Category: faith

Hanging out with Jesus

Kevin Hendricks (Church Marketing Sucks) shares some thoughts from his community group last week:

Throughout the New Testament he spends a lot of time just hanging out with people. He’s not doing anything productive, he’s just hanging out. That Jesus–what a bum.

But I think Jesus was intentionally modeling the value of relationships. In many ways I think our faith is worked out in our relationships with others. When I’m really close to people I don’t have to do anything with them. We can just hang out.

and love this…

Contrary to what we may think, Christianity cannot be lived in a vacuum. No Christian is an island. We need each other. There’s value in just being with other people.

resources for growth

Friday night, as part of the encounter 9, Brian talked about the importance of nourishing our soul with Scripture and growing in our Spiritual walk. We had a good discussion on (without being cliche’) about the importance of keeping Scripture in our diet to continue growing from an infant > to a child > to a teen > to a man > to a leader in our spiritual growth.

Of course, to be honest, sometimes just sitting down and reading a passage of Scripture can wear on you like a ham sandwich everyday. But luckily there are lots of resources out there that can help keep our appetite growing for more and more of God’s word.

I’ve seen some great devotionals out there for every make and model but even after a while the “read-scripture-read-a-thought-for-the-day” formula can get old as well. One of the things I’ve loved in the past and that works great for those who have trouble staying focused while reading, are the collection of great audio Bibles out there that can be played on your CD player or even your iPod.

I personally enjoy the Message REMIX on Mp3. It’s actually been sitting in a box or drawer until recently but I just pulled it out again to dump on my Mp3 player for the ride to work. I have the NT version but the entire Bible is available as well.

My buddy Matt just got a copy of The Bible Experience and can’t say enough about it. it’s a dramatic reading of Scripture by a number of hollywood actors including Denzel Washington and others. I’ve blogged on that in the past and would love to have a copy of it myself.

Any other resources you’ve found that keep your appetite growing?

‘I’ve been to the Mountaintop’

Delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. April 3, 1968, Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), Memphis, Tennessee – the night before he was gunned down by an assassin:

listen online

Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy and his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It’s always good to have your closest friend and associate to say something good about you. And Ralph Abernathy is the best friend that I have in the world. I’m delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow.

Something is happening in Memphis; something is happening in our world. And you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of taking a kind of general and panoramic view of the whole of human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, “Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?” I would take my mental flight by Egypt and I would watch God’s children in their magnificent trek from the dark dungeons of Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn’t stop there.
Continue reading ‘I’ve been to the Mountaintop’

a ((deep)) recap

((deep))

Thomas has a great recap of ((deep)) on the Nanolog.

I’m listening to the podcast right now (you’ll need iTunes to listen to it).

After worship… Janet Robson spoke on the disciple John >> considering who John thought Jesus was >> shaping her thoughts/feelings on the subject matter into 3 points ::

  1. Words matter! Words can build us up… or tear us down. When God spoke (as recorded in Genesis 1) things happened. Word >> Action.
  2. John Baptizer’s job description was… “help people take it in… and take it on.” This is our job description as followers of Jesus.
  3. We are, by right, the children of God. It is a right and a blessing. But with rights come responsibilities >> just as “the Word became flesh”… we need to be the “flesh” of the Word in our own circles of influence >> family… work… play… etc. We need to show our people what Jesus looks like.

Great stuff! Keep up the great work Thomas. I’m excited to see how it this continues.

Community testimonies

Last week James and Mary shared their testimony for our community group. I wish you could have all heard it – but what happens at community group… stays at community group. 🙂
As a follow up to last week’s testimony Gaylan shared his testimony for us as well last night – just as awesome.

There’s just something about people sharing their testimony and how God has worked in their life that is encouraging and helps build community. And when we can see others being honest I think it encourages us to be honest as well.

Both weeks I modeled the testimonies after our November series at encounter. Each year 3 or 4 people (or couples) have been interviewed by Brian during the month of November to share their various testimonies. These seem to be some of our most highly attended services as well as our top downloaded podcasts throughout the year. So it was great bringing this idea down a few notches and making it work in our small group. In fact for James and Mary I just used the list of questions that Brian asked them several years back in the early days of encounter.

But I got to thinking last night, this is something that any group can do with little or no preparation – just a willing individual or individuals. The questions may differ but they are built around 3 main questions:

  • What was your life like before Christ?
  • How did Christ call you to be His disciple?
  • What is your life like after coming to know Christ?

Those are the basic questions to build an interview from. Hopefully with people in our community groups we know a little more background of the individuals and we can ask more detailed questions about specific situations – but even with those three questions I think we can all add transparency and honesty to our community groups.

Any other thoughts or ideas that you’ve seen work?

re: Ragamuffin thoughts


grace – dearoot

Finished chapters 3 and 4 tonight after our community group (on a side note I think I’m feeling a bit queasy after an e-mail I just received)…

Here are some more quotes I loved from Manning:

We miss Jesus’ point entirely when we use his words as weapons against others. They are to be taken personally by each of us.

The trouble with our ideals is that if we live up to all of them, we become impossible to live with.

…we don’t comprehend the love of Jesus Christ. Oh, we see a movie and resonate to what a young man and woman will endure for romantic love. We know that when the chips are down, if we love wildly enough we’ll fling life and caution to the winds for the one we love. But when it comes to God’s love in the broken, blood-drenched body of Jesus Christ, we get antsy and start to talk about theology, divine justice, God’s wrath and the heresy of universalism.

The saved sinner is prostrate in adoration, lost in wonder and praise. He knows repentance is not what we do in order to earn forgiveness; it is what we do because we have been forgiven. … the sequence of forgiveness and then repentance, rather than repentance and then forgiveness, is crucial for understanding the gospel of grace.

I LOVE THAT! How true and how often we forget. “You must repent and live up to our guidelines for membership before we’ll forgive you.” “You must repent and clean yourself up before we’ll let you into our fellowship.” “You can’t hold on to any of your bad habits if you want to be a part of our fellowship.” Oh if only each of us could understand God’s grace.

“Grace, grace. God’s grace. Grace that is greater than all my sins. Grace, grace. God’s grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse within.”