What is Suffering for Christ all about?

As I continue forward in this stewardship Champaign I want to look to answering the age old question which seems to always be rooted in why. What would Christianity look like if we all better understood what suffering for Christ looked like?
I remember watching a video about this man who loved his son so much (his son was disabled from birth)that he did things with his son that he would not have been able to do without his acting on his son's behalf. The story is the story of team Hoyt. I want to encourage you to google the name and then watch the video about their story.
Long story short we often need to see these heroic stories because first of all we need to be inspired to act out in our own lives. Secondly we need this because we often times do not have the courage nor the discipline it takes to make this kind of suffering a reality. I do seem to be coming across hard about this subject and I will admit that it is harsh but true.
This next Sunday I will be putting this idea of suffering into a stewardship message that I feel we all need to hear, including myself. You see stewardship often times if not most of the time, lends itself to the idea that the church needs to be better givers of their money. Often times our churches are short on funding and we like to blame the lack of opportunities on the lack of funds. What I want you to know is that the blame is often placed wrongly. I would tell you that the fall of our churches can often times be placed on other stewardship issues that more strongly effect the growth of the church and the lack of growth contribute greatly to funding issues.
1Peter 4:1-2 says, "Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same intention (for whoever has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin), so as to live for the rest of your earthly life no longer by human desires but by the will of God ." So we should have the same intentions. This means that although we are not the first to suffer for something but because he set the bar we must follow with the same desire to serve fellow man and not just serve but suffer for them.
I will tell you right now that if we would do this as one of our first attitudes of stewardship so many of our other troubles would melt away or become insignificant in the picture of Christianity.
Verse 3 of this same passage tells us that we have spent enough time doing the things the Gentiles do. It is time to recognize that the end is near and we must turn away from evil ways and turn towards long suffering through love for each other. Jesus set the example when he died on a cross for those who crucified him for their selfish and short-sighted sinfulness. We must take this as a discipline much forgotten because we never look at the end as being close but yet still far off. It is the wise disciple that sees the benefit of being aware of the short time left to us.
We need only look to our most recent deaths in our own congregation to know that time is short and tomorrow is never promised, but a gift of God's love to us. We must, while it is not too late, suffer for our neighbor, our friend, and most importantly for those whom we rarely care for or think of much at all. Peace be to you.

Stewardship and What It Should Mean to You

In the coming weeks we will be focusing on Stewardship at Trinity UMC in Kentland, IN. I will be focusing on preaching a message that moves people to be good stewards might be the best way to put it. So as the pastor of Trinity I am looking at scripture that can lead the congregation to a better understanding of good stewardship.

I feel that stewardship drives turn off many people because in the past it always boils down to giving more money to the church. The first thing I want to help my congregation better understand is that we do not give our money to the church but to God who asks for 10% of that which we receive. So being a good steward of the money you receive means that you budget that money accordingly. Many of us, if not all of us, struggle with budgeting our money correctly, right?

Enough said about money because what I want to focus on are the other things that God calls us to do when He calls us to be good stewards. What do you mean, you might say, "there are other things we are called to give and be good stewards of?" Yes!

One of the biggest issues in our churches and communities today is time; we don't give of our time. But why are we not giving of our time? I feel it is because first of all the church has stopped serving the community and if the church has stopped serving the community why should I support the church with my time. We often point our fingers in an attempt to accuse, lay blame, as for why our church may be lagging with finances. Well there you go I brought up finances again after I said I was going in a different direction. I do this because I want you to know, as many of you already know, that all things of stewardship are connected.

So someone like me, the pastor, could easily say, "if only they would read their Bibles they would know that God is calling them to..." and you can fill in the blank. I could easily say that if we could get people to give more time to serving the church concerning community we would grow the church and a growing church could bring in more revenue so the church could better manage it's expenses.

In the next few weeks Trinity will be talking about stewardship and I invite you to pray about how God is calling you to re-examine your stewardship. I would rather you step up a little in each area of stewardship than have you lift one and not another. So going forward God calls for your giving of your gifts, service, prayers, and I believe talents as well. This year as we all examine our stewardship let us not do the easiest of these things but make sacrifice in the name of God so that our church will prosper in these times.

My Light and Salvation

One thing I cannot help but notice about society today is the lack of faith and the presence of fear. I believe that the presence of fear is the deciding factor in my determining that we have a lack of faith. I say we because in many ways I walk more by fear than by faith. King David declared that the Lord was his salvation. We saw evidence of this faith and salvation as David, as  young boy, facing his giant and defeating him through the faith that he had in his Lord giving him the victory. I have to believe that this was the salvation that David talks about. We could discuss how he might have been talking about a future salvation more symbolic perhaps but I think it was both futuristic and a salvation for the day.
Perhaps we do not see such strength in our daily walks because we choose not to face our giants at all. So if we choose to not step out against our giants everyday could we say that the lack of giant slaying in our lives today is more about our lives and how we choose to live? I have decided that this is precisely why we see no giant slaying in our lives. We have decided that the best way to avoid danger is to walk  away. Yet today I hear more and more about having guns in our possession and how the government cannot take our guns from us. Wouldn't it take more faith to walk without a gun? Well David did have a sling and a stone., but that is not really the point that I think we should be discussing; and you can stay at that last point if you choose to and many that I talk to will stay at that last point I made about guns and stones. What I think we should really discuss is that David stood his ground against insurmountable odds. You see the sling and the stone were only symbols of David's faith in God.
This past week I attended our RIM Retreat and I was surprised to learn that many of my fellow pastors are standing on the side of being armed with guns. I find this surprising because I find at times I am the minority when I choose to stand armed only with the word of God. You see it was faith that saved David and not the sling and stone. God was looking to defeat the giant and only needed or wanted someone to stand for Him. Those who stood armed with the best armor available were defeated by their lack of faith but a young boy who was left to defend the defenseless sheep had seen , through his courage time and time again, how God was the best defense.
If salvation in God is what we are truly seeking then what can the giant do to us? What can man do to us but kill us and if we truly desire heaven then isn't that giving us exactly what we are seeking?
So then do we need to arm ourselves today? You bet. But not the way that this world wants to be armed but armed with the word of God. Prepare yourselves with the word so that in that final moment when God takes you may you stand firm against the biggest giant of all, yourself.

The Handwriting on the Wall

We live in a time much like many other times in our history and yet different than any other time in our history. What I mean by that is that we are still doing things to lose favor with our one true God.
First of all I want to go back to Daniel 5 and look at what was going on in the court of Belshazzar. Outside the once thought city to be impregnable, Cyrus the Great and his ally Darius the Mede were fighting against the king. We can at times be so distracted by our might that we do not pay attention to the world around us. Or we don't care that the world is falling apart outside because our great might has made us callus to the pain around us. 
In Daniel 5:2 we read that when Belshazzar tasted the wine he commanded that the vessels of gold be brought into the feast so they could drink the wine from the plunder, so to speak. It is hard to imagine that someone could be this brazen while destruction is going on outside the walls but isn't that the way the world works today? It could also be unimaginable that the world could find pleasure in profiting from the fall of the financial markets in the 2008 stock market crash, but we know that this has happened. 
In Daniel 5:5 we can then read that an unknown hand, which was obviously considered to be a miracle at the time, writes on the wall of the palace. King Belshazzar then sends out orders for all who can help him understand what has just happened. Of course this is immediately after his knees knock together with fear.
God can often make gestures of change in our lives as He did in this occurrence, but then there was Daniel, a good man who was able to interpret the image. Who is our Daniel today? Has God sent a Daniel to interpret the writing on the wall or has He left us to destroy each other with our greed for gold and wine? When is there ever enough money? when do we begin to give back a little of what has been given to us? I think it begins with the thought that we did this for ourselves and therefore we deserve all that we get. That statement might come back to haunt you much like the writing on the wall. Perhaps some day soon we will all get what we deserve.
I want to end this story with this final comment, Daniel does interpret the message on the wall to King Belshazzar but it is what he says to him before his interpretation that I feel is important for all of us to hear and that is, "Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another." Daniel is very wise because in his answer he tells the king how to change his life so as to find true peace. We should pay attention to this message because if we treat the world as a place of tranquility and peace, to do for one another as we can with what we have, we shall find a sort of heaven on Earth. Daniel basically says I don't want your gifts, I don't do this for you but for my true King. 
One of my favorite songs of all time was by Casting Crowns and it was a song named after that group. In that song the idea of casting our crowns at the feet of Jesus pays homage to the king. Belshazzar called for such things as gold crowns from a previous time a time that he did not have a thing to do with but an inheritance from years past. We accept such riches as our own and we wear them with honor but we dishonor our past by not giving to support people with less than ourselves. We, if we bow to our true master and king, can be given a crown which we can choose to wear or lay at the feet of one more worthy to wear a crown. Most everyone who is worthy to wear a crown knows that he is not worthy.