Staying Relevant

Have you ever been somewhere like the 80's Cafe on Back to the Future part II?

Most of you don't even have to watch the video to know what I'm talking about!

Have you ever gone into a church and felt like that?  If we use an arcade as an analogy, it would be like walking in and having the option of playing Frogger compared to playing Terminator with those life like guns and 3D graphics that we have today.  Yes, I just went there.

See most of our churches are like that.  And I don't mean that because they still use pews, have traditional buildings, or even have paneled walls.  You can have the most beautiful new buildings in America, but still be the cafe 80's of the church...and that's not a compliment.

What we have done is become irrelevant.  Old news. Old fashioned. Ancient.  It's like we still talk about land lines and no one even has one any more.  (My mom even got rid of her land line for a cell phone!)  I mean how crazy is it that we have let ourselves become that?

No! I am not saying we have to compromise our beliefs to reap the harvest God has called us to reap.  No! I am not saying that we have to preach only the pretty, soft, and comforting topics in the Bible.

Our pastor in Kentucky always referred to a lot of what is being spoken in the world today as a "watered-down blended cocktail".  Oh, I like this let's put it in our doctrine and this over here, I'd like a dash of that mixed in.  Yeah, let's play sweet home alabama for worship because we all know heaven is in Alabama.

See we can't be like that and compromise truth for comfort and entertainment.  We have to hold true and fast to the word of God and believe in what He tells us.  We can't determine how we will be relevant by what is nice and pretty.

If God's word was all tiptoeing through the tulips then we wouldn't have stories of martyrs dying for the cause of Christ.  We wouldn't have stories of prisoners because of their unwavering faith in God.

We can be relevant.  We just have to meet people where they are at.  We have to understand that we once were sinners and the only difference between them and me is the fact that grace stepped in.  Without the grace of God, we would all be sinners destined to death.

We don't have to be so out of touch that our churches feel like Cafe 80's.  (Although, I know some of you are all about Cafe 80's, the 80's needs to stay where it is, in the past.)  We can be relevant even without bells and whistles.  All we have to do is continue to stand and speak the truth of the Word of God.

I encourage you.  Be relevant.  Not entertaining and compromising, but relevant.  Stand tall. Stand firm.

God's Gift

This morning I am in awe of God's grace.

You know we, as a church, talk about grace a lot.  We sing your grace is enough.  We speak of how if it were not for grace where would we be today.

Grace is powerful.  I felt the power of grace like never before yesterday and this morning.  It overwhelmed me.

From reading multiple definitions, what I find is that grace is unmerited mercy that God shows to all through sending His son to die on a cross so that we may have salvation.

See that unmerited?  We don't deserve it.  We can't claim it as ours.  It is a gift that is given out of the truest love that any will ever know.

I don't know a whole lot.  What I do know is that God's grace is always working.

A grace that redeems us from our sinful nature.  We conquer that sinful nature by His grace and "by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony".  (Rev. 12)

I know this is not some marvelous new idea.  It doesn't matter though. God is God.  WE ARE NOT.

Are you thankful for the grace that entered your life?  Have you shared with someone the story of how grace has worked in your life?

Feel free to share in the comments below.

Forgotten God

I am reading a book called "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan.  I am only a chapter in to the book.  Essentially, the book examines the "forgotten God" in our lives:  the Holy Spirit.

In my world that seems crazy.  See, I typically attend charismatic, Pentecostal churches.  It's how I was raised.  We believe in the move of the Spirit.  We believe in the fruits of the Spirit.  We believe in baptism in the Spirit.

That is neither here nor there, though.  This is not a theological debate blog.  What I'm getting at is that the book examines what the Holy Spirit is in our lives.  Speaking at the church as a whole, we have forgotten this part of God.  The third part.  The comforter.  The one Jesus sent that was just like Him.

The book really starts to take a look at why we have forgotten this essential piece and why it is essential we stop forgetting!

I say all that to say this:  there is a fantastic statement in just the first chapter.

We as a western society get in the mindset of "me".  When we come to church we want our song played, our church seat/pew spot, the temperature just right, the topic sweet and comforting, and so on.

We have started to make church what we want it.  I don't know about you, but that is just not satisfying to me.  I serve a powerful God that can do ALL things.  I want to know that He is in the midst of what is happening.

The statement that I loved so much is this:  "The church becomes irrelevant when it becomes purely a human creation."

Read that again.

Think about it.  When we stop praying over the music that it be an entrance to the throne room rather than a performance, we become irrelevant.  When we stop preparing and planning for the preaching whether you are praying for the preacher or you are the preacher, we become irrelevant.  When we stop praying for souls and are satisfied with what we have created, we become irrelevant.  When we stop including God, we become irrelevant.

See, I don't want to become the cool church down the street by sacrificing God for talent, performance, and comfort.  I don't want to become irrelevant.

We are not the Lions Club.  We need to stop worrying about creating the perfect environment for worship and worship the Perfect One so that He will manifest His presence and create His perfect environment.

I don't want this to be about me.  I never have.  This is so much bigger than me.  I just want to fulfill the call in my life.  If I have to sacrifice God to fill a church, then I'd rather preach to five people.  As long as I am relevant to the message God gives, I want nothing else.

Think about it.  Have you become irrelevant?  That can change.  Invite God back.  Invite His Spirit back.  Don't become irrelevant.

Jesus

I have to brag just a bit.  The youth group my wife and I work with has a youth led band with tremendous potential.  I work with them a little bit.  I'm more of a moral support person.  I like to call myself a funnel.  They have the ingredients to go in the engine, they just weren't getting all in the same spot.  The youth pastor likes to refer to me as a spoke on a wheel.  A wheel needs all it's spokes to be balanced and work right.  Either way, funnel or spoke, I try to help a bit.

Before their first major practice with me I have to admit I was nervous.  Would everyone buy in?  Would everyone be on the same page?  How will they respond to a fat redneck giving suggestions?  You know.  The norm.

I watched as with very little guidance at all, they took a song called "Jesus be the Center" and absolutely made it theirs.  They didn't do it the way it was written exactly.  THEY did it.  It was so impressive.  Even in that practice you could feel the anointing of the words of the song.

We get caught up in our songs and what we are doing.  Our worship should focus completely on worshiping our King.

The song says this simply:

Jesus at the center of it all.  It's all about You.  Nothing else matters.  From my heart to the heavens.  Jesus be the center.

POWERFUL!  That should be our daily prayer.  Jesus from my heart to the heavens, be the center of my world.  It's all about You.  Nothing else matters in my life.  Be the center of it all.

Not only did these students nail this song they absolutely led every student into worship.  I mean you know there is a true spirit of worship.  Heck, even the drummer was worshiping with lifted hands.  When's the last time you saw that?

So take a moment and pray.  Jesus be my center.  Let my world revolve around you.  Listen to the song.  Make it your prayer.  It's all about Him.

Price Shopping

My wife and I are moving this weekend and one of the things that comes with moving is buying new services.  Yeah.  

It's probably the thing I hate the most other than changing my address for everything from paychecks to retirement to Burger King's bogo coupons....wait, those are automatic right? 

If you read my post from earlier this week, you know that I have developed a tendency to relate random things to spiritual matters.  It's a gift, or possibly a curse depending on who's taking notes. I like it, but it annoys some people.

See, if you're like me then there is no doubt that you call every internet, satellite, phone, etc. provider to get the best rate.  (You do this even after looking online and seeing that company A charges $25 more than company B. Join the club.)

A lot of people are searching for something that costs this amount or that amount.  They want something that is priceless and they get to looking and realize nothing fulfills their need.

I'm here to tell you that there is one price you will never beat.  That was the price that Christ paid for you and for me on the cross.  This was a price that no one else could pay.  With this price, He set us free.  We were and are healed.  

Cheesy?  Maybe.  Laughing at me? Maybe.  

Think about it though.  Hopefully you have already accepted that He paid the price for you and asked Jesus to come into your life.  Some people haven't.  They are still price shopping for something they don't even know they are shopping for at this moment.  

So if you're like me and get bogged down and just blah about price shopping; drop all of it and remember the true reason we have joy.  It is because of the price He paid.  

If you haven't accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, then you can today.  Just simply ask Him to come to you and wash you of your sins.  We have all been sinners.  Paul said that he was chief among sinners and he ended up writing half the new testament.  Don't let the price Christ paid sit on your family coffee table in the form of a family bible or figuratively let it set on a shelf collecting dust.  

If you confess with your tongue Jesus is Lord and believe with your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Romans 10:9-10

This is random and not how I wanted to end this or even write today, but I feel led to do so.  If you accepted Jesus for the first time, leave a comment or shoot me an email at thomasjustin1023@gmail.com so I can pray for you. 

Remember the price He paid.

Follow me on Twitter @justintho21. Send out via Twitter and Facebook to your friend!

Giving Back

Let me tell you something. I hated high school, but yet I hated leaving it if that makes sense.  I loved the youth group that I was in and I knew with the end of high school happening that my time there was pretty much done.

If you know me well enough, you'd know that I like consistency.  I think consistency is key to almost everything.  Don't confuse consistency with complacency though.  Two totally different things!

At this point in my life I had been involved so deeply in something for almost 5 years.  That seems like a short amount of time, but when you have invested (or feel like you have at least) so much it becomes precious.

I left a mess for college.  I made stupid high school decisions.  (Yeah, go ahead and cast the first stone if you didn't make a stupid decision in high school.) Throughout college I tried to contribute to the local church, but that never really jived because of my immaturity and living on the fence at the time. I'm being very transparent today. 

Time continued to pass along.  I got married to my beautiful wife.  We finally drug ourselves back to church.  You wouldn't believe how unhappy we found ourselves not going to church for the first few months of marriage.  It almost never failed those months that we would end up in a small spat just because we were miserable.

My buddy, MJ, never gave up on me though.  We knew each other since I started college.  He was working with the youth at the church and that kind of thing.  He became the youth pastor at Man O' War Church.  He kept encouraging us to come there.  It was an hour away, but we finally relented and went.  He sucked us in and we got on board.

We started helping out with the youth there and loved it.  We got deeply involved and pushed out of our comfort zone more than we ever anticipated.

Fast forward.  We move home.  We talk to the current youth pastor at the church we are attending and boom, we are right back in the thick of it.

I say all of that to say this:

I never knew how much giving back would become rewarding.  I knew that there was work involved. I knew that people sacrificed.  I knew all of that.  I never knew why they stayed with it.  I now know.  It's because of getting to see students grow.  You get to watch them go through a process.  You get to help them along the way.  You get to see how God can move through a 17 year old.

I get to experience it from a whole new perspective.  I think the more I see, the more I enjoy this side of the fence.  Not because I don't deal with high school or college, but because I feel like I can see the big picture.

The thing is that your experience doesn't have to be related to youth!  It can be in homeless ministry, widows ministry, senior ministry, college, adult, children, music, or even just being an example.  Figure out why you do what you do.

I encourage you to give back.  You won't regret it, and it will probably be the most sacrificing and rewarding thing all at the same time.  Not tangible rewards, but God's Kingdom rewards.


See what my friend, Jamie Boggs, has to say about giving back on his blog, "The Knowledge Dropper."

Be sure to share with your friends via Twitter and Facebook.  Tweet me: @justintho21

I'm No Expert

So, this year we moved home and we decided to save money by working a garden with my parents.  Good decision?  We will see.

Last night I was tilling up the ground with dad (turning up the ground) and it got me to thinking about how we operate.

We always use the analogy of planting that seed so that we can reap the harvest in any type of ministry setting.  If we can just plant the seed.  We can't have a harvest without planting the seed.

I get it.  I do.  It's a very relevant analogy for me.  I'm not going to have any okra, corn, or squash if I never plant the seeds.

But what good does planting seed do if we don't till the land first?  If we never prepare to plant the seed, how many seeds will take?  If we never take the time to soften up the ground so we can do the work efficiently, what sense does it make to plant a garden?

Are you seeing what I'm gettin' at?  See, what we have to do is prepare for what we are about to do.  If we want to reap the harvest, we must understand that the first step is turning up the ground.

See, even gardening can be spiritual....until (if you're like me) you look down and realize you have blisters on your hands.

So I encourage you, when looking for the harvest to make that beginning effort.  Prepare for your work.  We can't go throwing seeds willy nilly!

Read Matthew 13:1-9.  It's relevant.  Now get to turnin' your ground!

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Help Me Out

Today is not content.  I need you to help me out.  Yes, you reading this right now.  I need you to do me a favor.

I need you to do one of two things.  If you have enjoyed this blog thus far, help me spread the word.  I'm going to post a link for the blog or you can go to your favorite posting and use that link.

If you are willing, please help me.  Take your favorite post or this link and post to your Facebook account or your Twitter feed.  Here it is:

"Like blogs? Check this out from @justintho21.  Share with your friends and comment if you like? http://forwardmotiontime.blogspot.com/ "

Copy and paste the above into your status or tweet!

This is an experiment.  Will it work?  I don't know.  You can help though.  Is this about self promotion?  No.  I'm not a self-promoter.  This is a stretch and I can almost guarantee this will be a one shot deal here.  So help me out.  Mention to a friend.  Mention to your followers.  Let's see what happens.

Thanks in advance!  Now back to spiritual ramblings of a fat redneck...yes that's me.  I know what you're thinking MJ, and I'm not gonna change the blog name to ramblings of a fat redneck.

Post-Easter Sugar High

Somehow I avoid Easter candy better than most things that are bad for me.  That usually only lasts until Saturday. This year I got bombarded by jelly beans.  I killed me some Starburst jelly beans.  Then I devoured some Mounds, and some Reester Eggs (you know the reese eggs).  I was on it!

Think about it though.  A lot of us get on an Easter high.  We buy new clothes, plan dinners, take a million pictures (speaking of which, I dislike you who took 18 mirror pictures for Easter and posted them to FB!) and continue on our way. We get hyped about Easter, and I know I do. I love Easter.  Without the Resurrection, we have nothing.  Christ then becomes another man.  We lose everything that we believe without the events that we just celebrated.

We have to get over Easter being our Christian sugar high.  We have to get over our new outfits, our dinners, our everything to realize what the moment truly celebrates.  When we realize what the moment is truly about, then we must carry it on with us daily.

Resurrection is celebrated in glorious fashion once a year, but don't let it be a once a year occurrence. We as Christians should celebrate this in glorious fashion every Sunday.  Actually, scratch that.  We should celebrate it in glorious fashion every single day.

See, my mom instilled my love for Easter at an early age.  Me and my brother never really got the Easter baskets or anything like that.  (No, I'm not knocking that tradition.  It's just something we never really did. We did have those dagum Easter marshmallow eggs like they were goin' outta style though.) Mom really helped us see the meaning of Easter.  I remember her and dad taking us to Woodward's Passion Play.  I was like 9, but yet I understood the love that was meant for me.  The play was so powerful.  I'll never forget what it felt like to see something that to a 9 year old boy seemed so real.

Through that teaching by mom through example and exposure to Christ's love, I got it.  I got the meaning of Easter without a doubt.

The thing that is hard for me, as is most Christians, is is the fact that we get caught up in the celebratory mess that we have created.  We ought to celebrate this fact every day.  We have to come down from our sugar high and realize that through Him we are free.

So take a minute.  Realize that without the resurrection, we wouldn't gather like we do.  We wouldn't celebrate Easter the way we do.  We wouldn't have the love of Christ like we do.  BUT because of the resurrection we have the love, we have life, and we have the ability to celebrate, not just one day, but everyday!

Jesus slapped #yolo (you only live once) in the face.  That circulated on Twitter.  I love it.  Enjoy Easter.  Enjoy your family.  Enjoy what you do, but I encourage you to remember that when the sugar high ends, the candy is gone, the clothes are used, and the church isn't as decorated that we still celebrate because HE lives.

Remembrance

As the observance of Holy week draws closer to ending, I encourage you to remember what we are celebrating.

We celebrate that Christ died for our sins.  We celebrate that Christ rose to justify us.  We celebrate that He has the keys to death, hell, and the grave.  We celebrate that He conquered death.  We celebrate that He reigns forevermore.  We celebrate the fact that through Him we are free.

I know this is nothing elaborate, but take some time this weekend as you are conducting Easter egg hunts, fellowship gatherings, morning breakfasts, etc., and remember why we are where we are.

Just take a moment.  Thank God for stepping in for us.  Thank Him for becoming the way.

Do It Yourself

I have great friends in Kentucky.  Hard to believe since it is Kentucky.

My good friend's, MJ, dad is an artist, author, pastor, etc.  Heck, he is a lot of things.

He has a book titled "Like a Tree".  Good book.  Find it. Read it.  "Like a Tree" by Mitchell Tolle.

From this book I have a million favorite quotes, but one of my top favorites is this:

"When you think you become powerful.  When you refuse to think or let someone else do it for you, you have surrendered everything."

Think about it.  You're probably wondering to yourself why is this important.  You are probably thinking that this is obvious, but I argue that it isn't.

Thinking about church in general, when was the last time you took your bible in to ponder on the Word while the pastor read it?  When was the last time you double checked when you got home, since you probably didn't bring your bible, to see if pastor was teaching his passage correctly?

See, we as the the church are notorious for letting people think for us.  We surrender our whole knowledge base to what one person is teaching us on Sundays.  We have surrendered everything because we won't think on our own.

Like this quote says, we must make ourselves powerful by thinking on our own.  Am I saying to abandon the teaching of the man of God?  Heck no.  We should respect them and learn from them, but we should always have the mind to think for ourselves and make sure what we are receiving is truth.  Nothing wrong in that!

I encourage you to think for yourself.  It can be hard at times to get motivated in a world where everything is handed to us and spoon fed directly, but we must take the Word of God in for ourselves and think to become powerful.

Growing Up

I know.  Some of you all that are a bit older than me are shaking your head thinking, "What does this kid know about growing up?"  I get it.  I get it.

Anyways, let me share with you what I shared a few weeks ago at Reach service which is somewhat college and career class at Englewood Church of God.

See, I loved church camp.  In my family you didn't go to 4-H camp (one because it was too expensive & two because church camp was better) but you went to church camp.  I was camp.  I felt like if you mentioned camp and you knew me that my face associated with your thoughts.  I was always excited come April because that's when sign up started.  Mom would pay my 5 dollar deposit and I'd work my tail off to earn the other money by doing extra odd jobs around the house.  (No not mowing or anything normal.  Extra jobs.  Builds character, right dad?)

So I would go to camp and then all of a sudden it was over and I'd come home exhausted trying to find a way to go back and work the next week of camp, because I loved it.

Well, during college I couldn't go and then I got a job as a 4-H agent.  They said oh by the way, your first full week on the job is going to be at camp.  I was like, "BOOYAH, I got this!"  I was excited see because I was camp.

When I got there things changed.  I realized that everyone depended on me.  It was like this:  "Justin, I'm hot.  Justin, I miss my mom.  Justin, I hate this place.  Justin, I don't wanna do that."

Yeah you can picture it.  See what happened to me is that I was just like everyone of us in the church.  We come expecting it to be about us.   We come in with this idea that we are the ones that should be entertained all the time when really we should be doing the work.

In 1 Corinthians 13:11 it says that when I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

See we get stuck in our "baby Christian" mentality.  Where I come from it's bad because we are raised in youth groups where there is always something for us and then all of a sudden when you become "an adult" you are on your own to figure it out.

We have to get over the mentality that it's okay to go out and experiment then come back to the house of God when we have kids that need to be there or when we feel like it's time to settle down.  We are called to live a holy and acceptable life.  It's our reasonable service.

I like how Solomon progresses.  See he took over after David, his father.  David was the great king who we know was a man after God's own heart.  Solomon was young and understood he was young.  That's what I love the most is that he didn't let his young pride in the way, but yet that he acknowledges that he is young.

In 1 Kings 3 we see God appear in a dream and ask him what he wants.  I love Solomon's response:  "You have shown great mercy to Your servant David, my father, because he walked before you in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you; You have continued this great kindness for him and You have given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day.  Now, O Lord my God, You have made your servant king instead of my father, David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in....therefore give to your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people that I may discern between good and evil..."

I love that he acknowledges that he knows nothing.  I believe in that moment he grew up to become what he was called to be.

I like this quote and how it sums up growing up.

"Ingratitude denotes spiritual immaturity.  Infants do not always appreciate what their parents do for them.  They have short memories.  Their concern is not what you did for me yesterday but what you are doing for me today.  The past and future are meaningless.  They live for the present.  Those who are mature are deeply appreciative of those who labored in the past.  They recognize those who labor during the present and provide for those who will be laboring in the future."

It's almost opposite of what seems to be the collective idea of church.  People come to hear a word from God.  When it's not what they want they get mad.  They don't care that you brought a word from God in the past, and could care less if it's coming in the future.  They want to hear what they want to hear now.

We've got to get past the "ME" attitude.  We must come to the realization that we are called to be the church and it seems that when we read about the church in scripture somewhere close either in front or behind it's mentioning is an action word such as: go, love, be, do, etc.  We are the church so we must love like the church is supposed to love.

I encourage you to push the "ME" mentality and be like Solomon.  Ask for wisdom.  Ask for what you lack.  Love people.  Grow in Christ.

You may think change is hard, but change only occurs when the pain to change is less than the pain to stay the same.

How Bout Eggs?

Baby, I'm back!  I've been out of town on business and I'm too cheap to pay 10 bucks a night for internet.  Thus, today I am making my way back to the blogger!

Anyways,  it is the week of Resurrection Sunday, or as the world refers to it Easter.  Easter is my favorite holiday of the year.  To me it has the most meaning of any of em.  How did we deviate so far from what Easter is to what it is now?  I love Jim Gaffigan's take on it:

How bout eggs? Exactly.

The reason I love Easter so much is because of what it means to us as Christians.  See sometimes we get caught up on the fact that Christ died for us, but what would His death have meant without the Resurrection?  It was proof that He is the Savior.  Not only did He die, but He rose again.  I love what it says in Acts 2:24.

"God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it."

Because of the impossibility of death to hold Him, WE have the possibility of life eternal with Him.

Because He conquered the grave, WE can become new again.

Because of His stripes, WE are healed.

Because of His blood, OUR sins are washed away.

Because of His cross, OUR debt is paid.

Enjoy the chocolate marshmallows, the cadbury eggs, the chocolate bunnies, because my goodness they are delicious, but remember that Christ paid the way for us.

You don't have to worship just this Sunday.  He did it for you, why not start today?