Tonight was our annual Praise Dinner/Worship Service at my home church, Liberty Baptist. Every Thanksgiving week, we come together to enjoy a meal (like every good Christian) and have a service with testimonies and singing. I look forward to this service all year.

I was sitting in service tonight flipping through my Bible on the awesome YouVersion iPhone app. I felt that I needed to read Ephesians 2. I flipped (or tapped) over there, and read these 10 verses:

¹ And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— ⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,⁷so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast.¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph. 2:1-10, ESV, emphasis mine)

I got done reading that and those two little words stuck out at me. “But God…” Those two little words are the turning point. “But God” changes everything.

We are all, by nature, sinners living in the passions of our flesh. Then God “but”s in. His rich mercy and love don’t just save us from Hell–a powerful thing by itself–but they raise us up with him and seated us next to him. All for what? Just so he could show us His grace. That’s it. He saved us just to lavish on us his grace.

Even crazier? Not 10 minutes after I got done glancing over this passage the pastor starts reading it from the stage. God had a message tonight! I pray that it might stick with you like it is with me. Go out and remember God’s “but”. It changes everything.

This week on the blog, we’re all writing about our favorite resource for summer events.  Mine is a little bit of a “different” resource to consider.

This evening I was reading through my devotional book I read every night, Extreme Devotion.  (It’s really great, and you can check it out by clicking its picture to the left.)  Today’s devotion was about a missionary who went to Korea in the 1800s with a Korean Bible in tow.  The missionary was killed before he ever spoke to a single Korean.  However, his Bible is still read today by Christians in the restricted nation of North Korea.  Over 150 years later, his action and subsequent death are still a testimony to Korean Christians.

You know what’s so cool about that?  He had nothing to do with the growth but planting the seed.  It’s kind of like he planted a garden then had to move away, so someone else started tending it.  That’s where the parallel comes in.

Sometimes (no, most of the time) we have trouble letting go of our “gardens”.  You know them: the ministries, events, duties, etc. that you’ve always done.  It might be camp, VBS, summer outreaches, or whatever you may do.  It’s your baby and you don’t want to let it go.  The thing is, sometimes in order for it to really grow, you need to let go of it.

The death of any great ministry can be a leader who won’t let go.  It’s just like a parent who won’t let go of their child once they’re out on their own.  God has put volunteers in your church specifically so you can let go.  I appreciate being able to serve under a children’s pastor like Ryan, who’s willing to let go of these projects when he can.  For instance, a good portion of our VBS planning has been handed off to one of our best volunteers, Carol, for several years now.  There was an opportunity to let go, and he took it.  It’s helped both Ryan and our VBS in the long run having someone with the resources necessary to really invest in the ministry.  He recognized that a volunteer was put in his path to be a great resource for him.

So what this summer could you hand off to one of your “resources?”  Look at the things you refuse to let go of, but could really use someone else to tend to them who has the time and know-how.  Use the amazing volunteers God has blessed you with to their fullest!  It is called “summer break” after all.

Tonight was the Christmas cantata at my home church, Liberty Baptist.  Our music pastor, Chas Singer, and our choir did amazingly as always.  As I sat there this evening, listening to the words they sang so beautifully, some things hit me.  I wanted to share some of those with you.

1.  Imagine being Mary and Joseph, lying in the stable looking the living, breathing Son of God right in the face.  Imagine the task of parenting a perfect child for the next 30 years!  (Most parents probably wouldn’t complain.)  He’d be courageous, relentless, and brave.  He’d love a world of sin.  Nothing we could do would keep us from the intimate love he would give.  He overcomes it all.  This is our God.  These are some of the ideas from the song, “This is Our God” that our choir shared tonight.  Remember that you serve a living Savior.  He came as a baby for you.  Even when you’re burned out, you have the knowledge of His unspeakable gift to you to drive you on.  That’s a crazy thought.  Here’s some of the highlights of the lyrics from this song:

Who is this child asleep in the manger?
Tender and mild, this intimate Stranger?
Recklessly, wildly loving a dangerous world
Who is this light invading our darkness…

This is our God, living and breathing
Call Him courageous, relentless, and brave
This is our God, loving and reaching… (more…)

“Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25:37-40, MSG)

On November 30, a limousine was parked in front of Princeton Pike Church of God in Hamilton, Ohio.  No one knew why.  A week later, the members of the church learned something about that limousine: 9 celebrities had been inside that limousine.  Not the celebrities we would think of.  Not at all.  But they were celebrities in the eyes of the King.  That limousine had carried 9 homeless men to church that Sunday morning.  It just so happens that the owner of a limo service attends that church.  On November 30, he went out into the streets and found 9 homeless men and brought them to church.  7 of the 9 came to know Christ personally that Sunday morning.  That’s what I call a bus ministry!

To most limo owners, that would seem like craziness.  You don’t normally let dirty, smelly homeless men ride in your limo for free.  But that man saw something more important than their physical state: their spiritual state.  In his mind, they weren’t homeless.  They were sinners in desperate need of a Savior.

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As you’ve probably learned before, I love quotes.   Like, with a passion.  In fact, I like them so much I actually subscribe to the Quote of the Day RSS feed from BrainyQuote.com.  At about 1 this morning, I’m looking around my RSS feeds and see the new quote of the day.  It’s from Pablo Picasso, and it says: “Action is the foundational key to all success.”

Initially, I kind of just brushed the statement off.  Then I really got to thinking about it.  It’s really true, and very applicable to our ministries.  Our world has lots of visionaries.  They’re really smart people who tell us what the world could be like if we did this, or how the world would change if only this happened.  They’re fascinating to listen to, and we’re enthralled just hearing what they have to say.  Leonard Sweet is one of the first visionaries that comes to my mind.  (He has an interview in the November/December issue of K!)  Visionaries are pretty cool people, in my opinion.

However, for as much as I love our visionaries, they don’t do much.  They spend their lives in “what if’s” and “could be’s”, but it’s up to us to actually make it happen.  Go back to the Picasso quote.  Imagine if Picasso had just spent his life talking about what his paintings could look like and what would happen if he painted them.  Needless to say, Picasso certainly wouldn’t have been quite the art celebrity he became.  Picasso found success because he acted on a vision. (more…)