Category: Church Chat

An Old Passion Returns

Posted in Church Chat, Life Happens4 Comments

I began to run regularly in my mid 20s.  I was very passionate about the sport and thought about it throughout the day.  As soon as I completed a run I was thinking about my next run.  As a result of running, I reached a fairly high level of fitness and enjoyed running in several races over the years. 

After becoming a pastor, I got sidetracked from running for a few years.  A couple of my friends from Belfry, Roger Varney and Harold Osborne, inspired me to get started again and I rediscovered my passion for running very quickly.  I think I became fairly fit again and I set several personal records (PRs) in local races.

Then “it” happened.  I had my first injury.  I tore a menicus in my knee and had to have surgery.  Although the injury was not all that serious, I never resumed running with the same intensity.  Through the years I became less active and put on some weight.  This past January I decided that I had to do something about my weight and my level of fitness.  Since January 18, I have lost 39 pounds and have rediscovered my passion for running.  One tool that has been very beneficial to me is a website call MyPlate.  This website helps you set weight goals and monitor calorie intake.

I said all this to say that I plan to blog occasionally about my running ventures.  I apologize in advance because I realize that not everyone is passionate about running.  I hope to connect my writing about running to our daily race for Christ.  Just as I long to be faithful throughout my life in my race for Christ, I long to remain faithful in my personal fitness and running.  Writing about it here will give me an outlet and a level of accountability.  Thank you in advance for your patience.

Thess passages come to mind this morning….

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”  1 Corinthians 9:24

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”  2 Timothy 4:7

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”  Hebrews 12:1

 

Fights and Quarrels in the Church

Posted in Church Chat, Discipleship, Funny, Life Happens2 Comments

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.This week I’ve been reading from the New Testament written by James, the brother of Jesus.  In the passage above, James asks the question, “What causes fights and quarrels among you?”  Then he answers his own question by saying, “Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?”  James 4:1-3, NIV

This week I have been reading the New Testament book written by James, the brother of Jesus.  I love his letter written “To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations” (James 1:1) because it is very practical and very direct.  We need more preaching and teaching like that today.

In the above passage (4:1-3), James identifies the source of most “fights and quarrels” in the church–they derive from our selfish, personal desires.  The greek word for the term “desires” is the source of the word “hedonism.”  Dictionary.com defines “hedonism” as “the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the highest good.”

We live in a day when many believe that the church exists to serve them, to entertain them, and to make them happy, but actually the opposite is true.  The Church does not exist to serve us; as Christians, we exist to serve the Church. 

May the Lord help every believer in every Christ-honoring church to set aside his or her personal desires for the church to pursue the desires that the Lord has for His church!  May it begin in me.

The “Skinny” on Spiritual Growth

Posted in Church Chat, Discipleship, Life Happens, Ministry1 Comment

The last few weeks at Shelbyville First Baptist Church, Pastor Andy McDonald and I have been teaching our second-level foundational class called Maturity 201.  The class includes some of the material written by Dr. Rick Warren as well as material I personally wrote for the class.

In Maturity 201 we discuss the important subject of spiritual maturity.  Here is a brief excerpt from the class:

FACTS ABOUT SPIRITUAL MATURITY

  • Spiritual maturity IS NOT automatic.  A Christian believer must be disciplined and work at achieving spiritual maturity.  We can’t just sit back and “hope” it happens.  We have to develop and practice the spiritual habits that lead us to spiritual maturity.  For more information on this topic, read my other entries under the “discipleship” category. 

“You have been Christians for a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others, but instead … you need someone to teach you … When a person is still living on milk, it shows he isn’t very far along in the Christian life … He’s still a baby Christian!”  Hebrews 5:12-13 (LB)

  • Spiritual maturity is a journey.  Ultimately, spiritual maturity will take a lifetime.  It is a process–a lifelong journey of becoming more and more like Christ.

“Learn to be mature.”  Proverbs 8:5 (GN)

“Continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our savior Jesus Christ.”  2 Peter 3:18 (GN)

  • Spiritual maturity takes discipline.  Spiritual maturity is not complicated, but it is not easy.  It takes discipline to be spiritually fit just like it takes discipline to be physically fit.

“Take the time and the trouble to keep yourself spiritually fit.”  1 Timothy 4:7b (Ph)

“Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.”  1 Timothy 4:7b (NASB)

 

Are You That Man? Woman?

Posted in Church Chat, Discipleship, PreachingLeave a comment

In his book, The Making of a Christian Leader, Ted Engstrom shares the following, powerful statement about what the world needs to see in Christian leaders:

The world needs men (and I might add women) who cannot be bought; whose word is their bond; who put character above wealth; who possess opinions and a will; who are larger than their vocations; who do not hesitate to take chances; who will not lose their individuality in a crowd; who will be as honest in small things as in great things; who will make no compromise with wrong; whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires; who will not say they do it “because everybody else does it”; who are true to their friends through good report and evil report, in adversity as well as in prosperity; who do not believe that shrewdness, cunning, and hard-headedness are the best qualities for winning success; who are not ashamed or afraid to stand for the truth when it is unpopular; who say “no” with emphasis, although the rest of the world says “yes.”

Are you that man?  Are you that woman?

Third Day – Winter Jam 2010

Posted in Church Chat3 Comments

Last night Laura and I enjoyed meeting the members of Third Day after the final stop of Winter Jam 2010 in Louisville, Kentucky.  Some of our close friends had a couple of extra passes to a private meet-and-greet with the band, so we went along for the fun of it.

We found the guys to be very genuine and down to earth.  We busted Mac Powell on a comment he made during the concert about Hazard, Kentucky.  We heard that he always picks a random town in the state where he’s performing and introduces the keyboard player as being from that town.  Last night he said that he was from Hazard, Kentucky.  It just so happens that I taught school in Hazard, Kentucky, so we asked him about it.  He laughed and said it’s just a standing joke that he plays on the keyboard player at each concert.  He said that he never picks a town in advance–he just says whatever pops in his mind at the moment.

Laura and I told him that we saw him at Catalyst this year and enjoyed seeing his new son that he adopted.  He told us that he and his wife just adopted a little girl.  He showed us some neat family pictures on his iPhone.  She’s a beautiful little girl.

Thank God for authentic Christian artists who are living out their faith.  I’ve always enjoyed Third Day, but I will view them differently in the future.  We didn’t ask for an autograph or anything like that–that’s just not us, but we did enjoy seeing the guys in that setting.