In Times Like These

I know I'm not the only one thinking about the election.  In fact it seems like I can't stop watching the news.  My eyes are glued to Fox News.  I have decided that I must turn off the news to allow my brain to work like it should.

When I watch too much news, I end up thinking in a constant stream of "what ifs."  What is this and what it that...I lie in bed thinking about what the next few years hold for Christianity, America, and my family.

See, I come from a long line of obsessive compulsives. We tend to get caught up in a certain way of thinking for a period of time and allow that way of thinking to dominate our day to day lives. For example...during the recent financial crisis, I preached an entire series of messages to a church in Oklahoma about security.  Did they need to hear that message?  I would like to think so.  But I probably preached those messages to reassure them and convince myself.

Yesterday, while complaining to my wife about my concerns for the future, she turned to me and said, "are you taking God out of the picture?"

That question struck a chord in my heart.  I don't think I was necessarily taking God out of the picture, but was simply overlooking the hand of God in the working of mankind.  The conversation made me look hard at my life and once again come to the conclusion that God hold me in the palm of his hand.

In a little less than a week America will elect a new president...you may or may not get the one that you want.  But whatever the outcome...you and I have to understand that we are pieces in the puzzle that God is framing.  We are people in the middle of the ultimate plan that God has for humanity.  That gives me comfort.

It gives me comfort to know that God knows my tomorrows and understand my past.  I am comforted by the fact that not a piece of my past, present, or future has gone by without the knowledge, maybe not approval, of God himself.

So, get excited about the future, because as you serve Jesus, everyday is a day to become excited about.

The Small Church

Last week I preached in a church of 50 people in attendance on Sunday morning.  I love preaching at this church.  I have spoken there at least half a dozen times and the pastor is one of my best friends. What I love about this church is the people and their drive to see God do something in their midst.  It is often times easy to become content in surroundings and believe that we are fine they way that we are, but Freedom Family Center is just the opposite. They are in their third building in just two years, people get saved almost every Sunday, and the people who walk through the door for the first time, leave with a sense of welcome and purpose.  They are truly a "city on a hill." Not just because their church sits on a hill, but because of their desire to see the lost come to know Jesus.

Being an evangelist lets me go into churches similar and often contrary to this on a weekly basis. I get to experience the hand of God moving in the hearts of people.  Every now and then, I have to watch as the hands of people push the heart of God away.  People become one of three ways: Comfortable-all is well in this small church, Complacent-nothing needs to be done, or Compelled-there has to be more than this.

I have spoken in Churches with thousands of people in attendance and I have spoken at New Life Assembly in Norman, AR.  A church of just 20 people.  My grandfather pastored that church for 12 years before he decided to hang up his suit coat and start living a more leisurely life. The church didn't grow too much, it wasn't the most contemporary church in town, in fact the building didn't do much for the eye.  But he pastored that church because he knew that someone needed to hear the message of hope.

I respect what I did last week and what I will do in weeks to come.  It is the small church that allows me the opportunity to do what God has called me to do.  The pastors of those small churches allow me to stand behind pulpits and preach the fire burning in my spirit.

I want to step into churches where pastors and people are compelled.  Sometimes I go into churches where they are not, where they are comfortable and complacent. 

As evangelists, if we ever become anything besides compelled...we become the problem.  Churches don't need any more problems.

Jumping Into the Unknown

Here I am in Kentucky.  For the last three days I have been preaching to students from all over the state.  I have been to Tennessee and Southern Missouri already this summer.  I am amazed by what God is doing in the hearts of students across America. Every night I stand in front of students who are hungry for God to do something in their lives.  There is always a moment one night at camp when I become overwhelmed by the potential that I see in the lives of students.  I see where God has brought them from and where God wants to take them in life.  I can see a generation marching across the face of the world taking this Gospel to the four corners of the Earth.  It makes me excited, because I was one of them.  I was a camper, I went to youth convention, I stayed at the altars for as long as I felt God needed me there.  I am grateful for the people that saw the potential in my life to do something for the sake of the Kingdom of God.  I remember the moment when God called me into ministry.  I remember it as if that moment were yesterday. 

I was sitting at a youth convention in Irving, Texas at the age of 14.  I was in the middle of about four thousand students.  I was trying my best to get into the songs that I had never heard being sung.  With my hands stretched into the air, I tried desperately to hear from God.  Without warning, the doors in the back of the room burst open and students came in carrying the flags of the world. I stood there, dropping my hands to my side and started.  It was as if God spoke to me and said, "I have called you to preach to them." I began to beg God to pick someone else, believing that I didn't have the talent or ability.  I was and am skill less.  God continued to speak to me and eventually I gave in to him, and the rest is a short history.  I have been allowed to take part in the greatest adventure known to man...following God where ever he says go.   

There are some of you who will read the posts and wonder what it would be like to do that.  To follow God and have to trust him for tomorrow.   It is the most amazing journey that you will take in life....nothing can compare.  So get ready...lean over the edge of the abyss, the unknown. I you have enough faith and trust in God to believe that he can and will catch you when you leap into his arms, then the journey is something to hope for, not fear.