Let’s BE THE CHURCH

Dear Meadowland,

If you were here on Sunday, you heard that we have an OPPORTUNITY to BE THE CHURCH and meet the needs of some families in our community that are in need of School Supplies for their children by partnering with one of our local food pantry partners.

All you need to do is pick up some of the following items and drop them off at the Church.  Let’s BE THE CHURCH, and make this happen!  Scripture tells us in James 2:14-17 that we are called to not only identify needs, but to also take ACTION by PROVIDING for them.

This is not an ask for you to empty your back account, or sell your house and live in a foreign country for the next 5-10 years (although that may happen), this is simple ask to take a trip to the grocery store (let’s be honest, you will go there in the next two weeks anyway), buy some of the items on the list below and bring them to Church with you.

Over the next two weeks, I am asking everyone who is a part of Meadowland Church to do ALL that you can to help us serve our community by playing your part in this effort.  I BELIEVE that as we step up to BE the Church, the needs of these Children and Families will begin to be met and through our generosity, people will meet Jesus and our community will experience lives BEING changed (2 Corinthians 9:6-15).

We will be collecting the following items until August 15th:

• Crayons
• Glue Sticks
• Folders
• Pencils
• Pens
• Backpacks
• Elmer’s Glue
• Pencil Boxes
• Tissue
• Index Cards
• Notebooks

I LOVE Meadowland Church.  Let’s BE THE CHURCH!  Can’t wait to see what happens!!

Sunday in Review 8.1.10

- SERIOUSLY, I love the people who are Meadowland Church.

- This Sunday we saw several people SURRENDER their LIVES to Jesus

- Today we answered the following questions in the “You Asked For It Series”:

1.  What is the difference between worshiping God out of obedience and worshiping God our of obligation?

2.  What should I do when I no longer feel like worshiping, serving, and doing?

- In my opinion, Worship has been reduced by some to mean weekly or occasional participation in a worship service, combined with some occasional volunteerism in a ministry, and some sort of Bible knowledge.  While these things are a part of our Worship – there is MORE to our worship then weekly participation in a service!

- Paul tells us in Romans 11:36 – Romans 12:1 that we are to present our bodies (meaning all of our person) to God as a living sacrifice.  When our minds, our bodies, our souls, and strengths align- and we worship God with all we do , Paul says this is our spiritual act of worship!

- Worship is something we do continuously.  In fact 1 Corinthians 10:31 says no matter what we are doing, eating or drinking, whatever we do, we should do it to the Glory of God.

- Many of us live with tension in our lives in regards to worship because we live by “Diet Coke Theology”.  We have all experienced Diet Coke Theology in one way or another.  Sometimes we go BIG with a meal, order a Double Quarter Pounder, go large with the Fries, and order a Diet Coke thinking the zero calorie Diet Coke will somehow cancel out the 1,200 calorie meal we just put down.

- Radical Disobedience in one area of our lives is not canceled out by Radical Obedience in another area of our lives!

- Jesus reminds us all throughout the New Testament that our LOVE for Him, will lead us to OBEDIENCE!

- We also looked at 2 Timothy 1:3-7 yesterday in response to the question, “What do I do when I no longer feel like worshiping, serving, or doing?”

- There will be times in our lives when the situations we are in, the demands on our lives, and the emotional drain of life will kick in – in these times we need to “fan the flame”.  When our fire is dying within we need to feed it, fan it, and keep the fires burning hot and bright!

- Meadowland Church:  Seriously, I love you and am PUMPED about what GOD is doing IN you and THROUGH You.  My desire for all of us is that we would LOVE GOD WITH ALL THAT WE ARE (Mark 12:20), that we would SERVE HIM ALONE AS MASTER (Matthew 6:24), and we would WORSHIP JESUS as we HEAR WHAT HE SAYS and then DO WHAT HE SAYS!!

- Don’t forget the Baptism Service/ Church Picnic is on August 22nd.  If you are interested in taking the next step on your journey through baptism – SIGN  UP HERE.  If you are interested in singing up for the Picnic- SIGN UP HERE.

Here are some recommended resources to help you FAN THE FLAME:

-Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life

- The Christian Atheist

- Celebration of Discipline

-Sacred Pathways

Sunday Rewind 7.25.10

Here are a couple of thoughts from a GREAT day at Meadowland Church:

- Seriously, I have been having a blast answering the questions that were asked for our current series, “You  Asked For It”.

- In Genesis 1:3-26, when God SPOKE he created, gave life, and brought the world into existence.  God’s WORD is so POWERFUL!  When HE speaks into our lives and brings light and life into our world.  The questions that were asked today were answered thousands of  years ago by God!

-Personally, I am still encouraged and charged up by the hope of Heaven.  As many of you know our dear friend Jack passed away this week after being in the hospital for about a month.  We know that even though Jack is no longer with us, he is with Christ (2 Corinthians 5:6-10) in heaven and one day we will be reunited with Him in heaven!

- I know I say this every week, but the worship was OFF THE CHAIN this Sunday!  We tried something a little different this week in our service flow and I thought it was awesome. I am so BLESSED to work with a great TEAM who love Jesus, His BRIDE the Church, and PUMPED about Reaching Up, Reaching Out, and Reaching In!

- Yes, it is true that I said if someone ever comes knocking on your door and asks the question “If you were to die right now, would you go to heaven or hell?”, you should punch them in the throat.  If you come to my house and ask me that question, I am assuming you are about to attempt to kill me!

- Made a lot of new friends this Sunday.  I always love meeting people and hearing their stories!  Life is a Journey and no one should have to walk alone!

- I want to thank to 40 some volunteers who showed up on Sunday Morning to SERVE PEOPLE and make ministry at Meadowland Church possible!  You are all AMAZING and Jesus is using you in HUGE WAYS!!

- Don’t forget that we have the Picnic and Baptism Service coming up on August 22nd.  If you are ready to be baptized you can REGISTER HERE!!

What we can learn from the iPhone 4 Cover Up

I am a HUGE fan of Apple, their technology and products.  I have an iPhone and love it, seriously the thing is awesome and is helpful to me both personally and professionally.

I have been wanting to get the new iPhone 4 for awhile now, but have been hesitant because there just seems to be too many problems and kinks that have not been worked out yet.

This year I had the opportunity to be apart of Perry Noble’s coaching network at NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC .  I loved my time there, and felt like I grew a lot by being part of the network.  Perry posted the following article HIS BLOG today and I had to share!  There is a lesson for all of us in the I Phone 4 Cover Up!!

What We Can Learn From The iPhone 4 “Situation”

I really need to put a disclaimer out before writing this post – I LOVE APPLE PRODUCTS!  I have an ipad AND a MAC (and would have an iphone…but I blogged about as to why I do not here and compared it to lessons we should learn in the church.)

Saying that…the recent problems with the iphone 4 have been interesting to watch.

Basically…there was/is a design flaw.  (I can see/hear the Apple evangelists screaming “you don’t understand” as I type this!)  The antenna was placed into the phone in such a way that it is concealed; however, the design of this phone also lends to the antenna being covered up and calls being lost/dropped.

SO…Apple called a HUGE conference last Friday and announced their solution – they are going to provide free cases to cover up the phone (that will force the user to hold the phone differently, thus “fixing” the problem.)

As I watched this scenario develop I sighed (NOT because of the phone deal, I have a Blackberry…it works really great.)  The reason I think this was a really bad idea is that it didn’t address the problem…it just covered it up!  At the end of the day the product is still flawed, no matter how “pretty” the cover that the iphone users get!

We do the same thing SO many times as followers of Christ…we try to cover up the problem instead of dealing with it.  (Isaiah 29:13" href="http://biblegateway.com/bible?version=31&passage=Isaiah+29%3A13" target="_new">Isaiah 29:13)

We cover up the fact that we are addicted to porn by refusing to repent…instead we go to church and sing as loud as we can, thinking we can “cover up our problem” rather than dealing with it.

We cover up the fact that we are dating someone that we know God doesn’t want us to be with…instead we justify what we are doing by at least getting them to come to church with us.  We won’t “deal” with our disobedience…rather we try to cover it up with our made up morality.

We cover up the fact that we are living in disobedience by surrounding ourselves with people who will affirm our dysfunction rather that lovingly call us out.  (See Hebrews 10:24-25" href="http://biblegateway.com/bible?version=31&passage=Hebrews+10%3A24-25" target="_new">Hebrews 10:24-25)

We tell Jesus that we will follow Him…that we will do “whatever” He asks–but then He hits on “THAT” issue, you know, the one we’ve always struggled with…and instead of dealing with it, repenting, asking for help–we begin to cover up our sin with religious phrases and copying and pasting Scripture.

I really could go on and on here…but the question is this (for all of us) – is there anything that you are trying to cover up that God is specifically trying to deal with?  Because…the thing I’ve learned about God is that HE is relentless, He is AFTER our hearts…and our rituals and religion is worthless in His sight if we are refusing to submit and obey to what HE is saying.  (See Ezekiel 14:1-6" href="http://biblegateway.com/bible?version=31&passage=Ezekiel+14%3A1-6" target="_new">Ezekiel 14:1-6)

I know its hard when God comes after our hearts…and PRIDE is a reason many people choose to cover up their sin rather than confess it.  People FEAR the consequences of confession; however, the consequences of concealing our sin are SO MUCH GREATER than the consequences of confession.

God didn’t send Jesus to die on a cross so we can cover things up but rather so that we could confess, repent and THEN live in freedom!  (Romans 8:1" href="http://biblegateway.com/bible?version=31&passage=Romans+8%3A1" target="_new">Romans 8:1)

BTW…Jon’s post on “Maggots” goes along tremendously with what I just wrote about…you should read it–CLICK HERE!

Sunday Rewind 7.19.10

- Today was an amazing day at Meadowland Church! As we answered the questions “Who is the Holy Spirit” this morning in our current series “You Asked For It”, we saw people surrender their lived to Jesus! AMAZING!!

- On Sunday I felt like we were cracking open a fire hydrant and trying to take a drink.  We talked about a lot of information and went through a lot of scriptures, but my intent was not to overwhelm us, rather it was to crack the hydrant and enjoy the outpouring and be refreshed by the waters as we discovered who the Holy Spirit is.

- I promised on Sunday that I would make my powerpoint available for all you note takes out there.  Here is the HOLY SPIRIT POWERPOINT in pdf format.

- The worship on Sunday was off the chain.  I seriously love worshiping our Great God with my friends and family at Meadowland Church!!

- On August 22nd, we will be having out Church Picnic and Baptism Service. If you have recently made a decision to follow Jesus or have never been baptized, I invite you to take the next step and get baptized on August 22nd. If you are interested in being baptized, you can SIGN UP HERE.

- One of the verses I keep going back to recently is Acts:1-8.   God has HUGE plans for us, and provides us with the POWER we need to accomplish it!!

- I am so thankful to be a part of Meadowland Church. I love you all and look forward to what God is going to continue to do in and through the people who are Meadowland Church!!