 3. I'm picking a few leaders/mentors to follow and not worry about the rest. I can't keep up with everybody, nor do I want to live in envy or jealousy of their success. 4. I'm praying for God to release from the need to compare myself to others and instead be content with where I am, while striving to move toward where God wants me.

What is your level of struggle with comparison? What things do you find yourself comparing? It's confession Tuesday so feel free to share openly without the fear of condemnation.

Weekend Reflections

I just want to start by saying that I love being a part of The Journey Church. This church and her mission is so much bigger than any one person, including me, and it excites me to see all that God is doing. This is not a church that will be great for all people, but it is definitely a church that will be great for a lot of people. God is stirring some amazing things right now and bringing a lot of leaders our way. Are best days are ahead of us, but some amazing days are happening now.

Some things worth getting excited about:

1. We have some huge renovations coming to the Children's Areas at each campus that will help us take that ministry to the next level.

2. We are excited about the progression of the Hartsville Campus. This campus will start having previews early 2010 and will launch Easter 2010. More details coming soon.

3. A team of people have been meeting together and praying for several months now concerning God's direction for us for local, regional, and global missions. All I will say is this: we have some absolute amazing opportunities ahead of us that everyone is going to be pumped about!!

4. I'm excited about this new series and the ground we are going to cover, but we have some very neat things coming in the weeks and months ahead at The Journey. I will give more details soon, but I'll say this: we are going to be a church, unlike most churches, in which our people will be biblically and theologically equipped to deal with a cynical and skeptical world.

5. We have baby dedications and baptisms this coming Friday night for our Praise and Worship Night. This will be an awesome night. It never gets old celebrating changed lives!!

Thank you Journey Church for all you do and your commitment to the mission. God is doing some amazing things in our church and will continue to do so as we are obedient to Him. I'm honored to be a part of it.

3 Lessons from my Twitter/Facebook Sabbatical

I took a one week sabbatical from Twitter/Facebook this past week. I missed being on there to see what is happening in the lives of people. Now that my sabbatical is over, I have had a chance to reflect on some lessons that I learned from the time. 

1. I need to take more scheduled breaks from Twitter/Facebook. The one thing I learned from this thing is that breaks are good. I didn't take off of work, but taking off of Twitter/Facebook kind of felt like a vacation. I didn't realize how often I check the sites to see what is happening. I was a much more focused worker last week. The thing I will take away from this is that I need to only check the sites at certain parts of the day, and I need to take regular breaks from it. My family sure appreciated it. 

2. Twitter/Facebook is a great tool for ministering. The one thing I missed about Twitter/Facebook is the ability to connect with those I have a chance to influence through it. These tools have allowed for me to interact with people who eventually came to church and made faith decisions and were baptized. With over 300 people who attend The Journey and the countless others that I know and interact with through these tools, it allows me to connect to more people in a given day or week than I could ever do by meeting face-to-face with them. I still cherish the face-to-face gatherings, but tools like these allow for more opportunities to connect with people.

3. Twitter/Facebook can lead to discouragement. This may sound strange, but if you follow people in your profession it can lead to comparison. The one thing I noticed in my time away from it is that I quit worrying about what other churches are doing or their successes, and focused more on the things in front of me. I think these tools can be used to learn from others and to be connected to others, but if we are not careful, it can put us on rat-race of trying to measure up to what others are doing. We should focus on who God calls us to be and trust Him for the results. 

Milk or Solids?

We are only a handful of days from having our second child in the Reed home. Little Kaleigh Grace could be here any day now and we are real excited. We are doing all of our homework and preparations for feeding and caring for her as we await her arrival. When she is born she will obviously start off needing milk for nourishment, but will eventually grow to need solids. For her to progress in healthy manner, she doesn't need to stay on milk forever. 

I was reminded of the reality that as followers of Jesus we are not supposed to stay on milk forever either. We are supposed to mature and develop to be people who can take in solids. The writer of Hebrews reminds of this is when he says, 

"¹¹About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. ¹²For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, ¹³for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. ¹⁴But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. ¹Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God..." - Hebrews 5:11-6:1 (ESV)

We are called to move forward in our walk with God and not stay the same as when we came in. Many should move from needing to receive the basics to teaching others. We should be growing toward maturity. 

Questions: Why do some struggle to ever move from milk to solids? What things have you done personally to help yourself mature in the things of God?