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PreacherD
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Country: United States
State: Texas
Metro: Corpus Christi
Gender: Male
Interests: I am pretty easy to entertain. Lots of things peek my interest the only problem is that I quickly grow bored. Some of the things I enjoy but don't always get to do include golf, reading, hanging out with friends, walking, working in my yard as well as anything else that can be done outside.
Expertise: There are few areas in my life that I would call myself an expert at.
Occupation: Other
Industry: Nonprofit
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
4/24/2006
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| 1. To be a man of the Word and of Prayer, seeking to know God personally, intimately, and deeply.
2. To be a man who practices Spiritual Disciplines in order that I might walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.
3. To be a man that is zealous about the purity of my mind and heart.
4. To be a man that speaks honestly, compassionately, and directly to others.
5. To be a man that is not distracted by the small stuff. Such things should be ignored, prayed about, or handled quickly but, should never dominate the thoughts and emotions for the day.
6. To be a man who prays about difficult issues as oppose to worrying about them.
7. To be a man who never blasphemes the Holy Spirit by trusting in models, methods, and men more than I do in the Holy Spirit's ability to move.
8. To be a man that has a genuine passion for souls and who is personally and actively involved in soul winning.
9. To be a man who is committed to discipling believers so that they might live powerful and effective lives for Christ.
10. Never to do anything that might embarrass my Lord or defame His name.
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| I think it was John Piper that first said it, "Evangelism exist because worship doesn't." That is a phrase I have been giving a great amount of thought to both personally and as the pastor of a church. Personally, I think we still lack the amazement, the astonishment, the being wowed by our God and who He is. I think we still miss it when we are walking in the morning and see the fog hugging the ground. I think we miss it when we see a tree putting on new buds as it gets ready to spring to life again. I think we miss it when we see the cycles of rain and sun, cold and warmth, and on and on it goes.
Beyond that we miss it when we see miracles. We pray for someone who is sick to be well, they get well and we spend about 35 seconds being amazed. There are times that we see people's lives in shambles and we pray for them then things turn and begin to go well for them and we spend no time being amazed. Or, how about the greatest miracle of all? How about seeing someone give their life to Christ, have their sins forgiven and be set in right relationship with God? That is the miracle of all miracles but we accept it as the expected end, the goal of our ministry.
I have been thinking about this on two fronts. First of all I have been think about it with frustration of how my own walk with God has been going. At what point did I stop being amazed? At what point did my true passion for God begin to fade? Is there some sin that has gotten in the way or have I just allowed my priorities to get skewed? What ever has caused it I hate it. I seem to think more about successful ministry, effective leadership, making an impact, and to be real honest, being discovered than I do about the grandeur of our God. I pray, through prayer, self-discipline, and most of all, the grace of God this will soon change.
The second front I have been giving thought to is the people who make up my church. I cannot truly look into their hearts and make a flawless assessment but I can see the fruit that is their to see. It seems to me that there is little or no amazement of who our God is and what it is He can do. It is a deep desire of mine to see my people fall head over hills in love with God, to be amazed by Him daily, and to worship Him with great passion. I cannot know for sure what is the case but it seems to me that they lack a love for His word (the Bible), lack a desire for holiness, lack a burden for the lost, and in general, have allowed God to slip from His place of prominence in their lives.
I am sure there are many a pastor who feels the way I do, I just am one of the few foolish enough to say it, or to admit it about myself. I have been at this long enough to know that seasons in our life ebb and flow just like the season in nature but, this season of drought has been too long. I am praying that God will set things right in my life and in the church, that He will reveal sin, wrong attitudes, wrong focus, and wrong goals that He might not be hindered. I pray that the amazement would come so that worship could come. I pray that the kind of worship would come that would make evangelism unnecessary.
May God sovereignty reign.
Darrell
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| I know it is probably hard to believe but sometimes when a Pastor is preaching or teaching they somehow manage to teach themselves something. I would not be shocked to have that happen during the study to prepare for preaching or teaching but while the teaching is being done...that still surprises me.
Last night, during our Bible study time I was teaching from Mark 1. We usually talk about prayer on Wednesday night since that is why we are there. In Mark 1 Jesus has spent the night ministering to people. The Bible tells us that he was healing the sick and casting out demons. It goes on to say that the whole town was at the door of the house He was in. When it was all done I can imagine that Jesus was exhausted and ready for a long nights rest. But, instead of sleeping in the next day the Bible says he got up while it was still dark outside and went to a solitary place to pray.
While Jesus is praying his disciples come and get Him and say everyone in town is looking for you. To which Jesus replies in verse38, "Let's go on to the neighboring villages, so that I may preach there too. This is why I have come." Several things in the record of this event stick out to me.
1. Jesus thought it important enough to pray that He got up to go pray when I know He had to of wanted to sleep in. I think that this should say something to those of us who are in leadership positions. If the Son of God felt it important to pray, even when exhausted, then so should we. A true leader, in my mind, is little more than a great follower (of Christ).
2. Jesus had experienced great success the night prior to this happening. Lots of people came, lots of people got set free. As a result, lots of people were looking for Him. Now, maybe I am just a little too much of an affirmation hound, but I am afraid that if I was in this position that it would have been very hard not to go back and give it another go. I mean, why leave as long as you are being successful. Success is certainly an indicator of God's will isn't it?
3. Jesus knew what God had called Him to do and why He was here. There was nothing, and no one, that was going to distract Him. He had been with the Father and He was clear what His purpose was. Can you imagine the freedom? Imagine all of the questions such clarity would answer. Imagine the resolve such clarity would give you? Imagine how easy it would get to say NO to all of the wrong things in light of such clarity. Imagine the motivation that would result. Imagine the passion for life that would result. WOW!
So, I don't know about you but as for me, I am setting my mind, heart, and spirit, to finding out God's specific plan for me. It is one thing to know what your call is, it is all together another thing to know specifically what you are to do within that call. Let the journey begin...
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| I am an easily bored person. It does not take much for me to grow disinterested and tired of things. It is sort of funny to me that I am in that place in life. I am pretty much busy from daylight to dark most of the week. The problem is that I am doing the same thing week in and week out. It goes like this: church, church, church, soccer, soccer. Neither are bad its just that I would like a little change. Add to that the sleepless nights that come with having an infant in the house, and you get a glimpse of how things are going for our family right now.
I am not sure what I can do to provide myself with a spark. I need something that will get the juices flowing once again. Something that will rekindle a passion for the place I am in life right now. I have tried doing a lot of reading but so far that has not really done it. My wife has suggested that maybe it is time to begin my Doctorate degree but I am not sure I am ready to make that sort of an academic commitment at this point. So, I am not sure what to do.
I know one thing that I would like to see happen is to see our church catch on fire for the Lord and begin to grow. I would love to see a new passion for worship, Bible Study, evangelism, and the like. I would love to see our church begin to grow, not from transfers, but real, souls saved, lives changed, growth. I would like to think that I could come up with a good "5 Step Approach" to getting us there but those never work either. They may work for some people but when I tried that God does the equivalent of slapping a jump shot right back in my face. So, what do I do? I have a sense that God has actually brought me to this place. I think it is a place that the "junk food" of life is no longer going to do. I think God is calling me to find real substance. I think He is pushing me to find the substance of life that can only be found in Him.
I am not sure what the key to unlocking such an experience is but, I hope I find it soon. I am not ready to be an older, more mature, settled person who lives the same life day after day. I do not want to be the guy who puts my shoes on at the same time and in the same way everyday. I need excitement, I need change, I need movement in my life. So, I wait, not so patiently, in hopeful anticipation that God will kindle a fresh, new, and real passion in my life for the things that really matter whatever they are.
Darrell
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| For the last several days I have been greatly agitated by something that seems to keep reoccurring in my life. It seems that people in my denominational background (Southern Baptist) are moving further and further away from accepting the Bible as God's Truth. Scripture says of itself in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."
Yes, I see the obvious problem, if you don't accept scripture as God's inspired word then you don't have to accept that verse as truth. Anyway, the more I think about this the more bothered I become. We were once a great denomination, doing missions around the world, holding our country to a higher standard, and making a difference for our great God. Don't get me wrong I know that there are still those who feel the same way I do and we have made a pretty loud noise about this. However, I currently do not seem to be in a place where I am in the company of a great number of these people. There is a large segment of our denomination that is going a different way. They are allowing themselves to be more influenced by socially acceptable standards, political correctness, so called common sense and the like.
I guess in the end the real losers are those who reject God's word and set out with their own intelligence to prove the rest of us are narrow minded, uneducated, foolish, and in general just a bunch of rednecks. Of course, why am I surprised, the Bible, which they reject, says that "The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Cor 1:18)."
So, a great apologist I am not. I doubt I will convince anyone to come over to my side or to reconsider these things. At the end of the day, I think the real losers are those who miss the blessing of God guiding and directing their lives, giving them instruction, and giving them peace. Foolish or not, here is where I stand, I accept the Scriptures as God's word to us, I accept them as they are. Old fashion as it may be, that is where I am.
Less relieved after ranting than I thought I would be,
Darrell
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