Gather. Rinse. Repeat.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as the act of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I think for a lot of churchgoers, church has become somewhat of an example of this definition. I say this because for a time in my life, this was true of me. I would go to church every Sunday and do the same things, and then hope that somehow, God would intervene in my life to make all the other days "better". When my life did not improve, and God did not meet my expectations, I lost interest, as well as confidence in God, and not just who He is, but also what I believed He is capable of in my life.

Then I met Jesus. I heard His voice, His call in my life. Not a call to be a pastor, but a call to follow Him. I was going to church, I was officially a member, but I was far from following Jesus. I was doing church stuff, and felt like I belonged. Although I was part of a church, Jesus had a very small part in me. I was doing all that I could to get Jesus to fit into my kingdom with me instead of making room in me for Him and His Kingdom.

I felt an overwhelming desire to have more of Jesus, but there was a problem: I didn't have a lot of room. I wanted more Jesus but struggled with the willingness to make any room. So little by little, I started giving up things that were important to me. I started with entertainment, and started swapping it out for study and fellowship. Slowly but surely I began feeling different, and everything started to be affected. Church was different. Going to and being at church was different. I had been longing for this to happen, and for the longest time I thought the church needed to change - or I needed to change churches for this to happen.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 5 to love our wives as Christ loved the church, and that we are to wash our brides clean with God's Word, just as we are cleansed by His Word because we are His bride. Get this? We gather as His church to celebrate who He is and what He has done for us. God's Word is read so that we may hear His voice. In this we are cleansed. This is a big deal, because only clean can approach God. This then is encouraging us, and we are then to be an encouragement to others. That is why church matters, not church matters matter, church matters - and we are told to gather, hear His voice and be cleansed, and not stop doing it. So in short, and to sum up church, we should gather, rinse, repeat.

In His grip,

Pastor Pat

So What's Next?

"Next" is full of promise. "Next" is the future, and can be full of whatever one can imagine. Sometimes we get discouraged or disappointed with the "now", and we can't wait until "next" gets here. We can fill "next"so full of what we think we want or need, that "now" no longer matters. The problem with this kind of thinking is whatever is "next," is never all that we thought it was going to be, and we find ourselves right back looking to the next "next", all the while never enjoying "now".

"Now" escapes us. "Now" is temporary, and often times is looked at as merely the vehicle that gets us from one "next" to another. But "now" matters. "Now" is actually what is most important. Without "now," there is no "next", right? You wanna know how to enjoy the best "now" or how to get the most out of it? The best way to experience the best "now" is to focus on the right "next", and the only "next" we need to focus on is the "next" from God.

The "next" from God is not about "what" is next, but who is in it. God's promises are full of hope, peace, and God. He is there waiting for us to get there and join Him. God's next is all about being with Him, and experiencing Him moment to moment. When we experience the confidence that God has what is next covered, we can then free ourselves up to experience the most of God right now in this moment.

Only when "next" is the next of what God has promised can we experience the most of now.

In His Grip,

Pastor Pat

Keepin It Private

When I ask people what they think of church, I get some pretty diverse answers. I want to talk about one of those answers I get: "Church/religion is a private matter, and what I believe is between me and God." I agree with this statement, but I believe that private religion without public proclamation is missing something, and the something missing is no little thing.

When I used to come across something I believe that God was saying to me in my personal and private devotional time, it would be moving, but it can also be quickly excused. I may feel something, but I would almost immediately start to question the source - is it just me? I start to wonder if I am talking myself into thinking God is speaking to me at all, or am I just overly projecting into the text or the devotional I am reading? Then I would go to church, and the message would speak to the exact topic I was feeling convicted about. It was powerful. And I’m know I am not alone in this experience.

Often times, and actually just about each week, someone will approach me and marvel that the sermon touched on a subject they were already considering or grappling with—whether harboring unkind thoughts, claiming a promise of God, disrespecting parents or dealing with some area or issue of struggle. In His providence, God has a way of orchestrating preaching and private devotionals to work together. This is amazing when it happens. I realized there were were two ways that I would not feel like God had spoken to me at a weekend service: either I was distracted (I have heard this before or something happens during church), or I just wasn't there.

As much as distractions can and will happen, if I am at church, I am at least putting myself in a position where God's voice is being proclaimed publicly. If I decide I can't make it that day, it is really hard to hear something from somewhere I am not, right? Simply put: when you’re not attending church, you can’t experience this. You gotta be there to be able to hear Him there. It's not the only place and way that God speaks to us, but it is a place where He promises that He will speak:

...the Lord said to me, "Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so." Deut. 4:10 (ESV)

Gather, Hear, Repeat

In His grip,

Pastor Pat

More or Less

Commercially speaking, more is always better. The desire for "more" motivates some to work harder, so they can get more to work harder to keep the more they  already have. We even compete to see who can get the most. But more of something also implies less of something else. One may have so much that getting more means less space to keep it, or more work can mean less time with family, or at minimum, getting more might means less money to spend on other things. My point is that more usually comes at a cost; there is a price to be paid for getting or having more, agreed? Let’s move on.

All of us would probably say that our lives are already so full, and the thought of more seems ridiculous at best, but then Christmas comes and it seems the only way to make everyone happy and enjoy the season is to get, give, or experience more. Sounds kinda crazy when you put it that way doesn’t it? So what shall we do?

The only way we will have room for what this season of promise is all about is if we make room. Jesus can’t come into a full anything, there has to be room. Whether we are talking about your house, a party, a meal, or presents, He can’t fit where there is no room. Look at this verse from the Christmas story as recorded by the Gospel author Luke:

“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7

Do you have a place for the Savior in your season of full? Jesus longs to be with you, but don’t miss the miracle like the folks in the inn did because there is no place for Him. Christmas is not about what you give, but what God gave, and instead of getting more and having less room, let’s make it a year that is less about us  - it will make a whole lot more room for Him – Oh, and Merry Christmas.

In His grip, 

Pastor Pat

It's Private

What you put your faith in is a personal decision: one chooses what one believes, right? Although a person can be convinced or misled into a belief system, that in and of itself, does not make a person believe. There is a process of choice involved. I am talking here about the normal means by which a person believes what they believe, using their own free will. Often times when people speak about their faith, they will bow out of a conversation by explaining that their faith is personal, and they are fine with what they have, but do not want to talk about it.

Without affirmation, how does one know that their belief system is based on anything more than feelings? Information is not simply the key either. One can get a ton of information, but without testing the information, it is nothing more than just that: information. That is why when a person tells me their faith is private, I struggle personally with that. If your faith is private, it might be because it has not transformed you, because faith without transformation is faith in the wrong thing.

Affirmation is not someone else with shared beliefs telling you that what you believe is right. Affirmation is reading God's Word privately, and it speaks to you in a way, or about an area of your life, that maybe there is a struggle you are dealing with. Then you go to church on Sunday and the pastor is speaking on the exact same issue. This is God's divine providence orchestrating the convergence of preaching and private devotionals, so that they work together. This has nothing to do with people agreeing to agree on something or agreeing about what they believe. It is nothing short of a supernatural experience, and if it is not supernatural, it is not from God.

So what does this mean? That although you can personally read and study scripture, one must be connected to a local expression of the body (church) to fully experience the supernatural power of God, affirming His voice into their lives. Missing church then is not about a missed entertainment or informational experience, and becomes more about a missed opportunity to experience God. That is something worth going public about!

In His grip,
Pastor Pat

Hope or Wishful Thinking?

Hopeful or wishful? These words seem to be synonymous, right? One could say either I hope, or I wish, we could have our Thanksgiving dinner earlier this year, and either would work for the sake of a conversation. But I believe we have smashed these words together, and they need to be pulled apart and set back on their own.

Wishing has at its center, optimism. As an optimist one believes that either they can or that someone else will. Wishful thinking then can be super optimistic, and although it might offer a rosier view of a personally hoped for future, it is really no more than just that. Optimism at the end of the day then is when we put our hope in ourself, someone, or something else.

Now this wishful thinking can appear hopeful, but true hope has its confidence in God, so as wishful thinkers think they can or that others will, a person with true hope knows God will. So an optimist might look at a flat tire and say: "Sure, but it is only flat on the bottom." While someone who has their hope in God on the other hand, is not cued by circumstance and will look for God in any and all situations. True hope also has an odd calculator - the worse things get, true hope grows stronger and more confident.

"More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope," (Romans 5:3, 4 ESV)

Hope stops being wishful thinking when we put it where it belongs: IN God. When we put hope in anything else, well that is simply wishful thinking.

In His grip,

Pastor Pat