 Pastor's Blog Wednesday, January 08 2014
Wednesday, July 03 2013
After a much needed rest I find myself back at the church and counting all of the blessings that God has done for us as a church family. I think sometimes we need to get away to realize what we have and what God is doing. To many of us get caught up in the business of life and we miss the hidden blessings and rewards that are right in front of us. We have a Mighty and Loving God who is constantly looking out for His children and desires that we the children of God should find comfort and rest in His arms and at His side. Life wont slow down for us, we have to take time to enjoy life and enjoy our time with God. When the believer is to busy serving and running they miss the greatest joy of having a relationship with Christ. It’s at His feet and at His side where we find our strength and comfort. It’s in prayer and private worship where we see His greatness and His love for us. If you find yourself empty and struggling in your relationship with Christ. Stop what you are doing and seek the face of God. Pour your heart and soul out to Him. He is there to lift you up and pick you off the ground to help you regain the Joy of your Salvation. The Bible is clear that we the children of God must seek His face and seek to spend time with Him, otherwise we will be empty and lost without the presence of God. The Lord knows our weakness and knows our hearts. When we distance ourselves from our Creator we become dead spiritually and dissatisfied with our walks with Christ. We were created to walk with God closely and when that is missing in one’s life we are missing out on the greatest gift given to Man. Fellowship with God! Psalms 139:1-6 says “ Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up; You understand my thoughts from far away. You observe my travels and my rest; You are aware of all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, Lord. You have encircled me; You have placed Your hand on me. This extraordinary knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to reach it. Tuesday, April 09 2013
“Following the Orders of the King”
The children of God need to learn that following the orders of the King and following through with His instructions are essential to Kingdom growth. The mission fields are left empty and ministry roles are left vacant without Christ followers following and carrying out the orders of the King. Jesus said “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few”. This statement made by Jesus still is true today and will continue to be true until God’s people simply obey and follow the orders that Jesus has given the church. As a child of God we should desire to please God and to do things that honor Him. I believe more people would obey the orders if they realized how important the commission is for the growth of the Kingdom. And understood that God just wants us to be willing to go. The Bible says He equips those He has called. Mathew 28: 18-20 “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on Earth. 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 everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Isaiah knew his condition spiritually in the face of God and because He was cleansed and forgiven, He was able to respond to the call with willingness. He said, “Here am I, send Me!” We can’t allow our sinfulness and our lifestyles to keep us from following the orders of the King. Jesus is able to forgive and restore us so that we can be used for the glory of God. My prayer for the church is that we would be willing to Go and answer the call. Wednesday, January 16 2013
Jeremiah 29:11 says "for I know the plans I have for you. This is The Lords declaration, plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you. The Lords declaration and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you. The Lord declaration. I will restore you to the place I deported you from.The church live lives that are broken and defeated. So many live as though they have no purpose or plans for their life. The enemy continues to lie to individuals to keep them discouraged and to keep them from rising above the problems of this life. If we dwell on defeat and focus on our issues we will fail at fulfilling our God given purposes. The Bible says" He knows the plans He has for us". We must live as though God has plans that we are suppose to carry out. That we are not mistakes but were created for great things. If we forget that God wants us to carry out the plans He has for us than we will never accomplish our mission. He doesn't wish to hurt us or destroy us but to provide and bless us. Our lives when serving Christ are filled with great hope and by doing so we guarantee a future filled with blessings and provisions from God. Life won't be easy and perfect but it will be filled with purpose. We can't live this life alone and we most certainly can't fulfill our future with Christ without steady communication with the Father. We will live beaten down and empty lives if we are not spending time with Christ. The Bible says "You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you." Tuesday, December 04 2012
This Christmas learn to be content and satisfied in any and every situation you find yourself. The Lord is always at work and always is trying to teach you something. My wife and I normally feel the need to go over board with our children at Christmas because things were much different for us growing up. I remember last year when we came walking down the stairs I felt like I had done something wrong. My wife and I felt the same. We were giving our kids things that we would have never been able to afford growing up.What were we teaching them? What message were we sending to them? This year My wife and I have made the choice to spend less and teach more. What I mean by that is we will buy them some gifts but we will teach them more about the Lord and bring Christ to the center of our Christmas this year. Our children need to see Mom and Dad living for the Lord and making him first in our lives. Even more so during the Holiday season that is suppose to be centered around the Birth of our King. We have so much in our lives and its because our King was born to die so that we would have life. We get so worked up about all the presents and the things we must buy for everyone we love but we already have so much. We need to spend more time sharing the news about who the King is and what the King has done for us. Our children and our families need the Lord Jesus and he offers His gift freely for anyone who wants to receive it. Its a special gift! Its a gift that does not wear out and fall apart. Its the gift of having eternal life and spending eternity worshipping the King. Remember this month to not get swallowed up in the consumer mentality of buying more and more but to spend time worshipping the King and sharing the news of the King. There is not greater gift! John 3:16 says " For God so loved the world in this way: He gave His, One and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life." Tuesday, October 16 2012
1 Timothy 1:12-15 says “12 I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, appointing me to the ministry— 13 one who was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I received mercy because I acted out of ignorance in unbelief. 14 And the grace of our Lord overflowed, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” and I am the worst of them Pastors are not worthy to be where they are in that they are merely vessels used by God to shepherd and feed the flock. God’s grace covers and in some sense equips because without the grace of God there would be no position of Pastor. His grace covers and because of that grace we can serve where He has called us and appointed us. It’s only by the grace of God that sinners can be used to further the Kingdom. Paul had a past on him and he was amazed that God would use him despite of that past. I can relate to Paul in many ways, I didn’t persecute Christians but I turned my back on God and the faith for many years. Notice, Paul says that he received mercy because he acted out of ignorance. Whether you are a Pastor, Teacher, Leader or someone who serves in the church this is important for you to remember. The Lord has been merciful to us and has called us to serve the Him despite our past and history because He is abundant in mercy and grace. Those that walk in the Christian faith and those that aspire to serve the King in a greater capacity will face demons from their past and the Enemy will work on them until they allow their emotions and feelings to get them to submit and stop serving the Lord. The Christian walk and Serving the King means that you will be in the ring daily fighting spiritual battles and you will always be fighting mainly your past. Every Pastor and Every Christians has to know His or Her place, in that “Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners and we are the worst of them. Paul, knew his place, He knew that He was in need of grace and knew that he was only able to serve the King because of it. 1 Timothy 3:1 says “This saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work. The position of Pastor demands many things but the most difficult thing is when you forget your place at the cross and forget that the same grace that was given to every member in the body of Christ was given to you. The enemy is always working on damaging the church and damaging the body and most certainly damaging the shepherd. The church needs to be protective of their pastor and family and be in continual prayer for protection and strength for them. During this month take time to build up your pastor or pray for him. Know that he is always fighting a very difficult battle and needs your help to carry out the work. Sunday, August 19 2012
Living with Conviction and living with a Spirit of Confession is something that is difficult to do but its important for the church to grasp and live out. As a church body we have been working on having a spirit of confession and prayer before our Holy God. John the Baptist preached the right kind of sermons... they were filled with repentance and change for a Holy God. He preached about preparing the way... As Christ followers we need to be focusing on preparing our hearts and lives for the Lord to return... That we would have lives and households presentable for the King. Holy and Blameless, fully prepared to meet Him in the air. As the Pastor, I don't believe in preaching sermons that lack in conviction and truth. In these last days more than ever the truth about right living needs to be preached. If we are not being transformed in our walks with Christ we are dying. The average believer has become custom to preaching that is pleasing to the ear and lacks the bold truth needed for God to change people. As our church becomes more obedient in all areas and as we boldly become the church that God can be pleased with, we look for Him to do great things through us. Thursday, May 24 2012
Most of my life as a follower of Christ I have attended various church’s and to many of those years I have spent inside the building. We are called as followers of Christ to go out and make disciples and are called to be the salt and light. We spend so much time trying to bring the lost into the church rather than training our church to leave the comforts of our own building and what is comfortable for us as Christ followers. Too many expect God to just bring them to us and into our building. We need to go where the lost are and bring them into a relationship with Jesus Christ. The lost and the un reached for the most part are outside the structure of the Church. I have been the Senior Pastor for almost a year and I have spent most of my preaching time on having a Kingdom mentality rather than a church building mentality. I encourage the church to leave the comfort of the walls to go reach the people of our community. Mathew 9:36 says “When He saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were weary and worn out, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” As a Pastor and Leader of Houghton Baptist Church I urge you to be one of the workers and go out into the fields to reap the harvest.
Wednesday, March 21 2012
From the heart of your Pastor,
In all reality all men and women no matter who you are face great trials and inner struggles. We battle thoughts, our work loads, the weight of our life's responsibilities, and we also face pain.
The idea of a leader always appearing strong and confident is comforting for most but that's not the reality for most leaders. They are faced with difficult task, decisions and responsibilities daily.
I think in this day and age that its rare for leaders to be as transparent as Jesus. There are so many that never show weakness and allow themselves to be vulnerable to those that they lead. Jesus showed his disciples who He was at all times. Jesus was an amazing leader and always showed great leadership but He let those that were close to Him see him even when he was weak,hurting or even struggling with something. The men that walked with Jesus knew him and didn't just have an image of Him but truly knew who He was.
This past week this passage in Mathew spoke to my heart and hopefully it will speak to you.
Mathew 26: 36-38 says " Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and He told the disciples, " Sit here while I go over there and pray." Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, " My soul is swallowed up in sorrow to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with Me."
Jesus showed his brothers how vulnerable he was and didn't try to hide what He was feeling. When I read this it encourages me to be this kind of vulnerable to those that I shepherd. Also that our Lord who is God when he was flesh wept and felt the way we do. We have a God who understands our hurts and sufferings, He knows we are weak.
Pastor and Church relationship should look a lot like this! Jesus even in his most difficult times took the men with Him and asked if they would stay awake with Him. Jesus knew how much He needed those men to walk by His side and be there for Him to pray, and encourage Him.
I guess what I am asking as your Pastor, is to stay awake with me! To walk with me through this ministry and pray for me the same as I would with you. The more open and trusting we are with each other the more we will accomplish for the Kingdom. Pastor's need to have this kind of relationship with there flock!
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