There is an old song that simply says “He’s still working on me, to make me what I ought to be.”  Today I am remind of that even more than normal.  I have made it my mission to “passionately pursue” Jesus and in that process sometimes “passion” becomes the focus more than Jesus, and passion out of focus can come back to bite you in the you know what.

Part 1 of this installment was the extent of my future planning.  I begin to ask God last night what would part 2.  I had nothing.  Today God spoke to me about part 2 and as most Pastor’s know, when you get a word from God you typically get an image of a person that this will impact.  That happened to me when God spoke to me, but instead of getting an image of someone else, my ugly mug was stuck in my head.  God spoke to me a simple sentence…”Twitter is not a weapon.”

There are certain things that bring out extreme emotions in me; Jesus, family, the church, politics, and the Saints.  Sometimes those emotions are not coupled with wisdom.  God begin to speak to me on how I use social media and its purpose should be to spread the gospel, not to spread our issues.  I had to repent today and reevaluate how I was using twitter and Facebook.  It seems to be easier to “tweet” something that you would not “speak.”  I think as Pastors we need to not air our issues out on the social media for everyone to see.  Now some of you might have this under control and to you I say “awesome,” but to those that tend to put “their foot in their mouth” via social media, I feel your pain.  Ethics is simply doing the right thing even if the wrong thing makes you feel better.  As Pastors we should use social media to spread the gospel, encourage each other, and promote the unity of the faith.  Politics are fun, sports are entertaining, problems come, churches have issues, and life is sometimes extremely tough but let us not use “twitter as a weapon.”  Lets spread the good news!

I’m reminded of 1 Corinthians 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”  Our social media should also bring glory to God.  God reveled some ethics issues in my life and I’m thankful that “He’s still working on me.”

Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. (Philippians 1:4, 5 NLT)

As I was reading this my eyes stayed focused on “partners”. This word simply means fellowship, joint participation, or a pledge to fulfill a goal. What would happen to churches if we begin to look at what we are doing as “partners” instead of “individuals”. Not a church but partners of churches spreading the gospel MSG of salvation. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Repentance, baptism in Jesus name, and the holy this with sign of tongues. What would happen if saints felt a partnering spirit not just pastoral team but we are all pledging to fulfill the great commission. I think it would do exactly what it did for Paul….bring Joy! Many churches are unhappy, stressed, and ineffective because they are doing it alone. Many saints are frustrated and depressed because they are sitting on the sidelines. Get in the game! Let’s have a partner attitude and experience joy!

I’m working on this on Nola. We are not known for our “partnership” as churches but I believe it will be one of the keys for apostolic revival in Nola! Get ready, get set….Partner!

What are “ethics?”  In this context they simply mean “doing the right thing even if the wrong thing grows your church.”  It is easy to plant a church and/or revive a church if your goal is simply “more” people.  The goal of a church should be “transformed” people.

Topic 1 PEOPLE CHANGE CHURCHES

I heard a preacher sing “Thats Life” at Because of the Times (which you should attend in 2012, see the POA) and its appropriate for this post.  People change churches….thats life!  Ethics comes in to play in how you handle this situation.  As a pastor and leader at our church I have been on both sides of this issue.  We’ve had people leave, not sure why though, and had people come.  I asked a mentor about this and he said, when you have a great church people will want to come.  People changing churches is a part of life, how you handle it determines if you have ethics or not. This is how we handle it at New Life:  We have a process for connecting with first time guest, if we notice they are from another church we will monitor their consistency in coming (b/c their home church may have taken a night service off or some other reason they were just “visiting”), if they come constantly and begin to support the church in offerings, we will schedule a meeting with them and request they return to their home church and have a one on one with their pastor to resolve any issues so they can stay at their home church.  After they have had that meeting and still persist to come to our church we then contact their home church pastor.  I will admit this is a very awkward conversation, but it is the right thing to do.  After these two steps have been made, we then wait to use the new people for a few months to make sure they are really settled in, with the hope they might return home.  After a few months and it is apparent they are now part of the New Life family, we use them like anyone else.

I truly believe if I follow those 3 steps; have them contact their pastor, me contact their pastor, wait to make sure this is permeant before “selling” them on our church, I have kept my integrity and ethics in the situation.  This is important b/c our goal is not “grow” numbers but “grow” people.  The disciples were told to go out and cast their nets and God brought great harvest of fish.  The key to great harvest is to “have your nets.”  God will not send a harvest to an unprepared church and a pastor without ethics is no prepared!  My wife told me last night, “a church built on saint stealing will not have the favor of God.”  I agree!  Reminds me of an old book “tale of three kings”  Motives matter and so our motives are revealed by our ethics!

I was having a bad day, allowing things to weigh me down and then I remembered, He will touch-down! I don’t want to let anything, anyone, or any situation hold me down! We must lay aside every sin and weight. I’m ready for the touchdown!

Proverbs 13:20 NIV
20 Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.

I believe in the power of influence.  What and who you allow to speak into your life will determine your direction.  I’m a firm believer in being very intentional and specific in relationships.  I believe that I’m still living for God simply because I surrounded myself with godly people.  Proverbs gives us a promise and a warning.  The promise is simple,walk with wise people and you will be wise!  The warning is also as simple, hang out with fools and you will suffer harm.  The shrapnel of their lives will impact your life.  You may not be a “fool” but you will suffer for simply surrounding your self with fools.  A biblical fool is simply someone that knows right and wrong but refuse to do the right thing.

When my AWESOME little man was born, I wanted to start his life out by connecting him with godly, wise,anointed men of God.  As a parent, I will be very intentional with who and what I allow into the life of Jude.  I have decided to get pictures of him and men of God believing that their influence in his life will ultimately impact him for the kingdom of God

Leviticus 21:10 (KJV)

10 And he that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes;

JOB – One by one the news of the dramatic losses began to pour into the ears of Job. His cattle, his goods, his stuff, his kids, his world began to crumble around him, before his eyes everything began to fall apart. One report after another, brought nothing be devastating news, heartbreaking messages, and I can imagine as he slipped further down into his chair as he began to suffer from a broken heart. This is Job, a godly man, yet he finds himself at his wits end, without hope, in despair and the bible says he “rends” his clothes. In an act of total despair and depression, HE TEARS HIS CLOTHES.

DAVD- As the news reaches the ears of King David, his heart sinks to the bottom of his stomach, and tears well up in his eyes, he hears those dreaded words that no parent ever should hear…your son Abner is dead. In this moment of hopelessness, the mighty King, the man after God’s own heart, RENDS HIS CLOTHES

JACOB – as Jacob set in his house, his boys came bursting in bringing the dreaded news that his beloved boy, Joseph, had died. As Jacob heard the news, his eyes filled with tears, his heart began to break in pieces, what had started out as a great day, turned into a day he would never forget. In a moment of utter fear, and heartache, HE RENT HIS CLOTHES.

KING – 2 Kings 6 – A great famine swept through Samaria and they were besieged by the King of Aram. The situation was so bad donkey heads were being sold for 80 pieces of silver, dove dungs was sold for 5 pieces of silver, The King of Samaria was on the walls walking, when a women comes to him for help and tells him a story of two mothers who decided to kill one baby and eat him, then kill the next and eat him. After one was killed, the other mother changed her mind and hid her child, the king was so overwhelmed with what was going on, he rent his clothes…this is devastating and no hope, never recover, no solutions.

Rending garments was accepted, but not for the PRIEST, they were never to do it.

OT Priest were allowed to be in the PRESENCE of YAWAH.

To rend their garments would simply say, even being in the presence of God, my situation is to bad, to far gone…to hopeless

That would be an insult to my God:  He is:  omnipotent…powerful…Mighty God…

Everyone else my seem out of hope, in despair, the world my be in fear but I”VE got the anointing oil! But to those that the anointing oil rest and those that have been in the presence.  There is nothing that my God can’t do!!!

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (KJV)

8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;  9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

I am not here to condemn or condone Sean Payton’s move to Dallas.

The subject has been folded, spindled and mutilated for an entire week. Time to give it a much-needed rest.

But what I am here to do is defend the local reaction to the story. The local citizenry has been unfairly criticized in recent days for the widespread panic generated by Payton’s move.

As the story gained traction last week, it swept across the nation like a California brushfire fed by Santa Ana winds. It went from local to regional to national news in a matter of days.

Jim Rome on “Rome is Burning,” Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon of “Pardon the Interruption,” the panel on “Around the Horn,” Colin Cowherd, two columnists from CBSSports.com - everyone had an opinion.

Even Gov. Bobby Jindal and Mayor Mitch Landrieu felt compelled to weigh in on the matter.

Similarly to the post-Katrina coverage, the national viewpoint was vastly different than the local one. Most national pundits were outraged at New Orleans’ outrage.

Cowherd, ESPN Radio’s marquee act, took New Orleanians to task for their myopia.

“Not everybody wants to be a part of a rebuilding process,” Cowherd said. “Let’s be honest, New Orleans has got its issues. … You live in a bathtub. It’s a bowl. It’s only 50 percent rebuilt because of Katrina. … Westlake is high living, better schools, no crime.”

Something tells me Cowherd and former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens would have gotten along.

As we all know, the Paytons do not live in New Orleans. They live, or lived, in Mandeville, where the schools rank among the best in the state and the crime rate is virtually non-existent.

Mandeville hasn’t had a reported rape or murder in more than two years.

Know how many robberies were committed in Mandeville last year? One.

The most dangerous thing in The Sanctuary, the exclusive gated community the Paytons have called home for the past five years, are the free-roaming deer that wander the wooded hillsides.

Cowherd wasn’t the only critic shooting from the hip.

CBSSports.com columnist Gregg Doyel accused New Orleanians of playing the Katrina card.

“New Orleans was the site of a bona fide tragedy, the worst natural disaster this country had seen in 75 years,” Doyel wrote. “Hurricane Katrina was horrific, and what happened to that city in 2005 was terrifying. But that doesn’t give New Orleans, and the people who live there, a free pass to play the victim card as an excuse for trying to run Sean Payton’s life. And it’s not going to stop people like me, and others I hope, from calling out New Orleans for this pity party.”

Katrina, as we all know, was anything but a natural disaster. That aside, there are three reasons why New Orleanians are understandably upset.

The first is timing. As they say, it’s everything, and in this case Payton’s move caught everyone off guard. The move comes five years into Payton’s tenure in New Orleans, smack in the heart of the spring school semester.

Payton still has two years left on his contract. Most New Orleanians assumed the Paytons were happy and rooted here for at least that long, especially after the release of Payton’s bestseller “Home Team” last summer, which rhapsodized about the symbiotic relationship between the Saints and the city.

Second, the Saints head coaching position is special. In Louisiana, it’s arguably the most high-profile job next to the Governor. In New Orleans, it’s an exalted position. The job doesn’t have a residency requirement like the mayor, but it might as well.

Rightly or wrongly, New Orleanians want and expect the Saints head coach to be part of their community.

This isn’t the case for most sports jobs. But it is for the special ones Ñ Green Bay Packers, Detroit Red Wings, University of North Carolina basketball, Alabama Crimson Tide football.

In the NFL, perhaps only the Packers job is more important to the local populace. And rest assured, the Cheese Heads would be just as upset today if Payton had taken the Packers job five years ago and then elected to move his brood mid-term to Westlake, Texas.

Third, and perhaps most important, is the Paytons’ choice of relocation sites.

Dallas is the anti-New Orleans. It’s everything New Orleans is not. It’s the pretty honor-roll sister who was voted most likely to succeed, and did. But it’s also a soulless concrete jungle of strip malls, chain restaurants and cookie-cutter subdivisions.

And then there’s the little matter of Payton’s cozy relationship with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. These guys are not just colleagues, they’re drinking buddies.

Texas has stolen so much business and talent from New Orleans over the years, the thought of losing their Super Bowl-winning coach there rightfully knots the gut of every warm-blooded Who Dat.

How do you think Alabama fans would react if Alabama football coach Nick Saban chose to move his family to, say, Gainesville, Fla.? Think that would sit well with the Crimson Tide faithful?

What if North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams decided to move his family back to Lawrence, Kan.? How would that be received along Tobacco Road?

So spare us the righteous indignation. New Orleanians have every reason to be disappointed and disillusioned. We don’t want your pity or your scorn.

Either you get New Orleans or you don’t.

Lafcadio Hearn got it. The Ohio native moved to New Orleans more than 100 years ago and famously chronicled its happenings for a newspaper called the Daily City Item. He wrote about the good, the bad and the ugly of New Orleans, and loved all of it.

“Times are not good here,” Hearn wrote to a California friend in 1879. “The city is crumbling into ashes. It has been buried under a lava flood of taxes and frauds and maladministrations so that it has become only a study for archaeologists. Its condition is so bad that when I write about it, as I intend to do soon, nobody will believe I am telling the truth. But it is better to live here in sackcloth and ashes, than to own the whole state of Ohio.”

Saints fans are upset because one of their own, the coach of their beloved football team, seemingly doesn’t share Hearn’s sentiments.

True, we might live in a bowl. But it’s what’s inside the bowl that counts

 

Leviticus 25:23 ASV 23 And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.

God was saying that the people would one day possess land in Canaan, but in God’s plan, only God’s ownership was absolute. He wanted his people to avoid greed and materialism. If you have the attitude that you are taking care of the Lord’s property, you will make what you have more available to others. This is difficult to do if you have an attitude of ownership. Think of yourself as a manager of all that is under your care, not as an owner.

As we enter the 8^th day of the fast, I find myself thinking about the meaning of the number 8.  When I looked up the meaning, I read that in Hebrew, it means “cover with fat”, “super abound” or “one who abounds in strength”.  I found myself laughing at the irony of what I had just read as it indicated the exact opposite of what I’m feeling right now.  Don’t get me wrong, losing weight is a huge advantage to each fasting season (and believe it or not, I do lose weight every fasting season), but we need to remember that it’s a bonus and not our primary purpose.

As I look back on my fasting experiences, one thing has remained a constant: that fasting is a time of spiritual renewing…a fresh beginning.  This is the time for us to rediscover areas that we may not have necessarily lost, but throughout the year, we have let fade from our primary focus.  We may not “bow down” to other gods, but we often incorporate a lifestyle influenced by worldly priorities, people and things.  Even though we have surrendered to Jesus and He is our personal Savior, our dedication is far from complete.

I know that many of you are veterans of fasting and then there are those that are experiencing fasting for the first time.  But no matter the category you fall under, there is one thing that we all must do.  Rediscover the Word.

The Word was rediscovered during the reign of King Josiah (who was 8 years old when he became king).  The Book of the Law was found under a pile of stones in the temple.  The book had been there for years, but it’s power untouched.  King Josiah then heard the Word being read and his heart was tender and he humbled himself before the Lord.

Fasting brings out our rediscovery of the Word and it’s authority. It’s the book of divine inspiration. The book that reveals God to us.  It is the Word of God.

Hear it. Proverbs 1:5 says “A wise man will hear and will increase learning.”

Read it. In faith, read the Word.

Study it.

Take notes.

Memorize it.  Set a goal to memorize the Word.

Meditate on it.  Psalms 1:2 says “in His law, does he meditate day and night.”

I pray a hedge of protection around you and your family as you rediscover the Word of God during this fasting season.  Blessings!

 

Exodus 28:3 NIV Tell all the skilled workers to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make garments for Aaron, for his consecration, so he may serve me as priest.

The tailors who made Aaron’s garments were given wisdom by God in order to do their task. All of us have special skills. When God fills you with his Spirit, he anoints you to use those skills for his glory. Think about your special talents and abilities. What ways could you use them for God’s work in the world? As you focus on helping and giving to others, God will show you the best ways to do it and give you wisdom to accomplish the task.

The best way to know your ministry is to SERVE!  Find someone doing something for God and attach yourself to them and serve.  You are gifted by God, now allow Him to use those gifts for His kingdom!