A Stone's Throw

Wow, what an awesome day at Forest Park Carthage yesterday!  We had a ton of new faces at both of our services.  We also got a ton of people signed up for LifeGroups! Exciting things are happening here in Carthage!

Monday is for Missions…

• Keep praying for Haiti.  FP has had over 60 people interested in going on relief trips to Haiti.  We have raised well over $1000 to go to Haiti.
• FP has a group in Kenya this week.  Pray for them as they minister in His name at the Mattaw Children’s Village
• We just had a group get back from Fort Worth, TX yesterday that were working in the inner city with a church downtown.

Too good of a post to pass up on this Monday afternoon…Enjoy!  This is from Matt Wilkie’s blog this week.  Powerful!!

A few months ago, I got my own Haitian mudpie. It sits on my desk. This gift from our Haiti director,Kevin Rose, has reminded me to pray for the poorest people in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

On Tuesday, like every other “normal” day in Haiti, people in the poorest areas of the country were eating these for lunch. Some ate them for breakfast that morning and dinner the night before as well. They’re made of dried yellow dirt, vegetable oil and salt.

I’m going to type that again…they’re made of dried yellow dirt, vegetable oil and salt. They’re real mudpies. People eat them.

Then an earthquake hit.

I’m still processing things…but I for now, I wanted to mention the mudpies.

around the world with Jesus » Blog Archive » Mudpies for lunch Tuesday, and then….

Go ahead and sing along the old Bangles song with me!  Don’t you just love the 80s?  They don’t make cheesy goodness like that anymore!  Who knew that Prince, or “The Artist formerly know as,” or simply “The Artist” wrote that gem of a song?

Ok, to the heart of the post . . . It seems as though I am really, really busy, but I can’t seem to get ANYTHING done!  Do you ever feel that way?  We had a great staff meeting yesterday morning, but the day seemed to get away and before I knew it, it was time for Life Group at our house.

We had an AWESOME Life Group.  I absolutely love hanging out with our new found friends and study the Bible and hang out together!  We are really starting to gel and “click,” which is really cool.  We are studying “Discovering God’s Will”–an Andy Stanley/Northpoint study.  Man, what a great study so far.  Some highlight statements that really spoke to me from this week:

“The problem with knowing God’s will is not God’s unwillingness to speak; the problem is our unwillingness to follow through. Discovering God’s Will by Andy Stanley & Reggie Joiner, 21

“God does not give us direction for our consideration; He gives us His direction for participation.”

“God is more interested in your discovering Him than His will.”

“In the process of trying to know His will, we get to know Him.”

The message was built around Proverbs 3:5-6–

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

I think this verse is very appropriate for my Tuesday that I had today . . .

Have you ever noticed how we seem to tell God “how it’s going to be?”  You know the deal.  We basically expect God to get on board with what we are doing.  When He does something we don’t want, weren’t expecting, or makes us uncomfortable; and we get all bent out of shape.  We tend to work harder, plan more thoroughly…work YOUR plan and ask God to bless YOUR plans.

God doesn’t work that way!  He wants us to wait on Him.  He wants more than anything a relationship with us that is real and personal.  He wants us to be so close to Him, that of course we would know what to do in order to do His will.

I am learning that the more plans I put together, the more they will not go so hot.  When I seek God and work on my relationship with Him, then I set to planning. . . that is when the my plans will become His plans.  When I am so atuned to His heart, that His heart becomes mine.

When things are seeming to “go your way.”  Maybe it is a perspective change?  Maybe it is a change in who is making the plans.  As Experiencing God says, “God is always at work around you.”  You need to find out what He is doing and do it.

I have really had several encouraging moments over the last week or so that have really made me rethink Paul’s words in Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

First off, I went to my new dentist here in Carthage and one of the dental hygentists is a daughter of a fellow pastor way back when (’95) , when Jenny and I were in Pryor, OK.  Her father is a great man and served in the Methodist Church in both Pryor and Locust Grove (where I was serving).  The work in Locust Grove was especially challenging, but he was always faithful to the call of God on his life.  I learned a lot from him in a very short time.

Then, later on that evening, I got a Facebook message from a former student in my youth group.  He was recalling a particular message I preached on a Wednesday night a LONG time ago that was still impacting his life!  What??  He talked about a simple phrase has stuck with him all these years and has helped him finally deal with some “junk” in his life and actually let some other people in the body of Christ to help him along in the journey!  At this point, I’m feeling really pumped about what God has done through me.  It gets better. . .

This Saturday night, I was studying for the next morning . . . looking over service, message, etc.  I had my email inbox open and got a latenight message from another “blast from the past.”  It was from a young lady that was in my youth ministry in Burleson, TX while I was in seminary.  She had been thinking about me and looked me up on the internet and found the Finley Crossings website and eventually this blog.  While she was looking at the CFC website, she downloaded a podcast–happened to be my last message at Finley before moving to Forest Park Carthage.  As she and her husband were sitting in their kitchen listening to the podcast, they made a decision to find a church in their city and really follow the call of God on their life–AWESOME STUFF!  So now I am really thinking that God is amazing and what am I mopeing around about, right??  It gets even better–last night . . .

I took Dinwiddie with me to Hopedale Baptist Church in Ozark, where I was a student pastor starting in ‘99 after seminary.  We went to hear Aaron Hill give his first sermon ever.  Pretty stinking cool!  Aaron  was a 7th-8th grader when I left to plant Finley Crossings.  He was always one of “those kids” that you know God was going to do an amazing work through–you know the kid.  I am really good friends with his dad, John, who’s blog is linked over in the right margin.  Jenny and I have been worship pastors at their (HBC) children’s camps for about 5 or 6 years now and have gotten the opportunity to spend some quality time with Aaron in a cabin with a bunch of crazy elementary kids!!  I have always thought God was going to “do something” with Aaron. . . and I think he deep down thought the same thing.  It was really great!  He did an awesome job!  Brought back a ton of memories of student ministry at Hopedale as well as my “first sermon.”

I remember my first sermon in January of 1994 at FBC-Springfield at “College Night at Christmas.”  I gave the message and several of my other buddies did the other parts of the service.  It was a real nerve-wracking experience to say the least!  I was really nervous . . . in a suit and tie . . . had microphone feedback issues . . . and forgot (are you ready for this)–John 3:16.  I think they probably should have pulled my license at that point for sure!!

Again, I am reminded of Paul’s words of “never give up in doing good.”  Even thought things don’t always “go your way” or turn out the way you might want them to turn out . . . never give up.  Life and ministry are difficult and Paul was encouraging the early church to keep pressing on and hope for the harvest.  I am so thankful that the Lord has called me to do what I do and really thankful for His encouragement this week!  Thank you God!