INVEST

I didn’t know that Pastor Futral was going to speak this past Thursday night, but since he did, I must report on his final message of the camp at Glorieta, New Mexico.

He spoke on Mark, chapter 5…

They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. ²When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, Mark 5:1 - 2 (NASB)

The man Jesus met was in bad shape. Nobody wanted to be around him. Most of us, at some point in life, become a little depressed. This man was seriously depressed…

Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. Mark 5:5 (NASB)

But then…he met Jesus.

Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; Mark 5:6 (NASB)

Jesus took pity on him and healed him. The man was truly blessed.

This newly healed man was so excited he begged Jesus to go with him…

And He did not let him, but He said^* to him, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” ²⁰And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed. Mark 5:19 - 20 (NASB)

You get the point. We all get depressed at times or have problems. But when we meet with Jesus, through His Word or in prayer, and we should often, we are truly blessed. However, it shouldn’t stop there. What we have been blessed with, we are to invest in others.

SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD

THOU

This is my report on the final day of the conference in Glorieta, New Mexico…

Pastor Jim Futral spoke in the morning on Philippians 3:10

That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; Philippians 3:10 (NASB)

He told us a story of a Pastor friend who had reflected back on his fifty years of ministry and found it divided into three divisions.

The first was the “Thou Shalt Not” time. He preached against things he didn’t like. The second was the “Thou Shalt” period where he preached about things Christians should do. The third and final phase he called simply, “Thou.” By that, he meant that anything and everything that was important was by and of GOD.

That’s where we all should be, simply looking to God…getting to know Him better…loving Him better. That is what is really important.

In the afternoon, I had a class called “Fuel.” It too was very good. Fuel being the term the teacher used for prayer. Craig Adams from Nashville was the teacher and he related a story of taking his praise team to a church in Ohio and being amazed at how quickly the congregation engaged in the worship of God…deep, sincere worship.

At lunch with the worship leader, he asked how he got them to this point. The worship leader responded, “He didn’t.” He had tried every trick in the book, on websites, things he learned from conferences and it just wasn’t working. He then decided to pray! When the praise team came in the next week, he asked them to pray with him. To make a long story short, their prayer time turned into a very large service with many people attending. God did a mighty work, not only in the lives of the praise team and that worship leader but also in the church as they saw God at work in their lives. Apart from Him (Thou, Thee, Jesus, GOD) we can do nothing (John 15:5)

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; Colossians 4:2 (NASB)

Pray without ceasing; 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NASB)

SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD

FEARLESS

The third day of a conference in Glorieta, New Mexico…

My condensation of the day’s events and messages by Pastor Jim Futral

Many of the problems we have in our lives and in our churches are results of fears. However, if we read God’s Word carefully, we will see that He has given us the perfect solution to eradicate all fear…LOVE

In verse 18 of the passage below, the word for “casts out” fear in the Greek is the same word as when Jesus drove the moneychangers out of the temple area. Perfect love, God’s kind of love (refer to 1 Corinthians 13) drives fear out of our lives, thoughts and actions…

¹⁸There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. ¹⁹We love, because He first loved us. ²⁰If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. 1 John 4:18 - 21 (NASB)

Pastor Futral listed three fears specifically in his message: the fear of rejection, the fear of ridicule and the fear of reprisal. These are big ones in our lives today.

Later that night, I attended a youth worship time. It was a little different format than what they had been doing (sing, pray, preach). They had a Talent Showcase. There were only about 25 kids in the room but almost half went up and did something. It seemed that they were with fear as they sang, spoke or played for each other. In just a few days, they had learned to love each other to the point where fear no longer existed because God was in their lives, working in and through them.

May we adults learn a lesson from them (and God’s Word!), putting aside ego, pride and fear to let God work in and through us.

SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD

SERVE

This is the second WORD that is coming to you from Glorieta, New Mexico. It is a synopsis of yesterday’s speakers, testimonies and musicians.

God’s Word can best summarize the theme that consistently ran through all of the sessions….

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; Philippians 2:3 (NASB)

Travis Cottrell said that our primary function in life was to “help people meet Jesus,” and that as “servants.”

“But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; ⁴⁴and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. ⁴⁵“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Mark 10:43 - 45 (NASB)

Pastor Jim Futral spoke on Hebrews 10:24-25

and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, ²⁵not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. (NASB)

Last night we were blessed to hear the testimonies and musical talents of Darko, who had come to the US from communist Yugoslavia and Bruce and Lisa, who gave up incredible careers (Honolulu Symphony, Carnegie, etc.) to serve the Lord in song and word. The theme again, “It’s not about me.”

I’ll close with a comment from Travis Cottrell to a question from a Worship Leader Search Committee person. She asked, “How do we get somebody to come in and keep our very talented pianist happy, and our extremely gifted soloists.” His response was “There’s no room for self or ego when serving the Lord.” AMEN

SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD

DISTRACTIONS

I am writing to you from Glorieta, New Mexico. The setting is beautiful and the worship and word have been fantastic after just one day of being here! I will share with you over the next week, what God is teaching me through His people here. The conference speaker is Pastor Jim Futral from Mississippi. The worship leader last night was Travis Cottrell. He led us to the throne of God, giving us time to reflect, pray, confess and seek the face of Jesus. Then the camp pastor spoke to us on “distractions.”

You may or may not be familiar with the story in Luke when Jesus visited the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. Mary was engrossed in hearing what Jesus, the Messiah, had to say while Martha was “busy.” Here’s the passage…

³⁸As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed them into her home. ³⁹Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.” ⁴¹But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! ⁴²There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38 - 42 (NLT)

Martha’s focus was on “things.” She was busy doing “things” while Mary was being blessed by the words and presence of Jesus.

Martha was distracted by friction between herself and Mary with whom she was upset because she wasn’t helping with the dinner.

Martha had lost her fervor, her enthusiasm, for Christ.

Where do you see yourself today? Is your focus on Christ or on other things? Does friction in a particular relationship or situation distract you? Have you lost your enthusiasm for Jesus and His marvelous gift of salvation?

SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD

KNOW

We human beings don’t like to come across things that we don’t understand. In fact, if we don’t understand something we usually invent something that will explain it. We want to feel in control, like there is nothing beyond our understanding.

Paul had just healed a crippled man in Lystra. In an attempt to explain things, the people made some false assumptions:

When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in their local dialect, “These men are gods in human form!” ¹²They decided that Barnabas was the Greek god Zeus and that Paul was Hermes, since he was the chief speaker. ¹³Now the temple of Zeus was located just outside the town. So the priest of the temple and the crowd brought bulls and wreaths of flowers to the town gates, and they prepared to offer sacrifices to the apostles. Acts 4:11-13

We are going to come across some things that can only be explained by God’s incredible power…

How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension! Psalms 147:5 (NLT)

That is why we worship Him! He alone is worthy, because He is greater and far beyond us…

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9 (NLT)

Praise God who is knows all and is above all things. Worship Him alone.

SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD