The Gift of Humility

In our culture, humility is not always seen as a benefit or value worth having, often it is just the opposite. Celebrities and heroes hype and advance themselves. They put themselves over and above the team, others or the organization they are supporting.

Now I fully believe the good others do needs to be praised, supported and admired. When those around us do the right things they need to be affirmed for taking the right stand. I think greater focus on the positives of society will make the negatives less desirable.

Humility is the way of Jesus. Even a quick read through the Gospels will paint a picture of Jesus that shows a humble Savior. He never highlights His own abilities. He goes out of His way to serve others and then disappears. He accepts worship because He is God, but doesn’t allow people to force Him into positions that are not His to take (John 6).

So how can we follow the way of Jesus and be more humble? Often times we need to slow our timing down. Just because we feel called to something doesn’t mean that now is the right time or place. We may have lessons to learn in the process before we get to the point where our calling comes to fruition. Think of pride as eating unripe fruit: a little bitter, a little hard, not necessarily bad, but not good. When we act out of pride by doing God’s will in our timing it is never as sweet as if we waited until the time was right (or ripe).

Today: be different, be humble and follow the way of Jesus.

Summer Craziness

Summer takes on just a completely different pace. I don’t know if it is the longer days, the nicer weather or just that life doens’t have the same rhythm as when school is in session. I love the freeness of people coming and going and the special events that make up this time of year. At the same time, if you don’t take time to slow down during it all you can totally shipwreck your life. You can get working so hard that you don’t take time to breathe.

I say all that to say this… I can’t wait for next week. Eskai and I are getting away for a little retreat for a few days to a cabin by ourselves. The only thing on the agenda is to read, rest and relax. Church planting can have you running at such a frantic pace that you can forget who you are. I’ll be taking some books, my computer to do some writing and enjoying the peace and tranquility of being away from the big city.

This summer has and continues to be filled with Summer Festivals, BlastZones (Backyard Vacation Bible School) and the general busyness of getting a church up and going. Can’t wait to see what God is going to teach me next week as I get to spend some uninterrupted time with Him.

If you haven’t had a chance to get away this summer, do yourself a favor and block out a day, a weekend or a whole week of time away from your normal schedule. As one of my favorite writers Mark Batterson says, “Change of Pace+ Change of Place= Change of Perspective.”

Worst Drink in America

So I was signing on to WordPress this morning, and on their homepage there was a link with this title. It caught my eye, clicked and read. This cracked me up, so much for all of America trying to be healthier. Enjoy the read.

Thanks to rareunlimited.wordpress.com for the post.

WORST DRINK IN AMERICA Baskin-Robbins Large Chocolate Oreo Shake 2,600 calories 135 g fat (59 g saturated fat, 2.5 g trans fat) 263 g sugars 1,700 mg sodium Is this the worst drink on the planet? All signs point to yes. First off, it has an ingredient list that reads like an organic chemistry final. Those 70-plus ingredients conspire to pack this shake with more sugar than 29 Fudgsicles, as much fat as a stick and a half of butter, and more calories than 48 actual Oreos. Oh, it also has 3 days’ worth of saturated fat and, most bizarre of all, as much salt as you’ll find in 9 bags of Lay’s Classic potato chips. Need more proof? Let’s hope not.

The Deal with the Signs

Ok, so if any of you have been following Eskai and I on Twitter or Facebook, you have seen that we have had some issue with our signs. So here is what happened:

Usually our signs go out on Friday evening or Saturday, as there is no weekend enforcement of Right of Way sign ordinances. We then usually get the signs picked up Sunday after church and no one is the wiser. Well, this past weekend our sign guy had a family commitment after church and didn’t get home until late (and his Monday morning starts before I want to even think about starting mine).

His thought, “I’ll just get them tomorrow.” Should have been no problem except that the signs weren’t there when he went to get them on Monday. Problem #1- No Signs. Problem #2- Who has them?

Phone calls were made to every government official we could think of. Lake County (IL) Government offices, Warren Township Highway Dept. and Lake County Division of Transportation. All we heard was either, “We didn’t pick them up” or “If we picked them up, they are in the dumpster with the road kill.” Neither of those options sounded very good.

Finally a ray of hope, it does help to talk to the right person. On Wednesday morning I get a call from the head guy at the Division of Transportation and he said that if they would have picked them up they would have set them aside for us to get (probably after paying a fine) but that usually their people would have moved them to a more legal position. The problem was that none of the guys who drive that route saw any signs. So the good news… not in the dumpster; the bad news… still no signs.

The only other place they could be is at the school, or stolen. So hoping for the former and not the latter, I make a trip to the school to see what I can find. Long story short, ok just not as long, someone with the school picked up both of our signs and put them in the school for us.

End of the day, signs found and will be in our possession tomorrow to be put out on Friday so people can be show the way to North Point so that they can find hope through a relationship with God.

Be strong and courageous

They say that you don’t want to be the man who follows THE MAN. Can you imagine how Joshua must have felt then? He followed Moses (not the Charlton Heston Moses), the real part the Red Sea-water from the rock-manna from heaven Moses. I am sure that somewhere along the way Joshua got a bit freaked out about leading God’s people. So God comes to Joshua and tells him to be strong and courageous. I guess when God Himself tells you to be strong and courageous it would make it easier, but Joshua still had a choice. God is still looking for those who will be strong and courageous for Him.

We hide behind responsibility and lesser priorities instead of choosing to be strong and courageous for God. We become more like Achan (the guy who took the things from Jericho, Joshua 7) than Joshua (leader of Israel, pursuer of God). Oh sure, we want to pursue God and serve God, but we do so with sin on our hands. We do it in our own strength so that we might get the glory. We do it our way, as if God needed us and not the other way around.

God said to be strong and courageous, not foolish and cowardly. To do things by our own strength in our own way is not only short-sighted but it is cowardly, as if to say that we know better than God. When we allow God to have His way with us and to lead us into deeper faith, all I can say is hold on tight because it is quite a ride.

My friends, be strong and courageous. Walk with God. Let Him lead.

Prayer for Opportunities

I just read this off of the blog of one of my favorite writers (Mark Batterson). I think it is a prayer we should all pray as we look for opportunities to share our faith with others.

Lord, I pray for an opportunity to share my faith with someone in some way. It’s not up to me to decide who or when or where. But I know why. Because you love them and want a relationship with them. So Lord, surprise me with opportunities to share my faith.

Forgive me for trying to do your job for you. You are the one who convicts of sin. You are the one who draws to Christ. But help me do my part as salt and light. Help me see those opportunities to react compassionately or listen patiently or speak kindly. Through word and deed, help me plant seeds of love in the lives of others. Give me boldness when it’s time to speak. Give me restraint when it’s time to listen. Give me words to say. But more importantly, give me ears to hear.

Lord, help me be sensitive to the prompting of your Holy Spirit so I can see the divine appointments you send my way. Help me not to be afraid of questions I cannot answer. Help me not to be afraid of people’s reactions or rejections.

Lord, help me preach the gospel every day, when necessary, with words.

In Jesus name, amen!

Rainy days and Wednesdays

There is something that I just love about a good rainy day (especially after the extreme heat of last week). I don’t remember where I heard it first but the metaphor of rain being like God’s grace in our life. The rain comes down to clean and restore the earth, much like how God’s grace comes down on us to clean and restore us. Cue Todd Agnew’s “Grace Like Rain” in the background, good tune if you don’t have it or know it. Though today has been gloomy, the rain will cause the flowers and grass to perk up and make our world beautiful again.

I also love Wednesday’s. Many days during the week I make the 13 mile commute to our Harbor Campus to plan and coordainate services between our two campuses. I love our team and the people I get to work with, but I love the day that I get to spend working at the South Office (commonly known as the Panera Bread in Gurnee), love getting a drink and using the free WiFi.

It is at this South Office that I never know who I might run into. Conversations have been started with a guy named Mark, who runs a Home Inspection company. He has said that he is going to come visit but hasn’t yet. I’ve helped him get some business and he has helped me with some issues at my own house. I haven’t seen him in a while, but I pray for him regularly that we might meet again and that he might check outwhat we are doing at North Point.

I have also met a man named Sargon, who is one of the construction supervisors for the Gurnee Wal-Mart project (He tells me they are about done, we’ll see). He reads the Bible from time to time but has no real interest in church. He lives in another part of the city so North Point wouldn’t be convenient for him. We have enjoyed some religious and philosophical conversation. He seems cool with Jesus, but not so sure about all of His followers. He has promised to call or email me, hasn’t yet but still praying for the opportunity to tell him more about God’s love for him.

Where is your day taking you? We have two options each day. We can either feel like we HAVE to serve God and do what He says, or we can look at it as if we GET to serve God and do things that might bring Him glory. I admit there are some days that I look at it as a HAVE to, the Spirit isn’t always willing and the Flesh gets its way. There are other days when the Spirit is on overdrive and the Flesh is along for the ride, and doing God’s will is the natural by product.

Honestly, most days are lived somewhere in between. I wish I could say that I took advantage of every opportunity presented to me, but I don’t. I have become much better at recognizing open opportunities for conversations with strangers about what God is doing with me and seeing if they want to come along for the ride.

Can I offer a challenge? When the door opens, walk through. Who knows where the road may take you, and on the way God may use you to bring someone back to Him.

A Call to Holiness

As you probably know if you’ve been reading the blog recently, I’ve been reading through Deuteronomy. Now there are some crazy laws and regulations that God set out for His people. Some I still wish we had today, others I’m glad we don’t. Here is just a sample:

Deut. 21: 20,21, “They (the parents) shall say to the elders, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his town shall stone him to death.”

Deut. 24: 5, “If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.”

God wanted His people to be different. Not freaky weird different, but just not like everyone else. There were rules about clothes and farming. There were rules about how to relate to each other and how to relate to Him. While the nations around them were sacrificing their children to the gods, God said, “NO! Don’t do such a detestable thing.”

So what does holiness look like today. God calls His people to be different. He calls us to not be like the “nations” around us, to not follow in the same footsteps that they do. Our path will look different. The things we do should look different, God has called us away from a path of destruction and to a path of abundant life.

Now here is our problem, we get so tied into holiness that we lose all contact with people far from God (this can turn into legalism). We can also throw holiness out the window and draw very close to those far from God (this can turn to heodonism). So here is the balance, to become so much like God that you reflect His glory while maintaining contact with those whom He loves that don’t yet love Him. When we begin to understand this, we will begin to understand the mission of Jesus. “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” (John 5:19, NIV)

Staying Teachable

One of the most important lessons I have learned in ministry and church planting is the need to stay teachable. Though in many situations I am viewed as the leader or the even the “expert” (heaven forbid), I have to remember that I have not arrived and that there are many more people who are smarter and are better leaders than myself.

Recently, we returned to Charlotte for a family wedding and while there I was talking to my buddy Justin who leads a college campus ministry at UNC- Charlotte. Justin has been leading his group (IMPACT UNCC) through a Bible reading plan where you read the whole in 90 days. I asked Justin what he had been reading recently and he said that he has realized that all he wants is more of God. Now this could sound really presumptious and pompous, but knowing Justin’s heart what he really wants for himself, his family and his students is to have an ever growing intimacy with God.

The moment we think we have arrived is the moment when pride wins and God loses His place of speaking into our lives. To combat this fight with pride we have to remember the Biblical command to remain humble. In our staying humble we position ourselves best to be taught by God, His Word, others and the circumstances around us.

Here are somethings that I have been doing lately to remain teachable:

1.) Making daily Bible reading a priority. There is no substitute for time with your Bible. If you are an extrovert like me, sometimes time by yourself reading is the last place you want to be, but in the busyness of life we often need to shut out the noise and rush and quiet ourselves before God and listen to His words to us.

2.) Listening to other preachers. I love having an iPod because I can download a lot of good preachers and listen to what God is communicating through them to their people. Some of the guys that I listen to are Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church, Seattle); Mark Batterson (National Community Church, Washington, D.C.) and Andy Stanley (North Point Community Church, Alpharetta, GA).

3.) Reading other Christian authors. These may be on blogs, books or magazines. I subscribe to Relevant Magazine which is a magazine devoted to Christianity and Culture. I often read the blogs by church leaders such as Mark Batterson, Dave Ferguson and Vince Antonucci. A book that I have been using to guide my devotional time is a book called Asleep in the Land of Nod by Dave Butts of Harvest Prayer Ministry. It is a 30 day devotional that helps lead you to pray for revival in yourself and your church.

4.) Journaling. I have picked my personal journal more often here in recent weeks. You may have also noticed a renewed focus on blogging as well as I post some of my personal thoughts in cyberspace for public consumption. Givingn words and voice to my internal prayers and putting them for me and others to see is vulnerable yet a good reminder that God isn’t done with me yet.

5.) Spiritual Disciplines. A friend of mine and I, and maybe some of you reading this, are fasting one day a week as we seek God about how He wants to use us as we seek to be used by God to bring others to know Him. Times of silence and solitude, study and prayer and celebration are some of the other disciplines I am trying to using to seek God.

This may seem like a huge list. I am not saying I do all of these daily nor am I saying that I am doing these well on a regular basis. These are things that I am using to stay teachable before God as He moves and directs my life. You might want to just focus on one or two or maybe you are at a point where you want to stretch yourself to a new area of learning and discipline. Wherever you might be, enter with humility, keep your ears open and stay teachable to what God wants for you.

Thoughts from Deuteronomy

I know the title has you gripped. Your thoughts are also probably close to what I was thinking when I noticed that Deuteronomy was next up for me in my Bible Reading plan. More law, geesh.

Well, God has a way of kicking me in the butt when such thoughts come to mind. He has a way of opening my eyes so that new things come to light, old things re-revealed and His story coming through in my time. Deuteronomy literally means the second law and tells of Moses giving the same law to the Israelites a second time before he dies and turns the leadership mantle of Israel over to Joshua.

Moses starts by telling them their story and how God has given them this land that they are about to enter. He then goes on to tell them that as long as they keep God first they will prosper, but if they stray they will be scattered among the nations.

There is this thought that has been working on me since the first reading of the verse today. Here it is, God has given us a “land” wherever we are. There are a people that we have been called to in the place where He has us, we must pursue God and in so doing allow Him to use us to draw all men unto Himself.

For this to happen we must first do TWO things:

1.) Pursue God- This was the first and greatest commandment to the Israelites, to love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul and strength. It all starts with and flows from here. If we are failing to pursue God, we may as well just go home because it won’t do any good. Ask the Israelites who went up to take the land after they decided they were going to be crushed by the people in the land. They went up without God and got crushed. We must pursue God first and foremost.

2.) Humble ourselves- We must make sure that what we do is not about ourselves and how good we are. We must make ourselves a vessel or conduit for God to flow through. When what we do becomes an opportunity for pride and self-promotion we will fail. When we limit God to the things that WE can do, we will fail. When we first pursue God and then let Him use us, the sky is the limit with what He can do through us.

There is this gnawing in me that God wants something more. That there is something that I am limiting because of something in my life. My priority needs to be a relentless pursuit of Him through prayer and His word. From that starting point I pray that God will use me to draw men unto Himself as I continue to humble myself in His presence.