Suicide is an irrational, compuslive act to escape what "feels like" unbearble eternal suffering. Most of the time it is the result of a demonic like depression that squeezes the mind and soul of a person beyond what they "believe" is their ability to endure.
Suicide is always tragic. The pain of those left behind is dark, evil and cruel. There is NOTHING good about suicide, but it is time for something good to come out of this recent wave of young adults in our community taking their own life. The greatest tragedy would be that these young men died in vain with no lessons learned. Parents, engage in straight talk with your sons and daughters and their friends about the recent suicides in our community.
- Ask them open ended questions, questions that can not be answered with yes or no, about what they are thinking and feeling about life. Stay in touch with their thoughts and feelings. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
- Talk about suicide. Ask them if they have ever considered suicide. If so ask follow up questions like..."How would you do it?"... :"Do you have the means to do it?" If they say yes to both ask them if they have a time plan. If they answer in the affirmative to all three, seek immediate professional assistance.
- Make sure they understand suicide doesn't end suffering, it only creates more.
- Know what is happening in their lives including love interests, goals, dreams and people they are hanging with.
- Reenforce you love them unconditionally and assure them that together, there is nothing they cannot over come.
- Share your faith in God and ecnourage them to articulate thier God beliefs.
- Encourage them to stay connected to a faith community and to friends who share godly values and beliefs.
- Relentlessly speak words of hope and promise about their future. Paint a postive picture of their future, telling them that God has huge plans for their lives.
-Most of all, let them know God loves them and is always working for the good in their lives.
There is no fool proof means to prevent someone from taking their own life, we all have free will, but together we can minimize the risk of this darkness encroaching upon our young ever again. Please contact your pastor or reach out to a counselor if you need any assitance.
One more thing, the answer is "yes." People who have have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord go to heaven when they die, even if they take their own life. Romans 8:37-39.
Join me in prayng that no more of our young will enter heaven before they have lived a long, full life.
Peace,
Rick
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
What Lent Means
Lent got off to a great start with awesome worship on Ash Wednesday. Thank you to all of the servants who showed up early and stayed late. I am humbled by the number of you who show up week after week to do the nitty gritty hard work so that God’s people can assemble for worship.
Below is our acronym for the next forty days. Find an accountability partner, work the plan and allow God to do the rest.
L: Leave Behind Something
During the next 40 days, leave something behind. Leave a sin, a habit, a luxury that you have grown accustomed to in your life. Give up smoking, alcohol, caffeine, a favorite food or some other luxury addiction. Give up a video game, television show or a certain website that appeals to your appetite. You might choose to fast for a period of time, maybe even all day long. And if those have all been conquered by Christ in you already, maybe you will give up 30 minutes of sleep or a particular worry that has been nagging at your mind. Leave something behind
E: Eliminate Guilt
We eliminate guilt through repentance and receiving forgiveness. Repentance involves leaving behind some harmful life action or practice (sin) and asking God for forgiveness. We all have something to be forgiven for. Reflect upon some life action that brings harm to yourself or people around you and impedes your relationship with God. Walk away from the life action, walk towards God and ask for forgiveness.
It might help to reflect upon the price given for our Salvation. Salvation is free but it didn’t come cheap. Christ underwent tremendous suffering upon that cross for you and me. We are not called to be held hostage by the feelings of our guilt, but to ask and receive forgiveness when we fall short. Lent is a time we remember and reflect upon the power behind the forgiveness that comes through the blood that was shed through Jesus on the cross. Lent is a time to be strengthened by receiving and offering forgiveness. Don’t only eliminate guilt in your own life; help out others by forgiving them for wrongs done against you. Tell them.
N: New Habits
Lent is a time to develop a new desire to serve God and to be the person God created you to be. That occurs as we create new habits that eventually develop healthier subconscious life patterns. These new habits can also be called spiritual disciplines. As you remove a habit, an action, or a period of time, replace it with a spiritual habit. Replace it with something that will allow you and God to spend time together.
There are many spiritual disciplines and it is a good practice to combine one or more. Allow this incomplete list to prime your own creative juices and design a new habit plan that works especially for you.
Discipline of Solitude: Find a quite place and just be silent. Turn off all gadgets including your phone. Listen and consider recording whatever thoughts that traipse through your mind.
Discipline of Prayer: Consider combining the disciplines of solitude and prayer. Purchase a rosary and allow the five beads above the cross to be your guide to prayer. Tap into our church prayer line and pray for the requests received. Pray through one Psalm every day, allowing the verses to prompt your prayer. When stuck in traffic, instead of getting all bent of shape, pray for those around you. When you hear an emergency siren, pray for the emergency personnel and those whose lives have been turned upside down.
Discipline of Fasting: Fasting is where you deny your body some type of pleasure, physical, mental or emotional, even all three. Every time you fast, combine it with another spiritual discipline like worship, celebration, prayer, journaling or the reading of scripture. Instead of dwelling on the hunger pain, focus on or do something that impacts your relationship with God
Discipline of Fellowship: Join a Grace Group. Increase the time spent in the group you are already in. Join a bible study. Reserve a time to faithfully work the weekly Life Steps from the weekend message. For 40 days get connected to some form of small group.
Discipline of Simplicity: Consider combining with the discipline of fasting. When you feel hunger, do something that eliminates clutter. Clear your calendar from the “stuff” that drains you. Decide to not to buy more “stuff.” Attack an area of your life where procrastination rules.
For those who are younger, maybe you will give up your favorite desert or snack, video game or Television show and every time you think of that particular sweet, play that Game or watch that show, you will clean up your room so as to simplify your life.
Discipline of Service: Choose to serve somewhere in your church in the area of your giftedness. Email Jeff Gehle about setting up and tearing down the set up for worship in the ARC. Email Allan Mink about helping out with the building. Email Judy Madden about visiting people in the hospital. Email Melissa Hagler about getting involved in missions. Email Leslie Lummus or Kristen Walker about serving in our student ministries. Email Lisa Latham about helping out with our video/media needs. The list goes on and on. Serve somewhere. Call a friend each week and invite them to join you in worship. Work at the harvest house, rock babies at the hospital, visit a nursing home. Serve.
T: Today is the Day of New Life
Today is the day God will begin growing in you a brand new life, not tomorrow, not next week, today. No more waiting. Lent is here. It is time to release something and allow God to grow something.
Think of “leaving behind” as tilling the soil in your Spirit, an agitation to what is normal. “Eliminating guilt” is a reminder that there will be some growing pains in the process. The “New Habits,” new spiritual disciplines, are a new planting into your Spirit. Today is the day God will use to grow that New Life in these next 40 days as you journey towards Easter.
Some of you have never, or rarely, completed anything that you started. If you fail at your sacrifice of leaving behind after a few days, dust off your knees, get back up and try again. Try and go 40 days straight regardless how many times you have to start over. Your Easter might not be April 3rd. It might be July 4th, but that is okay. To those who believe in and follow Jesus, every day has the potential to be Easter.
May God give you the strength to resist temptation, grace to accept His forgiveness, and the discipline to practice new habits today, tomorrow and ……
Peace,
Rick
Below is our acronym for the next forty days. Find an accountability partner, work the plan and allow God to do the rest.
L: Leave Behind Something
During the next 40 days, leave something behind. Leave a sin, a habit, a luxury that you have grown accustomed to in your life. Give up smoking, alcohol, caffeine, a favorite food or some other luxury addiction. Give up a video game, television show or a certain website that appeals to your appetite. You might choose to fast for a period of time, maybe even all day long. And if those have all been conquered by Christ in you already, maybe you will give up 30 minutes of sleep or a particular worry that has been nagging at your mind. Leave something behind
E: Eliminate Guilt
We eliminate guilt through repentance and receiving forgiveness. Repentance involves leaving behind some harmful life action or practice (sin) and asking God for forgiveness. We all have something to be forgiven for. Reflect upon some life action that brings harm to yourself or people around you and impedes your relationship with God. Walk away from the life action, walk towards God and ask for forgiveness.
It might help to reflect upon the price given for our Salvation. Salvation is free but it didn’t come cheap. Christ underwent tremendous suffering upon that cross for you and me. We are not called to be held hostage by the feelings of our guilt, but to ask and receive forgiveness when we fall short. Lent is a time we remember and reflect upon the power behind the forgiveness that comes through the blood that was shed through Jesus on the cross. Lent is a time to be strengthened by receiving and offering forgiveness. Don’t only eliminate guilt in your own life; help out others by forgiving them for wrongs done against you. Tell them.
N: New Habits
Lent is a time to develop a new desire to serve God and to be the person God created you to be. That occurs as we create new habits that eventually develop healthier subconscious life patterns. These new habits can also be called spiritual disciplines. As you remove a habit, an action, or a period of time, replace it with a spiritual habit. Replace it with something that will allow you and God to spend time together.
There are many spiritual disciplines and it is a good practice to combine one or more. Allow this incomplete list to prime your own creative juices and design a new habit plan that works especially for you.
Discipline of Solitude: Find a quite place and just be silent. Turn off all gadgets including your phone. Listen and consider recording whatever thoughts that traipse through your mind.
Discipline of Prayer: Consider combining the disciplines of solitude and prayer. Purchase a rosary and allow the five beads above the cross to be your guide to prayer. Tap into our church prayer line and pray for the requests received. Pray through one Psalm every day, allowing the verses to prompt your prayer. When stuck in traffic, instead of getting all bent of shape, pray for those around you. When you hear an emergency siren, pray for the emergency personnel and those whose lives have been turned upside down.
Discipline of Fasting: Fasting is where you deny your body some type of pleasure, physical, mental or emotional, even all three. Every time you fast, combine it with another spiritual discipline like worship, celebration, prayer, journaling or the reading of scripture. Instead of dwelling on the hunger pain, focus on or do something that impacts your relationship with God
Discipline of Fellowship: Join a Grace Group. Increase the time spent in the group you are already in. Join a bible study. Reserve a time to faithfully work the weekly Life Steps from the weekend message. For 40 days get connected to some form of small group.
Discipline of Simplicity: Consider combining with the discipline of fasting. When you feel hunger, do something that eliminates clutter. Clear your calendar from the “stuff” that drains you. Decide to not to buy more “stuff.” Attack an area of your life where procrastination rules.
For those who are younger, maybe you will give up your favorite desert or snack, video game or Television show and every time you think of that particular sweet, play that Game or watch that show, you will clean up your room so as to simplify your life.
Discipline of Service: Choose to serve somewhere in your church in the area of your giftedness. Email Jeff Gehle about setting up and tearing down the set up for worship in the ARC. Email Allan Mink about helping out with the building. Email Judy Madden about visiting people in the hospital. Email Melissa Hagler about getting involved in missions. Email Leslie Lummus or Kristen Walker about serving in our student ministries. Email Lisa Latham about helping out with our video/media needs. The list goes on and on. Serve somewhere. Call a friend each week and invite them to join you in worship. Work at the harvest house, rock babies at the hospital, visit a nursing home. Serve.
T: Today is the Day of New Life
Today is the day God will begin growing in you a brand new life, not tomorrow, not next week, today. No more waiting. Lent is here. It is time to release something and allow God to grow something.
Think of “leaving behind” as tilling the soil in your Spirit, an agitation to what is normal. “Eliminating guilt” is a reminder that there will be some growing pains in the process. The “New Habits,” new spiritual disciplines, are a new planting into your Spirit. Today is the day God will use to grow that New Life in these next 40 days as you journey towards Easter.
Some of you have never, or rarely, completed anything that you started. If you fail at your sacrifice of leaving behind after a few days, dust off your knees, get back up and try again. Try and go 40 days straight regardless how many times you have to start over. Your Easter might not be April 3rd. It might be July 4th, but that is okay. To those who believe in and follow Jesus, every day has the potential to be Easter.
May God give you the strength to resist temptation, grace to accept His forgiveness, and the discipline to practice new habits today, tomorrow and ……
Peace,
Rick
Monday, February 15, 2010
Ash Wednesday and Lent
Ash Wednesday , February 17, begins the 40 day journey to Easter. The season is traditionally a season of fasting and focus on the deep places of personal and global transformation and renewal. There is never the experience of the resurrection in any area of your life without the going through the pain of discipline and sacrifice. It is not enough to have the “want to”. It must be accompanied by the “work to.”
Ash Wednesday , February 17, begins the 40 day journey to Easter. The season is traditionally a season of fasting and focus on the deep places of personal and global transformation and renewal. There is never the experience of the resurrection in any area of your life without the going through the pain of discipline and sacrifice. It is not enough to have the “want to”. It must be accompanied by the “work to.”
I have been praying for those of you have been attending worship during our “Make It Stick” series. Many of you have made some tough decisions and important commitments. Though this series is coming to a close we have just begun the process of experiencing the holiness of God in every area of our lives. Decide now to stay the course and allow the season of Lent to catapult you to a new level in your walk with Christ. God wants to take you to a new place in your work, relationships, health and faith! Make the commitment this week to take the next step in your journey with Jesus.
We will assemble every Wednesday through Lent at 6:45-7:20 pm for a brief time of worship and a short message on Prayer. The purpose will be to inspire you to pray more often and equip you with tools for your daily prayer life. Jesus himself will be our example as we examine how he prayed during the last 24 hours of his physical life on earth. Below is the schedule for our Wednesday Lenten message series:
February 17 “The Spiritual Disciplines of Lent” Pastor Rick Owen
February 24 “Praying to Resist Temptation” Pastor Jeff Gehle
March 3 “Praying for Yourself” Pastor Mather Owen
March 10 “Praying for Other Believers” Pastor Jim Uttley
March 17 “Praying for the Lost” Pastor Jim Uttley
March 24 “Praying for Strength to Finish Well” Pastor Jeff Gehle
April 1 (Thursday) Celebration of The Lord’s Supper
April 2 (Good Friday) The Crucifixion
We begin a new message series the weekend of February 20-21, “Live Life Strong.” We will be getting honest about the fears in our life that prevent us from truly living. Bring a friend and let’s keep on growing in our walk with Jesus.
For those of you who are part of other churches around the world, I am praying for you also and challenge you to stay focused on your Christ Walk. Check out the promo to our new Message series “Life Life Strong” and join us each week as together we learn how to “Life Life Strong!” .
Peace,
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Why does God allow tragedy?
Why would an all powerful God allow the horrific natural disasters of the past five years: the 2004 Asian Tsunami that killed close to 230,000 people, Hurricane Katrina in August of 2005, the Myanmar cyclone in 2008 and now the earthquake in Haiti? And why does a loving God allow the demon of depression to grip the minds and hearts of god fearing Christ followers until the suffering is more they can bear and the only viable source of relief is physical death?
The question of "Why God?" is not new. It is asked over 300 times in the book of Job alone. But we, like Job, are never given God's answers. Paul in Romans 8:21 reminds us that all creation, this fallen world we live in, will always be subjected to the frustrations and suffering caused by the consequences of sin until Christ returns.
Though we are never give a satisfactory answer to the question "Why," God has made clear to us the "what" of God's redemptive response to human suffering and of our requirement to respond to it. Jesus mission statement in Luke chapter 4 comes straight from Isaiah 61.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me to
proclaim Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the broken
hearted, to proclaim freedom for the
captives and release from darkness
the prisoners..."
We are to...."rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew their ruined cities,
that have been devastated for generations."
Romans 8:28 decrees that even God is not the cause of all things, but God works IN all things so that they come together for redemptive good.
It is amazing how tragedy brings people together. Nations of people who would typically never see eye to eye, who have deep seeded religious, political, ethnic and cultural difference have joined hands to help our fellow human beings in Haiti. In the weeks ahead we will be publicizing our response to the Haitian catastrophe. Be praying for God's guidance so you will be ready to step up when the time arrives. Be considering a monetary and time oriented gift. Besides sending financial assistance, we hope to send a crew or two every year for an extended period of time.
Since the announcement of 21 year old Luke Nevling's tragic death, scores of people from from different services and many small groups have joined forces to love on this family. Some prayed and stayed with Luke's body until the doctors could harvest his organs. Some brought food, others reached out to the youth of the community whose world was rocked by Luke's death. Others have rallied to get the church ready for the service so those who attend will experience the power and presence of God as soon as they enter. Many have called, texted and emailed the staff with words of encouraging prayer. I have been deeply moved by your compassion for the Nevling family and couldn't be more proud to be your partner in Christ.
We live in a dangerous, sinful world. The creation moans as if in childbirth and the demons of depression roam to and from upon the earth, but thanks be to God that Living Word has the final word......."Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
I am blessed to be a part of a church that knows the mission.... and lives it.
Peace,
Rick
The question of "Why God?" is not new. It is asked over 300 times in the book of Job alone. But we, like Job, are never given God's answers. Paul in Romans 8:21 reminds us that all creation, this fallen world we live in, will always be subjected to the frustrations and suffering caused by the consequences of sin until Christ returns.
Though we are never give a satisfactory answer to the question "Why," God has made clear to us the "what" of God's redemptive response to human suffering and of our requirement to respond to it. Jesus mission statement in Luke chapter 4 comes straight from Isaiah 61.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me to
proclaim Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the broken
hearted, to proclaim freedom for the
captives and release from darkness
the prisoners..."
We are to...."rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew their ruined cities,
that have been devastated for generations."
Romans 8:28 decrees that even God is not the cause of all things, but God works IN all things so that they come together for redemptive good.
It is amazing how tragedy brings people together. Nations of people who would typically never see eye to eye, who have deep seeded religious, political, ethnic and cultural difference have joined hands to help our fellow human beings in Haiti. In the weeks ahead we will be publicizing our response to the Haitian catastrophe. Be praying for God's guidance so you will be ready to step up when the time arrives. Be considering a monetary and time oriented gift. Besides sending financial assistance, we hope to send a crew or two every year for an extended period of time.
Since the announcement of 21 year old Luke Nevling's tragic death, scores of people from from different services and many small groups have joined forces to love on this family. Some prayed and stayed with Luke's body until the doctors could harvest his organs. Some brought food, others reached out to the youth of the community whose world was rocked by Luke's death. Others have rallied to get the church ready for the service so those who attend will experience the power and presence of God as soon as they enter. Many have called, texted and emailed the staff with words of encouraging prayer. I have been deeply moved by your compassion for the Nevling family and couldn't be more proud to be your partner in Christ.
We live in a dangerous, sinful world. The creation moans as if in childbirth and the demons of depression roam to and from upon the earth, but thanks be to God that Living Word has the final word......."Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
I am blessed to be a part of a church that knows the mission.... and lives it.
Peace,
Rick
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