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Are You Second?

Don't tell anyone but I like being first.  I know it's not polite or gracious, and I know that my mom taught me differently, but I can't help it, I want to be first.  Whether it's approaching an intersection and deciding who was at the stop sign first, or driving down the highway, there is an urge inside me to be first.  If someone is cutting an apple pie, I want the first piece.  If the government is passing out another stimulus check, I want my social security number to put me in the first batch.  If my wife is bringing dinner to the table, I want to be able to eat the first bite.  Now, thankfully I do not always act upon my impulses.  In fact, I have learned over time to put others first, maybe all those lectures from my mom finally did the trick.  The apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Phillipi church that we should  be "... like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."In other words, we need to/have to learn to be second.  The other day I came across this website  www.iamsecond.com.  I encourage you to check it out.  A bunch of folks, some famous, some not have shared their journey to second place.  My own journey to second has been a long, windy road full of foolishness and a multitude of mistakes.  But the destination, second place, makes a world of difference in my life.  I encourage you to check out I Am Second, and if you want to discuss how you might come in second place don't hesitate to contact me.
-J

Porn Again Christian

Pornography is a problem!     

Mark Driscoll a great pastor in Seattle, WA has written a book about it and is giving this book away for free!  That's right free, all you have to do is choose to read it online or print it out on your printer.  The numbers are staggering, and the consequences are shattering, I encourage each of you to click the link, read the book and then share the information with someone else.

A word of warning, this book is frank, honest and in your face.  If you are looking for avoidance and dancing around the issue this is not the book for you.  But if you are looking for honest answers and understanding then I encourage you to take a look.

The book is called, Porn Again Christian.(click here to go to the website)

Feel free to come back here and discuss the book.  Also, feel free to email me directly if you would like to discuss the book and it's ramifications in person.

is it time for you to man up?

I don't know about you but I love lists, top ten lists in particular. It may stem from a grand desire to be David Letterman. Seriously, he may have the best job. Stay up late, talk to interesting people, tell stupid jokes that the bald guy is paid to laugh at, and occasionally throw something off a tall building, this sounds like a job description I can get behind.

Many of the lists used to be funny, political, satirical or at least silly. But I have noticed in many different places that the lists are getting serious. And the serious lists appear to be designed to make us feel bad. One list I have seen in a couple of different forms is "skills every man should know."  The list has grown from 10 to 100 and this version includes telling pictures and videos.  Now I should tell you that I can/have done most of the things on this list.  I can even do some of them really well, or at least well enough to not embarass myself.  But is my manhood really determined by my ability to "make a bed drum tight."

Some of these skills I can even do well enough to teach someone else, but as important as conquering an off-road obstacle seems, it appears to me they have left of a couple of really critical skills.  Skills like loving your wife and kids (everyday even when they crawled into your bed in the middle of the night and then proceeded to pee through their pullup), determining which "broken" legs/arms actually require medical attention and which simply need a homemade sling, potty training a squirrel (not a literal one mind you, though that would be an amazing skill, but one of the squirrels encoded with your DNA), putting a sleeping baby to bed without his waking up, not laughing in your kids face when he announces that he married some girl at preschool and plans to be a stay at home dad so he can be rich, learning to enjoy watching Hannah Montana (I hate to admit it publicly but that Jackson makes me laugh everytime), finding time to read a book that doesn't have anything to do with your job, or even the ability to write your blog while eating breakfast, settling a dispute over who pushed who into a wall, and de-virusing your other computer because your wife accidentally clicked "that" link in facebook.

The real problem with these lists is that we use them as some sort of measuring system.  I can actually do 83 of the things on the list of 100 and even as I'm counting I am noting which one of the things the other "men" I know can or cannot, and justifying why the things I can't do don't belong on the list.  Unfortunately we are using a bad standard, if you use me or whatever other "manly" man fits your picture, we are all going to come up short.  I'm not sure that Jesus could "tackle steep drops on a mountain bike" but He did manage to traverse this earth perfectly.  And so I hope that you and I will remember this week that Jesus knew how far we were all going to fall short.  He knew that we would love imperfectly, judge harshly, fail miserably, and even "fly a stunt kite" into the ground.  

If you are looking for a man to be your standard let's use Jesus Himself.

some random election thoughts

I, like most people I know, have friends who are today both rejoicing and mourning the results of yesterday's historic election.  Responses have ranged from a threat to move to Britain, to open happiness and real joy that change is coming.

Being fully aware of my age and not wanting to sound condescending on any level, I have been around the block once or twice.  I have seen some things one could say.  And the things that I have seen make me ready to simply encourage caution on both sides.  This is not say that I believe the end of the world is coming (we draw one day closer everyday, first Tuesday after the first Monday of November or not) or too many folks have drank the kool-aid.  Instead, I urge caution because I hear so much emphasis on the role of one man.

Friends, I want to share a quote with you from a pastor here in Ohio.

“Each time we come to this important crossroad in our nation’s history, we do well to thank God for His providential care and remind ourselves that "the Lord God Almighty reigns." Whatever the outcome, it will be important for us to remember that in a changing political climate, our unchanging biblical mandate remains - to declare the Good News and do good deeds, "..to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men." - Alistair Begg

So today let us remember to rejoice, not in the success or failure of one man or one political ideology but instead, let us rejoice in the might and glory of our God.

I have ran across a couple of blog posts I found interesting today, so feel free to follow the links.  You will not agree with everything that you find there (or here most likely) but I would simply encourage you to place your hope for change in the one actually controls eternity.

"1 My heart is steadfast, O God!
   I will sing and make melody with all my being!
2Awake, O harp and lyre!
   I will awake the dawn!
3I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the peoples;
   I will sing praises to you among the nations.
4For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;
   your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

 5Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
   Let your glory be over all the earth!
6 That your beloved ones may be delivered,
   give salvation by your right hand and answer me!" 

- Psalm 108:1-6

Those blog links as promised:

from John Piper - http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1478_grateful_for_almost_any_government/

from Eric Redmond - http://theologica.blogspot.com/2008/11/eric-redmond-living-soli-deo-gloria.html

from Donald Miller - http://donmilleris.com/2008/11/05/you-were-amazing/

peace friends,

j

Fall Fun

My great kids having fun raking leaves, or at least playing in some leaves.

Some family pictures

Here are some pictures of my kids carving pumpkins with some friends.

What Should I Do About the Election?

Recently I got to be friends with a great pastor in Georgia, Matt Adair.  Matt wrote the following article that I feel really captures many of my own thoughts on the upcoming election, being a Christian and how the two should fit together.  I hope that it will at least cause you to ask yourself some questions.

Christians and Politics

This will show up sometime in The Oconee Leader. I'm channeling two semesters as a political science major, involvement in two presidential campaigns on a local level, pastoring in the Bible Belt and thoughts from Charlie Drew's book, A Public Faith.

Christians are lousy at politics.

Thirty years of organized evangelicalism as a political entity has failed to bring about the kingdom of God or better days for all or much else besides the centaurian cross-breeding of conservative social policy and the Republican party. Evangelicals have become a constituency to be pandered to and for the most part we have taken the bit. Walk into almost any church in Oconee County this Sunday (including mine) and political conversation will sound like talking points from Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly or any number of conservative pundits.

I believe that followers of Jesus Christ can and absolutely must walk down a new political road and become the kind of people who provide the resources for hope and change and unity that politicians of all stripes promise but simply cannot deliver. There are deep divisions in our country and in this county – to ignore them or to attempt to wish them away is both naïve and the height of tomfoolery. This is not a call to ignore our differences, only to put down the guns, knives, ninja stars and other rhetorical weaponry that so often accompanies political dialogue.

All of this begins with the conviction that the followers of Jesus have absolutely no reason to panic – ever – over the outcome of an election. Playing to the politics of fear is an effective ploy by both major parties and must be rejected by Christians. Even if Barack Obama is a socialist and Sarah Palin is the most dangerous woman on the planet, they’re not running the show. The Scriptures consistently drive home the point, often in conditions far worse than our deepest fears about this election, that there is a God who’s running the show. And while we might question or vehemently protest such a thought, would this world not be a better place if there actually is a God who loves the world and is powerfully working to right all wrongs and to make everything sad untrue?

Because God cares deeply about his world, we should follow suit and work for the prosperity, happiness and peace of our nation and community. However, our love for country is not a license to turn a blind eye to the mistakes, blunders and injustices that we have committed, past and present. We must expect and demand that Christians speak truthfully about the wrongs committed by our nation and our political parties. We love the United States but we can and must have lover’s quarrels with it because our ultimate allegiance is to Jesus and his kingdom.

And at the risk of separatism or theocracy, our dual citizenship does not have to work to the detriment of those who aren’t Christian – or even our particular flavor of Christian. Make no mistake, Christians are called to be people who ruthlessly hate evil and seek what’s good. But don’t confuse this with tribalism – the good we seek crosses religious and political lines and the evil we wage war against begins in our own hearts and minds and lives. For too long, Christians have fussed about the disintegration of morality within our culture while secretly joining in and doing little to add beauty, value and truth other than to create artistically retarded rip-offs of cultural artifacts. We have jumped into the fray, blaming politicians and greedy CEOs for our current economic climate without owning up to our own greed that led us to gleefully accept the offer of an affordable mortgage. We’ve become so obsessed with private concerns – church, family, work, hobbies, shuttling kids around – that we fail to keep up with local, national and international events. We should expect Christians to live a life that is often personal but never private. God has put us here to work for the good of his world and to make a difference wherever he gives an opportunity to do so.

Christians believe that all of history is part of God’s story – his personal involvement in the rescue and restoration of humanity and creation from the hell we’ve created for ourselves. The reason we woke up this morning is to take our place in what God is doing around us, to work together for the highest good of everyone. So much of the political divide is created by deeply held convictions about what that looks like. So let’s not miss the forest for the trees – don’t let individual issues become bigger than the whole. And while we work towards a common vision of what would be best for our nation and our community, we should expect Christians to carry themselves with respect, cooperation, diversity, integrity and simplicity. I know, I know – that sounds crazy, but what if it actually happened?

St. Louis Bootcamp; Lead in the City Conference

 As I have shared with many folks that Meg and I were going to St. Louis for church planting bootcamp, most people give you that same look. The what does that mean and have you secretly joined the army, don't you know we're at war look.

No friends church planting bootcamp is where you go to be trained, evaluated and encouraged in the process of discovering are you a church planter, and are you ready to plant a church now.

It has already been an amazing time, with powerful teaching, training and worship.  Also we have gotten to meet several new friends who are at various stages in the church planting process.  So thanks for praying for us, you are praying right?  And I look forward to the opportunity to share with you the things I have been learning.

If you are one of those impatient people who want to know right now what is going on with us, click the link below and you will be taken to the Acts 29 website where you can get a better picture and you will also find a link to the place where the conference content is being streamed online.

http://www.leadforthecity.com

Talk at you soon.

-j

courage and the cross

The road we travel is often fraught with danger, trials and general scary stuff.  These things often place us in a position where we are afraid of moving, acting or making a decision.  Most of us, me included, operate daily worried more about screwing something up, or offending someone  than doing something amazing.

As I have been studying for this week's message, I have been struck again and again by the courage of Paul.  In the later parts of the book of Acts, Paul is being constantly accused, bound, beaten, imprisoned and attacked for the gospel.  Amazingly, he does not allow the pressure and challenge to limit or slow down his passion for the gospel.   Instead, we seem him push further and longer.  Experiencing great "success" in Asia, specifically in Ephesus, Paul still sets his sights on Jerusalem and Rome.  Even the danger of "success" cannot keep Paul from pressing forward.

Once in Jerusalem, Paul is again bound, imprisoned, and falsely accused.  Forced to again defend himself from these accusations, Paul continues to tell one story over and over again.  The story of his conversion.  Paul's courage in the face of strong opposition, opposition that desires not just his silence but his life, derives it's power and passion from the reality of his own conversion.  Paul is so certain, confident, and passionate because he understands the power of the cross.  He has experienced firsthand what grace can do to a life.

Paul is unwilling to settle for a gospel that simply bought him a one time get of hell free card.  Instead, the gospel Paul declares is the one of ongoing, day after day redemption and restoration.  Paul believes that when Jesus promised that we would overcome the world because He overcame the world, Jesus meant it.  Paul believes that when Jesus declared, "greater love has no man than this, that he lay his life down for his friends", Jesus was not just telling us about the cross but was calling us to the cross.

Paul faced multiple trials, attacks, accusations, beatings and ridicule so that he might tell the gospel to anyone who would listen.  Most of us won't walk across the street to our neighbor of ten years and invite them to church or even offer to pray for them in crisis because we are afraid of the look they may give us, let alone actually tell them about their own sin and need for a savior.  We tell them about where they might save five cents on a gallon of gas but not where they might find redemption from eternal hell.   I think we have missed the courage of the cross.  None of us are called to be Paul.  Instead, we are called to be Jerry, John, Frank, Tom, Bill, Susan, and Jane.  Men and women redeemed, literally purchased from the bondage of sin and hell, for the glory of God.  Men and women in specific neighborhoods, with specific jobs, and families.  Neighborhoods, jobs and families in need of someone captured but the truth of the cross, the power of grace, and full of the courage to risk telling them about it.  Paul's joy was sharing gospel with all of Asia, Jerusalem and Rome.  My joy is sharing the gospel to the city of Sunbury.  And you have the joy of wherever it is that the Lord has called you.

My prayer for you and I this morning is that we would operate in a courageous way not because it is our personality.  And not because we feel guilty, but because the truth of the gospel in our own life has so captured us, so changed us, that we want the rest of the world to have what we have even if they don't know they need it.

Go today and live courageously, foolishly for the gospel!

something i read this morning

Those who know me best, know that the backpack of any journey i'm on includes many books.  This morning I started a new book by John Piper.  He is a pastor in Minnesota and one of the best authors/preachers/thinkers alive today.  The book i started was "When I Don't Desire God:  How to Fight for Joy."  

I wanted to share with you something I read:

"Our journey...is not across easy territory.  There are dangers on all sides.  Spiritual desires and delights are not commodities to be bought and sold.  They are not objects to be handled.  They are events in the soul.  They are experiences of the heart.  They have connections and causes in a hundred directions.  They are interwoven with the body and the brain, but are not limited to the physical or mental.  God Himself, without body or brain, experiences a full array of spiritual affections-love, hate, joy, anger, zeal, etc.  Yet our affections are influenced by our bodies and brains.  No one but God can get to the bottom of these things.  "For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep!" (Ps. 64:6); and not just deep, but depraved: "The heart is decietful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9)

So the answer to the question, "What should I do when I don't desire God?" is not simple.  But it is crucial.  The apostle Paul said,  "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed" (1 Cor. 16:22).  Love is not a mere choice to move the body or the brain.  Love is also an experience of the heart.  So the stakes are very high.  Christ is to be cherished, not just chosen.  The alternative is to be cursed.  Therefore life is serious.

I don't know about you, but I know me.  And I know that I have times when the road seems long and serious and it feels as if I have lost sight of the God who is supposed to be leading me.  My prayer today for both you and I is that we will find the Joy.  And not just a temporary, fleeting, gone tomorrow joy, but a Joy that lasts because its' foundation is in the Eternal, Holy God of the Universe.  And it lasts because He has declared that it should.

thanks for listening,

j

The Word for the Road

"In the beginning was the Word..." - the apostle John

My hope is that this blog would become a record of my journey, hopefully an encouraging record of my journey.  It's effectiveness will be closely related to how well I connect us to the true Word.  The road of life offers us a myriad of unique challenges, paths, options and choices.  Thankfully we have a true leader, the true Word, to follow.   

Visit again for the mundane, cool links, fun photos, and hopefully the occasionally profound thought.

j