Gratitude

Here's a verse you don't hear quoted very often,

"Ears that hear and eyes that see-- the LORD has made them both." Proverbs 20:12

I could have ears that don't hear. I could have eyes that don't see. Sadly, I take these blessings for granted. I live as though I am entitled to have the ability to see and hear. But these senses are a blessing from the LORD.

If I couldn't hear or see then I would miss out on...

• watching my sons play ball
• enjoying music
• hearing the words "I love you!"
• seeing the cardinal outside my window
• listening to the ocean waves crash on the beach
• being able to drive
• watching the Georgia Bulldogs play football
• seeing my smoking hot wife
• reading the Word of God

and I think that would really stink.

So, I stopped today and thanked God for these really great blessing of being able to see and hear.

The Myth of Obscurity

Sometimes it seems like when you work in a church that you minister to people in obscurity. But the truth is that there is not such a thing as obscure service in the Kingdom of God. I spent 15 years serving in youth ministry. When all the adults were meeting on Sunday evening, I was in a room far away with a bunch of hormonal middle schoolers. It seemed like no one knew and no one cared. It felt like I was working on a lost island.

I was reading Mark 12:41-44. It is the story of the widow who gave a couple of coins that didn't amount to a penny. The crazy thing is that Jesus sees here giving her last dime. He takes note and points her out to his disciples. She thought she gave in obscurity, but the truth is that God saw it.

When you serve Christ you never serve in obscurity. He is omniscient and omnipresent. He sees it all.

There are so many people who serve at GracePointe in what I am sure seems like obscurity. The pastors never say thanks. The people never pat them on the back. They never get called to do a national conference. They don't get a paycheck. They don't even get their name in the bulletin.

But I want you to know that Jesus sees your service and gifts. He knows. You never serve in obscurity because God is aware what you do.

The Greatest Leader

One way to measure a great leader is in the diversity of his or her following. Most of us who consider ourselves leaders only lead people who are for the most part like us. They look like us. They talk like us. They dress like us. They wear their hair like us. They are the same skin color as us. They really are not that different from us. We don't have a wideness in our leadership. It's not that we don't want diversity, we just are not that good of leaders. True diversity in leadership is shown in those who willing following without coercion, manipulation, fear or a paycheck. It is willingly following out of humble submission.

If you measured great leaders by the diversity of their humble followers, then who would be the greatest leader?

Jesus is the greatest leader in all of history. In Revelation 5:9, we discover that Jesus will be worshipped by people from every nation, every tribe and every tongue. He is gathering followers from all nations. He is making disciples of Egyptians, Americans, Spaniards, Italians, Africans, Polynesians, Iraqis, Iranians, Russians, Japanese and people from the four corners of the earth. He is, without a doubt, the greatest leader of all.

Swirl

We joined with Perpetual Praise and Worship Ministries for a time of worship. They are black congregation here in Douglas, GA. We had a great time of mixing our worship styles together. It was really cool and reminded me of the words found in Psalm 133,

"How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!"

We have different backgrounds, different cultures and different colors, but the worship was sweet! I know that God was pleased.

The Apostle Paul says it like this...

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28

Another Ingredient

Another ingredient that makes for a good church is unity. All week I have seen the people at GracePointe working together to make Summergize a blast for kids. One person can't do everything. It reminds me of Psalm 133,

"How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!"

The church is and has always been a group working together to accomplish God's purposes. When this is happening there is no limit to what miracles can take place. Jesus prayed in his last days that we would be one. One body working together to show the love of Jesus. I think He had weeks like this in mind. It is a sweet aroma to our God!

Key Ingredients

There are a lot of things that go into the ingredients that make good Diet Mountain Dew muffins. I learned this during our first annual "Stud Muffin Competition" this month. (just in case you don't know... the Stud Muffin Competition is a muffin making/baking competition between the men in our church for breakfast/brunch in July.) My offering was Diet Mountain Dew muffins. They got me into a tie for second place and also in the worst muffin category. The worst muffin votes came from a poor presentation. They were falling apart. They looked liked they had been dropped on the floor, but they had a great taste. Anyway...

It takes many ingredients to make these fabulous muffins. It takes many good ingredients to make a good church as well. One of the key ingredients to a great church is having people who are willing to serve whenever and however they are needed. That's exactly what the members of GracePointe do. During Summergize this week, I have seen people pulling the load with kids by teaching, making sandwiches, cleaning up spills, running video, singing, dancing, playing games and so much more. All this is just to serve kids so they can see the Saviour.

This kind of service makes Summergize rock, GracePointe grow and God look great!!

Summergize

I am excited about this week at GracePointe because we will be having "Summergize" Monday thru Friday. It is our program designed to help kids grow into a relationship with Christ, make wise decisions and treat others as they would want to be treated. We will be focusing on the theme of forgiveness all week. It will be an awesome time.

If you live in the Douglas area and have kids from 3 years old to 5th grade send them to GPC. We will be live from 6PM to 8:30 PM.

God Views

We had a great time in worship today at GracePointe. Curt Cloninger came to do his dramatic presentation of "God Views". It is a series of monologues that portray different views that people have of God. Some see God as a Cosmic Sheriff. Some see Him as Divine Butler. Other views include what I will call the Small Box God, the Senile Old Man, the Good Vibe God and a few others. He did an excellent job of using acting to get us to consider some of unbiblical ideas of what God is really like. He presented to us the idea that Jesus came for us to see 2,000 years ago. He acted like a wise old car mechanic to tell us that God is really like a good Chicken Farmer who takes in the "mutts" who have destroyed His chickens and strayed from the path He had planned for them. He adopts them to be His own by paying high price for their life. He takes in the undeserving so that they can ride in the cab of His car, so to speak.

You can check out his site by clicking on the link enclosed in the title of this post.