11 already?

Two days ago, our family joined together to celebrate two monumental events. The first was the birth of our great country, the United States of America. The second major event was the birth of our first child, Evangelyn Abigail Brewer. She goes by Abigail which is Hebrew for “my Father is joy”, or “I rejoice in the Lord”. Evangelyn comes from the Greek word that we translate as “Gospel”. It means good news. So, every year, on the 4th of July, our family celebrates the Good News of the Gospel, that we can rejoice in the Lord because of the freedom from sin that Jesus Christ offers to us. Where do you find your joy? Have you experienced the good news of the freedom from sin’s power that Jesus offers to us?

To my son, Emmanuel on his birthday

Today marks the ninth trip around the sun for the little boy who carries the last name that I inherited from my father on to the next generation. I want to instill the following things in his life as he prepares to take on the world as a man some day soon.

I inherited some things from my own father that I would like to pass on to my only son. My dad was my hero as I was growing up. He did many things that I have come to appreciate greatly over the years. My dad had a kind heart. He never met a stranger and he would open his home to anyone. You could always count on some great advice over a hot meal or a cup of coffee. I watched my dad love on my friends and neighbors just as much as he loved on me. My dad was a man of few words, although, when he spoke, he imparted wisdom. He was an example in his actions more than he was in the words that he spoke. As I think back on my life at home with my dad, the Apostle Paul’s words ring in my ears. He wrote a letter to a church in the ancient city of Corinth. He dealt a lot with the subject of manhood.

Saint Vasile (Basil the Great)

Tomorrow, Eastern Orthodox Christians will celebrate New Year’s Day according to the Old Julian calendar. It is also the holiday to honor Saint Vasile of Caesarea. Unfortunately, many Orthodox Christians venerate Saint Vasile to the point that he is worshiped. God does not share His glory with anyone and it is unfortunate that people worship Saint Vasile. Instead of worshiping him, we should study his life and seek to live the way that he lived. Saint Vasile was a born again Christian. He shared of his conversion in a letter to a friend:

Pastors and Elders; Is there a difference?

I write this article from personal experience. Whatever denomination you are part of, as a follower of Jesus Christ, your local church has a form of “government”. The English word “government” comes to us via Old French, according to Online Etymology Dictionary. The meaning is “control, direction, administration”. The origin of the Old French word is of course the Latin, “gubernare”. The Romans borrowed the word from the Greeks, modifying the Greek word “kybernan” (pronounced cybernan). It was a nautical term for steering a ship in the right direction. A local church is made up of redeemed sinners who still fight a moment by moment battle against their sin nature and as a result, they need to be guided through life. God created man to be led by Him. Once mankind rebelled against God, we traded God’s leadership for the leadership of others. We still need to be led, even to this day. Communities and relationships fall apart if there is not strong leadership. Your local church needs leadership. God has provided leadership in the local church, just like He has established leadership in local, secular government. When God set the guidelines for leadership in the church, He chose mature believers who had certain experience and spiritual giftings to lead. God chooses what spiritual girts we receive upon salvation and He also provides ministry (service) for those gifts in order to build up the body of Christ. Biblically speaking, people do not choose a path to leadership in the church. God equips them and calls them according to His desire. In order to understand church leadership, we need to examine a couple of passages in the New Testament, passages that were written under the inspiration of God and these passages are the heart of God when it comes to church leadership.

A letter from God and Gratitude

This past week was a good week for me and for the pastors of Hoffmantown Church. We had our annual pastors’ retreat in beautiful Pagosa Springs, Colorado. While there, we reflected on the love that the Lord has for us and the high calling that we have all answered, to shepherd the Lord’s flock in His local church. I was privileged to be with my brothers in Christ and hear their stories of how the Lord called them. I was able to share my story as well. It was a blessed time. One of our personal assignments was to write a letter to ourselves, from God. It was a neat assignment. We had to spend some time alone with the Lord and then write, from a Biblical perspective, a letter that we thought He would write to us. After that assignment, we were to list all of the things that we were grateful for that the Lord has given to us or done for us. Here is what I wrote:

Mission Trip to an unreached people group

Dear friends, thank you so much for your prayers over the past 2 weeks. I had the honor of traveling with a team from our church to do mission work among an unreached people group on the other side of the world. I had the privilege of working with underprivileged children at an orphanage. Along with a teen from our church, I was able to lead a day camp for 35 kids and teens. The youngest was 7 and the oldest was 15. We studied the inductive Bible study course, “God, what is Your Name”. At the camp we discovered the meaning and significance of 13 Biblical Names for God.

Mother’s Day Baby Dedication 2015

Here is an audio version of the challenge that I gave to the parents and the congregation of ‪#‎HoffmantownChurch‬ on ‪#‎MothersDay2015‬
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The main passage is Deuteronomy 6:1-7. I have an article based on the same message here.

Missionary Questionnaire

I just wrote an interview for a friend of mine. The interview was a missions questionnaire. I wanted to share it with you here.

Question

I was wondering if you could tell me a little about what you’ve experienced while on a mission trip.
Mostly, what kind of responsibilities, challenges and victories did you experience. Also, if you have any prayer requests for any upcoming trips, what are they?

Answer

Teaching kids to interact with God

As I was teaching John 15 last night to one of my Bible study groups, one of the subjects that we covered was “how do we abide in Christ in a practical manner?”. The answer is found in the passage itself, “abide in the Word of God and have the Word of God abide in us”. Our discussion was, “as I focus on making disciples, how to I connect them with the vine, as I am connected to the vine?” In other words, “how do we teach people to interact with God?” according to John 15. The group answer was, teach them to come face to face with God through His Word. If I am a disciple-maker, am I teaching people to interact with God through His Word or I am “telling them what the Word of God says” keeping them from coming face to face with God unfiltered?

A full week of teaching

I was just reflecting over the past week of ministry and realized just how many Bible lessons God allowed me to be blessed in teaching. One of the lessons that I taught this past week was “Understanding Spiritual Gifts“. In the lesson, we learned that if we have been given a speaking gift, then we need to speak the Word of God when we teach. I have the gift of teaching so I love to teach God’s Word. I am most fulfilled when I can teach others how to study and apply God’s Word. Here are the lessons that I was able to teach this week.