At this stage of our lives, a great deal of the things that we do are in an effort to discover the purpose of our existence. As Christians, we know that our primary focus here should be to praise God, but what about the other things. We do have to pursue careers; we choose to raise families. How do we discover the meaning that God wants us to see in these everyday aspects of life. For anyone who is a fan of the Rick and Bubba show, you have no doubt heard that Rick Burgess lost his son last weekend in a home accident. Through their sorrow, they have gone out of the way to glorify God in this terrible event, and strive to live up to the purpose that God intended for them to glean from this. One of the thoughts that I took away from this was that no matter how terrible or wonderful an event in our lives is, God is trying to teach us something through each one.
Below is a link to an article by Don Piper, the author of "90 Minutes in Heaven." In this article Don discusses his difficult recovery from his accident, and his struggle to understand the purpose in it all. In our first class on Sunday night at 5:00pm, we are going to discuss purpose, loss, victory, and how God molds us into what he wants us to be. Look forward to seeing you there.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/225/story_22565_1.html
-Patrick
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
In Christ Alone video
Great song with clips from "The Passion"
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=6f9f1cc50d66e55e0998
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=6f9f1cc50d66e55e0998
Searchable Online Bible
This is one of the links in my favorites that I use quite a bit. It's a good resource for finding answers in the bible.
http://www.biblegateway.com/
http://www.biblegateway.com/
My Favorite Scripture
I wanted to share my favorite scripture with everyone. I love it when I accidentally find something in the bible that takes me by surprise. 1 John 5:1-5 says:
"1Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." NIV
We often focus on how "difficult" it is to have a Christian walk in today's world. This passage says not only that we can overcome the world, but also that keeping his commands is not burdensome. This is a really impowering statement to me. Not only can I rise above the world, but if I believe that Jesus it the son of God, I can be impowered to obey his commands and to accomplish this without it even being a burden. That blows my mind.
-Patrick
"1Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." NIV
We often focus on how "difficult" it is to have a Christian walk in today's world. This passage says not only that we can overcome the world, but also that keeping his commands is not burdensome. This is a really impowering statement to me. Not only can I rise above the world, but if I believe that Jesus it the son of God, I can be impowered to obey his commands and to accomplish this without it even being a burden. That blows my mind.
-Patrick
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Lifehouse Skit- Everything
Great Drama to the song "Everything," by Lifehouse. I didn't follow it at first, but stick with it, it's good.
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ee73e63418003b47d7d5
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ee73e63418003b47d7d5
Welcome to the Real World Ministries Blog
Welcome to the new blog for Real World Ministries. If you've made it to this page, you've probably also seen our new pages on the First Baptist Church of Hayden website (http://www.fbchayden.com/) or our Facebook profile (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hayden-First-Baptist-Church-College-and-Career-Ministry/11092500990). I guess now I can go about explaining how we came to start this. My wife Alisha and I finished building our house in Blount Springs in April of '07. Once we moved in, we began visiting area churches to find a place to worship. It wasn't long before we settled on FBC Hayden. We hadn't visited many places, but FBCH seemed to be a lot like our home church (Oak Grove First Baptist) and we felt very welcomed by the people there. At the time we joined, the church was in between pastors, but we felt like the spirit of God abounded. When brother Jeremy Powell accepted the position, we knew we had made the right choice. Jeremy's gift for sharing God affirmed our belief that God was at work in FBCH, and if we would just listen to him, he would continue to bless our church.
As time went on, I felt a conviction that I should be of more service to our church family, and discussed it with Jeremy. He asked me to pray about taking over the teaching position for the College and Career group. I really wrestled with this decision, as I wanted to make sure that I was following God's will, and that I wasn't going to take on something that I could mess up. one Sunday morning, as conflicted as ever, I sat in the pew only to hear a message about how God used Moses (who came up with several reasons why he was not qualified). That day , Alisha and I discussed this and decided that God knew our qualifications better than we did, and we decided to teach the class.
Having said that, I can't tell you how excited I am to get started working with this group. We wanted our class material and our discussions to cover Real World problems that face young adults, and what God's word says about them. Hence the name Real World Ministries. I want to hear your opinions on what issues you would like to study. I want to be able to talk about presidential elections and current events, and how they relate to Christians. I want to talk about how we can feel secure in our salvation at a time in most peoples' lives when they begin to question their faith. I want to talk about whatever is weighing on your hearts. Keep in mind that I certainly don't have the answers to all these questions (or maybe any of them). My only role will be to organize the studies and help find biblical based solutions to real world problems.
I know that the group will be very transient given that most members don't live in the area, but I hope that through creative planning we can find a schedule that will help most of us get together on a regular basis. I don't care if we meet at the church, a restaurant, a coffee house, or a bar (to witness, of course). So please post a note on the Facebook threads to let me know your thoughts on class format. I'll be posting here several times a week with new info, so please check frequently.
As time went on, I felt a conviction that I should be of more service to our church family, and discussed it with Jeremy. He asked me to pray about taking over the teaching position for the College and Career group. I really wrestled with this decision, as I wanted to make sure that I was following God's will, and that I wasn't going to take on something that I could mess up. one Sunday morning, as conflicted as ever, I sat in the pew only to hear a message about how God used Moses (who came up with several reasons why he was not qualified). That day , Alisha and I discussed this and decided that God knew our qualifications better than we did, and we decided to teach the class.
Having said that, I can't tell you how excited I am to get started working with this group. We wanted our class material and our discussions to cover Real World problems that face young adults, and what God's word says about them. Hence the name Real World Ministries. I want to hear your opinions on what issues you would like to study. I want to be able to talk about presidential elections and current events, and how they relate to Christians. I want to talk about how we can feel secure in our salvation at a time in most peoples' lives when they begin to question their faith. I want to talk about whatever is weighing on your hearts. Keep in mind that I certainly don't have the answers to all these questions (or maybe any of them). My only role will be to organize the studies and help find biblical based solutions to real world problems.
I know that the group will be very transient given that most members don't live in the area, but I hope that through creative planning we can find a schedule that will help most of us get together on a regular basis. I don't care if we meet at the church, a restaurant, a coffee house, or a bar (to witness, of course). So please post a note on the Facebook threads to let me know your thoughts on class format. I'll be posting here several times a week with new info, so please check frequently.
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