Living to Die

Have you ever seen the movie, Braveheart? It is one of my favorite movies of all time. On the front cover of the DVD, there is a powerful statement that is really challenging for me.

"All men die -but not all men really live."

Sadly, many churches do not embrace the above sentiment held my Mr. Wallance. Many churches are oblivious to the fact that they are to be change agents but instead have become stagnet in a world of constant flux. Irwin McManus agrees with this sentiment as he writes, "The real tragety is not that churches are dying but that churches have lost their reason to live." The Apostle Paul spurrs on the church in Rome when he writes in Romans 13:12, "The night is almost over and the day is at hand. Let us stop doing the things that belong to the dark, and let us take up weapons for fighting in the light." All profound theology aside, I think the essence of this verse is one of urgancy. We can all tell when daylight is about to end and the night sky is approaching. It happens mysteriously and wonderfuly everynight. We have created a world so that when it gets dark, we can still function as regular people with no problems. Our cars have lights, our houses have spot lights and so on. Q: What if the electricity went out and it was just, you know, dark? That would be scary, just you and the moon light. I bet you would take more steps to prepare for the night than you do now. This is how Paul wants us as Christians to act. Urgancy is something the church has to wake up to if it wants to impact the next generation. We have the greatest message on earth to share, let us seek the means to do so with urgancy and honor Christ.

God's Painting

I have been treading lightly through Erwin McMannus' book, "An Unstoppable Force" lately and have been inspired by a portion he wrote about the Christian life. Drawing from *Ephesians 2:10, "We are God's workmanship created in Christ for good works" McMannus writes that, "We are the paintbrush through which God will paint His masterpiece." This is both inspiring and challenging for me. There seems to be a two-fold challenge for Christians in McMannus' quote: 1. You have to be open the the Master Painter Francis Sheaffer calls this, "passive-obedience." That is, actively laying our own agenda to the side and doing God's will. A beautiful picture of this is Jesus' mother Mary. If you read her response in Luke's Gospel (1:38) to the angel when she is told that she is with child she responds by saying, "I am the Lord's servant, may it happen to me as you have said." 2. You have to be accepting of the Master's Utensils The reality is, each person who desires to follow Jesus is a unique person created to live out their Christian lives in a way that expresses God's creativity. More simply, our calling and gifts are different and when we come together to make up the Body of Christ, we should accept and celebrate this uniqueness. Think about it, a painter has more than one brush. A painter has a variety of brushes that all add something unique and different to the picture being painted. Considering this fact, some brushes may be used more often than others, while some brushes may be used for special touch up work. Regardless of their use, they are all important to the one painting. They will all be used to create something beautiful. I know this, when Christians come together in the spirit of celebrating each others uniqueness and put those gifts to work in God's Kingdom...beautiful things come of it. *Commenting on the above verse, John MacArthur states... The Greek word translated "workmanship" in Ephesians 2:10 came to mean "masterpiece." We are God's masterpiece. From the beginning His design was to conform us to Christ, our good works being the proof of our salvation. God's power is at work in your life, shaping you into the image of Jesus Christ. You are God's masterpiece

I have recently been texing my friends with thoughtful quotes with the hopes of challenging each other and spurring one another on to great things. I have been reading through a couple of challenging books on church growth. One titled, "An Unstoppable Force" by Erwin McMannus and another titled, "No Perfect People Allowed by John Burke." Reading them side by side, they pick up on alot of overlapping material but eloquently present their information in different ways.

In I Corinthians 13:13, Paul tells us that Faith, Love, and Hope are all hallmarks of our Christian life. That being said, ask yourself the following:

Three things to ponder:

1. Do others see your faith?

2. Are you known by your love?

3. Are you a voice of hope?

Walking in to my old school...

This is the first time in over 13 years that I visited by junior high school, Ben Franklin. When I walked into it, I felt a weight on my chest.

 -The weight of time-

It waits for no one. I never really thought anything special about Ben Franklin -but today I do...I was there.
My friends were there.

When I walked the halls, stared at the old pool, cringed in the locker rooms, and glared down the old hallways, I felt an emptiness inside.
I forgot so much -even though I spent so much of my life there. People always say, "If I knew then what I know now", I keep telling myself that, but I'm really not sure how it applies.
I just feel lonely when thinking about it... I guess it's like walking into your old house that you grew up in and now see a new family living in it.

You want to remember it as you knew it.

You want everything to be the same.

How to speak any language

OK, I'm back. I was in Mexico building a house for a family. I'm not even going to try to write all of the experience down here. But it was amazing. On Friday, the last day of the time spent w/ the family I experienced something great.

The entire family came to visit with tons of food ready for a fiesta! Car doors were swung open blasting salsa music and there was a ton of food for everyone to eat. Although I could not speak Spanish and they could not speak English -magic was happening as we both spoke a language we both could understand... the language of love.