Vacation Thanks

Wow, I have so much to write about and many people to thank as I return from vacation.

First, I want to thank the choice people of CrossPoint for allowing me some much needed time off. I needed the break, and now I am ready to return to the weekly routine of preaching God’s Word and casting God’s vision for CrossPoint.

I want to express gratitude to Mandi Logan and Jason Motte for writing my blog in my absence. I knew they would do an excellent job. Well done. You inspired us.

As for John Thweatt, I have issued a LIFETIME BAN from JUSTONEMORE.INFO as well as from the CrossPoint campus. He will never be allowed, ever again, to write in my absence or to preach for my people. He is a reprobate, and we should pray for him to some day be saved.

As for Vaughn Harris, his blogs were most insightful. I especially appreciated his video from John Piper. We are both big Piper fans. However, when he used his pastor’s blog to write sweet, syrupy, and mushy things about his wife, then that is where I had to draw the line. I have no problem with a man bragging about his wife; other men would be wise to follow Vaughn’s example. His using my blog to do that kind of thing got me in some hot water with my wife, nonetheless. Immediately, she inquired why I have never written about her. Vonda said, “You’ve written about your kids, about your church, and I think even about your mother, but you have never written anything about me on your blog.”

Thanks a lot, Vaughn.

Indoor Picnic

What did you think about the indoor picnic? CrossPoint showed her true colors when she kicked into Plan B and moved the picnic indoors. Aren’t you thankful we have the new dining hall to accommodate our growing family?

Wasn’t it awesome to witness 10 new believers professed their faith in Christ through baptism?

And, for those who took the tour, what did you think about the second building in our Phase II project?

The building is awesome, isn’t it? The more I tour the facility, the more I see it’s potential. Get ready CrossPoint, the moment we open the building we will never be the same.

Poem

I promised to provide you the poem from yesterday’s message yesterday. Every time I read it, I am reminded of how God used those thoughts in my life in 1998. I trust it influences you as well.

When God Wants to Drill a Man
Author Unknown

When God wants to drill a man,
and thrill a man;
When God wants to mold a man
to the play the noblest part;
when He yearns with all His heart
to create so great and bold a man
that all the world should be amazed
Watch His methods, watch His ways!

How He ruthlessly perfects
whom He royally elects!

How He hammers him and hurts him
and with mighty blows converts him
into trial shapes of clay which
only God understands;
while his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!

How He bends but never breaks
when His good he undertakes;
how He uses who He chooses;
and with every purpose fuses him;
by every act induces him
to try His splendor out—
God knows what He’s about.

And, finally…

I am curious. Who is going to fast this week? And, what are you fasting? I want to hear from you AFTER your fast, so that it may be done in secret. Remember, the reward is MORE…not less.

Hugs For Everyone!!

posted by Vaughn Harris, webmaster for justonemore.info and member of CrossPoint Church in Argo, AL

Based on our site report from the past 24-48 hours, people have visited this site from Florida, Arizona, Missouri, South Carolina, Illinois, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Georgia, and, of course, Alabama. Please don’t let this scare you. We do not spy on you. We only use this meter to track the locations of our readers so we can better serve you and so that we don’t fall into a rut of writing about things from which people outside of CrossPoint could not benefit.

So, to everyone, wherever you are, I leave you with a big hug and a video by one of my favorite music groups, The Dave Matthews Band.

You Never, Never, Never, Never, Never, Never, Never, Never Outgrow Your Need for the Gospel!!

posted by Vaughn Harris, webmaster for justonemore.info and member of CrossPoint Church in Argo, AL

On my last day as guest blogger(actually I have a surprise for you tomorrow), I wanted to share with you a great video of one of my heroes. John Piper is the Preaching Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN. He has a little website at desiringGod.org but is more well known for writing a book or fifty. I love this guy. I hope you enjoy this. Check back tomorrow for a Saturday fun blog.

You can never outgrow your need for the gospel. Get it through your head!!!

About My Wife

posted by Vaughn Harris, webmaster for justonemore.info and member of CrossPoint Church in Argo, AL

My beautiful wife, Ambre, and I will be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary on December 7. I am reminded on a daily basis how much of a great responsibility being a parent is. Since I started working from my home office, I see my wife and what she does day in and day out. We are truly blessed that Ambre, my beautiful wife, has been able to stay home with our three children. If you don’t yet know, our third child is due on February 5, 2008. I’ll be the first to say that our finances would be much better if Ambre could work. But, knowing that every little advancement and growth spurt Bryant and Gavin have, Ambre is the first to see it. That is awesome to me. There’s no price tag you can put on watching first-hand the development of your child. I believe that God has blessed our efforts and commitment and will continue doing so.

I wanted to take a moment to profess my love for my wife to everyone who reads this blog. As I hear all too often of men walking out on their wife and family, I want my wife to know that I am more in love with her today than I ever have been. I am fully and most affectionately committed to our friendship, relationship, and marriage until death separates us. I will be drastic as necessary so I never put myself into a situation where my fidelity, loyalty, and faithfulness to her could ever be questioned or compromised. I want my relationship with my wife to be a firm example to my boys of how Christ loves the church and how to treat a woman. I am committed to displaying such a Godly example to them that they won’t settle for just any girl, but a Godly woman that is radically in love with Jesus. I want my wife’s life to be the example of the type of woman that my boys will desire in a mate. I am committed to being the spiritual leader in my home. Never will my wife be put in the situation where she is “dragging” me to church. I want my wife to know that I am committed to her happiness and well-being. Although we now have roles as parents, I am committed to not forgetting our role as husband and wife. I don’t want our last child to move out of the house then look at my wife and say, “Who are you?” I am committed to continuing to pursue her as I did when dating her. I am committed to dating her through our marriage. (Guys, your wife will love it if you call her and ask her out on a date just like when you were pursuing her before you got married. They dig that!!!) I have bought into the philosophy that spending money on babysitters now is cheaper than spending money on divorce attorneys later.

So, Ambre, I love you with all my heart and I’m looking forward to growing old with you. I want the only thing that can separate us to be death. And even when it tries, it will have a fight on its hands!”

I just wanted to brag a little bit on my wife and how much I appreciate her and what she is doing for our family. She is a true blessing that I am honored to spend my life with her. By the way, if God ever tells you to donate your vacation cottage for weekend getaway for a young couple, please email me.

First justonemore.info Poll

posted by Vaughn Harris, webmaster for justonemore.info and member of CrossPoint Church in Argo, AL

I used to hate trying to figure out things on the computer. But over the past couple of years I have learned to embrace technology. Technology is now my friend. It can be used for good and for evil. I am determined to use technology for the cause of advancing God’s kingdom.

One cool tool is the use of web polls. To the right, you will discover justonemore.info’s first web poll. Please take a moment to look at it and participate. This will give us valuable feedback to make sure we serve you and equip you better for ministry.

Keep it real!!

Can You Do It?

posted by Vaughn Harris, webmaster of justonemore.info and member of CrossPoint Church in Argo, AL

As some of you may know, I love investing time with our students. Understand this: Our youth are NOT the “church of tomorrow”; they’re the church of TODAY!! If you study some of the great revivals in history, they started with young people! Folks, let me tell you this: Our students are ON FIRE for GOD!!! They fire me up every time I’m around them. They genuinely weep over their lost friends. They burn with desire to know God in a deep, intimate level. I’m not talking about a short-lived “warm and fuzzy” that takes place on the last night of church camp when everybody cries, hugs each other, and sings “Friends Are Friends Forever”. These students take up their cross daily and follow Him and quite frankly, it challenges me to grow deeper in my spiritual walk. This transformation may surprise you especially if you knew the sinful lifestyle of some of these students a year ago. I’ve heard many first-hand accounts about how within the past year, God has delivered some of our students out of premarital sex, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, etc. I get pumped up just thinking about it!!

The other night at a student home group meeting, I told my group that as leaders, they must be prepared to share the plan of salvation and they must also be able to counsel someone on what to do once that person prays to receive Christ. So many churches share the plan of salvation, but never follow up after someone prays to receive Christ. I was taken aback when I asked who knew how to lead someone through the plan of salvation. No one knew!! I then posed a question that I pretty much knew that answer: Who knows what to tell someone after they pray to receive Christ? These questions immediately prompted one of the leaders of the small group to call a mandatory meeting for all small groups. At this meeting, which had near perfect attendance, out students were trained on how to lead someone through the plan of salvation. They were then trained on how to counsel someone after they pray to receive Christ. In that part of the training, baptism was discussed heavily. So many times we think that our faith in Christ is a personal and private issue when in reality He has called us all to go public, and the main way we go public is through our baptism. I clearly explained to the group that baptism is something done AFTER salvation and that you only need to be water baptized if you have not been baptized since receiving Christ. After the training session our student leaders were spontaneously asked who in that group had not been baptized. Lets put it this way: Very soon there will be 5 or 6 student leaders that will publicly identify themselves with Christ by being immersed in the water grave as a symbol of what Christ did for them on the cross!!

Here’s my question: Can you lead someone through the plan of salvation? Can you give someone Godly counsel on the steps to take after they pray to receive Christ? Have you been water baptized by immersion? Some of the students that needed to be baptized in that group were infant baptized in a Catholic church, sprinkled in a Methodist church, and had been baptized prior to assuring their salvation. Can you relate with one of these students? My challenge to you is this: Be ready to share the plan of salvation and also be ready to give steps to help spiritual growth for new believers. Mark 16:16 plainly talks about baptism. Have you been immersed? If not, I challenge you to join some of our students in water baptism at out church-wide picnic on July 29. Let us celebrate with you as you obey Jesus’ commandment to be baptized.

What Do YOU Expect?

posted by Vaughn Harris, webmaster of justonemore.info and member of CrossPoint Church in Argo, AL

Over the years I have developed certain expectations. I expect my service at a restaurant to be excellent. I expect my car to start when I get into it each morning (sometimes I get let down). I expect my boys to get along most of the time. Nothing extravagant, nothing life changing, just some expectations I have embraced over the years. I’m sure there are many, many more but these are just a few.

A few months ago, two teen girls invited a friend to our church for the first time. This friend did not walk into our student ministry in possession of a relationship with Christ and probably didn’t expect to leave with one. But as we worshiped, as we loved each other, as the word of God was opened, God did something in this girls’ life that caused her to surrender her life to Christ. The girls who brought her said, “I am really surprised. I just didn’t expect it. This is awesome!”

In my heart I thought, “Why not?” Why didn’t you expect God’s love to come through? Why didn’t you expect the power of the Gospel to penetrate her soul? Why didn’t you expect the Jesus we love and serve to become her friend? Why didn’t you expect the Holy Spirit to draw this girl to the Savior?

Many Christians I know who share Christ do not expect a life to change, but they are mildly optimistic. If we even attempt, we cringe when we share Christ, we timidly invite people to church, and we hem haw at opportunities when we should be saying, “I know SOMEONE who can help.” In other words we know what God can do, were just not sure He will. We know what God wants to do, we’re just not sure that He will.

Let’s look at what Paul wrote:

“What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”

I Corinthians 3:5-7 ESV

These words are saturated with expectation. He is saying, when someone plants and someone waters – GOD DOES SOMETHING! All farmers have the expectation of plant, water, grow. They know they plant and water and then wait with EXPECTATION. Jesus told us the same thing when He said, “…the fields are white and ready – go harvest”. We must expect a harvest.

What would happen if everyone who knows Jesus suddenly thought, “Wow, I have the gospel and it is the power of for salvation. I EXPECT when I share it, something in the eternal realm is happening and God is bringing His power to bear upon the hearts of people trapped in darkness, I EXPECT Him to win.” Would having this expectation alter how often we share Christ with others? Would having this expectation alter how we bring people to church? Would having this expectation help define and clarify our role in the process?

I have learned that when I EXPECT God to do something in someone’s life, I see opportunities for God to show up as opposed to people who would never believe. When I EXPECT God to do something in someone’s life, my prayer life is more focused on God and His will being done here on earth than my needs being met. When I EXPECT God to do something in someone’s life, I see my role as to either plant or water and then to fully trust that God will cause growth. When I EXPECT God to do something in someone’s life, I ignore what I might have to lose in sharing Christ and develop a passion for what others might have to gain. When I EXPECT God to do something in someone’s life, I become less surprised by what God does and become more amazed by who He is.

Blessed to be a Blessing

posted by Dr. John Thweatt, Lead Pastor of First Baptist Church in Pell City, AL

I have been talking to you about missions. I think one of the greatest things about getting out of our culture is seeing just how blessed we really are. God has given us so much and to whom much is given much is expected. I don’t think we should ever feel bad about being blessed, but we should realize that we are not blessed to be blessed–we are blessed to be a blessing.

John said, “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” I want to close my time as a guest blogger with a shocking set of photo’s. I can tell you the world around us is hurting and in the midst of thier suffering there are people looking for love and we have the greatest love to share. God’s love is so great that He would rather die to have us than to live without us–what will we do with a love like that? The only thing I know to do it to share it. It is just too good to keep to ourselves.

Total Transformation

posted by Dr. John Thweatt, Lead Pastor of First Baptist Church in Pell City, AL

One of my favorite things about CrossPoint is the number of stories Ryan tells me that deal with total transformation. When a person places faith in the Gospel message he or she is converted and at that moment the old is gone and the new has come. From time to time I will talk to someone about a member of our church and they will tell me what he used to be like—I just cannot believe it. He is totally different now and the change is due to one thing—He met Jesus.

Recently I began meeting with a young man in our church. He was experimenting with a number of things and his life was falling apart. I shared the Gospel with him and one day he called me and said, “I’m ready to become a Christian now.” The next time he came into my office the transformation was stunning. He just wasn’t the same person. Paul said it like this (Galatians 2:20), “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Bob Roberts said, “The journey of transformation begins with legitimate conversion. To convert means to change over, to switch. Following are some myths about conversion that make it difficult for us to understand what it actually entails.”

“There is a myth that conversion means making a better me, improving who I am. However, Scripture contradicts that theory because it teaches we are totally lost and depraved apart from God. Conversion is far more than taking a lot person and conquering bad habits.

There is also a myth that conversion means praying the sinner’s prayer. This is wrong; it means more than mouthing words. It is possible to pray the sinner’s prayer and not be converted. First John 2:3 says, “We know that we have come to know him” because we obey his commands. We know it by the kind of life we are producing.

You may be familiar with the lingering myth that conversion is the epitome of spirituality. No, it is just the beginning. Churches who gauge themselves by baptisms, attendance, and membership do not emphasize what we are producing as much as how fast we are producing it…We know that conversion is not the end all of spirituality. What numbers do you talk about the most?

Many churches inadvertently promote the myth that conversion means going to church and jumping through the hoops…

Of course, some buy into the myth that conversion is nice, but not total, allowing one to continue to have a secular and spiritual dichotomy. However, Jesus taught that there is no separation in the life of a believer of the secular and spiritual; we are one being.

Finally, there is the myth that conversion is primarily fire insurance. Wrong! “That’s only a benefit and not the motivation.” (Transformation, pp. 66-68)

Obviously, transformation doesn’t mean we are perfect, but if you and I are justified then God will begin the process of sanctification and will continue that until He calls us home. When it comes to salvation it isn’t all about what we can do for God—it is about what He will do in us. Paul said, “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.” When it comes to salvation all we bring to the table is the sin which makes our salvation necessary. We bring the sin and Jesus brings everything else, but when we respond to His salvation in faith the transformation is amazing!

The Power of the Gospel

posted by Dr. John Thweatt, Lead Pastor of First Baptist Church in Pell City, AL

[Just for the record—if you go to Monday’s blog you’ll notice a key phrase in the first paragraph, “I have been thinking for the last few weeks of what stories I could make up…” I did not say Ryan was actually doing those things!!]

Yesterday I wrote about doing missions. I think the thing that changed my life forever was something that happened on the first trip we took to Kenya. We spent the day doing Back Yard Bible Clubs and Medical Clinics and then preached in open air crusades every night. Driving in Kenya is always an experience, but there was one particular area that we drove through almost every day that was unlike any other area. We knew we were there by the smell—on one side of the road they dumped their trash and got rid of it by burning it. The stench was awful, but not quite as awful as looking at the children picking through the trash trying to find something to eat.

When we reached that area our driver made us roll up our windows and put our cameras away. When asked why, he would always say, “Dangerous.” Well, we would drive through that area and go to other areas to preach that had been preached in for several years. In other words we were going to areas that had already been fished and most of the fish were already caught. I asked the pastor in Mombassa about the area and wondered aloud why we were preaching in areas that were already fished while we drove through areas so dangerous that we had to roll up the window. Pastor Joseph caught the vision and said, “We should go and preach there.” Needless to say this wasn’t a real popular idea with many of the other pastors who insisted it was simply too dangerous for us to be there.

I left the decision to them, but prayed that we could spend the last two nights of our mission trip preaching where they really needed to hear the Gospel. That afternoon I came back from a Back Yard Bible Club and was informed that we were going to preach in the area. I was also told that I needed to leave my passport, ring, and watch with the group and that I was to take just enough money to get back to the hotel in case something happened. I have preached Jesus’ words, “Take up your cross and follow me…” but for the first time I was faced with the reality—I might not make it back.

I wrote Kim a letter and told her how much I loved her and the girls and then prepared to go. We drove up to the place and the music was already playing and the tension was really thick. The looks on the faces of most of the crowd asked the question, “What are you doing here?” We were introduced and then something amazing happened. David Thew walked up to the microphone and started singing a song he learned in college—it just happened to be in Kiswahili—their language! The tension was gone, the frowns became smiles, and I knew God was about to move. I preached that night and 80 people came to Christ. We went back the next night and 120 people made professions of faith. We were willing to take a God-called risk and 200 people came to Christ.

The rest of the story still hasn’t been told—the next year we drove through the same area and I noticed we were not told to roll up our windows. I asked Pastor Joseph if it was the same place and he said yes. It was no longer dangerous—the Gospel had transformed a whole region. That is the power of the Gospel. Paul said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Do you believe that? The Gospel we preach is transforming, but it has to be shared. It can change anyone, but they must hear it to be changed.

The best book I have ever read on missions is John Piper’s Let the Nations Be Glad, but I read another book not too long ago that was also really good—Transformation, by Bob Roberts. I will talk more about his book tomorrow, but let me close with a question he asked, “If community transformation became the measure of our success, how would our churches and our communities look different? How would we look different?” Great question—more on that tomorrow, but for now let me just encourage you to share the Gospel!