Baptisms are great. I love watching them, I love doing them. What a great picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus seen in a life of a new believer. But sometimes they don’t go so smooth! Here are some hilarious baptisms caught on camera.
The Original Classic:
The Reluctant Participant:
The Swimmer:
The Falling Pastor:
So yesterday was Labor Day, so what do I naturally do with a day off to celebrate and rest from my labor? Work at home. But while my day started off fine it did not end so well.
Here is the story. We recently purchased a house so there are tons of little jobs always looming. Yesterday I was replacing the old school thermostats with new digital ones. I needed a tool from the garage so made the quick trek out to get it…barefoot (mistake #1). While navigating the clutter that comes from a recent move I tripped (mistake #2) and got a real nice two inch cut across the top of my foot. I came in and assessed the situation. The kids were upstairs entertaining themselves surprisingly well and my wife (who is a nurse) was resting in the bedroom. I decided to clean up my cut and get back to my little job without bothering anyone (mistake #3). I washed it up and covered it with multiple bandaids.
Later that night Leslie and I were talking about my incident and I offered to show her my battle scar. I peeled away the crusty bandaids and she let out a slight gasp. I then proceeded to receive a mild tongue lashing about why I did not let her see it right when it happened. She interrogated me on how I cleaned it and let me know that this gash was potentially worthy of some stitches or at least some super glue. She got out some butterfly bandages and patched it up the way it should have been done from the beginning.
I never even considered a trip to the Urgent Care office just down the road, but because of my manly pride I even missed out on the advice of my nurse trained wife!
Maybe I’m not alone. I think there are others of you out there who consider a trip the hospital the last resort. But do we also have this same mentality when it comes to spiritual matters? When we are wounded do we try to handle it all on our own?
God created us to live in community. We were never designed to be alone. Yet, when we need our brothers and sisters in Christ the most, those are the times we shrink back and isolate ourselves. Is this not a symptom of the pride still residing in our hearts? We do not want others to know that we are weak and needy. We hide our hurts. We refuse the community that God has instituted and seek our own ways. But like the lesson I learned with my foot, when left to our own devices we make bad decisions. Why not seek the advise of those who really love you and can help you?
James 5:16 reminds us of this very lesson. “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
So don’t be to prideful to ask for help, whether spiritual or physical. Manly pride is so lame, and because of it, now I am too!
Your fellow worker in the field, Adam
It seems, then, we are forced to believe in a real Right and Wrong. People may be sometimes mistaken about them, just as people sometimes get their [math] wrong; but [Right and Wrong] are not a matter of mere taste and opinion any more than the multiplication tables… I hope you will not misunderstand what I am going to say. I am not preaching, and Heaven knows I do not pretend to be better than anyone else. I am only trying to call attention to a fact; the fact that this year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people. There may be all sorts of excuses for us. That time you were so unfair to the children was when you were very tired.That slightly shady business about the money—the one you have almost forgotten—came when you were very hard-up. And what you promised to do for old So-and-so and have never done—well, you never would have promised if you had known how frightfully busy you were going to be. And as for your behaviour to your wife (or husband) or sister (or brother) if I knew how irritating they could be, I would not wonder at it—and who the dickens am I, anyway? I am just the same. That is to say, I do not succeed in keeping the Law of Nature very well, and the moment anyone tells me I am not keeping it, there starts up in my mind a string of excuses as long as your arm. The question at the moment is not whether they are good excuses. The point is that [these excuses] are one more proof of how deeply, whether we like it or not, we believe in the Law of Nature. If we do not believe in decent behaviour, why should we be so anxious to make excuses for not having behaved decently?
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952, this edition: 2001) 7-8.
This is the true account of Nathan Cole describing the moment he heard that the gospel was coming to Connecticut. George Whitefield was the preacher -as fields were emptied, people converged eagerly to listen with bated breaths.
“Now it pleased God to send Mr. Whitefield into this land; and my hearing of his preaching at Philadelphia, like one of the Old apostles, and many thousands flocking to hear him preach the Gospel, and great numbers were converted to Christ; I felt the Spirit of God drawing me by conviction, longed to see and hear him, and wished he would come this way. And I soon heard he was come to New York and the Jerseys and great multitudes flocking after him under great concern for their Souls and many converted which brought on my concern more and more hoping soon to see him but next I heard he was at Long…
View original post 789 more words
This article written by Greg Stier of the Christian Post hits the nail on the head. Which point is most evident in your life? I love the way Scripture is used as “The Cure” at the end of each point. Isn’t that just way the Bible works. It always meets us where we are and shows us the way we need to adjust. Read these 5 reasons why Christians struggle to evangelize and be encouraged not guilt-ridden. The Word always points us in the right direction.
1. Fear
Sharing your faith is a scary prospect. You can lose face and friends as a result of communicating this “narrow-minded” message of the gospel even when you do so in love. When choosing between being accepted by others and sharing the good news with others too often Christians choose silence. Fear is the biggest culprit that keeps most Christians from evangelizing.
The Cure: “Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” Ephesians 6:19-20
2. Ignorance
There are many Christians who, down deep inside, want to share their faith but they honestly don’t know what to say. Sadly, if you were to put a microphone in the face of the average church goer leaving a typical Sunday morning service and asked them to define the gospel message the answers could range from “um” to dumb. To add insult to injury far too many preachers have over-complicated the gospel to the point where even true Christians wonder if they are saved. They’ve added caveats and small print to John 3:16 and, as a result, many believers are confused by the clear and simple gospel that once they embraced with child-like faith.
The Cure: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures….” 1 Corinthians 15:3,4
3. Arrogance
Sadly, there are Christians who think they are above sharing the gospel. After all, isn’t that what they pay the pastor, youth leader and missionary to do? These Christians want to sing about Jesus in the sanctuary, exegete his book in Sunday school but don’t want to get their lily white hands defiled with the diseased and dirty “sinners” by having to actually talk to them.
The Cure: “And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against His disciples, saying, ‘Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.'” Luke 5:30-32
4. Apathy
Sadly, there are many who call themselves Christians but they just don’t care about the lost. They believe there is a hell. They know that those who don’t know Jesus will go there forever. But they, for whatever reason, just don’t care. They have lost their first love and, therefore, refuse to do what he commands. And, like the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2, if they don’t start letting their little lights shine they could have their candles snuffed out altogether.
The Cure: “When he saw the crowds he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Matthew 9:36
5. Bad Theology
This brand of bad theology has a range. One extreme defangs hell by making it mythical or instantaneous suffering (as opposed to eternal) therefore removing the urgency to evangelize. The other side of the range uses the doctrine of election as a way to eradicate urgency. After all, if God is sovereign in salvation why evangelize? Although I believe in the sovereignty of God in salvation I’m also fully convinced that if people don’t hear and believe the gospel then they’ll be damned forever. I chose not to try to solve the riddle but live in the tension between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. It is in the midst of this tension that God provides us both urgency and assurance, urgency to reach the lost who are headed to hell and assurance that God is the only one who is sovereign in salvation.
The Cure: “Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” 2 Timothy 2:10
Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/5-reasons-why-christians-struggle-to-evangelize-80702/#wP9gDptR1atjKswJ.99
Do teenagers want to hang out with their parents? The answer may seem obvious…NO!
Yet, in this study released by Susan McHale, a professor of human development at Penn State University, and reported on by U.S. News (Health day News section), the answer may shock you.
While teenagers certainly may want to spend less public time with their parents, they may actually want to spend more private time together. This private time with parents—especially with fathers in this study—is connected with higher self-esteem and social confidence. Here is a quote from the U.S. New article supporting this finding.
The study authors were surprised to discover that when fathers spent more time alone with their teenagers, the kids reported they felt better about themselves. “Mothers weren’t unimportant, but they are kind of a given in most families,” said McHale. “Mothers’ roles are very scripted: they’re caregivers, activity planners.”
Something about the father’s role in the family seemed to boost self-esteem among the teenagers in the study, McHale said. What most differentiated some families from others was how much the dad was typically around and whether he devoted some of that time to be with his children, she explained.
The article is titled “Teens Benefit by Spending More Time with Parents”. While this may sound elementary to some, in our culture it is becoming more and more rare. The normal today is far removed from the 50s sitcom style family. Today the general rule is both parents work and the children follow suite by leading an over-schedulized extracurricular lifestyle. Parents and/or teenagers who spend quality time at home is now the exception, not the rule for the modern family.
So why does “higher self-esteem and social confidence” grow from a healthy relationship between parent and teenager? I believe it is because children model themselves after their parents example. If a teen can look deeply into the example set before them through quality private time, they then have a firm foundation on which to build as they enter into adulthood. They learn who they are better when parents (especially dads) make that relational investment into their children.
So what does this all boil down too? Spend time with your teenager. Even if they say they don’t want to, find time to just be together. It will impact you child immensely as they develop into an adult. Even if they cannot (or dare not) actually say that they want to hang out with you, the chances are it would be beneficial for you both if you would make it a priority to do so.
So plan that getaway. Take a special day off work. Make that intentional effort to connect with your teenager. They need you!
Your fellow worker in the field, Adam
My dear Wormwood,
But since your patient has contracted the terrible habit of obedience, he will probably continue such ‘crude’ prayers whatever you do. But you can worry him with the haunting suspicion that the practice is absurd and can have no objective result. Don’t forget to use the ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ argument. If the thing he prays for doesn’t happen, then that is one more proof that petitionary prayers don’t work; if it does happen, he will, of course, be able to see some of the physical causes which led up to it, and ‘therefore it would have happened anyway’, and thus a granted prayer becomes just as good a proof as a denied one that prayers are ineffective.
Your affectionate uncle,
SCREWTAPE
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (originally 1942; this edition: Harper Collins, 1996) 148.
So I am all about connecting you with great resources. I have come across another FREE resource that I have spent the day using and really, really like. (the link and coupon code are at the bottom of this insightful review). It is called the Faithlife Study Bible. It is made by Logos Bible Software (which is a very respectable company that produces quality ministry and linguistic programs).
We have all used a study bible. This app combines all the notes and scholarly writing of that study bible but without the 10 pound workout of lugging it around. Also, I believe it actually does an even better job with those notes that a hardcopy study bible because of the interactivity built into the program. As you read a passage of the bible in the frame below you can read the corresponding notes to help you go deeper. If you are really interested you can click on the “+” next to a particular note and bring up a window of more study on that topic. You can even go a third level into that particular note and bring up archeological and scholarly writing and support all in an interactive way. Wow. Super cool and super efficient. I love how you can keep going deeper and deeper as you study the scripture, but you don’t have to sift through all that info if you just want to read surface-level commentary on that particular passage. It is all there right at your fingertip when you are ready to dive in.
Another feature which promises to add a whole new dimension to your bible study is the “community” capabilities. Built into the Home screen is the ability to setup and connect with groups of other users with the app. You can get your small group at church to all interact on the scripture from the latest bible study. You could make accountability groups and do a bible reading plan. The possibilities are almost endless! I can’t wait to try this feature out and see if it is as good at it looks.
Other features it has are devotionals, a bible dictionary, full mobility on your devices, and the one I love the most: it is always growing with updated information, articles, research and usefulness. This is the joy of a interactive, web-linked study bible.
One down side is they (eventually) will be making money off this app. First off, you can currently download a free subscription for usage lasting 2 years, ending March 2014. Just long enough to get us totally hooked and dependent on the technology. But hey, 2 years is pretty generous. And I don’t mind paying for a quality bible, so lets see if it really takes to the church scene and becomes a must have addition to your bible study routine. Secondly, there is only one bible translation available in the free download. The Lexham English Bible is the sole default version. To get any of the primary bible translations used in most churches you have to pay roughly $10 per bible and download it to your Faithlife app.
Overall, I rate this resource as a must have for anyone serious about combining the technological age with biblical truth. I will be testing its effectiveness in my own student ministry, because teens thrive off technology yet I want them to thrive on the Word. This app could bridge the gap between the two.
Let me know what you think! To get the app for FREE go to www.faithlifebible.com and in the coupon code enter: JoshGriffin . I had no trouble getting it set up on my iPad in just a few minutes.
Your fellow worker in the field, Adam
So you must take into account that this is just one opinion concerning quality and content of student ministry blogs compiled by Youth Cartel. (If you get 10 pastors together to rank resources you are likely to get 12 opinions.) I post this so all of you who work with teenagers in any capacity will have ample resources to draw from. I listed my top five visited blogs for student ministry HERE, and only 3 of my list made the top 25 by Youth Cartel. So search broadly and you will find many resources from many different traditions and philosophies. Find what works best for you and what fits in with your theology. Most importantly, don’t forget to make the Word of God your standard by which you judge all things.
adamlickey.com 