Friday, Jan 30, 2009

TWG - January 30, 2009 - R U a Diotrephes or a Demetrius?

Download this episode (17 min)   
Boy it is amazing. I now have a shed built! I finished the roofing yesterday and went inside to work on the details. Still quite a bit to do. After being a roofer all day I ran to a rental to check out a leak in the roof and it turned out to be nothing! Whooo hooo! Then I worked out and went to Bible Study. On the way there I met with Mike and Melissa who are adopting Thursday night as their time in the Warrior’s Watch prayer room! Great ministry! At Bible Study we had a good, if not a sobering study on family. You get a different perspective of family when you study it with grandmas and grandpas! After Bible Study I rushed to the church to publish Growing Together Radio podcast to the internet. Now I need to think about taking off to Redding to visit my mommy dearest!

Today is January 30, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. TWG is a complete turn of events; it is a 180 degree turn around. God is changing us and turning us around as a community. This is not business as usual, this is life transforming, this is spiritual, this is essential.

Today's Scripture reading is Joshua 12; Psalm 135; 2 Timothy 1
To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com

Today’s thought comes from 3 John:9-12 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. 10 Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church. 11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius has a good testimony from all, and from the truth itself. And we also bear witness, and you know that our testimony is true.

Are you a Diotrephes or a Demetrius? Every church has them. These two guys are polar opposites. One of them always seems to attract attention to himself and the other is always deflecting the glory away from himself and pointing folks to God. I’ve seen many Diotrephes types. They love the spotlight. They are as controversial and provocative as a lightning rod. There is always another side to the coin and you can bet they take the other side. They seem to relish splitting hairs the size of a mite! And if you aren’t in agreement with them, you’re against them! Sometimes they are popular and charismatic. When that happens they begin to develop a following. They have their own little flock within the flock. This is how great church splits begin! That’s what was going on in 3rd John. Diotrephes was a power loving guy. He grabbed it up left and right, and if you tried to reason with him, he called you out publically and kicked you out of the church! Good people left the church because they were hurt, embarrassed or just didn’t want to deal with that level of conflict. Beware of getting sucked in by a Diotrephes… and beware of becoming one! A church splitter is a tough reputation to shake! Demetrius had a much better reputation. He’s the kind of fellow you want to imitate. He also has strong beliefs. He stands firmly on the truth of the Word of God, but he is more of a shepherd who leads straying sheep back to the flock than a debater who slices and dices those who aren’t where he is! Instead of division he attracts people to the Gospel of Christ by his good reputation. If you ask people in or out of the church about Demetrius they will tell you that he is one man they really respect. He lives his life as a testimony to Jesus Christ. So what will it be for you? Will you be Diotrephes or Demetrius? Your reputation is waiting!

Dear Jesus, help me to get over myself and put you first. Help me to take second place so that you can be first. I want to point people to you by my testimony. I want to be a builder of your kingdom, not a divider. Help me to love people to your kingdom.

"A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 10:26 AM |   

<< Home