Election season is upon us. Soon we’ll be entering that little booth and marking the appropriate boxes for the candidates of our choice. Along with this season come many, many different opinions. Some of these opinions will be voiced more passionately than others. Many of the most passionately voiced opinions are also the most negative opinions. With so much going on I thought I would offer a little perspective from God’s Word.
1. Please don’t allow the passion/negativity of others to dissuade you from participating! In Acts 25 Paul is on trial and we read these words: The Paul made his defense: "I have done nothing wrong against the law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar." Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, "Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges?" Paul answered: "I am now standing before Caesar’s court, where I ought to be tried. I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well. If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I don not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!" As a Roman citizen Paul had the right to appeal his case all the way to Rome. I think this is a clear indication that we should be involved as citizens of our nation. We should exercise those rights. Certainly, one of the most basic and most essential rights we have a U.S. citizens is voting. Please do not be dismayed, instead pay attention, pray, make a choice and exercise your right to vote.
2. Remember leadership is difficult. Proverbs 8:15-16 remind us, By me kings reign and rulers make laws that are just; by me princes govern and all nobles who rule on earth. God is in control even if we disagree with the leadership in place in our country. We have the right, freedom and responsibility to be a part of the process. We do not have the right to tear down the leaders elected, whether they are our preference or not. In other words the old adage, "You don’t have a right to complain if you don’t vote," isn’t true on any level. Our right is to vote. Our right is to disagree and even to voice those disagreements. Our rights do not extend to not honoring those in leadership.
3. Submit to authorities. Romans 13:1-2 says, Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is not authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
What a blessing to be born and live in the United States! Let’s each take some time to pray for our leaders, to thank Him for so richly providing for us and let’s especially remember those serving in harms way to insure these freedoms continue.
Categories: Election · Prayer
Much of the time when someone in the church talks about the conversion of Saul, they’re referring to his experience on the road to Damascus. Saul, a guy who had been pouring all of his energy into persecuting the Church, is confronted by a voice and a bright light. In this bright light he encounters the risen Christ! Wow! How cool must that experience have been? Well, maybe cool isn’t the right word. Saul falls to his face and asks for the voice in the light to identify himself. When he learns the voice is Jesus, Saul must have been equal parts amazed and frightened. This experience leaves Saul blind and curious, but not a follower of Christ.
In fact Saul does not commit his life to serving Jesus until verses 17-19 in Acts chapter 9, when he meets Ananias. God had sent Ananias to Saul in order to heal his blindness and to baptize him. These verses recount Saul’s conversion! God wants nothing more than for everyone to turn to Him and Jesus could have certainly "sealed the deal" on the road with a convicted, scared, emotionally raw Saul. Instead God chose and continues to choose to limit himself to what the Church is willing to do… So, how ’bout it? What are you willing to do?
Categories: Cross Training · Wallula Christian Church
I’m really excited about the new sermon series we’re beginnig at Wallula this Sunday! The series is called High Definition Living. We’ll examine some lesser know incidents in the life of King David in scripture as we talk through six values that will help us live a bigger, bolder and brighter life! This is a great series to invite your friends to. They will here wisdom from scripture that will equip and transform!
Categories: Wallula Christian Church
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about why we gather together weekly to worship together. I’m sure many of you have thought through this issue a long time ago in your journey to know God more, but for a variety of reasons I’ve been wrestling with this idea. The Church sometimes gets a bad rap for their weekly meetings. Sunday mornings have been described as the most segregated hour in the United States every week. Usually an offering is received in these meetings and that adds to some people’s perception that the church is all about money. You are bound to find someone in a worship service on Sunday mornings that you also saw behaving poorly somewhere else during the week, and it might even be the preacher! This occurrence lends itself to some people’s assumption that the church is full of hypocrites. With all of it’s flaws why do we bother gathering each week to worship? I’ve been thinking about these reasons:
1. The Church is the hope of the world! The only relationship that will change a person’s life for all of eternity is a relationship with Jesus. The Church is still the best place for a casually spiritual person to be introduced and grow a transforming relationship with Jesus. Even as we struggle with a bunch of different flaws the Church is the hope bearer for the world. We can not drop this ball!
2. It provides us with a weekly opportunity to publicly acknowledge God as our God! Sure, there are other ways that we must be proclaiming Jesus as our Lord through out the week. We cannot ignore those other opportunities, but don’t underestimate the power of a student seeing their teacher in a worship service on the weekend. Please do not ignore the influence you have with a coworker when they discover you make worship a weekly habit. Understand that your presence and participation in weekly worship matters to those around you in the community. How much more powerful do you suppose this influence becomes when we sacrificially offer ourselves in worship even when the music, or the message is not delivered via our personal preferences? I think that is the kind of act I want the Holy Spirit to get His hands on! I’m praying that I’ll provide Him with that opportunity more often!!!
3. I don’t want the rocks to cry out! Jesus promised if we, His people, do not worship Him the rocks will take our place. I have a real problem being replaced by a rock!
4. Scripture says to! Hebrews 10:25 says, "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."
Categories: Wallula Christian Church
Ahhh, the movies! Maybe nothing says summer, or at least nothing used to say summer, like a night at the drive-in. The backyard on WCC’s campus probably isn’t quite the same as the drive-in, but a beautiful night, an inflatable screen and a dvd player later & we had a reasonable facsimile!
After a power outage derailed set up for about 2 hours – - we were able to scramble and get everything set up in time to start the movie by 9 pm. It all worked out okay since this is just about the time it is dark enough to get rolling!
Remember, there is one more family fun night on August 10! We’ll get together for an old fashion ice cream social and some fun yard games. So get your spoons ready and bring your horseshoe pitching arm cuz’ it’s sure to be a lot of fun!
Categories: Family Fun Night
One of the trips I’ve taken recently was to Cincinatti, OH for the North American Christian Convention . Every year Christian Churches from, well, North America gather to worship together, learn together and build relationships together. Since we believe each individual congregation is independent to follow Scriptures lead in the best way it knows how there is no business that takes place at this convention.
I enjoy this gathering every year. It is an awesome opportunity to hear great preaching, learn from other church leaders and even relax a little bit!
This year my family had the opportunity catch a Reds’ ball game and visit the Creation Museum . Both experiences were a lot of fun and I’m sure I’ll fill you in on what we learned during this week! We also visited two different churches on our way home – - when you combine those with the four churches I visited this past weekend, I’ve endured, er, rather, enjoyed six worship services in six different churches the past two weeks…
Categories: Leadership · Wallula Christian Church
A very few folks check out this little corner of the blog world, but to you, I’m sorry for taking such a long break from blogging. Summer took me on a wild ride time wise, but I want to continue sharing what is important to me, with you, so I’ll try to be more consistent in the coming weeks and months.
Categories: blogging
Okay, for all you silly Jayhawk fans, I heard Bill Self talk about his 3 keys to leadership on the radio today. I really think Coach Self is onto something with these three simple principles.
1. Get along with people – - This is sometimes an overlooked idea, especially with leadership types. People drawn to leadership positions tend to be very driven, task oriented people which is great, leaders need to have a motor that doesn’t stop. The problem is that leaders also need followers. In fact with out anyone to follow to serve alongside of leaders, leaders aren’t well, leaders! In order to mobolize the forces leaders have to get along with others. I thought this was a tremendous first key!
2. Surround yourself with people strong in your areas of weakness. I really like Bill Self. He seems to be a guy who has balanced a great sense of confidence in himself with a strong dose of humility. He acknowledged that a great deal of his success as a basketball coach is due to others picking up his areas of weakness. We all have weaknesses and one of the keys to leadership is finding folks to help in those areas!
3. Get people to buy into the vision – I’m a huge big picture guy. I love to think about what God wants to do through us, so I thought it really interesting that vision buy in was #3. I can’t say I disagree with Coach Self. If people are turned away by the way you treat them or if you never allow them any meaningful way to contribute folks will never be around long enough to catch the vision!
Categories: Uncategorized
Last Sunday while most dad’s grilled a few burgers and enjoyed a cool drink, one dad we know was running and biking and swimming his way through the first ever Kansas Ironman competition. Here is how our own George Hodge describes it in his own words:
“Yesterday (Sun – yes Father’s Day) I competed in the inaugural Ford IRONMAN Kansas 70.3 Triathlon out west of Lawrence, Kansas at Clinton Lake. This race consisted of a 1.2 mi swim, 56 mi bike race, and ended with a 13.1 mi half marathon run. The bike ride was very hilly and the run was 13.1 miles of loops, twists, and figure 8’s thru several campgrounds out by the lake. It was like running thru a cornfield maze with all those turns. Here are my stats:
Swim – 45:05 (average)
Bike – 3:06:47 (about what I expected for a hilly course)
Run – 2:02:03 (5 min faster than what I ran in Oklahoma City)”
I’m just super impressed with the discipline, determination and I’m sure a few other “d” words that allowed George to finish this race. Way to go George!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tomorrow is a big day at Wallula Christian Church! We’ll be dealing with a big topic in scripture – Fatherhood! and we’ll be starting a week filled with big fun for all the kids we know! God’s Big Backyard is our theme for Vacation Bible School this year! Kids in preschool through 5th grade will have a big, big time and it all starts tomorrow evening! 6:00 – 8:30 pm are the times for this exciting week long event!
Categories: Uncategorized
