Tag Archives: Mark

You’re busy, but is it what God wants from you?

Posted on April 4, 2016 by | Comments Off on You’re busy, but is it what God wants from you?

you're busyYou’re busy in your church; believe me, I understand that. You’re already teaching a Sunday school class, you’re actively participating in the various activities and services of the church. When your pastor or someone else comes to you and asks you to do just one more thing, you jump on it. You have a hard time saying no to the requests because you know that you do have the abilities and skills needed to get those things done. I know what this feels like because this describes me just one year ago. This past Sunday, I was asked to share my salvation testimony as a part of the Sunday morning worship service of the church that I attend. As I shared my testimony, the Holy Spirit laid on my heart to share the concept that a person could be extremely busy in the various ministries of the church and not be fulfilling the ministry that the Lord has placed in front of them.

You’re busy: why I buried myself in the work of the church

I have never been comfortable talking about the work that I do. One of the things that I dislike about college/university teaching is the bi-annual updating of my educational resume. I simply don’t like a lot of fuss made for what I do; I never have and probably never will. Not only do I believe this is scriptural [Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips (Proverbs 27:2); But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth (2 Corinthians 10:17-18)] , it is also a part of the environment I grew up in that I will undoubtedly carry throughout the rest of my life. In no way am I sharing this to brag upon myself but to share how busy I was within the church.

When I was attending Gospel Light Baptist Church, I had become a church trustee, a Sunday School teacher, song/worship leader, worked the church’s audio-visuals with help of family and others, videotaped the sermons, edited and posted them online, and took care of all the church’s printing needs. At one point, I even offered a basic Christian discipleship class for young-in-the-faith Christians. The entire time I was doing these things, I knew it wasn’t the calling that the Lord laid upon my heart. I justified my not surrendering to the Lord’s will by believing that since I was doing all these things for the church then He would just understand. I even tried to wrap up what I was doing with the ministry the Lord had laid on my heart by telling my pastor and others that I wanted to expand the printing ministry to be able to serve small and struggling congregations. Yes, while the Lord has called me to serve small and struggling congregations, it was not the exact way or method that He had laid on my heart

In my mind, I had very good reasons why I was busying myself in the various ministries and support of the church and not being completely surrendered to the Lord’s plan for my life. There’s comfort in what we know; the exact ministry that the Lord had been working on my heart on for the past three years is full of uncertainty to the point that my family and I would have to completely rely on the Lord. Within the gospel of Mark, there is a story of a man, a father, who comes to Jesus about the condition of his son. The father, as any parent would do, asks Jesus for a miracle. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief (Mark 9:23-24). For most of us, we will come to a moment in our lives where we know the Lord is capable of a miracle, of taking care of our needs, but we still need to see something before we will let go of our doubts, fears, and worry. I was comfortable were I was at; and in my form of justification, there was no reason that I could not stay there and serve struggling congregations through a printing ministry. 

One of the other reasons were there were things in my past I felt made it nearly impossible to overcome. Even though I have read the verse a hundred times at least, it never really sank in: For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (Romans 11:29). It is easy to stay in a place of comfort regardless of how busy you have become when you feel that there is something in your past that you believe simply cannot be overcome, that serves as a barrier, or that holds you back from doing what the Lord has called you to do. It becomes easy to see the Goliath and rather than confronting him as the shepherd boy did, to stand back with the armies of Israel, trembling and terrified with every taunt the giant throws out. It took the Lord three separate people to remind me that if He has led me to a certain ministry, then He has prepared the way for me to do it, as long as I put my complete trust and faith, as David did, in the Lord. David knew he had already been promised by the Lord to be the king of Israel. He also knew that with the promise of being king some day, the Lord would protect him from the wrath and anger of any giant that stood in the way, as long as he would keep faith in the promises of the Lord.

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The lost generation: a spiritual disaster

Posted on March 11, 2016 by | Comments Off on The lost generation: a spiritual disaster

college studentsThe lost generation is not a myth. I have heard many talk about this developing phenomenon for years but it truly became real to me in February. As many of you know, I teach history at a local community college in rural Kentucky. While I do not openly discuss my faith in Jesus Christ in class, when a student comes to me during my office hours or will contact me outside the classroom and asks, I will boldly and with great excitement, share my faith in Jesus as the opportunity provides itself. The apostle Peter reminded the early Christians, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear (1 Peter 3:15) and it is still good for us today to be ready to share the gospel of Jesus when the moment makes itself available.

The lost generation begs to be heard…

This semester has been incredibly challenging to me for several reasons – and it hasn’t even reached mid-terms! Like most semesters, I have had to deal with the average problems most college instructors would tell you about: lack of fundamental writing skills, a diminished work ethic (doing just enough to get by), poor attendance, and so on. That’s not where the challenge has been; the challenge has tried to balance the role of college instructor AND counselor to a group of young people who are having an incredibly difficult time in various aspects of life. Earlier this semester and after a lecture on the emerging role of the black church after the Civil War, a young female student came up to ask questions. At first, the questions were about the lecture materials and what books I could recommend her read about the development of the black church but soon developed into more personal questions about the generalities of Christian faith, human psychology of religion, and my own personal faith. 

In our conversation she said something that shook me to my core: “I’m 23 years old, grew up here in Henderson and past by a dozen or so churches every day. I’ve never been to church…” Immediately my mind went to a verse in Deuteronomy: And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up (Deuteronomy 11:19). Now I understand that as Christians, we are under grace and not the Law, there is still great wisdom in following the precepts of the Law and in this case, to use every moment to teach our children – the younger generation – about the goodness of God. This young woman was asking questions that she needed answered. She needed to be heard.

It wasn’t that I was offering her any advice that any other Christian couldn’t. It was that I was taking the time to engage in conversation with her, on a personal level, and took the time to understand what she was asking and trying to say. We live in a fast-paced world where we are bombarded with electronic communication, we get our news from 30 second sound bites, and our dinners take only a fraction of the time to prepare than did the meals our grandparents and parents shared just a few decades ago. Everywhere you turn, you see someone talking on a cell phone, posting to Facebook and Twitter. Yet it is the younger generation that in spite of all these means of communication, has become the lost generation. They are unsure how to ask questions in a personal dialogue in front of another person; they search for answers on the Internet but realize that even if they are reading truth, something is still missing from it. They are seeking answers, are asking questions, but too many Christians have also become wrapped up in the Internet world and are helpless to respond to the questions.

The lost generation is looking for answers…

A while back I heard an older person at Wal-Mart make the comment that the younger generation are ungrounded in reality and have no understanding of what life really is about. The conversation then turned into a discussion about sexuality, entertainment, work ethics, and ended with an indictment against the new emerging (and fleshly) focused culture. While I was in agreement with much of what this man and the cashier were discussing, I began to think of how the younger generation – this lost generation – is looking for answers to their questions. Jesus taught, For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened (Luke 11:10); it is important to remember that when people seek, not only does the Lord reveal himself, but Satan will reveal counterfeits to whatever the Lord offers. I cannot help but to wonder how many young people chose the counterfeit because it was easily available at hand, was appealing, and seemed to offer what they were seeking.

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Posted in Christian Doctrine, Our relationship with others, Personal Evangelism

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The parable of the sower: a different lesson

Posted on November 11, 2015 by | Comments Off on The parable of the sower: a different lesson

parable sowerWe’ve all heard sermons, Bible studies, devotionals, and Sunday school lessons that focus on the parable of the sower. This important teaching of Jesus is recorded in the gospel of Matthew: And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;  And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:  But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear (Matthew 13:3-9). Instead of focusing on the seed and its fate, the focus of this post will be on the sower.

With the way that Jesus presents this parable, there are several lessons we can learn about the sower even though the only true reference specifically about the sower is found in the first two verses of the passage: And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up (Matthew 13:3-4). These verses contain only a very basic description of the sower – all we know is that the sower is a man. It is not because Jesus didn’t think that women were not capable of sowing wheat, but that Jesus was using a common image – something that everyone who was hearing that day had at some time either had done themselves or had seen. But other than that, there is no more facts or observations given about the sower other than what was given here.

The object of the parable  – the sower – is…us!

This morning, as I did my personal Bible reading, something about this passage really jumped off the page. Think about what Jesus told the disciples before he ascended into Heaven: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen (Matthew 28:19-20). The gospel of Mark records the same event: And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned (Mark 16:15-16). Just as Jesus had commanded the disciples to spread the gospel, we, too are given the commission to spread the gospel. We are to become sowers of the gospel seed to the extent the parable He used presented the role of the sower. If we are truly objective about the information we are given about the sower, we understand he was out in the fields sowing with a purpose. Jesus gave us that purpose; Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him (John 14:23). We provide a demonstration of our willful obedience when we share the gospel message with others.

The parable: the sower was indiscriminate about the sowing

One of the many lessons about the sower in this passage is that the sower was indiscriminate – he did not make any judgment – about his sowing. He didn’t stop to determine the soil type but just kept sowing the seeds he had. If we stop and ponder this aspect of the parable, what Jesus is teaching is that we have an obligation to sow the seeds of the gospel message of Jesus without giving any consideration of the soil – the person to whom we are sharing the message of salvation. Too many times we allow ourselves to be moved by the flesh, by our own judgment. Although we may feel the Holy Spirit leading us to share the gospel with someone, often we won’t because we are trying to figure out the type of soil their heart is made of. I’ve done this; I am sure if you are honest with yourself, you’ve probably done this too. David was led by the Holy Spirit to write, Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart (Psalms 44:21) and also in the writings of Samuel: But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). God sees and judges by the heart because we base our judgment on appearance.

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