Think It Through

This is so good and I wanted you to read it. I copied this post from Pastor Mark Wilson, pastor of Hayward Wesleyan Church in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Read his blog at http://revitalizeyourchurch.blogspot.com/


The quality of life is not a matter of luck - but of choice!

Some choices don't make much difference - like "What should I wear today?" (Although some people take an extraordinarily long time deciding this!)

Other choices can change the entire course of life - like "Who should I marry?" or "How does God fit into my life?"

Sometimes small choices can turn into disastrous outcomes:

"Should I cheat?"
"Should I take this drug?"
“Should I visit this website?”
"Should I protect myself and tell a lie?"
"Should I go out with this person?"

Think it through!

Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick invented the following six-point test for making excellent decisions:

1. Does the course of action you plan to follow seem logical and reasonable? Never mind what anyone else has to say. Does it make sense to you? If it does, it is probably right.

2. Does it pass the test of sportsmanship? In other words, if everyone followed this same course of action would the results be beneficial to all?

3. Where will you plan of action lead? How will it affect others? What will it do to you?

4. Will you think well of yourself when you look back on what you have done?

5. Try to separate yourself from the problem. Pretend, for one moment, it is the problem of the person you most admire. Ask yourself how that person would handle it.

6. Hold up the final decision to the glaring light of publicity. Would you want your family and friends to know what you have done? The decisions we make in the hope that no one will find out are usually wrong.

Poor choices bring negative results. On the other hand, things usually turn out better when we make the right decisions. It pays to think first and act second.

Thank God for Small Things (and my wife)

Two weeks ago last Friday I had an accident riding my motorcycle on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I had taken a couple vacation days to go ride the parkway. I was having a blast! Rode all day on Thursday, May 20, rode the entire parkway in the state of Virginia. Stayed Thursday evening at a motel in Waynesboro, Va., where the parkway ends and the Skyline Drive of the Shenandoah National Forest begins. Friday I started back towards North Carolina, and about 10:30am Friday morning the bike and I went down.

I still do not know what caused the bike to go down, probably will never know for sure. A couple thoughts; one, I hit a slick spot when applying the front brake and locked the brake causing the bike to go down, two, I dozed off. I know the dozing off theory sounds weird but I was so relaxed, was by myself and there was hardly no traffic. One reason I came up with the dozing off theory is I don't remember going down. All I remember is sliding along the road after I went down.

Thankfully I was not severely injured. I did suffer a broken collar bone and some broken ribs (ouch), it still hurts two and a half weeks later.Hurt also was my pride, it took a big hit, it's a man thing, men think they can avoid stuff like this. The injury has limited what I can do. With arm in a sling, I could not dress myself, shower, lay down, drive (at least for a few days), very hard to keyboard on the computer, on and on I could list small things that one takes for granted every day I could not do. I had never broken a bone in 64 years of life before. All of a sudden I realized how thankful we need to be for the ability to do the small tasks of life everyday. It's unbelievable how difficult life is when you can't do the small everyday ordinary tasks. God surely knew what He was doing when He gave us two good hands, two good arms, two good feet, two good legs, etc. Wow they are so necessary. Be thankful for the ability to use the members of the body.

My good wife has been such a blessing. With me whining and complaining, you know how men get when they are hurt or sick, she has been a tremendous help. I am pretty much a do it for myself type of man, but I needed help with just about everything and my wife gave me all the assistance I needed.

After two and a half weeks I am getting back to doing most things for myself, still can't put on my socks very easily.........another small thing we take for granted everyday. I am slowly healing and slowly doing most things for myself again, still cannot lay down (Oh! I miss being able to lay down and stretch out), little by little, day by day, I am accomplishing (very carefully) the small things of life.

Will I ride again? I love riding my motorcycle and never want to go down again!!!!!
However as of now I am thinking, yes, I will ride when I heal.

Thank God every day if you have the ability to do the small things of life!!!! The every day small things we take for granted are really big when you can no longer do them.

Every Church Needs a Little Conflict

Last week I attended a Church Conflict Resolution training event. About 20 of us gathered at the beautiful Table Rock Conference and Retreat Center near Pickens, South Carolina. Dr. George Bullard who is part of the Columbia Partnership and an expert on resolving church conflict was with us for two days. Dr. Bullard shared with us some pretty heavy stuff.

One of the things Dr. Bullard shared is that not all church conflict is unhealthy. Matter of fact, according to Dr. Bullard, every Church needs a little conflict and he gave seven reasons why:

1. Congregations without a healthy intensity of conflict do not have passion around their mission, purpose, and values.

2. Congregations without a healthy intensity of conflict do not have clear beliefs and core values.

3. Congregations without a healthy intensity of conflict are into an avoidance life style.

4. Congregations without a healthy intensity of conflict make shallow decisions that come from a group-think mentality.

5. Congregations without a healthy intensity of conflict do not have the opportunity to learn how to handle decision-making around complex issues, and thus handle transitional and unhealthy conflict when they are experienced.

6. Congregations without a healthy intensity of conflict do not learn how to keep conflict from escalating to an unhealthy intensity.

7. Congregations without a healthy intensity of conflict do not take risks because they are afraid it will create conflict it cannot handle.

What do you think..............

Voting on The Man of God

The church where I am a member this past Sunday had a recall vote on their pastor. Yes, there are a few churches around who still operate that way. Voting on the pastor is something I have given a good deal of thought to over the years. Here are some of my thoughts.

-Whoever came up with the idea of having the church decide by a secret ballot vote of the members on whether or not they want to keep their pastor came up with a very strange and cruel method.
-I can't find any Biblical foundation for such an idea. The only time the New Testament church voted on something was when the apostles cast lots to determine who would replace Judas. The lot fell to Matthias. Matthias was never heard from again. In due time God raised up His own man to replace Judas, the replacement was the Apostle Paul.
-Voting on keeping the Man of God. The Man of God who is the shepherd of the sheep, who prays, preaches, counsels, and helps direct you in the ways of God. The Man of of God who is God's anointed leader of the church. Then we want to turn it into a popularity contest as to how many people like him enough to keep him as pastor.
-From my experience when a church has a plan in place to have their members vote on keeping the pastor from time to time it creates an unsettled atmosphere within the church. Particularly unsettling around the time of the vote.
-Pastors are humans and have family. Can you imagine the stress having an entire congregation of members vote on the pastor puts not only on him but his entire family?
-Church is not the place for politics. We are people of God seeking the will and way of God. We find God's will and way by prayer, Bible study, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
-Voting never settles anything. People feel the say way after the vote as they did before the vote.
-Kids know it doesn't sound right. When our church announced a vote on the pastor two weeks before the vote was taken my grandson who is 11 years of age looked at me and said, "what is this about", you could see the look of something about this doesn't sound right in his eyes.
-The church has a mission to accomplish that is the greatest mission on earth. We should not be wasting our time 'voting on the Man of God'.

In case you are wondering the vote on our pastor came out very good. Oh yes, a few people voted no, now I suppose church folk who have nothing else better to do are trying to figure out who voted no. How ridiculous!!!!

I can't help but wonder what God thinks about such a strange way of doing things. What do you think. Please leave a comment.

Major Truths from Minor Prophets

The last few weeks I have been leading Wednesday night Bible study at the local church where I am a member. Our church has many different Wednesday night activities; pre-service meal, children's meeting, youth meeting, choir rehearsal, a small group or two may meet from time to time, church committees may meet from time to time and there is a Bible study. With all that is going on the Bible study usually has 25 or so present.

When I was asked to lead I asked the group what they would like to study. We came to an agreement to study the minor prophets of the Old Testament. To date we have studied two of them, Joel and Amos.

At first read one is not sure what can be drawn from these prophets that is applicable today. However as you study and probe into what they are saying we have discovered some very major truths from the minor prophets.

Joel gives us two major truths to ponder:
1. The Day of the Lord - This is a phrase mentioned often in the scriptures. Life is full of the hum-drum, ordinary days, at times we may think nothing is really happening. We may think God is not noticing and rewards/judgments are not coming. But God is active and throughout the history of mankind God has had HIS day and there are more Days of the Lord to come.
2. Pentecost - What a mighty day! The birthday of the church! Yet today I don't think we have discovered all the meaning of Pentecost. The coming of the Holy Spirit into the world and the ushering in of the church/grace age is of epic importance to us yet today.

Amos gives us five major truths to ponder:
1. God speaks to His people - We are not left to wonder about the answer. Through the Holy Spirit and the WORD the voice of God give us all we need to know God's will and gain eternal life.
2. Sovereignty of God - God is in control! He has the whole wide world in His hands! He does what He wills! He is the Supreme ruler!
3. The problem of sin - Mankind has a fatal flaw, it is called sin!
4. Visions/Dreams - In the past God used unusual means to make His ways and will known, does He still speak this way today?
5. Restoration - The architect of this world, God Himself, is more interested in our restoration than anything else!

Get to digging in the garden of the Minor Prophets you will find some major truths to live by!

Reminiscing

From time to time my mind rolls back over the years. This time of the year I have a great memory from the month of January in the late 1950's to reminisce about. I grew up 12 miles northwest of the city of Indianapolis, Indiana. Every January the Nazarenes, Pilgrim Holiness, Wesleyan Methodist, Free Methodist, Missionary Band, Salvation Army and other like minded Wesleyan Armenian groups would put on a mid-winter indoor camp meeting at Cadle Tabernacle in Indianapolis. A few days ago a boyhood friend, James Scales, from Indy posted the pic of Cadle Tabernacle below on my face book.

The tabernacle was huge, I don't know the seating capacity but it was in the thousands. In that day the biggest Wesleyan Armenian church around that I knew of had an attendance of 300-400, walking into that huge tabernacle that would seat thousands got my attention as a young boy. Thousands would come for the ten day meeting.

The camp meeting was led by Dr. P.F. Elliot who at the time was President of Owosso Pilgrim College in Owosso, Michigian, his booming voice and ability to work a crowd made him an excellent leader for the services. The camp had the best Wesleyan-Armenian evangelists and singers of that day. Too this day, one Nazarene pastor who was a camp evangelist stands out in my mind, his name was Lawrence B. Hicks, he pastored First Church of The Nazarene in Ashland, KY. Too this day I remember a title of a sermon he preached at the camp meeting, it was titled "This is That", taken from the words of Peter in Acts 2:16. I remember Jim Bohi singing "Until the Storm Passes By" and Orval Butcher and his trombone. It was a mighty gathering, great fellowship, tremendous singing and powerful preaching. Eternity will show the results, but it sure made a impression on this young lad.

I mentioned the camp was in January, you guessed it, it always snowed. The snow did not cause the meetings to be cancelled and did not keep people away. Through the snow and ice the thousands would come service after service. We took the snow, ice, and cold in stride it was just part of January winter in Indiana.

Today the Tabernacle is gone, the camp meeting era is pretty well gone as well. The memories remain.

Blessings for the New Year

Blessings for the New Year. They are adapted from the English theologian William Barclay's writings from Matthew 5:3-10

-Blessed is the man who has realized his own helplessness and put his whole trust in God. He will be a citizen of God's kingdom.

-Blessed is the man who has a sense of his own sin. He shall be comforted.

-Blessed is the man who is self-controlled and knows his own ignorance, weakness and need. He will be king among men.

-Blessed is the man who longs for total righteousness as a hungry man longs for food or a thirsty man longs for water. He shall be satisfied.

-Blessed is the man who is concerned with the feelings of others. Others will be concerned with his feelings.

-Blessed is the man whose motives are pure. He shall see God.

-Blessed is the man who works for others highest good. He will be a son of God.

-Blessed is the man whose life is disrupted, insulted, and feels the hand of evil against him for Christ's sake. He will enter the kingdom of heaven.