One Life, One Lifetime

Saturday night I stood near the bedside of Don Fremming. Don ended his long battle with cancer and his wife Jackie, their daughter and some close friends gathered around his bed and prayed and sang songs and rejoiced. Don was a servant—he mowed the large acreage of our church property for over a decade until his health faded. His life group was a close knit family and they were the picture of Christian community. They were a life group long before we had life groups. They lived in Christian community and as he went home he was surrounded by Christian community. It makes me think about who will I be surrounded by?

Stoked to join 800 leaders @ the Summit in 2 wks-highlight of the yr everytime! It’s not too late to join us! http://tinyurl.com/ycv543f

2010-07-18T12:21:00.001-05:00

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Are you taking the "Shower Power" challenge? http://is.gd/cJeAa

2010-06-09T15:31:00.001-05:00

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An Rx for spiritual deadness http://is.gd/cvVg1

2010-05-30T13:38:00.001-05:00

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Are you battle ready? http://is.gd/cm3Qz

2010-05-23T13:24:00.001-05:00

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Don't give the enemy ground. http://is.gd/cbUwu

2010-05-16T13:39:00.001-05:00

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Victory is ours! http://is.gd/c2U13

2010-05-10T11:51:00.001-05:00

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Who's the true enemy? http://is.gd/bzsyx

2010-04-19T11:10:00.001-05:00

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Testify! http://is.gd/9HKZY

2010-03-07T18:29:00.001-06:00

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Be ready, be prepared and never forget. http://is.gd/9phnW

2010-02-28T15:59:00.001-06:00

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Setting our sights

2010-02-28T09:06:00.001-06:00

We often lose sight of the original vision for our lives and busy ourselves with lesser things. A distraction is looking away to other matters and taking our eyes off the focus of our lives. We entertain ourselves to relax, we amuse ourselves to feel satisfied and as we strive for more and more comfort we are susceptible to distraction. The imperative to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus is the only way we can avoid these traps and distractions. What has your "eye"?

Awesome youth kick off!! http://is.gd/861ye

2010-02-10T11:32:00.001-06:00

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Being careful is not the point

2010-02-10T11:14:00.001-06:00

I was telling a friend about an upcoming mission trip to Honduras where my son and I will be canoeing down a remote river to the Mosquito coast to show the “Jesus Video” to the Garifuna tribe. They told me to “be careful” that a friend of theirs had returned from a similar trip with a parasite and lost 40lbs. I thought to myself, a) where can I get that parasite and b) I don’t want to be careful, I want to be obedient, filled, used, courageous and effective. Sometimes those things just can’t be done with careful.

A church on a mission. http://is.gd/5KZmU

2010-01-03T14:53:00.001-06:00

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On mission. http://is.gd/5DxSF

2009-12-27T13:54:00.001-06:00

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The way we go about our mission matters. http://is.gd/5egRP

2009-12-06T14:28:00.001-06:00

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The manner we go about the mission reveals the mission in us. http://is.gd/51kzC

2009-11-22T17:12:00.001-06:00

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You cannot experience the depth of your spiritual account until you access it in the breadth of your life circumstance. http://is.gd/4VHL6

2009-11-15T14:30:00.001-06:00

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Happy 75th!

2009-11-15T09:07:00.001-06:00

Today is my father's 75th birthday! He is a son of an alcoholic. He was in the mentally challenged classes until the 7th grade when he was diagnosed with dyslexia. He felt called to the ministry and when he told his dad he was going to be a preacher he was kicked out of his home. At the age of 18 he became a pastor, later married and went off to seminary and then his PhD. My mom would read his books to him in order for his dyslexia not to slow him. He was a ntaionally televised minister who has traveled to over 100 countries preaching the Gospel. For the last 57 years he has faithfully proclaimed Jesus and personally lived out his faith. Today he will stand in the pulpit at First Baptist Kerrville--he cannot retire from his calling and he has not tired of the joy of proclaiming Jesus. He's my hero, my friend and my faither.

You can't comprehend the value of your life until you understand the economy of redemption. http://is.gd/4Qk7v

2009-11-08T14:22:00.001-06:00

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"You cannot fully appreciate the necessity of the cross until you understand the demands of covenant." http://is.gd/4KrFl

2009-11-01T17:29:00.001-06:00

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What is endless hope? Do you have it? http://is.gd/4r3IH

2009-10-19T11:07:00.001-05:00

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Experience freedom. http://is.gd/4e6Lv

2009-10-11T13:16:00.001-05:00

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What do you need to leave behind? http://is.gd/3WPe8

2009-10-04T14:19:00.001-05:00

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Looking for bread that really satisfies? http://is.gd/3JgJB

2009-09-27T14:42:00.001-05:00

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Never Tire

2009-09-24T08:54:00.001-05:00

I was sitting at a swim meet with a friend watching our boys compete. My friend has heard my story and for several years has remained cordially resistant to Christ. Somehow or another the conversation turned to the state of the world, etc. and he said it's kind of 'scary.' I again had the opportunity to share my ONE Story, that brief one line statement that preceded "and that's why I'm not scared." He paused and said, "Yeah, I guess that's right." The crowd cheered and our attention went back to the swim meet but the seed again was cast. I still hope my friend will fall for Christ the way I have and that's why I keep telling the story.

This rocks: http://is.gd/3uN8m

2009-09-20T14:22:00.001-05:00

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Read The Weekly Download: http://is.gd/3envr

2009-09-13T14:28:00.001-05:00

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My newsletter is back in business! Check it out. http://is.gd/2XNbk

2009-09-06T13:40:00.001-05:00

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Take up your cross daily for you never know what a day may hold

2009-05-08T11:02:00.002-05:00

No greater display of love than laying down your life for a friend

2009-05-08T07:54:00.001-05:00

Jeff
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When it is in your power don't withhold good from the one that it is due.

2009-05-04T09:39:00.001-05:00

Jeff
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Family is being loved for who you are and in spite of who you are not

2009-05-03T22:10:00.001-05:00

Jeff
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The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

2009-04-28T21:31:00.001-05:00

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Sabbatical

2009-04-25T20:45:00.000-05:00

I was feeling guilty the other day thinking about going away on sabbatical. I thought how selfish to not be working, to not be with my family and then a friend gave me Wayne Cordeiro’s book “Leading on Empty.” We all need to rest. Too few of us even follow the biblical mandate for one day a week much less a sabbatical year or a monthly retreat day. We think it’s too impractical—but then so is burn out, depression, divorce, and open heart surgery. So I put some things in perspective and am now preparing my heart and my soul for renewal. Maybe it’s time for a little impractical retreat in your life.

**I will be on sabbatical May-July.**

Facebook for Christ

2009-04-19T08:14:00.001-05:00

Facebook is a phenomenon of social networking where you can re-connect with old friends and admittedly people you vaguely remember. My wife and I have been re-connecting with friends from what seems like a lifetime ago and yet we have found some amazing relationships that we would have jettisoned had it not been for the Facebook phenomenon. I have been able to tell my ONE story and Jody has been able to share what God is doing in her life. Facebook is famous for inch-deep relationships but also for reconnecting with meaningful friendships that slipped somewhere along the way. We have decided to use each of these to influence others for Christ.

Risen

2009-04-12T07:59:00.000-05:00

“What evidence?” I was asked. Well, I said there is the historically documented empty tomb by the Roman guards as recounted by Josephus. There are the eye witness accounts by the disciples. The radically changed lives of those very same disciples who at the threat of death testified to what they had seen. The of course there is Paul, the ‘Osama Bin Laden’ against the early church who is now the leader of the early church. Then I said, “If this were a court of law and this was on trial and we had physical evidence and eye witness accounts and the charges against us were conspiracy…is there reasonable doubt that we wouldn’t be convicted of conspiracy?” You bet! But even more—He lives, and He lives in me. The Christ I see in you and the one you see in me is proof enough. He is risen, He is alive and He is alive in you.

Twitter

2009-04-05T08:44:00.001-05:00

Twitter is communicating in under 140 characters. The challenge is to communicate something meaningful.

I was once blind now I see. Now you try.

Follow my twitter: onelifetime

Childlike Faith

2009-03-29T07:22:00.001-05:00

My daughter, Sydney, started public school two years ago largely due to sensing it was God’s calling for her to be salt and light. Since then she has led four of her friends to faith in Christ and is actively inviting kids to the OneTen movement here at Grace Point. Today, Kite Day, my little girls have invited a neighborhood girl to come and hear the Gospel story of Jesus and we continue to hope, pray and trust that our neighbors’ lives will be wrecked for the Gospel. It is a simple, natural thing to tell friends about what has changed your life. It is a simple childlike thing to tell friends about what you’re excited about. Sometimes when we lose those childlike friendships we make it complex--but faith and faithfulness are simple, childlike and world-changing.

Be On Guard

2009-03-22T08:06:00.001-05:00

I was riding along a trail that I cut over a year ago--I know it well. It was a perfect spring day and I had my head phones on and I was just lost in my surroundings. As I was heading down a wooded stretch I began to hear what sounded, through my headphones, a sea of locusts. It was that all too familiar sound and my heart began to race I looked down and around and I had just past a coiling 5 foot rattle snake. I hammered the pedals out of there! This is an all too familiar occurrence in our lives; a familiar path, lost in the surroundings of familiarity, not realizing something has changed--something potentially catastrophic. Be alert, always on guard, the enemy is waiting.

Drawing Outside the Rule Box

2009-03-15T08:19:00.000-05:00

Last night my wife said to me “drawing outside the rule box again are you?” She has a knack for mixing metaphors in a strangely accurate way. Drawing outside the lines, breaking the rules and thinking outside the box all were morphed into a pretty accurate summation of the line of reasoning I was pursuing at the time. Parables are powerful forms of communication because they carry so much truth in such a small package--they are timeless and in a few words we can carry profound meaning. In a few words we can also say nothing: j fkna tou psnas airs or the same letters JFK NATO UPS NASA IRS. They are the exact same letters in the same order just bunched together in ways that connect shared meaning. So when my wife says to me “drawing outside the rule box” she is drawing on depth of meaning that has been bunched together in order to communicate. We have all done this with our ONE stories recently: I was blind and now I see. I was a prodigal who found his way home. I was seeking meaning and found it in Christ. In a short powerful way we can condense our story into a meaningful parable.

The Long Journey Home Begins by Considering the Father

2009-03-12T15:31:00.003-05:00

When my pain gets acute enough I begin to seek relief and it is then that I consider that there is a better way a truer reality and inevitably it is that reality that is home. Not the home made by moms and dads that this world offers but in the arms of the Father who waits, who gave, who gives still. Prior to the pig pen, our sense of entitlement leads us to pleasure and pacifying and gratifying our desires. When that falters and the money runs out in self-reliance we slop the pigs, resenting the state of affairs but still willful enough to hold out Maybe we cast blame, or angrily judge or accuse but soon enough we break and we acknowledge what we have always known to be true. We are loved, we have a home and we can return their in complete acceptance where we are received with joy and we see the joy in the eye of our Father. It is what we have always longed for and in that moment we know--we at last are home. What all the treasures and pleasures could not satisfy the joyful delight of the Father fills and satisfies…brokenness is the beginning to the pathway home.

God"s glory implies less of me

2009-03-11T10:00:00.002-05:00

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 says “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord are being transformed into his likeness with every increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

As the Spirit of God has control of my life greater Glory is reflected: more of him less of me. As I pursue my glory, less of the Spirit emanates from my life. The duality of motive is so profound in my alone. I tend to want to point to T.V. preachers or well marketed and slick self promoters and yet in my own heart there is no less competition for personal glory that vies for the place of God. Where his Spirit is in increasing measure so His glory is revealed in increasing measure: more of him, less of me.

Mind the Gap

2009-03-01T08:24:00.002-06:00

The chime on my phone went off right as I was deliberating whether or not to send the email. Normally I would have just trudged right through and sent it but I have been measuring conflict a lot more and trying to avoid needless drama. This, however, would not go away and the chime gave me the impetus to address the issue. Conflict is inevitable and yet we must with yielded hearts and a biblical framework approach the circumstance through relationship. After the dust settled the conflict wasn’t conflict at all but rather a miscommunication--I’m so glad I responded in faith. Relationships that weather conflict are stronger and richer and capable of greater.

Gazing into the Night time sky

2009-02-25T09:16:00.002-06:00

Starry Night Shine

A million miles into darkness you shine,

Starry night shine-reflection of the sun.

An unmoving testimony cutting through the night,

Starry night shine, all that is right, shine.

A guiding light in all the confusion

Starry night shine-leading me home.

Holding out brilliant reminders of hope in the darkness

Starry night shine-sending me promised love-

And I will shine like the midnight starry night shine

And I will run, no not in vain…light shine.

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Waiting in this Life

2009-02-22T08:22:00.003-06:00

Moses was a shepherd for forty years prior to God calling him. He wandered around for another forty prior to coming to the edge of the Promised Land. So much of Scripture is waiting, with long gaps of looking toward the fulfillment of God’s promise while abiding on His sustaining presence. So much of our lives are quick fixes and immediate indulgences and yet the object of our desires do not sustain. God sustains us and yet the ultimate satisfaction is always future, always just beyond reach. We are so destination focused that we miss the sustaining presence along the way. Last night I sat down with my fourteen year old, we talked about life and struggles that come; she asked if I could help her with her devotional life. Close to twelve years ago I wrote about this day in my journal and waited, forgot and now remembered. God is faithful when we are not but sometimes what we think is immediate is only a glimpse at what will be. Patiently following is both a discipline to be learned and a process.

PrePosterously Posterous

2009-02-16T11:14:00.003-06:00

The wonder of communication is that it is powerful and yet delicate. Imagine posting to all your social networks with the power of one click. That is what Posterous attempts to provide. Right now I’m emailing, blogging, facebooking and twittering. It’s almost too much, but if it works I can do all at one time and communicate widely. The implications move far beyond social networking into the communication and the power of the Gospel. So here it goes.

Hallmark Holiday

2009-02-15T08:28:00.002-06:00

Valentine’s Day has come and gone. As I was out tracking down my prey, I ran into a sea of men searching for candy, jewelry, flowers, perfume, lingerie and other assorted apparel. This is the annual day we tell people that we love them. It's so nice to have a day on the calendar or else we might forget. Then, of course, the standard chocolate, perfume and flower gifts really evidently work for most women. I'm guessing this is very different than when Paul said "I am compelled" to preach the gospel. Don't get me wrong—I love my wife and I want to tell her and express that to her through words, actions and gifts, I just don't particularly like a "hallmark" holiday to make it uniform. Hopefully she gets presents, words and actions regularly enough that even if there were no Valentine’s Day she would know she is loved. When I think of Christ's love for me do I realize it only at Easter and Christmas? Or is our relationship so rich that without those dates I would remember, I would honor, I would tell and I would act?

Dancing

2009-02-08T11:22:00.001-06:00

The time flew by. When they were smaller, the Dad/Daughter Dance seemed to grind out slowly, but with each passing year those two hours grow shorter. They hang with their friends more, can get their own punch and as they grow older the days near when they may not want to go “dance” with daddy or their lives will take them far away. For now, I got to dance with my girls. The older, more mature and awkwardly dancing with dad, the younger, nestled in my arms excited about balloons and cookies. All three of them still my girls, still dancing. There’s a strange awareness that I am preparing them for someone and a slow realization that that someone is beyond my control. I prepare them still: to be loved, cherished and honored and so I try to show them what they should look for in a man. I hope and I dance.

Technology

2009-02-01T08:26:00.000-06:00

My daughter and I were at the Sprint store activating an old phone because she dropped her Phone in the tub. She was texting with her “dry” hand and somehow the phone slipped and ‘took a bath.’ The store clerk was amused, my daughter and her really connected because the store clerk has lost or broken 13 phones in the last year. The whole scenario made me reflect on the intrusiveness of technology in my life. Instant messaging, texting, my blackberry that has to be babysat—when will I have space to be still and know? There is no high tech quick fix for devotion.

No Coincidence

2009-01-25T09:13:00.002-06:00

My son and I pulled into the car wash and as I was dropping quarters into the vacuum a twenty something man asked if he could borrow my phone. He assured me he wasn’t going to run off or anything. I willingly handed over my phone and continued to vacuum. He stepped away from the noise in order to place his call, after he finished he shared “my brother and I got into a fight and he drove off with my phone and my wallet.” I asked if he needed a ride and he said, “that would be great. Could you take me over to the Wal-mart since my brother is there?” So we piled into the car, my son a bit wide eyed, and we dropped him at the Wal-mart. On the way we talked and he asked me, “So, what do you do?” And I told him I was a pastor at Grace Point. Through this brief dialogue I told him I didn’t think there were any coincidences and that God had has our paths cross. I didn’t have a lot of time with this young man but my son and I did our best to communicate our love for Christ and his need. My son on the way home was energized by the encounter—we had helped someone and we had pointed them toward Christ in a brief but powerful interaction.

No Coincidence

2009-01-25T09:13:00.001-06:00

The Zone

2009-01-18T11:21:00.000-06:00

I’ve been riding bikes for five years now and I’ve made a few improvements. About two years ago I hit a plateau both in overall fitness and in cardio gains. A friend of mine asked me about my heart rate recently and if I was riding in my zone. I told him hadn’t really focused on my heart rate—I just ride. The next time we rode I wore my heart rate monitor and we rode the same ride we’d been riding for over a year. He’s younger and in great shape and so his perfect heart rate zone is my “anaerobic” or not so perfect zone. Come to find out I’d been exercising ruthlessly wrong. I was riding hard and fast to keep up with stronger, fitter riders but not riding in the zone that was most conducive to me making fitness gains. Sometimes in life we have to exert less energy to make greater gains, sometimes we have to work smarter not harder, sometimes we have focus on our training rather than just keep doing what we’ve always done.

In My Element

2009-01-16T15:56:00.004-06:00

Last night on my way home from BridgePoint Church in Houston I camped at Bluff Creek Ranch, which is a working ranch that has 10 miles of single, versatile track full of beautiful piney woods. I camped in my Honda Element. My plan was to plug a hot pot into my converter for coffee and oatmeal but the converter and hot pot didn't like each other. Instead I got out in the 30 degree cool of the morning and went old school. It was the best cup of coffee I've had in a while.

Cable

2009-01-11T07:57:00.001-06:00

We did it: we canceled our cable! We had gone from no cable to cable about two years ago and that is when the slippery slope started. Slowly our time as individuals and as a family began to gravitate toward the television. So after the holidays and way too much T.V., I decided it was time. We still have T.V. via the internet if we want it but we have to go look for it rather than surfing channels. We play more games, we read more and if we are watching it’s as a family. I didn’t watch any football and I didn’t miss anything apparently. It’s not a decision for everyone but it does represent how little benign things slowly creep in and vie for importance. I would challenge you to identify the time, and relationship drains in your life.

Wii

2009-01-04T07:48:00.001-06:00

During the holidays I was over at a friend’s house and he was showing me his Nintendo Wii. We sat down and he showed me the golf game on this virtual interactive gaming system. The motions were life like and the graphics phenomenal and I was hooked! I said, “I could do this all day” and he said, “I don’t know about that, the other day I played so long and then suddenly I got up—I couldn’t even look at it anymore, I was sick of it!” There are so many things in my life just like that, virtual pleasures that I indulge in until I just get sick. Real pleasures you never tire of because they were designed to walk in, live in and truly enjoy. Virtual pleasures are quick and easy, entertaining and amusing but they do not last and they do not satisfy.

Resolutions

2008-12-28T08:30:00.001-06:00

The turning of a new year is a strange phenomenon. A random calendar date causes us to look forward and back: to evaluate who we are, where we’ve been and what we would like to see change in the future. Resolutions are made and new ventures are pursued based on the psychology of the marking of time. His mercies are new every morning…what if we approached each day with the Lord as though it were New Year’s Day? I have my resolutions for this year and for today.

Emmanuel

2008-12-21T07:25:00.001-06:00

“I love Jesus, I just hate Christmas,” he said. I thought about it and replied, “I guess the two have become separate.” Later I pondered how the coming of God to live among us, to be one of us so that He could explain, reveal and embody His love to us…how can that get lost? What would Christmas look like if it didn’t become something else? If it were always and only about the mystery and celebration of God with us: Jesus?

Family

2008-12-14T09:02:00.001-06:00

We sat in a circle, each having picked a present from under the tree. The presents were to be “from the heart” and for the group, something that revealed more of our heart. I unwrapped an old shoe, the last one shoe of Jimmy the paraplegic who is in my life group. He holds on to the shoe because it represents both the question “why?” and the grace and power of God. It was a powerful moment as the old shoe revealed more of Jimmy’s heart. One man played a song on a piano that hadn’t been played in years, because of his broken heart the music had died. He gave us a song as his gift and in turn we helped heal his broken heart. As the night concluded it was observed that “this is family, the most intimate Christmas we might hope to experience.” The only thing we have in common is Jesus and a commitment to one another.

Surprise

2008-12-07T08:48:00.001-06:00

For over a year I’ve been planning my wife’s surprise party where I asked all of her friends who were able to surprise her on a cruise. A close friend assisted me in the ruse and invited Jody to go on the trip as though it would be just the two of them. I feigned disappointment as though the friend had stole my opportunity to do anything for her birthday and so I would just throw a small party the night before they left. Ironically, her friend’s husband contracted meningitis the night before the big trip and Jody felt for sure the trip would be postponed. That’s when I had to spill the beans that in fact it was a surprise I had been working on for a year. Who would have imagined that our close friend would contract meningitis the night before sailing? We often times make our plans very carefully and yet God is the author of them down to the details. We can live in disappointment or we can anticipate his unique design. Sometimes the biggest detail we fail to account for is Him.

Excuses

2008-11-30T08:07:00.001-06:00

A few of us were gathering to ride and one of mine friends was complaining about his bike, another was complaining about his hamstring and how he didn’t know if he could make it. Though I didn’t say anything I was wondering how I’d do in a group ride because I hadn’t been on a road bike in some time. Then Danny rolls up. Danny fractured his c 7 vertebrae 8 weeks ago and hasn’t ridden in those 8 weeks. Without a complaint or excuse he pulls up and heads out for 40 miles and even got out front in the wind when it was his turn to pull. Toward the end of the ride, when he was clearly fading, he never complained or made an excuse. There are so many reasons we can’t, we can come up with them to justify our underachieving or self-interested ways. Then there are those subtle reminders that our wills are simply not robustly aligned with His. What’s your excuse?

The Word

2008-11-23T07:56:00.001-06:00

The unexpected Word of God is a profound blow to the soul. We are often numb to the beauty of the Word chiefly because we assume we know what it says. In doing so we drowned out the voice of the Spirit bidding us to come and listen. We are often shocked when we have it thrust upon us in the light of unexpected illumination. How changed might we be if we assumed we knew less and hungered and craved for more of Him revealed?

Love

2008-11-22T14:38:00.003-06:00

The decorations are out already and the bells are ringing at the Wal-Mart. My list is shorter this year. The party invites are coming in. The parties I'm hosting are already arranged and I'm actually starting to work on the Christmas letter that will need to go out soon. It's not about any of this of course, they are all symptoms or expressions of what when I analyze it, think about it or just quietly meditate turns out to be plainly "Love." It's not a Hollywood, juvenile or cotton candy "pop" love. It's the climb any mountain, sail across the stormy seas, drive all night, lay down my life kind of love that leaves you breathless and broken. When the expression or the 'symptom' if you will no longer leads you to the source then it's time to reframe the expression. I'm not talking dispensing with Christmas, just centering it as Christ Mas. Gifts are nice if they are the reflection of love, songs are nice if they are love songs, parties are nice if they reflect adoring, loving community. Santa is nice too if he was a guy who lived out this radical love to others always anchored in the source. In the end it all comes down to love. Where every day is Christmas and every night is New Years Eve.

Revolutionaries

2008-11-16T08:40:00.000-06:00

Revolutionaries: those regular, every day Christians who are changing the world through action. I think of Sharlla Stone volunteering at the Pregnancy Center, Oscar Ramirez working among the urban poor at Avenida Guadalupe, the rag tag bunch of radicals who feed the homeless each Monday and my 70-year-old mom who volunteers at the Christian Women’s Job Corp. I see them putting meaning to words every day so many of us merely espouse. Herbert Hoover said “words without actions are the assassins of idealism.” The apostle James said “faith without works is dead.”

Fear of Change

2008-11-09T08:27:00.001-06:00

My son came home from his homeschool co-op and asked was it true that we would no longer be able to homeschool if Obama becomes president? I told him no, that people fear change and they fear the unknown but our God is a sovereign God and He is the one who puts people into power. President-elect Obama has never suggested or stated such a position and that while the party he represents tends to not be in favor of certain educational philosophies it in no way threatened our way of life. That same day my nephews came home from their affluent Christian school saying that if McCain didn’t win God would turn his back on America. I hung my head in disappointment. I long for Christians to follow Jesus first and be identified with Him.
Let me urge you to be a Christian first! Seek truth, unity and the Kingdom of God. Do not fear for He is sovereign, do not slander for it is sin. Build one another up. Seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly.

Live It Out

2008-11-02T08:22:00.000-06:00

My son has been mowing lawns near our home. One of the single women whose yard he mows has been undergoing chemo and he began mowing it out of a request from the church. Recently as he was mowing she offered to start paying him and he told me about it. I got excited for him and started calculating the income he would be adding to his little business and he said, “No Dad, I told her not to pay me. She has cancer and it wouldn’t be right.” I marveled at the deep grasp of truth that he possesses. We can easily rationalize what Scripture clearly extols, we can justify and wiggle around the lucid demands of Christ and yet the pure of heart see it so clearly. The Scripture that I know so well sometimes loses its clarity in familiarity. To see it lived before me challenges my understanding.

Get in the Word

2008-10-19T08:22:00.001-05:00

I am shocked about how many people have actually never read the Bible or even a book of the Bible all the way through! I was listening to statistics of how 71% of high school graduates will never read another book and how 48% of college graduates won’t either. I realized that literacy for Americans is on the wane. Recently, I began reading the Bible like story again. Did you know in Matthew chapter eight there were actually two demon-possessed guys that were delivered when the demons went into the pigs? I didn’t and I have a Masters Degree in Theology. How come we only hear about the one? Did one become a disciple or did one simply not follow? So many have never even read the wonder of it all and others have become too familiar and approach the Bible in snippets. (I’m guilty of that at times.) “Faith Comes By Hearing” has a mp3 player where in 28 minutes a day you can listen to the entire New Testament in 30 days—and it’s very well done. There are dozens of reading programs online that can take you through the Bible in a year. I challenge you to start somewhere and fall in love with the beauty, the mystery and the power of God’s Word.

What is Tyranny?

2008-10-13T08:32:00.003-05:00

With the bailout of Wall Street and the pervasive incompetence of our goverment, I consulted the declaration of independence and found these words comforting : "Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
Immediately following are a list of grievances against the King--most of which presently exist and a whole new modern list could be added. Democracy has afforded us the opportunity to vote in and out the representatives that lead us the problem now it seems is that these leaders flock together in partisan huddles immune to the voices of the people that placed them there. Tyranny is when the people against their wishes have a government do something else. Abortion, prayer removed from schools, unjust war, free market bailouts, taxation without representation....and the list goes on.

Childlike Faith

2008-10-05T07:58:00.001-05:00

Last week my eight year old decided she would bake five loaves of bread every week for 50 weeks and charge $5 in order to raise money for the Student Center building fund. If she was faithful she’d be able to give $1250.00 to the building. This week she received a check in the mail for $1250.00 and the contributor said they only wanted one loaf. Instantly my little entrepreneur went to doing the math, and realized, as she put it “It’s a miracle--God multiplied the loaves and I’ll be able to give $2500.00 to the Student Center.” We were all amazed as we watched God provide in a miraculous way. No wonder He says ‘you must come to me as a child to enter the kingdom.’

Disciples

2008-09-29T13:07:00.000-05:00

After my daughter’s friend knelt and exchanged her life at the “Rooted” weekend, she had the opportunity to say “I’m so glad I had a small part in influencing your life!” Her friend replied, “You’ve had a huge influence on me--thank you!” As a father, I couldn’t have been more proud. I think about what discipleship looks like and in the end, disciples follow the example set for them and they choose which example they will follow. Leaders don’t really disciple, they simply follow Christ and those who choose to follow their example are disciples. How great as a dad to celebrate a Christ-follower who has others following.

Wild Goose

2008-09-21T13:44:00.000-05:00

I love the “Chasing the Wild Goose” phrase that the early Celtic Christians coined in reference to the Holy Spirit. Following the Holy Spirit is a great adventure and oftentimes leads us into the unknown. Sometimes we even end up going, “Huh?” Other times we clearly see the convergence. This week I was chasing the Wild Goose and it felt like a free fall—with a smile on my face. I sold a car, gave 90% of the proceeds away and purchased another old fixer-upper all in a 48-hour period. I just said, “Okay Lord, I’ll follow.” It’s been a blast. It’s been exciting. I feel alive.