Faith That Defines You

I hate the doctor and the dentist. Just the smell of their waiting room makes me scour the room for a place to hide or for someone who looks like me so they take him instead of me. I hate how you never really know what they are going to do until you go back into one of the patient rooms. However, I have devised a plan to not go to the doctor, a full proof can't touch this kind of plan. Ready?....I use my faith in God as an excuse not to go to the doctor. It sounds so Christiany, and those around me think I'm a Christian with 'strong faith' when they hear me say it, too.

I know what your thinking, "That's the most amazing idea ever, I can't believe I didn't think of that!" Because that's how faith works right? It's something we talk about to get others to see how we want to be perceived, right? Faith is just a facade to cover our own insecurities, right?

Over the last month God's been stretching my faith in Him and my faithfulness to Him. For those that know me you know that my wife and I are expecting our first baby in March (a little girl, Amiah, who is going to look and act way better than your daughter). With this event I'm getting another job so my wife can just relax and be pregnant (It's what we want, I'm not a sexist). I have found absolutely nothing in our area, and guess what it messes with my faith in God. I want to believe that He is my provider, but it's difficult when I don't see it. However, I know from past experiences with others and myself that God is faithful and just. He may not handle business the way I want to (working in an Apple store) but it will be His timing because His Will is preparing me for what He wants for me in the future.

Which brings me to my next confession, lately my faithfulness to God has been tested. There have been dark days and I wonder if pursuing God's Will is worth it, but then I remember that I'm called to serve not to be served. By being faithful to God I don't mean just acting like a Christian, but obeying Him fully. I want any job that pays full time but maybe that's not what God wants for me. Obeying God is not a pick and choose kind of life, it's giving my whole life to Him. I want the job that He wants me to have.

Faith shouldn't be an excuse for the way we live. It must be the one thing that defines us. When all Hell is breaking lose, but your faith in God grows, people who see this happen will be confused and want that type of peace and reassurance. My faith must be my rock so that no matter what happens in the house that's built on it, my foundation is always solid. Psalms 20:7 says, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God." I don't want to put my faith in man, because we always screw it up. I want a faith that defines my life, not gives excuses to why I live the way I do.

Have you ever used your faith as an excuse? Comment about it.

Lessons From a Church Launch: Lesson One

Launch Team Needs To Be A Family

To have a successful launch as a church and a functional group of leaders to minister with you must be like that of a functional family. I say functional specifically, because honestly growing up my family was not completely functional. A functional family is one that loves one another through the great times and the tough times. Nothing holds their love back from one another. Also when an onlooker sees "the family" they say to themselves, "that's something I would want to be apart of."

Attending Vertical Community Churches launch this past Sunday, that's what I saw. I witnessed a group of men and women of God working together to accomplish the Will of God, but doing so with love and acceptance. I didn't know anyone there very well, but they accepted me as one of their own throughout the morning.

Those you work with in ministry must not be looked at as just employees or ministry leaders, but people you love and care about. People you are willing to spend time with outside the walls of the church and are pouring into. Your leaders are just as important as those who attend your services, because if they are not built up and empowered, those who they lead will not be either.

We must be the family that people are looking for. Marriage statistics are terrible and people are looking for a group of people they can look to for guidance and encouragement to be who God created them to be. This will never take place, however, if the team you are apart of or lead are not the family, the Body of Christ.