Acts 12, Peter Imprisoned...

I was just doing one of my favorite things to do and that's flip through the book of Acts until I find what seems to be a good starting point and there I begin reading. I enjoy the book tremendously because it details the early church on how they operated. I love reading about Paul's conversion and how Stephen was chosen to serve, but in this particular reading I came across what I think to be one of the coolest things in the book.

In the twelfth chapter of the book of Acts it is speaking of the death of James and Peter being put into prison. In verse four King Herod puts Peter into prison and orders four squads of soldiers to guard him. Verse five speaks of earnest prayer made to God by the church for Peter and then verse six, which is what I think is the coolest takes place. The night after Passover King Herod was to bring forth Peter from prison and give him to the people. Basically, the King was going to kill Peter for the entertainment of himself and the Jews.

Anyways, verse six tells us that Peter was bound with chains and sleeping! How crazy is that!? Peter, knowing that in a very short time he could be put to death, is asleep in his cell. Peter was solely relying on God in that situation. He knew whatever happened it would be for the glory of God and he was fine with that. How often are we in situations that don't even come close to the one Peter was in and we go straight into panic mode trying to figure out what "I" have to do in order to fix the problem?

Finally, in verse seven an angel of the Lord appears next to him in the prison cell. And even with the light coming from the angel Peter doesn't budge, he keeps on snoozing!! The verse goes on to say that the angel had to strike Peter on the side in order to wake him. Again, facing possible death, Peter gets a good nights rest. Verse nine tells us that Peter thought he was dreaming the entire event until he got down the street. When he realized that it wasn't a dream he automatically gave praise to the Lord for sending the angel to save him. Peter then went to the house of Mary and testified of what the Lord had done for him.

How great is our God that He takes care of us in all matters of life and He gives us the faith and trust to rely on Him in what seems to be the worst of times. And as Peter shows us, when we love God we can't help but to praise Him in all things as well as testify to those around us for what He has done.

In Christ Alone,
Mr. V.

It's That Time Again...

Yep, August is winding down and September will soon be here!! With the end of another summer means a number of different things. A new school year; which makes for another reminder of just how long I've been out of school. My 31st birthday will arrive in a few short weeks. I remember as a kid how it seemed like birthdays and Christmas took forever to come, now when one arrives I think, "Didn't this just happen?". Honestly though, my favorite part of this time of year is a little something I like to call football season! Within a matter of days in the state of Texas you will be able to see Friday Night Lights!! Two weeks from now will open up the OU football season. The Sooners will play the Mormons at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington. Sure, I'll follow the Cowboys but there is just something about the college game that the pro one can't compare to. I enjoy that every game is a must win, the band going crazy after a score, and seeing the Cotton Bowl split exactly down the middle in early October.

Football is greatness and I do love watching my Sooners play each Saturday afternoon, but as I learned a number of years ago; football or anything else can't become our idol. We as Americans idolize sports and television stars. We've bought into the thought that those people have it all. So often that isn't the case at all. Pro athletes and movie stars have the same problems or issues that the rest of us deal with. They as well have to deal with their own mortality. Look at how shocked everyone was with the death of Michael Jackson. Pro athletes and movie stars do think of their mortality, they just might not say it. Look at how many of these people want to save the animals or stop war. For most it's them trying to tip the scale of their life for their good deeds to out weigh the bad. For those that read the Bible, we know different. For we are saved by God's grace and not of ourselves, lest we should boast, says the book of Ephesians. Is that verse enough for us? Is it enough for us to see that there is nothing I can do for God's saving grace? Here is a bigger question; does it matter or not in the long run if it is enough for us? I'm currently reading one of RC Sproul's books and he says the following:

Have you ever seen the bumper sticker, "He said it, I believe it, that settles it!"? Have you realized that you believing it makes no difference in weather or not God's Word is true? He said it and that settles it.

So, it might be that time of year again, but when was the last time you took a nice hard look at your mortality and realized that He is in total control?

In Christ Alone,
Mr. V.

"Simple Church" by Thom Rainer & Eric Geiger...

"Simple Church" was recommended a few months back and I was told that it was a must read so I went over to the Holy Land of the SBC (Lifeway) and purchased a copy.

I was immediately drawn to the book because it had

the word "simple" in the title. I found out soon enough something that I had known for quit some time now, church has become anything but simple.




The author's begin by comforting me that this isn't another one of those "do it this way and I'll guarantee your church will become the next mega church in America" kind of book. They tell the story of a normal church pastor who truly cares and worries for his flock. The pastor wonders why he spends most of his time in counseling rather then working toward feeding the flock and all the while he wonders if his church is being transformed. I would say that a lot of pastors across this country know exactly how this guy feels. Our example pastor does figure it out though. He asks himself the following; "Is his church making real disciples, the kind of disciples Jesus made? Or is everyone just busy?"




Chapter one wastes no time in bringing forth simple yet mind blowing information. Rainer and Geiger speak of a couple of things that are very popular and very simple. Actually, they reveal that a major reason why these things are so popular is because they are so simple. They call two companies revolutionaries against complexity. The first company is Apple, which has created the greatness of the iphone and ipod. The ipod has one button that does just about everything you need in order to control it. The other being Google, which is one of the fastest growing companies in American history. Take a look at Google's website sometime; there is nothing on it. It's simple.



This book is a basic walk through of two types of churches and how they "do ministry." First Church has many activities and/or programs while Simple Church has very few. First Church has a different mission statement for every activity while Simple Church has every activity revolve around one mission statement. First Church hires staff that are considered the best in their field, while Simple Church hires staff that fits the mold of how they do ministry. The authors point out that while First Church has the most well known staff, they are also in competition with other staff to make their ministry the best in the church. Instead of working as a team to promote the gospel they are over working their people to be apart of as many programs as possible, thus leading them to burnout. One of my favorite points of the book is the comparison of how each church handled new ideas. Both churches had found that they where dealing with marriage issues. First Church decided to set aside an entire weekend for a marriage conference at the church. Simple Church on the other hand decided to implement ways to better its members marriages by putting the material in their Sunday school/small group studies. The reason why I found this so interesting is because First Church, which is already pulling at its members from all different directions decides to expect those members take even more time out of their busy schedule to attend another program. By Simple Church placing the material in their Sunday school/small groups they are accomplishing multiple tasks. Those accomplishments are as follows:

1. 
   
   Couples are being trained weekly.


2. 
   
   Couples become closer as a group because they learn about each other.


3. 
   
   Those that might not want to attend Bible Study just might because of the material.


4. 
   
   By accomplishing the above Simple Church is growing disciples which is their main goal.

Ultimately the book reveals that church leadership must never be afraid to say "no." People may come into your church with well intentions or ideas, but if those ideas don't fit your churches underlining mission then it's not needed. The book does say that it's not easy to become simple, but can actually be very difficult. The leadership must not falter in the goal and direction of the church. Keep sharing the vision of your church with your members even when it seems like people are tired of hearing it.

Rainer & Geiger do a great job with this book and I highly recommend it to anyone in church leadership. Our society has gotten so complex with the rise in technology that it's time to get back to the basics of offering scripture as being sufficient for our church members.

In Christ Alone,

Mr. V.

"Already Gone" by Ken Ham

I just finished reading "Already Gone" by Ken Ham the founder of Answers In Genesis and well known statistician Britt Beemer. The book is an easy read of 166 pages and I thought the stats where laid out very well compared to other books that seem to get confusing and boring by the way they lay out information. "Already Gone" does a very good job of keeping it simple and easy to understand. Actually, I found for the most part that the stats where the best part of the entire book. Ken makes a number of decent observations, but he will probably be quoted more for his bold statements and/or claims then his good points. It almost seems as though the bold statements were more for shock factor then anything else.

The biggest and boldest claim Ken makes is found on page 38 and says, "Sunday school is actually more likely to be detrimental to the spiritual and moral health of our children." Wow! Make that claim to most Southern Baptists and see what kind of response you get. I think the statement wouldn't have been so shocking if the authors would of given their findings first and then made their claim. I say that because their findings are very much eye opening.

Their survey was taken of 1,000 20-29 year old adults that had regularly attended church as children and teens. A few of the findings are as follows. 61 percent of those surveyed said "yes" when asked if they had attended Sunday school often during their child and teen years. According to their results, those that attended Sunday school "often" are more likely to not believe that all Bible accounts are true. They are also more likely then the 39 percent of those that said they didn't attend Sunday school to defend abortion and gay marriage. Those that spent their younger days in Sunday school where also more apt to believe in some form of evolution as well as that good people don't have to attend church. The results of this survey are a cause for the church to take a good hard look at what she is doing and why she is doing it, but I believe that Sunday school is just a small part of the overall problem and not the start of it as Ken Ham tends to lead us to believe.

The authors do make a couple of very good points about how we should transform the Sunday school program. The surveys findings show that for the most part our current Sunday school program is nothing more then irrelevant repetition of the same old stories. Mr. Ham says that we need to teach the Bible as actual history and not as stories because the very definition of the word "story" is fairy tale. He says to show the Bible as relevant we need to use real maps and artifacts. Ken goes on to say that our public schools are showing, testing, and teaching our children secular humanism all while the church says, "have faith" or "just trust Jesus" and doesn't or can't answer the hard questions coming from our culture. Ken also goes on to say that the church is starving from a lack of apologetics. I found that I very much agreed with Ken on this particular issue. Our children aren't being taught the proper information for dealing with our culture.

All in all I'm glad I purchased "Already Gone" because it did show me some new things as well as remind me of things I hadn't thought about in a long while. If you're a big fan of Ken Ham and Answers In Genesis then there is no doubt you will enjoy this book. If you aren't a fan of his, but wonder if this would be a decent read then I would suggest it because of the stats given by Mr. Beemer. Ken does gear toward young earth in his questions, but that's to be expected. Oh, and by the way, I agree with Ken on the young earth topic.

Ultimately we must realize that the job of a Sunday school teacher, VBS leader, or Youth Minister is mainly to back up what we as parents should already be teaching our children at home.

In Christ Alone,
Mr. V.