Do you delight God?

As a parent I would like to have a child that delights me. It is a wish of every parent to delight in their children. I want to share two types of persons who bring delight to God. God allowed His people to call Him as: “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, God of Moses, God of Daniel, etc…  

The first type of person God delights is a person who gives to Him cheerfully.

"God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Cor. 9:7).

May be this is why God gives total freedom to all people and especially His children - both before and after conversion, and after being filled with the Spirit. If we are like God, we also will not seek to control others or pressurize them. We will give them freedom to be different from us, to have different views from ours and to grow spiritually at their own pace. All compulsion of any sort is from the devil.

The Holy Spirit fills people, whereas demons possess people. The difference is this: When the Holy Spirit fills anyone; He still gives that person freedom to do whatever he wants. But when demons possess people, they rob them of their freedom and control them. The fruit of being filled with the Spirit is self-control (Gal. 5:22, 23). Demon-possession, however, results in the loss of self-control.

We must remember that any work that we do for God, that is NOT done cheerfully, joyfully, freely and voluntarily is a dead work. God values a little done cheerfully for Him far more than a great deal done under compulsion or done merely to ease one's conscience.

The second type of person God delights is a person who is honest with others.

"If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another..." (1 Jn.1:7).

What does it mean to walk in the light? Nobody can hide anything in the light. This is so true with God. Light means honesty with God. We tell Him everything, exactly as it is. We can be sure God detests those who are insincere. This is the reason Jesus spoke against hypocrites more than He spoke against anyone else.

Holiness starts with being honest with oneself and from this spring flows everything else. One has to be careful not to call sinful thought by "decent" name. For example "I was only admiring the beauty of God's creation" when actually one lusted adulterously with one’s eyes. We can never have victory over sin if we are dishonest.

We have to be very honest with God. Let’s never call "sin", "a mistake", because Jesus' blood can cleanse all sins, but not from mistakes!! He does not cleanse dishonest people. There is hope only for honest people. "He who covers his sin will never prosper…" (Prov. 28:13).

Why did Jesus say that there was more hope for prostitutes and for thieves to enter God's kingdom than for religious leaders (Matt. 21:31)? It is because prostitutes and thieves make no pretense of being holy. Today many people turn away from answering the call of Christ because some church members give an impression that they themselves have no struggles.

God delights in you. Will you delight God?

Departing To Plant Again

Shaun, Marci, Macayla, Clayton, Mason, August

About a year and a half ago Marci and I began to feel a tug. It wasn’t strong. It wasn’t clear, but it was there. As we felt this tug on our hearts we approached the leadership of BCC about it and asked them to engage in a season of discerning with us. We did not want to fabricate our own future (tried that before) or make any decisions that were not of the Lord. We wanted others to look into our lives with us and be prayerful and honest about what they saw. Others outside of BCC were sought after as well. We knew we could not keep these thoughts and feelings to ourselves because we might just convince ourselves of anything- that’s what happens when we isolate our thoughts and desires from the rest of Christ’s body. Instead, we wanted to hear God’s voice in some way. Throughout this long discernment process the Lord provided various confirmations that I will not go into here. Suffice it to say that the tug on our hearts ended with this message and confirmation: Move back to NH and share the Gospel there.

Outside the North Brunswick Municipal Building there is a memorial of Fred J. Hermann who was Mayor of North Brunswick, NJ for 20 years. Underneath Fred Hermann’s profile are the words, “These are my people”. Fred J. Hermann remained as Mayor of North Brunswick for 20 years in part because the people wanted him to remain as Mayor that long, but also because there was something in Fred Hermann’s heart which said, “These are my people, I must serve them”. Marci and I have loved the people of NJ for the past 9 years. I mean that completely. We have sought to give our lives for them. We have developed friendships with the church here that are as strong as an family ties can be. However, if we are honest we do not feel of NJ the same way we feel about NH. We do not feel like the people of NJ are “our people”- the people we are called to. Instead the Lord has placed on our hearts an affinity for the people of NH.

Marci and I make this decision to move to NH in January 2014 for this simple reason: We feel like the people of NH are our people and we want to be faithful to what we believe the Lord is calling us to. Annoying NJ traffic has nothing to do with it. Cost of living has nothing to do with it. Desire for change has nothing to do with it. Difficulty of ministry in NJ has nothing to do with it. Church dynamics has nothing to do with it. At the very root and base of this decision is the strong belief that the Lord has called us to be a part of planting new churches of Christ in NH much like we have been a part of in NJ. That’s all.

So what’s next for BCC then? Well again, we did not make this decision alone. The leadership of BCC has contributed to this conversation from the start- not telling us what to do but contributing. BCC is going to press on! Part of the reason Marci and I felt like now was the right time to transition was because we felt like BCC is better prepared now to handle our transition than they have been before. With the addition of Moses and Elizabeth to the leadership team we believe BCC is strong. BCC is caring for each other well. She is unified. She is focused. Though she may not be large in number she is, as I have always said, the best congregation I have ever been a part of.

So for those of you who are uneasy about the transition let me encourage you by reminding you that you are in the hands of able men of God. They love you. They have proven their love for you and they are deserving of your following- you know who these men are. But more than that; we believe God is orchestrating all of this. This is not our own making. 2 years ago Carl and Alicia Williamson left BCC to start the Gateway Church of Christ. Equal feelings of uneasiness were felt upon their departure. But 2 years later we look back and conclude that had Carl and Alicia not departed when they did, the Gateway Church of Christ would not have existed and the amazing work of God that is happening on the Jersey Shore right now would not be happening. We believe God placed Carl and Alicia and the Gateway church in Holmdel, NJ at just the right time. They could have planted a church in any other NJ city at any later time, but they didn't. Why? Because ultimately that’s where the Lord wanted them to be for such a time as this.

Through the uneasiness of this transition we press forward with the conviction that God is orchestrating it all. As a member of BCC, therefore, you are part of what God is orchestrating. You are now a part of a church who has participated in the formation of not just one new church of Christ, but 3. Praise the Lord.

Marci and I will depart NJ on January 15^th, 2014 but we are fully present in NJ until that time. We have much work to do as a church this Fall: A Fall Festival, Thanksgiving Food Delivery, Spiritual Cookouts all over town, Leaf Raking for our Elderly, Christmas Caroling at the train station, the daily work of redeeming the Marketplace for the Lord. We have numerous things happening which will put us in contact with God’s lost people whom He loves. Let’s work! Let’s press on! As Paul the Apostle said, “Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Gal.6:9). Let us not let the Devil deceive us; this is God’s work. He is leading the train.

In great love for you all,

Shaun & Marci

 

Spiritual Cookouts: A Congregational Practice

I touched on this idea in an earlier post but I want to attack it again here. What would happen in our city if every family, every other night, from 7-8pm, turned off all other sources of entertainment (the TV, computer and phones), opened the Word of God together and let it speak into their homes? What would happen in one year’s time? Let’s take this concept outside of our homes and ask what would happen in our city if every time you walked into a Dunkin Donuts, or a Panera Bread, or a Starbucks you saw groups of 2-6 people sitting at a table sharing the Word of God together? Someone might begin to ask, “What is going on here? Everywhere I go I see people sharing the Word of God together?” At our congregation we are calling these gatherings of 2 or more people, Christians with non-Christians, “Spiritual Cookouts”.

When tempted in the wilderness in Matthew 4 Jesus told the Devil, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” For the Christian opening the Word of God with others is like having a cookout. It’s a feast. It is food for the soul. It is bread. It is something we should look forward to eating and sharing each day. But truth be told, in the past 2 generations we have replaced the true entertainment of the soul with bottomless boredom.

How many people go to work on Monday morning saying, “Boy I sure am glad I watched 3 hours of television last night- my soul feels full today?” I doubt that anybody feels truly full inside when they watch TV or browse the internet. For most people watching 3 hours of television or surfing the web for just as long makes us feel bad. We say to ourselves, “I just wasted 3 hours of my life and what did I really gain for it?” It does not matter what show is being watched or what new toy is being sought after on Craigslist, modern forms of entertainment are bottomless pits in comparison with the feasting that is possible when 2 or more people get together to listen to God’s Word.

It is my conviction today that unless we restore true entertainment to the soul through regular spiritual cookouts- through a regular sharing of God’s Word with others- we will not see cultural change. History has proven that the human heart follows its source of entertainment. The human heart follows its desires, and God help us if all we can find to desire in this life are the things which satisfy our flesh.

At our congregation we have been challenging each other to have regular spiritual cookouts with others. I have asked the congregation to identify non-Christian people in their lives with whom they have a cordial relationship and to invite them to join them in feasting on the Word of God. I am meeting with 2 groups of people right now for that very purpose. I am not the teacher in these cookouts. Teaching opportunities always arise but teaching is not the goal; listening is. My role is simply to invite people to the cookout and provide the food and fellowship. So on our October 9^th cookout we will we will chew on Genesis 2:4-18 and on the October 16^th cookout we will chew a few more verses. We have in the Word of God the food that truly fills. The only question is how do we get others to chew on it with us? One way we are doing it is through hosting spiritual cookouts in safe places for everyone; kitchen table, Dunkin Donuts, Panera Bread, etc.

The pre-requisite for having spiritual cookouts of course is our own personal pure enjoyment of the Word of God. If we enjoy feasting on God’s Word it will be easy and natural for us to invite others to feast with us. But if we do not enjoy feasting on God’s Word, or never do it, we cannot expect others to join us either. Just imagine if you went up to someone and asked, “Hey I am having a cookout at my house this weekend with all kinds of food I don’t like. You wanna come?” Not real persuasive is it? Let me recommend that you do not invite anyone to a spiritual cookout if you do not love cooking-out yourself.

Folks, the Word of God is sweet. It is reviving to the soul. It is true entertainment. David said, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Ps.119: 103). He said, “My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times” (Ps.119:20). For David, God’s Law was his food. It was sweeter than honey. It was water from a well that never runs dry. It was true entertainment to the soul. So should it be for us.

When are you having your spiritual cookout this week and who are you inviting?

Creating Safe Places for God's Lost People

This past Sunday we looked at Luke 5:27-31 a little differently. Luke 5 reads,

“After these things [Jesus]went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” ²⁸ So he left all, rose up, and followed Him. ²⁹ Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. ³⁰ And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, “Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” ³¹ Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

In this passage Levi, a tax collector, decided to follow Jesus. Upon making that decision the first thing he did was throw a big feast (or party) and invited all of his other tax-collecting friends over to his house. Without noting the obvious lesson here of the spiritually sick needing a doctor, Levi set forth, by example, a simple outreach strategy that I had not considered before. Levi’s party was simply dinner at Levi’s house with Jesus as His special guest. Levi created a safe place for his tax-collecting, “sick” friends to come and interact with Jesus for a time. Nothing fancy, but oh so special- Jesus was there!

 

At BCC we are actively re-considering outreach. Is outreach, at its base, simply creating safe places for lost people to come and rub shoulders with Jesus? The church is Jesus’ body (Col.1:24) and every time we welcome others to walk alongside us there is the potential that they will rub shoulders with Jesus too. However, we cannot expect them to come discover Jesus if we do not provide them safe places to do so.

 

This Sunday we are seeking to create a safe place for God’s lost people whom He loves to come by throwing a back-to-school cookout. We are going to dumb down the religiosity a bit. A prayer, perhaps a testimony or two, but otherwise it will be simply friends hanging out with friends and sharing Jesus in casual conversation.

 

Please pray that many of our friends will come and be curious about the source of the loving life of our people.

I Think They Will Join Us If They Trust Us

Back in February I wrote a post called “Are We Trusted”. In that post I talked about the need to establish trust with people in the community. I asked, “How do we as Christians establish trust with our neighbors when time and time again people are finding their first impressions about their neighbors so wrong?” I then talked about the trust that has been built with a certain leader in our community and how the trust developed over time.

I firmly believe that trust provides a solid bedrock for any relationship. If people cannot trust each other, in marriage, friendship or other, they have no solid ground from which to build their relationship. In this post I would like to consider how the bedrock of trust enables our relationships with our non-Christian friends to potentially grow into the highest form of relationship; that of Christian brothers and sisters.

I am learning that the bedrock of established trust empowers me to ask meaningful, even pinching questions. Trust grants me the authority to go below the surface of relationship. If I am not trusted I will not be granted that right. Trust must be earned, and once it has been earned any number of conversations can be had because the person trusts me. They know they are not being tricked. They feel as if I have a right to know. They believe I care for them. Trust takes longer to build with some than with others. Trust may take a great long while to establish with someone who has been repeatedly hurt by people. But again, once it has been established the ingredients are there to build higher and higher and higher until we both become devoted followers of Christ.

Here’s how this has played out recently; A number of months ago a non-Christian friend of mine informed me of a friend of hers who was going through a tough time- we will call her friend Ed. Ed was taking care of his aging parents and finding it incredibly stressful on other aspects of his life. I stopped by his office one day because I happened to be in the same building where he worked. My non-Christian friend had encouraged Ed to talk to me even though he had never met me so my arrival at his office was not a complete surprise. We talked in his office for about 15 minutes that day wherein I told him that if he would like to grab coffee sometime I would enjoy it too.

A couple weeks later we met for coffee. It’s been a slow-growing relationship since then. Some weeks it was just small talk and enjoyable coffee. Other weeks it was deep. We are at the point in our relationship now where he trusts me. He knows I genuinely care about him. He knows I am not trying to get anything from him. Because of this bedrock of trust I sensed was there I invited him into a Bible discussion group with me and a few others and he quickly agreed to be a part. Is he actually curious about the Word of God? I don’t think so; at least not yet. But he trusts me and was therefore not afraid of the invite.

Ed and I are set up now to have the highest form of relationship- that of brothers in Christ. Ed may end up rejecting the Word of God and thereby disallow brotherhood through Christ; but the necessary ingredients are there for him to find Christ. He trusts me. He is reading the Word of God. My only prayer now is that the Lord will convict His heart through the Word to repent and turn to Him.

I believe that if we will build trust with people they will join us if we invite them along.

Opening the Word of God With Our Friends

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb.4:12).

What would be the sociological result if every family in our community opened the Word of God together every night and let it speak into their lives? What would happen if every household shut off the TV and phones from 7-8pm and just let the Word of God speak into the room? What would we see happen? What would begin to take place in our city? In 10 years I believe we would see upside-down change. We would hardly recognize the place anymore.

Of course this assumes that there are people in every home with sincere hearts who fear the Lord enough to accept what He says. But if we could just imagine the implications for a moment I think we would agree that the results would be astounding. The Word of God is living and active. It cuts and pierces and gets at the deep dirtiness of our hearts. It has the potential to bring about world-wide change because the world-wide problem is the dirtiness of our hearts. And if instead of all the radio, TV and internet junk we feed our minds every day we would begin to channel in the Word of God, even in small increments, the personal and societal changes would be more than could be predicted.

I was recently challenged by an Elder in the church to gather my non-Christian friends together, 3-6 in a group, to read the Scriptures and talk about its meaning. Since daily Scripture reading was already a habit of mine I thought this challenge very doable. So I approached Tom and said,

“Hey Tom, what are you doing on Tuesday nights?” (Let him respond). “I was wanting to get a group of guys together to have coffee, read a passage of Scripture, talk about what it says and maybe take prayer requests for each other. Whenever I have done this in the past it has always been transformative for everyone involved. I want you to be involved. If I could arrange a good time for all of us would you be a part of it?”

Out of 9 people I have asked to be involved only one person said they would not be interested even if they had the time. I currently have two groups of friends gathering every week to read the Scriptures and discuss them and so far everyone has enjoyed it very much. One guy even said, “Knowing that I am created in the image of God I think can help me a ton when I get depressed. It’s like I know I am special.”

I want to encourage you to make daily Scripture reading a habit for you. Then, I want to challenge you to invite your non-Christian friends to participate with you. In your gathering time(s) you do not teach, you do not preach. You just let the Word of God speak and facilitate the discussion accordingly. In order to see personal and societal transformation we must get the Word of God into people’s hands so that it can begin to cut deep into their hearts. I am learning how to do this now; you can learn too.

The Power of Testimonies in the Church

An Atheist friend of mine once said to me through email, “There’s no evidence for religion”. I could hardly believe he even said it. I think it would have been appropriate to reply (although I didn’t), “There’s no evidence for Atheism”, for what my friend does not understand is that everything in the world is evidence for religion. Everything points to something beyond itself. The good, the bad, the atrocious, whatever…it all points beyond itself. Nothing touchable in your office right now appeared there all on its own. Every pen, every marker, every paper-clip, every stapler points beyond itself. By its very existence it gives evidence of a maker, a manufacturer, a designer, and it need not say “made in China” for you to know that.  The trouble with modern-man’s lack of faith is not in a lack of “evidence” for religion. The evidence is every bit as much there as it was a thousands of years ago. The trouble is with our eyes.

I find this true in the church as well. It’s not that the Lord is not working in our lives as a depressed Christian might say; it’s that we oftentimes do not have eyes to see Him working in our lives. We fail to recognize all He does because we do not make it a habit of identifying and naming His movements. I suspect we shall arrive on the other side of Eternity to have the Lord ask us, “Why did you not thank Me more for all the things I did for you?” To which we will reply, “I didn’t know You were doing those things”.

I believe regular times of testimony in the church are a great way to foster a habit of identifying the movements of the Lord in our lives, both big and small. The big testimonies people offer are really encouraging because they are hard to deny. There is a temptation, however, to hear the small testimonies and ask oneself, “did God really do that?", to which I try to tell myself, “try proving He didn’t”. This past month at BCC was a month filled with big testimonies. Here’s a recap;

• We had a baptism!
• One member received a spontaneous check for $24,000 from a family member to buy a new car. Their former car managed to make it to the dealership for trade-in where it basically died in the parking lot.
• Members from India received a Visa extension from the Government after months of prayer by the entire church. This news came on the heels of their mother’s death in India (literally the next day). Deep sadness followed by exuberant relief.
• With tears in her eyes a wife praised her husband in front of the whole church for his rapid growth in faith. This was powerful because we all knew that their marital resurrection is a direct result of their new mutual faith in Christ.
• The last week of school my High School students bought me (Shaun) a brand new Kindle Fire HD. I saw the Lord’s hand in this because it was not their parents who bought it for me but them. I have been trying to put into practice our "Kingdom of God" series of lessons by submitting everything I do to the kingship of Christ, even bus driving. I believe the Lord rewarded me for performing that job for Him and not for money.
• The Lord brought my daughter August into the world in an unexpected way. Since the doctor and nurses were not in the room at the time I had no choice but to deliver her myself! I wonder if this is an indication of the sort of woman she shall become- she acts when she is ready whether others are ready or not ;).

I pray that you, your congregation as a whole or your small group will make it a habit of identifying and naming the movements of the Lord in your life; it really fosters faith.