What Is Your Channel?

So I was sitting in front of the TV the other day watching two different channels at the same time. That is right, as a guy I have a need to watch two sporting events at once here and there, and this night was just one of those evenings. I was able to keep up with both games very well and picked which one had the most of my attention (and the screen) based on the events in the games and commercials, etc. I was definitely in my element.

Of course, this gets me to thinking.... thinking about all of the different choices we have when it comes to the channels we tune in to. With Time Warner in Norwalk we have the local channels, the news channels, the sports channels, the music channels, movie channels, and they go on and on. That is a lot of channels to choose from, and 80-90% of the time there is nothing on at all on any of those channels. Yet, we stare at the TV anyway, making do with whatever we find that can keep our attention at the moment.

Is your spiritual walk that way? In the midst of the many different channels that your mind can be tuned to, do you find yourself choosing alternative channels that just occupy your time when you could turn off the channels and tune into something more meaningful in your life? The world is like a TV with so many different options for each of us to choose. There are good and bad things that can occupy our time in it, but they all seem to distract us from a higher calling.

I challenge everyone who reads this to get out the old "rabbit ears" and make sure you don't lose that reception with God, who is just waiting to give you His attention. I think you'll find that this channel will be the most rewarding thing you will tune into this week, and the most meaningful to your life as a whole.

The Church

How many of you, when you think of church, think of a building? If I asked for a show of hands I’m sure most of you would raise yours, right? We’ve been conditioned over time to think that way by the world. Yet, this isn’t what the church is at all!

You see, the building at NAC is just that...a building. God’s church expands way past those walls. Yes, we are Norwalk Alliance Church and we’re living the call together as we say weekly. That is very true. However we’re a part of something bigger. No, not the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination (although it is bigger, so you’d be right there as well) but instead we’re a part of a world full of believers. That group is gigantic, isn’t it? Here is the very daunting part of that: each one of us is important in that group!

As a part of the church you are asked to go out and teach others about Jesus. Have you been doing your part? Without you, how will the church become stronger? You see, your efforts affect everyone else in the church. If you are to make contact with someone for God, He wants you to do that because He has a plan. Maybe your efforts this time will get them to that relationship. Maybe it won’t today, and instead, someone else’s efforts will accomplish it tomorrow or 20 years down the road. Yet, without you making the efforts as a part of the church we could all fail.

So, as you start to see yourself as a part of something bigger than just our building, I hope that you’ll start to realize your place in the church as a whole. Every contact you make, every ministry you take part in, or every conference you attend means something to all of us. You are not just a low level employee in a huge corporation but instead a part of something bigger than any of us can ever imagine. We will all do great things because you are working for Him. Keep up the good work and continue to strengthen your relationship with Him, and we’ll all grow stronger because of it.

Welcome to the Masquerade

I’ve been pondering that sentence ever since I first heard the new CD from Thousand Foot Krutch. TFK is a Christian rock band that recently came out with this CD. The cover shows a person’s face covered by a mask. The song with the same title talks about how we all have a fire for God, yet we live in this grand ball room called the world where many Christians find themselves hiding instead of stepping out for God. They encourage us all to take off our masks and show the world what lies underneath. These thoughts have haunted me since I first heard them.

Have you ever seen your life this way? Have you ever thought that you were mask-less at home and church, yet when you were faced with opposition in the outside world, instead of standing and fighting it off, you ran away to put your mask back on? Well, I have to tell you that is what many of us do on a day-to-day basis.

Each one of us has the power to fight off this opposition and yet we cower away. I’d like to encourage you this week to stop wearing your mask. In order to “Live the Call Together” each of us has to be willing to put that mask aside and use His word as our protection. We have to be willing to be there and be the fire that He wants us all to be.

Can you do this? Can you live up to this expectation and stop acting like every day is Halloween with that mask on? You can still go to the ball and dance, but stop hiding out amongst the rest of the crowd. It’s time to show the world who you really are and who you trust with your life.

Prank You Very Much

I recently heard about a group of kids who were prank-calling random people, and how frustrated those receiving the calls would get as they couldn’t understand what the caller was trying to tell them. Now don’t ask me to explain why, but it made me think about those who are lost and their encounters with God. Let me explain:

Let’s say that the prank callers are God, and the recipients are the lost. The lost people pick up the phone thinking they are going to hear from someone they know or at least can understand.However, what they hear is often like a foreign language to them. They can’t make out what is being told to them, they become frustrated, and eventually hang up. This is often the response we get from people we witness to. They just can’t grasp what is being told to them, and instead of trying harder to understand, they take the easy way out and deny Him all together.

So, what can we do to reach these people? Why not try to speak their language? That is what we are trying to do at NAC through outreaches like Food Bank, our sports ministries, Tag Clubs, and Apprentice House. We try to go to where these people are and try to get to know the language they speak. Then, we attempt to reach them through something that we have in common. Once that relationship is formed we can start to speak the same language. Does it always work? No.Does it eventually work? Maybe. Yet we MUST keep trying. If these people are never contacted, what good are we doing for Him?

We as Christians are called to reach into the world and get as many people to a relationship with God as we can. Think of yourself as that stupid crane game (I always lose at this) they have at arcades. The grasping hand is at the top of the machine (that would be you and me) and the prizes at the bottom of the machine are the lost. God is the one at the controls of the crane. He has us dipping into the world and trying to gain a prize that will be sent out of the machine to His kingdom. We don’t always grasp something, and sometimes it takes multiple attempts before we get the prize that we wanted. Yet, every effort gets you closer to gaining it eventually through more experience, etc. Also, some machines turn out more prizes than others. Yet, every machine that is working towards gaining prizes allows more and more prizes to be won through all of the combined efforts.

So, in summary we have to try time and time again to gain more people to His kingdom. We have to try over and over again to learn what will work in order to penetrate their world and get them to know Him. This is why I advocate all genres of Christian music and the artists that go “main stream” with their music. Music is yet another language that is spoken worldwide, and be it rap, rock, country, or anything else it’s yet another way that Christians are trying to speak a language that others in the world will understand and get them interested in God.

Are you willing to do what it takes in order go get the prizes that God covets? Allow him to take control of your efforts and you might find yourself speaking a different language and plucking up more and more prizes for His kingdom.