Watershed

Good Morning Everyone,

Do you know what the word watershed means? If you don't know, don't feel bad, I had to open up my dictionary and look it up as well. A Watershed is an important point of division or transition between two phases or conditions. The term watershed is usually used to define a monumental moment in history like the signing of the Declaration of Independence or the fall of the Berlin Wall. I wish that I could go back in time and be present for some of these watershed moments in history. I wish I could see John Adams sing his name to the document that declared us to be free or that I could have a hammer in my hand and take a swing at the wall that separated East and West Germany. Even though time travel is not possible I was able to experience a watershed moment at our youth devotional this week.

The past several Sunday evenings our minister ,DC Brown, has been talking to the congregation about the idea of vision for the new year. We have been challenged to try to reach out to our community and bring more people to Christ in 2011. I took this challenge to the teens at our devotional to see what would happen. In what I would call a watershed moment the teens decided that they would like to focus on members of the youth group who were not coming at all. I have challenged them to come up with a game plan that we will present to the eldership here. What made this decision monumental is the fact that the teens recognized that some of their peers have fallen away and they want to reach out to them! I have said many times before that the teenagers in Pearland are the largest asset to the congregaiton that meets at 2217 N. Grand Boulevard and this watershed moment just reinforced that idea.

Here is what I would ask from all of you. Begin praying for our teenager's outreach to their peers on a daily basis. I know there are so many of you who remember our youth daily in your prayers but I am asking you to go one step farther and remember them as they reach out to people their own age. I would also ask that you hold these youth accountable to the commitment they made. As Christians we are blessed to have a cloud of witnesses to help us press on towards our goal (Hebrews 12) so let's help our teens in that way. Finally, if you have any ideas for reaching out to the teens who have stopped coming please let me know about them so I can pass them along to our teenagers.

I'll end today by sharing with you some of what I shared with the teens. At our devotional we had six of our boys there. I tried to instill in these young men the ideas of leadership by looking at Joshua. I shared with them how Joshua had to step into a role that Moses had filled for so long and how he was able to lead the children of Israel. The young men who were at this devotional are my Joshuas. These young men are always willing to step up and do what is needed to be done and they have accepted the challenge that Joshua gave the Children of Israel in Joshua 24:15.
But if serving the LORD seem undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, of the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.

Who are you serving? Are you serving the gods of cable television or the Internet, or are you serving the one true living GOD? This is a question we all have to ask from time to time. If we are going to take up the challenge of reaching out to the world around us in 2011 then you must decide who you are serving and commit completely. I hope that you are all as blessed by me as I am by you.

Be Strong and Courageous,
Paul

When did the world become such a scary place?

Good Morning Everyone,

This past weekend I was blessed to be at Harding University in Searcy Arkansas for homecoming. We make this trip about once a year so we can expose our teenagers to Christian education. The time spent in Searcy was relatively uneventful but something happened on the way home that I would like to talk about.

On our way home we stopped at a Wendy's in Arkadelphia Arkansas for lunch. I ate my lunch and after I was finished I took Emma so April could eat her lunch. I was sitting in my chair and I could feel someone looking at me from behind, very soon that feeling was validated by a voice. The lady sitting behind me began to ask me questions about Emma, none of her questions were out of line, it was the typical questions about age and name and things of that nature. Looking back the most alarming thing she asked was whether or not Gary Adams was Emma's Grandfather.

I tell you this story ,and I confess to you here, that the whole time this lady was asking me questions I was scared. I was scared because I didn't know this lady. I was scared because this lady I didn't know was asking me questions about my child. I was scared because she thought Gary was related to me (Just kidding Gary).

In retrospect all of these fears were completely illogical. This lady never made any attempt to physically accost Emma or myself. This lady never asked for money or for a ride anyplace, all this lady was guilty of was taking an interest in fellow human beings.

We have become so scared of the world we live in that we find it difficult when someone we don't know takes an interest in us and because of this we have become scared of taking an interest in other people. I do realize there are times when people overstep their boundaries in the world but more and more it seems that we are scared to even be nice to someone. As I processed all of this I became increasingly aware of the fact that if we never take an interest in others we will never win souls for Jesus Christ.

Let's take a look at this through the eyes of the woman at the well in John chapter 4.

John 4:7-26
⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” ¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” ¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” ¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” ¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” ²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” ²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” ²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Stop and think for a minute what would have happened if Jesus had been scared to talk to this woman, moreover, think of what would have happened if this woman had ignored Jesus. As Christians we are called to act like Jesus, he is our pattern to follow, and yet so many times we don't even try. The amazing thing is that if we acted more like Jesus we might get results like Jesus got, let's look one more time at John 4.

John 4
³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ And because of his words many more became believers. ⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

Many Samaritans believed because Jesus did not fear the rejection of this woman and the woman did not fear the social implications of speaking to Jesus. Satan loves to use fear to allow us to justify being unfriendly. Again I want to say that there are people in this world who would seek to do you harm but I believe them to be the exception and not the rule.

The next time you are out someplace and someone begins to make small talk with you don't reject them immediately. The next time you are out someplace and you see someone who looks like they have had a bad day don't be afraid to say something to brighten up their day. You never know, someday people might be able to say that they now know God because you didn't allow yourself to be afraid of the world. I hope you are all as blessed today as much as you have blessed me.

Be strong and Courageous,

Paul

Hello Officer

Hey Everyone,

Yesterday was my day off from work. Emma needed some diapers so April and I headed out to Target to pick up some diapers and a few other things. I was coming down one of our roads here in Pearland when the long arm of the law noticed I was doing 42 in a 30. The officer came to my window and I gave him my driver's licence and insurance information and awaited my forthcoming ticket. The officer took my information back to the car and upon his return he informed me he was low on tickets and that he was only going to give me a verbal warning. I thanked the officer and I went on my way. That officer showed me grace.

Grace is one of those things we don't talk about very much. We recognize that grace is mentioned in the Bible (124 times in the NIV), we sometimes mention it in a prayer and when we teach we read the word in scripture, but, we don't really do a good job teaching about grace.

I am a pretty simple guy and when I want to know more about a word I go to the dictionary. One of the definitions of Grace is as follows:

Grace-"The freely given, unmerited favor and love of God"

I like that definition but I really like what scripture has to say better...

Hebrews 2:9 (NIV)
But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with the glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

I can't really define grace much better than that. Jesus Christ who was without sin came to this earth and lived as a man and died on a cross so I wouldn't have to. I don't encourage speeding but I am thankful for the lesson about grace the officer taught me yesterday. I encourage you to teach someone about grace today. When you have the chance to take on something so someone else will not do it and experience what it feels like to give grace to someone else. I believe by doing so you might be able to better understand how God can give us grace. I hope I have been as much of a blessing to you today as all of you have been to me.

Be Strong and Courageous,
Paul