To Please God or to Please Man

To please God or to please man? That is the question. It's not exactly Shakespeare, but it is a question we must all answer as we face different decisions and challenges each and every day. It amazes me how many people are more concerned about what other people think of them than what God thinks of them. It also amazes me how often people quote Galatians 1:10 in an effort to justify carnal decisions they have already made.

Call to Action (Part II)

In Part I of Call to Action I talked about the first reason God gave the church (body of Christ) the gift of leaders. In Ephesians 4:11 we read that God gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and some teachers. The first reason is to equip the church for the work of the ministry. The church leadership trains up the church body, who in turn goes and does the work of the ministry, which is serving in their community and sphere of influence. Today I want to talk about the second reason God gave us the gifts he did in our church leadership. We see in the latter half of verse 12 church leadership exists to edify the church body. My dictionary defines edify as a verb that means to instruct or benefit, especially morally or spiritually and to lift up.

Call To Action (Part I)

One of the hot button topics in our nation today is education, and rightfully so. If we do not educate our children, we can no longer grow as a people. We can no longer innovate or discover. We would be destined to relive the dark ages. I realize that is a bit extreme, but you get my point. In Washington State, my chosen home, education is a constitutional mandate. There has been talk about tying student achievement to teacher performance evaluations, compensation, and tenure. That is an interesting thought process that I believe needs much discussion. Don’t worry; I’m not publishing a politically charged one sided argument for or against education or the politicos on either side of that debate. What I am doing is pondering, "What if we applied the same discussion to the church?"