9.24.2007

Finally...

This clip is on espn.com today and you can check out a less blurry clip of it there...But it is of Mike Gundy, head football coach of Oklahoma State University, defending his players from what he feels is unfair criticism by the media...I'm not sure about the article or about the player referred to, but it is nice to see a coach stand up for his "good kids"...In a day and age where we have so glorified sport that it doesn't matter about the character of a person as long as they can perform, its nice to see a coach that sees things differently...In a society that places far more value on atheltic talent than character and integrity, it's nice to see a coach who's values seem to be in order...Enjoy...

Pray by Kendall Payne...

I will pray for you now for you have been my faithful friends
While the road we walk is difficult indeed
I couldn't not ask for more than what you've already been
Only that you would say these prayers for me

May your heart break enough that compassion enters in
May your strength all be spent upon the weak
All the castles and crowns you build and place upon your head
May they all fall come crashing down around your feet

May you find every step to be harder than the last
So your character grows greater each stride
May your company be of humble insignificance
May your weakness be your only source of pride

What you do unto others may it all be done to you
May you meet the one who made us
And see him smile when life is through

May your blessings be many but not what you hoped they'd be
And when you look upon the broken
May mercy show you what you could not see

May you never be sure of any plans you desire
But you'd learn to trust the plan he has for you
May your passions be tried and tested in the holy fire
May you fight with all your life for what is true

I have prayed for you now all of my dear and faithful friends
But what I wish is more than I could ever speak
As the way wanders on I'll long to see you once again
Until then, would you pray these prayers for me?
Oh that you would pray for me.

9.20.2007

Tom Brokaw's Speech...

I found this on a blog I read regularly written by the president of Youth Specialties, Mark Oestreicher. He has some great stuff on not just student ministry, but also on culture, the church, and the challenge of following Christ in today's world...Check it out at www.ysmarko.com...Great stuff. Anyway, here is a brief part of Tom Brokaw's Commencement Address at Emory University...

You have been hearing all of your life that this occasion is a big step into what is called the real world. What, you may ask, is that real world all about? What is this new life? Ladies and gentlemen of the class of 2005 at Emory, real life is not college; real life is not high school. Here is a secret that no one has told you: Real life is junior high.

The world that you’re about to enter is filled with junior high adolescent pettiness, pubescent rivalries, the insecurities of 13-year-olds, and the false bravado of 14-year-olds. 40 years from now, I guarantee it: You will still make a silly mistake every day. You will have temper tantrums and you’re feelings will be hurt for some trivial sleight. You’ll say something dumb at the wrong time. And you will wonder at least once a week, “Will I ever grow up?” You can change that. In your pursuit of your passions, always be young. In your relationship with others, always be grown-up. Set a standard, and stay faithful to it.

9.19.2007

A Great Day...No Matter What...

Today, September 19th, is a great day. For the last six years, each time this date has rolled by on the calendar, it has been a great day...It has been a day to celebrate God's goodness and great favor toward me and my family. It has been a day to offer thankfulness. It has been a day to reflect back on the great blessings that God has bestowed upon me and my family...

Six years ago on this day, Sept. 19, 2001, I had surgery to remove a putuitary tumor from the front of my brain. Literally thousands of people were praying for me that day. People were asking God to guide surgeons hands, to give doctors wisdom, and to bless me with healing...AND HIS ANSWER WAS YES!

So this day for me is a day of celebration! There has never been a bad September 19th from that year on in my life...Today I celebrate and I thank God for what He has done for me...

9.17.2007

Mourning...

Unfortunately, I've got mourning and grieving on my mind the last couple days...Our community lost a great young man in a terrible car accident this past weekend. The young man had been in our youth group and was now in college...He was one of those kids that everybody loves...Always smiling, always laughing, and always having a hug and an encouraging word for others...Some of our other students also lost a close family member this weekend...The young man's funeral was today and the grandmother's funeral is tomorrow morning...So it's easy to see why I've been thinking about how people grieve and mourn, and more specifically how we, as Christ followers, mourn...

God brought a verse to my memory on Sunday out of 1 Thessalonians...1 Thessalonians 4:13 says that "we do not grieve as those without hope..." Basically, that we should grieve and mourn differently than others, especially when a fellow Christ follower passes away, because we have something the world doesn't: HOPE. We don't grieve like those without hope because our hope is found in Christ. For those in Christ, death is not the end...The grave does not have the final say for the Christ follower. We cannot be beaten by death and the grave because we are not those without hope, but rather those with true hope, a hope in Christ Jesus.

So as I mourn and grieve and watch those around me mourn and grieve, I pray that those of us who are Christ followers might mourn differently...Not that we still don't shed tears and feel pain and need to grieve properly...But that we mourn as peoople who have hope and that others who do not know that hope might see the difference in the way we approach the grave and death...Mourn, but don't mourn like those without hope, because we have hope in the person of Jesus...

9.16.2007

Quote of The Day...

I'm on a couple email lists that send me different kinds of quotes each day...Got a great one today, so I thought I'd share it...

Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger men. Do
not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal
to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no
miracle, but you yourself shall be a miracle. Every day you
shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has
come to you by the grace of God. - Phillips Brooks
(1835-1893)

9.12.2007

Funny?...

These might be funny if they weren't such a true reflection of things...Sad thing is, I can put names and faces on these cartoon figures...



9.11.2007

You Know You're In A Redneck Church...

I usually don't like email forwards. I get tons of them every day and sometimes I don't even have a chance to read them all...But I got one today that I opened and thought was pretty funny...I grew up in a small town (less than 1500) and went to a church out in the country off an old dirt road where 40 people was a big crowd...After that, my first full-time ministry position was in a church that was a good sized congregation, but was still in a smaller town of less than 2,000 people which was the small, rural county seat...So I appreciated this email titled "You Know You're In A Redneck Church..." Thought I would share a couple of my favorites...

"You know you're in a redneck church when people hear the story about Jesus feeding the 5,000 and they want to know if the fish were bass or catfish."

"You know you're in a redneck church when the opening day of deer season is recognized as an official church holiday."

"You know you're in a redneck church when a member asks to be buried in his 4-wheel drive truck, becuase 'it ain't never been in a hole it couldn't get out of.'"

And one of my favorites...

"You know you're in a redneck church when in a congregation of 500 people there are only 7 last names in the church directory."

We Remember...

Six years ago on this day our world was forever changed. Most of the people living during this time, and especially in my generation, define the terrorist attacks of 9/11 as the most defining historical moment in their lifetimes. As I sit here and type this I am watching the Memorial Service at Ground Zero. I am listening to names being read by various people...Each name represents a story, a family, a life that was ended. With each name, comes family left behind, lives changed, a story of a life left unfinished because of this tragedy...It is so easy for us to view something like this as a national tragedy, to see it as a world-wide event...But it was not just a national or a worldwide tragedy...These were family tragedies, tragedies that involved the loss of husbands, wives, children, parents, family, friends...And as these names are being read, every now and then, the speakers will read a name in this way: "And my _______ (friend, brother, cousin), (insert name here)." This event that we remember today is truly a national tragedy. It is truly a worldwide tragedy. But it is also much deeper than that...It involves thousands of personal tragedies...And so today we pause as a nation to remember those gone and those left behind...And we remember...May we never forget that those affected by this great tragedy are people, just like us, with stories, just like ours...

9.05.2007

Mythbusters...

Tonight at The Attic we started a new series called Mythbusters: Busting Myths about God and What it Means to Follow Him. I am excited about this teaching series and what God is going to do in the lives of our students through it...We talked tonight about how God doesn't love us anymore when we are good. Basically, there is this myth, especially among church people, that the more good we do, the better we are, the more God loves us. Sounds nice, but it's not biblical at all...The Bible teaches us that God's love for us is not based on how good we are. It teaches that we cannot be good enough for God to love us more and we cannot be bad enough for God to love us less. God loves us. Period. End of sentence. End of story. God loves us and it is based on nothing we've done and on everything Christ did on the cross...What a freeing thought! So long guilt and frustration that come from trying to be good enough to please God. So long to feeling bad after we've failed because we haven't performed well enough for God. God's love for me isn't based on my performance or my behavior. He loves me regardless...That's the message of the cross...

9.02.2007

The Church as an Escalator...

Today at church our pastor taught about "Hard-Core Discipleship." He talked about how Jesus' call to "take up your cross daily and follow me" is so much more than just "believing" in Christ. He talked about how many believers have not taken the steps to become disciples, committed to glorifying Christ in every aspect of their lives...Anyway, as he was explaining what Christ did for us, he began explaining the basics of the faith, stating that the only way to get to a relationship with God is through the cross...He had a diagram that he used and that triggered my brain (here goes the ADD again...) to think about another picture that is often used to describe the basics of the Christian faith...It's the one where man stands on one side of a cliff, with a abyss (giant hole) between himself and the other side...On the other side is God...However, between man and God is this extreme gulf, which is sin and leads to death...The whole point is that we can't get to God alone and we need someone to "bridge" our relationship with Him...That is where the cross comes in...Jesus' death on the cross allows us to approach God and have a relationship with Him...Basically, its this picture:



That got me to thinking...Again, I guess the ADD kicked in, but here is my thought process...As you try to cross the bridge of "the cross" you still have to climb up some...Bear with me here...I am not talking about doing stuff to earn God's love or anything like that...But, if we are to take this diagram seriously, their is still some climbing to get over the cross and to God...Now, I know I am being picky toward the diagram and am going into way more detail than the inventor intended, I am sure...But this is how my brain works sometimes...

And as I thought about this, I thought about what the Bible says about the cross...How the cross of Jesus itself is an obstacle to some...Some people simply cannot accept the fact that they have to do absolutely nothing to earn God's love and others can't see even the need of crossing into a relationship with God...Whatever the reason, the cross itself becomes an obstacle to some...

Here is where the blog title comes into play...What if we, as the church, acted as an escalator, so to speak...What if we made it our mission to help people not only see the cross, but to "get over" it to the other side...I'm not talking about dumbing down our faith or offering some watered down theology...I'm talking about obstacles...What if we, the church, decided that instead of putting obstacles in people's way, we would not only make coming to Christ obstacle free, but we would aid people in that decision...By the way we looked, by the way we taught, by the way we communicated, by the way we talk, and act, and live, and share, and love...That we would "be an escalator" helping people rise above the obstacles that exist in coming into a relationship with God, and helping them to see the love of Christ and their need for him as Savior and Master...I know it may sound crazy, but it's just a thought...