Whose Kingdom are you building?

There is a story in the beginning of Matthew's Gospel that speaks of Jesus being tempted three times by the devil himself. The first two temptations set the scene and build up to the third which is grammatically the climax of the story.

In the final temptation, the devil takes Jesus to the highest point of the city where they look out over all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil challenges Jesus to bow down and worship him and he will give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.

Now think about this for a second. If Jesus accepted Satan's challenge and bowed down to him, He would have eliminated his death on the cross. He would not have suffered a criminals death.

Instead of building Satan's Kingdom, Jesus stuck to God's plan, made his way to the cross, conquered death, and flipped the script because now Jesus is challenging us to partner with Him in building God's kingdom. God's kingdom is built one person at a time, one church at a church.

I asked myself, who's Kingdom am I building, God's or Satan's? Do you accept his challenge?

Spiritual Pilgrimage

I made a spiritual pilgrimage to a place I haven't been in five years, a place I owe my new life to, a place called Syracuse-New York-Teen Challenge. (Teen Challenge is a Christian Discipleship / Rebab). My wife and I had the privilege to do ministry in the very place I was ministered to. It brought back a lot of memories when I stepped into the building for the first time. We spoke on Dating, Sex, and Marriage from a Biblical Perspective. We challenged the guys to make a commitment to stay sexually pure till marriage. They all signed commitment cards. We had a great time, but nothing could be better then speaking to an audience that included my brother, Luke. He has been there for 6 weeks and told me he is going the distance, completing the program. He also said, he feels like God is nudging his heart in the direction of ministry!!!

Video Shoot

Yesterday, myself, a church planter, and a film guy and his son went out and shot the city of Beverly in preparation for a service where we will be showing a video of our filming to a song. We got to meet a ton of people. We actually were blessed with a great day for filming since the city of Beverly teamed up with Salem to have a parade. So we blended right in with our camera. Residents and visitors probably thought we were from a TV channel or something. We got to interview people who helped us find data about Beverly. We asked what is one need a church can meet? We got answers like children's and teenagers programs, soup kitchens, homeless ministry, etc. You can't beat first hand knowledge from actual residents who know the community better then any research or statistics you find in a book or on the Internet. The people of Beverly were extremely friendly. The city is known for being on the ocean coast, one person said. When the video is finished, I will try to post a link. Stay tuned for it.

One thing I learned is that starting a new church does not begin by implementing some program another church might have had success with, but it begins with building relationships with people. If people can't trust you, they won't trust your program. A church is started by building bridges of trust to the churches programs and services, not vice versa. Can't wait to get back out there to meet more people.

Thanksgiving Reflections

Here's the blog you have been waiting for!! My Thanksgiving day blog!! First, let me preface this by saying my family, who I love dearly, puts the "Dys" in Dysfunctional and we lived up to that this Thanksgiving. I realized that when we sat down for dinner and someone began blasting Led-Zepplin and banging on what seemed like a pillar in the basement that was holding up the floor which we were sitting on, but I can testify we didn't fall through. And I was thankful for that.

I realized something though in those moments. I wouldn't trade my family for anything in the world. We are who we are, with all our warts and all. Family is family, regardless how we act. We are family forever. We only get one family. I would not mind having that same thing happen again, and again, because if you can't love your family who you can see, then how can you love a God, who you cannot see. I believe that and live that out and thank God for my family.

Mission Crisis

Had my weekly meeting with a church planter who I have the privilege to help start a church from scratch. We are trying to get to the core of why the church exists? What is the mission of the church? We believe the mission of the church is simple. To lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. What this means is that each person who comes to faith in Christ, must then learn what it means to be a disciple and then reproduce themselves. Each disciple must disciple somebody. The Church is making disciples, but the disciples are not reproducing themselves.

I believe that every person in the church must disicples somebody in their life. Mom's should disicples their chidlren, dads their friends, husdands their wives, children their friends, etc.

Disciples of Christ make disicples.

We ended our meeting today in frustrated that we have not been doing this in our own lives. We beleive that if the church we start is going to disicples disciples, then it is going to start with us. We are going to step out of the boat and make disciples that make disicples. Stay tuned for what is to come with the church plant.

Home Improvement Ministries

Liz and I had our 4th training session with Home Improvement Ministries yesterday. The topic of the night was SERVING. If you can't serve your spouse (from a Christian standpoint) then you really must check your Christianity. Jesus told us to love our neighbors and our enemies so our spouses fall somewhere in between there, Serving your spouse is not an issue of personal happiness but an act of obedience to Christ. So if you flip the coin, not to serve your spouse regardless how she/he treasts you is an act of disobedience.

I want to suggest marriage will not make you happy all the time, but it will sure make you Christ-like all of the time. Jesus said it best. He didn't come to be served but to serve. I believe that you haven't loved somebody till you have served them!

Remember The Titans (did not remember the Facts!)

I talked to somebody who attended TC Williams high school in VA the year the Remember the Titans movies was based off of. It was the year of 1970-1971. Three high schools integrated that year, so three varsity football teams joined forces. She said that year high school foot ball was a joke, no one had a chance against there team unlike the movie which made it seem like every game was a struggle to win. And also even more of a bummer was she was best friends with Gerry Bertier the linebacker who supposedly got into an accident with a drunk driver during his final season at the time of state championship which made it harder for them to win. UNTRUE!! He did get hit by a car, but it was not until Feb. after football was over in the last Nov. He didn't get hit by another car, it was a single car accident where he hit a tree. He did die though years later by a drunk driver. All in all she said the movie was 50% correct. The moral of the story is be careful how much stock you put into those movies that profess to be inspired by a true story!

Prepare-Enrich

On Friday, Liz and I were certified in administering a PREPARE/ENRICH, a pre-marital and marriage assessment tool. It is the most power assessment tool out there. It takes a photograph of your relationship and then shows you your strenghts and growth areas as a couple. Most assessment tools just focus on the individual. This one takes a cat-scan of your relationship. It can predict marital satisfaction with precision. I would suggest everyone who is thinking about getting engaged to be married or if you have been married for 50 years to take this assessment to see where you are in your relationship, so that you could strive for satisfaction.

Behind the Scenes

I want to give you a little behind the scenes action on a church plant I have the privilege to help start. Today, we had our weekly BIG IDEA meeting. We planned a service, we will be putting on at the church he works for which is the church that will be mothering the church plant.

Here's our tentative order of service for Dec. 9, 2007. It might be a little out of order, but we are still working on it!!

Service Prep.
Theme: “LOST”

Matthew 28:19-20

Worship:
Song changes, no horns, etc.
Hill Song (The Stand), etc.

Video:
Song to Pictures of Beverly!

Goal is to put faces to the Lost in Beverly.
Begin taking pics.,
Casting Crowns (Doesn’t anybody hear her?) as the background song.

Welcome:
Briefly explain what we did and what we are doing.

Announcements:
Minimum Announcements

Prayer:
Short and Sweet, to the point, not long

Offertory:
New song,

band with guitars, etc.

Video:
Intro. Video
Rich/Jess, causal conversation,

shoot in coffee house in Beverly,

get camera,

schedule time

Message:
Lost Theme
Power Point
(1) Make a Confession:
Confessions of an Associate Pastor
Practical Atheism:

Believing God exist, but doing the work of ministry as if God doesn't exist!
(2) Make a Challenge:

Compelling Challenge
Find a time to meet after to share info.

MISC. Details:
No one on the platform
No huge pulpit, use music stand,
Countdown clock

Bulletin
Garden City Church
Simple Bulletin, Lost theme, Outreach.com
Cores Values, Mission statement, etc.
Time to meet to talk about the church plant, just come, etc.

(Got the LOST image above from Lifechurch.tv)

Satan's Top 10 Lies about SEX

My wife and I are doing a seminar on Dating, Marriage and Sex in light of God's Word. The reality is, Satan does not have a better alternative for sex, but he tries to get us to think, he does. God’s plan for sex, as we will see is absolutely the best, we have, but since Satan has got so many people living lies, we have a hard time sorting out, what is God’s truth about sex and what are Satan’s lies? Here are his TOP 10 LIES! If you can think of anymore let me know!!!

Satan’s Top 10 Lies Our Culture Believes Are True

10. THE LIE: Satan created sex!
THE TRUTH: God created sex!

9. THE LIE: Christians are not supposed to talk about sex!
THE TRUTH: Christians have words from God about Sex!

8. THE LIE: The more sexual partners before marriage the better!
THE TRUTH: The less sexual partners before marriage the better!

7. THE LIE: Premarital sex prepares a couple for marriage!
THE TRUTH: Premarital sex sabotages your marriage!

6. THE LIE: Live together before marriage!
THE TRUTH: Live together after marriage!

5. THE LIE: The Grass is Greener on the other side!
THE TRUTH: Fertilize your own soil!

4. THE LIE: Marriage will solve your sexual problems!
THE TRUTH: Marriage intensifies sexual problems!

3. THE LIE: Sex is a woman’s top priority!
THE TRUTH: Sex is not on the top of their list!

2. THE LIE: A satisfying sex life holds a marriage together!
THE TRUTH: A satisfying relationship holds a marriage together!

1. THE LIE: Sexual sin does hurt Your relationship with God.
THE TRUTH: Sexual sin directly affects your relationship with God.

Orphan Annie!

I have adopted! Not a child, but a PUG!! We were able to rent-a-pug for a 4 days while home on a Reading Week Break. She is the best pug I ever met!! We named her Annie for orphan Annie!! And Olivia for Olivia the pig, so she is Olivia-Ann.

You can see her and even buy her @Howling Hill Kennels LLC. Alvin and Emma Brenneman http://www.howlinghillkennel.com/ 540-788-4046

These people are top notch. They will fly you your pug to wherever and whenever, just contact them! Check out there site. You won't be able to shut your computer without thinking about buying a PUG.

LOST

A church planter and myself are planning a service, a group of us are going to do at his church. The goal is to cast vision for the church plant to see if anybody wants to partner with us to start a new church in Beverly, MA.

We got thinking and came up with the theme, LOST. We figured out that out of the 40,000+ people in Beverly where the church is going to be planted, 74% or approximately 30,000+ people are not meaningfully connected to a church family and half of those don't have any kind of connection to God whatsoever. THEY ARE LOST!!

Our goal is to higher the percentage of those people who have no relationship with God to people who are actively engaged in a church. Our goal is to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. We want to partner with God so that the LOST become FOUND.

I will keep you updated as this unfolds!

Thanksgiving Tradition

I want to share a family tradition my wife and I created a couple years ago. Around thanksgiving time, we find a family who can't afford to buy a thanksgiving dinner, and we bless them by paying for their meal. We do it, solely, to show our thankfulness to God for what He how he has provided for us in miraculous ways through the year. Today, we are excited because we located that family. I love what Jesus said about giving. I wish I knew know to get our culture to believe and practice this, "It is more blessed to give then to receive."

GIVE

I am convinced that one of the greatest joys in life is to GIVE. I feel like the more I can give the more successful I will be in life. Success is not getting as much stuff and keeping it, that's greed, I define success as giving as much as you can get. That is called, LOVE.

LOVE ALWAYS GIVES!

The reason I say that is because I am fortunate enough to support one of my best friends who is in Africa sharing the Gospel with people who would not have heard it if it was not for he and his wife, to give their lives for the mission of Jesus Christ. You want to talk about giving, I don't even know what it is, compared to what Jerry and Paula gave up to live in AFRICA. So I once a month, my wife and I GIVE them money to help support them.

Checkout their site: www.jerryandpaula.com

You might want to GIVE!!!

Crazy Christian Doctrines

I got to go to Harvard yesterday with Liz to hear one of my prof's speak on the bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Before, I get to the teaching, got to say that the campus of Harvard is like Heaven!! The library looks like the White House, seriously! Every building is massive, reaching to the Heavens, well not quite!! I love it.

The teaching was stimulating and extremely interesting:

The main idea of the night was that the bodily resurrection of Jesus has opened the door for those who believe in Him to have access to the New Heavens and the New Earth where our present bodily will be meaningfully related to our glorified bodies (or you can just say, the bodies we will have in Heaven).

Did you catch that "meaningfully related?" Not the same.

What we do in our physical bodies is going to have eternal consequences. Yes, that is true. The work or lack of work, one does will effect our eternal residency in Heaven. Works don't get us into heaven, only God could engineer that process, if you don't believe me just try to raise yourself from the dead!! We can't do it ourselves, but our works are the result of the hope we have in the bodily resurrection.

Heaven, the Bible depicts, is a lot more then clouds and harps! Everything on earth that is tainted by sin will be renewed and everything, believers have done with the right motivation will be better, if that was not the case, then why would have God given us the command to fill the earth and to exercise dominion over it, and the Jesus command us to love God and our neighbor? We have these commandments because what believers who are following Christ do while in their physical body directly effects eternity when we will be in our heavenly body.

If our life work did not mean a thing for eternity, God would have no grounds as a just and loving God, to judge us on the day of judgement when every man and woman will stand before God, and give an account for their life work.

He ended his talk with an admonishment, to the students of Harvard, not to be scared of good works, because the apostle, Paul says that is exactly what we were created for and James the brother of Jesus, says, without them your faith is dead, but do good works out of our love for God.