Hide and Seek

What matters most? If something is valuable then we seek it out, right? Remember playing hide and seek? Whether it was for something or someone, it is a game that puts us in the place of hunting for something of value. We even have Easter egg hunts that have special colored eggs that have extra-value if we find them, and we also hide the more valuable ones so as to be harder to find. Often times the more valuable the item, the harder it is to find.

It is the same thing with education or knowledge – the more “value” one sees in it, the more one pursues it. But knowledge is not “hidden” from you, it is just that it is something you do not have, and you get to choose whether or not you want to go find more of it. Each person is left to his or her own, to decide at some point. if they want to learn more…they get to choose the “value” on any future learning. I chose to stop my first year of college – I knew I knew enough.

I treated my faith with the same attitude – I knew I had what I needed. I did not see any value in learning more, because I was; one, not going to make some career out of it, and two, what good would it really do in the scope of my life?  So I left the religion game altogether, and figured I would just take what I had with me.

It was years before I realized something was missing, and that is a whole other post. Needless to say, I found myself lost, and what had been most important to me before, was no longer. So I started to look for what mattered most, and I found myself back at church with my then girlfriend. Then my values changed and I wanted to learn more about this faith I said I had enough of, and I even went back to school.

All too often, when it comes to matters of faith, we feel that they are hidden somewhere and we must find them and figure them out ourselves, right? Matters of faith are not things hidden from us. There is nothing hidden in areas of faith. Some people and religions want us to believe there is, and that they have the one and only way to figure it all out. They don’t.

God’s Word covers it all, and all of it is extremely valuable. Get to a church that teaches the Bible. Don’t debate styles of teaching, just consider the source – if it is not the Bible, it is wrong. We all don’t understand everything, and teachers should help us to understand true value while not trying to convince us what is most valuable to them. Our job is simply to seek…

The key is that we always want to be seeking what matters most:

Matthew 6:33 (NIV)

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

It is not about whether or not we should keep seeking in our lives, but that we should really consider what we are seeking first…just sayin’

In His Grip,

Pastor Pat

Dirt and Spit…Useless or Useful?

Ever get so angry you could just spit? Ever seen a Major League Baseball coach fight with an umpire? There is spit flying out of his mouth and dirt flying as he kicks it at the umpire – kinda gross and really nothing more than an adult temper tantrum. Anyway, most people would agree that dirt and spit are not really “valuable” things in and of themselves, but all too often we place our self-worth on that very same level with them, don’t we?

We consider ourselves products of our past. We say we are “unworthy”. In the church, especially, we often figure that we in particular, aren’t worthy of being used by God. We actually think that there are better people out there who are way more qualified to be used by Him than little ‘ol us, and they have the mega-ministries to prove it. There is a term for this kind of thinking: false humility. Yes “False”.

Really you say? Yes, really! We spend time actually judging ourselves “unworthy”, and not really deserving that God might use little ‘ol us. God has called the “good” ones out, and they are the ones God wants to use. There was a name for these folks back when Jesus lived: Pharisees. Funny thing, it was the Pharisees who led the charge to kill Jesus. And as a matter of fact Jesus was mocked and considered foolish because of whom He did “choose” to hang around with: tax collectors and sinners.

So maybe instead of buying the lie that God can’t use you or your life for His glory, you might want to consider who He did use when He was here: basically a zealot, a tax collector, and some fisherman. Not the religious “Dream Team” by any stretch of the imagination, but believe that His call is not one to religiousness or holier-than-thou life. It is for transformation from who you were, to who He knows you can be.

So what can Jesus accomplish with your little life? Most of the time, we think of ourselves as “inconsiderable” to be used by God. This is the same God who restored a blind man’s sight with a little dirt and spit. I believe that Jesus can accomplish far more with you and your life than He did with a little dirt and spit, maybe? So the next time the enemy tries to tell you how little God could accomplish with you, remind Him of how much He accomplished with a little dirt and spit.

…just sayin’

In His Grip,

Pastor Pat

Church Matters?

The church today has changed. Statistics say that on average, church attendance is on the decline. People are leaving the church at a faster rate than they are coming to it. Why is this? I think it is happening because of three basic things that are being missed.

First, we have lost the meaning of church. You are the church, and as a believer you are part of a body that is made up of every other believer in the world. The church is not where you meet together, as it is not a place or a building. And your local gathering, regardless of size, is not the entire body of Christ. The church is simply you, and you matter.

"Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." 1 Cor. 12:27

Next, we have lost the value of church. The church is Christ's chosen vehicle to spread the message of salvation found in and through Him, to the world. This is the method that Jesus taught on, and we gather weekly to encourage one another on this path we have chosen to walk together, all the while following the mission of Jesus of seeking and saving the lost. Gathering together matters.

"Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:25.

Lastly, we have misunderstood the cost of church. There is a cost associated with supporting the leaders and the resources required to meet this task in 2012 and going forward. We are under the misunderstanding that churches just want our money. And to be honest, yes some do. But that is not the church Jesus set up before He left. The church cost Jesus His life, and in order to keep it moving we have to spend wisely the resources He has given us. That means it takes money, so yes money matters. In light of what Christ gave for the church, our approach to how we give should be more like a race to get there, and less like an obstacle course that keeps us from it.

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." Malachi 3:10.

We should be giving to God based on what He has given to us, and worry less about how much we will have left, then we could start to experience the abundance God has stored up for His church. Maybe if we lived out what matters most to God, we could experience what He has planned for us that matters most.

...just sayin'

In His Grip,

Pastor Pat

PRIORITIES…What Matters Most?

What are your priorities? Do you have a list? Do your words and actions follow them consistently? I struggled with this for most of my life. I was pretty good at setting priorities, like homework or chores, but then as soon as I did, something more important would come up, like friends or an event(party) that I would make my new priority.

As an adult, or at least as I got older, my circumstances or situations seemed to always dictate my priorities. I would live each moment focusing on what was most important in that moment regardless of what my stated priorities were. It was like I had become a little firefighter running around putting out one little fire in my life after the other. I was stuck to say the least.

So as I started reading God’s Word, it became more and more apparent to me that my priorities and God’s were similar but not the same. Actually, the only priority we had in common was this: we both wanted what was best for me. Sounds good, except that the more I was the priority to me, the more I got in the way of what God wanted for me as His priority…quite the dilemma. Why can't God just tell me?!!! If He knows what is best for me, why doesn’t He just tell me what to do? Or maybe He did…

Exodus 20:1-3 (NIV)

“And God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.”

This is from the Ten Commandments, and this happens to be number one. So if God says that the number one commandment is to make Him your number one priority, then maybe that is what we are supposed to do. Wanna know that you are first with God? Try putting Him first in everything you do or say…takes a lot of the confusion out of it.

…just sayin’

In His Grip,

Pastor Pat