an adventure

I'm just finishing Mark Batterson's "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day" and at the same time I'm just jumping out of my skin with the church planting possibilities coming up.

What an adventure it is to live a life following after Christ! I don't know what it is exactly, but we (our church, God's Kingdom in this neck of the woods) is on the edge of something huge exploding. Please pray with me. No, I don't know what to pray for specifically, but God is planning something huge. So huge it feels just a bit scary.

Whoever said being a Christian is boring wasn't doing it right.

a man after God's own heart

My bible reading today took me to 2 Samuel 4. There is this story of two captains in the army of Israel who decide they are going to kill the current king of Israel (Ishbosheth), cut off his head and take the head to David, who was ruling over Judah at the time. These guys were pretty proud of themselves. They even say to David . . . "Look!" they exclaimed. "Here is the head of Ishbosheth, the son of your enemy Saul who tried to kill you. Today the LORD has given you revenge on Saul and his entire family!" (2 Samuel 4:8 NLT)

I guess that was the way things happened back then. But the really interesting thing is that David would have none of it. Look what he says back to these guys . . . "As surely as the LORD lives, the one who saves me from my enemies, I will tell you the truth. 10 Once before, someone told me, 'Saul is dead,' thinking he was bringing me good news. But I seized him and killed him at Ziklag. That's the reward I gave him for his news! 11 Now what reward should I give the wicked men who have killed an innocent man in his own house and on his own bed? Should I not also demand your very lives?" 12 So David ordered his young men to kill them, and they did. (2 Sam 4:9-12 NLT)

Why was David's thinking so opposite from the culture he was living in? I think it has everything to do with where his heart was. The bible tells us that David was a man after God's own heart (1 Sam 13:14, Acts 13:22). I think that's a characteristic of a man (or woman) after God's own heart. He does not operate according to the cultural standards, but to God's standards. What standards to you gauge your life by?

communication

Communication is easier than ever these days. I worked from home today. Actually, I worked from my bed with an icepack on me most of the day and I feel like I got ridiculous amounts of work done.

My main job these days is communication. I communicated with people today via facebook, gmail, yahoo mail, gmail IM, text messages, phone, twitter and now a blog. By the way, I deleted my myspace account today. I just hate it.

Anyway, I wonder sometimes if I'm too connected. I wonder if I would be more effective if I just spoke to people face to face or limited my electronic communications some. Probably not. A day like today makes me feel better than ever about multiple avenues of communication.

Love to hear your thoughts on it.

strangeness

I heard a fantastic leadership teaching from Jim Ruddy (bethelag.com). He talked about how, as leaders, we need to get over the strangeness of walking into a new thing. Often we fail to realize that the "land" we feel so strange in now is the one God wants to give us eventually.

The quote of his talk . . . "God needs leaders, not pointers."

Today was a really special day as many pastors from our community gathered together to talk about reaching this community (together) in a new way and at a new level.

I welcome the strangeness I'm feeling.

blogs I like

I'm fairly new to blogging and following blogs, but I'm noticing some things in the roughly 15 blogs I follow (almost daily).

I like the short ones more. I don't think it's due to my diminished brain power. I just think that the short ones are generally more focused and say more using fewer words. There are exceptions to every rule, but "less is more" is still a good rule for blogging if you ask me.

share alike

Something God showed me this morning in my bible reading time . . .

I Samuel 30:21-25 - When they reached Besor Brook and met the two hundred men who had been too tired to go with them, David greeted them joyfully. 22 But some troublemakers among David's men said, "They didn't go with us, so they can't have any of the plunder. Give them their wives and children, and tell them to be gone." 23 But David said, "No, my brothers! Don't be selfish with what the LORD has given us. He has kept us safe and helped us defeat the enemy. 24 Do you think anyone will listen to you when you talk like this? We share and share alike--those who go to battle and those who guard the equipment." 25 From then on David made this a law for all of Israel, and it is still followed.

Man, I can't help but think that I would have been one of those “troublemakers”. I have this deep sense of “fairness” built into me that I don't like. I could see myself operating like this in church. Lord, thank you for showing me this concept here and help me to share alike in the blessings you give so freely.

healing

Why do you want to be healed? Is it so you can feel better or is it the opportunity that your healing may present to you? Think about it.

quote of the day

"No one can live off of yesterday's faith." - Johannes Amritzer

The sad lie of mediorcrity

This is something God has been pressing me on very much lately. Enjoy!

Original post: Seth Godin

Doing 4% less does not get you 4% less.

Doing 4% less may very well get you 95% less.

That's because almost good enough gets you nowhere. No sales, no votes, no customers. The sad lie of mediocrity is the mistaken belief that partial effort yields partial results. In fact, the results are usually totally out of proportion to the incremental effort.

Big organizations have the most trouble with this, because they don't notice the correlation. It's hidden by their momentum and layers of bureaucracy. So a mediocre phone rep or a mediocre chef may not appear to be doing as much damage as they actually are.

The flip side of this is that when you are at the top, the best in the world, the industry leader, a tiny increase in effort and quality can translate into huge gains. For a while, anyway.

so full

Man, my head and heart are so full. The men I spent the day with are heroes of mine. I'm listening a lot and talking little. That just feels right. Thank God for opportunities like these two days in Pittsburgh.

God's working big things!

I'm on my way to Pittsburgh to a church planters round table and to see Pittsburgh's Harvest Cry in action. There is just so much stuff that we're on the edge of in Adams County. God has bigger plans than you or I could imagine. I'll blog more about it as ideas develop. I'll probably do more on twitter than blog spot. You can follow there.

Obama

Barack Obama is a man, not a demon, as I've heard some say lately. I've read everyone's blog about it today and it seems that two thoughts are developing.

1. Pray for ourselves, because evil Obama is going to be out leader
2. Pray for Obama, because he's going to be our leader.

I'll take # 2 and think you should too. It sticks out in my mind that the early church (book of Acts type) did some incredible growing and flourishing under some pretty ungodly leadership. This may be the best time we've ever had as a church.

the flagship

Every car manufacturer has "flagship". It's their top of the line. I think I'm sitting in the "flagship" service of our church. Saturday night church at Freedom Valley has just blown up - yes, that's a good thing. The kids ministry is fantastic, worship is great, teaching is strong - all just like the Sunday morning services. What I feel here tonight (and lately) is real community. We talk about it a lot and rarely see it happen. If you're a hard-core Sunday morning person, check Saturday night out sometime soon. I'll see you there.