Passion Blog

Ok so I have not been real good this summer at keeping up with the blog.  In fact I have been very slow in writing.  While I was away it seemed we had a fair amount of Spam hit the blog.  I have taken care of that but isn’t that just like life in general?  When you take care of Spam in the beggining by putting up the controls then it helps you in the long run but if you wait or let it build up then it not only causes more unwanted messages but you also then get hit by additional spam and before you know it you are overloaded with the stuff!

Life I think is the same way.  I am always amazed how if you do not take care of the unwanted things in life early than they can cause bigger issues later on.  You know what I am talking about the un-forgiveness you should be giving someone the conversation you don’t really want to have but you know you should…another words sin.  Yes I just pulled out the evil term SIN!  To me sins are the “spam” of our life.  Another words you know its there you know it has to be dealt with but if you don’t it festers and causes more sin (spam) to build and eventually that issue that was  relatively small issue has grown out of control.

It is why Jesus calls us to repent daily as he was teaching the disciples to pray He tells them to ask for forgiveness.  This was not a one time thing but a daily activity.  Sometimes dealing with these things hurt and relationships sometimes are hindered but for the better of yourself and your relationship you have to deal with these things and deal with them early.

Also just like spam if we but up the right filters then sin can be dealt with before it happens.  It is why building yourself up in the Lord, having honest good friends who will tell you when you are doing something wrong, and the strength to stay away from sin is so important.  Filters stop the sin and spam from even beginning and allow for you and I to not have to deal with the issues that come from it!

Finally but certainly not least a good protection software will always limit the amount of spam that comes our way.  Likewise our protection from sin is a life fully lived for Jesus Christ.  Even when sin does slip into our lives He takes care of it by forgiving us and making us clean.  Without Him we would be drowning in our our sin and forever be piled under the issues of life.  Let me encourage you today that if you do not have the protection of Jesus then follow what Romans 10:9 says That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  Being saved means you have the Spam protection better yet you have the sin forgiveness!

Lets not let Spam or sin get out of control and lets deal with it immediately!

Pastor Jason

Last week was an amazing week for me and the people of our community. In case you didn’t know we as well as the other churches in the community put on a school assembly program called ASAP. The event was put together by the local churches and was paid for by a generous donation of a business man in our community. Basically there were two portions of this event: one an in school assembly where a guest Speaker (in our case a wonderful retired football player Ray McElroy from the Chicago Bears) speaks to the students during the day. At the end of the assembly he invites them back to an afterschool assembly. I am pleased to say that we had close to 400 kids at one of the school events. At the conclusion at that event close to 300 kids stood before God and gave their lives to Christ or rededicated their lives to Him. The other event saw 200 kids at the event with over 100 giving their life or rededicating their life to Christ! It was amazing!

The title of this post is Stop putting God in a box. The reason why is what WE planned to see as result of this event was much lower than what God obviously had for the event! In fact we ran out of follow up cards within the first few minutes of the first night. We had planned for this event but for whatever reason planned very short. This was the Pastors of the community the ones who are supposed to be leading our community to follow God, and by the way that includes me. I had to ask God to forgive me for being so small minded but my question is why do we think so small and put God in a box?

I have noticed that at several times over the course of my life I have done this and honestly I am tired of it. We as the Church as Christians have to think in God numbers. If you read closely in Acts 2:40 and 41 says: With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. Did you catch that 3000 were added that day! Why is it that today most churches don’t see one person let alone hundreds or thousands. I think it is because we have trained ourselves to think small.

It doesn’t stop with the church it also stretches into the personal lives of many people. When you pray for someone do you really think it is going to do something or do you know for sure that the words you pray can come with power from God? How about just looking for God to move in your life in any area? Do you think God is going to bless you mightily or do you just hope for a small blessing of any type? If you are honest you would probably being saying right now I think too small. Sadly I think it has been engrained in our heads and thinking small just comes naturally. We have to get God out of the box WE put him in and let Him work like He wants. This true for the church, it is true for you and it is true for me too!

Please understand that I know other things can limit success but in particular I think God wants us to blow up the box and start giving Him the chance to move in a great way for us personally and for the church too! Our job is to be prepared and trust God let the numbers and the depth that He works be up to Him! So let’s stop the small minded thinking that has plagued the church these days and trust that God wants to work mightily for us today!

Today at Passion Community Church (the Church I Pastor) I had the privalge to preach with my wife.  The sermons focus was on Love and how we must move our marriage relationships from Eros (greek for romantic love) to what I believe God wants us to have Agape (Greek for unconditional love).  While the divorce rate today in the church and outside the church is somewhere around 55% one would have to say that we must not be doing something right!  I believe it is because couples do not learn to go from that romantic love to a more in depth unconditional love.  So we have couples that at the first sign of trouble they feel that they are no longer in love and the world says that it is time to divorce.

Love is patient, Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs.  1 Corinthians 13:4&5

What a wonderful verse we have here but do you understand for love between two people to be at this level you have to have more then just a romantic fuzzy love.  You have to be willing to say that no matter what I face today no matter how mad I get at my spouse I am still going to love them unconditionally.  That is what Agape love is!

Its time for us to take our relationships from Eros love to Agape love.  How do you do that?  Well here are my suggestions they are certainly not everything but I think a road map to start!

1.  Enjoy the romantic love you have but don’t stop there.  Learn to love your spouse with more than just that romantic love.  Go to the next level!

2.  Accept that you are different people and your not always going to see eye to eye.  I know that you may be fighting that things are not good with your relationship but just because you argue doesn’t mean your relationship has to end.  It means that you are different people.  I believe that God brings a match that will be differnt but you two together will be just what God wanted.   Matthew 19:5 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’  This means that you do become one but its not that you are not your own person.  God brings us together because it is what we need!  So learn to accept your differnces and learn how your differences make a better couple not tear a couple apart.

3.  Love to forgive…  No matter who you are or how perfect you are there are going to be times when we slip up.  This is when we have to be willing to forgive.

4.  Keep the flame burning!  When you first get married the “flame” is always burning.  As life progresses and it takes more and more of your time it is easy to forget about the flame that you once had.  The first thing that gets left behind is the time between you and your spouse.  In order to grow in your relationship we have to learn to make our relationship a priority.  Take time out of your busy schedule and make your relationship a priority!  Date nights, dinners alone, quiet time with no tv.  Remember what you once did and do it again!

Let me encourage you to keep going!  Your relationship is worth it.  It isn’t easy it takes work but you can do it!

Happy Valentines day!

Pastor Jason

This week during my prayer time God drew my attention to a song by Britt Nicole called “Don’t Worry Now”. The Song is about feeling sad and drawn away when things seem to be going all wrong. When that happens we need God’s love to convince us that it’s going to be Ok. For years while we worked so hard to see Passion grow things didn’t always go so well! Ask me boy do I have stories! But through all of it God would say to me when I prayed Don’t Worry because I am there! It often felt like I was all alone but God would remind me again “don’t worry I am there and it will be ok”.

So why do I say this now? Well I think God is doing something through this song. Also we are building a testimony of how to continue when things seem tough. To preserver to keep going! Do I want to continue to become who God wants us to be, ABSOULUTELY. Are we there yet? NO, I don’t think so….In fact my prayer is that we never get to the point where we say we are at the pinnacle, so we don’t stop growing and challenging ourselves. We can always grow closer to God!

Our community needs to be transformed, we need to change it, we need to reach it, there are still too many people in our midst that our hurting and need to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. IF we do reach our whole community guess what we still have the county, the area, the state and beyond! Having said that we have been through so much, we have learned to say “don’t worry now, its going to be ok”! It’s our testimony that God has taught us. See I believe when you go through something God is just preparing you to be able to minister to someone else in what you went through! Churches included in that!

Maybe you are struggling today. Maybe someone you know is struggling. Be sure to reach out to them and tell them “Don’t worry now, its going to be ok….because Jesus is here for you! Let’s not forget that it is our job to reach out to our community and share with them they need it, they need to know that the love of Jesus is real and it’s going to be Ok!

Love you all!
Pastor Jason!

When you feel like you are all alone
Just like your best friend up and gone
Don’t worry now
I’ve been there yeah, I know how it feels
To wonder if love is even real
Don’t worry now
Because it’s gonna be
Yeah, It’s gonna be ok

This Sunday (October 31st) I will be preaching about our youth playing a role in the church.  I was really struck with a recent article I read that said roughly 66% (others have it as high as 80%) of the youth in todays churches will leave the church during their college days.  I wonder why it is that way and why is it that high?  I have heard others say that it is the colleges fault, some have said it is the parents fault.  What I never hear is people say that the church should take responsiblity too.  Let me explain why.

See often I believe youth don’t come to understand a real relationship of their own.  They (youth) go to church because its what they have to do and occasionally go to youth group to hang out with friends.  But when has their faith ever made it to a personally level with them.  See I believe we as churches shut this down more often than not telling them they are to young for this or that. We fail to teach them to play an active role in the church and more importantly that their faith is their own and not someone else’s.   How sad is that?

At Passion Community Church (The church I pastor) I pray we are changing that.  See I believe that in order for the youth of today to not walk away in college we have to encourage them to move in their faith today!  We have to speak trust, ability and faith into them today!  We have to let them have active roles in the church.  Encouraging them to do more than what they are today.

1 Timothy 4:11-16 says:

Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

While this message was given to Timothy from Paul while he was in his late 20′s early 30′s I believe it is a key to us understanding the youth of today.  See Paul encourages Timothy to go out and be bold regardless of his youth but he had also spent many years already with Timothy.  See it wasn’t meaningless words because Paul had spoken and shared his life with Timothy.  We need to do the same.

Paul also encourages Timothy by telling him:  Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Many “adults/Elders” had spent time speaking a dream into Timothy’s life.  I wondered if we have done the same and if not then we should begin today!  We have to fan those dreams and give them a chance to try out the gifting God has given our youth.

More than ever I think the youth of today are trying to find relevance.  Relevance in who they are, what they do, and who they relate too.  We as churches across the US have the opportunity to give them this relevance.  Showing them that Church is not a place that they come watch adults worship God but instead a place where they can have a relevant experience with the living God no matter their age.  This means that we may have to let them try out things and with that will come learning pains but the payoff will be better than anything we have seen.

Lets stop discourging the youth of today and give them a place to come into their own place in the church today.  I know we will be amazed at the results!

Comment with your thoughts as I always love to hear what others think!

Pastor Jason Moore

Passion Community Church

http://www.facebook.com/Pastordude

This past week at Passion Church I gave away one dollar bills to everyone in the church. No it wasn’t because I wanted to pay them off, or even pay them to listen to me. Simply put it was a challenge. See on our money there is a statement that says “In God We Trust”. My question to them and to you iis that statement still true today. Trust can be shown in many ways but one way is doing something that is outside of your comfort zone for that person you trust. Doing something that would be in honor of that person. This brings me back to the dollar bill I gave out to everyone. The dollar and the challenge was for them to go out and sometime this week give it away. Help someone in need, pay for a drink, a toll at the toll booth, a pack of gum, make up for the change that someone is missing to finish their purchase. Do something for someone because you want to trust in God and share His love with that person.

Their was a time in our country that men and ladies put their lives on the line, their wealth, their homes their everything on the line for their God. The founding fathers of this country did this because the TRUSTED in God and His ways. Their work their lives we celebrate this week and what has become of this great nation. Their Trust and work in God brought a change to this world that was radical and changed the landscape of this world forever.

Today I wonder if we still have the trust in our God like they did then. Would we be willing to put our lives our everything on the line for our country and for our God? The dollar bill and challenge was to the church to go out and make a difference by trusting in God and His ways. The dollar was so that there could be no excuses a catalyst to trust in God. MY prayers was and still is that when we trust in God to help us bless someone else then God will trust us and help us to change the world again like our forefathers did at one time!

My challenge to you is the same thing take a mere dollar and show the world that “In God We Trust” is still true today. Trust Him so much so that you are willing to go out of your way out of your comfort zone and bless someone just because God loves them. I promise you that your world will never be the same and I trust that God will use this to help change this world!

Why is it that we are afraid to save someone from hell yet we watch them take chances with their lives every day?

Why is it that we say we care yet forget to call, pray, or even ask how that person is doing?

Why do people come to church every Sunday yet their life never changes. Is it the pastor, the church, or that person?

Why don’t people care?

Why do you cry out saying you want your life to be different but you never do anything to change it?

Why can you find time to watch your favorite show, read the paper, read magazines but never find time to read about the God who created you.

Why can we remember lyrics to every song, joke, or story that you have heard yet you can’t remember one verse or even try to memorize a verse?

Why is it that we never tell someone how wonderful they are until we attend their funeral? Isn’t it too late then?

Why do you fear life but yet turn away from the one who created your life?

Why do we care so much about saving cute loving animals but could care less about saving the people around us that are perishing?

Why do people cry at the sight of a baby animal dying or being killed yet say abortion is OK?

Why can we get up everyday of the week early to go to work, school, or any activity but can’t get up to go to church?

Why do we put EVERYTHING in front of God.

Why do we make time for baseball, football, band, choir, wrestling, soccer, and any other practice yet we can’t make time for our kids to go to youth group, Sunday School, or sadly even church?

Why is it that people need to take vacations from church?

Why is it that people go to church asking what I am going to get out of it instead of what can I give?

Why do we celebrate The National Day of Prayer and then hardly ever pray again? Shouldn’t everyday be a day of prayer?

Why do we live everyday like their is a million more of these when in reality everyday you draw closer to the end?

Why do we say that If we knew tomorrow was our last day on this earth we would live differently? Yet then we never change?

Why do we put off to tomorrow what we should be doing today and then put it off again tomorrow.

Why do we say I don’t like my life, relationships, etc…. but then never do anything to change?

Why can we fall in love with a human so quickly yet we never learn to love God like He deserves?

Why do we put so much time and energy into our jobs, sports, hobbies and then say we don’t have time to do anything for God?

Why do we boldly cheer for our favorite team, wear our jerseys, and stand up for them even when they are terrible yet can’t talk about God or even represent Him like we should?

All of these things are questions that as a Pastor I have asked people and MYSELF? The question I have to all of us is Why? Why do we do these things. Our priorities are messed up and we don’t go to the one who wants to give you all the things you need. We have sadly traded in the greatest thing in the world for things that will quickly fade. We have traded eternity for temporary joy. In order for this world to change we must learn to change ourselves. We must learn to find TRUE meaning and love.

So the question is not why but what? As in What are we going to do about it?

Today was such a beautiful day.  I found myself staring out my window looking at the Sun and listening to the birds, who I also believe really enjoyed today.  Isn’t it wonderful when we get these great days after the cold has set in.  I love every season including winter (yes I am one of those weird people who love winter!) and love what each brings.  HOWEVER, many of you know that our house is surrounded by large maple and oak trees.  Every year about this time they drop their leaves and my yard and grass which I treasure and spend many hours perfecting in the summer disappear under inches of leaves.  If we do not remove them they are sure to kill the grass underneath them in matter of days.  The leaves basically choke out any sun reaching the grass and kill it slowly.   As I think about this I can’t help but relate this to our Christian life.  The leaves that fall on our souls are the sins that we commit and do not ask for forgiveness.  If we leave them there they will slowly begin to make us rot.  We need to bring in the rake and the ALMIGHTY leaf blower (Jesus Christ) and ask for him to forgive us.  When we do this His light then shines through and we then are new again and can continue to grow.  If we have accepted Jesus Christ as our savior and have asked him to forgive us for our sins then we are instructed to daily ask for his forgiveness.  Jesus himself taught us to ask for forgiveness daily when he taught the disciples to pray.  Just like the falling leaves it is always easier to ask for forgiveness daily then to let them build up.  So today ask God to forgive you for your sins and then sit back and watch him rid you of those leaves (leaves of sin).  Too bad the leaves in our yard wouldn’t disappear like that! 

I am moved by great music or lyrics that catch my heart. I can’t help it is just me. I have been known to listen to the same song hundreds of times as the message sinks into my heart and mind. I know it is silly but it is me! Recently my favorite group is a group called Shane and Shane. If you get a chance you should really check them out as I HIGHLY recommend them (link at the bottom of this post), this however is not a commercial for Shane and Shane.

I have been moved by two of their songs called “Burn us up” and “Beg”. Burn us up (lyrics below) is about the biblical story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The story is of course from the book of Daniel where these three young men were willing to be burnt up for God. They walked into a furnace, because they would not worship their king. God saved them from being killed by the fire. God even protected their clothes as it says there was no smell of smoke as Daniel 3:27 says. The story is a well known story of the bible but these men were willing to give their life for God. They believed that they would be rescued that God would come through. However there is no where in the bible that says God told them that he wouldn’t let them burn up. It only says that they trusted their God! In fact it says in Daniel 3:18 that they didn’t care if he didn’t. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Regardless they were willing to walk into that furnace even if God did not save them!

I wonder if we would have thought the same thing? I am moved by that song and that story because how many times have we faced the heat of the furnace only to draw back and say that is too hot for me to go forward. I can’t take one more step forward because I could be burnt up. Have I stepped away from a fire because I was afraid of burning up, or can I face the furnaces of my life because God is there for me and I know regardless of the outcome if I get burnt up or if He rescues me I will be able to take that step and keep going.

I said in the begging of this post that I was stuck on two songs the other being “Beg” (lyrics below). In essence this song is all about the desire the need for God to break through the mundane parts of our life to be on fire for him. For Him to burn up all the needless things of our lives and make Him the priority in our life.

So here I sit pondering if I have avoided the fires of the furnace and not trusted God enough to walk into those furnaces but yet wishing he would burn up the useless stuff in my life so I can be even closer with Him. I wonder if the furnace I am afraid to walk into is the same one that God wants me to walk into so that the useless stuff in my life could be burn up and I would be left with only a life with Him? Hmmm? Either way my hearts cry is that I beg for Him to move in my life and to give me the courage to face the things I face in my life! Regardless of what I have said or done in the past I beg that today the useless stuff in my life can be burnt up and that I can draw closer to Him. That I would have the strength to face the furnaces of my life because I know no matter the outcome, whether it means I am burnt up or miraculously saved He will be there! That no matter what I face that my faith my relationship with Him is so strong that I can like Shad, Mesh, and Benny face the furnace and walk right in!

http://www.shaneandshane.com/2.0/

Lyrics to Burn Us Up :

There were three

Before the king

There were three who wouldn’t bow to him

For when you heard

The music play

And you were standing you would burn.

They looked at him and said…

Burn us up! Burn us up! Burn us up!

Oh king won’t you burn us in the furnace of

Your desire

We give up! We give up! We give up!

 Oh king won’t you burn us in the furnace of

Your desire!

Won’t you throw us in the fire!

The king enraged

At what they said

Sent the three away to find their death

The palace stopped in unbelief

When the guilty raised their hands to sing

They looked at him and said…

You are able to deliver from the fire of affliction

It’s the declaration of my Lord

You’re not an image of gold You’re the God of old

You have made us Come and save us

We are Yours But even if You don’t, we will burn!

Lyrics to Beg :

Here I am

One more day of not

Loving Him the way He asks

In fact my heart is singing praises to the things

that make me feel alright

So I’m sinking fast like a stone heart should

And on the way down

I’ve done what I could

To try and try to turn this stone to flesh

 I’m haunted by my God

 Who has the right to ask me

 What by the nature of my rebellion

I cannot give.

So I beg for you to move

I beg for you to move

I beg for you to break through

 So here I am

Got my deeds for the day

All my cute little words about

How I am saved

Am I saved?

Could I love you with my mouth like a church kid should

At the end of the day

My words get burned as wood

Oh, but I was good.

I’m haunted by my God

 Who has the right to ask me

What by the nature of my rebellion

 I cannot give.

Have you ever felt like something huge is about to happen.  Like you sit on the point of a major movement one way or another.  Your life, your feelings, your heart tells you something is about to happen you just don’t know what! Some people say they feel that way right before something bad happens, others say that they feel that way before something good.  I remember the day I meet my wife I knew It was going to be something life changing, and it was But even before we met in person after we had spoke on the phone I knew there was something that was going to happen.  Luckily for me it was that I met my wife! 

 Today I sit here pondering, praying through one of these times.  That God is about to move in some way.  The one thing I fear that I pray constantely about is that I stay out of the way.  A vessel to be used but not to get in the way or mess something up.  When God moves we as humans often get in the way, and that is something I do not want to do!  Or perhaps all of this is in my head?  Maybe this feeling is made up by my sincere desire to do good in the eyes of our Lord? 

Regardless I have decide to face this time like the way I face many things.  In utter and dependent prayer.  Prayer that Gods will, no matter what it is, is done and I can follow it without regard.  Totally sold out and transparent so that His will and not mine is done.  Prayer that Gods will, no matter what it is, is done and I can follow it without regard.  Total commitment to what He wants to do in this time and everyday in my life. 

Transparent is what I long to be…