A PS from James MacDonald...

I read this and wanted to re-post it here, because it tied in perfectly to what the sermon was about last Sunday. In the Our Journey devotional, Pastor James has been talking about change, and wrong ways to go about it. Read on! (And if you missed the sermon from last Sunday, listen to it from our sermons links: "Anti-Bullying Campaign".)

One of the persistent faulty plans for change among Christians is the idea of change by the rules. Change by unbending, merciless, military following of orders. Picture the drill sergeant barking out orders right in the face of the recruit. Well that’s the way a lot of churches are. This is the kind of church I grew up in: change by the power of the rules. This is not a new problem for the church of Jesus Christ—it shows up already among Christians in the New Testament.

Change by rules means strict adherence to a list of some kind. Keep the list and you will change. And don’t overlook the importance of making sure others are keeping the list too. Life becomes a daily nightmare of tracking rules and desperately trying to compensate or cover-up for the rules we’ve broken. That’s Christianity? A bunch of rules? Really!?!

I’m a Christian. I don’t do these five things. You know, the Filthy Five, the Dirty Dozen. Whatever they are; it depends on how fired up your church was. But there’s a list. Rules! Rules! Rules!  The problem with that, as Romans 6-8 makes abundantly clear is that it reduces God’s work of life-change to a heart-hardening, mind-numbing, soul-stifling not-so-merry-go-round of effort and disappointment.

Read again the passage above from Romans 7 and note how the rules inflame your desire to sin. Legalism just makes you want to sin. Sin has power; rules have no power. Rules bring sin to the surface.  I don’t want us to be a church like that. God hasn’t offered us a life like that! Some of us need to get off the rule-keeping treadmill and leave it behind. Otherwise, we will never change!

Nuff said!

p.s. - not certain who Nuff is, but he gets credited with a lot

God Keeps Teaching Me About This, and I Hope Someday Soon I'll Learn...

I want to circle back and say one more thing about expectations. I know, you are thinking, “Dude, move on, you blogged about that, like, 5 weeks in a row recently.” I know. But this is a forum where I can share where God is working on me. And this has been a big one for me. I don’t even think I got it down perfectly, because the Lord is still graciously teaching me.

When the Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Philippians, he was in a jail cell. A jail cell, as in: a prison cell, as in incarcerated, confined, chained, the big house… as in no freedom, restricted, locked away from society at large. Why am I belaboring the point…? Because when you read Philippians, Paul seems so unbelievably joyful and content! You would think he wrote it from Disney World, but he wrote it from a jail cell (did I mention that?).

So where is the joy? It certainly wasn’t from his circumstances… but neither was it from wrong expectations. We often get depressed, frustrated, or angry because we have unbiblical expectations.

• If only my spouse were a better…
   
• My kids had better be…
   
• My job HAS to start getting better…
   
• My doctor better say…
   
• I should be seeing a better financial situation this year…

When we start laying out un-biblical expectations, we will lose our joy in a hurry. If there is something I had to learn in 2011, and am still learning in 2012, it was to not get my hopes up in my own expectations. Too often I did, and too often I became depressed, frustrated, AND angry. Things I was expecting to happen, didn’t. And things I was almost certain would not happen, did. And the Lord reminded me who is really in control here.

Did Paul have any expectations? He could have said, "I expect to get out of jail, I expect one of the churches to bail me out or break me out, I expect the Lord to rescue me..." He didn't have any of those expectations, really he had just one: it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. (Philippians 1:20)

I want to honor Christ. In my life, by my death. That’s really all I should be looking towards.

That’s one thing that Paul is saying in this verse. We are not going to meet the Lord and say, “I wasted my life on You?! I gave my years on earth to telling people about You?!”

And I will not be ashamed. I will not look back on my life and say “Jesus disappointed me.” I will not look back on my ministry and say, “Jesus wasn’t enough.”

My expectation is that I will cross over to death and rejoice at this glorious truth: Jesus is worthy. Of everything I had, everything I did, every heartache, every trial. Every day that this was all uphill… He is more than worthy. And I will not be ashamed.

That is my expectation. Too much of this life disappoints. Jesus will not.

p.s. - I promise this is the last time I talk about expectations (until the next time)

I love New Year's Day! (the actual day and the U2 song)

I love New Year’s Day.

I don’t know why. I don’t have any particularly great memories of spectacular events that happened on any January 1 in my life. But it has always been a meaningful day to me.

I think it has to do with the sense of January 1st bringing to us the one thing we all long for: a chance to start over.

Every year marks triumph and tragedy. Wins and losses. New life and saying goodbye to loved ones. And New Year’s Day brings with it that sense of closing the chapter on the previous year while standing in anticipation of what will happen in the next year.

This is also one of the most alluring things about the Gospel of Jesus Christ: a chance to start over. No matter how badly we blew it, no matter how many times we insisted on our own way… God reaches out to us with forgiveness, mercy, and grace.

Is this the year? Is 2012 the year that you decide you are done trying to do things your way? Is this the year that things really change for you, as you allow Jesus Christ to have His rightful place as Lord of your life?

If you have said, “This is the year I am going to start going to church”, then I have great news: you can come to Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North! We are a brand new church, so this is a great time to get on board.

What kind of church are we? Come as you are and experience passionate contemporary worship and messages from Bible that will help you grow in your journey. You will be welcomed, accepted, and loved. We are conveniently located in Wexford, meeting at Marshall Middle School (5145 Wexford Run Road) every Sunday morning at 10:00 am.

Don’t let anything get in the way! And lose the notion that you have to be a “good person” to go to church. You only have to be a person who realizes you need the Lord. And He is ready to give you your chance to start over.

p.s. - just hold the sauerkraut

Prayer: the ultimate game-changer

John 16:33 - I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.

Life can be hard, amen? The Lord gave us, in John 13-16, some tremendous resources to get us through a hard world. So far we have seen:

• PEOPLE TO COUNT ON.
• THE PROSPECT OF THINGS TO COME.
• A PERSON WITH PRESENCE AND POWER.
• A PLACE TO BELONG.

He gave us even more, one that we don't use near enough: the PRIVILEGE OF PRAYER.

John 16:23-24 - In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. 

Many times Jesus told us to pray in His name. What does it mean to pray in Jesus’ name? 

This means much more than tacking a phrase at the end of your prayer. It is praying in unity with Christ, that is, praying for what Jesus would want!

Prayer certainly changes things, no doubt about that. But when we pray, when we really pray, we find that prayer changes US! You find yourself becoing less concerned with what you want, and more concerned with what will glorify God. And when that becomes your agenda, it doesn’t matter what the world throws at you because you are in tune with God

In John 14:27, Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."

So enough with trying to find peace the worldly way - it's temporary and shallow.

So enough with expecting everything to be great here during our stay on the earth, it isn’t going to happen.

Are you using the resources that God has given you? We can experience the peace that Christ gives as we do life together, keeping our eyes on eternity, following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, walking in obedience and communing with God in prayer.

Let's do it - but let's do it with the resources God has given us. 

p.s. - that is quite a toolbelt we have!