Speak with Authority & Conviction

I love this!

Typography about language by Ronnie Bruce / Slam poet Taylor Mali’s, “Totally Like Whatever, You Know?”

Discovery

I love this picture.  But all too often I think my life looks a lot like it.  Now, don’t start thinking I’m really all that important or that my days are frantically busy.  It’s all just an illusion.

All too often I run around with this inner thought that life is all about me and that the world actually in some sort of little way revolves around me.  It’s why my wife says that I like to be thanked when I stay out in the cold to fix the garage door, or empty the dish washer, or turn on a load of clothes every now & then (did I mention I always forget to fold them?).  When I do little acts of service, I have to say, “hey look at me!”  We all love to be noticed & to be in the spotlight.

But I’ve got to share something with you that i’ve discovered this year!  There’s actually a greater place to stand than in the spotlight.  I’ve noticed that when you are busy being busy, you wind up missing everyone else.

This last Sunday I preached a message from John 14 and referenced a strange passage in Matthew 25.  When Jesus comes in glory He will gather the nations to himself and he will separate the sheep from the goats (judgment).  After judgment happens, the story goes like this,

37″Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’40 ”The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Last Wednesday night we were driving home from small group and Katie saw a friend of ours named John standing out on the corner begging for money.  She called me and said she felt like I should go back & check on him.  The boys were with me in the car, so we stopped switched cars & I went back.

On the way I thought of a million excuses.  What would I do for him?  Motels are so expensive & we aren’t rich.  There are so many homeless & there have been so many cold nights & will be so many more….yada, yada, yada.

I found John on the corner – a little drunk; very cold; & extremely lonely.  I told him to get in & we rode around for a few minutes. He shared with me how he use to have a normal job, & house, & wife.  But how divorce, bone cancer & life sent him into a downward spiral.  All he said he really had left was His faith in God.  I’m always inspired to see simple faith, even in “the least of these.”  ”The least of these” who I too often drive, walk, and fly right by.  Because I’m so busy being me.  In the spotlight, looking out for number one.  Making sure I’m noticed.

On Wednesday night, I told John I had been thinking about him & hoping he was warm & okay.  He responded, “wow, it’s really good to know your being thought of.  That really means a lot.  I don’t usually think anybody is thinking about me.”  I dropped John off at A.J.’s over on 10th.  A.J. doesn’t have much but he lets people stay at his apartment for $10/night.  He said he can’t stand to see humans suffering in the cold.  He was a simple poor man – who was exactly right.  Honestly sometimes I think I worry about my cat more than I worry about the people I pass everyday.

I made John a deal.  I paid for 4 nights & told him I’d see him at 9:30am on Sunday morning.  I’m praying he’ll be there to be picked up.  I’m praying he will not feel self-conscious in church.  I’m praying he’ll be received and loved as if he were just like you and me.  I’m praying no one will see him as my project.  Because he’s not, he’s just a guy who lives under the bridge at 21st & Wedgewood.  He’s a guy who’s made poor decisions.  He’s a guy who’s down on his luck.  He’s a guy who struggles with sin. He’s a guy who needed a Savior, just like you & me.

I’m praying God will give me the grace to slow down a little more.  I’m reminded already this year how great it feels to love Jesus more than myself.  The easiest way to do that, is to love “the least of these.”

And here’s my big discovery.  When I slow down long enough to love “the least of these.”  I am finding that as I seek to meet their physical need, I am becoming more & more aware of their spiritual need.  It’s almost like a secret.  If you want to see your heart awakened to the gospel.  If you want to get a heart for the world.  If you want to see humanity as Jesus did.  Just start right here, in your own backyard, on the street where you drive, in the coffee shop where you sit, at the job where you work, and be on the lookout.  Slow down, just a little, and don’t be surprised when you see Jesus – in one of the most unlikely places imaginable.  In a little community called – “The Least Of These.”

i’m back…

it’s been way too long since i’ve blogged! church planting & ministry has been crazy this fall, but no excuses. it’s always good to record ideas & discipline myself to post regularly. so without any more apologies…i’m back!

here’s one of my favorite songs as of recent. hope you enjoy!

What Happened First in the Bible?

It’s always tough to know who or what came first in the Old Testament.  Wouldn’t it be nice if the books were listed in chronological order.  A couple of years back, I took several timelines of the Old Testament & combined them.

If you are interested in a copy of this, just email me brad@greenhillschurch.org.  

Can You Really Believe the Bible…If So Why?

Do you blindly believe the Bible is true?  Many people simply believe the Bible is true because a pastor or parent told them so.  But it’s only a matter of time before some academic setting will test that belief.  Unfortunately many people are ill-equipped in knowing the great wealth of manuscript, archeological, and historical evidence behind the pages of the Bible.  Instead they put their faith in a person and then begin to doubt as the foundational writing of their faith is challenged.  We should not and must not live life blindly.  God has left an amazing witness of His work and plan for us in this world.  Here’s a few notes i’m sharing that i put together for a discipleship group i lead on Friday mornings.  I hope you enjoy.  For further info on this topic, check out the resources posted at the end of the blog!

EVIDENCE THAT THE BIBLE IS ACCURATE & SHOULD BE TAKEN LITERALLY

Most people prove that the Bible is real in the same way they prove that the sun is real.  “It warms me and I can see its light – in the same way, the Bible warms our hearts and lights our souls!”  This sounds wonderful until we meet someone who claims the same warmth & light from the Koran or the Book of Mormon.  What do you do when you look at their life and realize they have great morals and are equally if not more passionate about their Holy Book than you?  Is there other evidence than feeling & emotion that Christians can stand on when it comes to the reliability & trustworthiness of the Bible?  Absolutely!!  While this evidence may not be the single straw that convinces someone to follow Christ.  This question and ignorance of historical evidence and knowledge can certainly hold many unbelievers back from trusting in Christ & cause many faithful believers to doubt unnecessarily because they are unaware of the rich heritage of MANUSCRIPT, ARCHAEOLOGICAL, & HISTORICAL evidence.     

JUDGING THE PROBABLITY OF THE NEW TESTATMENT GOSPELS

• Live in a world that would have us believe that all religions lead us to the same place.  All roads lead to God. 
  • Funny that in academic settings, we are warned about certain books that are full of errors & really not something you want to put your faith in.
  • Most people have their faith & evidence in the Bible dismantled at some point in an academic setting.
  • Yet some people say that over 1/3 of the worlds population believe in God & that He sent His Son Jesus to save the world.
• How can we know that the N.T. books of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John are reliable books?
  • Because if they are, then Jesus must in fact be the Son of God & what He says about God and the rest of the Bible must be true. 
    • Larry King – wishes he could interview Jesus.  Would ask him if he was really born of a virgin.  If He was, it changes everything.

1.     Whenever you talk about history you can’t prove or disprove what has happened in the past.  It’s not about proving or disproving.  It’s a matter of presenting evidence and the jury then looks at the evidence & makes a decision. 

2.     Whenever you judge evidence, it’s not what is a possible explanation but what is a probable explanation. 

• • The trustworthiness of any historical account is based on evidence, not on proof.
  • You can only prove what is observable & repeatable.
    • You can’t observe or repeat the past.
    • So we have to make decisions based on evidence.
      • When drawing conclusions on evidence, probability takes preference possibility. 
        • Probable cause (always 100’s of possible causes)
• Two ways to look at Ancient Manuscripts (how do you determine if it is trustworthy?)
  • Look at manuscript & evidence
  • Look at what you know about the people & cultures who wrote them
    • Tacitus: 30 volumes – have 2 manuscripts containing ½ of his volumes; Dated 900 A.D. & 1100 A.D. (1000 years old)
      • Tacitus (considered by many to be the finest & most accurate of ancient historians) is quoted like it is gospel truth – even though he worked for a Roman Emperor & could be subject to questionable content
    • We have more evidence about Jesus Christ than we have about the Roman Emperor
      • Fragments of book of John from 135 A.D. found in Egypt (so broadly distributed)!
      • 250 A.D. of complete Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John
      • Far more manuscripts of gospels than any other literature
  • People say, copies of copies – there are errors, right?!?
    • But Historians will admit that they would love to have the quality of manuscripts that we have for the Bible
    • No real conflicts in manuscripts – blatant conflicts are trivial (scribal errors)
    • More than 20,000 ancient manuscripts of various parts of the Bible exist today
    • Over 5,300 ancient Greek manuscripts
      • Only 13 manuscripts of Plato
• Why don’t secular historians quote from the history of the Bible & the Gospels?
  • There is a prejudice against the supernatural before they even look at the evidence – so they discount the entire history.
    • Fallacy with this – it is foolish & not logical to judge the authenticity of an ancient manuscript acc. to our personal 21^st Century experience.  B/c I don’t live in a culture where I see the supernatural happening, I don’t believe the supernatural has ever happened.
      • Like saying the Holocaust didn’t happen – b/c I don’t believe that hatred, racism, & prejudice could really exist.  I’ve never felt this way toward a race of people or seen this kind of evil.  So I don’t’ think it really happened.     
      • Our experience has very little to do with history.  Arguing from our experience isn’t an argument.  It’s foolish.  Have to judge on evidence not on feelings. 
• God in his wisdom did everything possible, at this time, to deliver to us what actually happened!  Upheld his word in an incredible, miraculous way!  Delivered to us & continues to deliver amazing evidence.  Greater than the evidence of any other person or period of history!  About a guy who wrote nothing & recorded only 3 yrs of his life.   
• The Bible came together over a period of 14 centuries—a fact so enormous that it almost defies belief.  Over the centuries ideologies and accepted popular wisdom changed from generation to generation and from century to century.  Yet no one revised what had previously been written in Scripture in order to make it harmonize with the latest documents. 
  • 40 individuals wrote the manuscripts & documents we now call the Bible from every imaginable walk of life!  (Kings, peasants, blue-collar, royalty, tax-collectors, etc.)
• Ruler after Ruler after Ruler have tried to destroy the Bible.  Even as late as the 17^th century men from history (Voltaire) believed the Bible would not make it into the next century.  But today a very conservative estimate is that a Bible is printed every second of every day – not to mention other materials. 
  • China has given up because their suppression has had the opposite effect.  

(notes taken from the following resources):

• “Why You Can Have Confidence in the Bible” by Harold J. Sala  

 (I’VE REALLY ENJOYED THIS RESOURCE!  GREAT SUMMARY OF LOTS OF INFO.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• “The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism” by Timothy Keller

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• “Starting Point” by Andy Stanley & North Point Community Church

The Compass or the Clock

Check out some recent content that I shared with 3 men I disciple on Friday mornings.  For most of us we get so busy “doing” in life, we rarely take time to make sure we are heading in the right direction!  Are you addicted to the urgent emails, issues, and problems that you face on a daily basis?  Or, do you make sure that every day is filled with activities that keep you pointed toward God’s direction & purpose for your life?  It’s not so much about the clock (doing more with the time we have) as it is about the compass (making sure what we are doing is purposeful & leads us toward due North)! 

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Stephen Covey – First Things First

For all of us there are times in our lives when something that we really wanted to make happen just doesn’t get done. We had the best of intentions and had passionate desires to make something happen. But somewhere along the way between dreaming and execution our plans fall apart.

What is the one activity that you know if you did superbly well and consistently would have significant positive results in your professional or work life?

If you know these things would make such a significant difference, why are you not doing them now?

As you consider your response, I want to point out two primary factors that drive our choices concerning how we use our time:
• Urgency
• Importance

Although we deal with both factors, one of them is the basic paradigm through which we view our time and our lives.

THE URGENCY INDEX (bottom of this post)

• 0-25 Low urgency mind-set
• 26-45 Strong urgency mind-set
• 46+ Urgency addiction

“If most of your responses are on the low end, the urgency paradigm is probably not a significant factor in your life. If they’re in the middle or toward the higher end, there’s a good chance urgency is your fundamental operational paradigm. If your responses are consistently high, urgency may be more than just the way you see. It may actually be an addiction.” Pg. 33

• This is very important to hear – both categories are hugely important; life stops working if we decide to only deal with one factor

For too many of us busyness is where we get our security. It’s validating, popular, and pleasing. It’s also a good excuse for not dealing with the first things in our lives.
• I’d love to spend quality time with you, but I have to work. There’s this deadline. It’s urgent. Of course you understand.
• I just don’t have time to exercise. I know it’s important, but there are so many pressing things right now. Maybe when things slow down a little.

The tools and approaches of time management often feed the urgency addiction. They keep us focused on daily prioritization of the urgent.  Even if we were given 15 to 20 more hours a week, the majority of people would feel no more successful or satisfied.  Instead they would have more projects left undone, more tension, & added frustration.  

• Quadrant I – represent things that are both “urgent” and “important”. Here’s where we handle an irate client, meet a deadline, repair a broken machine, undergo heart surgery, or help a crying child who has been hurt. We need to spend time in Quadrant I. This is where we manage, where we produce, where we bring our experience and judgment to bear in responding to many needs and challenges. If we ignore it, we become buried alive.
• But we also need to realize that many important activities become urgent through procrastination, or because we don’t do enough prevention and planning. Quadrant II includes activities that are “important” but not “urgent”. This is the Quadrant of Quality. Here’s where we do our long-range planning, anticipate and prevent problems, empower others, broaden our minds and increase our skills through reading and continuous professional development, envision how we’re going to help a struggling son or daughter, prepare for important meetings and presentations, or invest in relationships through deep, honest listening. Increasing time spent in this quadrant increases our ability to do. Ignoring this quadrant feeds and enlarges Quadrant I, creating stress, burnout, and deeper crises for the person consumed by it. On the other hand, investing in this quadrant shrinks Quadrant I. Planning, preparation, and prevention keep many things from becoming urgent. Quadrant II does not act on us; we must act on it. This is the Quadrant of personal leadership.

• IF you were to pause and think seriously about the “first things” in your life—the three or four things that matter most—what would they be? Are these things receiving the care, emphasis, and time you really want to give them?
• Why is it that so often our first things aren’t first? For years we’ve been given methods, techniques, tools, and information on how to manage and control our time. We’ve been told that if we keep working harder, learn to do things better & faster, use some new device or tool, or file or organize in a particular way, then we’ll be able to do it all. (so we get an iPhone)
• More than offering you another clock, this approach provides you with a “compass”—because more important than how fast you’re going, is where you’re headed.
• Most people feel like they are really, really busy doing nothing!
• The enemy of the best is the good.

Life Story from Green Hills Church

We showed Sarah’s story this last Sunday at Green Hills Church. I met Sarah over a year ago and had the chance to sit down & hear her story. She experienced a lot of tough times growing up but it was amazing to hear of God’s faithfulness in her life. She has been coming to Green Hills since we started the church. So glad she is a part of our community! (getting baptized may 3, 2009)

Great Sunday at church yesterday – check out the podcast to hear Mike’s message on “struggle” in the Metamorphosis series: http://www.greenhillschurch.org/media.html

Great Easter Sunday

Easter was a great Sunday! Below I’ve posted a couple of stories from our community. Charity & Dawn will be baptized next month. Their stories remind me of the amazing work of forgiveness that Christ offers us.

A cool story from Sunday – Esther showed up at Green Hills Church. As I talked to her before the service, she explained that she was a full time Nanny in Green Hills. She asked her boss if she could have the morning off to go to “the cathedral.” He happily obliged and offered her a ride. Instead she refused the ride & insisted that God would direct her. Her boss snickered to which she responded, “don’t laugh, He really does give us direction when we ask.”

Esther bumped into a lady on the bus that was coming to Green Hills Church. Although not your typical “cathedral” (we meet in a bar!) she followed her to church. Esther worshiped along with us & raised her hand at the end of the service indicating she was trusting Christ as her Lord & Savior. Something tells me she may have already had a relationship with God. Anyhow, only God knows, but it was a refreshing story.

I hope that God will send us many more people like Esther. People who believe that God will direct when we lean into Him through faith & take the time to look for his direction!

Enjoy these videos – more stories to come!

Surrender – the short road home

Ever wondered how to find Jesus in the middle of confusion? Ever felt like you are so far away it’s tough to know where to begin in turning back to God? Ever had times of confusion, doubt & difficulty? Sometimes life just feels unsuccessful! Even the Christian life can be a struggle filled with disappointments, tough times, and slow progress.

Peter struggled as he watched a crowd of over 5,000 walk away from Jesus. But in the middle of uncertainty he continued to believe & to follow hard after Christ. His words offer great comfort to those who are believing in the middle of pain, disappointment and uncertainty. They draw our hearts to the fact that life in Christ never fully makes sense this side of heaven. But then again faith is best expressed in the middle of uncertainty & questions!

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. -John 6:68

Sense of mystery in Peter’s words! Sense of helplessness! Sense of not having it all figured out! All he can rely upon is the evidence of the past that has caused an unusual burning in his heart that nothing else brings!

TRUST in God; continuing to follow Jesus, comes, not through trying to work harder. To better ourselves and to become holier. That’s called leagalism…the default mode of our hearts.

Instead, trust in Jesus is actually built through continuing to surrender day after day to the uncertainty, disappointment, and ugly sinful desires that continue to rear their heads in our lives.

Not pretending that they aren’t there. Not, vowing to do better or punishing ourselves because we failed. But by acknowledging that we do fail, and that the acknowledgement of the failure is actually the ray of light & hope that is streaming into our hearts to awaken a dark and putrid organ, weak from trying to overcome sin alone. Worn out from years of trying to hold it together.

As we lean into Jesus depending upon his strength, not our own. We wind up saving our lives. Through depending on His strength instead of our own. Through actually NOT figuring it out, and acknowledging & accepting our failures & sins we continue down the journey of the saved soul.

The soul that is being renewed in light of the love and acceptance that we find in Christ. Through his grace & mercy we overflow with incredible, giggly joy & overwhelming forgiveness that enables us to breathe in the fresh air of eternal life. To begin to live a different sort of experience in this world.

Our lives become little by little characterized by the DNA of Jesus. As we follow, fail, acknowledge, fail again & allow Him to pick us up. We begin to learn to walk. Not b/c we have grown stronger but because the acknowledging of our weakness in being unable to do it on our own, has given us a new source of life to draw from.

Now we don’t struggle with guilt, anxiety, and darkness nearly as often. Instead we look to the light and we walk growing confident that in time, as we trust the one who is illuminating the path, we will learn a new sort of travel – not a walk, not a run but more of a wonderous skip in the dark that resembles foolishness & the height of joy & faith all at once (otherwise known as walking in the Spirit).

for music lovers…www.pandora.com

i’m usually behind the times on technology, so this may be old news. but recently a friend (mike) introduced me to a really awesome online music player. www.pandora.com

so here’s how it works. you create a station by selecting an artist you enjoy. then the station pulls in other artists in similar genres, styles, etc.

you can then give each artist a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” creating playlists that stay with your profile. i’ve really enjoyed getting introduced to some new bands and hearing a ton of free music in the background while working, etc.

check it out and let me know what you think. if you are a music hog like me…you’ll love it!