Alienated

 

This week Pastor Ben preached on Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus and the witness of John the Baptist while in the womb (chapters 1-2). He also covered the main characters in the story. Mary/Joseph, Zachariah/Elizabeth and the shepherds. There are many things that are amazing with this story. Whether is is the Son of God who helped create all things taking on human form to a teen that was a virgin becoming pregnant with the Son of God. Here are some observations that I walked away with. 

  The first one is that God used a bunch of nobodies from the back woods to fulfill His promise of a Messiah. In essence, God took a bunch of outcast to display His glory and to shake the world. Here is the thing, we all want to do something great or to be famous. Whether it’s taking the game winning shot to finding a cure for a dangerous disease. There are even people who want to be YouTube famous and it is usually them either doing something stupid. All that being said, are we being responsible with what God has given us and the situation that He puts us in? If not, why is God going to give us more responsibility when we can’t handle what we are given. The major players in this story were faithful in what they did and worked diligently with the task and talents that God has given them. 

  The shepherds were outcast because of any number of reasons. To put it in modern terms, shepherds would be the people who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, a long criminal record and the only jobs they could get are either the dangerous ones, or the ones no one else wanted to do. So why did God open up the sky and have the angels proclaim the birth of Christ to a bunch of stinky shepherds that no one really cared about? Is because the religious people thought that the coming Messiah would come in to overthrow the Romans and set up the nation of Israel. Instead, God chose to reveal Himself and His plan to a bunch of shepherds because they would check out what they were told. Is our faith like the shepherds and we go out to seek what God has promised and then bow down in worship? Or is our faith like the religious leaders and write it off? When God reveals His promise to Zechariah, he doubted God.  So when God reveals His promise to us, does our faith becomes snark and we laugh at or questions the promise? God still came through with His promise and Zechariah was mute until John was born because of his unbelief 

  To wrap it up, we are all outcast because of our sin. Romans 3:23 that we are all sinners and an outcast. We are separated from God. The only way we can stop being an outcast is accepting Gods free grace and to repent of or sins and to follow God. It doesn’t matter what we have or who we know, because at the end it is how we respond to Gods grace.  I will close with mentioning my favorite Christmas song, Hark the Angels Sing by Charles Wesley. There are three lines in the song that I appreciate and they are

          Born that man no more may die;

           Born to raise the sons of earth,

            Born to give them second birth    

  

When this happens, this means we are valued, loved and no longer an outcast but a part of Gods family.  God loves us so much that He sent His own Son to die for us so that we can be born again and have new life. We become a part of Gods family. When the angels appeared, I often wondered if they were to sing a second verse, they were to sing the message of a new birth. Here are some questions to ponder:

   Are we willing to put in the work on the talents and situations that God has placed us in?

 What do we do when you feel alienated? 

  When presented with great news, do we go out and share it?

Grace and Peace

Tom Boustead 

Obedience

     

  This week Pastor Haven continued with the Advent story by preaching out of the first two chapters out of the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew gives us the account of Jesus birth and detailing Josephs family tree along with the visit from the Magi, King Herod’s response to Jesus birth and the trip to Egypt. Most importantly, Matthew was showing the unbelieving Jews that Jesus was actually the promised Messiah and not some crazed lunatic. Here are some of my observations from the passage. 

  My first observation is how many of us have actually seen King Herod in the nativity sets that come out this time of year. They have all the other important people except for King Herod. I mentioned this observation once to my mom and her response was that it’s because “he’s crazy.” I’m not going to argue that point, but I’m also guessing why he is missing from the nativity set is the we see a little to much of ourselves in him. Just as Herod lied to the Magi about wanting to meet Jesus, he saw Jesus as a threat to his personal safety and ego. What do we do when we feel threatened or our ego gets bruised? Do we go on the offensive and burn every relationship and good thing to the ground? Or do we run, hide and shut down? The lesson from Herod is that there can only be one king and we are lousy kings when we put ourselves on that pedestal. 

  My second observation is that the Pharisees were busy looking for the Messiah but they missed Him. How often do we keep looking for our misplaced car keys and they are often sitting in plain sight and we keep overlooking them. The Pharisees were that way with Jesus, because He was right there and they didn’t see Him. The Pharisees also had a different idea of what the Messiah was going to look like. They wanted someone to come in, overthrow the Romans and set up Gods kingdom here on earth. Instead, the Messiah came as a baby, grew up, spent three years doing ministry only to be crucified for our sins. With the resurrection, that means Jesus is coming back to not only make things right, but to make all things new

  My third observation is that God often shows up at the most inopportune times for us. Mary was an unmarried teen who was pregnant with the promised Messiah and it was God who got her pregnant. Also, going to Bethlehem eight months pregnant on a donkey is no trip. Joseph was going to be a dad to a kid that wasn’t his, which is never easy. He also plans for him and Marry and he was working on when all this happened. So here are two things to ponder. The first one is when God does show up and changes our plans, do we revolt and say no or do we learn to trust Him and walk in obedience to His will? The second observation is that Joseph had every right under Jewish law to at least divorce Mary, if not stone her publicly. So here is my question, if something is permissible by culture, should we do it?  Are we more concerned with doing what is right by Gods standards or by people standards? Joseph choose to do what was right instead of doing what is acceptable.  Are we willing to do the same as Joseph or do we look to take the easy way out?

Grace and Peace

Tom Boustead

God Became Man

 

  Pastor Fred started off the Advent Season and the birth of Christ in Isaiah 9. Seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, the promised Messiah, the Prophet Isaiah foretold of the coming Messiah and that all governments will be on His shoulders and that He would be given names like Almighty God, Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father and the greatness of His government will know no end. It will all also be filled with pace and justice and the coming Messiah will reign on David’s throne forever. 

  The season of Advent is really a time of waiting and expecting. Just as parents wait for the birth of their child, the nation of Israel was waiting on the promised Messiah. They were tired of being subjects to kings and foreign powers where they had no rights. Sure they were allowed to worship, but their worship often included rules that God never gave and they also may have had other religions of the day infiltrate their worship. At least they had to contend with people who thought, ate and worshiped differently than they did. It got to the point we’re different Jewish sects were formed to overthrow the current foreign regime so Gods Kingdom could be set up. In essence, Advent is about waiting for the coming of the Messiah in a fallen and broken world. In the twenty first century, we are not waiting for the messiah to be born, but to return as king. How are you preparing for the return of the promised Messiah who is coming to separate the wheat from the chaff? 

   According to John 1:14, Jesus became man and dwelt among us. What does that mean. The first one is that Jesus is all man and still all God. To my knowledge, there are no other world religions that have their gods take on human form while still maintaining their deity. Jesus came so He could not only provide the ultimate sacrifice, but to also reveal God the Father to us. Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus claims that He and the Father are one and if we have seen Jesus, we have seen the Father. I encourage you to read Philippians 2 this week and ponder what it means for Jesus being equal with God, put on flesh and to serve His creation. 

   The next aspect is that even though Jesus was all man, He still had authority and sovereignty. The demons recognized Jesus and He cast them out. He also healed the sick, raised the dead and calmed the storm. When I was in college, there were times that the professor stopped lecturing and they became a student like us. Whether it was the sharing of a personal story that related to the subject matter, or for a few minutes, treating the class as equals and discussing something important that was related to what they were teaching. I remember having a conversation with some fellow students and a professor in his office about Advent. I thought it was cool and meaningful and I remember the professor validating our conversation while giving us something to think about. We still treated him with the respect he deserved, but we also took the opportunity to have a more personal conversation with him even if what’s for a short timeI also had to realize the next time we were in class, he was the professor and had the authority. The same is with Jesus, even though He became man and dwelt among us, He is still God and we need to remember that

  The last aspect of Jesus we will cover is His divinity. If Jesus wasn’t perfect or divine, we still be lost in our sin and an eternal relationship with God is out of the question. His divinity is what gives Him the authority over death and is what made His sacrifice on the cross valid and applicable. Jesus being divine means that He was perfect and sinless, which this allowed Him to take our sin and punishment. If Jesus wasn’t divine, would He be any different than us?

  To wrap it up, here is my question we could ponder through all of the Advent Season. Who is Jesus and why does that matter to me? On of Jesus famous questions to His disciples was “who do you say that I am?” There are countless answers, but if it doesn’t come down to Lord of all and my personal Savior, we are in trouble. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis wrote once, Jesus is either Lord, Liar or Lunatic and we not only decide which one He is, but live it out and deal with the consequences 

 

Being Thankful

 

  With Thanksgiving this week, Pastor Fred preached on what it means to be thankful. It was a good word to hear, especially during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season with shopping, prepping and trying too coordinate time with family and friends. Here are some of my observations from the message.

  My first observation is that if we are to be continuously thankful, does it mean that we need a heart change? Another way to put it, how often do we need an attitude adjustment? It is way to easy to become a complainer, snarky or down right negative when things don’t go our way or we get stressed. Often the ones we love take the brunt of this and it often changes the dynamics of how they interact with us. Being snarky often creates more snark and could lead to hurt feelings. Sometimes being continuously thankful means we put ourselves in timeout, find out what our issues are and we deal with them. It even means seeking forgiveness when our bitterness has affected other people. 

  My second observation of being continuously thankful, we are to embrace Ephesians 5:18, which is that we are not to be drunk, but we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. For those of us who grew up or spent time in a Holiness Church, this verse would be used to be anti drinking of any alcohol. I think the verse is adding alcohol and any activity that takes us away from God. What are those things that is all consuming and takes our focus off of God. When we get that focused, we tend not to make Godly decisions and something else becomes our god. Being thankful is making sure that God is the center of our lives and that all good gifts are from Him and we use those gifts to worship Him and not ourselves. 

  My third observation is are we thankful in spite of our circumstances. We all know that one person who always seems to be getting suckered punch by life, but they still are praising God. I knew a guy that way in college. No matter what, Denny always had a smile on his face and trusted God. So here is a question that I have, do we trust God because of our circumstances or in spite of them? Is our faith big enough to trust God in every situation and realize that He sees the picture when we don’t. In essence being thankful is a daily choice and there are days where it is a lot harder than others to be thankful 

  My final observation is when we are not thankful. In Romans 1:18-32, the crux of Paul’s message is that He revealed Himself through creation and we choose not to be thankful. In response, God washed His hands and gave us over to our selfish desires and sin. In essence God is saying “have at it kids.” This happens when we either are not thankful and ore greedy and we deserve every thing we get because we worked for it. In essence it is the unbiblical theology of karma, where we get stuff based on our actions, mo matter if it is good or bad. When we are not thankful, we often become conceded and eventually God will let go and let us suffer the consequences of our speech and actions.

  In conclusion, being thankful is a choice and a lifestyle. Throughout his letters, Paul consistently writes how He is thankful for Gods grace and for other people doing the will of the Father. This is a guy who was abandoned, shipwrecked, and beaten for his faith. Paul put God first in everything he did. I will close with Colossians 3:17 which in essence is no matter what we say or do, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God the Father through Him

Grace and Peace 

Tom Boustead 

Questions: 

  What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

  When we are not thankful, what are some causes to it? 

   How do we live a life of thankfulness?

Rest

   

  This weekend Pastor Ben talked about rest and how after six days of creating, God took the seventh and rested. One might ask how can a God that is all powerful, need a day of rest? I think that is a legitimate question, but I also think that we need to redefine what rest is. Here are some of my observations about rest and how we can redefine it. 

  My first observation is that we have to decipher between what is being lazy and it means to be restful. Laziness usually means a lack of ambition, no drive and has no real sense of purpose. We can be lazy and busy at the same time if we don’t have a clear goal and or purpose/plan to get something done. True rest is that we are intentional about doing it. It is carving out time to spend with God took be renewed by Him and to foster a relationship with Him. This happens through the study of Scripture, prayer, worship and the gathering of believers. One of the ways I find ways to rest and connect with God is by grabbing my camera and head to a state park to take pictures, walk and to commune with God. Holy rest takes us out of the ordinary and our comfort zone to be more aware of God and to communicate with Him. 

  My second observation is that rest is that we are relying on God. In the Old Testament, there is a thing called the Year of Jubilee. It happened every seven years where the fields go unworked, debts are forgiven and slaves are made free. This is really radical because it forced Gods people to rely on God and be in communication with Him. In a culture that almost relies on either relying on ourselves to get stuff done or relying one someone else to it without much effort or participation from us. To sum it up, it is having that peace that we don’t need to do it all. Psalms 50:10 proclaims that every beast in the woods is Gods along with the cattle on a thousand hills. God is able and willing to provide for all of our needs.

   My third observation our beliefs come out in not what we say, but what we do. We can say we are going to loose that extra ten pounds, or work on communicating with those important to us. If we don’t put in the work   to it, what we say is pointless. Godly rest helps us to not only find out what is important but to develop the faith and relationship with God to put our words into action.

  My final observation is twofold. The first one do we not holy rest because it requires change either in thought, action, speech or location. How often do we stay in our disfunction because we either enjoy it, because it gives a right to do nothing but complain or it takes work.  In essence we are comfortable with the sin in our lives and we don’t mind being held in bondage by it. In essence we don’t want to do the work that God is calling us to so we would rather be a slave to sin. The other part is that God is more concerned about our character, because it affects everything we do and our relationships. Our we more concerned with God forming our character and us abiding in Him, or do rather do our own thing?

  So here are a couple of questions to ponder;

    What are those things that steal our joy and our Holy rest? 

     If Gods grace is free and unmerited, does it still need a response from God?

  What does it mean to abide? 

Grace and Peace

Tom Boustead

Gods Faithfulness

 

  Just a quick reminder that Pastor Fred preached on Gods faithfulness this weekend. Fred started off by diving into Lamentations 3. I will start with a question. How many of us has that one friend who tells it like it is and that tact is not in the top ten of their spiritual giftings? They will stick with you through the thick and thin, but warm fuzzies aren’t their thing. I feel that the Old Testament prophets are those type of friends, because they deliver Gods message to His people no matter the consequences. Jeremiah, the author of the book of Lamentations is one of those type of friends. In the book, he is lamenting how the people of God are in exile, Jerusalem is in ruins and the few people that do remain have no place to worship. Jeremiah is venting about the condition of everything around him, but in chapter 3 of Lamentations he declares that God is faithful and that His mercies are new every morning. So what can we meditate on about Gods faithfulness and goodness, especially with Thanksgiving right around the corner. 

  The first thing that Gods faithfulness is that it is not fickle. His faithfulness is at the very core of who He is. If God wasn’t faithful, that means water wouldn’t be wet. God is always there giving out grace and love  even went we are not faithful to Him. In the famous hymn come thou fount of every blessing there is the famous line of: 

              Prone to wondering, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love

 Even though we get on rabbit trails or develop a squirrel mentality, God doesn’t. We can always go back and find God with a repentant and He will take us back with open arms like what the father did with the Prodical Son. 

  My second observation is that Gods faithfulness is not ment for one person or a group of people. Every person is created in Gods image and that means His faithfulness is for all of us. John 3:16 tells us that. Also we can’t earn Gods grace or faithfulness because He gives it freely. But here is the kicker, Gods faithfulness demands and even requires a response. We all have a choice to either accept Gods grace and faithfulness or we can choose something else. It maybe cool in the short term but eventually the chickens will come home to roost and we will have to deal with those consequences, but God will be there because His faithfulness is not dependent on us and if it was, He would be God

  Finally, at some point in our lives we will go through that valley where we feel that we are alone and nothing is going right. It could be because that there is a strain in the relationships we hold dear, we received some not so great news from our boss or doctor, or we could be at a point where we can’t find God no matter what we do. Hang in there and God is still there. Take time to pray, read Scripture and find a friend that can be honest with you. A part of that is to have that friend listen and to hold you up in prayer and accountability. I heard a quote somewhere that we “got to know when to keep bang on the situation and when to let it go.” Having faith is knowing when to keep on banging and when to let it go. One last illustration. One time I was in that valley and I had a friend go Old Testament prophet on me in a good way and told me as much as we want that mountain top experience, the oxygen one the nutritional grass is in the valley. This is where we grow and where God ultimately provides His faithfulness in the daily care for us and for us to rely on Him because we seek His face above all else 

Grace and Peace 

Tom Boustead

Dwelling among us

 

  As we are going through the attributes of God, Pastor Fred talked about the transcendence and the immanence of God. As a reminder, transcendence is where God sits outside of creation and how He is above and greater than creation. Immanence is where God dwells among His creation and is among us. This reminds me of John 1:14 where the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. If we were to take a deep dive into the Greek, this verse has a meaning of God came and He set up a tent so He could live among is and be known to His creation. It kind of has a camping feel to it where we pitch a tent out in nature so we can get away and connect with God through what He has created. This leads me to a couple of thoughts. 

  The first one is that are there times when God shows up and we don’t recognize Him. For whatever reason we don’t realize that He is in our midst. Could it be because we are not mature enough to recognize it, or that we are so distracted with our own things that we don’t realize when He speaks. Or do we pull a Jonah and we run the other direction. It’s because He has either asked or could ask us to do something we don’t want to do. In my experience, when this happens, there is some tension in the relationship and something that is causing the relationship to go haywire. It could be because we aren’t on the same page or that I have an attitude and sin problem and I don’t want to properly deal with it. 

  My second observation is when God healed the blind man with the mud and when he went to the temple to tell the priest and they ask who done the miracle the guy didn’t know. We could be like

that guy, realizing something happened, but, who, why or how is pretty unexplainable. Do we go out to find Jesus to thank Him or are we grateful the miracle happened and then go about our life. When God shows up, it’s more than just so He can do cool party tricks, but for Him to have a relationship with His creation. 

  My final observation is that as God dwells among us, it does that mean we or the rest of creation is equal to Him. In college there were a few times where my professors “let down there hair” and became a little more vulnerable and I learned a lot during these conversations, but when they put the professor hat back on, our relationship changed and I needed to be reminded of that. Pastor Haven often tells us youth leaders that we aren’t the kids friends, but we are there mentors and there is a difference and it often comes with boundaries. As cool as it is that we are created in Gods image and that the Creator wants a relationship with His creation and dwells among us, He is still Holy, sinless and God. As much as God can be our friend, He is still God and has authority over all. For those parents who acted more as friends to their kids growing up than parents, how well did the kids turn out and did they ever struggle with boundaries or authority. 

 To close out, in Jeremiah 29, God states that we are to be His people and He our God. Also God can and wants to be found, we have to be committed to searching Him out and not sticking our heads in the sand 

The Goodness of God

  This weekend Pastor Fred preached on Mark 10:17-27 and the goodness of God. The essence of the story is where the rich young ruler who came up to Jesus and asked Him what he needed to do to be saved and I love Jesus response to the rich young ruler. His response when the ruler called Him good was that the only person who is good is God. With this definition of good, do we need to change our definition of what good means. We often throw this word around when we are talking about what we just ate, to the style of music we prefer to how we view people. In essence our view and definition of good can be very subjective and it almost has a different meaning to when we are either talking about food or people. Gods definition of good is essential to His character and Who He is. His goodness comes out because God is holy and righteous. His goodness comes out because He is not only love, but His love is perfect. If Gods love came out of anger, it would make Him scary and a thug. As people we often call things that are a holy good bad and things that aren’t holy, but somehow serve our self interest good. So here is my question, do we redefine what or who we call good and do we need to use Gods standard of what good is? The only way we can do this is if we are transformed by Gods goodness and His grace.

  The other thing that caught my eye is the ruler asked what he needed to do to be saved. Jesus question was that of, have you kept the law? The rulers response was an overwhelming yes and Jesus answer back to the rulers response was piercing because He told him to go and sell off everything he owned and to follow Him. The rulers response walked away depressed because he held those valuables higher than his relationship with God. A couple of things struck me in this passage and the first one is how as people we like list. This pertains more to guys, because we like to know what is expected and just give us that list so we can cross things off. I know when I do this I get a sense of accomplishment, but here is the thing, when we do this, we often care more about doing and not the relationship. Also, often we do it on our own strength and not Gods. This plays into my second thought which is that we think we can earn our salvation. If we do the right tor say the right things and not do certain things and speak a certain way, God will have to love us and let us into heaven. In essence we embrace the worldly philosophy of karma of doing more good than bad and we don’t rely on the grace of God. According do the church reformer Martin Luther, we can only be saved by grace and faith alone. Our actions do matter, bit without faith in God and His grace they are pointless. In Matthew 7 people come to God promoting all of their good works, but God turns them away because they did those things on their terms and we’re trying to earn salvation in hopes of pleasing God.

   My final thought is this. Are we more concerned with doing or being? Doing is more about earning our salvation and what I can do for God. When we do this, we tend to spin our wheels and are never completely satisfied. When we are more concerned about being, we live in Gods grace and our faith leads us to what to do. When we know we are in God and live in Gods grace, we tend to live in peace. What we do is based on who we are in God and that we don’t need to earn our salvation and we know what our mission is. When we live this way, we are not defined by our possessions or what we do, because we are defined by God and His Goodness. God doesn’t say that possessions are bad, but are we are we letting those things have more importance in our life than they should. In essence, are we worshipping the created instead of the Creator? So here is my question, are we like the rich young ruler who is defined by what he does and have? Also, how do we make the transition of going from doing to being?  My final question is this. How does the goodness of God and His grace transform our lives to the point of what we do and how we interact with others?

  

To Be Known

   

  This week Pastor Ben preached out of the book of Exodus and he started in chapter three when Moses encountered God at the burning bush. As God and Moses were talking, one of the questions that got kicked around is both parties asking the question of Who Are You? The song who Are You by the rock group The Guess Who came to mind as Ben was preaching, especially the line from the song “cause I really got to know” comes to mind. This got me thinking, as people, we want to know others and be known by others. God created us to be relational people, not only with Him but with others also. God has several names as Ben discussed such as Adonai, El Shaddi, and the ultimate name of I Am. Each of these names convey something about Gods character and who He is. We are the same, we are all called something different, depending on the group we are with. For me in high school I was known as Tommy, or in college Big Tom because of my size and my roommate was also named Tom. Finally, my family nickname is Shep. Often our names says something about us or comes from an important event in our lives. So here is my question for us, what prevents us from being known and knowing God? How often do we pull an Adam and Eve, and we put on fig leaves and hide from Him or others? This is often done by hiding behind screens or not completely being honest with ourselves, others, and God. 

  I think the other part of being known and knowing others is defining the relationship. Every couple, especially those who are married often have the “DTR” or defining the relationship conversation to find out where their relationship is not only going, but what they are to each other. Jesus has this conversation with the disciples when He asked them Who Do You Say That I Am?” Moses and God had the exact conversation Moses was wondering what he should tell the Israelites who sent him. Moses has been oh in the desert herding sheep for forty years as he was letting things cool down in Egypt after killing the Egyptian. Moses had to come to realty of who God was not only in all the universe but who God was to him. He also had to come to terms with how God saw him and how he wanted to use Moses to make His name great and bring the nation of Israel back into relationship with Himself. So here are some thoughts to ponder, the first one is, who do we say that God is? To paraphrase a C.S. Lewis put it, is God a liar, lunatic or is He really who He says He is and what does that mean for us. Something else to ponder, why do we have such a difficult time seeing how God sees us. We tend to live on one extreme of we are better than we really are or that we are worthless garbage and we can swing from side to side quite frequently. Remember, we are created in the image of God. 

  My final observation is that Jesus came and lived a life that we couldn’t live and took our punishment that He didn’t deserve so that we can be made whole again. Jesus did this so that we can know God and be in right relationship with Him. If we want to know who God is and what His character is, we can look at Jesus. I will close with this, with God making the statement of I Am, it means that He is all that and a bag of chips. God is eternal and hasn’t changed nor will He ever change and we can take this to the bank. God wants us to know Him intimately and vice versa, nor only so we can spend eternity with Him, but so He can be praised and that His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven 

Grace and Peace

Tom Boustead

Worship

 

  This weekend, Pastor Fred preached on worship and for me, when I think about worship, I tend to gravitate to John 4:24 where we are commanded to worship God in spirit and in truth. We could spend several weeks talking about worship and what it looks like, but here are some observations. The first one is that God doesn’t need our worship and if He did, it would mean that He is a narcissist. God doesn’t need are approval or worship. Does He desire it, yes, but He doesn’t need it. Worship means that we are in a relationship with Him and that is what He desires and what we are created for. 

  My second observation is that worship is a response to something or someone. God did not create us to be robots who are programed to worship Him because that is the only thing we know. God gave us a free will which means that we have a choice to worship Him. Every day we have countless choices to either put God first and worship Him or worship something else. Worship is more than prayer, Bible readings and singing. Worship is how we perform at our place of employment, how we parent, to how we interact with each other, especially those who get under our skin. So here is my question, do we worship the Creator of all the world, or the created things in the world? Remember, worshipping the created is bowing down to idols that either we have or others have created to be more important than God.

  My third observation is that true worship will take us out of our comfort zone. It means more than singing songs that are not our favorites and in the style we can’t get behind. True worship maybe is switching jobs three years before retirement that has a pay cut. Or how abut adopting a teenager because they don’t have a family? In all honesty, true worship not only will take us out of our comfort zone, but it will often cost us something great. Are we willing to be obedient and have eternity in mind or do we care more about our comfort and safety? Worship doesn’t call up to be stupid, but maybe to live on the edge a ltlle more and be obedient in faith. What is that thing that God is calling you that’s way out of your control and comfort zone?

  My final observation is that worship is about who or what we love. Jesus tells us that we are to love God with everything we have and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Godly worship demands everything we have and yes sometimes it is hard work. Pastor Haven has a quote that he shares with the youth frequently of “when it’s the hardest to worship, that’s when you worship the hardest.” I have also heard that when it’s the hardest to be at church, that’s when you need the church and God the most. When we worship with all we have, it will be difficult at times but are we making it a priority? Also, what are the things that prevent you from worshipping with all you have? 

  This weekend was a great time of worship as a community of believers. We got to witness baptisms in each of the services and the awesome part was witnessing the eight youth who made that proclamation of faith through baptism. Baptism is our response or worship to what God is doing in and through us. We also got to worship by gathering together to eat great food and to raise money to help the Gilboy’s be obedient to Gods calling their life. I will close with this, we can not or should not only worship God in a vacuum or by ourselves. Worship is to be done on an individual basis and also with other people. Remember that God tells us to make a joyful noise, with everything we have and that it doesn’t have to be in the right key. 

Grace and Peace 

Tom Boustead  

What’s Your Story?

   

  This week we had the privilege of hearing from Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge and for those who don’t know, Teen Challenge is a Christian treatment program for men who have struggled with drug or alcohol addiction. They minister through song and personal testimony. As I was talking with one of the guys after the Saturday night service a couple of things hit me when hearing his story. The first one is that when we get that nagging gut feeling it’s often God nudging us to do something. How often do we know we should do something but we find every excuse to not do it, but God keeps bringing it up. When we finally do it, God provides a way for it to happen and something usually wonderful happens. 

  The second thing I realized is that we can either run and hide from our issues or deal with them. A lot of the guys who go to Teen Challenge, it’s either a choice between prison or the treatment program at Teen Challenge. It’s a choice either to prison and yes serve time, but the issues don’t have to be dealt with. By going to Teen Challenge, the guys are taking responsibility for their choices and are looking to deal and beat their addiction. The work is long and hard, but they get to know and be transformed by Gods grace while developing healthy community.

  We may not have an addiction to drugs or alcohol, but all of us have things we struggle with. My question is, are we willing to admit our struggles and put in the hard work to deal with them or do we brush them off or even try and hide them. Eventually those struggles and sin will come to light and be known by the world. They usually come out at the wrong time and wrong place.

  So here is my question. What is your story? What are the things you have struggled with and overcome, are you willing to be like the guys from Teen Challenge? They are vulnerable enough to share their stories and struggles with complete strangers and we have a hard time doing it with people we know. What would it take for you to either share your struggles with someone or hear theirs?

  My story is this, I have stifled with my weight for most of my life and it has lead to some issues like being diabetic, skin infections and other issues. About sixteen months ago I spent a week in the hospital because I was retaining fluid and I was a hurtin. Through some lifestyle adjustments and medication changes, I have dropped about 125 lbs and my diabetes is under control and I’m seeing my dr less, which is a good thing. I now can breath  and move better. One of the things I enjoy doing is going to local state parks to take pictures. The two pictures above is of me at Grand Portage State Park a couple of weeks ago and I don’t know if I could have done that sixteen months ago. So what is your story of how Gods grace has changed you and are you sharing it to encourage others?

Tithing

 

  How often do we tune out when we hear the pastor talk about tithing? Or do we think it’s someone else’s turn to fine because pitched in $20 last week and I help with kids ministry twice a month. I think we treat sermons on tithing like telemarketers, we don’t pick up the phone or we hang up before their sales pitch is over. Tithing is so much more than just keeping the church doors open, the pastors paid and ministry programs running. According to church statitition Carey Nieuwhof, only about five to ten percent of regular church attenders tithed ten percent in 2022. I am not surprised by this but it also makes me realize that not only does the people church have a money problem but a spiritual problem also. 

   Here are some things that I am wresting with. The first one is that we have a priority or vale problem. We spend money and give of our time to what we value and hold important. As the end of the year is fast approaching, sit down another not only write out where you spend your time and what you are doing with it, but also pull out a couple months worth of bank/credit card statements. When we go through these things it can be eye opening to where we spend our time and money and it is also where we find out if we actually value what we say we value. I would encourage people who either are engaged or married to do this together so that the both of you are on the same page. I’ve been told by my drs that when I hit a plateau with my weight, to keep a daily food journal for a week of portion size and what I am eating to see if that is contributing to my plateau or weight gain. What we think on or desire the most is usually what we end up doing. What we value our heart will be there also. So what are those things that we desire or even crave the most?

  The second thing I am wresting with is why are we stealing from God? Psalms 50:10 states that the beast of the forrest and the cattle on a thousand hills belongs to God. God owns everything and He gives it to us expecting us to be good caretakers of what He has entrusted us with. We become toddlers and call everything mine and we beg, borrow and steal the things we wand and don’t have. God gives us things because He is good and so we can use them to declare His glory and to serve others and not for self promotion, or over indulgence, or to impress people we don’t even like. Often those things replace God and they become our Golden Calf. How often do we desire things because of how they make us look or feel instead of turning to God?

  The third thing I am wresting with is that tithing is a discipleship issue. Discipleship is the process of growing closer to God and becoming more like Jesus. When we tithe, we are declaring that all of it is Gods and I am giving not only a portion of it back to Him, but the best of it. In the Old Testament, the Jewish people didn’t give their worst cattle or produce, but they gave God their best because He deserves it. Shouldn’t we do the same. Also when we tithe, we are trusting God to come through and provide for our needs. He can do that and wants to do that, butbwe also have to allow Him to do it. Also, when we buy stuff, we do it out of need and not necessarily out of want. To quote Dave Ramsey are we willing to live like no one else now so we can live like no one else later. Are we willing to skip having the credit cards, not eating out so often and driving that older vehicle so that we aren’t strapped WTH stress, debt and we are freer to tithe and to give money to worthy causes. In essence tithing is a heart issue and whether we try and to control our lives and to get everything we can and be disappointed. Or we can submit to God and have joy even when it is tough. I will close with this. To paraphrase a 1990s quote “those who die with the most toys still dies.” Let’s not be like the rich young ruler found in Mark 10:17-27, who walked away from Jesus sad and depressed because he couldn’t or didn’t want to sell his stuff and dive the proceeds to the poor so he couldn’t follow Jesus. One last question, what are those things that prevent us from tithing and hinders our relationship with Jesus?

Grace and Peace 

Tom Boustead

Invitation

   

  One of the takeaways I got from Pastor Fred’s sermon this weekend is that how much of life especially our Christian faith is an invitation to a journey. The Apostle Paul put it this way in I Corinthians 11:1 of of follow follow my example as I follow the example of Christ. Paul is pointing to Christ as the example we should live up to and not what he does because he is being transformed by Christ. Paul is inviting others to join him as he makes it a priority to live a transformed life. So what does this look like. 

  The first one is that we can not do it alone. We are not designed to live on an island by ourselves or to keep people at arms length. I think this is one of the reasons we struggle with anxiety and depression because we keep people at arms length for various reasons. What would it be like if we did life with each other. This could mean sharing a meal together, being honest about our victories and our struggles. When we journey with people, the sole focus should not be what I can get out of it, but how can I walk with people during the highs and lows. It also means that we do not think we are better than others but we are all in need of each other and Gods grace. How this works for me is that I meet with a group of guys on Monday mornings to talk and to share life with each other.  Who are those people in your life?

  Another small aspect to this journey process is that we actually grow up and mature. We all grow and mature at different paces but are we doing it? When we grow and mature, we can share what we have learned with other people and we can be that example. Most if not all of us have had a mentor in our lives that not only spoke truth, but gave it to us when it was something difficult or hard to hear. We need that mentor in our lives along with being able to mentor someone. Who are these people in your life?

  My final observation comes in a song. The Christian artist Shawn Groves has a song called Should I Tell Them and the song contemplates of should the singer tell the world what Christ has done for them even though he is afraid.  Not only is the answer yes, but I think the world is begging us to tell them and to give them not only a different option, but true hope because everything else they have done or tried has failed miserably. When we tell or even invite them, we can’t have an attitude that we are better than them or that we have all of the answers. Journeying together means that we don’t have all the answers but are committed to finding them out. Journeying together means that it’s a commitment to grow even if we gave to pus or drag each other to do so. When we do this, life will get messy and there will be difficulties. Are we willing to experience growth even when it gets hard? Human nature tells us no because we would rather be comfortable even though we may be living in a mud pit. This is where accountability and Gods grace comes in. Gods race is what makes the change possible and when we do it with others it makes it easier. So who are those people that God is calling you to invite and to journey with?

Grace and Peace

Tom Boustead 

Get Involved

  Pastor Ben continued the series this weekend of what is the church and the focus of his message was about getting involved. There are more than one way to get involved in church and here are some initial thoughts. 

  The first way is realizing that church is not a spectator sport or activity. How often do we consume worship and treat it like a concert. We have talented worship teams, but their goal is not to put on a show, but lead us into the presence of God so we can worship God together as a family. We also have pastors who are great men of God and who preach His Word so not that we can have more head knowledge, but so  we can take that knowledge and put it into practice. How we can move church from a spectator event to being fully engaged is taking what we do in church and do it all week long. How we worship is more than singing a few songs and hearing a m sage, but it is how we treat people especially those we don’t like. Or it’s working diligently and to the best of our ability at work or raising children to mowing the lawn. In his song When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, Isaac Watts finally line is that the cross demands my soul, my life, my all. The same could be said about our worship because we all worship and it might as well be the Creator of the Universe. Can you you worship God even in the mundane things? Also p, is worship something we do to get noticed be others or do we do it for an audience of one which is God?

Another concept is that at one time, attending church on a regular basis ment going twice a month. Are we making church a priority.  Church has to be more than crossing something off of our list and just showing up so we can collect a participation trophy. Anything worth doing is going to cost us something and it is often something great. Church is no different.  We often get out of it what we put into it. Church is also a place where we can grow and to lay our hurts down. How often have you had a rough week at work or with family and the pastors message is what you needed to hear or getting a bear hug from a trusted friend along with shedding some tears and hearing some encouraging words and prayer. It’s also doing the same for others. I attend the Saturday night service and one of the things that I look forward to is Al coming up to me and shaking my hand and asking how I am doing. If you know him, you know his smile and laugh is infectious. It’s our way of checking in on each other and that is being the church. I could go on, but how are you not only getting involved, but investing in others? Is it getting involved in kids ministry and talking about superhero’s, or is it getting involved the youth and wadding through relational drama, or getting up close and personal by leading a small group and diving into people’s lives?

  The last thought is that being committed to church or a cause means we see the big picture, and we participate in the mission, even when things are tough.  Being committed is wanting to grow and to invest in others and actually do it. We have to be willing and actively finding ways to get out of our comfort zone. A part of doing church is inviting others to join us so they might find the joy we have in Christ. Or it’s being committed to either having tough conversations with others or hearing and understanding those tough conversations when people have them with us. Being committed is taking the time to grow and mature personally and it invest in others to do the same. 

  To close out the Apostle Paul makes the bold claim that the church is one body filled with many parts (1 Corinthians 12) and that we all can’t be hands or feet. If we were, the church could not operate because everyone would be trying to do the same thing and some people don’t hand those gifting which makes the church operate not at full capacity and it make Che church dysfunctional at best. We all have particular gifts for a particular reason, so when we use those gifs as God designed, not only are we worshipping God but we are pointing others to God and His Grace. So, do you actually know what your gifts are and are you hands  trying to be eyes and see what is going on or do you realize that you are hands and are finding ways to serve? 

Grace and Peace 

Tom Boustead

Why go to church?

   

  To start things off, I have two questions. The first one is what is church?  The second one is, why do we go? To throw out an idea to the first question is church a building filled with things that people call holy and where God is. Or is it a building where people gather to be fed spiritually and to grow together. Here are a couple of ideas or possible answers to the second question is that it is a place where we go to drink coffee, sing a few songs, hear someone ramble on for twenty five minutes to get some sort if itch scratched and then leave so we can get on with our week. Or is church where we plug in our air pods so we can listen to our favorite pastor or theologian as we run errands or be in nature and call it good.  Here are some observations of what the church could be. 

  For those of you who are fans of country music, you might recognize the name Toby Keith. One of his more popular songs is called I Love This Bar and the song goes on about how he love a particular bar because of all the different people from different backgrounds come to this place to be with each other. Most of these people would come from the wrong side of the tracks. What if the church became that place where we dropped the country club mentality of having to look or dress a certain way to come into church. I work with the 13 to 30 year olds here at Wal Mart who are either coming back to church or who are searching for something with a little more substance. I can tell you that their hairstyle is a little weird for my taste, visible piercings and tattoos are a cultural norm and their language can be a little rough most of the time, but here is the one thing I do know.  God loves them so abundantly that Jesus died a death and was raised from the dead so that we could have a relationship with Him. What would it look like not only if they came into our community, but also felt welcomed and a belonging?  What would it take for this to happen? 

  Church has to be more than hearing a good sermon or podcast. There has to be some sort of life change. John Wesley would call it Entire Sanctification or Christian Perfection. Others would call it Christian maturity. The concept is are we growing in grace and are we putting away the hurts, habits and speech that is not glorify God and that prevents us from being Christ like. The church is a place where we can find accountability so that we can grow and allow the Holy Spirit to take control of us. The church is also a place to show Gods love to others whether things are going well or things have hit rock bottom. It’s knowing when it’s appropriate to celebrate and when it’s time to sit and grieve with others and to pray with them. How do we do this and not feel uncomfortable during the tough stuff? 

  Let’s wrap this up by closing with Pastor Fred’s preaching passage of Matthew 16:13-18. Jesus ask the disciples the all important question of “ who do you say that I am?” After the Disciples listed off a couple of suggestions, Peter answered that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Jesus admitted that He was who Peter claimed Him to be and that the church was going to be built on that. The church isn’t about the Pope and some Apostolic tradition or what program we can run to get people to come to church. Instead it is being transformed by the power and the grace of God so we can go out and serve other people, even the ones who don’t look, think or act like us. As much as we want church to be a building where we can meet God, it can happen anywhere. Some of the most memorable times I have met with God was not in a building and with people who I normally didn’t associate with. So here are two questions. The first one is what are some of the most memorable times you have had encountering God? Secondly, how can we serve others so they can experience the love and grace of God?

The wide and narrow road

   As Pastor Fred finished up the series The Impossible Gospel we dived into Matthew 7:13-14. The center of the discussion is the two paths that leads to two different gates. One gate is easy to find and allows for many to enter. The second gate is smaller and is designed for a smaller amount of traffic. Growing up on a farm we had the 12’ gates that allowed for tractors and multiple cows to enter at one time. Then we had the 4’ gate and that was often connected to a chute and it allowed only one cow to pass through at a time and the chute was about 3’ wide, so there was no room fir the cow to turn around and it kept the cows on the straight and narrow. The gates that Jesus was referring to was more about the way of salvation and not cattle handling. 

  This parable is talking more about how people are searching and gaining salvation. We live in a culture that claims that we should live our own truth and that there are more than one way into heaven. How. Often does this lifestyle tell us that as long as it makes us happy, we should do it, and this is how we find salvation or at least bliss. My first question is that what if our own happiness comes at the expense of someone else, should we still do it, especially if it someone we are close to and value? Happiness is often based on a feeling and is more me focused. Doing what makes happy is apart of the wide road because a lot of people are trying to be happy instead of content. 

  Another observation concerning the gates and salvation is that is Jesus the only way that we can be saved? Some would argue that Jesus is one of many options if Jesus is an option at all. Or we have people that say it’s Jesus pls something else. So here is my question, it Jesus isn’t the only option for salvation, why do we choose to be a Christian? It’s a lot of work, self denial and hardships. The rules also seem to be overbearing and exclusive. There are other religions that are more warm and fuzzy along with being inclusive that would seem to be better than Christianity if all roads lead to the same place. There is a bumper sticker that says coexist and it uses the symbols of the more popular world religions. As much as the people on the wide road want to believe this, at the end of the day they will become incompatible with each other because their core beliefs are all different. 

  The narrow road is filled with ups and downs along with heartbreak and joys. Is Christianity the narrow road because not everyone is willing to pick up their cross and follow Jesus? Or is it narrow because we are called to give up what makes us happy so that we can be content? In the book of James, he tells us that we are to consider it pure joy when we go through trials and temptations because it builds endurance, perseverance and is a refining process so they we become more like Christ. So I will leave you with these two things. The first one is what keeps you on the straight and narrow? Is it to become more Christ like or is our of fear or a sense of duty. The second thing is if it was easy everyone would do it

Grace and Peace 

Tom Boustead

Why do we Pray

   In this weeks preaching passage of Matthew 7:7-12 and among the many things Pastor Fred preached on is prayer. The message reminded me of a C.S. Lewis quote of “I don’t pray to change Gods mind, but for Him to change mine.” It got me pondering and I asked myself the question of why do we pray? Do we pray so that we can get what we want and we view God as a genie and His only purpose is to grant us our wishes. Or do we pray as an act of desperation, hoping God will hear us and grant us our wishes. I think our prayers can reveal our intentions and how our relationship with God is going. Is our prayers centered focused? What I mean by this is our prayers more about make us and others comfortable and even asking God to take away opportunities for us to grow? Or are we asking God to make us equal to Him? Instead of treating God like Santa Claus and our prayers being a wish list, how about we treat prayer as communicating with God. It is building a relationship with God and having a continuous conversation with Him through out the day. 17th century French Monk Brother Lawrence became famous (and later turned into a book) for his idea of practicing the presence of God.  It didn’t matter if he was doing dishes or other mundane task, he was in constant conversation with God. When we do this, we build a relationship with God and we see Him as a loving Father instead of someone who only gives us what we want or as a thug who will smite us if we don’t prat. So here are some questions to ponder

  What are some of the challenges to your prayer life?

  What would it look like for you to practice the presence of God through out the day?

  How often do we try and change Gods mind instead of Him changing ours?

Crap in Crap out

  Recently I had the opportunity to preach at youth group and my preaching passage was Proverbs 8. The  main thrust of my message was the idea of what goes in often comes out. The ideas we consume whether it is what we read, watch and who or what we listen to will shape our character. Another way to put it is crap in and crap out. If we consume questionable food, speech and or ideas, we end up living out those ideas. If we eat horrible, we will have weight gain and health problems related to it. We will also feel horrible. The same is said about the ideas we consume and continuously think on. If we consume horrible ideas, we will start speaking about them, believing them and living them out. The opposite is true also. If we continuously consume good ideas, that will affect how we speak and live our lives. The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians that we are to take every thought captive. It is more than just throwing out the bad thoughts, speech and actions, but it is filtering everything through Gods truth and aligning what we do, consume and say with Gods truth. I will close with Psalm 19:14 which is “May the words of my mouth and the meditation be pleasing to you God.”

 Questions to Ponder

Do you take inventory of what you consume on a daily basis?    

How do we take every thought, action and speech captive? 

What does it mean to meditate? 

How does what we meditate on shape our character? 

Called to Serve

   This past weekend Pastor Ben preached a great message and one of the verses that he used was John 15:13 which is “no greater love than this, that a man lays down his life for his friends.” Through this, Ben preached about how we should have a servants heart and that we are called to serve other people. It doesn’t matter if we are the CEO of a fortune 500 company or a janitor at a rescue mission, we are all called to serve other people. Here are some of my takeaways from the sermon. 

  The first one is that acts of service will often cost us something and sometimes it is a great cost. When we serve, it will cost us either our time, money, and or talents. This might mean we can’t go to a movie because someone needs a listening ear, or it might cost us a phone upgrade because someone needs the money more than we do and our phone still works fine. It is saying no to our selfish desires is tough no matter how much we think we need them. 

  The second idea is that we need to start seeing people as someone who God loves dearly and are created in His image. In essence we have to stop with the us versus them, or not liking them because of their stance on immigration or who they voted for. We serve because we are being the hands and feet of Jesus and we are proclaiming not our own goodness but what God does through us. 

  The third idea is that Godly service will often make us uncomfortable. It’s because we are rubbing shoulders with people who do not look, think or act like us. Are we not wanting to serve because it makes us uncomfortable and we don’t want to grow. Maturing spiritually, emotionally and relationally only happens when we are forced to operate out of our comfort zone. It is forcing us to rely on God and not what we can do. Remember service isn’t always about the warm fuzzies, but it is doing what is needed and what God has called us to do. As kids we wanted a steady diet of candy and sweets, but good parents make sure that those things are done in moderation and that we eat a salad more than candy. 

Here are some questions to Ponder

  What and where you are those uncomfortable places we need to go and spend time in?

   Who are those people or doing things that God is calling us to spend time with or doing but we are not wanting too?

   Do we serve for the warm fuzzies or to point people to God?

Grace and Peace

  Tom Boustead