Random Thoughts

Is a church service for the sinners in the pews who are saved, or is it for the sinners outside who are unsaved?

Is church just an outreach, or is it a place where sinners saved by grace meet with God?

Is discipleship where we make guys better soulwinners, or is it a training ground to make new pastors?

When we have no visitors, our pastors almost do not know what to do.

What happens when young men choose careers over ministry? When our vision does not capture them?

The Tabernacle and the Temple were not seeker sensitive. 

Men look for better methods. God looks for better men.

To be much for God, we must be much with God.

That's all, folks.

The Future Is Known

Artificial Intelligence is not God and honestly, it is not even good at what it does. AI doesn't do half of the things that it's promoters claim. Could it be that AI isn't a tool to help us but a weapon to control us? People use AI to create funny pictures or YouTube content. We are overwhelmed by virtual doctors and virtual experts who are wrong. The few things that Gemini or Claude get right are useful, but rare.

I remember life before the internet. I definitely remember life before AI. Tech is looking for ways to control us, not ways to help us.

I see a time in Bible prophecy when this current trend could come into play to fulfill God's plan for the Christ-rejecting world.

"He causes all both small and great , rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Rev. 13:16-17

So while the lords of tech make their plans in secret, God already has revealed to us what will happen.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Things That Happen As We Age.

 I recently read about things that happen to us as we age no matter how hard we work and no matter how much we wish and pray that they would not happen to us.

1.Your body is changing and it will never be the body you had as a youth again. The secret is to cooperate with the body that you have and not feel betrayed by the body that you used to have.

2. You circle of life is growing smaller by the day. Life naturally narrows with age. People move away. People disappear. People die. If you live long enough you will outlive all of your family and old friends.

3. Your prince is not coming to save you or sweep you off of your feet. You yourself are responsible for your own emotional wellbeing. 

4. Relevance changes with time. The reason you feel invisible or ignored is because technology has moved past you. You are not as influential or important as you once were. And you no longer need to compete.

5. Regret can suffocate you if you let it. You did the best that you could with the tools you had and the rules you lived by. To survive you need to make peace with your past.

6. Time becomes more and more precious. We do not have time to waste on drama or on conflict or on vision. Wisdom teaches us what is really important to invest the time that we have left on.

There is one more thought to add to this list. I call it the "But God" card. Life diminishes as we age. But God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He has promised to never leave us or forsake us.

Security In Being Settled

 I moved here to be close to my family. I was tired of being all alone. But since I moved here I have decided that this is where I will live until I die or until Jesus comes again. It is not a perfect place to live. But I can make a life here. I have made good friends and I have a good place to live. So this is where I have started over and have put down roots.

As long as I can I will live in this old house. As long as it's there I will be a part of my church. Who knows what the future hold. But as far into the future as I can see this is and will be the place for me.

There is a security in being settled.

Practice Makes Perfect

 Our assistant pastor preached Wednesday night this week while pastor Rubi is in Tucson. He started out well, sounding organized and very professional. I was impressed. But, about halfway through his message, he fell back to his old way of preaching. I can tell when a sermon is good and when it isn't. I can tell when a sermon is right on or off base. I can tell when a preacher has done his homework and when he is shooting from the hip. And I can tell when a preacher sticks to his notes and when he doesn't.

I pray for our pastors to rightly divide the word of truth. I pray that they will bring a word in season to us who are weary. I pray for the spirit of truth to minister in every service.

Practice makes perfect.

Conference Thoughts

 The days when I got a lot out of a conference are in my past. Conferences are exciting for the local church putting them on. You get to see old friends and people you used to know. You get good preaching from guys who are growing in their ability to minister. Conference gives regular people a chance to serve and to give. And regional conferences give people a chance to attend who cannot afford to travel to a big conference like Prescott.

The other thing to mention is that not every church does everything the same. It is hard not to compare this local conference with the one you grew up in. The people are not familiar, the building is not familiar, The songs are not familiar. Everything is a little different.

I watched Monday night of the Tucson conference because our pastor encouraged us to watch. It was not worth the effort for me to watch online. Being there in person would have been better.

Conferences are worth attending if you can. They help workers stay in the ministry. They are a catalyst for church planting. But, every conference is not for everyone.

Fading Glory

 "unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away." 2Cor. 3:13

Pastor Warner talked about what he called the fading glory last night. This struck a chord with me. It seems that we all deal with a fading glory from time to time. We all suffer from the memories of a glorious past as it compares to our current situation.

Moses at the beginning covered his face with a veil because they told him that his face was shining. But as the shine began to fade Moses still put the veil over his face. Was it because he didn't want the people to know that the glory was fading? Was it out of habit? Was Moses playing mental gymnastics with God's glory?

We all try to cover up what we perceive as a loss of the Divine presence. We cover up by reminiscing about the past. We cover up by doing new things we never did before. We cover up by lying about our current condition. We cover up by changing our theology. We cover up by comparing ourselves to others.

I may not be what I once was, but I'm not as bad as them!

The key to our walk with God is always to be honest before God. To be open, to reveal our hopes and fears. This is for our benefit since God already knows us better than we know ourselves.

Know for sure that glory does fade in this life. But there is a glory yet to be revealed both now and in the life to come.

Verse 10 talks about the glory that excels. It excels our past, it excels our current, and it excels anything that we can impagine.