I have heard many times that love is more than just a feeling; and although this is true, if love cannot be felt in any way then something is definitely wrong. Who wants to go through life practicing love as a discipline without feeling its reward.
Love is more than a verb; it is a deep expression of one's affection. When it is fully active within it will always both give and receive its rewards. The expression of love is always filled with blessings with the purpose to stir up various types of feelings: feelings of comfort; feelings of happiness; feelings of intimacy; even feelings of discipline (remember, God disciplines those whom He loves).
This weeks message at New Life Baptist Church is entitled, Loves Spontaneous Praise. I will be using the example of one of the most powerful expressions of intimate love between a husband and wife, sexual love (Eros in the Greek), and comparing it to the climatic effervescent love God has for you and me. God's love for us should erupt from the very depths of our souls. When we see another human being in need God's love should burst forth. When we see people being oppressed by others God's love should quake us into immediate action. When we sense the presence of the most High in the various facets of our lives the blessings of divine joy should explode from the very depths of our souls.
If we believe what we say that God's love is all powerful, then it should at least move us in the various expressions of our lives. It should take hold of the focus of our lives and make us see the world as God sees it. Jesus was moved in the mighty power of God's love when he look out over the multitude of people, in Matthew 9:36:
"When he saw the crowds, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."
You have the full power of God within you. Praise the Lord!
Blessings,
-Leo
Friday, August 12, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Go Missional
Wow! What a vacation. This is the third year in a row that I have taken all of my vacation time at the same time. We didn't really go anywhere since we have lived in our present area for only one year. So my wife and I enjoyed a stay-vacation, and our family came to visit us. There were always grandkids at the house with BBQs, campfires, fireworks and much more. We had a wonderful time and it didn't cost us a lot of money. That's an added blessing for sure.
I also had the opportunity to read 5 of the 10 books for a reading course I am taking toward an MA degree. The course is on Leadership in the Church. One book in particular caught my attention. It is by Reggie McNeal, entitled, Missional Rennaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church. At times I was caught up in a passion of excitement for what was being said. Other times I was troubled and unsettled.
The book gives an overview of the landscape of church in this present day. As far as the institutional church goes, (i.e., established traditional churches and denominations), the future seems quite bleak. This was the troubling and unsettling part for me. McNeal indicates that the way we have done church up to this point is crumbling and a new era of church is emerging.
The book points out that the church has evolved into somewhat of a finely tuned process. McNeal uses the term scorecard as a way of measuring the success of the church. Since post World War II a particular scorecard has evolved that has determined the measuring of success from what McNeal claims to be church-centric values. This means that the organization of the church itself is its most valuable asset; which includes its functions of ministries, its properties, and its finances, etc. to be its most important commodities. Therefore everything works to serve the purpose of the organization.
For example, if we say we can't accomplish something as a church until we have more members in order to afford it, we are serving a church-centric point of view. New members are sought after for the purpose of financing our objective. The end result on the scorecard is new members equals more money equals accomplishing our objective. This is not a good way to measure the success in the church!
McNeal believes that the church needs to change its scorecard from being church-centric to being kingdom-centric. When the scorecard is kingdom-centric everything else becomes secondary to its main cause. The focus of the kingdom-centric church is God and people. This scorecard puts God first and His greatest passion, people second. All of our resources and ministries should work to serve the purpose of being successful in these two areas alone.
In the coming weeks I am going to focus a series of messages entitled "Go Missional." They will begin on September 11th. If you do not attend New Life Baptist in Hatchet Lake, Nova Scotia, Canada, you can check them out on our website at http://www.newlifebaptist.ca/ . I will be using McNeal's book as a reference for the things I believe that God wants to say through me. Hope you will tune in.
It's great to be back.
Blessings,
-Leo
I also had the opportunity to read 5 of the 10 books for a reading course I am taking toward an MA degree. The course is on Leadership in the Church. One book in particular caught my attention. It is by Reggie McNeal, entitled, Missional Rennaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church. At times I was caught up in a passion of excitement for what was being said. Other times I was troubled and unsettled.
The book gives an overview of the landscape of church in this present day. As far as the institutional church goes, (i.e., established traditional churches and denominations), the future seems quite bleak. This was the troubling and unsettling part for me. McNeal indicates that the way we have done church up to this point is crumbling and a new era of church is emerging.
The book points out that the church has evolved into somewhat of a finely tuned process. McNeal uses the term scorecard as a way of measuring the success of the church. Since post World War II a particular scorecard has evolved that has determined the measuring of success from what McNeal claims to be church-centric values. This means that the organization of the church itself is its most valuable asset; which includes its functions of ministries, its properties, and its finances, etc. to be its most important commodities. Therefore everything works to serve the purpose of the organization.
For example, if we say we can't accomplish something as a church until we have more members in order to afford it, we are serving a church-centric point of view. New members are sought after for the purpose of financing our objective. The end result on the scorecard is new members equals more money equals accomplishing our objective. This is not a good way to measure the success in the church!
McNeal believes that the church needs to change its scorecard from being church-centric to being kingdom-centric. When the scorecard is kingdom-centric everything else becomes secondary to its main cause. The focus of the kingdom-centric church is God and people. This scorecard puts God first and His greatest passion, people second. All of our resources and ministries should work to serve the purpose of being successful in these two areas alone.
In the coming weeks I am going to focus a series of messages entitled "Go Missional." They will begin on September 11th. If you do not attend New Life Baptist in Hatchet Lake, Nova Scotia, Canada, you can check them out on our website at http://www.newlifebaptist.ca/ . I will be using McNeal's book as a reference for the things I believe that God wants to say through me. Hope you will tune in.
It's great to be back.
Blessings,
-Leo
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