WholeHeartedLife

How I Learned About Giving

I thought Sunday's message, "A Manager for God" was an excellent reminder of the importance of biblical giving.   A couple of quotes I wrote from Pastor's message:

• "There are 2 kinds of people in this world when it comes to finances: those who are paying interest and those who are making interest - which are you?"
• "A lot of people say, 'if I came into a lot of money I would give' or they say, 'if I had more I would give...' - NO YOU WOULDN'T!!! If you're not commited to giving now having money would only make you more selfish!"
• "if you are 'blah' in your relationship with God I can help you out real quick - let me see how you spend your time (how much time you spend giving to God) and let me look at your checkbook and see how you give financially to God. Why? Because the way that we give is tied to our heart!"

I think that it is very important to teach the concept of biblical giving - most people don't understand what God expects from them in the way of giving. I find it hard to name a scenario in which a person doesn't give to God but would truly be a WholeHearted worshiper. I'll never forget the way that I became a giver...

As a new believer (less than 1 week) I was sitting on my bed talking to Keyna and she asked me, "are you gonna tithe?". I replied by saying, "what is tithe - what does that mean?" "When you give your money to the church...". I asked her, "how much are you supposed to give?" and she told me, "Tricia (her assistant at school) told me she gives 10% and that's what you're supposed to give. (I FREAKED!! 10%?!!?) and she continued, "she says that she has never missed it."

I looked at Keyna with surprise, "WHERE DOES IT SAY WE HAVE TO GIVE 10% IN THE BIBLE?!!!?" because I was like, DANG!, you know? She told me that she didn't know and suggested we call our Pastor and settle it once and for all (she's so wise ) which we did. He took me to the scripture and explained to me that if I give like this to the Lord that He (the Lord - not the Pastor ) will take care of my family and I. He also explained to me the fact that giving the tithe to the Lord was a demonstration of the fact that my heart was His with scripture.

That night after our conversation, before I had ever written my first check, I became a tither and have been every week of my life as a follower of Jesus. God said in that scripture, "test me in this" and I did, and He has never let me down. I can also say that it has never been a challenge because for me, my tithe comes first (as Pastor demonstrated in his excellent illustration). 

What about you? Have you trusted God with your finances? I challenge you, especially in this financially turbulent time, to take His challenge, trust Him with your finances and watch what He can do.

Early Voting Results?

Well Tuesday is election day and can I say, "THANK YOU, JESUS!!!". Sick does not even begin to describe how tired I am of the whole political process. I'm tired of the arguing, the half-truths and the divisiveness that come out of all camps. I have purposely not talked a lot about politics because I know what my calling is and it ain't being a politician. My goal is to encourage you to fall in love with Jesus - Jesus will change your heart and your mind - Jesus WILL guide you to support Him as you vote. When you vote you should ask yourself the question, "how would Jesus vote?".

I believe in participation - I believe in having opinions and believing and supporting things that are right! One thing I believe in HUGELY is this: VOTE! You GOTTA vote! You GOTTA represent! Many people have unselfishly given of their lives that we might continue to be blessed with freedom and to live in the greatest country in the world, bar none. I think it's STUPID not to vote - your vote does matter and to not be a part of the process is a slap in the face to those who have risked their lives for the privilege.

I'm sure that you know how you're voting for president tomorrow but what about all the other positions that you will vote on? Here are the voting guides from the North Carolina Christian Coalition. The Coalition actually puts together guides to show you what the candidates truly believe. How do they do that you may ask: by putting together their statements AND (more importantly) thier voting records. Voting records speak much louder than words. I think that being an informed voter is the most important thing for all of us.

Might I just state the obvious: this guide reflects a majority Republican position. The fact is the Republican party has accepted the views of conservative/evangelical Christians more than other parties.

I'm gonna vote. I'm gonna represent. I hope my candidate wins but if he doesn't it won't be the end of the world for me. "But what about ____________?" I care about all the important conservative issues (and some that my conservative friends in government don't seem to be as concerned with) but catch this: My Savior is not the president of the United States - my Savior died on a cross for my sins over 2,000 years ago. John McCain can't save me. Barak Obama can't saved me. Their leadership will have impact on the direction of our country but ultimately, I believe that we are in the hands of our Sovereign God who will see to it that His will be done.

The statements above are mine and don't necessarily reflect hyde park baptist church.

My name is Mike P and I approved this blog post.

Sunday Nite

I know that I say this almost every Sunday but we had an amazing morning at hyde park! I totally enjoyed leading you (hopefully) in worship... the extra hour of sleep last nite made it even more reason to celebrate!

• There were more than a few people who showed up to church an hour early this morning - a couple of them actually ended up in a small group because of it!
• Great feel in the house this morning...
• "I can only Imagine" can be a powerful opener, especially when people don't see it comin'.
• Actually sang "Open the Eyes of My Heart" this morning - I can't remember the last time we actually used it in worship at hyde park. We have sung that song so many times, almost like an old hymn here. "Open the Eyes" is a classic song that felt good to sing to Jesus after not connecting with it for a while, ya know?
• The new song that we introduced this morning, "Let Me Sing", is by Todd Fields, worship leader at North Point Church in Atlanta
• The scripture is used this morning before "Let Me Sing" was from Ephesians 5:19Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. You can listen to it/watch it here
• Ever heard the term "Mac Daddy"? Well, this afternoon I experienced the "Nap Daddy - daddy of all naps". I'm not a good "day-sleeper" - something about being wound so tight that I'm afraid that I'm missing something
• Pastor's message this morning was strong - the teaching of being a good manager of what God has given us! For me GIVING to the Lord is huge. Just like Pastor's demonstration with the M&M's, the reason people have a hard time giving/tithing is because they have the order backwards - the operative word would be to give God our "first-fruits"!

I didn't really get the opportunity to comment yet about Friday Nite's Trunk-A-Treat (or as Pastor calls it our "love on our community with lots of candy nite ). I drove the "hyde park express" train non-stop for over 2 hours (the kidz love it!!!). Here are the stats directly from Brandon's update from my Facebook page:

Trunk -a- treat totals:

61 - trunks passing out candy
39 - volunteers (parking, games, food, cake walk, face painting, hayride, HP train, etc)
1711 - we know that registered

We ran out of 1086 - pounds of candy that we provided...not counting candy given as game prizes....or candy that people brought for their own trunks...

we ministerd to lots of people tonight...sweet!

 

I know that we had over 20 cakes donated for our cake walk - I thought that it was cool that one of the people that i've invited to church and has recently been attending won a cake and was excited about it! Anyone of you who has pictures add them to your facebook or send them to me - I'll add them to mine!

 

Best as we can tell we had in excess of 2,000 people (the parking people SWEAR we had over 4,000 ). All I know is we had a bunch of people and it was fun and a tremendous nite - hyde park, you really stepped it up and I am SO proud of all of you! Let's have a great week for Jesus.

Fall Back Saturday Nite

All Hyde Park Volunteers and Attenders:

We are SO GRATEFUL for all that you do that we are going to give you all an extra hour to sleep tomorrow nite (saturday) ! The following video will remind you to do something very important Saturday nite:

Don't forget to "Fall Back" like Scarlet did tomorrow nite - set your clocks back 1 hr before you go to bed. We ought to have a record BFG day Sunday, huh?

Candy, Canned Goods, Death and Motives

This is one of those mornings... I wake up with my mind just racing, can't sleep, this thought (and that one too!) distracting me...

It's time to break out the Henry's Blend, open up the typepad and let it fly as we go into a busy and important weekend at hyde park:

• Tonite's the Nite: Every year for the past (i believe) 7 years on October 31st, hyde park has been the place to be as we host, "Trunk-A-Treat". From 6 to 8 pm thousands of people will stream onto our campus for some good ol' fun. The most amazing part is that the only advertising we do on this event is the sign in the front.
• Our mindset about tonite is this: most of the people who will come tonite don't attend our church - we want to do all that we can to make tonite a great nite, to love on them, be hospitable, knowing that God is active in this world drawing people to Himself. Most are not concerned with that TONITE, but I believe the day will come when they are concerned about Him, a day that they'll recognize their need to be reconciled to Him - I hope that everyone of them turn to us to help them turn to him. TONITE WE ENTERTAIN THEM BUT SOMETIME SOON WE WILL LEAD THEM TO SURRENDER THEIR HEARTS AND COMMIT THEIR LIVES TO JESUS. That's why tonite is worth it! 
• Brandon and I bought hundreds of pounds of candy yesterday at Sam's Club. I wish I had $10 for everyone who said, "I think I'll just go home with you..." which I honestly thought was an odd comment considering it was like a flatbed of candy - do people like candy that much?
• I do suppose seeing two grown men pushing hundreds of pounds of candy around was kinda a "whatchu talkin' bout, Willis?!?" moment. (a few of you just spit coffee on that one ).
• We will begin a food drive this Sunday at hyde park. Due to the increased number of calls and visitors to our office needing assistance we found out that many of the assistance ministries that we work with and support are low on food and money. It really is at emergency status. For a listing of the needed items you can go here.
• By the way... if you didn't get the email about the food drive this morning from us and you're "hyde park" you need to sign up here - you are missing some of our most important messages!
• Don't forget that tomorrow nite will be the last nite for the "Forest of Death" (sounds metal, doesn't it?) that our youth host out on Carole's property. It's located on Indian Heritage road - if you need directions I can help.
• I hope you took the time to watch yesterday's posts (part one here - part two here) - much discussion could ensue. Funny that such a great point was made on a show that many Christians would never watch. It's Friday... at some point, if you haven't seen them, do - it will make you laugh AND think (might even make you "check yourself").
• I'm really excited about Sunday morning - I get to debut one of my favorite songs (the one at the bottom). Also pumped about preaching next Sunday! Make the song your background music at work today... you'll be glad you did on Sunday!

Desperate Housewives Clip 2

If you haven't seen this morning's post watch it 1st because it won't make as much sense.

As I said this morning, I don't watch "Desperate Housewives". Never have. However, Tim Steven's used this clip at a workshop that he did and I thought this clip was huge. And if you don't automatically press stop on the player after the profanity (it will be a shame if you do because you will miss a really great point - by the way, do you turn the channel everytime "that" happens or walk out of a movie?  anyway, I warned you...) if you don't automatically press stop on the player you will be challenged by the way that the clip ends...

People have questions - I hope that they CAN turn to us to help them with the answers. 

Your Next Door Neighbors???

I don't watch "Desperate Housewives". Never have. However, Tim Steven's used this clip at a workshop that he did and I thought these clips were huge. It should remind us that there are people ALL AROUND us who are just like this:

Part 2 is coming later - check back.

Those who read on facebook or a reader click here to see embedded video

tweet, tweet

Earlier this year I joined facebook. I had resisted social networking for years, really not understanding and totally underestimating the powerful way that it could be used for the advancement of the gospel. If you're reading this I assume that you are fine with technology - WHY haven't you joined facebook yet?

Anyway, that's another post...

I want to talk about twitter and the way that it can be used. Twitter is what's currently going on in your life but you have to communicate it in 140 characters or less. For those of you who use facebook, it's like your "status" (as a matter of fact, whenever I "tweet" my twitter updates my facebook status automatically). As I've said before, it's the status updates that I love most about facebook, twitter just takes it to another level.

I don't know... there's something about a text message. Something safe - you're in a meeting, you could never answer a phone during the meeting, but a text comes in... you check it out, have a chuckle (and a quick escape) and you reconnect where you were - it's like a mini-vacation! (ok... not really, but you're normally glad that you got it! )

I follow hyde park friends and a few others. Whenever they "tweet" it comes to my mobile via text message. That way I know it...

• when Elizabeth is petitioning for homework to be banned...
• when Bree needs some humor in the middle of her day...
• when Ed is driving at nite, is tired and wants anyone needing coaching to give him a tweet with their number...
• when Los has posted a picture about something funny that just happened
• when Blake's getting his swell on at the Y... (you get the picture)

I feel more connected to a greater number of people than I ever have - and that's a good thing. Join the crowd.

"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...)

Sunday Nite (with pictures)

Today was a really great day at hyde park. I know that I say that most every Sunday... I guess that the reason that I say that every week is because A) it WAS a great day and B) it is our desire to bring our "A" game every single Sunday!!

• We had a big morning this morning as we celebrated the Lord's Supper / Communion in all 3 of our worship experiences.
• I have truly enjoyed the way that we have attempted to be more and more creative in our practice of the Lord's Supper. Rather than doing it the "same ol', same ol'" way we've been experiencing it at 3 tables at the front of the worship center in groups of 6 to 8. As we do it the band and singers do their thing. The thought behind this is while some are taking the supper the others are participating in worship through song - no down time.

Opening with "And Now My Lifesong Sings" this morning was cool as it set the tone for what was to happen. On the other hand, I know that it was difficult for those walking in late as it might have been a "what's going on here moment". I guess that's another reason we should always aim to be early, that way if something goes wrong you'll still be on time.

• I was the drummer today. No issues with drummers, I just WANTED to be the drummer today, to play in the band. Our band is filled with a group of dedicated and amazing musicians whom I LOVE playing with occasionally. We have extra drummers that are available to play but truthfully, I like to sit in the drummers seat and observe our worship from their. The drum throne is the least stressful place in the house for Mike P on a Sunday - no worries back there!
• By the way... speaking of band and singers - everyone did a tremendous job today. We had some small issues, but if you look at the set and the challenges I put before them today...

  Baptism took place in the 11.11 service this morning, my man Paul brooks doing the honors.

• Paul baptized 9 this morning including 2 of his sons!! Yeah... I got a little teary eyed thinking about how special a moment that was for him. One of the highlights is that most of those being baptized were young people. Pastor Dennis said it right when he reminded our congregation that we as a congregation have invested into the young people of Lumberton - he believed that this was a picture of Jesus honoring that investment!

• You know... just about every Sunday that I walk into the place I walk in with the thought, "this might be the day... the day when God breaks out and shows off... the day that many, many lives WILL be changed!" I often think to myself that many will be saved. What are your expectations coming into worship? I don't ask that in a "look at my faith!!!" kinda way, I'm just saying that when we don't come into the house expectantly, what are we coming with? I'm just sayin... 

ok... it's been a long day - better hit it because tomorrow's gonna be a BIG day!