Aaron’s Angle

Here is a timely, and excellent article from my friend Mac Richard.  I couldn’t say it any better, so hear it from Mac . . .

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Judgmental
from Mac Richard by Mac Richard–

That statement hits just a little too close to home. Not because of wrongs I’ve suffered or wounds I’ve received, though. It hits so close because of wrongs I’ve committed and wounds I’ve inflicted. I’ve done it: Judging another person by deciding in my own mind what their motives, insecurities, and intentions are based solely on what they do.

When God chose David as the second king of Israel, he told Samuel during the vetting process that it’s people who judge by appearances, but God examines the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). Whenever I have judged exclusively by externals, I’ve noticed that I’m excluding several significant internal realities:

1. The actual heart condition of the other person. Jeremiah 17:9 says that no one can understand the heart. That’s God’s job.
2. Hurt people hurt people. Whenever someone lashes out or attacks someone else for no reason they are responding out of their own woundedness. MONSTER CAVEAT: Explaining their attack in NO WAY excuses it.
3. It’s possible–just possible–that I don’t have all the facts. Maybe, just maybe, that person has genuinely prayed and sought God’s heart and is following the leading God gave her. Maybe, there’s a calling on her life that I can’t or haven’t yet considered that would explain why she does what she does.
4. Judging others’ judgmentalism is…oh, what’s the word?…judgmental! I can get haughty in a hurry when I’ve been wronged or someone close to me has been wronged.
5. The task of judging others has already been assigned–and I didn’t get the gig. God promises that He will set everything to rights. He will account for every injustice, from the Holocaust to my haughtiness and everything in between.
6. Judging others wastes time that I will be held accountable for what I DO with it. A lot of people don’t yet know Jesus and the extravagance of his love. What in the world am I doing wasting a nano-second on a job that’s not mine? Lives are at stake.

Tomorrow, I’ll post about judgmentalism’s beautiful cousin that is separated by a very, very fine line: discernment.

Where do you see judgmentalism rear its hideously ugly, green head in your life?

We will be having both the 9:30 and 11:15 services on Sunday, January 31.

Special thanks to Steve Kohler, Bryce Kohler and Randy Roof who cleared the parking lot and sidewalks this afternoon.   Still, please exercise caution in the parking lot and on the sidewalks of the church when you arrive.

If you feel unsafe traveling on the roads, please feel no pressure to attend on Sunday.   Also, if you are a volunteer, and are unable to attend, please notify your ministry leader.

Be careful out there!

Aaron

As Haiti is in our thoughts and prayers, here is a great article from Christian History Blog

via Christian History Blog: Haiti: A Brief Religious History.

Below is an update from the www.convoyofhope.org web-site

Aaron

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In the wake of Haiti’s 7.0 earthquake, Convoy of Hope relief teams are on the ground in Port-au-Prince distributing food, water, medicine and more. Water purification units are also being implemented.  When the earthquake hit, Convoy’s country director was in Port-au-Prince. And because Convoy’s warehouse was fully stocked, the team was able to begin responding immediately with 50,000 meals.

One load of relief supplies is being airlifted shortly and another truckload of food and medicine just arrived from the Dominican Republic. Additional loads are being readied for immediate shipment and distribution at several points of distribution in Port-au-Prince.

More supplies are critically needed – Please give now to help the earthquake victims of Haiti!

All of us right now are heartbroken and concerned about the conditions in Haiti following Tuesday’s devastating earthquake.   I want to invite you to give financially to help bring immediate relief to the suffering people of Haiti.  A world wide ministry partner of The Church at Indian Lake called Convoy of Hope is on the ground in Haiti (their warehouse and distribution center was not affected by the quake) meeting the needs of people right now. They already feed 7,000 people a day in Haiti so they are in emergency need of supplies to meet the demand. If you would like to join my family and me in helping just CLICK HERE and every dime you give will go toward the relief effort. I’ll also give everyone an opportunity on Sunday to give as well.

I have been in contact with pastors familiar with Haiti and a missionary in that region, and they have confirmed that relief operations are well underway – they began immediately.  I will keep you posted if I find any specific information about the conditions there.

Pastor Kim Driver does an incredible job leading the Compassion Ministries at CIL.   In an e-mail from Kim to her team she summarized all that God allowed her and her team to accomplish for Him in 2009.  To God be the glory!

Message from Pastor Kim:

Compassion is action.  Love in action.

You helped make a difference in the lives of so many this past year.

Thank You for:

Sending 100’s of cards to our wounded American soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center- bringing encouragement and appreciation for their brave and sacrificial service to our country.

Honor-A+-Teacher program- Impacting students and our public education system. By your appreciation, you helped make a difference in the lives of 3 teachers- Mrs. Jolie Barrickman, Mrs. Linda Rice and Mrs. Amanda Swinger.( One teacher said with tears in her eyes, “after 23 years of teaching, I was at the lowest point in my life- then Honor-A+-Teacher showed up with the surprised blessing, you will never know what that meant to me.”) Your gifts of classroom books, teaching materials, laptop, whiteboard, learning games, and numerous other items helped encourage, strengthen and equip those who are impacting the next generation, our children.

Homeless Children in Sumner County-  In April you came together and supplied 65 food paks, helping feed the hungry children in our own community.

Gallatin outreach with Fireplace Fellowship- you joined with them in May and cooked and served food to the hungry. 15 people were saved that night!

Back-to-School Blessing- this year you provided school supplies to 200 children, plus 50 families received a grocery blessing and all received prayer.

Sumner Co. Veterans Home- you brought home-cooked food and fellowshipped with the resident veterans- honoring those who had served our country and helped preserve our religious freedoms.

Thanksgiving Blessing- you provided turkeys for 120 families in our community,

Prayer for every individual that came to the outreach and 4 food baskets for families within our own church.

Operation Christmas Shoebox- you filled 81 boxes for children in need globally, sending out toys and gifts, with the most precious gift of all included, the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Together, we do make a difference in our community- one life at a time.

I pray this New Year bring each of you more opportunities to magnify JESUS

and see His kingdom increased.

Serving Him,

Pastor Kim

I want to share with you the Bible reading plans I have used over the years.  I have found that having a Bible Reading plan keeps you focused, holds you accountable and leads you to passages of Scriptures that you may not read yourself.

I go through the Complete Bible Reading plan, and I must admit that it gets difficult to me at times.   I have built up some endurance through the years, so those of you who are seasoned at reading the Bible, this plan may work for you too.   Depending on the reading selection and your reading pace, this will take anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes a day.

However, most of you need to start with the New Testament Reading plan.   This plan only takes 5 minutes a day, 5 days a week.   If you get some extra time or motivation, you can explore the Old Testament at your own pace.   However, you want to “set yourself up to win.”   Go for the New Testament Reading plan first.

The New Testament Bible Reading plan can be found by clicking here (I encourage you to start with this plan!)

The Complete Bible Reading plan can be found by clicking here

If you have the chance to go further in your formal education, take it.  If you are between 17 – 20, enroll in college.   If your company provides an opportunity to expand your skills and increase your knowledge, participate.  If your great aunt from out of state offers to donate towards your education, take the money and find a school.

The point is, value the opportunity you have to expand your formal education.  God places open doors before us that we can either choose to walk through or ignore.  These open doors may have nothing to do with our eternal salvation, but they are reflection of our free will in Him.

God opened a huge door for me to go through graduate school, but I still hesitated because the time it would take away from my family and church.  On the other end of that door, I see that walking through it had made me a better husband, father and pastor.

As Americans, we are surrounded by open doors in education, so we must not take these for granted.   When your door opens, step through.

Since formal education is on my mind, I want to spend this week discussing the role of education in our lives and society.

The first thing I want to establish, so pay attention closely –

You do not need formal education to be a success!

Whenever I start promoting the benefits of education, I feel this lingering argument that I actually agree with.  The argument is this: there is an endless list of successful entrepreneurs and leaders who were never formally educated.   I am well aware of this fact, and I am grateful to be raised under a free-market system that rewards hard work and ingenuity, not educational degrees.

So before we start articulating the benefits of formal education, let’s all agree with this fact:  You don’t have to have a formal education to succeed.

What example do you have of someone who has been successful without a formal education?

If you followed my wife’s twitter the last few days (www.twitter.com/bethallison), she did a great job documenting our wonderful long-weekend.

Over the weekend, I graduated from Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida (www.seuniversity.edu) with a Masters of Arts in Ministerial Leadership.  This 36 hour program was one of the most enriching experiences of my life.  I am so grateful that Dr. Charles Gaulden pushed me to enter this program.  It was a personal goal of mine to get a master’s diploma, but the diploma will be a small part of this experiences.   I gained so much wisdom through diverse professors, new reading material, writing and most of all the relationships that were formed through my classmates.   I look forward to applying all this knowledge to my current position at CIL.

As a reward to my family for their sacrifices during my time in school, we spent a few days at Disney World.   It was perfect weather and we couldn’t have had more fun together.   On Sunday, Beth won the American Idol contest at Disney’s Hollywood Studio theme park (she is on far left in this pic).   It was really a big deal, with a huge crowd and production atmosphere.   We were so proud of her, and had a blast!

We are actually finishing up our last day at the theme parks today, before we head back to Nashville.   I’ll always cherish these few days.