Clearing the Temple

Two additional thoughts about Jesus clearing out the temple as recorded in Matthew 21:12-13.
1. Jesus was expected by his followers to assume the kingship of Israel and then through the Romans out of Israel and usher in the Messianic Kingdom. Instead, he goes to the Temple and drives out those who were using God’s Temple for their own gain. He attacked the system that was truly keeping people in bondage. That was the Pharisees whose rules and regulations made it impossible to become a follower of God. Jesus took what they had put in place which didn’t lead them into God’s Kingdom and threw it out. He made a way for each of us to come into God’s Kingdom.
2. God gives us chances to clear the clutter out of our lives. There does seem to come a time when he takes it upon himself to forcefully remove the things that separate us from him. Which is better? Too drive the things are wrong in our lives out like Jesus drove out the money changers? Or to have God come in and force them out.

What do we believe about the Bible?

"The Old and New Testaments, inerrant as originally given, were verbally inspired by God and are a complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men. They constitute the divine and only rule of Christian faith and practice." This is taken directly from our Statement of Beliefs on our website. It sounds good, but what does it mean and why is it important. Let's start by talking about what inerrant means. Inerrancy is the view that when all the facts become known, they will demonstrate that the Bible in its original autographs and correctly interpreted is entirely true and never false in all it affirms, whether that relates to doctrine or ethics or to the social, physical, or life sciences.

This means that there are no contradictions in the Bible. Anything that we think is a contradiction show us that we do not have enough information about the passage to understand it completely. It also speaks to the original autographs as being inerrant. Not to the many copies and translations. We know that some of the translations of the Bible seem to change what is being said when compared to other translations. The Bible is trustworthy in all that it contains.

This is important because there is also a belief about the Bible that is infallible. This is the belief that what the Bible says regarding matters of faith and Christian practice are wholly useful and true. Some denominations that teach infallibility hold that the historical or scientific details, which may be irrelevant to matters of faith and Christian practice, may contain errors. This becomes a slippery slope where the judgment of where the Bible is fallible or infallible falls to very fallible men. We start to believe that the Bible is wrong on one area and then that leads us to believe that it is wrong in many areas. If it is wrong then we don’t have a basis to stand on as believers in Jesus Christ. We have seen over the last few years in many church denominations that hold to Bible to be infallible but not inerrant a change in direction away from what the Bible teaches and they have allowed and condoned things that the Bible specifically speaks against. This is because they have made judgments on God's Word that are incorrect and are teaching false ideas.

Let’s hold fast to the Word of God as it is the complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men and the only rule of Christian faith and practice.

What does it mean to be a servant?

As I was studying in Matthew 20, I came across Jesus talking about what greatness looks like in God's kingdom. To be great, you must be the servant of all. We don't have servants around today as they have in the past. It isn't something most of us have come across or are familiar with. What does a servant do? A servant does whatever his master requires. He does small jobs that seem menial and below him as well as large, complicated jobs that stretch his talents to the limit. A servants primary responsibility is to complete the work given by the master. In our case, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to love God and to love others and also to go into the world to make disciples or fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. For us to become great in God's eyes, we need to be about his business and his business comes before ours in order or priority. What changes would God want in your life for you to be about his business?

Guiding Statement

There is a lot of talk in church circles about vision. Depending on who defines vision, you may come across 10 different people with 10 different definitions. At the Edge Church we have a guiding statement. It is this.

God’s call to the Edge Church is to establish, build and maintain loving relationships in three key areas. These key areas are the relationship between each one of us and God, between each other in the body of Christ and between each one of us and those who are not followers of Jesus Christ.

As we move forward as a church, we will refer back to this statement to give us guidance on what we should do. If it does not establish, build or maintain loving relationships then we will not do it. It could be a great idea, a great program, but if it doesn't fit in with our goals then there is no point in doing it.

Baptism

It was amazing to be part of baptizing 6 people on Sunday. Each has made a personal commitment to follow Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 6, when we go down into the water we are identifying with Jesus' death and burial. When we come up out of the water we are rising to a new life in Christ Jesus. Just as Jesus arose into a new life, we too have new life in him. It is amazing that God does that for us. It wasn't enough for him to reach out to us, to show us the way to get to him. Instead of leaving it there, he paves the way for us and pays for all the tolls and gives us the strength and power to serve him. None of it comes from us, all of it comes from him.

Leadership Summit

This past week I attended a Leadership Summit that was put on by the Willow Creek Association. It was a 2 day program that had a lot of good speakers and some great ideas for how to lead in these uncertain times. One of the things that struck me the most was that someone asked one of the speakers recently when would things go back to normal. When would the economy start working again. When can we go back to the way things were before. He answered with the question, what if this is the new normal? What if things around us continue to be uncertain? Does this change who God is and that he has a plan and a purpose for not only the Edge Church, but for each of you? God does not change, he is not surprised by the events happening around the world. If this is the new normal, all this uncertainty, how are you going to approach life from now on? What changes could God be asking you to make in your life? He is challenging me to trust him in all things.

The Future

I have been thinking about the future over the last couple of months. I have been trying to answer the question of what does the future hold for the Edge Church. I can see in the distance where we are headed and will be sharing that both here and in church over the next couple of months. What I need help from others is how do we get where we are going. If you are going on a road trip to California, there are many routes to take. No two routes are the same. You will encounter many different places along the way. On any trip whether it is to a new place that you haven’t been before or a trip to a goal that you have in life you can take many paths. It will be up to all of us as a church to get where we are going and to map out how we are going to get there. Lisa and I are planning a trip for next year out to Colorado for her sister’s wedding. As we plan how we are going to get there we have a lot of choices ahead of us. Which roads to take, which towns to stop in? What are we going to see on the way there? We can take the fastest route or the most scenic route. What really matters is making it to the destination in the time frame. The same goes for the future of the Edge Church. We have an end point in view, but how we get there and what we do along the way is up for discussion. I ask that as each of you think about the church and the end point that we have in mind, that you pray and ask God what part he would have you play in helping us get to our destination and be willing to do what he ask of you. Just as a successful road trip needs each family member to play their part, getting to where God wants us to go will require all of our involvement.

Reading the Bible through

I started last September to read the Bible through in less than a year as part of my ordination process. I decided to read through it in chronological order. It has been an interesting process. I don't want to read just to get through it, but with the amount I need to read in a short period of time it seems like I am skimming over the surface. I have been amazed at how parts are repeated over and over. I have found things I have never seen before when reading through the Bible. I understand the relationship between parts of the Old Testament and the New Testament better. All in all it has been a good process and one that I encourage anyone to undertake if you have never done it before. It does take time and effort each day. Like developing any discipline, it can be hard at first. The rewards though are worth the effort. I start again this time in a different version and with a renewed sense of wonder at how God orchestrated this Word of His over 1600 years with so many different writers and yet it all fits together.

Generous Living

This past Sunday I shared 7 reasons or excuses why we don’t give to God. I got the idea from this website http://www.generousgiving.org/ . They actually list over 40 reasons that we give to avoid following God’s commands. If I didn’t hit one that you use, check out the website and they may cover it. Or contact me and we can dialog on it.
I have to admit that I have struggled with giving. This past week, I looked at the bank account and realized that if I gave what I had written my check out for, that I may not be able to cover all my bills. This is where the rubber meets the road. Would I re-write the check and then get up on Sunday as a hypocrite? Or would I stay the course and trust in faith that God would meet my needs. I can’t say that the struggle was over in only a moment. It took a few minutes before I remembered all that I know about God and decided to follow through on what he has commanded me to do. To honor him with the first fruits. So, if you are out there and think you are the only person who struggles to give at times or to even give at all, know that you are not alone.
Let me share one last story. A few years ago while attending Hope Chapel in Pine Hill, NJ they had a challenge. It was a challenge to start the year by tithing and seeing how God would work in your life. I decided that I would take this challenge. I came to the point over many years of starting and stopping that I needed to be faithful in this area even if I didn’t see and financial results. I made the decision that I would give even if it meant giving up things that I thought I needed. We ended up having to sell our house at that time because we could not afford it. Not the financial blessing you normally hear about from preachers who claim that God is required to bless you financially when you give. But through that process God has taught me first of all about what I need. And that is ultimately a relationship with him. Everything else is secondary to this ultimate over-ruling need. He has increased my faith in this area and I know that if I am a good steward of what he has blessed me with, then my needs are met.

The downward spiral

2 Timothy 3:1-17 1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-- 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.


How much does this passage speak to us today. People will be lovers of themselves. We see this all over the place. It is plastered on every magazine cover. People just love themselves, they spend billions of dollars every year to "improve" themselves. We can see the love of money wherever we go. It is what has gotten our nation into it's current economical problems. Boastful, who hasn't seen a boastful football player? Pride seems to be growing all the time. You just have to watch 5 minutes of a news show to see how abusive people have become. We all can tell stories of kids who have become so disobedient to their parents that the stories don't even shock us anymore. Everyone seems to be ungrateful. There are very few people who even strive to be holy or loving or forgiving. Slander is all around us. Few show any signs of self-control. Brutality is one the rise. People hate the good things and love the bad. Treachery is all over the place, look at the rise of attorney's who sue each other because of broken contracts. People act without thinking; they are conceited, thinking only about themselves and what makes them happy right now with no thought to the future. Pleasure has replaced God the Father as the god of many people. What is the antidote for this? Paul tells us in verse 14

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Continue in what you have learned. Don't give up on it. All scripture is God breathed and useful for counteracting the affects of the world. Be equipped for every good work by spending time learning and applying the Word of God.

Direction

This past Sunday I was able to take a few minutes and begin to share what God has put on my heart for the future of the Edge Church. The one thing that I wanted to get across is that we live in a faith community that needs to interact with the larger community around us. The Edge Church needs to be part of the larger community of Atco/Berlin if we are to fulfill the plans that God has for us. A fellowship of believers where everyone is accepted just as Jesus accepted each on of us where we were. Yet, it is also a fellowship where people are challenged and encouraged to become the people that God desires. We need to being by taking our loving relationships outside our current community of faith and into the larger community that we are a part of already. Over the coming months we have many decisions to make. Such as, where will we meet in 2010, how will we begin to reach out to the world around us? All these decisions need to be made in light of this plan that God has for us. I encourage you to pray about how God can use you as part of His plan for the Edge Church.

Follow Me

Jesus calls follow me to those he desires to be his disciples. He gives no promise of how great our lives will turn out. He just calls each of us to follow him. To stay with him when the road is dark, when food is scarce, when trouble seems to be all around us. He calls us to follow him. To spend time with him, to learn his ways and put them into practice in our own lives. As we examine his life, we are encouraged to be like Jesus. We can respond to others the way that Jesus did. When people full of problems and pain come to Jesus even when he was tired, he responds with compassion. We can do the same. When people come to Jesus seeking God, he responds by showing them the Father, we can do the same. Jesus’ call to follow him isn’t just for us to walk behind him but to live our lives as he lived his.

I have found that he calls me into areas where I don't feel comfortable or confident in my own abilities. He calls me to places where I need to depend on him at all times. Where has Jesus called you to follow him? I encourage you to take that chance and see what God wants to do through you.

All around us

I have been thinking about all the people around us every day who do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Our neighbors, the people that walk up and down our street, the postal worker, the guy at the gas station, the cashier at Shoprite or Walmart. Family and friends that we have known all our lives. Each of them have something in common. They all don't know Jesus and according to Revelation 20:15 their eternal destiny will be in the lake of fire. So how is God going to reach all these people that we come in contact with? All these people have something else in common. Each of us come in contact with them each and every day. Jesus told the disciples to be witnesses about him. The woman at the well in John 4 brought an entire town to Jesus by sharing about what he had said to her. She had no Biblical training, she had no degree. She just told others about the good things God had done for her. She cared enough about those back in town, a town that may have ostracized her, to share the good news. What is it going to take for you to share the good news with the people you come in contact with? What is stopping you from talking about what Jesus has done for you recently with a family member or someone you run into at Target? Jesus called his disciples to come follow him and he would make us fishers of men. If we never cast the net we can never actually catch a fish. I encourage you to think about those people you run into often and pray that God would open the opportunity for you to share what God has been doing in your life.

Walking Across the Room

I am currently reading a book by Bill Hybels called Just Walk Across the Room. It gives some simple things that anyone can do to point people to Jesus. As I have been reading through it, I have been thinking about how intentional I need to be in meeting new people and building relationships with those outside of the Edge Church. All it takes sometimes is walking across the room to meet someone new to build a brigde that helps one day bring that person to a relationship with Jesus. It could be walking across the street to meet a neighbor. I realize that I have not been intentional with doing these things. I have sat on the sidelines for too long and now I need to do this and not because I am the pastor. I believe that all of us have people in our lives, people that we run into that need the hear the message of God's love through us. Through our story of how God has worked in our lives. We need to get involved in other people's lives. We need to build a bridge to them so that at some point we can point them to Jesus. So how intentional are you?

Goal Setting

This past week I set a goal for myself. We moved to this house in February. Since then I have said hi to a couple of neighbors, but I hadn’t really met them or had the opportunity to talk to them. The goal I set was modest. It was to meet at least 2 neighbors and have a brief conversation with them. We had a yard sale on Saturday which enabled me to meet this goal. I met several people from the neighborhood and spoke with a few closer neighbors. Hopefully this will lead to more. I have been praying about how I can reach out to these people. I will keep you posted as things progress. I also have 3 houses for sale within a few feet of ours. I am praying for the new neighbors that will be moving in. I have found that if I don't set a concrete, achievable goal I may never attempt to do anything new. It also helps to have someone hold you accountable to the goals that you set. What goals can you set and who can help you stay on track?

Studying the Bible

I know that sometimes it is hard to study the Bible. There seems to be so much in the Bible and it can be overwhelming. Never fear, I have some tips and some links to help you in your time of study. One of the things I suggest is to set aside time to study something in God's word often. Put it on your calendar and stick to it. For some people you need to find a quiet place to do this. I like to go to a lake once in a while and sit in a chair as I read and pray. As you open the Bible, begin to pray and ask that God would open you eyes and your mind to see and understand what his word is speaking to you. Then as you come across words that are unfamilar, look them up in the dictionary. There are online dictionaries if you don't have one at home. Really try to understand each word and how they all fit together. Ask questions about the passage. Re-read it several times. Think about how you can apply something from it to your life. As you put your Bible away, ask that God would use that passage in your life, that he would make it real to you.

Some websites that help.
Six-Step Method of Bible Study
Biblegateway - good for comparing versions of the Bible
NextBible

Do you want to get well?

In John 5:1-15 we see the story of Jesus healing a man who was an invalid for 38 years. Jesus asks him a question in verse 6 that has echoed in my head. Jesus asked him, "do you want to get well?" This is an interesting question. Our first assumption is that why wouldn't he want to get well. He has been sitting there for 38 years, of course that is what he wants. But maybe that isn't what he really wanted. Maybe the sickness that caused him to become an invalid was how he identified himself. Maybe that was his excuse to not try. If Jesus heals him, then he has to go out and get a job. He has to take responsibility for himself. He no longer can use his sickness as an excuse to not do something. This led me to wonder why we don't always have our prayers answered. Maybe because Jesus is asking us this question. Do you want to get well? He asks because we may not understand all that will take place once we have been healed and I am not just talking about physical healing. Do we want to be made well in all areas of our lives? Have we thought about what that would really mean? All our crutches would be removed. We could never blame our actions on something wrong with us. We can't use the excuse that I am broken in this area to prevent us from following after God.


If you look at the invalid's response to Jesus, he says "sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in , someone else goes down ahead of me." Think about this for a moment. For may 38 years this man has sat by this pool and attemped to get into the pool while it was stirred up by an angel so that he could be healed. And for 38 years, someone always got ahead of him. He hadn't given up. He still was looking for a miracle. Makes me wonder about how soon I give up when seeking God for something. How about you, how quickly do you give up and say it must not be God's will and all He is doing is asking you if you really want it. Or he could be using the experience to bring your or someone else closer to him.

Personal Devotional Time

Recently I began to be coached by one of the leaders of our district. As part of the intake process he encouraged me to change how I had been doing my devotional time. What I had been doing was reading through the Bible chronologically and the time I spent in prayer was mainly about other's needs. His challenge to me was to change my focus. If the time spent is my personal time with God, why am I not paying attention to my relationship with God? He suggested that my personal time be about me and God. What I should do is to read scripture and when I feel like something jumps out at me to stop and think and pray about what God is saying to me. I need to take time to allow God to change me and show me where I am missing his plans for my life. So I asked him, when do I then pray for others? His response was that he asks God to interrupt his day by bringing people and their needs to his mind throughout the day so that he can pray for them. My question today for you is, how do you spend your time with God? Is it about others or about you and him? We need God to change and mold us so that we can be used effectively in his service.



Here is a link with some suggestions on how to change up your time spent with God.

Distractions

Life seems to be full of distractions. Sometimes I wonder if people had fewer distractions when there was less technology all around them. We can be easily distracted from what is important in life. There is always something else to be done. The WII is calling, Facebook is out there waiting for me to update. There are household project always waiting to be done. The grass needs to be cut, I have to open the pool. There are probably hundreds of things I could be doing right now. It can get to the point where you are neglecting important things in your life because we are surrounded by distractions. Things like spending time in prayer and reading God's word to us. Time with family and friends. Important things that really matter. In 6 months will it matter if I updated Facebook or played on the WII? It could matter if I took the time instead to spend developing a relationship. I have realized over the years that sometimes discipline is not enough when it comes to dealing with distractions. What we need is to come to grips with what distracts us most and then develop a plan to deal with it. Sometimes that will mean asking someone else to keep us accountable. It could be shutting the computer or TV off. How do you deal with distractions? How may you change how you deal with them?

Getting Started

A lot of things have changed in my life and the life of the Edge over the last couple of months. I hope in this blog to write semi often about the changes and what God is doing in my life and also in the church. This may be a place where I write about upcoming things and what God has put on my heart for the Edge Church. I may post items about things I learned in preparing for sermons that I was not able to share on a Sunday. I may post questions for those of you who are reading this. I may just ramble on at times.