Following Jesus

How do you FOLLOW Jesus?

"18 Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 And He said to them, 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.'  20 Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.

"21 Going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him."

When Peter, Andrew, James, and John responded to the invitation to follow Christ, there was no putting it off for another day. They immediately left everything and everyone that once defined their lives to follow Christ.

So how do YOU follow Jesus?

High Seas Expedition

Today we are doing day four of High Seas Expedition - our version of VBS. The kids are having a great time.

Joy has been leading it and we have had excellent participation by the people of our church. We are also seeing a lot of new kids from our community involved. Close to 40% of the kids participating don't come from our church.

Every night after we finish, between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m., we have gone home as a family and I have prepared sit-down meal for the family. That's a lot of late-night dining!

I think making time to be together as a family when we have been very busy with ministry has kept the whole experience healthier and more fun. But I look forward to getting my wife back after we finish.

Well it's time to go. Someone said something about refreshment time!

Following Christ

"We may as well face it: the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone... [We] have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost." A. W. Tozer (as quoted by Francis Chan in Forgotten God)

This week we are going to do part five in our series What Makes Christianity Christian? This week we are going to talk about what it means to follow Christ. So tell me what you think. What does it mean to follow Christ? How is believing in Christ different or the same as following Christ? And how can a person know if they are a true follower of Christ?

Losing God in Sermon-Making

"Even sermon-making, incessant and taxing as an art, as a duty, as a work, or as a pleasure will engross and harden, will estrange the heart by neglect of prayer, from God. The scientist loses God in nature. The preacher may lose God in his sermon." E. M. Bounds in Power Through Prayer

May God protect me from making much of preaching while making little of prayer! Protect me from losing God in sermon-making!

Blog post on Toy Story 3 by Donald Miller

Check out this blog post by Donald Miller. He shares some interesting thoughts on life and leading a team based upon the movie Toy Story 3.

Toy Story 3: What We Can Learn From a Great Story Pt. 1 of 3

"Who is the Holy Spirit and why should I care?"

If you are a Christian and someone were to ask you, "Who is the Holy Spirit and why should I care?", how would you answer them?

If you have some thoughts, I would like to hear from you. On Sunday morning we are doing a message on The Forgotten God. This is our fourth message on What Makes Christianity Christian? series.

Send me any thoughts or questions you have and I will try to incorporate them in my message.

The Forgotten God

In his book The Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit Francis Chan says, "The Holy Spirit is absolutely vital to our situation today. Of course, He is always vital; but perhaps especially now. After all, if the Holy Spirit moves, nothing can stop Him. If He doesn't move, we will not produce genuine fruit--no matter how much effort or money we expend. The church becomes irrelevant when it becomes purely a human creation."

Power through Prayer 2

E. M. Bounds in his classic book Power through Prayer says, "What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use--men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow on methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men--men of prayer."

Do you agree or disagree with Bounds' comments? Why?

Power through Prayer

How would you describe your prayer life? What kinds of things are central to your requests? Do you tend to pray primarily about your “wants” and things that have little eternal significance? Or is your prayer driven by the missional mindset of Christ to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:1-10)?

Do you pray specifically expecting God to answer? Or do you protect yourself from disappointment and pray in a manner that is so generalized you would never know if God had responded in some way to your prayer?

Would you describe your prayer life as powerful? Would you say that your prayer produces wonderful results?

James 5:16 says, “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”

What does it mean to pray earnestly? What does it mean to be a righteous person? When you read this text how do you want to see God change you and the way you pray?

Tell me what you think.

Forest Home 2

Last week Joy, the kids, and I went to Forest Home in the San Bernardino Mountains. It was a great time to connect, worship, rest, and play.

In this picture Caleb is engaging in a little competitive "diving" - trying to score points for his team!

We also had some time with the Contreras family, who are always a blast to hang out with!

On the last night Joy and I had dinner with Stan and Angie White. Stan is the president and CEO of Forest Home. I enjoyed getting to know him and learning more about the history of the camp and their vision for serving churches and building the kingdom.