Collecting Questions

We are soon to hit one of those “tweener” times. You know–the message series is finished and you have two weeks to fill before kicking off the next big series. Our current series, “Living the Life You Were Meant to Live” will finish up in a couple of weeks. We have a series beginning on April 12th that will blow us out of the water, or I will be soon un-employed. It is very edgy, but relevant. That’s all the hint I can give for now.

Anyway, we will have 3 Sundays to fill between the finish of current series and our brand new series. We have decided to fill the gap with a short series called: ? I am not looking for a title–that’s the title– ? We are collecting questions from the un-churched or recently churched in our community or from within those attending Velocity Church. We ar seeking  honest questions about God, about faith, about Jesus, about social and moral issues affecting us today.

So please email the questions to me at Velocity Church. Ask your friends, family and work companions for their questions as well.

We are going to have an awesome worship experience at Velocity this Sunday. Invite someone to join you. If you invite–they will come. Statistics tell us that nearly 95% of those asked will likely respond and visit. If ASKED–so who are you asking for this Sunday?

God’s Recovery Plan

I hesitate to wax political, but in reading various scriptures today while fasting and praying in light of the speech given last evening by our President, this particular verse seemed to jump out in a new light. Maybe its a budding sermon. Maybe a devotional thought for a small group meeting. At any rate, I was taken by the plan given to us by God to enable us to recover from a spiritual recession–that funk that seems to overwhelm us from time to time. Here is the text:

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NLT)
¹⁴ Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.
Four conditions are presented as necessary to allow the impact of God’s recovery to apply. God’s recovery includes a promise to hear and listen to us, to forgive us our sins and to impact and heal our land or our lives or beings.

We are asked to first, humble ourselves before God. How easy it is for us to try to attempt recover programs on our own. We are told–its our responsibility to get right with God. He is waiting for us to figure out how we went wrong and put our lives back in order. But sometimes we just don’t where we got off track. It happens gradually enough that one day we wake up and God does not seem to be as close as He once was. Who do we blame? God for leaving us stranded or us who just got lazy and forgot who raised the sun to shine and caused the rain to fall. We need to correct the perspective of our thought–God is to be number one in all things we encounter or engage. We do all for His glory–and not for our own. He owns us–because He purchased us when we accepted Him as Lord and Savior.

Secondly we need to open once again the lines of communication. We need to pray and then pray some more. We must be in a attitude of constant communication in prayer, that is pray without ceasing. Do you speak with God at only the prescribed times that are pre-planned in advance. “God morning Lord, God night Lord” and please handle the rest of the day in between as well. We should be walking and talking with Him like a frend or brother. He wants to listen–but are we willing to talk. We better be–if we want to walk the road of recovery.

Next we must seek His face. The expression of a face can tell you a lot of information. The face conveys sadness, joy, apprehension, love, hate, indifference and more. We can use our face to fake it, like an actor; we can use our face to communicate without saying a word. God communicates His face to us as we come to know Him more and more. Contained within His message to us in the written word is found expressions of how He loves us, disciplines us, needs us, accepts us and more. This seeking is our part of finding Him and making Him our companion in all things. Seeking requires effort and desire. The neat thing is that God knows we are seeking and He makes Himself known to us to enable us to find Him. I remember my daughters playing hide and seek with me as a children. When they were very young, they would make little noises or sounds just so I could find them easily. The joy for them was in the finding, not hiding. The joy for God is when we find Him. He wants that more than we know.

Finally, our recovery is not complete if we don’t remember to let go of the past, let go of the sin that easily entangles and give our way over to Godly pursuits and values. Real change must be evident as well as spoken. We must see our lives practicing Godly virtues and living as Christlike beings as we possibly can. We will slip up and fail from time to time. We are human–but God is ready and willing to forgive our repentant hearts.

If you are in need of a spiritual recovery plan, the above passage can lay out the steps to complete your task. Don’t think God will not hear. We don’t very often hear verse 15 added to the text above.

2 Chronicles 7:15 (NLT)
¹⁵ My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place.

God is waiting; listening and ready.

Timing is Everything…

Velocity Church will participate in our monthly fast tomorrow. (Wednesday, Feb. 25) Our purpose is to dedicate time normally used for eating a meal or snack and give that time to God in prayer and meditation or reading. Our prayer concern is about how God can use us in the ministry of reaching the lost for Him.

Sometimes is bothers me that we have to set aside a day each month to concentrate on such concerns. Shouldn’t everyday include in our prayers and thoughts those we are trying to reach for Jesus? Yes and shouldn’t we be looking for ways to connect with neighbors and friends without setting aside a special time to meditate about it? Yes, but…

Timing is everything. We get busy, we get hurried and the next thing you know, we are praying from the list. We knock off the ‘big’ concerns; the ‘little private’ concerns and quickly move on with life. I wonder if sometimes we just “mail” in the list, by laying it out on the desk or table and telling God–’here it is, take care of this for me–thanks.’

By removing a meal time or snack time we can focus on freshness. We can allow our spirit to team with God’s Spirit to accomplish things for God. Tomorrow will offer opportunities we may have never known or received because we were caught up in the routine.

Timing is everything…at least for tomorrow–its our time to bow before the Father with fresh eyes, expectations and requests and praises.

Back From the Land of Make Believe

I am home from our recent time spent in Kissimmee, FL. It was good to get away for a few days, but unfortunately I developed a bad cold while there and really did not get to fully enjoy the time away. But still, I was glad to have some warmer weather to recoup with and plenty of time to read, reflect and plan for a very busy spring ahead for us at Velocity Church. Here is a link to the Celebration Community Church were Carol and I worshiped on February 15th. It was a good service, but I would have rather been at Velocity Church!

This week we will participate again in a day of fasting. Wednesday, February 25th will be very meaningful as we set aside time to prayer and fasting during the day and then come together in the evening to break the fast with communion. You are encouraged to fast that day and join us that evening at 6:30 PM in the office complex at 3595 Hiram Douglasville Rd, Suite 108. We are located just north of Ridge Road in the Xxtra Storage facility.

Our next message series begins in about 4 weeks and will lead us up to Palm Sunday. We have no working title yet, but will be dealing with questions that you have about God, Jesus, the Bible, the Christian life etc. Whatever you have been afraid to ask up till now–let us know about it. We can’t guarantee every question will make it to a sermon, but we will make a point to answer personally every question that is signed. Anonymous questions could be covered in a sermon, but we will not be able to read your mind to meet with you personally to deal with your question.

So, this is not a “stump” the preacher series, but an honest attempt to meet your needs to keep you on track in your Christian walk or help you reach your friends who are not in church in order to interest them in attending. You may give me your written questions on Sunday, or email them to me as well.

Oops, can you believe it?

I removed my blog from earlier this week about the women who supposedly swam the Atlantic Ocean. AP now tells me that the story was a hoax. I have no details, other than the correction which ran in my original source, just today.

The lesson learned about determination was certainly worthy, but in this case it was based upon a falsehood and I decided it best to just remove the blog altogether.

But I will be the first to let you know that from now on I will keep a skeptics eye out for passing along events so quickly without checking facts. But if there is a future correction to the correction of this story…my head is spinning…oh well, you get my point.

1 Corinthians 15:1-6 (NLT)
¹ Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it.
² It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.
³ I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.
⁴ He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.
⁵ He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve.
⁶ After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.

So, let’s dump the swimmer and rest solidly upon one fact which is proved over and over again as men and women from all over the world come to Jesus. Fact: He arose from the dead–just as the Bible and witnesses have testified to. And trust me–no retraction coming out on this one.