Nuggets of wisdom . . .

Have you ever stumbled upon something that you were reading in the Bible, maybe in a different translation, and suddenly a light seems to go on? Well, that’s what happened to me this morning. I was reading in the 4th chapter of Mark in the Message this morning and suddenly a light went on. I know that I have read this same scripture lots of time and for some reason never had it hit me the way it did this morning.

This scripture talks about the way that Jesus was teaching the people. It says that He taught in stories to those who did not have the insight to the kingdom of God. By doing so the stories were “creating readiness, nudging them toward receptive insight.” I have been thinking a lot about the way I teach and those around me teach and whether we sometimes over complicate things, especially for those who may not have a relationship with our Lord. The conclusion that I have come to is that we should basically use the model that Jesus used.

Our teaching never should be overly complicated. Teach in stories that apply to the people that we are teaching allowing the Holy Spirit to work in their lives. What do you think? How do you teach? Let me know.

Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and keep it simple.

What a weekend . . .

Just to let you know, in some ways I had a great weekend and in some ways I would have been better off staying in bed most of the weekend. I jsut trying to be honest and transparent to those that read this blog. I am far from perfect and I have bad weekends.

Friday was a great day. I met with one of the guys from The Journey and we had lunch and went to Woodcraft and hung out a little while. Then Irene and I closed on the refinancing on our house.

Saturday started as a problem. Everything that I touched I either dropped, broke, or had to fix to be able to use. I went to Lowes and evidently so did every other oerson in the eastern seaboard. There were no parking places and the walkways were clogged with people. If I had not known better I would have bet I was at the Mall at Christmas time. Saturday evening got better as we met two friends for bar-b-que and later a trip to see the Greenville Drive play baseball. The game was supposed to start at 7:00 pm. There was a rain delay and the first pitch wasn’t thrown until after 9:00 pm. We still had fun jsut being at the part and fellowshipping with our friends. When we left to come home, Greenville was ahead 2 to 0. We checked the paper the next day and they had lost 7 to 2. We should have stayed. Their luck ran out when we left.

Sunday was great. We went to First Baptist Church Fountain Inn and listened to Mike preach a great sermon. After lunch it was nap time and then out again for Bible Study with The Journey. This week we had (23) come to our Bible Study. We had a family offer their home to meet until we ran out of room. We also had someone offer to work with our children during the adult discussion of the Bible Study. God is answering prayers.

Today, I was in the first of a two day training class for work on holding Crucial Conversations. It is a little more that humbling when you realize that you are not as good a communicator as you think you are. But that is OK. I want to get better and this is going to help me do that.

Next weekend Irene and I are heading out of town to Pigeon Forge TN and I can’t wait. I need a couple of days to kick my head out of gear and see if I can get my perspective back.

Tomorrow will be another all day class and then it is back to work on Wednesday. Until next time - keep your eyes on Jesus and let’s see what the Lord has in store for us in the future.

A Great Weekend . . .

I was sitting here at the computer on Sunday afternoon, which I normally do not do, and I decided to get off a quick hits list from the weekend. This weekend was great for several reasons, and some of them are as follows:

• Friday evening we clowned at Greenbrier elementary school for their spring fling. We tied balloons for 3.5 hours straight with no breaks. The kids were great as always. My hands have hurt me for two days now. I stand in awe of anyone that can do that everyday.
• Had to work at the office yesterday morning. I am blessed that I have a great job and a great company to work for. I am also blessed that I don’t have to go into the office on Saturdays very often. This was the first time in over a year.
• Last night we had a gathering here at the house to celebrate my birthday. We fired up the charcoal grill for the first time this year and cooked hamburgers and hotdogs. The only thing better than the food was the family and friends that were here at the house to help me celebrate my birthday. I am truly blessed.
• Today was awesome. We had a Sunday morning Bible study for The Journey here in mine and Irene’s home. We had no idea how many would show up. All we knew going in was that we would make contacts and see what happened. God is so good - we had (17) adults, (1) teenager and (4) children show up for Bible study. We worshiped together - Jonathan Whitten led us in some music. Mike brought us a lesson from God’s word that was great and we are going to seek to apply it this week. We had lunch together - baked spaghetti, salad and bread prepare by Irene and Karen (you to girls are da’ bomb). Some desserts were brought and enjoyed. The fellowship was great. One of our first time families even stepped up and offered their home for next weeks meeting.

This weekend was over the top incredible. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us in the upcoming week. Until next time - keep your eyes on Jesus and what did we do with the left overs from lunch, I’m hungry again.

My Walk in The Journey – Continued . .

Well, it seems like it has taken me forever to get back here to continue the post about The Journey and the part that I play in it. In this post I want to spend a little time on the L.I.F.E. groups. L.I.F.E. groups are the way that we are going to reach our communities for Christ. This all ties back to our neighbors. Our job according to the Great Commission is to go into all the world and make disciples. That seems to be a pretty daunting task for any one person. Then God showed me in His word another daunting task. In the book of Nehemiah the people had to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. That would seem to me a pretty overwhelming task. Unless, you look at it as Nehemiah did – each family is responsible for the wall in front of their home. I believe that we need to be responsible for that part of the world right there where we live. If each of us becomes responsible for that – then the world will be reached for Christ.

Through L.I.F.E. groups we will be concentrating on four basic things:
L – We are going to learn from one another. One of the greatest motivators to learning is the people that we are learning with.
I – we are going to intentionally grow. Where there is no growth – there is no life. We want our children to grow and develop – God wants the same things for His children.
F – We are going to learn to follow biblical principles. We are going to seek out life applications to all of the lessons that we will be studying. God gives us principles to live by to help us live to our full potential.
E – We are going to evangelize through relationships. Through praying for our neighbors, building relationships with them and inviting them to join our L.I.F.E. groups we will evangelize our neighborhoods through relationships. These relationships will be developed when we see our community as Christ does – full of people that He was willing to give up His life for.

Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and lets focus on what is in front of us.

Weekend Recap and Looking to the Future . . .

Just a few thoughts from the weekend:

• Irene and I spent the weekend at the Meltdown Student Conference. It was over the top. Thank you Toby for inviting us to come and help out – you are the man.
• We heard Scott Smith speak Friday evening and then heard Adrian Despres and Ken Forester speak on Saturday.
• When we went to breakfast Saturday morning it was snowing.
• 33 Miles was in concert that night and they were fantastic. Rumor is they may open Meltdown ’09.
• We had White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Banana Pudding Saturday Night. Holy Mackerel that was good.
• We saw Jared Hall, a Christian illusionist Saturday night and he was – WOW!! Where did that bowling ball come from??
• We got to spend some time hanging out and eating with Steve, Kim, AJ and Molly Conley and hear about their new church and talk clowning.
• Sunday mornings highlight to me was the splat experience. If you don’t know what that is – check this out.
• We got to eat at the Apple Barn, Alamo Steak House, Calhoun’s, and the Old Mill. I love being married to a woman who likes to eat at good restaurants.
• Why does the ride home from Pigeon Forge always seem longer than the one going up there?

Looking at the future:

• We start training sessions with our prospective core group for the Journey this weekend.
• I talked with a friend of mine about designing me a sweet new background for my blog and the future.
• Mike’s at a training session for the next two days. I can’t wait to hear the great things that he has learned.
• I’m still working on reading the “Simple Church”. Hopefully I’ll have it finished in the next couple of weeks.
• Irene gave me a book for Christmas and that is what I am reading next, just for pleasure.
• I have got to get back in my shop this week. There are projects that are backing up.
• I am having lunch with Robbie Funderburk this Friday. We haven’t had a chance to talk in a couple of months and I am really looking forward to spending some time together.

Next time we’ll spend some time talking about LIFE Groups, but until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and one more white chocolate macadamia nut banana pudding please.

My walk in The Journey . . .

Last time I talked about The Journey and I told you that I would let you know where I fit into The Journey. Well, I have the privilege of being asked to be the Connections Guy at The Journey. You may ask, what is a connections guy and what exactly does he do? As the Connections Guy I am the person in charge of connections – meaning that I will help organize and help to keep on track the L.I.F.E groups, Growth Partners and Ministry Teams of The Journey. I will talk about each of these aspects of The Journey in separate posts.

One of the foundational beliefs of The Journey lies in Matthew 22:37-38. I believe that those of us who follow Christ generally do a pretty good job loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Where we often fail, especially in today’s busy life, is in loving our neighbors as ourselves. More often than not, I have found out that we don’t even know who our neighbors are. I did a series of posts on who our neighbors are in the last couple of months. You can re-visit those posts here, here and here.

Next time we’ll look at how we think we can begin to build relationships with our neighbors through the L.I.F.E. groups at The Journey. Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and say hello to your neighbors.

The Journey that I am on . . .

I am finally at the point where I can begin to share the journey that God has been directing me on since leaving New Hope in October. Last night we did our vision cast service at Rocky Creek (our sponsoring church) about the church plant that I am helping with. It is called The Journey and we are calling it a new church experience instead of a church plant. We are calling it a new church experience basically because it is completely new for this area. No one is doing this model of church around here at all. At The Journey we have three things that we focus on – Celebration, Connection, and Commission. I will do individual posts on each of the focus areas but for now I will be brief. We believe that we should celebrate through corporate worship by loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength using every tool available to us today. We should connect by growing together in groups of three (Growth Partners.) And lastly, we are called to fulfill the great commission to reach the world around us through serving others in our neighborhoods (L.I.F.E. Groups) and ministry teams.

This is really one of the biggest faith steps that I have ever taken. We are doing things now that I could never have dreamed about before. I’ve gone from having an office at a church and a youth group to having staff meetings with my pastor at the local coffee shop. Just as a point, if any of you wonder which local coffee shop we have settled on – it is Java Jolt on Butler Road. There are a lot of reasons – but lets just say it is comfortable and it has good coffee. Back on subject – what has my step of faith gotten me into? I have gone from a programs based ministry (which is where most churches are) to a relationship based ministry (which is what I have been teaching for years.) Everything that we do at The Journey will be wrapped up in relationships. For those of you that know me really well will understand what a step of faith that this is for me. I am one who must now lead out building relationships with the people around me, and that is stretching me like never before in my walk with Christ.

Next time I’ll talk about where I fit into The Journey. Until next time – keep your eyes on Jesus and I take a Grande Decaf Skinny Caramel Latte, please.

D – Develop spiritually

OK, finally I can start trying to explain the acrostic of disciple that a friend gave me. Understanding the foundation that I have laid in the previous posts about the personal responsibility discipleship, today we will look at how a disciple should develop spiritually. Discipleship is a continual walk with Christ. It was always meant to be a growth process that never stops. The same as a child continues to develop until adulthood, our discipleship should be a process of continual spiritual development until we arrive in the presence of Jesus.

Moses called the nation of Israel, in Deuteronomy 5:1, to three distinctive development stages – to hear, to learn and to follow. Let me take a minute to briefly look at each of these. We’ll start with hearing. We need to understand how we hear from God today. He has given us His word and we must spend pointed, focused time in His word each day. When we spend time in His word, He will begin to speak to our hearts things that we need to influence our lives. Hearing is absorbing and accepting information about God.

Once we have heard from God, then we need to move to learning from God. Learning understands what we have heard. We need to understand the meaning of what God has spoken to us and the implications of that meaning and the way those things will impact our lives. We need to grab hold of what God has given us and study it until we fully absorb it until it is a part of us and our way of thinking.

This will lead us to following. Following is putting into action all we have learned and understood. This is simply life application of what God has given us. We need to understand that is God gives us something, we study it, understand it and we don’t live it, our mouths may profess Jesus as Lord but our lives deny Him and His teachings.

As disciples we must develop spiritually in our lives. If we don’t, we all nothing more than children in adult bodies. Until next time – keep you eyes on Jesus and remember a race is not over until we get to the finish line.