Doing God's work, one step at a time

In the Christian faith, we are surrounded by doubt. Not only when we go out to tell others about Christ, but even within our own ranks we face doubt each and every day. How many times have you shared the Gospel with someone only to be met with the line, “Yeah, but how do you KNOW it happened? What proof do you have?” During my class on Evangelism and Missions, we had to interview 2 people who were Christians and two people who were not. In one of my non-Christian interviews, I was met with that very question. What proof do I have? Well, it really got me thinking, what proof, DO I have? I have my gut instinct, The Bible, and simply put, I have faith because of life experience. However, I know people who intellectualize Jesus and try to pick at every detail. They have issues with faith. Last week, Sherri was working on her Math homework for school and was doing some research to show Math in the Bible. She ran across a man who trying to prove that Noah’s Ark and the Flood could not mathem...

As I prepare for the Trial Sermon at Lima on May 1, it came to me that we are always in a constant state of preparation by God. One thing that we take part in during our lives prepares us for the next moment God moves us again. We are constantly in a state of preparation for the next mission. I can literally go through my life and pinpoint the events that moved me to where I am today. When I was 12, my dad had cancer. As devestating as it was, it was during this time when I felt the calling to ministry. I began asking questions that would one day take me down a different road. I had always loved music, and it began to take me to the point of where I thought God was calling me to be a Music Teacher. When I was 18, I had asked enough questions of my Catholic upbringing to bring me to the point where I felt I needed to make a change. I went to my grandparents Methodist church where I got involved in all aspects of music ministry and explored my faith. It was here my youth minister helped ...

Success. How do you define it? Do you define success in money, family, the acquisitions of material things like cars, a house, tv’s, game systems, new sports equipment or maybe even none of those things? What’s more, how do you define success in a church? More members, better tithing, more programs, more youth? How we define success can depend greatly on our priorities in life. What matters to you will define how you view success. There’s a story of a man who had recently gotten out of school and had to take the first job that came his way. It just so happened that it was a furniture sales position. Having just completed school, he was fairly confident of his knowledge and ability to sell things. After his first week of training, the boss decided to set him loose to sell on his own the next day. Well, the young man was excited as can be, so he went home and practiced his sales talk on his wife. The next day, the boss noticed he was a little down and decided to cheer him up a little. He...