Crossroads Youth

Who is holding the rope?

Have you ever made a decision based on your own feelings?

Have you ever made decisions based on what someone suggested or said to you?

Have you ever made a decision when you did not first consult God?

I have made decisions before where I did not consult God first, and boy, those were some of the biggest mistakes in my life.

Sometimes it becomes easy to sort of fall into a trap, a trap where the enemy wants to get you to focus on someone else rather than God. Sometimes that person can be a pastor, a friend, or even a beloved family member.

All of those people can help us come to a conclusion, but if we are not also seeking God for our answer, and putting our faith in Him, we are really walking a tightrope, that is held onto on both ends, by those same people who we love so dearly and trust so much.

Here is what happens in those situations. With small decisions, sometimes we can get by without going to God and letting Him be our source of instruction and leadership. Small decisions should still be made with consultation with God. However, sometimes we just say, God I have this!

Well eventually, we continue to seek the advice and counsel of our circle pf friends and family, and after a time, we forget, or we just plain choose not to depend on God for guidance.

remember what I said about the tightrope a few minutes ago? Well each time we make a decision without the counsel of God, that rope we are walking on gets longer and longer, until we eventually are over a chasm so large, it resembles the Grand Canyon. We have all of our loved ones on each side holding onto that rope, helping us with each decision, and holding on for dear life. Sooner or later that rope is going to start sagging, and getting slack and all of your weight will be dead center pulling down, and weighing the rope so tremendously, that those we love and trust the most, cannot hold on, and eventually they lose grip, and let you down or drop you.

Psalms 118:8 (NKJV)

8. It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in man.

God never lets us down, when we go to him as our counsel and as our leader, he makes decisions that are always in our best interest. We can count on God to never lose hold of us, so long as we allow Him to HOLD His end of the rope. It is merely our job to try to stand, keep our balance, and trust God to hold the rope.

Psalms 1:1-6 NLT
(1) Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.
(2) But they delight in the law of the LORD, meditating on it day and night.
(3) They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.
(4) But not the wicked! They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.
(5) They will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly.
(6) For the LORD watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

More to come on September 29th….

I have been spending large amounts of time on Facebook lately, and have been thinking, what does God think of this? While a portion of my time on the popular social network is spent witnessing and sharing the word with my friends, it is easy to get hooked and the next thing you know, you are playing the applications…. By the way, I just finished a mission on the  Mafia Wars app woohoo level 74…sorry bout that.  Do you see what I mean? How did that happen?
While the games are probably not going to result in the end of me or losing my salvation, they do chip away at my relationship with Jesus Christ.  In the book of Matthew, Jesus was speaking about the love between a man and his family, and that same man and God.
Jesus said that ” He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 10:39 NKJV
While he was speaking directly about a man’s choice between a family of unbelievers and serving God in spite of the trouble at home that may arise.
I am not speaking about a family matter here but rather a social matter. If I am actively choosing to spend time on Facebook, instead of time in the Word, what kind of message am I sending to God? I mean, God knows my heart right? Most of the time my heart is probably in the right place, mostly. You see the internet and social sites are  very intriguing and can arguably be put to great use. The problem is do we put it to great use?  So easily the things that maybe we mean for good, start out that way, but rarely do they stay that way. Satan often likes to take opportunities like this to gain a foothold in our lives, if we are not careful.The first part of that scripture mentioned above says “he who finds his life will lose it…” I’ll tell you this, just as any other addiction, it is easy to get lost in it, and the next thing you know, everything else, including your life is lost. Now I am not saying Facebook will result in the loss of your life, be it spiritual or otherwise, I am simply saying that distractions are always the things that get us off of that straight and narrow road.

Earlier in the book of Matthew, Jesus also said,
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it”  Matthew 7:13-14 NKJV.
I believe Jesus was saying here that the way to destruction and spiritual separation from God comes in many forms. Many different things lead to our wandering off from that path, during the course of our lives. It is not always easy to toe the line and walk the path that Jesus has called us to walk on and ultimately live on. We will stumble, we will fall. We must not give up or give in.

I know that the youth group probably gets tired of me hammering this in, but here goes again. Paul EXHORTED (Exhortation
EXHORTA’TION, n. The act or practice of exhorting; the act of inciting to laudable deeds; incitement to that which is good or commendable. 1. The form of words intended to incite and encourage. 2. Advice; counsel.) us;
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.  Romans 12:1-2 NKJV.
Now, I know that my friends list contains most of you on here, but the real question, how many of us have Jesus on that list? He is more than a friend, and closer than a brother. I challenge all of you to use some of your time on that site, to share the gospel, in the open with a friend today.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Hello everyone, wow what a concert huh? Greg and  I missed about half of the acts because we were in a Youth Pastor/Leader/Volunteer meeting, but from what I could hear from the bowels of the Van Andel Arena sounded very cool.

Back to task… While we were down in the bottom of the Arena, Tony Nolan exhorted us to pray, he instructed us to pray out loud. There were maybe 75 of us down there, praying loudly, some in our own words, others in a heavenly language. The point is this, we were praying for you! Just as Pastor Mark had exhorted (encouraged) us to be in prayer each day this last week for 15 minutes, just 15 minutes! We were praying that we would see life changing miracles take place in the lives of our friends and the youth that were present together under one roof.

As Greg and I emerged from that prayer room, we walked into an Arena that has hosted HUGE rock concerts, glorifying the world, Comedians, Ice Shows, Hockey and Basketball games, and even people like HHH and the Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels have appeared there, (for all those wrestling fans out there). The point of all of this is that many many times, these events are just plain entertainment, but Thursday was something so much different!

As we were getting our faces rocked off by bands like Fireflight and the Newsboys, there was something different moving in that arena something that probably has been present in that place only a few times before that night. The Holy Spirit was moving and evident in this place.

God had a plan for this night, and the intercessory prayer that had led up to the night of that concert, and finally the prayer that was echoing off the walls of that prayer room in the basement had a purpose. God met his people there. Some of them may not have even known it until later in the evening.  Tony Nolan came out and was giving a message, he used a $50 that he exchanged for a penny. He was making the example that what we had to  offer compared to what God was offering were two totally different sums. Our paltry penny, that we hold on to with everything we have and desire, was keeping us from the abundance of all that God was offering us. Now I won’t go into all that was said or illustrated, but know this, God moved!

As the night moved along, Tony Nolan gave the invitation, and I was blessed to see many of our youth standing along with 7 other visitors that had come along with our group.

20% of the group that came from little old Crossroads Church in Ionia, Michigan, friends or family that had been invited to come along, had either given their hearts to Jesus Christ, or had rededicated their lives to living for Him.

As a fairly new Youth Pastor, I was so excited not only to see these young people accept the invitation, I was so happy to see our youth leading the way, unashamed!

I look forward to seeing you all at Youth Group on Thursday!

Looking back on 2009, I can only wonder…where did the time all go? What did I accomplish this year? What didn’t I accomplish? That diet..wait, what diet? Did I spend as much time with my family as I wanted? Did I spend as much time in the WORD as I wanted? More time in prayer? Did I finish School? Did I get to Coon Hunt as much as I wanted?

How about you? Maybe you finally got your driver’s license, went on your first date, or aced that first ever class? Maybe you were able to share your faith with a friend or relative, telling them of the wonderful gift that Jesus Christ gave all of us. Whatever you may have set out to do, inevitably, you did not complete everything. Or did you? Did I?

The answer? No to all of them. I made some great strides, relatively speaking, but in reality, I dropped the ball. I do spend more time in prayer and in the WORD. I have spent more time with my family this year, but still not as much as I would have liked. My Coondog, Jester, surely would tell you that he has not seen the outside of his kennel as often as he would have liked. As far as finishing school, I have finished a couple of courses this year, and am inching closer to finishing, but I am keeping my eyes on the prize. <!–more–>

You see as humans, we constantly fall short of completion of our goals. We strive daily maybe to treat others with kindness, only to get angry and shout at someone in traffic or in the hallways at school. We try, but we fail. It is easy. A momentary lapse in control and we fall. I want to encourage you with a very simple, basic even, piece of scripture.
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2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV  17  <em>Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.</em></strong>

We fail, our flesh rises up and we struggle to keep it under control. However, even in those circumstances, <em>if we are in Christ, we are a new creation</em>. This does not mean that we will not fall down, because we will. This is not an excuse to fall down, because there is none. The old things have passed away ( the old man, our flesh)

Look…All things have become new! We are a new creation, we do not have to settle for the old life.  The things of this world, the trappings of this life.

Now to sort of encourage you I want to add something from another Epistle.

<strong>1 Corinthians 9:24 NKJV  24  <em>Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.</em>
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I look back also on this last year at our Run for a Cause that we held this year. I finished dead last, except for the Chickenman (Thanks Allen), and he turned around and encouraged me. You see not all who run the race actually run. I certainly did not. I walked a lot of it. I was not in the shape that I should have been in, I did not prepare. I stepped up to the line just like all the other runners, I started off in fine shape, but, about 300 yards into the race, I was tuckered out. I made a resolution to run the race, I just didn’t make a resolution to run the <em>entire</em> race!

In the end, my friend Cam won the race in a tight finish seconds ahead of Tyler DeLap. Tyler had prepared years in advance for racing races like that, and Cam has won numerous races, he runs in 5k races frequently. I do not. I walk for a living. Most of us do not prepare for races as a rule.

You see that verse speaks to running in such a way that you can obtain that prize at the end of the race. Even if that prize is only a ribbon for being there. That analogy, or similtude, as they are called, is referring to our daily walk, that resolution that each of us need to have made when we were first made a new creation, in Christ Jesus. Daily we are to follow after him, forsaking the things of this world that would be cause for us to start walking, then we begin to walk aimlessly, finally we are off the race path that has been set before us and we are so far off track we forget how to get back. So we have a choice, stay off the path or find it again.

That laundry list of things that I have left undone this year or the things that you have maybe left uncompleted, in the grand scheme of things is not unlike the daily walk with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have to be diligent, always seeking to finish. Do not become complacent, and become a walker. Run after Him. And Finish the Race! Jesus was not a procrastinator, nor was Paul. They Did it, daily!