Category: Misc

What are we trying to build?

I spoke to a leader of a church this afternoon.  There were certain accusations that were being thrown at him.

First and foremost, I told him, that that’s to be expected.  As a leader, people will comment, criticize, applaud, scorn and say stuff.  Comes with the territory.

Second, it is important to understand clearly what God has called us to do.  He did not call us to be successful.  He calls us to be faithful. (read a recent post I made here)

And as you’re certain about the call God’s placed in your life, be secure that as long as you’re doing what you’ve been called to do, then all that matters is not the applause of man but the applause of heaven.

Criticism may hurt.  It will hurt.  But what are we building?

Are we building our reputation or are we building His kingdom?

After attending Sticky Church conference with Ferdie and Crickette, Ferdie had a good top 10 blog to summarize our time there.  Click here to read his post.

Here’s my top 5 why I like Ferdie’s no. 10 in his post (sermon-based small group).

1. People who come to church tend to be more attentive since the message is going to be discussed in the small groups that week.

2. Because it will be a point of discussion during the week, there’s increased note taking during the message.

3. At the small group meetings, interaction and discussion will crank up because they’ve listened in to the message and had the time to process it.

4. Although the small group material will not be a regurgitation of last weekend’s message because it will focus on a different set of verses to study, the more important focus will go to application and making sure the Word is lived out.

5. Because we meet at our local churches for the Word during Tuesdays and again with the Metro Manila Pastors on Wednesdays, the sermon kitchen is full with ingredients to come up with an excellent Word for the weekend coupled with a small group material to boot.

Really looking forward to what God will do in the next several months.  God is phenomenally good.

Just read an excellent blog by Steve Murrell about discipleship…

Got the following questions from someone I do not know who is writing a paper for a class about whether discipleship “has value in today’s context.”

Here are my quick answers to his questions:

Q: What is a disciple?
A: A disciple is someone who follows Jesus, “fishes” for people and does this in fellowship with other disciples, while carrying a cross.
(Discipleship is not complicated. Difficult, yes. Complicated, no. It is so simple that a carpenter described it to uneducated fishermen 2000 years ago in one sentence – Matthew 4:19.)

Q: Do you have to be saved to be a disciple?
A: Yes. But since evangelism is the starting point of making disciples, the discipleship process starts long before one is saved.

Q: Are all Christians disciples? If not, what are the differences?
A: All should be, but unfortunately not all are following Jesus, fishing for people or fellowshipping with others. And not all are carrying a cross.

To read the rest of the article, click here…

Many define success today as ‘bigger is better’.

Unfortunately, I’ve been sucked in by that pressure many times over because I want to be able to keep up, join in, belong and feed my ego (if I can be so honest).

But when we look at the life of Noah, after 100 plus years of building the ark combined with calling out repentance, only 7 people listened to his message and got in the ark thereby being rescued from the Great Deluge.

Now church growth experts will look at a church of 8 people (Noah plus the 7) and probably will not look at it as very successful.

But in God’s eyes, Noah was faithful to who God’s called him to be and what God’s called him to do.

Bottomline: Success is to stay faithful to who God’s called you to be and what God’s called you to do.

His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

Don’t you just love the book of Psalms?  It brings about awesome insights from extreme emotions.  David understood what it means to pour his heart out to God in both the highs and lows.

Random thoughts on Psalm 84…

v. 4. Blessed are those who dwell in your house…

• Obviously we can’t be in church 24/7 yet the blessing is knowing that we can be in His presence 24/7.

v. 5. Blessed are those whose strength is in you…

• Those who find strength in Him alone gets strength unceasing.Why?  Because as they go through the Valley of Baca which is a desert wasteland, one’s life will be far from dry because they will go from ‘strength to strength’ (Ps. 84:7)

I met with a young man the other day.  He was downloading a few things to me about what he’s been going through.  He gave his life to Jesus a couple of years ago.  While his walk is not perfect, there is remarkable progress every single day.

He was telling me how God was showing him a couple of things he needed to adjust in his life.  When typhoon Ondoy hit, he went to his closet to check out things that he could sort and give to the victims.  As he was sorting out his shoes, lo and behold, in the way back, he found a brand new pair he bought a couple of years ago that he had been looking for a looooooong time.

At that moment, he felt God was talking to him (not audibly but in his heart.)  He said that he felt that it was a picture of his life.  There were several things he had been dismissing, i.e. anger and unforgiveness.  Yet like his pair that was lodged deep into the recesses of his cabinet, the icky stuff in his heart surfaced as well.

At the end of our talk, I asked him what I could pray for him about.  His immediate reply, “I just want to know Him more…”

I was blown away.  How many 20-year olds these days have that kind of prayer?

If someone asks, “What can I pray for you about?”, what would be the normal reply?  Blessings?  More of these and that?  Promotion?  Salary increase?  Better grades?

These are obviously not wrong in and of themself.  However, it just blessed my socks off to hear this young man say what he said.

It reminded me of Paul.  Toward the end of his life… after planting many churches… after visiting cities and being an apostle for Christ, what was his one main desire?

“I want to know Christ…” (Philippians 3:10)

Didn’t he know Him already?  What did he mean?

At the end of it all, it wasn’t more churches to be planted or more stuff to accumulate or more souls to preach to.  It was to know Him better.

May that be the same prayer of my heart!

This week has been eventful, to say the least. But Victory in Metro Manila responded to the call and it’s such an honor to be part of what God is doing in the nation in the midst of calamity. To all the volunteers who took part, sacrificed, donated and helped… THANK YOU!