church

Giving to the House of God - Nehemiah 10.35-39

The act of giving is an act of faith, especially where you give away more than you can reasonably afford to give. Many Biblical scholars (such as David Pawson) argue that the tithing of 10% of your money no longer applies under New Testament law. Whatever you believe, there is no doubt that it is a privilege and an honour to give money to God and to the poor and needy, wisely. In Nehemiah 10 we find that the people of God re-committed themselves to giving to the Lord. The gave their firstfruits of the their crops and of every fruit treee; the firstborn of their sons (not to kill, but to dedicate!), firstborn of their cattle, herds and flocks; first of their ground meal, grain, offerings, new wine and oil.. And so on.. This was generous giving of all of what they had, in almost every area. How do we give in the same way today?

Well, we can give money, we can give to the poor, we can give to our church, to appeals, to charities. We can give our time to the needy, go out of our way to help others. We can invest time in children, young people's work, in caring and loving our families. We can give to God by serving in our church, by training others, by buying equipment for our church. We can invest by supporting other churches, by doing outreach events, by doing schools work (often for free) and more. We can serve God by offering all he gives us back to him. When I got a new laptop, I knelt down and dedicated it / offered it to the Lord. If it had been a PC, I would have chopped off 10% of it and handed it over (would have worked better). But it was a Mac so I didn't, LOL! But, that laptop, as with all I have and do, is for the Lord. I'm not blowing my own trumpet at all. But this is the kind of lifestyle that Jesus calls us to.

But there is also one more thing we learn in verse 39, 'We will not neglect the house of our God.' You are an essential person in your church. If you don't function, your church won't function as well as it could. So give yourself. But often, we have a church building. I've been into churches with shabby buildings, crumbling. Sometimes it is because of laziness and negligence. Make sure your church building isn't one of them. We honour God by building up both the temple of his Holy Spirit (ourselves / the church body) and by building up the temple (the physical church). Not only does it honour God, it honours the church body and those who come into it, including people who don't believe in God yet. Make the most of every opportunity to honour God. A shabby building, an uncaring church does little to witness to the lost.

Planting your 'seed' into fertile soil - Mark 4.1-8

In this parable, Jesus speaks about seed falling onto different kinds of soil. Some seed fell on the path and was eaten by the birds. Some seed fell on rocky ground where it initially grew but then died as it had no roots. Some seed fell on thorns where it was choked by the weeds. Finally, some seeds fell onto good soil that grew up, producing lots of fruit and other seeds. Jesus used this as an illustration of his message of truth. I don't know what percentages Jesus was thinking of, but we could reasonably say that only one quarter of the seeds fell onto good soil. The same may be true when we preach and live the Gospel message. But it's an encouragement to continue, as we know the Word of God never comes back empty (Isaiah 55) and we know that people's lives will be changed by God - you never know whose lives either - so keep strong!

My challenge today is to those of us working in the church or doing church 'stuff' (or even normal 'jobs'). Are you planting seed in good soil? I was in a church where many hours were spent serving God faithfully. We saw some great things happen, but mostly very little happened compared to my expectancy of what God can do. Ultimately, for my own spiritual growth, I moved church (not something I do or advise lightly). What I found was that when I planted the same 'seed' it came back with a much higher 'yield' of God's fruit in my life and other people's lives. What was the difference? The soil that the seed was planted into. My challenge is that we all have little time on the earth (may not seem that way when you're young). Where can you best spend your time for God? You may be serving faithfully, but in the wrong place, or a place with rotten soil. Is this a word to you today? Be wise, seek God - but get somewhere there is good soil, take the hard decisions and plant your seed and just see if God won't multiply it by 30, 60 or 100 times!

Access points to Jesus in your church / youth ministry - Matthew 19.14-15

Some children were brought to Jesus so he could lay his hands on them and pray for them. The disciples told them not to bother him. But Jesus said, "Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these." And he put his hands on their heads and blessed them before he left. (NLT)

We don't have to be part of or relate to a culture around us in order to reach people in our church and youth work ministries. Having said that, it helps. I know of 2 churches reaching out using hip hop culture throughout their church life (both in Tampa, FL) as that reflects the community around them, but not all the folks doing the outreach are hip hop experts. It's the heart not the 'cool factor' that matters often.

What's more important is that in our churches and youth ministries, in our Christian lives, we need to provide 'access points' for people around us to touch and connect with Jesus. Sometimes we in the church act like the disciples in Matthew 19 when the little children were brought to him. They wanted to push the kids away - they had a pop at the people who brought the kids to Jesus. The disciples seemed to want to protect who and how the kids reached out to Jesus. But Jesus said to his followers, 'no, let them come to me..' These were kids responding as kids do, Jesus was open to that response and met with them. If we look at our churches, sometimes we say, 'nah, you can only come to worship God, hear about God etc. if you do things this way or that way' (usually the ways we can deal with). We try to protect access to Jesus.

But who are we kidding? Jesus said 'I've come to reach those who are ill, the sick need a doctor, not the healthy people.' (Matthew 9.12). Our call is to enable as many access points to Jesus as we can. This means allowing people to meet with Jesus on their terms (as far as we can) and believe that Jesus (as he has promised, by his Spirit) to bring change in their lives. The Kingdom of heaven belongs to people such as these. Or it can do, will do. But we have our part to play too.

The church faces tough times - Acts 6.8-15

There may come a time of difficulty for your church or in your church. Where God moves, there's often a bit of opposition where the enemy tries to disrupt. A friend of mine used to work at a church in Preston. He use to think 'Yes, God's at work or gonna do something' when cars in the church car park got broken into! A documentary on Channel 4 recently showed the 24-7 Prayer team out in Ibiza. They were out there to be Jesus to the clubbers. One night the team were burgled and loads of stuff got nicked. The next night they had a great night.
Whatever happens in the life of your church or ministry (stuff you do for God), remember that God is with you, looking over you.
If we read on in Acts to chapter 7 verses 54 through 60 we see that the apostle called Stephen was stoned to death. He was what's called the first known Christian 'martyr.' That is someone who is killed because of their faith. We find from that day on, the church and believers started getting hassled and even killed because of their faith in Jesus.
Sometimes, God may give us a shake as he did me when my brother was killed and I had to confront death head-on. For you it may be something smaller, like falling out with a mate or breaking up with your boyfriend, girlfriend. It may be you get verbals at school.
The question is how are you gonna react? For me, the day my bro was killed, I gave my life to Jesus. For the apostles it meant not denying Jesus and seeing the church spread into Europe and then through the world as believers were persecuted and had to move elsewhere. What about you? If Jesus gave you a prod in the back, what would it mean for you? Has God being calling you, other young people around you to start a CU in your school? To pray for your mates? To go on mission? Do it.

Matthew 15.3 - Tradition vs The Bible

There is a move through time that overall the church will become more and more as Jesus wants (see Revelation). The downside is that it's likely that false traditions and false teachings become more widespread as a reaction to the increase of God's truth. This is because people get fooled and because people's own selfishness drives them away from accepting truth. No worries though, his is nothing new!
In Matthew 15, Jesus confronts a bunch of Pharisees, up themselves with their own self-importance.. You can imagine them looking down their arrogant noses and questioning Jesus in a nasty voice..
Did Jesus rise to their stupidity? No, as ever, Jesus had the perfect answer that spoke truth, insight, love and grace at once. He replied to the Pharisees with a question, 'And why do you refuse to obey God's command so that you can follow your own teachings?'
The same question is for us today too - why do we as people and in our churches - refuse to follow the Bible's teachings, choosing instead to follow our own ideas. All churches do this. The charismatic church that accepts all kinds of wobbly teachings in their search for spiritual gifts. The old fashioned church that resists the Holy Spirit and teaches untruths from God's own Word. Even in the mainstream churches there are wrong teachings, division and denominational trends. What is going on people?!?
It's time to get back to the Bible in our churches, set aside agendas and personal ideas and denominations, and seek God's truth in his Word by his Spirit together. Today, ask God to open your eyes to his truth.
Seek God not self. Speak truth, live truth. Don't diss others but in love, seek and witness to a life of truth.

Coming back from a Christian festival on a high - 1 Kings 19.1-18

There you are, coming back from Soul Survivor or Spring Harvest. You have to come back to your church and you find it so hard and dull. Do things have to be this way? Nope. Have you got the ability to bring change? Yep. But how do I do this? I love that story of a boy on a beach throwing starfish back into the sea. There are thousands on the beach. A man says' how do you expect to be able to make a difference here, there are so many?' As the boy chucks another starfish back into the sea, he answers 'it made a difference to that one.' We can make a difference one life at a time. There is a movie clip of a boy explaining that if we impact 3 people, those three people can impact another three people. Before you know it, hundreds of people have been affected. Take time in your church to invest in people, in lives, in giftings, in friendship, in encouraging people in their faith. Watch as things and people change. This is no magic formula. Some churches will die. They have to as they refuse to change or even accept Bible teachings. They are too comfortable. But things don't and won't stay that way. You can be a man or woman of God prepared to bring change as God shows you his will. Start small. Get involved in worship, prayer, youth or children's work, start new initiatives, help around the church building. Serve God in small things and he will trust you with big things. Just get rooted in the Word, seek prophecy, speak truth in love, expect great things from God and just be available and obedient to God. I believe in you. More importantly, God believes in you.

SONGS OF PRAISE (aagghh!) - READ 1 Chronicles 16.8-36

Do you wonder why people stand up and sing songs to the OHP or the video projector screen every week? Do they go into some kind of weird trance every week or do they just like singing?
In 1 Chronicles 16, David's song of praise is written. Now, you'd hardly say David was a bit of a wimp. This man killed a giant with a stone, fought great battles and even 'married' a load of wives - he must be a brave bloke!
But, David was grateful to the Lord. That's why he sung his song. He was praising the Lord, thanking him and getting into God's presence by his song. What can we learn from this? David praised God, told about his miracles, worshiped God with all his heart, said he trusted in God's mighty power, said that God is good and his love never fails Worship comes from the heart. Singing to God should be like David, thanking & praising our great God. Remember, it can be any style, not just the style you like.. God gave it, so sing it bro! One of 'Mary Mary' said, 'Someone's gotta sing about God and that's me'. What about you?

'Sing to the Lord, because he is worthy of great honour; he has thrown the horse and its rider into the sea' (Exodus 15.21, YB)

Miriam had a reason to thank God. It may be different for us, I mean unless God's just led you and your people out of slavery from a foreign country, then it will be different...
1 Thessalonians 5.18 reminds us to give thanks to God whatever happens because this is what God wants you to do through the power of Jesus in your life.
When things are going well it's easy to thank God. When the hard times come it's not. But you have a choice. You can either thank God for whatever happens or you can disrespect God. When my brother was killed I said, 'God, I need you. I don't like what's happened but I want to go forward with you.' Perhaps that's a prayer you need to pray today.

'You should not stay away from the church meetings but you should meet together and encourage each other' (Hebrews 10.25, YB)

In John 17.15-22, Jesus prayed that his followers would be one. He wanted his disciples and Christians through the ages of time to be united, to be one body, reflecting Jesus to a needy world.
Acts 2.40-42 says that Peter preached and 3000 people became followers of Jesus. The Bible says, 'They spent their time learning the apostles' teaching, sharing, breaking bread and praying together.' (Verse 43, YB)
Acts 4.32-35 records how the early church supported each other, prayed for each other, cared for each other in every way - even when persecuted for their faith.
These are some of the reasons we need to meet together as Christians. It's not about being a clique, it's about support & encouragement. How can you be this to other people in the church or among the young people?
I know, probably better than many others, that it can be hard to attend church - but keep connected to Jesus.

GO INTO THE WORLD AND MAKE DISCIPLES - READ Matthew 28.19

Read Matthew 28.16-20. Three questions for you today
a. Are you a Christian? Following Jesus is not about going to church, having Christian parents or knowing all the answers. It's about having a relationship with Jesus where you have said sorry for all you've done, told Jesus you're going to turn your back on wrong and invited him to be in control of your life - as your Master and friend. If you're not a Christian get sorted today!
b. If you are a Christian, are you fired up for God? Are you filled with the Holy Spirit (this means are you obeying God willingly and seeing your life change)? Jesus wants radical disciples, not wimps. What about it?
c. Been baptised? The word 'baptism' means 'to cause to be dipped or immersed'. I believe it's about going under the water (& up out again to be 'washed') to make a public commitment to Jesus - but let's not argue over the how. It's the principle. It's an essential part of faith. Challenged?

MUSIC - READ Joshua 6.2-5 & 1 Samuel 16.23

God created music & made a pretty good job of it too! In Joshua, God used music in different ways. 7 priests played the trumpet as they marched in front of the Ark (a symbol of God's power to the Israelite people), they trumpeted as they marched around a city, then they played one long blast on the trumpet.
What kind of music are you into? I'm into dance music and hip-hop so that's what I use to worship God. Some people like r&b or UK garage. Some of you like heavy stuff like Metallica. Others like classical or just chart stuff.
God loves variety and he made us all different so music type is not always important. That is, unless you like music that slags off God, or music with loads of swearing in, or music that is written by people who are plain evil. God does want you to use your music for him. If you've got offensive music, it's time to chuck it. If you haven't, God says - enjoy music but worship God. And hey, people always say one kinda music or another isn't 'Christian' but don't worry. If God's called you, go for it man.

CHURCH LIFE - READ 1 Corinthians 12.12-17

If your legs decided they'd had enough one day and left for Ibiza, leaving the top half of your body behind, it would probably be a serious problem...
It's the same in church life. God brings people together to a certain church. he gives each of us gifts and skills to use to make that particular part of his church effective in what he wants them to do. If someone doesn't do what Jesus wants or just doesn't turn up, there are problems.
You are part of a church. You have been called by Jesus himself. He really wants you to serve him and help him. You are an essential part of the church - you really are. Today, think about how you can be more involved - in the youth work and in church life. Do children's talks, make the tea & coffee, go into the creche, be a steward, welcome people, be part of the worship team, think about new areas of church life that you could set up, go to prayer meetings, help out around the church, tidy a room. You are part of God's team. Question is, where?
Look too that although there are many parts to the body, they aren't all connected together, but they are all connected to the body. Your ministry should be connected to the body (the church) but not necessarily having to be the same as other ministries. Think about it.

Read Luke 12.49-53 - In 'The Message' if you can

Jesus was pretty fired up here - he said, "I've come to set fire to the earth and I wish it was blazing away right now. I've come to change everything, turn everything right side up... Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? No way. I've come to confront and disrupt... even families will turn against each other.' (sort of from The Message)
Everything Jesus did was radical. He didn't do it for the sake of it. He did it because the world is so messed up it seems radical. Jesus broke the religious rules, started religious arguments, annoyed people, used bizarre stories which he often didn't explain, confronted evil head on and even said nothing in his own defence!
Are we too nice in our churches? Are we stepping out in faith enough? Do you have the bottle to live the real life of following Jesus rather than the one many churches play out? Why aren't we making a difference in the UK like Christians are in the two-thirds world? What are YOU, gonna' do about it?

Read Philippians 4.4-9

Be full of joy that comes from God - it's the most amazing feeling when you're close to God, right with God, receiving from him & living for him. The Bible says we should be full of that joy - always!
Let people see that you are gentle and kind. Are you always feeling steamed up about something but it's really nothing? Get right with God and say sorry! Are you unkind or angry? Stop. It's not what God wants.
Are you always worrying? Tell God what's on your mind, ask him to take the load off your mind. Listen, we've all got problems. The only way to deal with them is by giving them to God. And think, talk - about those things that are good, pure, respected, praise worthy. Then you get God's peace. Too many people in churches don't have peace from God. Many of them spend too much time being critical. Stop it! Be encouraging and full of God's life-giving words. Criticism is destructive and it blows back in your face. Honesty, yes. Criticism, no. When was the last time you praised someone? Read Philippians 1 and see how Paul wanted the gospel preached more than he wanted any particular style. What about you?