Sunday Thoughts

Amazing day today, God moved in a supernatural way, you could feel Him from the Start of the Service to the End

Just want to say thanks to all of our ministers who are volunteers, you guys are great and you work so hard to see Kingdom of God increase & kingdom of Satan decrease. You are always on my mind and we are keeping you in our prayers. Because you are a servent of God Expect to receive from Him when you pray, expect protection for your Family & favor for your life.

Ilia did a suprissingly good job in leading Praise and Worship. One of our main band members got stuck in Mankato with his wife because their car broke down but the rest of the team did such a great job that no one noticed. Audri is finally  getting out of her shell and going prophetic in her worship. She took over at the end of praise and worship and God moved powerfully. Her faith is growing & thats why her confidence is up there.

Preached about people who sell their soul to the devil & how Satin offered Jesus all the Kingdoms of the world if Jesus would fall down and worship Him. Jesus refused & we should too. Fast success is never good, but what you pay the price for you can keep.

I just Love New Life Church, i love our People, I love what God is doing in my heart and in the hearts our Members & Visitors. People were coming up and talking about what God was doing in their hearts through this faith series. 

So continue to invite your friends & lets celebrate together.

He Restores My Soul

Last sunday after church i sold my Kawasaki KLR motorcycle to a Catholic priest.  He said the reason he is buying it is so that he can unwind on Sunday Afternoons after preaching his services. I thought it was pretty cool that one priest is buying a motorcycle from another. 

People & specially Pastors need Time, Place or Some kind of activity  that would help them restore the Soul Energy that they have given away during preaching on Sunday. Someone said that preaching for one hour is like working for 10 hours. That is so true, because if you would work for 10 hours of physical labor your body would let you know that its time to rest. However when you preach or lead people in worship for 30, 45 or 60 min. you think that its not a big deal and thats where you are wrong. 

Don’t get fooled by the amount of time that you have ministered - because it might take one or two days for you to recuperate. And if you find yourself irritable, snappy with your family, friends or you children, or you feel depressed – low energy or if you feel like you don’t want to do this anymore, or you want to quit on everything & everybody and go live somewhere in the desert by yourself, you might need some restoration of your soul.

When ministers are tired, overworked, burned-out - thats when they are most likely to commit sexual, financial sins exc.

Dont be so emotionally tired that you are not able to fight the enemy. If riding a bike will help you, or going to the lake, listening to your favorete music, or sitting by a stream, or watching a romantic movie, or praying, or reading a book, or being alon. Find a way or a channel through which God can restore your soul.

Jesus would take his disciples in to the dessert places so that they could rest & be restored. In the bible after every service Jesus would go to the mountains or desert places so he could spend time with his Father & thats where his soul was restored. King David said “He restores my Soul”. For King Saul when David played his harp it would restore his saul.

Pastors and ministers we need to make sure our body & our Soul gets some rest.

Faith, Risk, and Stupidity.

By Scott Rodgers

Risk in the name of faith, that’s stupid.  Risk that requires faith, that’s essential.

Risk in the name of faith. Taking a huge risk without patiently gathering the facts, seeking wise counsel, keeping in alignment with our life’s purpose, and lots of prayer is simply stupid.  Faith is not an excuse to be lazy and irresponsible.

Risk that requires faith. After patiently gathering as many facts as you can, seeking wise counsel, striving to keep in alignment with your life’s purpose, and lots of prayer, big risks still require faith.  There remains that ’stepping into the unknown’, ‘jumping off the ledge’, ‘entering the point of no return’, that requires faith.

There are times when we may need to stand down and not take that risk in the name of faith.  There are times when we may need to step out and take that risk because God has prepared us and the time has come.

Where are you?  Is it time to ‘stand down’ or ‘step out’?

Faith is Substance

By Steven Furtick

I like the old King James translation of Hebrews 11:1:
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith is not an abstract theoretical proposition.  It’s not wishful thinking.  It’s substance.  It’s action.

Most of my life I imagined faith as some kind of force field.  And the way we talk about faith dematerializes it.  By most definitions, faith is synonymous with hope.

The more I study Scripture, the more I detect a sharp distinction between hope and faith.  Hope is a desire. Faith is a demonstration. Hope wants it to happen. Faith causes it to happen and acts as if it’s already done.

Faith is not content to want it really, really bad.  Faith consults the drawings and gets busy building.  Hope is the blueprint.  Faith is the contractor.

Some of the things we’re believing God for will never happen in our lives because we stand in hope instead of walking in faith.

Water Baptism Lake Alvin

Today started out less then desirable, it was one of those raining mornings that just would not stop like a bad toothache, and the weatherman said it will last most of the day. And as we started to consider what we were going to do about our Lake Service and as the phone calls, text messages from our members began to pour in (Most people said Rain or Shine lets do it) on the one hand I was exited and on the other hand fear started creeping in. 

 

• What if it rains too hard? 
• What if nobody shows up?
• What if people who are being baptized change their mind?
• Should i go to our church building and fill up the pool?
• Should we begin calling people – telling them we want to cancel?

 

Those thoughts crossed my mind, however for some reason I was very calm & excited, my team was looking to me for leadership and i could not go freaking out on them, that would be a bad example.

The Lord was really testing my patience. There was a moment when 11 am hit and only like 10 cars were there i was beginning to get nervous. So i had to remind myself, I’m not in control here, God is doing something i just had to trust Him (i don’t like that) 

Worship team did an OK job; i think they were feeling  a little bit out of their comfort zone so i had to encourage them on the spot

Our people came through big time by 11:30 am – but i give them a break, they had to be there 1.5 hrs early, it rained & they had to drive extra 10 miles.

Our ladies exceeded themselves - the food was freaking awesome, those brats were amazing. Thanks everyone for that.

My kids wanted to swim, so some of us went to the beach area and it turned out to be crazy & wild. It started pouring so hard like we never seen it before (OK,Thats a little overstatement, but it rained hard and everyone got so wet that it didn’t mater. Jill decided to get Pastor Tanya in to the lake & we did,  people ran in to the water in their closing hey we were wet anyway. It was one of those experiences that only happens once in a life time. Our people are cool, love them all.

This week Audre is going to try out for American Idol – so please be in prayer for her. We will write more about it latter.

Watch for photos this week

Good night

Help. I’m broken and I can’t get up.

By Scott Rodgers 

“Broken by God”—that’s a statement I’m hearing a lot of lately.  What does it mean to be broken by God? I’m not so sure it’s something God does as much as it is a place we find ourselves in.

I think there are two primary places of brokenness.  First,brokenness can be the result of sin.  We’ve messed everything up, and now life is just broken.  Second, brokenness can be the result of surrender.  We’ve submitted ourselves to the purposes of God so much that we are experiencing pain; the pain of selflessness, submission, being misunderstood, etc.

It’s critical we don’t confuse the two.  We need to stop saying, “God is breaking me,” when we’re really just breaking ourselves by repeating destructive, sinful behavior.  And, if you’re experiencing brokenness as the result of surrender, lean into it; you’re going through a process of transformation.

Help.  I’m broken and I can’t get up. I’m flat on my back.  My sin is great. Lord, please forgive me and restore me.

Help.  I’m broken and I can’t get up.  I’m on my knees.  My surrender is great. Lord, please give me the strength to stay the course.

What are your thoughts or experiences with this topic of brokenness?

One reason God created Singing & Poetry

By John Piper 

In the Religious Affections Jonathan Edwards ventures this explanation of why there is song and poetry. And the duty of singing praises to God, seems to be appointed wholly to excite and express religious affections.

No other reason can be assigned, why we should express ourselves to God in verse, rather than in prose, and do it with music, but only, that such is our nature and frame, that these things have a tendency to move our affections. For this to have the weight it does for Edwards we need to remember that

1) “true religion consists very much in the affections,” and

2) there is no true Christian faith without the affections being awakened, and

3) God is most glorified when he is affecting us and not just known by us.

Sense Of Humor

by Craig Groeschel

Hybels wrote about the 3 “C’s” in Courageous Leadership. He said you should hire someone with character, competency, and chemistry. Many people overlook the “chemistry” part in hiring.

• If we don’t enjoy each other, we won’t likely do a good job together. That’s why we ask questions to see if a person has a good sense of humor.
• Tell us one of your most embarrassing moments.
• What is one of your favorite jokes?
• What is one of the funniest things that you’ve seen in the church world?
• These questions can be a little tough on the spot.

Even if a person is nervous and can’t immediately come up with a funny joke, in an hour interview, he or she will certainly show signs of having a sense of humor or not. At the end of the interview, if you don’t enjoy the person at all, you might look elsewhere.

Sunday Thoughts

• Today God surprised me big time
• I played and led praise & worship
• It  was the shortest service we have ever had, only about 40 minutes  
• Special Guest Michael Tarel Was to lead Music,Singing & Preaching but because of schedule conflict we had to take over
• So we put together a praise & worship team quick 
• Yes! Pastor Tanya, Maria and myself  did three amazing songs & Spirit of God moved mightily 
• It was a graduation day & many of our people were at the arena, yet we had many people who showed up 
• My good friend and his wife gave me some good news – they want to become members of New Life (He is the most talented guy i know, he can fix almost anything) Im excited for their decision & they would be a perfect fit to Gods vision for New Life
• Talked with my old Pastor from the church i grew up in, we had a great short conversation:) We are getting better every year
• Watching Joseph on TBN, this story always gets to me 
• God is in the proses of doing something great even when we don’t understand it, HE has a greater plan 
• Jesus is just as radical today as he was in the day when he physically walked this earth  
• Make it your purpose to be like Jesus, that what Godliness is (Being like God who reveled himself through Jesus)
• Good night 

Question that changed my life

By Perry Noble

We all have them…life changing moments, you know, the ones where the world seems to stand still and you come face to face with something that just about engulfs you… It happened to me in August of 1999. I was having lunch with a friend/mentor of mine at Red Lobster (LOVE their garlic cheese biscuits!)

I had been restless for about six months and I knew God was pushing me towards something…but I wasn’t sure what. AND…I didn’t want my restlessness to turn into rebellion by me trying to force something…so I began processing with him out loud… And he asked me THIS question… “What would you be willing to attempt for God if you knew you could not fail?”

I knew the answer…I didn’t even have to think about it…it literally just flew out of my mouth, “I would plant a church.” He looked at me dead in the eye and said, “then you are a coward if you don’t!” SO…literally…at that moment I said “yes” to the call I knew God had placed on my life. I didn’t know the answers (still don’t), I didn’t know anything about strategy or structure, didn’t know how technology would play a part of the church, didn’t know how we were going to establish leadership…I didn’t know a LOT… BUT…what I did know is that God had placed a DREAM inside of me to plant a church…and when Dale asked me the question I mentioned earlier it SHOOK me…and DROVE me to take a DIVE of faith.

SO…what about you…what would YOU be willing to attempt for God if you KNEW you could not fail? If the answer isn’t, “what I am doing right now” then I would say you need to do some serious praying and rearranging. You see…life is SHORT…our days are numbered…and God didn’t put us on this planet to screw around…but rather to MAKE A DIFFERENCE by USING what HE has given us to advance HIS Kingdom and MAKE HIM FAMOUS!

Too many of us are held captive by fear…but remember He is THE MOST HIGH GOD!!! Never let fear trump the potential God has placed in you! Too many of us are held captive by the unknown…but remember HE KNOWS! Besides…if we have EVERY answer to every question then what He is comanding us to do would not require faith on our part…and where would the fun be in that?!?!?! Too many of us are held captive by people who say “it” can’t be done…but if you will look at who is saying that “it” you will discover that they aren’t actually doing anything except for trying to hold back the people God is letting loose to do ministry.

Too many of us are held captive by critics…but if you will notice Jesus was criticized…and, if you are not experiencing some opposition then that means the enemy is pleased with you…not exactly the calling our lives should fulfill!!! What would you be willing to attempt for God if you KNEW you could not fail?

You’ve GOT to beg Him for revelation on this…and when He gives you the Word…you’ve GOT to act. God doesn’t reveal Himself to us so that we can CONSIDER IT…but rather so that we will be CONSUMED by it and OBEY HIS VOICE! BTW…if the thing that you would attempt scares you to death…if you have had sleepless nights thinking about it…if you KNOW that failure is a sure thing unless HE gets involved…then you should probably make a move…SOON! (Like…maybe even RIGHT NOW!!!)

When Dale asked me that question I told myself, “I’ve got nothing to lose…I am going to give this a shot…I don’t want to waste my life and then look back 20 years from now and begin asking ‘what if’ questions!” (AND…you don’t want that for yourself either!!!) SO…what would you be willing to attempt for God if you knew you could not fail?

You’re not waiting on Him…He’s waiting on you…do you need to make a move, share Christ with someone, plant a church, change careers…WHAT IS IT that BURNS YOUR HEART and DRAWS YOU to DESPERATE DEPENDENCE ON HIM? What would you be willing to attempt for God if you knew you could not fail? Can you imagine what the world would be like if all of us allowed that question to drive the vision for our lives? What about it?