MORE MISSIONAL LEARNING

Hello everyone...
I am going to post different links and video's that relate to the the direction we have been going in our sermon series.

Watch it and please feel free to comment...
-PK

10 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Was 21

Here is an article by Mark Rutland (the president of Oral Roberts University and author of 13 books. He also leads a missions and church-planting organization, Global Servant). Please let me know what you think? Comment ok?
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You might think you're smart when you get out of college, but I suggest that the real education is only just the beginning.
In an Amish kitchen in Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, in the heart of Dutch country, I saw a sign I’ll never forget: “Too soon old, too late smart.” When I saw it, I thought it was memorable but hardly meaningful. I was 21. Now the words are meaningful, but I can barely remember the farmhouse. I am 62.

Sometimes I have the fantasy that I will sit up on my deathbed and cry out, “Oh, I get it,” and lie down again and die. The Amish have it right.

Recently a friend said he wished he were 21 again. The thought held little interest for me, but he made an intriguing counteroffer: What if you could be 21 and know what you know now?

That held more allure, but it begged a question: What, if anything, do I now know that I wish I had known at 21?

I came up with 10 things, none of which I think I would have placed on my priority list at age 21.

1. Inner healing is greater than outward success. It is probably impossible to arrive at 21, let alone 62, without wounds in the inner person—deep wounds that need God’s healing grace. The more I see of inner healing and the more I face up to my own inner wounds, the more I wish I had let Messiah touch my deepest hurts earlier in life. That childhood hurt, that hidden outrage, that long-suppressed horrific memory can lurk like a monster in the basement waiting for years, even decades, to rise and wreak havoc.

Hiding the monster, denying that it’s down there, is a dangerous game. The temptation is to create an alternative reality where success and accomplishment and appearances seem so very real and the monster but a mirage. If I were 21 again I would bore down into the inner world of me and find Christ’s healing touch in the darkness under the floorboards.


2. Mercy is greater than justice. I have found that many in the church want the wayward to “get what’s coming to them.” Too often, there is a shortage of mercy among the followers of Christ, who blessed the merciful in His most famous message, the Sermon on the Mount. Were I 21 again, I would learn and practice mercy, knowing that later I would need it.

Churches, boards, denominations and individual believers who hanker for justice when a colleague stumbles may be planting for a bitter harvest. They gloat over the sins of others, humiliate the fallen and demand their administrative pound of flesh.

Competitiveness and legalism are the death of mercy. Mercy makes love real, acceptance and understanding a practice, and tenderness a way of life.


3. Kindness is better than being right. Just before my friend Jamie Buckingham died, I asked him for a word of wisdom. He said, “It is better to be kind than to be right.”

At 21, I advocated my positions too aggressively. I argued with an eye toward winning, unconcerned about the heart of my “adversary,” who may not have been adversarial at all. I made debate a contact sport. In preaching I let the bad dog off the chain, to the applause of the gallery.

Should time travel be mine and were I to be back in the land of 21, I would be kinder and less concerned with being right. Too many young adults give little thought to kindness.

They Twitter hurtful words like poisonous birds. Their humor is mocking, acidic and unkind. And they are more concerned with being thought clever than with being kind. The value of gentleness has declined on the world market; if I were 21 again I would wish to know the worth of a kind word.

4. Serving is better than being served. Encircled by their entourages, the “success” merchants of modern Christianity place high dividends on being catered to. When I was a pastor, the church I led invited a singing group to come minister. Their list of special demands, including a particular type of orange cut into equal fourths (I kid you not), was five pages long. We canceled.

I wish I had known at 21 how hollow is all that outward stuff. I wish I had known that caring, not being cared for, is what Christ had in mind.

I wish I had changed more diapers instead of leaving that to my wife. I wish I had served more meals, carried more bags, held more doors and lightened more burdens.

5. Brokenness is the doorway to wholeness. This mysterious paradox was hidden from me at 21. I feared brokenness. I ran from it, and when it got too close fought it off with all my might.

If I had but known brokenness was the key to my healing, it would have lifted such fear from me. I thought it would maim me at least and maybe even kill me. Now I know that there is very little real wholeness that does not emerge from real brokenness.


6. Truth is liberating and devastating. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” My friend Jamie tacked on, “But first it will make you miserable.”

How true. There is a phrase popular among many young adults that I quite like despite my usual distaste for pop jingoes. It is, “Keep it real.” I am not sure of all that is meant by it, but I know what I mean by it.

I wish I had known not to fear the truth about myself. I wish I had known that the temporary misery of the truth was worth going through to find the freedom that it brings.

7. Learning is greater than education. I am a university president, and Oral Roberts University (ORU) is a great university. I am not saying that higher education is unimportant. What I am saying is, I hated getting educated.

At 21, I was a miserable college senior. I was a miserable student from the first grade right through high school and on through three degrees. I was miserable because I did not understand the connection between education and learning.

If I were 21 again, I would still go to college. But this time I would go to learn not just to graduate. I would unleash my curiosity, embrace the process, worry less about my grades and enjoy learning.

How strange that I love to learn at the age I am now. I read voraciously—any subject. I want to know, to understand, to go deeper. If I were 21 again I would take that to college.

8. Giving is sweeter than gaining. I believe in the laws of the harvest. If there is any place in the world that understands “seed faith” it is ORU. Seed faith is not a new idea to me. I believed it at 21. I practiced it and am blessed today because it is real.

Yet I wish that at 21 I had known the sheer joy of giving. I know God will bless us when we give, and sometimes we have made this merely a method to gain. I wish I had realized the joy of generosity. I would have given more and delighted more in the good that giving does and less in the returns it provides.

9. Forgiveness doesn’t fix everything. Not the happiest truth I wish I had known, but it’s among the most sobering. Had I known this I might have been less callous, less reckless and more mindful of the cost.

There are things, relationships and hearts that once broken cannot be fully “fixed” by forgiveness. The wound, the uncaring and insensitive word—they may be forgiven, but the damage from them may never quite be right again.

When I was 21 I just wanted to be forgiven. I wish I had known to do less damage.

10. Prayer is more powerful than persuasion. In all of life, at every age, conflict is an inescapable reality. I wish I had known younger that in conflict and crisis talking to God works better than talking to people. At 21, due perhaps to youthful arrogance, I thought that I could talk my way through everything.

Self-sufficiency, a dangerous habit, breeds prayerlessness. The older I get I find that crisis drives me faster to my knees and more slowly to the phone.

I have seen God turn hearts around, change organizations and melt opposition by prayer alone—when no persuasive speech could have made a difference. If I were 21 again, I would spend more time talking with God and less (far less) persuading others to do what I want.

I wish I had known more than I did at 21. I might have considered one or two of these truths, but I doubt I would have fully appreciated their value.

I do not think I want to be 21 again. But if I had to, if some evil genie made me go back and live it all over, then these are the things I would want to know and the things I would want to believe.

Read more click: http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/component/content/article/1078-features/26518-10-things-i-wish-id-known-when-i-was-21#ixzz0l6x6cjl5

TOM's Shoes

Here is some information on Tom's shoes that I talked about on Sunday April 11th/10.
Find it here!
-PK

Sweetly Broken

Listen and learned a new song tonight by Jeremy Riddle called Sweetly Broken. Listen to it on you tube here.

What do you think???
-PK


Jeremy Riddle - Sweetly Broken
From the album Sweetly Broken
To the cross I look, to the cross I cling
Of its suffering I do drink
Of its work I do sing

For on it my Savior both bruised and crushed
Showed that God is love
And God is just

Chorus:
At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

What a priceless gift, undeserved life
Have I been given
Through Christ crucified

You’ve called me out of death
You’ve called me into life
And I was under Your wrath
Now through the cross I’m reconciled

Chorus:

In awe of the cross I must confess
How wondrous Your redeeming love and
How great is Your faithfulness

(2x’s)
Chorus:
Label: Vineyard Music

“…And Thy Household”

Here is my lastest Ministerial Message for the local paper.  I hope you enjoy it.

Often, in past ministerial messages, I have told Biblical stories of people who really lived, thousands of years ago.  I like those true life stories because some of the best lessons we can learn can be learned through the lives of others.  Learning from others is not restricted to just Biblical people.  One of the best teachers in life I had, was my Grandfather, Albert Pariseau.  This past week he slipped into eternity.  I loved him dearly and I want to honor him today by telling you a little about this godly, wonderful man.  Albert, or Bert, as he was known, was always a giant of a man to me.  Not only in stature, as he was over 6’ 4” tall, but also in personality.  In trying to describe him on paper it seems almost impossible, but I will tell you a few things about his life that affected me deeply. One would be his commitment to integrity.  My Grandfather was of the generation that promises were made to be kept, that freedom and country is literally worth dying for, that life is what you make of it, so do the work to make it good.  For example, Albert went to war in the 1940s when he was just a kid.  He left his new bride and went to Europe as part of the national Canadian marching band and played in marches and parades and for troops in battle.  He was there to encourage and refresh the soldiers and he walked and played carrying a double Bb bass for THOUSANDS of kilometers in all weather.  I never ever heard him complain about doing that for his country. For him it was an honor.  His personal integrity and honesty were never doubted by anyone I knew.  He worked in a garage for his father-in-law when he came back to Canada, and raised a family in Winnipeg in the house he still owns today.  He never had lots of money, but was always quick to spend it on us as grandkids.  He married His wife Mae, almost 70 years ago, and never stopped loving her dearly.  I mean it… he loved her with a love that was unceasing.  He would always say to us whenever we got together and always out of the blue, “you kids have got the greatest grandmother in the world” and he meant it every time.  He also kept his lifelong commitment to love and serve the Lord with His whole heart.  I often remember getting up early when we came to visit them and finding him in his favorite chair reading the scripture and praying for his family and friends.  His favorite verse that he would quote often to me was from Acts 16: 31 ^"And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved… and thy household".  He pleaded to the Lord for His family because he knew that God answers prayer.   He was a godly man who loved and honored the Lord with his whole life.  He left me a legacy of great integrity.  My Grandfather was also an artist and musician.  I could really go on about this. His love for music and concert bands never left and he played a horn up to just a few years ago in a local band. He also was a painter and had many oil paintings to his credit.  The artist in him, made him so creative.  One day at the cottage, which he built from the ground up, he found a piece of drift wood.  He painted it green and put eyes on it and mounted it at the entrance of his property as a sea monster.  The funny thing was that next to it was a chair he built out of old wagon wheels and from a distance the two together looked like a cannon!  He was given a hard time about that as it concerned a few of his neighbors.  He laughed a lot about it.  I guess that would be last thing I would tell you about would be his joyful heart.  He loved to laugh and laughed easily. He would tell the same jokes over and over and laugh as hard as if he had never heard them before.  His joyful heart was also directed to us as grandkids… he could not wait to have them come close and hug us and then off we would go to play games.  As I got older, he knew I loved to eat, as every teen does, so he would ALWAYS take me to these greasy spoon restaurants.  He had several that he loved…with  huge portions and lots of onions. What great fun it was to have him close!

You know, we all are teaching and leaving a legacy everyday we live that others are learning from.  What is your legacy that you are creating?  What lessons are you leaving your friends, your kids and grandkids?    Are you teaching them that a commitment to integrity, to promise keeping, to selflessness, to following God… that these things are of GREAT value?  Our lives are a great gift that God has given us.   The good news of Christ is that even if we have made a mess of what we have been given up to now, God is able to give you a new start and you can begin creating a NEW legacy that will be a blessing.  God loves to do that.  He is the God of fresh starts as Easter reminds us.   I am thankful that grandpa chose to leave me with such an amazing legacy. I hope we can do the same for those following us.  Albert “Bert” Pariseau, Deceased April 6^th/10.  He was 89 years old.      

FREE partening class!

A Visitor At Church (Part 4)

This is the last of my four part series of being a visitor at church.

Read the first article here

Read the second here

Read the third here

Ministerial Message

A Visitor At Church (Part 4)

Last summer (2009) I wrote the first of a four part series of my observations of being a visitor at Church during the summer of 2009. It seems like a distant memory by now, but last summer we were away from LPC for 11 Sundays. In my first article I challenged people that attend church to remember what it was like to be a visitor at church as we can so quickly forget. In my second article I underscored how important it is to “Be Friendly!” A friendly person could make all the difference in how we viewed the service. In the third article I wrote about how many churches we visited had no children in attendance and it made me ask the question, are kids no longer welcome? You can read the articles on our blog page (LPCHOME.BLOGSPOT.COM) if you missed any of them. This is the fourth and final article in the series (though I have a few more observations I would like to write about but maybe another time). In every church we went to, we soon discovered that they had “a way” that they did their services. Now, I am not talking about the order of service, which was usually in a bulletin, but the things that happen in the service that are not mentioned publicly but understood between the leaders and those that attend there. Let me tell you, there is nothing that makes you feel more unwelcome than to feel that you are the only one that is totally unaware of what is happening next in the worship hour. The way I have described how this feels is like taking a rollercoaster ride, that you have never been on before, and riding it blindfolded. When we would go to church, and find a place to sit, often the leader or pastor would do or say things that would evoke a vocal response from the people that we did not know the words or expression. Sometimes they would be just going along fine in the service and people would just stand up all around us! Sometimes people would just bow or kneel to pray, which is all good but we did not know that they were going to do it. They did, but we did not, and no one was warning us “hang on, here comes a corner”. Let me tell you folks, when you are trying to blend into a Sunday morning as a visitor and everyone stands except you and you quickly try to join everyone, forgetting that you have a book or books on your lap and everything falls on the floor, LOUDLY, it does not add blessing to the experience! If I was a seeker of the Lord and if I had gone through this experience that we did in several churches on a Sunday, I would NOT be coming back. So can I ask that we, who go to church, help show new people “the way” in our services? In a book of the Bible called Acts, it records how that God was beginning to have people who were not Jews, come to saving faith in Christ. This was very hard for the Jewish Christians to at first accept. It was also hard for the non Jewish Christians to feel apart of what God had been doing with the Jewish people for years, with all their traditions and long held structures of leadership and practices. I am sure they felt much the same as I did last summer. To make matters worse, the Jewish Christians were telling the non Jewish Christian that they had to do certain things to be truly apart of the new work of God. This did not sit well with any of them! There was such a dispute on how to treat the “new comers” that there was a council meeting in Jerusalem to discuss the matter. You can read about it in Acts Chapter 15. After the two sides were done presenting their views, James, the moderator of the meeting, says ¹⁹"It is my judgement, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles (non Jewish people) who are turning to God”. Did you see that “we should not make it “DIFFICULT”. What wise council to us as part of established church to take the time to explain, even before the service, what will be some of the “turns and bends” in their time together as a visitor. It will be just like kindly taking off “the blindfold” and so they can enjoy the ride. I remember one older lady who did this for us in one service. What a blessing it was to our whole family (I just wish that she would have told us that they use real wine for their communion, but that is another story). By just helping a visitor to feel loved by you, taking the time to let them know what is coming next will make all the difference to them, and you will be blessed also knowing that God is using you.

New Songs

Hello everyone,
Here are TWO NEW SONGS I want us to learn... take a listen so you can help out when we get to it.

Remember to let the song on your lips and in your heart be His song...

Awesome Is The Lord Most High (by Chris Tomlin)

"Glorious One" by Steve Fee

I love you Lord

Why the Kingdom Still Matters

Good morning.... or whenever you read this! Here is an article that is in keeping with the series we are in called "Good News". It is written by Rob Phillips who written a book called, The Kingdom According to Jesus.

We have been looking at how the Church was God's idea to reveal his kingdom's power, purpose and potential here on earth. I thought this was helpful to better understand what His kingdom is all about.

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The term "kingdom" has in many respects become archaic in 21st-century lingo. Unless you're talking taxonomy -- the No. 1 context according to Google -- or a theme park in Florida, the word "kingdom" conjures up images of ancient empires, epic quests and faded glory.

Even in the church, the most important -- and perhaps least understood -- kingdom of all is rooted in the ancient texts of Scripture: the Kingdom of Heaven, also called the Kingdom of God or, simply, the Kingdom. Some find this an obsolete expression better suited to first-century believers than modern-day Christians navigating the Twitterverse.

But the Kingdom of Heaven is of exceptional relevance today, especially when we understand its meaning and explore its value.

Defined simply, the Kingdom of Heaven is God's reign, or His authority to rule. The primary meaning of the Hebrew word "malkuth" and the Greek word "basileia" is the rank, authority and sovereignty exercised by a king, according to George Eldon Ladd in "The Gospel of the Kingdom." Certainly, a kingdom needs territory and people, but God's Kingdom first and foremost is His authority to rule them all.

Yes, the Kingdom still matters today. Here's why:

-- It matters to Jesus. The Kingdom of Heaven is the primary focus of Jesus' teaching. Matthew records no fewer than 13 of Jesus' parables of the Kingdom of Heaven, in which He uses mustard seeds and bridesmaids to reveal the "mystery" of the Kingdom (Matthew 13:11). The Jews are looking for a political and military Messiah based on their understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures, but they miss the prophecies that point to the Suffering Servant. Jesus' parables make it clear that the Kingdom must first come without fanfare in the Lamb of God who, through His death, burial and resurrection, will take away the sin of the world. The Kingdom will come in power and great glory one day when Jesus returns as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (see Revelation 19:11-16). The King of kings is still very much interested in His Kingdom.

-- It matters to the church. The Kingdom of Heaven and the church are not the same, since Christ's authority extends beyond New Testament believers. Yet the Kingdom involves the church as God's primary means of communicating and expanding His Kingdom in this age. The Apostle Paul preached the Gospel of the Kingdom, as the church is to do today so that many will enter in by faith. The Kingdom is God's conquest, through Jesus Christ, of His enemies: sin, Satan and death. This is the heart of the Gospel message the church is commissioned to proclaim.

-- It matters to Satan. In Matthew 12, Jesus confronts the religious leaders who accuse Him of casting out demons by Satan's power. His response is revealing: "If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come to you. How can someone enter a strong man's house and steal his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house" (Matthew 12:28-29). Satan is the prince of his own rogue kingdom, a kingdom of darkness and bondage. In the incarnation, Jesus invades Satan's kingdom, binding the "strong man" and plundering his goods by transporting lost sinners from Satan's kingdom into God's Kingdom. Satan is defeated. His time is short. And when the Kingdom comes in fullness with the glorious appearing of Jesus, Satan will be cast into hell, which was created for him (Matthew 25:41).

-- It matters to creation. Paul writes that "the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now" (Romans 8:22). Since Adam's fall, the creation has been under a curse. But the curse will be lifted (Revelation 22:3) when the Kingdom comes in fullness, when this sinful and fallen world is purged of sin (2 Peter 3:10-13). The new heavens and earth will no longer bear the weight of sin. And the pinnacle of God's creation -- human beings -- will be perfected with glorified bodies that are fit for eternal worship and service unto God.

-- It matters to you. In the end, you will spend eternity in one of two places: the Kingdom or outer darkness. Where you spend eternity is determined not by some future balancing of the scales, but in how you answer the question today that Jesus asked in Matthew 16:15: "Who do you say that I am?" In the end, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord (Philippians 2:10), but not everyone will enter the Kingdom. Make no mistake: Many will be denied entrance. But they will go into outer darkness of their own choosing because, as the characters in Jesus' parable of the 10 minas say, "We don't want this man to rule over us" (Luke 19:14).

While manmade kingdoms come and go, the Kingdom of Heaven stands forever. It has Christ as King, believers as subjects, redemption as its mission and the universe as its realm.

Rob Phillips is director of communications for LifeWay Christian Resources

Oh HAPPY DAY!!!

Here is a blog post from Trevor Schmidt, our former worship ministries leader. You can find it on his blog here.

Verse 1: The greatest day in history, Death is beaten You have rescued me Sing it out Jesus is alive The empty cross, The empty grave Life eternal You have won the day Shout it out Jesus is alive He’s alive

Chorus: Oh happy day, happy day You washed my sin away Oh happy day, happy day I’ll never be the same Forever I am changed

Verse 2: When I stand, in that place Free at last, meeting face to face I am Yours Jesus You are mine Endless joy, perfect peace Earthly pain finally will cease Celebrate Jesus is alive He’s alive

It may seem weird that I am posting this song today, it would seem to be more suited for Easter rather than just before Christmas but when the Holy Spirit places things on our mind the time of year does not matter and to Him it is not weird at all.

This song has such an incredible anointing, as I read the words alone they send chills down my spine and bring to mind the passage from Luke 24:6 “⁶ He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead!…”NIV, I can only imagine how the women must have felt after their initial shock and disbelief passed, they must have been singing Oh happy day….. Death is beaten…. Yah... Praise God.... Hallelujah.

When Pastor Kevin and I lead this song at LifePoint Church I was blown away by the congregation’s response. The Holy Spirit filled us with so much excitement and such a strong desire to worship Him, that as the song progressed everyone started singing louder and louder as if they had sang the song for years and when we moved into the Chorus this excitement burst out and as the congregation danced, jumped for joy, clapped with all their might and sang at the top of their lungs to the Lord our Saviour Jesus Christ, He brought to mind how King David danced before the Lord in only a linen cloth while the Ark of the Covenant was brought to the City of David. The scripture tells us that not only did King David worship the Lord but all of Israel that David brought with him were praising God as well, read here; “¹⁴ David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, ¹⁵ while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.” NIV.

If you look a few verses back when King David first went out to bring the Ark to the City of David you will see another example of how serious the people of Israel took worship. “^3-7 David and the whole company of Israel were in the parade, singing at the top of their lungs and playing mandolins, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals.” The Message. Now imagine a whole company of men which is 30 Thousand men, praising God in this manner, gives us something to strive for doesn’t it!

When David’s wife saw him dancing and praising God in this manner she got mad at him and more or less told David that he had made a fool of himself (I would imagine that she was thinking more of her self and how David had made her look like a fool) read her response to him; “²⁰ When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!” NIV. Now David’s response to her is priceless and one we all need to take serious note of and apply it to our time of public worship; “²¹ David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. ²² I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”NIV.

Here is another translation “^20-22 David returned home to bless his family. Michal, Saul’s daughter, came out to greet him: “How wonderfully the king has distinguished himself today—exposing himself to the eyes of the servants’ maids like some burlesque street dancer!” David replied to Michal, “In God’s presence I’ll dance all I want! He chose me over your father and the rest of our family and made me prince over God’s people, over Israel. Oh yes, I’ll dance to God’s glory—more recklessly even than this. And as far as I’m concerned…I’ll gladly look like a fool…but among these maids you’re so worried about, I’ll be honored no end.” The Message.

Praise God that Death is beaten, Praise God that He has rescued me, Praise God that both the cross and grave are empty and that Jesus Christ is ALIVE so jump up and down, shout out at the top of your lungs and sing Oh Happy day, happy day you washed my sin away….. Forever I am changed…. Enjoy being in the presence of God as you worship and do not worry about what the person beside you might think, this time is between YOU and GOD, although you may get some funny looks if you strip down to your underwear, I highly recommend that you don’t do that……