by Aarron Pina | Nov 22, 2013 | That Day, update
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Aarron Pina plays Dan Matthewson and 12 other
characters in the recent “That Day” production. |
Seeing the Results
I love immediate feedback, don’t you? Do something, see the results. Measure the results, adjust for next time. Isn’t it great?
But, how do you feel when you can’t see the immediate payoff of your efforts? Me, too.
“That Day” is a one man show based on Tim Stevenson’s “The Bema: a Story About the Judgment Seat of Christ”, in which I get to play “Dan Matthewson” (also a pretty results oriented guy, btw), and over a dozen different characters who tell the story of a Dan’s story. It’s a wild, amazing jaw dropper as he gets to see the payoff of his efforts: eternal rewards at the judgment seat of Christ according to 2 Cor. 5:10.
Our latest presentation of this 2 hour look behind the curtains of heaven was live at Woodstock First Baptist Church’s “Warehouse”. Seating was set for about 80 people, but we wound up with an audience of over 100! It was received with rave reviews – there was laughter (more than we expected – hooray!), tears, and as we expected, a little elbowing between people as they witnessed the truths of the bible played out in a highly entertaining, thought provoking, and challenging parable.
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Dan Matthewson shares his regrets as he sees what
could have been his eternal rewards. |
Delayed Gratification, but On Target Feedback
Ironically, we’re still waiting from some feedback from our cameraman who filmed the show, but we did get some still photos, which you see here in this post. As the video becomes available, we’ll post anything of high enough quality on our YouTube channel, to pass on a bit of the event’s flavor. However, our online feedback forms gave us a clear picture of the theological impact of the story:
- Most people, though they know the day is coming, have never really considered very seriously or frequently a) what the bema seat judgment will be like and b) how our abiding in Christ today impacts the eternal rewards we receive then.
- Everyone was encouraged by the fact that Christ longs to reward us for the things we do here in His power, for His kingdom, in His timing, and for His reasons.
- But, my favorite common feedback point is this: “I’m now far more mindful of how I treat the people around me and in seeking opportunities to follow God’s lead.”
Bam! Bullseye on that last one. That’s what we were hoping to hear. Glory to God.
Huge Thanks
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Kevin Swan nails an opening rendition of U2’s
“Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” |
Husband and wife team Ryan and Crystal Casey got together with ex-boy band member Kevin Swan to add great musical punctuation to the performance. We’re thrilled with how the night went and are grateful to Echo Ministries for inviting us to put the production on.
Special thanks, also, to Jacob Burton for his invaluable assistance as Aarron’s production assistant throughout the rehearsal process, and to Jeff Johnson and Sunny Williams for giving us use of rehearsal space at Brown’s Bridge Community Church and North Point Community Church.
For information on how to bring a production of “That Day” to a church, retreat, or organization near you, sent email to aarron@seasonsoflifeministries.org or visit us at www.thatday.info!
in Christ,
AP
by Aarron Pina | Nov 22, 2013 | Christ, discipleship, update
My Mea Culpa
This year, I’ve had great opportunity to talk with men, reason through the scriptures, and pray about the difference between fault and responsibility. In hindsight, I’ve failed to communicate in many areas the great things happening at Seasons of Life. Please forgive me. It’s both my fault and my responsibility.
The Tension
When you talk to people regularly about personal issues, sensitive matters, and their walk with Christ, you experience a tension between sharing what God is up to with the ministry (BIG NEWS! I can’t tell you about it, though…) and maintaining full confidentiality, therefore cultivating trust. Many of the men I’m locking arms with this season are experiencing breakthroughs in their faith, marriages, and careers. But, I must respect their privacy as I report from the field.
Maintaining Confidentiality
Some are experiencing new seasons – a season away from their children because of divorce, a season of their children being away from them while at school, a season of focus on a marriage after taking it for granted, reconciliation and rebuilding of trust after a fight, a loss, a betrayal, overcoming an addiction… etc. Today, I even got to have a great conversation with a guy about walking with God through the challenges of toxic relationships, maintaining godly standards, and boundaries in the home. God was honored and we both walked away sharper!
These are the vagueries that are “okay” to share publicly because they don’t break confidentiality. But, I want you to know – I get to hear some raw stuff from time to time… And, by God’s grace, I get to point these men back to scripture and watch them recalibrate when they see where they were out of alignment. Other times, it’s just about the basic blocking and tackling of the Christian life. Falling deeper in love with the Word of God and knowing more intimately the God of the Word. Life transformation is happening.
I also get to share some raw stuff about my own failures from time to time… And, I get to cheer them on when God brings a job their way after 18 months of unemployment… a godly relationship after years of “sorting through counterfeits”… Six weeks of deep and devoted regular quiet time… And, through it all, we’ve been able to trace God’s Providential hand at the helm and His grace sustaining it all.
The Way Forward
As Cristine and I step into our 7th year of public ministry, we’re seeing her schedule pick up again, potential dates for “That Day” performances on the horizon, and the continued vision of men, women, couples, and families abiding in Christ, surrendered to their Savior, and serving His kingdom daily. We continue to thank God for the work, the people He entrusts to our care, and the calling He’s placed on our lives. One thing is for sure: no matter what the years ahead have in store, He will continue to test our trust in Him just as much (or more) than those we urge to do the same.
For those of you who are praying for us and those who support this ministry financially, we want to thank you for all you do for the community you serve: the body of Christ and the Kingdom of God. Your prayers matter. You resources make it a reality.
For You:
We encourage you to engage with God’s work through us via our Facebook page, Twitter, and weekly on our blog. It is my prayer that after a year “deep in the trenches” with a select few, I am able to devote more time in 2014 to reconnecting with many of you I haven’t been able to make such time for.
If you find yourself in the “it’s been too long” category, email, text, or private message me… Or, go really old school and pick up the phone. I’ll do my best to have my 2014 calendar ready!
in Christ,
Aarron Pina
Executive Director, Seasons of Life Ministries, That Day, Speak Life, The Uprising
by Aarron Pina | Nov 22, 2013 | ONE TH1NG, support
The Vision
For six years now, Cristine and I have been following God’s lead in “realigning lives with the Way, the Truth, and the Life of Jesus Christ.” We have a passion for building relationships with people and with God and for seeing believers in Christ transformed by the power of God and walking in obedience to Him.
Most of that work has been through one on one discipleship. Some of it has involved bringing food and other material needs to working poor families across five metro-Atlanta towns, some of that work has involved public speaking and performing our one man show “That Day”, and often it involves doing the administrative and fundraising work that comes with the territory of full time vocational ministry.
Enter, ONETHINGathon!
I’m writing this Friday, 11.22.2013. Tomorrow is the first time I’ll actually step out of running Seasons of Life Ministries and step into running for Seasons of Life Ministries. About 200 other men, women, and children will descend on Fowler Park on Carolene Way to walk, run, or roll for four local charities, including Seasons of Life. It’s called the ONETHINGathon. And, I’ll be running 5 miles… in the rain. Praise GOD!
For us, ONETHINGathon represents three things:
- An chance for many to come together to raise awareness & support for this ministry.
- An opportunity for people around us to rally people who aren’t around us around the vision, mission, and future of this ministry, without necessarily burdening our existing supporters with additional giving requests. Teamwork will make the dreamwork.
- A chance to watch God raise the funds needed to bring the ministry current on this year’s bills and get ahead of schedule on other expenses well into the 2nd quarter of next year without another dime spent on fundraising! WOW!
Channel WHO?!
Even more exciting, WSBTV Channel 2 has decided to do a story on 5 local events going on around Thanksgiving and the Christmas Season and the ONETHINGathon is one! The story will run around Christmas. So, keep your eyes on our Facebook page, Twitter feed, or here for details on when it runs!
Volunteers Needed:
- In person: We have plenty of volunteers already on the schedule, but will need more to help with the picnic, setup, and clean up. If you’d like to help in those areas, sign up at www.onethingathon.com to…DAY!
- Online: The most important thing about tomorrow is that people make the connection between the vision and mission of these 4 ministries and the financial need addressed tomorrow. The best way we’ve found to do that to share a five minute video with anyone and everyone you can that explains what the event is all about. It costs nothing to share the video, but a few seconds and a few clicks. So, I invite you to do this: share the video, invite people catch the vision, and if God leads you or them – support Seasons of Life or any of the other ministries online.
- In your shoes, NOTE: If you want to walk, run or roll with us, you’ll have to register as a walk on in person tomorrow as online registration is closed as of noon today.
Eat and Greet… And, GREAT!
There will be a picnic from 12 to 1PM at the pavilion at Fowler park – rain or shine, since it’s covered and mild (in the 60s by midday). Representatives from ONETH1NG for Men, ONETH1NG for Youth, PIER Foundation, and Seasons of Life Ministries will be in attendance. At 1PM, there will be a raffle that will include $50 gift certificates to Dick’s, Best Buy, dinner certificates to Cabernet, a flat screen TV and a Dale Murphy signed uniform.
We invite you to join us for any or all of the above, and wish you and your family a fantastic, safe, and grace filled Thanksgiving!
by Aarron Pina | Nov 18, 2013 | Christ, faith, Monday Morning Momentum, Peter
…”Put out into deep water,
and let down the nets for a catch.” (Luke 5.4b)
Sportman vs. Professional
If you fish for sport, you know your gear, the boat, the weather, and how to find the good spots and how to find a good spot when all the good spots are taken. If you fish for a living, you not only know where the good spots are, you also get there before anyone else does – it’s your livelihood, isn’t it?
Sound Advice:
What Jesus told Peter to do made no sense. It sounded “foolish”. A carpenter turned rabbi telling a fisherman what to do? Are you kidding? If anyone else had commanded him to do it, Peter would have rebuked them on four logical, well reasoned grounds. After all, he’s a trained professional.
- Availability: We’re not going to catch anything, because we’ve been out all night and have already caught nothing (which Peter reminds Jesus, anyway).
- Exhaustion: We’re not going to catch any fish because we’re exhausted – these aren’t butterfly nets we’re cleaning. They’re made from strong, heavy rope, made heavier by the weight of the water within them, and we’ve already labored all night to place them, pull them in, and clean them.
- Timing: We’re not going to catch anything when the daytime sun is high because the fish are all hiding in darker places.
- Location: We’re not going to catch anything in the deep waters because fish are caught where the water is just deep enough and not too deep.
Any logical, wise person would hear the counsel of this seasoned professional and intelligently decide not to ask him something so foolish. Yet, the Lord asks Peter to do something utterly counter-intuitive. Scarcity of fish, exhaustion, wrong timing, bad location.
Have you ever sensed the voice of God calling you to the wrong place, at the wrong time, when you’re discouraged and spent, and there’s no logical hope for accomplishing what He’s asking you to do?
Who am I?
I’m adventurous, with a moderate to high tolerance for risk. Right? I’m strong in my faith – after all, I’ve been called to “full time vocational ministry” for the past 6 years, right? I mean, I’m a trained professional, right?! I cheer on fisherman for a living! Uh, oh… You can see where we’re headed here, can’t you?
Yet, over the past month, I’ve heard God call me to cast my nets into the deep. When I look at my assets: high risk tolerance and previously held beliefs about the strength and depth of my faith, I’d normally say “sure, Lord. You say so, I’m in.” If it were someone else asking me what to do, I’d pull out my pom-poms and cheer them across the finish line: “You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you!!! Go, team, go!!!” But, this is different.
So, What’s the Problem?
But, this time… This time, I’ve heard God calling me to do something, trust Him with something so big, so dangerous, so counter-intuitive, that if He doesn’t swoop in with a miracle, dozens of people are going to be impacted negatively, including my family. This is deep water – not someone else’s life, calling, boat, or nets… Not only does my boat look too small, but my pom-poms feel like they’re 100 lbs a piece. When I realized the fisherman I’m to cheer on is me, God exposed the shallowness of my own faith when I, a mere man, began to weep and tell the sovereign of the universe: “I’m going to trust you in this, but you’d better come through!” Can you imagine such arrogance?
Yet, Peter wrestled with the soundness and depth of his own faith so much that when the Lord did what Peter expected could only fail, he was brought to his knees by his own lack of faith. “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man! (Luke 5:8)”
Prayer:
So, today, I ask your prayers – that I will trust God in the area He’s asking me to. That I will not rely on my own senses, wisdom, will, or nets, but on Him who calls me to the deep. That I will not be overwhelmed by the fear of men who would later say “why would you have done something so… foolish?” Today, I encourage you as always by allowing God’s faithfulness in my past afflictions and faults to overflow to you as a testament to what He might do in your current circumstance. But, this time, I’m doing it before the fact… With sweaty palms on heavy pom-poms.
Be encouraged: fisherman’s boat nearly sank with the catch… And, he later walked on water.
in Christ,
AP
by Aarron Pina | Nov 11, 2013 | abiding, Monday Morning Momentum, That Day, wisdom
Painful Lies
On October 26th, we staged our fourth local performance of a one man show called “That Day”, about a man who receives his rewards at the judgment seat of Christ as promised in 2 Cor. 5.10. As I listened to feedback from those who witnessed the performance and read through comment cards, I was struck by the number of times I heard people say “I realized tonight that I could be doing more for God.“
It was painful lie to hear.
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As “Dan Matthewson”, Aarron describes his experience
at the judgement seat of Christ in “That Day“. |
They weren’t lying – they sincerely want to do more for God. It was only painful to hear because most people have been brainwashed into thinking one of their greatest problems is that they’re not doing enough (at least in American culture).
The lie is: “You’re not doing enough.” The truth is, God is not the God of “enough”. God’s will for us is that we do His will for us. It’s not about doing all of the tasks on our list – it’s about doing only the things that God has ordained for us to do. The truth is often that we’re doing too much – that we’ve heaped extra things on our plate out of guilt or fear (guilty, and guilty as charged), things that are good, but not the things assigned to us in a particular season.
What Do You Call an Underachiever?
Most people would refer to that person as “lazy”. And, they’re probably right. But, someone who consistently does less than what is required is in violation of God’s order and commands, specifically whem it comes to the first command given in the garden – “take dominion”, but also references such as Col. 3.23. Ultimately, God calls underachieving sin.
What Do You Call an Overachiever?
The painful truth is, God doesn’t discriminate when it comes to eternal rewards – “I desire obedience, not sacrifice”. When someone does more than what’s called for, it’s often labeled “overachiever” or “zealous”. But, can we be honest? All time is spent doing something. If we’re spending it doing something God hasn’t called us to do, we’re using time He set aside for us to do something else He ordained for us to do. What does God call an overachiever? Same thing he calls all who do iniquity: wicked, sinner.
In Their Defense
I understood what the commenters were saying – most of the people at “That Day” had a massive epiphany while watching the show: that God is watching us, recording our every deed, word, and private thought. Even better than that, He’s not doing so to shame us, punish us, or squash us for being lowly worms. He’s promised us rewards. So, their desire to do more of the things God was calling them to do naturally increased. Good for them and glory to God.
“Right” vs. More
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God wants us to “do the right thing”… all the time.
This is abiding… Not sprinting on a never
ending treadmill. |
Ultimately, God desires us to walk in obedience, “by the Spirit”, in His ways, not to the left nor to the right, obeying all of His commands and statues, because they bring life. He wants us to “do the right thing”… all the time. This is abiding. This is total surrender, total obedience. Not sprinting on a never ending treadmill.
But, in a Genesis 3 world, we’re assured both that we’ll never do this perfectly and we’re not given license to stray from the path for “good reason”. There is no “good reason” for disobedience. It’s still disobedience. The litmus test for all of our actions is: “is this what God is calling me to do right now.” The pivotal matter is not that we do more, rather that we do more of the right things – not merely good things, but the things God has specifically ordained for us to do at this time.
May God teach us to use our time to do all He designed us to do, nothing more and othing less.
in Christ,
AP
