Traveling anywhere with five ladies is a real treat.
Taking an eight hour trip with five ladies AND a female mastiff… now there’s something comparable to strawberry shortcake!
Stagnate spirituality. We’ve all experienced it, the routine, boring, un-inspiring repetition of spiritual action-steps. This is the side of spirituality that I truly disdain and want to have less of in my life! How about you?
Well, this morning I discovered the key! I discovered how to stay spiritually fresh and avoid the spiritual blahs!
Here’s the secret:
[God] will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other Christians, as you still do. Our great desire is that you will keep right on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. (Hebrews 6:10-12 NLT)
Loving others is the key to freshness!
Have you ever felt “blah” and then, for whatever reason, you ended up helping someone? Didn’t that action lift your spirits?
I’ll always remember the time (pre-Christ) I was coming home from a long day’s work. I was tired, after
carrying bricks all day, and I was stoned out of my mind. I was depressed because I was a loser (stoned, alone, driving a 1980′s Plymouth Horizon, and with no promise of anything better coming around the corner).
I remember coming to a four-way stop and there was a lady selling roses.
You could tell that she was “working hard to make a living.” Her car was old and it was obvious that life had not been good to her.
In a moment of uncharacteristic kindness, I stopped, purchased a rose and then handed it to her.
I told her, “I appreciate how hard you’re working. All day, every day people buy roses from you to give to someone else. Today I want to give you a rose and tell you how special you are.”
She broke down and started telling me how she was a single mom trying to raise her children; her neighbors were “druggies” and she was trying to generate enough income to move her family to a better environment.
After listening to her story, I got back in my Plymouth Horizon and drove away.
I’ll never forget how good and fulfilled I felt, even in my stoned, totally self-absorbed state of mind! I lived a long time on that feeling of goodness.
The Bible says that when we care for others we “will not become spiritually dull and indifferent.” It’s true!
If I experienced fulfillment through my act of service without Christ, imagine how much more fulfillment we experience when we serve others with the selfless love of Jesus!
Feeling indifferent and spiritually dry today? How about serving someone? How about sharing love with someone today who cannot repay? Go and love!
We’re packing up and getting ready to spend the next week in Cincinnati!
Last September (the 28th) I was sitting in Panera Bread praying and reflecting on where we were going to start this new church. Sitting there, I knew the decision I was preparing to make was a big one. I wrote this post that day.
Now, seven months later, I am confident that God has spoken and that we have heard clearly.
Based on this confidence, we are going to Cincinnati to:
We are excited to get to our soon-to-be-home, eat chili and coney’s, spend time with friends, prepare for the future, and hear the whisper of God!
I’d appreciate your prayers as we keep moving ahead in this church planting venture!
Thanks to all of you for traveling this journey with us and participating in the evolution of Walls Down Church!
I’m sitting in Atlanta Bread having my monthly “Life Management” meeting.
In this meeting, I review my life priorities and the action steps I’ve outlined to live out those priorities; then I compare these ideals and action steps to reality. In other words I ask, “Am I living out my priorities?”
I sit down with my journal and calendar, prayerfully reflect over the past month and look forward to the coming months and years.
Over the last several months I’ve noticed a trend; I am an encourager. I encourage others well, but when it comes to myself I am always mentioning how I need to do more, or better, or with more intensity…. In
other words, I don’t encourage myself too well.
I’m guessing I’m not the only one like this. I’d bet that you are quicker to celebrate others than you are to celebrate the wins in your own life.
Let’s change that!
Rather than dogging ourselves for not being able to swim as good as someday we will, how about if we celebrate the fact that we’ve jumped into the water!
How about if we stop for a few minutes and celebrate what we are doing right in our lives! Let’s celebrate and then we’ll get back to correcting!
I just got a note from a church planter in Maineville, Ohio.
Craig Knisley is a church planter who will be launching Northbridge Fellowship church next week… in the high school that we were going to talk with this coming week about being the launching point for Walls Down!
Here’s how I responded… in chronological order:
So I picked up the phone and called Craig.
After our conversation, I have some more thoughts:
I just finished Meg Meeker’s book Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters.
If you are a father to a daughter, reading this book will be one of the best parenting decisions you will make.
Meeker shares the “ten secrets every father should know” and backs them up with research and compelling stories.
Meeker concludes the book with this gripping paragraph:
“One day, when she is grown, something between the two of you will shift. If you have done your job well, she will choose another good man to love her, fight for her, and be intimately connected to her. But he will never replace you in her heart, because you were there first. And that’s the ultimate reward for being a good dad.”
You can purchase Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters here.
This is Ashton and a moment I want to keep forever…
Since Easter I have been thinking about this question, “Jesus is alive. So what?”
Seriously, what difference does it make that Jesus is alive? While I believe that it DOES make a difference I’ve been searching for a real bottom line answer to this question, and this morning I may have found it.
Reading in the Bible I encountered these words:
For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are. 13 Nothing in all creation can hide from him. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes. This is the God to whom we must explain all that we have done.
14 That is why we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it. (Hebrews 4:12-16 NLT)
The fact that I have to stand in front of God is intimidating. The fact that He knows EVERYTHING about me is terrifying!
The fact that I am “naked and exposed before His eyes” is a sobering thought. The truth is that I can fool you into thinking that I’m something or someone that I’m not. I can play the religious game and lead you to believe that I’m a “godly man” while all the while, underneath the facade, I am lusting, cheating on my taxes, lying about how I spend my time, etc. I can wear a mask that fools you… but I can NEVER fool God… I am naked and exposed before Him… and so are you!
Because I know myself, I’m not so happy about having to stand “naked and exposed” in front of God! I can immediately think of a lot of things that would make me stutter and sweat when He asks me to explain: anger, impatience, lust, misplaced priorities, etc. I really need someone to step up beside me and HELP me!
And that’s where Jesus comes to the rescue!
He steps alongside of a stammering, nervous me and takes over as my Priest… the one who presents me to God!
St. Paul writes:
We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done. 23 For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. 25 For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us. (Romans 3:23-25)
When I’m stuttering and trying to explain why I’ve screwed up so many times, Jesus steps up and says, “I took the hit for his sins… all of them, and he believes in me. He’s okay now.”
And that’s why the Bible says, “Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him”. As long as I’m clinging to and trusting Him I am acceptable to God! So you can bet your life that’s what I’m doing!
Back to the original question, why is the fact that Jesus is alive so important to me? Because He stands beside me when I’m naked and exposed before God and He presents me as one worthy of love and acceptance… because I have believed in Him.
And you know what that means? The verses I read this morning say that, because I am clinging to and trusting in Jesus, I can “come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.”
Now that’s a BIG deal!
Thank you Jesus for stepping up for me when I’m naked in front of God.
As we get closer to starting Walls Down church, I am being reminded that the best gift I can give to those people that God will entrust me with is the gift of continual, spiritual & cognitive development.
I was reading St. Paul’s letter to Timothy the other day and came across some words that have stayed with me. In these verses, Paul is encouraging Timothy (a young pastor) to preach with courage and live with an awareness of his calling to ministry. And then he writes,
Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:15-16 NIV).
Why is progress such a big deal? Because…
While these reflections are somewhat personal in nature, they are still completely applicable to you. If you are in any kind of leadership position… if anyone is watching you… if you are a parent, a pastor, a coach, a teacher, etc. you are also responsible to for your own continual spiritual and cognitive development!
Don’t stop evolving! If you do, you will lose and so will everyone who looks to you.
It’s unfortunate, but sometimes some pastors get a little territorial or denominational when it comes to their relationship with other churches & pastors.
Territorial = “There’s not enough room in this town/county for two churches.” Read between the lines: I don’t want you taking any of my people or people that MIGHT come to my church.
Denominational = “If you’re not a Methodist/Baptist/Lutheran, etc. then I can’t support you.”
I have had the good fortune to encounter one pastor, of many, who is neither territorial or denominational.
My friend, Ray Brock, is a church planter in Goshen, Ohio with a “Kingdom” mindset. He believes that there’s plenty of “need” to go around, and work enough to keep the two of us, and many more, busy for a long time!
We will be starting Walls Down Church in the town next to Goshen, where Ray is located. In a blog post last night, he encouraged his church to, “Please add them to your prayers and be praying for those who will be part of this work. They will be in town starting April 7th -13th to do some preliminary work and start to nail down potential locations. Let’s all be ready to love and to minister to this family.” (Read the entire post here).
I love that spirit! That’s the kind of spirit that gets things done for our Leader, Jesus!
Ray, I’m looking forward to working side by side with you and the good people of Center Pointe Church!
