What does this mean:"Maturity in the Christian Life" it means many things all of which we must value and evaluate and I want to list here some points by which we consider what spiritual maturity means:
1. We accept the fact that we fail, or sin, but we are not threatened by this fact, nor do we make excuses because of this fact, lest we must try to justify our sin some how.
2. When we hear preaching that convicts we do not bow up at the preacher or shoot the messenger. We own what we should own and we repent, desiring to change.
3. We desire not to focus on ourselves but on pleasing God and our worldview reflects this truth and our actions reflect this worldview.
4. We develop a heart of compassion towards others, "Jesus wept", remember the shortest verse in the Bible.
5. We disdain man centered theology and man centered worship and ideas of worship.
6. We hide God's word in our heart and we meditate on His word , day and night.
7.We become concerned about our children and our grandchildren in their spiritual journey and we are passionate about helping them gain spiritual depth.
8.We try to live a life of purpose for the Kingdom and not one of self indulgence whereby we sacrifice rather than become gluttons of comfort and pleasure. The desire of our heart is to never be a stumbling block but to be a facilitator, an encourager and an example of living for Christ.
9. We don't use crutches or lame excuses for spiritual apathy and decline in our ouwn spiritual fervor, we repent and seek to be different.
10. We do not adpot principles, philosophies or ideas of this world and try to baptize them into a hybrid of something that the bride of Christ should ingest. There should be no half baked ideas, or unbiblical theologies but we should develop a biblical theology through being disciples ourselves in the power of the Holy Spirit.
11. We don't tolerate error in the church.
12. We don't tolerate sin in the church, the body of Christ.
13. We do not tolerate unbiblical leadership in the church.
14. We don't tolerate the few trying to control a church with their agenda.
15. We want to see people come out from hiding and desire to be changed by the power of God.
16. We desire to give and to worship God way beyond a tithe. The tithe yes! and we give above a tithe and we recognize that every good thing comes from God and belongs to God and we give of our time and our talents also.
17. We are not offended by messages on giving and we know God loves a cheerful giver.
18. We believe that Christianity is life and that we are alive in Christ with unspeakable JOY!
19. We love our spouse putting Christ first then our spouse and we understand stand to truly love your spouse in to serve them expecting nothing in return.
20.We desire to be with other believers and to share the testimonies of God's work in our lives.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
I Thank You For Your Support
Wow….what a Sunday! Central I commend you for receiving my friend Coach Rock Knapp and I commend you for treating him so well. Thanks for the response to the Curing Kids Cancer cause and I really appreciate that so many of you will be coming along to help at Rock’s Run. There are many things that I am grateful for that occurred this past Sunday.
I appreciate the men who showed up to pray before the service and I want to extend the invitation to any who want to join us. We will pray at 9:30 each Sunday morning in the sanctuary. No one is asked to pray aloud but to pray for our services, against distractions and for God’s power.
Speaking of prayer, we are over due to get the prayer ministry of this church going. We should have people praying during the services on a rotation basis. We should be building toward a strong intercessory prayer ministry. We will never have the power until we first become people of prayer.
Also, I want to thank so many of you for serving and being so gracious when a service goes longer than usual. My first thanks is to the people who serve in the nursery and in children’s church. I am thanking you each and every one because I am grateful.
I wish that we could all be grateful. I hope we can come to a place where we: “can scarce take it in…” how beautiful God’s love is to those who have seen His love through the eyes of a repentant sinner saved by grace.
What do I have to say for why a service goes longer than some would like? Well I guess we could have told the two adults and one child that were coming for baptism that they were not important and that would have saved 15 minutes. We could have cut out some songs that praised God and told God we didn’t have time to praise Him. That would have saved another 15 minutes depending on how many songs we cut.
Also, I could have spoken less than what God had given to me to speak and thereby told God we didn’t have time to listen to His message, for a 10 minute gain. I believe the response to the message validates that it came from Him. We could have told those who came forward in response to the message that they do not matter and their desire to honor God with their life is not important.
We could have told Coach Rock that curing kid’s cancer is not a worthy cause and we are not willing to help and saved 15 minutes. That would be telling my friend Coach Rock who may not be healed of two terminal cancers that we could care less and that his testimony of what God has shown him didn’t matter to us and we would also be saying to God once again that we only care about ourselves.
If we add up all the saved time that would be 15+15+10+15, we could have had a service 55 minutes shorter than we had yesterday. This means if we started at our normal time of 10:55 we would have finished at 11:35.
That would be a service only 40 minutes long and a church with no baptisms, little praise, a short message and no regard for God or anyone other than one’s own self. NO THANKS! I would rather God correct me for keeping people too long than have God rebuke me for shallow, self-centered and unwilling to worship Him.
To be fair, Justin, Daniel and I will always seek not to keep you any longer than God intends. However, when honoring God requires more, I will not be the one dismissing people before it is time. Allow me to say this because I have preached in many churches where they wanted 3 points and a poem in a 15 minute message after they sang one hymn standing and two sitting down, read off the birthday list, the gossip column and wasted as much time as possible to edge the preacher out from being able to deliver the Word of God; those churches are either dead or dying and we are neither one. We are a resurrected church serving the Resurrected Savior Jesus Christ.
I will gladly receive anyone wanting to complain about the length of yesterday’s service and I will not be offended. After you are finished with your compliant, I hope you will not be offended if I share with you the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how you can be saved and begin an abundant life walking in victory over sin and sorrow. Then you can lay down your idols and your bitterness. : )
I love you each and every one; I love Jesus more!
Andy Goode
Acts 20:24
I appreciate the men who showed up to pray before the service and I want to extend the invitation to any who want to join us. We will pray at 9:30 each Sunday morning in the sanctuary. No one is asked to pray aloud but to pray for our services, against distractions and for God’s power.
Speaking of prayer, we are over due to get the prayer ministry of this church going. We should have people praying during the services on a rotation basis. We should be building toward a strong intercessory prayer ministry. We will never have the power until we first become people of prayer.
Also, I want to thank so many of you for serving and being so gracious when a service goes longer than usual. My first thanks is to the people who serve in the nursery and in children’s church. I am thanking you each and every one because I am grateful.
I wish that we could all be grateful. I hope we can come to a place where we: “can scarce take it in…” how beautiful God’s love is to those who have seen His love through the eyes of a repentant sinner saved by grace.
What do I have to say for why a service goes longer than some would like? Well I guess we could have told the two adults and one child that were coming for baptism that they were not important and that would have saved 15 minutes. We could have cut out some songs that praised God and told God we didn’t have time to praise Him. That would have saved another 15 minutes depending on how many songs we cut.
Also, I could have spoken less than what God had given to me to speak and thereby told God we didn’t have time to listen to His message, for a 10 minute gain. I believe the response to the message validates that it came from Him. We could have told those who came forward in response to the message that they do not matter and their desire to honor God with their life is not important.
We could have told Coach Rock that curing kid’s cancer is not a worthy cause and we are not willing to help and saved 15 minutes. That would be telling my friend Coach Rock who may not be healed of two terminal cancers that we could care less and that his testimony of what God has shown him didn’t matter to us and we would also be saying to God once again that we only care about ourselves.
If we add up all the saved time that would be 15+15+10+15, we could have had a service 55 minutes shorter than we had yesterday. This means if we started at our normal time of 10:55 we would have finished at 11:35.
That would be a service only 40 minutes long and a church with no baptisms, little praise, a short message and no regard for God or anyone other than one’s own self. NO THANKS! I would rather God correct me for keeping people too long than have God rebuke me for shallow, self-centered and unwilling to worship Him.
To be fair, Justin, Daniel and I will always seek not to keep you any longer than God intends. However, when honoring God requires more, I will not be the one dismissing people before it is time. Allow me to say this because I have preached in many churches where they wanted 3 points and a poem in a 15 minute message after they sang one hymn standing and two sitting down, read off the birthday list, the gossip column and wasted as much time as possible to edge the preacher out from being able to deliver the Word of God; those churches are either dead or dying and we are neither one. We are a resurrected church serving the Resurrected Savior Jesus Christ.
I will gladly receive anyone wanting to complain about the length of yesterday’s service and I will not be offended. After you are finished with your compliant, I hope you will not be offended if I share with you the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how you can be saved and begin an abundant life walking in victory over sin and sorrow. Then you can lay down your idols and your bitterness. : )
I love you each and every one; I love Jesus more!
Andy Goode
Acts 20:24
Friday, February 13, 2009
Why Missions?
Understand that busyness is not a spiritual gift, yet I have been so busy with ministry that I have not been able to write the daily devotion for the mission team. So once again Iam borrowing today from Spurgeon's "Faith's Check Book. I trust God will use it to prepare you for the journey.
Why Missions? we have to step away from the daily and ordinary things of life and get focused on what really matters. It helps to go and worship in an unfamiliar place as a servant of Christ in a foreign land.
Feb. 13 BLESSED IN THE FIELD
"Blessed shalt thou be in the field" Deut. 28:3
So was Isaac blessed when he walked therein at eventide to meditate. How often has the Lord met us when we have been alone! The hedges and the trees can bear witness to our joy. We look for such blessedness again.
So was Boaz blessed when he reaped his harvest, and his workmen met him with benedictions. May the Lord prosper all who drive the plough! Every farmer may urge this promise with God, if indeed he obeys the voice of the Lord God.
We go to the field to labor as father Adam did; and since the curse fell on the soil through the sin of Adam the first, it is a great comfort to find a blessing through Adam the second.
We go to the field for exercise, and we are happy in the belief that the Lord will bless that exercise, and give us health, which we will use to His glory.
We go to the field to study nature, and there is nothing in a knowledge of the visible creation which may not be sanctified to the highest uses by the divine benediction.
We have at last to go to the field to bury our dead; yea, others will in their turn take us to God's acre in the field: but we are blessed, whether weeping at the tomb, or sleeping in it.
— Faith's Checkbook
Why Missions? we have to step away from the daily and ordinary things of life and get focused on what really matters. It helps to go and worship in an unfamiliar place as a servant of Christ in a foreign land.
Feb. 13 BLESSED IN THE FIELD
"Blessed shalt thou be in the field" Deut. 28:3
So was Isaac blessed when he walked therein at eventide to meditate. How often has the Lord met us when we have been alone! The hedges and the trees can bear witness to our joy. We look for such blessedness again.
So was Boaz blessed when he reaped his harvest, and his workmen met him with benedictions. May the Lord prosper all who drive the plough! Every farmer may urge this promise with God, if indeed he obeys the voice of the Lord God.
We go to the field to labor as father Adam did; and since the curse fell on the soil through the sin of Adam the first, it is a great comfort to find a blessing through Adam the second.
We go to the field for exercise, and we are happy in the belief that the Lord will bless that exercise, and give us health, which we will use to His glory.
We go to the field to study nature, and there is nothing in a knowledge of the visible creation which may not be sanctified to the highest uses by the divine benediction.
We have at last to go to the field to bury our dead; yea, others will in their turn take us to God's acre in the field: but we are blessed, whether weeping at the tomb, or sleeping in it.
— Faith's Checkbook
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
MeridaTeam Devotional #1
This (below) is taken from a devotion by Charles Spurgeon for today. Consider where we are going and what we will need to accomplish His will on the mission field. What is it that you need from God, a fresh work in your life. Never take this out of context to believe that God will give us things we do not really need but do take it to heart that God didn't withhold the most precious thing from us so why would He withhold anything?
What you need is fresh work from Him in your life, that changes you. Will you believe that He will do that even before we depart for Merida? Then what treasure you might you add to that in the spiritual realm?
Feb. 3 HE FREELY GIVES
"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all thing?" Rom. 8:32
If this is not a promise in form, it is in fact. Indeed, it is more than one promise, it is a conglomerate of promises. It is a mass of rubies, and emeralds, and diamonds, with a nugget of gold for their setting. It is a question which can never be answered so as to cause us any anxiety of heart. What can the Lord deny us after giving us Jesus? If we need all things in Heaven and earth, He will grant them to us: for if there had been a limit anywhere, He would have kept back His own Son.
What do I want today? I have only to ask for it. I may seek earnestly, but not as if I had to use pressure, and extort an unwilling gift from the Lord's hand; for He will give freely. Of His own will, He gave us His own Son. Certainly no one would have proposed such a gift to Him. No one would have ventured to ask for it. It would have been too presumptuous. He freely gave His Only-begotten; and, O my soul, canst thou not trust thy heavenly Father to give thee anything, to give thee everything? Thy poor prayer would have no force with Omnipotence if force were needed; but His love, like a spring, rises of itself, and overflows for the supply of all thy needs.
— Faith's Checkbook
Now ask God to do something new in you!
ATG
What you need is fresh work from Him in your life, that changes you. Will you believe that He will do that even before we depart for Merida? Then what treasure you might you add to that in the spiritual realm?
Feb. 3 HE FREELY GIVES
"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all thing?" Rom. 8:32
If this is not a promise in form, it is in fact. Indeed, it is more than one promise, it is a conglomerate of promises. It is a mass of rubies, and emeralds, and diamonds, with a nugget of gold for their setting. It is a question which can never be answered so as to cause us any anxiety of heart. What can the Lord deny us after giving us Jesus? If we need all things in Heaven and earth, He will grant them to us: for if there had been a limit anywhere, He would have kept back His own Son.
What do I want today? I have only to ask for it. I may seek earnestly, but not as if I had to use pressure, and extort an unwilling gift from the Lord's hand; for He will give freely. Of His own will, He gave us His own Son. Certainly no one would have proposed such a gift to Him. No one would have ventured to ask for it. It would have been too presumptuous. He freely gave His Only-begotten; and, O my soul, canst thou not trust thy heavenly Father to give thee anything, to give thee everything? Thy poor prayer would have no force with Omnipotence if force were needed; but His love, like a spring, rises of itself, and overflows for the supply of all thy needs.
— Faith's Checkbook
Now ask God to do something new in you!
ATG
Thursday, January 15, 2009
The Curious Case of Living for Christ
I never see “R” movies except for The Passion of the Christ. I did see a PG-13 recently that truly made think about some things that I can relate to spiritually and hopefully you can relate to these things as well.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button reminded me of Forrest Gump I later discovered that the screen play for both movies were written by the same person...duh.
Anyway as I was reading Ecclesiastes I was reminded of Benjamin Button. Although there is a hint of reincarnation and a poor representation of good morals in the film; I learned from the film something we can all learn from Ecclesiastes.
We need to take time to live and take time to love. Unlike the film, sex should only occur within marriage and I will always stand for the principles in God’s word. I take away from Button a reminder that I need to take time to love on my kids even more as they are a precious gift.
I need to take more time to just be with my wife and I need to take more time to fulfill the actual service to others part of ministry and the actual spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I need to make the things that matter for an eternity and that will glorify God my highest priority in life.
Our lives on planet earth are slowly used up. Sublimation; our life is but a vapor or as you will see below becomes just smoke. In Christ, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, but these things we hold dear for ourselves will soon pass away.
Love the Lord your God with all your soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your family and love God and other enough to tell other about Jesus. After all that is the only reason you are still here on planet earth. Consider the passage below from God’s word , I chose to present it in the paraphrase: “The Message” for effect.
Ecclesiastes 4:1-16 (MSG) 1 Next I turned my attention to all the outrageous violence that takes place on this planet—the tears of the victims, no one to comfort them; the iron grip of oppressors, no one to rescue the victims from them. 2 So I congratulated the dead who are already dead instead of the living who are still alive. 3 But luckier than the dead or the living is the person who has never even been, who has never seen the bad business that takes place on this earth. 4 Then I observed all the work and ambition motivated by envy. What a waste! Smoke. And spitting into the wind. 5 The fool sits back and takes it easy, His sloth is slow suicide. 6 One handful of peaceful repose Is better than two fistfuls of worried work— More spitting into the wind. 7 I turned my head and saw yet another wisp of smoke on its way to nothingness: 8 a solitary person, completely alone—no children, no family, no friends—yet working obsessively late into the night, compulsively greedy for more and more, never bothering to ask, "Why am I working like a dog, never having any fun? And who cares?" More smoke. A bad business. 9 It's better to have a partner than go it alone. Share the work, share the wealth. 10 And if one falls down, the other helps, But if there's no one to help, tough! 11 Two in a bed warm each other. Alone, you shiver all night. 12 By yourself you're unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn't easily snapped. 13 A poor youngster with some wisdom is better off than an old but foolish king who doesn't know which end is up. 14 I saw a youth just like this start with nothing and go from rags to riches, 15 and I saw everyone rally to the rule of this young successor to the king. 16 Even so, the excitement died quickly, the throngs of people soon lost interest. Can't you see it's only smoke? And spitting into the wind?
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button reminded me of Forrest Gump I later discovered that the screen play for both movies were written by the same person...duh.
Anyway as I was reading Ecclesiastes I was reminded of Benjamin Button. Although there is a hint of reincarnation and a poor representation of good morals in the film; I learned from the film something we can all learn from Ecclesiastes.
We need to take time to live and take time to love. Unlike the film, sex should only occur within marriage and I will always stand for the principles in God’s word. I take away from Button a reminder that I need to take time to love on my kids even more as they are a precious gift.
I need to take more time to just be with my wife and I need to take more time to fulfill the actual service to others part of ministry and the actual spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I need to make the things that matter for an eternity and that will glorify God my highest priority in life.
Our lives on planet earth are slowly used up. Sublimation; our life is but a vapor or as you will see below becomes just smoke. In Christ, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, but these things we hold dear for ourselves will soon pass away.
Love the Lord your God with all your soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your family and love God and other enough to tell other about Jesus. After all that is the only reason you are still here on planet earth. Consider the passage below from God’s word , I chose to present it in the paraphrase: “The Message” for effect.
Ecclesiastes 4:1-16 (MSG) 1 Next I turned my attention to all the outrageous violence that takes place on this planet—the tears of the victims, no one to comfort them; the iron grip of oppressors, no one to rescue the victims from them. 2 So I congratulated the dead who are already dead instead of the living who are still alive. 3 But luckier than the dead or the living is the person who has never even been, who has never seen the bad business that takes place on this earth. 4 Then I observed all the work and ambition motivated by envy. What a waste! Smoke. And spitting into the wind. 5 The fool sits back and takes it easy, His sloth is slow suicide. 6 One handful of peaceful repose Is better than two fistfuls of worried work— More spitting into the wind. 7 I turned my head and saw yet another wisp of smoke on its way to nothingness: 8 a solitary person, completely alone—no children, no family, no friends—yet working obsessively late into the night, compulsively greedy for more and more, never bothering to ask, "Why am I working like a dog, never having any fun? And who cares?" More smoke. A bad business. 9 It's better to have a partner than go it alone. Share the work, share the wealth. 10 And if one falls down, the other helps, But if there's no one to help, tough! 11 Two in a bed warm each other. Alone, you shiver all night. 12 By yourself you're unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn't easily snapped. 13 A poor youngster with some wisdom is better off than an old but foolish king who doesn't know which end is up. 14 I saw a youth just like this start with nothing and go from rags to riches, 15 and I saw everyone rally to the rule of this young successor to the king. 16 Even so, the excitement died quickly, the throngs of people soon lost interest. Can't you see it's only smoke? And spitting into the wind?
Monday, January 12, 2009
Yucatan Mission Team 2009
Mission Work proves to be more rewarding in the spiritual sense than words can describe. Not that I feel good about doing something for someone; it is not that at all. The sesne of family that I get from being with the other Christians. Jesus gave His life and rose again for that sense of family.
Why should we wait until Hevane to experience fellowship with our brothers and sisters from other parts of the word? We are God's children in Christ.
Many of you wanted to know about the trip to the Yucatan. follow the blog and I will keep you updated and post ne pictures along the way. If possible Iam going to put up a slideshow of several pictures soon.
Why should we wait until Hevane to experience fellowship with our brothers and sisters from other parts of the word? We are God's children in Christ.
Many of you wanted to know about the trip to the Yucatan. follow the blog and I will keep you updated and post ne pictures along the way. If possible Iam going to put up a slideshow of several pictures soon.
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