Posted on April 21, 2008 at 8:17am.
Funny how God brings encouragement from places and people you don’t expect. The truth is we all need to be encouraged. I believe it is one of those often looked over joys of being in the body of Christ. I mentioned some encouragement I had recieved during the 11 service, but don’t think I did during any other service. E-mails from two young men who grew up in our church and are now out of college. They are living elsewhere in the country and they took the time to write and tell me that not only do they listen to the Podcast of the sermons but that God is using those in their lives. What a blast!My second unexpected encouragement came yesterday afternoon when I attended a prayer and communion service for Ann Belk (a courageous lady from our church who is battling cancer). It was held on Carl and Ann’s front yard and there had to be close to 300 friends and family standing and sitting. It was for me a picture of the Body of Christ encouraging one another. How good of God to give me those pictures of encouragement. It also served as a powergful reminder for me to stay sensitive to being an encouragement to others. You never know whose life you might touch.
Posted on April 16, 2008 at 10:40pm.
We’ve been in Alabama visiting my parents and today brought a strange mix of emotions. It was a beautiful, sunny, cloudless day. The kind of spring day when all seems right with the world. As we traveled, all around the beauty of God’s handiwork seemed to scream out of His glory seen in creation. My mind was however traveling elsewhere. In preparing for the upcoming series I have been reading a lot about the injustices of our world. The awful acts we carry out against each other. Places like Rwanda, Cambodia and Darfur flashed through my mind in sharp contrast to what my eyes were seeing. How can man, created in the image of God, do such things? This is when life becomes a huge question that I doubt will ever be answered.
My prayer is that my heart will continue to trust in the Lord so that hope will be more powerful than despair.
Posted on April 15, 2008 at 10:57am.
Many times after I finish speaking on a weekend I think “If I had only said ...” The only problem is everybody has already left. So now I can blog my unsaid or unfinished thoughts. You got to love technology! Towards the end of the message I posed two questions. “Do we know what grieves the heart of God?” “Do we know what pleases him?” I hope we are asking ourselves those questions on a regular basis. They are profoundly important as I come to the choices I face everyday. Choices that involve my resources, my time and energy. I am far more prone to ask what pleases me and what things I want to avoid, than directing my thoughts towards God. I really do want his heart to be a the center of my day and not just good words I say in order to impress you. Just something to think about.
Posted on April 14, 2008 at 8:30am.
What a thrill to see all 300 child sponsorships gone by the end of the day yesterday! It is a living picture of us “taking resources to the nations” and I thank you for making this a reality. I have been struck by the idea that we just don’t bring the message of light - we are the light. Over the next four weekends we are going to take a focused look at the heart of God, in particular his heart of justice and compassion. When Suzi and I were Thailand earlier this year we saw first hand the sex trade industry of Asia and our hearts were broken. We live in a world that desperately needs to know of a God who loves them and who longs to be the fulfillment of their hearts. May God stir our hearts to that end.
Posted on April 8, 2008 at 9:22am.
If you had told me five years ago I would be “blogging” I doubt I would have known what you were talking about but here I am blogging away. This spot on our web will be my chance to share some of my heart and my thoughts on life with you. From the serious to the mundane of life I want to chat about the things that stir my heart. I hope you will find it helpful and who knows, maybe God will even use it to stir your heart too.
I have always thought this is the greatest week in sports. The beginning of baseball (GO YANKEES!), the end of March madness (what happened to the Heels!) and the Masters from Augusta - it just doesn’t get any better. This year however feels a little different to me. I still love all those events but having just returned from Vietnam and China I have a very different perspective. We saw some amazing people in both of those countries. People who by the world’s standards fit the definition of Acts 4:13 “unschooled and ordinary”.Yet as I reflect on our trip, they are some of the most amazing Christ followers I have ever met. They have so very little in terms of worldly possessions but they have Jesus in a way that left me envious. My daily life can lull me into a comfort zone that makes me believe I don’t really need Jesus to make it through my day. Nothing could be further from the truth but I continually battle that deception. The simple truth that the religious leaders took note of with Peter and John and what we saw in Vietnam and China was this - they had been with Jesus. Maybe I will begin to learn that is the greatest thing of any week in life.
