some questions to answer

As I was reading my devotions this morning in Hebrews 3:16-19 God brought something to my mind.  Why when we have such a clear example of what happened to those that did not trust God and obey Him, do we still follow the same path of mistrust and disobedience?

The Bible clearly shows throughout its pages what happens when we choose to ignore God and follow our own ways.  The children of Israel, as seen in Numbers 14, had a complete disbelief in God’s words and promises.  He had promised them a land that was flowing with milk and honey, but all they seemed to focus on were the “giants” that were in the way.  Why do we always focus on our problems and not the One who holds all the solutions?

God had already shown them that He would provide for them with food as can be seen in Exodus chapter 16!  First, God provided bread from Heaven, something that the people only had to go out and collect, no other work involved.  But then they had to start complaining about that, so God in His mercy provided them with quail.  However, even with something this miraculous happening for them, they still did not trust God!!  What more did they need to see in order to believe?  The better question is…what more do we need to see to believe?? 

If we call ourselves a Christian and we believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, then why do we have such a hard time believing it and learning from what is contained in its pages?  We make the same mistakes of unbelief and mistrust and disobedience that the Israelites did.   We don’t learn from their mistakes? Do we feel that we have to make our own mistakes in order to learn from them? Why do we love to put ourselves through the pain and heartache? Do we honestly think that our outcome will be different?  Do we think that we will slip one past God? 

My prayer for us today and every day that we draw a breath on this earth is that we will stop trying to rewrite history and learn from it.  The generation of Israelites that did not trust God lost their promised land. They died off wandering in the wilderness, never to see the land that was simply theirs for the taking.  How many mistakes that they made are we going to repeat daily before we learn? I pray that we can learn from the history and truth contained in the pages of scripture, so that we may be able to serve God better.

This one is for the Parents

               This post is not so much for the teenagers out there, but for my fellow parents.  I know that some that read this post will not like what they read and they will call me an inexperienced kid who has a lot to learn; however, I feel that a big part of Youth Ministry is also being a resource for the parents as well, not just teaching our students.   I pray that while you read this you will truly search your heart to see if God is trying to teach you something, or if it is just a good reminder.

               Over the past few days God has been dealing with me on a particular issue in my own life.  I have found myself getting upset with my children for acting in ways that I have shown them.  I found myself getting after them for exhibiting these behaviors, only to have them say to me “But Daddy, you did it!”  Wow…talk about a dose of reality.  We often find ourselves exhibiting behaviors for our children that are not the most desirable.

               Now is where this post turns to the unpopular.  How many times have we exhibited behavior to our children regarding God which is not even close to desirable?  Do we exhibit for them what it means to have a daily quiet time with God? Do they see us pray more often than just at meal times or at all?  Do they see us attending church even when we don’t always feel like it?  Or are we teaching our children to have a relationship of convenience with God?

               As I mulled these questions over, God brought some passages from His Word to my mind and I want to share them with you.  Colossians 3:18-25 speaks on family relations, and I searched many different versions and translations for the best wording, and for this application I have found that the New American Standard is a good one, but please feel free to look it up for yourself. In fact I challenge you to do so, just as I challenge the youth that I teach to do.  So please allow me to expound on these verses.

               Verses 18 and 19 deal with the relationship between husbands and wives, and that’s a subject for a different post. However the verses that follow are the ones that pack some punch.

20 “Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord.” 

Now this is the verse that we parents love to quote to our children to get them back in line, and we tend to have the attitude of “Let’s see you fight against God’s words!”  However we tend to not include the following verse because it gets after us as parents:

21    “Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart.” 

It is the responsibility of the parents to not cause their child to become frustrated and therefore lose heart. We are to live a life that leads them to God, not make them frustrated with Him because we proclaim Him with our mouth, but not our lives.  There is a book out there right now titled “The Christian Atheist” which deals with the subject of those that say we believe in God, but yet we live like He does not exist.  When we are not living our lives according to God’s word, but expect our children to, we ironically get angry with them when they follow our example. 

22 “Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”

We who claim Christ as our Savior are now bondservants to Him. We may have some masters here on earth that we strive so hard to please (our bosses, our friends etc.), that we forget our Master who reigns in Heaven.  We are not to put on a show for those around us, but we are to live a life that is totally devoted to Him.  We are not supposed to just put on the mask of sincerity for Sunday mornings, but we are to have that devotion through every day and in all things.  When we strive to serve God first and foremost all the other things in life will fall into place. 

I submit to you that when we strive to serve God with all that we have and to exemplify Him in all that we do, we will have no problem whatsoever showing our children how to live the Christian life.  There will be no issues with commitment to God, feeling it a burden to show up at church or even to fulfill the obligations we have there.  When we make God first in our lives, we will see a change in our homes.  Behaviors will be different, attitudes will be sweeter and most of all God will be exalted as He should be.  I pray that you allow God to become exalted in your homes, and that He will become a priority in your life, not just an afterthought.

The Battlefield

For some who will read this blog, it will seem ironic that not only have I followed in my father's footsteps by graduating from nursing school this past April, but also now, I am following in my mother's footsteps by blogging my thoughts about God and having a desire to share them with others.

For those of who that do not know my heart, please allow me to share it with you now.  Back in 1995 a desire was born within me to reach the youth of this nation with the liberating freedom of God's word. Due to circumstances that happened where God called people away for His purposes, I was privileged at that time as well to start to help lead the youth of my home church in Sodus, NY.  So as of today I have been doing Youth Ministry in some form or fashion for the past 16 years.  I attended Liberty University and studied Youth Ministry there, in hopes of being able to become a Youth Pastor at a church.  For some reason beyond my knowledge and understanding this has yet to become a reality for me.  So I have decided that since I cannot find a church that wants to hire me, then I will take my message to the youth of today through this blog!!

We have an epidemic that is spreading throughout our churches and our student ministries that is a cause for great concern.  Our people are becoming complacent and are satisfied with mediocre faith, if any faith at all.  These are the same people that sit in a pew every Sunday morning and nod their head in agreement with the Pastor, but then walk out of the service as lost as when they came in.  I fear that many people will miss Heaven by 18 inches...the distance from their head to their heart. They have the head knowledge because they have heard the truth, but have never committed their hearts to Christ out of fear that they may have to change.

When those of us who stand for God try to help them in the process of coming to the realization that this head knowledge needs to make it to the heart, the people we are trying to help get mad and fight against us.  The sadly ironic thing that I have found is that those who need to have this epiphany the most are the same ones that have no desire to get to know God better.  They are so steeped in the complacency that ruins their lives that they get mad at anyone who comes in and sheds light on it.  Not only do they allow the complacency to ruin their own lives, but they try to infect others with the same complacency.  They do this so that they do not have to face the reality that their own so called faith is nothing more than lip service and that they don’t truly have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

I know that some people feel that I am too strict in the way that I do things.  They feel that rules that are in accordance with the Word of God, rules and principles that are established and taught in the hope of creating a safer God filled environment, only makes kids not want to attend. To these people I can only say one thing...if we are more concerned with attendance than teaching our children and teenagers the truth about what it means to be a Christian, then what are even having them come to church for?  If we are having churches and youth groups for the sole purpose of having people attend, but care nothing about challenging our people to first, have a relationship with God, but secondly to live a life committed to Him and allowing Him to be the Lord of their life in every aspect and facet, then we should close the doors and take the name "church" off of the building and replace it with social club, or frat house.

This is the battlefield that I am engaged on.  One that is part of an epic war that has been waging for centuries. The battle for the heart of man.  A tug of war between satan and his power of sin, and God, the only One that can free us from the bondage of sin.  The sad thing is that so many people are in bondage to sin, and are happy with that.  I hope that through sharing my thoughts with ya'll we might be able to break those bonds and bring freedom to the hearts of many. God Bless!