I am reading Group Magazine’s March-April 2012 Digital download from my iPad. You can go HERE to check it out for yourself.

I’ve been in student ministry for 18 years now and I have thought about saying something similar to the list below. Have you ever had those thoughts or said any of the ones below?

Ten – Now I see where your daughter gets her ‘nasty attitude.’
Nine – Turn to Isaiah — it’s in the Bible.
Eight – I need three volunteers to help me out–but to, dear God, I’m begging you for anyone but Billy.
Seven – Yes, I know dodge balls can leave a mark–what’s your point?
Six – Actually, that would be fine if Derrick has to back out of the ski trip, Mr. Jones–it’s an answer to prayer.
Five –  I’ve been on a roll lately. So I decided to just wing it tonight.
Four – Timmy, why don’t you tell everyone why you were grounded last week and missed youth group.
Three – Oh, it’s nothing that a visit with Mr. Jim Beam couldn’t fix.
Two – What do I do all week? You mean besides playing video games and updating my Facebook status?
One – I can’t believe I get paid to do this job–I’d do it for free.

Do you have any to add? Are there things that you say everyday that probably shouldn’t be said out loud?

I follow Dare 2 Share’s (Jason Lamb) blog in my Google Reader. Today was an incredible post I wanted to pass on. You can follow Jason as well by clicking HERE.

“If God answered every prayer you prayed last week, how many new people would be added to the kingdom?”

Sadly, on the day that I read that tweet on my phone, the answer was ZERO.

J. D. Greear, author of, Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary, retweeted this question posed by someone he follows on Twitter and I was fascinated by such a simple and profound question. To my recollection, I’ve never been asked a question like this before, but wish someone would have asked me this years ago before I ever got into ministry and maybe even longer ago than that!

Follow J. D. Greear on Twitter (@jdgreear) and his friend (@matt_papa) who posed this profound and powerful question!

Some of the conviction I’m experiencing is probably coming from how inwardly and selfishly focused my prayer life has been lately. In mid-January I suffered a concussion that has put me on the sidelines for what will end up being a little over a month. Much of my prayers have been for my own healing and for my family. Not that I feel like those are bad things to pray for, but my prayers were incomplete at best.

“God, heal me and use my situation to point others to You!” OR “God, heal me and give me the opportunity to tell __________ about You!” Either of these prayers would have been infinitely better than, “God, heal me.”

Even though my life circumstances have been serious to deal with and while I’m still praying for healing in my own life, I was convicted by the fact that no one was coming to faith as a result of my prayers. Quite simply, because I wasn’t asking for it! As a result of wrestling with this thought I have had to ask myself two additional questions:

Do I believe in the power of prayer?
How regularly am I praying for the lost?
Again, convicted on both counts.

I hope I believe in the power of prayer for a full recovery from my concussion, but again, how selfish a thought is that if I don’t also believe that God will be faithful to answer my prayers for the lost…when I actually get around to praying for them. Praying for the lost is something that I had been better at doing, but not as well as I thought if on any given week my answer to the original question was ZERO.

So, “If God answered every prayer you prayed last week, how many new people would be added to the kingdom?” What thoughts do you have regarding praying for the lost? How regularly do you pray for them? Please share your insights and comments below.

If you didn’t read the first post you can find it by clicking HERE.

1 Corinthians 8:1-9

1 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own,4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people.5 And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.6 So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part.7 But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in yout—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

8 I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others.9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

(Principle 1 & 2 of 4)
Principle # 1: This kind of giving comes out of GRACE, not out of DUTY (8:1,6,7,9; 9:8,14)

-Two verses I love to lay side by side:
-8:9 “You know the GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” (Verse about SALVATION!)
-9:8 “God is able to make ALL GRACE about to you, so that in ALL THINGS at ALL TIMES, having ALL THAT YOU NEED, you will abound in every good work.” (Verse about GIVING!)

-Both are permeated with grace!
-There is no other way to be saved except by grace.
-There is no other way to give (in the way God intends) expect by grace.
-Both (Paul would say) are driven by grace, sustained by grace!

Principle # 2: This kind of giving (so often) comes out of POVERTY, not out of PLENTY. (8:2.9)

-What hit me in a fresh way: Even God operates by this principle!
-Psalms 24:1 “The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it..”
-Psalms 50: 10,12 “Every animal of the forest in Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills…If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and all that is in it.”
-Yet when God set out to bless the world through His Son, it was not through abundancebut through poverty.
-8:9 “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became POOR, so that you through HIS POVERTY might become rich.”

-If that’s the kind of giving God blessed in and through His Son, don’t you think it’s the kind of giving He wants to bless in and through you and me?!

-That’s what He did among the Macedonian Christians, Paul says.
-V2 ”Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.”

-Look at those words! (Would you put them together?)

One one side                    On the other side
“sever trial”                     “overflowing joy”
“extreme poverty”          ”rich generosity”

-Isn’t it true?: What God loves to bless and multiply so often comes out of the need and sacrifice, not surplus and abundance.

I will add principle 3 & 4 in my next post.  Let me know what you think.

1 Corinthians 8:1-9

1 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own,4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people.5 And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.6 So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part.7 But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in yout—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

8 I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others.9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

At Faith Wesleyan Church our Pastor preached a few Sunday’s ago about “The Cycle Of New Testament Giving”. It goes like this…

(Imagine a circle that never ends)
THE FATHER—(The Father gives the Son)—>THE SON—(The Son gives the Spirit)—>THE HOLY SPIRIT—(The Spirit gives us life)—>CHRISTIANS—(We give as channels of God’s grace and love)—>OTHERS—(We all give many expressions of thanks to God)—>(THE FATHER)—>

-Through Jesus Christ God pours out the riches of His love and grace into us.
-By the power of His Spirit, we spill out those riches onto others (thru our giving).
- As the blessings of God’s giving flow through us (as channels), more and more people are blessed by the riches of His grace and join us in speaking out thanks to God for what He has given in Jesus Christ!
-The, it starts all over again!

How different from the “common concept of giving”.

GOD—->(strong command GIVE!!!)
CHRISTIAN—>(N0? Yes?)

The New Testament picture of giving is not like that at all.

• It’s not about pressure or demand!
• It’s not even about emotional appear—or the need!
• It’s about “getting in the flow of God’s giving” so that we become channels through which He sends His love and salvation to others!

Once we get this picture fixed in our hearts and minds, we’re able to grasp (and apply) the spiritual principles by which this kind of giving works and is kept alive.

I’ll share the 4 principles of giving in my next post.  So what are your thoughts?

If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill,

Be a scrub in the valley — but be

The best little scrub by the side of the rill;
Be a bush if you can’t be a tree.

If you can’t be a bush, be a bit of the grass,

Doing something for somebody’s sake.

If you can’t be a muskie, then just be a bass –

But the livliest bass in the lake.

We can’t all be captains, some have to be crew,

There’s something for all of us here,

There’s big work, and little for people to do,

And the task we must do is the near.

If you can’t be the highway, then just be a trail,
If you can’t be the sun, be a star;
It isn’t by size that you win or you fail –
Be the best of whatever you are!

This was posted by Scott Rubin who is the Middle School Pastor at Willow Creek Community.  

Semper Paratus (Latin, “Always Ready”) is the motto for the Coast Guard. Do you think that might have been the motto of the 12 Disciples?

ALL 12 were “Always Ready” even at their death.

Simon Peter…crucified upside down
Andrew…crucified
James…beheaded
John(brother of James)…exiled, died of old age
Matthew…speared to death
Bartholomew(aka Nathanael)…beaten then crucified
Philip…crucified
Thomas…speared to death
Simon(the zealot)…crucified
James…stoned to death
Thaddaeus(aka Judas son of James)…stoned to death
Judas Iscariot…suicide by hanging (Matthias replaced Judas)

How bout you, if Jesus were to ask you if your ready, would you respond with “Semper Parautus”

On Saturday, June 17th, 2006 there was a reservation that had been made for Ruby Mae Gormong (my grandma, Pastor Dan’s mother) and her presence at the Wedding and reception of Scott Andrew Engrebretson & Hannah Beth Gormong.

Prior to the wedding Grandma Ruby spent many hours to find just the right dress.

She told my mother (Rita) that she was nervous that she might fall walking down the isle. (She wanted EVERYTHING to be just right!)

Every Tuesday, you could find Grandma Ruby at the Ladies Prayer Group.

Earlier that week she told my dad (Larry) that she wasn’t planning to attend the Ladies Prayer Group, she had some family coming to stay with her and she wanted to get the house ready and rest up for the wedding and reception.

Grandma Ruby wasn’t at Scott & Hannah’s Wedding. On Tuesday, June 13th, 2006 sometime that morning, she CONFIRMED her reservation at the marriage supper of the lamb.

(Rev 19:9) Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb”

Remember how nervous she was to walk down the isle, afraid she would trip?

Remember the dress she spent many hours looking for to make sure it was the right one for the wedding?

Revelation 3:4b & 3:5b (NIV)

4 They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.

5 And I will acknowledge their name before my Father and his angels.

Can you see it…………..Father, Ruby Mae Gormong has arrived!