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

What’s Next?

 

  Pastor Fred started a new series called What’s Next and his preaching passage was Acts 13:1-12. The crux of the series is that we are going to be going over Paul’s three missionary journeys.  Not only does the Holy Spirit show up throughout the book of Acts but is the star of the entire book. Without the Holy Spirit leading and guiding, we either wouldn’t have a church or it would look completely different. So as we go through the book of Acts pay attention to how the Holy Spirit moves and works through people. 

  My favorite verse of the chapter is verse 10, which Paul asks the question of “will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?”  I can’t be the only person who gets snarky from time to time and take what someone has said to either get a rise out of them or to even manipulate them to get what we want. In essence, we do the same with God. How often do we try to manipulate or even pervert Gods law or Gods best for us. How often do we want to do things our way because we think it is easier, better or that  we want to put on a show for other people and have all the attention on us. In essence we are rebelling against God. We are essentially telling God off when we are doing thins and we become like that toddler in Wal Mart having a tantrum that the whole store can hear because they can’t get what we want. We never grow out of our tantrums, they just look different as we age. So what are the ways are we perverting or replacing Gods ways with ours?

  My first observation is that we shouldn’t oppose God because our ways are not Gods ways. How often do we go to God in prayer time and have all these great ideas for God to tell us no. Or how about paying attention to what is being taught and promoted in our schools and culture. As an Orthodox Christian, when  one opposes or have a different view on such things as pronouns, abortion or immigration, we get labeled a bigot and a whole host of other words that are not nice. Just remember, Jesus telling His disciples and us that if the world hated Him, it’s going to hate us too. 

  Another side to this coin is that we are seeking God and trying to follow His will, but God has a change of plans because He knows what is better and He created us for a particular purpose. In Acts 16, Paul is on his missionary journey and the Holy Spirit shows up in a dream and gives Paul a change of plans. The change of plans and the Holy Spirit led Paul and his traveling party  to go to Macedonia to preach the Gospel. Because of Paul’s obedience, people were saved and the church of Phillipi was started. This is where we get Paul’s letter to the Phillipians because it was to the Believers in Phillipi. 

  My second observation is that we should never let our past hinder our future. How often do we think that Gods grace can’t cover our sin or stupid choices we have made. Or thinking that God can’t use us because we aren’t that talented in our eyes and we don’t have any of those magical abilities or gifts. When we do this, we down play Gods grace and power. In essence, we are letting our past hinder what God can’t use us do in our lives. Now there are consequences for our actions, but God still can work through those consequences so that Has name will be made known and others can receive that same grace we can. Sometimes our lives can either be an example to others of what not to do, or having an understanding of what others are going through when they made the same bonehead choices. You can jump in the hole with them because you have been there and know the way out

    My final observation is do not neglect the Word of God. If our ways are not Gods ways, how do we find out what Gods ways are? It is by spending time in the Bible and being obedient to the Holy Spirit. This means we shouldn’t turn off our brains either. Some of the smartest people I know are deeply committed Christians who use their brains. Some of them have advanced degrees, and others Got their education from the school of hard knocks. One of the most prolific Christian writers, A.W. Tozer didn’t have much more than a high school education, but he spent time in Gods word and he used the brain that God gave him to impact the world. There was a popular phrase at one time of God said it, I believe it, and that settles it. It is a good phrase and all, but if we are turning off our brains and blindly following it, we a fall for anyone who is charismatic enough or a smooth talker. I’m essence most of these people are false teachers and don’t know God. So when we come to church or open our Bibles, to we use our brains either and reading that God gave us, or do we turn it completely off and focus on feelings?

  To close out, our church just celebrated a century worth of being Gods light in Cloquet. Do we sit on our accomplishments and hope we survive another century, or do we move forward and tap into the Holy Spirit for another century worth of being Gods light in a dark wold? 

Grace and Peace

Tom Boustead 

  

Contentment

 

 It was a wonderful weekend celebrating with friends and family the milestone of the church turning a century old this year. Having the church services outside this weekend was amazing. It reminded me of years past when different holiness groups held a thing called camp meetings, where people would gather underneath tents to hear preaching and to pray for a revival and an out pouring of the Holy Spirit.  Sunday morning, we had the pleasure of hearing Nathan Rasmussen provide the message and his preaching passage was from 1 Timothy 1:15. There were a couple things that caught my eye.

  The first one is that if any church or movement is going to start, it takes an act of faith. I will be honest, it can be easier to jump on a train that is moving rather than to get that train in motion. A big part of this is because faith often takes risk and when we take risk, we could fall flat on our face and fail. I don’t know anyone who likes to fail, but some of the life lessons that we remember the most is because we failed somehow. We only truly fail if we don’t learn anything or put what we learned into practice.

  The other aspect to risk and faith is that there is a good risk and there is also stupid risk. I can have all the faith that I can run a marathon, but my faith will ground me and not go run I that marathon tomorrow. Our faith should encourage us to continue to strive in what God has revealed to us already and who He has created us to be. God gave us a brain and the Holy Spirit and we need to implement them both. 

  My second observation that there is an element of contentment to our faith. There are two people we need to look at contentment. The first one is wisdom from the Apostle Paul and he proclaimed that he was contend when all of his needs were met and when he had nothing. Being content means that we trust in God to provide what we need when we need it. When we trust God, we trust Him for who He is and not so much what He provides us. Just a reminder Jesus didn’t die so that we can get a new vehicle or live comfortably. When we live comfortably, we don’t trust God as often as we should and we become complacent. 

  The second person we need to look at is King Solomon. He was one of the wisest people to ever live and he wrote three books of the Bible. He got to a point in his life where he had everything and he still wasn’t content. He ended up taking some wives and making alliances with people that he shouldn’t have and it got him in trouble. How often when we are not content with God, we go on rabbit trails and we get ourselves in trouble. We end up trying to find things to satisfy us and it doesn’t work. We end up depressed and eventually will claim that everything is meaningless. 

 

  I will close with this. In Africa, there has been a thirty percent increase of people who identify as Christian over the last decade and here in the West, there has been a fourteen percent decline of people who identify as a Christian during the same time period. So here is my question, in the West, especially here in America, we have the freedom to worship whatever deity we please along with going through a drive thru to get our six dollar coffee and a pastry to go to work or said worship service. In Africa, not only do they face persecution, but one could loose their life because of their faith in Jesus. Maybe we need to be content in who God is and not so much what He can do for us and our faith is us stepping out in response to who God is. Here are two things to ponder, do we only follow God or are Christians because of the benefits or are we Christians because God is God and He also is holy and just?  To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, God isn’t safe but He is good. So how many of us would rather serve a safe God rather that a good and perfect God?

Grace and Peace

Tom Boustead

Time

Pastor Fred continued the current series by preaching out of Ephesians 5:7-17. As Pastor Fred was reminding us that we are supposed to be a pleasing aroma to God, he listed off some of his favorite smells. As a farm kid, I realized that he missed the two greatest aromas of all time, which is either fresh cut/baled hay or fresh turned dirt, and I can’t decide which is my favorite. Maybe it’s because there was hard work involved and there is a sense of accomplishment involved. 

  I verse 7, Paul uses the word theorem, so we must ask the question, what’s it there for?what is he referring to? If go back in the chapter, Paul tells the church in Ephesians to not participate in idolatry along with not participating in foolish or course talk, and not being greedy. So if Paul were here today, he would tell us those things and that we should also be careful what we watch to what we post on social media and consuming when we are doom scrolling. Also being wise in what we listen to, the movies and shows we watch and even the jokes we share. More importantly, it’s how we talk to each other or about each other. How often are we willing to build people up instead of mocking them, or even bringing them down. Even worse, how often do we start rumors about each other and label it as prayer request, so that we can make ourselves look more holy. So what do we do?

 Most importantly, we need to redeem our time. How often to we pick up our phone to check something “important” and forty five minutes later we have accomplished nothing. I can’t be the only one who does this. Here is something that hurts to hear and that is time is not ours because it belongs to God and He gives it to us. The scary part is that He expects us to be good stewards of that time that he gives us. I challenge you to write down how you either spend a day or even a week and then review it. How much of it is God focused and how much of it is me focused? This doesn’t mean we should be spending all of our time at church or praying. We can pray as we do dishes or work on a project to the best of our God given ability. Redeeming Gods time means that someone will be mad because we tell them no because it’s not what God has for us at that time. 

 Another important concept is that we change our time to what is important. How often do we run ourselves out of gas because we are doing everything. There are seasons of our lives that are going to be busy, but is it God glorifying, or is our schedule running our lives to the point of exhaustion. Remember when we fail to plan, our plans fail. How about we check in with God for direction in the morning, but also throughout the day. Remember, if you don’t hear from God, keep doing what you know God has called you to do. 

  When we honor the time that God dives us, we are redeeming that time for something holy. We gave countless choices that come our way ranging from horrible, to good, to God honoring. The last time I checked, God wants us to do what’s best, because at times, doing what is good may look holy but in all reality it is the antithesis oh doing what is holy.

  I will close with these two things. The first one is that Glorify God in what we do and how we do it, we become that sweet aroma I mentioned earlier. Secondly, if we done steward our time well, we end up asking where am I at and how did I get here? This tends to lead to a boat load of questions and guilt for opportunities not taken. If you ever listened to the song Cats in the Craddle by Harry Chapin or the countless covers of the song, you know that song is about a father regrets for working all the time and not having a relationship with his son. The final verse is the father realizing that his son turned out just like him which led to immense guilt. So here is my question, do we steward are time well in what we say, watch and do so we have a clean conscience or do we mishandle it  and deal with guilt, and shame?

Grace and Peace,

Tom Boustead