In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He has lavished on upon us… (Ephesians 1:7-8a ESV)

New Year’s Day. All around our country today people are waking up to a new year. Possibly mulling through their minds solutions for the hang-over, a ride home, a way out, maybe a new resolution, or two.  I can’t help but to think of what we have turned this day in to. New Year’s Day a day we celebrate the do over, a fresh start, a new beginning. So we party like it’s 1999 (or is that 2999 now?) the night before with the assurance that with tomorrow comes a clean slate.

Culturally; it is a wonderful proof that all of us who fill humanity long for grace. Christian or not, we all want a chance to do things different, to be forgiven by someone for the somethings we have done.

Spiritually; well thank you God. I awoke this morning (to Austin who climbed in bed with Angie and me at 4 am to throw up - ahh to be a parent!) with resolutions in my head, navigating the quickest route to the coffee maker to get over my ‘parent’ hang-over and yet I was overcome with this day and what it has become. A day that perfectly reminds me of God’s grace. A New Year with nothing but promise in store. All I know is that there will be another beautiful Spring, a warm summer and a refreshing fall. A New Year to do it right: to balance my check book, to read my Bible more, to pray more, and to love more people with a reckless abandonment. Why do I have this feeling? Grace. Grace that has been truly lavished on me by my Heavenly Father. It is this grace that gives me the hope that I can bring more glory to Him and be more satisfied with the offering I have to make with this life He has given me. It’s not in New Year’s Day I find hope. New Year’s Day is the shadow of what is truly offered in His grace everyday.

Oh let this day be a catalyst for so many longing for the true grace of God that He wishes to lavish on them… That they would finally grasp it never to lose it. And for those of us He is pouring out His grace upon that we would be encouraged just as we are today with the promise of a new year that we can do it right, we can do it better. We can - by faith alone in His grace. 

A refreshing truth for the New Year.

aw

Pretty bold huh?As Christmas draws near, if you’re like me; your lights are up on your house, you have 3 Christmas trees (that’s right three!), a Christmas wreath is on the front door, bathroom door, game room door, utility room door, and above the fridge and you have two turkeys in the freezer (note: the Grocery Game! gotta stock pile early). So maybe you haven’t done all that. I understand. We missed Christmas last year so I think we are going a little overboard to make up for last year ~ or knowing my wife this is the way its going to be and then some every year after this. However, one thing you must be doing by know is playing and replaying those old Christmas CD’s. I mean you only listen to them once and year and after about a week of listening to them you remember why you only play them once a year. Maybe by now you have picked up Mercy Me’s Christmas CD, Shane and Shane’s, or Third Day’s Christmas CD. All are great, but one stands alone for me. One piece of work that I love to listen to year round, but at the end of the day it is still a Christmas CD. So if you haven’t updated your Christmas Music Library let me encourage you to grab this one. 

Behold the Lamb of God  By Andrew Peterson.

Now will you like it? I don’t know. Andrew has a strong hill country blue grass style of playing guitar. There are mandolins, guitars, lap steels, violins, organs, drums etc… Also you should know Jingle Bells is not on this CD! These are all new tracks that tell the story of Christmas beginning with Abraham and Moses. Some of my favorite tracks are:

 So Long Moses

Holly and Ivy

Labor of Love (honestly - I cry every time i hear this song.)

and Matthew’s Begats (I cried laughing the first time I heard this song)

So don’t wait, go get this CD or download it from Andrew Peterson’s site. You and your family will not regret it. So powerful and Biblical.

For more info and to see the documentary check out this link.

God Bless,
aw
 

This week First Anna began participating in Advent. The day after thanksgiving my family and I join each other for an annual Joe T Garcia’s Mexican Lunch. As if we didn’t fatten up enough the day before we go load up on some awesome Mexican food. I love the tradition. Around the table there are Orthodox Catholics, Methodist, Anglicans, and Baptists (that would be Angie and I). As we talked about life and church I was excited to tell some of the them we were doing Advent at a Baptist church. Some were jealous (in a good way) that we were free to do Advent without all of the misguided religious baggage that has accompanied the event for years in other denominations.

So what is Advent? Not a lot of Baptist churches are doing this… why are we?

It all starts with the church calendar. In the fifth century as the church began to spread out into other countries an effort was made to maintain doctrinal purity and uniformity within the church. That is why when you go to some churches you read creeds, repeat prayers, etc… that is called liturgy. Those creeds were statements of faith crafted by church leaders to help maintain solid theology within the church (there is only one church at this time - no denominations). Along with this practice came the church calendar. So no matter where your church was everyone was going to do Christmas, lent, Easter, etc… at the same time. The ‘church calendar’ began to take shape with the acceptance of the Easter date in 664 A.D. With that came the construction of a uniform church calendar accompanied with sermon texts, readings and colored robes for the priest to wear. This calendar is still in use today in many orthodox Catholic and Anglican churches:
- Trintiy (Summer/Fall)
- Advent (begins the 4 Sundays before Christmas)
- Christmas
- Epiphany
- Lent (Ash Wednesday begins lent)
- Holy Week (observing the week Jesus spent before going to the cross)
- Easter
- Ascension
- Whitsun

Some of the more Biblical events of the church calendar are Lent, Easter, Advent, Christmas, and Holy Week.

Early in church history Easter was the big celebration preceded by Lent. Lent called for Christians to take on a new church disicpline or fast in preperation for Easter. As time went on Christmas began to rival Easter as the new ‘big’ holiday. As it does today for similar reasons. Advent then became the prepatory period before Christmas when Christians are called to take on a new discipline looking forward to the return of our Savior.

So that is how Advent became a church holiday and the purpose behind it. It is a season of intentional sacrifice. When believers are called to redirect their attention from the things of this world to the world to come. Wow, how we have messed up that one. Instead Christmas has become more about the things of this world and less about the world to come. With that said Advent has never been more relevant. I hope as Christmas approaches and we are drawn in by the toys and savy ads to tell us how much we need a new Lexus, Ford, Mac, etc… we remember their is a world to come and we need to be living towards it. Jesus said that we care for those in need we care for Him. Prepare for this Christmas by giving to those in need (as well as recieving), praying for those in need, caring for those in need. Adopt a family, an Angel Tree child, choose a family you and your family can pray for every night before dinner leading up to Christmas, or adopt an elderly isolated family member who needs the love and warmth of your family this holiday season. Look past the things of this world and focus on the things that will not rot in the world to come.

make much of Jesus,
aw

Last week I participated in my first ever Southern Baptist of Texas Convention Annual Meeting. I took the family and Angie’s sister to help with the kids while Angie and I attended some of the activities (Angie went to hear Beth Moore…). Angie asked me on Sunday night if I was excited and I said ‘no, not really, but I am curious.’ I had some pretty low expectations. Normally I don’t get into these ‘dog and pony shows’ I had kind fallen into the trap that most young pastors have thinking that these convention events were a bunch of old fundamentalist pastors getting together to lie about how big their church is and rub shoulders with the right people to land another church or political position within the Convention. Now there was some of that, no doubt, there were some guys in full on political mode. Which was a little sickening since I am already worn out from the presidential elections? But right before I became the pastor of First Baptist Anna I was wrapping up 21 hours of seminary! And for one of my classes I read a book called the 5th Discipline. It was a phenomenal book dedicated to leadership and business systems (I chose to read this book - it was not assigned). As I read the book my mind was popping with insight into how to lead organizations using leverage, time and systems. It was while reading this secular leadership book I thought, ‘so many churches would thrive if the leaders would employ these principles.’ Then my next thought was a kind of calling to work within the SBTC denominational structure to help give our denomination systems that would allow for it to thrive. At the end of the day I am grateful for the Baptist Denomination and its cooperative efforts towards missions, doctrinal purity, and goodwill. I want to help and be a young forward thinking voice in the convention so that maybe 20-30 years from now this convention will continue to thrive, and do all God has planned for it, lest we fall back into the sin of unbelief and poor leadership.

So I went. And I have to be honest, maybe it was my low expectations or my lack of sleep from the night before but for some reason I loved the convention. It was a great experience. Lance Berkman (First Baseman for the Houston Astros) spoke about evangelism and God used his simple message to affirm some decisions I had to make this year concerning our evangelism style as a church. I went to hear the legendary John Bisagno (Pastored FBC Houston for 30 something years), God used him to speak to me about worship style and the future of the church (another affirmation about our current direction in worship). I also met with some mentors, relaxed with some old friends, voted for a new ‘young’ Vice President of the convention. Then it happened while standing in the right place in the hallway with the right person at the right time, me a rookie pastor, 34 years old, recent graduate from SWBTS was put on the Committee for Nominations (I think I have too much hair for that committee!). A somewhat powerful committee within the convention that decides who serves on what committees. Immediately I have been thrusted into the convention’s machine. I am honored and humbled at the same time. It does seem like when God puts a burden on your heart to do something for Him, He will work out the circumstances. So I am excited. Who knows what will come next for me in the SBTC. Hopefully it will be a lifelong commitment to see this convention remain Biblical, active, and good stewards of the influence God has given it within our state and country.

We just finished a great series on prayer here at First Anna and before we launch into Advent/Christmas sermons I am taking a Sunday off this week! Since 10-15 hours (sometimes even 20) of my work week goes into sermon prep I get a little break this week. I am using the time wisely though. Preparing for the Advent series and looking at my sermons for the next year! Here’s a little preview into next year’s sermon series:

- Txt msg: a series about the Bible and It’s role in our lives

- ‘Knots’ or ‘Boxing Gloves and Left Handed Scissors’: a series about conflict in marriage

- Habakkuk: a series for first responders that deals with why God allows suffering in the world…

- The ‘S’ Word: oh yea I can’t wait for this one, but I can’t tell you what this one is about - I will tell you it is not ’sex’…
(I have been working on this series for about 3 years!)

- Immediately: The Gospel Mark looking at the quick paced, life and ministry of Jesus (maybe this summer)

Pray for me as I try to hear from the Lord what He would like preached this year.

Grace Alone,
aw

Well the podcast is up and running again - thanks James! So I want to detour a little from my usual post about the sermon to talk about a movie. Not many weeks go by that I don’t take a shot at our American media in my sermons. And to be honest the more I try to follow Christ the more media sickens me. Recently I took my wife to see a ‘romantic comedy’ that was rated pg-13 (we already took rated R movies out of our life about 5-6 years ago.) and there was still the occasional F-bomb, and some naked women. We both left feeling dirty and like we had wasted a perfectly good date night! It seems that there are fewer and fewer quality tasteful movie, TV and music choices these days. So whenever I come across a good one I want to share it. Bella. What a great movie. It’s hard to say too much about it without spoiling the flick - but I can say you will not be disappointed. It rose up from the rungs of the independent film industry to become a major contender with big budget films. Great acting (something we don’t get a lot of in the low budget Christian movie genre), brilliant cinematography, and a thought provoking story line. Now I am the first to admit that I can be artsy fartsy despite my manly exterior . So be ready to appreciate unique camera angles, a use of narrative parallelism and other unique features that make this movie so brilliant and well done.

So if you’re ready to take the plunge into some clean movies that you and the spouse or the entire family can enjoy (it is pg-13 and should be because of the themes that are dealt with in the film) then give Bella a try. We rented from the video store here in Anna – so I am sure you can get it wherever you are.

If you want more here is the link:

Enjoy,
aw

Currently we are experiencing difficulties with our pod-casting software. Since that is down this week I thought I should post my manuscript from Sunday’s sermon on the will of God. Now many of you have figured out by now I am not very conventional. I think you will find my sermon manuscript to be just as unique. This is a pretty standard manuscript for me (those 3-4 pages I bring with me to the pulpit every Sunday). I don’t usually concern myself with grammar or spelling its mostly bullets and thoughts to help me communicate the message by glancing at my notes (versus reading). When I start the sermon on Tuesday their is always more writing but by the time I review it for Sunday morning I have removed and reduced the text to this nuts and bolts format. I hope it is helpful for all of you who missed Sunday.

I am looking forward to this Sunday as we talk about, ‘Give us this day our daily bread…’ what a great word for our current economy.

When We Pray.4 - Your Kingdom Come, Your Will be Done.

RECAP: Pray in Secret – God is Father (approachable) – God is Holy (capable)

 

DIET: Before Austin was born I was getting pretty fat as a youth pastor.

-          Pizza and cokes all the time up all night etc…

-          When we move to Waco I lived with Angie’s parents and her mom puts sugar in everything she cooks

o    I just got bigger!

§  I was WORKING OUT WITH NO RESULTS

-          Finally we moved out and we signed up for a certain online diet:

o    It cost money for the online accountability and service

§  I had to change all of my portion sizes

·         My choice in food (no more beef – it was now turkey and chicken)

·         More water – no cokes

·         Only a few chips at restaurants

·          The food we cooked was lighter…

o    Everything changed – there was tremendous sacrifice in my diet routine.

o    I loved it though – I lost 45lbs!

 

I remember that first night I went to bed hungry. Ugh. I shouldn’t feel hungry. But I trusted the diet. A few weeks later I am noticing my body changing, later it became easier for me to run, my pants got huge one me…

 

Diets, budgets, exercise, studying, working – all of us desire to see one thing: results. Results determine if you stay in a job, a relationship, on a diet… very few people commit to things regardless of the results.

 

WE:

And so when it comes prayer we expect results.

 

It’s natural. Is it right? Well maybe not. But nevertheless the expectation is always there.

 

Some have given up on prayer and God because they didn’t see results.

 

This morning in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus is telling us how to pray and get results.

 

Maybe the bigger problem was not God or even your faith – it was your prayer. Not that you didn’t say the right things like some magic trick – but that your prayer was in alignment with God’s will (His agenda and how He plans to use your life or the life of someone else)

 

GOD:

Matthew 6:10 Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven…

-          GOD IS A FATHER, HOLY GOD, AND PERFECT KING

o    As a King God is in control of all things and God has an agenda

§  God’s agenda is His will

 

THE TENSION:

-          God is a perfect King

o    (the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps Proverbs 16:9)

-          Yet He is a just Judge

o    (He will render to each one according to his works; to those who by patience in well doing seek for glory and honor and immorality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self seeking  and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness with will be wrath and fury. Romans 2:6-8)

-          And He has asked us to pray for:

o    Salvation - Our needs – Healing – Others - Spiritual Warfare

 

God is all knowing and has a will but He in is perfection allows for man to have a will. I don’t need to resolve every tension in Scripture and there are many variables that contribute to one person’s view on this subject YOU GET IN THE MOST TROUBLE WHEN YOU LEAN TO FAR INTO THE WILL OF MAN OVER GOD - WHEN MAN’S WILL/PRAYER/DECISIONS/ CAN CHANGE GOD! That is wrong. Man can never change God! God is always in control…

And when it comes to prayer,

 

PRAYER AND PROVIDENCE:

OUR PRAYERS CAN AFFECT GOD’S WILL (by his allowance) BUT NEVER CHANGE GOD’S WILL

Examples:

-          ABRAHAM PRAYS FOR SODOM AND GOMORRAH – God allows for prayer but God still wipes it out (Genesis 18)

-          ISRAEL PRAYS FOR A KING (I Samuel – The Kings of Israel end up betraying and destroying the nation of Israel but God has a covenant with Israel and a plan (Genesis 12 & II Samuel 7) that is not wavered by sin or prayer.

-          JESUS IN GETHSEMANE “Let this cup pass from me – nevertheless Your will be done!”

 

So in order for us to have an effective prayer life two questions must be answered:

-          What is God’s will?

 

-          How can I know if I am praying according to God’s will?

 

For the next few minutes I want us to spend time answering these questions.

1.       WHAT IS GOD’S WILL (your Kingdom Come)

 

SUMMED UP IN JESUS - Ephesians 1:7-10

 

-          Because of God’s ‘abundant’ grace we are redeemed by the cross of Jesus for our trespasses or failure to live holy God pleasing lives

 

-          With our salvation comes a gift: making known to us His will!

o    According to God’s ADMINISTRATION (working)

o    God planned before hand (before time, before the garden, before everything got started!)

o    All things would be summed up in Christ

§  If you know me – you were thinking he’s going to say – that Jesus would die on the cross

·         You’re right that is true but this verse adds to that knowledge

·         EVERYTHING WILL COME TO COMPLETION UNDER CHRIST

o    It’s all about Jesus!

 

No more pain, suffering, sin, hate, hurt, hurricanes, poverty, stress, temptations, anger, disease, cancer, deformity, bitterness…

 

All Things will come to a summing stop and they will all be under Jesus who makes all things new perfecting what has been broken by sin in the world!

 

You know this is true – there is a part of you that grieves at the tragedy in this world. When you see crime, or pain, or loss your heart breaks because you know there must be something more! That knowledge is for those who are pursuing Christ.

 

Another great privilege we have as Christians is we have the last book! The book of REVELATION.

-          ONE THING ABOUT REVELATION: It is called the REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST. The book was written to reveal Jesus not the anti-Christ. Beware of going to this book to find matches for your least favorite political candidate.

 

THE END - Revelation 19:1-8 & 21:1-5

-          I believe God has a will for humanity and we each have a role in that will.

o    Some of us have larger roles than others but we all have some part God’s will for humanity.

 

God will accomplish His will no matter what!

He doesn’t need you, Judas, Abraham, Noah, Joseph… He can use anyone He so chooses.

 

It’s all going to end at the feet of Jesus and there is nothing we can do to stop it or prevent it. It is a done deal.

 

With that said, beyond that I believe this is where we find that God has granted us some freedoms:

-          Sin, Prayer, choices all fall in this freedom – you’re not going to stop my son from coming but you can affect the meantime

 

Ill. (our cruise) TOZER’S BOAT on a cruise everyone has a purpose but the course is already set and nothing will change that but you have some freedoms within the course charted.

 

OUR PRAYERS CAN AFFECT GOD’S WILL BUT NEVER CHANGE GOD’S WILL…

 

2.       HOW CAN I KNOW IF I AM PRAYING ACCORDING TO GOD’S WILL? (YOUR WILL BE DONE)

 

OUR CONFIDENCE - I John 5:14-15

 

-          Christians can be confident that God hears them in prayer (He is our dad)

o    Christians can be confident when they pray according to God’s will He will answer their prayers

 

Now we can get in some mind knots here but the simple truth is:

-          God wants us to pray

o    Pray for His will (for every situation)

§  When we pray His will He answers our prayers

 

So in order to have an effective prayer life – we must know God’s will for every situation! Easy enough?

 

God has given us a picture of His will for humanity but what about His will for:

-          Your finances

-          Your job

-          Your spouse

-          Your boyfriend/girlfriend

-          Your route to work

-          Your sickness

-          Your future

 

How can we know God’s will in those situations?   

 

OUR OBEDIENCE - Romans 12:1-2

 

DO NOT BE CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD BUT BE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND

-          Do not be Conformed: patterned, molded by this world – don’t follow the pattern this world lays out

o    Be Transformed: (metamorphoomai) Metamorphous – BECOMING SOMETHING DIFFERENT!

§  By the RENEWING of your mind: Changing the way you think!

 

By God’s mercy we begin to live for God – and living for God starts with our minds:

-          Go to Church

-          Read and think on His Word

-          Secret Prayer

-          Evaluating life decisions as Godly or not

 

When you begin to do these things God reveals to you His will for a given situation.

 

A healthy prayer life is intertwined with a submissive godly life. They are not separate – it is impossible to pray for God’s will when you do not know God.  PRAYER IS ABOUT A RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU AND THE LORD -

 

PRAYER FUNK: Why didn’t God answer my prayer the way I thought He would?

Your answer should lead you to evaluate two components of your spiritual life:

-          How is my walk with the Lord?

-          Am I willing to submit to God’s will for this situation?

o    I have learned that God doesn’t always want to remove every hardship from my life.

§  He would rather see me refined by trials than have an easy life. In those situations when God doesn’t do the things the way I pray I start praying – Lord, teach me whatever it is you want me to learn from this experience.

 

THIS REQUIRES AN ATTITUDE OF SUBMISSION TO OUR KING – SURRENDER TO HIS WILL DESPITE OUR REQUEST

 

PAUL SAXON (Born 2001-2007) (Parents: Terrill and Leigh)

-          Around 2004 diagnosed with cancer! Wouldn’t live to 5 years old!

-          A few years go by everyday this little boy is covered in prayer – he ends up seeing 5!

-          This family called for their friends to fast, they are extremely godly and love the Lord like few people I know

Friday May 11^th 2007 - When faith matters the most

This past week, it seems like every kid I know has cancer, is struggling for life, or is otherwise going through some kind of treatment crisis where there is little hope. I know…I exaggerate, but in our small culture of cancer families, it seems that way. I watch my own Paul suffer through disease pain, treatment pain, and laying in a hospital bed while his peers wrap up a year of kindergarten, play sports, and basically enjoy the life of a child. I know of lots of other families going through the same thing. And, some families have lost their child this week. With all this crummy stuff going on with our kids and so little hope being given us by our doctors (who love our kids too), I have to ask myself…why do I persist with faith at all? One answer easily comes to mind…a legion of people are praying loud, attention-getting prayers on our behalf. And, there is this truth: It is during times of hopelessness, based on what we see and hear, where our faith has meaning. “Walk by faith, not by sight.” If we lose faith during these hopeless times then it was/is inert faith at best. NOW is the time to have faith - when nothing you see or hear says you should. In Romans, Abraham is described as behaving this way - “When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do but on what God said he would do” (4:18, The Message). God doesn’t say he’ll heal our chidren, etc., but He does say he’ll never forsake us. So, I choose to believe anyway, despite little hope, and I want to see what God will do.
Paul’s night was disturbed numerous times at the throw-up bucket, and his nausea persists. We’re mixing up some new meds for him today: Marinol (pill, not the “joint” form), Emend, and we are working towards getting him off the Morphine and onto the Methadone for home meds. He’ll be getting dose 2 of 4 of Velcade later today. - I know you are praying.

 

I had the honor of officiating Paul’s funeral (Hawaiian Theme)

His mom wrote these words after losing her son to cancer:

 

Sunday, July 29, 2007 - A word from Leigh

It’s been 2 weeks. Two weeks since Paul’s death. Two weeks since my precious boy left us to be ushered into eternity. Two weeks since I heard his voice, kissed his bald head, felt his soft skin. Two weeks of the rest of my life without him.
I’ve been trying to find a word to describe how I feel, and the best one I can come up with is: Raw. I feel freshly wounded, but without hope of the wound being healed. It’s an interesting place: I can’t be healed (on earth) by being reunited with Paul, but I don’t want to be healed without him. Healing would mean that somehow I’ve “gotten over” Paul. I’d rather hurt for the rest of my life.
I simply miss him – all of him, and everything reminds me of him. Everywhere I go, every task I carry out, every song I hear… all make me think of Paul. Even when we’re having a great time as a family, I just wish Paul were here with us. Every time Jack and Whit play together, I ache for Paul’s involvement, his sense of humor, his laugh.
Knowing that he is in the presence of our Almighty Father is keeping me alive. I recognize my wound as deep, but it is not life-threatening. Just like the Lord has so creatively and abundantly supplied all of our needs in the past, I know He will continue to pour out His mercy, grace and healing love on our family.
And even though I cannot conceive of how this could possibly happen, He will slowly and tenderly heal my open wound. And as He does, I know He will reveal more of Himself to me. That’s the part I’m looking forward to…

 

This is the faith i want all of us to have when we question God’s will and our prayers. Submit to the King in the hardest of circumstances. Where else will you find the healing, peace and will to continue when the bottom falls out of your world.

 

How do you end your prayers? I have this habit of ending every prayer with ‘in Your Holy name I (or we) pray, amen.’ I know it comes from Scripture but I never thought about what it meant until preparing for last week’s sermon. I close my prayers that way now proclaiming that by God’s reputation He is more equipped than me to lead my life and to provide for my needs. He is a great, holy, massive, unmoving God! He placed the billions of stars in the universe and gave us the unsearchable depths of the ocean to remind us He is present and He is big enough to handle anything we bring His way.

I wanted to use this on Sunday but I couldn’t fit it into the sermon. But when it comes to writers who have helped me have a greater understanding of the Holiness of God one that stands out historically is St. Augustine. He was born 354 years after Christ. So he was very close to the history altering event of the cross (Augustine lived as close to the cross as we do to the American Revolution 1776)

In his book Confessions St. Augustine wrote this about God (btw - Confessions is a never ending stream of praise, I have never read anything like it outside of Scripture, it is an amazing text! Get it if you think you can hang with this guy):

‘What then, is the God I worship? For who is Lord but the Lord himself, or who is God besides our God? You my God, are most high, most excellent, utmost in goodness, most powerful; most merciful and most just; most secret and most truly present; most beautiful and most strong; stable, yet not supported; You are unchangeable, yet You change all things; You are never new, never old; making all things new, You are the unseen power bringing humility upon the proud; always working, ever at rest; gathering, yet needing nothing; sustaining, pervading, and protecting; creating, nourishing, and developing; seeking, and yet possessing all things. You give love, but without passion; You are jealous, yet free from care; repent without remorse; angry, yet serene. You change my ways, leaving my plans unchanged; You recover what You never really lost. You are never in need but still You rejoice at gain; never greedy, yet demand dividends. We give abundantly to you so that we may deserve a reward; yet who possess anything which is not already owned by You? You owe men nothing, yet You release us from our debts and when You cancel debts You lose nothing. Yet, O my God, my life, my holy Joy, what is this that I have said? What can any man say when he speaks of You? But woe to them that keep silent about You — since even those who are most gifted with speech cannot find words to describe You.’

Augustine is something else… It takes a special mind to digest big chunks of Augustine. He’s like a great steak from a real steak house. You gotta really know what you are tasting and appreciate the seasoning, the real smoke used and the grilled to perfection flavor.

I hope this week you will rely on the God who is greater than you and is best qualified to guide you and meet your needs. This Sunday we are looking at praying and the will of God. If God is perfectly in control of all things why pray? And how do I pray according to God’s will? I hope you will join us.

Grace,

aw

What kind of father did your grow up with? Affirming, Absent, Abusive, Passive, Religious… We all grow up with ‘dad baggage’ - for two reasons: first simply there are no perfect fathers. that’s okay, as long as we keep trying to be the best fathers we can be God will take care of the rest. second, if God has described Himself as a father what earthly image do you think the enemy (satan) is going to attack - FATHERS! Men we are under attack. Culture is calling us to be passive, abusive, religious or even absent and so by failing we defame the image of our perfect heavenly Father.  Your children are relying on you to give them a close to accurate picture of Abba, God. Guard your hearts and walks with the Lord - everything depends on it!

I hope today for the first time maybe you went to your knees in prayer and spoke to God as a Father in Heaven, not a distant, out of touch, religious god… He is a perfect Father who knows everything about you and wants you to know Him - we know Him through prayer and His word. Go to Him today and again.

Well this is the blog. So I can be a little more vulnerable here than usual. It’s monday. I am supposed to preach on ’Your Kingdom come’ this Sunday. But I can’t get over the fact that I am skipping ‘holy be Your name.’ So next week will be either the Kingdom of God or the Holiness of God. Pray for me…

Wait a minute. I said don’t read this blog. Are you still reading? Seriously stop. You didn’t stop. What? Why are you still reading this blog? Don’t answer that. Just stop. You’re still reading. What am I going to do with you? You may be wondering, “other than wasting my time, why does Andrew not want me to read this blog?” Well since you’re still reading I will tell you. But you really should stop. Okay you’re still reading. I give. Here it is. I want you to pray. That’s all. In the time you wasted reading my rant about not reading you could have had a meaningful conversation with the Creator of the Universe your Father in Heaven. You could have talked to Him, shared with Him and heard from Him all you needed to sustain you for the day. Since you’re still reading. This is in reference to the new series we are doing at First Anna on Prayer. Sunday I challenged us all to find a ’secret place’ to pray to our Father in ’secret.’ I hope you have found that place. Now! Stop reading and go pray…

 

PS - go to www.firstanna.org to see the Galveston Video if you missed it in church on Sunday.

 

 

 

An hour ago Jonathan and I left Galveston. We drove in to town in awe of the boats on the side of the highway, the clothes strewn across the median, the signs torn down, and the houses in utter disrepair. We continued down 45 in to town. Devastated. Salvation Army trucks were parked all over town feeding people hot lunches. Lines of people waiting for water, food and ice (turns out ice was the one thing we didn’t have!). Having lost our contact information for the Red Cross (a divine loss I must say) Jonathan and I started through the trashed streets of Galveston. Each home had everything ripped out of them, furniture, pictures, documents, clothes, appliances all ruined by Ike’s flood waters. At our first stop in the streets of Galveston we were bombarded with hungry people, men and women who working on their homes stopped everything to come get a case of water and a bag of food. One woman told Jonathan that she didn’t think she was going to eat tonight and now she would. Some were needier than other but everyone was thankful. We drove our 1 Ton dodge and trailer through the dilapidated streets house to house saying, “Hi we are from a church in Dallas do you need any food or water.” I loved it. They can never repay us. Not one person who gave will receive an earthly reward today. Instead a much greater reward awaits them in heaven. Home after home people who had to focus on fixing their homes received a bag of groceries and water. I couldn’t help but to think – what if I had to come home to this? My entire life was ruined and I was only left with a shell of home even though I wouldn’t consider myself super poor, the little gesture of food and water would just be that little bit of hope I needed.

 

After 2 hours of door to door blessing bags we found the Red Cross station in a field. They were setting up portable cafeterias. We unloaded the rest of our water and some bags that the staff wanted (Pop Tarts and Peanut Butter!). We were still left with a truck half full of food. Back to the streets we went. In two stops there were enough different families represented that we are able to bless them. As we were making our last stop I was watching the food get passed out and the smiles and immediately (like it was from God) a verses popped into my head;

 Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom ^prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

³⁵ For ^I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you ^gave me drink, ^I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

³⁶ I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you ^visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’

³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?

³⁸ And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?

³⁹ And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

⁴⁰ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Matthew 25:35-40

 

Hands and feet today, I felt like the hands and feet of Jesus. Doing what was righteous in his sight for His glory. And you, those of you who gave, I hope you feel that you had a part in the blessing. I do wish that next time we can take more of you with us. Next time tragedy strikes and people need the hope of Christ, I  hope you will come and join us in being his hands and feet while serving those in great need. Thanks First Anna (and the town of Anna) for doing your part to bless Jesus.

 

 

 

 

Due to the recent conversations about the ‘Way of the Master’ in my Sunday Night men’s group and now a local church using the material I thought I should address why I disagree with the ‘Way of the Master’ evangelism curriculum.

So for the next several weeks I will be addressing this issue on my blog. If you would like to make comments that would be fine (I think I fixed it so anyone can now).  Let me make it clear that some of the principles being taught by ‘Way of the Master’ are not wrong. In fact they are Biblical. But the way in which they are communicated are not.

Let me start this blog series with some philosophy questions:

 

1.      Why do we evangelize?

 

So why do Christians Evangelize? Most evangelical Christians appeal to the Great Commission (as I do) for their Evangelism Command. Jesus says it at the end of Matthew:

 

18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

 

This is the Great Commission given by Jesus. It is a tremendous statement of faith that all followers of Jesus must hold to. Now, what is commanded here? Not evangelism as we know it in the Bible belt. In fact the Greek word for evangelism is gospel. That word is not even present in the command. The Great Commission is commanding followers of Jesus to make “disciples” in other words ‘more followers of Jesus.’ Simply communicating the Gospel is not the command. Jesus wants faithful committed followers. New believers, who get baptized, involved in a local church, get discipled by a mature believer, and later become leaders in their churches.  The ‘Way of the Master’ curriculum offers no connection with a local church, baptism, or discipleship. It is not what Jesus commanded us to do.

 

Now the response I have heard to this is Calvinism. ‘Way of the Master’ supporters say that it is Calvinistic material and they believe that if the conversion is true then the new believer will by his own will seek out a church body and get discipled. First, Calvinism is about salvation not discipleship. Second, then why does Jesus command us to make disciples? Why not just preach the gospel? No this is a poor use of theology and was my first indicator that the ‘Way of the Master’ is not Biblically sound in its approach.

 

2.      What do we hope will happen when we evangelize?

 

Anyone who evangelizes wants one thing to happen – they want to see men and women come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. By making that decision our hope is that those who believe will get involved in a local church and begin to grow in their new found faith. Then they experience the joy of knowing and walking with their God. So we want evangelism to be effective. We want it to produce results. Why do it if it doesn’t work to bring people to Jesus? Below are 5 links of videos taken from the ‘Way of the Master’ web-site. None of them end in a person trusting in Christ as Savior. NONE! In fact all of the people who heard Kirk share the gospel are still going to Hell for all we know. That is not effective evangelism.

 

http://www.wayofthemaster.com/watch/witness_gangmembers_high.html

 

http://www.wayofthemaster.com/watch/witness_pinkhair_high.html

 

http://www.wayofthemaster.com/watch/witness_sealbeachkid_high.html

 

http://www.wayofthemaster.com/watch/witness_wakeupcall_high.html

 

http://www.wayofthemaster.com/watch/witness_pnasty_high.html

 

 

3.      How did you become a Christian?

 

Now ask yourself this question, ‘How did you become a Christian?’ There are many different ways Jesus calls us to Him. Through family members, church, TV/radio preachers, friends, tragic circumstances and in some cases a face to face encounter with your sinful depravity. I am willing to bet that whoever led you to Christ did not start with the Law. In fact whoever told you about Jesus for the first time appealed to the love of Jesus, a relationship with God, eternity or Scripture’s command to confess Jesus as Lord. What’s interesting is that the people who are converted in Scripture heard the same message. Over the next few weeks we will look at each Biblical account of someone trusting in Christ as Savior and we will see that the approaches the Apostles used and even Jesus were not exalting the Law, but exalting Christ.  In fact we will see that in some cases Jesus runs into some people who are ‘perfect’ followers of the Law and Jesus tells them that is not enough.  The ‘Way of the Master’ is once again not the way of Jesus. The ‘Way of the Master’ leverages the Law as the fundamental reason for people to turn and trust in Jesus as Lord. And that is a reason to trust in Jesus. But could there be more to Christianity than being saved from the penalty of sin? Is it possible the reason this approach isn’t used in Scripture is an indicator that becoming a follower of Jesus is not just ‘fire insurance.’ We’ll see.

 

So I hope you will join me for this blog series. Again, I don’t want to be overly critical of my fellow brothers in Christ but as a pastor I need to be faithful to lead us as a Body of Christ the way Scripture commands. That is why I feel a need to explain myself.  

 

God’s Grace,

Andrew Werley