For those of you that don’t know, one of my blog posts was featured on theResurgence.com yesterday.  I was approached a few months ago to see if they could use the article on their site and they posted it yesterday.  I have to say that I am truly humbled that they would ask me and actually post it.  It’s crazy to see my post on the same blog of author’s like Dave Craft, Ed Stetzer, Justin Holcomb, Winfield Bevins, Mark Driscoll, Jonathan Dobson, and Charles Spurgeon.  These guys have been a huge blessing in my life, and I am in awe that I would be published by their side.

Thanks to Mike Anderson and Jordan Buckley for asking and for all you hard work at theResurgence.com.  You and your team do amazing work, and it’s a true blessing to me personally.  If you’re not subscribed to theResurgence.com, you need to go there right now and check out all their stuff.  Once again thanks.

We live in a world where those with the most authority do the least amount of work.  Those with the power don’t serve others.  They are the ones that are served.  It is the American dream to gain enough power and wealth that you never have to work again.

Jesus showed us that in the kingdom of heaven it is quite the opposite.  The all-powerful God became a human being and served us by dying on the cross.  Jesus is the perfect example of leading by example.  He constantly served those around himself.  While his disciples were arguing about who is the greatest, Jesus healed countless people, fed thousands, and humbly washed the dirty feet of those that were fighting for ranking in the kingdom of heaven.

A true Christian isn’t noted by their pious self-righteousness but by their humble servanthood.   It is through service that we walk in the same steps that Jesus did when he was here on earth.  Through a kinetic learning experience of serving, we grow in our understanding of God’s heart for the lost and hurting people of this world. Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a discipline of service.

Tip #1: Aggressively look for places to serve.  For those of you raised with a strong work ethic engrained in your brains, this won’t be much of an issue.  The rest of us need to constantly seek places to serve.  This is both in the church and out of the church.  Seek ways to serve fellow Christians, but also seek to serve those in your community and at work.  If you ever catch yourself saying, “I wish someone would…” You need to take it upon yourself to be that someone.

Tip #2: Seek a change of heart.  1 Corinthians 13 says that if we do anything without love, it is pointless.  If you have a heart that is begrudging towards service, seek God to change your heart.  Jesus wasn’t reluctant in his service.  It was his joy to serve.  Seek God to give you a heart that takes deep joy in serving those around you.

Tip #3: Use your stuff to serve others.  Everything that we have in our lives is a gift from God.  Therefore we should see our stuff as a gift from God not just for us but also for those around us.  Serve those around you by sharing your stuff with them.  Open your house to share meals with friends and family and host events.  Use the yard tools you have to care for and maintain more than just your yard.  Give people rides in your car.  If you have two of something, give one away.  Develop yourself to see the stuff you have as being used more than just for you but for those around you.

Tip #4: Serve first and ask questions later.  Just like generosity, our tendency is to ask the question “Why?” Why should I serve those around me?  How is this going to develop my relationship with Jesus?  The reality of it is that these questions can’t truly be answered on paper. You can read countless Bible verses. You could hear stories from people’s lives. You could hear hundreds of hours of sermons about Jesus humbling himself as a servant. But you won’t get it. You won’t get it until you mow your elderly neighbor’s yard without them asking or paying you. You won’t get it until you pick up trash in your neighborhood without anybody asking you.  You won’t get it until you serve in your church’s nursery. If you decide that you aren’t going to serve until you fully understand why, you’ll never serve. The reality is you need to serve first and then ask questions, because by serving you’ll find the answers.

After understanding that everything we do is worship, you will begin to see that one of the biggest idols in your life is stuff.  More than likely, you are a worshipper of stuff.  Your car, house, computer, iPod, phone, television, paycheck, books, yard, clothes, furniture, bike, music instrument, and movie collection all hold a higher place in your life than God.  You spend more time focusing on them than Him.

At heart, we are very selfish and greedy.  This is in direct contrast to God the Father who gave us His Son and the Son who gave up His life for us.  If we want to grow closer in our understanding of God, we need to become generous people.  We need to have the mindset that God is more important than stuff.

Here is the amazing thing.  You can use your stuff to worship God.  Your stuff is really God’s stuff and He can do with it whatever He wants.  When you invest your stuff in the kingdom of God, you start to put God before your stuff.  By being generous with your stuff, you are aligning your heart with the heart of God.  Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a discipline of being generous with God’s stuff.

Tip #1: Make it a priority. You’re not going to be generous until you make it a priority.   For example, when I was in college, I had a moment of enlightenment. I was a poor college student, and I went out to eat with a group guys. At the end of the meal, an older gentleman in the group paid for the meal. I remember telling him how I wish I could do the same thing. He responded with the kindest of words: “If you aren’t generous when you have nothing, then you won’t be generous when you have everything.”  You have to make being generous a priority in your life. There are too many other shiny things that will take center stage if you don’t. Make it a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly task to look for ways to be more generous in your life.

Tip #2: Have a budget. 
You won’t know what to give until you know what you have. This works for both your money and your time. For your money, you should have a budget for every month. This takes away the excuse of saying, “I just don’t have any money to give.” You don’t have money to be generous with because you don’t plan.  Most people will tell you that when you first started budgeting, it was like you get a raise.  When you start budgeting, you are finally able to plan. You are able to make your money work for you instead of the opposite.
 You also need to budget your time. Some of us don’t serve others because we never have any extra time. Here is a tip…there is no such thing as “extra” time. There are 24 hours in a day and that is all you have. Just like your paycheck only has a set amount of money, your life only has a set amount of time. You have to budget your time wisely so you’re able to serve those around you.

Tip #3: Give first. This has two implications. You can take the idea of biblical “first fruits.” This was the commandment given by God that you should give the first of everything that you receive (animals, harvest, children, etc.) to God. The top line of your budget should have a line for a certain percentage of your money that you want to give away. When you get paid you should automatically take that percentage of money out of your check to give away.  If you’re a member of a church, it should go to your church. No questions. No ifs, ands, or buts. Just do it. Then budget the rest to live off of. If you don’t do this, you’ll just make excuses and never be generous with the money you have. This will teach you to be generous. The other implication is if you have the option to serve someone or to do something else with the “free” time in your life, serve. Give of yourself first. Generosity now has the priority. So skip watching TV and go do a generous act.

Tip #4: Have a separate checking account. This is a little trick that my wife and I learned when we weren’t part of a local church for a while. We didn’t have a place that we could write a check to for a weekly tithe. So we opened up another checking account and we transferred a percentage of our paychecks into the account every time we got paid. Then we knew we could use this account to be generous whenever the opportunity presented itself without having to worry about whether we were using money that was needed to pay the bills. When we became members of a church, we started giving our tithe to them. We still transfer the money into the account so we don’t get it mixed up with the rest of the money we have, but we enjoyed having the freedom of the extra checking account so much that we transfer an additional amount of money into it every month so we can be generous when the Holy Spirit presents us with opportunities.

Tip #5: Give first and ask questions later. Now this might sound like you’re to give money to anyone on the street who asks you for it, but this is different. What this means is that we have the tendency to ask the question “Why?” Why should I be generous with my time and money? The reality of it is that you can’t understand the answer to that question until you start being generous. You could read scripture. You could hear stories from other people’s lives. You could see a vision of heaven coming to earth. But you won’t get it. You won’t get it until you take a homeless guy across the street to Arby’s for lunch. You won’t get it until you mow your elderly neighbor’s yard without them asking or paying you. You won’t get it until you help your wife’s single-mother-coworker pay her rent. You won’t get it until you pay for lunch for you and your friends, knowing that you might not be able to eat dinner. If you decide that you aren’t going to be generous until you understand why, you’ll never be generous. The reality is you need to give first and then ask questions, because by giving you’ll find a lot of the answers.

Jesus continuously worshiped God the Father.  Depending on your background, the word worship could have a lot of baggage with it.  Some view worship as a meeting time once a week.  Some view worship as a music genre.  Some view worship as doing a set of prayers/chants/mantras.  Some view worship as singing some songs.

While all of these are forms of worship, they all fall short of a full understanding of what worship is.  Worship at its core is giving value to something or someone.  In his book Unceasing Worship, Harold M. Best defines worship better by saying that, “worship is the continuous outpouring of all that I am, all that I do and all that I can ever become in light of a chosen or choosing god.”[i]

Human beings are worshipers.  Everything we do, says, think, or feel is an act of worship.  At the heart of everything we do is giving value to someone or something. We are born worshiping and we never stop. The only thing that changes is what we worship.  God is the only one worthy of worship.  God’s original design was for us to continuously worship Him, but sin entered the world and we started worshiping lesser things.  We started to worship created things (ourselves generally being at the top of the list).  We started to worship idols.[ii]

The reality is that at the heart of all sin is an issue with worship.  Romans 1:24-25 puts it this way, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”[iii] Because of sin, instead of continuously worshiping God, we continuously worship created things.  Because of sin, we have had no desire to ever give glory to God.

Now that we are being made into the image of Christ, we are able to glorify God with our lives once again.  Jesus used everything in his life to worship God.  He is the only person to perfectly worship God, and through the power of the Holy Spirit we can do the same. Instead of worshiping money, we can use money to worship God.  Instead of worshiping our jobs, we can use our jobs to worship God. Instead worshiping our families, we can use our families to worship God.  Instead of worshiping all of our stuff, we can use our stuff to worship God.  In Jesus, we have been freed to worship God.  Spend this week focusing on how you are called to worship God with all your life.

[ii] An idol is anything that we worship that isn’t God.

[iii] (ESV)

We finally closed on our new house last Thursday and moved in on Saturday. I wish I could say things have been all sunshine and lollipops, but I can’t. This is the ninth time Shannon and I have moved since we’ve known each other. I have to say in general moving sucks.

We closed a week later than we planned. So we only had 48 hours to try to get the house ready for move in.
The walls are half painted (literally the top half).
The paint sprayer caused more of a mess than help (user error).
Due to a busy schedule, we didn’t have the house completely packed when friends showed up to move us.
Due to a misscommunication, we don’t have the gas hooked up. So we don’t have a heater or hot water or a way to cook food or a way to clean Asa’s bottles.
All our stuff is in boxes and we can’t unpack until we’re done painting.
We don’t have Internet (so I’m writting this on my phone).
We don’t have cable (I would have to find the reciever anyways).
And Shannon and I think we’re coming down with a cold.
MOVING SUCKS!

But God is better than all this. He has constantly provided for us throughout this move and given us peace beyond what we could have imagine.

He provided friends to help us move (close to like 20+ people).
He provided heat for our house (wood burning stove and a stack of wood).
He provided the refrigerator of my wive’s dreams in our price range (clearance baby!).
He has provided strength and rest for me as I’ve been doing 20 hour days.
He has provided grace and forgiveness for me as I’ve been cranky and a jerk.
He has provided food.
He has provided us with a new place to call home.
He has provided us a new neighborhood to minister in.
He has provided.

Moving might suck, but God is good.

photo by: laffy4k

So I realized today that I haven’t given a baby update in awhile.  So here is your update.  We are currently four weeks from our due date of June 1st.  I have to say that there are elivated levels of excitement and fear.

It’s kind of crazy to think that we are about to be parents.  In no time at all, I’m going to be losing sleep and changing diapers.  But I’m also going to get to use all the cool stuff that we’ve gotten for the kid.

We have the nursery pretty much ready to go (we still have to get a few minor items) thanks to two baby showers that were thrown for us.  I’ve been having fun the last few weeks/days setting things up.  I even have the car seat base already in the car. I know…I’m a nerd.

It’s also been fun getting to feel Asa move.  He is already in posistion (head down) and has been really active.  It’s crazy to watch Shannon’s stomach rise and fall.  And from what we’ve noticed of his activity, we are going to have a night baby (he takes after his daddy).  So, it looks like I’ve got a lot of late nights in the near future.

Speaking of the near future.  Don’t forget to put in your guess for when our bundle of joy is going to enter this world.

Well that is pretty much it in baby world.  We’re just getting ready here on the home front.  Preparing the nursery and taking birthing classes.

Here is one question for all the parents out there.  What was one thing that you think every new parent should have that they don’t typically get beforehand?

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:

Here and Here