Life Without.....

It's Thanksgiving and I just want to give Thanks to Jesus Christ who died for my sins! Thank You! Two weeks ago I learned about a young man from Australia named Nick Vujicic. This guy is absolutely amazing! Nick was born without arms or legs....but what's amazing is that he is an incredibly happy and joyful person. Sometimes I think that I have been given a pretty tough challenge by having two children born blind but then I come across a story like Nick's. This young man is having an incredible impact for Christ. He is reaching millions with his story! If you don't know about Nick go to his website www.nickvujicic.com and be inspired by his greater purpose. The purpose that he found in Jesus Christ! Life without_______ . Could you be happy in Christ no matter what you put in that blank. I pray that I will continue to find my joy in Christ and I pray that my children will find their joy and happiness in Christ even though they live Life without sight! Happy Thanksgiving :-)

Color Blind...Praise the Lord!

I just have to be blatantly and boldly honest. I am sick and tired of racism, racial prejudice, and racial preference in my country and in the churches of this country! I sometimes envy my children because they are color blind. I hear so many comments here and there...on tv...on radio...in music...in movies.....at social gatherings and sometimes at churches...that it is hard not to live where I live and not be influenced by some sort of race issue!

Even though I didn't vote for Barack Obama there is a part of me that is glad that he won. I can see the little minority children who had an extra twinkle in their eye and extra length in their smile the day after the election and it makes me happy for them. I can tell that some of my neighbors are a little more happy and that they are looking to see if I am happy for them too! If you can't see that then you are not looking or else you live in Utah.

Yes....my children do have very limited light perception but they see absolutely no color....Praise the Lord. My daughter goes to a school where she is the minority. She goes to a school where there are only 5 grades and yet their are over 50 languages represented. I am glad that when she comes home and talks to me about her friends at school that she doesn't have a clue what color they are. I wish we could all be color blind.

I am right on with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr a Baptist Preacher who was a Republican, he said

"I have a dream

that my four little children

will one day live in a nation

where they will not be judged

by the color of their skin

but by the content

of their character.”

That's one of the dreams I have for my children too!

Why is it that Sunday Morning is still the most segregated time of the whole week in America? Lord help the Christians and the Churches in this nation to repent and be a shining light to the rest of the World.

Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

God's design for the Local Church was for it to be an example to the World of how people of all races and tongues and cultures could love each other in unity in Christ.....And look what America is on Sunday mornings! Can the local churches bring glory to Christ when they aren't keeping his commands? Let's pray that revival will come to the churches of America in this issue and many others.....ie Abortion

Long Time No Blog

Wow....has it been that long since I blogged on this site? It has been one crazy and wild summer!
We started out going to Ohio in May for my wife's grandmother's funeral. I flew back to Texas and then took a van load of kids on our CityReach mission trip. Then a week and a half later I was back in Texas and the air conditioner on our house had broke. As soon as we got that fixed we took 70 people to camp at Pine Springs then the week after that we took a load to Bogg Springs. The week after that we were in full preparation mode for VBS then we had VBS (we had a record average attendance of 240 for that). Then a week later I went to China for the Olympic Bible Project. I got back from that last week and have been catching up with honey do's that piled up over the last 3 months.....by the way did I mention that we moved into a new house in April and are still unpacking? We have seen many people saved through these ministries and I wouldn't trade the time for nothing! But now I am going to spend some time with my family! I might get to "Senses Part II" and a report about the China trip when the rest of the group gets back from over there!

God Bless!

Is Our Doctrine Really Beautiful? If Not Put Some Make-Up On It!

I go to an awesome church!! Our youth ministry has had "True Love Waits" Youth Revivals for several years now and they have always been a huge success. This year Sublett Road Baptist Church led by our Pastor Bill Morrow decided that purity wasn't just for youth and that we were going to have a Purity Revival for the whole church. So far it is going great.....Our evangelist did a great job today and I am looking forward to the rest of the week!

Chase is preaching to us out of Titus chapter 2 and today he shared something about Titus 2:10 where it says that we should live pure lives and do good works ".....that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things." I studied it some more tonight and the word adorn is "Kosmeo" in the greek which is the same word that we get "cosmetics" from in English. Does the purity of our lives and our good works make our doctrine more beautiful? We are always hearing people say that we shouldn't try to appeal to the World but these verses clearly say that we can and are commanded to make our doctrine more appealing to the World! Get a load of that!

This made me think of verses like 2Ti 4:3 "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine" and I began to wonder if this is the fault of those of us who profess Christ in the end times....After all the Bible does say "For the time [is come] that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if [it] first [begin] at us, what shall the end [be] of them that obey not the gospel of God?" I Peter 4:17 Is it possible that we who profess Christ and are in the Lord's Churches are actually turning the lost and new believers away from sound doctrine because we are not living pure lives and not doing good works like we should. Could it be that our doctrine is not beautiful because people actually see the lives we are living. It's time that we started adorning God's doctrine with our pure lives and good works so that it will be Beautiful to the World and to new believers! Is Our Doctrine Really Beautiful? Is Your Doctrine Beautiful? If not put some make-up on it!

What Is Really Going On?

I associate with a group of Churches known as The American Baptist Association.....recently my dad wrote a blog on his website http://www.goxstream.org/ about our missionary efforts and I thought I would share what he wrote.

"It was recently reported that over 13,000 souls have been saved in the collective work of our missionaries. This is worth shouting about!However, without dampening the spirit of this wonderful report, we must ask the question, "why have there only been 14 new works started in six months on the foreign field and only 6 new works on the home front so far?" There is something very ominous about this.

Now, I do understand that you can't get everybody baptized that gets saved, and everybody that gets baptized doesn't necessarily end up in church or part of a new church. But if only half of these people ended up in church or a new church there would have been significant church increase and new works being started and it would have been widely reported. But there hasn't been that I can tell.

What's going on? Can someone answer my question? Maybe I'm missing something.With 13,000 plus having been saved we should have heard of dozens if not hundreds of new churches being started. Someone enlighten me?"

I had never thought about it before but the statistics are taken from the 120 or so missionaries recommended by the churches of the association. If you divide 13,000 by the 120 missionaries you get approximately 110 professions per missionary. I agree with my dad ......why aren't we seeing more missions and churches started? What is even more stunning is that many of the new 20 missions and churches started globally in our work are done by the unrecommended missionary force......that larger group of forgotten missionaries that are sponsored by ABA churches that do not go through the recommending process and are never recognized at the "Meetin' ".

I am in full support of the ABA but sometimes we have to take a hard look at what is being done and ask ourselves.....What is really going on?

Asleep in the Light

I had a great time at this years North Texas Weekend 4 Jesus. The theme of the weekend was "Now Is the Time" and the emphasis was on evangelism and outreach. Spencer Davis was our Worship Leader for the Weekend and he did an absolutely great job for the honor and glory of God. I hadn't heard it in years and had forgotten about a great song by Keith Green called "Asleep in the Light" when Spencer sang and played it for us on the Keyboard. I wanted to share it with you all......and if you go to my other blog www.myspace.com/cityreachdude you can hear the original song for yourself! It reminds me of when Jesus said "Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest". Then later he told the church at Laodicea who was rich, increased with goods, and had need of nothing that they were blind.

-----------------------------------

-------------------------------

Asleep In The Light

Do you see, do you see,

all the people sinking down,
Don't you care, don't you care,

are you gonna let them drown,
How can you be so numb,

not to care if they come,
You close your eyes

and pretend the job's done.
Oh Bless me Lord, bless me Lord,

you know it's all I ever hear,
No one aches, no one hurts,

no one even sheds one tear,
But He cries, He weeps, He bleeds,

and He cares for your needs,
And you just lay back and keep soaking it in,

oh, can't you see it's such sin?
Cause He brings people to your door,
And you turn them away,

as you smile and say,
God bless you, be at peace,

and all Heaven just weeps,
Cause Jesus came to your door,

you've left Him out on the streets.

Open up, open up, and give yourself away,
You've seen the need, you hear the cry,

so how can you delay,
God's calling and you're the one,

but like Jonah you run,
He's told you to speak,

but you keep holding it in,
Oh, can't you see it's such sin?
The world is sleeping in the dark,
That the church can't fight,

cause it's asleep in the light,
How can you be so dead,

when you've been so well fed,
Jesus rose from the grave, and you,

you can't even get out of bed,
Oh, Jesus rose from the dead,

come on, get out of your bed.

How can you be so numb,

not to care if they come,
You close your eyes

and pretend the job's done,
You close your eyes

and pretend the job's done,
Don't close your eyes,

don't pretend the job's done.
Come away, come away,

come away with Me, My love,
Come away, from this mess,

come away with Me, My love.

Mission, Vision and Morphing

A year or so ago our church had a "vision casting" service on New Years Eve. For those that actually stayed awake and were able to concentrate there were alot of really interesting things that were said. In the whole process of thinking and praying about what "vision" God had given me for the ministries that I lead at our church I came to really understand the difference between "mission" and "vision" for the first time in my life.

If someone were to ask 10 carpenters to each make a dining room table and gave them a certain amount of money and a certain amount of time each of those carpenters would create a table that was different from the others. The task of making a table would be "mission". What those tables actually looked like would be "vision".

The "Mission" of the Lord's Churches is obvious Matthew 28:19-20 etc. The "Vision" is not always so obvious. In my experience almost all of the church splits that I have ever known have not been about "Mission" but in the area of "Vision". Different people have different ideas of what the end product should look like. Most of the time the differing opinions are neither doctrinal issues nor moral issues but usually "vision" issues. In a desperate effort to justify their divisions to "the brethren" I have literally seen people jump through incredible hoops trying make it look like it was about doctrinal issues when in fact it was nothing of the sort.

Even in denominations most splits and divisions are over "vision" issues and not "mission" issues. In the association of churches that I fellowship with there is a growing differences of opinion concerning what starting new churches should look like. There really isn't a doctrinal or moral issue at stake its mostly just a preference of which terms should be used, which methodology should be followed and a lack of trust from those that have never done it that way before.

It is interesting to note that the word "division" with the prefix "di" actually means "Two Visions". In this group of churches neither of the "visions" for how to start churches is necessarily unscriptural they are just different. When such a situation exists the key to avoiding a division is to have "morphing" take place. "Morphing" is when two visions are turned into one. When "morphing" two pictures you lose parts of both pictures but a new and interesting picture develops. The problem is that it takes humility on both sides in order for morphing to take place, both sides have to give up something. Most of the time its really just pride that has to be given up....to actually admit that there is more than one way of doing something.

I grew up in Canada a country where interacial marriages are almost the norm. Something that I came to realize in most cases is that the more diverse the parents race often times the more beautiful the children were. Do you think that this is a coincidence.....No! God is trying to teach us something. The more diverse the differences between two people, two visions, two groups etc.....when they are willing to "morph" the more beautiful they can be. When a couple comes together and a child is created each parent gives DNA to the process. Some is used from one parent and some is used from the other. It is Gods way of making something beautiful out of two seperate entities. I believe that if there is a willingness to morph among our churches that God can take the city churches and the country churches and make something beautiful, the older generation and the younger generation and make something beautiful, the small churches and the large churches and make something beautiful, the mission methodology and the church planting methodology and make something beautiful. The bible says "submit one to another". If we do this then we can be morphed into something very very very beautiful. I pray that this would happen in our churches!