A collection of thoughts from my earliest years online. Healthy things grow. In leaving this anthology online, my hope is to document growth as well as to echo timeless truths. As you process these years of my life, please read with that proper perspective. We all grow and until we're with the Lord, we are all still growing.
9.28.2008
9.23.2008
Passionate Preaching
9.21.2008
A Day on the Farm!
9.19.2008
God's Plans Revealed In You
9.17.2008
A Pastor who gets 'IT'
9.16.2008
Genuine Article
There are other stories of scripture where people stepped out for the sake of the gospel and risked everything. They pressed forward using every ounce of their being to fulfill the yearning placed in their heart by their Creator. As a child longing to please his father we read of missionaries not wanting the spotlight and not complaining publicly when things didn't fall their way.
I love what Hebrews 11 says about those people of faith listed there... "...the world was not worthy of them."
For every 1 we read about in the bible or a book there are a hundred who's names are never known.
It is a rare thing in life to have the honor to actually meet someone whom you believe God would consider listing among the greats of Hebrews 11. I've been blessed to meet a few in my life. Tonight I spoke with one of them via Instant Message. This is what it's like to talk to someone whom I consider the 'Genuine Article Missionary'.
"I was leaving prayer meeting [and] police with guns drawn had someone on the ground, it's a gang WAR right now... people I love getting shot, stabbed...etc. I knew this would be hard, but this hard?"
These words were written by a Christian hero. These are the types of people whom I feel humbled to even know.
Not all of us are called to be in these situations moment by moment but after a dozen years of adult life in and around full-time Christian ministry... most of us fall woefully inadequate when it comes to doing everything we can for the glory of God. I place myself squarely in that category. I don't even believe it's intentional. I fear most of us have simply become consumed with good things... safe things... comfortable things... trivial things. Read the blogs, go to the conferences, buy the latest Christian merch... So much of it targets the same people discussing and debating the same topics. Our Heavenly Father looks down at us (most of us) and shakes his head.
Scripture is full of examples where it's the Father's pattern to seek out those who would follow Him with reckless abandon. Not ignorant abandon... but all-out God fearing abandon to the patterns of this world. Are we there? Are you there? Am I there?
I can't help but to think that while most of us (who have the vast majority of the resources in the Christian world at our fingertips) sit back down at our leather office chairs and begin to read blogs... there are people - our brothers and sisters- out there putting their lives at risk daily so that the message of Jesus can permeate a generation of people living in Satan's playground.
To my friend... I honor you. I pray your example awakens the rest of the Western Christian world. I pray it continues to awaken things in me I have not yet seen. I pray I'm always challenged to surrender more for His sake.
Thank you for your faithfulness. I see Jesus in you.
9.15.2008
Okay God... Let's Do This!
9.11.2008
How To Not Get Ripped Off
Growing up in a major city puts a person in contact with all types of people. You see thousands of people in any given day. You see these people in cars, in lines at stores, in fast food restaurants, in schools and in the neighborhood. When you live in a highly populated area you cannot help but to be in close quarters with LOTS of people. One of the things that occurs to a person living in and amongst LOTS of people is that you begin to develop a sixth sense about people and their behaviors.
9.10.2008
A Baptism Like No Other
4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men? 5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe–as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.
9 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. 10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds.11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.
Last night I experienced something I pray all Pastors would get to experience in their lifetime. We enjoyed a baptism service. Baptism is a powerful service in itself but it was the participants in this service that made the night so special.
As we retooled early this year we had some families end up at our parent church, Sonlight Church. What I was able to see last night was Paul's words in action. As I stood on the deck of the pool I had the opportunity to watch a baptism like no other:
The woman being baptized came into our church after I gave her husband an invite card in 2005!
The person baptising her was a man I challenged a few months later (July 2005) to quit chasing success in the corporate world for himself and start chasing after signifcance by introducing people to Jesus and living a Godly life at home.
The Church hosting this event was our parent church... the church where I served as Youth Pastor and the church that ultimately launched us out in the church plant.
It was certainly an amazing moment. The moment when I can sit back and celebrate "Father, thank you for allowing me to play a small role in your plan."
9.08.2008
Observations from a Parking Lot
The other day I observed a phenomenon that has always left me bewildered. As I got out of my car in a relatively empty parking lot I noticed a woman and her son pull into the Handicap parking space.
9.05.2008
Problems, Promises, Politics, Pastors and Parishioners
There are approximately 60 more days of this Presidential campaign. In the Christian world I've noticed a trend toward a collective sigh of relief. Now that both conventions are complete I thought I'd share a few thoughts I have about today's poltical/religious climate. The views below are more of an observation than a critique.