It's About Time

Can you believe it's December already? Every month I say, 'Can you believe it's (fill in the month)". That great rocker and theologian Steve Miller had it right when he said, "Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin, into the future." Where does the time seem to go?

We all wish we had more of it. During the hectic holiday season, I'll bet it will fly by. There will seem to be alot less time as we rush to purchase that last-minute gift. Time will seem to evaporate as we have all of these good ideas of who to invite over, then poof - gone. The pressure of trying to get it all done before Christmas can be overwhelming. Why is it that this time of year when we focus more on "peace on earth" often feels like "hell on earth"? Well, I said on Sunday that I believe part of the reason is that Satan is reminded that this is the time Christians celebrate the birth of the newborn king - the rightful heir of God's creation - and he (Satan) is not happy. He will try to make your life miserable and sidetrack you from slowing down to focus on what Jesus' birth means for each of us - indeed the whole world.

When Jesus was on the earth, he talked alot about time. In most cases, he referenced the coming Kingdom of God. He encouraged his followers to stay alert because the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. This coming Sunday at Bellwood (and for the next three Sundays), we are going to allow the worship service to be a time of intentional focus on making time for God. We will create space to allow us to be refreshed from the busyness of the season. And why not? It's about time.

Want some?

At Bellwood we are concluding our series on the letter to the Ephesians. Paul saved the best part for last. He concludes by encouraging believers to always put on the armor of God - and closes with a reminder to always pray in the power of the Holy Spirit. He says to stay alert and be persistent in prayer for all believers. And then he asks them to pray for him.

He doesn't ask that his situation be changed. Instead he asks for boldness to be able to continue preaching the gospel while still in chains! If it were me, I probably would have asked for prayer to be released from prison, but he asks for boldness to continue on right where he is.

All of us find ourselves (at one time or another) in situations that we want God to change. And it's OK to ask God to change them. He certainly can, but what if (sometimes) God would rather have us pray for boldness? It's much easier to go around the valley, but sometimes God wants us to walk boldly THROUGH the valley. Psalm 23 reminds us that He is with us.

This Sunday at Bellwood we will have a special time of prayer. Anyone who would like to come forward after the message will be able to have myself or one of the Elders pray over you. We will ask God to fit you with His armor so you are able to stand firm in the battle. We will pray that God will grant you boldness to persevere in whatever situation you find yourself.

Folks, we have access to the greatest power in the universe. It is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. All we have to do is ask for it - and that's what we are going to do. Be there this Sunday if you want some!

10 Reasons to Be an Equipping Church

Here are some practical reasons why we focus on "equipping the saints for the work of ministry (service)":

1. Assimilation - Newcomers are brought into the fold quickly, making friends and getting involved.
2. Stewardship - People give to what they believe in.
3. Freedom - You serve because you want to, not because you have to. Knowing your S.H.A.P.E. allows you the freedom to serve.
4. Longevity - Burnout will no longer exist. Stress levels will plummet.
5. Influence - You want to make a difference in someone's life and see lives transformed.
6. Unity - People are so focused on their ministries that there is little time or desire to complain about minor issues.
7. Growth - Nothing is more contagious than an equipping church. Non-Christians will see lives being changed and want to be part of it.
8. Depth - Believers are automatically being turned into disciples.
9. Breadth - Having more people involved enables the church to reach even more people.
10. Rejuvenation - New life and new energy kick into high gear.

Taken from article, "Equipping the Saints" by Brian Proffit. It appeared in REV magazine some time ago.

How Church People Feel About Change

God was at work at SCC Outreach

I've had several people ask me how it went on Sunday so I thought I would blog about it. SCC had their Open House on Sunday. This is the first time they had a Business Expo in the Welsch Center. There were probably 20 vendors that had tables set up. Several of the businesses and churches in Milford were there just to let current and prospective students aware of their services.

Bellwood was fortunate to be right beside Pizza Kitchen. Of course, they were giving away free pizza and we had homemade cookies to finish it off! It was a perfect location! We had a lot of traffic at our booth because we had a drawing for some give-aways: A $50 gift card to Best Buy, $25 gifts card to Casey's and a $25 gift card to Mini Mart. We simply asked the students to answer a 10 question survey so we might know what their needs are and how we could help to meet some of those. Everyone was happy to fill it out. I think we ended up with about 75 completed surveys.

Some of the questions were things like:
Would you need laundry services, transportation, overnight lodging in bad weather? Would you like a monthly home-cooked meal, a care basket of goodies? Would you be interested in a Saturday night Bible study or worship service? (Brenda Burkey came up with some great questions!) She will tally the results and then let us know how we can reach out to the students.

I am excited to see how God might be at work through all of this. Thanks to everyone who asked about this and especially to everyone who was in prayer about this. Keep praying!!

Just Do It

This is Nike's famous motto, but it also describes what Jesus expects of His followers when he says something. Jesus meant what he said and he' s talking to us. Too often we complicate it, though. If Jesus says, "Love your neighbor", we say, "Who is my neighbor? I need to go study about this so I can interpret just what Jesus is talking about".

The Danish theologian, Soren Kierkegaard said it this way:

"Imagine that it says in the New Testament that it is God's will that every human being is to have $100,000. Do you think we would need a commentary or bible scholar to help us interpret that? I wonder if everyone would not say: This is easy enough to understand; no commentary is needed...But what stands in the New Testament (about the narrow way, about dying to the world, and so on) is no more difficult than this matter of $100,000. The difficulty lies somewhere else, in its not pleasing us - and therefore,therefore, therefore we must have commentaries and professors and more commentaries. We are not "running the risk" of its becoming ambiguous - no, that is precisely what we want, and we hope that little by little with the cooperation of commentaries, it will become ambiguous.

We have invented scholarship in order to evade doing God's will. This much we certainly do understand - that face to face with God and his obviously understood will to say "This I will not do" - this no one dares to do. We do not dare do it that way, so we protect ourselves by making it seem as if it were very difficult to understand and that therefore we study and investigate etc., that is, we protect ourselves by hiding behind big books". OUCH!

Good Quote

I attended the AVDS Conference in Hesston, Kansas this weekend. I heard this quote:
"You can't really know or experience God's forgiveness until you offer it to someone else".

Let that sink in for awhile...