Friday, June 20, 2008

Staff Advance

I'm sitting in my office preparing for our "staff advance" coming up next week.

I always get a little bit nervous when it gets near staff advance season; the kind of nerves you get when you're applying for a new job, or getting married.

There's no fear, just an unsettled feeling that I'm about to commit myself to something far bigger than my abilities, skills or vision.

Last year at staff advance we finalized the details of our Dominate Campaign, presented comprehensive analyses of our departments, presented reports based around the content of the Leadership Pipeline and set goals for the remainder of 2007.

It was intense!
It was challenging!
There were at least a half dozen times when I could feel my heart beating in my ears!
and we came away exhausted; spiritually, physically, emotionally...

IT WAS AWESOME!!!

This year proves to be no different.

I just finished my part of a project we're working on that I've titled, "Discovering our 'brand'", that will no doubt spark some great discussion. I also just had a meeting with Larry Brey, our Connections Pastor, about three major projects we are tackling this fall. He is presenting those projects to the lead staff at Staff Advance and we want to make sure everything is ready to go.

We read two books, Honor's Reward by John Bevere and What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith. I don't know exactly what to expect from this year's advance except that it will be VERY overwhelming and we will be setting the course and speed for the next major season of our church.

The last 10%: My Pastor will be coming to Staff Advance straight off of almost two weeks of study, reflection, vacation, prayer and family time. I expect that he will have a double dose of intensity saved up for us and I can't wait!!!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

How to Be a Good Husband

For 3 months Heather (my wonderful, gracious and forgiving wife) has been begging me to install the little clips that hold the cabinet doors shut so that our precious little boy won't sneak into them and drink caustic chemicals.

Reasonable request, right?

So, being a good husband, the other night, I bribed Erika's (my sister-in-law) boyfriend, Ben, into "helping" me install them. Here's how it went:

While I was sitting at the kitchen table balancing our check book, Ben struggled to install the clips all on his own. To my credit, I went and got him a drill, knocked all the screws off the counter, and regularly checked Ben's frustration level - I had every intention of "helping" if it got above a 7, I promise!

Ben did a fabulous job installing the clips and Jeremiah (who you can see over on the right of this blog...) was adequately frustrated the next day trying to get out the Clorox Clean-up.

The ironic thing about this story is that Ben installed the clips in about 20 minutes.

Hmmm...
Option 1: Spend 20 minutes intalling the clips and keep my son away from deadly chemicals and please my wife.

Option 2: Drag my feet for 3 months, risk my sons life, force Heather to stand guard at the kitchen sink 8 hours a day trying to keep my boy out of the "death closet", and then forfeit my 'husband credit' to someone else...

Sometimes I wonder why Heather doesn't schedule regular P.E.T. scans for me...

For all husbands out there, take a lesson from Ben. Just install the 'clips'! I mean seriously, what's wrong with me?

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The Last Post on Galatians

[Read: Galatians 6:1-18]

Paul says, “God cannot be mocked, a man reaps what he sows.” (v. 7)

I’m tempted to write a post that begins with the question, what do you want to sow in the lives of the people around you? But, most of you are just as selfish as I am (if you don’t believe me, take this test) so it will be much better to ask this question:

“What do you want to reap?”

Here’s what I want to reap in my life:
o Generosity
o Kindness
o Wisdom
o Love
o Forgiveness
o Grace
o A healthy family
o Joy
o Peace

What occurred to me after I scribbled out this list is that most of what I want to elicit from others is exactly what Paul told us to exemplify in our lives as the “fruit of the Spirit”. (Score: Paul – 1; John – 0)

Secondly, I started asking myself this question, “If I want to reap a healthy family what do I have to sow?” Well, I should probably sleep more, eat less, and exercise!

“If I want to reap generosity what do I have to sow?” Money! Time! Basically, I have to let go of “my” stuff. As I start focusing on others’ needs I will begin to reap my needs…

Sometimes when I read the Bible I’m left with the impression that someone planned the whole thing out…(for those of you that didn’t catch it, that was a sarcastic statement intending to point out that God knew what He was doing when He put this book together).

Well, I’m entering into blogivion - the cross between my blog and oblivion – where I will have to struggle with what to write and will probably end up writing nonsense posts for a few weeks... Just thought I’d issue a warning.

If you liked going through a book of the Bible leave me a comment and let me know so I won’t feel like I wasted the last 2 months of my life. Maybe I’ll do it again with another book sometime if you liked it…

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Life by the Spirit

After the Elevationbishop blog blackout of 2008 that extended through the duration of my wife and my vacation to Florida where we celebrated our anniversary and attended a marriage conference that Pastor Furtick was generous enough to send us to, I'm back with the next section of Galatians. I hope you enjoy it...

[Read: Galatians 5:16-26]

Just to encourage you when you fail, Paul says in Romans 7:14-20 that he can’t do it either. The things we want to do we don’t do them, and the things we don’t want to do, we fall into the same traps over and over…

This struggle is the tension we live in and if it describes you then you’re in good company. (It’s when you want to do things that you know are wrong that you should begin to worry…)

One more thing about this section:

When the Spirit fills us at salvation, He places His attributes in us. Paul calls those attributes the “fruit of the Spirit”.

You’ve Got ‘em! If the Spirit of God is dwelling in you, then you’ve got ‘em. So the next time you’re not displaying them in your life and relationships ask God to make a withdrawal on His deposit…

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

He Created the Universe!

[Read: Galatians 5:1-15 (again)]

This section of Galatians is about freedom. Paul starts by saying, “It is for freedom that Christ set us free.” (v. 1)

Immediately following this declaration, Paul launches into a discussion about circumcision. Now, if you’re not familiar with the Old Testament law that required all Jewish boys to be circumcised, this discussion seems a little out of left field. But notice that Paul says a man who ‘lets’ himself be circumcised. Circumcision would normally take place on the 8th day of a Jewish baby’s life (Check out the details here: Genesis 17:10-14). In other words, the only man that would ‘let’ himself be circumcised is being ushered into the Jewish faith as an adult.

Here’s Paul’s question in a nutshell: If the Jewish people were given the promise, symbolized by circumcision, that they were the people of God and that some day God would be sending them a savior to free them from the bondage of sin, why would someone who has the opportunity to accept Christ’s freedom directly want to try to get to Christ through circumcision?

The reason Paul is so angry at the people who are recommending circumcision to these new converts and luring them away from the truth and from freedom in Christ is he understands what’s at stake. James tells us that, “whoever keeps the whole law and stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” (James 2:10). There is no grading curve in the law. You either keep the law, perfectly, or you are condemned by it, entirely! There’s just no middle ground.

If you are someone that is trying to do better, trying to be good, trying to quit drinking, trying to stop looking at pornography, trying to quit gossiping etc… You know that no matter how hard you try you have never been able to get free. But in Christ we are a new creation the old has gone and the new has come… (2 Corinthians 5:17-21). It’s probably time to quit trying and allow God to work through you.

He is, after all, the guy that created the universe and keeps it in balance. He formed the earth and everything in it. He breathed life into every living creature and formed mankind in His own image. I think He can probably handle your problems!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Treadmill Woes

[Read: Galatians 5:1-15]

I was running on the treadmill at the "Y" the other day when a very tragic and embarrassing thing happened.

A women got onto the treadmill next to me and began jogging. About 3 minutes into her workout the spray bottle fell off the machine and made a very loud noise which caused everyone in the gym to turn and look just in time to catch the next 10 seconds of this poor woman's workout routine.

While the woman was trying to catch the bottle, she hit the towel that was hanging over the bar and it slipped and fell onto the belt. The woman then proceeded to hop around the belt trying to avoid the towel only to accidentally put her right foot down off the belt. Since her left foot was still moving with the belt her body took a sudden spin to the left and this little chain of events ended with an embarrassing yelp from the woman as she stumbled and almost fell off the treadmill.

Paul says in Galatians 5:7 that our faith is like a race. He suggests that we are "running a good race" when we are trusting in Christ but when we begin to put our faith in religious rules he asks, "Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?"

Let's just be clear, even if the spray bottle and towel falls off, keep your feet centered on the belt. Trust me, it's safer that way...

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Slight Diversion

I'm going to need more time than I have to pour over the next section of Galatians. So this morning I thought I would take a slight diversion to let you in on a little secret...

This morning I saw Jin driving a Volkswagon Jetta right down the center of the main road. I know for a fact that Hurley lives two houses up from me, and I think the guy across the street is "Henry Gail" - of course, I don't ever see him.

I have also noticed that there is a little sink hole developing in my front yard. Occaisionally, it seems like there is a little puff of black smoke creeping out of it...

And this morning while I was getting ready I heard a loud noise outside that was obvisouly the pilot eating monster. It turned out to be a guy mowing his lawn, but you know, the island does crazy things...

So do I think that my neighborhood is actually an island with hatches all over it? Not yet, but if you hear reports that I've disappeared down the storm drain by the sink hole in my front yard, now you'll know why.

Heather and I just finished season 2 of Lost, and I'm infected. If I don't get my hands on season three soon, I might just go crazy.

If you've never watched the show you might want to commit the next 6 weeks of your life to catching up. It's a great show!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Two Women, Two Sons, One Promise

[Read: Galatians 4:21-31]

Now, before you get all bent out of shape from reading this passage let me make a disclaimer. The people Paul was writing this letter to would not have made as big a deal about Abraham having kids from two different women, or the reference to the word slave. These concepts are touchy for us, so it is hard to overlook them, but if we intend to extract the meaning that I believe Paul was trying to get at, we’ll need to look past them.

Here’s how I understand this passage, Hagar and Sarah and their respective sons are being treated metaphorically. Hagar represents Abraham’s disobedience, while Sarah represents God’s sovereignty to fulfill His promises.

The background for Paul’s arguments can be found in Genesis 16 and Genesis 21, but let me give you the abbreviated version here.

o God told Abraham that He was going to make a great nation through Abraham’s children.
o Abraham waited most of his life struggling to have kids with his barren wife, Sarah.
o Abraham got frustrated waiting on God’s plan and he “took matters into his own hands”.
o Abraham and Sarah agreed to have kids through Hagar, Sarah’s servant.
o Later Sarah conceived a child (Isaac) and the promise that God gave to Abraham was fulfilled through him. (Isaac’s son’s name was Jacob. Jacob was later renamed Israel and Jacob’s 12 sons became the namesakes for the 12 tribes of Israel)

Back to Galatians: when Paul says that we are children of the free women, he is saying a lot. By accepting God’s promise of salvation, by placing our faith in Christ, we are participating in the promise of God. On the other hand, by trying to make it on our own, we are “taking matters into our own hands”.

Some of us just don’t like the idea that God is in charge. But guess what, it doesn’t matter what we like, He’s in charge anyway. If He gives us a promise, He will fulfill it, and any short cut we try will ultimately create nothing but heartache and disappointment.

There is only one way, God has already determined the way it will play out and His name is Jesus Christ!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Regaining our Passion

[Read: Galatians 4:8-20]

Paul talks about the Galatians, how they were so welcoming and loving while they were caring for him in his illness. He even suggests that they might have torn out their eyes for him. But now he is wondering where their joy went; isn’t that just like religious people! We forsake grace and joy for narrow-minded rules and constraints.

I drove by a church this morning that had signs on the posts at either side of their driveway. The signs read, “For church business only, security cameras activated…”.

You may not find that offensive, but I thought to myself, “how the *&$# (when I am tempted to cuss, I actually picture an asterisk the and sign, a dollar sign and a pound sign in my mind…just in case you were nervous…) are they going to switch their mindset on Sunday morning to welcome people that come to hear the gospel if all through the week they are guarding their property like it’s a military compound?” The unfortunate conclusion I came to is that they probably aren’t interested in welcoming new people on Sunday.

When Jesus first saves us we are willing to cut out our eyes to help people around us, but slowly, as religion creeps in, we tend to forget about the tremendous gift we have been given in Christ and we tend to lose our joy.

DON’T!

Fight against the temptation to give in to the selfish, shortsighted, narrow-minded, inwardly focused, hard-hearted, unforgiving, religious midset that rots so many believers from the inside out.

We have been called to live a life that honors Christ, and Christ in honored when we give a glass of water to someone who is thirsty. When we walk an extra mile with our captor, when we give more to the one who has stolen from us, when we risk that our parking lot will be used during the week by teenagers who want to skateboard in order to avoid scaring away people that may be impacted by the gospel.