Update on Advent Pres Mission Church

Plans are moving forward. Today I met with a group of men (elders) from different churches that have agreed to be my "Oversight Commission." They were most helpful and encouraging. It is great for my soul to meet with men that have a passion for the Kingdom moving forward. Most of these men have known me for quite a while.

Here are a few things that happened and were decided:

• A year one budget was set (July 08-June 09).
• The men were encourage by the fund raising efforts so far and prayed for God to continue to work in that process.
• We set a goal to move to Steele Creek after school is out!
• There was prayer for my house to sell soon.
• I presented to the men a powerpoint (really Keynote - MAC guy don't you know!) presentation that I am using in my fund raising efforts.
• Reported that my prayer team has 78 members so far - if you are reading this would you like to join the team? You must pray and I will give you updates on a regular basis. Comment on this blog or send me an e-mail.
• The men prayed especially for Karen who will be transitioning to a new school in Charlotte for her senior year.
• The men gave wisdom about a baptism that need to be preformed next month.

I don't know if this is interesting to you but it definitely is a "Cross Happening!"

Early this morning (2 AM) Margaret arrive home from College. Oliver, Katie and Mi

chael will arrive tomorrow. [Oliver went today to meet the parents of his girlfriend Callie! Can't wait to hear how that went - I asked Callie if her Dad (Parker) was going to be cleaning his guns when Oliver arrived and she said his Dad actually had mentioned that! - I love the guy already!

If I do not post again until Thanksgiving - have a great day.

I encourage you to do a study of giving thanks in the New Testament and you will find that the Lord Jesus gave thanks all the time - a good pattern for us!

The following verses give us reason to continually give thanks!

1 Corinthians 15:56-58 NIV

56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the la

w. 57But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 58Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Thought to Ponder

 C. J. Mahaney has edited a book called Worldliness with a team of writers. Bob Kauflin talks about music. Bob warns that a sign that music has become an idol is when our passion for Christ has waned but our passion for music has not. Ponder that for a while.

Reading a New Newspaper

For years I have faithfully read The Pilot newspaper from Southern Pines. I have knows writers, editors, but especially the sports reporters. Someone once said that I must have really known them well since Margaret's picture was in there so much. Now I have started reading the Charlotte Observer - what a contrast! There is much more real news but so far for me less hometown feel.

Let me comment on 3 articles all on the front page. 

First big headline talks about Raeford - closer to SP that to Charlotte. It seems that the owners of House of Raeford had neglected safety issues for a while and got fined for 

it. Something about no safety systems for am

monia leaks = no wonder the turkey and chicken meat is so white! = or is that clorox...

Next article is about neglect too. It is reported that in Goldsboro the Cherry Hospital allowed a patient who choked on his medicine, hit his head and then was left in a 

chair untreated for almost 24 hours in his own urine with no food or water while (according to the video tape) 16 hospital employees played cards, watched TV, talked on their cell phones and goofed off. Then they lied about it to cover it up - but those pesky surveillance cameras .... You can watch the video - I don't know why you would  want to? The man died. The video records other patients checking on him, also eating his food that I am sure he was charge for. At 8:59 PM they finally put him in his room and at 9:27 PM they rushed in to his room with a crash cart to try to save his life - but too little way too late. At 

statement from the man's family lawyer said this as the last sentence of the article, "We need to remember that this was somebody's son, somebody's husband, somebody's father."

Article #3, churches in Charlotte join together to the homeless especially during this cold weather. It stated that on any given night 5,000 people in Charlotte are homeless. Other churches are replenishing the food pantries. One church's youth fasted and raised $48,000 in a cause called. "Pennies for the Homeless."

I checked the online version of The Pilot and the front page says it is cold outside and might get colder!

What do I make of all this info so early in the morning?

Neglect costs money 

• House of Raiford is fined, $178,000
• NC Operations & Health  Division is being paid, 
• Who wants a family member at Cherry Hospital now?
• The family lawyer will be paid handsomely after he delivers a big check to this poor man's family. WE might save money on the court costs - Judges read the paper too and so do defense attorneys.

Money changes hands and makes a difference 

• Teenagers who think about the poor for a whole year and fast gather for those who will never give it back - changes perspectives for a long time!
• St. Matthew Catholic church will donate $100,000 this year to 20 agencies for the homeless
• It would have been cheaper for the House of Raeford to give $100,000 the the homeless and spend $78,000 fixing their ammonia leaks. It has cost them twice that much in bad press. Will you want to but a Turkey from them this week? Unless you live in Raeford ...

What the Pastor of Jerusalem said a long time ago is so true (James 2: 17-18 Message Paraphrase) and it is good business - it also makes it easier to sleep at night. 

14-17Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?
18I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department."

Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.

This does not get boring! Alabama 32 - Miss. St. 7

Oliver and I were driving back from Margaret's basketball tournament in Pikeville, KY and got text message updates from Margaret. Her team travel bus had satellite TV and she was watching the game. For the longest time it was 2 to zero Alabama. (Safety on a blocked put - see picture) Then 7 to 5 Mississippi State. Then 12 to 7 the Crimson Tide. We got home and looked on the computer and to our relief it was 32 to 7 Alabama. Roll Tide! Alabama is still #1 in the country and in 2 weeks plays arch rival Auburn for a perfect regular season.

We also thought that LSU had lost to Troy, a little University in Alabama but we found out that they scored 30 points in the 4th quarter to win. I think that last week's gave against LSU took a lot out of both teams.

Supporting Our Habit

A good friend of mine has been sending me devotional material every morning for a least a couple of years. It is amazing that everything I have been reading is on the theme of "investing in the Kingdom." Read what was sent to me this morning written by Joe Stowell.

Friday, November 14, 2008
Today's Text: 2 Corinthians 9:7-8
SUPPORTING OUR HABIT
“God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:7-8

A businessman buddy of mine has the proverbial “Midas” touch. It seems like every business venture he touches turns to gold. I’ll never forget the day he said to me, “Joe, do you know what really drives me?” Since he’s one of those driven, type-A personalities, I was really curious about what his answer would be.

“No, what drives you?” I replied.

“Supporting my habit!”

Now I was really curious! “Whoa . . . tell me about it. What habit is that?”

“Advancing the cause of Jesus Christ!” he said with a grin. “I figure that the more money I make, the more I can give to the work of God.”

What a great response! His joy, when it comes to his wealth, is to generously distribute as much as he can to advance the cause of Christ.

That’s the kind of attitude Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians 9:8. As he talks to the Corinthian church about that most delicate subject—giving—he offers an important lesson on biblical economics. The type of giving God is looking for, Paul says, is cheerful, out-of-a-joyful heart kind of giving (verse 7), not begrudging, gotta-pay-my-Jesus-tax kind of giving. And as we pursue the joy that comes from investing in God’s work, Paul reminds us that God will also “supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness” (v.10).

We need to be careful here. At this point it would be easy to say to ourselves: “Okay, God, if you give me the Midas touch too, I would be happy to give generously to your work.” Our assumption is that it would be much easier for us to give if we just had more money. But the lessons of human nature tell us otherwise.

Often our seasons of financial prosperity draw our attention to bigger homes, bigger cars, bigger mutual funds, and bigger TVs, rather than to bigger opportunities for advancing the cause of Christ. The lure of “more” is highly seductive. Giving to God’s work is not a habit that starts when we’re experiencing material success. It’s a habit best cultivated and nurtured in seasons of depending on God through lean times.

Paul points that fact out one chapter earlier when, speaking of the Macedonian church’s generosity, he writes, “Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity” (2 Corinthians 8:2). Which all goes to prove that an attitude of joyful generosity starts now, right where you are, with whatever you have. What a joy it is to be addicted to proving that God and His work is worthy of the very best that we have—regardless of how much that might be!

And, speaking of being rich, viewed from a global perspective even the poorest of us have much more than most people do in this world. For reasons best known to God, Christians in our corner of the world have staggering resources by comparison. Which gives us an unusual opportunity to use our wealth to “abound in every good work” (2 Cor. 9:8).

So, when was the last time you viewed your financial resources as a tool to “support your habit”? Welcome to the joy of the generous habit of advancing the cause of Christ with the resources He has generously poured out to you!

John Wesley & Money

As a follow up to John Piper's quote yesterday. I read in a devotion by PCA pastor Al Baker today about the great preacher, John Wesley.

John Wesley, the 18th century Anglican pastor and founder of the Methodist movement in England, was a prolific writer, publishing a plethora of books on a number of subjects. His books also sold very well, bringing him an annual income in today’s U.S. dollars amounting to $2.8 million. He lived on $60,000, giving the rest away to charity each year. When the British government tried to tax him on silver it supposed he was hiding from taxation, he responded by saying, “I have only two silver spoons, one in Bristol and one in London, and I shall have no more silver as long as so many remain hungry.” Wesley was a cheerful giver (the Greek text uses a word from which we get hilarious). His money held little allure for him.

Missions: Go, Send or be Disobedient

As most of you know I am in the process of raising support for a new church plant in Charlotte. I have approached this task with faith, hesitancy, and sometimes questioning God's timing (economic times in Charlotte and the rest of NC.) But overall, I believe my responsibility is to present the opportunity for those who want to invest in the ministry to do so. Not everyone will or should they.

Today I read an article by Dr. John Piper, one of my favorite preachers. He has a real passion for missions that encourages me.

Read this portion of his article.

... God calls some to be wardens of the mission who watch over it from home. "Wardens" ought to be understood as "senders." Consider Romans 15:24. Paul says he aims to go to Spain, which was wholly unreached as far as we know: "I hope to see you in passing...and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while."

This is important because of what he does not say and what he does say. He does not say: "Everyone in Rome who is obedient to the Great Commission will go with me to Spain, or will go to some other unreached place or people group." What he does say, in effect, is: "My hope is that you will refresh me and then help me in my mission to Spain." In other words, he calls the church in Rome to be senders, wardens of the mission. He wants them to be partners in his mission, supporters of this God-exalting work.

So, you have three possibilities in world missions. You can be a goer, a sender, or disobedient. The Bible does not assume that everyone goes. But it does assume that the ones who do not go care about goers and support goers and pray for goers and hold the rope of the goers. Paul was linked with many churches, and they sent support to him over and over again. So it should be with every church and its missionaries.

*****

Dr. John Piper is pastor for preaching and vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is author of Let the Nations Be Glad!