Remembering God's Faithfulness

I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes I will remember your wonders of old.

Psalm 77:11 ESV

Another year is ending.  These become more and more frequent the older you get.  At the end of the year many people begin to think of what they want to accomplish for the next year.  

Then there are people like me.  

At the end of the year I like to reflect upon what all has happened in this past year.  I like to reflect upon God’s goodness and what He has done in the past year.  I think this is a good reminder of God's faithfulness to us throughout the year and away we can know He will continue to be faithful in the year to come as we remember His past victories in our lives.  Therefore as I reflect upon this year of 2015 I remember what God has done in the lives of my family, in the lives of my church family, and in this great community that He allows me to serve in.  This has been one of the busiest years of my life, but it has also been one of the best years.  

January

Natalie and I begin the year at a worship night at the Village Church

I also had opportunity to sing with the Singing Men of Texas this past year.  Singing with over 150 men who are ministers of music across north Texas 

February

In February we had the amazing opportunity to spend some great family time in snowy Gatlinburg with all of Natalie's family

March

I lost one of my dearest friends and role models, my Pawpaw.  He had suffered for many weeks and finally went home to be with his Lord.

In March our FBC Howe children's choir present the musical "Back To The Cross" on Palm Sunday

April

Our church held our Easter service at Howe High School, something I had never done before, church out of a box, and we saw 500 in attendance in a town of 2000.

I was asked to lead a prayer for the dedication of the new Howe Economic Development Center and asked to serve on the Chamber of Commerce.  

Mackenzie played softball for the first time.  She did great and loved it!  Especially hanging out with the girls!  

Just another day in Texas, riding on a mule with the cows.  

May

May was full of flooding with record rain fall in Texas.  At church we hosted a Women's Queen Bee Luncheon in the midst of all the flooding.  We were also blessed to be able to spend our anniversary at a cool bead and breakfast thanks to Natalie's parents.  

June

Titus turned 2 in June and once again in June we had amazing time at VBS, followed by a great youth camp at Austin Stone church in Austin were we spent time serving that community then followed by an amazing time at Pre-teen camp where we saw several boys come to know the Lord!

 

July

In July we spent a lot of family time together recouping from the busy three weeks of ministry in June. Mackenzie also lost her first tooth.  

August

In August I begin my 3rd year of operating the scoreboard for the High School football games.  Mackenzie played fall softball, we were able to go visit our dear friends the Traffanstedt's in Houston/Galveston, and our church held a night of prayer for our schools as they started back.  

September

In September Natalie begin watching kids for the first time, she has three awesome children she watches everyday in addition to ours.  We also were able to go to Branson with Natalie's family once again.  I also saw some great friends from college that I hadn't seen in quite some time.  Our Church also saw great attendance at "See You At The Pole" at all three campuses.  

 

October

In October our little girl turned 5 years old! We celebrated by having a roller skate princess party.  The girls all had a blast!  Our church also saw great attendance at the best Harvest Festival we have ever had. 

 

November

In November my wonderful church allowed me the opportunity to go to the Austin Stone Worship Conference.  It was by far the best conference I have ever been to.  Our family also traveled to Mississippi to celebrate Thanksgiving with our Mississippi family.  Natalie's Grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.  

December

This was by far the busiest December I have ever had.  It begin with a wonderful Dinner in December held at Howe High School with our children presenting the musical, "David's Dynasty.  It was a "Country Christmas".  Then the very next week FBC Howe's Adult Choir in combination with 4 area churches presented the dramatic musical, "Jesus Our Treasure" at three different venues on three different nights, ministering to over 1,000 people in our community.  On December 24th we had our Annual Christmas Eve Candlelight Service to a packed house, it was a great night.  Christmas day we spent with Natalie's family in Midlothian and Duncanville.  The next Sunday we spent worshipping with Natalie's family at FBC Midlothian.  For New Years my family from Mississippi came in town.  

It has been an amazing year and God is truly blessed me and my family!  

The Question

A few days ago I did something that is uncommon for me. I posted something political on facebook. Recently a lady serving as a county clerk was jailed without bail for refusing to issue homosexual marriage licenses. So I posted that the day had come when people in the United States were being jailed because of religious convictions. 

I had, as one would suspect, posts opposing this view. One of them was a young lady from the town in which my church is in. Her daughter attends preschool with my daughter, they have been to our birthday parties, we have been to their birthday parties. We know them. However they are against the church and organized religion. I had others who were crying separation of church and state. And they are not alone, there is a host of people in my generation, if not the majority, who are repulsed by the church, they are repulsed by the conflict of culture and Christianity. They have been burned by unhealthy churches, unhealthy views of scripture, and by hypocrisy on ranking of one sin higher than another.  

A few weeks ago I listened to a podcast by Andy Stanley of leadership, he spoke of how to ministry we must have a question - we must know what we are trying to do and who we are trying to reach. 

My question is this: 

How do we reach those who have been burned by the unhealthy church, and present to them the biblical healthy view of the church?

Obviously this can be done 1-on-1 but it is a slow process. Is there a way that we can do that on a mass scale? 

To do this maybe the actual church itself needs to:1. Look Different
2. Feel Different
3. Think Different 

To do this maybe we as individuals need to:1. Pray
2. Be intentional and purposeful about showing love to the unbeliever;
3. Not rant or rage about political issues, but find a way to lovingly allow them to engage in conversation for the purpose of bringing unbelievers to see a biblical healthy view of the church
4. Be aware there is an issue separating us from the unbeliever

I don't know the answer.  But I do know the question.  Let's figure out how to answer this question so that we can reach these people, for the Glory of God.  

Build His Kingdom Here

Am I Building My Kingdom or am I building His Kingdom?

It is easy to lose focus.  Even as I write this, I am having to force myself to be focused; there are so many things fighting for our attention in this ADHD instant world that we live in.  When Christ called us to salvation, our eyes were opened.  They were opened to the sin around us, the were opened to the sin in us, and they were opened the great great power He has to overcome and forgive us of that sin. How quickly and often we can forget about that great work that Christ has done in us and the great power that lives in us, that we are partakers in - “having escaped from the corruption that is in the world”.  

If our eyes have been opened to the greatness and goodness of God then we should try to model Christ in everything that we do for the sake of building His kingdom.  We do this through every aspect of our life, so our life screams out, “Christ is Lord”.  If I am being honest, and why should I not be, I am not there yet.  There are many aspects of my life that scream, “Jonathan is Lord”; there are many aspects of my life that scream, “My family is Lord”; even furthermore there are many aspects of my life that loudly scream, “money is Lord”.  Many times I am more concerned about building my kingdom, my families kingdom, and my financial kingdom, than I am building His Kingdom.  

In 2 Peter, Peter says that if I am not pursuing the qualities that scream “Christ Is Lord”, I am keeping myself ineffective and unfruitful for the Lord - furthermore if I lack these qualities then I am nearsighted, blind, having FORGOTTEN the truth my eyes were opened when I was saved.  Peter then says, I need to be therefore highly concerned with making sure to make much of the Lord, to building His kingdom now.  

It is easy to lose focus on what is important; as sad as it is to say, it is easy to forget the great power of salvation of Christ; to lose the joy of our salvation.  It is easy to lose focus that building our Kingdom will accomplish nothing, while building Christ’s Kingdom will accomplish forgiveness and everlasting life in other’s lives.  

Our kingdoms: ourselves, our families, our money - it all pales in comparison to the great love of His Kingdom.  

Let’s be about building His Kingdom today.  

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:3-11

Faith Like A Child

Faith Like A Child

Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom 

of God like a child shall not enter it.

Luke 18:17

My daughter, Mackenzie, is a three-year-old who is full of life, energy and excitement.  It is amazing to watch her learn new things and oftentimes quite humorous to see how she processes them.  Before every meal and at bedtime each night we end each of our prayers with “Amen, To God Be All the Glory”.  This has become a standard to her on how one is supposed to end a prayer.  It is has been humorous to see her correct her Sunday School teachers saying, that they forgot to say, “To God Be All the Glory”.  Meanwhile they try to figure out what this three-year-old is saying, since it is not always completely understandable.  

Mackenzie attends the preschool held at the Methodist Church in the town where we live.  A few weeks ago, she came home concerned, worried, and upset.  When my wife and I asked her what was wrong, she said, “Pastor David does not know how to end a prayer”.  I assumed she meant that he had simply forgotten to say, “To God Be All the Glory”, however she continued, he ended his prayers saying, “(Ahh-men)" instead of "(Ae-men)."  She was worried how someone who was a pastor could miss this simple task.  So Mackenzie, with the mind of a child begin to pray for Pastor David every night, that God would teach him how to correctly end a prayer.  

Yesterday, when I picked Mackenzie up from pre-school, it was all Mackenzie could do to contain her excitement as she told me, that “God had taught Pastor David to end his prayers correctly with "(Ae-men)."  Being an adult and not particularly in the believing mode, I tried to interpret what she was saying by asking, “So did you bug him to say that?”, or “Was he trying to make you happy?”.  Mackenzie continued, that, no God had been the one who had taught Pastor David this; He had answered her prayer.  It then hit me, this was Faith Like a Child.  Even though I don’t know what caused Pastor David to end his prayers like this, in my daughters mind, this was God doing exactly what we had been teaching her - answering her prayers.  

I wonder how many of us would have callused hearts in this situation, to think well God didn’t truly answer this prayer, trying to rationalize what had happened, instead of simply exclaiming that God had answered a prayer.  In this moment, my daughter became the teacher and I became the student; she reminded me of a child-like faith that doesn’t reason, or try to explain, but that trusts in God.   

Be encouraged today that the Lord does indeed hear your prayers, and He is at work in answering them.  

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer,

believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Mark 11:24