Religion vs. Relationship?

For the past couple of weeks, my heart has been very heavy on a certain issue that deals with the church. Over the past few months, I have talked to several people who once attended church but are no longer attending. Each one had their own reasons as to why they have left the church and have not returned. They told me their stories and I listen to them. As we talked about church, I noticed a common theme that ran through our conversations. I noticed they seemed to be focused on rules and regulation. Or what I would like to call "religion". The reason for this is; religion is made up of legalistic rules and regulations, the do’s and don’ts.

One guy I talked to said he had gone to several different types of church. And with each church came with different lists of do’s and don’ts. He was told that if he was to come to church (but in his mind, this meant being Christian) you had to worship a certain way, act a certain way and do certain things. He would attend another church and they would tell him something completely different and that their beliefs where the only one that were correct, that the other where wrong! He was so confused about what it really meant to be a Christ follower! My heart was burden greatly for his young man.

Then there was this older man who asked me if he could wear bibbed overalls to our church. I told him with a resounding YES, He could them to church! He told me that when he had attended church before, people were focused on his dress instead of him. And that is completely wrong! I am not saying that you can wear whatever you want to wear. I do think there needs to be standard that should be kept in church.

However, the big question that needs to be asked is this: “Are we, the church, causing people to focus more on religion than we are a relationship with Jesus Christ?” I would have to say yes! What I am talking about is the difference between religion vs. relationship. Religion puts the focus on the do’s and don’ts. Think about the religious leaders of Jesus' day. They told Him that He could not pick grain on the Sabbath (Luke 6:1-11). Religion? Yes! They also told Him that He could heal people on the Sabbath (Mark 3:1-6). Religion? Again yes. They said it was wrong to eat with tax collector and sinner because they where not clean to eat with (Matt 9:11-13). Religion? Absolutely. Then we have the men in Acts 15 who said that in order to become a believer you must be circumcised. Religion? I believe so. I remember a time in my life when I was just like those religious leaders. I was focused on the rules. I was twenty one when I became a follower of Christ. Once I talked my younger brother, who was seventeen at the time, into going to church with me. I got ready for church and went into to check on him and he was wearing shorts and tennis shoes. What did I do? I told him that he couldn’t wear shorts and those dirty shoes to church! Was I holding to rules? Yes! Was I being religious? You bet I was! And I believe that if James, the brother of Jesus would have been there that day, he would have told me the same thing that he said in Acts 15:19: “And so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.”

As a church need to stop focusing on religion and start to focusing on bring people into a relationship with Jesus Christ! The only way religion changes people is that pushes people away from the grace that is found in relationship with Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ was all about relationships. The church needs to stop trying to change people through religion and allow Jesus Christ to change them through a personal relationship. I believe the only winner in this is Relationship!

So if you are leader within the church, where is your focus? Religion vs. Relationship?

My Everything!

Earlier today I was listening to some praise & worship at work when the song “You Never Cease to Amaze” by New Life Church Worship started playing. This song really spoke to me this morning! The part of the song that stood out to me the most was: “Cause Jesus you are my everything; Jesus you are all I need…” As I sat listening to those words over and over again, I was reminded that Jesus truly is my everything; He truly is all I need.

When I need strength… He gives me strength! Philippians 4:13 & 2 Cor. 12:10
When I need rest… He gives me rest! Matthew 11:28
When I need wisdom... He gives me wisdom! James 1:5
When I need forgiveness…He forgives me! 1 John 1:9
When I need mercy & grace… He gives me mercy & grace! Hebrew 4:16
When I guidance…He guides me! John 8:12
When I need hope… He is my hope! 1 Timothy 1:1
When I need peace… He gives me peace! Roman 5:1 & Ephesians 2:14
When I need a Savior… He is my Savior! John 3:16

And the list could go on because He is so much more! Jesus Christ is truly my everything, He is truly all that I need. But what about you? Is He your everything? If Jesus Christ is all that I need, then I know He is also all that you need! So ask yourself: “Is He my everything?” If not, let Him be, He can be your evertying and all that you need!
In His Grip,
Jacob

Is God Just an Acquaintance?

Last week I read a passage of scripture that really rocked my world! The passage of scripture that I read was 1 Chronicles 28:8-10.

"So now, with God as our witness, and in the sight of all Israel—the Lord’s assembly — I give you this charge. Be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord your God, so that you may continue to possess this good land and leave it to your children as a permanent inheritance. "And Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. For the Lord sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him. But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. So take this seriously. The Lord has chosen you to build a Temple as his sanctuary. Be strong, and do the work." 1 Chronicles 28:8-10 (NLT)

After reading this passage, I sat there in my office with it rolling over and over in my head. There are two parts of this passage that stood out to me. The first is found in verse 9: “Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately.” The second is found in verse 10: “So take this seriously.” I began asking myself this question: What does it meant to “Know God” the way that David is telling Solomon to know God? And to show the importance of this, David tells Solomon to take this seriously! If David, the man after God’s own heart, is telling his son to take it seriously, then I really need to take this seriously also! So after thinking about these verses, I felt convicted about what it means to know Him. Maybe I was missing something. So I began to pray and I asked God what does it mean really mean to know Him? His answer: Go to my Word and I will show you what it means to know Me. So off to His word I went. What I found was completely and utterly amazing! I began studying the passage out by looking up the word “Know” in the original language, and what I found out was astonishing! The word “Know” in Hebrew means to gain knowledge through experience. This seems to indicate that it is more than just a causally meeting of someone. When you have an experience with someone there is something deeper and meaningful than a causally meeting. This is made clear in The New Living Translation when David emphasis to know God intimately. When I think of the word intimately the thoughts of a close and deep relationship come to mind. David tells Solomon that he needs to learn to have a deep and very personal relationship with God. Solomon had knowledge of God. However, it seems like he didn’t have a deep personal relationship with God if David was telling him to learn to know God. It would almost be safe to say that God was more of an acquaintance of Solomon.

There is a major difference in God being an acquaintance of yours and intimately knowing God. Think about it in the terms of a marriage or dating relationship for those of you who aren’t married. How close would you be to your spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend if you only talked to them once a week? That the only time you spent time with them was when you need something! Do you really think you would know them very well? Probably not. The reason why you married your spouse or dating someone is because you developed a deep and personal relationship with them. Now this did not happen overnight and it didn’t happen by causally meeting them every once in awhile. It took time to learn about them, right? I believe that is why David told Solomon to learn to know God intimately. David knew what he was talking about! He knew what it meant to know God intimately. He had experienced God in just about every way that I can think of! (Which I will share with you more about later.) God Himself even said that David was a man after His own heart. Now that is saying a lot!

After reading and studying this passage of scripture I examined my relationship with God. I realized that I am so glad that my relationship with Him is more than being acquaintance. I know I am still having a long ways to go in “Knowing” God. But I was so encouraged by my Father! To know the Creator of everything wants to have a deep, personal and intimate relationship with me means everything to me. He is saying that I am special to Him! It encouraged me to seek more of Him, to learn more about him, to experience Him more.

Then the reality of this came to me... How many people out there are like Solomon? I would venture to say that there a lot of people out there whose relationship with God is more of an acquaintance than one of experiencing Him through a deep and personal relationship. How do I know this? First of all, for a long time, God was just an acquaintance of mine! I would meet with Him weekly at church and maybe meet with Him quickly in once or twice a week at best! Secondly, just talking with people about their relationship with Him. I saw something that seemed to be to be missing. The "something" that was missing was knowing Him through experiencing Him, that personal initmate relationship!

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not putting into question anyone’s salvation experience! However, I believe there are a lot of people who met Jesus at the altar, ask Him to forgive them and He has become their savoir! But for a better lack of words, that is where it stops. Christ has become more of an acquaintance to them than anything. They attend church on Sunday, the might even pray or read their Bibles every once in a while but they lack the intimacy of knowing God. When this happens people miss out on something very special, HIM! It is because we were created for an intimate relationship with Him! I hope that it this encourages you to experience Him in a real, intimate and personal way.

After say all that, what is the next thing that comes to mind? Well the answer is: “How do you learn to experience and to know God?” You will have to wait to find out in my next blog! I will share with you how to experience God in a deeper and intimate way later! After all it is how we stay “In His Grip”!

Understanding My Fathers Love

I love it when I have one of those moments that God speaks to me in a wonderful way, don't you? I had one of those “God Moments” this morning. I was spending time in His word when Caitlyn, my two year old, started crying in her bed. I went in to check on her to make sure she was ok. I calmed her down, got her back into bed, kissed her and left her room. About ten minutes later I heard the pitter patter of her little feet walking down the hallway. I looked over and saw her heading straight for me with her cup in one hand and Max, her stuffed dog, in the other. She was grinning from ear to ear and then I heard one of the sweetest sounds: “Hey Da”! Walking over to her she said: “take nap on couch.” Grinning I responded: “No sweetpea, its nite nite time.” I took her by her little hand and led her back to her room as she graciously replied: “OK”. As she climbed back into her little bed she said: “Da sing Barney!” I laughed and started singing to her as she looked up at me smiling. It was such a sweet sight to see my little girl’s big brown eyes looking up at me. After singing Barney and Jesus Loves Me, she patted her pillow and said: “Sleep”. She wanted me lay next to her. So I laid my head on her pillow and she moved closer to me as to say, I feel safe now that you are here daddy. And with that, my sweet lil Caitlyn Grace fell asleep.

As I walked out her room, I looked back at her with her lil hands folded under her chin and I thought to myself… “I sure do love that sweet lil girl!” It was at that moment that I felt God saying to me: “Jacob that is the way I love you! I love it when you come to me knowing that you are safe when you are with me. Everything you just felt is how I feel about you, except I love you more than you love that little girl.” I was and still am in awe of the love that the Father has for me! I believe that He wanted me to get a glimpse of how much He loves it when I spend time with Him! All I could say was “Thank you Lord for showing me a glimpse of your heart and loving me.” This morning I really felt like I was completely “In His Grip!” He is an amazing Father and His love is so indescribable!

How has the Lord spoken to lately? I would love to hear your stories!

Loving God, Loving People, Serving Both

A couple of weeks ago I was thinking about vision statements and how they are suppose to reflect the ideas and goals of an organization. The vision statement is declaring to everyone their intended purpose. Businesses have them, churches have them, and even people can have a vision statement for their lives. They are not always called vision statements, some might call them the reason they exist or their purpose in life. None the less, vision statements or purpose statements are everywhere. The reason why I was thinking about vision statements is because I have been praying about several ministry opportunities. As I was thinking about ministry in general I began thinking, “What would l like to see as a vision for a ministry?” That led to the next question, “What are some the most important things in a ministry?” Two passages of scripture have come to mind that deal with these questions and vision.

First is Matthew 22:36-40: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it; Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments.’ (NKJV)

And Matthew 20:28: “That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served.” (The Message)

Both of the passages of scripture are well known to many people. However, how often are they overlooked? I know that I have overlooked both these passages! If you take a look closer to Matthew 22:36-40 you see Jesus saying that all the Law and Prophets hand on these two commandments! It is about loving God with everything and loving people the way God loves them! These commands to love God and people are very special in the eyes of God and people! It is about relationships. It is about developing a relationship with God and with people! God love us and want so badly to have a real relationship with us! When we begin to have a personal relationship with God our love for Him grows deeper! However, it will only get as deep as the amount of time you spend with Him!

As we grow in a relationship with God, our relationships with people will increase. We will start love people more and more! We will start to love them for whom they are, and they are God children. Our relationships will become stronger and more meaningful.

Out of loving God and loving people, comes our serving of both! The way we serve God is to obey His commands! Not of out fear or obligation but out of love. When you greatly love someone, you will want to serve them. It is the same way with God. When we realize what He is doing in our lives, we want to serve Him more. One of the ways we serve God is by serving people which come out of our love for both of them! It is about helping others out of our love from them! It is about meeting needs, sharing in their burdens, and just loving on them. It is about making them feel important because they are important! If loving andserving people was important to Jesus, then it should be important to us!

These two verses can be summed up with this vision statement: Loving God, Loving People, Serving Both! I felt the Lord telling me that this vision is not only my life but for the ministry that He has for me!

Last weekend Smead Community Baptist Church voted on me to serve as their pastor. I am very gracious and humble that they wanted me to be their pastor. It is a huge responsibiity! So all week I have been praying about how the Lord wants me to lead them and I was reminded of the vision that the Lord laid on my heart. So Sunday night I shared this vision with the church! I shared with them that I would love to watch them become a church and a people who are Loving God, Loving People, Serving Both! I want them to fall in love with Jesus Christ, to love people and to serve them both the best they can using the gifts and talents that God the Father have given them! To reach out to the community and share the love of God with the people around them! I believe, by God’s grace and power and through the Holy Spirit, our little church will do some amazing things for the glory of God! Our vision is Loving God, Loving People, Serving Both

So what about you? What is your vision for your life and/or for your ministry? I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject of Vision! Remember Proverbs 29:18 says: "Where there is no vision, the people perish."

May you continue to be “In His Grip!”

When You Think All Hope is Gone!

Are you down and out? Discouraged? Need the Impossible to be possible? Today I read in my devotional that God is the God of Impossibilities. In Jeremiah 32:27 Lord said: “I am the Lord, the God of every person on the earth. Nothing is impossible for me.” In John chapter five there is a perfect example of God doing something that man would think is impossible. There is man had been lame for 38 years. He cannot walk and as child he never ran or jumped around like the other children. He never has been able to get into the waters that could heal him. He sounds very discourage in verse 7. "I can't, sir," the sick man said, "for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me." (NLT) He has lost hope! He is down and out. He just lays there day in and day out thinking, “Look at the line of those trying to get into the water, it is so long, everyone is going to get in before I do.” Can you imagine the despair that this man has had in his life? Then Jesus comes along and does the impossible! He heals the man right there! Jesus gave him hope! Jesus told him to stand up and walk! When Jesus spoke those words, the man was healed. Jesus doesn’t want us to be discouraged or live a life of hopelessness. I know too many people today live in this state. They look at their circumstance and see no hope of getting out. However, they are not looking in the right place. The right place is in Jesus Christ! Hebrews 12:2 says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” (NIV) Our focus needs to be on Jesus Christ. It is in Him that we find hope during the hopeless times! He is the one who encourages those who are discouraged! He is the one who makes the impossible possible! In Matthew 19:26 “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For people this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.’” (NCV) Just remember hard times will come and go, but Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is the one who can and will bring stability in your life. When you come to those down and out times, times when you don’t see hope, when you think things are impossible, run to Jesus! Lay everything at His feet (1Peter 5:7) and let Him take care of you! When you are In His Grip, He is in control!

The Church's Birthday Gift: The Holy Spirit

Every year people have a special day in our lives that we celebrate. Some people embrace these special days while other disowns them! Yes I am talking about birthdays! This past Sunday, we celebrated a very special birthday! This past Sunday, we celebrated the Church’s birthday. Sunday is known as Pentecost Sunday, which is the formation of the church. Not a lot of people know or understand what Pentecost Sunday really is, and to be quite honest I did not know or understand the importance of Pentecost Sunday.

According to Warren Wiersbe, there are three major annual feasts in the Jewish custom that are outlined in Lev. 23. They are the Passover feast, the Feast of First-fruits and Pentecost feast as known as the Feast of Weeks. Wiersbe states that these three feasts outline the works of Jesus Christ. When I read this was amazed to see how they correlated to one another! The following are the feasts and how they relate to the work of Jesus Christ!

1. Passover: This pictures the death of the Lamb of God. 1 Cor. 5:7 “Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast. Which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.”
2. The Feast of First-Fruits: Was when they brought an offer of their first fruits from their harvest, which pictures His Resurrection from the dead. 1 Cor. 15:20 “But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.”
3. Pentecost Feast was held fifty days after Passover. And it pictures the formation of the church. This was when they celebrated the giving of the Law. Today, Christians celebrate this as the giving of the Holy Spirit. Remember Jesus Christ came to fulfill the Law!

So what we have here is the giving of the Holy Spirit fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ! This was the birth of the modern day church. When the Lord Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to His church, it would forever change God’s people!

It is interesting that the Church was not formed until after the Jesus Christ gave the gift of the Holy Spirit. We find Jesus giving this gift in Acts 2.

Before we take a look this gift, I must state something that is very important. The Holy Spirit is a part of the God Head. He is just as much God as God the Father and Jesus Christ.

So let us look at the Holy Spirit and see what He brings to the Church.

The giving of the Holy Spirit is what gives the church power. However, before we look at the Holy Spirits Ministries, I want to look at the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ promised the Holy Spirit and also shared what the purpose of the Holy Spirit. Luke 24:49 says “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from Heaven.” And again in Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power from the Holy Spirit Come upon you.”

The reason why Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit is because we are not able to do things on our own. He had to give us His power.

There is a story in Zechariah chapter four about a man named Zerubbabel. He was responsible for rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. However, The Lord said to Zechariah verse 6, “This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force, nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” (NLT) This shows that it is by the Spirits that things get accomplished.

The only thing that is accomplished that has lasting value is when it comes from the power of the Holy Spirit. For over 2000 years, the church has lasted due to the fact of the Holy Spirit living within the believer.

This is the promise and the reason why the Lord sent his children the Holy Spirit.
Over the next 4 weeks, we will look at the Ministry of the Holy Spirit, which is to give God’s children the power to accomplish the will of the Father which was started in the ministry of Jesus Christ which is “To seek and to save that which is lost.” Luke 19:10T

The four ways that the Holy Spirit gives us power and changes our lives are:
1. Power of the supernatural
2. Power to proclaim the Word of God
3. Power to convict: the believer and the non-believer
4. Power to live the changed life!

I hope that you come to have a better understanding of the Holy Spirit and how He can change your life once you are “In His Grip.”

To Listen to this message: The Church's Birthday Gift.