“The Father did not send Jesus to redraw maps, or refine worldviews, or redeem music. He came for people, spiritual beings who sin and hurt and die.”
–Earl Creps in Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders
I’ve been slowly making my way through this book that was sent to me in order to do a review. It is a heady book. I recommend it so far!
Been a whirlwind week! Our daughter was born this past Friday at 3:24 AM. Mom, baby and Dad are doing well. I knew that I had wacked out sleep patterns, but until you are waking up every couple hours to either feed, change or just snuggle your child, you have no idea what wacked out sleeping is!
Not much to write about right now..just wanted to assure you all that I am still around! Just been busy being a daddy. Honestly, best thing ever! You think you have a concept of God, but watching your child be born, holding her for the first time and finally getting to bring her home…amazing! A glimpse into the heart of God, if you ask me!
I’ll be posting regularly again soon..hang in there!
I’ve been thinking about this for some time now. Where is the line? Outreach as defined by Webster is (n.)basically the extending of services or assistance beyond current or usual limits. As a verb, Outreach is simply reaching out. Marketing is selling, distributing or promoting a product or service.
So I’m transitioning from First Impressions Coach to Outreach Coach at Church. I’m wrestling with some of the things that we view as outreach that I think are really marketing. On one hand, I can view these opportunities as outreach in that we are out in the community talking with people. On the other hand, in these situations we aren’t doing anything that is an ‘outreach’ of our community. Maybe it is all semantics, I don’t know.
I guess that I take the stance that outreach is going out and meeting some kind of needs or just showing love. Is handing out some candy at the fair doing that? Maybe. Is giving a family a box of food worth about 90 bucks outreach? For sure. Is handing out bottles of water to thirsty bikers outreach? Indeed.
Like I said, I’m just trying to wrestle with this myself. I am sure, you, my esteemed readers have some insights to share. Feel free!
That is about it for now. Pretty random. Thanks for tuning in. I’ll resume regular postings with some meat one of these days, but it is just crazy in our lives right now.
I got a call yesterday that no one wants to get. One of my friends passed away on Friday after being involved in a motorcycle accident. This was a dude who I met while working down in Orlando and who became like a brother to me. Those who knew him couldn’t help but love him. Bear was a big teddy bear with a story about everything. He loved his family and most often worked 2 or 3 jobs to support them. His favorite holiday was Halloween. It wasn’t for any demonic reasons, but for the show of it all. He loved to be involved in the show of it all. One of his big dreams was to operate a haunted house and also to have a hearse limo. He wanted to build me a motorcycle shop on part of the planned property. I spent a lot of time talking with Bear and hanging out. One of the cool things about Bear is that you always knew where you stood with him. You knew when he hated you and knew when he loved you. In the time that I knew Bear we talked a lot about spirituality. Bear was really open to talking about spiritual matters and I loved talking with him. Honestly, I think he believed in God and Christ just as much as he believed in the Native American spirituality. But sadly, that doesn’t get a person in Heaven.
Bear was born on December 5th, 1973. Those of you who have hung with me long enough, know of my respect for Walt Disney, who shares Bear’s birthday. Bear was a great dreamer, always dreaming and thinking of something. I’m inspired by dreamers. I’m inspired by people willing to work hard for what they want. Thanks, Bear for inspiring me to go out there are make something of myself.
I haven’t cried in a long time, but yesterday I cried a lot. I went in to share with my wife and I couldn’t speak for a bit. She, of course, started crying before I could say anything. She only met Bear once, but was deeply moved and could only say that we need to do something. I’m not sure what that is yet since we don’t know any details of arrangements. I couldn’t help but praying for his family a lot yesterday. Bear was really a huge family man who took care of his family in many ways, so I’d imagine that we will do something for them.
I guess this is one of my ways of mourning. I’ll miss you, Brother Bear.
Direct Proportions is basically a principle that goes like this:
I was thinking about this the other day in regard to my spiritual life and the vision that God has given me for the future. There are some days/weeks when I am ready to settle for something less than the ultimate vision for our future. Then there are other days when I could not be more focused about the things that I think God is calling us to accomplish. I began to analyze why this was. I thought about this theory of direct proportions. What are the values in my equation? Spiritual disciplines and proximity to God. When I am practicing spiritual disciplines on a consistent basis, I am closer to God. I guess for me, these spiritual disciplines transcend trying to read through the Bible in a certain amount of time or spending so much time in prayer. These are good things to practice, but for me there is more to it. When I am offering myself in service to others, I am closer to God. When I am being a good steward of the things God entrusts me with, I am closer to God. When I fellowship with other believers, I am closer to God. When I listen to podcasts of other pastors are hear what God is doing in them and through them, I am closer to God. When I spend quality time with my family, I am closer to God.
The spiritual principle of direct proportions isn’t something I just made up. James, author of a book of the same name, tells us that when we draw near to God, he will draw near to us. He also tells us that when we resist the devil, he will flee from us. God’s proximity to us is directly proportionate with our efforts to draw near to him. The devil’s get-a-way plan is directly proportionate to our efforts to resist him. Pretty simple, really. These verses really lay it out for us. It should be said, though, that God’s proximity to us doesn’t change. He is always near to those who call on his name. What changes is our proximity so that it may seem like God is withdrawing himself from our sphere. Think of a triangle, where one side is you and one side is God. The pinnacle would be the closest that one can be to God, the bottom corner is the farthest. As you progress up your leg of the triangle, God progresses up his via some invisible thread. If you progress down, then God progresses down. Your actions are directly proportionate to God’s position on his leg of the triangle. Make sense?
Just some thoughts…
