Posts

Showing posts with the label rules

A Lesson from a Kickball Game

Image
Just over a year ago, I started attending Vertical Life Church in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. One thing I respect about Pastor Mark Dorn is his commitment to the Great Commission. During services, you will always hear him exhort the congregation to be soul winners. His church usually goes out evangelizing on Saturday afternoons. Pastor Mark also knows how to have fun. Occasionally, the church has kickball games between the adults and the youth. We had such a game this past Wednesday night. Before it began, Pastor Mark announced that ice cream would be served by the team that didn’t win. The adults were ahead during most of the game but the youth came from behind and were declared the winners. The announced final score was 20-19. However, I have some doubts about the outcome of that game. People repeatedly asked what the score was and how many outs there were. A few older congregants didn’t play but sat off on the side and watched. Perhaps one of them could have been the official score...

Obeying God vs. Man

Image
Burger King once used the advertising slogan, “Sometimes, you gotta break the rules.” If you’re truly living for the Lord, He will occasionally lead you to do things that may seem risky and go against man-made laws. Sometimes I have evangelized in shopping malls even though security people will try to stop that because they consider it “ soliciting .” A recent exchange of emails with a Facebook friend about illegal immigration reminded me of a situation that happened fifteen years ago. In April 2003, I flew to Berlin to share the gospel in Germany. Originally I was scheduled to fly back to the U. S. a month later but opted not to despite my return ticket classified “non-refundable.” The Lord told me my leaving Germany then would be in His permissive will but not His perfect will. Eventually, He led me to visit other European nations. By September I was in Spain and perceived it was time to come home. One day I went to the Madrid airport hoping the airline would let me u...