Ministry today

I'm headed out to empty the back of the little red pickup truck so I can go and purchase 800 canned goods and deliver them to the life station. We've been seeing more and more clients than ever. Some people need to eat while the food bank hasn't supplied canned veggies or fruit in a couple of months.

Ariana is it school for workout Wednesday and she was super excited. Ardin got himself up and got on the bus without any help- not bad for a 13 year old that complains he doesn't get enough sleep. Aaron and I had to have a conversation this morning about pushing your limits with video games and certain behaviors.

This is what life looks like when you have two raised daughters who are raising children of Their Own, Two teenage boys who are struggling to find their way in the world and to keep Christ at the center as well as  a charming, growing four year  old who needs your full attention. Of course,  the world's problems won't wait. They don't  get less hungry when you get up slower and the bags of groceries don't get fillled by themselves.

Think again Three Needs editing. The sermon for Sunday needs finished, polished, and practiced. Really important thank you letters need typed and sent out. A really important newsletter article needs written and emailed off. Articles for the newspaper need written and the newspapers that we partner with for distribution need distributed. My wife is back to work today full time after our vacation celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary.

It seems like whatever I do today I'll do alone with the help of God. I just thought of one person who may be available to help. That would sure be nice.

While every church member is at work today, baring their own burdens, trying to honor Christ, trying to make the best decision they know how, I'll be blessed to tackle the things that God has given me to do.

I was watching a movie on the flight over to the UK and an Afghanistan warlord was talking about the difference between him and an American officer and he said, paraphrase: You see that's the difference between you and I, you have leaders above you and orders and I have only God.

Everyone submits to something or someone. This is true even if what they submit to is the effort to not submit. Rebellon is like witchcraft.

I pray that we will stay the course and Honor God. He is wothy of it. I know a man who was near miraculously saved from drugs who is right now struggling with drinking. I know a man who was miraculously freed from smoking who eventually compromised and went back to it after years. What are we doing?

Just as we start to win we accept the world's argument that it's more complex than we thought. We start thinking that it's too much or too easy to boil it down to Christ and Christ alone. But when I am sane I realize that all things relate to Christ and there's no other way to see it.

Anyway, there is so much to be done that I feel pulled to question is it all worth the investment. The Spirit in me says, of course it is. I have just one master- and He is the God of the universe.

My mystic friend who will not give up the pursuit as he is trying to frame the world in his own thinking will have to come to his own conclusions but my conclusion is simple. It's time now to clear the bed of the truck, to purchase and haul can goods. Yep, it's time to get up and take another swing at hunger. So, that's what I do.

P. Daniel Stevenson

New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church of East Toledo

Life station

Fire storm church planting and Evangelism

Fog and Moon Books

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Blind Luck?

Since I became a Christian I stopped believing in blind luck. It seems to me that God is in charge and that all things happen according to His plan but is that what the Bible says? In Ecclesiastes Solomon, the wisest man to ever live wrote the following: Ecclesiastes 9:11-12 New International Version (NIV) 11 I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. 12 Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so people are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them. Observing the way the world works and considering what He knew of God, Solomon who got his wisdom from God concluded that no matter how hard you work or how skillful or wise you are or are not things can still go right or wrong. It seems to us that there is no reason we should not hit on the next big thing and become rich or perhaps we are looking for a simpler victory like a month without a care repair or recognition for our hard work on the job. Sometimes we get it and we judge it makes perfect sense and other times we don’t get what we expect and our mind struggles to grapple with why things have not gone the way we orchestrated. James wrote something on this topic as well. James 4:13-17 13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. According to James, all our great efforts are as mist. That doesn’t amount to much, does it? The accumulated learning of a degree in whatever and a life time’s experience and it amounts to mist. People make plans and leave God and their God given responsibility out of it and then they bemoan their situation while they struggle to understand why it worked out the way it did. So, James warns us, instead of devising clever schemes or well concocted business plans we should say, even as part of a good plan, whatever God wills. He ends by saying, whatever good a person knows they should do and does not do it, for them it is sin. Paul says something about the topic in his famous speech on Mars Hill: 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. A few quick takeaways: 1- Best laid plans go awry. Don’t not plan but don’t set your hopes on a good plan, rather trust in the God that has a plan that transcends all of ours. 2- Build yourself, get better educated, manage your health, clean up your mouth and your language because the only one that can get you better odds than a roll of the dice on the outcome of your next endeavor is God and if you want Him on your side you’d better live like your on His side. 3- If you know something you should do and you are blowing it off. If you are planning your life without giving special emphasis to those things that will make the world a better place (and you know what they are- feed the poor, care for those in need, be kind, and serve with no hope of being repaid by the person or persons you serve…) If you have a plan that leaves out any good thing that God would have you do, He calls that sin. Repent today and do the things you know you should. 4- Have hope: God can make something out of anyone at any time. He loves a reversal of fortune. He loves to bless those who don’t deserve it and realize it. Make asking God for help part of who you are. Make living for God more important than coming out on top and you can know that eternity settled and time and chance can’t touch that AND THAT”S HOPE The bottom line is: A lot of people are trying to bank on their good fortune tomorrow, they think it will eventually all come together because they work hard or learn much and while working hard and learning much are the right things to do, tomorrow’s profit is the wrong reason to do it and frankly just might not be coming because time and chance happen to all men. So, bank on God today doing the things you know He wants you to do. Start by accepting Jesus as Lord and then use all that you are and all that you can become for His glory. Do those small, good things today that you’ve been letting go because your plans or your business seemed more important. Let God take care of the outcome. If as His people we will choose to live like this, His kingdom will advance on earth, His will will be done, and that’s something so much more than mist.