WE ALL NEED TO BE COUNSELED

The Psalter in Psalm 119:24 exclaims that, God's testimonies were his delight; and that God's words were his counselors.

We need God's Word to counsel us because:

• We can easily lose our way

• We are so easily deceived                                                                                                                    
• We need God's wisdom                                                                                         

• We need to be encouraged and lifted up                                                                                                                                                                                             

Let us ask God to open the eyes of our understanding as we seek to understand His counsel for our lives.

Let us ask God to give us the desire to become students of His book.

Let us ask God to give us marvelous and wonderful truths from His Word.

Remember the Bible is God's revealed truth to us, let us become students of the BOOK. 
                                         

Fifth Grade Science Class

Every now and then I will do some substitute teaching. I randomly choose what grade level and subject to teach. I recently choose to teach the Fifth Grade Science Class.


Now anyone who has tried their hand at subbing knows that it is a hit or miss game. And the question was answered for me; "are you smarter than a fifth grader."



As I started to prepare for the day's lesson, I discovered that I would be teaching a topic that I didn't know much about. So, as any good sub would do, I pulled out my SMART phone and started to ask for some help. 

I asked my smart phone to explain the difference between a longitudinal wave, transverse wave, and a standing wave. I also needed to know the difference between a mechanical wave and an electromagnetic wave, phew! I learned that mechanical waves differ from electromagnetic waves in that mechanical waves need a medium (particles) in order to move.


 My fifth grade science lesson got me to think how God uses the medium of trials in our lives to make us grow.

James 1:2-4 tell us, all trials that test our faith produce christian character and will make us mature and complete in our christian walk.

So just like sound waves need a medium to move, so the believer needs trials to grow. Trials are the medium through which the believer must travel in order to be moved, stretched, and grown.

Proverbs to live by

How will you finish your journey in life?

Will you finish strong? Will you leave behind a lasting legacy?

The older I get, the greater the impact this thought has on me. How will I finish?

All over the news is the story of the scandal that has rocked Penn State. Joe Paterno, the symbol of Penn State football has had his career and life come to a grinding halt---because he did not step-up and do MORE in the child abuse scandal at his school.

History is replete with those who did not finish well, both secular history and Biblical history.

We need the grace of God in our lives to finish well.

We need the wisdom of God to finish well.

We need the counsel of others to finish well.

We need humility to finish well.

We need to feel the impact of others who have not finished well.

Our great God, we come before you in brokenness and deep humility acknowledging our needs, we confess without your grace our lives will come to a grinding halt.

What is the Mission of the Church? Part 4

So now we get to the meat of the matter, Matthew 28:16-20 tells us exactly what the MISSION of the Church ought to be. In yesterday's blog we discussed that the Church does not operate under its own authority, but that the Church functions UNDER the authority of Christ (v.18).

An easy way to break down these five verses in Matthew, is to look at the four imperative verbs in the text and give a little exegesis on each one. Actually, there is one main verb with three supporting participles. Let's go back to grammar school real for a second, here is a quick and simple definition of a participle: A participle is basically a verb that works as an adjective. In other words, it looks like a verb, but modifies a noun  http://blogs.kansas.com/grammar/2010/03/10/what-is-a-participle-anyway/#ixzz1dJEvUE00.

 Here we go, the main verb in our text is "MAKE DISCIPLES."

• Making followers of Christ is therefore the first and most important mission of the Church.

Now remember the other three pseudo verbs really act to explain the main verb--- of making disciples.

Therefore the process of making disciples involves: going, baptizing, and teaching. Let us look at each one briefly:
 

• The command to "GO" has been interpreted in one of two ways in the past. One way to look at it is just a straight command to go---as missionaries do it, they go all over the world to make disciples.

• Another way to interpret this command to GO, is, "as you are already going;" or as you are "living your life from day to day" you should be making disciples. It is not viewed so much as a command to go somewhere specific, but rather it is viewed more as you are living your daily lives, and in that  daily routine of life, you should be making disciples.

The process of disciple making continues with BAPTISM. What does baptism represent? It shows or implies that an individual has had his/her sins forgiven and will now walk in newness of life.









Finally the process is complete with TEACHING. Sound Biblical teaching completes the discipleship process---Jesus wants obedient, mature followers, who in time will be able to go and reproduce this process in others.

What is the Mission of the Church? Part 2

In the last post I sort of got side-tracked, but I thought that is was necessary to lay out a clear definition of the Church. If you remember the definition from the New Testament Greek Lexicon, the church is a gathering and an assembly---the definition also carries the idea of being "called out". The church is a called out body of believers that gather and assemble together to worship God.

Since God from before time began---called out or chose a people for Himself (the church) it is incumbent then for us to determine what God wants us (church) to do (mission).    

 Let me share some of my own personal experiences that I've had with the church, and they have been as varied as a bag of skittles. I've been involved with the church close to 35 years. I was raised a Roman Catholic. My journey then took me to various Charismatic Churches, to an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Church, to a House Church, and to several Independent Evangelical churches. 

From my experiences with churches, I've met some of the coolest people ever: One family that I can recall were so instrumental in helping Michele and I by giving us the necessary child rearing tools to help us in our new journey to raise a family, looking back we don't know how we would have done it without their Godly influence (thank you Lee&Marianne). 

We made life long friends with those that we crossed our paths with in the church world. Many helped us in our times of financial hardships, or when we struggled with our son who came way too early (two months). There were those that wept with us and who rejoiced with us. 

This is the body of Christ. God's people loving, caring, and praying for each other. This is the CHURCH. This is what the Church looks like.


So that is all the good stuff; and there is much more, but due to time I need to move on. I would like to share some of my negative experiences with you concerning the church. Looking back on these negative experiences, I can now make a pretty good assessment on WHY I had negative experiences with the Church.

When the church starts to be run like a corporation, when the church becomes program centered, and not people centered, when the church becomes church centered and not Christ centered; it is then that the Church has lost its mission.



So then what exactly should the Church be doing? How can the Church go back when she wanders off track? Now keep in mind that the Church is the body of Christ---assembled together for worship, preaching, and teaching God's truth.

With all that necessary introduction, I would like to examine the Great Commission texts found in the Bible (Matt.28:16-20; Mark.13:10; 14:9; Luke. 24:44-40; Acts.1:8). These texts tell us exactly what the Mission of the Church is (or how to get back on track).

In our next blog, we will flesh out some of the MISSION contained in these texts. See ya later!

What is the Mission of the Church? Part 1

                                                                   

 You may say, "sounds like a pretty straight forward question," and on the surface it is, but if we dig a little deeper it really is an extremely deep and controversial question. 

You might ask, "is it even important?" you might even further ask, "how is it relevant to my life?" You might even say, " who cares!" But since the Bible has so much to say about the mission of the Church it automatically becomes important. So here we go.

Let's start with a quick definition of the church: First, the church is not a building with steeples and bells.

The definition of the church has to be looked at from two different angles: The VISIBLE and the INVISIBLE. You are probably saying what is this guy talking about? Well, the VISIBLE Church is made up of all those who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible calls them the body of Christ (Eph.4:12; Rom. 12:5). Physically they can be seen as they gather for worship in buildings on Sunday mornings. 

Another important way that the Bible talks about the Church; is that the Church is made up of all those whom God has chosen before time even began (INVISIBLE), all believers who have ever lived, who are living now, and who are yet to live (Eph.1:4; Rom. 11:29).

The New Testament Greek Lexicon defines the Greek word church (ekklesia): as a gathering or assembly http://www.searchgodsword.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=1577 . 

So let me put together a workable definition: The Church consists of all of those whom God has chosen from before time began who are at present time assembling and gathering together for fellowship and worship, phew I'm tired!            

Now that we have a workable definition of the Church; we can try to answer the question what is the mission of the Church? But due to time we'll have to wait for another blog, sorry folks.

(7) The Art Of Communication

Admitting our mistakes is probably, oh not probably, but most definitely, one of the hardest things for us fallible humans to do. Bill Hybels in his book Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs notes that, "Admitting your mistakes says something profound about your basic integrity as a leader."



So, admitting your mistakes speaks to your individual integrity. You might ask, "what does integrity have to do with me admitting my mistakes," Well that's a legitimate question, let's try to discover the answer together.

Dictionary.com defines integrity as: 1. adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty. 2. the state of being whole, entire, or undiminished: to preserve the integrity of the empire.

There is one word that jumps out in this definition, it is the word honesty! to be honest is to be whole, complete, and undiminished. Integrity says that our lives line up with those things that we say we believe.

As I was thinking about what keeps us from being able to hear hard things about ourselves; the one thing that kept coming to mind was the word defensiveness. Author Norman Wright tells us that, "It's a wall that pushes others away. I t makes a statement about your desire to grow. It blocks communication."



Here are some ideas from Wright's book on communication that can help us admit when  we are wrong:

1. Evaluate the criticism for validity (ask yourself is there any truth to the charge against me)
2. Clarify the root problem (understand the criticism from the other person's point of view)
3. Respond positively and confidently (yes, I was wrong and I'll take the necessary steps to correct the problem)

What does the Bible say about our refusal to admit our mistakes, take a listen, it is pretty insightful:

Don't refuse to accept criticism (Prov. 23:12).

It is a badge of honor to accept valid criticism (Prov. 25:12).

If you refuse criticism you will end in poverty and disgrace (Prov. 13:18).

Let me share a personal story from the Osisek household. One day not too long ago, our five year old grandson decided that he needed to go to the bathroom. Now, let me back up just a little-I've become thoroughly domesticated since being out of the work force since 2009. My lovely wife has been carrying the load, so in my efforts to share the work load I've become a cook, and a house cleaner.

So on this day, I just finished cleaning the downstairs bathroom, which is not to fun, my least favorite job. As I go into the bathroom to admire my handiwork, lo and behold, there is a yellow liquid all over the toilet seat. I call my grandson into the bathroom and admonish him and ask him to clean up HIS mess, and much to my chagrin he turns and looks me dead in the eyes and says, "I didn't do it pop-pop, you did."

After a lengthy battle with a five year old (you'll never win) about the responsibility of cleaning up after yourself and admitting when your wrong; I think he almost convinced me that I did do it!

Moral of story: the defensiveness and the push back to admit our wrongs starts at a very young age and if left unchecked becomes a habit that is hard to break when we get older. 

Let's come before our King, acknowledge our pride and ask for the ability to admit our wrong and accept responsibility when we pee on the toilet.