A DIFFERENT KIND OF CHURCH

restored

Adam Meadows is our new church custodian and I asked him a few days ago to repair the lawn mower the church owned.  It had broken down over a year ago and some parts of the mower had been removed to determine the problem.  We purchased the necessary part to repair it some time ago, but for whatever reason it had gone undone.  I knew that if it was not soon fixed parts would began to disapear or be misplaced and then it would be difficult and more expensive to restore it to a working condition. 

Our lives as Christians are very simular to the lawnmower situation.  We often have parts of our lives break down.  Maybe it's a relationship or a friendship.  Sometimes it's our commitment to Christ, His Church, or to our quiet time with Him.  Whatever the broken part, the longer we allow it to go on unrepaired the more difficult it becomes to restore.

To repair the lawnmower it took two things, the right part and the right person.  With our lives as Christians it involves the right parts; confession and repentance, and the right person; our Lord, who makes all things new.  What a wonderful Savior! 

Some versus in the Bible I never grow tired of because they mean so much and are so needful in my christian journey.  IJohn 1:9 is one of those special verses.  "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us form all unrighteousness."  The greatest refresher when I'm tired and dirty is to take a bath.  The greatest refreser for the Christian comes from the cleansing God gives when we confess all that crud (sin) we have allowed to build up in our hearts.  He cleanses completely the heart that confess all known sin.   Isn't it good to know you don't have to confess everything you have ever done wrong to be restored, just those things He brings to rememberance.  He forgives those we confess and washes away all the rest.  What a wounderful Savior!

Tell your story

I was at a meeting recently where the speaker was encouraging those present to use every ministry opportunity as a platform from which to "tell their story," the story of what Christ had done in their life.  "Great," I thought, "someone who practices lifestyle evangelism".  Then he went on to tell of a person he knew who become seriously ill and ended up in the hospital.  The man didn't go to church or like preachers.  I waited anxiously for him to tell us the rest of the story of how he went and told him "his story."  But to my disapointment he went looking for a preacher to go and talk to this man.  Thankfully a preacher went, the man agreed to see him, and he committed his life to Christ.  But I sat there dumbfound!  What happened to "telling your story?"

My prayer for this church is that there will be multitudes of people who reguarly "tell their story."  I hear some of you telling your story of what Christ is doing in your life on the message board.  Great!  Good place to share and practice.  I enjoy reading them and it encourages all of us to hear what God is doing in your life. But lets never forget there are others outside the church who need to hear our story.  If God is doing a work in you then He will also do a work through you.  The work He will do through you is for you to tell others what He is doing in you and that will be "your story."

VT massacre

You cannot help but be saddened and challanged over the massacre at VT.  Over 30 people dead and many others wounded.  What a tragedy!  I've just read where many Baptist chaplins in Va. and NC are responding to the situation.  Let's pray that they can communicate God's healing love and powerful presence.

The question that is already being asked and is often asked at times like this is, Why would a loving God allow someone do such a horrible thing?  Why didn't God stop this man from doing such an evil act?  A simple yet true reason why people do horrible things is that God has given each of us the freedom of choice and with this freedom man often chooses to do evil.  Our choices have consequences which affect us and others. This man made a choice to kill and now many suffer because of it.  It should cause all of us to consider our choices carefully.

I'm convinced that even if we could give sufficient answers to this age old question that they would not stop the pain and heartbreak being experienced by so many today. What they need and we need in times like these are not answers but His promises and His presence.  What we will learn is that He is sufficient!

Sunday & Discipleship

Hey gang!  I was trying to figure out what this past Sunday was like.  The best description I could come up with is this, Sunday was like going to a Duke University football game.  Everybody on the team is playing hard but usually not much to cheer about (sorry Duke fans). Sunday was a tough day in many ways for us, but God always finds a way to come through. What amazed me was under the worst of conditions we had 14 new children enrolled in Kingdom Kidz and what a great response to Happy Hour.  Wow!  Thank you Lord for "pouring" out your blessing.

I read an article by George Barna recently that said only 12% of the youth who are raised in church stay involved in church after they leave high school. How disappointing!  Obviously what the church has historically done with youth has not been adequate to develop mature Christ followers.  I believe the key to changing this is to help our youth learn the habits necessary to feed themselves from God's Word instead of always depending on someone else to feed them. That means helping kids develop their own time alone with God and finding their place of ministry in the Body of Christ.  That is the reason we put so much emphasis on our FaithTrac 101-401 classes.  They give young believers the necessary tools to grow and helps them find their place of ministry. In fact it is for those reasons we ask every new member of our church to attend these classes.

Of course the main reason kids stay in church is because they have seen a model of what it means to "be the church" at home.  Home is the greatest influencer of youth when it comes to following Christ as an adult.

Pray for Carole, the parents of our youth' and our Student ministry leaders as they seek for ways to grow disciples who will follow Christ "all" the days of their life.

We're Up!

Here it is, finally! The official weblog of hyde park, lumberton - A DIFFERENT KIND OF CHURCH. This is where you can find out what's really going on inside of our minds, a place to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. A place to glorify JESUS. A place to share the up and comings and the thoughts that go through our minds as we work on the week-to-week happenings that make a hyde park service.

May the journey be challenging, worthwhile and edifying to all who check in