Making room for church expansion

Pastor Patrick Maxwell of Victory Christian Center in Union County, Fla., has a good problem: his church is growing so much that he needed to find room to expand. His church currently meets in Lake Butler Elementary School. In a Bradford County Telegraph article, Maxwell relates how he found a new location:

Every church service, he would ride right past an old building with the weeds and grass grown up around it because it had sat vacant for a number of years. He never gave it much thought.

'One day, on my way to the elementary school for church, I happened to look over and God spoke to me and told me that place right across the street from the school was a great place for a church building. I just needed to open my eyes and see it,' Maxwell said.

Victory Christian Center currently has 160 members, and 50 percent of them are under the age of 18.

A cowboy's crusade

For the past five summers, cowboy Mick Thompson has made his way from the West Coast to the East Coast on horseback. Why? According to Capital News 9 in New York: ". . .to get God and Jesus' name being used in vain out of movies and off of TV."

Thompson said that it wasn't always that clear. Initially he just knew that the Lord wanted him to get on his horse and ride. In the hills of Colorado, God spoke to him and clearly gave him his mission. Thompson has since become known as the "Cross Country Cowboy".

What would Jesus read?

The Star Tribune ran an interesting article over the weekend called "What would Jesus read?" In the article, Jeff Strickler writes about the explosive growth in sales of religious books and provides a guide to what's hot at religious bookstores.

On the list:

• "The Shack" by William P. Young
• "Dead Heat" by Joel C. Rosenberg
• "The Door Within" trilogy by Wayne Thomas Batson
• "DragonSpell" by Donita K. Paul
• "Quiet Strength" by Tony Dungy
• "Finding the Monk Within" by Edward C. Sellner
• "Thin Places" by Mary Treacy O'Keefe
• "How to Raise a Jewish Dog" by Ellis Weiner
• "unChristian" by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons
• "The Reason for God" by Timothy Keller
• "The Faith" by Charles Colson
• "Take the Risk" by Ben Carson
• "Love and Respect" by Emerson Eggerichs
• "Do Hard Things" by Alex and Brett Harris
• "Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light"
• "90 Minutes in Heaven" by Don Piper

We are the ones being tested

On p. 143 of "The Bondage Breaker", Neil T. Anderson relates a story that demonstrates the reality of deceiving spirits:

When I was a pastor, some of the members of my church unwittingly yielded to the temptation to put God to the test. I had a dear friend who was dying of cancer. But word spread around the church that four independent 'witnesses' all testified that Dick wasn't going to die because God had told them so. Several exclaimed, 'Isn't it wonderful that God is going to heal Dick!' Three weeks later Dick was dead.

If God was the One who told these four people that Dick wasn't going to die, then what does that make God? A liar. But is God a liar? Of course not; He's the truth. The originator of this 'good news' was obviously the father of lies. Deceiving spirits had circulated a lie about Dick in an attempt to create a false hope and destory the congregation's confidence in God.

God is under no obligation to us; He is under obligation only to Himself. There is no way you can cleverly word a prayer so that God must respond to it. That not only distorts the meaning of prayer but puts us in the position of manipulating God. The righteous shall live by faith in the written Word of God and not demand that God prove Himself in response to our whims or wishes, no matter how noble they may be. We are the ones being tested, not God.

31 years of missionary service

Jerry and Vicky Love, career missionaries in Mexico, recently were recognized for their service. The Loves were called to missionary work as teenagers:

'During high school I began earnestly seeking God's will for my life,' Jerry says. 'One evening God spoke specifically and personally to me about obeying what I already knew to be his will. I repented in tears, rededicated my life to him, and shortly thereafter his call became crystal clear.'

Vicky recalls, 'Shortly after my conversion at age 16 while living in Alaska, I began sensing a possible call of God on my life. After a year of investigating why local ministers had come North, I attended a citywide revival and signed a decision card pledging my own life to go south for full-time Christian service in Mexico or Central America.'

What type of call has God placed on your life? You will know it because it will feel right in your heart.

God's purpose for us

Do you wonder about God's purpose for your life? I know that I'm curious about His purpose for my life, and I think that I'm getting closer to the answer: to counsel adult children of divorce. I am one myself, and that topic is as close as one can get to my heart wound.

Jim Graff, senior pastor of Faith Family Church in Victoria, Texas, recently wrote in the Victoria Advocate about how God showed him the appropriate pastoral job:

But then I began to think, 'You know, I really should pray about it before I just go and take a church.'

So I prayed, and as I did God spoke so clearly to me from Scripture in this verse: 'It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way' (Proverbs 19:2).

Long story short, we turned down the offer in Philadelphia. And the opportunity opened up to become pastor of a church of what was then 80 loving families in what I consider the greatest place, with the greatest people any pastor could ever serve: Victoria.

The challenge is following God's purpose for our life. When we look at what he calls us to do, it might not make sense. But he's omniscient and we're not, right?

Take every thought captive

I'm currently reading "The Bondage Breaker", a book by Neil T. Anderson on overcoming negative thoughts, irrational feelings and habitual sins.

One interesting passage on p. 62-63 details an interaction that the author had with a student named Jay:

'I have a very close walk with God,' Jay boasted.

'What do you mean by that?' I asked.

'Well, when I leave school at noon each day, I ask God where He wants me to go for lunch. I usually hear a thought like Burger King, so I go to Burger King. Then I ask Him what He wants me to eat. If the thought comes to order a Whopper, I order a Whopper.'

'What about your church attendance?' I continued.

'I go every Sunday wherever God tells me to go. And for the last three Sundays, God has told me to go to a Mormon church.'

Jay sincerely wanted to do what God wanted him to do, but he was being deceived. God was not directing him to a Mormon church, and He is too good a nutritionist to suggest Whoppers all the time.

What Jay should have done is take every one of his thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ.