What are you sacrificing?

The simple blog for this week - what are you sacrificing to advance the Gospel of Christ and to see the Kingdom grow? Please post comments only about what you are sacrificing, don't post comments about other people's sacrifices please.

Freak Out

This was written by a lady in my church. You have to read it.

I freaked out Matthew this morning, and his reaction is quite funny and I think, a little extreme. But oh well, what ya gonna do?

Pastor Jerry challenged all of us to get up a little early to pray. I thought, why not. I need to pray more anyway. So this morning was my first morning to get up and pray and wouldn't you know it, Matthew didn't have to be to work till later so he was still here. Normally he'd be gone by that time. I knew he'd be getting up and the only place in the house that would give me the quiet I needed was in the laundry room. So I went in there and sat on the floor and started praying. I heard him in the bathroom and a few minutes later he's opening the laundry room door wanting to know what I'm doing. I told him I was praying so he just rolled his eyes, said how gay, and shut the door. (Yes, he really said that)

Tonight, he tells me it freaked him out so much he talked to his chaplain about it. LOL His chaplain tells him to let me do what I do. :) He also goes to tell Matthew it sounds like I'm converting to Catholic cause they pray in the morning for half an hour. I've never heard of that but I did explain to Matthew I was always told to pray every day but I always did it at night before bed. But around here, it's too loud at night so I'm distracted to easily so when Jerry said get up earlier, I did. And yes, it had crossed my mind to get up earlier but I hate getting up in the mornings. I will sleep to 15 minutes of having to leave the house if I can!! I figured that getting up early to pray will not kill me and at least I will accomplish it. It did feel good to have that time too.

I think Matthew's reaction is hilarious and cute. I can just see the chaplain talking to me about my praying problem. ;D

Relentless Spirituality

I am currently reading a book entitled Relentless Spirituality by Gary Keisling. So far it has been a very good read, and this morning I was really challenged with the illustration the author, and A.B. Simpson, had used when talking about submission to Jesus Christ. It was asserted that the level of our yielding and submission to Jesus Christ is evidenced in our lives by the level of our submission to our earthly parents. Rather than quote the author I am going to explain my perception of what this might mean. As I process all of this I think to myself that I am a grown man who does not live under his parents rules or authority anymore. The illustration further gets clouded when we look at the fact that my dad and mom don't agree with everything that I believe the Lord has revealed to me. That is not meant to insult my parents, but rather to point out that sometimes my folks would advise me in ways that I don't think the Lord would. So this illustration gets a little tricky for me.

As I sit and ponder though, my mind is drawn back to the command of our Lord that I would honor my father and mother. So even though we don't always agree on our world view, and even though I am a man raising my own family and not under their rule any longer, I still have to honor them. Do I always honor my parents? Not always - sometimes they might even tell you that I am just plain hard headed and hurtful. Yet it is true that my submission to the Lord and my yieldedness to him can be gauged by my relationship with my parents. I am supposed to honor and love them, treating them with respect even when I don't agree with them or understand why they do what they do. Let's face it, sometimes I don't agree with or understand everything God is trying to do in my life, but if I have a submissive attitude I will yield to him and honor him.

The illustration though gets a little deeper for me. My earthly parents are not my spiritual parents. My spiritual parents are really Bernie Anderson and Renee Anderson. They are the people that are over me in the Lord, whose job it is to bring me to a place of maturity in the Lord. I am submissive to their authority in my life? You are going to have to ask them. If I am not then I am not truly yielded to God and submissive to Him because I am not submitting to the people he has placed over me to guide me and a grow me up. Even further is submission to denominational authorities such as my Church Planting Director and my District Superintendent. These too are men that God has placed in my life to direct and guide me. When I am rebellious to them I am actually rebellious towards God and the submission issue is really one of submitting to the Lord.

When I start to look at it all this way, then I start to see the need to submit and yield to the authority of these people in my life even further, because it is really a reflection of the attitude of my heart about how submitted I am to God!