One Hit Wonder

One Hit Wonder

VH1 has tv show's dedicated to them, there are cd's dedicated to them, even in different decades. They are artists/bands that only had one good song, and were never heard of again?

"Oh Micky, your so fine, your so fine you blow my mind, Hey Mickey?" Remember who sung that song? Me either? Or anything else they ever sung. Did Vanilla Ice every have another Hit besides Ice Ice Baby? I don't know either?

I don't know the reasons, but for whatever reason, these musical artists didn't last or make it past their hit song? Well it reminds me of Easter. People come to church once for Easter(or insert Christmas here too) and you never see them again? Maybe they go because their mom or wife or in-laws guilted them to go, or they are in town visiting family and had to go out of respect for them.

My bigger issue is that there are people out there, that are totally content in going to church once or twice a year. Like christianity or God is an annual event that you go watch once a year like the superbowl or Grammy's?

God is not a God who wants our church attendance. We are not doing God a favor by coming to church once a year, or even once a week. Yet many have this attitude about God. We go to church to GIVE God worship, not get props for being there. Going to church is about something bigger, being a part of God's body as a whole. We go there to worship God, serve Him, and join with others in worship.

Sure, we can go and worship God in song, we can take communion to remember His death on the cross for our sins, hopefully we can hear a sermon that teaches us, challenges us, equips us, and convicts us depending on what we need that day, but the bigger picture is that we are part of something bigger. We go to church to worship God in various ways and to be a part of His Body. His church.

I think it's great that churches invest so much energy in Easter Sunday. it's a great opportunity to share Jesus with people who normally don't hear the message. Maybe that one Sunday there, may open up a door for them to hear or see something that makes them think, challenges their heart, or makes them wonder maybe life was meant for something more? I think churches need to make a big deal every week myself! Every Sunday is important, let alone every day of our lives!

I don't want to be a one hit wonder. There is more to this life than just attending church on Easter or Christmas. There is more to God than just putting on nice clothes and enjoying a choir special. God created you with purpose. He created you for a relationship with Him.

God did not create us to just attend a church service once a year or once a week. He created us to have a relationship with us. In having a relationship we become a part of His body or family that is the church. God did not create us to be there once and disappear and never be heard from again. God created us to thrive, to grow, to serve, with purpose, with value, and most of all for eternity.

We spend so much time trying to find purpose and value in earthly relationships, partying, hobbies, happiness, success, and you name it, but the bottom line is, you will never have peace, never be fulfilled, and never know true relationship and purpose until you get serious about seeking God.

Do not be a one Hit wonder, God has so much more to offer you and your family, than just one church service a year. Give Him a chance,you won't regret it. Let your life matter.

Do not be a person who just goes to church once a week out of duty or obligation. Enjoy being a Christian and worshipping God. If you're not happy at church, maybe you're the problem? Or maybe you need to start letting God use you to help the church? Or maybe you need to find a new church? I don't know, but I know God created us to worship Him and be a part of His church. Make a difference for God.

No one remembers one Hit wonders, but they do remember those that last. Like Elvis, The Beatles, George Straight, Stevie Wonder, or Johnny Cash. Artists that have had hits for decades, and some that have died, and their music has outlived them.

That's the type of christians and people we should want to be: our lives, our service, and our love for God outlives us, though we will go and live for eternity in Heaven.

Go to church, Be the church, Worship God, Serve God, and let God of Wonders be the One.

3 John 1:3 (NIV)

It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it.

Stereotypes

Stereotypes

It's very easy for people to come up with stereotypes for church or christianity isn't it? Think about it. You get treated bad by a christian, and you say all christians are bad. You went to church with your grandma when you were little and it was all old people, boring, and was the white church with the big steeple, and you say all churches are for old people. boring, and the same. It's very easy for us to stereotype things and in doing that we dismiss them.

While some stereotypes may be true in life, most are not. It's not fair to do that to people, places, and especially a faith. I mean, I could go out and be rude to someone and treat them bad and would be it be fair for a person to say all men are rude, all white guys are rude, all guys name Jason are rude, all guys from WV are rude, and all guys that are good looking are rude? Ok, maybe not the good looking, but you can see how stereotyping something or someone based on one experience is not only not fair it's not accurate.

True, there are some people out there that call themselves christians, but do not act like it, just surf the web and check out those whacko's from Westboro Baptist in Kansas(http://www.godhatesfags.com/) who hate gays and protest soldiers funerals. Do you think they give the church and christianity a bad name? YES! But, they do not represent Christianity or the God I know, love, and serve? NO! It's not fair to God and the church to judge them based on people and places like this group of delusional people, doing wrong in God's name and abusing the church.

True, there are churches out there that are dying, out of touch, legalistic, self-centered, and doing the same things the same way for 100 years and they are dying because they refuse to change. They are not relevent, they are not reaching lost people, or discipling members. However, there are thousands of churches out there that are reaching lost people, growing, and discipling it's members. There is a church out there somewhere than can and will meet your needs and help you grow in your faith!

I want to challenge you this morning. If you do not go to church because you had a bad experience with a church or a christian in the past, stop using that as an excuse not to go to church or become a christian. We all have bad experiences in life, but we can't let those stop us. If I have a bad experience at a restaurant, I may stop eating at that particular restaurant, but I'm not going to boycott all restaurants based on that one bad experience at that particular store. That would be stupid. Do not do that with God or His church.

I promise you, if you look with sincerity, you will meet great christian people and you can find a church that isn't boring, fake, dull, or full of hypocrites. Yes, they are some bad churches and bad christians, but not all of them. It's like anything, there is always a few bad, but there are way more good, if you will only look for them and not let your bad experience judge your search.

I know that you or I would not want to be lumped into a negative, false, or bad stereotype that wasn't true about us, and I don't believe God nor His true church wants that stereoytpe either. Unfortunately, because we are human, we live in a world where some people who proclaim Christianity, don't live up to the name, and we live in world, where some churches, stopped being the true church a long time ago for various reasons? I can't always live up to my christian faith, and if we were honest with ourselves, we know no matter how hard we try, we sometimes make mistakes and fall short.

The important thing is that each of us know God in a personal way and make a commitment to Him and that we serve Him through His church. We need God and we need His church. People think you can have a relationship wtih God without His church and you cannot. But, we also need to understand not every church out there that claims to be a church is being the church. Therefore, we must search for where God want us and use wisdom and discernment.

Do not label all christians bad and do not label all churches bad. Stereotypes are bad. Seek the truth, don't let bad experiences keep you from knowing God and serving Him through His church!

John 7:24(NIV)

Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”

Mold

MOLD

I know your first thought is gross, lol. I'm not talking about mold on leftovers forgotten about in the fridge or mold on the loaf of bread in your cabinet. I'm talking about molding and shaping.

What is your life molded from? How are you shaped? You've heard it said, when they made "fill in the blank" they broke the mold. Or that person is from the same mold as His father or mother.

Things in life mold us and shape up. Our families, our surroundings, our experiences, and our choices, all mold and shape us.

However, what we really need to be molded after is Jesus. Our goal should be to be like Jesus. I'm not saying, we can't pick up positive traits from our parents or others, but ultimately, our life should reflect Christ, if we are serious about our faith. Unfortanutely, we also can pick up negative and bad traits from others and life choices and experiences.

Some christian people they mold and shape their faith after their church, after their religious practices, or their traditions. Those things are not Jesus. Some people are so proud to be baptist, or legalistic, or traditional, or set in their ways. They boast and brag. These things aren't molds God wants for us. Jesus came to give us freedom, to liberate us, and to give us a model. He wanted to destroy religion and traditions that people make of God. Our mold should be after God and God alone.

Also, in the world, we mold ourself in so many negative ways. We are over-opinionated, pushy, moody, domineering, selfish, like our way, etc...we are all guilty of this, including me. These practices are not good ways to mold and shape our lives. All they do is cause us conflict, drama, and push people away from us and make it hard to have healthy relationships with anyone, including God.

We need to ALLOW God personal access to our lives from the inside out. Then slowly over time, God molds and shapes our lives. We are like Clay in His hands and He begins to change us. He can change our attitudes, our habits, our personalities, our motives, and most of all our lives. God can do anything He wants to do, but He can only work in our lives if we allow Him. God will never force himself, but if we allow Him, he can mold and shape us into the person He created us to be.

If you are an artist and create something, you understand it takes time. It takes time to paint a portait, create a sculpture, write a song, or make something by hand. God is our artist. He is our creator. He wants to take us in His hands and mold us. shape us.

My prayer for you and me, is that whatever areas of our lives, we are not giving to God, maybe all? We will hand over to God and allow Him to mold us. We need His handy work in our lives if we are going to grow in our faith and do great things for Him. Give yourself to God, allow Him to work in ALL areas of your life and grow you, change you, shape you, and mold you.

Isaiah 64:8(NIV)

Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Do Not Assume

Do Not Assume

I don't have to tell you what assuming does to you and me. It is very easy to make assumptions about circumstances and people without really knowing the truth, facts, or what's really going on. I have been guilty of it we all have did it I am sure.

So many times we look at someone's situation or lives and we think we know what the are going through or their situation and we judge them unfairly. We look at how a kid acts and we assume their parents aren't good parents, when you don't live with or raise the kid on a daily basis. You might not know they have some issues and the parents have tried everything to control them. Or you look at a woman married to a man and you don't understand why she stays with him, he's a cheat, a perv, and mean. Yet, maybe the woman is afraid,or feels trapped, or is threatened if she leaves?

We don't know people's circumstances. When gossip and rumors get out in town or at church about someone, it's very easy to think we know it all, because of what we heard, but many times, what actual reality and truth is, is very different than what we hear or think we know.

You don't know whta it's like to live in someone else's house, walk in their shoes, or be in their circumstance, so it's not fair or right of us to assume, judge, or condemn them. We have no idea how we would handle, react, or respond if we were in that given situation or dealing with those issues. It's very easy to talk about how we'd handle something, as long as we are not in it. It's totally different when you are living it.

My encouragement this morning is this. Stop assuming you know every situation. Don't judge someone because you think you know their situation or problem. If you haven't lived it or experienced it, you don't know it. And in most cases we never truly have all the facts.

I have been very guilty of making assumptions and judgements of people and their problems or circumstances based on my thinking I know, but not really knowing, and I want to change that.

If you don't know about a person or their situation, then don't say anything or act like you know. If a friend or family member comes to you with issues, then listen, give advice or counsel when asked, and don't assume or judge if you don't know. If required be supportive, if required be honest and truthful if they need to hear it, but only about facts and reality, not assumptions.

We all have opinions, some of us more than others. We think we know it all, but let's be real honest, if we haven't lived it, experienced it, or been through it, kind of hard to know it. And if we got stuff in our lives we aren't dealing with, kind or hard to tell someone what they need to do in their lives.

It reminds me of the simple lesson Jesus tried to teach in Matthew 7. We need to worry about ourselves and get ourselves together, then we can worry about someone else.

3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:3-5(NIV)

Let's get the plank ourt of our eyes, then we can help others with their speck, but if you don't know the speck, don't assume you do.