Careful Not Fearful

In Sunday's sermon we discussed the courage of David and applied David's courage in facing the Goliath in our own life. What was not said is that courage is not careless. David recognized that Saul's armor and military equipment was not the right tools for him to fight the giant. He took what he was familiar with and used it to his advantage. David had courage, but he wasn't careless. He didn't get caught up in the moment and rush onto the battle scene before he was ready.
The problem is that fearful is sometimes disguised as careful. When you find yourself in a situation where courage is demanded and you are resistant to move forward ask, "Am I careful or fearful?"

Influence

Bill Hybels, senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, says he believes the church is the most leadership-intensive enterprise in society. I assume any organization that is dependent upon volunteer labor would fall under this category. The military has rank. Business leaders have paychecks. Leaders of volunteer organizations have to influence from something deeper. The temptation in the church is not to influence but to manipulate. What is the difference between manipulation and influence? Where is the line drawn that distinguishes the two?
The difference must exist with motivation. Is my motivation as a leader to increase my power or to empower others? As a minister my role is to see more in others than they see in themselves. This type of influence does not come with position (be a lot easier if it did) but comes from relationship building.

Focus

Dr. Howard Hendricks wrote this: "If anything has kept me on track all these years, it's being skewed to this principle of central focus. There are many things I can do, but I have to narrow it down to the one thing I must do. The secret of concentration is elimination." If you had to narrow your life statement to one word/sentence what would it be? What is the one thing you must do?

Strengths

We have this culture maxim we live by in America: "You can be anything you want to be, if you just try hard enough." We set kids up for failure. It also ignores the gifts that God has given to each person. A few years ago Michael Jordan decided he would play baseball. After a few strike outs he had a choice: he could either focus his energy and time on his weakness - becoming a better baseball player or instead focus his energy and time on his area of strength - basketball. The same goes for us. Andy Stanley says, "your real value to your organization lay within the context of your giftedness, not necessarily the number of hours you worked."

Song in the heart

Every one of us has a "song" in the heart. It is our purpose, our mission, our vision. It is the one thing that keeps us up at night and has us daydreaming during daylight hours. Some are blessed that they get to live to the rhythm of the song while others are living out of rhythm. Have you ever watched a cheetah stalk and run down a prey? Now imagine if a turtle started thinking it was a cheetah and tried to chase down prey. We have a lot of cheetah's acting like turtles and a lot of turtles acting like cheetah's. The first step to finding our rythm is discovering who we are and why we are here. To do this we need to take time to talk to our Creator and listen for His voice. The rythm of life is found when His voice is discovered.

Good Friday

Faith in the cruicified one draws us toward the world in compassion and not away from the world. We are inclined to create for ourselves spaces apart from everything in order to protect our soul. Faith in the One who was willig to risk all for our sake means courage to love the world and to seek one's call in it. In the cross, God is loved as one who loved the world (Jn 3:16).

Mirror

Okay, I am cleaning up my message for Good Friday. All week I have been trying to think of someone who represented Christ in my life. This should be a good thing right? Then last night it became clear that I should be asking another question: "Who has told me the truth about myself so clearly that I wanted to kill him for it?" According to John, Jesus died because he told the truth. He is truth. The message of Good Friday is "look in the mirror." See yourself. The answer to whether or not we find Christ as truth is the life we life. Does it reflect the fact that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life - for me?

A Chicken and a Pig

A chicken and a pig were walking down the side of the road early in the morning. The chicken was getting kind of hungry when he saw a diner ahead. When they got a little closer he saw a sign that said Breakfast special Ham and Eggs, $1.99. The chicken turned to the pig and said, “That’s a great deal and I’m hungry. Let’s go eat.” The pig turned to the chicken and said, “Naw, I don’t want to go there.” The chicken was a little upset. He said, “Look, I’m starved. Let’s go eat.” The pig said, “No! I don’t want to go there.” By this time they were right outside the diner and the chicken was really angry. “Would you please tell me why you don’t want to go eat?” The pig looked at the chicken and said, “Look for you to eat eggs and ham all you have to do is make a contribution. For me, it’s a whole hog commitment.” Commitment is illustrated by a breakfast of ham and eggs. The chicken was involved, the pig was committed.

Happiness

Random Musings: Happiness is pursuing an ideal. The pursuit of happiness is more important than achieving it. Happiness is being engaged in life. A lot of folks are going through the motions of life but are not really living. Living is being fully present. It is being fully aware. What do you believe about happiness?

Untying Donkey's

Most of us have fairy tale visions of life as moving from one adventure to the next. I wonder what expectation the disciples had when they heard the words, "Follow me." Did they believe they would be a part of a movement to overthrow the ruthless Romans? Had they dreamed of life on the road with this traveling preacher to be one of wild, exciting times? I bet they would have never thought that they would be called upon to simply "untie a donkey." Mark starts out his gospel with these words: "Prepare the way of the Lord." The disciples spend the next three years doing just that. They get a boat ready, find out how much food it takes to feed a crowd, set a table, and chase down a donkey all for the sake of "preparing the way of the Lord." I believe adventures will be a part of following Jesus. I believe there is a wildness about following Jesus. I also believe that none of that will occur until we "get off our donkey's" and do the simple things that it takes to "prepare the way of the Lord."

Untying Donkey