Lessons from a boat...

Everywhere I’ve lived as an adult, I’ve tried to enjoy the culture and worked to educate myself on the community that I lived in at that time. I’ve looked for local history markers, embraced the local sports teams, and tried to learn how people think in that area. When we were starting a church in New Hampshire, we got ice skates so we could skate in the parking lot of the town post office when they flooded a portion of it and made an ice skating rink. We enrolled our kids in skiing lessons and for six weeks every winter on Friday afternoon, all 7 Greens could be found swooshing down a mountain near Mount Washington. Since I’ve been in Maryland, we’ve taken in the sights, enjoyed the inner harbor on a number of occasions, found the Rocks State Park and I’ve perched myself on the King and Queen seat (but I soon come down as I can tell I make Cheryl nervous hanging out up there). One day in the inner harbor, I saw a number of sailboats and I thought to myself that day I’d like to learn how to sail. I did some checking and found a great sailing school in Havre de Grace. On my vacation last week, I took our daughter Beth and we learned how to sail a 22 foot sailboat. Honestly, I had a ball being on that boat with Beth for 3 days along with our instructor and two other folks learning with us.

I thought about some spiritual applications from that experience of learning to sail. First of all, you can’t just go down to the dock, jump on a sailboat and go. I had to be trained and equipped to do this. I took advantage of a school and the training it offered me to learn this sport. I was excited about getting trained because I wanted to sail. I wondered why more people don’t take advantage of the training classes offered at Calvary to help them be better equipped disciples of Jesus Christ. Could it be we’ve lost our excitement about being disciples? Let me encourage you this fall to sign up for one of our discipleship training classes we’ll offer on Wednesday evenings after worship. You’ll see more about these class topics soon but let me encourage you to take advantage of this training.

I also learned that sailing takes planning ahead and constantly being on the lookout for dangerous situations that can develop quickly. Life is like that also as Satan is constantly laying traps for you but God has given you a manual and an instructor to guide you through life in the Bible and His own Holy Spirit. He’s offered you the safety and security of a church family to help guide you. All of us on that boat were alert and pointed out danger as we saw it as we were all quite literally “in the same boat”. We studied the manual, learned “the rules of the road” for safe boating and how to get out of the way of trouble when it was looming. We started our day in class before heading out on the water to sail. I must spend time in the Bible each morning before I head out as it shows me principles needed to navigate away from the snares of the devil.

I learned it takes a team of at least two people to operate that sailboat but there was the support of the marina crew we needed. We witnessed a number of boats come to the aid of a little Hobie Cat that overturned. People rearranged their plans to get involved for a pressing need. It takes lots of people to serve in the ministries of Calvary. Many of you have said you’ll serve in some way and we’re thankful for that. Some are still considering it but let me encourage you to get involved. If you’re not yet a member, let me encourage you to commit to joining Calvary and get to work with us as there is a pressing need to reach our community for Christ.

To get certified in sailing we had to successfully complete a “man overboard” recovery drill on the water. If we didn’t do it correctly our “victim” (in this case a life jacket) would drown. As we go about our lives, we need to remember people will die and go to hell apart from Jesus Christ and we must do everything we can to share with them the Gospel – God’s provision for salvation through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. You may be the only one who can get to that friend, co-worker or loved one in time with the good news that Jesus made provision for their sin. In order to reach my "victim" in that drill, I was intentional with a proven plan to reach him. Be intentional in your relationships with a proven plan in order to reach them. (Hmm, "becoming a Christian is as simple as ABC..." comes to mind).

One final thought for now at least. I also learned that while I’m able to sail a small boat, I still have much to learn and even though I made mistakes and was downright overwhelmed at times, patient and faithful perseverance pays off in the end. The more I learn as a disciple of Jesus Christ, the more I know there’s more to learn. I know when I make mistakes, the Lord patiently guides me back to the truth and patient, faithful perseverance in walking with God daily will pay off no matter how overwhelmed I am. In the Gospels, I see that Jesus was comfortable in a boat no matter what storm was raging. Even though His disciples were scared and overwhelmed, Jesus brought peace to them. He does that for you and me too when we trust Him by faith no matter the storm is going on in our life. I thought you’d enjoy just a few lessons from a boat, from my little corner of the world to yours…

  Pastor Ralph Green
Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church
  www.calvarybelair.com

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

The power of a vision...

This year is another big year in the Green household as we travelled with our youngest daughter and middle child Beth down to tour Liberty University in June and are making plans for her to head off to college this fall. We’re also seeing our oldest son Ralph headed to High School this year as a freshman. Cheryl and I have always had, as most parents do, dreams and hopes for our children in how they will turn out. We’ve been intentional in our parenting to raise them to love Jesus with all they have and to serve Him all of their days. While this is still an active process and we’re at a very different stage at this point in our lives, where we are today in our relationships with all of our children began as a dream, a vision if you will, that burned in our hearts from before they were born. That vision for what we wanted them to become has meant we’ve had to make some tough choices along the way that were not popular with them at the time but the vision helped shape what we said yes or no to. If we felt like what they wanted to do would help them in line with our vision, we said yes. If we felt like it would prevent them from becoming what we envisioned, we said no and stuck to our guns no matter how much whining or belly aching followed. Cheryl and I have parented with the end goal in mind, the vision of what we desire them to be. (This is not to suggest that as parents we always made or make the correct choice!)

As we walked around the vast campus at Liberty University, I could not but help to reflect back 28 years ago when I was a freshman student on that very campus. I remembered going to Thomas Road Baptist Church and hearing Jerry Falwell casting his vision for a world class university that would someday have more than 50,000 students enrolled. I remembered singing the little jingle they had developed “I want that mountain” referring to the mountain in Lynchburg that has become “Liberty Mountain.”  I walked through a huge building that used to be an electronics manufacturing plant which now houses the new Thomas Road Baptist Church  and also the student center. Driving by the huge football stadium now on campus, I had a flashback to being at an LU football game at the old Lynchburg City stadium 28 years ago and to my delight as a freshman student, there was Dr. Falwell standing on top of a concrete dugout in front of a few thousand fans urging them to get fired up to root Liberty on to victory. As I saw the myriad of changes there that have taken place in 28 years, one thing kept coming to my mind, this is all the result of the power of a vision that burned in Dr. Falwell’s soul and caused him to wake up every day and go to work to see that vision fulfilled. By the way, Liberty University now has close to 60,000 students enrolled worldwide including their online students!

You may be sitting there reading this and thinking ”so what Pastor Ralph, what does that have to do with me or Calvary?” Quite frankly, everything. Part of Proverbs 29:18 says: “Where there is no vision, the people perish…” This is true for your life and family personally, and for our church corporately. We must live personally and corporately with the end goal in mind, the vision of what God wants us to be and what we want to be. The people who find joy and contentment in life are those who desire that their hopes and dreams align with God’s dreams for them. People who resist God’s plans for them find themselves to be miserable.  Last night, I met once again with our vision team members. God is drawing us together and He’s speaking to each of us about what the future of Calvary Baptist Church. We are having a great time together just dreaming and asking God what He wants to do here at Calvary, what He wants to do in Harford County, this region and the world. We’re working through our personal devotions and study of God’s Word, exercises, selected books, even some sermon CD’s to help us clarify a fresh vision for Calvary, how we can help people encounter God and experience life change. How can we fulfill our mission statement your staff has identified “Teach my people very well, so they will love me very much and serve me very effectively.” That’s making disciples, that’s fulfilling the Great Commission in the context of Calvary Bel Air Maryland.  When I begin dreaming what God wants to do in us and through us to reach this community, our region and the world; I see much of what God has in mind for us and it fans my flame. It’s exciting and it’s scary but it’s all good because God is the author of it! You’ll be hearing more as we pray and develop a fresh vision we believe God has for us.

I’m thrilled to tell you under Dr. Carter’s leadership, a number of folks from Calvary worked on a “Strategic Action Plan” several years ago. In looking through those notes and that plan, they dreamed with God and much of what they envisioned has been implemented and is already in place. That vision and plan has gotten us to where we are today. Pray for us as a staff, pray for us as a vision team and pray for us as a church family, that we’ll have the courage to embrace God’s vision for Calvary. Maybe 28 years from now, someone will be strolling through Bel Air Maryland and they’ll see the reality of the power of a vision, that transferred from God to my little corner of the world and to yours…

Ralph Green

Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

www.calvarybelair.com

Subscribe to Pastor Ralph's Blog: http://pastorralphgreen.blogspot.com/  

Follow Me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RalphGreen  

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

I've got the post VBS something...

I’ve heard people talk about getting the “post-__________ blues”. It may be the blues that settle in after we marry off our last child and we’re empty nesters. It could be the blues that settle in after our vacation is over and we’re swallowed by the reality of work and “normal” life (if there is such a thing).  Well I’ve got the “post VBS something.” It’s not really the blues per say because while I love VBS and the ministry that is accomplished that week, it is just a grueling schedule for the week that VBS is going on. It is flat exhausting to be quite honest because for the typical volunteer, you work all day, rush home to change clothes, rush down to church, inhale the supper provided, dash off to your area of responsibility before the kids begin to arrive and you don’t exhale till you collapse in bed late into the night. Your mind is swirling with all of what you experienced that night with plans of what to do the next night to make it better and while your body is screaming at you to get horizontal, your mind is too keyed up to let you go to sleep. In my case, usually passing out around midnight and getting up to carry on the next day. Monday through Friday, 5 days of blurring excitement and activity, songs ringing in your head and just like that, it is over. It was a long week on one hand but on the other, you blinked and it was finished. Except after Friday night’s activities, we have to tear down all the decorations and get the church cleaned for events scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. From the toll it takes on the volunteers physically, I’m not sure it would be accurate to say I have the post-VBS blues; but I do have the “Post-VBS something.”

I marvel at the numbers and variety of volunteers from teens to senior adults, faithfully working alongside each other ministering to children in the myriad VBS responsibilities. I won’t list all the positions of responsibility because I’d be sure to miss someone. It was gratifying as a pastor to see the saints of God doing the work of the ministry which is what Ephesians 4:12 says is the job of the pastors to “equip the saints for the work of the ministry.”  I marvel at the generosity of volunteers with their time to help us win at least 7 children to Jesus for the very first time! I marvel at the generosity of children and parents who emptied their piggy banks giving cash and baby items of over $1000.00 to support the work of our local crisis pregnancy center “Alpha’s Glory”. This ministry helps very young parents who need to choose life when they find out there are people who love their unborn child. I marvel at the great attitudes of volunteers which is contagious to the children participating so there is an electric atmosphere of excitement and joy throughout our building the entire week. I marvel watching VBS much like I do when I see a huge Air Force transport plane driving by Dover AFB. Seeing the size of it, I think there is no way that thing gets off the ground and flies – but it does! I marvel at the speed which decorations come down, hay and stray get vacuumed up and the church is cleaned and ready for other uses.  I guess you could say I’ve got “Post-VBS Thanksgiving.” I’m grateful to God for events like Vacation Bible School which draws the church together, where it matters not if you attend the 8:30 or 11:00 o’clock service, the saints of God work together to impact the lives of children and parents for the Kingdom. For all of you who helped us in VBS in any fashion, I want to say thank you for serving the Lord to make this event a wonderful success, not just for Calvary, but for the lives that will be in Heaven someday because of your faithfulness.

I also wanted to pause and say thanks to all of you who ministered on two opposite ends of the spectrum on Saturday. Some of you labored to celebrate the life of a new baby coming to a family and encourage a young couple by giving them a great baby shower. Some of you ministered to a grieving family and a host of law enforcement officers in a myriad of ways and in doing so, you reinforced the Gospel message they heard at the funeral through practical acts of love and service.  Then many of you also came to worship on Sunday and labored and served all over again after 7 straight days of ministry! I’m so proud of all of you servants of the Most High God. I believe the Lord is pleased and proud of you also and only eternity will tell of the fruit of much if not most of your labors. “All it takes to grow a great church is everybody doing what they can do.”  To God be the Glory, great things He has done through you saints this week. I love this “Post-VBS something” feeling I have, from my little corner of the world to yours….
Ralph Green
Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church
www.calvarybelair.com
Subscribe to Pastor Ralph's Blog: http://pastorralphgreen.blogspot.com/  
Follow Me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RalphGreen  

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

A willingness to serve...

I had the wonderful benefit of being raised in a family that loves Jesus. I met Jesus at the age of 5 and He has been my Savior ever since. Oh there were times I would have nearly given anything not to be a “preacher’s kid”, there were times I thought my home address was whatever church we were members of, and quite frankly times I didn’t want to have anything to do with church, I just wanted to be “normal” like everyone else. Well I’ve learned some things now that I have more gray hair than brown. I’ve learned to appreciate my parents and all the values they instilled in me and their consistent example of serving the Lord Jesus with everything they had. I learned to serve the Savior primarily watching my parents each involved in ministry in our local church.  I saw firsthand their love and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ because they lived out in front of me that love in how they served the Lord in a  variety of ministries – even though they became “full time missionaries” when I was about 12 years of age. Even though their jobs were working for the Lord, I’ve watched them volunteer and serve God in their local church, something they continue even now in their 70’s.

I’ve also learned that the only way I can have peace, contentment and joy is by consistently giving my life away in service to Jesus. I’ve learned that when I begin to pursue my own agenda and not the Lord’s, when I begin to focus all my efforts on my own entertainment, leisure, finances, family or anything else, something begins to happen in me and my family;  the contentment, joy and peace disappears and the wheels begin to come off. I reprioritize and get back to serving the Lord with all my heart and the contentment, joy and peace returns to me and my family. Honestly, it is just weird. It’s almost like God takes His hands off me and says, “Go ahead, do it your way and tell me how that plan is working for you.”

 

This brings me to my point, as I see a church full of very harried, busy, stressed out and over committed people pursuing everything under the sun and it appears there isn’t much joy, contentment or peace in their lives. Let me give you a little secret from Jesus in Luke 9:23-25 “Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? In other words, Jesus is saying the secret to “having a life” is losing your life, your agenda, your plans, picking up your cross – the service God has for you to do for His kingdom each day.  In all our efforts to entertain ourselves and “get a life”, we’re just more stressed out, tired and dissatisfied with the life we are living. In another passage, Jesus tells us to store treasure in heaven because it lasts forever.

 

On the other hand, the church as a whole and Calvary in particular struggles to place people in ministry positions because everyone is already “too busy.”  Leadership positions like AWANA commander and leaders, Missions committee members, trustees, children’s teachers, deacon positions will go unfilled as we begin our church year (just to name a few). We have a dire need to multiply our youth ministry to High School and Middle School departments, yet we’re not able to do so because we don’t have enough workers. As a result, we’re forced to keep 6^th graders with grade school children when in their schools, they are in middle school.  We are facing some major difficulties with some key ministries here at Calvary for lack of leadership and volunteers. Your staff and nominating committee continue searching for people to serve only to be told no because people are too busy.

 

I don’t have it all figured out, but I know Jesus is capable of multiplying our meager loaves and fishes we’ll bring to Him by faith. I know Jesus promised to give you “life and that you’d have it more abundantly” when “you take up your cross and follow…”. Your church has need of you to serve and you have need for your church, because it is the God-ordained place for you to find the joy, contentment and peace you’re breaking your neck to find with worldly pursuits. God established the church for you to use your gifts, talents and abilities and especially your weaknesses to magnify His glory and expand His kingdom, the place for you to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. Churches and families working together produce disciples.  I’m grateful to God for having learned this lesson of serving God from my dad and mom who still faithfully serve Jesus, who still help me grow as a disciple. They are so full of joy and life it is amazing. They’ve found a great life; I’ve found a great life serving the Lord. I have joy, contentment and peace that is astounding. It starts with a willingness to serve; from my little corner of the world to yours…

  Pastor Ralph Green
Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

  www.calvarybelair.com

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

Of distress, disaster & deacons...

I've been greatly burdened to have so many people in our church family to be in physical need. With a church the size of Calvary, it is inevitable that some part of our church family will be in distress with physical needs or the loss of a loved one nearly every week. Honestly there are times it is just overwhelming to me as a human pastor. Many times I find myself so burdened for the physical and emotional needs of people in the church it’s hard for me to concentrate on messages I need to be preparing as Sunday morning and Wednesday night roll around with great regularity and frequency. Then I'll hear a little bit of feedback on occasion that someone doesn't feel like they are being cared for properly by the pastor. This breaks my heart as a shepherd that one of my sheep is in distress and all I'm able to do at that moment is pray for them. Well the "all I can do is pray" thing is the most important thing I can do for them. I'm thankful for a great staff and deacons who take the pastoral care seriously and serve as extensions of my arms to care for you. Please know if they come and minister to you they share the heart of your pastor and his concern for you, they represent me but more importantly they represent the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then there are seasons in the church family where on top of the physical need, the wheels come off and disaster strikes. It could be some tragic trauma, sudden accident, or it could be someone stumbles and falls into sin that becomes very public in nature because of the type of sin they are ensnared with or they got arrested in the process of their sin. Our first response upon hearing of this kind of disaster among the body should be a broken and contrite heart that begins to pray for the individual(s) involved. One thing I've learned about these times of disaster and public sin in people's lives is that Christians are notorious for shooting their wounded soldiers who fall on the battlefield by how we respond to such situations. We talk about it, we gossip, speculate and criticize to the detriment of the persons involved, to the church and the testimony of the Lord before a lost world that is watching. We will turn people off to the Gospel and they'll want nothing to do with being a disciple of Jesus Christ if that's how we operate. The Scriptures give us instruction on what to do when disastrous sin entangles a believer. Paul said in Galatians 6:1-2 “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

These are simple and straightforward instructions of how we are to respond when one of us gets tangled in Satan’s web of sin. Our aim is to be restoration of the individual – helping them to get back on track spiritually and in fellowship with the body. We are to conduct ourselves in a spiritual manner in a spirit of gentleness. This means we’re careful to not cause more hurt and damage in an already difficult situation. But we’re also to keep watch on ourselves because we could be ensnared in sin also so we guard against that. Bearing one another’s burdens – we do that in prayer. We don’t put our mouths in gear to talk about it to others; we simply talk to God about the situation.

This brings me to deacons and deacon ministry. They are the individuals God has given to His church to assist the pastoral staff in ministering when there is distress and downright disaster going on in a member’s life. According to 1^st Timothy 3, God holds them to the same standard as He holds pastors to so they will not take advantage of anyone in difficulty. I called on one of our deacons Monday evening to respond with me to a situation where one of members was caught in sin and disaster has overtaken. The details will become known soon enough but we’ve already begun the process of restoration and caring for this distressed member and his family. How we respond as a church will be critical to show the lost around us how Christians are to care for our wounded. I’m determined to lead us to respond Biblically and in a way that brings glory to God.

I’m also burdened as I’ve talked with deacons who are approaching men about the possibility of serving alongside them as deacons. Often, the response is “I do not feel like I’m called to do that” or “I do not feel like I’m worthy to do that.” I think there are some false notions about what deacon ministry is all about when I hear that type of response. Acts 6 helps clarify what deacons do – aid the pastors with pastoral care and solve disputes. The initial qualifications were twofold: of good reputation, full of the Spirit and full of wisdom. You say “Pastor, you can’t count that’s three.” I would respond its two because if you’re full of the Spirit, you’re full of wisdom and He will give you what you need when you need it. So men, if you are approached or have been, do not base your response on how you feel. You’re being asked to serve because someone observes these two qualities in you. Pray about it and let God call or not call you, but let God decide who He wants to help us aid the body in distress and disaster. It’s not just the burden of the pastors or individual deacons, we bear these burdens together…from my little corner of the world to yours…

Pastor Ralph Green

Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

  www.calvarybelair.com
 

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

SBC Annual Meeting Recap

For those of you who couldn’t attend the convention but are interested, here is a great recap and some insight from a pastor friend of mine who summarizes the annual meeting well. I would echo his sentiments and observations for the future of our convention and the clarion call reach the unreached peoples of the world. His comments follow:

“The 2010 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention is over. Here are some thoughts I'm thinking:

--A big initiative called the Great Commission Resurgence (GCR) was passed overwhelmingly. A high profile committee of 23 presented 8 recommendations for change to/in the SBC after an extensive and far ranging 1 year study of the SBC's agencies and systems. These recs are meant to refocus the SBC on the GC after a 10-plus year lack of focus on the GC.

Time will tell if our churches have truly recommitted themselves to the GC. It will be reflected in international missions giving and going as well as church planting and revitalization here in the States. It will be reflected in the reallocation of monies in our 41 state conventions. Currently, only 2.5% of SBC money makes it overseas to 95% of the world's population. Most of the money gets kept in our state conventions which too often try to substitute for the work of the local church instead of supplementing it. I'm thankful our state convention, the SBTC, does the latter.

--The GCR debate over the past year has demonstrated there are at least two distinct camps in the SBC. My prayer is that we aren't divided over whether the SBC is broken in many ways, but rather over the solution to the problem. The fact that the SBC needs an overhaul is clear: we have had declining #s of CP giving and baptisms for years, we can't hit our missions offering goals, and we can't afford all of our current missionaries, never mind sending new ones to the field. We need change.

--The passing of the GCR rocks at least expanded the pool of top tier SBC leadership, if it didn't usher in new leadership. Most opposition to the GCR came from the SBC's old guard, with notable exceptions, and opposition was strong. Thus, the overwhelming approval of the GCR means SBCers are listening to new voices. Men like Johnny Hunt, Danny Akin, and Al Mohler are now the official visible leaders of the SBC.

New systems, emphases, and leadership in no way devalue the success and victories of the recent past. In fact, the leadership of today is only possible because of the conservative resurgence. If this new leadership is wise, they will take heavily into consideration the wisdom and input of leaders from the conservative resurgence. They may be aging, but their wisdom and perspective are like precious jewels. As well, I hope the new leadership is like a wise successor to a long tenured pastor and regularly provide public affirmation and value to those who have made the SBC the incredible denomination it is today.

--Southeastern Seminary announced a formal intern program with local church partners across the country to give students field experience. Students can earn 3-15 hours of credit. The vision is for 100 partnering churches. The lack of apprenticeships are the biggest weakness in the SBC's system of training future ministers. This is really close to my heart and the announcement has me pumped.

--The SBC has launched a program to financially help ministers adopt children. This is a great move. If ministers adopt, many people in the churches will adopt. Adoption is an incredible picture of what the Father has done for us. Talk about painting a picture of God for the watching world!

--The SBC passed a resolution on divorce. As divorce becomes more common in our churches, pastors are addressing it less and less. The SBC churches resolved to continue to teach what the bible says about divorce and marry only those who meet the biblical guidelines for marriage. SBC churches must remain a people of the bible.

--The oil spill, the biggest nature related disaster in US history, spurred a resolution on our responsibility to steward nature well. Drilling for oil is fine and good as God has given us dominion over nature. However, the Scriptures define how we should steward our dominion and the SBC took a step toward defining it.

--The new CEO of the SBC was elected with a majority vote of less than 60%. I'm not sure I know any pastor who would accept a call to a church in peaceful times on such a small majority, so the new CEO's acceptance of a call of this nature has me concerned. Nonetheless, it's a done deal and I think Frank Page should be given the opportunity to prove he can do the job well. I pray for him to have great success.

--Attendance at our 6 seminaries is really strong which is a good sign, especially for our future.

To be sure, our SBC is in need of some changes, but she is a huge vessel and it takes time to turn around an aircraft carrier. The new de facto leaders, the passing of the GCR, the enrollment #s in our seminaries, and other signs of life are evidence that a course correction has begun. It may take time to see, but I truly believe a recalibration of the SBC is beginning. I'm optimistic about the future of the SBC and by the grace of God, we will see great years of harvest in the years to come.”

Ralph Green

Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

www.calvarybelair.com

Subscribe to Pastor Ralph's Blog: http://pastorralphgreen.blogspot.com/  

Follow Me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RalphGreen  

Posted via email from Pastor Ralph

Raising the bar of expectations...

Last night in our Wednesday worship service (yes we do have Wednesday worship that most members apparently don’t know about or are ignoring it); I was sharing “God’s Call to Abram” from Genesis 12. The context is roughly 292 years after the worldwide flood. The last time we’re told God spoke to anyone was to Noah & his sons and all of a sudden, God speaks to this guy named Abram (before the Lord changed his name to Abraham). Not only was it strange that God suddenly speaks, but He also makes a ridiculous demand of this guy Abram: Pack up, leave your home country, your extended family and your elderly father and move to a place I’ll show you when you get there. God then gave 7 promises to Abram that He would do for Abram if he obeyed and Gen.12:4 says “So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him.  Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.”  Think about Abram’s radical obedience to this audacious God who interrupted Abram’s life and the turmoil God caused in Abram’s family – yes turmoil is the right word if you can imagine trying explain this to your wife, your parents and grandparents that you heard a voice from heaven and you’ve been told to move to some place, you don’t know even where it is but the voice is going to tell you when you get there so you’re going to listen to the voice…. our families might haul us off for a psychiatric evaluation! I was trying to put Abram’s experience in the context of our church life here at Calvary and I think we’re missing something, somehow we’ve come to expect less of people of faith.

We look at Abram and think it wasn’t that big a deal, that somehow it was easier for him than it would be for us to obey God today with that kind of radical faith and commitment. Abram was 75 years old at the time and I know how much stuff I’ve accumulated in 46 years and how much I detest moving. The Bible tells us Abram had a lot of people (servants) in this mix also so this was not simple. He didn’t have a moving company to come pack him up, he had herds and flocks to move and where God took him was nearly 400 miles away as the crow flies, all on foot. I read about a guy with this kind of radical faith and obedience and wonder why we can’t  get people to respond to our preschool director’s plea to move out of the sanctuary once every 8 weeks to pull a shift in the preschool department on Sunday mornings, much less move to the other side of the world as a missionary!

The faith and commitment to obey God like Abram convicts me and rattles my bones at how little we expect from modern Christians. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for the many volunteers who faithfully serve here at Cavalry but I’ve got to wonder why we don’t raise the bar of expectations higher, why don’t we call people to a radical faith of service and sacrifice. I think it just could be that we’re not interested in a “radical Christianity”, we just want a “comfortable Christianity.” I would submit to you that the God of the Bible is not into “comfortable Christianity.” He makes radical demands to obey, He stretches us to do the unthinkable to further His plans and He expects, demands and deserves obedience from us as we seek to build His kingdom, and we do it by faith. The good news however is the rewards of having God be our supplier and protector, the one who promises He’ll take care of us as we obey Him is far more valuable than the sacrifice of stepping into the realm of the unknown and risking the upheaval of the status quo in our life. It really is a great adventure to obey God, to ask Him to call you to do something with you that is bigger than you can dream. It matters not how old you are, God has an adventure for each of us as believers to pursue if you have the courage to listen to the voice of God and obey Him like old Abram did. You too can be a hero of the faith in a modern context by obeying God, even if you don’t know all the details of the call. I think it’s time to raise the bar….from my little corner of the world to yours…

Ralph Green

Senior Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church

www.calvarybelair.com

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Posted via email from Pastor Ralph