Smarter Sheep

Tonight is the kickoff for our Geek Squad small group. The group name name is still pending and you can win a Apple Ipod Shuffle if you win the naming contest and show up at the barbecue tonight! If you have a couple name submissions for the group in mind make sure to post them in the comments to the previous post announcing the contest!

See you there!

Julie and I received some scary and concerning news from the doctors yesterday. When that happens, you tend to walk away wondering about the future, how this all turns out and your mind immediately starts in with the “what if” movies. These are the kind of mental movies you just can’t entertain and you should seriously walk out on.

“God is a safe place to hide, ready to help when we need him. We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom, courageous in seastorm and earthquake.” - Psalm 46

I’m truly thankful that we have a shepherd through the scary valleys regardless of what cliff edge we may be standing on…

Well, it happened… I turned the “big four O” on Friday.  It was a special day with the  whole 08-08-08  new beginning thing.  It was also amazing to look back as well as look forward and what God may have planned in the future.  I am truly blessed with an amazing wife and 4 children, an awesome church, incredible job and a relationship with Christ that continues to make me an expert in what its like to be forgiven after screwing up again and again.  During the week I considered some things that I will to do differently in the next 40 years:

1. Pray more, Worry less

2. Live more passionately, share Christ fearlessly

3. Love deeply, Laugh hysterically

4. Share more of myself with my wife and kids, sacrifice and serve relentlesly

5. Take myself less seriously, notice others needs more

6. Walk closer with my friends, listen when they are speaking

7. Reflect who God is, not who I wish him to be

8. Adjust my priorities to be eternal in nature

9. Read and study my Bible more, dig in and let it change me

10. Come to the rescue at all costs

Today wraps up a long week of Vacation Bible Experience for the kids here at Capital Christian. There have been hundreds of kids from the church as well as the community. I ran across the following passage in Ephesians chapter 5 of the Message Bible this morning:

Watch what God does, and then you do it, like little children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.

It’s all too easy to get caught up in everything going on and miss out on what God is doing in lives via his ability to simply love us for who we are.

Amazing video for the week

Found this great video on Ken Holsinger’s blog and just had to share it. Each of us have a story.

While reading in In exodus 36 this morning I was struck by the story of Moses summoning his “boys” to start skillfully building the temple of worship. The Israelites began bringing there offerings in morning after morning after for the building project. They brought so much stuff that the artisans working on the temple had to go to Moses and complain that there was way to much stuff coming in and that they couldn’t keep up. Now, these were skilled tradesman and they knew how to utilize everything coming in. Working as fast and skillfully as they could, they found that they couldn’t keep up with the inflow of gifts and offerings that the people were bringing to God for building of the new house. AMAZING… Moses finally had to send an email throughout the camp to tell the people to stop bringing stuff because there was already plenty of material for all of the work to be done….Enough and more than enough!

I wonder if my offerings have been enough? Have I given my time and my resources to the point that anyone has had to tell me to stop and give them a breather because they can’t keep up?

Life has hard questions..

• Am I willing to ask the hard questions?
• Have I made excuses on God’s behalf because I couldn’t answer the tough questions myself?
• What are some areas of my life that I don’t yet trust God in… especially because I couldn’t resolve a tough question.

I recently read through Brian McClaren’s “A New Kind of Christian” book and found it very thoughtful. I must admit that the book challenged many of my thinking patterns and the way that I handle my relationships. I may not have agreed with everything that Brian’s book is about, but i certainly caused me to take a deeper look at how modernism has affected my spiritual life and the relationships that I develop with others. I’ll be posting more my migration to a new version of me… since i’m still in beta.