Joel Quile's Blog

Everyone Is Invited!!!

2011-09-17T11:08:00.000-06:00

Dear Bara & Friends,

Tomorrow is a BIG day for Bara Church! We are celebrating our 2^nd Birthday as a church and we are inviting you to join us for the party!

Our gathering will occur at our normal time of 10am and the party will begin immediately after around 11:30am. It all takes place at Byron Nelson High School in the Student Union! As official “2 Year Olds,” we are going with a Candy Theme and the scripture we’ve chosen is Psalm 34:8, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” This scripture really captured our heart as God has been so good to us these past two years. And we believe we’ve only experienced just a taste of His goodness! Speaking of God's goodness, lunch will be served and there will be plenty of sweet surprises too!

It would mean so much to Kim and I if you would join us for this special day! I’ll be beginning a new series from Nehemiah called, “Fixing Broke” and am so excited about preaching tomorrow’s sermon, “Blood, Sweat & Tears!” Whether you are a current Bara Partner, a first time visitor from last week, an in town friend or a out of town guest, we want you to join the party tomorrow! If you cannot make it, would you please pray for us? We covet prayers!

Again, it would just mean the world to Kim and I and our entire church family if you would honor us with your presence tomorrow at our 2^nd Birthday Party!

Still amazed by God’s prodigal grace.

Joel

PS: Click here for directions.

Open a Door

2011-08-21T16:12:00.003-06:00

I preached on Colossians 4:2-6 today. The sermon is online here. While I don't always use extra biblical stories or illustrations in my sermons, I did yesterday. In fact, I used several. The two that really resonated with me were these:

In 1269 Kublai Khan sent a request from Peking to Rome for "a hundred wise men of the Christian religion...And so I shall be baptized, and when I shall be baptized all my baron and great men will be baptized, and their subjects baptized, and so there will be more Christian here than there are in your parts." The Mongols were then wavering in the choice of a religion. It might have been, as Kublai forecast, the greatest mass religious movement the world has ever seen. The history of all Asia would have been changed.

But what actually happened? Pope Gregory X answered by sending two Domnican friars. They got as far as Armenia, could endure no longer and returned home. So passed the greatest missionary opportunity in the history of the church.

And this poem...

Press on.  

Nothing in the world  

Can take the place of persistence.  

Talent will not;

 Nothing is more common  

Than unsuccessful men  

With talent.  

Genius will not:  

Unrewarded genius  Is almost a proverb.  

Education will not;  The world is full of  

Educated derelicts.

 Persistence and determination  

Alone are important

Jeff Johnson Birthday Wish

2011-08-20T16:57:00.003-06:00

Jeff,

I wanted to write you a birthday wish but I fell asleep and had the weirdest dream. I wanted to share with you the dream to see if you could interpet it for me.

I was in Colorado gazing at the beauty of a mountain Where the River Runs swiftly down towards the valley when all of a sudden I was Shaken by a man in a bear suit. I yelled, “Reveal Yourself!” but alas, he didn’t! Then I shouted, “I know Who You Are! You are Matt Chandler!” He laughed a loud laugh and took off the bear suit head, which made a loud clicking noise. I asked Matt, “What are you doing here?” He said in a distinct Native American Indian accent, “Here I Am To Worship.” I said, “by yourself?” (Thinking that I could hang with him because you know it takes like a year/week/month to get on Homeboy’s calendar!) And he said, “No. Jeff Johnson is supposed to Meet With Me.” I asked “why here? I mean we are at 13,000 feet, Matt!”

He said, “I don’t know why So High either. Jeff just asked me to meet him up here and he’s my boy and I love him so I came!” I was like, “Matt, I Stand In Awe of your Undying Love for Jeff.” And Matt was like, “Joel, you have no idea of how much I love Jeff. I worship the ground he walks on!” I was like, “Matt, Bro, isn’t it a bit hypocritical to have a Heart Of Worship when the worship terminates on man and not on God? I mean, Bro, you’ve preached on this and You Have Spoken against this for years! You are acting like He Rose from the dead when he is just a mortal man Who Is Like You!”

Immediately Matt fell face down on the dirt. You could see The Fear come over Matt’s face as if God himself had decided to Enter In the conversation. He Rose from the ground and confessed sin and shared with me that he wanted nothing more than God Over Us. In fact, I believe I heard him even pray, “Ruin Me on this frappin Glorious Day.”

Just then you came walking around the trail wearing a “Jesus Is Mine English Teacher!” t-shirt!” Matt proclaimed loudly, “Why you drawing attention to yourself Homeboy? You can’t be bringing Glory To Your Name, Jeff! It wasn’t you that died for us on that Old Rugged Cross, was it?" You got so mad and yelled, “Bleecker was right! I should have dropped you from my ‘A’ List Friends a long time ago! I’m Movin’ On!”

I said to you both, “Look Men, I’m headed Home unless you guys Reign in this foolishness! I’m Amazed you guys even call yourself Christians! You both would be so much Stronger if you’d just accept that the true Beauty of the Cross is the Passion that God has for us to be one in Him and with one another!"

Then you started crying and Matt started laughing at you and John Piper came around the trail and said, "Teach Me How to Dougie." Then I woke up and I realized that it had all been a crazy dream and that I had to get back to reviewing my sermon for tomorrow with @barachurch. So Happy Birthday, Jeff Johnson! I hope you can tell me what my dream means someday!

Church Planting Myths

2011-08-01T17:05:00.000-06:00

My buddy is speaking on church planting on the subject of Myths of Church Planting and emailed me and asked me to share some of the myths I've encountered in my first 20 months of planting. Here is my reply:

Here you go...

Myth: It takes money to plant a church.  Truth: It takes a man with courage and conviction. Money doesn't raise itself.

Myth: Play to your strengths:  Truth: Staff to your strengths. People people can't do it without Project people.

Myth: Play to your strengths:  Truth: Staff to your strengths. Project people can't do it without People people.

Myth: Coaches help some.  Truth: When your coach says develop teams and you fly solo, you're an idiot.

Myth: Building (planting) a church is sexy and cool.  Truth: Foundations aren't sexy. Concrete and ugly form board aren't sexy. But neither is stopping to repair the crappy house you built too quickly without counting the cost.

Myth: If you plant and water, God will cause the growth!  Truth: You can't deny the Law of the Farm. You can plant. You can water. But if you can't wait, you'll either dig up good seed (quit too early) or yell at the seed to grow (go nuts) or pull up something that isn't ready to produce fruit (shallow church).

Myth: You only thought you had dealt with your father wound, people pleasing and fear of man issues before you plant. Truth: You haven't.

Myth: If you don't delegate, you'll struggle.  Truth: If you don't delegate, you die.

Myth: Church Planting is Hard. Truth: Church Planting is Brutal.

Myth: It is all about relationships.  Truth: Today I started a relationship with a young couple named Pete and Staci. They moved here from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. You know why they came? They saw the signs that I was too proud to put out the first 8 months of planting.

Myth: It isn't about Sunday morning. Truth: It's not if you don't hold a gathering on Sunday morning.

Myth: It is not about the numbers.  Truth: If you are counting people, salvation, baptisms, Life Groups, healed marriages, etc... IT IS ABOUT THE NUMBERS! If you are counting how many cats your church members own, it's not about the numbers.

Myth: Church Planting can be time consuming.  Truth: Church Planting can idolatry.

Myth: If you have plenty of money, you'll be fine.  Truth: I've never had plenty of money so I have no idea...

Myth: If you plant a church without the support of your wife, you'll fail.  Truth: If you plant a church without the support of your wife, you'll get divorced and then fail.

Myth: You will be tempted and tested when you plant a church.  Truth: You've not seen tempting or testing until you plant a church! The devil would rather kill a baby than a grown man! He will attack you and your church with all the fury of hell. He hates new, creating, and birth. It is the opposite of status quo, destroying, and death.

Myth: It is just a season. Work hard and your wife and kids will be okay.  Truth: If you ever put God's bride above your bride, God's family above your family, your bride and your family will resent you. If they resent you long enough, they will despise you.

Myth: You need good worship, good preaching and good kids programs on Sundays if people are going to come.  Truth: If they don't have a place to serve (ministry) and people to serve with (community) they might come, but they won't stay.

There are plenty of others that I will share later...

Church Planting Myths p. 1

2011-05-29T20:58:00.000-06:00

Here you go...

Myth: It takes money to plant a church. Truth: It takes a man with courage and conviction. Money doesn't raise itself.

Myth: Play to your strengths: Truth: Staff to your strengths. People people can't do it without Project people.

Myth: Play to your strengths: Truth: Staff to your strengths. Project people can't do it without People people.

Myth: Coaches help some. Truth: When your coach says develop teams and you fly solo, you're an idiot.

Myth: Building (planting) a church is sexy and cool. Truth: Foundations aren't sexy. Concrete and ugly form board aren't sexy. But neither is stopping to repair the crappy house you built too quickly without counting the cost.

Myth: If you plant and water, God will cause the growth! Truth: You can't deny the Law of the Farm. You can plant. You can water. But if you can't wait, you'll either dig up good seed (quit too early) or yell at the seed to grow (go nuts) or pull up something that isn't ready to produce fruit (shallow church).

Myth: You only thought you had dealt with your father wound, people pleasing and fear of man issues before you plant. Truth: You haven't.

Myth: If you don't delegate, you'll struggle. Truth: If you don't delegate, you die.

Myth: Church Planting is Hard. Truth: Church Planting is Brutal.

Myth: It is all about relationships. Truth: Today I started a relationship with a young couple named Pete and Staci. They moved here from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. You know why they came? They saw the signs that I was too proud to put out the first 8 months of planting.

Myth: It isn't about Sunday morning. Truth: It's not if you don't hold a gathering on Sunday morning.

Myth: It is not about the numbers. Truth: If you are counting people, salvation, baptisms, Life Groups, healed marriages, etc... IT IS ABOUT THE NUMBERS! If you are counting how many cats your church members own, it's not about the numbers.

Myth: Church Planting can be time consuming. Truth: Church Planting can idolatry.

Myth: If you have plenty of money, you'll be fine. Truth: I've never had plenty of money so I have no idea...

Myth: If you plant a church without the support of your wife, you'll fail. Truth: If you plant a church without the support of your wife, you'll get divorced and then fail.

Myth: You will be tempted and tested when you plant a church. Truth: You've not seen tempting or testing until you plant a church! The devil would rather kill a baby than a grown man! He will attack you and your church with all the fury of hell. He hates new, creating, and birth. It is the opposite of status quo, destroying, and death.

Myth: It is just a season. Work hard and your wife and kids will be okay. Truth: If you ever put God's bride above your bride, God's family above your family, your bride and your family will resent you. If they resent you long enough, they will despise you.

Myth: You need good worship, good preaching and good kids programs on Sundays if people are going to come. Truth: If they don't have a place to serve (ministry) and people to serve with (community) they might come, but they won't stay.

There are plenty of others that I will share later...

Please Pray for Kim

2011-03-22T13:50:00.000-06:00

I'm writing this from my house as I'm working from home for the remainder of the day. I spent the morning with Kim at the neurologists office in Southlake. I don't know if you know or not but Kim has had horrible, unrelenting headaches for the past 3 months. Today's visit was just another step in our journey. The neurologist believes that Kim's stuck in a chronic loop of migraine/tension headaches due to:

- a massive Vitamin D deficiency (Normal is 100. Low is 30. Kim is a 12)

- prolonged/chronic stress catching up and taking it's toll (18 months = 3 moves, Mom's getting cancer for 4th time, planting a church, significant change in salary and work related stress)

- Sleep Deprivation (not near enough and almost always interrupted)

- Severe tension in her shoulders and neck. Know a good massage therapist?

The doctor wanted to put her in the hospital today but we opted for the more economic home health care approach which includes 2 shots today, more medicine tonight and then back for more shots tomorrow. Needless to say, Kim is out cold! The doctor wants her to stay in bed a minimum of 3 days. He said we must aggressively attack this problem and break the cycle.

I just know many of you love my Kim and have been praying for her and would want to know how she is doing. Please keep praying and pray specifically that she would be a good patient! Kim is much better at being the "care giver" than she is being the "care receiver" and so naturally, this is hard for her.

In the middle of this season of sickness, Kim and I are well aware of how blessed we are despite how bad things might seem, especially compared with the burdens that so many others bear. We also are all the more convinced that God is good despite the bad.

Thanks for praying for Kim! I can promise you that no matter how bad her head may hurt, as long as she has a heart beat, she is praying for us!

The Eyes of Gratitude

2010-11-25T17:51:00.001-07:00

God give me your eyes.
I want to see beauty.
That I might acknowledge blessing.
Yet I really want to see you.
In the middle of everything.
Even of pain. Struggle. Spiritual winter.
Your eyes see the lonely in the middle of busy.
Your eyes see hope knee deep in despair.
Your eyes see the whole person when others just see the broken.
I want eyes that capture the full future of a current foe that I might fully free a future friend.
Give me eyes to see my fear so I might step out in faith.
Give me your eyes, God.
I know you're great.
I believe you're good.
You're strong.
You're loving.
I see it.
Thanks.

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Dumping Junk and Living Spiritually

2010-11-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

Satan’s and God’s designs in your life are not the same. Satan designs to destroy your love for Christ. God designs to deepen your love for Christ. Some people see the "things of this world" (money, possessions, careers, homes, etc) as the enemy. They are not the enemy. They are inanimate objects. The are neutral by nature. Having a nice home or a decent IRA or a good job does not mean you are not walking in step with the spirit. You haven't let the world win if you have some (or all) of those things. The "world" wins if you fail to cherish Christ. God’s design is to wean you off the breast of the world and feast you on the sufficiency of Christ. It is meant to help you say and feel, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” And to know that therefore, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 3:8; 1:21)

Note: This thought is actually adapted from an article Dr. John Piper wrote a while back, "Don't Waste Your Cancer"

The Delicacy of Delegation

2010-08-31T07:48:00.000-06:00

Historically with regards to my leadership, I've found the task of delegating to be more art than science. I've struggled with knowing when to delegate, how to delegate and to whom to delegate. Recently, I ran across this simple little quiz that I found very valuable concerning the topic of delegation. Hopefully, you will too.

QUIZ: Are you delegating enough or effectively?

Answer these simple questions to see where you stand.

1. Do you work extended hours trying to catch up?	Yes	No
2. When you delegate an activity, do you merely say "Do it?"	Yes	No
3. Do you take work home evenings and weekends?	Yes	No
4. Do you postpone long-range projects?	Yes	No
5. Do you lack confidence in your subordinates' abilities?	Yes	No
6. Is the work on your staff below your expectations?	Yes	No
7. Does your staff have low morale?	Yes	No
8. Are all decisions deferred to you from your staff?	Yes	No
9. Has your staff stopped presenting their ideas to you?	Yes	No
10. Do operations slow down when you're away?	Yes	No

If you answer yes to more than five of the questions, you're not delegating enough!

“Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you've decided upon is being carried out.” -Ronald Reagan (1911 - 2004) U.S. president

For more on delegation, read this.

Don't You Dare Laugh At This Guy's $50,000 iPod

2010-07-25T05:30:00.079-06:00

Check out this article and then read on.

This is not going where you think it is...

This is a warning not against materialism or a jab at a boxer's stewardship. It is a confession of my punch drunk thinking.

This article made me think of one thing: "Man, I wish he would've given that money to Bara!"

That is lame.

Yes, would $50k totally bless Bara Church big time right about now? Of course. But I believe that God desires to provide for us through people that know Kim and I and believe in us and Bara's vision. How much more biblical is it for people to give to the vision/need of the local church/church planter...being compelled only by the Holy Spirit as opposed to the church planter "wishing" for a boxer he's never met to send in a fat check?

God is using the Bara body to be His hands and feet in big, bold and beautiful ways. He knows our needs and he will provide at the exact time we need it.

I know it!

But if he wants to use you to help...praise God! In fact, here is a link for you to do just that.

And if you don't click that link above and give to Bara, I'm going to tell Floyd you think his iPod is girly, his hat is dumb, and Floyd is a stupid name!

Kidding!

Pastors Aren't Superheroes

2010-07-24T12:00:00.000-06:00

I know this article (below) was totally in jest but it got me to thinking about how western Christianity has pushed some pastors into a spotlight that was never meant to shine on them but rather on the one that sent them!

It reminds me of the scene in John 6:15 where the crowd wants to "force" Jesus to be king. Jesus doesn't let them. How he handles the situation is telling. He withdraws away from the crowds and gets alone and presses into his Father's presence.

Whenever we feel ourselves being pushed onto a throne that is not ours to occupy, we must go bow before the true King and come back to the people even more passionate about boasting of His kingdom and more mindful that it never has been about building our kingdom!

This week I worked a horrible suicide in my town and ministered to a crushed and confused family late into the night. Yesterday the fire chief praised and thanked me for my efforts. My reply was, "it's what we do."

I'm not the king of the kingdom.
I'm not the head of the church.
And I'm definitely not a superhero.

#325. The superhero guide to famous pastors. � Stuff Christians Like – Jon Acuff

All Things To All Men or Just One Thing To All Men?

2010-07-22T10:04:00.000-06:00

When Paul said he would literally change his approach attitude, and aim for the single, never changing purpose of saving just one person, he was on to something!

Unfortunately, some of our churches are stuck in a time warp, unwilling to change a thing! No wonder we don't see people changing either!

The church could take a lesson from business because apparently, business has taken a lesson from the Bible!

Seth's Blog: The art of seduction: "http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451b31569e2013480860882970c"

There are no magic words that open every heart. We must prayerfully, carefully, and strategically try to reach people individually!

And if we do that, we will be doing it biblically!

Unlock Your Inner Edison

2010-07-22T09:39:00.000-06:00

The past few days, God has really been stirring my spirit to wade back out into the waters of innovation and creativity. Lately I've found the dry land of status quo quite disturbing at best and down right depressing at worst.

Obviously, God is the greatest source of inspiration when it comes to creating. That being said, Edison isn't a bad model when it comes to intentionally innovating either.

Check out this article on America's Greatest Inventor

Blogging Innovation � Unlock Your Inner Edison

Facebook's Future and My Leadership

2010-07-22T07:12:00.006-06:00

I just read a good article about Facebook's future here.

This quote caught my eye and made me asks some questions regarding my own leadership:

"But as with all visionaries, there is always the danger that in his attempt to lead his flock to the land of milk and honey, there will come a moment where he steps too far ahead, and the flock abandons the frontier for the pasture, leaving him alone and howling in the wilderness."

I pray for the wisdom to know when leave the pasture for the frontier and when to stay put for a bit. I pray that I would also love God more than I love the approval of the flock (crowd), love myself, or love the comfort of the pasture.

Because sometimes you have to go to the wilderness all alone to find out what is next for your people.

It just might be great news!

Leaders and a God-Listening Heart

2010-05-25T21:26:00.005-06:00

I read this verse last week and I cannot get it off my heart:

"Here's what I want: Give me a God-listening heart so I can lead your people well, discerning the difference between good and evil. For who on their own is capable of leading your glorious people?"

It is from 1 Kings 3:9 (The Message)

I want it bad.

Help Haiti Right Now!

2010-01-27T09:39:00.011-07:00

Dear Friends,

I’m sending this mass plea out to my entire network of friends and family.

I have an amazing opportunity for you to help Haiti right now!

Brad Gautney called me late last night (said the Holy Spirit put me on his heart) and began to share with me the amazing and atrocious accounts from his last 2 weeks in Haiti. I could talk about Brad for days as he truly is one of the most Christ-like men I’ve ever known. More information about Brad can be found at the end of this email. Check Bara’s website for a video of Brad in Haiti the day after the quake that should be posted the next few days.

So Brad is telling me these stories and I ask him what he needs and he says, “A way to get more supplies from the US into Haiti.” The Spirit immediately brings my good friend David Tatum to my heart. David is a former AA pilot and runs a ministry called Freedom Flight. David had been trying to offer his plane and services for over a week and had a lot of leads but the red tape with some bigger organizations was slowing the process down. Check out his site now! As with Brad, I could go on and on about David and his love for our great King too! I’m texting David while on the phone with Brad and within minutes, Brad and David are on the phone with each other and a trip for this Friday is planned.

Brad has the medical supply reinforcements needed to enable his team of doctors and missionaries to treat the masses. Brad told me that they are giving away over 7,000lbs of food and medicine daily! But those supplies are stuck here in the states. David has the plane and the heart to sacrifice. What we need is money!

We need $6,000 - $10,000 for fuel and we need it in the next 24-48 hrs!

Any amount will help. Seriously, if you have $5.00 to give, send it. We’ve got to get these supplies to Brad and his team in Haiti ASAP!

Here how to give in order of preference:

1. Mail a check today to:

Freedom Flight, Inc

401 N. Carroll Ave #197

Southlake, TX 76092

2. Use PayPal and give right now by clicking here. Send money to "David@freedomflightusa.com" We do lose money (3%) this way.

3. Contact David and set up a wire or bank transfer for today or tomorrow by clicking here.

Whatever way you choose, please take a minute to contact David and tell him that you are going to (or just did) give and tell him how much so he will know where he stands with the fuel expenses.

If you want to support Brad in addition to this effort, please shoot me an email and I’ll put you in touch.

Thank you so much for considering this opportunity to help immediately with medical and humanitarian efforts in Haiti.

You are so loved…so love.

Joel

Brad Gautney is currently living in the United States with his amazing wife Monica, and his daughters Hope and Emma, and son Kado James. He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where he specialized in International Health. He now works as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in Haiti and East Africa implementing new health programs to reach those most affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Brad and Monica Gautney spent four years living and working in Haiti where they oversaw a school, nutrition program, and initiated several community development projects including a community health clinic. He continues to oversee the MannaHaiti program through MGM, making frequent visits to Haiti. Brad also serves on the MGM board as a Director. He can be reached at bgautney@mannaglobalministries. Manna Global Ministries.

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years in a Few Days

2009-08-18T05:22:00.000-06:00

I can't wait. I've read all of Don's books so far and haven't been disappointed. I'm anxiously awaiting reading his latest offering: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

Here is what one publisher had to say about it: Full of beautiful, heart-wrenching, and hilarious stories, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years details one man's opportunity to edit his life as if her were a character in a movie.

Years after writing his best-selling memoir, Donald Miller went into a funk and spent months sleeping in and avoiding his publisher. One story had ended, and Don was unsure how to start another.

But he gets rescued by two movie producers who want to make a movie based on his memoir. When they start fictionalizing Don's life for film--changing a meandering memoir into a structured narrative--the real-life Don starts a journey to edit his actual life into a better story. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years details that journey and challenges readers to reconsider what they strive for in life. It shows how to get a second chance at life the first time around.

Sounds like another blessing!

You can order yours today here.

PS: A while ago, as part of a publicity stint Don did, it appeared that I helped Miller write this book. Check it out here. Just wanted to clarify: that was a total joke!

Faithing It

2009-08-17T07:55:00.005-06:00

We were in Abilene this weekend to help Laura move into her dorm for her sophomore year at ACU! It would have been worth the trip to just spend that time with Laura, help her out, and share the experience with her; but God let us have our cake and eat it too with giving me many other "gifts" over the previous 3 days! I've included them below in no particular order. If I left you off the list, please refer to # 7. Thank you.

Top Ten Gifts of the Past Weekend (in addition to being with Laura!)

10. Just being in Abilene! (Great memories, great people)

9. Harold's with Douthit - a toss up! (normally Harold trumps Kyle, but the conversation with Kyle was even better! I love Kyle and praise God for him! But that sauce is so good too...)

8. Fellowship with the Jensens. (sweetest people on the planet!)

7. Seeing Everyone!

6. Abilene Lighting Storm! (Witnessed a beautiful West Texas Lighting Show out in the distance on Sat night!)

5. A hug from Bob Strader! (Bob "Coach" is like a dad to me! I love that man! I do want to say that getting a hug from Steve Hare was great too but then Hare called me out in front of church, so he got lumped in on #7 and not formally mentioned - haha!!!)

4. Being on Campus! (Can't explain the Niagara of emotions that come over me when I step foot on ACU's campus. It looks so much better than when I was there but my memories of my time there are still so sweet!)

3. Time with my buddy Phil (went out to Schub's crib on Friday and we caught up on life. I praise God for his friendship!)

2. Being Inspired by Paul Jensen to Run a Triathlon! (I might not be this grateful as training picks up or after the race, but right now I'm pumped! Thanks Paul!)

1. Highland. (The Highland Church is home. Great people. Harris shucked the corn like only he can! An indescribable spirit fills that place. It just felt so good to be there!)

Last night we made it home a whopping 15 minutes before our weekly Bara Prep Fest at 6pm at the O'Brien's. That went good too! Brisket tacos! Some good planning and great people. The highlight of the evening for me though came when Becky B shared a simple yet strong bit of prose with us. You might have heard it before but I'm passing it on again because it is just that powerful:

LEAD ME TO SOME SOUL TODAY

Lead me to some soul today;

O teach me, Lord, just what to say;

Friends of mine are lost in sin,

And cannot find their way.

Few there are who seem to care,

And few there are who pray;

Melt my heart and fill my life:

Give me one soul today.

Will H. Houghton

I think the reason I like this little poem so much is that he bookends the request to be lead to a soul and to get a soul with the requests to be taught and my favorite: to have his heart melted!

And finally, I want to encourage everyone to check out this link over the next few weeks (it's not up yet) and listen to the message from 2009-08-16. Randy Harris preached about "Faithing It" and it was absolutely incredible!

Look At This...But Not That.

2009-05-06T05:14:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I read an incredible post from Steven Furtick's blog. Just in case you are too lazy to click over there now, I've copied and pasted it below. Read it. Then get back to work!

Why do you stand looking …

Read Acts 1:9-11
Here’s a summary:

While Jesus was being transported into heaven following His resurrection, His followers watched with great interest.
Of course they did! The Son of God was being beamed up into the skies before their very eyes. It’s understandable that they would be tempted to rubberneck.

So when the angels interrupt the experience with the question:
Why do you stand here looking into the sky?
…I’ve got to admit, it comes across a little unfair. Don’t these guys have the right to star-gaze for a minute or two considering the magnitude of the moment?

It makes more sense if you put the question in context. In the same breath that the angel commands the disciples to stop staring upward, he reminds them of the urgency of their task:

Jesus is coming again. There is an imminent need for you to be His witnesses. (Jesus had just explained this in Acts 1:8 - you know the verse.)
So get your head out of the clouds, receive the Holy Spirit, and then get back to work.

Now consider how much more this rebuke would apply to many modern day followers of Christ.
Jesus is coming again, we have the message of the Gospel, and more resource and capability than ever before to be His witnesses.
But it seems like a lot of us have our heads in the clouds.

We critique one another’s methodologies rather than celebrating one another’s success.
We divide in camps over our dim interpretations of complicated theological issues rather than uniting under the banner of salvation through Christ alone.
We let small people with microscopic vision dictate the course of our ministry and limit the scope of our impact.

We can’t stand around with our heads in the clouds and our thumbs up our…noses. We don’t have a minute to waste or the luxury of pontification.

Jesus is coming! His Spirit is within us! We have power! We are the Church!
How dare we stand around looking in the sky-when there’s a world to win right in front of our face?

Stinkin Sync'n

2009-05-05T07:55:00.009-06:00

After 6 years of using a Palm Treo for all my cell phone/texting/email/google-something-at-a-dinner-party-to-find-an-answer-and-appear-uber-smart needs, I made the switch last week to the Blackberry.

Here is why...

I went into the Sprint store late Thursday night fully expecting to get a new Bluetooth earpiece. I told the CSR/Sprint Guy/17 yr old tech guru my situation. How I was sick and tired of hearing my friends mean mouth my Bluetooth headset. (Seriously, they were merciless! Mitch would call and just talk trash about my it like it had cussed his mom or something! Seriously, if I had a buck for every time Mitch would state, 'your headset stinks!" Anyway, I digress...what is new? Anyway, I digress should have been what I called my blog! Wow! I'm actually digressing while digressing)

Here is how the conversation ensued:

Sprint kid: "Bro, you've got a connection problem!"

Joel: "yeah, I know. I need a Bluetooth earpiece."

Sprint kid: "no, you need a new phone."

Joel: (thinking he was just trying to sell me a new phone) "why?"

Sprint kid: "because Palm's are notorious for not pairing well with any headsets."

Joel: "what does 'not pairing well' with my headset really mean?"

Sprint kid: "It means the connection between the two stinks. There is a syncing problem. It creates interference and broken communication. In other words, the better it syncs, the less it stinks!"

The conversation continued. I had an upgrade so I got a new phone. Now I'm not going to lie and say that the connection between my Bluetooth headset and Blackberry is perfect. My buddy Evan did say that it is 100% better. But I am going to tell you that I learned something through the experience.

A better connection means better communication. I find myself using my Bluetooth more. I've increased my communicating (talking and listening) as a result of my improved connection.

And of course since I love parables (so did Jesus) I thought I'd draw an obvious conclusion by asking a challenging question:

How is the connection between you and Christ?

In other words, Is it synced or does it stink?

A Cause and a Calling

2009-04-28T09:21:00.007-06:00

This past weekend I was blessed to witness Faith Christian's amazing performance of the musical, Seussical. I actually got to see it twice! The hero of the story was Horton who saved the Who’s. Going into the play, I had read some of Seuss’ work and had recently seen the animated version of Horton Hears a Who and had thought that Horton was heroic because he had such a big heart. But after seeing the musical twice, I realized that while it was true Horton was big-hearted, there were two other driving factors for his bringing salvation to the Who’s.

Horton was compelled by the cause. He truly believed that “a persons a person no matter how small” and that conviction carried him throughout the story. No matter what opposition he faced (His chief tormentors are Vlad Vladikoff, the Wickersham Brothers and the Sour Kangaroo.) or how bad the circumstances got (imagine desperately rummaging through a seemingly limitless field of pink clovers in search of the one holding the speck. He finally found the speck on the 3 millionth flower) Horton never gave up. It was obvious that his passion that “a persons a person no matter how small” persuaded him.

But I noticed another possible moving motivation in Horton’s redemption venture. Horton believed in what others can’t see. Nobody believe Horton’s story about a voice from a spec of dust. The biggest reason they didn’t believe is because it was new. Sour Kangaroo said,

“Why, that speck is as small as the head of a pin.
A person on that?…why, there never has been!”

Just because something has never been doesn’t mean that it can’t be! Horton withstood harassment and ridicule for following a dream that he couldn’t adequately describe. He was called a fool for listening to a voice that others couldn’t hear. He was falsely accused for seeing what others couldn’t see. And he never lost faith. Or did he? The musical did a good job of portraying the obvious fear and frustration and even desperation that Horton must have felt. But when I got home I went back and actually read the book. There was one line that resonated with my heart,

“And by noon poor old Horton, more dead than alive, Had picked, searched, and piled up, nine thousand and five.”

Did you see it? More dead than alive?

And then I thought of Psalm 42.

All of us have been where Horton was and where the Psalmist was. If you’ve lived a little life, you know what it is like to be “more dead than alive.” Most of us can relate to the musician’s moan, “My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’"

Truth be told, Kim and I can relate now more than ever. Planting a church is a lot like hearing a voice that no one else can hear (“…why, there never has been!”) or looking for a speck in a field filled with millions of clovers. Yet we, like Horton and the Psalmist, must keep going. You too must keep going. Some days it is our good nature or heroic hearts that keep our eyes on the prize. But when life’s evil eagles swoop and steal and faith’s enemies oppress and taunt, it is going to be our commitment to the cause and our conviction in our calling that carry us on.

Keep hearing Who’s and put your hope in Heaven’s Hero!

Psalm 42

1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?

3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while men say to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"

4 These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God,
with shouts of joy and thanksgiving
among the festive throng.

5 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and 6 my God.
My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.

8 By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I say to God my Rock,
"Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?"

10 My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"

11 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

Horton Hears a Who

On the fifteenth of May, in the jungle of Nool,
In the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool,
He was splashing…enjoying the jungle’s great joys…
When Horton the elephant heard a small noise.

So Horton stopped splashing. He looked towards the sound.
“That’s funny,” thought Horton. “There’s no one around.”
Then he heard it again! Just a very faint yelp
As if some tiny person were calling for help.
“I’ll help you,” said Horton. “But who are you? Where?”
He looked and he looked. He could see nothing there
But a small speck of dust blowing past though the air.

“I say!” murmured Horton. “I’ve never heard tell
Of a small speck of dust that is able to yell.
So you know what I think?…Why, I think that there must
Be someone on top of that small speck of dust!
Some sort of a creature of very small size,
too small to be seen by an elephant’s eyes…

“…some poor little person who’s shaking with fear
That he’ll blow in the pool! He has no way to steer!
I’ll just have to save him. Because, after all,
A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

So, gently, and using the greatest of care,
The elephant stretched his great trunk through the air,
And he lifted the dust speck and carried it over
And placed it down, safe, on a very soft clover.

“Humpf!” humpfed a voice. Twas a sour Kangaroo.
And the young kangaroo in her pouch said “Humpf!” too
“Why, that speck is as small as the head of a pin.
A person on that?…why, there never has been!”

“Believe me,” said Horton. “I tell you sincerely,
My ears are quite keen and I heard him quite clearly.
I know there’s a person down there. And, what’s more,
Quite likely there’s two. Even three. Even four.
Quite likely…

“…a family, for all that we know!
A family with children just starting to grow.
So, please,” Horton said, “as a favour to me,
Try not to disturb them. Just let them be.”

“I think you’re a fool!” laughed the sour kangaroo
And the young kangaroo in her pouch said, “Me, too!
You’re the biggest blame fool in the jungle of Nool!”
And the kangaroos plunged in the cool of the pool.
“What terrible splashing!” the elephant frowned.
“I can’t let my very small persons get drowned!
I’ve got to protect them. I’m bigger than they.”
So he plucked up the clover and hustled away.

Through the high jungle tree tops, the news quickly spread:
“He talks to a dust speck! He’s out of his head!
Just look at him walk with that speck on the flower!”
And Horton walked, worrying, almost an hour.
“Should I put this speck down?…” Horton though with alarm.
“If I do, these small persons may come to great harm.
I can’t put it down. And I won’t! After all
A person’s a person. No matter how small.”

Then Horton stopped walking.
The speck-voice was talking!
The voice was so faint he could just barely hear it.
“Speak up, please,” Said Horton. He put his ear near it.
“My friend,” came the voice, “you’re a very fine friend.
You’ve helped all us folks on this dust speck no end.
You’ve saved all our houses, our ceilings and floors.
You’ve saved all our churches and grocery stores.”

“You mean…” Horton gasped, “you have buildings there, too?”
“Oh, yes,” piped the voice. “We most certainly do…
“I know,” called the voice, “I’m too small to be seen
But I’m Mayor of a town that is friendly and clean.
Our buildings, to you, would seem terribly small
But to us, who aren’t big, they are wonderfully tall.
My town is called Who-ville, for I am a Who
And we Whos are all thankful and grateful to you”

And Horton called back to the Mayor of the town,
“You’re safe now. Don’t worry. I won’t let you down.”

But, Just as he spoke to the Mayor of the speck,
Three big jungle monkeys climbed up Horton’s neck!
The Wickersham Brothers came shouting, “What rot!
This elephants talking to Whos who are not!
There aren’t any Whos! And they don’t have a Mayor!
And we’re going to stop all this nonsense! So there!”

They snatched Horton’s clover! They carried it off
To a black-bottomed eagle named Valad Vlad-I-koff,
A mighty strong eagle, of very swift wing,
And they said, “Will you kindly get rid of this thing?”
And, before the poor elephant could even speak,
That eagle flew off with the flower in his beak.

All that late afternoon and far into the night
That black-bottomed bird flapped his wings in fast flight,
While Horton chased after, with groans, over stones
That tattered his toenails and battered his bones,
And begged, “Please don’t harm all my little folks, who
Have as much right to live as us bigger folk do!”

But far, far beyond him, that eagle kept flapping
And over his shoulder called back, “Quit your yapping.
I’ll fly the night through. I’m a bird. I don’t mind it.
And I’ll hide this, tomorrow, where you’ll never find it!”

And at 6:56 the next morning he did it.
It sure was a terrible place that he hid it.
He let that small clover drop somewhere inside
Of a great patch of clovers a hundred miles wide!
“Find THAT!” sneered the bird. “But I think you will fail.”
And he left
With a flip
Of his black-bottomed tail.

“I’ll find it!” cried Horton. “I’ll find it or bust!
I SHALL find my friends on my small speck of dust!”
And clover, by clover, by clover with care
He picked up and searched the, and called, “Are you there?”
But clover, by clover, by clover he found
That the one that he sought for was just not around.
And by noon poor old Horton, more dead than alive,
Had picked, searched, and piled up, nine thousand and five.

Then, on through the afternoon, hour after hour…
Till he found them at last! On the three millionth flower!
“My friends!” cried the elephant. “Tell me! Do tell!
Are you safe? Are you sound? Are you whole? Are you well?”

From down on the speck came the voice of the Mayor:
“We’ve really had trouble! Much more than our share.
When that black-bottomed birdie let go and we dropped,
We landed so hard that our clocks have all stopped.
Our tea pots are broken. Our rocking-chairs are smashed.
And our bicycle tires all blew up when we crashed.
So, Horton, Please!” pleaded that voice of the Mayor’s,
“Will you stick by us Whos while we’re making repairs?”

“Of course,” Horton answered. “Of course I will stick.
I’ll stick by you small folks though thin and though thick!”

“Humpf!” humpfed a voice!
“For almost two days you’ve run wild and insisted
On chatting with persons who’ve never existed.
Such carryings-on in our peaceable jungle!
We’ve had quite enough of your bellowing bungle!
And I’m here to state,” snapped the big kangaroo,
“That your silly nonsensical game is all through!”
And the young kangaroo in her pouch said, “Me, too!”

“With the help of the Wickersham Brothers and dozens
Of Wickersham Uncles and Wickershams Cousins
And Wickersham In-Laws, whose help I’ve engaged,
You’re going to be roped! And you’re going to be caged!
And, as for your dust speck…hah!
That we shall boil
In a hot steaming kettle of Beezle-Nut Oil!”
“Boil it?…” gasped Horton!
“Oh, that you can’t do!
It’s all full of persons!
They’ll prove it to you!”

“Mr. Mayor! Mr. Mayor!” Horton called. “Mr. Mayor!
You’ve got to prove that you really are there!
So call a big meeting. Get everyone out.
Make every Who holler! Make every Who shout!
Make every Who scream! If you don’t, every Who
Is going to end up in a Beezle-Nut stew!”

And, down on the dust speck, the scared little Mayor
Quick called a big meeting in Who-ville Town Square.
And his people cried loudly. They cried out in fear:
“We are here! We are here! We are here!”

The elephant smiled: “That was clear as a bell.
You Kangaroos surely heard that very well.”
“All I heard,” snapped the big kangaroo, “Was the breeze,
And the faint sound of wind through the far-distant trees.
I heard no small voices. And you didn’t either.”
And the you kangaroo in her pouch said, “Me, neither.”

“Grab him!” they shouted. “And cage the big dope!
Lasso his stomach with ten miles of rope!
Tie the knots tight so he’ll never shake lose!
Then dunk that dumb speck in the Beezle-Nut juice!”

Horton fought back with great vigor and vim
But the Wickersham gang was too many for him.
They beat him! They mauled him! They started to haul
Him into his cage! But he managed to call
To the Mayor: “Don’t give up! I believe in you all
A person’s a person, no matter how small!
And you very small persons will not have to die
If you make yourselves heard! So come on, now, and TRY!”

The Mayor grabbed a tom-tom. He started to smack it.
And, all over Who-ville, they whooped up a racked.
They rattled tie kettles! They beat on brass pans,
On garbage pail tops and old cranberry cans!
They blew on bazooka and blasted great toots
On clarinets, oom-pahs and boom-pahs and flutes!

Great gusts of loud racket rang high through the air.
They rattled and shook the whole sky! And the Mayor
Called up through the howling mad hullabaloo:
“Hey Horton! Hows this? Is our sound coming through?”

And Horton called back, “I can hear you just fine.
But the kangaroos’ ears aren’t as strong, quite, as mine.
They don’t hear a thing! Are you sure all you boys
Are doing their best? Are they ALL making noise?
Are you sure every Who down in Who-ville is working?
Quick! Look through your town! Is there anyone shirking?”

Through the town rushed the Mayor, From the east to the west.
But everyone seemed to be doing his best.
Everyone seemed to be yapping or yipping!
Everyone seemed to be beeping or bipping!
But it wasn’t enough, all this ruckus and roar!
He HAD to find someone to help him make more.
He raced through each building! He searched floor-to-floor!

And, just as he felt he was getting nowhere,
And almost about to give up in despair,
He suddenly burst through a door and that Mayor
Discovered one shirker! Quite hidden away
In the Fairfax Apartments (Apartment 12-J)
A very small, very small shirker named Jo-Jo
was standing, just standing, and bouncing a Yo-Yo!
Not making a sound! Not a yipp! Not a chirp!
And the Mayor rushed inside and he grabbed the young twerp!

And he climbed with the lad up the Eiffelberg Tower.
“This,” cried the Mayor, “is your towns darkest hour!
The time for all Whos who have blood that is red
To come to the aid of their country!” he said.
“We’ve GOT to make noises in greater amounts!
So, open your mouth, lad! For every voice counts!”

Thus he spoke as he climbed. When they got to the top,
The lad cleared his throat and he shouted out, “YOPP!”

And that Yopp…
That one small, extra Yopp put it over!
Finally, at last! From that speck on that clover
Their voices were heard! They rang out clear and clean.
And the elephant smiled. “Do you see what I mean?…
They’ve proved they ARE persons, no matter how small.
And their whole world was saved by the smallest of All!”

“How true! Yes, how true,” said the big kangaroo.
“And, from now on, you know what I’m planning to do?…
From now on, I’m going to protect them with you!”
And the young kangaroo in her pouch said…
“…ME, TOO!”
“From the sun in the summer. From rain when it’s fall-ish,
I’m going to protect them. No matter how small-ish!”

The end!

Not By Accident

2009-03-29T23:01:00.000-06:00

Yes, the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill was great theater and Woods was the center attraction. After coming back from reconstructive knee surgery, he looks as good as ever, if not better. He’s never been in better shape and that unwavering will to win hasn’t changed.

By the way: he didn’t get this good by accident. During one of Tiger’s holes, the announcers listed his schedule on a typical day. It’s safe to say he takes his job quiet seriously, even if a lot of us would love to make a living hitting a golf ball around.

Check out this typical day in the life of Tiger Woods.

6 a.m. — Lift weights

7:30 a.m. — Eat breakfast

9 a.m. — Hit balls

11 a.m. — Putting

11:30 a.m. — Play 9 holes

12:30 p.m. — Eat lunch

1 p.m. — Hit balls

3 p.m. — Short game

4 p.m. — Play 9 more holes

5 p.m. — Hit balls

5:30 p.m. — Putting

Sounds like a full-time job. It’s great to see Tiger back to being Tiger.

Beautiful Prayer

2009-01-06T09:11:00.002-07:00

I received this prayer via email from a brother in my Lake Cities family. It is beautiful and I wanted to pass it on.

Prayer for the Day

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for including the book of Proverbs in the Bible. Lord, may I take heed to the wisdom in this book and apply it to my life. Teach me truth, and give me knowledge and revelation of Your Word, so that I might live an overcoming life in this earth. Guide me so that I might daily walk in the Spirit and do the things that You have called me to do in my lifetime. May the contributions I make to this world be those that are inspired by You, and come from Your heart. Let Your will be done in my life now, and always. I ask this in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Words and Deed

2008-12-08T08:58:00.003-07:00

In the season where churches all over are gearing up for their biggest crowds of the year, I found it ironic at best and tragic at worst that one group wasn't talking about the Christ, but rather just doing the kind of stuff he did.

Take a look at the weekly calendar for this group for this week:

ONGOING: Collecting TOYS for Children's Advocacy Center for Denton County and Cook Children's Medical Center.

ONGOING and UPCOMING: "Coffee for the Troops" Now collecting pounds of coffee to be distributed to service members arriving home for the holidays at DFW Airport. Dates and times of distribution will be posted soon.

THURSDAY, December 11, 2008, 6-8 p.m. - ArtShow benefiting The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

SUNDAY, December 14, 2008, 3-5 p.m. - Toy Drive and visit with Santa. $1 Coffee and Hot Chocolate on the Patio with Santa and Christmas caroling. All proceeds benefit Children's Advocacy Center for Denton County and Cook Children's Medical Center.

The Group? A church? Nope. Trophy Club Starbucks.

Go on out and join them if you live close.

Location: Starbucks in Trophy Club, 501 Trophy Lake Drive, Trophy Club, TX 76262

The Religious Wrong

2008-11-10T13:28:00.006-07:00

An absolutely great article from Cal Thomas in the Fort Worth Star Telegram!

Enjoy!

Monday, Nov 10, 2008

Posted on Sun, Nov. 09, 2008

Christians May Have Learned The Most From the Election

When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2009, he will do so in the 30th anniversary year of the founding of the so-called Religious Right.

Born in 1979 and midwifed by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, the Religious Right was a reincarnation of previous religious-social movements that sought moral improvement through legislation and court rulings. Those earlier movements — from abolition (successful) to Prohibition (unsuccessful) — had mixed results.

Social movements that relied mainly on political power to enforce a conservative moral code weren’t anywhere near as successful as those that focused on changing hearts.

The four religious revivals, from the First Great Awakening in the 1730s and 1740s to the Fourth Great Awakening in the late 1960s and early ’70s, which touched America and instantly transformed millions of Americans (and American culture as a result), are testimony to that.

Thirty years of trying to use government to stop abortion, preserve opposite-sex marriage, improve television and movie content and transform culture into the conservative Evangelical image has failed.

The question now becomes: should conservative Christians redouble their efforts, contributing more millions to radio and TV preachers and activists, or would they be wise to try something else?

I opt for trying something else.

Too many conservative Evangelicals have put too much faith in the power of government to transform culture.

The futility inherent in such misplaced faith can be demonstrated by asking these activists a simple question: Does the secular left, when it holds power, persuade conservatives to live by their standards? Of course they do not.

Why, then, would conservative Evangelicals expect people who do not share their worldview and view of God to accept their beliefs when they control government?

Too many conservative Evangelicals mistake political power for influence. Politicians who struggle with imposing a moral code on themselves are unlikely to succeed in their attempts to impose it on others.

What is the answer, then, for conservative Evangelicals who are rightly concerned about the corrosion of culture, the indifference to the value of human life and the living arrangements of same- and opposite-sex couples?

The answer depends on the response to another question: do conservative Evangelicals want to feel good, or do they want to adopt a strategy that actually produces results?

Clearly partisan politics have not achieved their objectives. Do they think they can succeed by committing themselves to 30 more years of the same?

If results are what conservative Evangelicals want, they already have a model. It is contained in the life and commands of Jesus of Nazareth.

Suppose millions of conservative Evangelicals engaged in an old and proven type of radical behavior. Suppose they followed the admonition of Jesus to "love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those in prison and care for widows and orphans," not as ends, as so many liberals do by using government, but as a means of demonstrating God’s love for the whole person in order that people might seek him?

Such a strategy could be more "transformational" than electing a new president, even the first president of color. But in order to succeed, such a strategy would not be led by charismatic figures, who would raise lots of money, be interviewed on Sunday talk shows, author books and make gobs of money.

God teaches in his word that his power (if that is what conservative Evangelicals want and not their puny attempts at grabbing earthly power) is made perfect in weakness.

He speaks of the tiny mustard seed, the seemingly worthless widow’s mite, of taking the last place at the table and the humbling of one’s self, the washing of feet and similar acts and attitudes; the still, small voice.

How did conservative Evangelicals miss this and instead settle for a lesser power, which in reality is no power at all? When did they settle for an inferior "kingdom"?

Evangelicals are at a junction.

They can take the path that will lead them to more futility and ineffective attempts to reform culture through government, or they can embrace the far more powerful methods outlined by the one they claim to follow.

By following his example, they will decrease, but he will increase. They will get no credit, but they will see results.

If conservative Evangelicals choose obscurity and seek to glorify God, they will get much of what they hope for, but can never achieve, in and through politics.

You Might Be a Preacher If...

2008-11-07T06:14:00.000-07:00

~ Your favorite “light reading” is Strong’s Concordance.

~ Playing the piano and being an expert at packing boxes was high on your list of requirements for a potential spouse.

~ As a child, you practiced baptizing your cats.

~ You say “amen” at the end of the Pledge of Allegiance at a public event.

~ You own more books than the religion section of your local public library.

~ Your kids are always asking to go over to someone else’s house where they don’t have to act “good" all the time.

~ You have fried chicken for dinner every Sunday after church.

~ You look in your wife’s purse for a snack for your kids and all you find are communion wafers.

~ You go the hospital to visit your mother but stop and have prayer with folks in every other room along the way.

~ You have to schedule your vacation around Bible School, Youth Week, the liturgical calendar, and annual meetings of your denomination.

~ The message on your answering machine contains both these phrases: “If this is an emergency...” and "Have a blessed day!”

(adapted from You Might Be a Preacher If… by Stan Toler and Mark Hollingsworth)

PRAYER: GOD'S WILL

2008-11-06T05:50:00.001-07:00

Ran across a good article on prayer from John Eldredge...

PRAYER: GOD'S WILL

In his book Walking with God (Thomas Nelson), John Eldredge writes, “Part of us doesn’t really want to hear what God has to say. Even after years of God’s rescues and surprises and blessing upon blessing, there’s a part of me that gets irritated when someone says, ‘Let’s ask God.’ The act itself is a disruption. Sometimes it feels like grinding the gears. Stop? Now? Ask God? I’m bugged. That’s part of it. And the other part is, if we do hear something, we’ll have to obey.

I was reading the story of Joshua. And it stopped me in my tracks. My goodness, the Israelites received specific instructions from God all the way through the battle of Jericho--when to cross the river, how to cross the river, when to take Jericho, how to take Jericho. And it worked! It worked. You’d think they would have been convinced. This is how to follow God. But the next day comes and here they are, ready to take city number two, and you know what? They don’t ask! It’s not that they don’t ask the second question, they don’t even ask the first. They just charge ahead. And they pay for it. Dearly.

I know something of this. I don’t ask because I don’t want to know. If I know what God thinks, then I’m faced with the decision of whether to follow his counsel or not.” (Click here to learn about the book Walking with God.)

Well Said

2008-11-05T08:03:00.011-07:00

As someone who spends a lot of time with his mouth open and speaking to groups of people, I'm always turning an ear to the speeches of others. Last night I heard two amazing speeches. You can find the video and audio transcripts on the web. I've put the transcripts to each below. I hope you realize that these might be two of the best speeches you'll ever hear.

The first from Senator McCain:

JOHN MCCAIN: Thank you. Thank you, my friends. Thank you for coming here on this beautiful Arizona evening.

(APPLAUSE)

My friends, we have -- we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly.

A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him.

(BOOING)

Please.

To congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love.

In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.

This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight.

I've always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that, too.

But we both recognize that, though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound.

A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters.

America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States.

Let there be no reason now...

(APPLAUSE)

Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth.

(APPLAUSE)

Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his country. I applaud him for it, and offer him my sincere sympathy that his beloved grandmother did not live to see this day. Though our faith assures us she is at rest in the presence of her creator and so very proud of the good man she helped raise.

Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain.

These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.

I urge all Americans...

(APPLAUSE)

I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.

Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.

(APPLAUSE)

It is natural. It's natural, tonight, to feel some disappointment. But tomorrow, we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (OFF-MIKE)

We fought -- we fought as hard as we could. And though we feel short, the failure is mine, not yours.

AUDIENCE: No!

MCCAIN: I am so...

AUDIENCE: (CHANTING)

MCCAIN: I am so deeply grateful to all of you for the great honor of your support and for all you have done for me. I wish the outcome had been different, my friends.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: We do, too (OFF-MIKE)

MCCAIN: The road was a difficult one from the outset, but your support and friendship never wavered. I cannot adequately express how deeply indebted I am to you.

I'm especially grateful to my wife, Cindy, my children, my dear mother...

(APPLAUSE)

... my dear mother and all my family, and to the many old and dear friends who have stood by my side through the many ups and downs of this long campaign.

I have always been a fortunate man, and never more so for the love and encouragement you have given me.

You know, campaigns are often harder on a candidate's family than on the candidate, and that's been true in this campaign.

All I can offer in compensation is my love and gratitude and the promise of more peaceful years ahead.

I am also -- I am also, of course, very thankful to Governor Sarah Palin, one of the best campaigners I've ever seen...

(APPLAUSE)

... one of the best campaigners I have ever seen, and an impressive new voice in our party for reform and the principles that have always been our greatest strength...

(APPLAUSE)

... her husband Todd and their five beautiful children...

(APPLAUSE)

... for their tireless dedication to our cause, and the courage and grace they showed in the rough and tumble of a presidential campaign.

We can all look forward with great interest to her future service to Alaska, the Republican Party and our country.

(APPLAUSE)

To all my campaign comrades, from Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter, to every last volunteer who fought so hard and valiantly, month after month, in what at times seemed to be the most challenged campaign in modern times, thank you so much. A lost election will never mean more to me than the privilege of your faith and friendship.

I don't know -- I don't know what more we could have done to try to win this election. I'll leave that to others to determine. Every candidate makes mistakes, and I'm sure I made my share of them. But I won't spend a moment of the future regretting what might have been.

This campaign was and will remain the great honor of my life, and my heart is filled with nothing but gratitude for the experience and to the American people for giving me a fair hearing before deciding that Senator Obama and my old friend Senator Joe Biden should have the honor of leading us for the next four years.

(BOOING)

Please. Please.

I would not -- I would not be an American worthy of the name should I regret a fate that has allowed me the extraordinary privilege of serving this country for a half a century.

half a century.

Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant. That is blessing enough for anyone, and I thank the people of Arizona for it.

(APPLAUSE)

AUDIENCE: USA. USA. USA. USA.

Tonight -- tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama -- whether they supported me or Senator Obama.

I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.

Americans never quit. We never surrender.

(APPLAUSE)

We never hide from history. We make history.

Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you all very much.

And then from President-elect Obama:

BARACK OBAMA: Hello, Chicago.

(APPLAUSE)

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

(APPLAUSE)

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.

(APPLAUSE)

A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Senator McCain.

(APPLAUSE)

Senator McCain fought long and hard in this campaign. And he's fought even longer and harder for the country that he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine. We are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.

I congratulate him; I congratulate Governor Palin for all that they've achieved. And I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart, and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton...

(APPLAUSE)

... and rode with on the train home to Delaware, the vice president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.

(APPLAUSE)

And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years...

(APPLAUSE)

... the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation's next first lady...

(APPLAUSE)

... Michelle Obama.

(APPLAUSE)

Sasha and Malia...

(APPLAUSE)

... I love you both more than you can imagine. And you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us...

(LAUGHTER)

... to the new White House.

(APPLAUSE)

And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother's watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight. I know that my debt to them is beyond measure.

To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the support that you've given me. I am grateful to them.

(APPLAUSE)

And to my campaign manager, David Plouffe...

(APPLAUSE)

... the unsung hero of this campaign, who built the best -- the best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

To my chief strategist David Axelrod...

(APPLAUSE)

... who's been a partner with me every step of the way. To the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics...

(APPLAUSE)

... you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done. But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you.

I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington. It began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to the cause.

It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy...

(APPLAUSE)

... who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.

It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers, and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the Earth.

This is your victory.

(APPLAUSE)

And I know you didn't do this just to win an election. And I know you didn't do it for me.

You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.

Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.

There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education.

There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.

I promise you, we as a people will get there.

(APPLAUSE)

AUDIENCE: Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can!

OBAMA: There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem.

But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night.

This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.

It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.

Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.

In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

Let's remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.

Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

(APPLAUSE)

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.

(APPLAUSE)

And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.

(APPLAUSE)

To those -- to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

(APPLAUSE)

That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

(APPLAUSE)

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America -- the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

AUDIENCE: Yes we can.

OBAMA: When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

AUDIENCE: Yes we can.

OBAMA: She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.

AUDIENCE: Yes we can.

OBAMA: A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.

And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.

Yes we can.

AUDIENCE: Yes we can.

OBAMA: America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see?

What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.

Here, Father.

2008-11-05T05:53:00.001-07:00

From Preaching Now Newsletter

GOD'S LOVE

In his Turning Point Daily Devotional for Oct. 29, David Jeremiah tells the story of an aged Quaker named Hartman who had a son in the Army. When he received news that a dreadful battle had taken place, he went to the scene of conflict to find him. The officer said they believed the boy was dead because he had not answered to his name. This did not satisfy the father, however, and he set out across the battlefield to call for his beloved son who was dearer to him than life. Night set in and Hartman continued searching by lantern until a gust of wind extinguished the light. In desperation, he began shouting, “John Hartman, thy father calleth thee.” Finally, in the dark distance, Hartman heard his boy’s voice crying, “Here, father.” He then took him in his arms, carried him to headquarters, and nursed him back to health.

God loves us more than life itself; and as His beloved Son hung on the cross and died for our sins, He shouted to us in a dark world, “(Your name here), thy Father calleth thee.” Have you cried, “Here, Father”?

Brilliance and Bemoaning

2008-11-04T09:55:00.005-07:00

It’s a big day today in America. Vote '08. Election Day. This ensures that by tomorrow morning, half the nation will be celebrating the brilliance of their fellow citizens, while the rest will be busy bemoaning the tragic events that are sure to follow in the years ahead.

Regardless of whether your candidate wins or loses, just remember you're still are blessed to live in an amazing country with a democratic process and a peaceful transfer of power. Believe me, there are billions around the globe who would swap places with you at a heart beat.

So I'm asking you to do two things:

1. Vote.

Men and women gave their lives on beaches, in jungles, and in deserts so you could vote. Picture those brave souls storming Normandy before you voice your complaint about long lines.

2. Pray.

And remember, if Paul can admonish his people to pray for their leaders and the leaders he was referring to is none other than Nero, then guess what? We can pray for our leaders too!

I like how Michael Duduit, Editor of Preaching.com, puts it:
"Whatever the outcome, it’s going to be OK, because the God we worshiped last Sunday is the same God who is on His throne on Wednesday."

Keep that in mind on tomorrow--whichever side you’re on.

Halloween Scary Story

2008-10-30T06:16:00.001-06:00

A man is walking home alone late one foggy night...
when behind him he hears:
Bump...
BUMP...
BUMP...
Walking faster, he looks back and through the fog he makes out the image of an upright casket banging its way down the middle of the street toward him.

BUMP...
BUMP...
BUMP...
Terrified, the man begins to run toward his home, the casket bouncing quickly behind him
FASTER...
FASTER...
BUMP...
BUMP...
BUMP...
He runs up to his door, fumbles with his keys, opens the door, rushes in, slams and locks the door behind him.
However, the casket crashes through his door, with the lid of the casket clapping
clappity-BUMP...
clappity-BUMP...
clappity-BUMP...
on his heels, the terrified man runs.
Rushing upstairs to the bathroom, the man locks himself in. His heart is pounding; his head is reeling; his breath is coming in sobbing gasps.

With a loud CRASH the casket breaks down the door.
Bumping and clapping toward him.
The man screams and reaches for something, anything, but all he can find is a bottle of cough syrup!

Desperate, he throws the cough syrup at the casket...
and...

The coffin stops

Growing Up To Honor The Sacred

2008-10-29T07:51:00.002-06:00

I read a great blog this morning from my friend, Matsonia. Check it out:

Growing Up To Honor The Sacred

If our sex is not sacred
Then our relationships are not sacred
And our children are not sacred
And the artifacts our sons and daughters produce are bound to deny the sacred

These four motions of culture are supposed to be our creative expressions of the sacred:

Sex,
Relationships,
Children,
and their Artifacts.

To honor the sacred is to sustain a sacred fire through each successive motion. Sex generates relationships, relationships generate children, children generate artifacts, and artifacts generate our history of the sacred. And so on….If the sacred fire is not fed, the flame dies with the motion that fails to carry it forward. The movement of culture, however, does not die. It flows on in a constant wave of motions, with or without the fire that fulfills their meaning.

When a person denies his social responsibility to sustain the sacred in the world, he fumbles his fire. He denies the sacred in order to hang back in a prolonged state of adolescence. A generation in a collective state of denial (the 1960’s, for example) can generate and sustain a culture that refuses to grow up about sex, about relationships, about children, or about their artifacts. This is the irresponsible culture in which we now live, a culture populating the landscape with consumer playthings, sucked hollow of any sacred value. See if you recognize them:

convenient and disposable sex
convenient and disposable relationships
convenient and disposable children
convenient and disposable artifacts

I hope you will recognize how cheap convenience has replaced the costly sacred in your own home, and you will get angry. Because no one can repopulate our culture with the sacred better than you. However, if you believe someone else produces the trash piling up on your doorstep, you should think again. You can not blame the generation of the 1960’s. Only yourself. If you want to declare that you have faithfully honored the sacred, give yourself this test. The ultimate proof is in the artifacts your children generate. This fourth motion is your thorough declaration, the lasting fruit of your sacred seed that will remain on earth after your children are dead. Yes….I’m talking about ART.

“Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.”
- Leonardo DaVinci

“Art is to me the glorification of the human spirit, and as such it is the cultural documentation of the time in which it is produced.”
- Hans Hofmann

The role of the artist is to generate artifacts born of a sacred union between the physical and the spiritual. Such artifacts document our history with the sacred and keep the flame alive. Yet the sons and daughters we produce are not given any real understanding of the sacred. Our sons and daughters are being taught that artists who honor the sacred are to be ignored. Because for an entire century, no constituency has stepped forward to claim responsibility for properly sustaining their well being. We don’t mind seeing faithful Levites scrounge and starve. Meanwhile, the artists who deny their sacred duties enjoy the advantage of a constituency that pays great attention to their adolescent work. A constituency that sustains a culture that refuses to grow up.

What is wrong with this picture? How are you cultivating and honoring the sacred?

I wish I were more mature as a man and as an artist. But I do recognize my responsibilities as a Levite and prophet of culture. Therefore, I have declared my commitment to carry the sacred forward and grow up with anyone willing to endure the growing pains with me. Any culture that fails to honor the faithful among the Levites and prophets fails to honor the sacred.

Cherokee Indian Rite of Passage

2008-10-05T15:56:00.009-06:00

Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of passage? His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN.

He cannot tell the other boys of this experience because each lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man! Finally, after a horrific night, the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, our

Heavenly Father is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him. If you liked this story, pass it on. If not, perhaps you took off your blindfold before dawn.

Moral of the Story: Just because you can't see God, doesn't mean He is not there.

'For we walk by faith, not by sight.' ~ 2 Corinthians 5:7 ~

More Dogs Than Christians

2008-10-04T20:02:00.000-06:00

Love him or hate him but you just can't ignore him. The following is an interview with Mark Driscoll that I thought was worth passing on. Enjoy!

Seattle is among the least churched cities in America. It‘s a comment often said of the city and much of the Northwest, so when Mark Driscoll started Mars Hill Church in 1996 at age 25 he knew he had his work cut out for himself. If he had to catch the enthusiasm and interest of the people of Seattle, he apparently has done so and more. “The city itself tends to be very young. Most people are single, non-Christian, and in their 20s; that’s probably the majority of the city,” says Driscoll. “I think the denominations and the networks really thrived on the East Coast and in the South. It just seems like the denominations never really made it up to the Northwest.

“I grew up in Seattle. I think the church attendance here is about the same as Communist China. There are more dogs than Christians in the city.” Driscoll says. “So we have a lot of work to do.”

“Most churches in the city are very small, very liberal. A large portion of the churches in the city have gay pastors. Not just mainline, I mean the American Baptists, the Episcopalians, the Lutherans, all of them.”

Driscoll can be blunt and disarmingly honest, which occasionally gets him into trouble. Like the time a couple years ago when Ted Haggard left New Life Church in Colorado under a morals cloud and Driscoll raised a furor with a comment about pastors’ wives letting themselves go in appearance.

Did he recall that? “Yes, unfortunately, I do.” Was there a time when he wished he hadn’t said it? “Yes, that would be a classic example of foot-in-mouth.”

In addition to a church planting organization, Acts 29 Network [Acts29Network.org], the Mars Hill Church has the Resurgence Missional Cooperative, where pastors and church leaders can go for resources and references. And there are conferences, the Web site and books written with Crossway Publishing.

Seattle magazine says you’re one of the 25 most powerful people in Seattle. How do you wield that power?

I don’t know. I’m just trying to serve Jesus, teach the Bible, love my wife and love my kids. I mean I’m a pretty simple guy. It’s been amazing what God’s done. We capped out at about 8,000 for Easter, which was the high point for us this year, attendance-wise. In our area that’s very unusual. I don’t think there’s ever been a church in our city that got anywhere near that.

How is it that your church is so different than every other church in town?

God has been gracious to us. I tend to be a Bible preacher, I preach for an hour- plus. We preach long, we have 16 services on six campuses.

The city created a zoning restriction just against churches. You’re not allowed to build a church more than 20,000-square-feet so you can build anything you want, except for a big church in Seattle. We had to spread across multiple locations, use video technology, live stream the sermon via television broadcast satellite. It’s been pretty complicated.

In the U.S. alone we’ve planted 125 churches; we also have churches overseas that we’ve started.

You’ve been called a cultural liberal while being theologically conservative. How does that play out in real life?

For us it means we take the Bible very, very, very seriously and everything to which the Bible speaks we absolutely believe. So we believe getting drunk is a sin, we believe sex outside of heterosexual marriage is a sin. We’re conservatives biblically.

When it comes to cultural issues like our music, we write most of our own songs and we use a lot of technology. I’m big on Facebook and MySpace, YouTube and iTunes. We’ll have 100,000 downloads of the sermon each week just off the Internet.

We don’t care if somebody’s got a tattoo. I don’t care if they’ve got a hog or are covered in piercings, I don’t care if they play in a band — the Bible doesn’t speak about those things — so we tend not to worry about them.

How literal do you get? The old Jonah and the whale thing, what do you make of that literalism?

Yep, Jonah was literally in a whale. Jesus says as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, he’d be in the grave. So it’s just as literal as Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection to me.

We take it all literally, literal creation, literal Adam and Eve. We are a very conservative Bible-believing church, but if you walk in a lot of our people have Mohawks and piercings and tattoos and they’re smoking cigarettes and just became Christians. So they don’t look like your typical church crowd.

The demographics of your community are just the opposite. You’re literal and they’re very liberal. It doesn’t seem like it fits in your community.

It’s interesting because we’re telling them something they’ve never heard, we’re telling them something that they’ve never considered and they’re finding it appealing. Well over half of our church is single, but about a third of the people at our church, as far as we can tell, were raped or molested, they were sexually abused, most of them grew up in broken homes, their parents got divorced, they’ve used drugs and alcohol, they’ve got a history with pornography. And by the time we see them they’ve realized it’s just not a very happy, joy filled, satisfying way of life. And they tend to be open to something different.

What part of living the Christian life do young people just not get? What’s really on their minds?

I think they get the idea of community and being in relationships, of being part of a church and I think they understand sin. I think the things that they struggle with are believing that Jesus is the only way to salvation, that other religions are not equally right. The other thing they struggle with is gender issues and sexuality. Almost everybody we get is in sexual sin, homosexuality, adultery, fornication. Pornography is an epidemic. So the sexual sins are really the big ones that we deal with continually.

You’ve even had death threats as a result of your ministry?

At the church services we’ve had occasions where guys wanted to give death threats, we’ve have people try to get up on the stage to fight me, we had one guy pull out a machete and try to kill me while I was preaching. So now I’ve got security around the building and security off the stage.

You’re a specialist in multi-site. How is multi-site changing the Christian church?

They say that 80 percent of churches are plateaued or declining, that 3,500 die and close every year, yet we’re starting to see more and more large churches. So the hope is that the large churches would be able to adopt some of the struggling and smaller churches and revitalize them so that they won’t die. I think that one of the great points for multi-site is resourcing and helping struggling and dying churches.

For us we just saw so many people become Christians so fast that we couldn’t add any more services and the city wouldn’t let us get another building. We baptized a couple hundred people on any given day at various times in the history of the church, so for us multi-site campusing is necessary.

Multi-site media has worked very, very well for us. It has allowed us to spread out across the region, reach different parts of the city. Now we’re looking to going out of state and out of country with campuses. Ultimately it’s a new form of church planting where new congregations get started that are more than just overflow rooms for churches that have too much attendance.

What trends do you see in the Christian church in America, how should Christians look at the growth of the Muslim faith, the Mormons and secular humanism in the coming years?

It is distressing. I think what’s happened though is, particularly in urban centers, fewer and fewer people are having children and raising families. More and more I think you’ll see Muslims taking over major American cities.

It is the same with Mormonism. It keeps trying to reposition itself as just another Christian denomination. They’re trying to make it more like a denomination in appearance even though it’s not theologically.

I think too the biggest issue in the coming years is the younger generation doesn’t see the problem with things such as homosexuality and sex outside of marriage. And so you’re going to see the media pushing more and more to have gay pastors and to have same-sex marriages, even if they say they’re Christian.

What does it mean to “reach one’s community by living culturally accessible and biblically faithful lives”?

Our theme is that Christians need to function as missionaries. They need to imbed themselves in the culture, they need to love the people there, and they need to learn the culture, understand it and serve it. So our thinking is that when it comes to missions, missionaries are not people we send overseas. We need to keep sending them overseas, but we also need to send missionaries into American cities and neighborhoods as the cities are completely lost and don’t know Jesus.

We encourage our people to move into the city, live in the city, love the city, serve the city, start Bible studies, do ministry and bring the Gospel to the city.

Some people feel that living in the world, in the city, can be a corrupting influence, being in the world but not of it?

I think people are sinful whether they live in the country, the suburbs, or the city. Sinners are everywhere and the city tends to have more people so they tend to have more sin. But I think that means that it’s also a great opportunity for the Gospel because people there really need Jesus. And if we don’t reach the cities we’re not going to reach the young people, the universities, the politicians, the culture makers-as the cities get more and more secular the culture gets more and more secular.

Are there compromises to living in the city?

We’ve got five kids and it’s amazing at the grocery store or the restaurant when people come up and rebuke us for having too many kids.

In our area there are a lot of people who are committed to radical environmentalism, homosexuality and saving the planet. They feel it’s already over-populated and better just to be gay and not have any children and save the planet.

Your services are downloaded more than a million times a year?

Actually, millions and millions of times.

Because you’ve got great messages or good marketing?

We don’t do any marketing; we’ve actually never done any advertising. We’ve never hired an advertising firm or sent out mailers. I just preach and we put it on the Internet and I hope people download it because they want to learn the Bible and learn about Jesus.

How do you keep up with sermon preparations and still have time for media, conferences, writing books and magazine articles? Are you super organized?

I tend to be very personally organized and I’m really blessed to have a very good personal staff who takes the e-mails and the phone calls. I think the e-mail and the phone calls alone, those two things, can kill you if you’re a pastor.

The truth is I’m not that great at managing the staff. I did okay until the church was maybe 5,000-6,000 and then I just completely burned out. I don’t have the administrative gifts to take it beyond that, so I just have to be humble and back away, trust other people, give them power and authority, set them up for success, and stay out of the way.

For all your media coverage and notoriety, what do you wish people really understood about you?

That I’m a sinner who Jesus has been really good to and anything good that’s happened is because of Him and anything bad that’s happened is because of me.

The Merry-Go-Round of Parenting

2008-10-02T05:00:00.002-06:00

I friend of mine emailed this yesterday. It is something he had emailed to him. I don't know who sent him the email...I just know it is good! I don't know the author (William D. Tammeus) personally...I just know it spoke to me personally. Enjoy!

As my fathers planted for me, so do I plant for my children. - The Talmud

All of us have had parents (whether known to us or not), and most of us will have become parents before our lives are over. Most of us, therefore, will serve as some sort of bridge between the past generations and those of the future. In our finer moments, what we want is to be a worthy bridge: we want to pass along to our children the best of the parenting that we received.

Doing this is not easy. Parenting is one of the most difficult things any human being ever attempted. And having been told of its difficulty, we may have tried to learn how to do it before we had children, so that when we did have them, we’d know what to do. Yet parenting is a thing mostly learned by doing it. Just as our parents did, we find that we have to learn by trial and error.

Those who end up being good parents are those who are open to feedback, correction, and learning while the process is going on. It takes a commitment to being better parents as time goes by, always being eager to learn anything new that can help us improve. But not only that, good parents are those who realize that the clock is ticking. The skill must be learned as we do it, yet we don’t have an unlimited amount of time to get the hang of it. Our children are growing older every day, and our parenting opportunities are getting fewer.

Many modern parents would do better if we quit trying to use our children as adornments to our own egos and lifestyles and started seeing ourselves as expendable commodities meant to be used up for our kids’ benefit. “Parents are,” as Peter Ustinov said, “the bones on which children cut their teeth.” If we’re so full of “self” that we can’t see the sense in that, then we’ve got a ways to go before graduating from parent school. Parents must be willing to spend and be spent.

The parent-child relationship is one of life’s primary learning laboratories. It has important things to teach us about the rights and wrongs of human relationships and about what the good life is and isn’t. It’s worth giving every ounce of the very best effort within us.

You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why
a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around
— and why his parents will always wave back.

William D. Tammeus

This Life That I Call We

2008-10-01T12:09:00.007-06:00

I woke up late (6:50) and rushed from the bed to shower to car. At the office before 8 (7:50) and moved through meetings calls and emails. I picked up my bride for the thousandth time, still opening the door. We dined with Vinny, shared a dish, he gave us a bottle of wine. It is our anniversary. A celebration of dedication. A meaningful remembering of a marriage that means more than all but Christ.

Kim and I agreed - no gifts this year. But, Kim, I lied and I've given you a small gift. (this is in addition to earlier lie and the ultra romantic gift of a half a tank of gas you got)

I've stolen a pause from the purse of the present to give you a poem I wrote for you. I'm calling it "This Life That I Call We"

This Life That I Call We

Our wedding anniversary reminds my soul
Delight and beauty you’ve graced to me,
Sweet memories--each laugh, each tear,
Sweeter than the days of me …this life that I call we

We've prayed and loved ourselves a home

The two pouring out for our three,

And it's all because of the wonderful One

Who has given us this life…this life that I call we.

Desire, devotion draw me to you:

Your embrace decants ecstasy.
I fall asleep not knowing what life next holds,
I awaken grateful to live this life…the life that I call we.

Your baby still loves you just the way that you are:
Your glance and touch still brings a thrill to me.
I love you deeply, madly, and I will forever.

I love that me and you have this life…this life that I call we.

7 Ridiculous Ways to Die While Golfing

2008-09-30T04:48:00.001-06:00

Ran across this on Digg the other day...

If you could choose the means by which you’ll check out of this life, most men would either die old, do something gloriously macho, or in David Blaine’s case find the lamest way possible. Not many would choose getting peed on by a rat. Yet, we have evidence that golf is one of the most dangerous athletic activities anyone can partake–not because of a lightening strike or an animal attack, but apparently what appears to be natural selection working its course when they would’ve been safer fighting MMA.

1997 - David Bailey, 40, of Dublin, Ireland was playing a round when he jumped into a ditch to find his lost ball at the Caddockstown golf course in Co Kildare. It turns out said ditch was inhabited by a rat who was so startled it ran up his trousers and urinated down his leg. Not to be phased, Bailey ignored his partners urging to take a shower citing that he had no visible scratches or bites–just pee. After touching his leg he proceeded to smoke a cigar and only got around to showering 4 hours later. Two weeks later he checked into a Dublin hospital with severe jaundice and dropped dead with a collapsed kidney. It turns out he contracted a bacterial infection called leptospirosis, which is often spread by rodents.

1994 - Jeremy Brenno, 16, of Gloversville, NY was so angry about his bad shot that he gave his 3-wood a good whack against a bench. Like a new scene from Final Destination the shaft broke, his club bounced back, and the broken piece pierced his pulmonary vein.

1951 - Edward Harrison of Kenmore, WA was playing a round at the Inglewood Country Club when the shaft of his driver broke and pierced his groin. He staggered 100 yards before bleeding to death.

1995 - Jean Potevan of Orleans, France was so irate after missing 3 straight puts that he threw his bag into a lake out of sheer frustration. Only problem: his car keys were also in the bag. He dove in and proceeded to drown after getting entangled in the weeds. According to his golf partner, his last words were “I’m going back for the keys, but I’m leaving the clubs down there.”

1995 - Takeo Niyama, 43, only had 2 previous convictions and had served 6 months for assaulting someone on the golf course just a year before; so obviously it sounds perfectly safe to play a round with him and make fun of his bad form. His golfing partner Aioa Sakajiri laughed at his horrible slice into a Tokyo lake, so Niyama beat him to death wtih a 5-iron.

1994 - Diana Nagy of Charleston, WV, became a widow when her husband Alexander Nagy fell from a golf cart while playing heavily intoxicated in a tournament at Berry Hills Country Club. Claiming the cart should’ve had seatbelts, she filed suit 2 years later seeking $15M. Her defendants included the country club, the golf cart manufacturer & 2 subsidiaries, and her own son who was driving the cart. Lesson: Don’t drink and drive, but if you do teach your son how to avoid golddiggers.

Despite all these unfortunate golfing accidents, there is one way to go that is worthy of going out in style:

1994 - Emil Kijek, 79, of North Atteboro, MA hit his first ever hole-in-one while golfing at the Sun Valley Golf Course in Rehoboth, MA. After doing so he approached the ball, said “Oh no”, and collapsed.

The Elusive Editing Gene

2008-09-29T10:25:00.002-06:00

Editing. Webster defines it: to prepare (as literary material) for publication or public presentation: to alter, adapt, or refine especially to bring about conformity to a standard or to suit a particular purpose carefully edited the speech

I liked how Robert Cormier put it: “The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.”

In school we were taught that when you have written enough to satisfy the requirements of the assignment or you've said all you ought to say about a given topic, it is time to put your paper through the rewriting process.

In life we usually associate editing with writing books. It is common knowledge that publishing houses receive hundreds of submissions each day. The eyes of an in-house editor are trained to crush the weak and champion the strong. The acquisitions editor *might* give you a two-page reading before tossing your work into the slush pile. Many are tossed after one paragraph.

Could the same be said of sermons? I believe it can and should. The message, no matter how ‘prophetic’ we might believe it to be, should be filtered through the editing process. The messenger, no matter how ‘powerful’ he or she might believe themselves to be, should be submitting to the editing process. One of the most powerful truths that the editing process reveals is a need for others. When proofreading your own work, you tend to overlook your own mistakes. Your mind automatically fills in what it thinks should be there. The writer is too close to the material to be objective. An editor can recognize the repetitions, inconsistencies, faulty logic, and other problems that are often overlooked by the writer.

It is no secret to my church that I’m a better creator than editor. I’ve never been accused of poorly feeding or underfeeding or misfeeding of my flock. I’ve been guilty of overfeeding. More than once I heard the phrase, “like drinking water from fire hydrant” with regards to my preaching.

So pray for me. I don’t know if God will ever give me that all elusive editing gene. I do believe that he will continue to give me intense dedication, increased discipline, and a divine dose of Holy Spirit.

I want to preach the best sermons I can. More importantly, I want to bring God glory. I know God is glorified in my creating. Help me to learn that God is even edified in editing.

About to Go Live with John 5

2008-09-28T05:05:00.001-06:00

A few quotes from today's sermon on John 5:

Describing the scene:

"Suffice it to say that no less than three times a year, hundreds of thousands of “God’s people” made their way to “God’s city” to “God’s house” to worship “their God."

"A chaotic crowd of “holy people” coming for justification. The right people coming to be made right."

"I wish I had time to paint a better picture for you of the painful scene of the hundreds, perhaps thousands of hurting people outside of that smelly entrance to the holy city."

"I wish you could see the way that the covered colonnades became a hospital for the helpless."

"If you could only hear the pain filled cry’s and see the hope less eyes of that heap of humanity."

"Think Calcutta more condensed or Haiti more hideous."

Describing the man:

"I wish I had time to drill down in the state of the man whom Jesus heals. I’m not a doctor but we could unpack the atrocious atrophy that has afflicted this man’s body."

"How 38 years of no or very limited mobility has wrecked havoc on his muscles and bones. How he most likely suffered from sarcopenia which begins to rob nutrients from the bones and organs in a feeble attempt to rebuild muscle mass and how his body was in essence, eating itself to death."

Describing the irony:

"There are several ironies in this story. The first is the location of the pool. Most scholars agree that this pool, which has been escavated, is next to the Temple. The man laid within eyesight of the religious leaders for 38 years. The “church people” didn’t lift a finger to help the guy who couldn’t lift a finger."

"The name of the pool is uncomfortably ironic for in Hebrew is Bethesda and means “the house of mercy or grace” The guy laid helpless by a pool called “grace” for 38 years and no one showed him a drop of grace!"

"Ironic? Yes. Pathetic? Yes! Symptomatic of the selfish and slothful and sanatary religion of the day? Yes."

"Of our day? Of our church? Of any church? Surely there is somewhere in American where a guy in the house next door to the church is broke and contemplating suicide and they (that church 'out there') don’t know his name because they (or is it we?) hurry up and get in there (here?) to “get fed”, sing Amazing Grace and rush back out the door to lunch."

"Perhaps most ironic is the fact that some of these people had seen the need for 365 days a year for 38 years and done nothing about it and Jesus sees him one time and is moved to action."

"The “Good Temple Going Folk and the “Shepherds of Israel” see him 13,870 times and the Good Shepherd sees him once."

"Here’s even more irony or perhaps tragedy: Maybe they never saw him? Maybe they weren’t even looking."

Perhaps I'll post more later today? Perhaps I'll post my resume? You know what they say about preaching as a profession: "you're only one sermon away."

Good thing for me, prophetically proclaiming the Word of the Lord is not a career, but a calling.

Preach. Sleep.

2008-09-27T19:56:00.005-06:00

In three minutes (give or take 10 minutes) I will go to sleep. I will lower my head on to the pillow and within minutes, I will be sound asleep. It will be an act of trust.

I've done it over 1,000 times. For 20 years about 50 Saturday nights a year, I've gone to sleep in full knowledge that should I wake up the next day, I will stand in front of a crowd of people and preach.

I will speak about God through Gods power on God's behalf.

I've never been nervous and I've never been scared of the crowd.

It is God that terrifies me.

He has given me a massive responsibility to speak for Him. I don't take that lightly.

I study all week. I pray all week. I pour over scripture, the work of other scholars, and study society itself. I think of the lives in the seats and needs in those lives. I think of my flock, my friends, my family. I craft a message that if I tried to explain how it comes to me, I simply could not express it in words.

I finished my message on Thursday night. I finished again on Friday afternoon. I carried it around with me today and read it over and over.

I think I have in my head what came from my heart.

I think...I'm not sure. I never am sure.

Yet I have to go to sleep...

And trust.

Tomorrow I preach. Tonight I sleep.

Give Me Your Eyes...and a New Heart While You're At It

2008-08-14T09:57:00.005-06:00

You may have heard the powerful song by Brandon Heath, "Give Me Your Eyes" and felt the rush of conviction as Holy Spirit spoke to your heart. I have and did. Wow. Check out the lyrics below.

Looked down from a broken sky
Traced out by the city lights
My world from a mile high
Best seat in the house tonight
Touched down on the cold black tile
Hold on for the sudden stop
Breath in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos
Are those people going somewhere?
Why have I never cared?

Chorus:
Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
Wasn't it far beyond my reach?
Give me your heart for the once forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see
again
again
yeah
yeah

Step out on a busy street
See a girl and our eyes meet
Does her best to smile at me
To hide whats underneath
Theres a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie
To ashamed to tell his wife
Hes out of work
Hes buying time
Are those people going somewhere?
Why have I never cared?

Chorus

Ive Been there a million times
A couple of million eyes
Just moving past me by
I swear I never thought that I was wrong
Well I want a second glance
So give me a second chance
To see the way you see the people all alone

I find myself fighting daily (heck...hourly) against the deep desire to serve self. I'm waring in prayer that I will be crucified with Christ and it is no longer me that lives, but Christ living in me.

But let me tell you one thing I've learned in the 22 years I've walked along The Way...
If you pray to see people the way our Heavenly Father does, He will answer that prayer. When he does, it touches more than your eyes. It will touch your heart.

Actually, if I'm being honest...it will destroy your heart.

So if you're asking for new eyes, might want to ask for a new heart while you're at it.

You're going to need it.

Trust me.

What a Wonderful World

2008-08-08T07:58:00.014-06:00

Every morning I take a quick peek at foxnews.com. I scan the headlines. This morning I thought I would share with you some of the reasons why we can be really sure that there is still work for us Christ followers to do.

Take a look at these "normal" headlines:

* ELECTION HQ: Dems Try to Keep the Peace

* Florida Police Charge Man With Obama Death Threats

* Rep. Gives Plug to 'Paris Hilton Plan' in Energy Debate

* Cops Raid Md. Mayor's Home, Seize Drugs, Kill His Dogs

* Mexican Soldiers Enter Arizona, Detain Border Agent

* Doctor Warned for Secretly Sterilizing Disabled Patient

* 'World's Greatest Dad' Pleads Guilty to Child Sex Abuse

* 32 Lab Monkeys Accidentally Heated to Death

* Pa. Court: Nurse Can Be Fired for Sex With Patient

* Arkansas Professor Gets 10 Years for Stalking 'Teen'

* Flight Attendant: Osteen 'Acted Like a Diva' | PHOTOS

* Montauk Monster Mystery Goes Hollywood

* Police: Two Arrested After Using Barbecue Pit as Weapon

* Lake Searches Planned in Missing Tot Case | PHOTOS

* Iraq: Deal for U.S. Troop Withdrawal in 2010 Near

* Al-Sadr Vows Cease-Fire for U.S. Withdrawal Timetable

* Grandma Arrested for Driving With 3-Year-Old on Roof

* 26 Texas Cheerleaders Squeeze Into Elevator, Get Stuck

These weren't the real headlines either. These were the sub headlines. The real headlines included Russia and Georgia going to war, Chinese terrorists' threats against the Olympics and a horrific bus crash in North Dallas that killed 13.

Lord come quickly.

Getting In The Way and Going and Doing Likewise

2008-08-01T09:32:00.004-06:00

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the primary job of the disciple of Christ is to follow Christ. To do like wise if you will. Because I'm not wise like a rocket scientist, but I've figured out that my body does what my head tells it to. I'm no Einstein, but I've come to understand that if I claim the name of Christ, then I will walk the way of Christ. Perhaps that is why the first Christians were not known as Christians but simply as the Way?

This week, my Father continued to grow my desire to follow Jesus through two incredibly encouraging experiences. Saturday night Rick and Jamie Atchley invited Kim and I to church and dinner with them. Rick preached about "Getting in the Way" and I was strengthened in my spirit. Then this week in our Midweek Mix, Stephen Bailey helped us take a good long look at what Jesus (the head) did in hopes that we might better grasp what we (the body) must do. For a visual learner like me, the highlight of the message was when Stephen had us simply follow Jesus around in the gospels and share stories from his ministry. While we retraced his steps, Stephen made a list of the type of people Jesus loved and served.

Here are the people Jesus spent time with, served, and loved:

- Helpless
- Sick
- Hungry
- Blind
- Lost
- Unclean
- Grieving
- Unlovable
- Unfulfilled
- Lonely
- Hurting

I sat there and looked at that list and all I could hear God say was, "go and do likewise."

Are these the type of people you hang out with and pour your heart into?

Father have mercy on us to "Get in the Way" and "Go and do likewise."

Meet Jack Reilly...and Meet Jesus!

2008-06-06T12:50:00.003-06:00

Wow! That is all I can say! My last post was a "sports" post. This is a "life" post.

Stop what you're doing and read this! Incredible! Wow!

When you're done, come back and read the words to the song below. Only when you are done!

Father I Never Had
by Joel Engle

Verse 1
There's a little child inside this man, who still does not understand
Why momma had to die, she didn't say goodbye
Daddy left without a trace, I never even saw his face
Was I to blame, I still feel the pain of hot shattered like glass that cut my soul to pieces
I never thought I would love again, until I met you Jesus

Chorus
You're the Father I never had
And Your love never changes, through the good times and the bad
You're the Father I never had
Just hold me in Your arms and heal me of the past and be the Father I never had

Verse 2
I was a teenage boy in a small town, standing outside the crowd
Unwanted and unclaimed, a face without a name, almost every night I'd cry and cry
Asking the questions why, mom and dad would leave this lonely son to grieve
The deserts of my years, they were watered with my tears,
But when I met you face to Face, You wiped away my fears.

Chorus

Bridge
Although I was rejected, You were my friend
Although I was abandoned, Your love drew me in.....
Oh Your love drew me in...

Chorus

Double Wow!

Feelin' Sporty!

2008-06-05T05:30:00.000-06:00

If you haven't read the great article about the amazing transformation of Josh Hamilton, stop what you are doing right this minute and do it! You can find it here.

Detroit wins the Stanley Cup. Really, who cares. Don Cherry's coat...ridiculous!

Lakers vs. Celtics...Awesome! Old School baby! A blast from the past! Predictions?

Hurry up and get back Tiger!

A Question and Dancer Kind of Guy

2008-06-04T21:10:00.003-06:00

From my journal entry this morning:

"2 Samuel 5 & 6 tells the story of David dancing before the Lord. But before the dance comes victory. Before the victory comes the battle. Before the battle comes hearing from the Lord. Before hearing from the Lord comes inquiring from the Lord.

God help me to inquire of you - your will for my life. I want to say to you, 'if you say go attack the Philistines I will go.' I want to hear from you. I want to go to battle! I want to experience victory. I want to dance! God I love you. Show me what you want me to do for your name today! I'll become undignified for you!"

Everyone wants victory. If you ask God, you just might get it. If you get it...dance with all your might!

Open Me

2008-06-03T06:05:00.003-06:00

Shawn McDonald sings a song that is the cry of my heart. It is a plea from the deep, real part of his soul. It is my prayer also.

Would You open up eyes, so I can see
Would You open up my ears, so I can hear
Would You open up my mind, so I can know
Would You open up my heart, so could love You more

I want to serve You, my God
I want to give everything
I want to serve You, my King, yeah
I want to serve You, my Lord
I want to give You everything, yeah

Here I am with my arms open wide
Asking for You to come up, up inside
Won’t You make me new, won’t You make me true
Jesus, won’t You make me like You, oh

Will You touch my eyes so I can see
Will You touch my ears so I can hear
Will You touch my mind so I can know
Will You touch my heart so I can love You more

Won’t You open me
Won’t You open me, open me
Won’t You open me, open me
Won’t You open me, open me
Won’t You open me, open me

What is your soul's strong supplication?

Less Is Way More

2008-05-28T12:48:00.002-06:00

I always want more so I chase more only to find less. What I'm learning (painfully slow) is that "less" is always the road we must travel to arrive at "more." In fact, it is almost disturbingly inverse. If you want much more, you must pursue a lot less.

Kim and I are considering downsizing homes and going to one car. We're asking God if less could really result in more? (More time? More peace? More to give away? More to enjoy?) I'm ruthlessly weeding out my schedule looking for opportunities to drop and delegate. And of course, every Sunday I stand before my brothers and sisters with less and less material in hopes of proclaiming more and more meaning. Call it editing, downsizing, pruning, whatever you'd like.

Just try it.

You have less to lose and more to gain than you think.

Here is one example of what it might look like: www.junkycarclub.com

Stressed, Bored, A Bit Overwhelmed? Try These.

2008-05-15T14:35:00.000-06:00

Pop some bubble wrap here.
Hear a song about french fries here.
Buy some dog armor here.
Watch a video that will worry you here.
Check out the Hawaii Chair here.
Lebron James on the Etch-A-Sketch here.
Hot Dog and Table Saw video here.
Oreo sculptures here.
Fingers Breakdancing here.
Sidewalk Chalk Guy paintings here.
Japanese Pen Spinning here.

Now get back to whatever it was you were doing.

Thunder

2008-05-06T06:46:00.000-06:00

I'm not a huge fan of storms. I'm comfortable with "close" lightning. By "close" I mean, "close enough to hit me." But I sure do love Thunder. I hate the thought, mention, or chance of a tornado. I'm not especially fond of the rain in general. But I'm enthralled by Thunder. I have some great memories of my time in Abilene (all three stints) just sitting outside and listening to the thunder roll and pound and rock the earth. I love thunder and thought I'd learn something new today about it. A quick Google search yielded the thoughts below:

Thunder is a natural sound phenomenon that is caused by a discharge of lightning. The lightning rapidly heats and expands the nearby air's volume by over a thousand times, forming a powerful compression wave that is heard as thunder. Because the lightning spike is usually quite long, the sound of the more distant thunder is heard later, which accounts for the duration of the rumbling sound. Thunder is usually not heard from a distance greater than about 10 miles / 16 kilometers.

Thunder is recorded in The Bible both as a naturally occurring event and as a tool that God sometimes used to demonstrate His power over man and nature.

Natural

"When He gave to the wind its weight, and meted out the waters by measure; when He made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder" (Job 28:25-26 RSV)
"The clouds poured out water; the skies gave forth thunder." (Psalm 77:17 RSV)

God's Power

"Then Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven; and The Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And The Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt; there was hail, and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck down everything that was in the field throughout all the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and the hail struck down every plant of the field, and shattered every tree of the field. Only in The Land Of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, there was no hail." (Exodus 9:23-26 RSV) (see The Ten Plagues)
"On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God; and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. And Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because The Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder." (Exodus 19:16-19 RSV) (see The Ten Commandments)
"So Samuel called upon The Lord, and The Lord sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared The Lord and Samuel." (1 Samuel 12:18 RSV)
"Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of The Seven Seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say, as with a voice of thunder, "Come!" (Revelation 6:1 RSV)

Fact Finder: What was Jesus' nickname for James and John?
Mark 3:17

I'm writing this in the middle of a powerful thunderstorm. I'm praying that the powerful God who sends the thunder and speaks in thunder, will send me and speak through me today.

Learn Something New Everyday

2008-05-05T22:25:00.000-06:00

As I quickly approach the top of the "hill", I realize that learning is becoming more difficult. With school behind me (for now) and my time being fuller than I wish, I don't read as much as I'd like. Thus, often I don't learn as much as I'd like. But with the beauty and the power of the internet, I too can learn something new everyday. Take today for example. I learned something highly useful just by checking my email. So I leave you with this valuable tip...enjoy!

"Call me stupid cause I didn't know this. LD

I've been using aluminum foil for more years than I care
to remember. Great stuff, but sometimes it can be a pain. You know, like
when you are in the middle of doing something and you try to pull some
foil out and the roll comes out of the box. Then you have to put the
roll back in the box and start over. The darn roll always comes out at
the wrong time.

Well, I would like to share this with you. Yesterday I
went to throw out an empty Reynolds foil box and for some reason I
turned it and looked at the end of the box. And written on the end it
said, "Press here to lock end". Right there on the end of the box is a
tab to lock the roll in place. How long has this little locking tab been
there? I then looked at a generic brand of aluminum foil and it had
one, too. I then looked at a box of Saran wrap and it had one too! I
can't count the number of times the Saran wrap roll has jumped out when
I was trying to cover something up."

Amazing!

A Great Day

2008-05-04T22:56:00.001-06:00

5:00 The alarm goes off and I hit snooze. It is a good day.
5:20 I'm done hitting snooze and hit the shower. It is a good day.
5:55 Out the door, headed to the church. It is a good day.
6:00 In the door at the church. It is a good day.
6:01 Review notes, pray, and think. It is a good day.
7:30 Chat with Stephen, a great friend. It is a good day.
8:45 Head to the lobby to see who God would send us today. It is a good day.
9:05 Class. Steve is starting a series on heaven. Wow! It is a good day.
9:45 Back to the lobby. Cliff arrives. Double Wow! It is a good day.
10:00 Service starts. Smaller crowd. Still big God! It is a good day.
11:15 Service is over. Welcome begins. Greg, Misty, kids, Carl, Yvonne. It is a good day.
1:00 Welcome wraps up. It went wonderful. It is a good day.
1:30 Arrive home. Final prep for Senior Celebration. Trip to the church. It is a good day.
2:45 A little database work and a little Lakers and a lot of relaxing. It is a good day.
4:30 Get ready for Senior Celebration. It is a good day.
5:00 Senior Celebration. Laura's beautiful. See the picture below. It is a good day.
8:30 Senior Celebration is over. It was a powerful evening! It is a good day.
8:35 Great encouragement from Gary and Matt. Feel so grateful. It is a good day.
8:50 Quick trip to Starbucks. A tall Pike. It is a good day.
9:15 Home. Laura was so blessed. She was so grateful. It is a good day.
9:45 A little Cubs/Cardinals. A little Sports Center. A little Stars/Sharks. It is a good day.
10:45 Overtime in the hockey game. It is a good day.
10:50 Going to bed with my bride before overtime begins. It is a good day.
10:55 Walking through my house, praying for my kids, thanking God for my life...
It was a great day.

Odds of Dying

2008-04-08T21:19:00.002-06:00

I found this rather morbid...

"Marriage Lite" is Misery Heavy

2008-03-10T08:42:00.005-06:00

I ran across the following article the other day that made me revisit my strong convictions about the holiness of marriage. Several other real time factors have helped bubble this issue up to the surface of my thoughts in the past few days, including a wedding I performed over the weekend. I want to go on record as saying that I believe that there is a reason that marriage is the oldest relationship known to man: It is because of God considers the covenant relationship between a man and woman to be a holy bond. As if God's strong views of marriage weren't enough...the following only adds to the pros of marriage and really highlights the "cons" of living together. I've always refered to it in front of my kids as "marriage lite" or "playing married" and they know my thoughts on why anything less than a marriage covenant is "deal with the devil."

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the issue as well.

In a 2007 edition of the New Oxford Review, Dr. A. Patrick Schneider II, who holds boards in family and geriatric medicine and runs a private practice in Lexington, Kentucky, did a statistical analysis of cohabitation in America, based on the findings of a number of academic resources. Here are five conclusions Schneider draws from his studies:

Relationships are unstable in cohabitation. One-sixth of cohabiting couples stay together for only three years; one in ten survives five or more years.
Cohabiting women often end up with the responsibilities of marriage—particularly when it comes to caring for children—without the legal protection. Research has also found that cohabiting women contribute more than 70 percent of the relationship's income.
Cohabitation brings a greater risk of sexually transmitted diseases, because cohabiting men are four times more likely to be unfaithful than husbands.
Poverty rates are higher among cohabitors. Those who share a home but never marry have 78 percent less wealth than the continuously married.
Those who suffer most from cohabitation are the children. The poverty rate among children of cohabiting couples is fivefold greater than the rate among children in married-couple households. Children ages 12–17 with cohabiting parents are six times more likely to exhibit emotional and behavioral problems and 122 percent more likely to be expelled from school.

Brian Lowery, associate editor, PreachingToday.com; source: A. Patrick Schneider II, "Cohabitation is bad for men, worse for women, and horrible for children," www.lifesite.net (10-4-07), reprinted from an original article in the New Oxford Review

Lucky or Blessed?

2008-02-11T21:35:00.001-07:00

I just read an interesting and thought provoking article from the LA Times about the tornadoes that ripped through Union University and God's hand in all of it.

Check it out for yourself by clicking here.

Three's a Charm

2008-02-10T06:11:00.000-07:00

I don't recall posting to simply recommend reading someone else's blog, but today I am doing just that. In fact, I'm pointing you in three directions.

For a compact and cool look at "preparing for the tests of life" click here.

For a random look at little (and yet truly big) things in life, click here.

And for a delightful piece on vintage aprons and the stories behind them, click here.

Enjoy!

PS: I go into 7-eleven every morning for a Glaceau Vitamin water and a Snicker's Marathon. I engage in intentional conversation with a young clerk named Abby. Today Abby finally asked me where I was going at 5:30am every Sunday. I told him, "to church" to which he replied, "pray for me."

I did. I will continue to do so. Will you join me? Next week I will ask him what specifically I can pray for him. I'll keep you posted.

Oswald's Been "Reading My Mail"

2008-02-06T08:17:00.000-07:00

The following are yesterday's and today's entries from the classic, My Utmost For His Highest, by Oswald Chambers. Talk about meeting me where I'm at...man! Oswald is all up in my head! Enjoy. Yeah right! More like - "Buckle Up!"

February 5th - Are You Ready To Be Offered?

“Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all.”
Philippians 2:17

Are you willing to be offered for the work of the faithful - to pour out your life blood as a libation on the sacrifice of the faith of others? Or do you say - "I am not going to be offered up just yet, I do not want God to choose my work. I want to choose the scenery of my own sacrifice; I want to have the right kind of people watching and saying, 'Well done.'

It is one thing to go on the lonely way with dignified heroism, but quite another thing if the line mapped out for you by God means being a door-mat under other people's feet. Suppose God wants to teach you to say, "I know how to be abased" - are you ready to be offered up like that? Are you ready to be not so much as a drop in a bucket - to be so hopelessly insignificant that you are never thought of again in connection with the life you served? Are you willing to spend and be spent; not seeking to be ministered unto, but to minister? Some saints cannot do menial work and remain saints because it is beneath their dignity.

February 6th - Are You Ready To Be Offered?

“I am already being poured out as a drink offering.” 2 Timothy 4:6

"I am ready to be offered." It is a transaction of will, not of sentiment. Tell God you are ready to be offered; then let the consequences be what they may, there is no strand of complaint now, no matter what God chooses. God puts you through the crisis in private, no one person can help an other. Externally the life may be the same; the difference is in will. Go through the crisis in will, then when it comes externally there will he no thought of the cost. If you do not transact in will with God along this line, you will end in awakening sympathy for yourself.

"Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar." The altar means fire - burning and purification and insulation for one purpose only, the destruction of every affinity that God has not started and of every attachment that is not an attachment in God. You do not destroy it, God does; you bind the sacrifice to the horns of the altar; and see that you do not give way to self-pity when the fire begins. After this way of fire, there is nothing that oppresses or depresses. When the crisis arises, you realize that things cannot touch you as they used to do. What is your way of fire?

Tell God you are ready to be offered, and God will prove Himself to be all you ever dreamed He would be.

Nehemiah

2008-02-05T07:40:00.000-07:00

I had a great Bible study this morning with my fellow IronMen at our Tuesday morning study, The Edge. We have been working through the book of Nehemiah and following this great leader's journey from apathy to action. It is an amazing story.

This morning we were all challenged by the simple fact that private worship precedes public witness. Nehemiah did a great work for God, but only after God did a great work in Nehemiah. It is a very simple truth, but it trips me up most days. I can't do a thing for God until God does a thing in me.

God give me favor and a big project. But first break my heart over the very things that break your heart.

Amen.

Trusting Us With Silence

2008-01-31T23:54:00.000-07:00

We had some great people (Matt and Jessica) over tonight for dessert and coffee (and Kim's famous apple cider) and we got to sharing stories about life. As we shared with them the story of how God brought us to Lake Cities, we told them of the blog entry that was instrumental in God bringing us here. Check it out here.

I read the following a while ago and I thought I'd share it.

As I read Fenelon (he's talking about, Francois Fenelon, the French mystic of three hundred years ago) on silence, I was reminded of what Oswald Chambers wrote about thanking God when he “trusts us with silence.” Fenelon put great emphasis on the value of silence—not only environmental silence, but silence of the soul, stillness of the heart, and tranquility of the mind.

Fenelon writes, “Sometimes the annoyances that make you long for solitude are better for producing humility than the most complete solitude could be. Do not seek God as if he were far off in an ivory castle. He is found in the middle of the events of your everyday life.

“Listen to the voice of God in silence. Be willing to accept what he wants to show you. God will show you everything you need to know. Be faithful to come before him in silence. When you hear the still, small voice within, it is time to be silent.

“Try to practice silence as much as general courtesy permits. Silence encourages God’s presence, prevents harsh words, and causes you to be less likely to say something you will regret. Silence also helps you put space between you and the world. Out of the silence that you cultivate you will get strength to meet your needs.”

Most of us aren’t silent often enough. A chief executive officer of a large corporation attended a weekend retreat recently. He told me that his most meaningful experience of the retreat was the exercise of listening to someone for ten minutes—without saying anything. He realized how much he learned in that listening silence.

God trusts you with silence. Don't let him down.

{Smith, F., and Goetz, D. L. (1999). Vol. 5: Leading with integrity : Competence with Christian character. The pastor's soul series (40). Minneapolis, Minn.: Bethany House Publishers.}

A Weak You Can Be a New You In a Week!

2008-01-30T07:57:00.000-07:00

My son John is the healthiest person I know. He is also one of the most disciplined. I praise God for the way he is leading me towards better health. Recently he sent me the following information which I thought I would pass on. This isn't his own work and I really don't know where he got it. But the important thing is that it is good stuff. I'm trying to improve in this area so that I may better steward my body and bring God glory through my body. Improved health has far reaching effects including:

- Better relationships (more energy and focus, less stress and sickness, etc)
- Better work production (more energy and focus, less stress and sickness, etc)
- Better financial stewardship (heart attacks and back surgeries and stress meds aren't cheap!)
- Better self esteem (It's hard enough to like you somedays let alone like you plus 50lbs more)
- Better relationship with God. (It's hard to be close to the giver when you know you've abused his greatest gift beside salvation - your life!)

I could go on and on. But I won't...

Read, FOLLOW (or at least attempt) and enjoy! A new you is just a week away. Not a completely different you, but a better you for sure!

7-Day Starter Program: Guidelines

GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR HEALTHIER FOOD CHOICES QUICK TIPS:

Eat ORGANIC! Eat at least one green salad each day, two if you can.
Start out each day with lighter foods and move toward heavier foods later in the day. Heavy foods for breakfast can weigh an individual down throughout the day.
Make your cooked meals simpler. Eat only one type of cooked food or animal food at each meal, and always have raw salad vegetables and salad fruits such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and bell peppers with it.
Remember to drink plenty of water. Try to drink water 30 minutes before meals. Drinking water during or after a meal dilutes the digestive juices and interferes with proper digestion.
Chew your food! Your stomach doesn't have teeth! The famous Dr. Fletcher recommended 50 chews per mouthful.
Change it up! Enjoy and experiment by adding a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, seaweeds, sprouts, grasses, herbs, flowers, and superfoods.
Eat your favorite meals on the weekend so you don't feel deprived!
If you enjoy alcohol with dinner, consider a healthy choice, such as an organic, sulfite-free wine. Numerous studies have now demonstrated that wine, when consumed in moderate amounts, provides antioxidant (flavonol and resveratrol) protection against numerous cardiovascular problems.
Exercise. Walk around the block. Take the stairs at work. Park a little further away from the shops and walk an extra five minutes. Exercise increases your energy, builds muscle tone, curbs your appetite, and increases your metabolism. " Get plenty of rest.

IMPORTANT! Daily inspiration and education are your keys to a successful first seven days. We encourage you to visit this link often and listen to the many programs we have available for you!

7-Day Starter Program: SAMPLE MENU 1

GENERAL SAMPLE MENUS:

BREAKFAST

Daily Essentials:

1/2 liter (quart) of water mixed with 1/2 tablespoon of MSM crystals

Raw Choices:

Any of the following types of fresh fruit:
papaya, figs, grapes, berries, melons, apples, grapefruits, pineapple, etc.
A smoothie containing superfoods
A fruit salad

Heated or Cooked Choices:
1/4 liter (8 ounces) of herbal tea. Squeeze in fresh lemon if desired. Use
fresh maple syrup or raw honey to sweeten.
Oatmeal (Steel-cut oats are best.
Oats contain the beauty mineral silicon)
Toast with coconut butter/oil or 1/2 avocado (made from whole grain bread or sprouted bread).
Toast is easier to digest than regular bread.

LUNCH

Raw Choices:
1 shot (1-2 fluid ounces) of wheatgrass juice. (Wheatgrass tends to suppress the appetite.)
1 liter (quart) of fresh vegetable juice containing at least 50% green vegetables. 50% apples or pears
One small leafy-green vegetable salad Guacamole: avocado, cilantro, olives, lime juice, tomatoes, onions, celtic sea salt, etc.
One durian (fresh, if possible…frozen is okay, if fresh cannot be found).
One whole durian is a big meal!
Cantaloupe (contains a high amount of beta-carotene and antioxidants)

Heated or Cooked Choices:
One sandwich containing toasted sprouted grain bread, avocado, clover and radish sprouts, diced red bell pepper, sliced olives, onion and diced cucumber.
Rice (or bean) burrito containing lettuce, onions, lime juice and tomatoes. No cheese.

Animal-Based Foods:
Including animal-based foods in one's diet is an individual choice. David Wolfe does not include them in his diet. Fish and wild game are more mineral-rich, contain better quality oils, and leaner protein.
Goat's milk is much more digestible than cow's milk. Most of the world's population is allergic to cow's milk.
Smoked fish (only from clean, organic sources - not herring, capelin, menhaden, anchovetta or cod)
Goat's milk (preferably unpasteurized) Goat cheese (preferably unpasteurized)
Goat kefir (preferably unpasteurized) Goat yogurt

7-Day Starter Program: SAMPLE MENUS 2

GENERAL SAMPLE MENUS:

SNACKS

Daily Essentials:

1/2 liter (quart) of water mixed with 1/2 tablespoon of MSM crystals

Raw Choices:
2 cucumbers
2 ribs of celery or bok choy
One papaya or bowl of fresh figs
One appetizer bowl of olives
Dehydrated crackers
1 handful of hemp seeds
1 handful of macadamia nuts
A young coconut

Heated or Cooked Choices:
Popcorn made with cold-pressed coconut oil
Baked, no-salt corn chips with guacamole (avocado, cilantro, olives, lime juice, tomatoes, onions, celtic sea salt, etc.)

DINNER

Daily Essentials:
1/2 liter (quart) of fresh vegetable juice containing at least 60% green vegetables, 40% other vegetables or fruits (apple, cucumber, etc.)
One large leafy-green salad
Raw Choices:
Gourmet raw food
Dessert Sprouted bread (Essene bread is a dehydrated, no-yeast, flat bread made from sprouted grains).
One cup of nettle or chaparral tea (after dinner or before sleep as a nightcap)
Raw soup

Heated or Cooked Choices:
Toasted whole-grain bread (kamut bread, spelt bread) with cold-pressed coconut oil
Steamed vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, etc.)
Steamed artichoke hearts (the best of all cooked foods)
Brown rice (turmeric powder can be used on this meal).
Baked yam (turmeric powder can be used on this meal).
Baked sweet potato (turmeric powder can be used on this
meal).

Tofu is high in protein. Be sure to select only soy products that are NOT genetically modified. Genetically modified foods contain irregular DNA and enzyme inhibitors that may have long-term damaging effects on our health.
Rice (or bean) burrito containing lettuce, onions, lime juice and tomatoes
Hummus with fresh vegetables and vegetable fruits (celery, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers and tomatoes).
Vegetable soup (containing more mineral-rich vegetables and less carrots and potatoes).

Animal-Based Foods:
Smoked fish (only from clean, organic sources - not herring, capelin, menhaden, anchovetta or cod).
Young, organic, free-range, or wild game (turkey, quail, wild birds, venison, etc.).