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Archive for the ‘Missions’ Category

Father, Mold Me

Posted in Formation, Grace, Leadership, Missions on February 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This morning I spent some time looking back through Brian McClaren’s book, Finding Our Way Again.  The book deals with regaining a sense of the contemplative life – the life that spends time in the interior aspects of our being.  McClaren does a great job reminding us that our focus on our relationship with God is not an end in and of itself – our relationship with God serves as the platform from which God affects the world.  At the close of one of the chapters I had written this prayer in a blank spot on the page – it is my prayer today and I hope it could be your prayer too.

Father – I am utterly inadequate to be an apostle.  Mold me through your word, your touch, your community – into one empowered by your Spirit – committed to making a difference around me in my world.  Not only in the lives of my family and friends but also in the lives of strangers – even in the lives of enemies!  An apostle!

Amen

Be blessed today!

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On The Verge of Death

Posted in Community, Hope, Missions, Motivational on February 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

On the way to the office today, a song was playing on the radio that has stayed with me.  The song is by Kris Allen titled, Live Like We’re Dying.  Not to be confused with Tim McGraw’s song, Live Like You Are Dying – both songs have much of the same emphasis of making the most of our time on earth.   If you knew you had only 3 days to live, would it change you the way you live right now?

What caught my ear is the chorus of Kris’s song.  The words remind us that we only have 86,400 seconds in each day to turn the world around or to throw it all away.  It’s our choice.  Kris urges us to tell people that we love them and make a difference in the world around us while we have the chance.

The point is this: we should live each day as if we were on the verge of death.

So here is my challenge for you:  What are you going to do, today, with your 86,400 seconds of life God has given you.  Will you be selfish or will you spend some of those seconds showing God’s hope and love – making the world a better place?

Live like you are dying!

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Seventh Grade Lesson on Passion

Posted in Church, Hope, Missions on January 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I have said this before, but Kristi and I have been blessed with three amazing sons!  Our youngest sang this past Saturday in Lubbock as part of the middle school all-region choir (8th chair first tenor).  I sat and beamed with pride as our son stood on the front row of those risers, singing with the rest of the “best of the best” from the schools in this area.  They did an incredible job.

We have been to a multitude of choir concerts as parents, but this one was different.  There was a noticeable focus in each of the choir members.  Each one was there because he or she wanted to be and the result was inspirational.

It got me to thinking – what if church could be like that?  What would your church look like if everyone who attended this coming Sunday, was there to praise God and to learn how to follow Jesus more passionately?  What would your community look like if everyone who attends your church on Sunday were on fire for God during the week?

You may be thinking, “That is a nice dream but it will never happen.”

I want to leave you with one question:

“Why not?”

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Missionary Passion

Posted in Missions on January 11, 2010| 1 Comment »

I have the unique opportunity to be in El Paso, Texas, today, meeting with a number of local pastors about their respective ministries.  God has blessed me over the past eight years by allowing me to build relationships with men and women who are living their lives in service to God, ministering to some of the forgotten of society.  One such person is Adan Medina.  He ministers to people in the projects on the west side of El Paso.  He is a pastor and mission coordinator who serves tirelessly in this area.

When I talk to Adan, I am inspired to strive harder to become all God wants me to be.  He has such a passion for what he is doing that it excites me.  Have you ever encountered anyone like Adan.  Maybe a better question would be, does our passion for serving God inspire others?

Stop today and think about how God has blessed you and how God’s love for you should lead you to love others.  Then find a way to show that love today.

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Counter-Culturally Relevant

Posted in Church, Community, Missions on December 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Yesterday, the topic of discussion was centered around the attitude we have toward reaching people with God’s message of love and hope.  Today, I want to pick up the discussion with our attitude toward how we go about reaching people.

One of the catch phrases today is “culturally relevant.”  I must admit, I am a big proponent of a church being culturally relevant in the sense that church needs to meet people where they are and be able to meet relevant, real life, real time issues we all face on a daily basis.  Unfortunately, all too often, in an attempt to be culturally relevant, churches focus their attention on superficial things trying to appeal to those outside the church.  What can happen is a move to entertainment as opposed to worship.  I have touched on this issue before – you can read that post here.

When we look at the life and ministry of Jesus we find that much of what he did was counter-cultural.  He came and taught us to love our enemies, not try and hurt them.  He taught that we should live humbly, putting others’ interests before our own, not to live seeking to get ahead.  He taught not that seeing is believing but rather that believing should be enough.  The things Jesus taught and modeled did not fit the culture of his day – nor the culture our today either.

So what do we do with this?  Is striving to be culturally relevant important?  Or should we work at being counter cultural?  Do you see the tension?

I think we need both.  The age-old task of the church has always been to take timeless, counter-cultural truth and present it to current generations in relevant ways and with relevant, meaningful application.

The key is to present the Gospel message without losing the message of the Gospel.

So how will you be counter-culturally relevant today?

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Take It To Them or Stick It To Them

Posted in Community, Formation, Missions on December 21, 2009| 1 Comment »

There is always big talk in church circles about being culturally relevant.  The question normally surfaces at some point in the conversation (in some form or other), “Why would people come to XYZ Church if it is not appealing?”  Regrettably, many churches have become more of a production than a worship service.

I want to talk more about that issue tomorrow.  But for today, I want us to think about something more foundational than this issue.  And it has everything to do with this current season – the season of Advent – Christmas.

We must never forget that God chose to strip away all glory and majesty, and enter into this world as a lowly peasant.  Entering with no triumphal entry or big parade, but rather quietly in the backstreets of a little town, in a relatively insignificant country.

The model that has been given to us is that we should take the message of the Good News to the people.  It may be uncomfortable.  It may cost us something.  But we are tasked with sharing the Good News of God’s love  by taking it to them where people live.

However, through the years we have adopted a different mentality – we want people to come to us, take up our likes and dislikes, become like us so that they can receive the Good News.  In other words, we have taken the position that our comfort and our security is more important than telling the world that God wants a relationship with them.

Here is my question for you to ponder today, and I would love to hear your feedback:  Do you have a “take it to them” attitude or a “stick it to them” attitude?

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I’m Going to Jail

Posted in Community, Hope, Missions on November 30, 2009| Leave a Comment »

At the risk of seeming self-serving, I have a request for you today.  I promise, it is not for me.  And I also promise that this platform is not designed to push an agenda save that of the honest and transparent sharing of the spiritual life together.

But please indulge this exception today.  I am going to jail!

OK, not a real jail – but I am being arrested this morning as part of an MDA program to raise awareness and funds to fight Muscular Dystrophy.  You can learn more about the program and even donate by clicking here.

Again, I do not plan to make a habit of using this avenue to push any agenda but I do believe as followers of the Way, we have a calling to try and make a difference in any positive way we can.  So I am asking you to go to my MDA home page through the link above to learn more.  Pray about how you might get involved in this or any other worthy cause to further the hope of Christ in a hurting world.

Blessings to you today!

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It’s Up to You and Me

Posted in Hope, Missions on November 30, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I received a donation request, as I do every year, from the American Bible Society last week.  As I read through the letter, the opening statement caught my attention.  Now most of you might be thinking, “It is a request for money, good marketing would tell you the opening statement should catch your attention.”  And that is true.

But here is how the opening statement read, “More than 2,000 years ago, an angel proclaimed Christ’s birth.  Now it’s up to you and me . . .”

Let that sink in for a minute.  What if the proclamation of Jesus and the rescue he offers was completely up to you?  What if the only way people were able to hear the good news that there is hope for them in all circumstances was for you to tell them.

Well, in a very real and significant way, it is!  I have said on many occasions that if the plan to redeem the world had been left up to me, I am not sure I would have entrusted that important of a task to humans.  But that is exactly what God has done.

It’s not marketing – its living a life that reflects Jesus.  The Christ has come!  He is with us today!  Shout it from the roof tops!

Live today as Jesus.

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Now That’s Living

Posted in Formation, Hope, Missions, Motivational on November 24, 2009| 2 Comments »

You don’t hear it much any more, but growing up I remember hearing the phrase, “Now that’s living!”  It usually followed an experience of excitement or joy.  It conjured up the idea that someone had “made it” and now they were all set – really living.

Yesterday we began to look at what it means to be in the world but not of the world.  There is no doubt in scripture that God’s people are to be in the world but there is also an idea of being set apart.  So how do we do that?  The first thing you need to remember is that it is a journey toward a goal.  You will have days where you do very well and then you will have days when – well, not so much.  But that is life.  The key is to stay focused.

This past summer we were at the beach in California as a family.  It was awesome – the tallest surf they had had in years.  But with the incredible waves came an extremely strong current.  We got out and body surfed on the waves – riding a wave into shore and then fighting our way back out to deeper water to catch the next one.  What happened with each wave is that we got carried further and further down the beach.  But we were having fun and living life and just taking it as it came.  After about 20 minutes of that, I realized we were 1/4 mile away from where we started.  Because of our lack of attention to what was happening, we were carried away from where we should have been.

The same is true in life.  If we are to be in the world without being of the world, we have to be focused on the goal of living for Jesus.  We cannot take life as it comes and disconnect.  We have to stay engaged in our relationship with Christ.  But how?  Here are a couple of things to work on:

1.  Stay committed to your personal time with God – Prayer and Bible reading will keep you grounded

2.  Stay connected with your faith community – We all need each other to stay focused

3.  Find someone to hold you accountable – God designed us to need one another

Remember that Jesus commands us to be salt in a tasteless world.  But if we become so diluted by the world, we lose our effectiveness and become useless for the kingdom.

We are called to be light in the darkness.  We are called to show hope when everyone else is in despair.  We are to show love to those who don’t even know what the word really means.  There is nothing more relevant than that.

Now that’s really living!

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In The World

Posted in Formation, Missions on November 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Today (and tomorrow) I want to deal with one of the questions I received last week.  The question was, how to live in the world without being part of it.  I have been thinking about this for a couple of days now.  Today I want to focus on the importance of living this way.  Tomorrow we will look more into some suggestions as to how to do it.

The best place to start when trying to determine how to live is to look at the life and teachings of Jesus.  If you read the stories about Jesus in the Bible, it doesn’t take long to get the picture that Jesus did not come to earth to hang out with the church folks.  He grew up learning and studying the Hebrew scripture – in fact, even at 12, he understood it as well as anyone.  So he did not live as one ignorant of the religious tradition and the truth of the Jewish faith.  But understanding the law of God, he chose to live among the less desirables anyway (or more probably, because of it).  He partied with tax collectors and had open conversations with prostitutes.  He was definitely in the world!  But the impact he had was directly related to his counter-culture approach.  He brought the love of God to life in their lives – before their very eyes.

Matthew 5:13 records Jesus’ very words when he told his followers (and us) to be salt in the world.  He tells us that we are in the world for a purpose – to season it.  I am not a big salt eater but I do like it on several things.  If we have french fries at home, the salt will certainly be on the table.  But if the salt is left in the shaker sitting next to the plate, it doesn’t really make much of an impact on the taste of my fries.  In order to make a difference, it has to be poured out on the fries and mixed in.

Jesus never intended us to live in isolation – in our little shakers – and not come into contact with the world.  He intends for us to mix it up – to jump right in and get involved with people’s lives.  Is this risky?  Is it dangerous?  Sure!  But Jesus never asked us to play it safe.  Tomorrow we will look at the dangers a little closer and then offer some practical steps on how to do this, but for today . . .

GET OUT OF THE SHAKER AND MIX IT UP – TODAY!

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