Easy Button To God

A few years ago Staples created a cultural icon when it began its “easy button” campaign.  They said that using their store was the equivalent of hitting the magic easy button for your life and business.  This ad was wildly successful and memorable for most people because it tapped into something, we like – easy.  We strive for efficiency, with our time and resources, so we can do more.

 

Some people will try to explain being a Christian as if there is an easy button to God.  Just say a special prayer, and then come to church, be a good person, and you will should be just fine.  Church is a place to come, put up your feet with other worthy people, and get comfortable.  Surround yourself with traditions and ways of being that envelope you like a warm blanket, find your favorite seat, and you will be set.

 

There is no easy button when you follow Jesus that much is clear throughout Scripture.  Jesus spent most of his ministry breaking the traditions and stuffy rules that had nothing to do with a God, but were all about people.  Jesus was known well because he pushed boundaries, and didn’t hesitate calling out people who were selfish and focused on comfort and traditions instead of the living God.  Romans 12:2 tells us, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  When you meet Jesus, when he gets into your soul, it will change you deeply.  There is no easy button to God or easy faith, but instead a road that you can journey along with others imperfectly.  You can grant each other grace, even though it can hard and messy, just like the grace you have been given freely by Jesus when He died on the cross and rose from the dead to free you from sin.  Is following Jesus hitting the easy button? No. Is the life change worth every messy, challenging, and joy filled step.  No question!

 

Pastor Bill

 

Discussion Question

1. What challenges you in your faith?
2. How might you encourage or walk with someone else in their faith?

Ambush

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 1 Peter 5:7-9

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Ephesians 6:10-11

These are some hard words to read from Scripture.  Always be ready, because you never know when the devil might try to sneak out from around the corner.  Hard to read, but you already know what that is like.  You get home from work and get in a fight with your spouse about something silly for the third day in a row, even though you are really not angry with them.  You come home late from another meeting to crying kids, and lots of work around the house; and you feel defeated before you even take off you coat.  Before you sit down to the balance the checkbook you cross you fingers, wondering how you are going to pay all the bills since your hours were cut at work.  You just feel beat up, tired, worn out, and frustrated.  There are not enough hours in the day, money in the bank account or time to “catch up” on sleep.  You wonder when it is this going to get better.

Scripture writes to encourage us, that we are not alone in this.  Others experience similar circumstances, other people know what we are feeling, and other people have been there and done that.  We each have hard days, discouragements, and spiritual challenges.  Peter says that you need to cast our anxiety on God, because he cares for you and looks out for you.  We are reminded in Ephesians to be strong in God and His power, not our own.  We can stand in God’s power, His strength, and His provision.  We can encourage each other regularly, we can pray always, thank God often, and have hope that He will carry is through whatever we are in the middle of right now.

 

Pastor Bill

Discussion Questions

1.      What anxiety are you carrying right now? 

2.      Who do you know who is hurting right now that could you encourage or pray for?

Down for the Count

“25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.” Acts 16:25–26 (ESV)   Paul and Silas had just been beaten, and arrested for preaching about God.  Their track record was not good; they had been beaten on more than one occasion, arrested, derided, and threatened regularly.  They saw more struggle than success, more obstacles than encouragement.   Sound familiar?  You are asked to work more hours and produce more for less pay.  Something always seems to break at just the wrong time around the house, stretching your already thin finances even more.  You feel like for every step you take forward, you are pushed two steps back.  You feel like you got hit with a sucker punch in the gut and you are struggling to breath.  You wonder how you will get back up.   Paul and Silas’ reaction is clear.  They turn to God.  They don’t pretend that everything is ok, but turn to God honestly in their struggle.  They open their heart to God and cry out in the midst of their circumstances for God to intervene.  Their worship is heartfelt and honest, they pull no punches, and God hears their cries.  God intervenes in a powerful way to set them free from prison.  God frees them from prison but makes no promises they won’t get knocked down again.  They will still get beaten, discouraged, arrested, and mocked, but they were survivors.   Life will knock you down, you will hit tough patches, you will get discouraged, and breaks will not go your way.  But God will be there to pick you up, dust you off, and get you back on track.  God made you to get back up, to keep your eye on the prize, to run the race of faith with all of your being.  So on that day, when you are looking up from ground, turn to God, cry out in prayer, put your Hope in a God who hears his people’s prayer and answers them immeasurably greater than anything you could have ever asked for.   Pastor Bill   Discussion Questions Is there something in life that is knocking you down, discouraging you, and pushing you to your limits? Take time before you walk away from this to pray, to honestly open your heart up to God and be vulnerable. How can you support others who are struggling right now?

Count the Cost

As a reader I love to walk through book stores and see what books are being published, especially the best sellers.  Recently, I was walking through Barnes and Noble and could not help walking through the self-help section.  Now sarcastically I can say to you this is my “favorite” section of the book store to walk through.  I think I am especially entertained at the claims made by the authors.  Lose weight just by changing how you think, become a millionaire in just two hours a day, learn Chinese in a week by listening to tapes for ten minutes a day.  How many of you can attest to the truth of these claims?  It seems too good to be true, if you want to achieve great things, don’t you have to do something significant to achieve them?

Jesus is walking with a crowd one day, and turns to them and says, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘this person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’” (Luke 14:28-30, TNIV)  Jesus had a whole group of people clamoring for his teaching, to change their lives, and Jesus wants to make something clear: everything comes at a cost.  Jesus is not trying to send them all away, but instead to ask them to reflect for a moment on the cost of the decisions they make everyday.  To be a follower of Jesus and to grow each day in your faith is a wonderful thing to do, but understand it is not free, it comes at a cost.

If I stay late at work, that means less time with my family, if you do that once or twice it’s not a big deal, but what if that becomes normal?  What is the cost of that lost family time?  There is a cost whether we seek transformation or if we try to keep things the same.  If you talk to your children the same way at five as you do when they are 25, this likely will be ineffective and not allow for you to talk about deeper matters as your children grow up.  Every choice has a cost.

Jesus challenge for us is to count the cost, to be cognizant of our choices and to be clear with ourselves what we are willing to pay.  If you want to grow in your faith, you may need to change how you spend your money, sacrifice time watching some sports to go to small group or volunteer at church or cut back on your TV time so you can read the Bible and pray more.  When you say I want to grow in my faith, I want God to change my life and make it better, are you ready to pay the cost required?  What cost are you willing to pay for a life transformed by God?

 

Pastor Bill

 

Discussion Questions

1. What are some costs for you in places you want to see transformation?
2. What are some costs of following God that are often forgotten?
3. What are some costs to you not to seek God’s transformation in your life?

Bird’s Eye View Pt.2

As I walked in the door to my cousin’s house to visit the other week I saw them playing a game with their daughter that I remember when I was younger.  His cute 18 month old daughter sitting on the floor playing with her Mom, and Mom said to her daughter, “How big is Emily?”  Who would then squeal and spread her arms really wide and they’d both laugh and say so big!!!  This game used to keep me amused for hours as a kid, laughing about how big I was becoming and how much my Mom and Dad loved me.  It was a fun game for a small kid to be playing.

As young kid we laughed and played along with this game, believing that we were that big, and that our parents loved us that much.  As we have grown we each have been faced with a number of circumstances and situations which make us feel, a little less big, or just downright small.  We have stress at work, busy schedules, and issues with our kids, and worries about finances, just to name a few.

As we read through scripture there is an age old practice that was used to aid during challenging times in life.  This practice was reflecting on God, and His Word.  We read in Psalm 13, “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? (vs. 1)…But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.” (Psalm 13:1, 5-6, TNIV)  You can hear the pain and anguish of the psalmist, crying out to God for help.  As they pray to God and reflect, there is a dramatic shift in their tone as you read verse 5 and 6.  They move from outright hurt and pain, to someone lifting a prayer of praise and thanksgiving.  So what happened, it’s simple.  How big is your God?  So BIG!!!  They had a shift in perspective because suddenly their issues grew smaller in the presence of a God as large and powerful as their God.

To be able to reflect like that on God and our situation, we have to know who it is that we are reflecting on.  We see God reveal himself to us in through the Bible, but also in our lives and in the lives of others.  Take time to read the Bible, to study, to learn about God.  Take time to listen and to hear stories from others about God’s work in their lives.  I have heard stories of God removing cancer and healing a man who was dead on the table for 90 minutes back to full health.  God’s work is not just in those “big” or “miraculous” ways, but we can see God at work through a million “small” or “common” ways in our lives too.  The next time you encounter a bump in the road or have a tough day, take a moment and ask yourself, “How big is your God?”

Pastor Bill

Discussion Questions

1. What is one thing in life right now that is making you feel small, or challenged?
2. What barriers do you have to approaching God in those moments?
3. How would live look different with a shift in your perspective?
4. Take a moment read any of these Psalms to see this at work more: 3, 13, 22, 39, 51, 130, 36, 125, 126

When the Going Gets Tough

I am sure you heard this phrase growing up, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”  If you have ever been in a relationship with another person you know what this looks like well.  To build a strong relationship or marriage, it takes a tremendous amount of work.  The easy solution is to just coast, take things for granted, sweep challenges under the rug, and hope it all works out for the best.  The greatest challenge is to work at that relationship.  It is tough to have blunt conversations as you try to hold each other accountable.  It is tough to talk about intentions, dreams, and plans, especially when they are not congruent with the other person in your relationship.  Best put, relationships are lots of hard work.  Yet the deepest and strongest relationships require hard work, and overcoming challenges and obstacles together.

Our faith is no different.  Right now we are in a time of 21 days of prayer and discernment.  We are seeking to listen to God for his leading in both our lives and our church.  We are working hard on our relationship with God, to grow, and to grow as a church together.  But that is not easy work, because as we hear in 1 Peter, “Cast all your anxiety on God because he cares for you.  Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” (1 Peter 5:7-9 NIV)

This passage makes one thing clear, although God is for us, the devil is against us, hoping that we fail, hoping that we get discouraged, hoping that we will give up, change course, stop trying, and just take the easy way.  Jesus puts it this way, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14, ESV)

As I write this, I am trying to fend off the sniffles, because I have some sort of cold bug.  I don’t write this to say I am sick because we are in a time of prayer, but I think the two are connected.  Are you finding yourself fighting with your spouse more?  Ever considered that our time of prayer might have something to do with it?  Has work been more challenging, been in more disagreements at church, and struggled more than ever to find time to read the bible?  The road to life is HARD.  As we seek to listen to God, to hear this calling on our lives, it may be hard.  But hard does not mean we are on the wrong track, it does not necessarily mean that we need to stop or change direction.  Hard may be a confirmation that in fact we are hot on the trail of what God has for us, and the devil is working hard to make sure we don’t get there.  So instead of, “if the going gets tough, the tough get going,” let’s instead try, “If the going gets tough the faithful pray for one another, lean into God, and trust that He will be with them.”  When it gets tough let us pull together as one body to lift up and support one another in the work that God has called us to.

Discussion Questions

1. Are there are places in your life right now the going is getting tough?

2. How do you typically respond to challenges and obstacles?

3. How will you look to others for support in tough times?

Pastor Bill