10 Questions from Living in God's Daily Provision

Sorry that it has been a few weeks since my last post. My computer spent two weeks in the shop after the fatal "blue screen of death" so as to get a new hard drive installed. Thank God for the extended warranty. Anyway...here are some questions to keep you thinking about Sunday's message (which I hope to have posted later with a link).

1. In what ways do you daily recognize God's provision?

2. How do you feel safe in God's provision?

3. How do you distinguish a lie from a truth?

4. When someone lies to you, how long does it tak before you trust them again?

5. In God's provision, how much is enough?

6. Do you let God be enough?

7. Which do you want more of: stuff or Jesus? (be honest)

8. Do you live in God's grace and sufficiency and are you content there? Why or why not?

9. It has been said, that if you don't find contentment in little, you won't find it in a lot. Do you plan to be content each day?

10. Are you content to live in the present -- to live in today?

The Delicate Balance

I have spent today on the two extremes of human existence. This morning I spent time with a young couple who celebrated the birth of their first son. I was great to see the joy through their exhaustion. How exciting to hold that hours old little child. How reassuring to look into that baby's face so full of innocence. How promising to know that child's mom and dad will be raising him in the ways of the Lord. There is much promise at the beginning of life. Life, truly has yet to be lived at that point. I spent the afternoon with a mom and dad who were mourning the loss of their adult son. A life that ended too soon. A life that was getting on track again. A life that was lived full of joy and wonder. A life that had begun to touch people with a simple message of faith. A life that was now over. I found myself sharing the same thing to each set of parents: God's grace is sufficient. To the parents of the baby, there is so much they do not know and have yet to learn, yet God's grace is sufficient. To the parents who lost a son much too soon, God's grace is sufficient. In all things God is enough. He meets each need. He celebrates with us in our times of joy and mourns with us in our times of sorrow. God's grace is sufficient. Life is lived in a delicate balance between life and death. We do not dictate when our lives begin or when they end. Those two things are far beyond our control, but we can know the one who controls such things. God's grace is sufficient. God's grace is enough to comfort us in what we do not know and to comfort us when we do not have tears left to shed. God's grace is enough when we shed tears of joy and tears of sorrow. God's grace is enough! God's grace is enough! God's grace is enough!

10 Questions from Mistake-Maker to Grace-Receiver

Here are your 10 Questions from the message From Mistake-Maker to Grace-Receiver. If you missed it, you can listen to it here.

1. When is the last time you heard Jesus speak to you individual and what did He say?

2. When Jesus invites you to walk with Him, to spend private time with Him, do you go with Him or stay in your routine and busyness?

3. How do you recognize God's grace during turmoils?

4. Where do you turn to get peace during the turmoil of this life?

5. How is it evident in your lift that you are actively following Christ?

6. Jesus accepts us as we are, but have you stayed where you are instead of following Jesus to become who and what He purposed you to be?

7. Do you depend on others for everything, even you spiritual life, or can others depend on you because you serve?

8. What can you do this week to serve another?

9. You have received grace in Jesus, but have you given it to others?

10. What does "follow me" mean to you?

10 Questions from A Message for Mistake Makers

If you've ever made a mistake, then this message is for you. So here are some questions to keep you thinking about how God values you and wants to use you in spite of your mistakes.

1. What is the greatest gift God gives to mistake makers and why?

2. Do you believe Jesus loves you enough to forgive you of your mistakes and do you love yourself enough to forgive yourself and let go?

3. Why would you think that God is through with you and is that the truth?

4. What did the angel at the tomb specifically want Peter to know and why is that important to you?

5. Why do you believe that God believes in you, your potential, your talent or your importance?

6. How has your life changed after your encounter with Jesus and your commitment to not be a mistake maker?

7. What proof is there in your life that Jesus is alive?

8. How can you discover God's plan and purpose for you life and are you willing to?

9. What do you believe is your service-filled future?

10. How do you recognize that you are poised for success?

10 Questions from Building with Bricks

I'm starting a new thing today called "10 Questions". Each Monday there will be ten questions that I've asked people from church to submit concerning the message from Sunday. Our text from Sunday was Psalm 119:9-16 if you want to refer to it. You can also hear the sermon audio here. Here are this week's Ten Questions:

1. What was the last Scripture that truly affected your life and how?

2. Why does growing cease when learning ceases?

3. Is your first response to difficult situations to turn to the wisdom of the world or the wisdom of the Word and why?

4. How do you know God's "Living Word" is alive and evident in you?

5. What expectation does God have for you when you think upon His word?

6. How will meditating on God's word help you in discerning God's will?

7. Do you find yourself doing things you know are wrong or "pre-meditating" your sin?

8. What good is learning without implementation?

9. What foundation is your life built upon and what kind of "material" are you using to build your life?

10. Take an inventory of your week. Are the things you do a response to being a "doer" of God's Word?

These questions are to help you in going to the next level of applying Sunday's message. Take your time in answering them. Don't feel that you have to do them all or do them all at once. Wrestle with the questions, but be honest with your response. This is crashing into life.

Community

We've heard a lot of talk about "community" these days. It does not seem to matter what circle you are in, whether it be church, business, senior adults, students, etc, everyone seems to be talking about community. Community is made of of two roots of words. Com meaning with and unity meaning coming together. We talk about a global community, but we are not coming together. We talk about the political community, but that is an area of great division. We talk about local community, but we do not even know who our neighbors are. We talk about church community, but we see church that are in constant competition with one another. Community is something that we seem to talk a lot about, but we are doing a poor job of actually building anything that even closely resembles community. We need a coming together. I say, as a pastor, that our churches need to come together, as individual congregations and as the body of Christ, and build genuine community. In these times, when people are hurting, they are looking for a place of community but they are having a hard time finding it. Community is built when we put personal preferences aside and elevate the needs of others and meeting those needs. Community is about caring compassionately for those that are in need. Community is always other-centered and not self-centered. Community is about serving the Lord by serving people. The time has come for genuine community to be built in the body of Christ. It means getting our of our houses and into our towns. It means getting out of our church buildings and into the neighborhood. Community is about building relationships with people. You build relationships with people by getting to know them. Community is all about crashing into life. Crash on!!

Church Planting

I had the privilege yesterday of sitting down with some of the pastor's in our community yesterday for the first Pastor's Fellowship. It was a great time that I pray will continue to grow and thrive, bringing the churches of our community together for Kingdom work. Bill Gravell, pastor of Sonterra Fellowship in Jarrell, is a church planter. He made a comment about church planting that prompted this thought: aren't we all church planters? The church I pastor has been in existence for 153 years this year. Sonterra has been in existence 3 years. Nevertheless, our goal is the same. We are to continue planting the seed of the gospel of Christ in the community where we are. The church is a living, breathing organism, not just an organization. We must change the way we view the church. We are the body of Christ, His hands and feet in this world for this time. We are to grow and thrive. We are to be fruitful. I think sometimes we forget that we are constantly in the process of planting a church. Just because a church has been in a community for a while does not mean that it is established in that community or that there are people in that community that don't need Christ. The foundation of a church is not set on anything other than Jesus (Matthew 16:18). If we do not take on the mindset of a "church planter" our churches will die on the vine. Sadly, many already are. We must be about people and not programs. We must be about the Holy Spirit and not our holy (or unholy as the case may be) huddles. We must be about the gospel and not gossip. We must be about changed lives and not just changed minds. When we begin to view our churches as church plants and see ourselves as church planters, with something to offer the community, that is crashing into life. Crash on!!