Same Team Dummy

Same Team Dummy

by Rev. Adam Fox

Greetings Most Excellent ones! I am and forever will be Pastor Adam. I am glad you have stopped by to read and share. 
I like the sport of Baseball. It has been described as America's Summer Pass-time. There is no better feel than going to a ballpark, eating junk food, watching 9 men try to get 1 out. Seeing a team unite by a group of people or a city's team. 
Now if you know me there are two baseball teams that stoke my interest more than any other - The Chicago White Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals. My AL and NL team. Seeing the success and championships, and sadly the struggle as well. 
But Chicago is in conflict. We are a split Baseball city, with the White Sox and the Cubs. There are die-hards for both teams and they will never cheer for the other. And then there are the other folk. Those that will support wither team, because Chicago is in it - the bi-soxual folk. 
The other day I was wearing a White Sox shirt and got teased by some Cubs fans since the Cubs are doing so well and the Sox... well next year.
Are mindset is one or the other in most everything in life. 
Sox or Cubs
Hamburger or Hot Dog
Republican or Democrat
Red head or blond
Leno or Letterman
Captain America or Iron man

While society pushed us to  be this way, there is one are that I nor any Christian should not be this way is in the church.
As a Youth Pastor, I work a lot with teenagers and students. Step one for Youth ministry is getting students to come, then enjoy it while being challenged, change their lives and so forth...
But we need to have students there, in order for them to learn about God, become spiritually mature, get plugged into the church... 
Early in my career as a Youth worker, I struggled with getting students to come. I sued to have to beg them to come. There was one family, with two students, who would not let there children come. It made no sense to me!
They were old enough, they wanted to be there, but the parents would not let them. It was church of school sports. 
We had words a few times. 

Over time, these students came. Not in spite of my war of words with these parents. It took me years to figure out, that I am not supposed to be in conflict with Parents - but work beside them and with them. Be on the same team. 

I have been remeinded of this fact over and over again this summer. For me, God does not always whisper at me, some times he says the same thing over and over until I hear Him. 

I am listening God

Minsitry with teens and children is difficult. A Youth Pastor has only a few hours a week with these students. And it can be a blessed time, it is not the most effective way. 

Students learn the most from their families - since they are around them the most. The parents are the greatest teachers. 

Myself and other Pastors need to be in contact with the Parents as much as the students, to keep them in the loop of what is going on and learning, and to be an aid to them as well. 

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love theLord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

And yes, not every parent is ready to be the Spiritual leader that these students and children need. That is where the Church comes in. Let in the fans.

The church should be filled with adults of all generations that want to be involved in every aspect of the students life. From school, to girls, to family stuff, to sports and the arts, to spiritual encouragement. 

How great will it be one day if I come to church and instead of taking a good portion of my day to fill-up each student and check in on them - but for adults from the church are swarmed around them building relationships, and loving on them.

We are on the same team, lets work together in love. Supporting each other and making time for each other. 

Until next time. 

Excelsior and Cheers!

Pastor Adam

Pop Goes the Wallet

Pop Goes the Wallet - A lesson on Saving, kinda

MY name is Rev. Adam Fox, and I have an addiction. I am a lover of comics, the nerd life, and lately, Funko Pop figures. (waits for crowd to say Hi Adam)

Over the last 5 years or so, I have fell in love with comics. While I have always loved certain characters and followed them at a distant. Lately I have been treating them like chips or snacks. We all have our favorite snack, lately mine have been Goldfish and Gummied Worms. You eat one or two and supposed to leave. Nope. Eat until your stomach hurts, the American Way.

My girlfriend bout for me on my birthday a subscription to Marvel Unlimited, a digital comics database. I can read as much as I want all year, and I do. This has let me rekindle the ove I have for Spider-man, Peter, Gwen, and Miles. As well as Dr Strange, Mrs Marvel – Both Carol and Kamala, The New Avengers, The Secret Avengers, What if, Special events… so much good reads.

And this passion has let me show my passion off with posters, or witty shirts, and Funko Pops. Funko makes little figures of many different characters from comics, to nerds genre, to movie, to cartoons, to Disney, to WWE… and so forth. And I love them. I really do. I do unbox them and play with them. I put them in different scenes and have them act out things and so forth.

And One is not enough, this company is great at targeting the niche of the niche. They have the big name figures like Superman, like Captain America, the Disney Princesses, the Stone Colds, to the many Doctors, even Political Canidates.

But Last night I went looking for whats new and cool. And found so many. I saw Pops from the Breakfast Club. SpiderVerse. Back to The Future and so forth. Boy did my eyes widen. I wanted them. I wanted specific ones. I want Spiderman 2099, Black Suit Peter. Venom. Carnage. Anti-Venom. AND Squirle Girl. Star Lord too. The I wants got the best of me.

As a Christain, I should not have the gimmies. But they come in so many shapes and sizes. Shoes. Dresses and clothes. Cars. Status symbols. Phones and Tech. I guess even partners. We are no different than the world in that way. Christians still get in debt. They still buy things they do not need. They still are not smart with money. But is that an excuse? Nope.

We cannot let our hobbies, become our obsessions. We need to be smart about money and our time. The Bible instructs us to be care with money and things.

Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

1 Timothy 6:7-10 For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Hebrews 13:5  Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Money was one of the things Jesus talked the most about, so money and love of things apply here.

I do love my Comics and my Pops but do I let it be my everything and obsession? No. Do I let the want of more money be my driving force? No.

 Be content with what you have.

I could have all the Pops in the World and when I die, they will not come with me. And what bothers me is the attitude is whoever dies with the most does not win. Jesus said in Matthew 6 on the Sermon on the Mount that we should be invested in treasures in Heaven.

To me, that means giving back more. Spreading the Word so others can know about how much God loves them. Sharing love with those that do not deserve it.

Will I still have my Pops. Yeah. Am I going to go through my wish list on Amazon and delete a lot, take that list of 20 down to 2-3, count on it!

Until next time. 

Take Care, and Spike your Hair! 

Pastor Adam

Build me an Arky-Arky

God said to Noah... and Ken Ham I guess too

By Rev. Adam Fox

Excelsior True Believers!

Friday my family made it down the the newly built Ark down at the Creation Museum. While I have always wanted to go see the Creation Museum and now the Ark, schedules and time are not always on my side. 

But can we step back and realize what is happening. Here in America, the land of the Brave and Home of the Free-ish, we have the Holy Lands Park, a Creation Museum, and now a life sized Ark!

This is a great time we are living in as Modern Americans. We have so many freedoms in this land, and places to see these Bible stories come to life. 

While I could not be there in person, I have enjoyed following the progress each month in their magazine. See the ark go from so gopher wood to a what is it to oh I see it now. 

 Until the Creation Institute and Ken Ham started this project, and brought this legend to life. We have only had badly drawn books and grainy films about the ark. I remember watching a documentary trying to prove the ark existed and the Bible was true. But once they got to the where is it now segment, all we saw was a far away picture. I saw clearer images of big foot.
Or we go the opposite, we teach our kids about happy full grown cute animals shoved in a tiny boat. And that is not true, and gives them wrong information. About the Ark size, how it was built, the types of animals...

We need to go to the scriptures and remember this story. We cannot let Hollywood try to tell us what happened, and they tried a lot. We need to be familiar with the story found in Genesis 6-8. Of why God chose Noah. Why did God want an Ark to be built. What kinds of animals. How long did it take? All of these questions and more can be found by reading the Bible. The Truth from God. 

We are in a golden time. We have a real life built to scale Ark. But lets not treat this like we do most things in America. We are infatuated with it, and then get tired of it and grab onto the next distraction or fad. 

Go. Keep going. Support the Ministries of Answers in Genesis. Lets make the Ark filled like this all the time!

Cheers and God Bless.

Pastor Adam

Hand me another Brick

Leading at all times

Rev. Adam Fox

Excelsior!
I was challenged at the end of last year by a missionary to read the Bible in one year. I have always wanted to do it, and Andrea and I downloaded an app that guides us into reading the Bible in one year, a little old testament and a little new testament. And it has been good and at times a little difficult - getting through the Pentateuch was a struggle. But Thursday I started the book of Nehemiah.
Now I know the story of Nehemiah, and have been through a few sermon series of this book. It is a good read with many life lessons on working together, leadership, making the best out of a bad job, priorities... But God showed me this scripture again, and I was Wow.
So a quick summary of the Book first.
Israel and Judah are captives. Jerusalem has been wrecked. The people are slaves in foreign lands. One of them is a man named Nehemiah. He is the cup bearer to King Artaxerxes.
While this is not a glamour job, he does have the ear of the King. And when the king notices that he is saddened and troubled, it is an opening to tell him the plight of his home state, his capital city.
The King approves of a wall  to be built with Nehemiah as the head of it.

And work gets done, the foreign king helps supply materials to rebuild the outer wall of the city, and give it some defense against invaders.
One of the neat things about this book, there are a lot. But one of them is the walls of Jerusalem get rebuilt, but it is rebuilt by commoners. It is described how each man and women built there own section. the people built it themselves. Were they skilled in wall-building? Nope. But they did it themselves. We can learn from this as Christians today.
The work of the Church, the ministry of the Gospel will be carried out in the world today. But it is common in the church that the 10% do the work 0f 90%.  God does not want the perfect Christians giving back of their talents and skills, he wants us to do that. Be active. Be a leader. Find a niche to develop your talents and skills. Be more outspoken in your community. Work on your section of the Wall. But make it great looking.
And the other thought that hit home was Nehemiah's job. He was a servant of the king, the food tester. While this is a high place for a servant lets not spit on my cupcake and call it frosting, it is still a slave. And he is the one responsible for advice - unofficial and guess what happens when the food is poisoned.
Do we read of Nehemiah being sour or bemoaning about his place in life? Nope. Chapter two tells us that he never was sad. 

And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before.2 Therefore the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart.”

So I became dreadfully afraid, 3 and said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?”
Even though his job well, sucked, he still brought his best. We need to do the same. A lot of us are not comfortable with our job, or co-workers, or tasks of our job... but we have them. We need to be examples of God in these difficult growing jobs.
Be a leader, start building your wall.

Getting out of your comfort zone

Pastor Adam Fox
 

Comfort zones are great. They are that unique sense of relaxation where we get fed emotionally instead of having to give. We do not have to try. It’s a safe place.

For me, a comfortable place usually is at home, with a pizza or huge burger and fries, and either a good movie or a game – or why not both! And sometimes these days are refreshing, but if that is all we do, every night movie and a burger, that would ruin us. Physically, it would make us lazy and so fat. But more importantly, emotionally and spiritually – it would never challenge us. Every difficult time in our life we would cower and hide, every opportunity for growth we would be at home where it is safe. Comfort zones can be good if used rightly, but very dangerous.

The other weekend, Andrea and I went to the zoo for a day. Nothing like seeing all the wondrous creations of our God. I always love looking at the otters – assuming they aren’t sleeping. But the camels, and the red pandas are always a must. We were amazed at seeing the road runners so close. They are so fast!

But after a cold but wonderful day of walking and looking at animals we stopped off for dinner. We went to a burger joint that looked interesting in LaGrange – Back Alley Burgers. No one had to twist my arm to eat a burger.

But when we got there and as we were figuring out how to order, I looked around, looked a the fixtures, the design, even what makes up there menu. It was a menu designed for the Millennial.

While neither of us are Millennials, Generation Y, but I know that a lot of business cater to that growing market, and sweet sweet cash.

I would be lying if the atmosphere and feel of the restaurant did not make me feel uncomfortable.

Is that a bad feeling? No.

While we will be asked to leave our comfort zones for various things. It could be taking a new job, going away to college, taking that next big step in your relationship… to name a few. But as we leave our bubble of safety, are we going alone? Not on your life.

God promises us, PROMISES us that we will never be alone. The 5 word promise in Hebrews 13 tells us that “I will never leave you”

God will be with us always, EVEN IN THE SCARY TIMES. AS believers, we even have God living with us in the form of the Holy Spirit.

So with that amazing promise, we need to take steps out from our area of safety. Grow spiritually and emotionally. Maybe even eat a hipster burger with a big side of pretentious. 

Relationships or just relations

Relationships or just Relations

Excelsior True Believers!

God reminds me of so many things. Sadly, sometimes He has to tell me a few times somethings because I just did not hear him the first or second time. 
Today I was in my devotional time with God, and I was brought to Psalm 133 and Romans 12. And in Psalm 133 verse 1 says "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!"

How great is it when brothers dwell in unity. Unity of course is the key word here. We are called to live, work, act in unison. And sometimes that can be difficult, especially among Christians. 

We let the minor things become major things and make us into wolves instead of sheep. Like last night for example. Captain America: Civil War came out to theaters, Team Cap all the way! And the premise of the movie without spoiling it is that Iron Man wants the government to regulate them and all super powered peoples. 

This tiny thing disrupts the team, and the universe into a brawl in which feelings get hurt, friends split apart, even some die. 

While a great read, or watch for the movie adaptation, this should not be how we are in the church.

We are called to love each other, to support each other in good times as well as rough times. We are the bride of Christ. Why do we forget that? Why do we focus on the color of the carpet, who owes whom an apology, should the lights be on our off for a candle light service...

Lets strive to live in unity with our brothers. To not only love them as God loves them, but to actually like them too. To dwell in unity. 

Until next time.

Take Care and Spike your hair!

Kids Say the Darnedest Things

Excelsior True Believers

What a busy season. But worth it. So many have been praying for growth in our church both spiritually and numerically. And God has answered that. We have had some new families come to our Children's programs and more opportunities - and God has answered. The power of prayer.  But one of our new families has two adorable boys.
I was teaching last night at AWANA about the faith of the Centurion and going through the Gospel message too. And This new kid - Billy (not his real name) was listening like he always does, eager to learn and trys hard personality.
And I was telling them that God loves them and Sent Jesus to save us from our sin problem - Jesus took our sin punishment and let people die.
 I was right in the middle of this amazing fact of how we can accept Christ as our savior then Billy says something. While I am not surprised, 20-25 minutes is a lot for kids to sit quietly, but Billy said something that made my night.
When I said Jesus let people kill him and He died but He did not stay dead, Billy says " This is the best part"
I stopped. A little shocked that he would interrupt me but Billy was right. This is the best part.
Jesus died on a cross for my sin, for all our sins. But did not stay dead. He rose from the grave 3 days later.
It was such a simple remark, but was so honest and to the point.

Keep praying!

Pastor Adam

www.firstbaptistchurchoflockport.com