3 Books

I have been reading three books for awhile now. One I started around a year ago, another 6 months and the other it seems like forever.

These three books give me a firm basis for what I am wanting to do in life. I have a heart for a young, dying generation in my city and want to reach them(Unchristian), I am constantly wanting to communicate more effectively (Communicating for a Change), and of course I need something to talk about (The Bible).

There are millions of books out that are filled with thought provoking, challenging, creative, inspirational, interesting words, but it is good to focus on your strengths instead of being spread too thin. I highly recommend these books if you have passions that are similar.

How to save a life

How do you save a life? There are many ways to look at it. You could save a life by rescuing someone from drowning. Giving good advice, could save someones life from a life of strife. How do Christians save lives? How do we rescue people? The song "How to save a life" by The Fray, was a theme song for Greys Anatomy for a little while. Of course they are doctors literally saving lives.

Can Christ followers literally rescue a dying generation? Is it possible to drive down the road to a drug store, build a conversation and a relationship with someone and "lead them to Christ"? Is it really possible? What do you think? And if yes, what is stopping us today? What is stopping me?

My kid is famous: Kylie and Jesus

It seems as if my kid is famous. We went to Wal Mart and picked up a few things. It was just me and Kylie, hanging out. It seemed like everyone stopped and smiled and said "Aren't you just cute". The guy helping us with our electronic needs at the Mart was making some weird "Habuchie Whoochie" noise. It was kind of annoying. Even a van in the parking lot stopped and said something.

What attracts someone that much to a 17 month old child? I think one thing is that she is pure, real and innocent. OK this may be a bad parallel, but what attracted people to Jesus? I think we can say He was pure, real and innocent too(among many other things). With Kylie what you see is what you get: A cute kid that says funny things, that is being herself. What about Jesus? He is a real man, doing amazing things and "the crowd" as put in scripture was attracted to Him.

Application: I need to be like Jesus and my daughter; be pure, real and innocent.

Predestination vs. Free Will

Let us rephrase the always controversial statement to predestination and free will opposeed to verses. Even from the start when we put the statement as "Predestination vs. Free Will", it implies someone is right/wrong, or better or worst. Is it our goal to divide the word of God? No. I encourage you to always phrase this statement as predestination and freewill instead of verses. Anyway, here are my thoughts:

Predestination and free will: God is Sovereign; follow Him.

Family

Hanging with the family.

Great day... free laptop.

I have always seen people running around with their bags with their laptops in them. I always thought the idea of carrying a computer around with you was a good idea, but could not come up with $1,000+/-. Well today all of that has changed. My mom called me out of nowhere and asked if I wanted a laptop. A brand new one at that. Obviously I said yes. Praise God! New, free laptop.

Bring your best every time by Steven Furtick

From time to time when I hear a blog that is really good for me, I like to share it. Here is Pastor Steven Furtick (28year old pastor) in Charlotte, NC.

Someone paid me a meaningful compliment recently:
“I’ve noticed that you give your very best every time you’re preaching…whether there are 5 people in the audience or 5000.”

It meant a lot that he noticed that, because it’s a practice I’m very intentional about. It’s a part of my theology:
God deserves my very best every single time.
Since He’s my only true audience in ministry, I’m always playing to a packed house. Every show is sold out.

I can’t think of a more sure fire way to attract the power of God in your life and ministry than to bring your best to every single encounter. Every single experience. Every sermon you preach, every song you sing, every diaper you change, every lawn you mow…God is always worthy of your most worthy offering.
And Jesus gives assurance that your heavenly Father, who sees what is done in secret, also knows how to reward you openly-when you bring Him your very best…every single time. (Matthew 6:2-6).

family and future

It is nice to get away and just spend time with family. WE went to Atlanta and spent time with family. Our niece Halle had her first birthday, so we were able to see her plow her hands into some cake. It was nice. It is good to be back and to get back into the swing of things once again.

My hearts desire is to reach the people of Chattanooga with the gospel and to equip the saints of Christ for good works. I look forward to our Evolve service that is in the works for this August. I pray that things would work out and that the service would be helpful to our city and bring glory to our God.

Can Chattanooga turn to Christ?

I bought the God of this City CD and have been praying for Chattanooga for this past week. I drive from my house (in the Hamilton Place area) to downtown in the mornings to drop the exchange students off at Notre Dame High School. On the drive their and back I listen to the CD and feel like I came out of an awesome worship service when I get out of the car.

Can God really save our city? Everyone has heard of the schools and how bad they are. We hear of shootings downtown about every other night. Can God really redeem Chattanooga. I really believe so. I think that it takes prayer and concern for people. If we took all of the true Christ followers in Chattanooga and just loved people daily and showed the love and care of Christ, this city would change. Study Matthew and see how Jesus always loved and had compassion for the crowds.

Join me in praying for our city.

Back in the swing of things... kinda

Well I started back to work yesterday. It felt good to get back into the swing of things...kinda. I t may take me a week to really get back into action. It feels weird getting off for a week.

I got a friend of mine Bryant coming to speak at the youth group tonight. I am pumped about that. I was obviously not able to study much last week with the baby.

Quick devo: "Go to God in time of need" I am continuing my study in Matthew and am in chapter 26. He is praying right before he is betrayed an he goes to God three different times to pray about the same thing. That is pretty cool to note, because sometimes we will cry out to God and then leave our prayer time and try to fix things ourselves, instead of going back to God over and over again.

Out of the flow

I've been out of the flow of blogging the last few days. Actually I have been out of the flow of a lot of things this last week with the birth of Abigail. I am refreshed and energized to get back to work tomorrow. I have had a great time with my family and friends this past week. I am pumped that Faith is doing a whole lot better with this baby. Look forward to tomorrow.

New baby and new Deck

Some new stuff happening around my house. We have family staying for a week, a new baby girl and a new porch. My family started building us a back deck when we went to the hospital. I got to join in and put a days work in today and a little last night. God has totally blessed us with family and friends.

I just finished eating some chicken casserole, green beans and some freaking awesome pastry stuff. I ate a twinkie looking thing probably filled with 1200 calories. It was great though. A family from our church brought dinner tonight. I love church and I love food.

Well now I am daddy squared. That's right a daddy of 2 girls. I love it. Kylie says, "Hey baby" a lot and is saying "Abigale" a lot, but sometimes it sounds like "Abidale". I will give her a break, she's not even one and a half yet.

Baby is here

Abigail Hope is here! She weighed 7lbs 11oz and 20 inches long. She is a beautiful creation of God. I will have pics up soon. We have family in town and church friends bringing us food for a few weeks; life is good.

Mowing my grass

What a topic huh? "Mowing my Grass". You start to wander why people read blogs when we put up titles like "Mowing my Grass". Well, who said anyone is reading this blog anyway? Ha!

I love to think about God being a God of order. From the way He puts our bodies and minds together to the order or the universe and atmosphere. Things are neat and in place with God.

We as human beings love order as well. Do we do it well? That is another question. There is something about unmowed (not a word, at least spell check said so) grass and a messy yard that doesn't look good, or looks like "white trash" as my wife says. It's weird because although it is messy, something in us still doesn't always want to clean it up, or in this case mow it up, but once we do it we feel good and things seem to be in order. That's it. I'm finished. Nothing too deep, just go and mow your grass and I'll mow mine and together we will not look like "white trash".

Jesus didn't play

When speaking of the Pharisees, Sadducee's, religious leaders and whoever else possibly came to disprove Jesus, he did not play around. As I continue my study of Matthew and see how Jesus related to people, I see how he had compassion and loved the crowds, taught his disciples and ripped the Pharisees a new one.

Jesus constantly took down their logic, and reminded them of the scriptures. In chapters 21 and 22 are filled with Jesus talking with and to the Pharisees. In chapter 23 he rips them apart.

I think that Jesus did not receive them well because of a few things. Just to mention one, Jesus saw their pride. That is one of the main thing about the Pharisees, they "knew" it all, but yet they really missed it all. A sad verse for the Pharisees is when Jesus said, "For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people's faces. You wont go in yourselves, and you don't let others in either." Jesus constantly uses the phrase "What sorrow awaits you."

We need to make sure that, as Christ followers, that we follow Christ. It can be easy for us to shift and become like the Pharisees if we do not watch out. And as we see, Jesus was not too fond of them, to say the least.

Working out

I love working out. When I work out I start eating a little better as well. I am getting back in the rhythm and am getting near my old record goals. For some reason it feels good to push 200+ pounds off your chest a few times. Hopefully by this summer I will get back to 320lbs bench. Yes, I am bragging, I worked for it.

OK let me get spiritual. Working out and our spiritual lives are a lot alike. Both take discipline and consistency. It helps to have an accountability partner both. You also see results in both. I hope I stay as pumped about my spiritual walk as I am with my work out plan.

Out of Imagination: Mark Batterson

I read this from Mark and thought it was great. So, he is writing my blog today.

All the speakers at Awaken have ten minutes to speak. I knew it was going to fly by, but what a rush of adrenaline. Serious time warp! I had to start wrapping up the minute I started ramping up! Thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I decided to speak on one of the greatest dangers we face as leaders. Neurological studies have shown that over the course of time, there is a cognitive shift from right-brain to left-brain. And if we don't find a way to stop the shift, memory overtakes imagination. We stop creating the future and start repeating the past. We stop innovating and start imitating. We stop doing ministry out of imagination and start doing ministry out of memory.

A few years ago I read something R.T Kendall wrote that impacted me: "The greatest opposition to what God is doing today comes from those who were on the cutting edge of what God was doing yesterday."

I don't want that to be me!

One of the byproducts of the neurological shift away from right-brain imagination toward left-brain logic is that we become too logical. And it seems fitting on April Fool's Day to say that great leaders are illogical. The people God uses the most are people that aren't afraid of looking foolish. In fact, if you aren't willing to look foolish you're foolish!

I shared a little bit of our coffeehouse experience in my ten minutes. I still remember feeling so foolish when I called the previous owners of 201 F Street, NE. It was owned by two Jewish lawyers. NCC was only about 100-150 people at that point. And we didn't have one red cent in the bank. It felt foolish asking if they would sell the property when we didn't even have the capability of buying it. But that's one dimension of faith--the willingness to look foolish.

I Corinthians 1:27 says that God uses foolish things to shame the wise. Nothing has changed. He still uses fools. So maybe the church should adopt April Fool's Day and make it a holy day!

meetings

I love to meet with people. It does not matter what we meet about or talk about; just spending time with people energizes me. God has definitely wired me to be a net-worker. I met with Hung and Wayne on Monday for mentoring. They totally challenge me and pour wisdom in my life. I met with my friend Joe yesterday and was encouraged about his ministry and how ripe it was. Today I met with Shannon, Chris and Michael. Some stuff was planning and some discussion.

I am encouraged when I meet with people. It does not even matter what we are meeting about. I think that it is just spending time with someone to encourage, challenge, think, pray and just talk about different things in life.

As I read through Matthew, I see how Jesus loved people. He was constantly with the crowds; wow, how he loved the crowds.

Be with people. Love people.

I do not like "Christian" Pharisees

I am studying the life of Christ in the book of Matthew. I can see why many people like Jesus, but do not like His followers. The crowds constantly followed Jesus. Every time Jesus was in an argument it was with a Pharisee. Many people today would not step a foot inside a church, but would probably hang out with Jesus all day if He came down in physical form again.

What's wrong with this picture? Everything. Christians are suppose to put together what the Scriptures say is the body of Christ. Many times we are perceived as a body of hypocrites or a body of people with an agenda. What happened to just loving people? Where did that go? There are a lot of "Christian" Pharisees out there.

We (I) need to realize the purpose of my life. It is not to convert people. It is to love people. Yeah I hope they put faith in Christ, but I have nothing to do with that, it is a sovereign God who saves. I hope today I would love people for who they are.