Todays Video Blog!
Happy Thursday!
On Wednesday nights @ Destiny Family Center, we have a catered dinner @ 6pm followed by small groups from 7-8:15pm. It’s been really nice for Emily and I, since neither of us have teaching responsibilities this quarter. So, we’ve been floating around… and last night, we went to the “Honors Reward” group, facilitated by Wayne Howard. WOW!
The night was all about “Honoring Your Peers!” Check out the following verses…
Matthew 10:40-42 “Anyone who receives you receives me, and anyone who receives me receives the Father who sent me. If you receive a prophet as one who speaks for God, you will be given the same reward as a prophet. And if you receive righteous people because of their righteousness, you will be given a reward like theirs. And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.”
- Anyone who receives (or blesses) a prophet, receives a prophets reward!
- Anyone who receives (or blesses) a righteous person (a fellow follower of Christ), he receives a righteous persons reward!
- Anyone who gives even a cup of cold water to one of the LEAST of my followers… you will SURELY BE REWARDED!
I Got Tired!
Ok, so I’ve been working 7, 16 hour days a week for the past month… and yesterday afternoon I hit a very understandable level of exhaustion. So I went home to relax for a few hours before coming back for church. Emily was off work too… had a great time, watched a few CSI’s… a good mental diversion.
Came back to church last night… and within ten minutes, I was being approached by a pile of people with some pretty HUGE personal problems. As bad as this sounds, I was still in mental shutdown… and I wasn’t real jazzed about trying to help anyone last night.
I Hid in my Office!
So after the meal, I ran back to my office so I could HIDE AWAY for 15 minutes, before I had to go greet everyone and open the small groups.
Bad attitude for a Pastor, I know. But I’m not God and I do have my moments of weakness… and I have to work through those moments just like every other human.
I Had a Vision!
Just before I walked out of my office to welcome our guests, I told Dave Harman how bad I felt about not wanting to help anyone… and then I had a vision of Mother Teresa loving and blessing every disadvantaged person she could get her hands on! And I thought about how much more like Jesus I wanted to be… and how much I wanted to spend my life more concerned about the needs of other people than my own.
Honoring Your Peers!
Then we went to the small group and as I mentioned, the topic for our “Honors Reward Group” last night was: Honoring Your Peers!
That group REINFORCED this feeling I had in my office @ 7:55pm! I was SO MOVED with he video and with Wayne Howard’s presentation… and with the discussions that followed… especially with Greg Bakers heartfelt confession!
So I figured I’d share my experience with you guys… for your benefit! There is such a mandate on our lives to become like Jesus. No, we cannot do this in our own strength… and yes, we are allowed to have a selfish afternoon every now and then!
For me, last night was about correcting my attitude towards suffering people. Everyone likes to hang with their friends… we can do that all day long.
To Care Like Mother Theresa!
What I’m talking about here is this: Do we have the kind of LOVE Jesus had for all the WHOSOEVER’S in our world? Do we REALLY care to make a difference in other peoples lives… in the lives of people we have little or nothing in common with… in the lives of the people who disrespect us and betray us, our enemies? Or, do we pick out the easiest people and leave the rest for Mother Teresa?
And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.
Maybe this is just something unique to me and I’m out of my mind for mentioning it on this blog… but I was pretty moved last night, and felt someone else could benefit from my transparency.
Please leave your comments… I just finished praying for you all, with great love and appreciation! Have a most triumphant day!
Dream Big, Live Bold, and Make the Difference!
Chuck
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Pastor, I don’t think you are out of your mind for mentioning this topic on the blog. I can give honest feedback here especially since I was not present last night because our girls had to be in two different places at the same time so Bo and I had to split up.
I can’t speak for your feelings but I can tell you from my own life experiences what works and doesn’t work for me personally.
I know God has given me a supernatural gift of faith beyond a doubt! I know He has gifted me with care and compassion, even more so within the last 6 years.
But what God has also taught me is how important relationship are first and foremost.
Relationship with HIM, with our own family , the peers you mention and from there, then to outwardly reach.
If we don’t have UPWARD connection (with God) , INWARD connections (with each other) then
we won’t have any strength (with includes encouragement, motivation, energy, etc) for
OUTWARD (reaching out and ministering to others) Connections to love like Mother Teresa kind of Love.
We can be the best at what we were called to do but if we do not rest and recharge then we will have nothing to give to anyone, including ourselves.
That is why relationship with each other is so important to me. Friends are important, very important. Hanging with friends to me is important, just as important as personal family time too and a good mix of both.
Wow…Vickie’s so right. Pastor, you bless others with your honesty and I appreciate so much to hear how you grow. It helps me grow.
Thanks Mate for being honest and real, this blog has made me think about things in my own life that I could improve on. Thanks and God Bless.
You are so right…it’s easy to honor some and not so easy to honor others.
God put someone on my heart last September. We went to school together and have crossed paths only twice in 30 years, both times were in the past 2 years. Every week I would somehow run out of time in the days or simply not remember to make the call or knowing how “needy” she is I would intentionally put it off. God, through the “Honor’s Reward” class finally brought me to my senses and I called her last week. We are going to lunch soon and I have high hopes of eventually honoring her with an introduction to Jesus!
Pastor, your transparency rocks and is of great benefit to us all AND you are not out of your mind at all! I pray you get a double portion of RELAX time asap!
Wow! Just today a friend of mine called me up and said he was delivering meals on wheels and asked him to join him. I did and took my 1 1/2 year old with me. The people were so blessed by his youth. My friend and talked about how simple it was to help these people out and how our worlds should involve more than ourselves. Not just being the light to those around us, but going out of our world and into somebody elses and positively impacting them. Exactly what you talked about. I told my wife about the experience and she agreed, so we made an action plan to start going outside our world as a family and helping others.
Thanks for all the comments today everyone!! Great conversation around the topic!
Vickie… yes, we have to balance our lives, and stay refreshed, and pull strength from our connections in order to have something to give away! So true!
Emily… you’re my hero!
Brett… Gday mate, I look forward to meeting you someday! Thanks for commenting from time to time!!
Cindi… thats so exciting about your old school friend! I can’t wait to see how this turns out! Praying for you and her… loving your comment: “have high hopes of eventually honoring her with an introduction to Jesus!” YES!!
Jake… ahhhhhh! You’re on fire man! Your whole family unit… what an INSPIRATION!
I’m especially praying for all of YOU GUYS this morning! God bless you for belonging to this crazy awesome tribe! (smiling big)
Thanks for sharing Pastor! I will never forget when we were at teh Young Adults Trip and we had a discussion about what we wanted people to remember about us when we were gone. One of the young adults said she wanted to be remembered like Mother Theresa! I remember how awesome that was! To be able to love like that unconditionally is amazing.
I know that there are days I have to pray over and over again just to get through my crazy schedule. Then when I feel like there is nothing left, that is when someone needs help. I know that with the calling Jeremy and I have on our lives this is something I will continue to work through day after day, adn I thank you for being so transparent! This has inspired me for sure!!