Religion/Spirituality
Baby Update
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Waiting for a Miracle…
I’ve been reading through C.J. Mahaney’s book Humility with my friend Alf and it has been really good. We both decided that we needed to cultivate a little humility (ok a lot) in our lives. This book has been transformational. C.J.’s insights have opened my eyes to really see how much pride is really in my life.
In the last chapter we read, C.J. wrote about looking for God’s works of a grace in our lives and those that are around us. He talked about how Paul was able to see good things in the church at Corinth even though they were more screwed up than a peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwich (my illustration not his). He talked about how only a truly humble person can see the work’s of grace in those that are messed up.
This hit really hard to home for me. I have to admit that I’m a pretty critical person. I’m not very big at looking for the grace in others lives and definitely not in my own life. I’m usually the first person to find faults and then exploit them through veil of sarcasm.
This hit home the other night after church when I was getting a few drinks with my friends at the Copper Lounge. We were all praying for my friend Carl (yes in a bar…and the waitress said it was beautiful) and Carl in turn started to pray for all of us at the table (he’s a great guy like that). He started praying about the miracle that was about to happen in my life and thanking God for the every day miracles in our lives.
It struck me at that moment that God is about to work a miracle in Shannon’s and my life. We’ve been in a little bit of denial that we are going to actually have a kid, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to happen (place you bet here 
). This entire time of Shannon’s pregnancy and the upcoming birth I have been blind to the grace that God has been working in our lives. I have been blind to the miracle that is about happen.
God’s grace is blatantly obvious and I have been blatantly cold to what He is doing. I haven’t been aware of the way that He has sustained us during this time. How He has given us strength. How He has given us rest. How He has provided. How He has been there with us every step of the way and how He will be with us to the end. My eyes have been blind, but now I see (that’s kinda catchy…someone should write a song).
It’s funny how even though we don’t acknowledge God’s grace He still decides to work in our lives. But now that I’m able to see the miracle that is at hand, I have a new sense of excitement that has come over me. I’m waiting for a miracle and that my friends is going to be great thing to see.
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How to say grace…
I’m normally not one that likes to say a long prayer before eating my meal…but I aspire to say grace like this man does.
Now all I need to do is find a good gospel band to come to my house every night….anybody know of any?
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Why is the grass always greener on the other side?
photo by: orangeacid
It’s kinda become a tradition of sorts now with a few friends of mine. After church on Wednesday nights, we all go to a local bar and get a drink. We talk about sports (well they do and I listen), theology, politics, popular figures of our day, life experiences and the sort. It is one of the highlights of my week. It’s just a great time to hang out with friends and relax.
Last night my friend Donovan made a really profound statement about life.
You know why the grass is always greener on the other side?! Because they water it.
It struck a chord with me. There are so many times in my life that I look at my friends lives and wish I had what they have. I wish that had their job. I wish that I had their car. I wish that I had their __________. You get the idea.
The reality in life is this. We could go move into our neighbor’s house and have their nice green lawn. But it will eventually turn brown. Because there was an original reason why their grass was greener than mine. They watered and cared for it. They pulled the weeds out. They mowed it on a regular basis. They put down fertilizer. They were patient and waited for the results to show.
If we want to have greener grass in our lives, the answer isn’t to move into our neighbor’s house. The answer is to start taking care of our own lawn. So take some time today to water your lawn and pull a few weeds. Cause the only way your lawn is going to get greener is if you start focusing on it and stop staring at your neighbors.
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Tech Wednesday - wethechurch.org
I’m sorry for the lack of posts here lately. I’ve been pretty swamped with work and other activities. So please forgive me. I’ll try to get back in the grove of things in the next few days.
I did however want to take a quick break and share with you a new site that twitter friend of mine came out with called WetheChuch.org. This is a really cool idea that you should go check out. It is basically a prayer wall where you can share your prayer requests/praises and pray for others that need prayer. I really love the idea and it can become addictive watching prayers go up and praying for them.
So take a few minutes out of your day and go check out WetheChurch.org.
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Love your neighbor…get to know your local strippers.
I love what this ministry is doing. They are shining the light of Jesus in the darkest of places. These women (yeah I would say this is a calling for women only…unless the guys want to go to the gay strip-club) are going into strip-clubs and giving the strippers gift baskets to show them the love of Jesus. How awesome it that?!
I say we start to change this world with the love of Jesus one strip-club at a time.
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Why I think being “organic” is stupid?
For those of you that know me, I’m a pretty cynical guy. I try my best to not be that way on this blog, but I decided that I had speak out about this one.
For awhile now I’ve noticed the concept of being “organic” has been creeping into the church. It’s become a buzz word. Whole ministries and churches are changing everything they do to be more “organic.” I even have a book on my shelf called Organic Church. But I’m coming out and saying publicly that I think being organic is stupid. I know I’m probably going to get some flack for this, but I don’t care. It’s just stupid. Let me tell you why.
Yesterday I was at a church meeting for the leaders of the small groups in our church (we call them Neighborhoods…it sound edgy and vague ). For some reason, the word organic kept coming up.
We wanted our groups to form “organically.” We wanted to be “organic” yet intentional. It was like everyone was getting payed $5 every time they used the word organic. I was expecting someone to start marketing an Organic Pyramid Scheme at any moment.
Now I like the concept that they were trying to get across. That we shouldn’t be forcing relationship to happen in our church, but we also shouldn’t be sitting on our butts just hoping that relationships will happen.
My problem is with the fact that we were attributing so much power to “organic.” Who the hell is organic and when did he/she/it start leading the church?! The last time I check that was Jesus’ job.
We aren’t lead by some impersonal force:
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. - Jeremiah 29:11
Life, relationships, and groups don’t come about by some impersonal force:
In him we live and move and have our being - Acts 17:28
So I’ll say it again, attributing anything to this impersonal force called “organic” is just stupid. So if you are a church leader, please stop referring to organic as the leader of anything. Give glory where glory is due and trust in the true leader of the church. His name is Jesus and He’s a much better leader than organic.
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This is Awesome!
Kinetic Church in Charlotte, NC had a trailer stolen that had 75% of everything the church owned in it. Ok it’s not awesome that they got 75% of their stuff stolen, but it is awesome in how they responded. They posted this video on youtube and also put up some billboards around town to try to get in contact with the thief. They know the ultimate reason why they had the stuff in the first place. I have to give the guys at Kinetic Church some mad props. For what they did, I don’t know if I could have done the same thing.
Check out some other stories on the same event:
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26 Tips for Spending time with God…Hardcore Style
photo by: JasonRogers
If you’re like me, you have trouble spending time with God (I don’t like to use the words quiet time…it makes me feel like I’m five and in a “time out”). I’ve written in the past on some tips and tricks that I use to do this daily. But just like in a marriage relationship, sometimes you just need to spend more than a few minutes with your spouse. You need to spend the whole day. I call this spending time with God hardcore style.
I learned this concept from Doug Fields a few years ago. He talked about one of his youth saying that they “take God on a date.” Now taking God on a date is a little creepy for me, but I liked the concept. The idea is to just spend some extended time with God and nobody else.
To do this, I normally take an afternoon and spend the entire time reading scripture, praying, walking, reading some more, praying some more, and walking some more. The idea is to have a large chunk of time that is devoted to nothing but growing closer to God. This isn’t time to study your Bible and parse Greek verbs…this is time to just be with your Creator, Savior, and Sustainer.
The following are 26 quick tips that can help you with your hardcore time with God.
- Get out of your house. There are to many distractions there. To many things to play with.
- Get away from people.
- Go to a park or go hiking. Go be in His creation.
- Wear comfortable clothing.
- Turn off everything…phone, pager, radio, ipod, laptop, ect. If it has an on/off, make it off.
- Look for God in everything and then give Him the glory.
- Take your Bible (ESV ), a pen, and something to write on.
- Anytime you think about something that you need to do when you get home, write it down and forget about it. This will allow you to focus on your time with God. (this is a good practice in general)
- Take a list of prayer requests and things/people you want to pray for.
- Have an agenda/time line.
- Don’t have an agenda/time line.
- Pray, pray, pray
- Take a snack and some cash.
- Take some water.
- Tell one person where you are going to be in case of emergencies (your wife goes into labor). This helps to keep your thoughts from being overtaken.
- Read through a whole book of the Bible several times.
- Read through a passage of scripture several times.
- Read all the gospels in one sitting (it can be done in an afternoon).
- Fast
- Eat
- Just walk and talk to God as if He was walking right next to you.
- Take a short nap (it’s better to sleep for 20 minutes than to fight it for 3 hrs).
- Write out your prayers to God.
- Pray for God to reveal sin in your life that is keeping you from Him.
- Take some time to sit and listen to God.
- Be diligent to focus on God and your relationship.
Well I hope that helps. I’m off to go spend some hardcore time with God. Leave me a comment, with any tips that you might have for spending hardcore time with God.
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Seriously! Someone screwed up on this one.
Ok so Los posted this video of the American Idol contestants singing “Shout to the Lord!” Now there is something seriously wrong with this. I’m not against them singing a worship song. I’m glad that they changed the lyrics back to say Jesus. They did a really good job singing it. The song even has a special place in my heart, but that that is where they went wrong.
This song is special to me because my youth group sang it at camp when I was a sophomore in high school. So that means that this song is on the cutting edge of 90’s Christian music (which we all know was like the cutting edge of 60’s secular music). So now the one of the world’s top rated shows just showed how Christianity is so in touch with today’s culture (sarcasm). I just think American Idol could have picked something a little better…but oh well. That’s just my opinion. What’s yours?
They even do the Choir Side Step Dance!!!!
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