Blog

Why I'm Glad Obama Won

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:27:14 -0500

Who do you fear more? The sovereign God of all creation or the government that is placed over you?

When I went to the poles today to vote, I was more convinced then ever that my vote meant less to me then the path God chose for our country to go down. I did not vote for Obama or McCain, but voted 3rd party, because I was not convinced that either candidate held my personal views on the direction our country should go in. I felt that voting for either one would be a vote against everything I believed and that our founding fathers fought and died so fearlessly and courageously for.

Neither party seems to care anything for the Christian values of our fathers, but I am completely ok with that because of one simple fact. We are no longer a Christian nation and we no longer hold to certain inalienable rights that God would desire His children to have and enjoy. No God = No rights

The candidates both prove the historical illiteracy and ignorance of our country and remind me of what our duty as Christians really is. It is not to get people to vote the way we think they should vote. That is a ridiculous and unearned desire. Our duty as Christians is to bring hope to the world; something that we have obviously failed miserably at over the last 100 years. We have destroyed the name of Jesus Christ by offering the world the law and not the hope of Jesus Christ. In doing so, we cannot expect God to bless us or for the world to see eye to eye with us.

We are now at a cross roads. We can either continue down this road of legalism and evangelistic apathy, or turn to God and see our utmost need of Him. In doing so we will be convicted of both and begin reaching the world in such a way that pleases our Lord.

Far too long has the church feared and trusted the government more than it fears and trusts God. I have only been on this earth for 30 years, but 30 years is long enough to have seen the church put more trust in their president then they do in their own God. We trust more in the power of electing officials than we do in the power of the gospel. We have tried for too long to change this country through our government and not through the hard and dirty work of sharing the gospel and loving others to Christ. Every election year, we act as if this could be the end of all good in America. We treat capitalism and democracy as if it is something we deserve as sinners and as if it can bring us the hope we long for, and not as a privilege that that God has mercifully granted to us. We assume that God has left us just because a man who doesn't hold our personal values is in office and our HOPES crumble! Where does our hope come from? As the psalmist reminds us; "it comes from the Lord."

Obama (and McCain if he had been elected) is the direct result of the failures of the church not the failures of God. God sovereinly placed Obama in office for at least the next 4 years and His plan in this is good! It should slap all Christians in the face because now we must release our hope from the government, trust in the Lord's prayer (Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done ON EARTH as it is in Heaven) and know that God doesn't work the way we sometimes think He should work. He has promised that His Kingdom will come on this earth and no president (good or bad) will hinder that. We need to repent now of our unbelief and know that God is good and that His sovereignty in electing Obama over us is good for us.

I'm excited about what God is doing in the church and something like this is good for us. It is a direct rebuke to His people and a call to trust in Him, not them. No matter what happens over the next 4 years, God's Kingdom WILL advance mightily and without fail. We must stop foolishly following the premillinial heresies and remember what God has promised. He will do good through this, and like James says, we must consider all things, especially suffering, ALL JOY!

I'm glad Obama won because I'm tired of the church hoping in something other than God. We have hoped in worldly things for too long! I'm glad the church is faced with what seems to have become our biggest fear and the failures of one of our biggest idols. Idols cannot save us. Men cannot save us. Only one man can save us and that is Jesus Christ. If you want to change America and be a part of God advancing His Kingdom, stop hoping in our government and start hoping in Christ. Go and share the gospel boldly to this nation and change the world from the bottom up. It's when we focus on souls that we will win the seats in the congress, senate and presidency. You want real change? Pray that God changes our hearts and that our hope will rest solely on Him.

Praise God for President Obama! Praise God for everything He does because everything He does is GOOD!!

Heavy Metal

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 21:34:15 -0400

I've recently had a discussion about the Christians responsibility to redeem all things in life. In light of our last sunday school class and going with the idea of art, here are my questions for you. Please choose one or two questions per post. You may post more than one post but please only include 1 or 2 answers at most in each one.

1) Do you believe that we are obligated to redeem all things on earth as Christians? why or why not?
2) Is there a place in the Christians life for art such as Heavy Metal, Nude art, Modern sculpture, love poetry... etc.?
3) What good or what truths can be found in the darker and more gruesome arts?
4) Should Christians only participate in the beautiful/dainty/picture perfect art or should we also participate in the ugly/gruesome/sin portraying art as well? Why or Why not?
5) What value is there in portraying sin in art?
6) How would you personally portray the truth of the cross in art (music, painting, poetry, short-story, novel... whatever)?
7) How would you portray sin in art?
8) How would you portray redemption in art?
9) Is there a need for the portrayal of redemption in art without the portrayal of sin in art?

Who Sinned First? Questions for Sunday 9/17

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:03:03 -0400

Here are some questions to ponder for Sunday.

What purpose does God have in sharing with us the story of Adam and Eve?
Why did Satan choose Eve to temp?
What distinguishes Adam and Eve from the rest of creation?
Did Eve sin before or after she ate the fruit?
Did Adam sin a) before Eve ate the fruit b) when Eve ate the fruit or c) when he ate the fruit?
What happened to Eve's faith in God between the temptation and the eating of the fruit that lead to sin?
Was Adam responsible for Eve's sin? Why or why not?
Why would God give Adam and Eve the potential to sin if He knew they would eat the fruit?
If God ordained sin to happen, does that make Him the author of sin? Why or why not?
Why would God be unhappy with Cain's offering if it were the first fruits God asked for?
Why did God make a big deal out of the fact that the Sons of God married the daughters of men?
Did God send the flood to wipe out the earth because He made a mistake?

Comment away....

Why Are We Here?

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:13:28 -0400

Wednesday Aug. 20^that 7:00 marks the kick off for the jr. and sr. high youth group meetings. Jr. High and Sr. High will both meet at the same time for this particular meeting. We have a lot of new things planned this year; new ideas, new visions for the youth; new leadership, and we want to catch you up with everything that is going on.

We currently have twelve leaders committed to the spiritual growth of your child. Mark (Youth Pastor) and Bonnie Wells, Patti, Andy and Bethany Rountree, Dexter Williams, Mike Settle, Bailey Smoak, Lori Ramey, James Bendowski, Steve Andreasen and Rodrigo Brotto. Each of these leaders has expressed a deep desire in reaching and ministering to each and every student at New Covenant. I am excited about what God is about to do through these men and women for the community of Anderson. Some of them have committed themselves to Cornerstone (Jr. High) and some of them have committed themselves to Capstone (Sr. High). A couple of them will be helping with both.

We have decided to split the Jr. and Sr. high up in terms of time (after the first meeting on the 20th). I have seen over the years and have been advised by other older youth ministers, that it is best for the youth leader to always be a part of both groups and there are only two ways to do this. We could either have no separation in the youth at all and we could teach them together, or we could separate the times. In the past we separated the Jr. and Sr. High but had them at the same time. This gave no room for the youth pastor to be involved in both. If we combined them completely though, we would be unable to teach certain things to the older that we feel they need to be taught and we may end up teaching at times above the Jr. Higher’s heads. It just wouldn’t work out very well, so we decided to have them at separate times so that I can be fully involved in both ministries.

Cornerstone (Jr. High) will be meeting every Wednesday night from 5:30 to 7:00, and Capstone (Sr. High) will be meeting every Wednesday night from 7:30 to 9:00. I hope this doesn’t cause too much of an inconvenience for anyone, but I feel that this is the best way to do it for now. I am not opposed to other suggestions though.

Many of you by now have figured out that our focus and vision for the youth and on parental involvement has changed quite drastically from what it was before. We have come to a cross roads in our youth group. If we continue to go down the road we are going, we (the youth team) believe that we are going to completely lose our youth spiritually, emotionally and physically. We have seen that the modern idea of babysitting the youth and occupying them with a bevy of mindless activities, does not work in strengthening the spiritual growth of the child and his need of covenantal teaching from his parents. We deeply desire and make it our goal to seek God’s will for every student in this church and His will in scripture is that we teach and rear our children covenantally . The only way we can achieve this is by partnering with you in raising your child. You are the student’s primary teacher. We know this by reading Deut. 6. We know that everything we do in this youth group, if it is not backed and supported by each family, will fall short of where we desire it to be.

Therefore, we urge you and we need you to come and join us in our vision. We deeply desire to reach every lost child in our community, but we must start with a solid foundation. We must reach out to our own children, strengthen them for the fight, and send them out into the world to bring in their friends and reach out to those lost around them.

Please join our cause. Come hang out with all of us starting Wednesday night August 20^th and let’s start something refreshing. Let’s all get on board in reaching out to each of these children. There are a lot of kids in our youth from other churches and backgrounds, some without strong Christian parents, some with no parents, or just one parent. We need you to come and minister to them. Your kids may not always think you are cool, but their friends probably do. If you remember what it was like being a high schooler you probably remember what it was like to wish your parents were like your friends parents, so come minister to your child’s friends as well. They need you, I need you, and the youth team needs you. You can contact me anytime via email at wells@ncchurch.net or call me here at the church to find out what you can do for the youth ministry.

Also, please visit our Youth Website at www.ncyouth.net which is updated weekly to find out about any upcoming events. We will have a calendar of events for the fall posted on the website soon. Our new assistant Bailey has also done a great job of making flyers and sending them out to all of the parents so please thank her when you see her for all of her hard work.