Helping People Take Their Next Step With God...

I love our Mission statement... Really I mean it! "Helping People Take Their Next Step With God"

There is so much that I love about our Mission statement. First off it invokes this idea of never arriving at the finish line, that we all have room to grow, we all have steps to take in our Spiritual Journey. Secondly I love the visual; Imagine yourself on a walk, but not just any walk. A walk with God... That is a pretty powerful visual!

I don't know what it is, but there is something special about walks. I mean when my wife and I take walks we seem to talk about things that we don't normally talk about. It is like life slows down and the normal "business of life" isn't present while we are walking, we reconnect with each other. Now imagine yourself on walk with Jesus like that!

So the question is what is your next step? Where is that God is calling you to go? Maybe it is just being open to what God might be saying, maybe it is simply continuing to come to Student Ministry every week, maybe it is praying for your friends who aren't coming to Church or don't know God, maybe it is finding quite time with God and just listening... I'm not sure what it is, but I do know you have a next step.

I'd love to hear what your next step is...

What are you doing here?

So Elijah calls on God to light a fire in front of hundreds of people and shows them that they are worshiping the wrong god, then he gets word that Ahab's wife wants him dead and he runs. He runs and hides in a cave where God asks a very interesting question "What are you doing here Elijah?" (1 Kings 19)

We were only married a few years and I bowled 2 or 3 times a week and I found myself going out with the boys 1 or 2 times a week, and I wasn't spending a whole lot of time with my wife. I was becoming more and more selfish and when I would look into the mirror I didn't like the man I was becoming. I was worried about where this would lead and who I would hurt along the way, then something happened...

I remember it like it was yesterday... I was on my home from bowling and like all other nights I was talking to Janna on the way home and all the sudden I had this feeling. Looking back I realize it was God chasing me and to this day I wonder how different life would have turned out if I hadn't acted on it. And now I know this feeling was God asking me "what are you doing here Andy?"

I decided to act on the feeling and simply said to Janna "I think we should start going to Church". This was a huge step because I wasn't sure how Janna would react, because we had never even talked about Church, well other than which Church we were going to get married in. To my surprise Janna said she had been thinking about it as well.

I look back on my life and see many times where God has asked me that question and to be honest when I'm in the moment I often miss God's question. I miss it because I'm usually to caught up in myself and what might happen to even think to check in with God.

So here I was driving in my car asking Janna about going to Church, all the while God was asking me "what are you doing here Andy?" The truth is, like most times when God asks this question... I had no idea what I was doing there. What I do know is when I live life trying to please me it doesn't work. When I try to change "tomorrow's" with my own thoughts and worries I often find myself in places I have no business being...

So if your reading this and you find yourself agreeing to some of these points, I'd love to hear them. Post a comment and let us know. If you're reading this and find yourself in a place you have no business being, then stop what you are doing and Seek God! Pray right now for God to come and when He asks you "what are you doing here?" be honest... Because He already knows...

Switching Sides...

Worry is a preoccupation about tomorrow...

There is tremendous irony in worry and I love irony. See the irony is that when we worry about tomorrow we aren't living in today, we aren't living in the moment. It is as if we are in a room with our closest friends and they are involved in great conversation, but you are to busy with your thoughts about what could be and/or what might not be. Then the next day comes and "that thing" you were preoccupied about is finally here and you find yourself wondering and thinking about the conversation your friends were having... See the irony is when we worry about tomorrow we miss what is going on right in front of us today.

So what can we do about it? How can we live life differently? Well the Bible tells us in Matthew 6:33 "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness..."

Hmmm.... Seek first God? Sounds easy doesn't it? Just seek God and let everything else take care of itself. Sure I can do that... Then life happens...

About a month ago I went to the dentist to get a normal cleaning and while they were cleaning they found a freckle on my bottom lip and asked how long it has been there, to which I responded "I have no idea". I thought it was odd that they would ask me about a tiny little freckle and immediately I went to the worst possible outcome... Cancer! Man is this a sign of cancer? Are they going to have to remove some of my lip? How will that affect my looks? How will people look at me? Will this affect my communication ability? What about my family? These are just some of the many thoughts that went through my mind.

I wish I could tell you that was it, but then the dentist decided to look closer and found a dark spot under my tongue and asked me how long that had been there. Guess what my answer was... Yep you guessed... "I have no idea". So again my thoughts went to the worst possible things all over again. The dentist decided to refer me to an expert and have him check it out. So here I am just trying to keep my teeth healthy and I leave with thoughts of some type of cancer and now I have to wait until the appointment with the specialist to get any reprieve from my own thoughts...

This is being preoccupied with tomorrow and when we do this we tend to blow up the thing we are worrying about much bigger than it really is and when we do this rarely, if ever, is God apart of those thoughts. This was certainly true for me. My thoughts went to all these things that could happen and nowhere did I have God in the equation... Isn't that interesting?

How about you? When you blow up your worries is God there with you? When you have the outcomes all played out in your mind, many if not most of which aren't positive, is God there with you? I'll assume that is a no. So we worry about the tomorrow's that we can't change and in doing so we take our mind and our eyes off of God...

Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness the Bible tells us. That my friends is hard to do when we are preoccupied with tomorrow...

From the early days of me becoming a Christ follower I have felt the call to get into Ministry and for several of those years I wondered if what I felt was really what God wanted for me. Then about 4 years ago I decided it was, I decided that God had called me into Ministry and I rearranged my priorities to put myself in position to fulfill this new found dream... What does this have to do with the dentist and seeking God first??? Well I had to accept that God has called me into Ministry and no matter the outcome of my freckle and dark spot under my tongue, God knows what is best.


It turned out that my freckle isn't anything I should worry about and the dark spot under my tongue is a build up of blood vessels and could be taken out or left alone. For now it will be left alone with no preoccupation about tomorrow... The question is "What are your freckles and dark spots that you have deemed cancer in your own mind?" Once we can figure that out and realize that God isn't there with us it will help us realize we aren't seeking His Kingdom first.


Andy

Birds of the air...

"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in birds, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" Matthew 6:26

I wouldn't call myself a worrier...I do a pretty good job of keeping things in perspective, but that isn't to say that I don't worry. The reality is I do.

I worry mostly about things dealing with my wife and kids... Will Abi grow up to be a confident woman passionate for God? Will Morgan let go of her dreams and play it safe? Will she pursue God at a young age, unlike me? Will my wife have a healthy pregnancy and will the birth go as planned with no complications? Will Carson Palmer fully recover from his elbow injury?

Some of you worry much more than I and others don't find yourself worrying at all, so when you read about the birds in the air you don't really think anything. I just read another blog about this (www.lifepointvineyard.blogspot.com) and he makes a great point about the birds of the air:

"Have you ever watched birds? They're busy from sunup to sundown, looking for worms, building their nest, doing whatever it is birds do."

He goes on to make the point that birds give 100% each day to their lives and then go to sleep at night content in the knowledge that they've done all that they could do.

Have you done all you can do today?

There are many days I answer that question with a no, but I'm learning to ask myself a different question...

Instead of waiting until the end of the day, I'm starting to ask myself when I start the day, "Am I going to do all I can today?"

It is the same question rephrased, but it has very different implications. By asking it in the morning it sets the day with the end in mind, so now when I when I ask myself if I have done everything I can I know that I started the day with that in mind.

What can you do to help you do everything you can today?

I'd love to hear your stories and/or thoughts...


Andy