Coke Ministry

What a day!!!!! We had our first ever coke ministry day at Wal-Mart….. You ask what is a coke ministry? Well you hand out drinks in front of a store with no strings attached (of course we were doing it in Jesus name). It was an interesting day and we had a great time with some great stories. However it’s so amazing when you tell people that we were giving away stuff and not asking for a donation. The quotes of the day was “Why are you just giving these away?” and “What are you doing it for?”
This tells me a couple of things.
1. We have way too many groups asking for money, for many different things and people expect to give money for something.
2. People now days don’t expect anything for free.
I pose this question for any ministry out there, what have you done in the name of Jesus and not expected nothing in return? The bible says: And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward." Matthew 10:42.
The reason I ask is, why we aren’t we doing more ministry stuff like this. One thing is we are so worried about going and doing things for the kids, like taking them on youth retreats, summer camps, and fun stuff for them. Don’t get me wrong all these things are good, but we stretch ourselves too thin and we forget about doing ministry.
Again I challenge ever ministry, do something for the community, city, and so on and don’t expect anything in return. I believe you will get a better blessing. Do in Jesus name and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

I am Second!!!!

What or who have you put first in your life. Is it you, someone, or even something? I posed a question to our teenagers tonight about who is first in their life. It really hit home, because it made me think about whom or what I have first in my life. I always want to have God number one in my life no matter what. We get so caught up into the things of this world, but we get so busy that life becomes number one. When are we going to let God be number and guide our life then letting life guide us?

Some of My Thoughts

Wow, it’s been a while since I have posted something, but I thought that I would write some of my thoughts down. For the past 4 to 5 months it’s been a rough ride, being in the ministry and being called. But the message on Sunday morning touched my heart, because when has the last time I that I cried before the Lord. When has been the last time I truly sought him. My prayer is for our teenagers in our church to give up the things of this world and follow Christ.

Commitment

Sunday I spoke on commitment and the message touched me. Because it made me think... What am I committed too. If we are to be Disciples of Christ, then we have to be committed to him. We can't just go through the motions. That doesn't cut it. When you are saved, you have to committ and know that he is Lord. You have to know who Jesus is, because Jesus is our life. We gave it up when we accepted him as our savior, because he gave his life up for us to forgive us of a sin debt that we couldn't pay. So the next time you are watching TV, playing on the computer, or doing something else and God speaks to you to read or prayer, are you committed enough to stop and do what God has asked you to do?

Love

We had Valentines a few weeks ago and I am now engaged to the most wonder girl in the world. But I want to just talk for a few minutes about love. I hear the term “I love you,” and I hear it so much and wonder if people really know what it means to love. To truly love someone you have to have the love of God. It you don’t know God; then you don’t know the true meaning of love. I know that I love God and God shows his love back to me. What greater love, is for someone to lay down their life for me and that’s what Jesus did. We don’t deserve it and can never repay it, but he loved us so much that he gave his life for us.

Prayer

Tonight, I spoke on prayer and I found myself preaching to myself. As a youth pastor I find sometimes I get more out of the message than the teenagers do. I know that I need to pray more than I have ever prayed before. I think the quote that E. M. bounds said, “Prayer is talking to God about people and getting up and talking to people about God.” Prayer is composing a love note to God, singing to Him, and walking with Him.

I think it speaks to me as a Christian. If we never pray then we will never know what God has for our life, if I never talk to him. Also, if you become slack in your prayer life your relationship with God becomes slack. What is preventing you from becoming close to God? How long has it been since you spoke to him.

How long should I prayer? When you are with someone special you don’t look at the clock you spend as much time as you want.

The Great Commission!!!!

Someone said or commented on how to make a church grow or even a ministry to grow. I think about that question and most pastors and student pastor want the live bands, cool media to go with their sermons, and even develop cool sermons with cool titles. That is great and I would love to have a live youth band. But my question is does that work? I believe it’s relevant, but it’s like our pastor said last night in a meeting, does it point people to Jesus? I know that most would probably say that it does because it's worship. But is it? Are the teenagers really worshiping or do they just like the sound of the music and beat. I think it depends on the teenager of course. I like the praise and worship and I feel that I can worship freely with the praise and worship, but what about the people that like the hymns. Do we just dump them because every church in America has dumped them? Are the hymns out of date? Can we worship with the hymns?

I think we should concentrate on telling people about Jesus and spreading the gospel, before we need to pump money into music. Praise and worship is great and is very much needed, but putting a show or concert on doesn't save people. The Word shows and directs us how we should live. Praise and worship is just an added when we come together to worship and praise our God. The Holy Spirit is the one that moves us, but when we are there to only hear and listen to awesome music then we miss the mark and fail in the great commission.