1) Attend church

2) Invite People  (your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, acquaintances, checkers at HEB, etc. etc)

3) Bring your tithe

4) Serve at church

I’ve left some stuff out for the sake of simplicity. What am I assuming here? What did I leave out? Leave your comment below.

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The point of the story isn’t that you can’t be rich and go to heaven. The point is that you have to let go of EVERYTHING to follow Jesus and find eternal life.

What are you holding on to? Is it money? It’s great to have money, and even to have lots of it. But if you haven’t RELEASED it to him, it’s holding you back. Other things that can hold us back are pride, popularity, greed, sexual sin, materialism, anger, and ANYTHING that God would want you to release.

What’s holding you back? Let it go today!

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I found this blog post today:

http://www.prestonmitchellblog.com/prestons_blog/2009/01/student-pastors-revolt.html?cid=145182490

Whether you are a teen or parent, I DARE YOU TO READ IT! It’s written to Student Pastors, but it’s perfect for parents and teens to read. There’s too much at stake to ignore it. Please post your comments!

**UPDATE Ok, I thought about this. The worst that could happen is that you are kicked off the team and don’t get a college scholarship. Sounds bad. But, if you give up something now, or get an extra job, you can save for college and you won’t have to rely on a scholarship. Is it really worth risking eternity anyway?

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Whatever they feel or might be saying, it boils down to they are in some kind of spiritual funk. I’ve seen it a lot over the years. I think it happens for three main reasons. The first two reasons have to do with things you can control. So, if you are in a spiritual funk ask yourself these two questions:

1) Am I doing something I shouldn’t do? Sin affects our relationship with God. If we are Christ-followers, He doesn’t leave us, but we definitely feel alone. Sin rots us from the inside so when we have unconfessed sin in our lives it messes us up.

2) Am I not doing something I know God has told me to do? Maybe you need to forgive someone, take up a ministry at church, tell someone about Jesus, start reading your Bible, hang out with God… the list could go on and on. Bottom line, as long as you are disobeying God, you’ll feel the funk.

Ok, so what if your answer to both questions is “no?” If the funk lasts more than a few days, then I believe there is a third reason we get spiritually depressed. I believe it is because God might be trying to get your attention. You probably don’t know why. No one else might be able to tell you. But you have to trust Him and believe that He knows what is going on and that He can handle it. When we go through periods of spiritual dryness or whatever you want to call it, we should reach out to God even harder… pray more, read scripture more, etc. He doesn’t want us to give up. Keep pressing in, one day you will push through.

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Here’s the email:
Hey Pastor Randy,

I just have a quick question for you about something you said in your sermon this past Sunday. (With all due respect) you said that God never contradicts Himself, yet right now I am reading the book of Joshua and He seems to contradict Himself in every line. He had already given the Israelites the Ten Commandments, the one in question being thou shall not kill. So if He had already told them not to kill, why did He tell them to wipe out all of those cities and kingdoms, leaving no survivors?

I’ve just been thinking about this a lot since you mentioned it Sunday because I read my bible every night and seem to come across this quite a bit and couldn’t come up with a suitable answer.

Here’s my answer:
Thanks for the question! I’m really glad you are thinking through these things. Let me take a stab at this question. It’s one of the hardest in the Bible.

The 6th commandment is not accurately translated as just “kill.” The word is specifically referring to the murder of a human being by another human being. Fighting a just war, such as against Hitler in WW2, is not prohibited here. Neither is capital punishment. Neither is eating meat. Murder of a person by a person is what is prohibited. The definition of murder would be very similar to our definition of murder in an American court room. Dogs are never put on trial and accused of murder because dogs can’t murder. Only humans can. By it’s definition, God can’t murder either.

Now about the book of Joshua, God did tell them to kill everyone. I know that is hard to swallow for other reasons. But those people had already come under judgment from God. They were being punished by Him. That is not the same as murder. God is not contradicting himself. We know from the rest of the Bible how God works so we can assume that they had been warned and had refused to repent.

We also know that these people weren’t peaceful, random people. They were in a constant state of war with their neighbors, including the Israelites. It’s not like the Israelites just found some random people and killed them. They had a history with each other and it wasn’t pretty. So for God to tell them to wipe them all out, it made complete sense to them.

Well, I hope this helps a little. I know it raises even more questions so feel free to shoot those to me when they come up.

God bless,
Randy

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This really ticked me off. I left the following comment on Tony’s blog. I want to post it hear to maybe help people see part of my heart for reaching those who are far from God. Here’s my comment:

“I can’t stand not saying anything anymore! Tony, you and your church are involved in an amazing work of God! It kills me hearing all of these people talk about how it is wrong to use culture (words, dress, etc) to communicate the Gospel! Let me ask some of the detractors, if you were to go to China to evangelize would you learn Chinese? Would you dress like the Chinese? Would you learn their music and literature? Well, if you wanted people to be saved you would! Nobody would stand on a street corner in China and preach the Gospel in a language no one understood! You would learn their lingo and their ways. Only then could you CLEARLY communicate the most important message of all… the GOSPEL.

Newspring church is a missionary. A missionary to a world that speaks in two main languages “music” and “technology.” The AC/DC version of Hells Bells was one of the most awesome things I have ever heard. When I heard it I thought of a lost young man sitting in the service, singing the song to himself and finally realizing the hopelessness of the song and then turning his life to Christ. Over 800 people did that very thing. 800 people who wouldn’t be caught dead in a lot of churches. Sure, some of the salvations weren’t real. Some will not follow through. But that even happened to Paul in his ministry. A few fake conversions do not negate all of them.

Way to go guys! Way to take a dark portion of our culture and conquer it for Christ! Way to give one of the clearest most concise presentations of the Gospel I have ever seen. You guys are such an encouragement to me and hundreds of other church planters out there, hungry for a fresh move of God over our land… Hungry to see the church quit shunning the people Jesus died for…. Hungry to see the church become like Jesus… A FRIEND OF SINNERS!!!! ”

Have a GREAT weekend!

Randy

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Hell No

Yeah, it was called “Hell No.” The cat came out in a COFFIN! I am definitely going to do that some time, God willing. Get this, he caught a lot of crud from another pastor in his town. The pastor even showed clips of the message during his “sermon.” Wow, the world is hell-bound and we are worried about what other pastors preach about. God help us!

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The last several weeks have been tough at worst on many of you, challenging at best. As we have gone through the series, Building a Great Life, God has asked you to take a step of faith in many areas. Whether it’s serving in a new area, an issue of forgiveness, or a financial commitment, I know this series has raised the bar for you in a certain area of your life. That happens because God loves you and wants to help you become more Christ-like.

I want to challenge you to follow through on what He asked, even if you disobeyed at first. Jesus told this parable in Matthew 21 about obedience and following through with our actions:

‘There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard..’

‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

‘Which of the two did what his father wanted?’ ‘The first.’ they answered.

It’s a very simple parable but it clearly shows how God wants us to follow through even if we previously said ‘no.’ He’s waiting for us to come around. Is there something that you need to follow through on?

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A Soldier’s Perspective
God Bless,

Randy

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