Written in Heaven

What a blessing it was to speak yesterday at BridgeWay! Here are some of my thoughts the day after:

Recently I was blessed with a Kindle Reader (thank you so much to my friend) and am madly in love with it. I have been reading a book on there called The Prodigal God by Tim Keller. This book is basically a breakdown of the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15.

Keller drops gut-wrenching truths all the way through this read, but the one that has stuck with me the most is one that reads: “To find God we must repent of the things we have done wrong, but…to truly become Christians we must also repent of the reasons we ever did anything right.” WOW!

The motivation behind our actions is a critical piece of Christianity. We can do all the right things, but for completely the wrong reasons. The Pharisees in the Bible were guys that had cornered the market for how to behave outwardly perfect, but inwardly Jesus described them as “whitewashed tombs,” i.e. dead inside.

I have been doing some serious motivation checking in my life lately. I shared this story on here before, but it’s a great example of this. I was sitting at my desk one day and a friend of mine came to mind and I began to pray for him. After a few minutes I decided I should give him a call. When he answered the phone he informed me that he had lost his job that morning and was pretty upset. Obviously, God had put him in my mind to be praying for him for this very reason.

After we got off the phone, my first thought was, “I can’t wait to tell _________ about this.” In that moment, the Holy Spirit checked me with the simple question of “why?” I didn’t want to share about this because of concern for my friend (though I was very concerned for him), but rather to make myself look like a spiritual hero. In that question of “why?” from God, so much was communicated to me about my motivations for ministry and for following Him.

If any of us (myself included) are in this for recognition, fame, power, prestige, or to impress others, just get out now and save us all the trouble.

How are your motivations today? Are they as pure as God would have them to be?

***Spoiler Alert – this post may fall under the category of TMI for some of you, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.

I don’t mean to brag, but I have always had a pretty keen since of smell. I could always tell when momma was cookin’ something up in the kitchen or when someone got a new cologne, even when they were a long way off. I’m not sure why, but God has given me this incredible gift (*sarcasm). Unfortunately with this gift comes a darkside. I have also always been very sensitive to negative odors as well, especially body odor (henceforth referred to as “b.o.”). This probably stems from a traumatizing experience I suffered in 7^th grade gym, but I digress.

Over the last couple weeks, about 1 or 2 in the afternoon, I can tell I’m starting to smell pretty ripe. I’m not sure what the deal is, but the best I can figure is that my deodorant is no longer up to the task. I have been using the same brand since 8^th grade and it’s always performed admirably for me. Someone once told me though that your body can actually immunize to certain brands of deodorant and render it ineffective. I’m guessing that’s what’s happening in my case.

Now, if I decided to push through and continue to use it anyway, even though it was ineffective, well, not only would that be pretty ridiculous, but I would soon begin losing friends.

In leadership, you sometimes run across something that stinks like that, especially in the church world. We are notorious for continuing ineffective programs and processes just because we’ve been doing them for a long time (i.e. since 8^th grade). Not only that, but personally there may be patterns, behaviors, relationships, attitudes, sins, etc. that we have been doing for a long time that continue to produce negative (or stinky) results, yet we continue to do them anyway, expecting something different to happen.

I heard a leader say this recently (regarding church systems, but it applies across the board) and it really struck me, “If your church has a system that keeps failing you need to do something about it. It’s like a baby. You can keep changing the baby’s diapers, or you can potty train the baby.”

What change do you need to make? What are you in charge of that needs to improve? Blessings on your search for a new scent.

Tomorrow June 5, Brooke and I will celebrate 6 years of wedded bliss. I'm sure I'm not the easiest person to live with, but my wife might be. So in honor of 6 years, here are the top 6 reasons (of many) that I love my wife:

***Remember that we always start LIFEGROUPS reminding the group that the purpose of LIFEGROUPS is to ‘belong and become.’ To find a group of people we can connect to and build friendships, and become more like Jesus each day.

***Also reinforce the ‘Vegas Rule’ – what happens in LIFEGROUP, stays in LIFEGROUP.

If You Really Knew Me: You’d Know I Sometimes Don’t Feel Like Praying – Week 4

1. What was the craziest thing you asked Santa for as a kid?

2. Do we treat God like Santa? What kinds of things do we typically pray about?

3. Read the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:9-13 (This is the prayer Jesus taught to the disciples).

4. What are things God gives us through prayer besides granting our requests?

5. Do you feel you should pray more? Why or why not?

6. Why don’t we pray more?

7. What would happen if we were more intentional about praying?

8. At what point in your day could you be more intentional about praying? (mornings, after work, before bed, etc)


***Always close your group with a time of prayer. As a leader, you can lead this or you can all share in the requests praying for one another. You need to know where your group is at to determine what would be most comfortable in that setting. i.e. don’t ask people to pray in the group if you’re not sure they’re ready to.

LIFEGROUP Questions

5/16/10

***Remember that we always start LIFEGROUPS reminding the group that the purpose of LIFEGROUPS is to ‘belong and become.’ To find a group of people we can connect to and build friendships, and become more like Jesus each day.

***Also reinforce the ‘Vegas Rule’ – what happens in LIFEGROUP, stays in LIFEGROUP.

If You Really Knew Me: You’d Know I Sometimes Doubt God – Week 3

1. What has happened in your life that did or could have caused you to doubt God?

2. Is it okay for us to doubt God sometimes? Why or why not?

3. What kinds of doubts about God have you had?

4. How do you respond to doubt?

5. Why do we sometimes hide our doubts?

6. How has God responded to your doubt?

7. How should we deal with doubt?

8. How can we help others overcome their doubts about God?

***Always close your group with a time of prayer. As a leader, you can lead this or you can all share in the requests praying for one another. You need to know where your group is at to determine what would be most comfortable in that setting. i.e. don’t ask people to pray in the group if you’re not sure they’re ready to.

LIFEGROUP Questions

5/9/10

***Remember that we always start LIFEGROUPS reminding the group that the purpose of LIFEGROUPS is to ‘belong and become.’ To find a group of people we can connect to and build friendships, and become more like Jesus each day.

***Also reinforce the ‘Vegas Rule’ – what happens in LIFEGROUP, stays in LIFEGROUP.

If You Really Knew Me: You’d Know I don’t like Christians – Week 2

1. What is the weirdest thing that you have ever seen someone do in the name of Christianity?

2. Can you tell a story about a time when you had an encounter with someone who claimed to be a Christian, but their actions didn’t line up with their beliefs? How did that make you feel?

3. Why are we so quick to judge others rather than judge ourselves? Do you consider yourself a judgmental person? Why?

4. What minor details have you seen Christians focus on that have led to hard feelings or resentment by others? What should be the things that we focus on?

5. When we encounter people who don’t like the church or Christians, what can we do to help change their opinion?

6. Who do you know that doesn’t know Jesus because they don’t like Christians? Let’s pray for those people as a group, and do our best to impact them positively for Jesus.

***Always close your group with a time of prayer. As a leader, you can lead this or you can all share in the requests praying for one another. You need to know where your group is at to determine what would be most comfortable in that setting. i.e. don’t ask people to pray in the group if you’re not sure they’re ready to.