God and Everyday, Ordinary People

Part of the miracle of Christmas is that God chose to use the everyday, ordinary experiences of everyday, ordinary people to accomplish his will.
Yes, the central message of Christmas is that Jesus came into the world as Immanuel, God with us, but he came through a young girl named Mary.
Now that is really uncommon and such a mystery. Think about it. Mary was probably around 14 years of age and Joseph was more than likely between 18 to 20 years old, according to Jewish culture. And then to top it all off, Mary, though most likely unsure of what the future would hold as the events of her life changed overnight, said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” Luke 1: 38 (NIV)
Wow! What faith and what courage! You know God could have come up with some other way to accomplish his will. You and I would have certainly thought of another way. It could have involved angels coming to earth to be spiritual police or maybe we'd create some sort of cataclysmic event, but he didn’t do that. He became one of us via the womb of a virgin and grew up in a Jewish home under the care of everyday, ordinary parents who happened to love God and followed him.
The intriguing thing throughout the Bible is that God has always taken the initiative to act on behalf of humanity and he has always used men and women whom he has chosen to carry out his plan and purposes.
All of these people were not chosen because of their intellect or abilities or reputation or any other human quality. They were chosen because of God’s unmerited favor and grace. And he believed they could and would be able, with his help, to do what he asked of them, including Mary and Joseph.
Do you know God wants the same for us? He wants to work through you and me to accomplish the unbelievable. He wants us to trust him and believe that he can use our everyday, ordinary lives to accomplish his will.
All we have to do is say what Mary said some 2,000 years ago: “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”
Merry Christmas!

Is it All Real?

Lanny Donoho, who heads up BigStuf Camps and the 410bridge posted this on his blog today. I must repeat it here! It really sums up what we all feel about life and death and God and existence. Please read! It's worth the time.


Is it all real? “an excerpt”
Posted by: Lanny Donoho on December 9, 2010 at 1:06 am

we dont connect unless we are forced to.

we have to feel the need.

drowning, you reach for the air hose

falling, you reach for the rope

lonely, you reach for people

down, you connect to music..

hopeless, you just wish for hope..

and you hope there is a God.

can we connect with who or what God is????

do we believe or not?

dad gets cancer.

mom dies…

bobby is in a wheelchair

unplanned pregnancy…despair…

friends die and get sick

people make fun of me and i feel like crap

hell doesnt seem right or fair

god loves us…but a billion people dont have water?

tsunamis kill thousands…and where again was god?

jesus loved us but he’s dead now and…maybe… some people saw him alive after he was crucified or maybe they didn’t.

history books are really too sketchy to know for sure. nobody even wrote about it for at least 40 years after he died.

the old testament is bizarre…leviticus…ha! that’s just weird.

the new testament books share similar stories but different timelines, and have different details in different books that don’t match up

biblical scholars dont agree with scientists even on the age of the earth

what the hell? what’s real? what isn’t?

why do we say “what the hell?” if we aren’t even sure it exists?

But…when I stop to really think about all this….if god doesn’t exist….then how does anything else exist?

if there was once nothing …can something come from nothing?

why is god any harder to believe in than “something coming from nothing”?

If it all started with nothing…from our perspective “something” had to be there…because we just said “IT” all started from nothing.

“nothing” isn’t fathomable.

so why would it be hard to believe in “god” existing if you can believe in “nothing” …and then everything coming from “that”

so think about this:

the symmetry of the universe.

the balance of nature

the rhythm of the seasons

the regularity of the electrons around atoms

water

air

what it feels like to BREATHE that air

and drink that water…

the fact that you can have feelings about breathing.

the ability to think…

the ability to say that something or someone is beautiful…

and then

that a smell can trigger a memory of a time with someone you love.

that a sound through a phone is simply vibration of particles in the air, and that sound is a voice on the other side of the world, and the first vibration of that sound, and the recognition of your daughters voice can cause your heart to stir… and whatever might be described as a soul, swells up inside you and you smile and your heart beats faster ….because of a vibration of atoms?

that a touch on the lips by another being could stir every fibre in your being

that the incredible pain of childbirth can be forgotten completely when a mothers eyes get the first glimpse of her baby boy

that we could actually feel so deeply the pain of the death and loss of someone we care so much about

that we can actually care and love…and there is no way to adequately explain what caring and loving really are

that we absorb light through cones and rods to the point that the hues and colors and vibrations of those light waves allow us to label unexplainable art as sunrise and stars and ocean waves and mountain ranges…

and so many illustrations of beautiful art can move us to tears

that the vibration of strings and wind through instruments cause music to happen and that very music causes us to sing, and dance and love and celebrate and weep…

how can any of this be explained by only matter and heat and movement….a cosmic happenstance of sorts?

we create love and art and music and poetry and beauty… or should i say we re create it… and with all of the reason we can muster, the only way that any of that is possible is if it were created for those purposes …for our pleasure …for our ability to feel so we can know that beyond our grasp of knowledge there is something more mysterious… way beyond knowledge…

something that makes us who we are and how we are

we cannot see it we cannot explain it but IT IS there. we KNOW it….in the middle of all the doubts we just know

because we have touched something that contains no matter…

with a part of our soul that has no substance.

we dance to a tune that no man has written

we see art that cannot be painted or drawn

we love an individual who is not defined by anything in our 4 dimensions

we know what we cannot know because we are what we cannot define.

so how could we even say what love is if it may come from a creator who exists outside of all we can comprehend?

love and everything about it seems to be why most of us have any desire to even exist…

and so IT MUST exist…and if so where would it come from except from a thinking creator who…

cannot be defined, understood, described, or really even imagined…

so whoever jesus was ..his words seem to echo all of what we have just said…

trust in what you do not understand ….live in that trust…take the little pieces that you can comprehend and connect with those pieces.

then look around…

the people who live as though all of this were true seem to experience life in a more satisfying way than those who do not.

and for some reason everyone’s goal (other than to be loved) is to be satisfied.

and the mere thought that that is what everyone desires signifies that there must be a desire-maker and therefore maybe…

a desire-fulfiller.

One last thought…

all of the universe has movement…without movement there is no time and no space…

Since the beginning, our planet, our solar system, our galaxy, our cluster, all galaxies, are not only spinning…they are all moving.

Towards what?

Away from what?

In space if there were nothing visible around you, you could be moving at a million miles an hour and not even know you were moving. So everything moves, but movement only exists if it is relative to something else. If we know our solar systems and galaxies and clusters all move because we see them in relationship to other galaxies, we deduce that the whole universe is moving. So again, the question is posed…what are we moving towards or away from….???

Well… it must be something outside of our universe…because our word universe incorporates everything we can possibly imagine…which brings us back to the fact that something we cannot imagine or begin to comprehend exists… beyond even what our understanding of the word “exists” means.

Maybe it is the same incomprehensible “what if” that created the unfathomable, non-definable experiences of love and wonder and passion.

Leaving a Church

I recently came upon a blog post from a fellow pastor, Michael Lukaszweski, whom I met at a church planters conference a few years ago and I thought I'd share it here. It's a timely word to us all in a city where people leave churches like they leave a hair dresser.

As Francis Chan so eloquently put it recently, you’d be hard pressed to read in the book of Acts about a guy who got upset about service times or music style and deciding to leave a church. It’s true…people really do leave churches for silly reasons. I recently heard about someone who left our church because we focused too much on reaching the unchurched. Pretty amazing, since that’s exactly why Jesus came to earth. Sometimes, a Christian leaves a church for a good reason – perhaps to be a part of a new work or perhaps because they move. Let me offer some tips and comments on leaving a church and dealing with the fact that people leave your church.

* If you’re leaving a church, talk to the pastor or a leader about your reasons. Don’t just disappear. My friend Kyle recently talked to me about why he was leaving our church to help out a church plant. I appreciated the fact that he wanted me to hear it from him before I heard it from somewhere else. He was kind and gracious, and I was able to bless him and will continue to pray for him.
* If you’re planting a church, don’t try and steal people from other churches. Ed Young calls this pirating, and I’d tend to agree. If you’re trying to talk up what you’re doing and how your church can offer more opportunities than the church they are currently attending, you’re doing a disservice to the Kingdom.
* If people come to your church from another church, make sure they left well. Make sure they have the conversations they need to have and that they left on good terms. In the early days of Oak Leaf Church, there are a few people I would not let step into leadership because they hadn’t talked to their previous pastor.
* If people badmouth their previous church to you, they will badmouth you to their next church.
* As a pastor, it’s tough not to take it personally when someone leaves your church. I compare it to someone not liking your kid.
* I promise you that the kids ministry is going to do something that upsets you, or the pastor is going to say something that you don’t totally agree with. If you’re involvement there is shaky enough to be threatened by those things, then check your heart and see why you’re there in the first place.
* 7 times out of 10, leaving a church because the teaching isn’t deep enough is a sign of your own personal shallowness and has nothing to do with what the church is doing or teaching. Christians are supposed to learn how to feed themselves.
* Many times, when people say they “had a bad experience,” what they mean is “they tried to pastor me, hold me accountable, actually help me grow, or expected me to honor my commitments and I didn’t want that.” Not all the times, but many times.
* Leading a church is tough. Christians, pray for your church and for all of the pastors. You have NO IDEA what they go through. They deal with their own stuff, but they also worry and deal with the stuff of hundreds of people. On top of that, they know they are being judged more harshly by God. (James 3:1)

Wrong Reasons to Love the Church

Here's a blog I read from Josh Harris, Pastor of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I think it's a timely word to all of us about the church!

Do you love the church? Romans 12:10 tells Christians to "Love one another with brotherly affection."

The affection and love we're to have for fellow-Christians is to be based on the work of Jesus Christ for us. It's not about elitism, it's not because Christians are better than anyone else, it certainly isn't because Christians are necessarily more lovable. We love the church because we love the Savior who redeemed the church.

Acts 20:28 tells us that Jesus obtained the church with his own blood. Is this what your love for the church is based on? If it's anything less, it won't last long.

* Don't love the church because of what it does for you. Because sooner or later it won't do enough.

* Don't love the church because of a leader. Because human leaders are fallible and will let you down.

* Don't love the church because of a program or a building or activities because all those things get old.

* Don't love the church because of a certain group of friends because friendships change and people move.

Love the church because of who shed his blood to obtain the church. Love the church because of who the church belongs to. Love the church because of who the church worships. Love the church because you love Jesus Christ and his glory. Love the church because Jesus is worthy and faithful and true. Love the church because Jesus loves the church.

Excerpted from the sermon "We Are Here to Love the Church." by Josh Harris

The Nines

As a pastor of a church plant now going on four years, I still feel at times like there are so many things I don't know. This is coming from a youth ministry veteran of over 16 years and one who has been in ministry for over 25 years. But I'll admit it. I'm still learning. But I think that's a good thing. Know one should ever stop learning or think they've learned all there is to know, because the truth is, there's always something new around the corner. The culture changes, the nature of church ministry changes, the methodology of ministry changes and certainly in scripture I find that I continually learn new things from God! So, as I navigate the tenuous nature of church plant world, I'm still finding the need to learn from others. That's why I love to attend conferences such as Catalyst in Atlanta or North Point's Drive or sit down with fellow pastors and hear what they've learned along the way. One really cool ministry venue that I'm excited about is an online conference called the Nines. In one day, over 100 ministry leaders will share for five minutes via video everything they know! Not really, but they will share one nugget that has help them grow and change and feel that others could glean from. If you're not familiar with the Nines, check them out here http://thenines.leadnet.org and register today. You'll love it!

My Friend Bob Pace

My friend Bob Pace died last week. We had his funeral last Monday. I've never been to a more God-honoring memorial in my life! It was truly awesome! Bob was a great individual and a true friend. He loved God passionately and he had this desire to see God's people spiritually formed. In fact, he told a friend that the reason most Christians never grow up spiritually is because they don't know what it means to love God. He said that Christians need to focus on loving God and then all the other stuff that goes with being a follower of Christ will take care of itself. I think he is so right! What if we spent more time learning what it means to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength? Can you imagine what that would do to a person? It would revolutionize every facet of a person's life! There's no way they would be the same. Life would hold new meaning, relationships would take on a whole new life and the world would look so different from their point of view. You could not possibly stay the same. So maybe we need to stop spinning our wheels worrying about being better christians or running to another meeting on church growth or being concerned about creating another study guide on what it means to be a mature christian. Maybe we just need to focus on loving God. I have a sneaking suspicion Bob is smiling right about now as he's discovered the love of his life is far greater than anything he could ever imagine! Love has never looked so good to him right now! "We love because He first loved us!"

Seven Thoughts on Suffering

In light of the news about Pastor Matt Chandler and his very public battle with cancer, I came across a great article on suffering from one of his pastors at Village Church. Here's the link to the article, Seven Thoughts on Suffering. Would love to hear your thoughts. http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/blog/theology/?p=287