What's God Telling You?

First off I apologize for the long absence. I've been a bit busy the past week.

Last week I had the chance to go to a campus ministers retreat in Indiana, and it was a great time. I got to sit with some of the Father's of campus ministry and pick their brains for hours. Internet and phone service were both horrible there, so it prevented me from posting. Along with that when I got back I had a sermon to write for church on Sunday. So there's that too. This week I have class, but I should be able to post for the most part. But now on to more important things.

Like I said, this past week I had a sermon I had to do for church, meaning I had to preach. The topic was fellowship, and I think it turned out well. But most people will lie to a preachers face and tell them they did a good job when really they bombed it. But anyways. The main thing I was to focus on was the idea that we need to be in church so that we can enjoy fellowship on Sunday's.

Do I think we should go to church? Yes. Solely for the purpose of fellowship? No. But I couldn't exactly go into my entire theology of discipleship and the role fellowship plays into it. I had a certain perameter and time limit I had to stay within. So I feel that the sermon may have suffered. But I'm getting off point. I'll talk about discipleship and fellowhsip another time.

But while writing the sermon I went from a broad idea to a very fine point. This is called inductive preaching. I like it a lot. But while I was doing that, I used a lot of example of fellowship, and how fellowship gets us to a common goal.

I talked about Jesus and the 12. Paul and his partners on his missionary journey's. There's more examples of Timothy and Elders, Elijah and Elisha, and many more. But biblical examples aren't the only ones that I used.

There are secular things in this world that will perfectly discribe biblical situations. For example, I used Star Wars, Converse shoes, the expression "spread too thin," and I could have used more.

I find that sometimes we can't understand everything that we're reading in the Bible. Sometimes concepts are really hard to get. Like C.S. Lewis we can use annalogies to help us understand better. And in this day and age there are plenty out there in forms of songs, movies, TV shows, I've even seen a vodka commercial that made me tweak my theology on discipleship, preaching, and even lesson writting.

With all this to say, I wanted to get to this point: God can use anything to help you understand what he's trying to tell you. It doesn't have to be Christian music, or the movie God is not Dead. But he coul use Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Led Zepplin, vodka commercials, whatever. Be open to see what God is telling you.

Now of course, depending on where you're at in your Christian life or your own view on sin you may need to avoid certain things, like movies or music, but that is for you to decide. If you question it, avoid it. Pretty simple rule to follow there until you talk to someone about it.

But keep your eyes open, and see what God is revealing to you.