Posted on July 25, 2008 at 9:21am.
Many of you have been praying for a friend of mine TJ over the past several months. He is making slow but good progress after battling a life threatening illness. I wanted to encourage you to continue praying for his recovery, which is nothing short of miraculous. I have enclosed a blog site which will keep you up to date on his recovery. You can Click here to stay informed. To me it is a wonderful picture of how big the body of Christ is and how we are privileged to be a part of the larger story God is telling.
Posted on July 24, 2008 at 6:22am.
Leighton Ford is a friend and he has recently written a book, The Attentive Life. In it he asks the question “What will we pay attention to?” It has caused me to think about the things I pay attention to. I look each morning in the paper at the baseball box scores to see how the Yankees did. I will check the stock market at the close of each day. I sometimes even check my emails. But do I pay attention to the places where God is invading my world. Perhaps, for me anyway, that involves looking at my heart. It is that area of my life where transformation begins, where the Spirit is stirring me. What is also true is my heart is where I many times pay the least attention. To observe there requires quiet and courage. The stillness of sitting before God and the courage to see the real me. “Father help me pay attention to your presence in my life.”
Posted on July 23, 2008 at 6:53am.
The church really is a strange entity. I would be willing to bet that most of us, the vast majority, have either been disappointed or even disillusioned by the church in our lifetime. I would count myself among that group. The church is easy to take shots at. People will say it is filled with hypocrites, it isn’t relevant to my life and some will go so far as to say they don’t need the church to have a close relationship with God. As disappointing as it may be, as easy a target to criticize as it is, you cannot study the Bible and not see the church is near to God’s heart. After all Jesus calls it his Bride. Paul says that Jesus is so committed to her that he has given all sorts of gifted folks to the church for this lofty purpose - “that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and knowledge in the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Wow, Jesus sees a potential that many of us just don’t. Maybe we should give the church another look and this time from the perspective of Jesus.
Posted on July 22, 2008 at 4:51am.
God is in the business of redeeming, he always has been and he always will be. The good news of that truth is he is never done with pursuing us and showing us his love. The prophet Jeremiah said it this way. “The Lord appeared to us in the past saying: I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt…” I take great comfort in this. It is a good reminder to us that there are still chapters to be written in the book of our lives. I hope that none of us will close the book on someones life while chapters are still being written.
Posted on July 21, 2008 at 8:07am.
The great worship scene from Revelation 4 & 5 shows a vast and diverse group of people before the throne worshipping the Lamb (we will get there in our study in a couple of weeks). What a worship service that will be! I want to invite you to an afternoon that will give you a picture of one part of that diverse group - Serving Africa. This Sunday afternoon we will have a chance not only to see and hear about what God is doing through folks from our community but we will also have a “hands on” opportunity to make a difference. I encourage you to take an afternoon and invest in the Kingdom.
