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

 

Family Strong

 

  Pastor Fred continued our current series by preaching out of Ephesians 2:11-22. One of the themes that the Apostle Paul uses in this letter is one of family. Throughout the letter, Paul references husbands, wives, children all multiple times. So how do the themes that Paul talks about two thousand years ago apply today and how do we apply them to our work family, friends who are like family, our biological family and even the family that we don’t like or talk too. 

  My first thought is that every family has a set of rules that are both spoken and unspoken. If you are to interact within the family, you are going to abide by these rules and when you don’t, it could lead to alienation. Within the extreme conservative Amish culture, when these rules that are set by either the family or the local Bishop are not met, people are shunned. It can be as extreme as the shunned not being able to sit at the family table or meals. They have to sit by themselves and often receive the cold shoulder to the point they are not a part of the family until something is either amended or made right. Healthy families have healthy rules to help people stay in healthy relationships and provide a way for restoration. So here is my question, are there rules that are either stated or implied that tend to either drive people away or alienate them because they are legalistic or not Biblical?

  My second thought is that as a church family we are all adopted. What this means is not only are we now all family and we should act like it, but we were also bought with a great price. Christ great sacrifice is what allows us to be family and that makes none of us are second class citizens in Gods family. My niece and nephew are adopted and I don’t see them as second class citizens, but as family that is apart of me and I in them. When you are adopted, you receive all the benefits and responsibilities of being apart of that family. When we become adopted by God through Jesus, we get the benefit of the Holy Spirit, our sins forgiven and the promise of heaven. 

  My third thought is turning strangers into friends. It goes back to that thing of being responsible. It is more than just telling people about Jesus, but it is loving them like Jesus. As a church, we are blessed to have three different services and most of us go to a particular one on a consistent basis and when we adventure to another service, we see different people we don’t know and each service has its own vibe. For me, I attend the Saturday night service, but this week I attended the 8:30 service and I didn’t know a lot of people. Turning strangers into friends takes some risk on everyone’s part and putting ourselves out there. 

  Another part of turning strangers into friends is called hospitality. We all know that one person who can connect with just about anyone and makes them comfortable. Hospitality is more than this and inviting people over for meals. True hospitality is being intentional at relationships, and finding ways to not only bringing people together but fostering a deeper relationships no matter the team they root for, people they vote for or their view on church and religion. There has been a movement called Dinner Church and its whole design is to bring people together from different backgrounds for a meal and to discuss that weeks message. I do something similar. I meet with two guys on Saturday morning for breakfast and to talk. Now  we do share a lot of laughs, but we are there to encourage each other and we have had some serious discussions. We don’t agree on everything but we are still there to encourage and to pray for each other. I want that for everyone

My final observation is about that dirty little word called submission, and no I am not using it in a Mixed Martial Arts reference or for men to control woman. In Ephesians 5, Paul tells us that we are supposed to submit to each other. To be honest, we can’t submit to each other, unless we are submitting to God first. Submitting to each other doesn’t mean we are on some power trip trying to be controlling, but it means we want what’s the best for each other in the light of Gods grace. This means that we do things that promotes being family strong, both in our individual families and our church family. This also means we do our chores. Just as we do our dishes or laundry at home, there are chores in the church that we need to do. Everything from changing diapers in the nursery to shoveling to for someone who can’t. Submitting means takes a lot of humility because it often takes us to places we don’t want to go, things we don’t want to do or gifts we don’t want to develop. Humility doesn’t mean we think less of ourselves bout we think of ourselves less. It is finding our and others worth in Christ. Godly submission also doesn’t mean we don’t have a backbone, but how we use it. It is finding the right way to do and say things. So being family strong means that we realize that everyone is created in the image of God with unique giftings and how are we living up to that

Grace and Peace

 

Tom Boustead

Trust and Rest

 

  Pastor Haven preached this weekend and his passage was Psalm 23. One of the assumptions that we could make of this passage is that everything is going well for David, but it’s not completely true. This is a season where King Saul becomes jealous of David because he was next in line for the throne, and that he was not only winning battles, but he was also adored by the people. So Saul decided to take matters into his own hands and go after David to end him. This caused David to go on the run and he ended up in a cave scared, hungry, and alone. In the midst of this, David wrote this Psalm. 

  To help give Psalm 23 a little more context, go back and read Psalm 22. It’s a famous Psalm because Jesus quotes it when He was on the cross. Jesus was asking why He was forsaken. If you were a first century Jew and witnessed Jesus crucifixion, you would recognize that He was quoting Psalm 22. This Psalm probably is David reflecting on his time on the run from Saul. This what makes Psalm 23 more important because even though David was on the run, He still trusted in the goodness of God and relied on His protection and promises. So when we are on the run and even pooping in a cave, who are you trusting?

  My first observation is that with God being our Shepherd is that He provides everything we need. I remember growing up and every fall we get the Sears catalog that had all the cool toys and clothes for the Christmas season. I remember going through the massive advertisement and wishing that would get all the cool toys. Here is the thing, I don’t remember getting any of those cool toys. Now I did get Christmas gifts, but there is a difference of getting what I wanted and what I needed. My parents were wise enough to know the difference. This is the same with God, He provides everything we need. Also, how many things do we want or we think we need will be our downfall if we actually get it? According to the ESPN Documentary, after two years of retirement, 78% of NFL Players are either broke or under financial stress and five years after retirement, roughly 60% are bankrupt. Having everything isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. In the documentary, former NFL quarterback Bernie Kosar essentially said that when you are broke, no one recognizes you and that is a blessing because they are not hitting you up for money for “great opportunities.”

  My second observation is that we need to be intentional about finding rest.  As many people can attest to, life gets super busy. From working, to various family/friends obligations, and projects around the house means that someone or something is always demanding our attention or time. If we are not intentional about being restful, it won’t happen. Even if we claim that we will rest when the current project is wrapped up, it probably won’t happen because something will demand our attention. When this happens we need to develop healthy boundaries and learning when to put off till later or even saying no. There are times where we need to prioritize our time with God and our mental health because others likely won’t. also means that we do things that are restful.

 Being intentional means knowing the activities that drains us and another activities that restores our soul. For each person, this is different. For me it’s doing laundry, so when I need to rest and for my soul to be restored, I don’t do that. Instead, I grab my camera and head to a local trail or state park to take pictures. This allows me to connect with God and to be constructive. Or if I need a change of pace, I go catch a midweek matinee movie by myself and the theater is usually fairly quiet. If we are not intentional and create plans to rest and connect with God, we end up either becoming super busy and we end up crashing and burning or we accidentally spend hours scrolling on our favorite electronic device and we become mush. If we are not intentional, it won’t happen, no matter how much we want it because we do what we prioritize even if cost us dearly. So are we prioritizing time to rest and to commune with God?

  The biggest take away that I took is this concept of trust and who do we trust more. Do we trust God that his gifts and peace are perfect and what we need, or do we trust ourselves to go out and get what we need? Trusting God is the only way we will find peace and rest. Now there our things that we have to be responsible for and do, but it is trusting God to provide the things that only He can provide. I know there are some of us who have a hard time of creating healthy boundaries and saying no and sticking to it. The only way we can find true rest and peace is when we trust God completely. 

Grace and Peace 

Tom Boustead 

Living on a Prayer

    Pastor Fred continued the current  series by preaching from Ephesians 6:18-22 and the focus is prayer. Throughout his writings the Apostle Paul references prayer or prays for believers multiple times. Prayer is so important that it is one of our core beliefs here at Journey. So here is my question, how is your prayer life? Is it something we only do when our backs are against the wall or something big is coming up, or when we remember or feel like it?

 My first observation on prayer comes from my favorite C.S. Lewis quote of “ I pray not to change God, but I pray so that He changes me.” So here is my question on prayer, what is our intention when we pray. Is it something that we can get what we want or to make God more like us? If that is the case, either God isn’t all who He says He is, or that our egos are pretty inflated and we think we are better than what we really are. In the Lords Prayer, there is the famous line of “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” It is saying that Gods plan and glory comes before ours and the only way this happens is if God changes us. 

 My second observation is that prayer is a form of communication. Just a thought, if you don’t communicate with a spouse or a loved one, how is that relationship going? My guess is that it isn’t and there could be a lot of hurt and miss managed expectations that comes from this.  The same is with God, how can we know what He wants when we don’t talk. One of the foundations of ant relationship is communication and it is true with God. As we see throughout Scripture, there are many forms of prayer, whether it is a prayer of praise, lamenting, asking God to provide, questioning, to even a prayer of yelling at God because we are mad. Different seasons require different prayers, and my challenge is are we doing them on a consistent basis and for moe than thirty seconds. 

 My third observation is that God commands us to pray for our enemies. If we spend any time watching or reading the news or our social media pages, we realize that we have an easy time distrusting people and creating enemies, especially those who are in power. This is my guess, we would rather crucify them rather than praying for Gods grace for them and that they might walk with Jesus. Even something more radical, how about we pray that God will bless them. Here is the thing, when we pray for our enemies, we might realize that we play a bigger problem in the situation and we are the ones who need to seek forgiveness. In essence prayer is the great equalizer. 

  My final observation is this, when we pray, are we spending time listening? Prayer is more than giving God a laundry list of things to take care of. In all reality, God isn’t a Genie whose sole purpose is to answer our wishes. Any part of good communication is the art of listening not to respond but to understand. I have a running joke with my mom that we don’t tell each other things. Most of the time the problem is that the information does get shared but someone isn’t listening. As the band MercyMe points out in their song, Word of God Speak that sometimes in prayer we are a at a loss for words and that is ok. 

Grace and Peace

Tom Boustead