Weekend Reflections

I spent the 4th of July holiday with the family. We grilled some and went to the State Park for a little recreation. Loved watching my little six-year old warrior try to catch a squirrel!

Yesterday we started "The Warrior" series. I have borrowed the concept from my friends at Lifechurch.tv. I have been praying for a way to energize the men in our church to become warriors for God. I am praying that this series will be the launching pad for an awesome men's ministry.

Saturday night I got a call from a friend and long-time attender of TimberRidge. She and her husband went on short missions trip to Mexico last February. I shared with them that I have a burning desire to go on a missions trip and share the Good News and be the "hands and feet of Christ". God does answer prayers, but you better be ready when He does. They have a chance to go to...ready for this...Uruguay in late October of this year. Uruguay! I had to look on a map to find out where it was in South America. It sounds so awesome and God has put a burn in my heart like never before. I don't have any details, but they don't matter as much as the chance to go somewhere where the majority of the people do not have a relationship with God. I will be walking into furtile ground for the Kingdom and a chance to put action to my words. Thanks God for giving me this chance! Now...how do I raise the $2,000.00 needed to get there...I know God is in that also.

Have a great day!

Independence Day!

We are getting ready to have a small family cookout tomorrow and enjoy the holiday. Independence Day...the day we remember the fight our forefathers fought to free us from the tyranny of England. A battle fought on the fields of this country and in the hearts of our ancestors. It was difficult for them to imagine what self-government would look like. They had been under the Monarchy of England for their entire lives. Nevertheless they embarked on a brave an awesome journey that you and I celebrate tomorrow.

My prayer is that you will find true independence. You will find independence from addiction, oppression, self-doubt, bitterness and loneliness. I pray that you will find the freedom that comes from claiming the strong name of Jesus Christ as your Savior. You will find the independence of knowing that you are a child of God and nothing the evil one does can ever change that. You are God's beautiful creation and He has set you free from the things that bind you up. So this weekend claim your freedom and celebrate a real independence day!

Are we helping?

The leadership team has been talking a lot about the Isaiah 58 ministry here at TimberRidge. This ministry touches lives every day of the week through meeting peoples immediate needs with bills and food. The question is whether we are truly doing enough? Are we seeing lives being transformed? In my wrestling with these questions I was reminded of our church mission statement. We are a church where "no one walks alone." Are we truly walking with them, or trying to get them to follow us? There is a real difference...then I read this blog post by Perry Noble. He is the Senior Pastor of NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC.

I found myself praying the following prayer: "Lord, please just let me be your hands and feet. Help me to put aside my sinful need to control and govern Your work. May everyone we help see you in all that we do and say. Show me ways to walk alongside your people and show them the love of Jesus each and every day."

Monday morning reflections

I am reflecting on yesterday and what God is doing in my life right now. We finished up the One Prayer series yesterday with Pastor Craig Groeschel's message "Make Us One". It really got me thinking about how I relate, or fail to relate, to other churches and other pastors. I realized that may harbor some feelings of competition towards other churches that is hampering my ability to do God's ministry in partnership with them. I think we sometimes get locked into thinking that church is a "zero-sum" game. In other words, there are only so many people that are going to go to church and we better get our slice of that pie. The reality is that we are forgetting that two-thirds of that pie is not involved in the local church. Maybe if I stop trying to compete and instead look to the fields...they are very ripe and ready to be harvested. I am committing myself today to make another effort to build relationships with other pastors here in Kirksville.

There has been a lot of discussion around the topic of worship lately at TRCC. In my prayers this morning I realized that the real spirit of worship is that I should strive everyday to worship God just a little deeper than I did yesterday. When we gather on Sunday we should all strive to be a little more open and engage a little deeper with the Holy Spirit than we did the previous Sunday. That is the mark of spiritual growth. A constant moving forward and deepening relationship with God.

Sunday Reflections

Yesterday I brought my OnePrayer message. We are a little out of sync on this series because I was on vacation on June 8th, the day the series began.

My message was "Make us Transformed". No one ever came into contact with Jesus and remained the same. The church needs to be the very embodiment of Jesus to the world. The church needs to show that we worship a living God. We need to stay innovative and open to change. Traditions are made to be broken! We need to live the transformation that has happened in our hearts. We are new creatures and we need to reflect that to the world. We don't have worship "services", we have celebrations! The world is looking for something to celebrate. We have something greater than the Super Bowl, Indy 500, Kentucky Derby, World Series and Olympics combined. We have the assurance of salvation and eternal life in the Jesus Christ! It is time we started celebrating and invite people to celebrate with us.

Lord, make us transformed!

Random Thoughts...

Here some things that have been on my mind:

- Why are people amazed that Christians can have fun? I was listening to Spirit FM this morning and a caller shared that she took a friend to the Crossroads Concert in Lake of the Ozarks. Her friend was amazed that Christians could listen to rock music and have so much fun. Why are we not showing the world our real faith? We are children of the living God and we are redeemed by the blood of His Son Jesus Christ! We will live for eternity in His presence! We have reason to celebrate...why are we hiding it?

- Steven Furtick's message "Make Us Audacious" .... off the chain! He was preaching that right to me and TRCC! Thanks Steven!

- TRCC is at a huge crossroads in our life as a church. We have the opportunity to acquire some land to build a campus, but like everyone else the financial burden seems daunting. Are we going to step out in faith or are we going to shrink back in fear?

- I only caught the last 20 minutes of the U.S. Open on Sunday. It was great golf action (can you use the word "golf" and "action" in the same sentence?)...I digress...it was not the great shots and awesome putting that struck me. What got to me was the interview they did with Rocco Mediate. They asked him how he was feeling leading Tiger Woods by one stroke as Tiger was approaching the 18th green. Rocco said, "I left it all on the course. I have nothing else to give. I did the best I can do." WOW!!! That is what I want to be able to say about every single day of my life. I left it all on the course. I have nothing more to give and I did my best! ... oh yeah, and then as a sign of abundant sportsmanship he was rooting for Tiger to make the putt to tie the tournament...are we rooting for other churches? Are we praying for other churches to grow abundantly?

Well that is enough time inside my head for while. I bet you are glad you don't have to live inside my head...hehe

Lake of the Ozarks and OnePrayer

We just got back from a wonderful week in the Lake of the Ozarks. It was beautiful down there and the weather was hot, but pleasant. With that being said, we were awoken by the tornado sirens at 12:30 a.m. our first night there, but hey, what is a vacation without a little adventure. It was sure nice to find out that all those golf lessons 10 years ago were not a complete waste. I swung my clubs for the first time in at least 5 years and found my old swing again.

We started the OnePrayer series this past Sunday. I am looking forward to Pastor Furtick's message this Sunday - "Lord Make Us Audacious". I am amazed that God has brought over 1,400 churches together around one preaching series! What is your one prayer? I hope you can join us for the remainder of this series.