Joel Young Blog.com

Last week I blogged about how we had experienced some major water damage with our equipment at Horizon. (You can see the whole post by clicking here). We basically had about 2 inches of water inside every piece of electronic equipment the church owns. We thought that it all was ruined, but only our sound mixing board got fried, or so we thought. After a full week of drying out we decided to test out the board before installing the loaner, and much to our surprise the board was working.

It’s amazing how grim things can sometimes look in the moment, and then when the moment is gone how little the problems really seem. All I can say is that I know there were many prayers of concern that went out for our equipment last week and we appreciate every one of them.

I was praying about what I was going to blog about this morning when I read a post that a fellow Pastor, and good friend of mine, had written. EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS POST! If you do one thing today, read this post and put it into action. Then see how the world changes!

Here’s part of his post, but you can check it out in all it’s glory by clicking here.

“What if everyone in your church shared your attitude…

…about others? Would people be drawn to your church because of the love and compassion they receive? Or would they run because of the judgment and criticism that abounds?”

Insightful, I know. But here’s my favorite part of Mike’s post.

“One reason that some believers can get away with junk attitudes is because everyone doesn’t share their attitude. They can afford to be selfish and self-centered . They can afford to be critical and judgmental. They can afford to do that because not everyone shares their attitude.”

Put yourself to the test. Would you want everyone to share your attitude at your church, work, or in your home? Think about what that would do to those places, and if it wouldn’t dramatically change those places for the better, CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE!

Today I have a dentist appointment. This shouldn’t be that big of a deal for me, since I’ve never had a cavity or braces or anything for that matter ever happen to my teeth, but it’s been over 4 years since my last trip to the dentist. If there’s something going on, I would almost rather NOT know. I like the relationship my teeth and I have. I brush them, floss them, and swish them in fluoride every day, and they chew up my food and don’t give me any trouble. Why mess with something that seems to be working.

Funny thing is, there are people in this world that feel that way about church. They haven’t been in a long time, and they don’t really feel like they are doing anything major wrong in their life, but they’d rather just live in the bliss of ignorance than hear from God opinion on their life. They have a good thing going, and would rather not mess with that.

So, for all of you people who feel that way; I’ll make you a deal. I’ll walk through the doors of that dentist’s office this afternoon, and you walk through the doors of Horizon this Sunday. I don’t want you to come so we can point out all the things that are wrong with the way you’re living your life. I want you to come so that you can see how God can fix your life, no matter what shape it’s in. Sound good?

GET SERVICE TIMES AND DIRECTIONS

For the final week of our relationship series called “Goin’ All the Way” at Horizon we will be dedicating an entire Sunday morning to answering your questions about relationships. The deadline for submission of questions is February 22, so get them in now. While we can’t guarantee we’ll be able to answer every question we will try to choose the ones that we feel apply to the widest range of people. Oh, and all questions that are submitted will remain confidential. No one will know who asked what question so don’t be shy. I look forward to hearing your questions and working through the matter of relationships done God’s way together.

You can submit a question by sending me an email.

Last week at Horizon we closed our Urban Legends teaching series with a week on the myths that have developed about Satan himself. For many people it was an eye opener to the fact that the devil and his angels are actively opposing us as we try to advance God’s kingdom, and come Saturday evening I had the perfect illustration. As our set up team unloaded our closet full of equipment to begin staging for Sunday morning they discovered that the monstrous snow and ice storms we experienced this week had caused the building’s roof to leak and all of our electronics and sound equipment were covered in buckets of water. No other place in the entire building was effected; just the 10′ X 10′ box that we store thousands of dollars worth of equipment in. Pretty frustrating.

I talked to the building’s owner and he said he hasn’t had a building like this one leak in over 12 years. In fact, the measures their builders take to prevent leakage is pretty substantial.

But, after carefully laying everything out to dry and waiting we only ended up loosing the function of our sound board. It’s a pretty important part of our set up, but we get a backup there and made everything happen. The damage could have been much worse.

As I conveyed this to the church on Sunday morning I reminded them that we should be excited by this. I mean, it proves that the devil is so scared by what is going on at Horizon that he had to take drastic action to try and stop our advancement for the kingdom of God. That freakin’ PUMPS ME UP! I don’t think I have ever been more excited than I was on Sunday morning as I worshiped with the assurance that we are doing God’s work, it ticks the devil off, and God still made things happen in a big way; our people felt it, our guests felt it, and I know the devil felt it (and I hope it drove him nuts!).

Maybe I seem a little more jacked up than normal, but this past week of study for me has just made me realized just how much of our lives as Christians is a battle. I’m sick of shooting arrows at Satan from a distance in this battle and giving him the opportunity to move out of the way. I’m ready to grab my sword and get in his face to do a little hand to hand combat.

Horizonites (Yes, I just made that word up) get ready, we’re about to do some serious battlin’ together!