Many of you have now begun on the journey with us on this 30-Day Fast for Spiritual Renewal. It's exciting already to see so many believers committing themselves to renewal and revival. This will prove to be a time of refreshment as well as revelation. God will and perhaps already has revealed some things to us about ourselves as we've begun to sanctify ourselves through prayer and fasting. For some of us we've learned that we're much weaker than we thought, but God is much stronger. For some of us we've learned that we can do things through God's strength that we could never do on our own.
Some of us have experienced God granting us a new found peace, gentleness, meekness, and humility that we haven't experienced in a long time. I know I have! What's been your experience so far? Share it by clicking on the comment link below. You never know who will be encouraged by your experience.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
A Contribution from Yolanda James-Parks of PCC
Hi Pastor,
I just wanted to share during the fast too.
"Jehoshaphat was alarmed by this news and sought the LORD for guidance. He also gave orders that everyone throughout Judah should observe a fast". 2 Chronicles 20:3
The commentary for this passage says:
"When the nation was faced with disaster, Jehoshaphat called upon the people to get serious with God by going without food (fasting) for a designated time. By separating themselves from the daily routine of food preparation and eating , they could devote that extra time to considering their sin and praying to God for help. Hunger pangs would reinforce their penitence and remind them of their weakness and their dependence upon God. Fast still can be helpful today as we seek God's will in special situations."
Words of Encouragement
RESOLVE TO GET INVOLVED
"Get involved in your church, in your community, in the schools, and in mentoring programs. Unconditionally offer your time, talent, love, support, and money. Give for the joy of giving and not with the expectation of a return." Tavis Smiley
I just wanted to share during the fast too.
"Jehoshaphat was alarmed by this news and sought the LORD for guidance. He also gave orders that everyone throughout Judah should observe a fast". 2 Chronicles 20:3
The commentary for this passage says:
"When the nation was faced with disaster, Jehoshaphat called upon the people to get serious with God by going without food (fasting) for a designated time. By separating themselves from the daily routine of food preparation and eating , they could devote that extra time to considering their sin and praying to God for help. Hunger pangs would reinforce their penitence and remind them of their weakness and their dependence upon God. Fast still can be helpful today as we seek God's will in special situations."
Words of Encouragement
RESOLVE TO GET INVOLVED
"Get involved in your church, in your community, in the schools, and in mentoring programs. Unconditionally offer your time, talent, love, support, and money. Give for the joy of giving and not with the expectation of a return." Tavis Smiley
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Sunday Night Dump
Today's worship experience was awesome! I'd been really intentional over the last few weeks in trying to get the music ministry back on track and they nailed it today! Veronica did it like only she can do it. We made some adjustments like moving the band off the stage so that the singers and musicians could see and communicate with each other. This worked out very well. Also, removing the drum noise from right behind the singers helped them hear themselves better. We also had ample time for sound check which made a huge difference. The crowd was pretty thick too! I had been praying that God would send a crowd today and He did just that. Lots of new visitors dropped in today, it's always good to see new faces in the place. I think we probably average 10 to a dozen visitors each week. The challenge now is to make our church sticky!
I challenged every member of our congregation during my sermon to step up to the plate and avail themselves to volunteer in some capacity within the church to take the load off me. I spend time throughout the week editing video, dealing with finance, administrative duties, and all kinds of other random busy work that pulls me away from my primary responsibility of preparing to preach a sound, practical, powerful word from the LORD.
Many members have already stepped up to the plate to take ownership. I'm sure there will be many more to follow. I thank God for the spirit of the people of PCC. They genuinely want to please God.
We also collected over 200 lbs of items to be donated to Atlanta flood victims. We'll be partnering with The Courageous Church (www.courageous.tv) in Atlanta to get this stuff to the people who need it. By the way I'd like to shout out to Pastor Shaun King, Lead Pastor of The Courageous Church for getting in the trenches with the people of ATL and simply being the church. Your courage has sparked a movement of generosity around the world!
Lastly, be in prayer with PCC as we prepare for God to use us more and more for the advancement of the kingdom in our neighborhood and beyond. For the next 30-days we'll be fasting from food (just water allowed) for 12-hours per day. Pick your own 12-hour span. This fast is for revival and spiritual renewal within our midst.
Let's do it together!
That's it for tonight.
I challenged every member of our congregation during my sermon to step up to the plate and avail themselves to volunteer in some capacity within the church to take the load off me. I spend time throughout the week editing video, dealing with finance, administrative duties, and all kinds of other random busy work that pulls me away from my primary responsibility of preparing to preach a sound, practical, powerful word from the LORD.
Many members have already stepped up to the plate to take ownership. I'm sure there will be many more to follow. I thank God for the spirit of the people of PCC. They genuinely want to please God.
We also collected over 200 lbs of items to be donated to Atlanta flood victims. We'll be partnering with The Courageous Church (www.courageous.tv) in Atlanta to get this stuff to the people who need it. By the way I'd like to shout out to Pastor Shaun King, Lead Pastor of The Courageous Church for getting in the trenches with the people of ATL and simply being the church. Your courage has sparked a movement of generosity around the world!
Lastly, be in prayer with PCC as we prepare for God to use us more and more for the advancement of the kingdom in our neighborhood and beyond. For the next 30-days we'll be fasting from food (just water allowed) for 12-hours per day. Pick your own 12-hour span. This fast is for revival and spiritual renewal within our midst.
Let's do it together!
That's it for tonight.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
We Wear the Mask
I had a conversation with my wife over the weekend about the difficulty Pastors and Ministers have with being transparent. On the one hand we're expected to be human, but on the other hand, not as human as everybody else. What an oxymoron!
Truthfully, the reason that many of us wear the mask is not because we desire to be pretenders, but because most people just can't handle the real thing. Actually, if they ever got a glimpse of it they would chalk us up as being phony, not a "real preacher," or my favorite, "just like all the other preachers."
On the surface and underneath the surface we are actually real people! We're just ordinary people drafted by God not because we were better suited than any other person, but because God chose to glorify Himself through us despite our faults. Preachers and Pastors are not just ex-gangbangers, ex-drugdealers, ex-playboys, etc... Some of us have it in our past but still struggle to overcome it in our present. The title "reverend", "pastor", "bishop", or "minister" does not somehow make us more resistant to temptation, neither does it nullify the flesh that we battled with before acknowledging the call.
Sadly, some very gifted brothers and sisters have left the ministry or been dismissed from their place of service because their imperfections were unmasked. Ultimately we're just real people who feel every emotion that everyone else feels. We get angry sometime, we don't see eye to eye with our spouse sometime, we lack faith sometime, we neglect our prayer time sometime, we lust sometime, we drink too much sometime, we overeat sometime, we're jealous of other people sometime, we're selfish, prideful, and arrogant sometime. But God grants us the same grace as He does every other Christian when we come to Him in repentence.
Throughout my first year of Pastoring, I've been so bent on not being like certain Pastors that I know, but as time has passed and left behind it more wisdom through experience, I've discovered that it's arrogant and presumptuous of me to ever believe that I'm any different.
I used to speak of what I wouldn't do, now I think the more appropriate statement is "what I don't want to do" and "what I haven't done." I now realize that much greater men and women than I have fallen to all sorts of temptations, and made all sorts of bad leadership decisions.
I now realize that when I get to the end of my career and life it's less important that I present to God a perfect preacher (Calvary has already taken care of that), it's important that I present to him a completed work.
The Apostle Paul summed up the close of his ministry this way,
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day..."
Please add Ministers and Pastors to your prayer list
The Holy Bible : King James Version. electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version. Bellingham WA : Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995, S. 2 Ti 4:7-8
Truthfully, the reason that many of us wear the mask is not because we desire to be pretenders, but because most people just can't handle the real thing. Actually, if they ever got a glimpse of it they would chalk us up as being phony, not a "real preacher," or my favorite, "just like all the other preachers."
On the surface and underneath the surface we are actually real people! We're just ordinary people drafted by God not because we were better suited than any other person, but because God chose to glorify Himself through us despite our faults. Preachers and Pastors are not just ex-gangbangers, ex-drugdealers, ex-playboys, etc... Some of us have it in our past but still struggle to overcome it in our present. The title "reverend", "pastor", "bishop", or "minister" does not somehow make us more resistant to temptation, neither does it nullify the flesh that we battled with before acknowledging the call.
Sadly, some very gifted brothers and sisters have left the ministry or been dismissed from their place of service because their imperfections were unmasked. Ultimately we're just real people who feel every emotion that everyone else feels. We get angry sometime, we don't see eye to eye with our spouse sometime, we lack faith sometime, we neglect our prayer time sometime, we lust sometime, we drink too much sometime, we overeat sometime, we're jealous of other people sometime, we're selfish, prideful, and arrogant sometime. But God grants us the same grace as He does every other Christian when we come to Him in repentence.
Throughout my first year of Pastoring, I've been so bent on not being like certain Pastors that I know, but as time has passed and left behind it more wisdom through experience, I've discovered that it's arrogant and presumptuous of me to ever believe that I'm any different.
I used to speak of what I wouldn't do, now I think the more appropriate statement is "what I don't want to do" and "what I haven't done." I now realize that much greater men and women than I have fallen to all sorts of temptations, and made all sorts of bad leadership decisions.
I now realize that when I get to the end of my career and life it's less important that I present to God a perfect preacher (Calvary has already taken care of that), it's important that I present to him a completed work.
The Apostle Paul summed up the close of his ministry this way,
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day..."
Please add Ministers and Pastors to your prayer list
The Holy Bible : King James Version. electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version. Bellingham WA : Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995, S. 2 Ti 4:7-8
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)