Tradition vs. God’s Word

Allen has been slack this week so I thought I’d post. For those of you who know me, know that I do not beat around the bush. Allen likes to tease me by calling me an Old Testament girl and having no mercy. Which in some cases it’s true. I am one of those “if it’s in the Bible, yep, we need to do it!” I guess it falls under the gifts of faith and discernment.

This “what if” was given to me, if one Sunday morning a person comes forward to let the pastor know that he has accepted Jesus as his Savior and Lord and the pastor presents him to the church for a time of celebration. Then the pastor goes on to announce that in the evening worship service that same Sunday, they were going to observe the Lord’s Supper and the next Sunday morning, they would have baptism for the person who just got saved. Here’s the question, could this new believer participate in the observance of the Lord’s Supper? I said yes, he could participate. The person asking me this question told me that I was incorrect. They went to check their notes and asked me to look up Acts 2:41-42 . So I read it, now what? If we look at it in context of the day that it was written, Peter was preaching on the day of Pentecost. There were thousands and thousands of people gathered around to hear. Most likely they were outside and were near a river, maybe the Jordan River? Yes I believe that baptism should follow accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord. If you stop and think about it, we’re baptized twice. First with the Holy Spirit and then with water (a complete dunking, not sprinkle). Neither dunking nor sprinkle will get you into heaven. Jesus set the example for us to follow. That example is an outward sign of the old self dying, being buried and being raised new in the likeness of Christ. Where in God’s word does it say that we have to be baptized first before we can participate in the Lord’s Supper? Yes in Acts 2:41-42 it says that the gospel was presented then there was a baptism service and then there was a meal. Unlike today’s time, we have to arrange for a baptism service; back then, they didn’t!

O.K. some of you are asking why are we splitin’ hairs over this subject? Well………… here’s where tradition kicks in. It’s called church constitution and by-laws. This is the church’s handbook on how to run the church. Now wait, don’t get me wrong, we do need guidelines but they should be according to God’s word, not according to the people who write the constitution and by-laws. Don’t forget, we are humans and we make mistakes too. There are churches out there that uphold their constitution and by-laws higher than God’s holy, perfect, inherent, life giving, life changing word and to those who do, may God have mercy on you.

I was born and raised as a traditional southern Baptist but as I have matured in my walk with God, He has shown to me that we can get so wrapped up in traditions that we forget about Him. God is not traditional, that’s for sure. He’s not predictable, He’s not boring, He’s not plain. He is wonderful, He is a loving and just God. Need I say more? So, what are you, traditionalist or a believer of God’s Holy Word?

Happy Thanksgiving . . .

To all that spend time reading my blog, thank you. To those that may stumble upon this blog, hang around and lets converse. You may be the friend that I have not met yet. To those that don't read this blog, well, why not?
To everyone every where - Happy Thanksgiving. Don't eat to much on Thanksgiving Day and if you do - take a nap. Shopping is exercise - you will burn it off on Friday.
Until next Monday - when I'll pick back up again with personal responsibility - keep your eyes on Jesus and be thankful - and pass the dressing and gravy.

Personal Responsibility – Part 1 – personal discipleship . . .

We need to come to the understanding that discipleship is not a program at church; it is a personal walk with our Lord and Savior – Jesus. In Luke 9:23 the statement that Jesus makes is to individuals and it is personal. If you accepted Christ, as your, Lord and Savior and are not striving to follow Him in a personal relationship daily; it is not the church’s fault or the fault of a program, it is your fault. We need to take personal responsibility for our own relationship with Christ. We need daily to be spending time in prayer. Conversation with the Lord was meant to be two way, not a shopping or wish list given in a few moments, say good bye and run. We need to daily be in God’s word. When God gave us His word, it was given for us to spend time in, learning and understanding how we are to live. We need to be saying no to our wants and saying yes to God’s. Discipleship is a personal thing.
Tomorrow we will move onto Part 2 but for now – keep your eyes on Jesus and extra Turkey with gravy for me please.

Personal responsibility . . .

Have we as Christian’s lost our understanding of what personal responsibility means? There are a lot of people in the world in which we live that do not understand or want to take personal responsibility for anything. There are those that believe the government should supply them a place to live, food to eat, money for retirement, insurance – and the list goes on and on and on. Maybe that is why we are not reaching out to the world around us the way the Bible commands us to. We don’t think that it is our responsibility to do that. Somehow we have had someone sell us a bill of goods that says that the church is what (notice I did not say who) should reach out to the world. It is easy to give money and have someone else get in the trenches and do the dirty work. You may wonder why I said what and not who. If I had said who – then it is personal and we are responsible – if I say what it is and object – non-personal. I really believe that it is a matter of perspective; even it is a bad perspective.
If you are wondering where this is coming from – well, it comes from a discussion that I had with a friend of mine that is a minister in Charleston. I told Irene coming back from Charleston – if I miss anything from when I was at North Greenville it is having people that I sat around with and talked through the problems involved in ministry. I had the opportunity to do that this weekend with two of my closest friends and I had a blast. Passion comes from those kinds of discussions. A passion for: serving God, touching the world around us, leaving a mark and making a difference.
This week I am going to try to convey what God has taught me and is teaching me about personal responsibility over the past year.

Road tripping . . .

This weekend Irene and I are road tripping to Eutawville, SC. If you don’t know where that is don’t feel bad, there are quite a few people that don’t know where Eutawville is. Just for the record, it is in the lower part of our state – northwest of Charleston. We are going down to spend sometime with our friends Mike and Karen Thompson. Mike and I are going to sit around and talk church plants Saturday. We hope to eat some bar-b-que while we are down there. Then Sunday after church we are heading to Charleston for the afternoon to meet some other friends, possibly for supper.
There is something about getting out of town for a few days that is just relaxing, and Irene and I are both looking forward to this weekend. Good friends, good fellowship and good food make for a great weekend.
Until we return – keep your eyes on Jesus and remember – you never put a screen door on a submarine.

Where are you seeking praise . . .

I have finished reading through the books of Acts and have moved on to the book of Galatians. As I was reading the first couple of chapters this morning I ran across a foot note that took me to Romans 2:29. I read the New Living Translation during my quiet time right now and when I got to the end of this verse, I came upon this statement - “And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.” When I read this my mind stopped and began to chew on this part of the verse. Here a few thoughts that I have had as the day has gone on and I have had time to chew on this:
At times I can be considered the chief among sinners in context with this verse. When I have preached in the past I would always ask Irene how I did. I would ask others did it make sense or was I off the mark. Now at times I wanted to know this information so that I could improve at what I was doing and at times, I must admit, I wanted the people around me to give me a little praise. Where I should have been seeking this information and this praise is from God Himself. You know, as I sit here and type this – this is a hard pill to swallow, but I have always tried to be transparent in my walk with the Lord.
I have watched adults and students stand and lead in worship and I could tell you which ones were there for the praise of the people that they were leading and which ones were there for God and Him alone. There are certain students that stand out in my mind that as I sat there and watched them lead in worship I felt as if you were almost interrupting something that was designed to be shown to God and no one else. Their praise will come one day from God Himself.
Early in my time clowning I was sitting around talking with a close friend about the praise in laughter and applause that we get during a service. I made a statement that I believe can be applied to all aspects of life – if we are only doing what we are doing for the laughter and applause, then at the end of a program we are paid in full. If we are doing what we do for the glory of God – then our praise is waiting for us in heaven. Just speaking for myself – I’ll wait to collect my praise.
One last thing – the heart of a person is revealed by the praise that they seek. If one is seeking the praise of man – has their heart really been changed?
Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and your treasures in heaven.

Don’t settle for less . . .

John F. Kennedy once stated – “Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.” I have a new little gadget on my desktop that pops up a new quote everyday. When this popped up it started a whole thought process. Let me expound for a few minutes.
I have the privilege of being friends with Bo and Brynda Brown – some of you know them as PeeWee and Bumper the clowns. They were given the “Citizens of the Year” award for Travelers Rest (the community they live in) last night and Irene and I had the privilege of being at the dinner. They were given this award because they offer their best to the community that they live in. I have often stated that Bo Brown was a better man than I am, because no matter how tired he is or what he has been through that day, when he clowns – God always gets his very best, nothing second rate. I have known Bo for about 6 years now and there has never been a time that I can remember that he would settle for second best. To my friend Bo, I salute you as one who always gives his best, you inspire me to offer my best.
There have been times in my life that I have not always offered my best and have settled for second. That is a dangerous road to walk down. Settling for second is easy – striving to be the best or offer your best is often hard, time consuming, inconvenient. As of this day, settling for second in my life is not acceptable. God has given me His very best – salvation through His son, the blessings of wonderful families on mine and Irene’s side, the best wife in the world, and the best friends a man could want. I should never offer Him second best.
In the future I’m going to follow this post up from the perspective of the church, but until then – keep your eyes on Jesus and never settle for second.

Reflection from a great weekend . . .

This was my first weekend that I did not have to have a sermon or a Sunday school lesson or both ready in almost four months. It was nice to kick my mind into neutral for a little while.
I spent a lot of time in my shop this weekend. About half of my Christmas projects are done. I should be able to finish up these projects over Thanksgiving weekend. Then I can see about doing projects just for the joy of it.
If you know someone that wants something that I make for Christmas, please get your orders in now. Overnight orders sometime take longer than over night.
I’m really looking forward to Christmas this year. We are not involved in any kind of Christmas production at a church anywhere. We are going old school this Christmas. Irene and I are going back to family and friends and not so much running in forty different directions. At least that is the plan, right now.
We tried to visit a church this weekend. We got there at 10:45 am so that we could be a few minutes early so that we could get a seat. Before anyone asks, we had called to get the service time. When we walked into the entry area, it was obvious to us that the worship service had already started. We looked around and found a newsletter that had the worship times printed in it. This church’s worship started at 10:00 am. We were a little confused about how far into the worship service they were so, we just left. It would have been wonderful if there was someone in the entry area that would have welcomed us, told us to what point the worship service had progressed and invited us to stay. It was a missed opportunity for the church and for us.
Irene and I spent part of the afternoon watching the NASCAR race. Generally this brings on something we call NASCAR naps. Jimmy Johnson won again. That is four straight. Is there no one out there that can outrun this guy?
I am really fighting the urge to start to listen to Christmas music. If I start too soon, it gets old before Christmas get here.
Speaking of Christmas, Irene has already started her special cleaning that leads up to putting up the Christmas tree. That means multiple trips to the attic stairs and the living room.
I hope it snows for Christmas. That would make my wife very happy.
Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and Christmas cakes and cookies are da’ bomb.

Oh me, what am I going to do?

As I sit here and read blogs from several different folks, the main underlying voice is worry. Yes, I’m just as guilty as everyone else in this world when it comes to worrying over things that I have no control over.

Two of the bloggers hit the nail on the head. One said, “It’s not about us, it’s all about God.” In fact, that’s the first line out of the book titled "Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren and a very similar comment is made in the book called "Experiencing God" by Henry T. Blackaby and Claude King. (Which if you have not read these two books, GET THEM AND MEMORIZE THEM!!! If you have read them, read them again!) The other blogger used a portion of my life verse, Philippians 4:6-7 “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” The Message. (I really like this version!)

It is easier said than done. It’s easy for us to worry than not to worry. Satan knows that it’s a sin for us to worry and that’s why he keeps taunting us about things. Things that we have no control over. He knows that he can push that button on me and when I realize that I have given in, I stop and ask God to forgive me and give me peace over the situation and for Him to take it back to deal with it. “Satan, in the name of Jesus, talk to the hand!”

Oh by the way, worry will cause health problems. So, in order to keep your peace and to maintain control over your health, give it to God. He knows the outcome of the situation anyway!

What I have been reading lately . . .

I love to read when I have time. I enjoy reading fiction, non-fiction; books that will help me improve what I do. In all honesty, if the book is written well, I’ll probably enjoy reading it. The problem is that I don’t always have time. I have begun to try and change that. A friend gave me this book and asked me to read it. My friend and I will in the future be acting as a team. In my work at DeVita & Associates, Inc. I hold the position as a team lead. So, when given a book on working as a team, I was interested. The following are a few random thoughts from my reading this book:
It is an easy read. It is written more as a fictional story than a text book. All of the parts are there and explained very well in terms that anyone could understand.
As I read this book, I reflected on places that I had worked in the past, where I am working today and on the future. It has me thinking in a different way about team work.
One thing we need to understand – if you have more than one person working for a common goal – you have a team.
Trust in a team is foundational. Without trust, the team falls apart.

If you are part of a team there is going to be conflict. That is not a bad thing. Resolving the conflict and moving forward on the same page, as a team, is a good thing.

Commitment is a must. All must be commited or none will be commited. There will always be an internal struggle without commitment. Count the cost, commit and stick it out to the end.

You must have accountability. Without accountability, there will be caos. Holding someone accountable so that the team can reach its common goal is a good thing.
Clear goals need to be set so that there is no question about what the team needs to be doing.
I must go back to this book being an easy read.

I recomment this book to everyone that works as part of a team.

Until next time, keep your eyes on Jesus and are you a cause of dysfunction on your team?

Follow-up to Complicated or Simple . . .

In the post about Complicated or Simple, I started talking about the scripture that states “love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself.” This follow-up will be long and short together, As far as loving your neighbor as yourself; I am going to refer you to a few recent posts like this one, and this one and this one.
Tomorrow I will post about a book that I have been reading and one that I will be starting soon. Have you clicked in on the survey? If not I would appreciate it. I am curious about the outcome.
Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and dream of a white Christmas.

Change . . .

I have been thinking about shaking things up lately with the way my blog looks. Let me know what you think. I'd bet ( if I was a betting man) that my wife will like this layout.
Until next time - keep your eyes on Jesus and hot chocolate is good on cold mornings.

Complicated or simple . . .

Recently I ask a group of students if the gospel was complicated and their response was – “it sometimes can be,” I followed the first question with this – “was it meant to be” to which they answered “no.” So exactly how did we take something that is supposed to be simple and complicate it? We bind it up in our preconceived notions and agendas to the point of complicating the simple.
Over the next couple of days I want to examine this concept. Today we will start with a question (a trap that was set) that was asked of Jesus.
Jesus was once asked what was the greatest of all the commandments and He answered “Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself.” There is nothing complicated about what or how He answered that question. God is to be most important in our lives. We should love Him with all that makes us who we are. To give Him any other place in our lives is to break this commandment. It is fascinating that we would say that we love God that way and yet we barely spend anytime with Him. We allow everything else in our lives to take up time and we give the One who should be most important our leftovers. If I loved my wife the way I often love my God I would not be married very long. You may say that you go to church three times a week – that would be about 2% of the total time in a week. Loving God is more than just going to church, reading a verse out of a devotional, and praying before meals – it is a lifestyle. It is how we should be approaching everything in our lives. People that we come in contact with should be able to tell that we are in love with God. That doesn’t mean that we won’t stumble and fall. A lot of what people will observe will be how we pick ourselves up, ask for forgiveness and go on loving God.
Next time I will deal with the second part of Jesus’ answer. Until then – keep your eyes on Jesus and try the Hershey’s kisses with hot cocoa crème filling.

Random thoughts from the weekend . . .

This past weekend was a great weekend for a lot of reasons, it was also sad for some reasons also. Here are a few thoughts from the weekend:
Friday after noon was fun. After doing a little running around, I got in my shop and finally finished a project that I had been working on this summer. During the weekend I also got a list of Christmas projects together. My time in my shop is fixing to go up. :)
Friday evening Irene and I had supper with Sam and Cookie Chapman. These are two close friends that we don’t get to see often enough. They had a hand in pulling off the first Judgment House at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church along with a lot of other people. We talked about the lives that were changed through that event and caught up on each others lives. It was a fun evening.
Saturday was good in some ways and bad in others. The morning started out with breakfast and then Irene and I were off to one of my favorite places – the Woodcraft Store. We bought some things to do Christmas projects with. I am really looking forward to hand making some Christmas gifts this year for some of our friends. While we were at the Woodcraft store, Irene found a toll demonstration and a power tool that she liked and said that it would make a good birthday or Christmas present in the future. God really did me the best when He gave me a wife that appreciates good power tools. Then it was home for yard work. Cutting limbs, and grass, getting up leaves, finding a water leak under the house. I am too old to crawl around under my house, but I got it done and at no cost for a repairman.
Sunday was both good and sad. Worship and Sunday school were both good. Last night was my last night as Youth Pastor at New Hope. After youth worship we went out to the new McDonalds in Simpsonville. The students and leaders gave Irene and me a card with Gift cards to Ruby Tuesday’s in it. If I never work with another group of students, I have worked with the best. I will miss seeing them every week, but I will always love them. I’ll see them at Meltdown in January if not before. They all have my phone number and know that they can call me any time about any thing.
This morning, with sore muscles, I am back to work – seeking to follow Christ and His leadership. Our next steps are going to be great and I can hardly wait. So, until next time, keep your eyes on Jesus and the hot cocoa Hershey’s kisses are over the top.

Who’s your neighbor – Part 3 . . .

Ok, yesterday we talked about our neighbors in light of; if they had value and seeing that value in light of how God sees that person. Today we will move forward with the next step. Now we are going to look at our neighbors through the light of scripture. God says that we are to “love our neighbors as we love ourselves.” I know that when I placed value on the relationship that Irene and I had, when we were dating, our relationship changed. When I realized that I loved Irene, our time together was necessary to me. Understanding that, and understanding that God places value on our neighbors, we need to understand that a relationship, with that neighbor, is longed for by God. When we begin to look at our neighbors as having worth and understanding that we are to love them as we love ourselves we should want to introduce them to the most important person in our lives – Jesus, so that they to can have a relationship with Him and His Father. So how do we bridge the gap with our neighbors so that they will be receptive to being introduced to Christ? We need to build relationships. There is generally is nothing complicated in building relationships. Generally it just takes time and effort on our part. Maybe, start with an invitation to a cookout in your backyard or dessert and coffee, maybe a churn of ice cream. There is any number of ways that can lead to building relationships. Hopefully these relationships will lead to a time that we will be able to introduce our neighbors to a way that they can have a relationship with Christ.
Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and ice cream is good for me.
P.S. Check out the poll on knowing your neighbors and cast your vote.

Who’s your neighbor – Part 2 . . .

Yesterday we started this discussion about who our neighbors are. Today we will go a little farther. I guess my question would be; why at one time in our society did we know who our neighbors were and today we may or may not know who they are? I think the answer to that question would be – value. Do we place a value on knowing who our neighbors are? Is there value in that person or persons that live next door or down the street from you? In God’s eyes there is. There was value enough in our neighbor that God sent His son Jesus to die on a cross, so that our neighbor could have the opportunity to have a relationship with Him. What we need to be able to do is see our neighbor as God sees them – as a person of value. We need to come to the understanding that God has placed a great value on each and every person in this world. Understanding that, we would never want something that we value to be ignored, forgotten, or discarded as something without worth. When we place a value in the people that live around us, then we will do what is needed to get to know our neighbors and possibly help in bringing about a change in their lives.
Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and go next door and introduce yourself.