About Me
- Joe Garrison
- Fishers, IN, United States
Director of Contemporary Worship and Assistant Director of Student Ministries at Castleton United Methodist Church in Indianapols, IN. Husband,Guitarist,and Drummer
Showing posts with label Holy Spirit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holy Spirit. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Taking Time Out
How do we know we are following God's call for our lives? How do we know we are not just following popular trends or culture?
I was thinking about this after a conversation with some friends the other night. A lot of times we get an exciting idea in our head and believe that it is God calling us into something. The trend these days seems to be to go off to Africa, or some third world country to serve the poor and starving. It seems that a LOT of people have been given that call. I've even run into some people that think because I don't specifically hear that call, that I am not following the Holy Spirit.
My question/concern is, do we need to do something drastic like move to Africa, quit our job, or sell all of our possessions to follow Christ? Is it possible that some of us are called to serve in our local communities, or our local church, or even serve as a local accountant or grocery bagger?
I'm not saying that God is not calling you into some type of drastic lifestyle change. All I'm saying is maybe we need to take some time to just sit and listen to the Holy Spirit, not talk, just listen. It might take a few minutes, it might take a year. Try to take the time to understand where God is calling us before jumping at something. Just because something is a trend doesn't mean that we are called to it.
I was thinking about this after a conversation with some friends the other night. A lot of times we get an exciting idea in our head and believe that it is God calling us into something. The trend these days seems to be to go off to Africa, or some third world country to serve the poor and starving. It seems that a LOT of people have been given that call. I've even run into some people that think because I don't specifically hear that call, that I am not following the Holy Spirit.
My question/concern is, do we need to do something drastic like move to Africa, quit our job, or sell all of our possessions to follow Christ? Is it possible that some of us are called to serve in our local communities, or our local church, or even serve as a local accountant or grocery bagger?
I'm not saying that God is not calling you into some type of drastic lifestyle change. All I'm saying is maybe we need to take some time to just sit and listen to the Holy Spirit, not talk, just listen. It might take a few minutes, it might take a year. Try to take the time to understand where God is calling us before jumping at something. Just because something is a trend doesn't mean that we are called to it.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Ordinary Men
Tonight we had our young adult discussion group at George's Neighborhood Grille off of 71st and Binford Boulevard. We were discussing Acts 2:42-47. While we were discussing that passage, I looked over to Acts 4:13 and saw an underlined passage in my Bible. Acts 4:13 is the passage where Luke describes how Peter and John were preaching the Word and performing miracles, and jailed because of it. When asked who's authority they do these things by Peter says,
Peter completely and directly calls out the Sanhedrin for crucifying and rejecting Christ. They were, of course, incredibly astonished by Peter's directness, boldness and courage. They couldn't believe an uneducated ORDINARY man could have the courage to say this to such high standing, educated members of society like themselves.
This has always been an empowering verse for me. I am someone that never did all that well in school, I was never the smartest or brightest in my class. This shows me that Jesus does not require book smarts or legal smarts to use someone. All Jesus requires is a heart and passion for Him and His people. If you honestly love Christ and love others, he will empower you, and use you, in ways you could never be used if you were just a 'smart' guy/girl.
I don't know who all is reading my blog these days but I would be interested in hearing about times when God used you in ways that you didn't expect him to, because maybe you didn't live up to the world's standards for "smart" or "successful."
"...It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom YOU crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is 'the stone YOU builders rejected which has become the capstone.' Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13
Peter completely and directly calls out the Sanhedrin for crucifying and rejecting Christ. They were, of course, incredibly astonished by Peter's directness, boldness and courage. They couldn't believe an uneducated ORDINARY man could have the courage to say this to such high standing, educated members of society like themselves.
This has always been an empowering verse for me. I am someone that never did all that well in school, I was never the smartest or brightest in my class. This shows me that Jesus does not require book smarts or legal smarts to use someone. All Jesus requires is a heart and passion for Him and His people. If you honestly love Christ and love others, he will empower you, and use you, in ways you could never be used if you were just a 'smart' guy/girl.
I don't know who all is reading my blog these days but I would be interested in hearing about times when God used you in ways that you didn't expect him to, because maybe you didn't live up to the world's standards for "smart" or "successful."
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Sunday, April 11, 2010
The Fear is What Keeps us Here
A lot has happened recently that has caused me to question where I am in my life and my relationship with Christ. Here's a little background
In 2002-2003, my senior year of high school, I felt the call to become a youth pastor in a church. A couple of years later something happened that caused me to lose that call and kind of wander for a while. I've gone from not wanting to do any ministry, to wanting to do music ministry in a contemporary worship setting, to working at a law firm doing collections, to doing worship part time, to now wondering if I should go back to youth ministry where I started.
I keep wondering what kept me from doing youth ministry in the first place. Was I called somewhere else by the Spirit? Did I get lazy and wimp out? Was I afraid of what being a youth pastor meant. More and more I am thinking it was the last two. I think I became afraid of what being a youth pastor meant (being a spiritual model to teenagers of what a Christian is and does) and then got lazy and didn't try to break past that fear.
Fear is a strong thing. It is the most powerful tool Satan has in keeping us from Christ and our calling in Him. Now, I'm not totally sure yet that I want to go back into youth ministry, maybe the Spirit is just calling me back into ministry in general. What I am sure of is I can't let fear overwhelm my decision to follow the Spirit into potentially uncharted water. I have to have faith.
Take Peter for example. When Peter sees Jesus walking on the water Jesus calls out to him "Come." Peter then gets out of the boat and walks over to Jesus. Suddenly, Peter feels the wind and becomes afraid of the fact that he is walking on the water and immediately begins to sink. (Matthew 14:22-32) Fear caused Peter to sink. He became afraid and lost his faith in Jesus to keep him afloat.
How often do we see the call of the Spirit and start out on that path and then something happens to cause us to fear the path and we abort the mission? When are we going to start following Christ no matter what happens, without fear? I pray I can leave my fear behind and press through to follow in the direction I'm called.
Friday, April 9, 2010
The Path of Least Resistance
Most things in life follow the path of least resistance. We all prefer to do the easiest thing in most situations. We would like to think that the path the Holy Spirit is leading us on is the path of least resistance. Chances are....its not.
If there is one thing I've learned in the last week its that the Holy Spirit does not make things easy on us. Following Christ is hard, its very hard. Following Christ doesn't always make things easy, it doesn't always make us happy, it doesn't always make us friends, sometimes it even makes us enemies.
Jesus was a pro at not following the path of least resistance. When he thought that people were trashing his Father's house (temple) he went in and overturned tables and chewed everyone out. He foresaw that he would be beaten, spit on, and nailed to a tree and he still followed his call, all the way to death.
We need to stop looking for the Spirit in all the easy places. If we follow the Spirit we're bound to stumble, we're bound to fall. We are going to look crazy, we are going to anger people. When people think they are doing everything right and take pride in themselves, then get a glimpse of the Spirit, they get angry.
It is so hard to honestly, fully, follow the Holy Spirit. A lot of us think we are, but if we really sit down and re-evaluate what the Spirit is leading us to do, I think we'd be shocked to find that we might not be following the Spirit as much as we thought.
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