Month: June 2018

Duluth News

June 13, 2018 Believers Church Duluth

Coming up

Please continue to pray for us as we are gearing up for our first domestic missions trip to Kentucky! This has been a big undertaking for JFB Duluth and God has been blessing us throughout the planning and prepping. Please pray for both the team leaving to the field as well as those of us staying behind tending to the church. This is Duluth’s inaugural trip, we’re excited but we’re also preparing for the warfare that comes along with any kingdom work such as this.

A Change

Some other pretty cool news for Duluth is that we’ve officially moved our Sunday services out of the coffeehouse and up into the sanctuary. This has been a good change for all of us. The shift in setting helps bring a new perspective and life to what had become the comfortable norm; change is good. The move has added a whole new dynamic to how worship goes as we are not using the stage. All the instruments are on the floor with the pews facing in on themselves around the front area.

It’s been great to have a tight knit, family feel with the worship and the teachings. It seems that we’ve been seeing a lot of new faces Sunday morning as we continue our study in 1 Peter. Therefore, the influx of new faces might be due to the move or perhaps because it’s finally getting warmer up here in the frigid northland; either way it’s been a blessing to us.

Coffee

Speaking of blessing, Curbside Coffee has begun as we go full swing in blessing the community. We’re giving away free coffee to commuters travelling on Wednesday mornings. It’ll be cool to see some familiar faces this summer!

On Campus

Street Level has been very active this summer even though a large portion of the students have left campus once the semester came to a close. Street Level’s latest adventures have consisted of… taking a walk. Where? We don’t know! It changes week to week as the group treks around the campus and throughout the city to predetermined, but undisclosed, locations and events. It’s been a fun ride so far and it’s exciting to see what God has in store for Street Level and all of JFB Duluth moving forward!

We’re continuing to learn how to hear the Spirit and respond to His leading. It’s been neat to see the growth that God allows us to see and be a part of, God is good. Thanks for all of your prayers!

– Seth

Raw Footage

June 11, 2018 Pastor Justin Thomson - Duluth

Superman

It takes Clark Kent 3 seconds in a revolving door or a phone booth to go from average to awesome. It’s impressive to say the least. He’s really the first of his kind to figure out how to do it. One moment he’s a run-of-the-mill, blue-collar civilian, but before you know it, he becomes Superman; flying everywhere and saving everyone. It’s thrilling, and inspiring, and never disappointing. He’s handsome, and brave, and always courteous. The things he’s accomplished with that red cape on his back makes his life worth watching, as millions of people all over the world would attest.

First introduced in 1938, Superman has captured the attention of children everywhere ever since. And it seems that, perhaps, he’s left many of them with the impression that, as adults, sanctification would happen faster than it does. But the world needs to know something: Mr. Kent might be able to achieve perfection in less than 60 seconds, but you can’t. And neither can I. If there was a short-cut to absolute generosity and self-sacrificial service like he had, someone would’ve found it by now. But unfortunately, there is no fast-tracking your development. Even worse, there is no secret phone booth for the Christian. There’s no corner of the city where you can privately undergo a profound spiritual makeover and then emerge as an otherworldly superhero. The transformation of a Christian might be radical, but it certainly isn’t confidential. The process of growth that takes place in the believer happens slowly, publicly, and oftentimes, embarrassingly. When Clark Kent goes from average to awesome, no one sees it happen, but when disciples of Christ do it, the whole world watches.

When you volunteer for discipleship, you’re volunteering for humiliation.

The Original

In the days before revolving doors and phone booths, Jesus recruited run-of-the-mill, blue-collar civilians, and turned them in to disciples through a challengingly slow, highly visible process. Every scene of their character renovation was raw and real. They walked on water, but they also sank. Casting out demons one day, but then failed the next. They were commended by Jesus, but they were also rebuked by Jesus. The final cut includes some of their biggest failures for an audience larger than Superman could ever fathom. Discipleship, unlike Hollywood, offers no makeup or costumes, no editing, no scripts, and certainly no retakes. When you volunteer yourself for discipleship, you’re volunteering yourself for humiliation.

Could you imagine how arduous & disappointing feature films would be if all the raw footage were left in there? Consider the innumerable out-takes of a film like Superman, and how they would diminish his glorious persona if we all watched him forget his lines and trip over his own stupid cape. The Man of Steel suddenly becomes the man-of-real, and nobody’s even impressed by him anymore. It shouldn’t take too long before you realize that your life in Christ is going to be very unlike the Adventures of Superman. The ugly garments of your old self don’t come off as easily as they do for fictional characters. No one gets to hide them in a phone booth and simply walk away; not you, not I, not even Apostles got to do that. So if you’re the kind of person who’s prone to making unsanctioned edits to their own footage just to keep from being embarrassed, the kind who always needs to be seen as a superhero by the audience whose applause you love, quit it. You’re mocking the Director and you’re ruining the show. If the Movie-Maker would have you look like a fool, and if He wants to include just as many bad parts as He does good ones, then humble yourself and join the cast. If you’re not careful, you might be writing yourself out of the film altogether.

But why? Why does it take so long? Why can’t it happen faster? And why does it hurt so much? Why do I have to feel like an idiot all the time? And why doesn’t He let me do this in private where no one has to see how un-spiritual I actually am? Why can’t I just play pretend like Christopher Reeves?

Well, the reason He chooses weaklings like us, and the reason He chose fools like Andrew & Philip & Paul, is because He wants to save your glorification until later. Remember, you are not in the glorification stage, you are in the sanctification stage. Big difference. Glorification will come, but not now. Until it does (and it may be a while yet), there will be frustration, slow progress, humiliation, and pain. It might not be normal for guys like Superman, but it most certainly is for the disciples of Christ. It always has been. And it will be until this flick is finally over.

Today

Twenty centuries later, Jesus is still up to the same thing: Recruiting run-of-the-mill, blue-collar civilians, and then turning them in to disciples: “Not many wise, not many powerful, not many noble are called. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important” (I Cor.1:26-29). It’s still a painfully slow procedure, pockmarked by failure & embarrassment, but it’s the process He’s ordained for us to go through in order to become a little more ‘super’ and a bit more ‘heroic’.

Recommended Media for June

June 4, 2018 Believers Church

Pastor Timothy Keller gave a sermon at an open forum back in 1994 entitled “A Reason for Living”. In it he addresses the issue of life and it’s worth. He says, “To find absolute freedom in life, we must admit that life on its own accord is meaningless. True meaning in life is only found through Jesus Christ, the designer of life.” As you listen, see if you’re not compelled to consider his arguments as they pertain to your own life.

Click play below to listen to the teaching or you can download the audio for free at his website.

BONUS: In addition to this great message, take some time to read the following 1-page PDF where Tim Keller provokes us to think about our life motivations and the effects of such. Download below.

Promised Land

June 1, 2018 Pastor Jason Gilbert | Menomonie

Where are you going?

That’s a question I’ve been asking myself because its been on my mind as of late. Part of the reason is because I just finished the book of Deuteronomy, where Moses is given a view of the Promised Land from Mt. Nebo after spending forty years wandering in the wilderness with the Israelites. But I’m also seeing that question, whether verbalized or not, playing out in the lives of the vast majority of us who have experienced the “Exodus” of salvation but are still wandering in the wilderness concerning our relationships, our vocations, our stewardship (time, finances, and health), our commitment to our churches, our ministries, and the pursuit of our calling. Why are we not entering the “Promised Land” in these areas?

What is God’s plan for you?

First, let’s be clear… God has a plan for you!

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” -Jeremiah 29:11-14 (ESV)

Not only that… But God has a specific plan for you!

“For we are his workmanship (also translated ‘poem’), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” -Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb… our eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” -Psalm 139:13,16 (ESV)

This means God has already written out every detail of your life. If you are to be married, God has arranged a specific person for you. Or single, God knows and will give you the gift of singleness for your good and His glory. If you are able to work, God has designed and prepared you for a certain job. In fact, the word vocation comes from the Latin word vocare meaning ‘to call’.

God has called you to a job and has allotted you a set number of days and certain amount of resources, including your very own body, to be stewarded for His glory. He knows what local church you are to be at and who your pastors are. God has uniquely gifted and equipped you to serve in a particular ministry, that you would be most useful for His kingdom. God has predestined, pre-ordained you to find fulfillment as you fulfill a distinct calling within His grand story…

So where are you now?

Does your current dating or marriage relationship (or lack of) reflect his specific plan for you? Are you sure you aren’t settling for something less than His plan because of continuing unfaithfulness? Are you working the job he designed you for? How would you know? Are you managing rightly the time, the finances, and the physical body he has allotted to you on this earth? Is He getting a good return on His investment in you? Are you committed to and supporting a specific church where God has placed you? And are you humbly submitting to and honoring that church’s leadership? Are you serving in a ministry that utilizes the unique gifts God has equipped you with. Can you confidently say you are fulfilling the distinct calling He has predestined and pre-ordained you to?

I believe, if we were to be totally honest with ourselves, nearly all of us would answer no to at least one of these questions. Many would answer no to most of them. If that is the case, what are we doing about it? Are we addressing these issues? Don’t get me wrong… God isn’t asking for perfection in any of these areas… Nor were His people who eventually entered the Promised Land ever perfect. However, that being said, are we where God wants us to be, with whom God wants us to be with, doing what God wants us to do, being who God wants us to be? If the answer is “no”, or “I don’t know”, to any of those questions, we are not living in the “Promised Land”.

How do we find it?

So how do we find this “Promised Land” that God prepared beforehand, that we might walk in it?

First we need to recognize that God is a communicator. He is not a God who asks us to speculate, but a God who reveals. He reveals His will to us through His Word (Ps 119:105), through creation (Rom 1:19-20), though pastors and teachers (Eph 4:11-12), though the church (Acts 13:1-3), and through His Spirit (Rom 8:26-27). God wants to reveal his will to us. He doesn’t want us to speculate about His plans for us. He wants us to know. Are we utilizing all the avenues He has made available to speak to us. If we do, He will answer us…

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” -Matthew 7:7-8 (ESV)

Second, we need to be surrendering our bodies to Him, holy and acceptable, and turn away from all worldly influences. This means we can’t be practicing any known sin and expect to discover God’s will for our life. This also means we can’t look to the world or unbelieving friends for advice on the direction of our life. However, if we do surrender our bodies and turn away from worldly influences, we will come to know God’s will as good, acceptable, and perfect.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” -Romans 12:1-2 (ESV)

Third, we need to commit… It’s one thing to be flexible and available to anything God “might” call us to when we’re in our twenties. Its quite another thing to not be committed to any specific direction in our life when we are forty and have been a Christian for twenty years. At some point being flexible and available is no longer a virtue, but a vice that keeps us from committing to God’s specific will. Once God has revealed His will to us, He expects us to put our foot down and plant ourselves there. He’s not a casually God who asks us for a tacit participation in any of these areas. He’s a covenantal God who requires an all-in commitment to His will. If we are ever going to see any of God’s will established in our life, it is going to require commitment.

“Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.” –Proverbs 16:3 (ESV)

So I ask you again, where are you going? Perhaps you’ve been wandering around in the wilderness in a certain area of your life and have no idea where it will lead. Let me remind you that God has a plan. Our churches see this need and will be addressing it. This summer we will be spending considerable time discussing the Holy Spirit, His work, and His role in our lives. May we take advantage of this time that we might discern God’s will for our lives. Let us make a concerted effort to hear what He will communicate to us, to submit our bodies holy and acceptable to Him, to turn away from all worldly influences, and to fully commit ourselves to what He has prepared for us. Perhaps then we too will be standing on Mt. Nebo, ready to enter the glory of the Promised Land.