WholeHeartedLife

It Always Starts with the Students

Are you Ready?

"I am never surprised but I'm always amazed!". I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around what happened tonite at the BSU house on the campus of UNCP.

The house was PACKED with students, singing, having a good time. There was a good mix - looked like students from many different backgrounds. There was a great feeling to the room - you could tell that people brought their friends with them.

"Tonite I challenge you to live lives that DEMAND an explanation".

Before the night was over we saw 9 students proclaim their faith in Christ for the 1st time and too many to count (I'm estimating over 50) say that THEY wanna live lives that demand an explanation. I'm not all about numbers but I am all about sharing what God has done (and by the way - how do we measure what God is doing in our midst?). That would bring the total of salvations on the campus of UNCP to 18 in the 1st two weeks of school - IS THAT NOT AMAZING?!?!?!

How cool was it to me to come home and see bunches of UNCP students talking about it on facebook? You gotta love technology and the way that it allows you to be part of more lives.

It was such an honor to be the opening speaker for this years Tuesday Nite Church (TNC). I am so excited about what God is doing on that campus and proud of those that He is raising up to serve Him there. History shows that revival often breaks out among students - We better get ready because something HUGE may be around the corner!

Who Would be to Blame?

"Worship demands purity. Over and over we have seen that the prerequisite to the privilege of entering God's presence is the recognition of personal sinfulness and a willingness to abandon that sinfulness. A consuming desire to be pure and clean is the normal result of being with God. The closer we draw to God, the more overwhelmed we become with our sinfulness... if the corporate worship in the church leaves people unchanged, the church is not really worshiping. If what goes on in the church service does not spur the saints to greater obedience, call it what you will, it isn't worship. Worship always results in a transformation, and the church is edified by it." - John MacArthur, Jr. 

What about you? Have you experienced transformation through worship lately? Who would be to blame? Maybe it's time to get to the root of the challenge.

Prayer Conference This Weekend!

I'm looking forward to being a part of the "Call to Me Southeastern NC Prayer Conference" this Friday and Saturday in Pembroke. The conference is sponsored by the Baptist State Convention of NC and features guest speaker, Dr. Henry Blackaby.

Henry Blackaby was huge in my development as a follower of Jesus. His study, "Experiencing God", helped me to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit in my daily life and guided me to understand what it means to be a Spirit-led believer. When I was struggling with my call to ministry and didn't know what to do or where to go next, my friend Eddy Covil (truly by God's intervention) gave me Dr. Blackaby's study, "God's Call". "God's Call" helped me to totally surrender to the call of God upon my life - I have since suggested this study to others hearing God's call.

It is with honor that I have been invited to lead worship at this conference this weekend and look forward to God once again speaking to me through the ministry of Henry Blackaby.

Do you know what would be awesome??? If you let God speak to you through Henry Blackaby and you can do that this week - the conference is TOTALLY FREE - it's not a "preacher conference" - it's for regular people who want believe in God's power in prayer and are open to diving in deeper. Here's the schedule:

Schedule
Friday, August 28
5:30 p.m.     Pastor & Staff Dinner (invitation only)
7:00 p.m.     Message
8:00             Prayer Time

Saturday, August 29
9:00 a.m.     Fellowship & Refreshments
9:15             Prayer Time
10:00           Worship
10:30           Message & Prayer Time

Remember, God has promised, 

³ 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.' (Jeremiah 33:3 - NIV)

Silence

Isaiah 55
Invitation to the Thirsty

 ¹ "Come, all you who are thirsty, 
       come to the waters; 
       and you who have no money, 
       come, buy and eat! 
       Come, buy wine and milk 
       without money and without cost.

 ² Why spend money on what is not bread, 
       and your labor on what does not satisfy? 
       Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, 
       and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

 ³ Give ear and come to me; 
       hear me, that your soul may live. 
       I will make an everlasting covenant with you, 
       my faithful love promised to David.

 ⁴ See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, 
       a leader and commander of the peoples.

 ⁵ Surely you will summon nations you know not, 
       and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, 
       because of the LORD your God, 
       the Holy One of Israel, 
       for he has endowed you with splendor."

 ⁶ Seek the LORD while he may be found; 
       call on him while he is near.

 ⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way 
       and the evil man his thoughts. 
       Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, 
       and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

 ⁸ "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 
       neither are your ways my ways," 
       declares the LORD.

 ⁹ "As the heavens are higher than the earth, 
       so are my ways higher than your ways 
       and my thoughts than your thoughts.

 ¹⁰ As the rain and the snow 
       come down from heaven, 
       and do not return to it 
       without watering the earth 
       and making it bud and flourish, 
       so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

 ¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth: 
       It will not return to me empty, 
       but will accomplish what I desire 
       and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

 ¹² You will go out in joy 
       and be led forth in peace; 
       the mountains and hills 
       will burst into song before you, 
       and all the trees of the field 
       will clap their hands.

 ¹³ Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, 
       and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. 
       This will be for the LORD's renown, 
       for an everlasting sign, 
       which will not be destroyed."

**Silence**

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?

Losing His mind over the President

As I scanned the radio stations yesterday waiting for Madison to get out of dance I heard a talk-radio guy going crazy over a statement President Obama made that  "America is no longer just a Christian nation...". This dude was flipping out and on a rant. While I appreciated a lot of what said dude was ranting about it made me think about an article that I recently saw.

A recent article in USA TODAY based on the American Religious Identification Survey 2008 (ARIS) was titled, "Most religious groups in USA have lost ground, survey finds". If you didn't you might want to take a moment and read it before you finish this post. The story opened like this,

When it comes to religion, the USA is now land of the freelancers.

The percentage. of people who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation. The faithful have scattered out of their traditional bases: The Bible Belt is less Baptist. The Rust Belt is less Catholic. And everywhere, more people are exploring spiritual frontiers — or falling off the faith map completely.

You may be alarmed. You might be disturbed. But if you are surprised I have to ask the question, "Where have you been?".

The president is right about this one: America IS no longer just a Christian nation. I knew this before the article came out; I knew this before Obama said it. I wish that the church would wake up and see it ourselves. I hope that we will accept the fact that we no longer live in a "Christian nation".

“According to George Barna: “With its 195 million unchurched people, America has become the new mission field. America has more unchurched people than the entire populations of all but 11 of the world’s 194 nations.”*

Why does this anger the church? It's our fault (the church) that this happened. Christianity is not a title nor an entitlement - it is a surrendered relationship with the Saviour King, Jesus Christ. Christianity is  not so much a religion, but a mission. My prayer is that we will begin to realize that we currently are living in the mission field and must approach what we do in the way that foreign missionaries do. Check me tomorrow as I share a dream I have for centering our local mission.

For a Moment all eyes were on...

HIM.

I was just thinking about this and writing in my journal and felt led to share with the world...

7 years ago this morning we were going into our staff meeting, we had not really gotten in good yet. I remember it was a Tuesday. I remember that we were having our stage renovated/enlarged and Bobby Speights was working down there. All of a sudden he runs in Pastor's office saying, "an airplane just slammed into the world trade center!!". We stopped what we were doing found a tv. The questions were running: "was this an accident? Did someone do this on purpose?" There was a lot of speculation until all of a sudden that 2nd plane comes into the picture and showed us one of the most horrifying thing we've ever seen - we watched someone use an airplane and innocent lives as a bomb to attack our country.

We immediately responded, "let's go pray" and headed down to our auditorium and got on our faces before the Lord...

We called an impromptu prayer meeting/solemn assembly for that night (it was packed) where we had no plan - we just called upon the Name.

(a Prayer for this morning) "I had never seen anything like this before and never have since - All eyes were on You, Lord - for a moment our nation remembered our God. Too quickly though, their eyes shifted from You to us, your followers... they then shifted from "WE" back to "ME" to the place where September 11th is just another day that we "remember" (and briefly, at that). I remember, Lord - I remember that I hoped that the change would be lasting, deep - transformation at it's core. Oh, How we need You, God!".

At hyde park, within the month everyone went back to living their lives (except when they would raise the terror alert to a higher level or a holiday rolled around) - we saw no lasting impact.

So this morning I remember - not just those who lost their lives senselessly on that day; I also remember the fact that for a moment "our Nation looked to YOU, Lord.". God, move on us that we would turn our eyes to You.

What are YOU doing about it?

You know, when I sit around and think about it, "it" makes me wonder...

What is it that you're looking for? In a church? In your life? In your family? In your marriage? In your relationship with JESUS? What are you looking for?

Are you living out God's plan for you? Do you even know what His plan is for you? If you don't, what are YOU doing to find out?

Do you feel fulfilled in your life? Are you growing in your faith? If you aren't...what are YOU doing about it? What have you changed? What are you going to do to improve your situation?

How about your prayer life? Getting deeper or drained? What are YOU doing about it?

You know, in the end the ball is in your court - the changes are yours to make - you won't be able to blame anyone else. What are YOU doing about it?

Different Take Part 1 - It's OUR Fault!!!

The other day at the gym i had a great conversation with one of our attenders. We spoke of many things, his love of the church, his desire to do overseas ministry/mission work, his commitment to marriage which led to him telling me about the struggles in today's society to help people take the right pathways to life. He looked at me and said, "this is a hard time to be a Christian pastor - the battle seems to be overwhelming."

The next day, when I read this scripture during my daily study, it took me back to the conversation:

1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NIV)

You read that and probably think, "that's right! You tell 'em Paul! That adequately describes our world today!!!" I wonder if I might have a different take than that?

You know what i think is interesting about this passage? I believe that these verses do not refer to society as much as it refers to those who claim to be Christ followers. Look again at v.5 : the people of the world don't have a "form of godliness" - but i know plenty of people who claim JESUS, attend church but it makes absolutely no difference in their life.

You know what I told him? I told him something to the effect of this:

"you're right... the battle does seem unwinnable, but you know what: this is my time - this is where God put me and i'm gonna do all that i can to make a difference in my generation. I believe that the reason that we've come to this place is because regular Christians, the ones who live next door to these people, the ones who work with these people, the ones who are family with these people - they are being BAD REPRESENTATIVES of JESUS! The reason "these people" don't want any part of God is because they see no difference between the way that they live and the way that the so-called Christian lives. They look at Christianity and see something that has been reduced to a code of ethics: do this/don't do that - eat this/don't drink that - go here but DON'T go there - listen to this but don't listen to that... We've reduced the LIVING GOD down to a bunch of rules to keep. CHRISTIANITY IS MORE THAN THAT - CHRISTIANITY AT IT'S CORE IS A MOVEMENT - it's God, living within imperfect humans, reaching out through them and saving people from their sin and their lives - one person at a time. You're right: this is not an easy time but i believe that God can use HIS people to make a difference - but that difference happens one Christ follower at a time deciding ENOUGH IS ENOUGH - i'm tired of playing at this, "i want to be used by You, God!"'

He replied, "Wow... Well, good seeing you." (guess he wasn't expecting all that ).

I wonder, did you?

I couldn't let the "RENEW" series just come and go without wondering how it went for you? As the graphic shows, the prayer behind "RENEW" was that the Spirit of God would be poured into you "anew" as you took this 3 week journey with us.

So how did it go?

Are you reading scripture deeper since we began the journey? What about your prayer-life, is it deeper and stronger? How about you discipline - has it gone to a new level? I guess my question is "did you Renew?"

I'm guessing that for some the answer will be, "yes - these 3 weeks have been really good for me.". I am also guessing that FOR MANY "RENEW" was just another 3 week series.

RENEWal is not a thought or an idea, it's an action - it's something that you do. You can't say, "i hope that i'll be renewed" and continue doing what you've always done - it doesn't work like that.

Here's the great thing: the series is over but the journey isn't. You don't have Renewal because you did something with a group of people, you have renewal because you ask your God to enter into your life and then you seek Him daily in prayer, scripture and follow-through. You also need a extra-dose of faith when the "new" wears off (you can hear pastor's last message called, "Renew my Faith" here).

Don't be discouraged - do something about it: RENEW