Christian Faith in America

Written by Pastor Mark Driskill
January 26, 2012

Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

It’s a little after three in the morning and I wish I were sleeping. But it’s one of those mornings when my brain refuses to go into sleep mode. I find myself thinking about everything from the mundane to the profound to the absurd. After repeated attempts to negotiate a ceasefire with my thoughts I make a decision. I can fritter away the wee hours of the morning trying to tell myself to stop thinking, which only leads to more thinking about not thinking, which then leads to frustration because I can’t seem to stop thinking about not thinking. For some reason my mind insists on playing out scenarios in which my wife and children move away, I lose my ministry, and end up living in a shack all by myself and discover that I totally missed God along the way and end up hearing Him say in the end, “I don’t believe I know you…” — I can spend all night playing out this and other similar scenes or I can do something actually a little more close to reality and get up and spend some time with the Lord. So on this morning I am up.

I get up and come into the living room to sit in silence with my Bible. But the silence is hard to find at even this early hour. There is one sound that just seems to be a complete distraction. The clock on the wall is ticking louder than usual. After spending a few moments trying to shut out that irritating, relentless noise, only to have it grow louder so that each tick and every tock digs into my consciousness like a shard of glass, I take the clock down and put it in another room. Ahh silence. But only for a moment, then I can hear the tick tock, tick tock which has become imbedded in my thoughts. It just won’t stop! That incessant reminder that time is ticking away just won’t stop! I find myself keenly aware that time really is ticking away.

In two weeks the love of my life will turn fifty. Next year so will I. Next year my daughter graduates from college. My youngest daughter and son are looking more like adults every twelve seconds.  I will be sixty in twelve short years!  What have I done with this fleeting breath of life? Have I loved my wife and children well?  Have I lived for Jesus or for myself in his name?  The barrage of questions is more than I can take.  So I throw open my Bible hoping to escape this assault from father time.  Where does my Bible land in this desperate game of Bible roulette? – Ecclesiastes 3- “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die.” – I can’t read any farther. My eyes are focused on that little comma between the word, “born” and the clause “and a time to die.” That tiny, punctuation, usually unnoticed, now expands to become as deep and wide as the ocean separating what has been from what is sure to come–Birth and death. That tiny little mark sits quietly between life’s beginning and its completion. But if I look deep enough into that ink spot I pause- after all that’s what commas are for, to make you pause, slow down, catch your breath-and think about what I’m doing in between the bookends of my existence.

It’s no secret that I have been really struggling with this season called midlife, not to the point of buying a red Corvette, but I have been doing some serious reflection on this little vapor I call my life.  I’m not so much thinking in terms of grandiose dreams of accomplishment and adventure as about the moments of glory hidden like treasure in the seemingly mundane activities of life.  Too often I have rushed past them on my way to empty mirages of what I thought would fulfill me.  Mirages of great deeds and mighty accomplishments that looked like destiny from a distance but faded like cotton candy on the tongue when I got up close.  I wonder how many moments I miss running after mirages.  How many moments with my family were sacrificed on the way to meetings I can’t even remember?  How many sunsets and sunrises, gloriously painted by the master have I brushed by in my quest to save the world?  How many conversations with friends have I traded in for rushed appointments?  How many treasures like these have I trampled over on my way to a mirage?  What have I been doing with this brief comma between eternity and eternity?  Time to slow down and pay attention to the clock. So I go and bring it back into the living room and listen intently.

I want to change the way I approach life. I want to pay attention to the commas in between birth and death; The sounds of laughter around my dinner table, the smell of the wood burning in the woodstove, the crunch of snow under my boots, the ridiculous wiggle of my dog as he runs to greet me as if I had been gone forever,and the warm feeling of a hand clasped in mine. Things like these are like sparkles of sunlight on the lake of our existence, dancing for joy beneath the sun. I don’t want to miss those. So as the tick tock becomes a little less irritating but no less challenging, I think about how I want to spend my days in this comma in which I live. I make some decisions. “For everything there is a season..and a purpose.”

• I want my seasons to be full of purpose.
• I want to live in the moments, knowing that they are the building blocks of eternity.
• I want to text less and converse more.
• I want less time on face book and more time face to face.
• I want to argue less and understand more.
• I want think less about being right and more about doing right.
• I want to take less and give more.
• I want to be less concerned about who loves me and more concerned with who I love.
• I want to say “I” less and “you” more.
• I want to dream less about my success and work more for yours.
• I want to believe God more.
• I want to look at the stars, smell the coffee, laugh at the kids, and sing off key without caring who listens.
• I want to preach my sermons to God as an offering of praise only looking for his approval.
• I want to act stupid with my kids, and look more deeply in to my wife’s beautiful eyes.
• I want to argue less about theology and simply live what I believe.

In short… I want to live this life as if it were the gift God designed it to be.

I hear the tick tock again. Only this time it isn’t so irritating. It’s calling to me like a caring friend.  It beckons me to pay attention to the commas in my life and enjoy them. It pleads with me to make the most of life but to do so with an awareness that God has set eternity in my heart for a reason.  I dare not fritter away precious moments on empty and vain pursuits. I must avoid being so caught up in what I have to do that I miss what I get to do. There are two things you cannot control, when you are born and when you die. But the comma in between is yours to fill. How are you filling it? By the way thanks for lending me the gift of your time.

Pastor Mark Driskill
Web Minister of Begotten By the Word web ministry
See our website at http://ourchurch.com/member/b/bbtw
and
www.facebook.com (to group “begotten by the word”)
Begotten By the Word is a ministry of Helping Hands Christian resources-Evangelism Outreach
www.hhcr05.org
(Feel free to copy in any way that will bring glory to God and further his kingdom.)

Written by Pastor Mark Driskill
January 23, 2012

I have been asked to write a brief explanation of this mission to India for any who would like to pass it around. Thanks for all you are doing to help out.

I will be going with Global Advance (check them out. It’s an awesome organization) to India March 3-11, 2012. The team I am going with will be leading a three day event for pastors, called “Front line shepherding Conference.”  We expect around 200-300 pastors to be there for encouragement, training and ministry.  Also there will be opportunities to preach in local churches.  This is a great opportunity to strengthen the body of Christ, preach the gospel to the lost, heal the sick, and minister to the hurting in Jesus powerful name.

My goal is to raise $4000.00 to completely cover expenses including plane tickets, visa, immunizations, room and board and helping out with travel expenses while there.You can help by sending donations of any size to the address below.  Also you are invited to a Fund Raising Dinner Hosted by Tommy Miller (Translated, really good food y’all) on a donation basis, no other charge. It will be held Saturday February 11 from 5-7 p.m.  Also if you are like most of us and on a really tight budget you can join the $5.00 challenge.  Some of my Facebook friends have begun a campaign to see if we can get 1000 of my FB friends to give $5.00 each- totaling $5,000.00.  This is a monumental task but God is able. Of course those who wish to give more and feel led by God are more than welcome to do so  :)

Here’s the thing I really want to emphasize. I really want you to pray about this. Ask God two things:

1. Do you want me to support this?
2. How much do you want me to give?

I believe God will call some of you to give while others he will call to use his resources elsewhere in the kingdom. SO thanks for your consideration. If you should sense Gods leading in this I would like to have donations in within the next two or three weeks if at all possible. Send to

Mark Driskill
P.O. Box 1159
Jackson, KY 41339

I will be happy to answer any further questions you may have. And I will send out a report of the mission when I return.

Be Blessed! Mark

Pastor Mark Driskill
Web Minister of Begotten By the Word web ministry
See our website at http://ourchurch.com/member/b/bbtw
and
www.facebook.com (to group “begotten by the word”)
Begotten By the Word is a ministry of Helping Hands Christian resources-Evangelism Outreach
www.hhcr05.org
(Feel free to copy in any way that will bring glory to God and further his kingdom.)

Written by Pastor Mark Driskill
January 25, 2012

Read John 1:35-39

“Two disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus.”

John the Baptist was running a successful ministry. Estimates are that his call to repentance and baptism impacted around one million people. Everyone from common people to religious leaders to Roman soldiers were found seeking him out. If there had been a Time or Newsweek magazine in that day the wild prophet from the Judean desert would have surely appeared on the cover at least once.

One would expect a guy with that kind of success to continue gathering followers unto himself so as the keep the momentum as his following reached critical mass. This was not the time to back down, but to capitalize and push through to the next level of success. But that’s not what we see with John.  His gaze is not fixed on the next issue of  ”Facts and Trends” magazine or on the next election.  His eyes are fixed on someone infinitely more important.

We hear John say, as Jesus walks along the horizon of the desert landscape, “Behold the Lamb of God!” Now here is where things get interesting. Here is where we watch as all the ideas of success and personal achievement come crashing to the ground. As John directs his followers to “Behold the Lamb.” We read these words: “Two (of Johns) disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus.” Notice it didn’t say, “Two of John’s disciples heard him say this and….they bragged about how articulate and passionate John’s message about Jesus was and started selling DVD’s of John’s powerful insights about the messiah.”  In our day perhaps that would have happened. Our warped ideas of success have cost us dearly.  But you know what the real sign of a successful ministry is? It’s not in the number of people you can gather around yourself, but rather it is in the number of people you send after Jesus.

Whether you are a preacher, teacher, or every day witness, don’t measure your success by the number of people who are hanging onto you, but on the number who are hoofing it after the savior. John shows us the real mark of a successful witness. I am successful to the degree that people overhear me talking about Jesus and, like his two followers, are motivated to “come and see” him for themselves.

Pastor Mark Driskill
Web Minister of Begotten By the Word web ministry
See our website at http://ourchurch.com/member/b/bbtw
and
www.facebook.com (to group “begotten by the word”)
Begotten By the Word is a ministry of Helping Hands Christian resources-Evangelism Outreach
www.hhcr05.org
(Feel free to copy in any way that will bring glory to God and further his kingdom.)

Written by Pastor Mark Driskill
January 24, 2012

Read: John 1:29-34

“This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”

How can you speak meaningfully of Jesus without talking about the work of the Holy Spirit?  How can you speak of following Jesus without seriously engaging the Holy Spirit?  John identified our Lord as the one who immerses us in the Holy Spirit and fire.

Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb and lived in that power and authority all his life.  From the day of his baptism when the Spirit came upon him like a dove, through the temptations in the desert and his entire ministry you see him bursting with the Holy power of the Spirit.  Jesus lived by the Spirit and promised the same to His followers.  He is found crying out at the feast, “Whoever believes in me, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water (meaning the Holy Spirit.)”

The Spirit is God’s gift to the believer.  He marks us as God’s children, brings us to life from our dead condition, teaches us when we need direction, comforts us when we are discouraged, shows us what is to come, and empowers our ministry in this world.  Yet so many live in constant defeat because they have not yet given him access to their lives. We’re glad the Holy Spirit is in us for salvation, but we forget that Jesus did not come to give us a little Holy Spirit to live in us quietly until we die. John called our Lord, “The one who baptizes (or dunks, immerses, bathes) us in the Holy Spirit.

We are to be saturated, drenched, and dripping wet with the living water.  Does this characterize your life?  Are you allowing the savior to immerse you in his spirit?  Are you letting him influence the way you think, feel , speak and act?  This is the key to true victory in life.  Paul tells us in Galatians 5, “Walk in the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”  We spend so much time trying to Christianize ourselves with outward behavior instead of simply surrendering to the Holy Spirit and allowing him to change us and fill us with power daily.  Begin your day today asking the Lord to immerse you in the power of the Spirit.  Consciously rely on him and listen to his still small voice leading you through the day.  Live by the Spirit.

Pastor Mark Driskill
Web Minister of Begotten By the Word web ministry
See our website at http://ourchurch.com/member/b/bbtw
and
www.facebook.com (to group “begotten by the word”)
Begotten By the Word is a ministry of Helping Hands Christian resources-Evangelism Outreach
www.hhcr05.org
(Feel free to copy in any way that will bring glory to God and further his kingdom.)