Indescribable…

Just like the Chris Tomlin song …indescribable is what Vacation Bible School has been like thus far! Having over 420 children coming to Lindsay Lane is an awesome opportunity and I thank God for the privilege I have of knowing The Gospel plan—God’s redemption program for us to be reunited with Him through the Blood of His Son!!

I have been learning so much this week! Helping my 5 yr olds memorize each day’s verse and their unit verse has been great for me too!!! “God loved us and sent us His only Son, Jesus”1 John 4:9; “Grow in what you know about Jesus!” 2 Peter 3:18; “Jesus helpers worshiped Him and said, You are The Son of God!” Matt 14:33  (No Look Beast mode-LOL)

I have only ever helped with VBS once before in my life and it was my first summer as a Christian back in 2000 at Montevallo First Baptist! Praise God He’s allowed me the blessing of doing it again! I am loving it. I hope you are on Mission for God this summer!! What have you done for Christ?

There’s so much to do…Next month I go to the Dominican republic with 10 high school ball players and 2 Dads to share God’s love on and off the ballfield. We’ll share the Gospel at the games, we’ll minister to some orphans, we’ll minister to some families in a very poor village. We’ll minister to one another doing daily devotions and journal entries! It’s gonna be great! Thanks to God, He showed me The Way, The Truth, and The Life.

What are you devoted to?

I am reading through Acts. What an action packed book of The Bible!! As I’m reading through something strikes me right across my face…DEVOTION. It says in Acts 2:42 that the new believers were devoted to the apostles teaching, and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and of prayers. Yeah I’m devoted to my church, to Christ, to my wife, to my kids, to my job, to my favorite ball team-The Toronto Blue Jays. Wait a minute I thought, what exactly does it mean to be devoted. Highly motivated, never give up attitude, do anything for… Well Websters online dictionary says that devoted means -loyal, ardent, zealous, attached.

Thinking from God’s perspective do you think He sees you as devoted to Him? Why or why not? Do you take time each day to hear from Him (reading His Word and/or listening to a sermon)? Do you take time each day to go to Him with your deepest concerns (prayer)? Do you take time each day to brag about how great God is (praising Him, witnessing)?

Most of us are not doing these things and would be considered lukewarm. ooohh I urge you to look up Revelation 3:15 and see what Jesus said about lukewarm!!

God Bless and Good night!

The New Covenant’s Superiority

As I’ve been studying this week for the Sunday School lesson I teach to Jr High boys at 11:00am it has become more and more evident to me exactly how amazing Christ’s blood is. I mean He came as a perfect spotless lamb does to the slaughter…a lamb doesn’t fuss or fight it just goes silently and I believe it might even be well aware of what is to happen. Jesus did this, but thank God it was way more…the sufficiency of His bloody sacrifice takes the word sufficient to a whole new level. It is a once and for all time, for all people, and for all sins…wow!!! For over a thousand years God’s chosen people kept messing up and they would have to keep sacrificing their own “spotless lambs, goats, calves” but this time Christ came to allow The Holy of Holies to be entered for the last time so that that direct line of communication could be opened for all who were willing to humble themselves to the TRUE HIGH PRIEST!!! Our Lord and Savior-Jesus Christ. He is supreme.

Have you bowed to The King? Have you declared …Your Majesty I am not worthy to untie your shoes? Have you asked The Savior to save you from eternal damnation in a place called hell? Email me if you have any questions about any of this- mattstockman10@charter.net

Well another week gone …

What have we done for Christ this week? This is something we should always be mindful of as a week goes by. Did I memorize scripture this week? Did I spend some very quality time with my family talking about The Word? Did I try to witness to anyone about the most important thing there is to talk about? If my thoughts from this week were on a billboard would I be embarassed? Did I pay attention this week in church? Did I talk bad about anyone this week?

We probably all messed up in at least one of these areas. But maybe next week we can try to mess up less and maybe even be happy about our lives as we try to please Christ…our Rock and our refuge…our strength and our shield…The Lamb of God…The Messiah…Savior…Prince of Peace…Son of Man…and Eternal Incarnate Word!

Just so you know I actually feel like I did well for the first time in awhile with leading my family in devotions. We’ve been going thru John and we got through John 1:29 tonight. “…The Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world” This is a great book to start out with. It really helps us to see the deity of Christ and later Christ’s Love for us! It’s so fulfilling to know like 6 of the past 7 days my family and I have been in The Word together!

May God pour out His blessings upon you all this week!

Hey guys

Hope you all had a great day worshiping our King!! Man I sure did. Getting to baptize Cameron Stutts today was a wonderful honor to know that his family and I helped him to follow the Word in believer’s baptism. Oh Happy Day!!!

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your friendly neighborhood Baseball For Christ junkie and Jr High youth pastor. I hope you are trusting Christ with your life!! It’s the only way to go. May we all find our true purpose in life to serve HIM!

Safe at the Plate b/c of Christ,

Matt

Going on a mission trip this summer?

I’ve been going through Acts verse-by-verse with my Baseball For Christ students and the Gospel of Mark with my Jr Highers at LLBC. What has hit me like a ton of bricks is how much we prepare for short-term mission trips and how little we do each day in our Jerusalem…

Let me back up, Acts 1:8 states, “But you shall recieve power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the end of the earth.”  Well we make such a big deal of going across the nation or globe ministering to others with our prayers, finances, time, etc. but why are we not looking for a mission every day? I mean think about it- we all know someone who we really don’t know. I mean there has got to be at least one person you see consistently at school, work, on your team, or in your neighborhood who you are not sure of their church attendance or salvation. The key here is that we don’t assume anyone is saved until we hear it from him/her. We live in the Bible Belt and yes there are a lot more Christians here than most places in the world , but there are still a lot of lost folks too!

Before we go anywhere else we should be found laboring for christ right here in our “Jerusalem” Amen!!

When you go on your mission trip won’t you be expected to share Christ with someone if God presents the opportunity? It sure would be a shame if you had never witnessed to anyone in your own hometown. Actually not a shame, but a travesty!!! Let’s go think of someone right now

Pray for him/her and ask God to start working on his/her heart and ask God to give you the words to say…He will. You can’t mess up. Our God is sooooo big he can use your worst efforts to make a difference for the kingdom if you make the genuine effort to be used by Him.

He gave up all for us. Let’s do something for Him this week!

Love you all