Another great morning of soaking in words penned by great authors…

The Bible

• 2 Kings 17:15 – “They worshiped worthless idols and became worthless themselves.” This is a description of the Israelites worship practices and consequential life pattern. A couple of thoughts:

• I prioritize what I worship and what I worship shapes who I am.

• What does my life-story say about my worship? What are the priorities in my life? What/who am I becoming as a result of my priorities?

• Psalm 89:50 – Ethan, the author of this psalm is lamenting the downfall of his king, David. Apparently he had heard some pretty harsh words and maybe even been the object of a few. He writes, “I carry in my heart the insults of so many people.” Harsh words don’t go away for a while… and sometimes they never go away. A few ways that I have responded to harsh words:

• I have become defensive
• I have withdrawn
• I have avoided
• I have confronted
• I have forgiven
• I have lashed out
• I have allowed them to cut away good “pieces” of me
• I have allowed them to cut away the junk in my life
• I have held on to them
• I have let them go

How do you handle insults/harsh words?

Breakout Churches – Thom S. Ranier

• Ranier and his research team discovered that the single greatest obstacle in the path of a church moving from mediocrity to ministry effectiveness is conflict with believers. He writes,

• “We identified 172 problems and struggles in both the comparison and breakout churches. Of the total, 171 of the problems were issues with other Christians. Only one church mentioned non-Christians as the source of the struggle, and that source was noted only once.”

• “The cost of becoming a breakout church, ironically, is most often the result of problems and conflicts with other believers. Many of the comparison church leaders grew weary of the struggle with fellow Christians. The breakout church leaders had no fewer conflicts, but they decided to persevere despite the pain and struggles.”

Jesus says that our love for one another and our unity together will prove to the world that He is who He says He is (the savior of the world).

I wonder what people think when they observe cranky, divisive, mean-spirited Christians, and ineffective, empty churches?

I wonder what would happen if the church in America set out to love Jesus completely and work together to accomplish what He has called us to do… connect people to God doing whatever it takes to make that happen!