What if God Doesn't Use You?

Let me say right at the start of this post that these thoughts are not original with me. Mike Donehey from the band "Tenth Avenue North" wrote a post about a year ago entitled "God Don't Use Me" that struck me then and has recently come back to memory. Here is a link to his blog (which by the way is awesome!) - http://mikedonehey.tumblr.com

When I read that post a year ago, I began to chew on it and to this day I am still processing it. Allow me to share some of my thoughts with you here.

I want you to think about s prayer that we pray often; we say something along the lines of "God, please use me." It's a great prayer and I think every Christian should desire to be used of God. We should fervently seek to have God use us in a way that advances the Gospel and His Kingdom on earth. But I think that we also need to learn to be okay when He doesn't use us.

Let me explain: say you have an unsaved family member and you want more than anything that Jesus would save them. Wouldn't you be okay if God used someone other than you to lead them to Him? Of course you would because the most important thing to you is that they know Jesus, not that you be used to lead them to Him. Of course, you would be thrilled if you are the one to lead them, but the ultimate goal is that they be saved.

So why is it that so often we pray to be "used of God" more than we pray that Jesus be exalted and the lost be found? Let me challenge us to come to church services, mission trips, youth groups, everyday life, etc. with the desire to see Jesus lifted high and God's will be done; no matter who He uses to accomplish that.

We all play a part in seeing God's mission accomplished, but there will be times when God uses someone else instead of you for a specific task. You need to be okay with that. This hits home to me as a youth pastor because I want to be a part of showing all the teens at South Shore what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. But I have to be okay with and even excited about the fact that God will at times use other people to impact those same teens instead of me. And I should rejoice when that happens because the ultimate goal is to see them follow Jesus, not that I be the one who led them to do that.

After all, it is God who does all the work right? We all are here to play the role that He calls us to. That means we must let God use those around us as well instead of trying to be the "top Christian" at our church. So what will you do if God doesn't use you? Will you submit to that? Or do you want the spotlight? Let us "humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God so that at the right time, He may exalt us." (1 Peter 5:6)

The Other Half of the Lust Problem

Ephesians 5:3 (NIV) - "But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people."

Most people read the above verse and think "men really need to stop lusting and viewing pornography." There's a problem with that statement; men aren't the only ones. I don't know the exact statistics, but I do know that more and more women are engaging in the viewing of pornography; and so many people are ignoring this.

Why is it that when I look at my Instagram or Facebook feed I see hundreds of 'man crush monday's' that nobody has a problem with. Women (teens and adults alike) are posting pictures of half-naked men as their 'man-crush' without even a slight pushback from their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Let me be clear: I am NOT for a second ignoring the fact that men have a massive problem with lust and do the same things and more than women do. What I AM saying is that the Church must stop ignoring the fact that millions of women are drowning in a sea of lust without anyone trying to help them through it.

Everyone seems to be calling for modesty in women and for men to find help with their porn addiction. But nobody is calling out to the women of the church to "flee sexual immorality" (1 Corinthians 6:18). This is a serious problem because women have become numb to this sin and it is destroying their relationship with Jesus. The hardest part is, they don't seem to notice.

It's like they don't even see their posts as lustful or their thoughts as adulterous at all. I know that this is not just a man's thoughts on the issue because I have had a few women express their concern on this as well. Our "Christian culture" has accepted the lie that men lust and women don't. Oh we say that we know women struggle with lust, but we don't battle the issue or provide any correction or accountability for them. I know that women don't struggle with the same 'expressions' of lust as men do, but lust is lust and it's sin that Jesus died to free us from!

Women fantasize what their lives would be like if they were in a relationship with certain celebrities, have conversations with their friends about how 'hot' certain guys are, and some even are engaged in full-on pornography. How are we okay with this? If Ephesians 5:3 says that there shouldn't even be a 'hint' of sexual immorality (depending on the translation), then we have to do something about this.

If we only address men for their lust, we are missing half of the problem. Let us be more aware of this and being to "Abstain from the passions of the flesh" (2 Peter 2:11). I think our churches and the body of Christ are struggling more than we realize because of this overlooked sin in our congregations.

Philippians 4:8 - "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

For more on this subject, check out this article - http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2014/01/08/when-women-lust/

Always a Student, Never a Warrior

The other day, I went on a spiritual retreat with some of the pastors and staff at South Shore. It was a time that we could just spend a few hours by ourselves in prayer to the Lord. To say I needed that time would be the understatement of the year. My prayer life had been really dry and almost non-existent. I spent hours on a dock with nothing but my Bible and Journal. It was truly Me and God for a while. I could spend a whole other post talking about how refreshing that alone was.

For now however, I want to tell you about what God revealed to me that day. As the title of this post proclaims, I realized that I am always a student of the Word, but never a Warrior in the battle. I realized that my 'quiet times' with the Lord were too quiet. What I mean by that is that I always spend my time with the Lord reading His word, but never praying. Never would I sit with Him for hours or even half an hour praying.

My life and ministry was full of knowledge about God; seeking to be a student of the Word and to 'know Him' (Philippians 3:10), but never stepping into the mission  battle that He has called us to fight. We have been called to know Him yes, but we have also been called to make Him known! How in the world do I think that I can come against the "spiritual forces of evil" (Ephesians 6:12) if I never assume the battle position; on my knees?

Let me be clear, I believe that being a student of the Word is of utmost importance. 2 Timothy 2:15 I believe is very clear that we must be able to "rightly handle the Word." Besides, we have such a great privilege to know God through His Word. But just as I believe there is no substitute for the Word, there is no substitute for "fervent prayer" (James 5:17). It's interesting that James doesn't say the fervent study of a righteous man has great power; he says it's prayer that does.

You can't always study but never pray. Neither can you always pray but never study. It's not either/or, it's both/and. If you're always a student, you're powerless to put your study into action, if you're always a warrior, you're clueless as to how to fight and Who you're fighting for.

I have a feeling that there are others like me out there. For me it's just easier to always study the Word. Prayer is hard work for me, I get way too distracted. I also like to approach God intellectually; I want to be able to know Him in a very deep, personal way and I feel as though His Word gives me the best chance at that. But there are ways that I can know Him through prayer that I could never know Him through His Word.

So my challenge to myself is to continue in the Word, but to stir myself up to fervent prayer. I want the whole armor of God and I don't want to always be a student, but never a warrior. It takes work, and I know I'll be fighting this until Jesus calls me home. But if I have been called to a God-sized mission, I am going to need God-sized power. Don't let your time in the Word take from your time on your knees and vice-versa. Become a student who is also a warrior!

Get Out of the Way

At South Shore, we are going through an in depth, powerful series on the Holy Spirit. I have not been here for much of the series, but the weeks I have been here have both encouraged and challenged me in my walk with Christ. By the way, that is what solid, biblical teaching is supposed to do.

I have been thinking a lot about Christians' responses to the Holy Spirit and the conversations that stir up when He is talked about. I realized that we (myself being the foremost) love to dissect the teachings of the Holy Spirit. We love to analyze who He is and what He does in our lives. We get so fired up when we realize the power that He gives us. And then we go out and argue about how He gives us that power.

In many churches around today, if you mention tongues, healing, prophecy or any of the 'dynamic' gifts, people start grabbing their pitchforks and torches. It's almost like we are afraid of what God will do if we give the Holy Spirit too much room.

Let me say here that this post doesn't really have much to do with those specific gifts. The point I want to get across is that, as Pastor Frank said this past weekend, we spend so much time arguing over how the Holy Spirit works and how He empowers us; all the while we spend no time actually tapping into that power.

A thought hit me this past weekend; Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4 that true worshippers must worship him in "Spirit and in truth." Way too many believers only worship Jesus halfway; either they worship all in Spirit or they worship all in truth. What wrong with that you ask? Well if you only worship in Spirit, there is no truth. You will do what you want and become like the people of Israel in the book of Judges who did what was right in their own eyes. If you worship in only truth, you'll be boring, have no power and God will be more of an intellectual pursuit than anything else.

Some of us are afraid to tap into the Holy Spirit's power because we are afraid of the change that we know He will bring. Others are afraid to study truth because we know it will make us uncomfortable and it may change the way we do things.

But can you imagine how much stronger your relationship with God will become if your worship (your life) flowed out of the truth of the Gospel and manifested itself with the power given to us by the Holy Spirit? Here's my challenge to you: seriously ask the Holy Spirit to change your heart on this. I have had to do this so many times. We let what we have been taught and/or experienced our whole lives influence the way we worship. Let the Word and the Spirit lead you to proper worship. Let it happen, and try not to freak out when it does!

I'm not saying let's get crazy and change everything we believe; I'm saying let's let God be God for once in our lives. Stop trying to fit Him into a mold. Because the truth is, He wants to do something amazing through us and we are too busy getting in the way.

How Did I Get Here?

Did you ever sit back and wonder "how did I get here?" There are only a few times in my life that I have done this. Most of these were the times in my life that I really let go of the controls of my life and trusted God to guide me. After all, He said that He would in Proverbs 3:5-6. I have to tell you that letting God take control is not always easy. This post is just a reflection on how God brought me to SSCC in Sarasota Florida. I hope that it will be an encouragement to you in your journey with the Lord.

Back in August of 2013, God began to stir in mine and Jenna's hearts a desire to move back to the U.S. After living in Spanish Wells, Bahamas for only the past year and a half we wanted to be sure this was of God (and wasn't just indigestion). So we began to pray; hard! We knew that God would have to speak clearly before we made any decisions. We both wanted to have a job in place before we just packed up everything and switched countries.

However, as He usually does, God asked us to step out in faith and move before we knew where He would place us. That was not an easy decision to make or to explain. Telling our family, friends and church that we would be moving but weren't sure where yet, didn't exactly win the popular vote as you can imagine. But we knew that this was God speaking and refused to be swayed any other direction.

My resume went out and job offers came in. I never realized how many churches were without a youth pastor at any given time. As pastors and search committees contacted us, we began to see the importance of really waiting on the Lord during this process. Of course there were opportuni
ties that looked really good and made complete sense, but they weren't God's plan and we knew it. We would not allow ourselves to settle for anything but the Lord's will.

A church in Georgia popped on the radar around September and we began to think that was where the Lord would have us go. We fell in love with the pastor, his wife and the search committee and really began to see ourselves doing ministry there long-term. We checked out apartments in the area and continued to pray with and for the pastor and the flock he was leading. We felt pretty sure that God was leading us here, but there was still something inside us that just wasn't sure.

Somewhere in early November, I was contacted by South Shore Community Church in Sarasota Florida. Instantly something drew me to this church, but I felt like we were so close to confirming that the Lord had us in Georgia. We felt like our first priority was to them. We kept saying "God's ways are not our ways" but I don't think we fully grasped what that meant.

That is until early January when we had our first interview via Skype with the elders at SSCC. There was not a single doubt that God had us to minister with this church family after sharing our hearts and hearing theirs over the course of this interview. Even more confirmation came from the Holy Spirit after we got the privilege of talking with some of the youth leaders and parents via Skype about a week later.

Talking with Pastor Frank through e-mail and having him confirm that God was leading them the same direction was so awesome I can't even explain it to you. Before we knew it, we were offered the position and were on our way to visit our new church family. The first night there; meeting the youth and leaders settled it for us. And so, here we are!

I feel like I just explained in a few paragraphs, a process that I could write an entire book about. As I sit in the conference room at SSCC and think about all of this, I realize that God is faithful to direct our paths! We say it all the time and we write it on coffee mugs and t-shirts, but I don't think we realize the brevity of that statement. Almighty God steps into my tiny, insignificant life, orchestrates every detail to bring Him glory and extends unspeakable joy to me. Even when our plans are great, His are better! They just are.

I don't know where you find yourself today, but I know that God is faithful. Whatever situation you are in, whatever plans you have to make, He is faithful to guide your paths. All you have to do is ask Him to do that and keep your eyes on Him. We like to ask God to direct our paths as long as we get to steer the wheel; that doesn't make any sense. How about actually trusting Him; even when you think it makes no sense? I promise you that He promises to be faithful (His promises are way better than mine).

So pray and ask Him to direct your paths, and them let Him do it!

Study, Study, Study

2 Timothy 2:15-16
"15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16 But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness."

Some of the best advice that I can give you is to study hard! I am not talking about school, but Scripture (although you should study hard in school). Ever walked away from a conversation and thought to yourself "I feel dumber after that?" Yeah me too. We get caught up in a few conversations a day that have zero significance. That's fine because we need to relax sometimes, but I fear that a generation is rising up who do not desire knowledge and wisdom.

We have tried so hard to not be bookworms and/or legalistic in our approach to Scripture and have allowed ourselves to focus too much on the application of Scripture, while missing the meaning of it. The problem is, that you can't apply Scripture if you don't know what it means. Paul charged Timothy to work hard at being able to "rightly handle" the Bible. He wanted Timothy to be able to dissect every single line of Scripture and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, find out it's meaning.

Proverbs 4:7 tells us "The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight." We must seek to gain wisdom and insight into God's Word. We live in a microwave culture. Everything we want is always right at our fingertips. We are satisfied with devotionals that contain one verse and a little commentary. It takes us five minutes to read and we have done our duty for the day.

But I think instead of microwave devotions, we need crock-pot devotions. We need to take our time with Scripture. Understand what it is saying, get the context of the passage, know what it meant to the people it was written to and what it means for us today. Marinate yourself in the Bible. If you don't understand a passage, study it until you do. Ask questions, talk about it. "Do your best" to understand every single word of the Bible. Be an intellectual.

Side note: Understand that I believe that you can have all the knowledge of God and not KNOW GOD. However, to fall in love with Him, we must know Him and know about Him. Head and heart cannot be separated. Wisdom leads us to Jesus. You can have all the knowledge in the world and miss Jesus but you cannot have Jesus without having knowledge and wisdom that come from Him and His Word.

The more I watch T.V. the more discouraged I get with our culture. Seriously, movies and T.V. shows in today's world seem to be teaching our children and teenagers to be as obnoxious as possible (see the t.v. show uncle grandpa for a prime example). The upcoming generation can become a vegetable in front of a T.V. or computer screen. Even the books they read do not impart knowledge, but drift them off into fantasy that profits them nothing (ergo Twilight). Nothing against t.v. or twilight, but when we sacrifice knowledge and searching the Scriptures, we can grow up to be Spiritually anemic.

Way too many church members and teenagers rely on their pastor and/or youth pastor to interpret the Scriptures for them. This is not a worker approved by God. We have to stop being consumers and put on our thinking caps, sit down with the Word and dig deep. I want to be able to learn something through tweets and Facebook posts, not feel like I'm wasting my time. Seek knowledge and wisdom.

Don't be a hermit whose nose never leaves the Bible because the truth of the Bible moves us to action, but don't run on the battlefield without being properly armed. Knowing theology will lead you to worship. Knowing deeper truths about God leads you to a deeper love for Him. Stop settling for what you already know. Seek to know more. Don't give up because it's hard to understand. The Holy Spirit will lead you to truth. Your brothers and sisters in Christ and your pastor will help you as well. Seek to Know HIM (Philippians 3:10).

Are You With Me?

Have you ever tried to have a conversation with someone who wasn't paying any attention to you? That can be very frustrating but I fear it happens all too often in our society. I know that everyone is talking about how technology is ruining our social lives and I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I do want to call your attention to a very serious issue in our culture today.

It's kind of ironic but sad at the same time that in an age with the most social media websites in history, we are becoming less and less social. Video games, t.v., smartphones, tablets, computers, iPods, noise cancelling headphones and many other things are consuming our attention. We can't even go to church these days without seeing at least 5 or 6 people distracted by what's on the screen that they hold in their hands. You can sit at a table with 20 people who are supposed to be fellowshipping and about 12 or more of them will be glued to their phones, completely disengaged from the people around them.

I am not anti-technology. I own many devices and spend much time on them. I just don't buy into the lie that you can be 'spending time' with someone if you can't pull away from your device. I think technology has so many goods and I don't have a problem with checking your Facebook, e-mail or text messages occasionally when you're with others. My question is always, where are you giving most of your attention. If your friends and family are always waiting on you to finish your text message/status update/tweet before they can finish their sentence or game that you're playing, then you not only have a problem, you have an ADDICTION.

Jesus gave His full attention to the people around Him. He listened and geared in to what they were saying or doing. He never had a conversation with someone where His mind drifted somewhere else. If He wanted to get away, He would actually leave to spend time with the Father. But we escape by not moving. We simply pull out our phones and drown out the world. Why do we think this is okay?

We need to learn to be where we are. That's so simple and yet so profound; be where you are. Don't give 50% of your attention to the people around you, because you're not really with them. Give 100% to those around you. That's one way you will "Think of others as more significant than yourself" (Philippians 2:3).

Kristin Jones said this: "In an era where we have more screens than people in our homes, we have nearly lost the art of having a good old-fashioned face-to-face conversation. And it’s costing us." She is so right. As believers we are called to 'bear one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2). How can we do that if we don't listen long enough to hear what their burdens really are.

So how do we fix this? It's really quite simple: Put your phone (or whatever it is distracting you) away! Just leave it in your pocket. If someone texts you and it's not important (99% of text messages are absolutely pointless) wait until you're not with others to text them back. When you're with friends, family or whoever, leave your phone in your pocket and be with those people wholeheartedly. Realize that the people before you are more important than whatever you are doing on your phone and listen to them. Be with them!

I realize that most people won't even reach the end of this blog post because they got a Facebook notification that they HAD to check right away. I also realize that some of you made it to the end and are asking "What's the big deal?" Or are saying that "I'm just nit-picking." I believe at the core of this is selfishness. We believe that what is on our screens is more important than the people in front of us. Face it, if you were having a conversation with your favorite celebrity, you would be fully engaged because those people are our idols and probably the only people that are worth us putting our phones away for (except maybe for a picture or two).

Don't be selfish. Be like Jesus. Engage with people. Redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16). Be with people; really with them. Especially when you're spending time with Jesus, leave your phone in another room. There is no text message or Facebook post important enough to draw you away from Him. Don't make Jesus ask what so many people around us are asking: "Are you with me?"