MAKE WAR

Prepping for an upcoming series for Revolution, our Student worship service...A friend of mine, Spencer Arnold told me about a song by a Christian hip hop artist named Tedashi called MAKE WAR...this song kinda got my creative juices going and sparked some inspriration. The song can be seen in the video typography below... Looking forward to preaching the series and decking out stage with camo and war type decor....we are going to MAKE WAR against sin.

Check out the video below if you like...those not into hip-hop/rap you have been warned...

Questioning God when bad things happen...

I read this today and thought it was an intresting point and one I had not heard before...Thought I'd share it...

"Maybe the reason we question God's moral character when bad things happen is that we live our lives largely independent from Him. In other words, we struggle to trust God in times of trouble because we do not really trust Him when things are going well. Maybe we struggle with suffering so much in the West because we are so comfortable most of the time that we feel we don't need God. We do not rely on Him on a daily basis, and so we do not really know Him. When suffering comes along, therefore, it is not so much that it takes us away from God, but that it reveals to us that we have not really been close to God in the first place.

-Michael Ramsden, European director of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

2010

I dont really know if I'm totally sold on New Year's resolutions... They seem to trail off and get forgotten by mid February or maybe sooner. But I do think the first of the year is a good time to look, plan, pray and think about what we need to get done this year...Here are some resolutions, commitments, goals or whatever you'd like to call them for me personally in 2010...

• Finish up reading the Bible cover to cover...
• Run/Jog 300 or more miles
• Take every advantage of every chance I get to be a daddy
• Date my wife more...
• Read 24 or more books
• Fast more...
• Encourage people...

Nothing earth shattering, I know...No hiking to the peak Mt. Everest...but it my list...What's on yours?

Last time you hit the gym?

When was it? Many people hit the gym three times a week, some as many 5 or 6 times. Some spend big bucks to get fit... people get in shape at home gyms, some pay monthly dues at the club, some even hire a personal trainer to get better, faster, and professional expertise. Disciplining themselves, training, and getting stronger.

How many workouts did you get in this week? Before you answer...know this...I'm asking about the spiritual gym.

I have a few questions about your "work out" regimen...

How many spiritual workouts do you get in this week? Three days or are you a spiritual gym rat maybe 5 or 6 days? Did you get three sets of Bible, a super set of prayer, a circuit of fasting, or maybe you did some cross training and combined a few this week?

Where do you usually work out? Home, at a club (the church), do you hire a personal trainer those being a mentor, small group, or accountability partner.

When is the last time you seriously hit the spiritual gym?

It's time we get in shape...

Time to hit the gym...

Grapple: to engage in a struggle or close encounter.

We just finished a 13 week series on James called "Rooted" @ Revolution our worship service for middle and high school students. We took it apart verse by verse, but I wonder where many of us are in our thinking about it or doing something about what we have studied. What made me think think about this was what I read the following in this old bible commentary...

"The Book of James can polarize those who grapple with it, leaving groups pulling in opposite directions. Which way do you find yourself leaning:

• Guilty or inspired?
• Resistant or repentant?
• Wavering or single-minded?
• Passing the buck to the rich or passing out bucks to the poor?

Are you grappling with it at all? I know I have...I'd love to hear your thoughts or comments if you traveled through James with us.

When is the last time you have grappled with scripture?

My challenge to you...Get in the ring, octogon, street corner, or wherever you engage in struggles or close encounters and...grapple.

For years we have been asking the wrong question...

What would Jesus do? That's it...that is the wrong question. The braclets, the bumper stickers, the t-shirts, (add in any trinket here) they are all wrong in my opinion. Asking that question only helps us for that moment that we need guidance or direction, then it's over and we don't need Jesus till next time we have an issue.

So what is the right question? So glad you asked...

What did Jesus do?

I know it's similiar. I know it's one word difference, but it makes a huge difference. As I'm getting ready for our next Revolution preaching series "Ripened: The Spiritual Disciplines" I'm realizing that if we would do what Jesus did then when we have an issue or questionable call to make it would be easy. A few examples...

Jesus practiced solitude...
Jesus fasted for a month and a half...
Jesus served the disciples and those in need...

If we would do what Jesus did...pray...fast...serve...love...practice solitude...then the "what would Jesus do?" questions would be null and void. Because we would know what He would do.

Simply a rambling in my brain the last 24 hours..but thought I'd share it.

Read the Gospels again and see what He did and do it.

"Dropping like Stars" by Rob Bell book review

I pretty much read everything Rob Bell writes, so when I stumbled on his new book "Dropping like Stars" in Barnes and Noble, I did a double-take. For one I didn't know it was coming out and two it's an over-sized book, not your normal book shelf-type or size. So I grabbed it up found a comfy chair in the corner and thought I'd check it out. We'll about 30-45 minutes later it was finished. Not sure if I owe Mr. Bell or Barnes and Noble or Zondervan some money or not?

Here are a few things I took away from the book and a few things that stick out

• Whenever I read Bell I can hear him say certain lines, maybe from NOOMA videos, maybe listening to him on podcasts. Does any one else hear an author speak? (That last sentence really makes me look crazy,but I'm leaving it in.)
• The book is about the topic of suffering, so right away Bell captures you, cause you have been there.
• Opening illlustration of a hospital hallway...some hallways in a hospital are filled with joy, while others arer filled with tears and pain.
• Suffering unities us. We hear a story of suffering similar to ours and we thinkon say,"I've been there."
• Suffering eleminates the unesscessary and shows us what matters.
• God wastes nothing.

I took home this that we need to look at suffering differently. Rain looks like dropping stars to a little boy, and Bell says he never saw it that way....much like suffering when we realize it unities, elemintes the unesscessary, and shows us what matters.

Overall it was a good stuff, a nooma video put into words and art, but too pricey at $34.95. B+, not for content, but for the price of the book.