Reflecting on a week away with God

Happy July 4th!  I have spent the last few days reflecting on this past week I spent with God at Hanging Rock Christian Camp.  There are so many stories I could tell about the week…how we played paintball with some high school kids, how Nic, Jacob, Lindsey, and I all got our share of welts for Jesus. (I am copyrighting that phrase by the way for next year’s t-shirts).  I could tell tales of awesome worship services, powerful small group experiences, wonderful camp food, and beautiful weather.

The stories I want to share with you are on a much deeper level.  I would like to share a few victory stories from our week.  The victory stories of personal conversations with students that will last an eternity.  I cannot share names or particulars as I do not want to reveal personal confidences that we promised the students we worked with.

But I can tell you that God gave all four of us an opportunity to have influence with students this week that may have not only been forming spiritually, but influence that has saved physical lives as well.  Some wonder what benefit playing paintball at church camp has.  A game that mimics violence seems an odd match for a camp that promotes the love of Jesus.

It’s in that game that some other things are taught.  Teamwork.  Sacrifice.  Mercy.  Love.  In the Gospel of John Chapter 15 verse 13 we find the words of Jesus as he instructed his disciples to love one another…

John 15:13 [Full Chapter]

In playing paintball we teach the kids during the break times about the sacrifice that they may make in a game being a small microcosm of the sacrifice that Jesus describes.  A sacrifice for a friend is the greatest kind of love.

In the process of spending quality time playing this game with these kids, we get the opportunity to have other conversations, which sometimes lead to the life saving counsel that we are blessed to get to give.  We all had those types of influences this last week…with kids who were struggling, depressed with life situations hanging over them that were outside of their control and some that were by their own poor choices.

There was one student, who has been at paintball the last three years, who came up to me and said that if it weren’t for Jacob and I and the paintball camp experience that he has had the last couple of years, that he wouldn’t be alive.  I can’t give more of the story – but suffice it to say as that boy walked away from me I was taken aback – you go into camp with ideas of bringing Christ to these kids to hopefully help them find the saving grace of Jesus…but you don’t really expect to save anyone physically.  Our young people are dealing with real issues, real stress, real heartache.  Pray for them please…they need that… but could I encourage you to take it a step further?  Could I encourage you to build a mentoring relationship with a young person – by spending time with them, teaching them something about life, take them fishing, show up at their sports events and concerts and plays, show them in some way shape or form that their life has value to you.  So many young people are not getting that from anyone…and you could be the very person that keeps them from checking out permanently.  Show people Jesus by loving them and maybe even sacrificing something for them.  This is the greatest love!

Celebrations

This past week was full of celebrations that I was either a witness to, or participated in.  Celebration of a Memorial Holiday, celebration of a new marriage, celebrations of anniversaries, celebration of a life well lived, celebrations of graduating high school, and a celebration of the beginning of camp season.  To be honest, I’m exhausted…but it’s a good tired.  There were so many smiles this past Saturday at the wedding I officiated for Nick and Lindsey (Stone) Salem.  So much joy at the beginning of a life long commitment, so much happiness.

We also had a couple at the church this weekend that was celebrating 60 years of marriage!  Way to go Adam and Janet Wireman!  You are an inspiration!

We celebrated Sunday afternoon at Hanging Rock Christian Camp where we participated in Celebrate Good Times – the camp’s annual Summer Kick Off Event.  Saw so many friends as 30 churches gathered together to welcome in the camp season.

There was another celebration of sorts that I participated in this last week as well… a celebration of life.  We said “see you later” to Sandy Maas at her Celebration of Life service last Thursday, along with an internment service this morning.  While Bob and the rest of the family and those of us who called Sandy friend are still shocked and grieving her loss… we also celebrate because we know that Sandy is resting with the Lord.  We celebrate because she lived life to it’s fullest, and finished her race well.

It is important to celebrate.  The word celebrate shows up in scriptures sixty-eight times.  All through the Old Testament God’s people celebrated.  Usually they were festivals that honored God or remembered God for what he had done.  Jesus even celebrated – he performed his first miracle at a wedding celebration, and he celebrated all the traditional Jewish feast and festivals, including Passover.  Jesus also taught a parable that talked about a celebration that took place when a lost son returned home; a picture of how God and all of heaven celebrates when a lost person is found and redeemed by Jesus Christ!

Celebrations happen for three reasons…

1. To honor God’s involvement and provision:  The Feast of Tabernacles, the Festival of the Harvest (Weeks), The Festival of the Unleavened Bread, and Passover were all celebrations of what God had provided Israel.
2. To mark special occasions and remember: The Lord’s Supper is a weekly celebration to remember what Jesus did on the cross.  We have several holidays and other special days that we still observe events that happened, and we celebrate and remember.
3. To encourage each other and build each other up:  Celebration is something that goes up to honor God, but it is also something we do that goes laterally as well…from person to person that causes us to feel the power of the Holy Spirit connecting us together.  Celebration of personal and corporate victories, baptisms, weddings, Celebration of Life Services, Christmas, Easter, and the list can go on and on…we need to celebrate regularly when God moves us as a church.  We need to recognize what he has done…but we also must celebrate together to build up the spirit of unity and love.  Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:11…“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

Brady Lane Church – we are going to be a church that celebrates God…we are going to celebrate our victories in Him, we are going to celebrate to remember and we are going to celebrate to build each other up and encourage each other!  I look forward to celebrating with all of you!

Memorial Day and Some Thoughts!

Hey everyone.  Happy Memorial Day!  I hope that it was a good day for you and your family.  Amy and I had a wonderful day that followed a pretty good weekend.  After spending Friday with our daughter Ashton and her husband James and our grand-daughter Emory, we had a great Lord’s Day with our church family, followed by a beautiful Monday with family and working around our house.

It was also a weekend of reflecting.  I am thankful for God’s love and provision.  I appreciate the opportunities I have been blessed with as a guy from a working class family having – getting to go to higher education on three occasions, earning degrees and certifications.  Having a family that loves me and supports me is a blessing as well.  God has given me so much and continues to provide love and direction for my life…but He does so because I continue reach for Him, I continue to seek Him, I continue to have a healthy fear of his wrath – while I embrace His love.  I work daily (not always succeeding mind you) at keeping his covenant with me through the Blood of Jesus Christ…that covenant was my salvation provided by Christ, through my faith…and because of that salvation that He has given me I strive to obey Him and what he has taught.  My instruction on this comes from my scripture from my personal study today from Psalm 103:17-18…

But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children— with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.

Psalm 103:17-18 NIV

It really comes down to always remembering what Jesus did for me.  You want the key to being a growing disciple of Jesus?  It is simply this idea of keeping a constant memorial of Jesus’ blood sacrifice.  We do this in our worship services through our communion time, but we need to daily remember the sacrifice of Christ.  It’s when we keep his suffering for us at the forefront of our minds, that we burn with the desire to grow closer to Him.  REMEMBERING is the KEY!

What’s in an App?

  At Brady Lane Church we have developed through our good friend Jeff Mikels, a mobile app that can be found in the App Store of both Apple and Android Products.  We are excited about this, along with the new website that Jeff also helped us to develop. We encourage you to connect with the app on your smart phone and tablet, and when it prompts you to allow notifications, please hit the accept button.  This will allow us to let you know when something new is coming, and it will also allow us to communicate emergency information, such as closings and other emergencies.

We would love to connect with you through the app, where you can also quickly connect with our website, read my latest blog, watch sermons, and check out new announcements.  It’s quick, it’s free, and it helps us stay more connected to you in the digital world around us. You can also find us on Facebook, YouTube, and NextDoor.  I want to thank Mike Atwell, our Media Ministry Team Leader and Mike Roller, our Administration Elder who worked hard to help me do the work on our end to get our website up and running.  Stay tuned – THERE WILL BE MORE TO COME!

Also – We want to congratulate Bill Border and Tim Sawyer, who both followed Christ into Baptism this past Sunday. Both men came at it from completely different angles, and at different times in their lives…but both are now brothers in Jesus Christ our Lord!  It was truly a great day.  You can view the video of their baptisms here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p92d3agMDpo&t=7s 

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue!

No…I am not getting married again…Amy and I are good!!! I am not even going to talk about marriage.  I wanted to take this week’s blog entry to tell you about some changes that will be happening over the summer in regards to our Evening services.

Something Old:  Our evening service experiment that we have worked on this year has met with various wins, but overall, we feel like we need to do something a little different.  For the month of June, we will be suspending our evening service for a couple of reasons.  One, our staff team is committed in June to multiple events, weddings, and camps and most of those things will be taking place on Sunday nights.  We have Celebrate Good Times at Hanging Rock Camp on Sunday June 4th, Nic leaves for Jr. High Camp Sunday June 18th, and Nic and I both leave for High School Camp on Sunday June 25th. The other reason we are suspending services in June is to work on retooling what we plan to offer on Sunday Nights starting in the fall.

Something New: Starting Sunday July 2nd at 6pm we will resume our evening programming with some new things… First, we will still have a music and communion service that will begin at 6pm.  Everyone is encouraged to attend together, adults and Jr./Sr. High Youth alike.  Nic will then be hosting some fun events each night for our Jr. and Sr. High Youth, while the adults will have two choices, they can either attend a video cast of the sermon from that morning followed by a short discussion group that will allow those in attendance to process what they heard and share some time in fellowship; OR  they can choose to join the latest installment of our four week Brady Lane 101 – our new attenders class that helps people learn more about Brady Lane Church as well as help them get more plugged in to our family.   We will end the Summer Season on the last Sunday Night in July with a short Celebration Music Service followed by a church cook out, which all the church family is encouraged to attend.  More information will be shared about this in the weeks to come.

Something Borrowed: from my personal Bible study time this morning…I looked at a sermon outline –  Dealing With Change by Ed Wood on May 24, 2007

DEALING WITH CHANGE

Acts 10-11

INTRO: Heraclitus said no one could step in the same river twice. So it was and so it is. The rivers keep moving and the world keeps changing. If Alvin Toffler was right in his book Future Shock, the only difference in our day from that of the past may be a more rapid rate of change.

Simon Peter’s experience with Cornelius gives us four lessons about dealing with change.

I. GOD OFTEN INITIATES CHANGE OUTSIDE THE CHURCH (10:1-8).

The story does not start with Peter but with Cornelius, who was not a member of the church. As a God-fearer, he attended the synagogue and was sympathetic with Christians. In the middle of the afternoon, this Roman officer was visited by an angel who told him to send men to Joppa to bring Simon Peter.

ILLUS: After hearing of a solo-around-the-world journey in a sailboat, a group began to discuss the navigation problems involved. Someone said that ancient sailors used stars to steer by, but the helmsman had to keep changing stars all night because the heavens appear to move at night, to rotate. If a sailor bore toward the same star, he would simply steer his ship in circles, and would never arrive at his destination.

Getting somewhere requires change. It requires growth. As we look around our community, what changes are crying out for us to make in order to reach our community?

II. ALL OF US RESIST CHANGE (10:9-16).

Simon Peter was on the housetop of Simon the tanner when the Lord commanded him about eating all kinds of animals. Although a voice told him three times to eat, Peter refused. Notice that Peter never did eat! (10:13-16)

ILLUS: A railroader told a story about a young engineer making his first run. After noticing the old engineer’s routine, the young man asked, “Why do you tap the wheels before leaving?” The veteran replied: “I don’t know. The engineer who taught me tapped the wheels and I never thought to ask.” But some do ask! And sometimes we are resistive to change.

III. PROPOSED CHANGE SHOULD BE VERIFIED IN SEVERAL WAYS (10:17-48).

Peter was inwardly perplexed at first, but events were unfolding that would help him understand this change was from God. Almost immediately after his vision, Cornelius’ men arrived from Caesarea and asked Peter to go with them. The next day they went to Caesarea to see Cornelius.

Cornelius related how God had spoken to him. Simon Peter opened his mouth with insight, “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality” (10:34). When Peter stopped speaking, the Holy Spirit fell on the gentiles (10:45).

Not all of our ideas about change come from God. But change from God can be verified. In this story from Acts 10 there was: 1. A vision; 2. God sent his messenger; 3. The Holy Spirit fell on everyone.

IV. GOD’S PEOPLE MUST BE OPEN TO CHANGE (11:1-18).

The Judeans did not enthusiastically greet the outpouring of the Spirit on all people. Peter told the story of how God had showed him the need for change. Since the change was from God, how could he oppose God (v. 17). The people were silenced (v. 18).

Some people think that change is wrong. That those who want to change are only fanatics or radicals. But, people of God who bring change are to be sensitive people. They must sense what God wants to do in their world today.

Something Blue: As I reflect on this lesson/sermon outline from Ed Wood for my personal study today…it helped me to process the changes that sometimes come in ministry.  Sometimes when we look at the numbers and the impact in relation to the effort that has to be put in it can make us a little blue when we don’t see the results we had hoped and prayed for.  When those seasons come, we have to evaluate what we are doing and examine God’s will and seek his plan to see if there are changes that are needed.  Sometimes changes come because of circumstances outside our control.  Sometimes changes come because of things that force our hand.  Sometimes changes come because we feel like God is moving us in a different direction, and when those kinds of changes come, we must heed them, forget personal preference, and see what is best for the church as a whole.

As we spend the summer evaluating our Sunday Evening Programming pray for us to receive all of our direction from God, help us to trust Him to lead us where we are supposed to go, and pray that we make an even bigger impact than we have been able to make so far.