10.26.07 thequest UPdate

thequest family,

We had a rich time last weekend and especially Sunday evening with the Wakens. The teaching time on Sunday night was full of the Spirit's power...and it empowered each one of us. May Ed's words remind us again of the Art of Sharing the Good News:

Many believers have the notion that evangelism is hard, scary and reserved for those who are gifted. The results of this kind of thinking cause us to shy away from spiritual interaction with lost people. After all, we really don’t know what to say, how to say it and many of us don’t know our Bibles well enough to answer the hard questions people ask. This kind of thinking is not at all what the Bible teaches us.

The Biblical principle regarding success in evangelism is always being obedient to share the truth. In short we should be measuring conversations about Jesus, not conversions. We can choose to have conversations about the spiritual with people, but we cannot make people respond to the truth we share with them. That is God’s realm. Success in evangelism must be measured by conversations. Here are four truths that will serve to strengthen our passion to share our faith. At the moment of salvation, these truths are equally true for every believer.

The Authority of God (Matthew 28:16-20). Every believer has Jesus residing in them and therefore has His authority according to the Great Commission. Jesus said, “All authority is given me…”, and I am sending you to share the truth about me with others, make disciples, baptize them and teach them. He ended with “…behold, I am with you always…”. Every believer has the authority to share the good news of Christ.

The Power of God (Acts 1:8). Acts 1:8 specifically teaches us that the power of the Holy Spirit is given to every believer for the precise purpose of sharing Christ with the world. This powerful witness is not reserved or limited to a few, but is given to all (see Acts 2:38-39).

The Mind of God (1 Corinthians 2:16). Paul truly builds confidence in our ability in evangelism when he writes of the believer’s reliance upon the Spirit is a real confidence builder regarding evangelism. The principle is that the Spirit of God knows everything. We have the Spirit of God living in us. The Spirit of God freely gives us thoughts that we are to voice. Therefore, Paul concludes that we have the mind of Christ! The context is all about evangelism (see 1 Cor. 2:1-5).

The Words of God (Matthew 10:16-20, Mark 13:9-11, Luke 21:12-15). These are parallel passages which give us tremendous promises regarding evangelism. Jesus instructs us to not worry about what we are to share or how we are to share it. In Mark 13, Jesus tells us not to worry beforehand about what to say or how to say it. In Luke 21 He instructs us to make up our minds not to worry. In the Matthew and Mark passages, we learn that the Spirit will give us the words and method but in the Luke passage the Word teaches us that Jesus Himself will give us the words and methods to use. The Godhead takes an active role in teaching us that we have no reason to worry; they will instruct us and give us the confidence, words and methods at just the right time. Jesus promises that if you simply speak what is given to you to say, that none of your adversaries will be able to contradict or refute you.*


Let's have our Holy Spirit eyes on as we walk through our days...and share the stories of how God is making you successful!

Press on,
Mike


* From the article Conversations Not Conversions first published in thechurchplanter- full article HERE


Read the rest of thequest UPdate HERE

10.17.07 thequest UPdate

thequest family,

I asked Larry Totzke to share a bit this week from what the Lord is teaching him. I think you'll both enjoy these thoughts and be challenged...enjoy.

Press on,
Mike

Our Tuesday evening House Church has decided to find out what the Bible says about money. This week we examined 27 passages that frame Biblical principles of giving. Here is a brief summary of some of the principles we wrestled with:

Giving is an antidote to greed. Paul instructs Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:17-19, “Tell those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which will soon be gone. But their trust should be in the living God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and should give generously to those in need, always being ready to share with others whatever God has given them. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of real life.”

Wherever we spend our time and money is where we place our highest priority. Jesus warned his followers in Matthew 6:19-21, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.”

God causes us to prosper not to raise our standard of living, but our standard of giving. "For God is the one who gives seed to the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will give you many opportunities to do good, and he will produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched so that you can give even more generously. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will break out in thanksgiving to God." 2 Corinthians 9:10-11

We must not withhold our resources from God, who gives to us in abundance. "If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving, large or small, it will be used to measure what is given back to you." Luke 6:38

Our giving must reflect God’s agenda. “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?’ And the King will tell them, ‘I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ Matthew 25:37-40

These, of course, are general principles. Each of us must take them and apply them to our own context. Spend some time with God this week and ask Him to guide you to be a good steward of all of the riches of time, talent, and treasure that He has entrusted to you.

Larry

Read the rest of this weeks UPdate HERE

10.11.07 thequest UPdate

thequest family,

I just got this email from our friend Ed Waken who will be here next weekend. It was a word he shared with the Valley Life network of house churches...and so we'll share it with ours as well:

Only the Offense Can Score

I'm on my way to watch Game 1 of the National League Championship series this afternoon with my son (Go D-Backs). Baseball is a war between two teams. In baseball, you can only score runs if you are batting - if you are on offense. You cannot score runs when you are on defense in baseball. The object is to get on offense and stay on offense to score as many runs as possible.

The Church is also in a war but the stakes are much higher than runs scored. Souls are what are at stake in this spiritual battle. Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 these words, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against her." There are many things to learn from this passage, but the most important to me is that the church is on the offensive all the time. Jesus said that the 'gates' of hell will not win over the church. Gates are a defensive weapon, not offensive. The police do not storm a violent situation with gates. The church is to be on the move towards the gates of hell. Once there, we are to reach in behind the gates to pull out souls for the Kingdom of God.

For too long the church has been on the defense. Sitting in churches, learning, learning, learning, never to engage the gates of hell where the battle is raging.

So today, think about your being part of the Church and your responsibility is to always be on the offense for the Kingdom of God. That is the only way we can win souls for Jesus.

Ed Waken

A good word, aptly spoken.

Press on,

Mike

Read the rest of this week's UPdate HERE

Ed Waken has fun

Just wanted to post this picture so you knew that Ed loves to have fun...here we are earlier this summer on some skates....

Good times!

10.03.07 thequest UPdate

thequest family,

The feeling of making a decision--should I do thisor this thing I really want to do? Back and forth the ball rolls in our brain. Sometimes we even feel our gut start to tighten. Pros and cons are run down on each side of the decision. The moments are intense. To make decisions isn't always very simple. Sometimes we choose wisely, and sometimes we don't.

Last night, I got to experience the glow of someone who made the better choice. A pretty major "TV" event was going on in our city which would have been so much fun to go to. She was planning on going. Ah, but it was also the night of our house church gathering. A decision had to be made. She mused, "What am I going to do?"

Some had been informed about the fun chance to go to this event and had given their blessing as a neat opportunity for the couple. This couple had been released from the expectation of attending the house church gathering. I assumed her decision had been made.

Our family is late showing up (the pumpkin bread took too long--honest). I saw the couple's car outside, but thought it must have been someone else's. Then to my surprise the couple was there. I never really inquired about what happened in the decision process, but I was encouraged in my spirit. It wasn't really a sacrifice, but it was a choice. And I had some anticipation building to see how God would use this.

So as we gather into the living room. A boom box comes out and to kick off our time, she sings a song for us. It was "Heartsong," by title and by expression. Truly her heart in love with God and her desire to grow shined through each note With tears after singing, she shared about how God had shown such amazing love to her and how she wanted to grow to love Him more.

As the night went on, the leader facilitated a great time in the Word and we closed with a powerful prayer time for those we are concerned about. An important time in the life of our spiritual family and I think in the whole of the Kingdom of Heaven.

A decision was made sometime in the afternoon that greased the wheels for this to occur. The impact of the little decision rolled into much more. The glow was apparent in this woman. A lesson was learned. Choose wisely.

I don't write this to be legalistic on "going to church every week," but to highlight the impact of decisions we make, even the little ones. Let's be wise. Let's make good and Godly decisions repeatedly...it's truly where good and Godly character come from.

Press on,
Mike

To read the rest of the weekly UPdate click HERE

A Wild God

This article is a helpful perspective:

A Wild God
by Mike Bishop

"Look to your left as we come around this bend," the driver of our safari vehicle advised, "you should see some hippos."

Sure enough, submerged in a rocky pool of water, two massive creatures ignored our brief intrusion upon their peaceful bath. Our truck was moving pretty rapidly over the rough terrain, making photography difficult, but I managed to capture an image or two before the water hole slipped out of sight behind us.

"Right up here we'll probably see some Nile crocodiles," our guide promised.I couldn't begin to count how many of the toothy reptiles lay piled like driftwood, soaking up the warm January sun.

And so our safari went.... Read the rest HERE