This weekend was one of those “big” moments in life. I took my daughter to visit the college campus where she has decided to go to school. She is very interested in their College of Arts and Visual Design. Those words did not mean a whole lot to me – until we were able to spend some time with the Dean of the college and he made a very interesting comparison in his description.

Art, the Dean said, is an “individual” problem. The artist feels the need and answers the call to create something. Everything about that project comes through the veins of that individual artist.

Design, he went on, is a team problem. A team comes together to work on attacking a need as a group. The individual team members may have specialties but they work together in an effort to create something that answers the problem.

WOW! I was blown away as I sat and listened to his descriptions. God is the supreme artist. He created and spoke everything into existence. While He was not alone – He is the true source of all that has been created.

People, the church, have been given the task of working together – a “design team” – God’s answer for carrying His answer to our deepest needs into a hurting world.

The problem comes when I try to become the artist instead of joining the design team.

Yesterday was a great day at Journey Community Church. We are in a time of excitement and growth as we keep asking what God desires of us next.

During my quick check of some blogs I follow, God reminded me of two very real dangers the church faces when things are going well.

The first is by Mark Batterson:

“Success is a dangerous thing. For so many people, it is their undoing. They don’t steward the success… Here’s the bottom line: when God uses you in a powerful way, you better get up even earlier to seek Him. When God blesses you, you better pray even more. And any measure of success God gives you better result in seeking Him even more.”

The second comes from Perry Noble, who got the advice from Rick Warren:

“Out-live, out-love and out-fruit your critics. We are not called to fight battles, we are called to preach the gospel.”

Great reminders to keep us focused as we approach another week in which God has left us in specific places, during this specific time for the purpose of the Kingdom!

Have a great week!

Jesus loves me this I know.

For the Bible tells me so.

These well known lyrics, to one of the songs many of us first learned as children, serve as the anchor for the newest book by Craig Gross & Jason Harper.

“Jesus Loves You this I know” is a collection of simple stories that cut to the heart of what is missing from many of our lives as Christ followers – the ability to live under the influence of this simple truth.

The authors do a great job of conveying real stories of real people that serve to illustrate the phenomenal love of Jesus. From the bitter, betrayed, disconnected, broken, outcast, porn star and even the religious fanatic, Craig and Jason will challenge you to rethink all of the relationships in your life.

I applaud this book as a return to the very foundational truth of the Scriptures – the love of Jesus changes lives.  The unloving response of many professing Christians towards people who have yet to get to know Jesus will stir up conflicting emotions. But the real challenge is to respond in the way of the Savior – with overwhelming love and compassion to all people.

You will not be able to simply read and walk away from this book – and I believe this is what the authors were hoping to achieve. Get a copy, read it, pass it along and let the revolutionary love of Jesus change how you think, view and respond to everyone around you.

Buy the book now.

Just saw a twitter from Pastor Rick Warren that I absolutely love. Could not resist simply posting his original tweet – chew on this today:

“CH Plants-When small,they dismiss u.When ugrow,they discredit u.When larger,they dislike u.When big,they defame. LOVE them! Rom12:21″

We will be discussing what Jesus really achieved on the cross this weekend at the Gathering. As I have been reading and thinking about this conversation, a couple of things really stand out.

First, we live in a world full of expert opinions.

Gandhi said that the cross was a great example but nothing miraculous happened the day Jesus hung there.

Madonna believes that if Jesus were still alive he would follow her lead and build a giant Broadway styled cross on a stage and turn the crucifixion into a whimsical dance number.

Nietzsche was convinced that if Jesus had lived longer he would have simply blown off his convictions as youthful bliss.

Everyone has an expert opinion – and all emerge from the same broken nature that exists within my natural state. Does not give me much peace in my soul to think I might be basing my beliefs and convictions on the ideas/opinions of people who find it so easy to dismiss the greatest sacrifice ever presented the global community.

Second, it is incredibly humbling to consider what Luther termed “the great exchange”. That single act that allowed one man to physically and spiritually take on every evil thought, word and deed that has ever oozed out of my existence.

It is becoming very clear to me that we live in a world, and some of us belong to professing Christian communities, where the cross of Christ is viewed with ever increasing contempt.

Do not go through the day without pausing to consider the incredible, earth moving, unreproducible, un-matched act of sacrificial love that is now offered to you this day. Don’t hold the cross in contempt.

From time to time I will re-post someones thoughts. (It is no secret that I am not a genius!) The internet had provided a medium for sharing some great insights. The following list comes from pastor/blogger Shawn Lovejoy.

Shawn posted a list of ways to help pastors from falling into sin – which is a very necessary list. As I was reading it this morning, it occurred to me that this list has great value for all of us. Too often we do not give our daily lives, our actions and responses, the thoughts necessary to keep us from walking into some very dangerous areas.

You do not need to be a pastor to read and understand why this list is necessary.

Think about this list. Then let me know any suggestions – thoughts or ways that God has used in your life to keep you from walking into sin.

Shawn Lovejoy’s list of how to keep from falling into sin…

• Read your Bible daily, and read portions of Scripture that have NOTHING to do with this week’s message.
• Take your off day Religiously. Burnout leads to spiritual failure and dropout.
• If you don’t rest, you will burn out. Period. You are not exempt.
• Tell you congregation you will NOT be out more than 2-3 nights a week.
• Keep office hours. Go home at 5 or 5:30 PM. People have to see their doctor, their dentist, their lawyer, and their counselor from 8-5. Spiritual counsel should be no different. You MUST have a life at night with your family.
• Don’t open your laptop after you get home.
• Don’t answer your cell phone after you get home.
• When you walk in the house after work, don’t be on the cell phone.
• Spend less time on Twitter and facebook.  Spend more time communicating with your family.
• Get secure in your own skin. The desire for attention or pleasing people is a flag that will get you in trouble.
• Confess your temptations or addictions to a trusted friend NOT in your church.
• Schedule a date night with you spouse ATLEAST once a month. If you don’t have the money, ask the church to pay for it. (my church doesn’t, BTW) Your church will, though,  if you ask them.
• Tell your congregation that the best gift you have to offer them is NOT a close relationship with every one of  them, but a close relationship with God and a close relationship with your spouse.
• Don’t just talk about ministry with your spouse. Start a hobby TOGETHER!
• Exercise! Flabby body=flabby mind=flabby spirit.
• Take walks with God early in the morning when you can talk out loud to Him and share your hurts, pains, struggles, and dreams.
• Get your spouse out of that ministry they feel tied to because no one else will do it. You’re burning them out.
• Have a family night regularly where you allow your kids to set the agenda.
• Have a hobby you enjoy by yourself.
• Tell your spouse you love them EVERY DAY!
• Speak positively of your spouse from the stage.
• Listen to friends that raise flags about your behavior.
• Don’t ever be in the car, or your office, or ANY PLACE alone with opposite sex with the door shut.  NEVER. NEVER. NEVER.
• Make the above policy for every Pastor on your Team.
• Don’t flirt, including online, or in emails! If you’re flirted with (and you will be), don’t respond, and immediately tell your spouse.
• Think about the consequences of your sin if carried out and found out. Who and how many will get hurt?
• Remember, pride goes before a fall, and you can not stand too close to a fire and not get burned.
• Make Nurturing Vitality the most important part of your job description.

I am often amazed at how quickly God can dismantle some of my long held assumptions. Let Rev. Tyler Wigg-Stevenson challenge your thoughts on the gospel and nuclear proliferation. Check this out: Two Futures Project 

http://gotaf.socialtwist.com/redirect?l=-670005610064364276011&i=614de882063fd9d061d9dea5e65db4b0

Sitting on my back porch with my morning coffee on a sunny Memorial Day morning, I am becoming more aware of how easy it is to forget.

We forget birthdays and anniversaries. We forget meetings, doctors appointments and scheduled lunches. We forget the grocery list. We forget to put gas in the car. We even forget to deliver on the things we, with good intentions, promise to do for other people.

I helped a group of Firemen last week. Once a year they take the men and women from a local state home to Six Flags. These firefighters, along with their families and friends, give a day out of their busy lives to remember some very forgotten people.

At the beginning of the day, everyone arrives early and gathers for last minute instructions about dealing with the residents of the state home. The residents will range in their ability to communicate and move around. Our job – to make sure that they have a great day away from the routine of their “normal” lives – to give them a day to remember.

As the buses pull up to the back entrance, those residents who are mobile start pouring out of the buses. You can see the excitement all over their faces as they can barely contain the emotions of getting to enjoy such a cool place. They remind me of my kids – excited and energetic when getting to go some place special.

The volunteers begin to pair up with residents and move slowly towards the meeting area before heading into the park. A few of us hold back and begin to unload the residents in wheelchairs – carefully helping them down out of the bus. That’s when we meet Becky for the first time.

Becky is an elderly resident. While she can walk, the wheel chair will make her journey around the park much easier on her twisted legs. Without any teeth and the ability to communicate, we quickly learn that whatever Becky lacks, keeping her from a “normal” life, she makes up for in raw energy and excitement. Whenever her wheelchair stops in front of a ride, she is quickly struggles to get up and in line for the ride. Rides that twist, spin and turn do not seem to scare her in the least.

After a few hours of slowly moving from one ride to the next, we find a table to sit at and enjoy our lunches. Becky has a “ground” lunch – which means that everything is basically mashed up to account for her lack of teeth. I realize that she will need me to feed her. We quickly get everything set up and I begin to do something that seems very unnatural – spoon feed an adult woman. And in that moment, I become very aware of my surroundings.

You would think that I would be aware of what people might be thinking as they watch a woman being spoon fed by a man half her age. But that is not what has become apparent to me. Sitting there, feeding Becky, I become painfully aware of how she and I have just been forgotten by everyone else walking by us in the park.

I know, they didn’t really forget. Many are just choosing to walk quickly by and not respond. But not responding seems to be the same as forgetting – at least the visible actions are the same.

It is easy to see how we can loose details and events. Things get crowded out of our busy lives on a regular basis.

It is not so easy to see how we “forget” people. What must really exist in our hearts that we respond with such callous behavior as to “forget”.

Who have I forgotten on a regular basis?

Am I content to allow this kind of behavior to continue?

Maybe it is not such a bad thing.  After all, I am sure that I will long be forgotten in the future. Maybe this is just how life was meant to be lived. Maybe Jesus did not really mean it when he said,

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

You may have heard or read the passage in New Testament that warns of careless ventures in life.

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? (Luke 14:28, ESV)

I have always taken this verse to be a declaration from Jesus that His followers should carefully consider what it means to follow Him as their Lord and Savior. This morning, however, a thought from Oswald Chambers had me reading the verse in a whole new light.

“Our Lord was not referring here to a cost which we have to count, but to a cost which He has already counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal, and hatred, the unfathomable agony He experienced in Gethsemane, and the assault upon Him at Calvary— the central point upon which all of time and eternity turn. Jesus Christ has counted the cost.” -Chambers

This thought actually enhances the verse for me. In my acknowledged sinful state – as confirmed by friends and family – there is really no way that apart from the work of Christ I could even know what costs to count!

Have you ever had one of those moments where you think you are “getting saved” all over again. Those daily moments where you think, “How did I miss this part of what Jesus was really saying to me in the past?” Those moments affirm to me that I am not capable of understanding everything that my faith in Christ will cost me in the future. BUT I can certainly rest knowing that through His weighing of the situation – His ability to know all of the costs – Jesus provided for all possible turns and stumbles in my life.

No wonder Paul so confidently declared,

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”  (Philippians 1:6, ESV)

God started this journey – God will provide for this journey to end well – now all I need to do is journey with God!

Relevant Magazine did an interview with twenty-something producer of the new X-Men movie, Ralph Winter.

On top of liking the movie, I was especially impressed with his answer to the following question:

Can you define success for yourself?

Winter: Success I think for me as a person, is probably more about the journey I’m on as a follower of Christ, so that’s closely related to, you know, how I treat and relate to my wife and my kids, my church community. That’s the kind of stuff I think that lasts and will be important, I don’t think it’s about necessarily leaving a legacy of what movies I’ve made but, you know, it’s about relationships and about the person I’m becoming. That’s what success is about.

What about me? How do I define, measure, success on a daily basis? I wonder how many times I have pushed to create a “legacy” with my work instead of living “in the journey” – in the moment?

On top of challenging questions, now I have been provoked to deep thoughts by a Hollywood producer! What next?