For the Glory of God and the Kingdom

This January I am launching into a new sermon series entitled For the Glory of God and the Kingdom. On Sunday we will be looking at Luke 17 with the story of the ten lepers. In that story the lepers called Jesus master and begged for his mercy. Jesus tells them to present themselves to the priest and while they are on the way, the lepers are miraculously healed. However, only one of them returns to give glory to God. The Bible does not tell us why the other nine men did not return, but we must be careful not to condemn them before looking at ourselves. How often does God bless us, and we fail to thank him for his blessings? How often do we fail to thank God for the blessings we enjoy on a daily basis? As a church, our desire is to grow, so are we thanking God for what He has already given us, and are we prepared to be entrusted with others? I really don't want to put a time constraint on this message series because the lessons are too important. If we can get a hold of the importance of God's glory and God's kingdom, I believe it will change and transform our church. In January we will have churchwide evangelism training during our Sunday school hour. If we're going to ask God for greater witnessing opportunities, we need to be ready. Let us start the New Year right be preparing for what God is going to do.

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Conference Pics

Just got some new pics from the conference. If you are interested, check out the new album on FB. I will probably add some of the pics to our Marriage University site at www.marriageuniversity.net.

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Yes It Is Worth It

We just got back from Gettysburg and had a great conference with Wanted Marriage Ministries at the beautiful Eisenhower Inn. We had the opportunity to teach three sessions and God really blessed. It will be exciting to see what God does with this conference in the future. I'm not sure how you top having Harold and Bette Gillogly as keynote speakers, and music by Calling Levi. We really felt that the couples there were fully engaged and sincerely wanted to put the truths they were learning into practice. For all the Marriage University alumni who read this blog - thank you for your powerful stories and encouragement of our ministry. Whenever Crystal and I drive home from a marriage conference, we are exhausted. But when we ask whether the time and energy was worth it, the answer is always the same, "Yes, it was definitely worth it! You are definitely worth it!" Please stay in touch with us through marriageuniversity.net or look us up on facebook. Love you guys.

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Make Peace, Not War

We are going to Gettysburg to make peace - not war. Crystal and I have been asked to do three workshops at Growing Together Hand in Hand, a conference put on by Wanted Marriage Ministries. This conference was organized in response to LifeWay's Festival of Marriage pulling out of Ocean City, Maryland. The keynote speakers for this event are Harold and Bette Gillogly, and Calling Levi will be leading the worship. Whenever we teach at an event, we always ask friends and readers to pray for us. In an event this big, there are bound to be husbands and wives who see this conference as their last ditch effort to stay together. We know that we're headed into spiritual warfare because the devil would love nothing more than to destroy these couples and devastate their children. If your church does not currently have a marriage ministry, you might want to pray for God's guidance (and your pastor's blessing) in starting one. Your pastor may already have too much on his plate to lead this kind of ministry, but a successful marriage ministry might lighten his counseling load and strengthen the church overall.

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Born to Be Wild

I pulled into the church parking lot like I do most days, went into the building and started towards the stairs to put my lunch in the refrigerator, when there was a knock at the door. I opened the door and was confronted by a rugged middle-aged man named Kevin who had obviously led a rough life. He wore a t-shirt with a flaming skeleton riding a motorcycle, a hat that said "Rebel" and sported tatoos on his arms. At first I was apprehensive, but that all changed when, a few moments later, Kevin broke down crying right in front of me. He told me that his brother recently died of heart failure, and that he was looking for some kind of closure for his brother's death. I began to talk to him about Jesus Christ, but he said, "I don't believe my brother was saved, but I don't believe in hell." I said, "We don't get to decide what we want to believe about God, and what God has placed in His Bible. The same Bible that tells us that there is a heaven also tells us that there is a hell - we cannot pick one and leave out the other." I asked him if he was with his brother when he died, and Kevin said no. "Then how do you know that he didn't call on the name of the Lord before he died?" Kevin did not know. In fact, he told me that his brother was afraid to die. I did not want to offer false hope, but sometimes we assume that a person died lost, when they could have called on Jesus before they died. The thief on the cross had nothing to offer God, but in the last moments of his earthly life, he called out to Christ and God saved him. I was able to share Jesus Christ with Kevin and challenge him to get into a good Bible-believing church when he gets home to Jacksonville, Florida. He told me that he was just sitting over at the bus station across the street, waiting for his ride, when he saw me pull up to the church. Kevin said, "Something told me, go across the street and talk to that man, and I sure am glad I did." I was glad too. We can plan our days and fill in our calendars, but God doesn't wait for appointments. Before Kevin left, we had prayer together. He gripped my hand tightly and I asked the Lord to give him the closure needed in his life. With tears in his eyes, this rugged traveler gave me a big hug and joined his ride leaving Fredericksburg. Afterwards, I thanked God for reminding me that He still speaks to the hearts of people. Out of the blue, God can send someone our way who desperately needs a representative for Jesus Christ. And when He does, we must be ready.

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A Proud Papa

A couple of weeks ago, my daughter came onto the platform at the end of the service and (in front of the whole congregation) whispered in my ear, "Daddy, I'm ready to be baptized." It caught me completely by surprise and made me very proud. On Sunday Lauren followed through with her commitment and I had the privilege of baptizing my own daughter. How many people get to do that? It was really cool. Another thing that was cool was how a video clip we showed in the service a few weeks ago influenced another little boy in our church to get baptized. After watching the video, he told his mother, "I want to be baptized." We are living in a visual generation, so why not use what will reach them, and challenge them to live for God? When I think about this world, it has nothing good to offer our children. We have to teach our kids to be in the world, but not of the world. We have to lead today's youth to follow Christ because serving Him is the only thing that will bring lasting satisfaction, both here and in eternity. I don't know the future, but my daughter just took a step in the right direction - and for that, I'm a proud papa.

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Where Is the God of Elijah?

I promised to blog about the end of our Elijah series since we were running short on time two weeks ago. I mentioned that God wants us to have hearts like Elisha in that he would not leave Elijah's side no matter what. We need to have some holy ambition and hold on tight to God, even when it might seem like God is the one pushing us away (Matthew 15:21-28 and Luke 11:5-10). But beyond seeing ourselves in Elisha, I believe we see Jesus in Elijah. There are many similarities with both of these powerful prophets. Elijah and Jesus performed many miracles, stood for righteousness, walked closely with God (though Jesus is God), finished their earthly ministry, were taken alive into heaven (of course Jesus was resurrected), had witnesses that watched their ascension, and both will return in the last days (John 14:1-3 and Malachi 4:5). The real question is, do you believe we are living in the last days? Do you agree with Peter's words in Acts 2 when he said, "Save yourselves from this perverse generation?" If we are living in the last days (and I believe we are) then it should cause us to have a sense of urgency when it comes to sharing our faith with others. All around us are lost people who will spend eternity somewhere, and we have the message they need to hear to be saved - saved from a perverse generation. We might live to, one day see Christ's return for His church. And on that day, all believers will be like Elijah and Jesus, called up to be with God for all eternity. What a day that will be.

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Elijah picture from Crossroads Fellowship in Raleigh, NC