Overkill

So my set of Christian coasters is on its way (set of 4 for $11.95). My wife thinks they are tacky, but I told her as I held my Bible in hand, imprinted with the WWJD logo (I need the reminder), that we were going to be different from "the world". I stood there sullen in my Amazing grace laced lyric filled tie and proclaimed to my family that we were going to FROG (you know, Fully Rely on God). If we were going to see God do amazing things we have to start Praying the Prayer of Jabez (pocket sized book of course or just the bookmark). I took out my FISH labeled wallet, tightened my fish labeled belt buckle, grabbed my fish labeled coffee mug and headed to my car that, as you guessed it, is complete with the fish bumper stickers (even baby fishys for my three kids). I drove over to the Christian bookstore to get the latest 40 Days of Your Life Will Be Different After You Read My Book , A Journey Like You've Never Been On Before...Really. Then I realized that it wasn't enough to just PUSH (Pray Until Something Happens - late 90's I think) myself and my family I had to TGIF (Thank God I'm Forgiven) and change my church. So I convinced them to get all the Christian paraphernalia they could afford, because when you KNOW GOD,NO FEAR, but NO GOD, KNOW FEAR (thank God for the mid 90's complete with rockin' metallic look) and begin a new church paradigm. We were going to EMERGE (notice there is a difference between Emerging and Emergent, I have a 45 minute message on the difference, really I do) in an ORGANIC way, with a MISSIONAL heart and a PURPOSE DRIVEN structure...the answer is no longer big buildings, big crowds, house churches, traditional, contemporary (which no longer means contemporary - that means you are ony ten years behind the current rate of culture instead of the Traditional 20-30 years) we were going to be RELAVANT (monthly subscription only $3.50 a month). Get ready to download YOU VERSION for your Iphones or Droids and see God do amazing things...like He is in Asia (where they don't have any of this stuff).

Suffering is Gods Way of Building Strength

Some callings are easy and we make them difficult. Some callings are difficult and by God's grace they are made easy. Some callings just don't make sense. Ashton Ebert is fighting for his life. He turned 16 with tubes coming out of his body, hair fallen out of his head, and a body wiped out of anything good and now filled with more man made medicines than your local grocers chicken (you might have to be from the Eastern Shore of Md to appreciate that one). Ashton is a the model kid, well he was when I coached him in soccer two years ago. You don't have to push him to work hard, yell at him to motivate him or teach him sportsmanship - you use Ashton to teach everybody else those things. So why am I surprised when God has a special calling of suffering and he gives it to the strongest person and family that can handle it? I've heard it said that suffering is God's way of building strength, and through Ashton Eberts suffering and struggles my strength grows.

How To Beat a Bully

Every Sunday afternoon we use to play baseball or football in this big yard near my house. There were six of us. Me and my friend, twins who were 3 years older than us, and 2 guys who were 4 and 5 years older than us. So teams matched up pretty evenly. The oldest guy was a bully, we'll call him Paul Pippin, because that is his name. The second oldest guy was my brother. Paul was a lot bigger than all of us, including my brother and whenever his team was losing (and sometimes I was on Pauls team), Paul would turn into a punk or a bully. He would cheat to win, try to hurt you to win or quit if at the end he knew he couldn't win. I use to get so proud of my brother when he would stand up to Paul (even if I was on Pauls team). Sometimes the baseball would be thrown at my brother when he was hitting or sometimes he would get hit pretty hard if we were playing football. I've noticed that bully's (punks) are still everywhere. They try to intimidate, cheat, or quit when they don't get their way. We have them in churches, corporations, and families (no, I'm not inadvertantly referring to my mother inlaw). So here is what my brother would do to beat Paul, here is how you beat the bully. You don't let them behave that way without doing something about it. In the church we return evil with good. We confront lies with truth. We stand up to the cheap shots and by God's grace we take it. In the end the bully always loses (even if they think they won-even the people on their team know they are losers) or they quit and leave. I'de like to say they always change, but they don't. The important thing when it comes to bullys is you don't become a bully to beat a bully and don't run from bully's because they keep coming and you'll probably just run into another bully.

30,000 Ft and still Coloring

My daughter is afraid of all the wrong things. We just got back from 3 great days in Orlando and Maddies first trip to Disney. When Maddie gets scared she normally puts me in a headlock, wraps her legs around my chest tighter than Rosie O'donnell in skinny jeans and starts screaming specific instructions on how we escape the current horrifying scenario. Like at the main street parade on Monday it was the monkeys from the Jungle Book. Tuesday it was Miss Piggy from Muppets 3D and yesterday (we should have seen this one coming) it was everything at the Rain Forest Cafe'...for the place where Dreams Really Do Come True there were a lot of nightmares. Then yesterday as we are flying home going 500mph at 30,000 feet in the air, flying through storms of appocolyptic size she is laughing and coloring away and her only concern is that she did not getting enough peanuts (see even a four year old knows when they are getting ripped off). Meanwhile, the plane is shaking like a cocaine addict and I'm giving the plane its last rites (no, I'm not Catholic, but the Keller Williams real estate agent beside me was so I knew she would appreciate it). I'm scared to death because I know we are nowhere near the Hudson river and the guy flying didn't look anything like Captain Sully and what are the chances of two great survival landings in a 12 months period of time...but Maddie isn't clutching, screaming or panicked at all because there is no mechanical stuffed animal around and life is just fine. It made me think of Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Sometimes God is probably looking down saying, wow, I can't believe you are afraid of this experience you are going through that is meant to bring you fulfillment and enrichment, and this other circumstance you allow in your life should probably be a little concerning but we just kind of sit and color through it.

Mom, Look at Me

Guys want respect, at every age and stage of life. Nagging doesn't work, affection, maybe, but if you want to reach the heart of a guy, show him respect. If you want him to do the laundry, compare the strength with which hecarries down the laundry basket to that of legends you've read about from Hercules. If you want him to do the dishes, tell him the swiftness with which he unloads the dishwasher gives you flashbacks to Usain Bolt winning the gold medal. The other day, Caedon, my two year old was climbing a rail in the bookstore while I was checking out. Once Caedon reached the top bar he began yelling across the store, "Mom, look at me". And so it begins, until the day he dies, Caedon will be looking for other challenges in life (that's how us guys gain respect and maybe why your husband is attempting something you consider very stupid right now in life) so he can shout to the female across the room..."Look at me".

Distractions

Last week my brother posted a quote on his facebook that said, "anything outside of the gospel is a distraction for the mission of the church". Another friend posted a quote from somebody else that said the main focus of the church is developing leadership. Its funny that when we read about the forty days between the resurrection and ascension, we don't see too many leadership summits taking place. Now I believe that good leadership is essential to building Christian communities, but central focus? not too sure about that. The last words of Jesus I read are a command to his followers to go and share the good news that Jesus Christ is alive and that mankinds guilt and sin is paid for... I watched a little bit of a tv preacher the other day (I wouldn't recommend too much of that, I was snowed in and Saved By the Bell was at a commercial) who was trying to rally the Christian troops to "support Israel and take back the promise land"... now I'm for Israel and the Palestinians getting along, but again, I look at the last words of Jesus and I see him sending his followers, many who were Jews "into all the world" (kind of a command to leave Jerusalem) and share the good news. It seems like there are good causes everywhere we turn, but it makes me wonder sometimes how many good causes I'm part of that are really just distractions from the gospel.

Answered Prayer without an Answer

:Thank God for unanswered prayers"...you wouldn't hear that from T.I., Bon Jovi, maybe The Jonas Bros...only country music. I was thinking yesterday about the prayers that I pray that God answers that I willl never know how he answered them, but he did...so I took the time to thank God for the answered prayers that left me without an answer.

i.e. I pray for God to protect my marriage from outside people that would divide my wife and me. How many good looking doctors have had to be fired from the hospital just so my wife won't suddenly realize what a loser she married compared to them...thank you God. I pray for protection for my kids, so i thanked God for all the accidents that haven't happened. I pray for God to put food on my table and on the table of those in need. I know I haven't missed too many meals, but how many meals have been provided to people simply because God was answering the prayers of his children.

Communion

We do so much on Sunday mornings as a church that is simply historic tradition. The clothes we wear, the styles of songs we sing, the order of service. This past Sunday when we were taking communion i couldn't help but think about the first Communion (read Luke 22). Of course that meal they were having was a traditional meal that the Jewish community had been having on that day, prepared that way and at that specific time for 2,000 years and it was a picture of what Christ was about to do on the cross the next day (body broken, blood spilled) for the sins of mankind. So while it was symbolic (even though they Jews didn't "get it") it was also traditional (2,000 years, like an orioles losing streak). What I was thinking about this past Sunday was how nice it would be to break from some type of grape juice and flat bread to what I believe are the two most perfect examples of in our culture of perfection, the McDouble and IBC root beer. If McDonalds could serve IBC root beer for $1...I would be their first disciple.

Best Prayers I Pray

When I talk to God here are some of the best things I like to talk to Him about:

1) My dreams (are they bigger than I can achieve through my own human efforts)
2) My provision (of course I'm thankful for my daily bread, but am I dependant on God enough to ask for tomorrows provision)
3) Give me the desire to be disciplined. Discipline doesn't come natural to me. Competition, yes, discipline, no. I don't pray for discipline, because I don't even have the discipline to be disciplined, I usually pray that God would give me the desire to be disciplined.
4) Keep me from evil - evil and pain go hand in hand. I pray that God keeps me from taking one step down the path of living life in the flesh instead of in the spirit...and I also pray that God would keep my circumstances in life in a position where pride, humanism, and self -dependance aren't even possibilities. I don't want pain to come on my family, friends, and church.

This Is Why I Got Married

So Jen is gone to her parents home in Rockford, IL and I just googled the 80's tv show "Small Wonder"...now I remember why I got married. I wonder what Jaleel White (Urkel) is doing?