Isn’t it interesting when you’re reading the Bible and you see something you haven’t noticed before?

That happened to me yesterday as I was reading Proverbs 31. Believe me, this is not the first time I’ve read this particular chapter – the one that most people look to to describe an ideal wife.

Here’s what I noticed:

Proverbs 31:1
The sayings of King Lemuel—an oracle his mother taught him: (emphasis added)

My first thought was “Isn’t that funny?! The chapter that we often use to describe an ideal wife and it was taught to him by his mother!” But then I reflected a little longer – in many cases a mother might be the best equipped to teach her sons how to look for a good wife.

Now I could certainly take this very short text and make it into “children honor your parents.” I could point out how we accept disobedience as being “strong willed” and how marketing to teens tries to separate them from the influence of their parents so that they’ll make bad decisions. I might even be right to do that. But today I’d like to go a different direction.

Parents teach your children

What makes this passage interesting to me is that King Lemuel’s mother was careful to teach him the things that were important. We need to be careful to do the same.

After all, having school teachers and Sunday school teachers is a good thing. And being one of those, I can say that we do our best to make sure that we’re teaching your children to love God and follow his commands. But I can make a much stronger case from Scripture about how parents should raise their children to love God and follow his commands.

I suspect that some parents might be concerned about teaching their children how to live because they’re worried about imprinting children with their “baggage.” I know that I am concerned that when I have children, they will be imprinted with my baggage. I can even say that I think it’s good to be concerned about that.

Sometimes it’s hard to separate our understanding of God and how to live in a way that honors him from how we were raised by our culture (or subculture). We sure don’t want to teach our children things that are wrong. But before we discard all of our potential baggage, I think it’s important to check through it to see if there are any hidden treasures.

Once we’ve found the treasures, we can discard the rest and focus on what is most important about what we’ve been taught.

How can we know?

It sounds simple enough, but mining for gold in the dirt of our cultural baggage can be difficult. It can only truly be accomplished in the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit as we search the Word of God.

How about you?

I’m still working through this as an intellectual exercise. Many of you have very practical experience and I’d love it if you’d share your experiences with me.

What treasures have you found in your baggage?
Do you have any secrets for how to search through all the cultural junk to find what is good and leads your children towards God?
Any other advice for a soon-to-be father?

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• Why Should Spouses be Good to Each Other?
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I don’t do a great job of maintaining relationships. I can talk a good game but in the end I do a much better job of maintaining distractions than I do in actually sharing my life with people. In fact, if I don’t see you on a regular basis there’s a good chance I won’t really do a good job of keeping up with you.

Most of my relationships are geographic

I seem to do the best job of maintaining relationships with those I see regularly. This works well with my wife, my colleagues at work, and my fellow parishioners. But it doesn’t work nearly as well with people who aren’t in my regular weekly routine. Because of that, I tend to focus on my relationships in this order:

1. God
2. My amazing wife
3. Friends and colleagues I see regularly
4. My parents
5. Everybody else

The problem with that is that far too many of my very close friends are ending up in the “Everybody else” category.

This is to my detriment because I’ve done a very poor job of keeping up with some close friends of mine. Those where we used to interact regularly but aren’t in my weekly circle any more. Some of them have been friends for years and have poured wisdom, spiritual insight, and love into my life. In fact one was the closest of my friends for several years and lives only a few miles away, yet we now have trouble even scheduling time to hang out. But it gets worse.

Even my brother rarely gets a phone call from me. I might read his blog and follow him on Twitter but that’s not the same as spending time with him or talking with him. That’s a huge loss for me because my brother is intelligent, spiritual, and reads a lot of books I haven’t had time to read.

The Gospel is relational

This problem in my life (and – dare I say it – our lives) is much bigger than not experiencing a particular relationship. It’s a huge problem because the Gospel is relational. Because God is relational. And if we’re not behaving relationally, we are not doing a very good job of living the Gospel.

There, I said it. Now, what can we do about it?

I’m trying to do better.

Over the past couple of months I’ve been much more intentional about scheduling time to get together with people. Some who have been friends for a long time. Some who are growing into a place of deeper friendship. But I sure have some room to grow.

So, if I haven’t done a good job of being a friend to you, I’m sorry. Please let me know and I’ll try to do better.

How about you?

How well are you maintaining your relationships?
Are you losing ground on any important relationships?
Do you have any suggestions for me?

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• There’s Too Much to Do
• 4 Things You Can do Every Day to Improve Your Spiritual Effectiveness
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I suspect we’d be hard pressed to find more than a handful of people in the US who don’t have too much to do. We all have responsibilities, goals, and aspirations. We all have relationships we want to maintain. We all have “time vampires” (some might call them addictions) that suck the time out of our schedules. And there are always unexpected events or difficulties.

I know that I certainly fall into the category of “those who have too much to do.” You probably do as well. So I’m constantly trying to make sure that I’m putting time into those things that are the most important to me. Well, really, it starts before that.

What’s important to God

I want to make sure that I’m investing my time and energy into what is important to God. After all, deep down, God is what is most important to me. Thank God (no pun intended) that he has let us know what is most important.

Mark 12:28-31

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (emphasis added)

Because God has made this so plain, I try to invest my life in loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love my neighbor as myself. Of course, that’s easy to say, right?

How I live it

In fact, it’s quite easy to say that I should “invest my life in loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength…” but it’s a completely different matter to live it. Living our faith based on the word of God requires that we have the wisdom and the power of the Holy Spirit working actively in our lives. He helps us to understand what this looks like in our lives.

Because, outside of God, I am fundamentally flawed, I do my best to schedule my days so that the things that are most important to God are non-negotiable parts of my week. After much prayer, I have decided to put these things into my weeks first.

• I spend time in the Bible and in prayer (almost) every morning because I want to give God space to work in my life
• I am careful to give some quality time to my wife and marriage every day because I want to nurture that relationship
• I try to take care of my body because God gave it to me
• I am teaching a class for young boys at church because I want them to know about Jesus
• I intentionally invest time growing face-to-face relationships because I can’t love people I don’t know
• I work because God has commanded it and it glorifies him
• I blog because I want to glorify God

With a list that short, there are some things that don’t regularly make the cut. Some things that have been deprioritized for right now. They are things to which I’d love to give more time. But I only have the time I have. And maybe when I get better at killing the “time vampires” in my life I’ll be able to get to them.

Do I even mess this up?

Absolutely. There are days and sometimes even weeks when I get my priorities out of whack. When I invest my time poorly. When I get distracted and lose focus. There are times when I just get it all messed up.

But there are other times when I intentionally set down or drop a ball. There are times when I make a trade-off in my priorities to accomplish a goal. Or when something lower on the priority list gets bumped for what is more important.

For example, it’s been two weeks since I’ve posted to my blog. I want to do better than that. If my blog were my primary focus, I would have to do better than that. But for the past couple of weeks I’ve had more opportunities to invest in face-to-face relationships. And in taking advantage of those opportunities, I haven’t maintained my blog well.

I hope to do better than that in the future.

How about you?

What things are most important to you?
How do you make trade-offs?
What do you wish you did better?

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• Be Excellent to Each Other
• The Starting Place
• Take it up

God is looking for worshipers who will worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:25). Imagine the kind of life you would live if you truly worshiped God whole-heartedly (and with your whole life), passionately engaged in the truth and grace of God, pursuing the enjoyment of his glory! Imagine the joy you would have in God.

I can scarcely imagine what my life would look like if I truly lived my faith. If I truly pursued the knowledge of God. If my heart were always engaged.

Lord, help me to better:

Think deeply

Love passionately

Serve selflessly

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• All We Need is…
• Be Excellent to Each Other
• Poverty of Faith Leads to Blessing

I’m running a little late this week. I’d planned to post this Thursday Thought yesterday but it just didn’t happen. OK – it could have happened but I didn’t do it.

What motivates you?

I’ve been thinking lately about motivation. I’ve been wondering why I do what I do and why I don’t do the rest. For some things, there is an obvious reason – I was unable, I made a decision about priority, and so on. But even that doesn’t get me to the root.

I’ve been wondering about the subconscious spiritual, emotional, and relational reasons why I do what I do. As I see it, there are likely three reasons why I do what I do. If you have more suggestions, I welcome your input.

1. I want some positive thing
2. I want to avoid some negative thing
3. I’ve developed a habit and do it because “that’s what I do”

My big concern

What concerns me most is that I think I’m more often motivated by consequence avoidance than I am by receiving a benefit. For example, I pay my taxes because 1) it’s what I do, and 2) I don’t want to pay a fine or go to jail

While both of these are real motivations, I don’t find myself paying taxes because I see the benefit of doing it (healthcare is a popular topic of discussion recently), but because I want to avoid the consequence of not paying my taxes.

Two sides of the same coin?

Now, in some instances it can certainly be said that this consequence avoidance and desire for a benefit are two sides of the same coin. And they sure play out the same. But in terms of motivation, I’m not so sure. One is negative and the other positive.

One is inspiration. The other is fear.
One is running towards. The other is running away.

In that arena, it’s been my experience that desire for a benefit is a stronger and longer-lasting motivation. Sure, consequence avoidance works quickly to modify behavior. But not so much in terms of long-lasting motivation. And beyond that, one speaks of a desire to accomplish or attain while the other to avoid. One speaks of a love for God and a desire for one-ness with him while the other is simply “hell insurance.”

Am I pimping God?

Yeah, that’s what really brought this on. As I think through my relationship with God, I often find myself more concerned with avoiding discipline and not wanting to make him mad than I do with really building my relationship with him and becoming more like him.

That’s a problem.

Oh, that I were more motivated by a deep and abiding love for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That my desire for him overshadowed any fear that might be some other motivation. That I more completely understood God and his immeasurable glory.

How about you?

What do you find to be your strongest motivation?
How do you pursue benefits rather than avoid consequences?
Do you have any suggestions for me?

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Facilitating Communications

One of the most difficult things in nearly any group is communication. Whether a marriage or a country, communication is tough. I don’t know about your church, but at ours (I’m not a pastor but I am in leadership), communication is tough.

We have difficulty making sure everybody is aware of upcoming events. It’s sometimes hard to cast vision. And we aren’t always aware of the needs in the congregation.

Note: As we look at open communication, don’t forget that there are some things that should be kept private. Don’t let the ease of communication on social media push you into inappropriate territory.

Here are just a few ideas on how electronic social media might help facilitate communication (that’s really what it does best). Add your suggestions in the comments.

• Make your church bulletin into an email
  Mail Chimp, for example, offers free service to Churches and other non-profits.

  Their program will manage your email address lists, help you design your emails, track reader response and even integrate with Facebook, Twitter, and Google.

  Don’t let anybody fool you. Email is the your largest social network. And it’s the most open social network.

  (Thanks to Mark Entzminger (@MarkEntzminger) for this find)

• Send important updates and reminders by Twitter
  I think of Twitter as SMS conversation, quotes, and headlines. People share wisdom (or what they think might be wisdom), news, dialog about it. The beauty of it is that users can choose whether to get updates from a particular user as a text message on their cell phones.

  Think about it for a second – if you are willing to only send updates about the things your congregation is interested in, your Church has a free reminder system for anybody who wants to sign up. Simply create a Twitter account and then encourage your people to “text: follow [your username] to 40404.”

  Certainly, you might want to explain what’s going on. But it’s really simple. It gives you the ability to send short messages via free text and each person is still in control of whether they get a text message.

• Casting Vision and Teaching
  Much of the job of a spiritual leader is to encourage others to engage their entire lives in God. Leaders certainly serve in practical, hands-on ways. But leaders also must teach, cast vision, and encourage others gladly seek after the glory of God.

  Blogs make a great addition for a church or pastor. But I’d encourage you not to simply reprint Sunday’s sermon. Rather, use a blog for additional teaching, for added depth, or to encourage people to think deeply.

  In my opinion, the best use of a blog and a related Twitter account (set up for this purpose) is as an extension of the Sunday sermon. To keep it in the hearts and minds of the parishioners for an entire week so that it becomes deeply planted in their hearts.

  Here’s just one example of how I might see this fleshed out. (Have more suggestions? Put them in the comments.)

  Sunday Sermon: The Prodigal Son
  Tuesday Blog: Deeper discussion of the characters in the story – the two sons and the Father (with Twitter notification).
  Thursday Twitter: Ask the question: Who do you relate to – older son, prodigal son, or father? (with link to Tuesday’s blog)
  Friday Music: Find a great piece of music on YouTube (or other music source), post it on your blog with a short write-up, and send out a Tweet.

Building Relationships

Again, electronic social media is no substitute for the deep relationships that come from sharing your life with others over the course of years. But there are some ways it can help build relationships. I’ll go on to those in a minute. But before I do that, I’d say that if many of your parishioners are on a particular social site (Facebook is popular at our church right now), that is where you should probably focus your initial relationship-building.

• Getting to know you
  Social websites such as Facebook create an interesting phenomenon that isn’t really possible in “real life.” It’s possible to keep relationships somewhat at a distance. While this is not good in terms of developing lasting relationships, it does give somebody who is a little gun-shy the opportunity to warm up to you.

  While I know that you are wonderful, there are some people who have been hurt. And very often, those people need a chance to know that you’re trustworthy and gentle before they can open their hearts and lives to you. Electronic social media can give them that chance.

  (Thanks Scott Asher (@epecho) for this insight.)

• Knowing more
  People often post pictures of recent events on social websites. They might make a comment about what’s going on in their lives. They may update their status to say “I just burned 2,000 calories on Wii Fit.”

  And then when you see them next, you might have the chance to say, “Congratulations! You totally rocked it out on the Wii Fit last week.” Of course, catching the occasional note or status update might also give you the chance to say, “Hey brother, sounds like you’re going through a rough time. I’d love to be there for you. Can we get together?”

There are more

Obviously, this list is not all-inclusive. I haven’t even talked about Tweeting Bible verses, making videos, or posting the audio of your sermons online.

What about you?
Do you think any of these ideas might help you?
What ideas do you have? Would you share them with me?
How can we use electronic media to grow in God’s grace?

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• You Can’t Have Fondue on Facebook
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I know that I do this often. Lord, help me to have a right perspective and heart in my life.

How often I think my priorities are more important than what God is doing! (Oh…I’m sure I could justify my “stuff” if I wanted to. But what’s the point – I can’t justify myself!). How often I look at my earthly wealth (such as it is) and think to myself, “I’m doing pretty well.”

The truth is, I am still living as though I am poor in the places that matter most. While God has given me a glorious inheritance in himself and in the saints, I fail to take hold of it. Lord, help me to have a right motivation and to take action.

What does the Bible say?

Matthew 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Revelation 3:17 182
You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

How about you?

How’s your perspective?
Has God reset anything in your life lately?
Anything you’d like to share or add?

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• Business is Calling
• The Distribution of Wealth – 1 of 2
• The Distribution of Wealth – 2 of 2

Poverty is more than money.

For some of us, that might be a novel thought.

Poverty is about broken relationships

As citizens of one of the most financially affluent cultures of our time, I believe that we almost categorically understand poverty as a lack of “stuff” or the resources to have “stuff”.

But poverty goes much further than this – poverty is the expression of broken relationships:

• Relationship with God
• Relationship with ourselves
• Relationships with each other
• Relationships with creation/nature

Poverty’s message

Because it’s about broken relationships, poverty attacks our value as people, our very humanity as souls created in the image of God. Poverty says to us:

• You’re not good enough. God doesn’t care about you.
• You’re not important enough so it doesn’t matter what you do.
• You have to look out for yourself even if you must take advantage of others.
• Don’t worry about it, you don’t have to take care of the earth.
• You can’t ever provide for your needs. Don’t even try.
• Whatever happens is just fate.
• It’ll never get better, so just fill your life with diversions.

Taking a look

It’s easy enough to see these kinds of things as it relates to material poverty. We have certainly seen enough movies to at least know the stereotypes of poverty, learned helplessness, and hopelessness. I’m sure nearly everybody has at least heard a story about some very poor person receiving financial or food aid while maintaining several hundred channels of TV with Pay-per-View.

But here’s the deal: we all do this. Maybe not with finances. Maybe our toys and diversions and coping mechanisms are more refined and more easily-defensible in terms of living on earth. But they fall amazingly short of the mark in light of the eternal treasure that is God, himself.

How about you?

I know I often walk a life sticken by spiritual poverty even though God has already given me everything – himself.

How about you?

Do you see this in your life?
How about the lives of those around you?
What are you going to do about it?
Can you see how recognizing your poverty can lead to blessing?

Matthew 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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• Americans Give More to Charity
• Where is Your Wealth?
• We Traded Our Future For…

• Read the Bible
• Spend time in Prayer and Worship
• Spend time with other followers of Jesus
• Share your faith and Serve others

If you’ve never read the entire Bible, I would recommend that you do it this year. I’m reading through the Bible on YouVersion.com this year. For the plan I’m using, click here. It’ll get you through the Bible in a year (if you follow it) and has some “grace space” built in so that if you miss a day, you can catch up.

That said, if you haven’t spent any time in the Bible today, consider meditating on the passage below. Ask God what he’s saying and how you can be a part of his plan.

Matthew 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Lord, God, may you grant us the grace to see our own poverty – in resource, in belief, in grace, and in humility – so that we may exchange it for the treasure that is you.

Until next time…

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• Luke 3:4-14
• 4 Things You Can do Every Day to Improve Your Spiritual Effectiveness
• What’s Your Resloution?

Sure, we should plan and set goals. We should know that we can do good things but keep in mind that God and his will are all that really matter. Anything we do that God isn’t doing through us or in us will fade away. Everything beautiful. Everything ugly. Everything novel, noble, and banal. Maybe within centuries. Maybe within moments.

An example – Detroit

Note:
The example from Detroit is just one of many that I could have chosen. I’m not picking on Detroit or trying to tie the decay of Detroit’s architectural beauty to any particular sin or spiritual issue. Rather, it’s just one example of how things happen in the systems of the world. There are many others.

Detroit’s fading beauty is just one example showing how quickly our work can fade into nothing. How anything based on something so fickle as an economy or that requires upkeep can so quickly pass from order and beauty to disarray.

Nearly a third of Detroit’s homes are vacant, and along with the residences, the city’s stately hotels and cultural centers have been abandoned as well, falling into dramatic disrepair, their grand ruins still showing the promises of a once-booming city.

via socialmedian: The Grandiose Decay of Abandoned Detroit [Modern Ruins].

What to do?

Colossians 3:1-5
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

How about you?

What will your life’s work look like when you’re gone?
How confident are you that what you’re working on will last?
How does it make you feel to know that your work might not matter?
What do you plan to change to make sure that your labor is not in vain?

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• Christ is Always With Us
• What if God Was One of Us
• Be Encouraged

Here are the questions

Do you have any New Years’ Resolutions?
Do you want to actually accomplish them?
Do you have a strategy for higher productivity?
Do you know how to accomplish the things that are most important to you?

Here’s a resource for you

Bottom Line Secrets has a great article that reveals the secrets some use to accomplish more than other people. Secrets such as:

• Apply the 80/20 rule to everything
• Using your “hour of power”

Continue reading to discover more secrets that will help you retain focus, gain more productivity, and delegate more effectively.

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• What’s Your Resloution?
• The Greatest in the Kingdom
• 4 Things You Can do Every Day to Improve Your Spiritual Effectiveness

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• How do I protect you?
• Social Media and Ministry
• Luke 3:4-14

It’s the last day of 2009, so it’s required that every blogger reference New Years‘ Resolutions, right?

Let’s Look Back

Before we begin looking forward, let’s take a look at last year. In fact, it might be good to take a minute to write down the answers to these questions?

Do you remember your resolutions from last year?
If so, what were your resolutions?
Did you accomplish all of your goals?
Most of them?
Any of them?
Any accomplishments you are particularly proud of? – Why not share those in the comments section?

Let’s Look Forward

Now that we’ve looked at our goals from last year, I’d like to start looking forward. How do you envision your year? What would you like to change? What would you like to do better? What would you like to know better?

So often we think in terms of “accomplishments” and “goals.” Maybe this year it would be better to think of what kind of person we would like to be or what kind of life we would like to live rather than what thing we would like to accomplish.

Spend a minute (or maybe several hours) with God in the Bible and in prayer asking him to help you see how he would like you to answer the questions below:

What should be your priorities this year? (family, job, church, etc.)
What things would he like to see change in your life?
Do you see any needs that God would have you meet?
What kind of person would God like you to be?

Suggestions

If you’re not coming up with anything, I can recommend the following to get you started:

Ask somebody who has walked with God longer for suggestions.
Consider spending more time reading the Bible and in prayer.
Look around you for needs and ask God if he would like you to serve in those areas.

Let’s Plan

Now that we have a general understanding of the changes and priorities for the year to come, we can get started making goals. But I think we should make our goals differently than many of us have in the past.

It’s common to see people say things like “My resolution is to lose 250 lbs this year (I know the amount is bordering ludicrous but the principle applies)” or “I resolve to never lose my temper again.” These are good goals but I think there is a better approach.

As you look over your changes and priorities – your vision for the future, ask yourself the following two questions:

• What one action will most help me meet my vision?
• What am I willing to commit to meeting my vision?

Seriously, ask yourself those questions. Let’s look at an example:

Let’s say that my goal for 2010 is to read through the Bible. It’s easy to say “I resolve to read through the Bible in 2010.” But I believe it is better to say to myself – “If I read five chapters a day, six days a week, I will finish the whole Bible in less than a year,” which makes it much easier to actually read through the Bible. (Of course, there are other Bible reading plans out there – using one of them is good too.

Here’s another way to look at it that has nothing to do with New Years’ Resolutions: If my ultimate goal is to drive from Nashville, TN to Birmingham, AL in 3 hours, I know that I must do three things (big picture).

• Travel on I-65 South (get on it and stay on it)
• Travel at least 55 miles per hour on average
• Stay within the speed limit so that I don’t get a ticket

Simple, huh?

The Point

Set your goals to be the consistent implementation of actions designed to achieve our long term priorities. This makes it easier to understand, implement, and track the things that will ultimately lead to our goals.

In closing

Do you have any priorities or goals you’d like to share?
What actions can you consistently take to ensure you meet your long term goals?
What do you think of making those actions your goals for this year?
Have you considered making somebody else a part of your planning process?

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• How to Accomplish More in the New Year
• Sidetracked Without Goals
• Poverty of Faith Leads to Blessing

Let’s take a little time to meditate on that today. Let’s take some time to be aware of his presence in our lives.

A prayer to get started:

Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate, born of a virgin and crucified for our sins so that we might be in perfect relationship with God, with each other, and with all of creation, help us to be aware of your constant presence in our lives today and this week. In our difficulties, remind us that you are our strength. In our celebrations and joy, remind us that you are the source of all joy. In our loneliness, remind us that we are never truly alone.

God’s presence is a wonderful thing for a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. God is the source of our hope (Psalm 62:5), our joy (Psalm 16:11), our faith, and our peace (Isaiah 26:3). His presence is the consummation of all beauty and logic and wisdom. It is our strength ever-present in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1).

Are we Aware?

Really – are we aware of God’s presence in our lives? Are we looking for him? If angels appeared from on high and proclaimed his presence to us, would we even notice?

I can honestly say that I am very often not looking for him. I know he’s there but I’m not really pursuing him. He’s part of my life but I don’t often actively invite him to be so.

Rather I quickly cloud my heart and mind from God’s presence in my life. I fill my life with novelties, trinkets, and pursuits so that I am insulated from how empty and dull and banal and impotent my life really is. I insulate myself from the pain and humanity which constantly surround me. I so quickly forget that I am surrounded by souls created in the image of God Almighty.

And all the while God calls me to come to him, to leave behind my empty pursuits, to stop isolating myself from others, and to follow him into all joy – joy that only he can offer.

Our Response

Join me as I invite God to be part of my “every” day. Let’s lay aside our vain pursuit of empty pleasures and find our joy in Christ alone. Let’s take our difficulties and problems and pains to him so that we can be aware of his beautiful presence even in the middle of our troubles.

How about you?
Is there something that you do (or can do) that helps you re-center your life on Jesus?
Is there something that is distracting you right now? How can you invite Jesus into it?

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• Prayer for June 5, 2009
• The Lillies
• Christmas Reminds us that Jesus will Return

It’s Christmas and it’s time to be challenged.

This is a great article by Jonathan Pearson.  Check out the excerpt below.

Luke 2:17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,

The shepherds had just witnessed the most amazing event in human history.Nothing in the course of human history had been as important as seeing Christ…nothing has been as important since.Notice the shepherds’ response to the situation…..

via What’s Your Response? | JonathanPearson.net.

Continue reading to find out how Jonathan challenges us.

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• Heritage
• Understand Yourself
• Audiobooks Save Time

Sometimes life is a struggle. Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do – things that are painful or unfulfilling. Sometimes we have to endure things that are painful or unfulfilling. Sometimes we have to overcome adversity, difficulty, and pain. Sometimes life is a struggle.

In those times it’s easy to lose focus – to forget why we’re struggling. Or to lose heart in working towards a goal. Sometimes life is so painful it just takes our breath away and we just can’t seem to find any answers or to move on.

Pain, difficulty, and adversity are part of life. I sometimes think I understand why they are but as I get older I understand more and more that I understand very little. That said, I do know this much – there are struggles in life and there is a secret to triumphing over pain, adversity, and difficulty.

Think about your life – are there any difficult times right now? Are there any that you remember?

Others have found the secret

The apostle Paul, a man who certainly knew adversity writes, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” (Philipians 4:12, emphasis added). What was this secret?

Focus on the goal

Jesus was able to endure terrible torture, being obedient to God the Father even to death on a cross for one simple reason: he understood the goal – the joy that was set before him (Hebrews 12:2)

Recognize the situation

I think we can find Paul’s answer just a few verses before in his instructions to the Philipian church:

Philipans 4:4-7
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Paul was able to rejoice in the Lord – to be joyful – because he understood that God was near. I don’t think for a minute that Paul was asking the Philipan church to make themselves say rejoicing things to convince themselves (or to convince God) that everything was going to be OK. Rather, he was pointing out that God was there with them and that they could rejoice that he was present in their lives in the middle of everything.

Control your thinking

Philipians 4:8,9
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Here’s the secret

Here’s the secret of the ages plainly revealed throughout history – we can overcome adversity when we are able to delight in God and in the things of God in and through every situation, knowing that he is with us and we will be with him.

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• What to do When it Hurts
• Christ is Always With Us
• Spouses Be Good to Each Other

This Advent, as I’ve been remembering Christ’s incarnation, and looking forward to his second coming, I’ve been drawn to the story of the Magi (wise men). Let’s take a look this small passage and ask ourselves some questions:

• Why did Matthew concern himself with the story of the Magi (why is it in the Bible)?
• Can I relate to the Magi? Am I looking for a king?
• Am I aware of the times and seasons?
• Do I have an expectation of Christ’s return?
• What is my response to God’s word in prayer and action?
• Is there somebody I can share this with?

The Word of God

Matthew 2:1,2

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”

Our Response

So, how about it? The Bible is God’s word to mankind. Here’s your chance to respond to it. (Comments, questions, answers, and suggestions are welcome.)

Why did Matthew concern himself with the story of the Magi (why is it in the Bible)?
Can I relate to the Magi? Am I looking for a king?
Am I aware of the times and seasons?
Do I have an expectation of Christ’s return?
What is my response to God’s word in prayer and action?
Is there somebody I can share this with?

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• Luke 3:4-14
• Christ is Always With Us
• 4 Things You Can do Every Day to Improve Your Spiritual Effectiveness

John 1:14,15
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ “

Full of grace and truth

Full of grace and truth
Full of grace and truth
Full of grace and truth
Full of grace and truth

When Jesus came, he was full of grace and truth. Truth calls sin what it is. Grace extends mercy and calls us to live better.

What does this say to our society? What does it say to us?
How can we best take the example of John and proclaim this Jesus?

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• The Starting Place
• Amazing Grace
• What if God Was One of Us

I found a great article on Swerve. It made me think a little bit about how we often understand “excellence” and “effectiveness” as a destination or product rather than a byproduct of how we’re doing what we do and how we measure ourselves by what we see around us.

For example, I have a friend who’s a drummer at another church.  All of their worship leaders are not only worship leaders at the church but are also professional recording artists.  When he auditioned (yes – auditioned) to be on their worship team, there were several other drummers who couldn’t keep up.

But here’s the deal – nearly anywhere besides Nashville, these other drummers would have been a shoe-in as a church drummer.  Even at many other churches in Nashville. That’s a “relative baseline” that is very high.

What’s most important

In terms of excellence and effectiveness, we need to understand what is most important for us to do.  We must take stock of where our “relative  baseline” has been set.  And we also need to understand how to find our “sweet spot” in terms of excellence and effectiveness.

Otherwise we can reach a point where we’ve committed so many resources that we’re not longer actually effective.  We can invest disproportionate resources for small incremental changes in excellence that are no longer relevant to what is most important.

How good is good enough?

If I gave you $100,000, could you make your house or apartment excellent? I imagine that with some careful investments in furniture, paint, etc you could probably do it. If I then gave you another $500,000, could you make it more excellent? How about $5 million? You get the point.

via Worth Revisiting: Excellence/Effectiveness – LifeChurch.tv : swerve.

What do you think?

How much does excellence cost?
How much should it cost?
How good is good enough?

Let me know what you think.

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• There’s Too Much to Do
• What’s Your Resloution?
• Heritage

How is your online social life?

Seriously, how are you doing? What are you doing?

Do you have a lot of friends? Do you invest a lot of time building relationships that mean something? Do you invest in relationships with people you actually know? Are you looking for followers or friendships? Are you hiding in the anonymity of being just another name on somebody’s friend list? Do you judge what kind of friend you are by the number of people who follow you on Twitter?

Electronic social media is a wonderful thing – or at least it can be. It can help us reconnect with old friends and classmates. It can make the miles between us seem fewer. We can feel less separate.

Social media is good for

• Sharing pictures of a child’s graduation or Christmas special
• Keeping up with what’s going on in the lives of our friends
• Sharing quotes and cool stuff we’ve found online
• Giving an “atta-boy” to a friend who is doing well
• Sending our condolences when things don’t work out
• Setting up a Christmas party with friends

In short – electronic social media can help us share information – and some of the emotions that go with that.

There are some things social media can’t do

• Social media will never replace actually showing up for a Christmas party.
• Sending your condolences isn’t the same as being able to hug a friend who’s going through a rough time, looking them in the eye, and telling them that you care.
• You’ll never be part of the experiences your friends are writing about if you don’t show up
• Social media doesn’t teach us how to work through difficulties to preserve a relationship.
• Tweeting an “atta-boy” isn’t the same as giving a friend a “high-five”.

In a nutshell, electronic social media can enhance our relationships but it will never really replace anything that requires proximity. And we do ourselves a disservice if we think that it can replace real touch, sight, and sound. We end up isolated, eating our microwave dinners alone in a dark room lit only by the glow of a TV or computer screen.

And we never realize how alone we really are because we feel like we’re surrounded by a couple hundred friends we never actually see or share a meal with.

How about you?

When was the last time you shared life with somebody?

What are you going to do about it?
How can you use social media to enhance, rather than replace your real life.

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• Social Media and Ministry
• Looking for e-Lationship
• How Well do You Maintain Relationships?