A perspective on faith, life, culture & entertainment
WoW! Totally exhausted tonight. There has been so much going on this week and this weekend that I feel completely spent. This is always a recap of Sunday, but in light of all that has been going on, I feel I must recap the weekend as a whole, so here goes —
PROMISE KEEPERS
PK came to [...]
One of my alltime favorite players in my all-time favorite sport, along with his coach, is teaching me some lessons about church leadership this week. Ever since I took the plunge into church planting I’ve given myself the label of “Coach”. To me, the term is far more concrete than “pastor”. Pastor is sort of [...]
Today felt a lot like a locker room. I walked away today with an odd feeling about the atmosphere of the service. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. But it finally hit me…. it felt like a team in the locker room before a really big game that they’re not sure they will win.
Yesterday morning, I had an encounter that really rocked me. And I think it’s a hint from God about the ministry that is ahead of our church.
We have two cars, and Zach takes Lesley’s car to work every morning at 5:30. So that leaves us with one vehicle for most of the day. Mine is a stick-shift that Lesley is not comfortable driving, so that means during the summer months, I have to be a bit of an errand boy to get Lesley to where she needs to be. Yesterday morning we went to Cub Foods because we were almost completely out of groceries. We NEVER shop at Cub, but we were given a gift card to Cub, so we went there. (hint… I think God ordained what I am about to tell you through the actions of several other people)
Yet another article addressing the lack of men attending church appeared in the USA Today last week. Our church has been a living, breathing experiment for the last couple of years now on how do we build a church that reaches and energizes men to walk in the fullness of the Christian faith. How do we create an environment that compels men to follow Jesus. When Jesus began his ministry, he looked at other men and invited them to follow him. Some of the roughest men in the area agreed to do so. Some of the most reviled men agreed to do so. Somehow over the course of the last two centuries, we have taken a faith that drove men to sacrifice anything and turned it into a faith that asks little and attracts few.
Another letter day in our church this morning. We wrapped up a month-long series on four of the letters from Paul to the churches in the New Testament. Today’s letter was his encouragement to the church in Phillipi, aka, Philippians. The overall theme we focused on today was Paul’s declaration that we should run for the highest prize. Here are the highlights (and lowlights)
Quite often, we forget that these are letters written from the Apostle Paul to a church. It didn’t have chapters and verses as we have today. Those were inserted to make finding certain passasges of scripture easier than trying to scan through one long unmarked document. So, although this “chapter” did not exist when it was written, we enter the final chapter of our “You’ve Got Mail” series. Remember as you read this, or read other passages of scritpture how very personal these are in nature. Think of how difficult the task of writing was 2000 years ago and the efforts that anyone had to go through to actually “deliver the mail”. It almost killed Epaphroditus in chapter 2. Both the writing and the delivery were labors of love. Read them with a sense of honor at how much effort went in to delivering these letters to the original readers and to you today!
This is a chapter that lays down some timeless principles of “FIRST THINGS FIRST“, and that’s what I will focus on today.
Let’s continue or reading today of chapter 2
VS 1-4, GOT ANYTHING? GIVE IT AWAY - This is a challenging section for most of us. Paul asks a very basic question here..”Is there any value for you in being a Christian? Do you receive anything from Christ?” How can you answer that any other way but yes? It’s basically a rhetorical question. Paul knows the answer. He just wants them and us to answer it. THEN… he says….
Long before Rick Warren showed up on the scene, the Apostle Paul was writing about and demonstrating what it means to be “Purpose Driven”. Philippians is a spectacular example of living a life with purpose. To read this letter is to hear the passion and deep commitment of a man to a cause. What’s so amazing is that this letter was written from prison. No whining or crying here. This was no “health and wealth” success story to motivate others to get on board. No… this is a man in difficult circumstances that accepted them in stride and continued his commitment to the cause of Christ… a life filled and lived with purpose.
This blog represents my personal perspectives on life, faith, culture and entertainment. I am keenly aware that I represent Jesus Christ first, and the church I serve second. However, I ask the reader to bear in mind that this blog represents my personal thoughts and opinions. Give me the grace and latitude to be my own person here (Lord knows I need it) :-) .
Recent Comments