by Aarron Pina | May 27, 2016 | Uncategorized
After New Year and Back to School season, summer is the most popular “reset” time of year. Who wants to be out of shape, behind the curve, or overwhelmed when “beach” is such a viable option? Heck, the words “summer” and “reading” practically go hand in hand, right? Summer is the perfect time to course correct on a few squandered New Year’s resolutions, especially catching up on lost bible reading or sharpening some otherwise dull iron!
I sent emails, texts and phone calls out to leaders all across the country. A good number have yet to get back to me, but the fastest to their phones were Boyd Bailey, John Woodall, and Joel Thomas. For this reason, I’ll let them go first with their top current reads and recommendations.
Boyd Bailey – Founder, Ministry Ventures; President, Georgia National Christian Foundation; Founder & Author, Wisdom Hunters
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by Aarron Pina | May 6, 2016 | Uncategorized
Three time Olympian Matt Emmons has won over 50 medals in his career.
Whether you’re a worker bee or an elite, Olympic athlete, vision matters. But, so does execution.
True story: Athens, Greece. August, 2004. Matt Emmons, a 23 year old kid from New Jersey, was hot on the trail of his second gold medal. It was down to the last round in the 50 Meter Rifle 3 Positions he had a solid, 3 point lead. Get near the bull’s-eye, scoring 8 points and the gold would be his. The place got really quiet, Matt exhaled himself into position, and took aim.
Associated Press gives us the story:
“Matt Emmons was focusing on staying calm…
Emmons fired at the target…
‘On that shot, I was just worrying about calming myself down and just breaking a good shot… When I shot the shot, everything felt fine,’ Emmons said… [but] no score appeared, he gestured to officials that he thought there was some sort of error with his target.
‘On those targets, sometimes every once in a great while, it won’t register. The shot just doesn’t show up, so that’s what I thought happened.’
A perfect score — dead center in a bull’s-eye that is smaller than a dime — is worth 10.9 in the final round, but all Emmons needed was an 8.0 for gold. His shot …was an 8.1, but it didn’t count, of course. Because the right placement on the wrong target is worth 0 points. [italics & bold mine]”
Ever hit the right mark on the wrong target? (more…)
by Aarron Pina | Mar 3, 2016 | Uncategorized
That Day is an amazing, modern day parable about a man who comes before Christ to receive rewards for what he did with his life. (This is the “believer’s judgment” or “bema” as opposed to the “White Throne” judgment.)
The most poignant response I get from people who have seen this story is this: “I didn’t really have such a clear picture of what eternal rewards could look like.” Suddenly, they’ve magnified this simple truth: “I am called and accountable.” The next question that typically comes up is – “now, how do I minimize my losses and maximize the gains for Christ?”
Clean Slate is where we help tease out those ideas and bring clear, biblical thinking to bear on the day to day “to do” along the way. www.zeroinbox.org
This April, we’re excited to present two That Day performances at Greater Heights Baptist Church, here in West Forsyth, on Saturday, April 16th at 7PM and the Sunday morning 11AM service on the 17th. Following that, we will be presenting our Clean Slate – Gospel Driven Productivity workshop for staff and volunteers at the church. With some favor from God and GHBC, we may have room for a few invite only guests. Inbox me for details!
In the meantime, SAVE THE DATE, register for free seats, and keep us in prayer!
I look forward to seeing you on That Day!
AP
by Aarron Pina | Mar 3, 2016 | Uncategorized
Last year, Seasons of Life Ministries celebrated 8 years as a public ministry. We faced some of the toughest work in many years: many marriages in great distress, conflicts within regarding short term application of the long term vision, and financial challenges that made us wonder if 2016 would see us walking away from this mission altogether.
In September, we sought outside counsel from an impartial roundtable of “prayed up” believers. Cristine and I presented the ministry’s predicament with all the brutal facts of its then current reality, including the painful 25-30% funding status. Their unanimous responses:
- You two are exhausted.
- You’ve been faithful with what you’ve been given.
- It’s time to bless your family with a steady paycheck.
So, we followed their counsel, sending out Aarron’s resume, interviewing, praying, listening, waiting on God to use someone or some company to bring clarity and peace. Instead, we received a job offer that created nothing but turmoil when it was discussed. We’re so smart it only took us two weeks to figure out it was not only not a God opportunity, it wasn’t even a good opportunity. In the midst of this, we got an invite to present That Day at a church here in Alpharetta. By November, we had presented the best performance yet of our best script yet to a sold out crowd of nearly 300!!! Amazing!
Following this, Aarron picked up some part time work at a local store a mere few minutes away from home and we moved forward as prayerfully and patiently as possible, discipling a limited book of clients, shifting most of them to virtual meetings, reaching out to a very small handful of couples still in distress, and waiting for God’s next move.
In the meantime, we’ve seen a handful of men and women that were in troubled marriages actually walk out the biblical advice we were able to cover with them and appear to be rebuilding their marriages God’s way. Others will still need a whole lot more prayer, because this kind of turnaround doesn’t happen overnight.
After a review of the books at year end, we discovered the numbers we’d given the September roundtable were way off… By year end, God had used dozens of people, families, etc. to fund this ministry to well over 80% of its need. Armed with that information, Aarron began reaching out to his network of contacts with a much clearer vision of what God may be doing with this ministry:
“leading men, women, and couples to overcome barriers to intimacy with Christ”; this time, with greater alignment between vision and strategy.
In a nutshell, we hope with God’s help, to:
- engage the eyes and ears our broadest audiences with our shorter, “That Day” script;
- translate those to hearts and minds with our Clean Slate (Gospel Driven Productivity Workshop);
- encourage hands and feet through one on one discipleship and coaching from there.
Cool News!!!
To that end, we begin a pair of That Day performances on April 16th and 17th that will lead to a three week Clean Slate Workshop series at Greater Heights Baptist Church, here in Cumming. To join us at either, go to www.thatday.info.
We’ll need all available help to make this happen; so, if you feel like you’re particularly gifted with marketing, social media, or just good-old-fashioned prayer, we’d love to invite you to be part of our street team. To lend a heart, hand, or lips, send email to volunteer@seasonsoflifeministries.org. If your gift is giving, we’d like you to know the most challenging months for this ministry are typically May, June, August, and November. So, if you’re a strategic giver – join us anytime, but keep those specific times in mind and prayer. This month, I’d encourage you to pray God keeps us on track with all we have ahead and that He raises up 3 new regular monthly supporters at $50 and $100 each.
Keep our Stay in the Word community in prayer, as well. Though we haven’t been wildly promoting the app, we’re approaching 50-100 users between IOS and Android combined. If you don’t yet have the app, check out what the buzz is all about!
As always, thanks for your prayers, “shares”, and encouragement!
in Christ,
Aarron & Cristine Pina
by Aarron Pina | Jan 12, 2016 | Uncategorized
How Do YOU Hear from God?
God gave us the bible so that we may know Him more completely, hear from His wisdom, and come to saving faith in Christ. The bible also self proclaims itself “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that” you and I may be equipped for every good work. (see 2 Tim 3:16-17)
As a self proclaimed Charismatic Calvinist, I believe the gifts of prophecy and hearing from God audibly are in effect even today. However, I also believe that these gifts must be tested against scripture for veracity.
If we are to demolish not only strongholds, but also “every high and lofty idea that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” and take thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ), then it logically follows that when we hear about a mystical experience someone has had with God we have a responsibility to weigh that experience against what God says about Himself in His revealed word. The word is our plumb line.
Why Am I So Bent Out of Shape?
I just watched the video below. If you care to save yourself a 3 minutes of cringing, I’ll cut to the chase: there is a popular version of the gospel that promises not only health and wealth, but is used to justify the lavish lifestyles of the many who preach it. Prosperity gospel is no gospel at all. The Good News Christ came to proclaim was about eternal prosperity (salvation from sins) not riches and material blessings merely in this life.
As you listen to supposed men of God tell you what God told them, the first place any Christian who believes in sola scriptura needs to go is STRAIGHT to the word to make sure such revelation LINES UP with the truth… Go ahead, watch the video and you’ll understand why I’m steaming mad. Then, ask yourself: would the God of all compassion tempt any of us with material prosperity by asking us if we think He’s limited in His ability to give you temporal wealth?
NO. Jesse Duplantis claims God asked him if he thought God couldn’t deliver more than just a jet; challenging the power of God as if God were limited in His ability to bless. Now, this is a fair challenge, but there are two paths you can go down – the same one Satan tried to get Jesus to go down in his tempting and the one Jesus went down when He rightly used the word of God to straighten out the Liar and Accuser of the brethren. The question in question is: “is God limited in His ability to bless us?”
Limiting God?
Is God limited? Yes: an omniscient God can never learn anything new. Amen? He can never be surprised. Amen? He cannot lie nor sin. Amen? God is limited by His own attributes and must be, or He would cease to be God.
Better… His generosity with worldly wealth IS limited by His love, kindness, and WISDOM – just read James 4:2-3. If you don’t have material prosperity, it’s not because God can’t be trusted or you think God is so small or you haven’t “claimed it” in Jesus’ name. Sometimes in His wisdom and patience, God withholds material prosperity because He knows, all to well, that the more we have, the easier we can be tempted to use it for our good and factor Him out. The more wealth we have, the more self-sufficient we can become. God built us to rely on Him, surrender to Him, and trust in Him, not our stuff.
Understanding God
God inspired, preserved, and protected the original manuscripts in order that we may know Him, not merely about Him, better. Biblical literacy is crucial in an age when so many have not only an understanding of what the scriptures do say, but also what they want them to say. Test all wisdom against the criteria in James 3:17. If it passes that muster, move forward to other passages and test it further. Be on your guard, saints. There are many false preachers preaching this garbage and more yet to come in this dark age. Lift up the sword of the Spirit (the word of God) and send the devil packing.
After New Year and Back to School season, summer is the most popular “reset” time of year. Who wants to be out of shape, behind the curve, or overwhelmed when “beach” is such a viable option? Heck, the words “summer” and “reading” practically go hand in hand, right? Summer is the perfect time to course correct on a few squandered New Year’s resolutions, especially catching up on lost bible reading or sharpening some otherwise dull iron!
Boyd Bailey – Founder, Ministry Ventures; President, Georgia National Christian Foundation; Founder & Author, Wisdom Hunters