Some Things Can't Be Postponed

This morning I was reading in the last part of Acts 24. A roman leader named Felix had the apostle Paul as a prisoner. Felix and his wife would meet often with Paul because they were curious about the gospel. But after considering the possibility of making a decision repeatedly over a long period of time, Felix was replaced as the leader; the conversations with Paul ceased; and as far as we know, Felix never again came to the point where the gospel was presented and a decision encouraged.

The lesson from this is two fold. If you don't have a relationship with Christ, there is no better day for that to begin than today. Find a strong believer you are close to and ask him or her to help you become a child of God.

The other lesson involves us all. I wonder how many of us are postponing an important decision. We've thought about it; we've even prayed about it... But we know that now is the time to choose, to commit, to get started. Don't delay what you know the Lord wants you to do.

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Well it is Friday!

I am hoping the weather doesn't get too bad with tomorrow being the first day of Upward and with our Sunday guest speaker flying into Columbus in the middle of the day.

This morning I am stuck at the house until 8:00 because Donna had something she had to do this morning. Once the day begins, I've got about one more hour of work to have my 1/18 morning message complete, I've got about five pastoral visits to make, and about one hour of work to do on the publicity for our new worship service we are beginning on March 8... then my todo list will be finished for the week!

If you don't have anything to do tomorrow, join us for an Upward Basketball game or two. To accommodate all of the teams, we are playing games at four different Saturday venues this year, but the best thing to do is to come down to our Family Life center. I think games start around 8:30 and go most of the day. In fact I think there are games there tonight as well. It will be a lot of fun.

I will see you Sunday! (and yes, we will have church in the snow)

Pastor Noel

One Busy Day

Do you ever have days where you start out behind? This is one of those days.

I turned my alarm off this morning when I thought I had only snoozed it...

When I finally did get up and had my quiet time started, Hannah, my ten-year-old woke up vomiting...

I gave Hannah a cardboard box that was sitting near by so she would have something to throw-up in...

Donna tells me she was going to use that box for something. I look at her and tell her she can have it back in a minute. She gives me a look that could kill...

I have five appointments on the schedule today. And when there are five actually scheduled that means there will probably be twice that...

So... interesting day already and the sun hasn't even come up.

I did, however, have a good quiet time this morning. I ran across a verse that I feel led to memorize today. Read this verse in a few different Bible versions, with each one you see a little more of its meaning and emphasis...

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Acts 20:24 ESV

But my life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus – the work of telling others the Good News about God's wonderful kindness and love.
Acts 20:24 NLT

But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Acts 20:24 NKJ

Ordinarily I do my devotional reading from the NLT and my studying, memorizing, and preaching from the NKJ. But I am going through Acts in the ESV just to become more familiar with it. So it was in the ESV that the verse caught my attention and led me to look in the other Bibles. I will resist the temptation to write three or four paragraphs of preaching on this verse. You can apply it to your life as well as I can. Just read through it a few times in each version. I think it will encourage you today.

Pastor Noel

More to Come...

There is a great deal to blog about this week...

• The upcoming start of our new worship service we announced yesterday...
• The special speaker and services planned for this coming Sunday...
• New sermon series for our Morning worship and a new series for our Soma Kristou worship...

Maybe I can get to some of that today. But this morning let me just highlight a passage from today's devotional reading.

Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. -- Acts 17:10-11 NKJ

We should all be more like the Bereans. I spent some time this morning praying through how I could be more like them in my personal devotion times and my personal Bible study times. I know how valuable God's Word is. My prayer is that I will have a growing desire and passion to study and live out His Word.

Pastor Noel

Reasoning from the Scriptures

From my devotion reading this morning...

Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, Acts 17:2 NKJ

Well, that is what we will be doing in our morning worship service in a few hours. Pray that I will be able to clearly preach the Word this morning and that the Holy Spirit will use it to change lives.

Pastor Noel

New Year's Day

I am looking forward to this Sunday. In our morning service we are going to focus on how to prepare for what God may choose to do in our lives in 2009. The Lord began laying this message on my heart back in the beginning of December. I am praying we have a great, life-changing, God-honoring day!

Sunday we will also take the wraps off one of two big changes in store for our church this year. A great deal of prayer, study, and consultation has gone into this decision. I look forward to sharing it with the church. And no I won't tell you ahead of time :).

Question: What is the most interesting or the most convicting or the most encouraging thing you've read in the Word in the last couple of days? The Lord can and will teach us wonderful things when we read the Bible consistently! If you are looking for something to commit to in 2009, a daily habit of Bible reading might be a pretty good idea.

Here is some of what I saw in my reading this morning. In Acts 10:34, Peter preaches a Gospel message to Gentiles. As you read through his message and get to Acts 10:44 you will then see that something happens that is very similar to what happened when Peter preached to the Jews in Acts 2. So what is the difference in the two stories aside from the fact that in one the audience was composed entirely of Jews and in the other the audience was Gentile?

One big difference... the message. Paul preached a different message to the Gentiles. He still talked about the gospel (sin, guilt, Jesus, crucifixion, resurrection) but he did so with a different narrative and a different emphasis. Why? Because he was talking to different people.

Lesson to learn: There are some things that never change, like the gospel and the role of the Holy Spirit. But beyond those essentials, we must tailor our presentation and our ministry to reach people, understanding that the people we are trying to reach may be very different and have very different ways of viewing the world...

Well, I will save my preaching to Sunday.

Have a happy New Year's Day.

Pastor Noel

New Year's Eve

The wind is blowing so hard it's making the house sway... the temperature is falling... so is the snow... Last week's nice weather spoiled me. I guess winter is not quite over yet.

Nothing profound to say this morning (or most mornings). I will let yesterday's blog post stand for my New Year's Eve post.

But if you are looking for a good "New Year's Resolution Verse" take a look at this one from my devotion time this morning...

...The believers were walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. --Acts 9:31b NLT

If we all walked in the fear of the Lord and consequently in the comfort of the Holy Spirit next year, it would truly be a God honoring year!

Pastor Noel

Question of the Day

I bought a new book a few days ago to help teach my kids critical thinking skills. We read a few questions from the book when we got back to the car from the store. See how well you do on one of them. (Hannah, my nine year old, beat me to the answer on this one. It only took her about two minutes to figure out a very simple solution.)

Imagine you are in a room with three light switches. Each of these light switches is connected to a lamp in another room. You cannot see, in any way from one room to the other. So three switches in one room, and three lamps in the other room. Your job is to figure out which switch controls which lamp. You start off in the room with the switches. You may stay there as long as you would like trying to figure out your plan. Then you go to the room with the lamps and you have to identify which lamp is controlled by which switch in thirty seconds without leaving the room.

OK. Put on your thinking caps. Don't let a nine-year-old beat you...

On to more important things...

We had two very good services yesterday. I appreciate the way pastor Wally led the morning service and pastor Shawn led the evening praise service. It is good to have people like them I can depend upon.

This week is a 'get organized' week for the new year. Carla, Linda, and Sharron (all three office workers) are on vacation this week. How did that happen? It will be an interesting week :).

We have two people from our church in critical condition in area hospitals. Pray that I will have the right words to minister to and encourage these families.

Let me show you something from my devotion time this morning...

I was reading in Acts 6 about steps the Apostles were taking to stay focused on their core ministries of prayer and the Word. Acts 6:7 describes how the ministry of the church expanded when the Apostles were able to focus on the right things. But what is very interesting is how 'the expansion of the ministry' is described here...

Acts 6:7 Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

Notice that instead of saying the ministry expanded, the writer of Acts says, "the word of God spread."

With the aid of a chart in the study Bible I was using this morning I found three other verses in Acts that use similar phrases...

Acts 12:24 But the word of God grew and multiplied.

Acts 13:49 And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region.

Acts 19:20 So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.

So what does it mean that the word of God grew? Did it get bigger? Longer? No. The impact of the word increased in lives and churches and communities!

In the book of Acts, real ministry expansion is seen in terms of the word of God going forth and making changes in people's lives. One of my prayers for our church in 2009 is that the effectiveness of our ministries would be measured by the same standard. As we count things to determine our progress, let us focus on the real question of the day from the book of Acts, "Has the WORD increased?"

Pastor Noel

His Sovereignty / Our Responsibility

I was reading today in Acts 2 & 3 and came across two reminders of one of those truths that is difficult to understand and even more difficult to admit...

First see if you can see it in a part of Peter's sermon at Pentecost...

Acts 2:23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;

Do you see it there? It is easier to see in Peter's next sermon on Solomon's Portico...

Acts 3:14-15, 18-19 But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses... But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

The Scripture teaches us that the death of Christ was 100% the plan of God from the beginning. It was His idea and took place perfectly according to events that He orchestrated. The Scripture also tells us that the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus' day were responsible for the crucifixion of Christ, that they were wrong in their actions, and they needed to repent!

At first glance those two things don't seem to go together. Was the crucifixion the plan of God or the result of the sin of the religious leaders? Well... both!

What do we learn from this? God is sovereign! I am responsible for my actions!

Any attitude, action, or belief we have that denies either of those truths is wrong.

I pray, Lord, that I will always be reminded of your sovereignty and always mindful of my responsibility. That I will pray to You because you are in control, and I will serve and sacrifice because I am responsible.

Pastor Noel

Surprise Meeting

The day at the church ended like most Mondays with several meetings... some in person... some on the phone. For the most part it was the usual fair.

But I had one surprise meeting!

A couple from our church (I'll leave their names out so they can make a formal announcement when the time is right) dropped in to say that they are seriously thinking the Lord may be calling them to full-time overseas missions! If the Lord confirms this in their lives, this will be the second family this year. That makes my day!

As a pastor, I talk with a lot of people every week who are struggling to trust the Lord with everyday things like jobs, money, relationships, etc. What a gust of encouragement it is to sit down with a couple who is taking such giant steps of trust and faithfulness.

This was a perfect week for this. I am preparing this week to go and speak at a church on Friday about the importance of missions and how becoming Acts 1:8 focused has changed my life and this church. Now I've got another great story to share!

Pastor Noel