How is God revealing Himself to you this week?

How is God revealing Himself to you this week?  Please I would love to hear your response.  Just comment here on the blog.

What does Baptism mean?

Another great explanation of why Christians are baptized Pastor Mark Driscoll…

Why are Christians always dunking people in water? And why is this such a big deal? This adapted post will be the first of a short series that examines some of the basic questions about this important part of a Christian’s faith. These posts are particularly recommended for anyone considering being baptized this Easter.

By virtue of reminding us of our connection to Jesus and his people, baptism and Communion are supposed to be incredibly meaningful. In Christianity, baptism and Communion have been sacred rituals practiced for thousands of years in every culture by people who, by faith, trust in Jesus alone for salvation.

What does baptism mean?

We believe the Bible presents baptism as an outward witness of an inward faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.

Christian baptism is an act of obedience to the command of Jesus, declaring the believers faith in and identification with their crucified, buried, and risen Savior. It is a visible declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The believer being baptized is immersed beneath the waters in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, which expresses the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, which expresses the believers’ death to sin and the buriel of their old life, and then emersed out of the water, which expresses the believers’ resurrection to a new kingdom life in Christ Jesus. Furthermore, baptism identifies a Christian with Jesus, the universal church, andthe local church.

Jesus commanded that all Christians be baptized. The apostles commanded that all Christians be baptized, which explains why the book of Acts and records of the early church show that baptism was practiced consistently.

We understand baptism to be the sign and seal of membership in the covenant community. Baptism is for all persons as they join the community of the church.

Who should be baptized?

The consistent witness of the New Testament is that someone first believes in Jesus and then is baptized. This is called believers’ baptism. Never do we witness the reverse order where someone, such as an infant, is baptized and then later believes in Jesus.

We see six lines of support for this position in the New Testament.

1. In the precursor to Christian baptism, John the Baptizer required that people repent of sin before being baptized. (Matt. 3:2; Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3)
2. Every baptism in the New Testament is preceded by repentance of sin and faith in Jesus. (Acts 2:38–41; 8:12; 9:18–19; 10:44–48; 16:14–15, 29–36; 18:8; 19:1–7;22:16)
3. Baptism is reserved solely for those people who have put on Christ. (Gal. 3:27)
4. Baptism shows personal identification with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. This can only happen when someone has trusted in Christ for salvation. (Rom. 6:1–10; Col. 2:12)
5. The Bible does record occurrences where entire households were baptized. (Acts 10:33, 44–48; 11:14; 16:15; 1 Cor. 1:16) In these cases, the Bible also records that each member of these households believed in Jesus and was saved. (John 4:53; Acts 18:8; 1 Cor. 16:15)
6. Both Jesus and his apostles gave the command for disciples to be baptized as an expression of that discipleship. (Matt. 28:19, Acts 2:38)

Do you have to be baptized to be saved?

Salvation is solely a gift given to people whose faith rests in the grace of God to forgive their sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus. For example, when the Philippian jailer asked what was required of him to be saved, Paul did not mention baptism but simply said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus.” Likewise, the thief who died on the cross next to Jesus was promised by our Lord that “today you will be with me in Paradise,” though he had not been baptized. Someone can be unbaptized and yet be a Christian who is destined for heaven.

Nonetheless, even though one can be a Christian without being baptized, a Christian should be baptized. If nothing else, Jesus commanded baptism to show in outward sign the inward covenant relationship we have with him. Similarily, married people are married regardless of whether they wear their wedding ring, which is the outward symbol of their inward covenant relationship. But I, for one, am glad that my wife wears her wedding ring.

Baptism is the biblical way in which we show that by the power of the Spirit, we died to our old way of life through the death of Jesus, and live a new life through the resurrection of Jesus, cleansed from our sin in the same way that water cleanses us from filth. Therefore, being baptized does not make someone a Christian. Not being baptized does not cause someone to stop being a Christian. but a Christian should be baptized.

This post is excerpted from pp 112–119 of Vintage Church, by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, copyright © 2008. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois 60187, www.crossway.org.

Why we Baptize…

I was going to write a post about Baptism and realized that Pastor Mark Driscoll had recently posted a similar topic on his blog.  His blog post is right in line with what I would say, so I thought that maybe you would like to just hear it from him.

How is a baptism administered? Why does the person being baptized have to go all the way under the water? Doesn’t the Bible mention other ways? Below, Pastor Mark and Dr. Gerry Breshears tackle the scriptural basis for full immersion baptism.

All agree that water is the element of baptism. But the debate ensues regarding how water should be applied. Some prefer to sprinkle with water in light of a handful ofbiblical texts that mention being sprinkled with clean water. Others prefer pouring, to symbolize the Spirit poured out in new-covenant blessings. Still others prefer to immerse in water. We believe that the Bible clearly teaches baptism by immersion. It is the only mode associated with baptism in the Bible and the only mode that expresses the meaning of baptism as shown in passages such as Romans 6:1–10 and seven other lines of biblical reasoning.

1. The Greek word used for baptism in the New Testament means to plunge, dip, or immerse in water. In secular ancient Greek, this word was used to explain such things as the sinking of ships that had been submerged in water. … The early translators of the Bible into English ran into the dilemma that translating baptizeinas “immerse” would confuse people. So rather than translating the word, they merely transliterated it, changing the greek characters into Roman letters. However, the Dutch Bible actually translates the word so that the man who appears in Matthew 3:1 is Johannes de Doper, John the Dipper!
2. According to Mark 1:5 John the Baptizer immersed people in the river. John also selected the Jordan River as the place for conducting his baptisms because“water was plentiful there.”
3. When Jesus was baptized it seems he was immersed in water since he came out of the water as the dove descended on him.
4. Philip took the Ethiopian eunuch down into the water to baptize him, indicating it was by immersing him in water.
5. Baptism is in a very real sense the remembrance of and identification with Jesus’death, burial, and resurrection. It would be inconceivable to understand Jesus’ brutal murder as something that was sprinkled upon him rather than as a total burial into death and the grace. Only immersion accurately shows Jesus’ death and descent into burial, followed by emersion out of the water into resurrection.
6. When someone who was not racially Jewish converted to Judaism in the Old Testament (and in the present day), they underwent a Jewish proselyte baptism to show that God had cleansed them from their sin. The mode of this baptism was (and is) immersion.
7. The Bible does speak of our salvation in terms of being cleansed from sin,sprinkled by Jesus, and having the Holy Spirit poured out upon us. However, it is important to note that none of the occurences of sprinkling or pouroing in the Bible are in any way related to baptism.

Christians should be baptized in the same manner as Jesus, immersed in water and then brought forth. In so doing, they are identifying with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

This post is excerpted from Vintage Church, by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, copyright © 2008. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, Illinois 60187, www.crossway.org.

Why must we be first in everything but what truly matters?

I have had a lot of conversations with Students and Friends, over Christmas dinners, and Family gatherings that had the words “I was first” or ” we were the first” in them. My question to myself is what is it that makes us want to be first in everything except follow Jesus?

First, I want to say that being first is not the issue I have, after all someone has to be first, right? The problem I think I am concerned most about is the constant desire to at all cost be the first to do something. And I guess that is not so bad depending on what “all cost” means to you. There are definitely different levels of what that means to each of us. The point I am trying to make is why is it so easy to strive to be the first at something, but when it comes to God and the mission Christ charged us all with it is not so easy. Does this come down to pure ambition or are we more like the pagans in Matthew 6:31-32 that are concerned with our worldly wants and needs than trusting God to provide them for us. So, that we can focus all on Him. After all, the very next verse in Matthew 6 says “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (verse 33).

I know this is always easy to say or think, but I am going to do it anyways and I would ask you to think as you read what would it really take for you to begin to move God up the priority list in your life. It’s often the case that we put our spiritual life on a lower priority than other, “more pressing” concerns in our lives. But in this passage, Jesus tells us that a properly balanced life is one that puts Jesus above our other priorities. When we seek him first (some Bibles word it “seek ye first”), God will take care of our other concerns.

I pray that as we begin to get back into the routine of our daily post Christmas life and as we go into the new year. That we will stop and really pray and think about seeking God first in our lives. I don’t mean just a little, I mean with a radical abandon for our desire, and with sole focus on His desire for our lives.

Ukraine – Day 1

November 2, 2010

The first entry of many in the days to come.  We started day 1 of the Vision Mission Trip to the Ukraine at 5:30 for most of us.  We were all picked up by Patrick Prater in his truck by 6:30.  Then we were off to Atlanta to catch our flights to Chicago.  After a 20 minute stop in Commerce, GA at the Christian Chicken Store (aka Chic-fil-a) as Pastor Josh puts it for breakfast, we were off again.  There was not too much traffic in Atlanta as we went through downtown.  My Sister Mandy was at work in her office in Atlanta and actually picked out the red Toyota truck we were in as we passed her office building on I-85. 

We were all pretty taken by the about of prayers we knew about thanks to text messaging as they came pouring into all of us throughout the ride down.  We are so grateful for a Church body who prays and prays in a way that is evident in their lives. 

As we approached the airport it started to rain a little but not enough to affect our luggage in the back of the truck.  I was first out at the Delta Terminal and on my way to check-in and security.  The rest of the guys (George, Lee, and Pastor Josh) were flying American Airlines to Chicago as did Mike Bowen (Pillar Church).  Everyone made it through security without any problems and ready for the flights.

As we took off I began to pray as many of us at The Mount have for many months that God would give us an openness to see with His eyes and allow us to take advantage of every opportunity good and bad that He places in our path on this trip.  God answered this prayer for me in an immediate fashion today.  I was fortunate to sit next to Mr. Mady.  He is an Egyptian man who is Vice President for several corporations as well as one that he is President/CEO of that he owns with his 2 children.  He is well traveled and very versed in many cultures.  As soon as the cell phones had to be turned off he was immediately in conversation with me.  About many things from family, business, Church, Religion, and many others.  The conversation was so good and in depth that we did not realize that the flight had past so quickly, and we were seeing Lake Michigan before we even realized it.  I will be quick for now, but expect more on Mr. Mady later.  He and I had nothing in common so I thought, but we did.  He is a well respected business man who is and has lead many multi-million dollar companies.  I am a business man, not multi-million dollar one, but a business man.  I have a family, which he did not see coming (twice now on this trip I have been mistaken for a college student).  We both were raised in Church.  We both believe in God, but this is where our conversation lived for a while as there were some differences in what we actually believe.  He began to ask me about my faith and I would answer, then he said he did not go to Church anymore except when he visits his Mother.  Then he proceeded to ask me why there were so many different denominations and that discussion began.  Wow, I didn’t know I had those answers and some may not have been completely accurate, but I believe that God spoke through me in that instance.  Then our conversation turned to more of why he stopped going to Church.  He said that all Religious people just fight all of the time.  I asked, “is that why you stopped going to Church.”  He said, “Mostly, and that he doesn’t understand how if we are good and live a good life then how are we judged as sinners and not going to heaven.”  Basically, he believes that has long as you live a good life and believe in God then you get to have eternal life in Heaven.  For the record, he does not believe that salvation is only through Jesus Christ.  This terrifies me.  Mr. Mady lumps all denominations of Christians, Catholics, and Mormons together.  Unfortunately, I believe many people do.

After our conversation we exchanged contact information as he wants to hear more about this trip we are on when we get back.  I would like to ask you to pray for  Mr. Mady.  I do not believe he is a Christian and desperately want a line a of communication open with him.  Maybe, he will decide to put his faith in the only way, Jesus Christ.  Also, please pray for continued opportunities like this on the remainder of this trip. 

After landing, getting bags and everyone all in one place the Items staff of Rick, Keith(who is with us), and Scott(who is with us) got us into 2 cars and went to the Iteams office in Elgin.  We ate lunch and were briefed until 5pm when we left for Chicago O’Hare airport again to grab supper and board our flight on SWISS airlines.

We concluded our first day by crossing the Atlantic(10 hour flight) and landed in Zurich, Switzerland with a morning view of “The Alps” around 6am Eastern Time,  11am local time.  Then off to the next flight to Kiev, Ukraine. 

Thank you for your support and prayers ask we seek the vision God has for The Mount in the Ukraine!

In Him,

Allan

Radical…

I just need to say that I am so proud of our students.  On Sunday night we started a book/Bible Study called Radical by David Platt.  We had a great discussion about some of the topics discussed in Chapter 1, but the thing I am most proud of is that several of the students have asked permission to read ahead in the book instead of just reading Chapter 2 this week.  Of course I said absolutely go for it, because let’s be honest when was the last time you had anyone especially a teenager ask you if they could read ahead in a Bible Study.

So, for this I am grateful.  God is blessing us with a fire that may just set these students and all those they are in contact with ablaze in a radical way.  Abandoning the life style that is semi forced on them and embracing the model that Jesus has set for us.

Praise God!

Faith like Noah…

This past week I was preaching during our Livewire Youth Service at The Mount, and the topic was on Noah and the faith that he showed in building the Ark. 

I mean, think about it.  He lived in a time period when the world was so corrupt and full of sin that God decided to destroy everyone.  And God found Noah as the only righteous and blameless man left to save.  First, that is a huge testament to Noah’s faith in God.  Out of thousands of people on earth and God chooses just one guy on the evaluation of Faith and righteousness.  I am ashamed to say that I am certain I wouldn’t even make the first cut on that list today.  Second, to have the guts to build a huge boat 500 hundred miles from a large body of water, much less deal with the ridicule of the people around him.  Given what the Bible tells us about the people of this time we can only imagine that they must have really given him a lot of grief about it. 

Today, we do far less to get ridiculed and badgered about something we say or do, but still get the bombardment of comments from the peanut gallery that we have to keep throwing out of our minds.  We can try and handle all of these ourselves, but how does that usually work for you.  I will be honest it just doesn’t work for me at all.  And I still keep trying to handle it on my own, maybe not every time but a lot of the time.  God wants us to rely solely on Him, for everything.  We have to have the faith to just trust God and not doubt that He will always direct us in the right direction. 

This is not easy, but if we become like Noah and stay close to God then God will keep us Strong in Faith.

Thank you for listening to what God has laid on my heart, and I can only pray that in some way this blog will be a tool to nurture your heart and build a stronger relationship with God.

Is our life to loud…

It recently came to my attention that just maybe my life is to loud for me to hear the Holy Spirit guiding and teaching me as John 14 says.  It has really hit me that just maybe my life is so loud with music around every corner, tv’s always on in our house, the radio blaring(when I could just ride in the car peacefully listening to God).  It is crazy how loud my life is.  I can’t go anywhere with out this lifeline called a cell phone attached to me, so therefore getting away where there is peace and quiet is near impossible.  I know your thinking why don’t you just run off to somewhere secluded and turn off the cell phone and ipod.  I sometimes do run down to my Grandfathers cabin in the woods, but I don’t turn off the cell phone because if I did it would most likely distract me even more.  Why you ask?  Well, because I have 3 young children…a pretty little princess who(is not afraid of getting her hands a little dirty as long as she can wash them as soon as she is done,) and 2 younger boys who I am pretty sure believe with all of their hearts that they are super heros in the making.  Their powers you ask?  Invincibility and Flying of course.  I am sure you see now why it would distract me more to turn off my phone.  One day I had this awesom idea to take my whole family to my secluded little cabin thinking this would bring some awesome peace away from the cell phone.  LOL!  I really did do this with these intentions.  As you can imagine my 3 kids near a creek next to the cabin turned my secluded little thinking place into Frankies Fun Park.  There was more noise than I ever thought possible in those woods.

It is not my intention to suggest that you cut all of the things in your life out that are making noise, but to express to you just how much we have to be aware of how much noise we have, that maybe covering up the invaluable teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Maybe just being aware will allow us to tune into the Spirit more.  And if you are like me then the idea of muting the noise would be great, but I believe God simply wants me to turn down the volume a bit.  Spending more time listening than talking.

Thank you for listening to what God has laid on my heart, and I can only pray that in some way this blog will be a tool to nurture your heart and build a stronger relationship with God.

Are you Desperate?

For quite some time I have been struggling with several leadership decisions and the direction of the Livewire Youth Ministry at The Mount Church. I want to make these decisions not on my own or just with the help of the awesome Leadership team that I get to serve along side, but with the guidance and sure-footed direction of the Holy Spirit. I want to have the constant need for the Holy Spirit to guide me and the team in a way that we are never complacent or comfortable in what our abilities are or for what we do. We need God to make those decisions and provide the direction.
As I have been preparing for our current series on the Holy Spirit. I realized that the Bible is very serious about us being desperate for the Holy Spirit. We must be desperate for the Holy Spirit in our own lives so that we are able to experience the fullness of God. Then, and only then can we lead with a desperation for the Holy Spirit. This is when we can all experience the fullness or our God together.
Just as several in the Bible experienced a radical change when they accepted the Holy Spirit we are given that same opportunity. When the Holy Spirit came into the life of Paul he was changed, when the Holy Spirit came into the life of Peter he was changed. He no longer denied Christ, but instead received the Holy Spirit. And then a little while later he led 3000 people to Christ. The list is pretty long in the Bible, there are so many wonderful examples of the Holy Spirit directed and changing lives. There are also many examples of how the Holy Spirit is still at work today.
I would like to challenge you the look for examples where the Holy Spirit is so evidently working. They may be in your own life or in the lives of others. If you do not see the Holy Spirit at work in the life of your Church or you, then desperately seek the Holy Spirit’s presence through prayer. Ask Him to live and breathe in those situations and guide and direct them so that the only desire is to be desperate for the Spirit.

“OWN IT”

Just wanted to ask a question…

Do you feel like you own your own faith? 

What I mean is:  Do you feel like you have your own faith in God or do you ride the coat tails of your parents, friends, leaders, teachers, boss, etc? 

Please leave your answer; I am curious what your thoughts and answers are.

Thank you for listening to what God has laid on my heart, and I can only pray that in some way this blog will be a tool to nurture your heart and build a stronger relationship with God.