A Special Disciple Here This Week!

Bob Tuttle Jr…Bill Pannell…Don Cousins…Judy Skaff…Pastor Isidro.

In my lifetime, I have been blessed by getting to spend time with a handful of folks who have made profound contributions to the kingdom. Bob is a world renowned evangelist. Bill is a powerful spokesperson for Christian justice around the globe. Don is a great leader who has taught thousands. Judy is Bible teacher living in India who has helped spark a revival of prayer in that strategic country. And Pastor Isidro has been walking the talk in a way that is inspirational to me and many others.

For most of his life, Isidro Mejia Cordero has worked Read more »

Sandcastles

My family looks for forward to our week at the beach each summer. We love to play in the ocean, collect shells, and especially dig in the sand. Wesley, Christopher and I were walking down the beach one night after supper and we got inspired as we saw that some other vacationers had built a whole fleet of “sand boats” complete with guns, flags and little people on them. The next morning we all started digging our own creations.

The secret to effective sandcastle building (at least for me) is having the right tools and starting at the right spot. The people who built the boats obvious had a real live adults-sized shovel because their sand creations were up on the berm and contained huge amounts of sand. Their work was not done with a small shovel and plastic bucket.

The boys and I started our castles near the water where the sand was a little wet and started digging down (with plastic sand scoopers) until we struck water (about 2 feet down). Then as the tide went out, we piled sand to make a large castle wall that dried out and became very strong. In about an hour we had a large castle that would stand tall and proud all day! What fun!

The problem with sandcastles though is that they don’t last. The tide eventually came back and washed our beautiful sandcastle away. All that work, all that digging, all that effort…gone. We were okay with it though. We expected that to happen because sandcastles are not supposed to last.

The scriptures say that there are a lot of things like sandcastles that consume a lot of our time but don’t stand the test of time. Eventually they are washed away or crumble or burn up or end up on the trash heap:  wealth, physical appearance, material things, empires, and governments all we come to an end and will not last. The question is why would we spend so much time building things that do not last?

As your pastor, I often think about my responsibility as your shepherd. I understand that I have an influence on the spiritual lives of thousands of people. One day, I’ll stand before God, and He’ll show me the effects of all of my efforts in the building of His church. I know that structures I’ve helped build won’t last. I am also sure that most of the words I’ve spoken in sermons, Bible studies, and Council meetings won’t last either. In reality, the only things truly lasting will be the people I affect for eternity: my family, friends, other brothers/sisters in Christ and those I introduce to Jesus.

That’s why I’m so excited about this next ministry year getting ready to start in the fall. The theme is going to be “All In” which is really just a rally cry for “Come on Covenant, let’s go deeper, higher, and farther than before.” We will be having several congregational events this year that will help build us into more intentional disciples of Jesus. These emphases will focus on our hearts but lead to our hands. It will truly be a year of putting our faith into practice. I’m excited about what God will be building in us because I know that HE will be building eternal things.

After all, why would we spend our time building things that will not last?

Striving to be a kid again

If we could just be like our kids, what a difference it would make!

Did you catch the newspaper this week? Check out this article for all the details. The kids of Covenant and three other Greenville ministries raised the bar in dramatic fashion for us adults as they teamed together for a “One Body” week of ministry. Together, they worked collaboratively to be the hands and feet of Christ, and in so doing, broke through spiritual, racial and socio-economic barriers that have often constrained adult Christians in our city. Clearly, we adults can learn a lot from them about racial reconciliation. I also think they raised the bar for us in regards to what it means to trust Jesus.

Hanging out in their worship times reminded me of Jesus’ clear message: “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Luke 18:17.

Unfortunately, as an adult, it is so easy to make our walk of faith complicated. Instead of receiving His kingdom principles and guidelines at face value like a child, we play games. We rationalize. We make excuses. We keep ourselves busy with work, recreation, chores and even church commitments in order to avoid submitting to Jesus’ authority and obeying His commands (John 14:15-17).

“Intentionally following Jesus…” is the vision that the adult leaders at Covenant have established as our destination; a description of what life will look like when we have fully realized Jesus’ lifestyle of worshipful living and humble service. The fact of the matter is that our kids are ahead of us, and we would do well to emulate their passion for Christ and His words.

So what is your next step of faith? What has Christ being calling you to do that you have been resisting? Be a kid; just do it!

Intentionally prioritizing His way,
Charlie

Blog tips #2: Navigating (Click this title)

Not wanting to insult anyone’s intelligence, this post aims to fully explain how to navigate throughout the blog in simplest of terms. While some are seasoned veterans of surfing the web, others are just boarding this train, so here goes.

Across the top of the blog, you will see the Categories that our posts (articles) get place in. For instance, if you click on “blog tips,” it will bring up all posts that relate to this series of posts. “Featured” will bring up the 1 or 2 posts that have been tagged as “featured”, which usually just means they’re the newest two posts, or at least the two most important posts at that time. All other posts get labeled with “General”.

In order to see the full article for any post, simply click on the title of that article, or, if available, click “Read full post”.

On the right side of the homepage, you will see a box that has these labels: “Popular, Featured, Comments, Tags”. Clicking on either of those labels will change the items in the list below. For instance, clicking on “Comments” shows the most recent comments people have made, who made them, and on which post they made them. “Tags” reveal what’s called a “tag cloud,” meaning that as we post articles to the blog, we “tag” them with the displayed keywords. The more times a certain keyword gets used, the bigger that keyword will appear in the tag cloud. Want to see all articles written by Charlie Halley? Click “charlie” in the tag cloud and his posts will all appear.

Lastly, just after each post is a place to “Comment”. Clicking on this will take you to the comment section of that particular post. Here, you can leave your own comments, or feel free to scroll down to see what others have said. For more detailed info on commenting, visit “Blog tips #1: Commenting“.

The moment I hit “Send”

I wanted others in my life to know. I wanted to continue to be held accountable in the future. But as I sat there, having just typed an email to be sent to five guys who speak immense amounts into my life, I literally wrestled with whether or not to send it. “Do I really need to be so vulnerable? I haven’t even really sinned. Didn’t God already forgive me? What would each of these guys think of me? Why not just lay low and move on?”

The Gospel of Mark’s account of Jesus’ wilderness experience includes a detail that none of the other gospels include. Mark 1:13 records “…and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals…” Wild animals? Were they boars? Snakes? It doesn’t say. But I’ve seen enough Animal Planet episodes with my boys to know that wild animals like to hunt, and certain wild animals don’t just eat – they devour.

In the two or three weeks leading up to this particular email, I gained a completely new understanding of this passage. I felt I had been under constant attack of temptation. It was relentless at times, many times overwhelming, and almost always when I was alone. I felt as though there were wild animals just waiting for me to give up, except my wild animals weren’t physical – they were all in my head. I was getting tired, and I knew my ability and strength to fend off these temptations was waning. How much longer would I be able to resist? Honestly, there were times I didn’t want to. There were moments when I tried to convince myself those wild animals were really pretty harmless, and that nobody would be harmed if I just gave in to them. It would have been so easy.

And that’s when I knew I was being deceived.

Once I started rationalizing it away, justifying my “innocent” thoughts, I was in trouble. I could not fight alone any longer. I had convinced myself I could handle it. I had convinced myself I wouldn’t do anything wrong. I needed help.

But getting help would require me to tell someone … to confess my weakness … and doing that would require complete openness and transparency on my part … it would require bringing that which was in the darkness of my mind into the light of God’s holiness.

I John 1:7-9 resounded within me. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

So, I brought it all into the light. Not joyfully, not excitedly; but with great fear and pain. And this is where God absolutely amazed me! The moment I hit “Send” on that email, it was as if every wild animal that sought to devour me immediately scattered. I was in the light of His love and grace.

Will they come back? Undoubtedly. I’ll hear the roar of condemnation from past sins. I’ll feel the horns of remorse and shame. But I know what the light looks and feels like, and it looks and feels incredible. And I know that as I regularly give myself to His Word, to praying, to worship, to being in a transparent community of friends, and to other disciplines of the faith, I will continue to put myself in the light. Rarely is it easy, but it’s always freeing.

So how about you? Need some light?

Intentionally following Jesus … into the light.
Jeff Daigle