The Vow

We’ve just completed the second week of our series “The Vow”. This past week we looked at the vow of pursuing our Number Two!
Now you would think that this would be a very easy thing to do. You would think that it would be something that we all would be excited about. You would think!
But what I am finding out by listening to our married couples so far this week is that we have a hard time pursuing anymore. I don’t think it’s because we don’t think we need to, no it’s not that. I could list a lot of questions to ask ourselves, but I think it boils down to what our vow this next Sunday is all about.
You see, we will grow weary of pursuing when we think that it is about ourselves! When our pursuit is still about what we can get out of our relationship, we will grow weary.
Maybe it’s time to really put ourselves back a step or two and let God be our #1 and our spouses – really be our #2. If God is #1, our spouse #2, then we will serve, we’ll do whatever it takes to bring happiness into their lives and we’ll eventually find that our hearts will be at peace and our relationship will begin to grow strong.
It’s about the “WE” not the “ME!”

The Vow of Priority Pt. 2

Last week I wrote about what a husband can do to protect his wife. Let's finish real quick with three more things that a husband can do to be the great protector of his wife.
4. Relationally: in our relationships (marriages) we too often forget that we must constantly be working to keep them fresh and right. In the marriage relationship we must also strive to keep them pure. Guys, lets be honest, we have a problem with this. We have the tendency to not show our wives that they are the greatest thing that has happened to our lives. One big thing you can do is "guard your eyes." Job said in Job 31:1, "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman." Wow! What honesty and courage. This man, let us see into his heart and mind and let us know that he had to make it a daily thing to not look upon another woman with lust. It's one thing to notice beauty, it's another thing to linger and begin to imagine things in our minds. Your wife can see your eyes. She knows when you linger and are probably not thinking holy things. Guard your eyes!
5. Emotionally: remind her constantly that she is your #2! Yes, we all know it! Woman are wired differently than us guys! But just because she may cry because the kids are singing louder than anyone else in the program, or because a card came in the mail from her mother, doesn't mean that we make fun of her. What we need to do is keep her emotional well full. She is drained everyday and we must work hard to keep that well of emotions ready by letting her know daily how important she is to us. Let her know that there is no one else, let her know that God is your #1 and she is your #2!

Strive this week to make God your #1 and your spouse your #2!

Sunday Reflections!

The Vow of Priority

This past Sunday at CCC we experienced once again another first. This was the second week in a row that we have had the largest crowd we’ve ever had outside of our special day crowds. It is pretty exciting around here. Another first: we have experienced 44 baptisms so far this month, that is the largest number of people to be baptized in one month ever! We have quite a few more people reading, studying and praying about this decision.
But one of the most exciting things to happen is what is happening with our married couples. This past Sunday we witnessed a large majority of our married couples promising to make God their #1 priority and their spouses #2! But on top of that we had an overwhelming number of hands go up when husbands and wives alike promised to spend 30 seconds a day praying with each other.
I’ve gotten e-mails, twitter updates, Facebook status reports of our couples praying together everyday. It is transforming our marriages right before our eyes.
One thing that I want to encourage you men about is this:
1. Protect your wives Physically!
By first of all protecting your own eyes. Be careful with what you put in front of your eyes. Don’t be fooled, your wife knows when you let your eyes wonder. (Some of us aren’t the least bit deceptive about this.) Protect her heart by having only eyes for her.
2. Protect her Spiritually!
Make God #1! For too long we’ve made ourselves #1 and we’ve chased after what we want in life. It’s time to let her know that God is your #1 and she is your #2. Start or continue with the act of praying with her everyday. And when you pray with her – hold her hand! (I’m telling you guys, you’ll move up the Prince Charming ladder real quick.) Don’t worry about your words, talk to God about your wife, her needs for the day, her heart as she tries to navigate the waters of being a God Follower, a wife, mother and all the other stuff that she has to do.
3. Protect her Financially!
Guys don’t go the way of the world. The world’s philosophy is to get all you can while you can and that means going into more and more debt. If you are in debt with credit cards, tear them up today! Start with a plan on how as a family you can get those paid off. Think of all the things you can do together as a couple and as a family when you have protected your wife in financial areas.

We’ll cover some more areas of protection later. But the real issue is this: When you are striving to make God your #1, you’ll grow closer and closer to him. When both spouses working to get closer to God, you will eventually grow so close to each other that the world will see you as a couple with God as your strength. Your children will be happier. You jobs will be more fulfilling and your neighbors will want what you’ve got – God!

Sunday Reflections!

As Sunday, Oct. 11, 2009 comes to a close, I have to reflect on how awesome church was again at CCC. We had a great crowd of over 650 people here for our Missions' Fair. We had all of the missions that we support represented around the hallways of the church. It was just awesome to see our people visiting with and picking up the information of everyone of our missions so that we can all as a church be in prayer for each and ever mission that we support.
Also over the week, we saw four more people come to Jesus through Christian baptism. What a week!
But with all this, we've got to as a church really begin to see into the future. We are quickly (once again) running out of room. Our Station 4:19 on Sunday mornings are running well over the 70 mark each Sunday with the adult volunteers and children in that room. We are maxing out the second service with well over the 80%. (Church growth people tell you that once you get over the 80% mark in a room, you probably won't grow anymore, so you have to start thinking outside the box of what you are gong to do.) A little over a year ago, we made the decision to go to a second service and have simultaneous worship and Sunday School. Over that time we have grown over 150 people and we are faced with what to do to keep reaching out to people that aren't going to church anywhere. We've got to get out of the box in our thinking this time.
Starting last week, all our departments starting working on and turning in their budgets for 2010. What an exciting time, because instead of dreading the year ahead, we are asking everyone to dream of what they can do to grow their area and how we can do it with Godly stewardship. So, people are passionately putting together their ideas and numbers for what they want to do in 2010. This is exciting, but the reality is this; we are going to have to give to make these things happen. We want to give more to our missionaries that we hosted yesterday. We want to expand our children's area more. We are looking at what we can do to reach out to more and more people through the internet and streaming our services live, but we can't do it unless our budget grows and it can only grow when we all realize that we need to be tithing and giving to the cause.
It's pretty exciting around here! God is blessing us and we aren't going to pray save prayers for the future. We need to face these obstacles so that we can see that our real dependance isn't upon our money as individuals and a church, but our real dependance is upon our God!
Start praying today for all that needs to be done here at CCC. In two weeks we have an opportunity to reach out to a ton of young couples that aren't going to church anywhere and need a church home that they can trust their children with. Our Fall Festival is three Saturdays away (Oct. 31). Think of a young couple with children that need a place to come and worship and know that their child will be taught how to follow God.
Start praying now for Oct. 31, no safe prayers, let's pray for miracles and opportunities to show God to a world that is hurting and lost with Him.

Sunday Reflections!

What a Sunday we just had at CCC! For us it was an amazing day in the history and passion of this church. Sunday we finished up our series on "The Journey" a walk with God! We had been looking at the conditions of salvation that God has laid out for us through the commands of Jesus. We looked at faith - without it the writer of Hebrews said, it is impossible to please God. We looked at Confession of who Jesus is: our Lord and our God! We looked at Repentance and how we must repent. Finally we looked at Baptism, what it means and what it is.
The Journey in this life is filled with turns and twist, sign post telling us where to go and where not to go. These four conditions are much like those signs. If we don't follow them, we'll never get to our destination: Heaven.
Sunday we came to a time where we knew we would have to challenge the people of CCC that had never been baptized before to move and do it now! We prayed about what to do, what could we do that would move them to step out on their faith and name Jesus as their Lord and God through Christian baptism.
We decided to just get in the water and invite. Take a chance to be ridiculous and look foolish if it didn't work.
Well, those that were here this past Sunday know what happened next. In the first service three men stepped up and were baptized, what a great and awesome sight.
But then for our second service we had six teens step forward and want to be baptized. It looked like that might be the only ones that were coming, not bad, but I knew that there were many, many more adults out there that needed to make this move. One of our gentlemen that has been an elder and a very spiritual and knowledgeable man - came up while I was in the baptistry and took the microphone. He looked out into the crowd and just challenged our adults to look and see what our students were doing and what were they waiting for. The flood gates opened and adult after adult started making their way to the front of the church. Our ladies back stage helping in the changing rooms and preparing people said it was a holy revival back there. One man said he was ready to just jump in. One guy didn't change clothes he just wore the one's he had on for church, as a matter of fact we had to ask him to take his shoes off or he would of wore them in the baptistry as well.
What a day! And we've been talking this week to many more that will be making the same decision this week and this next Sunday!
What a day at CCC! If you missed it - don't worry, we are praying for even more ridiculous things to happen at CCC! You'll have something else to be praising God about here in the next few weeks.

Sunday Reflections!

What another great day at CCC! Although many families were hitting the camping trail, vacation one more time and getting out of town just because we had a great day at CCC! Visitors all over the place, excitement in our children's area: Station 4:19. (By the way 4:19 comes from Matt. 4:19, "Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people." We are trying to get our children to reach out and bring their friends to Jesus.) The CCC Raceway was another great hit for us this year. We have seen God each time we set out to do something where we have the opportunity to invite neighbors, family and friends bless us beyond our wildest dreams and imagination. Parents and children working hard together to build pinewood derby cars to race against each other. It was awesome! Some of the cars were unbelievable - which means dad spent some quality time with the router and wood carving knife. But it was still fun to watch all the people gathered in the Axis room cheering each other on. And how many churches have the Corvette Club of SW MO come out to your church on a Sunday. It was Awesome!
But what really struck me was the number of people out on the new parking lot around tables eating and fellowshipping together. I saw visitors talking with members and I heard the conversations of the members talking about all the activities that we have for their children outside of CCC Raceway Day. I heard them talk about our small groups and about the opportunities to meet new people and get a handle on what God is doing in all of the lives that they saw working hard on that particular Sunday. It was AWESOME!
Well, I've got to get going, got a hamstring that is calling for some relaxation and ice! Don't know when that can really happen, but it's yelling at me anyway!

The Abuse of Grace!

Let me address a very important subject. (And if you don’t like me getting up in your grill, then go ahead and read someone else’s blog.) Well, honestly I don’t have to address it, the Apostle Paul has all ready addressed it in Romans 6:1-4, “Well, then should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?” Over the last few months I have been approached by people (mainly people that say they want my counsel – that’s their first mistake) and they start telling me about their life – how bad their life is, how bad their jobs are, mainly how bad their marriages are. Then they tell me that they can’t stand their boss and they are going to mess them over, or that they hate the way their life is going and they are just going to give up and give up on God and live life without him, or that their spouse is terrible and they are going to divorce them. Then they tell me that they know that what they are about to do: lie to someone, hurt someone, cheat someone, etc. is wrong, but then, they look me in the eye and they say to me (like I didn’t know it or believe it), “God is a God of grace!” Sure I knew that, and I believe that with all my heart. As a matter of fact, I’m basing my entire eternal life upon it! I BELIEVE IN GRACE!
But as Paul asks, if God is graceful and our spiritual, eternal lives depend upon it, should we go ahead and sin anyway? His words after that are pretty strong: “Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.” No, we don’t just go ahead and sin because we are going to claim that God is bond by his grace to forgive us. Grace is NOT the license to live a life of unrepentant sin! When we use His grace as an excuse to go ahead and sin, to do something that we know is wrong, we are not worshipping HIM as God…we are worshipping ourselves!
So, please before you say you know that this is wrong, but you are going to go ahead and do it no matter what God has said, realize at that time, it’s not grace that you need – it’s a good evaluation if grace or the death of Jesus has ever meant anything to you in the first place. Have you forgot – you died with Christ, well maybe you didn’t.
See, if you read this whole thing and you are mad – well, maybe you should of listened to me in the first place and gone on! I’m claiming grace oh yeah, that doesn’t work here does it? Grace, funny thing when something done against or to you!