What are we striving for? What is our end-goal? When can we say alongside Jesus, “It is finished”? It’s no less than the evangelization of the entire world. What a daunting task! I look at my church–we’ve probably got 25-30 people in each location. Should this lofty concept be the goal of such a small, rural church? Seems like an unattainable goal to achieve. And yet, we aren’t supposed to look at how big or small we are, or how many resources we have (remember the parable of the man with one talent?). We are supposed to trust in the Gospel, that it is indeed the power of God. Our power doesn’t come from how intelligent we are, how wealthy we are, how large in size we are, or how talented we are. Our power comes from the truth coming alive by the power of the Holy Spirit. The evangelization of the world. That is what we work toward. For some, this sounds like some imperial concept–some selfish endeavor by Christians to convert everyone to their religion. On the contrary, Christians are called to utter selflessness. This isn’t about some jewel in our crown for sharing the Gospel. The motive is purely this: Jesus Christ is worthy of the praise of every single creature He has created. He deserves no less. He died so that all of God’s creation can be restored to Him. God rightly deserves everything and everyone to glorify Him and Him alone. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, that is now possible, and we continue working toward that end. The Son of God’s reward must equal the cost of His sacrifice. Yet, how many Christians do we see striving for this? How many Christians in their entire lifetime even see one person come to know Christ through their personal sharing of the Gospel? What about my own life? Outside of my pastoral role, what am I personally doing to share God’s Good News to people I know and don’t know? Don’t mistake what I’m saying: I’m not advocating some way to mass-produce Christians and try to get as many people to convert and then move on to others who need converting. I’m talking about something much more...

Tomorrow is the last of 40 days of fasting! I don’t feel like I sacrificed nearly “enough” during these days, but I’m still super eager to be able to go on a normal eating routine once again. Going into the fast, I knew that after the first few days of fasting, hunger pains went away. I assumed that because of that, a 21-day fast or a 40-day fast wouldn’t be much harder than a 7-day fast. I assumed that once you get past the initial hurdle of hunger pains, you could go on indefinitely without eating (until true hunger returns) with little difficulty. I snickered at the advice that if you’ve only done a 3-day fast before, you should work up to a longer fast by going 7-days the next time. And then 2 weeks the next time after that, etc. I now realize I was wrong. Even after the initial hunger pains subside, there is the emotional/mental aspect of not eating. It is tiring and wearying. Even though I’ve only been fasting breakfast and lunch for the remaining 35 days or so, this feels like the longest 40 days of my life! In many ways, I feel like I’ve failed at this endeavor. I just got plain tired of it, and was ready to end it halfway through. If I’ve learned one thing, it’s that I have a long way to go in my walk with God. I’m so self-consumed and am very resistant to obeying whatever God wants me to do. I long to be comfortable and live comfortably. I want to live a satisfying life. What I mean by that is a life that satisfies me. A friend of mine posted a Buddhist quote on Facebook that I think has a lot of truth to it: Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after you obtain it, it is nothing special. –Suzuki For me right now, “it” is a normal eating routine where I can eat whenever and whatever I want to. But I also know that “it” is many other things in my life, and will become many other things in my life in the future. There are so many things that I...

As many of you know, I was a member of the North Alabama Conference (United Methodists) for 8 years by being a member of two of their churches during that time. During that time, I heard many sentiments expressed about the current struggles for Methodists. Methodists moaned that they were a minority in the land of Southern Baptists. They didn’t moan just because they were a minority, but because they continue to be a shrinking minority. This means less congregants, which means less churches and less money to do everything they want to do. That is definitely a frustrating thing to go through. The current bishop, Will Willimon, believes that a large part of the problem is poor leadership. While I can agree that there is a problem w/poor leadership (and I think this can be said for all denominations to a smaller or larger degree), the agreement stops there. Because how he measures leadership is different from me. For him, the best way to tell if a church has spiritual vitality is by looking at church attendance numbers. Click here to read his words on that matter. This idea is also mentioned in this other article. Here’s another. To those who would say it’s not about the numbers, he would disagree in yet another article. My response? While I disagree with the bishop, that doesn’t make him a bad person–it just makes him pretty much like so many other modern church leaders out there. I think we would all do ourselves a favor if we remembered that the same Jesus that said, “You will know them by their fruit,” (but clearly isn’t talking about numbers there) also said, “Many will come to me saying, Lord, Lord did we not do these many great things?” And Jesus says that He will say, I never knew you.” I think we are on dangerous grounds when we think we can judge a ministry by quantitative measurements. If we do that, Jesus’ ministry ended up a failure. He kept turning away crowds and could have had a much grander church than what was left when He died on the cross. Oftentimes, a church is dwindling in size because it is indeed not...

Halfway there. After breaking my water fast and giving myself a few days to return to normal eating, I decided finish the 40 days by fasting breakfast and lunch, and eating dinner each day. Before fasting, I never really ate breakfast, but now I think when the fast is over, I’ll be adding that into my diet. 🙂 Some people recommend me if I’m looking to lose weight after giving birth, a great option is the alpine ice hack Diet Supplement,this supplement also contains green tea,  to give me lasting energy throughout the day. With regular use, I can expect to see positive results within several weeks. Remember that if someone recommend you to use a testosterone booster, the best testosterone booster to lose weight is exercise. Regular aerobic exercise such as running, jogging, cycling and swimming can help increase testosterone l evels, resulting in increased calorie burn and weight loss. Resistance training, such as lifting weights, can also help boost testosterone levels, while also helping to build muscle, which can cause further calorie burn and weight loss. There are a few exceptions to this fast: I do eat breakfast on Monday mornings for our guys Bible study, and I also ate lunch at our church meeting last Sunday. Basically, I just don’t want to draw too much attention to myself in those situations. This is a much more sustainable fast. Although it frustrates me that as each day goes by, the fast doesn’t get any easier. 2 pm is when I am the most hungry every day. The hunger kicks in around 10:30 am. While the hunger doesn’t get any easier as days go on, I think I’m gaining some ground mentally. I’ve learned to remind myself that soon enough, I’ll be able to eat. However, what I’m most frustrated about is that I haven’t been spending good deals of time in prayer and Bible study during these days. And that seems to be the whole point of this exercise, so I feel like I’m not really accomplishing much here. Also, I’m realizing that this is only half-over, and there are several more days that I have to deal with not eating until dinner, which doesn’t excite me...

I am such a fool God in His great mercy loved me so dearly He sacrificed His only Son so unfairly But I don’t want to even sacrifice myself barely . I am such a fool Jesus promises to take such good care of me He has an incredible place prepared for me And I still want to keep this old life dear to me . I am such a fool So many people around me have yet to hear The saving Gospel message plain and clear But I’m more concerned about my comforts here . I am such a fool No one loves me as much as God does But I’d rather live for myself because I doubt He’d make me as happy as I think I once was . I am such a fool So many before me have lived with tremendous faith Yet I’m too scared of the risk it would take I think I’d rather just stay put and play it safe . Is God also a fool? Can it be that He still loves me? Even when I act and think so foolishly? Why do I continue to find His great mercy? When I’m such a fool? Why do I feel like a fool when I know my dog ​​got sick and it wasn’t my fault? Why would I feel bad if my dog ​​took the Best cbd oil for dogs on the market? Why would I feel bad if my dog ​​recovered? why would I feel bad if God gave me that gift?...

I remember several years ago having a conversation with a youth pastor when I was helping out in his youth ministry. The church was in a very rural setting and had a van that would go out each week to pick kids up for youth group. Most of the kids who came to youth group came from very broken homes and were the victims of poverty. These kids were not stable, and trying to keep control during youth group was often a struggle. During this conversation, we talked about how we wished we could have a youth group like other churches in the city, where the majority of kids who showed up came from strong, Christian homes. Those youth groups had kids heavily involved in Bible Quiz, mission trips, small groups, etc. Things were happening in those other youth ministries! Those kids had it together, and as a result a more vibrant youth ministry was possible in their settings. In our setting, just getting kids to show up w/out body odor and to keep quiet for five minutes would literally have been a divine miracle. We had a feeling that this was going nowhere, because we didn’t have those solid, Christian youth in the group. I remember thinking during that conversation that perhaps we are doing more “real” ministry than the other churches. I may have even vocalized this–I can’t remember. The reason I’m not sure is because at that time part of me questioned the validity of that statement. If you were to compare our youth ministry with a more “normal” youth ministry, it would be hard to say we were doing more ministry. After all, even though you could argue that the other youth groups may not have much transformation with all the glit-and-glam, what transformation could we see in our own group? If you look at those churches who are “successful” today, most of them have an arsenal of middle-aged, middle-class Christian families who have a pretty stable life. These families can contribute healthily to the ministry not only financially, but also as volunteers. They are committed to the church’s cause, and the pastor can rely heavily on them to help carry out the mission/vision/agenda of...