A while back, my Dad bought a Christian CD for my son, Jeremiah. It’s a great CD that puts Bible verses to music. One of the songs is based on Philippians 2:14 … a verse I sadly paid much attention to before Jeremiah got the CD. The song goes like this:
Do… do… do… do… do all things,
Do… do… do… do… do all things,
Do… do… do… do… do all things,
Without complaining or arguing!
Pretty deep stuff for a children’s song, huh? And, simple, too. My son sings this all of the time, and the cool thing is that he’s learning to apply the Scripture to his life.
So, what’s in it for us? Well, I think it’s time we all learn to stop complaining. Now, I’m not talking about providing helpful feedback to a person or an organization that asks for feedback and wants to improve (think restaurants that offer comment cards). I’m talking about the unproductive stuff. Like complaining to a friend or family member about some person, place, thing, or event when there’s nothing that they can do about the situation. I’m talking about complaining about work, church, family members, and the like with your only real purpose being to let people know how unhappy you are.
One of the world’s most prolific bloggers, Seth Godin, recently wrote a post about the uselessness of whining. Take a look at what he wrote about the two problems with whining:
The first is that it doesn’t work. You can whine about the government or your friends or your job or your family, but nothing will happen except that you’ll waste time.
Worse… far worse… is that whining is a reverse placebo. When you get good at whining, you start noticing evidence that makes your whining more true. So you amplify that and immerse yourself in it, thus creating more evidence, more stuff worth complaining about.
If you spent the same time prattling on about how optimistic you are, you’d have to work hard to make that true…
Well, we’ve identified the problem. We know what God thinks about it. And, we know how useless our complaining is. So, what are we going to do about it? Hmmm?
(Contributed by Jonathan Williams. This post first appeared on Jonathan’s blog November 2010)
One of the churches that we have learned a lot from through the years is NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC. NewSpring’s pastor, Perry Noble, recently wrote a blog post for his church about understanding evangelism, and though Sanford, Florida is a long way away from South Carolina, we felt like this post was valuable enough to share with Palmetto Avenue Baptist Church today. So, read on…it’s good stuff.
Evangelism (telling others about Jesus) is not a great idea…it is a COMMAND issued by CHRIST Himself.
It’s not easy, it does cause us to get uncomfortable, people will think you are crazy and following the command of Christ will create tension at times…
Nonetheless we are still called and empowered to do this!
So, today I hope you will take a little time to read Acts 8:4-8 and then Acts 8:26-40 and let’s think about six things together…
#1 – Evangelism Is The Proclamation of Jesus Christ–PERIOD! (Acts 8:4-8)
One of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard in my life is, “preach the Gospel all of the time and, when necessary, use words!” DUMB!!!!
Because…GOD SAID in Romans 10:14-17 its through THE WORD that people are saved.
Listen, good deeds are never a bad thing…but please don’t try to convince me that cutting someone’s grass or paying for their coffee is evangelism…it’s NOT! The BIBLICAL definition of evangelism is when we PROCLAIM CHRIST…and unfortunately a cowardly church culture has turned it into a whole lot of things that Jesus never intended for it to be. The Bible says in Acts 8:5 that Phillip proclaimed CHRIST…Acts 4:12 says there is no other name by which we must be saved…I Timothy 2:5 says there is ONE mediator and we’ve been commissioned and commanded by Jesus with this calling/responsibility! (Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:45-48, John 20:21, Acts 1:8, II Corinthians 5:17-21!)
#2 – Evangelism Will Disrupt Our “Normal” Routine!
#3 – God Is Preparing The Hearts Of The People He Is Prompting Us To Share Christ With!
Check out Acts 8:27-28, the reason God sent Phillip down this road is that He was working on the heart of a man who desperately needed Him! Please understand that we NEVER know what God may be doing in someone else’s life. They may portray that they have it all together and they are not interested…but you never know what God is doing in their heart. If God is prompting you to share Christ with someone then He has gone ahead of you and is preparing them as well!!!
#4 – Be Normal!
Please notice in Acts 8:29-30 that Phillip did not say, “Hello hell bound sinner, did you know that unless you repent of your sin and give your life to Jesus you are going to fry like bacon in a devil’s hell?” He did not scream, yell, hold up signs…
He simply listened to the Spirit, ran up to the chariot (it does take effort) and asked a simply question, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
It’s amazing the opportunities that God puts in front of us every single day…and when we see them and embrace them we simply need to be normal, engage them in conversation and communicate that we are interested in them.
#5 – Evangelism Must Come Back Around To A Conversation About Christ.
I said it in point one…I will say it here…we are called to PROCLAIM CHRIST!!! Notice in Acts 8:31-35 that Phillip began where the eunuch was and brought the conversation back around to JESUS! It HAS TO come back to Christ…we can’t allow the conversation to get sidetracked with political and sociological issues…no one EVER surrendered their lives to Christ because they had all of their questions answered!!! Always bring it around to JESUS!!!
PLEASE understand this…if Phillip had simply said, “I am not going to share Christ with him…I’m just going to buy him a cup of coffee and give him a warm smile” then we would have had nothing more than a story about a caffeinated eunuch who felt good about himself for a moment but NEVER HEARD ABOUT JESUS!!! BAD STORY!!!
#6 – Evangelism Isn’t A One Time Deal.
Notice Acts 8:36-40 (one of the coolest sections in the Bible…God literally teleports someone!!!) The eunuch receives Christ, is baptized and then God moves Phillip someone else to KEEP proclaiming Christ. We are NEVER done with this…God has strategically placed each one of us in places of work, in neighborhoods and in certain social situations NOT for our comfort…but rather He placed us there with specific relationships so that we can literally tell others about Jesus!!! It’s NOT a one time deal…it’s a core value that we must embrace in our lives if we are going to follow Christ!!!
When I was just a young (punk) kid growing up in Sanford, FL I loved listening to Punk music. One of my favorite bands, MxPx, had this song called, “Responsibility.” The lyrics went, “Responsibility, what’s that? Responsibility, no not quite, yet.” This was my anthem growing up. I figured when I left the Central Florida area, left my small, local church I’d start thinking and worrying about responsibility. My Dad always told me, “When you have your own power bill I’m going to come over and leave all the lights on and open the fridge door and turn the air down to 72!” This was a joke to me, until I got my own place and started paying for all those things, now, I thank Jesus everyday that he doesn’t come over and do that!
I’ve found the key to any growth or maturity is responsibility. Until you feel the urgency of responsibility, you are incapable of growing.
Be responsible for how things are in your life right now. Your city, family, job, savings, life is all because of you. The church in Sanford, FL called Palmetto Avenue Baptist Chuch is what it is, because of it’s regular attenders. Take responsibility.
The words of legendary coach John Wooden ring true today, “Control the things we can control. If you try to change the things you can not control, then it will soon affect the things you can control.” We need to accept responsibility and change the things we can. There is an infinite list of things we can not change, take responsibility, change things for the better.
“Be the change in the world, that you wish to see.” – Ghandi
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear DAV (Disabled American Veterans)? Veterans from WWII, Vietnam – old men in wheel chairs, maybe sixty, seventy years old, older? Well, I had the immense pleasure of attending a Wheelchair Rugby game, DAV vs Sanford River Rats and Team USA Armed Forces Good Will Ambassadors on Friday, July 8. I was rocked awake, shocked back to reality! These Disabled American Veterans are my age, MY AGE! Hello! Afghanistan, Iraq. It felt like a personal slap in my face, as it should have hit me a long time ago, but this is the moment for me, that it finally sank in. I am so completely humbled and honored to have been in the presence and to have watched our heroes and our youth, our local ball players, our good will ambassadors come together, strap themselves in a wheelchair and TRY to keep up with these amazing DAV wheelchair rugby players! Sanford’s Palmetto Avenue Baptist Church hosted the game in their gym and their Pastor, Ron Williams, City of Sanford’s Mayor, Jeff Triplett, and River Rat’s GM, John Welton, watched from the sidelines as the Veterans, without breaks, exhausted most every ballplayer on the other teams! The Veterans were so kind as to occasionally backwards roll a ball through the goal line. What an awesome game to watch, full of energy, excitement from the players and the crowd, banging and clanging and clattering like you’ve never heard, but mostly a tug on your heart like you’ll want time and again! You’ll not want to miss this event should it come around again next year to become an annual City of Sanford, River Rats BaseBall, Team USA Armed Forces Good Will Ambassadors, and Disabled American Vets Wheelchair Rugby Event held at Palmetto Avenue Baptist Church in Sanford Florida!!
Written by: Sandy Adcox
(This article was first published in the Sanford Herald on July 24, 2011. Posted here with permission from the author.)
Do you want to get more out of your personal bible study time? Have you ever wondered how it is that some Christians, pastors, or bible study leaders seem to be able to identify so much more truth in God’s word? Well, there’s a three step process that can put you on a path to understanding and applying God’s word to your life. This will help you to be a doer of the word and not a hearer only (James 1:22).
Here are the three steps of inductive Bible study:
1). Observation: What does it say?
This first step is a simple one. Read the text carefully a time or two in a Bible version that you can understand. (There are many great versions and translations available. The one that I use personally and recommend is the NET Bible. If you want to know why I like this one best, ask me some time.) As you read, look for the following things:
Are there any commands?
Are there any promises?
Are there any repeated words or phrases?
Are there any results or conclusions (look for therefore or so that)?
What is the main idea of the passage?
2). Interpretation: What does it mean?
This can be a challenging step, and it’s the one that people sometimes fail to carry out correctly. To perform this step, you may need to seek out a few Bible study tools (commentary, concordance, etc.). But, don’t get too intimidated at this step. Simply, consider the following questions:
Are there any terms, words, or phrases that need to be defined?
How does the passage fit into the broader context of the chapter & book?
What was the author of this book trying to say?
What did the audience understand the author to have been saying?
3). Application: What does it mean to me?
Now, it is time to apply the timeless truth of the passage to life. Though all of the Bible may not be written directly to us, it is certainly written for us. And, we must ask a few questions to learn how this passage should change our lives:
What attitude does this passage instruct me to have?
What action does this passage instruct me to take?
What does this passage instruct me to believe?
What does this passage instruct me to avoid?
At this step of application, also look for the How and the Why. In addition to telling us what to do, believe, and avoid, the Bible also frequently tells us how and why to apply the truth of the passage. So, look for that.
Certainly, this is not an exhaustive guide, but it should be a great start to helping you learn more from your Bible study time. So, try taking these steps sometime this week, and let me know how it goes. And of course, feel free to ask me any questions that arise from your personal study of the Bible.
When you’re in a relationship long enough, you can look back at it and kind of track its progression through various stages. In an ideal romantic relationship, couples tend to experience different types of attraction – physical, emotional, spiritual. Titles come with that too – girlfriend, wife, lover, mother of your children, friend. I was recently reminded that we approach God with titles too – healer, savior, refuge, father, friend, et cetera – but I was also challenged to consider what titles I have especially approached God with. I came up with a few – Savior, Lord, Father, Friend, Master, and Employer – in that order.
Coming to Christ, it’s easy to be grateful and remember He’s the One who saved you from your sins. This gratefulness leads you to address Him as “Lord” and afford him the loving respect and obedience He deserves. As I obeyed Him, I realized He is not just a Savior and wise Lord, but a loving Father who can be trusted. So I listened with gratefulness and joy to hear what my Father would say. Then I learned He could be my Friend – that I could dialogue back and forth with Him about any and everything.
Then somehow it went wrong.
Being involved with God to that extent, you get excited, you want to be more and more involved. Unfortunately, that can translate into more and more DOING – which invariably leads to burnout. So I started resenting God, forgetting God the Father and Friend, only seeing the Taskmaster who would not give me a break. This even clouded my vision of God the Savior. And when you forget where you’ve been saved from, you forget that your obedience TO God doesn’t do anything FOR God. He doesn’t NEED me, I’m not His employee, helping Him out for payments of His favor.
But the thing is, He wants our love. Out of a heart filled with true love for God will flow everything He wants from us – it is not the other way around. How do you refer to God? Who do you see Him as? And what does that mean for the way you relate to Him?
What you will see below is the video testimony of Zac Smith. It was taped while he was on the staff of NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC. It’s a powerful story that teaches us that regardless of what happens to us in life God is still God, and God is still Good.
Please take a few minutes to really think about life and the Goodness of God. Below is the Zac Smith story and a video follow-up from his wife, Mandy.
Save-the-Date! The producers of Fireproof and Facing the Giants will be releasing a new movie on September 30th. It is called Courageous! Check it out the trailer below and plan to go see it. And by the way, here’s the movies official website: http://CourageoustheMovie.com/
27 Do not withhold good from those who deserve it
when it’s in your power to help them. 28 If you can help your neighbor now, don’t say,
“Come back tomorrow, and then I’ll help you.”
Proverbs 3:27, 28
A principle our church runs on is helping those who we can help. The sad reality is that we cannot help everyone in the world, but those whom we can help WE ARE GOING TO HELP! Part of our philosophy at Palmetto Avenue Baptist Church is to live a life of purpose, to intentionally live on mission and help those around us.
If you are part of our local, faith community, we want to challenge you to go out on your own and help those around you. PABC holds special projects through out the year, but generosity is not something we turn on and turn off. It is who we are. Take your generosity with you everywhere you go. Live a generous life!
A while back, my Dad bought a Christian CD for my son, Jeremiah. It’s a great CD that puts Bible verses to music. One of the songs is based on Philippians 2:14 … a verse I sadly paid much attention to before Jeremiah got the CD. The song goes like this:
