Sink or Faucet?

There’s been a couple of repeated posts going around the “blogosphere” that have really got me thinking about myself and ministry along with how we reach and impact the world around us through the College Life ministry here at Wildwood Community Church.

The post is this:

Are you a sink or facet Christian?

“Sink Christians” view salvation like they would a sink. The water of salvation flows into the sink so that Christians can soak up all the benefits: eternal life, assurance in the present, strength in times of trial. Those who adopt this mindset concentrate solely on what the Bible says God has done and will do for them.

“Faucet Christians” view salvation differently. They look at the world as the sink and themselves as the faucet. The blessings of salvation flow to them in order to flow through them out to the wider world. They rightly see that the Bible describes salvation as something that God not only does for them, but also through them.

Which one are you?

Filed under: Church, Reflection, Religous

“Everything’s amazing, nobody’s happy”

Always good to have some perspective!

more about ““Everything’s amazing, nobody’s happy”“, posted with vodpod

Filed under: Random, Reflection, Videos

Where’d the Voices Go?

I just came across a blog post HERE that I thought hit the ball out of the park.

It’s been interesting – for the last year and especially pre-Christmas it seemed like EVERYONE (churches, bono, GAP, Apple, etc) was jumping on social action issues such as Darfur, Uganda, AIDS, Clean Water, adoption, global poverty, etc…

But with the impending passing of one of the biggest stimulus packages ever to make its way through congress – where’d those voices go?

Michelle and I have always been a big supporter of the non-profit ONE. We’ve always thought they were stellar with how the strategically placed advertisements and got people involved – but where are they now?

Shouldn’t we be lobbying for parts of the stimulus package to go to benefit humanity?

I love the way Nick puts it as he writes:

“Why, as we’re about to spend $500 MILLION dollars on improvement projects to the National Institute of Health’s facilities is no one asking if that tremendous amount of money could be spent on cancer or AIDS research? Where are the urgent voices crying out for food and clean water for Africa when we’re about to spend $450 MILLION dollars so NASA can do climate modeling (a government agency that already receives money in the annual budget)? I guess we’ll be able to help them graph or map where their rain isn’t falling instead of actually giving them food or some kind of agricultural assistence. Where is the pleading for social justice as we’re about to spend $150 MILLION dollars on a museum instead of creating jobs or putting food in mouths and clothes on backs? ”

You can read the full post HERE

Filed under: Culture, Social Action, Social Justice

Fill us with the hope of glory.

O that God would come down even today

in the power of his Holy Spirit,

for the honor of his only Son,

and fill us with the hope of glory,

and break the bonds of wordliness

that bind the hands of love!

Amen.

- John Piper, “The Fruit of Hope: Love” – sermon, July 13, 1986

Filed under: Church, Reflection, Religous

Don’t quit!

Take The Hit

Failure isn’t final

losing isn’t fatal

if we don’t quit.

It is the pursuit

the drive

the consistent push

to not allow life to knock us down.

Keep getting up…

Keep driving forward

Don’t QUIT!

Filed under: Random

Sunday Morning Reflections

This past Sunday @ College Life we continued our series titled, “Prayers for You,” where all we are doing is looking at different prayers that the Apostle Paul prayed for believers throughout the New Testament.

This was week three, the other weeks can be found HERE and HERE.

The prayer we looked at came right out of Colossians chapter one.

Here’s what Paul is up against – two main heresies that are taking over the church at Colosia – you need something more than Christ and that God’s acceptance is based on something we do plus something Christ does.

How does this look for us today?

I think often times we find ourselves making deals with God – we want some kind of special revelation. We say something to the rhythm of, “I’ll commit my life to you or I will follow you if you just show me which door to walk through.” Or we go with the other heresy and say as long as I look this way, act this way, talk this way then I am good to go with God.

When in reality – the person of Christ is what the Apostle Paul counters both these heresies with in his prayer to the Colossians.

He says, you want to know what God’s will is? Then look at Christ – fix your eyes on Christ – be like Christ – follow what He did – make him your goal. That’s my will. He also says – that there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that you can do to gain acceptance from Him – Christ has done EVERYTHING. Therefore Paul says – fix your eyes on Christ! Step back in the awe of this beautiful miracle that has taken place for which we are now allowed to enter into a relationship with God the Father. Worship Christ because of that.

How does this practically look for us?

You don’t have to worry about God’s will so much. As long as you are focused on Christ, modeling your life after Him, desiring to honor and obey Him at every turn – Paul says move out – God has a path already planned out for you – fix your eyes on Christ and walk comfortably through decisions you have to make in this life.

Good stuff. Paul can pray.

Filed under: Sunday Morning Reflections

The Average Person…

Lies three times per ten minutes in conversation. At least that’s what an expert on the new Fox TV show called, “Lie to Me,” says. The show is based off of the studies of psychologist Paul Ekman who is the author of Telling Lies: Clues to Deciet in the Marketplace, Politics, and marriage” and who is also a renowned expert in emotions research and nonverbal communication.

The truth is lying has become one of those acceptable sins of the day. We feel free to lie as long as it doesn’t

hurt someone or at least that’s how most people live. Knowing this causes Christians to often fall victim to the game the world plays – I’ve fallen victim to it too!

I remember not too long ago Michelle and I were in the market for a used car. You know how the car game is – everyone is out to get everyone else, so I started playing the game too. At one dealer where we were trying to get a car at the lowest price – I flat out told the dealer that I had talked to a another dealer about a similar car down the street and he gave me this price – if you can beat it, I’ll buy your car. Sounds good right? Problem was – I hadn’t been down the street. I lied. Flat out lied to him. Granted – I had a ballpark figure of what the car was going for but that DOESN’T MATTER – I LIED.

The real problem came when he beat the price, we agreed, he walked away to get the papers ready, and God dropped several pounds of something on my heart. I knew it was wrong and I knew I had to fix it. So I did. The dealer came back, I told him I hadn’t talked to a guy down the street and I lied to him. I confessed to him striaght up – man to man. And this shock came across his face and he said, “Are you serious?” I said, “yep – I understand if you want to re-nogiatiate and I will probably buy the car anyways because of what I did.” The dealer said – nope – he would keep the price and he was just glad that someone “playing the game” was good enough to admit it. He said it showed character. Granted – character would have not been doing it in the first place. But…God was good.

Here’s the problem with lying – God really doesn’t view it as little things and He for sure doesn’t think it’s ok because it is socially acceptable.

Take a look at these versus:

“God can’t stomach liars; he loves the company of those who keep their word.”

“It’s only human to want to make a buck, but it’s better to be poor than a liar.”

God calls us to live a pure and blameless life through our relationship with Jesus Christ and because of that relationship we are able to navigate this world and make GOOD choices. One of those good choices is to tell the truth.

I hope and pray that the above stat is wrong but if it’s not – I pray that God would begin to convict our hearts to become a people who care more about honoring Him then keeping with the social norms of the day.

Filed under: Uncategorized

I want one of these!

I know I shouldn’t want one these new Amazon Kindles – but I do. And yes, I remember that one of my resolutions for this year was to spend less money and at $350 a pop that does not qualify as spending less money.

But here’s the thing. I love to read. I do – I have TONS of books. I have TONS of books in waiting to read.

So the question that should be asked is – how does the kindle help me read. That’s the thing – it doesn’t necessarily help me read – it just helps me read more at less cost. All the books are cheaper for the kindle. It has 3G connectivity – the purchases are always mine and backed up on amazon.com. I can still make notes, book mark pages, and underline sections. But – instead of carrying the three books that I am simultaneously reading in my backpack – I just have to carry this little guy. And – it’s environmentally friendly!

Come on – buy my rational!

The sad part is – I did the math. The average savings per book on kindle over print is $4 – that means I finally make up the cost on my 90th book. And 90 books at $9.99 is almost a grand of reading and that…well…is not spending less.

But it is cool to see where technology is headed.

You can find out more HERE

Filed under: Random

Interceding – Do What?

This past Wednesday some fellas and I were digging into Chapter 1 of 2 Timothy and came up against vs 3 where Paul talks about constantly remembering Timothy in his prayers.

We began having a conversation on prayer and intercession. Some questions arose such as what is intercession? How do we do it? Is it different than prayer?

All great questions as we sometimes need to take a step back and decipher some of that Christian lingo we throw around.

While I won’t get into all those questions, though I will potentially some other time, I was thinking – what would it look like to intercede weekly on behalf of Bruce, our senior teaching pastor here at Wildwood Community Church, or anyone for that matter?

Here’s what I came up with:

• An “intercessor” is a person who prays on behalf of another.
• No – you do not have to be “appointed” to be one.
• We are all called to pray.
• We should commit to praying scriptures over the person regularly. I truly believe there is nothing more powerful than God’s truth being spoken over their lives. For Bruce – I constantly pray that the words spoken come striaght from God’s heart and are “sharper than a double edged sword.”
• Pray continually for God’s wisdom, revelation, and knowledge to be poured out on them.
• Pray for their burdens or battles – but remember to be confidential. Don’t bring up someone’s personal and intimate details at your prayer meeting – intercede personally for them.
• Pray protection over them. I pray for protection over our staff and elders A LOT because I truly believe that we are prone to attacks. I pray that we would continually be putting on Ephesians 6.
• Listen to God intently. He can show you what to pray for so you can be offensive on their behalf. Spirit led prayer is powerful.
• Be determined in your prayers.

Those are just my thoughts – and granted – I’m sure there are more ways of doing it.

Filed under: Personal, Religous

Digital Segregation?

I’m not so sure what to think about this but apparently the new thing is “race” based browsers.

I just stumbled across the browser titled, “Blackbird,” which is branded exclusively for African Americans.

Here’s what the website says about the browser:

“Blackbird is the web browser for the African American community. Blackbird was developed by a team of African Americans to allow you to connect to what’s going on in the African American community”

Now granted, I understand that we naturally gravitate to our “niche” communities. We hang out with, socialize with, and essentially live life closest with people who are like us – I get it. And…I won’t lie – it bothers me A-LOT, but I get it.

However…

Just because that’s the natural flow of life – I’m not so sure that embracing segregation is the right answer either. I’ve always found it interesting that the big push is to desegregate but yet, especially online communities, we find more ways to continue segregating us then to desegregate us. Not only that but it’s sorta funny when people of different “niche” communities get mad at each other because the other community doesn’t understand them. No kidding – maybe its because you chose to segregate yourself.

I don’t know – but thought it was worth mentioning.

Filed under: Culture, Random

Sunday Morning Recap

This past Sunday @ College Life we continued our current series called, “Prayers for You.” All we are really doing in this series is taking a look at some of the prayers Paul prayed for churches and people in his letters and trying to take a step back and see how Paul is speaking these same truths, or better yet prayers, into our lives today.

You can see last weeks recap HERE.

This week we dug into Paul’s prayer for the church at Philippi as seen in Philippians 1:3-12

This is another one of those prayers that you don’t really have to know the context to see the earnestness of Paul and his passion to see believers grow in their relationships with Christ while enduring great turmoil.

But…

If you do know the context then this prayer becomes even bigger! Paul is simply writing and praying over this church because he is in jail and facing, what he believes to be execution, and this church is scared. They are uncertain of how they are going to go on without Paul, they are uncertain if they are going to end up in prison because of their connection to Paul, and they are just flat out scared. Can you blam’em?

So Paul writes. He writes into their context of fear because when fear and faith intersect – the outcome is usually doubt. We begin to doubt God’s calling, we begin to doubt the person and reality of Christ, we begin to doubt all that God has called us to be. Paul knows this and so he writes and prays over this church that their faith would not be snuffed out due to fear.

I have all kinds of fears. Fear of losing Michelle. Fear of being inadequate. Fear of wasting my life. Fear of how bad the recession will end up being – and I would be lying if I told you there weren’t doubts in the midst of those fears – so Paul writes and prays into the context of my fear.

Versus 3-9 are essentially Paul being motivational – he reminds them that they are in this together (vs5), that he is joyful that they are in this together (vs4), and to remember and have great faith that God will finish what he has begun in them – to continue to look towards eternity and not our present condition (vs 6).

But his prayer is amazing – his prayer to them and over them is in versus 9-11.

He prays that their love for Christ – their relational connectedness to the person of Christ would grow in such a way that they would gain wisdom and knowledge through their love for the person of Christ. He doesn’t tell them to go and gain wisdom and knowledge – he tells them – focus on the love relationship with Christ so that you will become wise and knowledgeable. But why? So that (vs10) we will be able to determine what is best.

Paul is essentially saying that in this world, this fallen world that we live in, we will be able to walk in such a way, to navigate ourselves in such a way that we would be free from sin and fears that keep us captive by determining what is best for us.

Paul tells us how in chapter 4, verse 8 and 9 – he tells us to dwell on these things.

The truth is I don’t dwell on these things. And…my life would be very different if I did. Why don’t I? Because I get caught up in the every day flow of life. I hate that. So how can I push against that and into God?

I’m realizing that I need the gospel every day. I’ve started each morning over the last couple of weeks by simply thanking God for the gospel of Jesus Christ – that I am able to now be in a relationship with him that carries with it HUGE IMPLICATIONS for eternity. And I’ve become thankful, and grateful, and focused. I’ve found myself being more selfless, being more caring, and preaching the gospel more – simply by focusing and be thankful daily.

I don’t presume to know if this will work for you but I know that Paul knows it’s possible because he prays it for the Philippians – and – believe it or not – he prays it for you too…

Filed under: Bible Journey, Sunday Morning Reflections

Bible Journey.

Today…well…today was a rough day in the word. God smacked me around a bit, I repented a bit, I prayed A LOT, and I know that God will continue to transform and shape me into the man He truly desires me to be – and for that I am so thankful that I have His Word as a guide.

Here’s my journal entry today, verses are taken from 2 Timothy in The Voice:

“Be empowered by the grace that is in Jesus”

“Be ready to suffer with me.”

“Spend time with my words, and let the Lord give you clarity on all of it.”

“Do everything to present yourself to God as a man who is fully genuine, a worker unashamed of your mission, a guide capable of leading others along the correct path as defined by the word.”

“Everyone who envokes the name of the Lord ought to stop doing what they know to be wrong.”

“Run away from youthful desires. Instead, direct your passion to choosing righteousness, faithfulness, love, and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord with pure hearts.”

Here were my prayers based on the above:

Father, Christ, and Spirit – these verses are flat out convicting when compared to my current life. Help me to be prepared to suffer, help me know that suffering produces character and to glorify you in the midst of suffering. Help me to continually be reminded of your love and righteousness and to love your Word and make my home in it.

I pray that you would help me to change and be shaped by these verses – help me to continually be looking into eternity

Help me to be unashamed at the calling you have placed on my life to live as Christ to a fallen world – help me grab hold of every opportunity to share the gospel of hope and salvation!

Help me to realize that youthful thoughts need redirection and help me to redirect them to righteousness, faithfulness, love and peace

Good stuff this morning – I hope it encourages you too!

Filed under: Bible Journey

Top 10 Lists…

This is actually a delayed post as so many top 10 posts were going around at the end and beginning of the year – I sat on this one so that you could be refreshed with another one after the dust settled.

I have to admit – I CAN’T get away from this site – all kinds of top 10 lists going down from Times Online – you should check it out.

It can be found HERE

Filed under: Random

Back of the Napkin Book Review

One of my new years resolutions was to read more and to interact / write / share what books I’m digging and what books are leaving me a little unsatisfied – so here’s a start with the first book I have finished in the new year.

I just finished up Dan Roam’s best selling book, The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures and while I was REALLY intrigued with how to utilize this book – I was left with more questions than answers.

I picked up this book because I am always looking for ways to better communicate ideas both in small and large groups. I got to thinking – with my generation being primarily visual in most things we do – I thought this might be a great place to start.

The premise of the book is that a simple diagram (on the back of a napkin) can explain complex ideas and that essentially EVERYONE is able to think and understand visually because it’s what we do all the time.

A large portion on the front end of this book was spent convincing those who think this method won’t work or

those that are convinced that they can’t draw that it will and that they can. While I think this section of the book IS needed as Roam is really trying to reach the business community but I would guess that the majority of those picking up this book have already decided that they want to communicate visually and need help learning how – like me. So I was a little disappointed at the amount of space used here.

On the positive side – once Roam made it to the section on communicating ideas / meetings / presentations – I did pick up a couple of good tools – like his S.Q.V.I.D. tool whose initials stand for Simple, Quality, Vision, Individual, Change which is essentially a tool that helps you decide which diagrammatic approach is best suited to working through and / or presenting a problem. I actually jotted some notes down for future uses in future meetings from these chapters.

By the end of the book – you have been shown a solid process that helps you begin to think visually when approaching problem solving, finding, explaining – the trick is now how to institute it. I have no doubt that Dan Roam can take this process and make it work for just about anything – the only down side is he wasn’t available to read the book through with me. I could have used his help at times to narrate me through different portions of the book and linking his words with his pictures – sometimes I got a bit lost / confused.

All in all – it’s a great starter book on beginning to think visually. It helps you understand that all things can be explained through pictures, you don’t have to be Van Gough to do it, and that you could potentially have a lot of fun in the process.

Filed under: Book Review

Sunday Morning Reflections

Not gonna lie (as if lying is what I normally do) I am flat out LOVING College Life on Sunday mornings! I love getting to hang with students, dive into the word together, worship together, hang during the large services together, eat afterwards – it’s just a blast. Loving it. If you haven’t tried it – you should – a lot of connections and relationships being made and built – if you haven’t caught it I LOVE THAT KIND OF STUFF!

This past Sunday we kicked off our new series called, “Prayers for You.” All we are really doing is taking a look at Paul’s prayers to believers throughout his letters – realizing that they are prayers for us as well, imagining what it would look like to be the answer to these prayers, and then hearing my heart for us by taking Paul’s prayer and making it my own for you, for me, for us.

This past Sunday we looked at Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21.

The prayer itself is enough to knock you off your rocker but the context of why he is praying it makes this prayer UNBELIEVABLE.

This prayer comes after Paul lays out that the mystery of the Gospel is that God, through Christ, has made a new humanity – a humanity of both Jew and Gentile. CRAZY! You just don’t mix the two – hard for us to understand but you don’t.

While we don’t struggle with the whole Jew and Gentile issue anymore – we do struggle with the issue of superiority – the issue of this church is better than that church or this ministry is better than that ministry. But Paul calls us to be unified. To be THE CHURCH all together – not a church.

This has dramatically changed the way I think! It allows me to rejoice when other ministries blow up because God is doing something AMAZING in THE CHURCH not a church – I can be excited and not critical – it’s actually REALLY freeing.

What would it look like for churches to start getting excited about other churches – for churches to begin to partner and do things resource wise that never could have happened with just one of the churches trying to go at it alone? What would it look like if we all began to think about THE CHURCH and not a church or our church?

I’m thinking things would change and it would be CRAZY good! I’m just sayin…

But before we can grab hold of these partnerships – Paul calls us to love – not just love together but a love of Christ and it is through this love that we begin to understand each other.

I came across a section in a book I’m reading that does a great job of talking about this love that Paul speaks of in his prayer:

“I would ask you again to be humbly honest with yourself as you are reading. If I sat with you and I listened to recording of the last month of your words, whose kingdom, what kingdom, would I conclude those words are spoken to serve? Would it be the kingdom of self with its self-focused demandingness, expectancy, and entitlement? Would I hear a person who is quick to criticize, quick to judge, quick to slam, and quick to condemn, because people are always violating the laws of your kingdom? Is the greatest moral offense in your life an offense that someone makes against the laws of your kingdom? When this happens do you use words as a punishment or as a weapon? Do you use words to rein this person back into loyal service of the purposes of your kingdom of one?

Or would I hear you using words of love, honestly, encouragement, and service because your heart is taken up with the big-sky purposes of the kingdom of God. The entire law is summarized by a single command. If you had written that, what would you have written next? I probably would have written, “Love God above all else.” But that is clearly not what Paul writes. He writes, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Why is that an adequate summary of all that God calls me to? Oh, it is important to get this truth. It is only when I love God above all else that I will ever love my neighbor as myself. It’s only when God is in the rightful place in my life that I will treat you with the love that I have received from him. Brothers and sisters, hear this. You don’t fix language problems, you don’t fix communication problems, and you don’t fix word problems horizontally first; you first fix them vertically.”

How are you loving your neighbor? How do you think about THE CHURCH? Great challenges from Paul’s prayer. I would challenge you to read it with me this week and let it permeate our souls!

Filed under: Sunday Morning Reflections