Embracing the Mundane

  Pastor Haven continued are series of What’s Next Series by diving into Acts 18. A little context is that Paul was preaching in the city of Corinth and the general tone of the city is that what happens in Corinth stays in Corinth. Any and every form of sin was encouraged in this city. To top it off, the people of Corinth had nothing to do with Paul and Paul was feeling frustrated. So ail went to the other side of the town  and went into the synagogue and one of the synagogue leaders took Paul’s message to heart. Him and his family accepted Christ. If you want to read about the  dysfunction of not only the city and the church read Paul’s two letters to the church at Corinth. 

  My first observation is how often are we get so frustrated with God and people that we want to take our ball and go home. Jesus.  Paul wad ima similar situation. He was out preaching, the people opposed him and even got abusive. Paul got up, wiped the dust off of his clothes and told the people that their blood was on their heads for not listening and repenting from their ways. I can only imagine Paul said this forcefully and he was mad. God showed up in a dream to Paul and told him to get comfortable and that He will give Paul the words to speak. If I was Paul, I would have considered pulling a Jonah and leaving, but Paul didn’t. He ended up staying 18 months in Corinth, which was out of the norm for Paul. His missionary journeys, he just stayed a short time in the different cities. So here is my question, what do we do when it gets tough and God shows up to tell us to stay because He has work to do? Do we run, or do we stay and complain, or do we embrace what God has for us?

  My second observation is how often do we want the glory without the work. We want the Olympic gold medal, yet we don’t get up at 5AM to train hard and eat well. To paraphrase Pastor Haven, we all want the glory and success, we just don’t want to put in nor do we do the work. During my time in college I often seen a basketball player or two shooting jump shots when they had a break in between classes and before practice. They weren’t doing it for show, but they wanted to improve, so they put in the extra work. Paul did this in Corinth. It wasn’t an easy place to plant the church in Corinth, but he put in the work so that others may hear the Gospel. He was dedicated enough to where one of Brothers in Christ was beaten badly for doing good and hard work. So what is preventing you from being obedient and putting in the hard work?

  My third observation is what is our mundane? We often look for things that gives us that high. I like to call this the church camp experience. How many of us went to camp and we God reveals Himself in a special way and we are flying high. When we get home and back into the day to day, we often come down that mountain and we long for that experience again. As cool as the mountain top experiences are, they are not sustainable. We need to put into practice what God showed us, and that means coming down off of the mountain.  Also, most of the time the work isnt beautiful and it is hard work not many people see or appreciate. The work still needs to be done. If we want to be given the big stage, or the big job promotion, we need to do the mundane things well, even when no one is looking. This is called obedience and how can we be faithful in the big things if we can’t do it with the mundane. 

  To close out, one of the most popular and misinterpreted Bible verses is Jeremiah 29:11 which is God telling the nation of Israel that He knows the plans for us and we will prosper and be protected. What people forget to mention is that in the first verses, God is telling Israel to get comfortable. They are in captivity and are going to be for seventy years. God tells them to build homes, plant gardens and to marry off their children and to have grand children. The adults in this passage won’t see Gods promise of returning home. Are we comfortable with doing the mundane even if we don’t see the promise come to completion? It is about know our role and being obedient to Gods calling, even if it is changing diapers or garbages instead of leading worship or a small group. Embracing the mundane is a great way to to keep our ego and attitudes in check and maybe helping to put the right people in place for the big event and accolades. It is also our form of worship and remind ourselves that often we are not all that and that the bag of chips is empty if there is even one.

Grace and Peace

Tom Boustead

Mars Hill and No Not That One

   Pastor Fred continued the What’s Next Series by preaching out of Acts 17:16-31. In all reality, the whole chapter is good with truth packed in the whole chapter. Here is a brief Bible Study tool. If you want to have a better understanding of Pastor Fred’s preaching passage or for any preaching passage that you hear is to read and meditate on the chapter previous to the preaching passage and the chapter that follows. This is where we get an understanding of the passage and the Bible as a whole. When we do this, not only do do we have a better understanding of God and who He wants us to be, but also, we can discern what we are hearing and to figure out what is good and holy and what is garbage. Also it allows us to vote more Biblically this week when we go to the voting polls. 

  My first observation is that we often want someone else to lead a loved one to Christ and yet we are still in their lives. Sometimes we should stop passing the buck and God has appointed us to be that person. In essence, God has placed us in other people’s lives and them in our lives for a particular reason. Maybe how we share the Gospel and our life experiences is a way to reach other people because how we live and say things resonates with particular people in a particular way. God has given us each one of us particular gifts and talents to not only glorify Him but to worship Him in a way that reaches particular people. 

My second observation is where Paul was at in Athens was called Mars Hill and no Mark Driscoll and Rob Bell weren’t there. Mars Hill was a place where people were more concerned about sharing ideas than doing them. They would rather grab their favorite beverage and talk about the events ant thoughts of the day rather than taking those ideas and putting them into practice. Here is a hard truth, we don’t know something until we have to either teach it or do it. There were more idols in Athens than people and people were bowing down to these idols. There was even an idol to the unknown god in hopes that they have all the deities covered. Something welled up in Paul to go and do something about it. He went out preaching and sharing the Gospel. What are those things that keep coming to mind and that we can’t shake. Even if other people keep telling us that we are crazy, we still keep coming back to this idea. Often these ideas and passions come out of nowhere. The reason why Paul was in Athens was because things got heated up inBerea and Paul went to Athens to let things cool down. Instead he picked up right where he left off. So what are those things that we can’t shake and what are we going to do about it?

  My third observation is that we often are seeking God and trying to find Him. We just do it in weird and often destructive ways. We often try and for God in creation and we elevate the created over the creator. In essence we turn the things into idols and we at least place them on par with God. Whether it is power, fame, having a good family or any other thing we think is cool. Jeremiah 29:13-14  tells us that when we seek God with all we have, He can and will be found. So are we like the people of Athens who try to find any god to give it their worship. God tells is us that we don’t have to keep guessing on who or where God is, because He can be found, we just have to look for Him. 

  My third observation is that God doesn’t get hung up on our failures. He probably shakes His head and hits His forehead because of the things we do and say. It’s like when we are trying to teach our parents how to use new technology, we still do it, but we often shake our heads at least one during the experience. Here is the cool thing though, nothing surprises God and He still uses us despite of our failures and their are times God can take our failures and turn them into something beautiful. The most amazing thing is that He still loves us and cases after he, the question is, are we chasing back?

Grace and Peace

Tom Boustead

Just A Bit Outside

   Pastor Fred continued the What’s Next Series by preaching from Acts 16:14-40. One of the very random facts that was shared was that the Romans did something to camel dung and used it as medication to treat epilepsy. I’m glad we have advanced in our medicine and how we treat ailments. Here are my observations. 

  My first observation is that this passage was about conversion. Whether it was Lydia, the  person who was demon possessed and the jailer all had their lives changed when they accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. What makes it so interesting is that Paul and Silas were being obedient to the Holy Spirit. Often when we are obedient to the Holy Spirit, we are often led long distances and face uncomfortable situations. Whether it was the encounter with the demon possessed woman to being jailed and beaten for their faith. One of the things that I noticed in life is that’d when we are obedient, we have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. This is when we have the greatest impact for the kingdom because we have to rely on God and not our own talents. So what is preventing you from being uncomfortable?

  My second observation is that things may happen to us, but it may not be for us. In essence, the world doesn’t revolve around us. As often we want to be Gods favorite child and we want everything to be roses. It often doesn’t work that way. God still loves us but He often allows us to experience hard things so at some point in life we can come along side someone so we can give them encouragement and a path to move forward. Now every situation is not the same, but there truths in those situations that is applicable to every situation. God has created us to be in community and one of those ways we live in community is by bearing each others burdens and sharing with others what we have learned. Also, it’s nice to know that someone else has been through something similar to what we are going through. When we share those experiences and Gods truth, it shows that there is hope and that we can get to the other side. 

  My final observation is that God often brings annoying people into our lives for a reason. Here is a cold hard truth, those annoying people often show us where we need to grow. I had a boss in college and he would intentionally push my buttons from time to time and it was usually to make a point and he used it as correction. Another hard truth is that we often aren’t that pleasant and we annoy others and often quite well. Sometimes it isn’t intentional that we rub people the wrong way, and it’s often due to our personality quarks that we have. Other times we are very intentional about being annoying and even snarky. I know I enjoy pushing buttons just to watch people burn from time to time. So here is my question, how deal with people who annoy us and get under our skin in a Godly manner? Also, how do we deal with our personality traits that annoy others outside of telling them to get over it?

To close out the blog,  here is a quote from the legendary Detroit Tigers radio play by play guy Ernie Harwell (baseball on the radio is the best way to consume baseball) when a player struck out looking. Harwell often exclaimed “And the batter stood there like a house by the side of the road and watched the ball go by.”  My final question is how often do we let life go by without attempting a swing? Sure life can be hard and it can even stink at times, but throwing our hands up in the air and giving up isn’t how God designed us to live.

Grave and Peace

Tom Boustead 

What is Gods Plan?

   Pastor Fred continued our series of What’s Next by asking the all important question is “what is Gods plan for my life?”  How often have we asked this question, whether it is a high school senior wondering what college and or degree they should take up. Or how about should we take or pass on a job or a promotion opportunity. The preaching passage is Acts 16:6-15 and the cool part of this passage is Gods change of plans for Paul and his obedience, the church of Phillipi was planted and this is where we get the book of Phillipians. Here are some of my observations. 

  The first one is we are in Gods will as long as we are doing Godly things. In essence how often do we over complicate things because God didn’t sent us a text or a social media message to what to make for dinner. Or we shut down and do nothing because we didn’t get clear instructions of what to do. God gave us a brain and he expects us to use it. God has revealed Himself to us and are we acting on what God has revealed to us? God often doesn’t tell us what is next when we are not doing what we know we are suppose to be doing. 

  In essence, we need to get off of our backside and do something. The American Civil War could have been shorter if the Union Generals got off of their hands and attacked instead of holding back and doing nothing out of either fear or a lack of motivation. God specializes in the messy. It is a whole lot easier to clean up messed when we are teachable and willing to do something rather be apathetic and stuck in their ways. There was a time at work where I didn’t properly label and bin some stuff. My supervisor was thankful that I took some initiative and then taught me how to do it right. This is how God is with us. He is looking for someone not with all the answers but who is willing to learn and grow. There are something’s that we can’t learn until we get up and do. Yes, this takes risk, but that is what faith is about. 

  My second observation is that when we are asking for direction from God, it is important to spend time in prayer and listening to God, but also connecting with mature Godly people to come along side is to process what we are doing and what God is telling us. God designed us to be in community and to push each other to grow. Are we seeking out relationships that we can’t learn until be mentored by and mentor someone else. My dad god involved with a local youth group and has developed a cool relationship with one of the teens. They often go and do different things together and in that they have important conversations. So who are we being mentored by and who are we mentoring?

  My third observation is that God does set some things in motion and pre planned them. These things are such things as creation and salvation. In the midst of Gods sovereignty, He does give us free will to choose. I know that this is a whole sermon unto itself, but God does allow us to make choices to either serve and grow closer to Him or to walk away and do our own thing . God is big enough to know what decisions we are going to make and nothing surprises Him. God just doesn’t take over and forces us to or not to something. The big fancy word for God dictating our choices is determinism and if this were the case, it would make us robots and God a thug. 

So in closing, I will end with the question I started with and that is what is Gods plan for my life? Are there times where God shows up and gives us a plan for what’s next? Sure, but we have the choice to say no. The other side is, there are people and situations on a daily basis that need Gods grace and we can be the hands and feet of Jesus in those situations. I the Apostle Paul tells us that each one of us was created for a unique purpose. They’re are times when we think that purpose is to be the greatest athlete, musician or CEO, or whatever our dreams are. I am not down playing greatness, because we should do things to the best of our ability, but sometimes Gods plan is for us to be right where we are. God created us so uniquely that He designed us to reach a certain person or a group of people and the only way we can do that is by being active serving where we are at. I will close with this. God won’t give us the next thing if we don’t do the small things that we already know that we are suppose to be doing. 

Grace and Peace

Tom Boustead

Teen Challenge

   Teen Challenge came this weekend and they are always a treat to hear them sing and share their testimonies. For those of you do not know, Teen Challenge is a Christian inpatient treatment center for men who have had their lives ruined by addiction. For many of them, it is a last chance and they are there because they were appointed to be there by a judge and the court system. One of the cool things about coming to the Saturday night service here at Journey is that there is often a group of them who attend and the church service has a different feel to it and it is amazing. 

  One of the things that hit me tonight is that how many of these men had a dream to develop addictions to drug and alcohol and all the bad choices that come with those addictions. I can confidently say that none of these guys planned to develop these addictions and bad choices that come along from them. For some of them, life hit them hard with various tragedies and they needed a way to cope. Others were more gradual and one day they wake up in a jail cell wondering where things went wrong. I encourage all of us to take stock on a regular basis to see how things are going and when things get hairy, seek God and Godly people. 

  As Pastor Fred closed out the service he challenged us that we should be looking out for the people who are marginalized and who struggle with addictions and build relationships with them. We don’t do this as a look at me moment or to pat ourselves on the back, but it is to point them to Jesus. The congregation was issued a challenge last week and we were reminded of that challenge this week by Teen Challenge to go and be a Barnabas to people. It is reaching out and inviting people into a relationship with Jesus and walking with them in that journey. 

  I will close with these two things and the first one is the story of Jonah. As Jonah was in the boat running from God and the storm hit, he had the realization that the storm was his fault for running and God was trying to get his attention. Instead of repenting, he wanted to jump overboard, but his boat mates thought it was a horrible idea and tried to stop him. My takeaway is that are “heathens” more caring about the people who are the social outcast society than Christians who should believe that everyone has value and is made in the image of God. As Christians, we can be more exclusive than we should be. My final thought is this. When I lived in Oklahoma, I was befriended by a guy named Mike. He had many issues and he often pushed my buttons, but God kept telling me to pursue the relationship with healthy boundaries. Here is the thing, I don’t know whatever happened to Mike because I ended up moving to seminary and I didn’t see the changes in him that I wanted to see, but here is the kicker, God changed me. I developed a deeper relationship with Him and I grew because of it. Sometimes these relationships are ment so the other person can grow and mature, and other times we are the ones who needs the refinement. The best case scenario is where we both grow in the image and likeness of God. 

Grace and Peace,

Tom Boustead

Discipleship

   Pastor Ben preached this weekend from Acts 15:39-16:5. The two main questions are, are we doing it right and how are making disciples? This week, Paul is the main character of the story. Before we feel inferior to the Apostle Paul, we need to be reminded that he needed three years of discipleship before he went on his three missionary journeys. 

  My first thought is that we need to be willing to be discipled by Christians who are deeper and more mature than we are. If Paul was willing to be discipled, shouldn’t we? In essence, discipleship is putting in the hard work. Pastor Haven and I get coffee on Monday mornings and one of the themes that keep coming up is we often want the success of the Apostle Paul or any other people we deem successful, but we often don’t want to do the hard work. The reason why Michael Jordan is one of the greatest athletes of all time and has great fame is because he spent hours upon hours in the gym and weight room putting in the work. Discipleship is putting in that hard group and learning from someone who has gone before us. Just remember, we can’t lead until learn how to follow.  So is that person in your life that has poured into you, even when things are ugly?

  My second observation is that who is that one person we are pouring into? One of the things that I am learning, we often don’t pick the people we disciple, because if we did, we often wouldn’t pick the person who is the best fit or ready to grow. The people who we disciple often choose us and see something in us they want or need. Those people who do need us will often push our buttons, challenge us, and require us to grow in grace and maturity. This doesn’t mean that we have to have it all together, but it’s developing that mantra of follow me as I follow example of Christ. It is walking together pointing each other to Jesus. This means we celebrate, call each other out and even cry together. What makes discipleship different is that it is intentional. Are we intentional about living for life for Jesus and pointing others to Jesus. When we are meeting, are we intentional about talking and pointing to Jesus and being transformed by Him? So my two questions for us that are we willing to step out to find out our Timothy and are we willing to commit for the long haul?

  My third observation is how do we handle conflict? This is a blog on its own, but in life and ministry, there will be conflict. The Apostle Paul and John Mark even had conflict and it forced them to go their own directions. We don’t know exactly what the division between Paul and John Mark was, but the difference was big enough for them to go their separate ways. So here is my question for all of us, when is the divisions in our lives worthy to stick it out and deal with it and when is it wise to go our separate ways? Each situation is different and there are times when we need to realize that we are on the same team  and going our separate ways will be more beneficial for the Kingdom. If we keep reading, Paul and John Mark did reconcile. How it happened, I am not sure, but they probably both had a come to Jesus moment and dealt with their differences and reconciled. Are we willing to work out the conflict, or are we willing to stew over the situation and make it worse? 

 So to close out the blog, are we willing to do the hard work to grow and are we willing to invest in someone and invite them on the journey? Who is that person who has invested in you? For me I have two people that come to mind. The first one is Pastor Mark. He was the pastor of the church I grew up in and we had countless conversations and he often challenged me to be better. The second one was a boss I had in college. We had countless conversations and he was one of the few people I could openly disagree with and when I walked away I felt like I was heard and I often changed my way of thinking. So my final question is who are we going to disciple and are we going to take a risk and ask that person this week?

Grace and Peace 

Tom Boustead

Living sacrificially

   

  Pastor Fred continued the What’s Next Series by preaching out of Acts 14. There were quite a few nuggets that I picked up on and here are a few of them. The first one is that one of the underlying themes of the sermon is, What is Truth? This has been a long debated subject etc and one of the more famous examples is in the Gospel of John when Pontius Pilate asked that exact question to Jesus. The subject of truuth can be put two ways. There is Truth with a capital T that is absolute and no way we can get around it no matter how hard we try. It’s like gravity, eventually airplanes are going to land because they can’t fly forever, or when a person jumps up, they will come back down to the ground, no matter how much they want to fly. Then there is truth with a little T. This is like Duluth being 55 degrees and foggy while  people in Moose Lake or Barnum have it sunny and 75 degrees. Both are true and this form of truth is based on location and even experience, whereas Truth with a capital T is universal and applies to everyone and we can not avoid it. 

  My second nugget is that most of us struggle with contentment. Is we “need” or we really want something because it will make something better. So we get on our favorite app or website and have it shipped within two days in a lot of cases. Amazon makes over one billion deliveries a year and now imagine what the numbers are with places like Wal Mart doing the same thing.To put it another way, Americans has over 1.25 Trillion dollars in credit card debt alone. This does not include student loans, mortgages, medical bills or any other debt. Then we have to find places to keep the stuff that makes us content, we fill up garages, attics and even renting out storage units for all of our treasures that makes us content us happy. The sad thing is, we often forget about those things and move on to another project, or trip over them looking for something else. Just remember what Jesus said during the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. We shouldn’t find our contentment or treasure in things that collect dust, rust, break or magically disappear, but in things that are eternal. 

 My third nugget is how often do we get distracted. I know I am not the only person who sits down to check something on their phone and twenty minutes later I completely forgot what I was looking up. When I go hiking with two people, and when we are traveling to our destination, random thoughts pop into their head and they share them. It’s often not what we were talking about and the goal is to push my buttons. It’s worth it because there is often chocolate or ice cream involved. So here is my question, do we allow ourselves to get distracted because something is to hard or we don’t want to put on the big kid pants and not deal with it, and hope it goes away. It’s like not paying a speeding ticket and then a bench warrant comes in the mail from the county court and mom happens to pick up the mai when everyone is coming home from school. When we get distracted, bad things happen and it usually makes ir worse. 

My final nugget is discipleship and this is where we intentionally become more like Jesus. 18th century theologian John Wesley was a big advocate of discipleship. He created something called band and societies and they make the current view of small groups look like child’s play. There was a list of five questions that was asked of every person during these groups and that 5th question was “do you desire to keep anything secret?” How well do things go when we keep the important things from the significant people in our lives? Most of the time it doesn’t go well, and we are more likely to do it again with bigger things. Discipleship comes in where a person ask God and a few trusted people to not only keep them accountable but also to be an example and to carry each others burdens. Discipleship is point people to Jesus and encouraging them to take that next step. Also, there are even times for correction when something goes wrong. The biggest part of discipleship is that you can’t not expect others to what you are not willing to do yourself. 

  I will close with this, the main point of Pastor Fred’s sermon was that how are much are we willing to hive. With the pig and chicken wanting to start an all day breakfast joint, are we going to be like the chicken who gives a little each day for the cause in the form of eggs. Or are we going to be like the pig and give everything it had so there could be bacon and sausage. My guess is that most of us want to be the chicken, and give a little daily, but God is calling us to bid that pig and give till we are uncomfortable and then give a little more. We all have that one area where God is calling us to give more to the point where we are out of our comfort zone. Could it be tithing more, participating in a ministry of some kind to having a difficult conversation. I will close with this illustration. When I was in seminary, there were a number of people who fought God about going into full time ministry. Some of them had that fight for several years and even a decade in some cases, but eventually said yes. For some it was harder because not only were they a full time student, but they had a family to provide for. So our we going to keep fighting God or are we going to submit to God and give it our all.

Grace and Peace 

Tom Boustead