Have You Prayed This Before?

All too often we pray for others in hopes that God will move on their behalf. You’re sincere when you pray, and you really expect God to act. You realize just how desperate the situation is and if God doesn’t do something life might be hanging in the balance!

When people are going through a tough time we tell them… I’ll be praying for you! If your like me you have said this when…

Someone loses a loved one.

Someone is sick.

Someone is going through a tough time in a marriage

Someone is looking at divorce

Someone is dealing with the unthinkable… their kids are sick, dying, etc.

Someone looses a job or has significant financial struggles.

The list could probably go on and on…

We pray for God to put shoes on people in Africa, help those in poverty in Haiti, God please stop human trafficking, God Will You Please Do SOMETHING about _______!

Shane Claiborne has a book called Becoming The Answer To Our Prayers… which I haven’t read. But the title is enough for me to get the point! My mind has been on this subject lately because of the number of people I know going through these kind of times in their lives!

One of the quotes in the book I found in a review couldn’t be more true…

“God doesn’t want to change the world without you.”

God has and always will use people to change the world! What are you doing to be the change in the world, in your world, in the world of the people you know and love? Is it possible God is telling you to become the answer to the very prayer you just prayed?

Leading One Community Church for the last 5 months has helped me be more aware of the need for us ALL to become the answer to our prayers. The next time you pray I challenge you to say Amen and then say another… God am I the one you want to use to  answer this prayer?

Overcome…

This weekend at One Community Church was amazing… I was overcome with emotion… It was Easter… but that’s not the only reason I was overcome.

We did cardboard testimonies this weekend and several times I found myself emotional. Emotional because the people wrote some amazing things about who they used to be… An Addict, Fearful, Hateful, Prideful, Lonely… and overcome by who they had become in the wake of Jesus In their life… Addicted to God’s Grace, fulfilled by Christ, Full of Love, and the testimonies went on and on. When they walked off the stage after giving their testimonies, they placed the side describing who they used to be on the CROSS!

I was overcome because many of the people giving these testimonies have come so far in such a short period of time. The evidence of Jesus in their life is more than on a piece of cardboard… its on their hearts, its on their faces, and its in their hands and feet!!

I was overcome because I couldn’t be more proud than to call myself their brother in Christ, their friend, and their pastor.

I was overcome because Jesus didn’t just give us resurrection 2000 years ago… Jesus is in the business of resurrection and resurrection HAPPENS… and these people are living examples of resurrection!

May we all experience a resurrection today. Whatever your going through, failing at, worrying about… may you come to rest in the life and death of Jesus so that HE can bring the resurrection into your life and situation today!

Peace

John Piper vs. Pat Robertson… God Sent Tornado’s To Kill or No?

John Piper vs. Pat Robertson

I was listening to a few friends discuss the tornadoes and the sheer devastation that happens when these things touch down… and then I read a few articles from prominent Christian leaders John Piper and Pat Robertson, and they both have me thinking!

John Piper says no tornado nor its path is random… and God’s fingerprint is all over every tornado that touched down last week killing 60 or more people and devastating the lives of thousands more! Of course in the same hour Pat Robertson goes on his television show and says its not God’s fault at all, and the people are to blame. His blame was two fold… they build houses in stupid places that have tornado activity (my words but his implication) and they didn’t pray hard enough!

What I find interesting is that both of these guys think they are mouthpieces for God, and yet they both say totally different things… the only thing they have in common in my opinion is they are both DEAD wrong : )

What say you?

I will address both separately in coming posts, but in the meantime I’m interested in what you the readers think?

Here is an article that has all the information!

This article gives both stories… http://www.examiner.com/christian-education-in-richmond/pat-robertson-and-john-piper-explained-the-tornadoes-tragedies

Driven By What…

 

I’ve been a pretty motivated guy most of my life. I had a father who loved me and encouraged me to always strive for the best! This brought along some success in most areas of my life… when my father passed away, I was 16 and this drive propelled me to work as many jobs as it took to survive… eventually putting myself through college. The instilled will and drive to survive and ultimately succeed served me well!

But recently I have been asking myself… what really drives YOU Tony Simoncini?

All kinds of things drive people. Love for a family, the need to please a father or mother who demanded too much, maybe it’s the need to be valued and accepted!

But should there be more?

When we are driven by something bigger than ourselves, patience is a must… because you realize that things don’t often come as fast or in the manner in which you want them to. Someone who is driven by themselves or things within that demand an answer will not recognize this and move on from the original plan in favor of seeing THEIR vision fulfilled… but when we are driven by something bigger than us we are better able to sit and practice patience when things are not moving at OUR pace, fulfilling OUR desires, and happening as fast as WE want them to!

For me that which is greater than myself is God. As a follower of Jesus, I have begun to ask the hard questions about my way of driving my life and this is where I have landed…

I have learned to rely on God as my driving force and stop making everything about me and my timing. I have learned that God’s timing is waaaaaayyyyyyyy better than mine, and sometimes they don’t line up perfectly, which means if I can’t be patient and let His time come… I tend to drive away from the plan instead of holding out for His timing to surface! I have learned from experience that people can make thimgs happen…We are strong, resilient and resourceful people who know how to make things happen

So the question today is… what drives you? Is it you, or something bigger than you?

May we all come to grips with the fact that being driven isn’t enough… we need to be driven by a vision that originates in God and rests in Christ alone… because its that vision that will allow us to put down our drive in favor of being driven around by the creator and sustainer of ALL things!

Peace

All We Need Is Just A Little Patience…

No this is not a tribute to the Guns N’ Roses whistle laden acoustic love song from the 80’s.

It has actually become a mantra of mine here in Utah. If I have learned anything during this year… taking it slow and using a little patience has become a life-line for me! For those who know me well, patience has not been something I would have called a strength of mine in the past. When I knew what I wanted or felt like I had a good idea, I usually ran with it and tried to drag along as many people as possible in the process. In life and business this appeared at times to be a great asset to have… to be driven was celebrated and called leadership! This year has been an education in life, ministry and leadership… and what I have learned this year above EVERYTHING is this… being driven doesn’t excuse us from being able to discern when to wait and exercise self control i.e. patience, and when to act!

Some people say don’t pray for patience because God will test you with it… I say we can’t afford not to be patient!

 

Galatians 5:22-25 says… “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

May we all learn to know the difference between times of patience and times of action!

“The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it”                                                                                                                                                                      -   Arnold H. Glasgow