Vision Night

This past Sunday we held our annual Vision Night at New Season Church. This is a night we spend looking on back on the past year and celebrating what God has been doing in our midst. We have music, reminiscing and good dessert and coffee.

Vision Night culminates the end of our stewardship emphasis. I usually teach on issues of stewardship in the spring and then in the fall challenge our church to take the next steps in giving to God. I do not preach on stewardship issues again in the fall. This is different than most churches.

Our Vision Night helps us to frame our giving as something we do in response to God's love not because we have to pay the bills and keep the doors open.

New Look

I decided to give the blog a new look for 2008 finally. I got tired of the old look. I am working on getting some things transferred from my old template such as the feed and the email subscription through FeedBlitz. Stay tuned!

This new template gives me an easy way to let you know the blogs I follow and find helpful, educational and inspiring.

Hearing from God Part 3

So how is that we might be able to tell if we have really heard from God instead of just having indigestion from a chili dog?

I think there are some indicators we have heard from God.

• What we believe we heard from God is in accordance with, can be tested against, and does not go beyond the bounds of scripture.
• It is affirmed by those whose wisdom you trust.
• It is the hard way. God calls us to pick up our crosses and follow him.
• It turns out for the greatest benefit to all involved.
• It brings the utmost glory to God and makes his name great!
• It is rejected by those who you do not trust.
• It is risky.
• It is beyond anything you do without God's help.

Hearing from God Part 2

We all need to hear from God especially when faced with the large decisions of life. Most of us do not hear an audible voice so we are forced to find other ways to hear from God. But how does God speak? Far be it from me to limit God to these ways but these are the primary ways I see God "speaking" to us.

God speaks in prayer- while for some of us prayer turns into a laundry list of wants and preferences, prayer also includes a time for patiently listening for God. Some would call this silence and solitude.

God speaks through the Bible- there is a reason the Bible is called the "word of God." It is the most clear, concise, and profitable voice we have of God's intention for us. Just as the Holy Spirit inspired the biblical writers so the Holy Spirit inspires us as we read God's word.

God speaks through his Holy Spirit- this is the nudge or the conviction we just cannot shake. We must be sure this is not just indigestion from a chili dog (more on that in a later post). There is no discounting that God lays upon our hearts what he would have for us.

God speaks through other people- we have to listen for this one. If God can speaks through Balaam's ass then he can speak through any person (even those people we would think it unlikely he would use).

Quarterly Volunteer Schedule

Here is a copy of our quarterly schedule we use for our volunteer ministries at New Season Church. We are working on sending this out before each quarter starts. We also send out a weekly reminder to persons the week they are slated to volunteer.

This file is a pdf file that we are working on getting more readable. We actually create the quarterly schedule in Excel and then export it as a pdf as not everybody has Excel but most people have a pdf reader.

Hearing from God

If you are a follower of Christ you have been faced with it. You have a big decision to make. Maybe it is to change jobs, move across the country or get married or whatever. You realize that you should not make a rash decision without consulting God and seeking his guidance. You would like to hear from God and determine his will for your life and for your decision. But how?

Most people today do not hear an audible voice (I think God can still speak audibly but rarely does). It would be nice if God would drop us an email to give us direction. It would be nice if he would just text us some direction. But alas, God doesn't. So, how is it that we can hear from God about decisions in our life and his call for our life?

That is what I am going to take a look at this week. Stay tuned.

The Haunting Question Part 4

It seems in taking up the haunting question of why God allows suffering and evil to exist in the world we do well to remember who we are and who God is. We are finite human beings with a limited vision. I often like to say we have myopic vision. We do not see the whole picture. In our limited vision we can only see what is in front us.

God though sees the whole picture. He is the author of history. He can see all of human history and events. This should be reassuring when we confront evil, tragedy and difficulties. We can trust in the author of history's wisdom, power and love. The same God who called the universe into being and hangs the stars and spins the planet is the one who keeps us. He has 20/20 vision or better.

Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 13, "12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

Temptation: Start Me Up

Please find below the second message from the Desperate Sex Lives message series "Temptation: Start Me Up."

To listen now, click on the link below.

Temptation: Start Me Up

Series
In Desperate Sex Lives we are taking a biblical look at sex, relationships and love. The church in the last century has had one of two responses to the issue of sex. One response is to only talk negatively about sex and when it talks about sex only talk about what it is against. Two, the church has said nothing as if sex was dirty, God did not create it, and there is not a whole book in the Bible (Song of Solomon) about sex. It is time for the church to present a biblcial view and God inspired teaching series on sex instead of leaving it to MTV, Paris Hilton and the kids down the street to inform our children. We will be learning that sex within God's plan for sexual intimacy is a good thing. We will find out that God's boundaries for sex are borne out of his love for us and for our protection.

Subscribe to this podcast via Apple iTunes by following this link.

Get Apple iTunes for PC or Mac here.

The Haunting Question- Part 3

Yesterday I shared my limited, finite, and human take on the haunting question "Why Does God Allow Suffering and Evil" in the world? Followers of Christ are people of the book, the Bible, and the Bible is the norm and rule for faith and life and forms the foundation for what we believe. So, below are some scriptures that have guided my thinking when it comes to the haunting questions.

First, let me say that in order to avoid the Bible buffet and pick and and choose what verses we really want it is right (or meet if you prefer) and good to stand back and take into account the whole of scripture. And when we look at the whole of scripture one of the affirmation that we can make is that God is good, he is just, and he is holy (without sin).

Some particular guiding scriptures:

Job 1:6-11- While God does not inflict evil he allows evil. If we do not allow this then we say that there is more than one God. A good god- God the Father, and an evil god- Satan.

Matthew 5:45- God is so gracious that he even allows rain to fall on evil people.

Romans 5:3-4- Even out of suffering God brings fruit. Suffering in fact molds us.

Isaiah 55:8- His ways are not our ways!

Romans 11:33- His wisdom is so far beyond ours. Even the smartest atheist God just laughs at!

Hebrews 13:5- He will never leave us or forsake us.

Romans 8:28- While we cannot see much good in present tragedy, when we look back we see the hand of God.

Desperate Sex Lives Countdown

Here is a countdown we used for the second message in our Desperate Sex Lives message series. The message was "Temptation: Start Me Up". The music behind the countdown is Molly Hatchet's "Flirtin' with Disaster" and of course the Stones' "Start Me Up."

We have been using a neat little tool we picked up a couple of months ago to create these called Countdown Creator that we got from Worship House Media. The program is good and accomplished its purpose and lets you insert an image or video, clock, and lets you put music behind it. We like it.

Here is the link to where we posted it on Google video.

The Haunting Question- Part 2

So why then? Why does God allow suffering, evil and bad things to happen?

I am going to unpack this the rest of the week, but let me give you this today.

When I am asked this question my best, limited, human and humble response is that I do not believe God is the "cause" of human tragedy. Both we as human beings and the whole of creation are broken as Genesis makes clear. Because we are broken we get sick, we hurt each other, natural disasters occur, and on down the line. In one word we as human being SIN. This is not the will of the good and perfect and holy God. Yet, the Bible promises that all things will be made new when Christ returns and conquers evil, sin, brokenness, death, disease and even redeems creation.

While God has permitted such a world as we live in today to continue on until the time when Christ returns he is active in such a world. He was active when he emptied himself and came to us in Christ and redeemed us with his blood. He is active through the Holy Spirit taking hardship, tragedy and trials and redeeming those and bringing some good out of them. Even if the midst of the things that produce the haunting question he promises to never leave us or forsake us.

Stay tuned for more thoughts and reflection on the haunting question.

Matchbook Servant Evangelism

At New Season we really believe in servant evangelism as a practical way to share God's love in the community. That is why we are doing Matchbook Servant Evangelism this week.

We have purchased some matchbooks emblazoned with our church's logo. Under our logo on the front of the matchbook it says: "God loves smokers and so do we! New Season United Methodist Church...A New Kind of Church." Under that it has our website and says "A brand new church in Massaponax."

On the back of the matchbook is the following message "New Season Church is a church if imperfect people who make mistakes- there are no perfect people allowed. Yet, even as we make mistakes, God loves us. And, God loves you too! Come and find out more- you will be glad you did."

We are delivering boxes (about 24 matchbooks) to area bars in our mission field. We are asking the bartenders to give these out when patrons ask for a light. This is just another way to share God's love in a practical way.

The Haunting Question

All of us at one time or another have asked ourselves or been asked by somebody else what I call the haunting question: "Why do bad things happen to good people?" This has been asked in other ways like "Why does God allow suffering and evil?" "If God is good, why is there so much bad in the world?"

Because we are finite human beings, because we are not God, part of the human condition is to struggle with this question. It is a question on many people's minds whether they are followers of Christ or not? How do people of faith respond when the question comes up for them or is posed to them by someone else? Our answer of course must be guided y God's word as contained in the Old and New Testament.

I am going to take a crack this week in framing this question and presenting some thoughts about it. So stay tuned. Incidentally, the first home group study New Season Church ever offered was "Why Does God Allow Suffering and Evil?"

The Power of Love

Please find below the first message from the Desperate Sex Lives message series "The Power of Love."

To listen now, click on the link below.

The Power of Love

Series

In Desperate Sex Lives we are taking a biblical look at sex, relationships and love. The church in the last century has had one of two responses to the issue of sex. One response is to only talk negatively about sex and when it talks about sex only talk about what it is against. Two, the church has said nothing as if sex was dirty, God did not create it, and there is not a whole book in the Bible (Song of Solomon) about sex. It is time for the church to present a biblcial view and God inspired teaching series on sex instead of leaving it to MTV, Paris Hilton and the kids down the street to inform our children. We will be learning that sex within God's plan for sexual intimacy is a good thing. We will find out that God's boundaries for sex are borne out of his love for us and for our protection.

Subscribe to this podcast via Apple iTunes by following this link.

Get Apple iTunes for PC or Mac here.

Desperate Sex Lives Message Series

We have begun a brand new message series at New Season Church called Desperate Sex Lives where we are taking a biblical look at sex, relationships and love. We have already completed the first message and had a good response.

The church in the last century has had one of two responses to the issue of sex. One response is to only talk negatively about sex and when it talks about sex only talk about what it is against. Two, the church has said nothing as if sex was dirty, God did not create it, and there is not a whole book in the Bible (Song of Solomon) about sex. It is time for the church to present a biblcial view and God inspired teaching series on sex instead of leaving it to MTV, Paris Hilton and the kids down the street to inform our children.

We will be learning that sex within God's plan for sexual intimacy is a good thing. We will find out that God's boundaries for sex are borne out of his love for us and for our protection.

So, come on and join us- and bring someone with you. You and they will be glad you did.

Blog Break

One of my new year's resolution really wasn't to never blog again. I took some time off after Christmas Eve (I actually took a REAL vacation though I did not go anywhere but did NO work!), got back into things again last week and caught up and now am ready to go again.

I had a good Christmas with my family and a restful new year and some time away with my wife.

I am looking forward with great anticipation to what God is going to do in the world, in our church and in my life in the year to come. I am reminded of what John Fogerty said when he sang, "Life is like a rodeo" we just old on to the closing bell.