April 4, 2016

"In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God." Psalm 10:4

C. S. Lewis sized up the seriousness of the pride problem when he wrote, "Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness...are mere fleabites in comparison...Pride leads to every other vice." 

Sin found it's origins in Lucifer's prideful statement, "I will be like the Most High."

So powerful was this delusion that one-third of the angels in heaven succumbed to pride as well and were cast out of heaven.

Pride was at the root of Adam and Eve's disobedient decision and became the essence of the sinful nature.

Pride was at the root of the world's first murder when it turned brother against brother.

Pride exalts itself above God.

Pride exempts itself from authority.

Pride sets itself in the center of life's orbit.

Pride seeks to control it's universe.

Pride is a lie and the father of all lies.

Pride closes you in and closes others out.

Pride closes you in and closes God out.

Pride will kill you if you don't kill it.

Pride is easily recognized in others.

Pride is practically impossible to detect in yourself.

Here are three serious questions to ponder today and throughout the week.

How does pride manifest itself in your life?

How does pride masquerade itself in your life?

How long will you allow it to control your life?

April 3, 2016

"What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?" Matthew 16:26

Jesus was very clear and urgent about the value of a soul.

In the verse above you can see that He believed your soul is the most valuable commodity you possess. It is so valuable you are hard pressed to place a value on it.

This will help you fix a value on your soul - Jesus died to save it! So you can calculate the value God places on the worth of your soul!

Here's a couple of stories Jesus told to illustrate how God values a soul:

"Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15:3-10

All of heaven rejoiced for you when you trusted Christ!

The folks who attended the local church where you trusted Christ or where you settled in to grow and develop in your faith also rejoiced over your soul.

Those people in that local church valued your soul enough that they sacrificially gave their money and invested their times in order for you to have a place to find Christ and a place to grow in Him.

So what should your attitude be toward the souls of others in your community, where you work, where you workout, shop or where you worship?

What value should you place on their souls?

How do you calculate that value? Then, how do you express that value?

Does leading a lost soul to a discovery of Jesus hold a high value to you?

Is reaching a lost soul for Christ worth your money? Is it worth investing your time? Is it worth some discomfort and inconvenience?

I once heard Elmer Towns express the passion of his heart in these terms, "As long as there is one person in my city who doesn't know Jesus my church is not big enough."

So, what's my point? Why am I sharing this thought?

Because this is the value judgment you will be confronted with on numerous occasions in the coming months at FredWes as the prospect of raising money for relocation and building becomes a reality.

What would I give in exchange for a soul?

April 2, 2016

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8

Change is difficult and FredWes is experiencing a lot of changes with more to come.

We are most likely will need to move to two identical worship services in the Fall do we can accommodate our growing Children's Ministry and continue to reach young families.

Those of us who enjoy the variety of two styles of worship will have to make a sacrifice.

Some of our Children's Ministry volunteers will need to adjust to a new Sunday Schedule and our Worship Team volunteers will be doing double duty.

Is this really necessary?

Will it be worth it?

We will be facing the need to raise significant amounts of moving to finance our relocation and eventual building at New Post. That will require financial sacrifices to follow where God is leading us.

Will all this sacrifice and inconvenience really be worth it?

At some point we will need to sell our current building and possibly meet briefly in a temporary space while we build our 15,000 square foot worship and ministry space at New Post.

Why do this?

Why put up with being so uncomfortable?

Honestly, those are very good questions!

Fortunately, there are some very good answers.

We must do it because we are called!

Acts 1:8 is a restatement of the Great Commission. The Great Commission was issued with some of Jesus' final words spoken before ascending into Heaven:

"Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20

That's why we must adjust to these changes.

We must do it because of our condition!

What is our condition?

We are healthy!

We are unified!

We have high morale!

We have strong momentum!

Do you want to lose those blessings or continue to nurture them?

If we are to continue as a healthy church we must create space to grow and develop additional ministries.

We must do it because we are capable!

"......From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." Luke 12:48

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much." Luke 16:10 

What true of individuals is true of churches (since churches are made up of people) they can give themselves or they can invest themselves. Investments bring larger and on-going returns! Investments outlast the investor bless others for succeeding generations.

It's very true that growing churches are often uncomfortable, inconvenient and personally costly. I will concede that!

But let me remind you that stagnant and dying churches cost more.

Faith & Foolishness

"They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country;and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan. ”Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size." Numbers 13:26-32

Have you been caught in a April Fool's prank yet?

Have you pulled one on someone else?

On this April's Fool Day 2016 I thought I would spend some time focusing on the thin line between faith and foolishness. That line is very thin, so much so that it is often hard to discern the difference.

This story in Numbers 13 illustrates that point in real time!

God, through Moses, had led His people OUT of Egypt and THROUGH the wilderness and was preparing to lead them INTO Canaan, the land He promised to Abraham 600 years earlier. More recently God had reaffirmed that promise to Moses.

Prior to crossing into Canaan Moses decided to send twelve spies ahead to spy out the land for 40 days. These spies, one from each tribe of Israel, came back with their intelligence report.

They had each spent the same amount of time searching out the same territory and seeing essentially the same things. But ten of them came to a dramatically different conclusion that the other two.

Caleb and Joshua came back with the faith perspective. "Yes, there are mighty people in the land but there are great spoils to be had and God can give this land to us!"

But the other ten spies represented the opposite viewpoint. While they agreed this was a land filled with prosperity and potential it seemed to them like a foolish idea to attack the giants occupying the land.

Here are two very differing versions of what constituted faith and what qualified as foolish. These were all good men. They had been hand-picked by Moses but drew the line at very different places. 

History recorded that Caleb and Joshua were right but at the time their conclusion was judged to be foolish. So rather than cross into the Promised Land the people of God cringed at the giants and for 40 years they wandered in the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan.

I share this account because those of us from FredWes find ourselves at a similar place in our journey. God has led us to the verge of our preferred future and there will be moments when separating faith from foolish could get a little foggy.

Apparently, this has been an issue with God's people throughout the ages because Paul addresses it with the Church at Corinth in the opening chapter of his letter to them:

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God —that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”  I Corinthians 1:18-31

I think this Scripture provides several insights that could have benefited the ten spies and can give some guidance to us!

What is God's will in this matter?

God had made it clear to Moses and through Moses that He intended to lead them into the Promised Land to conquer it. In fact, He had promised to give it to them.

What is God's wisdom in this matter?

If you know God's will then you have the inside track on His wisdom. Whatever lines up with His will is wise to Him and to us. In fact, if it seems foolish to us it is probably His way of calling us to faith!

What has been God's way in this matter?

A third factor in discerning between faith and foolishness is to observe how God has led you to this point. Have there been points along the way that seemed foolish at the time? At what points were faith required to get us to where we are now? Where would we be if we had done what seemed right to us at the time? 

We know that God's way is not our way so it will sound foolish when we first become aware of it, right?

We also know that God's way is to glorify Himself through us! He may do it through our faith or He may do it in spite of our foolishness!

FredWes, as we move forward to our destiny let's learn from these lines of demarcation - what is God's will, what is God's wisdom and what has been God's way! That will keep us on the footsteps of faith and off the path of foolishness!

March 31, 2016

"And if you give even a cup of cold to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded." Matthew 10:42

If giving a cup of cold fresh water to a needy Christ-follower brings a reward, what does giving a well do?

Honestly, we will never know the full scope of the answer to this question until we get to Heaven. 

Hopefully, when that question is fully answered a significant part of the reward will involve scores of people who became Christ-followers because of the placement of a well in their community by Christ-followers in a small church on the other side of the world.

This Sunday we will get a partial glimpse of the impact our wells are making in Sierre Leone, West Africa and in Mozambique on the south eastern coast of Africa. Scott Drury, representing World Hope will be coming to share some updates on our wells and the clean water component of their world-wide missionary efforts.

But I know the hearts of the FredWes Family and I know they don't contribute to the Flow H20 Fund JUST to receive a reward.

FredWes gives to Flow H20 because it is the right thing to do. FredWes is committed to "Loving people to LIFE" and that involves seeing a need and meeting it. According to the Great Commandment and also, the Great Commission, loving people to life is what God has called us to do. Therefore, it is the right thing - even the righteous thing - to do! That's why we do it!

We also give to Flow H20 because we are resourced to do it! Jesus tells us when we have what we need and we encounter another who needs it we are called to give to him what we have to give. We are also told in God's Word that if we are faithful with the few things we have God will trust us with more things.

We give to Flow H20 because the gift of a well to a community provided by strangers in America who happen to be Christians will reach people for Christ. Reaching people for Christ is one of the primary reasons we exist as a church! Even as I write this article and now as you are reading it God's Holy Spirit is working His people in Sierra Leone and Mozambique to reach people who have been made more receptive to the Gospel through the gift of a well in their village.

Why are we passionate about Flow H20? 

Four reasons:

• It's right
• We're resourced
• It reaches the lost
• It brings a reward

Forgiveness Is Like...

"Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”— and you forgave the guilt of my sin." Psalm 32:5

Forgiveness is like the eraser on the pencil.

Forgiveness is like a mulligan on the first tee.

Forgiveness is the cop letting you off with just a warning.

Forgiveness is a do-over when you have made a major blunder.

Forgiveness lifts the elephant off your chest.

In his great book, "What's So Amazing About Grace", Phillip Yancey tells the story of a prodigal daughter who grows up in Traverse City, Michigan. Disgusted with her old fashioned parents who overreact to her nose ring, the music she listens to, the length of her skirts, she runs away. She ends up in Detroit where she meets a man who drives the biggest car she’s ever seen. The man with the big car – she calls him “Boss” – recognizes that since she’s underage, men would pay premium for her. So she goes to work for him. Things are good for a while. Life is good. But she gets sick for a few days, and it amazes her how quickly the boss turns mean. Before she knows it, she’s out on the street without a penny to her name. She still turns a couple of tricks a night, and all the money goes to support her drug habit.

One night while sleeping on the metal grates of the city, she began to feel less like a woman of the world and more like a little girl. She begins to whimper. “God, why did I leave. My dog back home eats better than I do now.” She knows that more than anything in the world, she wants to go home. Three straight calls home get three straight connections with the answering machine. Finally she leaves a message. “Mom, dad, its me. I was wondering about maybe coming home. I’m catching a bus up your way, and it’ll get there about midnight tomorrow. If you’re not there, I‘ll understand.” During the seven hour bus ride, she’s preparing a speech for her father. And when the bus comes to a stop in the Traverse City station, the driver announces the fifteen-minute stop. Fifteen minutes to decide her life.

She walks into the terminal not knowing what to expect. But not one of the thousand scenes that have played out in her mind prepares her for what she sees. There in the bus terminal in Traverse City, Michigan, stands a group of forty brothers and sisters and great-aunts and uncles and cousins and a grandmother and a great-grandmother to boot. They’re all wearing goofy party hats and blowing noise-makers, and taped across the entire wall of the terminal is a computer-generated banner that reads – Welcome Home!

Out of the crowd of well-wishers breaks her dad. She stares out through the tears quivering in her eyes and begins her memorized speech. He interrupts her. “Hush, child. We’ve got no time for that. No time for apologies. We’ll be late. A big party is waiting for you at home!

That's forgiveness - God-style! He takes your penalty and gives you His peace and throws you a party!