It’s the easiest kind of powerless, feeble living to fall into. It has no nerve, no spirit, no backbone…no adventure. It’s called, consumer Christianity…always taking but rarely giving.
CC takes the guts out of meaningful living because the true meaning of life, according to Jesus, is to totally and fully give ourselves to His will while we’re still sucking air. We were meant to give our very lives away for the sake of pointing others to Him. Ugh. I don’t think I’m doing so well.
So, today, I began asking myself a different kind of question. “What Does God Expect Of Me?” Is my Christianity just about going to church on Sunday, praying for others, reading the Bible, and steering clear of the biggest kinds of sins—or does God have a bigger, better, more grandiose plan?
Isn’t it true what Jesus really intended for us is to have a mindset, a philosophy of life, which routinely practices making godly differences in the lives of others [near-and-far] with the investment of our resources—our time, our talk, our money, and our abilities?
Sometimes, maybe too much of the time, I get caught up in the busyness of my own life and forget the more significant things I should be practicing. Yes, I love God and yes, I’m serving Him; but I wonder if I could be serving Him better by thinking more about what He expects from me right now! Today and tomorrow too.
Maybe the time is ripe for you to consider the way you’re spending your time, money, and abilities as well. Maybe, when you go to bed tonight, God will have you think and stare at the ceiling wondering what you’re really missing by living the powerless consumer Christian lifestyle.
If you’ve been noticing an empty feeling or a void in your soul; do what I’m doing. Ask Him what He wants you to do and then press toward it. That’s when the adventurous life really begins.
http://www.realitychurch.com/
Friday, May 29, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
The 'B' Word
It’s been about 25 years and I’ll never forget the statement. When I was in Bible School, I had a professor who would often say to us: “If you have a chance to do the talking or do the listening—choose to listen. The reason, he said, was that you can’t learn anything new by talking since you already know everything you’re going to say.”
Good advice, given that most of us wants to become smarter and wiser in life. Still, there is something that’s potentially even more powerful than listening to others doing most of the talking. I’m referring to the ‘B’ word…the lost art of book reading.
If I haven’t lost you yet, that could mean you’re either interested in what I have to say or you want to see how out-of-touch I really am to suggest reading books. But here’s the skinny: Reading books typically benefit the reader far better on a particular subject that the best advice from others because of the amount of research and expertise invested in it.
So, even if reading books are not your specialty, it can be equivalent to sitting down with an expert advisor or counselor and getting you questions answered for a only a few bucks. Makes you wiser and smarter too.
Let me list a few of my favorite books that you might want to read:
- Creation/Evolution and the Bible—The New Answers Book 1 & 2, by Ken Ham (this is one of the books I’m reading now)
- Marriage—Making Love Last Forever, by Gary Smalley
- Parenting—How to be Hero to Your Kids, by Josh McDowell
- Finances—Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey
- Knowing God—30 Life Principles, by Charles Stanley
If there is a subject or theme that you are interested in, write a comment to this blog and I’ll be sure to contact you via email. In the meantime, you can become increasingly wiser by picking up the titles listed.
Life Change?
Right now at Reality, we are doing a series of talks called “Life Swap.” Our intention in this five-part series is to introduce people to the truth about what actually happened in and to them once they put their faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. Our goal is to show them all the “perks & benefits” they have as a result of their new relationship with God.
Today, we did something different in our church services. Instead of the typical approach to communicating God’s truth…you know, the “I talk, you listen” format, I introduced a three-panel team to answer questions about how they deal with things like worry, unanswered prayer, adversity, personal sins and others. The approach was received well and seemed to answer questions people want to know about. But there’s a question I wonder about that wasn’t answered. Well, actually, it was never asked.
Let me explain. After we were done, people told me things like “It was good for me to hear this today” and “it was awesome” and that in a good way it “really hit them hard.” I love hearing things like this. But, I still have a gnawing question that eats at me every time I hear someone say how much one of the talks meant to them. That question is: “How much will really change in that person’s life.”
Now, I’m not trying to be cynical. I’m simply wondering about whether the experience was simply an emotional one—or a true spiritual one. Was it merely informational or did it go beyond that to become transformational?
So, my thoughts in answering this run two ways. [1] Yes, it has to be emotional and informational before it can be transformational. In other words, it has to both move the person and provide knowledge before life-change can happen. But [2] more than this, there has to be a personal decision made by the individual within like a 72 hour period to act on that emotion/information if lasting change or transformation is to be experienced.
Maybe this will be a talk I share in the near future, but for now, my hope and prayer is that each person who is moved in some way by God’s word will determine to take action steps so that what I call life-change can and will happen.
www.realitychurch.com
Today, we did something different in our church services. Instead of the typical approach to communicating God’s truth…you know, the “I talk, you listen” format, I introduced a three-panel team to answer questions about how they deal with things like worry, unanswered prayer, adversity, personal sins and others. The approach was received well and seemed to answer questions people want to know about. But there’s a question I wonder about that wasn’t answered. Well, actually, it was never asked.
Let me explain. After we were done, people told me things like “It was good for me to hear this today” and “it was awesome” and that in a good way it “really hit them hard.” I love hearing things like this. But, I still have a gnawing question that eats at me every time I hear someone say how much one of the talks meant to them. That question is: “How much will really change in that person’s life.”
Now, I’m not trying to be cynical. I’m simply wondering about whether the experience was simply an emotional one—or a true spiritual one. Was it merely informational or did it go beyond that to become transformational?
So, my thoughts in answering this run two ways. [1] Yes, it has to be emotional and informational before it can be transformational. In other words, it has to both move the person and provide knowledge before life-change can happen. But [2] more than this, there has to be a personal decision made by the individual within like a 72 hour period to act on that emotion/information if lasting change or transformation is to be experienced.
Maybe this will be a talk I share in the near future, but for now, my hope and prayer is that each person who is moved in some way by God’s word will determine to take action steps so that what I call life-change can and will happen.
www.realitychurch.com
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Sporks
Okay, I was at KFC the other day having some lunch (I like their hot & spicy boneless wings), when I asked for a plastic fork, cause I didn’t want to get my hand full of the extra hot sauce I requested. They said, we don’t have forks anymore—we have “sporks” instead. I laughed. “Really? Okay, I’ll take one.”
Boy, what a mistake that was. The “spork” should never have been invented or patented. At least this particular make and model. What a joke! I couldn’t poke or lance anything. This piece of plastic was masquerading as a useful tool. I thought it was a total waste of perfectly good plastic.
Which leads me to a thought I just had to write about: It seems to me that too many of us are pretending to be something we’re really not. That spork was a poor imitation of the real deal. Hey, give me a spoon or a fork, but please, no more stinkin' sporks! I can’t take it anymore; and if you had the same experience I did that day trying to eat my hot and spicy boneless chicken wings, you would come to my corner in this big matter.
Nuff said. Be who you are, not some cheap recreation of another person or personality, or even what you do for God in this life. Move on. Be true to yourself. If you’re not who God made you to be and become, who will? It’s time we quit being sporks!
www.realitychurch.com
Boy, what a mistake that was. The “spork” should never have been invented or patented. At least this particular make and model. What a joke! I couldn’t poke or lance anything. This piece of plastic was masquerading as a useful tool. I thought it was a total waste of perfectly good plastic.
Which leads me to a thought I just had to write about: It seems to me that too many of us are pretending to be something we’re really not. That spork was a poor imitation of the real deal. Hey, give me a spoon or a fork, but please, no more stinkin' sporks! I can’t take it anymore; and if you had the same experience I did that day trying to eat my hot and spicy boneless chicken wings, you would come to my corner in this big matter.
Nuff said. Be who you are, not some cheap recreation of another person or personality, or even what you do for God in this life. Move on. Be true to yourself. If you’re not who God made you to be and become, who will? It’s time we quit being sporks!
www.realitychurch.com
Jerks, Grief, and Grace
Sometimes things trigger other things and they trigger other things and you wind up thinking about something you had no intention of contemplating. For instance, tonight as I was driving home from my last counseling session, I begin thinking about how much God puts up with stuff from people like me!!
I began to think about how much of a jerk I sometimes am to God and how much I must grieve Him at times. Then I just told Him what I just told you and praised Him for His goodness and grace toward me. I wound up just smiling in my car as I talked with the Lord and as I did, I was trying to tell Him just how good I thought He was…even when He disciplines me. The word I came up with that meant the most to me tonight was ‘lovely.’ Lovely in every way. Every single way.
This passage of Scripture from the Bible describes what I mean:
“The loyal love of the Lord never fails! His mercies never cease, otherwise, we would have been destroyed. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.” Lamentations 3:22-23
Yep, that’s exactly how I feel about my God. The more I get to know Him, the more I love Him. The more I love Him, the more I want to get to know Him.
Next time you’re out driving alone, go ahead and turn off the radio or CD and instead, take some much needed time to just think about how good and gracious God is to put up with people like you and me without flicking us into oblivion.
www.realitychurch.com
I began to think about how much of a jerk I sometimes am to God and how much I must grieve Him at times. Then I just told Him what I just told you and praised Him for His goodness and grace toward me. I wound up just smiling in my car as I talked with the Lord and as I did, I was trying to tell Him just how good I thought He was…even when He disciplines me. The word I came up with that meant the most to me tonight was ‘lovely.’ Lovely in every way. Every single way.
This passage of Scripture from the Bible describes what I mean:
“The loyal love of the Lord never fails! His mercies never cease, otherwise, we would have been destroyed. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.” Lamentations 3:22-23
Yep, that’s exactly how I feel about my God. The more I get to know Him, the more I love Him. The more I love Him, the more I want to get to know Him.
Next time you’re out driving alone, go ahead and turn off the radio or CD and instead, take some much needed time to just think about how good and gracious God is to put up with people like you and me without flicking us into oblivion.
www.realitychurch.com
Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda!
Recently, I’ve been a little uptight…bugged might be a better word, about the needless and stupid choices so many of us make—even though we know it’ll cost us. In the past month, I’ve talked to way too many people who are willing to take their chances and probably lose than to make the wise decisions and rack up numbers in the ‘wins’ column.
So, I find myself asking “why?” Why do we still choose it? Why risk the pain, the embarrassment, and the failure when it could all be avoided.
I guess it’s kinda like death…we all know it’s going to happen; we just never think it’s going to happen to us. Yes, the odds are against us, but we don’t think we’ll lose. It’s a Las Vagas mentality. Too bad that Vegas has the highest suicide rate per capita in the country. “Who, me pay the price? Never!”
But how many times have you already lost because of bad choices? How many instances have you experienced where you wish you could do it all over again? You might call it the coulda, shoulda, woulda factor. It would be safe to say that there’s not a person alive who didn’t wish they would have made better choices along life’s journey. Life has a way of demanding that we look for wisdom in our decision making.
Enter the book of Proverbs in the Bible. Written by the wisest and richest man who ever lived (apart form Christ)…it’s practical wisdom for daily living. The book of Proverbs deals with everything from our finances to coworkers and bosses to relationships and friendships. In short, it deals with our choices in extremely practical and pragmatic ways, so you and I can live a regret-free life.See for yourself. Read and begin applying what you just read from the book of Proverbs (there’s 31 chapters—one for each month) and you’ll never again have to say, “If I only coulda, shoulda, and woulda.”
www.realitychurch.com
So, I find myself asking “why?” Why do we still choose it? Why risk the pain, the embarrassment, and the failure when it could all be avoided.
I guess it’s kinda like death…we all know it’s going to happen; we just never think it’s going to happen to us. Yes, the odds are against us, but we don’t think we’ll lose. It’s a Las Vagas mentality. Too bad that Vegas has the highest suicide rate per capita in the country. “Who, me pay the price? Never!”
But how many times have you already lost because of bad choices? How many instances have you experienced where you wish you could do it all over again? You might call it the coulda, shoulda, woulda factor. It would be safe to say that there’s not a person alive who didn’t wish they would have made better choices along life’s journey. Life has a way of demanding that we look for wisdom in our decision making.
Enter the book of Proverbs in the Bible. Written by the wisest and richest man who ever lived (apart form Christ)…it’s practical wisdom for daily living. The book of Proverbs deals with everything from our finances to coworkers and bosses to relationships and friendships. In short, it deals with our choices in extremely practical and pragmatic ways, so you and I can live a regret-free life.See for yourself. Read and begin applying what you just read from the book of Proverbs (there’s 31 chapters—one for each month) and you’ll never again have to say, “If I only coulda, shoulda, and woulda.”
www.realitychurch.com
Something Crazy Pays Off
Okay, the crazy stuff we did at Reality this past weekend was worth the risk and paid-off well. We also took a chance as a church to do something out-of-the-box on another occasion which made the news…at least locally.
First, my staff and I usually meet weekly for about two hours to focus our thoughts on the creative aspect of an upcoming series of talks. By praying, talking, and just throwing things out on the table as ideas, we think God gave us the idea of having a six week series of talks on how to build great relationships. We called it “My Lame Relationship,” and went to build a basic, but fun website dedicated to relationships. The domain name www.MyLameRelationship.com was purchased for about $10 and we began to work on the look, layout, and content and then had it go “live.”Then, we got another idea. We thought that creating a few hundred signs to place around the city would be an inexpensive way to promote the series and had a host of people come out to put them all over town in one evening. It worked. People started hitting the website and visiting the church for the series the week it was launched
A local news station, WTKR NEWS CHANNEL 3 got wind of it and came out to do a story on the series and we got 2 minutes and 47 seconds worth of free air time on the 11 o’clock news. All because we listened to God and took a risk to color outside the lines.
Then last Sunday (Easter), we decided (in our creative planning meeting weeks before) that I would make Salsa on stage…in front of the Easter crowd…for both services…even though I don’t cook…and somehow make it all correspond to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Well, it happened…we took the risk, stepped out of our comfort zone and did the deal. The result? Fifty-three people chose to put their faith in Jesus Christ as their personal forgiver. Can you imagine? How cool is that?!?!?
My reason for blogging about these two incidences is to somehow inspire you to pursue what God has put in your heart by taking some risks. Risks don’t always work out well; but after you pray and follow the Spirit’s prompting, step out…do the deal…choose the unknown…and watch the results!
www.realitychurch.com
First, my staff and I usually meet weekly for about two hours to focus our thoughts on the creative aspect of an upcoming series of talks. By praying, talking, and just throwing things out on the table as ideas, we think God gave us the idea of having a six week series of talks on how to build great relationships. We called it “My Lame Relationship,” and went to build a basic, but fun website dedicated to relationships. The domain name www.MyLameRelationship.com was purchased for about $10 and we began to work on the look, layout, and content and then had it go “live.”Then, we got another idea. We thought that creating a few hundred signs to place around the city would be an inexpensive way to promote the series and had a host of people come out to put them all over town in one evening. It worked. People started hitting the website and visiting the church for the series the week it was launched
A local news station, WTKR NEWS CHANNEL 3 got wind of it and came out to do a story on the series and we got 2 minutes and 47 seconds worth of free air time on the 11 o’clock news. All because we listened to God and took a risk to color outside the lines.
Then last Sunday (Easter), we decided (in our creative planning meeting weeks before) that I would make Salsa on stage…in front of the Easter crowd…for both services…even though I don’t cook…and somehow make it all correspond to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Well, it happened…we took the risk, stepped out of our comfort zone and did the deal. The result? Fifty-three people chose to put their faith in Jesus Christ as their personal forgiver. Can you imagine? How cool is that?!?!?
My reason for blogging about these two incidences is to somehow inspire you to pursue what God has put in your heart by taking some risks. Risks don’t always work out well; but after you pray and follow the Spirit’s prompting, step out…do the deal…choose the unknown…and watch the results!
www.realitychurch.com
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