To Be Reproved...

Has anyone ever truly been rebuked you?

If you have honest and true Christian friends then you should have answered yes. It is our duty as brothers and sisters in Christ to correct our fellow Christians when they are not doing things the right way. This can be a difficult thing but it is something that must be done. I would argue that this lack of correcting is one of the forces that slowly eats away at the foundations of our churches until they eventually collapse on top of them selves. Too often people do not want to rock the boat be labeled a troublemaker so they simply let things go. We must always remember that when we fail to correct our brother or sister then we will also be held accountable for the consequences of their sin.

The flip side of this situation is if you are the one being corrected. In many ways this can be an even harder position to be in. Many times our pride and arrogance cause us to get angry and ratioinalize away the things people are saying to us. This has been me more times than I can count. It is one of those areas that I am consistently trying to improve upon and with God's power and strength I hope that this will no longer be an issue. If you are in a similar place then let me direct you to the words of Psalm 141 and especially verse 5. Hopefully these words will ive you some hope and remind you that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is not a train!

More On Forgiveness...

Not surprisingly I have had some more time to think at work tonight. So much so that I had to come home during lunch to do some research and write some.

One of the things that came to mind while I was at work was the idea that I must always remember how much I have been forgiven and that the Father's forgiveness should be a pattern for my forgiveness of others. Of course, ours will never be as perfect as His. Following this line of thinking I came across the Greek word "Aphiemi". This word basically means to remove from oneself or more literally to throw away from you. So, that would mean that we are to literally throw away from us the sins of others. So how do we accomplish that?

I still do not have any truly hands-on practical answers for that. I believe it begins and ends with the Holy Spirit and a willingness to forgive. I also believe that for most of us this will involve some level of personal interaction with the one who has sinned against us. Speaking of which I need to go and deal with some forgiveness issues. Do you?

Forgiveness

Over the past few weeks I have had a lot of different thoughts running through my head. I have a lot of time to think at work since I spend at least a couple of hours every night working alone. Some are random ideas about the songs playing on Wal-Mart radio and some are the replaying of past events in some strange attempt to gain some additional insight. As I have walked through these thoughts I have run up against a question that I have yet to come to answer to and so I thought I would toss it out to you to see if you have any insights that might help me find the answer.

The question is "what is forgiveness?" Practically, what can/does it look like when we forgive someone else?

I look forward to reading your thoughts on this rather important question.

Christmas Eve 2008-Bailey Style

Well it is time for the annual Christmas Eve Decorating. This year was not nearly as overwhelming as in year's past but it did have a bit of a theme sort of based on the Veggietales "The Star of Christmas." If you have seen the movie hopefully you can figure out how I was inspired by it.

Before Pictures

The Living Room

The Front Door

The Playroom and Kitchen

A video of the completed decorations



The view up the "road" to the Christmas Tree

Today is going to be one of those days...

I believe that today is going to be one of those great days that each of us really looks forward to in our lives. A day in which we believe/know incredible events will take place. Those kinds of events that will forever change someone's life. I know today will be one of those days.

In a little over an hour I will have the honor and privilege of baptizing a young lady by the name of Amber Hansen. She is on those wonderful teenagers that I got to work with on Wednesday/Thursday nights over the past two years. She is the kind of person whom you look at and just know that God has something incredibly special lined up for them. I have seen this in her for a long time and I am excited to see God drawing her ever closer to His side. I have no idea what God desires of her life but I look forward to seeing what He does.

I would ask that you being praying for her. I believe that God will reward her willingness to be obedient to Him. I also believe that as He pours out His blessing on her, He will begin to open her eyes and hearts to things she has never even considered.

Yes, my friends today is going to be one of those days!

Church Planting

Over the past year (actually a little longer than a year) Angie and I have been praying through and considering the idea of working with and/or leading a Next Gen Church plant here in Illinois. There have been tons of questions and tons of fears but in the end we believe this is the directions that God wants us to go. We have gone through the formal assessment process and as it stands right now we will be seeking to work with a lead planter probably somewhere in the Western Chicago Suburbs (think Aurora area). We do not have a lot of details at this time but we would ask that you take some time to pray for us as our family will be going through a tremendous amount of transition over the next few months.

As we move further along in this journey both Angie and I will make sure and pass along the details. We are excited about this new opportunity and look forward to joining God in the work He is already doing in the lives of people.

Above all else

Above all else we should give thanks to God because His incredible and merciful love endures forever. It has no end. There is nothing in this world that can snuff it out of existence. It will simply continue no matter what you do or what happens in your life. If you do not believe me take some time and read Psalm 136 today, you will be glad you did.