Facing Winter

Death is something most people fear but it is as much a fact of life as is birth. We were are all born and we will all die. This fact should motivate us to seriously consider what happens upon death and determine if we are prepared. If we have recognized the truth of Jesus and put our faith in Him we are prepared for this impending winter which is coming. If we have not seen Jesus for who He is then we are unprepared and standing out in the cold with nothing to protect us from a brutish suffering.
This fact should motivate the Christ follower. We are standing in our prepared state and have all we need to face this winter while others stand unprepared. Some great about Jesus is that when he equips us to face this winter he also gives us everything we need to prepare others. Literally we have the boots, mittens, and coat the everyone needs to be delivered from the impending threat of winter. Sadly, many Christ followers tend to scoff at the ones on the outside and talk about how foolish they are and display their disbelief that anyone would go out in the cold dressed in such a way, instead of sharing the warmth with them.
The last challenge Jesus gave to His followers while on planet earth was for them to share the warm; equip others.
Check out this final session of our "Harvest Before Winter" series. If it blesses you in any way please let us know it and share it with a friend.

What is Your Life?

"This is Your Life" was a TV show in years past which highlighted a person's life and reflected on the accomplishments and failures of life. "E! True Hollywood Story" currently gives a glimpse into the lives of celebrities. We seem to have a facination with look at people's lives; it is time you look at our own.
I encourage you to do something today. Ask yourself, "What is my life?". Really, stop and reflect on it. Scripture poses the question "What is your life?" and gives the insite that it is a vapor. It is here and then it is gone. We run our lives like we are the here all and end all. Consumerism is the recipe of the day and we feel life we must reach the standard of living portraid by commercials and celebraties or else we will never be happy. We end up running our lives as if the goal is to acquire wealth, possessions, and build shallow relationship then wonder why the depression rates are at all time highs, insomnia is not explained as normal to tens of millions of people, and relationships are falling apart quicker than my two year old can dismember a pb & j sandwich.
My suggestion is this. As you examine your life and seek to discover your life's meaning you will have to know the intent of your life before you can discover your purpose. This now becomes an origins game. Consider the fact that you were not made my some random accident, rather you were created by a loving God who makes nothing or no reason but makes all things for his enjoyment and ours. From the beginning of life we were created to know God and have a relationship with Him which allows us to get to know him more. You were intended to be connected with God. But, somewhere along the line this connection was broken through our rebellion, since then mankind has been on a path leading us away from our intended purpose.
Mark 1.15 Jesus says, "You're going the wrong way, turn around... you've got to believe me on this one." And asks us all to open our eyes and see what we are doing to ourselves and then look at a far better life he has in store for us. A life free of selfishness, consumerism, and depression.
Enjoy this video session as we explore the idea of answering the question, "What is your life?" If you receive a blessing from this video please take moment to let us know and then pass it along to a friend.

Sleeping During the Harvest

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a farmer. Likely they would laugh if you told them I ever worked on a farm. I have no farming experience other than a garden my wife and I had at a previous house. Even though I have no such experience though I do know something about agriculture; you have to make sure everything is done right and on time. If you miss a step early on it will effect the harvest; if you miss the harvest all is lost. Timing is essential and the harvest is what makes it all worth while.

You may be asking now, what does this have to do with anything? Let me explain. Spiritually speaking we live on a field; God's field. We are all one of his plants, something or someone that he has invested seed into. We live our life and grow spiritually and may come to the point that we blossom and are ready to enter a whole new purpose in life. If that harvest doesn't come then we will never grasp that new purpose and will instead fall and rot. The same is true to the physical farmer's field; timing and harvest must be done properly.

God has given his followers the task of manning the fields and making sure all goes well in them; we have the responsibility of tending to the plants and assuring they are harvested. Sadly the vast majority of his followers have lost the commitment to their responsibility and are now curled up inside the farmhouse where it is warm and comfy instead of one the field where they should be. The greatest need in the world today is for Christ's followers to get out of the house and back on the field. The greatest disgrace in the world today is that Christ's followers have let Satan trick them into thinking the church if for those who already know Jesus instead of those who don't.

The video session below is part 1 of a series we began this past week and is designed to motivate you to get out of the farmhouse of comfort and get back onto the field. You may not want to watch this session but you need to! If you enjoy it and are moved please email me at pastor@millettbbc.org and let me know and then pass it along to another person who will be blessed by it.

Jesus' Freedom March.

Every church takes a different approach to Palm Sunday. I like to think of it as the Freedom March that lead way to a liberation movment of grace and forgiveness. As Jesus rode into town on the back of a colt it was far different than what the Israelites thought the Messiah would do, look like, think like, and act like, but it was exactly how God knew it would go all along.

Luke 19 records this freedom march. Grab your Bible and follow along.

You Decide Who Goes to Heaven.

God has left you in charge of who will be in heaven! That is right, you get to decide who will go to heaven and who will not. This of course is based upon the truth that only people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior will be accepted into heaven (Romans 10.8-9, Ephesians 2.8-9, John 14.6). Recent studies show that 85% of the people who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior first heard of Jesus' saving grace through someone personally telling them about Jesus, inviting them to church, or witnessing with some kind of evangelistic medium. In lieu of this statistic, over 8 out 10 people in heaven are there because someone personally shared Jesus with them. The people who were bold enough to share Jesus with them were able to decide who went to heaven.

I personally organize and arrange over 20 outreach activities or events each year and encourage everyone to invite their friends and family members, even their enemies to these events. What I find is that people have no problem inviting someone to Cedar Point, but when it come to telling someone about Jesus they fall short of words and keep their mouth shut. In reality, how much more important is forgiveness unto heaven than a thrill filled day of roller coasters.

Mark 16.15 instructs us to tell people about Jesus, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ to everyone. We find it easier to tell someone that it costs $50 for a trip to Cedar Point than to tell someone that the cost of eternal life is death... thankfully Jesus paid that price already for us.

Think of it this way: If I told you, I have 10 free tickets to Disney land, all expense paid including travel, lodging, and food; and you can use them whenever you would like to, you would not wait to start calling people and asking if they wanted to go even though they could be used at any time. No, you would get on the phone asap. When I tell you, I have an unlimited number of tickets to heaven, you can take anyone with you, and you will go at any moment; we then tend to become lazy and not tell anyone about it.

Face it. You decide who will accept the forgiveness of God enter into eternity in heaven; and in turn you decide who will spend eternity in hell. Start praying today that you will have the courage to tell people about the free forgiveness through Jesus Christ.