Ok so I'm going to try and organize this blog thing and mix it up a bit. So far my blog has read like a Sunday School devotional and while there's nothing wrong with that, I need a little diversity in my life.
Mondays are officially renamed. Who needs another Monday? No one that's who. But who couldn't use an extra dose of Funday?! That's what I'm talking about! (ok so that's about as cheesy as it gets. I know, but it's my blog so deal.)
From now on every Monday will be Monday Funday. I'll scoured the the interweb for things that tweak my fancy and make me lol or rotflol or lmbo. Then I'll post a link and you can all rotflol with me.
I have to start with this link: http://stuffchristianslike.net/2010/09/3728/
Stuff Christians Like has to be one of the funnest blogs in existence. Who else would be brave enough to take on hard hitting topics like "Getting abandoned by your worship leader" and "deep v-neck syndrome"?
Need a little "Funday" in your Monday? SCL has you covered like a crew neck at the Catalyst Conference.
One question for you though: Whats your "go to" worship move?
Me, I prefer the "Statue of Liberty" Bow your head with an intense look on your face and raise a fist to the sky, then bob your head with the bass drum beat. Has a rock show feel with out being over the top. ; )
Happy Funday!
Monday, September 27, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
A wordle of my devotions today...
I've been hanging out in Luke 4 for a few days now. And when Mark Batterson cued me in to wordle.com I had to try it!
Wordle takes any text you enter and makes a word cloud out of it. They put words that are repeated in a larger font. You can see the points of emphasis in such a unique way, and it looks very cool!
Try your favorite chapter and if you can post it so we can see what it looks like!
So here is my wordle of Luke 4:
Wordle takes any text you enter and makes a word cloud out of it. They put words that are repeated in a larger font. You can see the points of emphasis in such a unique way, and it looks very cool!
Try your favorite chapter and if you can post it so we can see what it looks like!
So here is my wordle of Luke 4:
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Ain't no vally low enough
Some short thoughts on Luke 4… Part 1.
I’m going to do something a bit different here. Instead of writing a few paragraphs about what I’m learning, I’m going to throw out some bullet points about thing that jumped out at me and let you come to some of your own conclusions. I’ll add more about the following verses to this as the days go by. Let me know how you see God applying this stuff in your life.
Luke 4: The Temptation of Jesus
1. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert,
-The Spirit led Jesus into a desert. How often to we mistake our desert seasons for a work of the enemy and try to avoid them rather than asking God: “What are you trying to teach me during this time?”
-We learn more in struggle than in success. Learning to live Godly in the dry seasons teaches us that God is trust worthy; He will come through for you as you follow Him. You’ll never truly understand that God is enough until He really is all that you have.
-The desert seasons often follow great spiritual moments. Expect it. Prepare your heart for it.
-The desert seasons are not always punishments for wrong living. Often they are a testing and a completion of what God gave you in the spiritually intimate season you just walked out of. Trust in the night what you learned in the light.
-Often when God seems to pull back is when we tend to realize our need for Him and press in. Absence make the heart grow fonder, but only when we persue a commitment to love in the (seeming) absence of our loved one's presence. Do we love Him enough to love Him faithfully even when we don't seem to "feel" His love?
My Thoughts:
It’s nice having a safety harness as you climb. But my guess is you’ll never truly climb with out fear until you’ve fallen and that safety harness catches you. You can know in your head all the details about the strength of that harness but you won’t full trust it until you’ve been caught a few times.
I think we are like that with Christ. Most Christians can talk about their faith in Christ. The question is what do we do when he say’s “Let go, trust me.” How do we react when He seems to pull the blessing back and we walk a season of living with seemingly nothing more than the memories of the things He did. No emotional reward to our worship. No physical reward to our sacrifice. No substance to feed our hunger.
Do we shrink back? Do we question His love? Do compromise our faithfulness in response to our questions about His?
Or do we trust. Do we endure. Do we seek Him all the more diligently. Reality is, he said he would never leave us or forsake us. He never said we wouldn’t feel forsaken, but feelings are a poor judge of spiritual realities. Our deserts aren’t always a lack of God in our life, but often our greatest opportunities to show our trust in Him.
Have you ever been through a desert season? What did you learn? What brought you through? What happened in you life as result?
I’m going to do something a bit different here. Instead of writing a few paragraphs about what I’m learning, I’m going to throw out some bullet points about thing that jumped out at me and let you come to some of your own conclusions. I’ll add more about the following verses to this as the days go by. Let me know how you see God applying this stuff in your life.
Luke 4: The Temptation of Jesus
1. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert,
-The Spirit led Jesus into a desert. How often to we mistake our desert seasons for a work of the enemy and try to avoid them rather than asking God: “What are you trying to teach me during this time?”
-We learn more in struggle than in success. Learning to live Godly in the dry seasons teaches us that God is trust worthy; He will come through for you as you follow Him. You’ll never truly understand that God is enough until He really is all that you have.
-The desert seasons often follow great spiritual moments. Expect it. Prepare your heart for it.
-The desert seasons are not always punishments for wrong living. Often they are a testing and a completion of what God gave you in the spiritually intimate season you just walked out of. Trust in the night what you learned in the light.
-Often when God seems to pull back is when we tend to realize our need for Him and press in. Absence make the heart grow fonder, but only when we persue a commitment to love in the (seeming) absence of our loved one's presence. Do we love Him enough to love Him faithfully even when we don't seem to "feel" His love?
My Thoughts:
It’s nice having a safety harness as you climb. But my guess is you’ll never truly climb with out fear until you’ve fallen and that safety harness catches you. You can know in your head all the details about the strength of that harness but you won’t full trust it until you’ve been caught a few times.
I think we are like that with Christ. Most Christians can talk about their faith in Christ. The question is what do we do when he say’s “Let go, trust me.” How do we react when He seems to pull the blessing back and we walk a season of living with seemingly nothing more than the memories of the things He did. No emotional reward to our worship. No physical reward to our sacrifice. No substance to feed our hunger.
Do we shrink back? Do we question His love? Do compromise our faithfulness in response to our questions about His?
Or do we trust. Do we endure. Do we seek Him all the more diligently. Reality is, he said he would never leave us or forsake us. He never said we wouldn’t feel forsaken, but feelings are a poor judge of spiritual realities. Our deserts aren’t always a lack of God in our life, but often our greatest opportunities to show our trust in Him.
Have you ever been through a desert season? What did you learn? What brought you through? What happened in you life as result?
Monday, August 23, 2010
You got a problem with that?
Last night was an interesting night. We had a Launch Team meeting and my goal was to lead our team through a discussion to discover a deeper understanding of the core values that are going to drive the formation of this new church.
Sounds easy enough right? Right, except I did a lousy job of communicating precisely what I was looking for and as a result the night was full of uncertainly, tangents, questions and not nearly as much productivity as I was hoping for. Now it would be easy to chalk that up as a lost night and get frustrated. But even as I lay in bed last night trying to rethink how I present this mission to our team I was encouraged.
One of my values as a leader is a team that is willing to speak their heart and minds. Community is stronger when you can be unified even in the middle of disagreement. If my team see's things different than me I want them to have the freedom to speak up. Unity does not equal conformity. In fact unity in the midst of diversity is a key to true loving community.
This seemed to be a theme in my life yesterday.
In the morning I visited Eagle Creek church in Lee's Summit (great church by the way.) And one of the key verses was Proverbs 27:6 "Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses"
A bit later Rick Warren tweeted this thought: "An unhealthy climate on a church staff is likely caused by being afraid to say the last 10% of difficult truth to each other" I think that's true for all of our relationships.
Do you value people who disagree with you? So you search out friends who are willing to "wound" you when you need it? Are you willing to be a friend to says the last 10% in a loving way. Or do you start a fight every time someone starts a discussion? Do you run every time someone disagrees?
When iron sharpens iron there are always sparks, get used to it. You should thank God for those who challenge your thoughts and opinions.
And if you have a problem with that... great!
Sounds easy enough right? Right, except I did a lousy job of communicating precisely what I was looking for and as a result the night was full of uncertainly, tangents, questions and not nearly as much productivity as I was hoping for. Now it would be easy to chalk that up as a lost night and get frustrated. But even as I lay in bed last night trying to rethink how I present this mission to our team I was encouraged.
One of my values as a leader is a team that is willing to speak their heart and minds. Community is stronger when you can be unified even in the middle of disagreement. If my team see's things different than me I want them to have the freedom to speak up. Unity does not equal conformity. In fact unity in the midst of diversity is a key to true loving community.
This seemed to be a theme in my life yesterday.
In the morning I visited Eagle Creek church in Lee's Summit (great church by the way.) And one of the key verses was Proverbs 27:6 "Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses"
A bit later Rick Warren tweeted this thought: "An unhealthy climate on a church staff is likely caused by being afraid to say the last 10% of difficult truth to each other" I think that's true for all of our relationships.
Do you value people who disagree with you? So you search out friends who are willing to "wound" you when you need it? Are you willing to be a friend to says the last 10% in a loving way. Or do you start a fight every time someone starts a discussion? Do you run every time someone disagrees?
When iron sharpens iron there are always sparks, get used to it. You should thank God for those who challenge your thoughts and opinions.
And if you have a problem with that... great!
Monday, August 9, 2010
A mystical, magical, spiritual, knee-buckling moment
Whew.
What a week! This is one of the most amazing seasons of our Christina and I's lives. (is "I's" a word? English majors help a brother out!)
Last Wednesday I pulled in to my usual spot at the Roasterie and quickly called Christina (who had at that point been in the hospital on bed rest for about a month and a half) just to touch base before I settled in for a productive day in my favorite Brookside coffee shop.
After a quick "How's it going, I love you, see you later" I hung up and took a minute in my car to pray for the coming day. As I gathered my stuff, my phone rang and my life changed. "We're having babies in two hours." My brain went into Keanu Reeves mode and all I could think was "Whoa..."
Ok... and there goes my plans for the day. But wow, what a day it turned out to be! I drove to the hospital and by 1:00 Levi and Judah had arrived.
Anyone who's had a kid knows the indescribable feeling of seeing a life brought into the world. Birth is a mystical, magical, spiritual, knee-buckling moment. Hearing a babies first cry, seeing them wide eyed and watching you just moments after entering the world is fantastic. Knowing that so much of their experience and success in this life falls on your shoulders is an heavy, beautiful burden to bear.
As a Christ follower I do my best to look at my world and my experiences through His eyes. As I think about a new birth I think about how amazing it is that Christ choose that moment as an analogy for our spiritual encounter with Him. In John 3 Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and tells him that in order to see, understand and be a part of God's kingdom one much be "born again".
When we "get saved" or become "Christian" it's not simple a change of viewpoint, or a reconfiguration of our priorities. It's a birth. It's a "new creation" ( 2 Corinthians 5:17). What was is no longer, and what will be is a road waiting to be discovered. Spiritual life has just begun.
It's a mystical, magical, spiritual, knee-buckling moment when a person comes to faith in Christ. Are you ready for that moment? Are you ready to start over, this time with a Father who loves you more than you could ever know? Maybe you know someone who needs a re-birth, a fresh start, a new life? Take a moment pray for them. God just might want to use you to bring His hope to them. Be bold, the opportunity to share life you've discovered in Christ is worth the risk.
Lord help me see new birth in your kingdom. Bring people into my life that I can love in your name. Give me the boldness and opportunity to share your good news, because it is the power of God that saves (that brings new life to) your prodigal kids.
What a week! This is one of the most amazing seasons of our Christina and I's lives. (is "I's" a word? English majors help a brother out!)
Last Wednesday I pulled in to my usual spot at the Roasterie and quickly called Christina (who had at that point been in the hospital on bed rest for about a month and a half) just to touch base before I settled in for a productive day in my favorite Brookside coffee shop.
After a quick "How's it going, I love you, see you later" I hung up and took a minute in my car to pray for the coming day. As I gathered my stuff, my phone rang and my life changed. "We're having babies in two hours." My brain went into Keanu Reeves mode and all I could think was "Whoa..."
Ok... and there goes my plans for the day. But wow, what a day it turned out to be! I drove to the hospital and by 1:00 Levi and Judah had arrived.
Anyone who's had a kid knows the indescribable feeling of seeing a life brought into the world. Birth is a mystical, magical, spiritual, knee-buckling moment. Hearing a babies first cry, seeing them wide eyed and watching you just moments after entering the world is fantastic. Knowing that so much of their experience and success in this life falls on your shoulders is an heavy, beautiful burden to bear.
As a Christ follower I do my best to look at my world and my experiences through His eyes. As I think about a new birth I think about how amazing it is that Christ choose that moment as an analogy for our spiritual encounter with Him. In John 3 Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and tells him that in order to see, understand and be a part of God's kingdom one much be "born again".
When we "get saved" or become "Christian" it's not simple a change of viewpoint, or a reconfiguration of our priorities. It's a birth. It's a "new creation" ( 2 Corinthians 5:17). What was is no longer, and what will be is a road waiting to be discovered. Spiritual life has just begun.
It's a mystical, magical, spiritual, knee-buckling moment when a person comes to faith in Christ. Are you ready for that moment? Are you ready to start over, this time with a Father who loves you more than you could ever know? Maybe you know someone who needs a re-birth, a fresh start, a new life? Take a moment pray for them. God just might want to use you to bring His hope to them. Be bold, the opportunity to share life you've discovered in Christ is worth the risk.
Lord help me see new birth in your kingdom. Bring people into my life that I can love in your name. Give me the boldness and opportunity to share your good news, because it is the power of God that saves (that brings new life to) your prodigal kids.
Monday, July 26, 2010
a two year olds tackles and the meaning of life.
It is so good to be home. After an amazing week in Orlando at the church planting bootcamp I was more than ready to come home again.
If you travel much you know the feeling. And maybe like me you've been a bit suprised by the little things that you miss when you're gone.
I have a theory that what we value is better revealed through what we miss than what we desire. Let me explain:
When I'm home going through my everyday life the things I often spend much of my energy on are not nessissiarly the things I miss most when I leave.
The things I miss most I think actually reveal what I most value. For the good or the bad. I missed getting my head squished under a dog pile while hearing Dante yell "tackle!" in the manliest little 2 year old voice you ever heard. I miss Justus half awake, crawling into my lap in the mornings and knowing that he feels like he's in the safest, most comfortable place in that world at that moment. I miss the random conversations Christina and I have as we lay in bed trying to fall asleep after whirlwind days. (And yes, I do absolutely freak out when my iphone doesn't have good enough signal to get online...)
What do you miss most when your gone? For me remembering what I miss most allows me to focus on what I value most when I have it. I forget how mortal I am. I forget how fleeting the time I have is. I need reminders that refocus me on the things that deserve my focus.
What do you miss most when you leave home? Does what you value most get the best of you on a daily basis? Or do we spend so much energy maintaining the peripheral that the essentials get the leftovers?
If you travel much you know the feeling. And maybe like me you've been a bit suprised by the little things that you miss when you're gone.
I have a theory that what we value is better revealed through what we miss than what we desire. Let me explain:
When I'm home going through my everyday life the things I often spend much of my energy on are not nessissiarly the things I miss most when I leave.
The things I miss most I think actually reveal what I most value. For the good or the bad. I missed getting my head squished under a dog pile while hearing Dante yell "tackle!" in the manliest little 2 year old voice you ever heard. I miss Justus half awake, crawling into my lap in the mornings and knowing that he feels like he's in the safest, most comfortable place in that world at that moment. I miss the random conversations Christina and I have as we lay in bed trying to fall asleep after whirlwind days. (And yes, I do absolutely freak out when my iphone doesn't have good enough signal to get online...)
What do you miss most when your gone? For me remembering what I miss most allows me to focus on what I value most when I have it. I forget how mortal I am. I forget how fleeting the time I have is. I need reminders that refocus me on the things that deserve my focus.
What do you miss most when you leave home? Does what you value most get the best of you on a daily basis? Or do we spend so much energy maintaining the peripheral that the essentials get the leftovers?
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
When Plans Change.
Plans don't alway go as planned. Having no plan is a plan for going nowhere, but the best plans plan for the unplanned. Clear as mud? Good, welcome to my life!
I had a chance to go "home" to Michigan and speak at their Junior High camp last week. (It was amazing. but more on that later.) We'd been planning this trip for months and as I was opening the trunk of the van to load the packed bags my wife called and informed me that the Dr was putting her on bed rest effective immediately. Plans had changed.
Funny how life does that.
Proverbs 16:9 says it like this: In their hearts people plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.
Earlier in verse 3 it says that if we commit to the Lord whatever we do, that He will establish our plans.
I think it works a bit like this: "God I'm going to seek you as I make my plans, then I'm going to trust you when life doesn't go according to my plan."
We seek His wisdom on the front end and trust His provision on the back end. I didn't plan on leaving my bed ridden wife and two year old son behind as my three year old and I drove 711 miles and 4 states away. But we sought God, did our best to trust His provision and worked out tails off to tweak our plans and do what we felt He was calling us to do.
I have a feeling that's not the last time I'll have to do that.
And this time everything turned out just fine. Christina is still sitting in that hospital bed, a bit bored but otherwise doing well. God moved in amazing ways at camp and I was able to be a part of some amazing moments with students from all over Michigan.
Now I'm sitting in a coffee shop making more plans. Plans for flying to FL for a church planting bootcamp, plans for taking care of my boys while their mom is on bedrest, plans for all the random details of this church plant and plans for several other things that are happening right now.
But this time I'm holding a bit more loosely to those plans. I'm keenly aware that at a moments notice every plan I've made could change. It's a bit unnerving and a bit freeing at the same time. I'll commit these plans to God, but in the end "The Lord establishes my steps." I may not understand everything, but I'll do my best with what I know, and trust Him with what I don't.
That's the plan anyway.
I had a chance to go "home" to Michigan and speak at their Junior High camp last week. (It was amazing. but more on that later.) We'd been planning this trip for months and as I was opening the trunk of the van to load the packed bags my wife called and informed me that the Dr was putting her on bed rest effective immediately. Plans had changed.
Funny how life does that.
Proverbs 16:9 says it like this: In their hearts people plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.
Earlier in verse 3 it says that if we commit to the Lord whatever we do, that He will establish our plans.
I think it works a bit like this: "God I'm going to seek you as I make my plans, then I'm going to trust you when life doesn't go according to my plan."
We seek His wisdom on the front end and trust His provision on the back end. I didn't plan on leaving my bed ridden wife and two year old son behind as my three year old and I drove 711 miles and 4 states away. But we sought God, did our best to trust His provision and worked out tails off to tweak our plans and do what we felt He was calling us to do.
I have a feeling that's not the last time I'll have to do that.
And this time everything turned out just fine. Christina is still sitting in that hospital bed, a bit bored but otherwise doing well. God moved in amazing ways at camp and I was able to be a part of some amazing moments with students from all over Michigan.
Now I'm sitting in a coffee shop making more plans. Plans for flying to FL for a church planting bootcamp, plans for taking care of my boys while their mom is on bedrest, plans for all the random details of this church plant and plans for several other things that are happening right now.
But this time I'm holding a bit more loosely to those plans. I'm keenly aware that at a moments notice every plan I've made could change. It's a bit unnerving and a bit freeing at the same time. I'll commit these plans to God, but in the end "The Lord establishes my steps." I may not understand everything, but I'll do my best with what I know, and trust Him with what I don't.
That's the plan anyway.
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