Excel Still More

            Jesus is perfect, man is not. There is no room for improvement with Jesus, there is for man. No matter how good we are right now, we can be better.  In a passage that is often neglected, or quickly read past, for fear of addressing false ideas on individual predestination, there is a great lesson we must learn, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren ” (Romans 8:29, NASB95). God predetermined before he created anything in this world that it was going to be those who were becoming “conformed to the image of His son” that would be His saved people. What that means is we are in a constant process of pressing the clay of our lives into the perfect mold of Jesus. We are constantly pushing the clay into the mold and never completely getting there. It’s when we keep pushing though that Jesus fills in the gaps with regard to our justification before God. This is a process that is unending until the day we die!

            No matter where you are at spiritually in your relationship and work for the Lord - You can do better! You can excel still more! Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica praising them every chance he gets about the great things they are doing. Even in all of that he says, “Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more ” (1 Thessalonians 4:1). He also says, “Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more ” (1 Thessalonians 4:9–10). Did you catch that? He says you are doing a fantastic job at walking in the instruction of the Lord, but excel still more! You are doing a fantastic job in love towards the brethren, but excel still more! You can do better!

            You might be the best song leader that this church has ever seen, but you can excel still more! You might be the best encourager this church has ever seen, but you can excel still more! You might be the biggest giver this church has ever seen, but you can excel still more! You may attend assemblies more that 25% of the congregation, but you can excel still more. You may be the best person at studying in the congregation, but you can excel still more. You may be the best Bible class teacher the church has ever had, but you can excel still more. Are you getting the picture here? No matter what work you are doing, no matter where you are spiritually, you are not perfect (because God alone is perfect) and you have room to excel still more! 

            T.F. Hanson, a creative engineer, says “progress infers change, since things cannot get better if they remain the same” (Engineering Creativity, pg. 13). Excelling still the more infers that even if what you are doing now “works” you have to take risks to do better. We don’t like taking risks most of the time, we just like staying with the old tradition. We know it works, we’ve been doing it that way for X number of years. Yes it may “work” but it may not be the best! We can excel still more if we are willing to change! Einstein said after the first atomic explosion, “Everything has changed, except the way we think."

Thomas Edison said, “Human inertia is the problem, not the invention. Something in man makes him resist change.” This quality is good when we are talking about people trying to change the things of which God has given to us, because if He gave them they are perfect; the design of the church, worship, salvation, etc…! But when it comes to matters of expedience this mindset is one of the biggest enemies of the church. A lack of desire to excel still the more, an unwillingness to change, an unwillingness to push beyond our comfort zones in the way we think about something “working.” God expects better of us. He demands us to “excel still more!”

What are you going to do to excel still more in your walk and work with the Lord? Take an inventory of where you are. Write down these questions and then answer them (be specific i.e. “I worship whenever I can” is not specific):

1.      How often do I worship with the brethren?

2.      How many people do I talk to at worship? Are they the same people every time?

3.      Do I participate in the worship?

4.      Do I participate in the teaching program?

5.      Do I participate in the church work through programs like Monday Night for the Mast?

6.      How many people have I tried to have a spiritual discussion with in the world?

7.      How many people have I invited to worship?

8.      What do I do to grow my relationship with my spouse?

9.      What do I do to build up my family?

10.  What do I do to be an influence for Christ on my job?

11.  What do I do to see that the churches work is done?

Now look over the list and your answers. Set a goal that is an excelling of where you are now. For instance, “How often do I worship with the brethren?” You may answer once a week. Set a goal to worship two or three times. Go through the entire list this way. Now when you are finished you need to make a commitment that you are going to excel still more so you can meet those goals. As you analyze the list you may find that you don’t know how to excel. You need information, you need instruction, and you need to be equipped to meet those goals. That is where your church leadership steps in! The function of the leadership is to equip you for service (Ephesians 4:11ff). Simply go to one of the elders, deacons, or minister and tell them you need help. If they can’t provide the help individually they will all be sure that you get what you need; that you are equipped to excel still more. Now GO do it!

Excel Still More,

Caleb O’Hara

The Changing Culture

            Times are different from what they once were. It used to be that everyone pretty much assumed everyone had good intentions. It used to be the case that you could leave you home and not lock the door, expecting fully that everything would be just the way you left it when you returned. It used to be assumed that when you got married you stayed married. It also used to be the case that everyone believe the Bible was from God, even if they didn't follow it and accept it. These days are passed, and it's time for us to realize it.

            The largest group inside of Christendom that has realized this is a movement called the Emerging Church Movement. This movement has some major flaws and as a whole is entirely heretical (many more details forthcoming). The problem is that when they are the only people addressing this situation (the change in culture) they get to dictate the response to it. It is time for the Lord's people to step up, acknowledge the change in culture, and figure out how to keep on sounding the unchanging message to the changing culture. If we fail to do this the others who teach a Gospel of full embrace of the culture, which is not really another Gospel, will continue to set the pace for those looking towards Christianity.

            What are some ways we can better understand our culture and address it? First of all, our culture is media saturated. Don't believe me? Internet, Sattalite HDTVs, IPhones, IPods, Laptops, Desktops, TV's in the car, TV's on airplanes, everywhere you turn you are hit hard with media. Our culture suffers from media overload. There is so much information thrown out that people cannot possibly take it all in. That being the case, they surely aren't going to give material a second glance if it is not presented in such a way as to catch their attention. We must find ways to utilize media and communicate God's message through it, instead of having an attitude that media is just bad. When you get down to it, words are media. The printed page of the Bible is media. If media is inherently bad then the Bible is inherently bad – none of us are going to say that are we?

            Second, we have to start addressing the questions people are asking. People today question whether or not truth exists. They question whether Jesus was a real person. They question whether or not the Bible is really God's word, or just a bunch of man's stories. They question the very concept of exclusion. All of these fundamental questions must be addressed. We have to start putting more effort into confronting these questions so that we can lead people to the One person they desperately need – Christ.

            Your challenge is to start thinking about the culture you live in. Instead of merely being upset about it, start thinking about how to reach it. What can you do to better communicate God's message to the culture where you live? How can you cut through the media fog with the crystal clear message of Christ?

Sow the Seed,

Caleb O'Hara

Using Facebook Ads to Reach the Lost

This morning I was interviewed on a podcast called iPreach. It's a podcast co-hosted by Dale Jenkins of the Spring Meadows church of Christ and Adam Faughn of the Lebanon Road church of Christ. You can listen to the podcast below and it will help add some context to everything else in this posting.



This post is designed to help you go step by step through the process of setting up Facebook Ads for outreach. The first thing you need to do is login to your facebook page (If you don't know how to do this then learn it and come back). Once you have logged into your facebook page I recommend you create a “fan page” for your congregation if you don't already have one. After I show you how to create a fan page I will give you instructions on how to create a Facebook Ad.

To create a fan page:

1. Scroll down to the bottom of your page and lick on "advertising"






2. On the left side click on "pages"

3. Click "Create Page"

4. Select category, enter a name, and click create

5. Now that your page is created you can click "edit page" to make it all fancy.

6. Once you are done with that click "suggest to friends" and select all the members of your congregation


7. Drink a Dr Pepper and celebrate you have made it this far!

To Create an Ad:

1. Scroll down to the bottom of your page and click on "advertising"

2. click on "create ad"

3. Now you have to design your ad.

     - Decide where you want the people to end up at when they click your ad. If it's your website or something on your website enter the address in the "destination URL." If you want people to end up on your Facebook Fan Page or Event Page click on "I want to advertise something I have on Facebook."

     - Give your Ad a Title that will stand out, get peoples attention, and gives an idea of what your ad is all about

     - Give a brief, interesting, informative description of whatever it is you are advertising

     - Choose an image. Image size is limited to 110v80 pixels. Make sure your image stands out and is related to what you are advertising!

4. Select your target audience for this Ad (Listen to Podcast for details on these factors)

5. Select the Method of Advertising

     - By naming the campaign you can group your ads together. Maybe you want to run three different ads for one event. They would all go in the same campaign.

     - Set your daily budget. How much is the most you are willing to spend PER DAY on this entire set of ads in your ad campaign

     - If this is for an event, or you know when you want the ad to stop, click "run my ad only during specified dates" and specify the dates. Otherwise leave it how it is.

     - Now you have to decide if you want to pay on a cost per click basis or a cost per 1,000 impressions basis. There are benefits to both... again... listen to the podcast and I will explain some of that.

     - Now select your bid. The suggested bid amount gives you an idea of what ads are going for to your same target audience. Remember, the higher you bid the more likely your ad will be displayed. The amount you enter is the most you are willing to spend on a click or per 1,000 impressions (it may be lower than this amount).

6. Click Create

7. Drink another Dr Pepper and pray that the Lord blesses your efforts to reach the lost. You can always get back to your advertising by clicking on the "advertising" button on the bottom of the Facebook screen. This will allow you to track all the details of how your ads are performing, as well as edit, add, and remove your ads.

I hope this has been somewhat helpful to you. If you have used Facebook Ads before, or you are going to be using them, PLEASE contact me and let me know what you have done that has worked and what hasn't worked. Hopefully we can use this as just another one of many tools to reach the lost.

Sow the Seed,

Caleb O'Hara

The Proper Care & Feeding of Husbands

On a fairly regular basis I pick up books to add to my counseling collection. A couple weeks ago I added another, The Proper Care & Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura Schlessinger. The first thing I did when I got home was get on Facebook and ask if any women had read the book and if they did what they thought about it. Here are some of the comments I received:

• “I think every woman should read it before the wedding and on every anniversary there after! Excellent!”
• “As a woman, it says some stuff that is hard to hear and hard to do. As a guy, [my husband] said that it was dead on in what women need to do for their men. [He] loves the book and I do to. It really showed me how to better care for my man!”
• “[I] never read it but always disliked the title--like you're taking care of a dog or houseplant or something.”
• “It definitely gets to the heart of the matter, thinking beyond ourself. Like most books, If you can go away with one good thing to implement to make your marriage better.....I think it is worth the cost of the book. I think you can go away with several things from this book.”

The book is written in a very easy to read, and very easy to follow style. The dialogue of the book is largely based on calls Dr. Laura has received on her syndicated radio show, as well as comments and stories people sent to her specifically for this book. I'm not a fast reader and I digested the book in one evening and one morning.

The main idea behind the book as that in a marriage relationship women need to look out for and provide for the needs of their husbands, in a way that only a wife can. This is an entirely biblical idea, “Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:21). Dr. Laura accurately explains how various cultural influences have led many women to aquire false ideas about what their role is in a marriage relationship. As a result, there are many marriages that are suffering because of wives not fulfilling their role in the marriage. Want details? Read the book.

She deals with topics that we often don't want to talk about in the church. Subjects like Men's feelings, nagging, guy time, and even sex. I've never really understood why we don't want to discuss these subjects (the Bible talks about them), but would rather learn what's appropriate on these matters from TV, magazines, and movies – secular ungodly sources.

There are few negatives I came away with from the book. First of all Dr. Laura occasionally uses language I would not approve of using. Second is the fact that it may be easy to come away from this book thinking that the only problems in relationships are the result of women. It would be easy to think that if only the woman would change her act all marriages would be perfect. This of course is not true. Sometimes the man is the problem and will refuse to change. It does, however, show that even in those situations if you do your part you will be fulfilling the words of God in 1 Peter 3:1. You are creating the optimal atmosphere to persuade him to change without speaking a word of it to him.

All in all I would highly recommend this book to all married women or those who will potentially get married. It's well worth the time, and I believe it could help make more marriages Godly. The result would be a better homes and better churches serving God. If you read it I would love to hear your thoughts.