Don't just dish it, eat it!

Whitewashed tombs have a hard time seeing the scum within. The religious leaders got raked over the coals by Jesus. Whitewashed tombs! Now that's Jesus dishing out some serious heat!

Jesus dished it out to the whitewashed tombs. The whitewashed tombs tried to dish it out to others, without ever understanding it themselves. Finger pointing. We just make it circular. Jesus tries to teach us. We say, "yup, great message," and try to teach others without first digesting the teaching ourselves. If we are to be partakers in God's transforming work in this world, we must eat it and be slow to dish it.

Eat and digest the teaching for yourself first. You don't have to constantly be dishing it out, Jesus is pretty darn good at serving up a mean dish himself!

Excerpt from my book

So I'm writing my book. Well, ok, I was writing a book before I got uber busy. I shall return to my project however. Today, I give you an excerpt from my chapter about the nasty emotional drug addiction of our churches. (I know, I know, I know what you're thinking, nice little book right? light bed-side reading ;-)

Well, I always figure if I'm going to write, I might as well cause a few heads to roll.

"The stranger said, “Careful how you walk. Walk straight; don’t become sidetracked by the frill. If you don’t walk straight, you will, without question pick up a needle along with the rest of the congregation. They come every Sunday. It's like clock world. They're zombies. They come to sit, to shoot up and get high. The masses have succumbed to the sweet fragant aromas of comfort. Their stretch is strong and reeks of death."

Should be a good read! Make you think n' stuff.

Dude, chill, it's not about you!

I start teaching today a woman's Bible Study on the book of Jonah.

Jonah and his "issues" actually comforts my heart reminding me that this life isn't about me. Rather, it's about the greatness of our God!

The reason we have hope in life, isn't because of the greatness or resolve of our repentance (nor was this the reason why the Ninevites were spared that day). Rather, it is because we have a God who is a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity (Jonah 4:2). May this God grant us the gift to be more sincere in our repentance today than we were yesterday. And when we fail to be faithful, may we praise the faithfulness of the One who came for us.

Cast a Vision

As a church leader it is imperative to instill vision into the church body. Vision enables your church to be a movement instead of a monument. It provides direction and calls for progress. If there isn't a point, then it is pointless. Energy spent turning wheels with no one at the steering wheel is a complete waste of the church's resources.

Sermon series however "good" and "biblical" fail if they lack purposefulness in terms of long term church direction. Sermons must be catered to fit the overarching vision which the pastor was given by God. Sermons that spin in too many different directions lose the church audience. There must be narrow focus and finely tuned direction in each word preached. Pastors aren't primarily called to be caregivers (bold I know), they are called to be leaders. They are God's mouthpieces entrusted with instilling and empowering people to accomplish God's vision.

Everything done in the church should be done with a goal and larger purpose in mind. Otherwise we simply tread water and remain stagnant, or worse yet. With weary legs, we'll stop treading water and drown.

Pray for your church leaders to get a vision from God, and then to speak that vision with boldness.

Rock your face off!!!

In grad school I had a friend named Lisa, and her saying was, "God rocks my face off." Now for some reason to hear an M.A. Biblical Exegesis student say that stood out. That certainly didn't belong at Wheaton and certainly not in our program. IT WAS THE PROGRAM THAT ROCKED MY FACE OFF. haha. This wasn't some High Schooler saying, "Jesus is my boyfriend." Gag, gag, barf. This was an intellectual saying, "Jesus rocks!" In fact, God must rock Lisa's world so hard that He rocks her face off from time to time.

Sit and reflect today, and may your Maker blow you away, and yes.....rock your face off.


love always.....serve rigorously.....wrestle with yourself until your exhausted....listen to God with fierce intensity.......bask in the mercy and profound patience of our Maker....let His peace heal you.

Jesus is.............???

You hear Jesus called a lot of things these days. But no time for chit chat on everything he could and should be called. Focus today is what Jesus is, but rarely called. So what is Jesus??

Jesus is a...
pioneer
visionary
challenger
encourager
relentless and passionate pursuer
revolutionary
dangerous dangerous man
hardcore

A few from this "off the top of my head list" will now get further consideration. Today I ask for you to reflect further on Jesus as: 1) pioneer, 2) visionary, and 3) challenger. Jesus has the ability to light the fire underneath people's butts. He can get people motivated and moving for kingdom purposes. Listen to Jesus the pioneer, visionary, and challenger today!

1) What task has Jesus asked you to pioneer where you live?
2) What vision has Jesus given you for your community?
3) What challenge has Jesus thrown down in your path for you to conquer by His strength?

Let Jesus challenge your pants off today!

Reflexive Prayer 2

We tend to pray, pitch, and ditch. We throw our concerns and requests onto God, tell Him to take care of it, and then leave the room. We want God to handle it, and we want our angst to leave our minds. Why should we be labored and burdened with prayer concerns of this world, when we can throw it on the broad shoulders of God and carry on about our merry business? We want God to solve the issues, while we sit back and relax. We say, "I prayed, I did my part, now let God handle it."

In reflexive prayer the human does not get off the hook. The human has responsibility that cannot be shucked. Prayer is about a lot of things. And one of those things must necessarily be about human agents getting their orders. It's not solely about crying out to your Jesus Santa Claus who waves magic wands and blows fairy dust to give you nice dreams and makes you sleep easily.

You have to do something about what you're praying. Reflexive prayer should give you nightmares.