As I perpared for Terry Smith's memorial service, I read through the testimony that he wrote down when he became a deacon in our church. He ended it with single sentence, "It all started with a friend asking me to go to Sunday School." That stood out for him as a pivotal moment in his life.
I reflected on that life - a life of service to God, a life of loving others, a life of raising a wonderful family, a life of giving of himself to others. But the significant turning point in Terry's mind was when that friend in Uvallde, Texas asked the kid whose father had died a few years before - the kid who did not go to church - to simply come to Sunday School with him.
Does that friend have any idea what started with that single invitation? Can they even comprehend all the things God set in motion with that simple request? Evangelism is not that hard, becasue God wants to do things through us that we could never do on our own.
Some day, in the future, as your friends look back on your their lives, will they have a similar pivotal moment to point to because you were a faithful witness in giving a single invitation? Why not give it a try this week?
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Simmering before Sunday
Rod Cooper, Billy Graham and yours truly are all boys raised on a dairy farm who grew up to be Baptist preachers. Yes, Billy is in a class all by himself but something Rod wrote about his experience growing up hit home with me.
Rod, like me and Billy, had to get up very early to help with the morning milking. By the time he came to the house for breakfast his mom had often started a pot of soup for the day. When Rod came in for lunch he always expected the soup to be ready, it smelled so wonderful. When finding out the soup was for dinner, he asked why do we have to wait on it all day. To which his mom would reply, "Son, it needs to simmer so we get all the juices out of all the ingredients. And then they're all mixed together and it gives off this wonderful aroma so when you taste it, you're getting the best of what's in each ingredient."
Rod observed that is the way he has begun to see worship. God's people at their best have been simmering in His presence all week. Then when we come together on Sunday morning we mix all of it together to give God something pleasing, bringing the best out of each ingredient; 'a pleasing aroma to God.'
That is a good way to think of worship. That is a good way to approach worship. And that is a good way to approach each day. Simmering for Sunday. Try it this week.
"For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved..." 2 Corinthians 2:15
For the journey...
Rod, like me and Billy, had to get up very early to help with the morning milking. By the time he came to the house for breakfast his mom had often started a pot of soup for the day. When Rod came in for lunch he always expected the soup to be ready, it smelled so wonderful. When finding out the soup was for dinner, he asked why do we have to wait on it all day. To which his mom would reply, "Son, it needs to simmer so we get all the juices out of all the ingredients. And then they're all mixed together and it gives off this wonderful aroma so when you taste it, you're getting the best of what's in each ingredient."
Rod observed that is the way he has begun to see worship. God's people at their best have been simmering in His presence all week. Then when we come together on Sunday morning we mix all of it together to give God something pleasing, bringing the best out of each ingredient; 'a pleasing aroma to God.'
That is a good way to think of worship. That is a good way to approach worship. And that is a good way to approach each day. Simmering for Sunday. Try it this week.
"For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved..." 2 Corinthians 2:15
For the journey...
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Grasping the Essentials
How do you boil the Christian life down to the essentials? Once you have done that, how do you encooperate them into your life?
There are five basic functions of the church and for the church to be fully functional, we as individual believers must grasp these essentials: worship, evangelism, discipleship, fellowship and ministry. Years ago I saw an illustration of how to remember those using your hand, each finger reminds us of something essential.
Sunday we begin a series on the five functions of the church -"Fully Functional." God wants us to become a fully functional church by making us fully functional Christians. Come join us on the journey...
There are five basic functions of the church and for the church to be fully functional, we as individual believers must grasp these essentials: worship, evangelism, discipleship, fellowship and ministry. Years ago I saw an illustration of how to remember those using your hand, each finger reminds us of something essential.
- Thumb - Worship. It comes first and enables us to grip the things of God.
- Fore Finger - Evangelism. It is the finger we use to point and we should always point others to God.
- Middle Finger - Discipleship. It has grown longer than the others and reminds us we are to keep growing in Christ.
- Ring Finger - Fellowship. We mark our relationships with our ring finger. It reminds us that we have a family, a church that we belong to and we have a commitment to them.
- Little Finger - Ministry. This is our weakest finger and reminds us that there are those who are not as strong and need help.
Sunday we begin a series on the five functions of the church -"Fully Functional." God wants us to become a fully functional church by making us fully functional Christians. Come join us on the journey...
Friday, September 24, 2010
Prayer that Restores
The LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold. Job 42:10 NASV
I am drawn back to this verse over and over again. After all Job had been through in his catastophic loses, after all his friends had put him through in wrongly accusing him of some secret, terrible sin that forced God to bring all this "punishment" upon him, yet Job still prayed for his friends. Grieving, forsaken, broken Job utters a prayer of intercession for friends that had just bashed him. Amazing.
But something unasked takes place. Job himself is restored.
He had lost so much - children, possessions, health - but after he prays for his friends he is restored. It is the turning point in the book of Job. It was the turning point in his life; a simple but sacrificial prayer. We never know what prayer can do until we pray.
On this journey we travel together, it is vitally important that we make prayer a part of all we do. Would you be willing to join me in using our new website and its prayer possibilities as way of seeing what God can do through prayer?
What we are asking people to do is sign up to be an "intercessory prayer partner." After signing up, you will receive training on how to go to the website and see the requests that have come in to Northside on the web and on Sunday. Then you will find a time to pray for these needs. You will see ways to sign up this Sunday and in the Sunday's to come.
Big things can happen in prayer. And they may happen in our own lives.
For the journey...
Thursday, September 16, 2010
What Really Lasts?
Early in August we were driving my daughter home from DFW Airport through the maze of freeways and constructions zones that is the metroplex when we came into an area I thought I should know. There was road work going on but I knew I had driven this part of the freeway many times before but something was different.
Around a detoured corner we passed a huge pile of concrete rubble and twisted steel rebar. "What IS that?" I wondered out loud. Then it hit me what that WAS. It was Texas Stadium, recently imploded, now being broken down into dump truck size loads and being thrown away.
I flashed back to my first of only two times to go there. When I was in high school my aunt and uncle took me to see the Dallas Cowboys play the St. Louis Cardinals on Thanksgiving Day 1976. I saw Stauback and Landry and other men I thought to be "immortal" in a place I thought would be "eternal." I could not have imagined on that day, that it would all be rubble on this day.
As I get older, it amazes me now how many things that I thought would last - that I assumed would always be there - are now gone. We don't have a good grip on "eternal." But God brings what is really lasting within any one's grasp. True eternity is as close as finding a faith in your own heart and allowing words to come out of your own mouth. In an amazing simplicity God brings eternity to us and asks us to make a choice, a decision about what we believe to be eternal and about what we trust to last. We will look at that this Sunday. Come ready to make a choice.
Around a detoured corner we passed a huge pile of concrete rubble and twisted steel rebar. "What IS that?" I wondered out loud. Then it hit me what that WAS. It was Texas Stadium, recently imploded, now being broken down into dump truck size loads and being thrown away.
I flashed back to my first of only two times to go there. When I was in high school my aunt and uncle took me to see the Dallas Cowboys play the St. Louis Cardinals on Thanksgiving Day 1976. I saw Stauback and Landry and other men I thought to be "immortal" in a place I thought would be "eternal." I could not have imagined on that day, that it would all be rubble on this day.
As I get older, it amazes me now how many things that I thought would last - that I assumed would always be there - are now gone. We don't have a good grip on "eternal." But God brings what is really lasting within any one's grasp. True eternity is as close as finding a faith in your own heart and allowing words to come out of your own mouth. In an amazing simplicity God brings eternity to us and asks us to make a choice, a decision about what we believe to be eternal and about what we trust to last. We will look at that this Sunday. Come ready to make a choice.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Something to Grow On
We just finished a statistical year at Northside. I know it passed with out much fanfare but there are some things I wanted to share with you about what the numbers say is happening. For the most part it was an incredible year of growth.
In typical Baptist fashion, let me start with baptisms, we had 52 this year, up from 33 last year. We now have over 2,000 resident members, 2,012 to be exact. We were at 1,990 last year. Our overall Sunday morning worship average grew from 637 last year to an average of 703 this year. Other areas had some modest growth, other areas were down some but overall we have seen God really bless us. We have cause to be thankful.
We also have cause to be busy. The growth we have seen just touches the potential and the need. I also read this week where on any given Sunday only 5 out of 100 Texans will be in a Baptist church and only 20 out of 100 will be in any evangelical church.
More people have joined us in the journey at Northside. Many more need to know that they can join us and that God has a path for all of us through this life with Him. This Sunday we will pick back up on our series "The Path." We will discuss the path to life's greatest gift. I hope you will join us and bring some one along for the journey.
In typical Baptist fashion, let me start with baptisms, we had 52 this year, up from 33 last year. We now have over 2,000 resident members, 2,012 to be exact. We were at 1,990 last year. Our overall Sunday morning worship average grew from 637 last year to an average of 703 this year. Other areas had some modest growth, other areas were down some but overall we have seen God really bless us. We have cause to be thankful.
We also have cause to be busy. The growth we have seen just touches the potential and the need. I also read this week where on any given Sunday only 5 out of 100 Texans will be in a Baptist church and only 20 out of 100 will be in any evangelical church.
More people have joined us in the journey at Northside. Many more need to know that they can join us and that God has a path for all of us through this life with Him. This Sunday we will pick back up on our series "The Path." We will discuss the path to life's greatest gift. I hope you will join us and bring some one along for the journey.
Friday, September 3, 2010
5 Ways I Wish I Was Like My Beagle
Walking my dogs the past few mornings, I have begun to admire my beagle, "Bailey." There is much that irritates me about her as a year old, overly excitable puppy/dog but there are things I am learning to appreciate, even wish I could be more like.
I wish...
...I could be as happy as she is to greet people who wake me up from a nap. Of course sleeping about 12 hours a day like she does would help me be happy to see anyone.
... I could enjoy my sense of smell like she does. God made her to smell things out and she sniffs up things to the glory of God. To me, most of it I can't smell or it just smells to high heaven. To her, everything is an odoriferous adventure. I don't want to like what she likes, I just wish I could like more of what I encounter.
... I could get as excited about exercise as she does. The word "walk" will wake her from a dead sleep with perked ears and wide open eyes. I wish I had a word that would do that for me. It would be my new alarm clock.
... I could see everyone I encounter as a new friend. She never meets a stranger. Of course, it I jumped up on people, wagged my tail and licked people's toes like she does, I would not have many friends.
... I could enjoy life as much as she does. Dogs never seem to worry about their mortgage or seem to be troubled by the economy. She seems to be happy with how God made her and where she is in life. Yes, she enjoys chewing up things too much but overall she enjoys being who she is and what she does.
Do you really enjoy what you do? Is there purpose in your work life? How do you make a difference in what you have to do? We will look at those questions Sunday and see how God helped Moses to be a difference maker at his job. I hope you will join me.
I wish...
...I could be as happy as she is to greet people who wake me up from a nap. Of course sleeping about 12 hours a day like she does would help me be happy to see anyone.
... I could enjoy my sense of smell like she does. God made her to smell things out and she sniffs up things to the glory of God. To me, most of it I can't smell or it just smells to high heaven. To her, everything is an odoriferous adventure. I don't want to like what she likes, I just wish I could like more of what I encounter.
... I could get as excited about exercise as she does. The word "walk" will wake her from a dead sleep with perked ears and wide open eyes. I wish I had a word that would do that for me. It would be my new alarm clock.
... I could see everyone I encounter as a new friend. She never meets a stranger. Of course, it I jumped up on people, wagged my tail and licked people's toes like she does, I would not have many friends.
... I could enjoy life as much as she does. Dogs never seem to worry about their mortgage or seem to be troubled by the economy. She seems to be happy with how God made her and where she is in life. Yes, she enjoys chewing up things too much but overall she enjoys being who she is and what she does.
Do you really enjoy what you do? Is there purpose in your work life? How do you make a difference in what you have to do? We will look at those questions Sunday and see how God helped Moses to be a difference maker at his job. I hope you will join me.
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