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Does your prayer life with God more resemble ranting emails rather than a personal conversation with an intimate friend? Mine used to, and sometimes I find myself right back there ranting to God in a one-way, often tiresome, opinionated, self-saturated e-mail type of communication.

I believe this happens when we forget that our communication with an awesome God should come from a place of worship and not from want. When we approach God in worship, we come from the right place, and then have the ability to connect in the right way. This is because God wants it this way - look at this verse:

“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 4:24 (ESV)

When we come to God out of worship in spirit and truth, we come to God first recognizing who He is, and our place in relation to Him. In other words, this is how we come with the right heart and the right way. This right heart and right way keeps us in the right place to communicate with Him. This should also influence how we communicate with each other...maybe we might think about this the next time one hits the "send" button on an email.

In His grip,

Pastor Pat

What Are You All About?

Our lives are all about more. Our schedules are jam-packed, we are all about producing, and we are for the most part over-loaded. Seems to me that if there is a moment in our calendars that is not filled, there is something missing. Every moment is useful for doing something, or producing something, right? Why is this?

I believe that because as a culture, we have acquiesced that more is better, and we have set ourselves up that by default, doing more is the way to get this more that we need to have, or at least look busy enough so as to seem like you have this more. Having more is not always better though. No one wants more bad stuff or bad things to happen. But too much of anything isn't always good either...so what to do? Where does one find the balance in this dilemma? Jesus.

"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9, 10 ESV

More is an unnecessary pursuit if one considers that what one already has is enough. Unfortunately, unless we are talking about Jesus, nothing is ever enough. Whatever we want or think we need to have will eventually run out, and then what? We will want more. When the more we want is finite (and everything this side of heaven is finite), then whatever it is it will run out or get old, and we will want more.

We need to therefore change what we are all about, that is if it is anything besides Jesus. We have to get past wanting what the world has to offer, again because if and when we get it, we will just want more of it - and this makes us all about the world. Jesus wants us to be all about Him, and the only way to do this is to be all about our weaknesses. Thats right, just like Paul was saying in this passage, we need to make room for our weaknesses: look for them, acknowledge them, and even embrace them! That's right, then, and only then, will there be room for His strength to compensate...and then that makes us all about Him!

In His grip,

Pastor Pat

Worried?

Worry creates anxiety, right? Anxiety is unhealthy and has been linked as a factor in many physical ailments. Anxiety causes stress and can raise our blood pressure, interfere with sleep, and causes us to be act in ways we would not normally act. Worry stinks, but we give in to it an awful lot of the time, which makes those times somewhat awful.

We say things like “Don’t worry, it will work out” or “Don’t worry, God has a plan” or even have a song for it: “Don’t worry, be happy!” These are all well and good, but has any statement ever made you stop worrying? They have never worked for me. As a matter of fact the only times I remember be able to “not worry” about something I was worrying about was when I convinced myself that I didn’t care about it any more. Is that the answer? I don’t think so.

We were created to care, but not to worry. Scripture says “…do not be anxious about anything…” (Phil 4:8, emphasis mine) Really? Anything? That is impossible. Worry is natural, otherwise God wouldn’t have told us not to do it, and He knew we would worry. The problem is not about what you are worrying about, but all about whom you think God is. Think about this – worry is not about your circumstances, but all about your God. When we think we can control, assist, or do anything with our problems, we stop looking to God and what He can do, and focus on what we could do and ourselves.

If you think God is controllable, and needs us to complete Him…worry, and I would worry a lot. We need God to complete us, to help us, and to make us whole. Wondering about God’s plans still leaves us worrying about what His plans are – whether or not we are going to like them. So when we find ourselves in any moment where we begin to worry, we need to shift our focus from trying to find God’s plans in the problem, and start to try and find God. Besides, God’s plans are usually only visible in hindsight to us.

Only when we look at things looking for God, can we start to approach what God is looking for. We are not supposed to understand God’s plans, just understand that they are God’s and not ours. When we come to this place, surrender happens, and when we surrender to God you are not going to believe what leaves us: it is not control, it is not anything of value, it is worry. When we look at things from a perspective of what matters to God, and try to see things as God sees them, then we lose something we want nothing to do with: worry; look at this passage:

Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV)
”For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

We are not created to “get” God, we are created by God for God. We are not supposed to figure out God’s plans, just how we fit into them, and we do this simply by looking for Him in everything. Still struggling to believe this? Worried that if you don’t worry it will look like nothing matters to you? Stop that, and what will happen is that you will start to care more about what matters to God, and then you will really see how much you matter to Him.

In His grip,

Pastor Pat

Good Church?

"Church was GOOD today!" Often times when I leave church this thought goes through my head. I reflect back on the community of believers, maybe some new faces, or a comment after the gathering about how the message touched or spoke to someone, and think: "It was a goooooood day." What makes church good? Maybe if we looked at that definition, there would be a little less competition, and a little more focus on what matters most to God.

Does the look, sound, or message make a church good? But isn't that what we are often referring to when we say church was good? When Jesus was called "good teacher" by a rich young man, His response was noteworthy:

"And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." Luke 18:19 ESV

In this statement, Jesus is not saying no one is good, but goodness belongs to God first. In His goodness we find good: the good He created as well as the good works He has prepared in advance for us (ref: Eph. 2:10). So then when it comes to good, whatever it is, it first needs to come from God. This is a universal truth, and works in any situation if applied. Get it?

So then, what should a "good" church look like? Let's look at the first church to see what they did:

"And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." Acts 2:42 ESV

So instead of trying to do church "good," we might be better to think how to be a church that does good. So then I guess a "good" church has little to do with entertainment value or individual preferences, but everything to do with God's Word, communing with others (fellowship), sharing food, and praying. When those are covered by us, the rest gets covered by God...

In His grip,

Pastor Pat

Led OVER Fed

Did you know when it comes to domesticated sheep, if left to their own, they would die? That is right; the domesticated sheep we know and use for wool, etc., need to be shepherded or they will die. They need to be led in the right direction or they will wander into danger: in 2006 in Turkey, a flock of 400 sheep leapt to their death as they followed a sheep that tried to jump cross a 45 foot ravine. Sheep need to have their wool sheared off or it would grow too heavy for them to move, and they would die. Also, if a sheep ends up on its back, it is unable to turn back over, and without assistance to get back up, will die.

The fact is that sheep need a shepherd to survive, and so do we as people. No wonder the Bible, and Jesus, refer to people as sheep. Simply put, sheep wander, and if left alone will wander into danger. We are no different, right?

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way…” Isaiah 53:6(a) ESV

This is so me: when left to my own I wander. I know what is best for me and where I need to go to get it. Although completely dependent on their shepherd for their survival, it is all about his leading and nothing to do with their feeding.

Years ago I found myself going to church on Sundays with the expectation of being fed, and if the feeding was not satisfactory I would start to consider the need to find a new place to feed. Have you ever felt like this? This would be no different than sheep expecting their shepherd to to pull up only the kind grass they liked best, and then feed it to them. Sheep don’t expect that, they simply need to be led to a place where there is a food source, and they will take it from there.

Proper feeding for sheep happens when they let their shepherd lead them to a place where there is good food for them. This is what Jesus says He does for us as the Good Shepherd (John 10). The Greek word for shepherd is “poimen”, “pastor” in Latin, and where the title “Pastor” comes from. So then, this is what any shepherd, of any flock under his care, on any Sunday should be doing: leading God’s sheep to a place where they can feed. There is one place for this, and only one place that is vast enough to offer the best food indefinitely, and that is God’s Word.

So now when you start to think you’re not being “fed” enough at church, or the way you want to be fed, maybe it is not an aptitude issue with the pastor’s feeding skills, but an attitude issue about you, the follower. So long as the pastor is leading you to a feeding from God’s Word, then there will be more than enough to keep you full, as you feed yourself by going back to His Word throughout the week. The pastor shows you the pasture, it is your job to graze until He leads you to the next one. This is what keeps you full…and more importantly, keeps you from wandering - and that is wonderful!

For me as a pastor, I desire to be a godly leader as opposed to a worldly feeder. I want to lead His people, His way, to His Word. I seek to encourage us to become more concerned with helping others find their way to His leading, over any single feeding they have had before. Led over Fed…enough said.

In His grip,

Pastor Pat