good luck to you, seth!

I am not usually in the habit of sharing too much about my children because of my position of leadership and using that position to brag. I do think a testimony is very helpful when God can use it in others' lives, and that is why I want to share about our son, Seth. Seth was born when we were in California back in the 80’s and his life has been one of loving God, even through struggles. He has been a gifted athlete since day one and usually excels at anything he does because he pours his energy and efforts into that sport. He usually works extra hours to ensure he is the best he can be.

As he went through high school, his desire was to play Division 1 football and when he graduated, he was voted best linebacker in the West part of the state of Alabama. He also got a full scholarship to play football at Division 1 Murray State University in Murray, KY. The coach who recruited him was fired the next year and Seth found himself not wanting to follow the direction of the replacement coach; he moved to North Carolina with us. He tried out for UNC Pembroke’s team and not only made the team, but became their first ever captain of a newly formed program and was playing great. His dream continued on until one Saturday in Jacksonville, FL while playing Jacksonville State — he suffered a paralyzing accident that saw him carted of the field on a stretcher. After six hours, the feeling came back to his limbs but after going to a neurologist, he found out he could never play football again.

Though disappointed, he turned his efforts to soccer and has tried out for three professional soccer teams and continues to train (by himself) to continue to use his talents for God. After getting hurt, he moved back home and immersed himself in the ministry here at Scotts Hill as a non-paid volunteer drummer for the CPC services, and then for us in the Worship Center. He gives no less than 15 hours each week to practice and makes sure he is ready to lead worship through drumming. His attitude is one of worship and you don’t have to be around Seth very long to see his heart is turned toward God and His calling. In fact, he came forward right here at Scotts Hill and shared his decision to follow God in the ministry and he continues to pursue that calling.

I say this to let you know that Seth is moving back to Alabama to go back to school at the University of North Alabama. He will also be serving as a non-paid intern at a local church there; he will play drums for them and work with their youth. Our home will miss Seth. I also know our worship ministry will miss him and his great love for worship. Pray for him as he gets established and takes yet another leap of faith as he continues to serve God by giving Him his all. If you get a chance, encourage Seth before he leaves for Alabama. This Sunday will be his last Sunday here, and he will drive back on Thursday, February 26. Thanks, Seth, and well done, God’s good and faithful servant.

Dad

are your ears itching?

Last week I was washing my car and I bent over to clean the inside of the windshield. When I straightened back up my ear started itching. I had apparently caused something in my ear to itch by my upside down move to get to the far recesses of the inside of my windshield. Boy, it was annoying. I rubbed my ear until it finally quit itching. That’s when a light bulb went off in my head — the light bulb replaced the ear itch — we live in a world of itching ears!

Almost all of us want to hear what we want to hear when we want to hear it. If it isn’t what we want to hear, then we shut it out or change the subject. “Of course”, we cry out, “I want the truth” but very rarely do we want the “real” truth. In the movie A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson said the line, “You can’t handle the truth.” As harsh as that sounded at that point in the movie, he was stating a very true fact about a present day attitude in the church. We can’t handle the truth. We have truth right in front of us every day in the form of God’s Word, and yet we either don’t read it or try to follow it.

Sadly enough, even some called men of God want to make the truth more user friendly, but the power of God’s Word still seems to make it through their futile attempts to water it down. Their attempts to try and make Scriptural relativism replace scriptural truth have weakened today’s church. All of this is couched in the desire to make it easier to attract people to our churches in America. The end result is an anemic form of the truth, per our personal observations about what truth really is to me.

I know, personally, I continue to hear more and more excuses for not serving Christ with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Many of those excuses are the result of called men and women losing their desire for following Christ and forgetting what they were set aside to do. We are set aside to challenge God’s people to greatness. Greatness found through a passionate walk with the Lord that is ever increasing. Greatness that doesn’t make any excuses for living in a world-induced coma. Greatness that is not found modeled around any other example than Jesus Christ. We need greatness and that greatness will never be found in our relevant selves. That greatness will always be found in living a life through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I don’t have to turn my head upside down for my ears to start itching, but it worked last week. We may need to have our world turned upside down for our ears to start itching for the truth of God’s Word. Real truth. Not the user-friendly I’m-not-really-sure-what-the-Bible-says attitude of many churches today. With a fall out in heartfelt commitment by worshippers in our churches today, may our ears be open to what God is calling us to do. May our hearts be receptive to His voice.

Listen to Paul’s words in 2 Timothy:

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
—2 Timothy 4:1-5

It sounds like Paul is warning Timothy and us. May our lives be fanned into flame by a steadfast commitment to the TRUTH per God’s Word, not the truth per my impressions of the Truth. Are your ears itching for the real Truth? I hope so. The world just turned upside down!

The Pilgrimage continues.....


David Warren

I'm melting...

These are the famous words of the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz, and boy, was it an amazing scene. We watched her melt down to nothing just because of a little water. But think about it: you want to put a little gloom on a great outdoor party? Let it rain. A little water can dampen our spirits in a heartbeat and cause something that is meant for fun to turn out bad. I have seen small drops of water on a slick concrete-finished sidewalk trip up sure-footed people and throw them to the ground.

I was on a construction site working as a laborer years ago and I watched as twenty workers got ready to go make money so we could have food on our tables. They were suddenly all paralyzed by four drops of rain and the hint of thunder showers. Believe it or not, they called it a day. No pay, no progress...because of a few drops of water.

Will water melt you? No! The water in each of these cases had different effects for different people. For the construction workers looking for a reason to take a day off, water was an excuse. For those who slipped on it and fell to the ground, it was a painful slide. For those who couldn’t have their party outside, it was discouraging. But for the Wicked Witch, it meant DEATH.

In a time when we can kind of coast through life and bump from problem to problem, we can get lulled into accepting more and more of a worldly point of view about our faith. Thoughts like, “Maybe the Bible didn’t really mean for me to do this or that”, or “I’m a little unclear about how God is talking to me in this scripture.” So we look at our faith like how these different stories present how water affects them. We look at the prospects of the future weather and the situations in the world really start to rain on our party and it causes us to be negative and dismal. Maybe we let a few things start to stray in our life and before long, we “slip up” on something we never should’ve slipped on. Or maybe we just find more and more reasons for not serving the Lord and the first sign of rain, we call it a day. These are all seemingly harmless things that can creep into our lives but have the potential to be deadly.

1 John 2:15-17 gives us a reminder of what can happen when we quit tapping into the “living water” and start drinking from the stream the Bible calls The World. DEATH. Scripture says, “don’t love the world.” “It will pass away.” It also says, “the man who does the will of God lives forever.” Don’t ever get so slack and complacent in your faith that you say, “I’m melting!” Live in victory and every day will be a day of LIFE ABUNDANT.

The Pilgrimage continues....


David Warren

surprise, surprise!

Years ago I remember watching a TV show called Gomer Pyle. His great mission in life was to please Sergeant Carter but the end result of that was usually chaos. Every time Gomer would make some great plans for helping Sergeant Carter, it would just make him mad. Pyle, oblivious many times to the serious nature of what had just happened, would smile and say, “Surprise, surprise!” It would infuriate the Sergeant and they would all end up with a very confused look about what had just transpired. Gomer had great intentions, but the Sergeant could never quite get over the surprise, so he missed what was supposed to be a great thing.

The Christian Life can sometimes seem that way to us. If we don’t understand God’s purpose in life, we sometimes feel like God is just waiting to see something wrong happen and say, “Surprise, surprise!” We do have many surprises in this life and sometimes those can get us down and cause us to doubt God or ourselves. Let me catch you up on a few things. God promises us eternal life and gives us that life through Jesus Christ. He also promises an abundant life here on earth that is filled with Him guiding, protecting and enabling each of us to live in His freedom. Those promises are real and if you will look a little deeper, you will see that God has delivered on His part every time.

But don’t be surprised when you encounter trials that are sometimes painful and hurtful. Don’t despair when things seem so bad. This only means that we are “in the mix” of what is going on and we are starting to make waves. He also promises that those who trust in Him will be persecuted, fire tested and sometimes unfairly treated by this lost and dying world. That means we are making an impact somehow, someway. Those things will happen, but He is there. When you have a shot taken at you by this world, God is there. When people treat you unfairly and you seem to get all the bad stuff, God is there. When bad people seem to get good things, and good people seem to get bad things, God is there. He is here! Surprise, surprise! He wishes only the best for you, but we do live in a fallen world and we are in a war. There will be injuries, but victory has already been won and we are the survivors. Look at what Peter wrote in 1 Peter 4:12 – 19:

Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very think of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.
If you’re abused because of Christ, count yourself fortunate. It’s the Spirit of God and his glory in you that brought you to the notice of others. If they’re on you because you broke the law or disturbed the peace, that’s a different matter.
But if it’s because you’re a Christian, don’t give it a second thought. Be proud of the distinguished status reflected in that name!
It’s judgment time for Christians. We’re first in line. If it starts with us, think what it’s going to be like for those who refuse God’s Message! If good people barely make it, what’s in store for the bad?
So if you find life difficult because you’re doing what God said, take it in stride. Trust him. He knows what he’s doing, and he’ll keep on doing it.

—1 Peter 4:12-19 (The Message)
Don’t let the struggles of this world cause you to fall back. Press on! Now is the time to take a stand and God is standing with you. Won’t it be great when a world that thinks they can push God’s people into a closet somewhere and get rid of them, see that we are still standing and moving forward? Surprise, surprise.



The Pilgrimage continues.....

David Warren

share the inheritance!

When was the last time you really thought about what you received when you accepted Christ into your life? Of course, we have forgiveness of sins, a righteousness that comes from God, abundant life and the other promises from our loving Heavenly Father. A part we may miss if we don’t look close is in the area of sonship. You know, sons and daughters of God, our Father. In fact, in Romans 8:15, Paul shares with the Christians in Rome about the intimacy of our relationship with God and just how close it is to be by presenting the words Abba Father. This relationship that sometimes we try to keep so far is really a very close relationship. Is this important? It was important enough for Jesus to give His life. To make us co-heirs of life eternal with the Heavenly Father had a huge price and we live every day knowing that we have that inheritance.

How does that translate to us as worship leaders? It spurs us on to never take our salvation for granted by distancing ourselves from God. In fact, it does the opposite. It compels us to draw closer and closer to Abba Father and learn from Him through His Word. Honestly, we couldn’t get away from the constant drawing God puts in each of us through the Holy Spirit if we wanted to! Verse 16 says, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” God’s children! Wow! That should compel us to run to Him for guidance, encouragement and direction, and to lift up His name in jubilant praise. That is exactly what should happen every time we lead others in heartfelt worship. And by the way, those who know Jesus will respond.

The old chorus “Pass It On” holds a lot of truth for how we should present God as believers. We need to be excited about the ongoing changes God is making in our lives to make us more like Him. We need to encourage others to embrace the promises of God and live in the joy of their salvation. We need to celebrate the inheritance we have as children of God, whether there are good times or bad. We just keep on praising because He is worthy of that praise. As the chorus says, “It only takes a spark to get a fire going.” The Lord in your life is that spark! Receive the good news and celebrate the inheritance. Then share the good news. He is alive, forever, AMEN!

Lighting the match,


The Pilgrimage continues.....

David Warren

a commitment that counts...

Many times we may go through life and wonder just how much our commitment to Christ really counts and if there’s value in it. First of all, yes. You have great value and God’s plan for your life is an important part of His work in the big picture. Every person we meet, everything we do, every word we speak has something else attached to it that will impact something or someone. You are a very important part of the whole equation, and as part of the called, your part counts. The word PART basically means to be an integral portion of the whole that is separate and distinct. Without all parts, the whole is compromised and less effective and the end result is less than what is intended. So you are vital. You count!

Since we all count, we have to make a concentrated effort to stay on course. There is a continual affirmation from God’s Word that encourages us to stay on course, no matter what direction that course may take. Of course, the word commitment drives the whole point home for each of us. Get committed. Stay committed. Don’t get overcommitted. Follow through with your commitments. All of these statements remind us that consistency is a must and knowing the value of our life in God’s service is the affirmation that gives us value based upon God’s attitude toward us.

One of my friends emailed me the other day about their life and how they had made a very firm commitment to serve the Lord through one of their church ministries. He was so excited and wanted me to share in the excitement. I could have said, “Oh, you are no different than anyone else wanting to serve God.” No way would I minimize just how important this commitment was to God and His Kingdom! I told him that God had a great plan for his life and that this was another step in the right direction to do something that counts. That was Paul’s attitude as well. He had so committed to serving Christ with his entire life that everything he did revolved around the great joy of knowing Christ. He had an awesome attitude of gratitude and the end result was a commitment that counted.

Keep your commitments current and thriving and you will come to know a commitment that counts for the Master. May God’s blessings encourage you as you stand in the gap for those who need to know Him.

The Pilgrimage continues......

David Warren

a fully developed fulcrum...

This year will be a great time for all of us to learn to rest on God and His unchanging love. Love that is unconditional and very fulfilling for all who experience it is a fairly accurate description of God’s love. His love for us surpasses all our understanding and gives us the capacity to love others like He does. God’s love is the foundation that we will rest our worship ministry on this year. God will be our fulcrum.

The definition of a fulcrum is the support, or point of rest, on which a lever turns in moving a body. In other words, we will initiate movement in our church body through resting in Christ and His love. We live in a world that has a lot of water under her bridge, and the church has lived through some tough times and continued to stand firm and strong. The strength to live a victorious life is continually shown by God through His great love for us. Let’s rest our future vision on the strong and powerful love of God and He will roll us forward to a new and exciting time of renewal and refreshment. The end result will be even more heartfelt worship times that challenge and convict.

The old rock ‘n’ roll song “We Built This City on Rock and Roll” states a very strong point about a city being built on rock and roll music. Our battle cry will be “We built this ministry on God’s love!” He is our fulcrum. Be willing to let Him turn your heart more toward Him and His purposes. He is the only fully developed fulcrum and we MUST allow Him to do the moving.

The Pilgrimage continues....


David Warren