Category Archives: Christian Living
To Rant or Not to Rant?
Rants. Some are good and some are just noise. I have a few rants that I’d like to write about, but I’m afraid I would just make noise and not be beneficial to anyone. For instance, I would love to tell you how I think that too many of us believers use the phrase “I’m praying about it and waiting on God” as an excuse to be lazy and disobedient. Or how our flirting with sin and not KILLING that sin is causing us to sin. There there’s my general frustration as a church planter with the spiritual darkness of the city we’ve planted in. But I won’t go there. That’s some good stuff I’ll save for a Sunday.
Unfortunately, I’ve exposed myself to a lot of negativity lately dealing with our city, people’s spiritual disobedience, and even with a denomination that is known lately more for what they’re against than what they’re for. I’m a glutton for punishment I suppose.
My goal is to take all this, let God turn it into something positive for His Kingdom and come out of it smelling Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Tomorrow I’m heading out for a day of solitude and prayer. This will be the first of many where I’m going to get away, unplug, do some praying, and a whole lot of listening. To say I’m looking forward to it would be an understatement.
Can’t Turn It Off
There are some days in this journey that, no matter what I do, no matter how hard I listen, I just can’t hear God speaking. It’s not that He’s not speaking. I believe He’s speaking, but I’m missing it somehow. Still yet, there are days I can’t keep God quiet. I get flooded and honestly, the last few weeks, I haven’t been able to keep up.
God is birthing some new things, new ideas, and new adventures for Ridge Community Church. Too new to even mention now, but some will come sooner than others. It seems like God opened up a flood gate a few weeks ago and as soon as I start to get my mind around one thought, He’s dropping another one, bigger than the last.
So there are some things in the fridge marinating, some ideas thawing out, and some ideas all sauced up and about to hit the grill. (sorry for all the food analogies. Blame Food Network) Needless to say, it should be an interesting summer.
Theology….Why Bother?
I’ve been having some really good conversations with our Lead Team at the Ridge lately about things that we were taught growing up in church about the character of God, the person and work of Jesus, and things that just plainly were not true. So much of our conversations have went like this….
” I was taught and had always heard that___________. But then as I STUDIED SCRIPTURE I saw that just wasn’t true.”
More and more over the last several years, I have continued to better understand and see the importance of knowing theology as I preach and teach those around me. Many years ago, I would had told you that deep theology was a waste of time. I was a fool. All I needed to know was Jesus and Him crucified. Which, in the grand scheme of things, that matters greatly. But as a teacher, preacher, and church leader, I better know a few more things and have a clear understanding of a few more things. It’s amazing to me now that I look back, my lack of deep, meaningful, study and understanding of theology. I can’t say that I haven’t learned anything over my years of teaching, but what I can say is that I didn’t dive in deep enough. Times are changing.
It’s important to me that our staff, our volunteers and even the attenders of the Ridge Community Church understand scripture, basic the0logy, and how all of scripture tells the story of Jesus and the Gospel. So for starters, I’m having our Lead Team and a few other leaders read Mark Driscoll’s Doctrine book. I highly recommend this book, especially if you want a crash course on some solid theology.
Don’t ever believe that you’ve learned all you can about God. Because then you’ll STOP learning. That’s a dangerous place to be.
Quotes That Have Wrecked Me
“Pray it before you say it.” Mark Batterson – This is one is rather recent. It’s simple and one of those by just reading it, you go…duh. However, it carries with it HUGE implication. Before you ever preach, teach, or just speak any wisdom into any other person, how bout just praying it before you ever say it? As Batterson puts it, it’ll add greater anointing. Can’t argue with that.
” If what we do in here (the church) has no effect on the streets we use to get here, we’re missing the point.” Joel Houston – I quote this one a lot in sermons. Somehow it just keeps coming to mind. I believe it with all my heart.
” The difference between a day dream and a vision is the audacity to act.” Steven Furtick – A vision will never leave the day dream stage if we never act on it. Vision propels. Vision drives. Vision explodes. Day dreams go away.
” The bible says we’re DEAD in our trespasses and sins! Dead men don’t make decisions! They certainly don’t make the right ones!…” Matt Chandler – I’m not sure I have the space or the time to even get into why this one has wrecked me. Give it some thought and see what affect it may have on you.
There are so many more but I think I’ll stop at 4. That’s enough to wreck you at least for an evening. Maybe I’ll share some more next week. Tomorrow…scriptures that have wrecked me.
You Are Free
I frequently post about a long bearded worship leader named Charlie Hall here on bobbywilliamslive.com. Reason? He’s the man. In all seriousness, I just resonate with the music and lyrics. It seems as though they resonate with my soul so much and at the right time. I don’t plan it. I don’t search out the perfect lyric for what I’m dealing with at the moment…it just happens.
Today as I’m prepping for this Sunday’s message at the Ridge, the song Chainbreaker came up on my iTunes play list. You can hear the song HERE. In that song, the anthem during the bridge is…
“You are free, you are free, yeah the son has set you free. Drop your chains sons and daughters. Come and run in liberty.”
I’m not sure if there is much more liberating than declaring that for you life. You ARE free. In Jesus, you’re not bound to sin. You’re not bound to whatever you THINK holds you down. Jesus has paid the price for you to drop your chains, and BE FREE.
I want to encourage you today that if you feel chained to something…a sin…a memory…a past…something that keeps you from living free….that you declare this as a prayer to God today. Declare your freedom from sin before him BECAUSE of Jesus and stop living chained.
YOU ARE FREE.
