The God Who Requires Trust

This post was written by Kate Cole, a blogger whose original post can be found at Everything And The Kitchen Sink.

Yesterday I was able to go to church for the first time in awhile. Sickness, surgery and other things have gotten in the way.  Once the service started I was reminded how much I need church in my life. It makes me stop and focus on what is important. I can take much needed time out of my schedule and sit in God's presence.

The sermon yesterday really spoke to me. The title was "The God Who Requires Trust". The part that really got to me was the idea that "old faith is never going to be enough for new challenges."

The idea was that as things come up in our life, we need to grow in our relationship with God in order to handle what comes along. The pastor spoke of the Children of Israel in the dessert. In chapters 14-17 of Exodus, things kept coming up that tested them. The lack of water and food tested their faith. They whined, and complained. They allowed outside circumstances affect their relationship with God. They whined because what mattered to God didn't matter to them. While it is easy to sit back and judge them, I know I do the same thing. I allow the circumstances in my life to affect my relationship with God. I question, complain, worry and fight.

The service ended with the song "Blessings" by Laura Story. The lyrics were so beautiful I wanted to share:

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

As we get ready to end 2011 I look back and am amazed by God's mercy and blessings. It has been a really tough year, I have cried, complained, wondered "why me", yet the whole time God has shown His faithfulness. He has more than proven that He can be trusted. I have a renewed fervor to increase my faith. 

Made for a Mission

This post was written by Larry Davis, a pastor at Oak Ridge Baptist Church in Salisbury, MD. 

This past week we focused on the principle that God made us for a "mission". While I firmly believe that we were made for a mission, I think that discovering that mission can be elusive. I know in my own journey I have felt, at times, like a ship sailing in a certain direction, but that the tide, the wind, and circumstances have really changed course. Our spiritual journey in leadership and ministry can be very similar.

In the Gospel of John we see John the Baptist navigating his specific journey well and later he was confused about his course when thrown into prison. His example can be a lesson and comfort to us all. 

Read John 3:22-36 and you will see John is certain of his specific mission and purpose. He is confident in his role within God’s kingdom and how that fit into his relationship with Christ (vs. 27-30). He also understand that “[Christ] must become greater; [while John…] must become less”. So, he understood that it was not about him, but about his role in the bigger picture of what Christ was doing. 

As many of our folks completed 301 this week and are looking to take the next step in ministry, I know that they are searching for what their purpose and specific missional fit is in the Kingdom. I would offer that there are two principles from John’s life that we can glean for our own journey.

The first is that there is a very specific fit that God has called me and you to. That fit is based on our background, hurts, gifts, personality, passion and where they specifically intersect where Christ is already at work. John knew who he was and what God called him to do. Knowing his specific missional purpose brought him great joy and focus. As he understood how his life intersected Christ’s mission it gave his life exceptional meaning. However, even John later struggled when he landed in prison (Matt11:2-3). In John’s doubt there is the second principle that really has helped me in my ministry.

Most of the time God will give us a general sense of our ministry’s direction, but does not reveal all the specifics of how He will accomplish it. Along the journey things will not go as planned and we will be required to use faith to navigate the surprises. In my own life and journey there are things that I am certain of: God has called me to teach, preach, and share my faith with the world. The context of how and where are constantly changing based on His will and my receptiveness.

Do you know what God has called you to do? 

What specific ministry direction has He called you to? 

Once you know, begin to learn and move in that direction. The specifics of how He will accomplish His purpose to make you into a greater leader and minister are meant to be discovered on the journey. You will have to remain faithful and certain of what God has called me to, but you will have to remain very flexible to the how.  

What God has called you to do, once you know who you really are in Christ, will change very little over the course of time. He created you with great care and with a specific purpose. However, the how will change many times throughout your journey. Sometimes it will be something you saw coming and sometimes not. Be patient and let Him be the potter and you just be content to be the clay. The artistic masterpiece that will come will bring both you and God great joy!

Love and Trust

This post was written by Em Rohrer, a local blogger whose original post can be found at http://emrohrer.blogspot.com

I've been reading Fresh Brewed Life by Nicole Johnson as a devotional-type resource for the past few months and I'm coming down the home stretch. I'm a little disappointed to be finishing it, but it's been a great read and I'm also looking forward to starting something new.

I read chapter 9 yesterday and it's entire focus was on enriching your relationships. What really jumped out at me was the importance placed on trust in any relationship and how it directly feeds love.

The more we trust in God's love, the more it will change our hearts and lives. Not trusting God's love doesn't make it any less true, it simply makes it untrue for us. It keeps us locked away from the freedom we have in God's embrace.

1 John 4:18a says it well - "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear."

The author closes the chapter by saying, We are never more like God than when we choose to forgive others. Relationships give us our greatest opportunity to model the gospel.

Forgiveness, trust and love - they all go hand-in-hand feeding healthy relationships. You really can't have one of those attributes and not the others while expecting to have a successful and fulfilling relationship with God or anyone else.

The challenge for me, often times, is balancing all three aspects.  Forgiveness doesn't come easy to me, which also feeds into a difficulty to trust.  But I always know Who I can always place my trust in, the One who will never let me down.  That alone helps refocus my relationships with others.

How do you balance the need for trust, forgiveness and love in your relationships?

3 Phases to "Ministry"

This post was written by Larry Davis, a pastor at Oak Ridge Baptist Church in Salisbury, MD. 

The last two weeks at church have left me thinking about ministry and leadership and the connection between them. If you are in ministry I assume that you want to know that your service matters and that you are having an impact. In other words you are busy doing the work of ministry because you want to make a personal impact.

However, you will eventually discover that there comes a time where you will need to do less to accomplish more. I know on the surface that seems a little upside down, but many of the principles that Christ taught us are. They run counter to our culture as well as to humanistic thinking. To really understand what I am sharing all you need to do is look at the life of the Apostle Paul.

There are three very distinct seasons of Paul’s life that you can draw from. He had a season where he prepped to be a better minister, a season where he was busy church planting and doing more of the work of the ministry, and a later season where he spent time investing in the leaders that he had built relationships with earlier in his life and that share a common mission and vision. I think that Paul’s life can be a model for us for doing ministry and life well.

If you have the time, read 2 Timothy 4: 9-22 and you can get a glimpse of the last season of Paul’s life. As he knew that life was drawing to an end, he wanted to spend time with the people that he had worked so hard with to build the Kingdom of Christ. He also took the time when in prison to write more letters than ever before in his ministry. If not for this season where God slowed Paul down from all the doing, we would have not benefited form the authorship of his New Testament letters. All of this to say, that I see each season of his life as a model for me and for others in ministry.

I see myself as transitioning between the doing of ministry to the place of greater investment in those that are currently doing the ministry. I am currently enthralled with seeing them get to use their gifts and creativity to have more of the direct impact and becoming more content with my role moving to more of a personal investment in them. I can also look back and see how God used the first two seasons of my ministry to shape me and I am looking forward to this next season.

Where do you see yourself in this process? Each season has a unique blessing that comes with it. I also do not think that we should rush each season. But rather, we should enjoy it and allow God to have His way with shaping us. I hope and pray this week that you will give some time considering where you are in this process. I also pray that you will begin to map out a path that will include these three seasons in your ministry. I know that in thinking this way it has helped to shape very specific decisions in ministry for me.

I hope that and the end of your season of ministry, as well as mine, that you can say what Paul was able to say. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:7–8 (NIV)

Jesus' Worship vs. Mine

This post was written by Larry Davis, a pastor at Oak Ridge Baptist Church in Salisbury, MD.

At its most basic level discipleship is being a follower of a person, philosophy, or organization. Based on that definition, we all are a disciples of something or someone. If you are a professing Christian, we are to be a follower of Christ. Based on Romans 8: 28-30 our goal is to be made into His image.

Because I lead a worship arts ministry, I found myself this morning asking the question: What did Jesus’ worship look like? If we are to be His disciple, then I think having an understanding of what His worship looked liked both publicly and privately would better help us to follow after Him and to become more like Him.

The ironic thing is that I cannot find much written on the topic. I admit that I have not done an exhaustive search and that the Cowboys poor performance last night distracted me from giving the topic its needed focus (LOL). But in the cursory glance that I have afforded the topic there are some generalizations that have appeared that I would like to give some consideration to and share with you.

It is apparent to me that the Bible records more about Jesus private worship than His public worship. Over and over again we see Jesus withdrawing for private worship through prayer. I am reading through the Gospel of Luke at the moment in my devotional time and just in that book there are several accounts of His private worship through prayer (Luke 4:42, Luke 5:16, Luke 6:12, Luke 9:18). What stands out to me is that there is little recorded about Christ’s public worship.

While there may be more, there are two passages that came to mind immediately for me: John 4: 1-26 (the woman at the well) and Mark 14:26 (singing after the last supper). During my devotion with the Worship Ministry this Monday morning we really dug into this idea and I was struck by the comparison between Jesus private and public worship.

There were things about Christ’s private and public worship that were the same. His prayers had the same focus (the mission) and He worshiped for the most part among the people and their typical surroundings. However, there were also differences in His private and public worship. He drew personal strength from His private worship while His public worship tired Him at times. One obvious difference that really caught my attention was that He was more intimate in private than in public.

During the last blog post, I shared that worship at its heart is expressed love to God. With that definition a curious and interesting analogy occurred to me this morning: marriage. Within a marriage there are certain acts of affection that are appropriate in public and others that are not. But at the two extremes of this analogy there are truths to be discovered regarding the integrity of our own worship.

If a person is intimate with their spouse in private but not in public, their spouse will begin to become concerned that their love is not genuine and that they are embarrassed to express their affection. However, there are certain intimacies that are only meant only for our spouse in private. Those more intimate affections add value and a deeper connection to the very personal relationship with our spouse. I think these same principles are transferable to our public and private worship. How many times have you been a situation where you saw an affectionate couple in public and you thought “get a room”! There are also times when you see a husband and wife that you know and they hug, hold hands, or kiss and you think how sweet and endearing their public act of affection is was.

My relationship with Christ drives me to want to be more intimate with Him in private leading me to share a greater portion of who I am in that quite place. Where I allow only Him to know the deepest parts of me and want to know Him more deeply. There is also something to be said for me being genuine in my public worship of Him and showing affection that is appropriate and does not make others feel awkward. I do not want to have a lack of integrity in either my public worship or my private worship. But I must confess that at times I lack one or the other.

Take some time this week to consider if you lack genuineness in either your public or private worship. Allow God to expose your lack of integrity. Then share with those that you lead with how you want to improve your private worship. Consider what is appropriate, but be genuine. Then give consideration as to how being more intimate in private with God will affect your public worship and affection for Him; how your example may affect or encourage those around you to be more genuine and real in their worship?

Feel free to leave your ideas, questions, or comments on this blog or the ORBC Worship facebook so that we all can all grow and learn together!

Real Worship?

 This post was written by Larry Davis, a pastor at Oak Ridge Baptist Church in Salisbury, MD.

What helps someone worship God in a genuine way? Is it tied to form, a place, or a philosophy? Many people are confused about worship and I think it is because those of us that have the opportunity to lead confuse them.

We place our focus many times on the task ahead of us based on our weekend responsibilities and in so doing we focus our folks on the urgent and not the ultimate goal of worshiping our Creator.

No matter where you look in the Bible, worship always involves an offering of something to God that comes from the heart. In the book of Romans Paul gives a very succinct definition. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Rom 12:1 [NIV])

If we are honest with ourselves all of us from time to time are too self-absorbed to surrender our wants, desires, and dreams to God in worship. Our week is full of our agenda, our job, and our hobbies.

Rick Warren, author of "Purpose Driven Life", says that there are three barriers that typically keep us from this kind of worship: trusting God, a lack of self-awareness, and a lack of surrender. At different times as a person and as a leader I have found all three of these barriers to be real in my life and my ministry.

What barriers listed above have been hardest for you? If you are a leader have you shared those barriers with those that you lead? How did you overcome and push through to a place where you offered all of who you are to God as a genuine act of worship (ROM 12:1)?

Consider meditating, memorizing, and talking about the above passage with those you are doing life with this week.