Connexion

ET phone home...

Home is ultimately not about a place to live but about the people with whom you are most fully alive. Home is about love, relationship, community and belonging, and we are all searching for home.

Erwin Raphael McManus, Soul Cravings, Entry 8

Your mouth and you are connected...

I was in a meeting last week. It was a good meeting: The conversation was stimulating. The participants were lively. Everyone was invited to participate, and many did. I found myself listening though... In fact, there were a couple of times that I started to speak, but I didn't. Moments like that are pretty rare for me. I don't often "just" listen, typically I feel the need to say something. To be honest, I think a lot of times I speak up just to get attention - to be heard. Its rare when I say something that is truly profound or wise...

This morning I am preaching from this verse - Proverbs 10:31 - The mouth of the godly person gives wise advice, but the tongue that deceives will be cut off.

Have you ever thought about how much your mouth (what you say) reflects whats on the inside? Think about it for a second: Your mouth is the spokesperson for your soul.

Jesus said what's on the inside is reflected by our speech and James warns us constantly to watch what we say. I think its true: Your mouth and you are connected - so what does that say about you?

Don't assume you are good soil

Tonight at Phoenix we are digging in the dirt! aka we're doing a lesson from the parable of the soils...

In Francis Chan's book, Crazy Love, he makes a statement that pretty much rocked my world - He says, "Don't assume you are good soil." I think most of us do that - most of us think that we are on great footing with God - that we are exactly where he wants us... Most of us feel as if God plants the "seed" in our lives and we are responding correctly.

But have you read that passage lately?? It's found in Luke 8:4-15:

As they went from town to town, a lot of people joined in and traveled along. He addressed them, using this story: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. Some of it fell on the road; it was tramped down and the birds ate it. Other seed fell in the gravel; it sprouted, but withered because it didn't have good roots. Other seed fell in the weeds; the weeds grew with it and strangled it. Other seed fell in rich earth and produced a bumper crop. "Are you listening to this? Really listening?" His disciples asked, "Why did you tell this story?" He said, "You've been given insight into God's kingdom—you know how it works. There are others who need stories. But even with stories some of them aren't going to get it:

Their eyes are open but don't see a thing,
Their ears are open but don't hear a thing.

"This story is about some of those people. The seed is the Word of God. The seeds on the road are those who hear the Word, but no sooner do they hear it than the Devil snatches it from them so they won't believe and be saved. "The seeds in the gravel are those who hear with enthusiasm, but the enthusiasm doesn't go very deep. It's only another fad, and the moment there's trouble it's gone. "And the seed that fell in the weeds—well, these are the ones who hear, but then the seed is crowded out and nothing comes of it as they go about their lives worrying about tomorrow, making money, and having fun. "But the seed in the good earth—these are the good-hearts who seize the Word and hold on no matter what, sticking with it until there's a harvest.

I think that for too long, we've interpreted this verse as a lesson on salvation - and not a lesson on growth. I think God is a farmer and he's constantly planting seeds in our lives ...the problem is that we are terrible soil! We let all kinds of things get in the way, we sometimes don't even listen, and often we are too busy with our own stuff...

What kind of soil would HE say you are?

National Day of Prayer

Today is the National Day of Prayer. Its a day where American Christians devote themselves to pray for the country, their churches, and for their families... All good things - so if you haven't yet today - stop and pray!

...I spent time today in the ICU room of one of our members, Willie. His kidneys are shutting down after some recent surgery to remove a stomach tumor. The family was out, so it was just me, Willie, and God. Sometimes pastoring really isn't any fun at all.

...later today I'm going golfing. I actually think it will be a nice time of reflection - none of my normal golfing buddies could escape - so it will be me, the greens, and God for a few hours...

An odd day... (and maybe a lesson)

Yesterday I woke up feeling like death warmed over. It was a combination of some insomnia and sinus/allergy stuff - but my right eye literally hurt, I was coughing, typical Austin spring crappiness... But - I had 4 meetings scheduled. There was no way I was going to call 4 people and say, "Let's reschedule" so away I went.

Odd thing though was that as the day went on, I started feeling better. It wasn't because my health got better - but rather, I started feeling better because the meetings I had were energizing! Each of my meetings were with people that were wanting to talk about the kingdom... Not just talking about church, each meeting challenged me to rethink some things I was currently doing spiritually and re-orient myself toward the kingdom of God. I left each meeting encouraged, inspired, challenged ...and feeling better.

Then I took out my "feeling bad" on our boys soccer team! I became that coach that ran your legs off... That felt kind of good too! Every now and again, they need to work :)

Deadly diseases of the Church

Last week for Crestview, I started a message series called "Outbreak" It's a message series that looks at the diseases of the Church - the stuff church members often spread instead of spreading the good news!

We covered "Pastor feed Me" disease last week. I used Wayne Cordeiro's S.O.A.P. acrostic to teach people how they really could "feed" themselves. I also had a chance to discuss that concept with my 10 year old and we are about to start him journaling using that simple SOAP method...

This week I'm covering "Me-itis" and unpacking Philippians 2:3-11. How many churches have been ruined by people who think "it's all about me, serve me, love me, feed me?" If only we could see past ourselves to another - and see past our own agendas to the call of Christ and his bride!

I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on what diseases plague the church - really! Feel free to comment and give me your great ideas - I'll gladly use them and turn them into a great sermon :)

• What disease do you see most commonly?
• What are the symptoms, side-effects, etc.?
• What's the cure?

The brutality of the crucifixion

As I prepared for this mornings message this week, I focused on Mark 15. The description of Jesus' crucifixion doesn't do justice to the horror that he must have endured...

Flogging was designed to tear the body apart, exhaust the recipient, and lead to an easier death on the cross...

Isaiah 53:3-6 says...
He was despised and rejected—
      a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
   We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
      He was despised, and we did not care.
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
      it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
   And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion,
      crushed for our sins.
   He was beaten so we could be whole.
      He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
      We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
   Yet the Lord laid on him
      the sins of us all.

Reading God's Word with an open mind

I started a new discipleship group today. I'm meeting with a guy once a week and we are using Neil Cole's Life Transformation Group as our MO. It's a pretty basic process: Read a lot of scripture - Ask accountability questions - pray for lost friends.

We committed to read Philippians 10 times this past week - which neither of us made... It's amazing how difficult it can be going from a few verses a day to large chunks daily. Some have argued that Cole asks too much - but I disagree. I think there is beauty in reading a lot of scripture - there is tremendous power from being immersed in God's Word!

But... How you read scripture matters too! So many of us read because we are checking off the daily to-do list - or we read because we are studying for a lesson or message... When was the last time you opened the Bible and read, asking God to just speak to you?

If its been a while, let me encourage you to give it a try! Try reading the same chapters over and over again, and allow God to point out something to you. Allow him to speak... The Holy Spirit does that if you will let him - but I think its hard in our "One verse a day" world...

Bless those who curse you..

"Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you." Jesus in Luke 6:28

"But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!" Jesus in Matthew 5:44

At the prayer retreat that I was at this week, in one of the small groups, a pastor was sharing how a very large group of people had left his church and years later were still causing strife. I wanted to say, "Get over it!" I tend to just move past that kind of thing - although - I've never had that many people leave over one thing - heck I've barely ever had that many people!

As we prayed, one of the other ministers started quoting those verses and blessing those harmful, hateful folks... It was odd, the tension went away. Imagine if we could get to the place spiritually where we really wanted to see GOOD come from everything - even our pain... That Jesus guy, he was pretty smart!

It ain't easy though! Once hurt, a prayer of blessing is a hard thing to muster - maybe that's one more reason why we need fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. We don't see the need to pray for them - our prayers for them are asking God to remove them (gently) from this planet we call Earth! But wise counsel reminds us that if God did a work in them - yes even in them - amazing kingdom things could happen!

A Prayer Retreat

I've been at camp Buckner since yesterday lunch. I'm with a group of about 70 Austin area pastors. The only agenda is to pray... It's something I place on my calendar every year - last year in fact, it was here that I began to realize that God wanted to do something special in 2007 - later that year Phoenix Church was launched! It's a great day and a half of prayer and fellowship and thanks to ABBA it takes place, is well attended, and really a fun weekend.