Sep 10

Why Not Friendship Days?

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Yesterday, we had our 2nd Annual Friendship Day. We had a good number of visitors attend and enjoy a fellowship meal with us. It was a great day! Our members took the challenge to invite their friends and neighbors seriously. We had a predetermined goal we wanted to reach. We promoted our big day every service. We had postcards made for our members to pass out. We designed an email for the members to foward to all their contacts. We had an event page on Facebook. We had the information posted weeks in advance on our sign outside. We did almost everything possible to make people aware of our Friendship Day and it paid off. We had a good number of friends and family attend. It was definitely a great day for the Karns congregation.

After seeing all the excitement generated yesterday, I couldn’t help but wonder what an impact Christians would make if we treated every Sunday as a Friendship Sunday. We go out of our way to invite our friends and neighbors on this “one” special day, but then we seem to neglect the other 51 Sundays of the year. Why don’t we make a big deal out of every Lord’s Day and not just the special one to boost our attendance? Why can’t each Sunday be Friendship Day?

Jesus told His followers to go and make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18-20). He told them to be His witnesses in all the world (Acts 1:8). Most of the disciples gave their lives for the cause of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What are we doing? We have one big day of attendance and we get excited only to have our attendance drop back down to “normal” the next week. What if our congregations made every week Friendship Day. What if we placed the same effort and emphasis on next week that we did this past week? What if we promoted, talked up, and encouraged members to invite their friends and neighbors like this every week? After seeing such great results this past Sunday, imagine the possibilities if we put the same energy into inviting our friends and family every time we gathered together for Bible study and worship. Who knows, our congregations just might grow, both numerically and spiritually!

Now that’s Something to Think About!

Sep 05

In His Own Eyes

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The book of Judges is an exciting book to read but a sad reflection of God’s people. The book ends with one of the saddest verses in all of scripture: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Jgs. 21:25). These very words are clearly seen from the outset (Jgs. 1:27-2:5) when Israel failed to complete the conquest of Canaan by not driving out the inhabitants of the land. This failure led to Israel’s unfaithfulness and set the course for what would be the pattern throughout the entire book of Judges; 1) The people turned their back on God, 2) God punished them by raising up their enemies against them, 3) The people cried out to God for help, 4) God raised up a judge to deliver them, 5) The land had a period of rest, 6) The cycle is repeated.

As I reflect on the book of Judges, I can’t help but wonder, “Are God’s people today committing the same sin as the people of Israel did in the book of Judges? Are we doing what is right in our own eyes?” To answer these questions honestly, each of us must answer a few underlining questions about our lives.

1)    Do I fully desire to live out God’s will for my life (Eph. 6:5-7)?

2)    Do I fully desire to live according to God’s standards, even when they conflict with my own desires and interests (Rom. 13:12-14)?

3)    Do I fully desire to honor and worship God the way He has commanded (Jn. 4:24)?

4)    Do I fully desire to please God above everyone and everything in my life (Gal. 1:10; Jn. 13:42-43; Acts 5:29)?

5)    Do I fully desire to give up and sacrifice my rights, my privileges and my desires because I want to be totally devoted to God (Gal. 2:20)?

Friends, if we answer NO to any of the above questions, I’m afraid we are guilty of doing what is right in our own sight. The book of Judges is a tragic display of self-destruction.  When God’s people begin doing what is right in our own eyes, we open our lives up to a huge mess!

Aug 14

Dream Great Dreams Pt. 4: What Great Dreams Require

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If you haven’t read the first three posts of this series, click below.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

As I conclude this series on “Dream Great Dreams,” I want to talk today about what great dreams require. Everything worthwhile in life requires something. If you want to lose weight, you have to exercise and eat right. If you want to bulk up, you have to hit the gym and push yourself harder than you have before. If you want to have a great marriage, you have to work at meeting the needs of your spouse. If you want to become an expert in a certain field, you have to study hard…a lot!!!

If we want to accomplish our great dreams for God, we have to do the unordinary. We have to be willing to do what few people will do. Take Abram as an example. God told him he would be abundantly blessed and that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him. All Abram had to do was leave his homeland and go to the land God would show him. There was a catch though. When Abram left, God hadn’t told him where he was going…Abram simply had to trust God (Gen. 12).

It’s easy to think we would have been willing to do what Abram did. However, if we answer honestly, I’m not sure we could say we would have done what he did. You see, Abram did the unordinary. Very few people would have been willing to leave their homeland, their family and their friends, in order to be led to some unknown destination. Yet, that’s what Abram did…he did the unordinary and was greatly blessed.

If Christians are going to accomplish great dreams, Christians are going to have to do the unordinary. We are going to have to step out of our comfort zone and trust God to make things happen. We have to believe God can take our dreams and make them a reality. Unless we do this, we will never fully accomplish all that is possible.

Friends, God is inviting ordinary Christians to dream great dreams. He wants us to dream big when it comes to making an eternal impact. God does this not for the glory of Christians, but for His glory. Throughout this series I have asked, “What’s your dream?” As you contemplate this question consider this: “The size of our dreams reflects the size of our God!” The only question that remains is, “How big are you dreaming?”

Now that’s Something to Think About!

Aug 13

Dream Great Dreams Pt. 3 – Dreams We Should Dream Con’t

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We are in the middle of a 4-part series called, “Dream Great Dreams.” If you have not read the first two posts in this series, click below…

            Part 1 – Unlimited Resource

            Part 2 – Dreams We Should Dream

As we continue in this series, let’s consider a couple more dreams we should be dreaming as Children of God.

We should dream for Christians to make disciples of all nations. One of the final commands Jesus gave to His disciples was, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:19-20). As Christians, we place a great emphasis on baptism and we should. However, did you notice what Jesus told His disciples in the passage above? He said their goal was to make disciples by baptizing them and then teaching them. Sadly, I’m afraid this is where we have failed in the church. We do a decent job of going on mission trips, both foreign and domestic, and teaching people to obey the Gospel. We urge our young people to obey the Gospel before the graduate high school. Both are important, but this is not the only thing we should be doing. Once a person obeys the Gospel, their journey is just beginning. This is the time they need us the most. They need older, mature Christians to disciple them. They need to be taught what it means to live and walk as a follower of Jesus. We should dream for Christians to make disciples of all nations.

We should dream for Christians to hunger after God’s Word. Peter said, “Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Pet. 2:2). The word translated long in the Greek language means, “To pursue with love, to long after, to lust.” As people who claim to be the people of God, are we pursuing after His word with love?  Do we long to spend time each day reading and studying from the greatest book ever written? If we are truly people who are hungering after the Word of God it will show in our behavior. People will be able to tell by the way we live. Do you remember the milk ad where celebrities would drink some milk and then they would be left with a milk mustache? The milk mustache made it obvious what the celebrity was drinking. Can people notice we’ve been hungering after God’s Word? Do people see the evidence left in our behavior? We should be dreaming for Christians to hunger after God’s Word.

There are plenty more dreams we should be dreaming as Christians, but I think this is enough to show there is a lot of work left to be done. My hope and prayer is for Christians to start dreaming great dreams and making an eternal impact on the world around them. What are you dreaming?

Now that’s Something to Think About!

Aug 10

Dream Great Dreams Pt. 2: Dreams We Should Dream

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Yesterday I began a series on dreaming great dreams. If you did not have a chance to read part 1 click here. Today I would like to focus on the great dreams we should be dreaming as Christians. When we talk about dreaming BIG in the church we typically focus on expanding our buildings, adding new programs and finding various ways to make our congregations known in the community. While all of these are good dreams, I’m not quite sure they are what I would call great dreams. It seems to me, before we focus on the things above, we should be focusing on more personal things. Let me give you a few of the great dreams I think we as Christians should be dreaming.

We should dream for Christians to allow God’s glory to be seen through their lives. Jesus told His disciples to let their lights shine before men so that God would be glorified in Heaven (Matt. 5:16). Think about Paul, he was a good man. After his conversion to Christianity he went about doing many good things. However, he wasn’t just good; Paul’s life magnified the glory of God. That’s what our lives should do as well. Every day we need to be seeking out opportunities to do good (Gal. 6:10). Don’t wait for opportunities to appear, go make opportunities happen. Let your life magnify the glory of God. Sadly, most Christians fail when it comes to this. Our lives aren’t much different than the lives of non-Christians. Our dream should be for Christians to allow God’s glory to be seen through their lives.

We should dream for Christians to start taking the Gospel seriously. Many of you are probably wondering what I mean by this. I’m afraid Christians in the USA have Americanized the Gospel into what we want it to be. We have taken the words of Jesus and twisted them to mean what we want them to mean. Let me give you an example. Take the rich man who approached Jesus asking what he must do to be saved (Mk. 10:17-23). Jesus told him, “You know the commandments: Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother” (v.19). The man responded, “Teacher, all these I have kept since I was a boy” (v. 20). What Jesus said next must have rocked the man’s world. Jesus said, “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (v. 21). What’s recorded next are some of the saddest words in all of scripture; “Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (v. 22). As Christians, we read this account and say, “Jesus was trying to teach the man about priorities. You got to get your priorities straight man.” My question is, “What if there is more to the words of Jesus? What if Jesus was serious?” Over and over I’m afraid we have taken the words of Jesus and made them into what we want them to say. Our dream should be for Christians to take the Gospel seriously.

We should dream for Christians to start seeking the Kingdom of God first. Just look around at the lives of so called Christians…one can see what’s important to them by the lifestyle they live. Jesus told His disciples, “But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). When I observe church attendance, church giving, church passion, efforts in discipleship making and biblical illiteracy, just to name a few, it’s pretty evident those of us who call ourselves Christians are not seeking God first in our lives. Our dream should be for Christians to start seeking the Kingdom of God first.

Tomorrow I will continue with a couple more of the great dreams Christians should be dreaming. I’d love to hear from you. What do you think Christians should be dreaming?

Now that’s Something to Think About!