Home School Families are Self-centered

Oh course, I just made an obvious stereotype blanket statement to get your attention. Let me start out by saying we are a home school family. My two children, Emilee and Luke, are going through Abeka video program. My wife and I plan to be a home school family from now on, or at least until all of my children graduate.

There is a major problem I see in the home school family. Instead of a mom and dad who think they are debtors to all men, they instead think it is their responsibility to only focus on their family and no one else. When they go in to a church they think the church should be centered around their family.

They think that they have to guard their children from being with any other non-churched or non-home schooled children. In good conscience they say, it is my responsibility to make sure nothing unclean is around my child.

The faulty thinking in this area though is that we should be concerned about other children just as much as our own. When our child plays with someone who is not a good kid, our thoughts shouldn't automatically go to guarding our child, but instead of how we could make an impact in the life of the "bad kid".

Christmas Trees

In Jeremiah Chapter 9 we see the mention of trees being used as idols. In these verses the Bible tells us that the tree can't do evil and it can't do good. It's kind of like money. The people were using it as an idol but in all reality it has no power.

That is the same with any idol. Whether it's a Buddha statue or a Mother Mary statue. There is no power in the idol.

Money can be an idol just like a tree can be an idol. It just depends on how you use it.

If someone is using a Buddha statue for a decoration lets make sure we are not too judgmental. It would be the same as we using Christmas trees for decoration. What makes the difference is what we do with that figure that was used as an idol in our past history.

What's Our Emphasis?

In class we talked about how missionaries are expected to start a church and turn it over to a national in four years of less. Americans would think that's crazy and an impossible task, but I think it's because of we put the emphasis on the wrong thing.

They put the emphasis on the institution, where we put the emphasis on the leader. The church isn't what is important to us. It's the pastor where we place the importance.

Other People's Faults

I have a good friend who has recently lashed out to people that he has been under for several years.

He made a list of very ugly things where he had been wronged. When I read that list I was very disappointed in him. It hurt me to think how he was being selfish and self seeking. It hurt me to see how he was not content in whatsoever state he was in.

Unfortunately what my friend is going through is what we all go through. It is easy for me to see how ungrateful he is, but it's hard for me to see how I am ungrateful. I can see the error of thinking how my friend was done wrong but it's easy to look over the error of me seeing how I have been done wrong.

I Hate Missionaries

This was a statement from a man visiting our church. He said they live luxurious lifestyles and don't put in a full weeks work. They ask others to live by faith and don't live by faith themselves.

Wow. At first that really hit me in a face as a wicked and evil perons. But then something happened, I started thinking about what he said. Is there any truth in his words. Unfortunately there is a lot of truth in what he said.

I don't want to be that kind of missionary. What he said was true of many, but I don't want it to be true of me.

Is it Wrong to Protest Abortion

If someone broke into your house and was holding a gun to your son's head, would you try to talk him out of it or doing anything to try and stop him?

If we care about our own son should we care about someone else's son?

If there was a woman in front of your house being raped by a man would you try to stop it.

If there was a man standing in front of a school in our town shooting five year old boys in the head as they walked out of their kindergarten class should we try to do anything about it.

Should we discourage his activities or try to stop him in any way?

Would it be mean to tell the person holding the gun that if he shot my son or the 5 year old boys he would be a murderer?

Would it be mean to yell at the guy who is raping the young woman and call him a rapest and demand he be taken to jail?

Mike Allison

Several years back a group of us flew down to visit Pastor Mike Allison of Madison Baptist Church in Madison, AL.

He talked to us about some important lessons in the ministry. The one that stuck with me the most was what he taught on Isaiah 61:1-2.

From that conversation I learned these lessons.

1. People are going to come into the church at every level.
2. There are some that you will help become a leader.
3. There are some that you will help that are just broken hearted and bound. They may never become a productive part of the church.
4. Don't get upset when someone doesn't grow. Just take care of them at the level they are.

Mike McDaniel

I was with Pastor Mike McDaniel this past Saturday evening. As we were watching the SEC Championship- Alabama versus Florida, he told me some good pointers he thinks are good for a pastor. I believe I agree with him.

He said some pastors are known for being good soul winners, yet aren't very good preachers. Some pastors are good prayers, but aren't very good soul winners. Some pastors are good preachers, but are not very good prayers. He talked to me about wanting to be a balanced preacher.

Here are the things I took from our conversation.

1. Be a Preacher of Prayer.
2. Be a Soul Winning Preacher.
3. Be a Bible Preacher.

I know these aren't the only areas of ministry I need to focus on but they are three of the biggest things I need to work on.

I want to spend time at cultivating each of these three points. I want to be a balanced preacher. I don't want to just focus on one of these aspects and neglect the others.