Deep Well Discipleship

I once heard it said that worry was nothing more than making a down payment on something that you will never own.  Since I was a kid I was making those down payments.  Throughout my childhood and into adulthood I worried about this, that, and everything in between.  I was, have been, and must say that I am a recovering worrier.  In the last year God has taught, and continues to teach me to stop the worry.  I have learned through the battle of cancer that truly I have no control and all the worry in the world won't change the fact that as I go through scans and tests, God is ultimately in the know and in control.  Our worry, strife, and anxiety accomplishes nothing except to make us feel sick.  Let me share what God has been teaching me in the last year. Philippians 4:6 Paul writes "Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God."  Paul tells the church in Phili...

PRESS ON Confession time, and this ones pretty obvious, my writing is sporadic at best.  I started blogging about my cancer last fall and when I started chemo I didn't feel like writing about it much less thinking about it.  I can honestly say that chemo is not only the most horrific thing I have experienced but it is the assuredly, at least at this time, the worst.  Throughout the process of treatment and feeling sick I found myself angry many times.  I cried out to God "Why me"?  I asked God why His intent was to kill me.  I was hurt, devastated, and lonely but God heard my cries and simply said "Why not you?"  I was shocked and stunned at this thought but I soon found my way into Philippians 4:11-14, that infamously misused passage of scripture.  It was there God spoke deeply into my pain and reminded me of His glory. Paul writes "...for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I know how to be brought low, and I...

Hospitals, mis-diagnoses, and the yo-yo effect On Tuesday April 22nd I found myself in the ER at Covenant Hospital in Lubbock Texas.  I was turning highlighter yellow and I felt less than chipper.  By midnight I was in my room on IV fluids only and already starting to do what I do best... worry!  Everybody has to be good at something and I do very well when it comes to overthinking things and worrying about what might be.  The GI doc on call came in to visit late that night and discussed the different tests they would perform the next day and what was going to occur.  I was still under the impression it was just my gall bladder...  Boy, what did I know.  I wasn't even worried about the right things. The next day a procedure known as an ERCP was performed to see what was going on with my gall bladder.  That was followed up with an MRI.  Let me pause here to say this.  I am slightly claustrophobic and I sinned when they took me to thi...

MAN UP Part 3 of 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 Why are there so few men left in the world?  As a culture the growth from boyhood to manhood has taken a detour through the maze of adolescence; adolescence (as a word or descriptive phrase) was not even heard of or used in the development of children until the twentieth century and at that time was used to describe a child between the ages of 13 and 19, presumably the age of one in high school.  Today, in stark contrast, some argue adolescence starts at the age of 10 and may not stop until the age of 24 or older.  Even more shocking is that today more women are in colleges then men and boys are staying longer and longer in an adolescent state and fewer men are emerging.  Perhaps today more than ever Christian young men need to be reminded to act like men, not boys, and certainly not adolescents, but men. Paul called out the men in church of Corinth and said ACT LIKE MEN.  The understanding of the word ...

STAND FIRM We began a study on 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 yesterday with the first part of the verse in focus, “be watchful”.  Today we move on to the next 5 words of the text, which are “stand firm in the faith.”  What does it mean to stand firm?  When I served in the military stand firm meant holding your ground against enemy attack.  When you were standing firm in the face of danger.  The text here is very much the same.  The greek word steko ( steko) literally means to stand firm in faith, to be constant, to persevere, to remain steadfast, to continue in a state, to be persistent . Paul gives a good antithesis to standing firm in 1 Corinthians 6:18 when he tells the church in Corinth to “Flee immorality” to literally continue to fun from it, and keep running from it.  As much as the word flee means to run as hard and fast as we can away from something steko, stand firm, means to be immovable.  Within the text of 1 Corinthians 16 Pau...

BE WATCHFUL I believe that Christ gives us tangible means through His word in which we are to walk in Him.  Over the next 5 days I am going to try and unravel 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 because I do believe it is a powerful verse in the life of the believer.  It is one that gives us direction, instruction, and truly sets a course for our lives.  It is practical theology that we can grab ahold of.  It is applicable to our lives on daily basis.  It is tangible and livable. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14."Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.  Let all that you do be done in love."  As Christians, especially Christian men, we are to: Be Watchful Stand Firm In The Faith Act Like Men Be Strong  Let All You Do Be Done In Love Lets look closely at this verse and start with the beginning – Paul tells the church in Corinth to “Be watchful”.  What does that mean? L...

As a child the most dreaded phrase I could hear was "What are you eating?  You know, you are what you eat."  My biggest fear is that I would one day look like a pepsi and hershey bar.  As genetics would have it I could easily eat like this and not gain a pound, all the way through from elementary through the military.  It wasn't until college, post military, that this saying started to truly take form in my life, more importantly in my waistline.  Last summer I was diagnosed with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, a virus had attacked my heart and for the first time I truly began to understand "You are what you eat" and if I didn't change my habits wrong eating would be life ending, sooner rather than later.  (Needless to say moving from Missouri to Texas took a toll on these changes but we are back on track as of today!)  So in the end the food I eat will play a part in the life that I live here.  Guess those folks who told me that as a kid weren't so ...

WOULD ANYONE CARE? I have been reading through Darrin Patrick and Matt Carters book "For the City".  It has been challenging and convicting to me as a pastor and leader.  The question that has weighed on me most heavily as I have read this is, "If FBC Seminole shut it's doors, would anyone in Seminole know we were gone and would they even care?"  This question was posed in chapter one by Matt Carter in regards to his own church in Austin Texas.  Stop for a minute and ask yourself this question.  Would anyone care if your church shut their doors for good, would they even notice?  The answer is haunting and sad because for many of our churches the answer is that they wouldn't. Why is this happening?  For many churches their concern is not the community around them and reaching them with the gospel but instead it is focused on programs, finances, and numbers.  Nothing, by the way, is inherently wrong with these things but instead of these...

Matthew 4:19 And he [Christ] said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." (ESV) I remember hearing this call in my life.  I was 9 and sitting in the front room of my parents home in Shelbina, MO.  The youth pastor, Denny Daum, sat in the mustard colored swivel rocker and I on the footstool.  I don't remember if it was spring or fall.  I can't recall if it was sunny or cloudy.  I can't remember if anyone else was present.  But I remember in the moment of that conversation when I heard the call, the voice that pierces to the very core of who we are, the deep awakening of the dead man (or boy at the time) to come to life.  In that moment of our conversation I realized I needed to repent and follow Christ Jesus.  That walk ever since has been one of intrigue, difficulty, indelible grace, joy, peace, sorrow, grief, trial, tribulation, miracles, hope, and more than I would have ever imagined in my finite mind. When Christ call...