Who Cares Who’s The Greatest

Mark 9:33 – 34 (NIV)
They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

The disciples of Jesus were actually arguing about who the greatest was among the 12 of them.  Can you imagine having that discussion with a group of your friends?  What would that sound like?  Are we actually capable of having the same stupid kind of argument?  Are there those among us who truly believe they are greater than others?

I think the answer to all these questions is YES!  But the two questions we should be asking today is – what does this look like today in our own lives?  and why?  To help us see this a little better, I’m going to skip a few verses – which we will come back to – and go to verses 38 – 39.

Immediately after Jesus calls the disciples on their silly little argument and gives them the better way, this discussion comes up.

Mark 9:38 – 39 (NIV)
“Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.

This is simply a different way about arguing about who is the greatest.  It’s almost as if they understood Jesus to say they should not have these arguments amongst each other … but at the same time, they still believed they were superior to other people because they were “the disciples.”  The disciples were completely missing out on what Christ was trying to teach them.

We see Christ’s lesson in verses 35 – 37.

Mark 9:35 – 37 (NIV)
Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

There are two lessons I think we should take away from this.  One is pretty much obvious.  The other is one of those lessons that is here because of what is not directly said.

1. We should never think of ourselves as better than others because of some talent or skill that we may have and may be really good at.  Ultimately, we must remember that any gift, talent or skill that we have came from Christ.  He chose to bless us with these for the purpose of serving him.  This is the simple lesson.
2. We have no excuse for not following Christ where he wants to lead us.  For some, he is calling you to be missionaries.  For some, he is calling you to start some kind of ministry in your community.  For some, he is calling you to take on some new position.  For some, he is calling you to use your skills for his glory.  And there are many who are not following because they do not think their skills or gifts are what they should be in order to succeed.  Rather than arguing about who is greatest, they would be quick to say, “not only am I not the greatest, but I’m not even good enough to be in this conversation.”  These people are denying Christ’s desire to work in their own lives.

I wish I had more space and time to explain these thoughts better, but I believe if you are reading this, the Holy Spirit can use my inabilities to accomplish his goals.  After all – in successful work that is accomplished through me is only occurring because of Christ working through me.  He’s not calling me to be the best at what I do … he’s calling me to demonstrate my faith by obeying him as fully as I am able to with the skills, gifts and talents he has given me.

Go with God,
Donald B

Gearing Up For 30 Hour Famine

Our youth group is going to be participating in a 30 Hour Famine on Feb 27 and 28.  We will be doing this for the purpose of raising money to send to World Vision and to raise the awareness level of our students and our church regarding starvation in our world.  We want to do what we can to help.

Please help us accomplish this goal by making a donation to World Vision through one of our students.  Below, I am going to post the names of each student who currently has a donation page set up.  Just go to their page and make a donation.  Also, come back to this note occasionally to see if I’ve added any new students!

Thank you!

Bale, Natalie
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-006

Brayman, Vanessa
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-024

Buttram, Emily
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-009

Buttram, IV
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-019

Buttram, Joshua
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-022

Downing, Angelo
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-021

Downing, Jared
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-017

Downing, Jessica
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-018

Downing, Rita
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-010

Ellison, Erik
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-005

Ellison, Morgan
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-008

Feehs, Caleb
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-025

Hough, Andrew
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-007

Hough, Kristopher
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-002

Markle, Tori
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-023

Markle, Zac
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-015

Rotchford, Jenni
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-003

Sanders, Joel
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-014

Schmitz, Matt
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-004

Slocumb, Alex
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-016

Tingstrom, Britney
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-012

Tingstrom, Tyler
http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/103240912-011

If you died today, where you going?

How Can I Know?

I just returned from taking our youth group to Winterfest.  We had an awesome time jamming with Skillet, Disciple, Jeremy Camp and others.  But we also go to hear messages presented by Clayton King and David Nasser.  Clayton’s message was Gospel centric.  You’ve got to be saved type of message.  David’s message was directed more to those of us who are already Christians and are still carrying around a lot of baggage that is keeping us from a much better relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

From all this preaching and teaching, the struggle our students seemed to come away with is the struggle all Christians have dealt with as they mature – AM I SAVED???  HOW CAN I KNOW???

So, how can we know we are saved?  The best way I know to answer this question is with Scripture.

1 John 5:13 (NIV)
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Whenever I speak to anyone about assurance of salvation, this is always my first stop.  1 John 5:13 CLEARLY tells us that we can KNOW that we have eternal life.  We can KNOW it!!!  That’s exciting to me.  But that’s not enough for a lot of people.  So there’s a verse that says I can know … but HOW can I know?

ANSWER: Read 1 John 1:1 – 5:12 for starters.  John says I write these things to you … so that … Therefore, we can know by what he wrote before hand.

1 John 1:1 – 4 – John reminds us that he is an EYE WITNESS to Jesus.  He saw the man, touched the man, at with the man and spoke with the man.  John received direct teaching from Jesus himself.

1 John 1:5 – 10 – This section explains that we will at least have a desire to be living as a Christian should – “walking in the light”.  This section also tells us that as Christians, we will recognize the sin in our lives.  Not because we are good enough to know, but because the Holy Spirit within us is convicting us of sin.  ONLY the Holy Spirit can convict us of sin.  Do you desire to “walk in the light”?  Do you recognize the sin in your life?  Maybe you can know now.

1 John 2:1 – 14 – Here we discover that our love for Christ is demonstrated by our willingness to obey His commands.  We also read that our love for our brothers shows that God’s love lives within us.  Are you obeying the commands of Christ?  Do you love your fellow Christians?  Or at least … are you trying?  Our desire to obey and to love can only come from the Holy Spirit living within us.  Maybe you can know now.

1 John 2:15 – 17 – By the “world”, John is basically talking about the average non-Christian person.  This person doesn’t know what peer pressure is because they say yes to everything.  This person thinks mostly about their own desires and their own self rather than thinking about others.  This person may support abortion or homosexuality as a life style.  Are you trying to be different than this person?  Do you desire to follow Jesus even if it means you won’t “fit in” with the people you work with or go to school with?  Maybe you can know now.

1 John 2:18 – 27 – Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?  Have you ever had an “aha” moment when reading the Bible where you learned something new?  You can only learn if the Holy Spirit is teaching.  Maybe you can know now.

I could continue with the rest of the book, but this blog is already long enough.  Here’s an idea – read it for yourself.  Try to determine if you see yourself in those scriptures.  Remember though – we will never be perfect.  So, don’t say “that’s not me because I got mad at so and so yesterday.”

And then, read 1 John 5:13 again and believe what it is telling you.

Go with God,
Donald B

I’m Back …

I will be posting again to this blog beginning today.  Trying to run a youth ministry blog, a youth ministry website and sending out youth ministry emails was just becoming a bit too much.  After all, there is only so much information you can send out.

So, I am going to start using this blog again to simply post up any thoughts I have.  Hopefully, I will be able to provide blogs that will help whoever reads them in some way with their spiritual walk.  I hope that this can serve as an encouragement.

It’s a new year, and already, God is showing me some areas where I need to change … where I need much growth.  And the first is in the realms of prayer.

I was listening to John Piper this morning, and he said something (or at least I heard something that came from something he said) that rang a bell with me.

I’m not sure exactly how to put it, but it goes something like this …

Many of us who have grown past the adolescent stages of legalism have simply stopped praying.  Basically, I want to pray as much as I did when I prayed for legalistic reasons but I want to pray that much out of a deep love and respect for God, and ultimately, to bring Glory to God.

I’m not sure if that makes sense to any of you, but it has sparked some thought for me to grow on.

Father God,
I pray for your strength as we enter this new year.  Open our eyes to what You are doing in us and around us.  Give us the strength and courage to join You in what You are doing and to allow You to make the changes in us that You want to make.

In Jesus’ Name!
Amen

TTFN …

I will not be posting to this blog very much any more! I have taken on a new responsibility which will garner much of my time. So, keeping up with this blog will have to take a back seat for now. If you would like to read more about what I am doing, check out the following links: LCC Student Ministry Web Site LCC Student Ministry Blog Go with God Donald B

Unscarify Evangelism

Evangelism Defined (by me):

Evangelism is what a Christian is supposed to do in order to help non-Christians become Christians. Further defined, it is a lifestyle lived on purpose for the extreme purpose of not only telling people the story of Jesus and explaining the salvation message, but also to demonstrate what a Christian is supposed to be. But defining evangelism is not my goal today. Rather, it is to provide anyone reading this with the encouragement to step out and evangelize … without TOO MUCH fear.

Let me give you some freedom right up front. You are not required to walk up to people cold-turkey and say, “Can I tell you about Jesus?” Don’t get me wrong, if you can do that, and you do do that, continue pushing forward. We would probably discover that you have the gift of evangelism. However, for the most of us that aren’t gifted in evangelism, we need to discover how we can evangelize any way because we want to be obedient to Matthew 28:19 – 20.

Here are a few steps you can take right now to start evangelizing:

1 – Make some non-Christian friends. By this, I mean do more than talk to them. Invite a non-Christian family into your home for the express purpose of getting to know them better. Go out to eat with a non-Christian friend. Join a work softball team (even one of those teams where the actually drink beer after the game). Find ways that you can be around non-Christians without compromising your relationship with Christ. That should be easy enough for most of us.

2 – Ask questions. Further, ask questions without trying to correct the answers once they are given. Also, don’t start debating with them when they say something you believe to be wrong. Just let it be wrong. Here are some sample questions you can ask in normal conversation when you get to where you feel you can and it would be appropriate.

Do you go to church any where?
Do you have any spiritual beliefs?
Do you believe in God?
To you, who is Jesus?
What do you think a Christian is?

Some of these questions come from Bill Fay’s Share Jesus Without Fear, but the questions are open-ended. The important thing is to let them tell you what they think. People like to talk to you about themselves. This will let you see where they stand spiritually, and it will show them that you are a little different than there other friends.

3 – Know your Bible. This is the part that is hard for most of us, but this is the easiest part to fix. Read your Bible. You are a Christian … right? Then, read God’s Word!!! Here are a few scriptures you can get started knowing better:

Romans 3:23; Romans 5:8; Romans 6:23: Romans 3:10; Romans 10:9-10; John 3:16; John 3:3; John 14:6; 1 John 1:9; 1 Peter 3:15; 2 Corinthians 5:17

These aren’t all about salvation, but they are good verses to know. Pick up a tract and see what verses they use and how they use them.

Know what you believe!

That’s enough steps for now. If we will start with these, we might actually start winning the spiritual battle in America.

Go with God,
Donald B

Don’t Witness … Experience Judgement?????

This scripture has always irritated me.  Not because of what it says, but because of what people make it to say.  What I read in Ezekiel 33 is that God is given Ezekiel an example using the watchman.  If the watchman alerts the people, and they respond … great.  If the watchman alerts the people, and they don’t respond, the blood of the people is on their own head.  If the watchman sees the danger coming and says nothing … then, the blood of the people is on their own head.  God then tells Ezekiel that he – Ezekiel – is God’s watchman for Israel, and he better speak what God is giving him to speak.

What I tire of is what I have heard for a long time about this scripture.  People say … because of this scripture … if we do not witness to someone we fill led to witness to, then, their blood is on our head.  They say we will be held accountable by God for this negligence.  They say we will be judged for failing to obey.  My question is what will this judgement look like?  Is God going to send us to Hell for a short amount of time?  Is he going to just make us stand there and feel really bad about it for a while?  What is that???? That’s crazy!!!

So, what is the answer.  I think I’ve found it.  At least it makes sense to me.

When I have actually shared my faith, I have experienced one of the greatest joys ever … whether the person got saved or not.  Of course, a decision for salvation makes it even better, but just obeying God in evangelism brings a joy that just cannot be explained or experienced.  You have to experience it for your self.

So, in my opinion, our judgement is that we miss out on this extreme joy given by God!  We miss out on a wonderful opportunity to experience God!  We miss out on a chance to grow closer to our God!  Our judgement is immediate.

Go with God,
Donald B

Children – a Blessing of Rest from God

A few weeks ago, Steve Markle – pastor of Life Community Church – presented a message where he used these two verses. He used them for different points of his message, but I found something else that I would like to share.

I have often heard messages preached about how God gives us rest – and they will use Psalm 127:2 in the message. I have also heard messages preached discussing children and how they are a blessing from the Lord – and they will use Psalm 127:3. But it wasn’t until Steve used them a few weeks ago that I came to see the connection I am going to try to bring out.

I often struggle with the whole Sabbath rest thing. Are we simply supposed to do nothing one day out of the week? Is that what it means? Does it have to be a certain day? If we are supposed to stop doing things, how far do we take it? Jesus was condemned by the Pharisees for violating the Jewish laws regarding the Sabbath. His response to them was “it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:12)

I believe God’s intention is for us to have a day of rest. But the thing we have to define or understand is … what is rest? For me, rest does not mean to stop working. That may seem weird, but I don’t think that’s what it means. Here’s a sample of a normal week for me …

- Mon – Fri – Work at the Pentagon for the Air Force
- Sat – Work around the house
- Sun – Work at church setting up, running computer and tearing down

So, where do I find rest?

I think the answer is in the two verses above.

In verse 2, the Psalmist tells us that God gives rest to his loved ones. And then, he follows verse 2 with verse 3. I know that’s one of those duh things … of course verse 3 follows verse 2 … but why are we told that children are a gift from the Lord immediately after we are told that God gives rest to his loved ones.

I believe that God gives us rest through our family. If I am working at home with my children taking care of the house or other chores, I find rest. If I am just doing things with my children, I find rest. The more time I spend with my children (family) the more rest I find.

It’s a weird connection, but I see truth in it. But what about the single people or the childless people? Although children are a blessing from the Lord, I believe the concept of finding rest goes beyond just children. We find rest as we spend time with children, spouses, extended family, friends, etc. I believe we can find rest by breaking from our daily work and spending time with other people that God has placed in our lives.

This would be one of the reasons attending church once a week is so important. We can find God’s rest in church.

Hope that makes sense!

Go with God,
Donald B

Called To Spread the Word …

Hello all! It has been some time since I last blogged. However, I have something I believe needs to be written down.

A few weeks ago, we were in a small group Bible study discussing the importance of actually talking to people about Jesus. I want to stress what I am saying here. It seems many, many of us (American Christians) have fallen prey to the idea that if we invite people to church we are fulfilling the Great Commission that Jesus gave to each of us. While it is important to invite people to church … this is serving as a pathetic excuse for all of us to stay quiet when it comes to witnessing (me included). We need to open our mouths and share.

After this small group study, I was reading a book called “Encountering John” by Andreas Köstenberger. I came across a section that I want to share which will help illustrate this thought better. He writes:

Many of our Christian brothers and sisters in other parts of the world suffer persecution today. In our own country, suffering for the faith is still not so overt as to be an issue of primary concern. Still, we may sometimes wonder if the reason why Christians in the United States do not suffer more is because they do not clearly and openly identify with Christ. Evangelical Christianity has developed into an almost self-contained, self-sustaining subculture, complete with Christian bookstores, TV and radio stations, Christian celebrities, be it pastors of mega-churches or best-selling authors, and the list could go on and on. Just look at a recent issue of Christianity Today! Or look at the Shepherd’s guide, a listing of Christians in business. Many Christians live in a cocoon that enables them to go through life almost completely insulated, without ever having to deal with non-Christians. Yet as a result, we frequently fail to fulfill the function of salt and light in our culture (cf. Mt 5:13 – 16). We must remember Jesus’ warning that salt, once it has lost its saltiness, is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men (Mt 5:13).

In our highly pluralistic, postmodern culture, it will be increasingly unpopular to proclaim the biblical message that “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” but Jesus (the message of Peter and John in Acts 4:12). We will be labeled as intolerant, mocked as narrow-minded religious bigots, or even suffer social or economic ostracism. Are we willing to suffer socially, economically, or otherwise for our faith? This does not mean that we must invite suffering like the church father Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, who deterred his friends from rescuing him from martyrdom in order to increase his heavenly reward. But we must be faithful and courageous and have our priorities straight. As Jesus said, “You cannot serve both God and Money” (Mt 6:24). Our Christian faith must be the core commitment at the center of our lives rather than an addendum. Like Abel, we must give God our very best rather than bring a token offering like Cain (Hb 11:4). If this involves a decisive break with our past, so be it. (Köstenberger, 163 – 164).

With that thought in mind, let me encourage you (and me) to get out and actually speak what we believe.

Go with God,
Donald B

Why so downcast oh my soul?

Psalm 42:5, 42:11 and 43:5 all say the same thing.

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

I’ve recently be trying to impart wisdom to my teenage daughter. As most of you know, imparting wisdom is a difficult thing for most of us. However, unfortunate or not, most of us have plenty of experience to reach back to which helps us offer up the “life-type” of wisdom. In the end, I guess this type of wisdom is more real than anything else we could use.

If you’ve ever heard my college time stories, then you’ve heard all of the gory detail of how I basically just threw away a 4 Year Air Force scholarship. It was a difficult time in life of going from being a teenager with no real responsibilities to becoming the adult we all have to become whether we want to or not.

During this time, the enemy threw plenty of ideas, philosophies and “new” thoughts on religion my way in order to dissuade me from following the Truth. This came through other people sharing their philosophies with me, through the many new and different churches I tried out, and through fellow college mates. The one thing that seemed to pull me through all of this were the verses mentioned above.

There were times I could not feel God or sense God. I was not experiencing His power or presence. I felt all alone. And the temptation to follow some of the “new” thoughts or paths was there as well. It was then the Holy Spirit gave me these 3 verses. If you will notice, they all say the same thing. And God said it to me 3 times that day so I would hear what He was trying to say.

No matter what I was going through, no matter how bleak things seemed, no matter how confused I was or lost I seemed … I only had to look back on my life and remember the times where God was more real than ever … and this enabled me to remember and believe those times would once again be true in my life.

I will YET praise HIM …

Things will always get bad at times in life. Ours is to remember that God is God during the bad times just as well as the good times. Ours is to be faithful to Him no matter what.

Go with God,
Donald B