We had a great time at supper the other day. Wendy and I laughed and taught and laughed some more. Kids ask the greatest questions and give the best answers. I love to hear their wisdom. So I want to share it with you.
Daniel: Dad, who is your favorite super-hero?
Me: Well…… (Cause honestly I don’t have one.)
Daniel: Mine is Jesus…………….and God. (We are still working on how those 2 tie together)
Me: Well, me too I guess. Jesus is indeed my hero because he is my Savior.(I thought this would be the end of the conversation, but we have not even gotten started)
Daniel: Dad, What does God look like? And Jesus?
Me: Well….(How do I explain the human form of Jesus and the Spirit presence of God to a 7 year old?)
Daniel: Do they look alike?
Melanie: Yes they look alike. They just wear different colored shirts. (I assume like twins. Wendy and I are laughing pretty hard at that one. Then….)
Daniel: No they are not wearing shirts its different colored robe like things.
(NOW we are laughing.)
So I turn this one over to Wendy. She is much better at this than I am.
She does a really good job describing how they look different. I jump in with that it says that God is the light of Heaven, that there is no need for the sun. In trying to explain all this we have to get past that God did not make Jesus – he has always existed – but he did send him to Earth in form of man. So we make it through and have a good conversation about the depth of who God is. (I whisper to Wendy to go ahead and handle up on the Holy Spirit real quick. She declined.)
Then to end the conversation….
Daniel: Jesus and God are my favorite super-hero. What about you, Dad?
Me: Yeah, mine too.
All this to say. We sure can get worried about stuff about who God is and what he does. We worry about what he wants us to do and how he wants us to do it. We worry about what music he likes (or at least we pretend that it is about Him when we go off on other people’s worship music.) We worry about what church is the right church. We get consumed with when and where Bible study is or when, where, and how our leaders lead. We can fret over everything under the Sun…
When sometimes we need to just stop and answer this question.
Is Jesus your super-hero?
He’s mine!
My thoughts on life as a Christ follower.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Déjà vu
Well it was not exactly déjà vu but I had an experience last night that reminded me clearly of another time in my life and ministry. Last night I had the great privilege of setting forth a bold vision before the people of Fellowship Church to reach our city for Christ.
Last night I was awake in the middle of the night. The doubts that tend to eat at us anytime we stand up for the cause of Christ began to hit my mind. The biggest fear is to speak what the Lord has given you and for it to not work. It is difficult to be a person that casts God’s vision because all you can tell others is what God shows you – you can’t make it happen.
As I lay awake God reminded me of the words he told me to teach our people last night. Lift high My Name and I will bring people to myself. I honestly rolled over and slept in peace. I slept in peace until a racket awakened me.
My family has the flu. My sweet Kare Bear was upstairs hacking and having a hard time breathing. She was completely unable to sleep because of the congestion. I tried to get her to sleep for a while, but I could not.
Eventually I ended up rocking her in our rocking chair holding her where she could breathe. As I laid there with her in my arms I was reminded of the night before our first worship service at Fellowship Church. I stayed up all that night holding Daniel so he could breathe while sick with RSV. I thought the 2 nights to be strangely connected.
One reason is that the vision God has now given is as new and exciting and challenging as it was that night on January 5, 2002. The déjà vu had not quite happened yet, though. It came next as I realized that I sat their just as excited about what God had called me to do as I was the night before we started. I sat there with the same expectation of God doing unbelievable things. I sat there with a complete faith that God who begins good works finishes them too.
Honestly, I sat their and thanked the Lord that I have a great privilege and calling in my life. I thanked him that he always has been faithful. I also thanked him that I have no idea what he will do next. In 2002 I honestly had no idea what it would mean to start a church – I thought I did – but I did not.
On March 6, 2009 I sat their knowing that I have no idea how to reach a city for Christ either – but God does. All I have is the vision and the direction God gave to get there and the knowledge that He is all I need.
Vision is often scary because it leads to change and challenge. There is no person greater changed or challenged by it than the man God gives it to. So I sat there and thanked God for something else. I thanked him for not changing the passion and vision but for changing the man he had given it to. I sat there in déjà vu yet it was totally different. The difference was not in who God is, what the vision is, or the cost it will take to get there. The change is what God has done in me.
Thank you Lord for finishing what you start. O Sovereign Lord, YOU ARE GOD!
Last night I was awake in the middle of the night. The doubts that tend to eat at us anytime we stand up for the cause of Christ began to hit my mind. The biggest fear is to speak what the Lord has given you and for it to not work. It is difficult to be a person that casts God’s vision because all you can tell others is what God shows you – you can’t make it happen.
As I lay awake God reminded me of the words he told me to teach our people last night. Lift high My Name and I will bring people to myself. I honestly rolled over and slept in peace. I slept in peace until a racket awakened me.
My family has the flu. My sweet Kare Bear was upstairs hacking and having a hard time breathing. She was completely unable to sleep because of the congestion. I tried to get her to sleep for a while, but I could not.
Eventually I ended up rocking her in our rocking chair holding her where she could breathe. As I laid there with her in my arms I was reminded of the night before our first worship service at Fellowship Church. I stayed up all that night holding Daniel so he could breathe while sick with RSV. I thought the 2 nights to be strangely connected.
One reason is that the vision God has now given is as new and exciting and challenging as it was that night on January 5, 2002. The déjà vu had not quite happened yet, though. It came next as I realized that I sat their just as excited about what God had called me to do as I was the night before we started. I sat there with the same expectation of God doing unbelievable things. I sat there with a complete faith that God who begins good works finishes them too.
Honestly, I sat their and thanked the Lord that I have a great privilege and calling in my life. I thanked him that he always has been faithful. I also thanked him that I have no idea what he will do next. In 2002 I honestly had no idea what it would mean to start a church – I thought I did – but I did not.
On March 6, 2009 I sat their knowing that I have no idea how to reach a city for Christ either – but God does. All I have is the vision and the direction God gave to get there and the knowledge that He is all I need.
Vision is often scary because it leads to change and challenge. There is no person greater changed or challenged by it than the man God gives it to. So I sat there and thanked God for something else. I thanked him for not changing the passion and vision but for changing the man he had given it to. I sat there in déjà vu yet it was totally different. The difference was not in who God is, what the vision is, or the cost it will take to get there. The change is what God has done in me.
Thank you Lord for finishing what you start. O Sovereign Lord, YOU ARE GOD!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Forward from the Verge
It is a true honor in life to be the pastor of Fellowship Church in Prairieville. In 1999 God began to work in my heart and spirit a calling to plant a church. During the next two years I learned and trained and prayed about what church planting would be. June 1, 2001 my wife and I moved to a town we had visited 2 times to settle there and start a church. Little did I know that church planting was nothing like the textbooks, the classes, nor the popular books written by mega church pastors.
Fellowship Church has become the work of my life. I was a 26 year old man that had the audacity to believe that God could use me to start a church that would reach people for Christ. And he has. He has put people around me that I believe are absolutely some of the most amazing and wonderful people in world. The only problem I have really faced is discouragement. I have often struggled with my desire for success over God's work. I have lived many days here in Prairieville defeated and discouraged because the church was not what I had intended, desired, or envisioned. Not that discouragement has been my daily life. It has just been a lingering problem from time to time. Overall life is great, but my goals (my goals) were not being met.
This year some people from within Fellowship shared with me that they could see the burden in my life and spoke boldly and truthfully to it. I was honest about my struggle with them and they committed to pray for me and to help me. This was the confession I had to make. "I do not consider myself successful. Too often all I see is what we have not done instead of seeing what God has done." For some reason I felt real shame in admitting that to those people I pastor. There sat in that room lives changed by the ministry of Fellowship and I struggle to see it as such.
Over the last month or two God has really done some great things in my life. I shared with you a prayer time I experienced recently but did not tell you what it was all about. It was about this. One Thursday morning in my office, I was praying. I was praying as Kirk usually does. I was bringing God my laundry list of things to get done for his glory and asking him to make me ready. I was not asking him to talk to me about me - maybe about you - but not about me. So that morning he told me to shut up and sit still.
And he spoke. And honestly his words set me free. God simply told me "Thank you. And I am proud of you." Hear me when I say that Jesus Christ owes me no gratitude. God knows all that there is to be ashamed of in Kirk Jones. What God also knows is that I might not be a man that gets it all right, but I have a heart for him. He also knew I needed to hear it. He knew I needed to put down my definition of success before the altar of Christ before I would ever be ready to experience it.
There has been a great freedom in my life since that day. Literally God has rejuvenated my spirit and my soul. My hunger for him is growing. My prayer life is increasing. I am becoming a better husband and father. I believe I am also becoming a better pastor. The passion I have is renewed and so is my vision.
God took me through a valley so he could bring me to a Verge. I truly believe that Fellowship is on the Verge of a great movement of God. The people of Fellowship are telling others about Jesus and sharing his love like they never have before. The church is excited about Christ and their Pastor is ready to lead. No wrong motives. No hidden agendas. No personal success stories desired. Just ready.
This Friday I ask for your prayers as our church has A Night of Vision with Pastor Kirk. We are coming together to hear where we are going and why we are going there. I am so humbled that God would allow me to be the man with such a vision. I will tell you this though. I truly believe that if the people of Fellowship will follow me down the path God is laying ahead of us, that down that road is the salvation of our city.
I do not deserve the place nor the position, but I appreciate the grace that has given it to me. Pray that God will continue his work in our midst and that our lives will be laid open before him for his work. Pray that I will not speak any personal preferences, opinion, or agendas, but simply the will of God. Pray for Prairieville. And as I pray I praise because he who began a good work in me also began a good work in Fellowship and HE will complete it!
I praise God that he has renewed the audacity within me. He has given me the audacity to believe that not only will he use me to start a church but he will use that church to reach a city for Christ! Are you ready to get audacious?
Monday, March 2, 2009
Passion Action
(I try not to blog two times in one day, but I am leaving for some time of retreat with the Lord and had 2 things I needed to say.)
This Sunday we concluded our sermon series Connected. This series taught 4 characteristics needed in our lives for us to live connected lives to others spiritually and personally. The characteristics are love, authenticity, forgiveness, and compassion.
This Sunday we talked about compassion. The definition I taught is that compassion is passion action. It is one thing to be passionate about something or someone. It is entirely different to be compassionate. It is one thing to take action over a problem. It is entirely different to be passionate about it. Compassion is both passion and action.
Passion action is to rare in our lives. Many Christians can be passionate about worship and walk away and put no action into the truth they heard that day. We can be active in serving the Lord. We can be action, action, action and have no passion. God desires us to be passionately active in our lives.
The text for the day was Philippians 2:5-11. I challenge you to read and check out the greatest passion action of all time. Jesus’ death on the cross was the greatest act of compassion EVER! This passage talks about the name he was given by the Father and the glory that was his, but this was not why Jesus died. It says it in the last verse that he did all this for the “glory of the Father.”
Jesus was not concerned with his rights (his ability to take hold of his nature as God and claim every right he has the Maker of all things), his privileges (equality was not his concern), his promotion (he made himself nothing), nor his position (he became a servant.) Jesus lived the ultimate life of compassion because he had the right attitude. We must not simply change our actions, we must allow God to change our attitudes if we are to live lives of compassion.
Don’t just shout to God, serve God. Don’t just serve God, shout to Him. Put the passion into action and see that action become more passion.
Getting Hungry
It is rare in life that I allow myself to truly get hungry. Some times I say I am starving, but it has never been true. The only times I go out without a meal is by choice for spiritual reasons or schedule reasons. (Or because I ate so much the last meal that I am not yet able to force any more food in my body.)
I wonder how much this is true in our spiritual lives. We are told by Jesus that “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Are we really hungry for God? Do we yearn with a spiritual need or do we simply sit among the spiritual want of life? We want God but do we hunger for him? Do we live needing him?
Often in the spiritual life we can confuse a craving with hunger. I challenge you to learn how to hunger for God. There is a book by John Piper called A Hunger for God. It is not a book I can truly vouch for because I have not finished it – but Piper is pretty much a safe bet. I am however being challenged by the thoughts in it.
Recently I have challenged our church to fast and pray. I must admit that neither fasting nor praying is a particular strength in my walk with the Lord. (Praying more than fasting.) I have considered fasting simply as the giving up for something to draw closer to God, but I never stopped and considered why that drew me closer to God. Fasting is more than simply doing without. It is more than simply making time. I am going to personalize the illustrations and thoughts of Piper in my own life to share this within this blog. I pray it helps you pray.
Wendy and I were engaged while I worked at summer camp and went to school in Ft. Worth. I literally asked her to marry me and then a week later left until we were married. I visited but was not in the same place as her very often. I recently found some of our letter correspondence during those days. The love letters were pretty strong. Why? I hungered for her. I did not simply desire her in my life; I hungered for her in my life. What happens to that? Sometimes when the extraordinary become a part of daily life we see it as ordinary. Recently God has really been working in me as a husband and some of what seemed ordinary has been renewed as extraordinary. (Because Wendy is extraordinary!)
We often seek God because we miss him. We have been away from him or we are in tough times. Those times are easy times to see and experience the hunger for God. But what about during the regular days and the good times of life? It is not so easy to hunger for God, when he is all around you. We do not hunger for God as we should when all is good at home, at church, and at work.
Fasting is seeking hunger. If you want to get hungry work all day in the hot sun or play all day in the ocean. (It is amazing how hungry I get on vacation every year.) Or walk into your favorite restaurant and watch someone else eat your favorite meal while you smell it but do not participate. That would make you hungry. Fasting is purposefully building a hunger for God in your life. A hungry stomach is not the goal. It is not the sacrifice as much as it the passion to be with God sought through sacrifice.
Piper says it this way, “The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but an endless nibbling at the table of the world…….The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable.”
WOAH! We have to build our hunger for God by not simply denying the evil in the world, but the good in it, too. Sometimes the enemy of what is best is that which is good. During this time of year the majority of our city is practicing Lent (or their church thinks they are). Lent is a time where people are challenged to give something up for over 40 days to seek God in their life. It is a great concept when practiced correctly.
But, what are you giving up? This year I pledge to eat no asparagus for 40 days? ME, TOO! Actually I will pledge that for next 400 if you want me to. No, fasting is about giving up something that you need and/or desire because you need and desire God more. It is to say to God, I will take you over food today. I will take you over caffeine this week. I will take you over my favorite tv show tonight. It is to tell God I want you MORE! I need you MORE!
Strangely when we seek God this way, we experience him more in our life and at the same time we hunger for him more in our life, too. We take more of him in, yet we feel unsatisfied. We have a greater longing for him, his work, his ways, and his will.
This week commit to give something up to grow in your relationship and hunger for God. Seek him not just to find him, but to desire to find him more…and more…and more.
I wonder how much this is true in our spiritual lives. We are told by Jesus that “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Are we really hungry for God? Do we yearn with a spiritual need or do we simply sit among the spiritual want of life? We want God but do we hunger for him? Do we live needing him?
Often in the spiritual life we can confuse a craving with hunger. I challenge you to learn how to hunger for God. There is a book by John Piper called A Hunger for God. It is not a book I can truly vouch for because I have not finished it – but Piper is pretty much a safe bet. I am however being challenged by the thoughts in it.
Recently I have challenged our church to fast and pray. I must admit that neither fasting nor praying is a particular strength in my walk with the Lord. (Praying more than fasting.) I have considered fasting simply as the giving up for something to draw closer to God, but I never stopped and considered why that drew me closer to God. Fasting is more than simply doing without. It is more than simply making time. I am going to personalize the illustrations and thoughts of Piper in my own life to share this within this blog. I pray it helps you pray.
Wendy and I were engaged while I worked at summer camp and went to school in Ft. Worth. I literally asked her to marry me and then a week later left until we were married. I visited but was not in the same place as her very often. I recently found some of our letter correspondence during those days. The love letters were pretty strong. Why? I hungered for her. I did not simply desire her in my life; I hungered for her in my life. What happens to that? Sometimes when the extraordinary become a part of daily life we see it as ordinary. Recently God has really been working in me as a husband and some of what seemed ordinary has been renewed as extraordinary. (Because Wendy is extraordinary!)
We often seek God because we miss him. We have been away from him or we are in tough times. Those times are easy times to see and experience the hunger for God. But what about during the regular days and the good times of life? It is not so easy to hunger for God, when he is all around you. We do not hunger for God as we should when all is good at home, at church, and at work.
Fasting is seeking hunger. If you want to get hungry work all day in the hot sun or play all day in the ocean. (It is amazing how hungry I get on vacation every year.) Or walk into your favorite restaurant and watch someone else eat your favorite meal while you smell it but do not participate. That would make you hungry. Fasting is purposefully building a hunger for God in your life. A hungry stomach is not the goal. It is not the sacrifice as much as it the passion to be with God sought through sacrifice.
Piper says it this way, “The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but an endless nibbling at the table of the world…….The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable.”
WOAH! We have to build our hunger for God by not simply denying the evil in the world, but the good in it, too. Sometimes the enemy of what is best is that which is good. During this time of year the majority of our city is practicing Lent (or their church thinks they are). Lent is a time where people are challenged to give something up for over 40 days to seek God in their life. It is a great concept when practiced correctly.
But, what are you giving up? This year I pledge to eat no asparagus for 40 days? ME, TOO! Actually I will pledge that for next 400 if you want me to. No, fasting is about giving up something that you need and/or desire because you need and desire God more. It is to say to God, I will take you over food today. I will take you over caffeine this week. I will take you over my favorite tv show tonight. It is to tell God I want you MORE! I need you MORE!
Strangely when we seek God this way, we experience him more in our life and at the same time we hunger for him more in our life, too. We take more of him in, yet we feel unsatisfied. We have a greater longing for him, his work, his ways, and his will.
This week commit to give something up to grow in your relationship and hunger for God. Seek him not just to find him, but to desire to find him more…and more…and more.
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