WholeHeartedLife

Clap Like a Seal, You Might Get a Treat

³²But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." (Luke 22:32 NIV)

In praying for a friend I had a thought (which I'll credit to God)...

This friend has struggled with getting to a "new place" with God. The person often expressed a discontent with where they were at spiritually (tell me about it). What if this new place that the person sought after was actually driven by faith rather than experience? Let me explain what I mean.

As new believers we are often driven by spiritual experiences: a great service, a moving testimony, a successful project/mission, a stirring message. In all of these instances experience is at the core of all of them; they feel good, they made you cry, they made you proud, they made you feel ashamed.

What if, as you grow in your knowledge and experience of God He expects you to go where He's telling you despite the fact that it doesn't "feel good"? What if the last place He sent you to had to "feel" better because, at that stage of your walk you needed to feel more, to experience more? What if this new place more faith is required and less "chill bumps" will be experienced?

What if "experience" is the bunny slopes of our walk? What if your experiencing "chill bumps" is like rewarding a child who has done well with a treat? Abraham walked by faith, not having the ability to see how great the next place would be - what about us?

As you can see, this post has nothing to do with seals (or any other marine animals) but has everything to do with us moving beyond the baby steps of our faith. In the end it's like the prayer that Jesus prayed for Peter in the beginning of this post - I, Mike P, pray that your faith not fail, but that you will persevere in following Jesus to that next place and that you will strengthen others as you do so (remember: your discouragement can be quite contagious). The next place that God calls you to spiritually may have less "chill bump" moments than the past but a higher adventure in correlation to the amount of faith you are willing to show; your willingness to take bigger risks and follow to completion may be key in finding that next place you know in your heart is before you. After all, you probably ain't gonna get a treat after every right movement you make - unless you've got a job perfoming at Sea World.

Does this make any sense to anyone besides myself?

U Wouldn't... Class Holiness

In my daily reading I came across this verse (in Leviticus) talking about the rules for priests and this verse caught my eye:

⁶ They must be holy to their God and must not profane the name of their God. Because they present the offerings made to the LORD by fire, the food of their God, they are to be holy.

I began writing a note in my bible about my (and other pastors/worship leaders/church workers/etc) role saying, "We are called to holiness because we present what we do directly to God".

Then it hit me. The reminder that the application of this old testament verse totally changed upon the death, burial, resurrection and the subsequent birth of the person that been saved by Jesus. This verse is no longer a verse to temple/tabernacle priests (or to pastors, preachers and church workers). This verse is a verse to everyone who has asked Him into their life. Read this:

⁴As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— ⁵you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Did you read that? YOU are being made personally into a holy priesthood. If your life has been changed by Jesus, God is looking to you as a priest. Is that a trip or what? You may not consider yourself a priest but God does. You might ask yourself the question, "am I truly representing Jesus as a priest?". Most people would rather be spiritually blind to this fact and live below its truth, beneath the calling that Jesus has called us to, but the calling on your life as a believer (and a priest) is high.

You know, there are a lot of deep theological things happening here in this passage but let me break it down to today's subject:

Because you are a priest you must be holy to God. Because you are a priest you must not profane the name of God. Because your life is supposed to be an offering to Jesus (Romans 12:1, 1 Corinthians 10:31), that life must be one that is holy towards God.

How many times have I been in a situation where someone would be talking to a group of people (believers) and I come up and (seemingly) kill the party? They're all laughing and telling jokes that were obviously acceptable for them to hear and laugh at but were not acceptable for me to hear...

"You wouldn't want to hear this, Mike", (or see, do, go... you add the appropriate verb). "I mean, everyone else will think this is great and hilarious, but you wouldn't". And you know, honestly, they're right about one thing: I wouldn't normally enjoy it or think that it's funny. It's not because I don't like to laugh. It's not because I'm prudish. I think it's because there are just some things that are unacceptable behaviors for people who are supposed to be representatives of Jesus. My question often (in my mind) is, "how does this bring glory to God?".

The reason that they think that I wouldn't want to "see, hear or do" it is because we have what I'll call, "class holiness" (I think that I just coined a new term ). 

How about this: I believe that God calls all of us to a higher level of holiness. "Class holiness", meaning, one level of holiness for a pastor and a lesser holiness for laypeople, leads to unrighteous living and brings everything and everyone to a lower level. It is my desire to inspire people to live their lives worthy of their calling, 1Corinthians 10:31 style.

Remember, if Jesus lives in you, you're a priest whether you like it or not.

(Oh, by the way... before all of my religious friends come out in full-force to support me "WholeHeartedly" for letting "them" have it may I point out that:

• holiness isn't a style of dress,
• a commitment to rituals
• or a set of rules that you choose to live by that makes you feel superior to others.

Most of the time I have found that many who live what many in today's church deem a "christian" lifestyle (meaning they don't drink, smoke, watch "R" rated movies or listen to secular music) are far from living a holy life: many say inappropriate things to others that they wouldn't say to Jesus or display attitudes towards others which are far from being Christlike.)

Changed Lives

I've told you - I love seeing people take the plunge of baptism!
Larry Geller - Baptism from buckheadchurch on Vimeo.

Nicole Maxwell - Baptism from buckheadchurch on Vimeo.

Have you been baptized SINCE you believed? Let me know if you're ready to go public with your faith.

"We're Not Gossiping. We're Networking!"

"I've got something that I need you to pray about..." 

I bet you have been invited before to participate in a discussion where the person starts the conversation with that phrase then TRASHES a person to you? They do it as if they have a concern for the person that they're talking about. Yeah, we can tell how much you care for them by the way that you talk about them behind their back. We can tell how much you care because you'll talk to me about them and you haven't even talked to them. Your compassion is mind boggling!

There's another word for diguising your concern with "prayer": Gossip. (Proverbs 11:13, Proverbs 16:28, Proverbs 20:19, Proverbs 26:20, Rom 1:29, 2Cor 12:20, 1Tim 5:13, 3John 1:10 YEAH! God talks about gossipers alot!)

Here's the scenario: A person (who seems to be a leader in their church) comes up to you and wants to talk about everything that they think is wrong with a church (be it yours or someone else's) do you listen, or do you ask them the most important question: Have you spoken to him/her/them about this or are you just trying to win me over to your way of thinking?

Gossip is talking negative about something to someone in which they are neither the cause, problem or solution to the issue.

Listen to what Jesus' brother, James, wrote about the power of the tongue: 5Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

 9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11Can both fresh water and salt^[a] water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.  (James 3:5,6,9-12 NIV). Remember, when you talk junk about the church, you're talking trash about JESUS' bride.

So, knowing what you now know about gossip, if someone put you in this situation, "What Would You Do?". Discuss.

(by the way... before you give yourself a headache trying to figure out who I'm talking about, give yourself a break. I wrote this months ago when doing a little study on the subject of gossip - hence, all the scripture backup . Seriously. No agenda here except to be used by Jesus to help people live WholeHeartedly - so live!! See ya tomorrow...)

What's Your "Next Step"?

This week on WholeHearted we are talking "Next Steps".

I am SO about "next steps". I love to see people take the "next step" of regular church attendance - the "next step" of identifying with Jesus through baptism - the "next step" of church membership - the "next step" of joining a small group - the "next step" of deciding it's time to grow in my faith. "Next Steps", for me, are one of the highlights of leading people in their journey towards God.

Wednesday Nites at hyde park are about "next steps". There are basically 2 tracks that can be excercised on Wednesday's in the arena of the "Next Step":

Track One: Service.

One of the greatest things that will happen as you become a follower of Jesus is that you take the changes happening in you and allow God to use you to impact others through service. Wednesday is a beautiful time to serve JESUS through our Awana program. Awana is a kidz program that helps kidz to grow in their knowledge of who God is and what He means to them. Because of Awana my 12 year old daughter knows more scripture than most people who are reading this RIGHT NOW! Amazing!

Those who serve in Awana are affecting our future for Jesus. Ready to take the "next step" of service? Let me know.

Track Two: Learning

If you were at hyde park Sunday morning you heard Pastor remind our church that we need to learn to feed ourselves spiritually through reading of scripture and prayer. Becoming a "self-feeder" is one of your most important "next steps" (if you missed Sunday's message I HIGHLY SUGGEST that you check it out here). He went on to say that we want to help those who are learning about God to go deeper in their faith. Our Wednesday nite classes are designed to do that. Here are our current classes:

Class One: If you feel like you need to learn the major teachings of Christianity, Pastor's new class, "Foundations", is for you.

Class Two: Parenting is one of the toughest jobs that we have. We all want to raise kidz who grow up to be great adults (no pressure, right?). If you want to learn about raising "rock-solid" kidz you'll want to check out our class, Value-Packed Parenting.

DivorceCare: Are you struggling with the pain of divorce or separation? DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE DEALING WITH THIS?  Our DivorceCare group is a much needed "next step" for someone dealing with separation - are you willing to help them take the "next step"? Ask about our give-a-way brochures that can tell your friends what they need to know about DivorceCare.

All classes begin at 6:45. You can get more info about classes here.

(by the way: While I'm throwin' links at ya, some of you might be wondering about how to actually take the "next step" of bible study?  Here's a cool tool on our site that you maybe never saw. Enjoy - hope it helps you to take a "next step".)

What Would You Do? (Part 2)

Today we will continue with our "WWYD" series, if you missed yesterday's entry you can read it here. Each day I'm presenting a true-to-life situation (something that really happened) and we'll discuss by sharing what you would have done in the situation when you add a comment by pressing the bottom "comment" tab. Here's today's situation...

I have a friend who attended a hyde park service a couple of weeks ago. On this particular Sunday he was sitting with some family who attends a different service than he does. As the service began a young family came into the worship experience and sat on the pew in front of he and his family. One of the members of his family commented that he thought that they were new as he had never seen them with us before. The family had some children, one of which was pretty young (in the 2-ish range). On the same pew with the family was a person who normally attends that service and according to my friends family member, normally sits where they were on this particular day.

As the service went on the youngest child was having a hard time staying still. While the child's mother was trying her best to control the situation, the person next to her would look at the mom with an obviously aggravated/disgusted look (you know, the old, "can't you control that kid?!?" look). This happened a number of times until the mother eventually took the child and left the worship center, leaving the husband and other child, never to return for the remainder of the service.

My friend and his family member were discouraged because of the harshness and insensitivity of the regular hyde park attender and the fact that, to the best of their knowledge, the family hasn't returned (they have looked and haven't recognized them yet). I know that this is an assumption, but the hyde park attender put more pressure on an already stressful situation. That makes me sad.

Let's suppose that you were the hyde park attender who was sitting next to this new family and experienced this. What could you have done to help instead of heap on pressure? What Would You Do? Discuss.

"We're Not Gossiping, We're Networking!"

"I've got something that I need you to pray about..." 

I bet you have been invited before to participate in a discussion where the person starts the conversation with that phrase then TRASHES a person to you? They do it as if they have a concern for the person that they're talking about. Yeah, we can tell how much you care for them by the way that you talk about them behind their back. We can tell how much you care because you'll talk to me about them and you haven't even talked to them. Your compassion is mind boggling!

There's another word for diguising your concern with "prayer": Gossip. (Proverbs 11:13, Proverbs 16:28, Proverbs 20:19, Proverbs 26:20, Rom 1:29, 2Cor 12:20, 1Tim 5:13, 3John 1:10 YEAH! God talks about gossipers alot!)

Here's the scenario: A person (who seems to be a leader in their church) comes up to you and wants to talk about everything that they think is wrong with a church (be it yours or someone else's) do you listen, or do you ask them the most important question: Have you spoken to him/her/them about this or are you just trying to win me over to your way of thinking?

Gossip is talking negative about something to someone in which they are neither the cause, problem or solution to the issue.

Listen to what Jesus' brother, James, wrote about the power of the tongue: 5Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

 9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11Can both fresh water and salt^[a] water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.  (James 3:5,6,9-12 NIV). Remember, when you talk junk about the church, you're talking trash about JESUS' bride.

So, knowing what you now know about gossip, if someone put you in this situation, "What Would You Do?". Discuss.

(by the way... before you give yourself a headache trying to figure out who I'm talking about, give yourself a break. I wrote this months ago when doing a little study on the subject of gossip - hence, all the scripture backup . Seriously. No agenda here except to be used by Jesus to help people live WholeHeartedly - so live!! See ya tomorrow...)

What Would You Do? (Part One)

This week we're gonna participate in a series titled, "What Would You Do?". Each day I'll present a true-to-life situation (something that really happened) and you answer by sharing what you would have done in the situation. I have a friend who shared this issue with me a couple of weeks ago. The following personally happened to him and really wanted to know what he should have done in this circumstance. Here it is:

My friend attended a concert the other week with some of his friends. The concert was mainly attended by Christians from that area as the artist(s) performing were Contemporary Christian artists. The concert was at an outdoor venue and was free to the public.

He said that near him was a lady. The lady was not the normal christian concert attendee as she didn't look like the majority of the crowd (tattoos and piercings and her style of dress) and had obviously been drinking (you could smell the alcohol on her). My friend said that the woman had made her way closer to the stage and was holding up her cigarette lighter, smoking and swaying to the music. She wasn't doing anything to anybody - just enjoying the concert. Then "IT" happened...

The people (read: christians) around her started getting mad and alerting security. They wanted the woman kicked out (she was polluting their christian "little c" gathering with her sinful presence - at least that's my synopsis). Now remember, the purpose of the concert was said to be "evangelistic" which is why it was a free outdoor show. My friend thought that the people were wrong for treating this woman in that matter ("isn't that why they were doing the show - to share the gospel with her?") but didn't really know what to do -

WHAT WOULD YOU DO? Discuss.

In the Meantime

Like some of you I've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of my One Year Chronological Bible to come in. In the meantime, I began my journey in my regular bible but then remembered a resource that LifeChurch.tv had:

YouVersion (i used it this morning). I especially enjoyed the journal function on the right side of the page.

Here's a couple of things i love about YouVersion:

1. it's FREE
2. it's easy to use
3. it has a journal function right there beside where you're reading (it's secure, no one will read your journal)
4. if you click on a verse you're studying, possible commentaries appear on the right side.
5. it has a Yearly bible plan
6. it has multiple versions that you can choose to read from
7. Did i mention it's free?

So, for those of you looking for a free yearly bible reading plan and don't mind reading online you can do that here.

New You?

Do you struggle with "starting over" with God? Feeling unworthy? Don't know where to begin?Rememember, God knew that you weren't capable of living up to His ways and sent JESUS to make a way for us all to be new - JESUS makes all things new.

When you and i fail (because we're sinners) i go to Him; i ask His forgiveness that He might cleanse me and make me new...

So many people have a hard time starting over. We put it off - THEN - we feel like we "missed" our opportunity to do so and we say, "i'll do it next Monday" (like a diet) - except, for many because of guilt, Monday never comes...

It's a new year, a perfect time to start over. You can't change - you need Him to change you (that's why you always fail - you're trying to do this thing on your own!) "God, change my thoughts, my heart, my ways. Make your attitude my attitude, take control of my eyes. Lord, may Your Spirit change me... and when I mess up (i know that i will) give me the humility to quickly return to You and admit it. I ask this in JESUS Name. Remember...

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT) 17What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!

Romans 5:11 (NLT) 11So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God—all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God.

Romans 12:2 (NLT) 2Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.