Friday, November 18, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
A Thief In The Night Preview
I know this is not a serious post but I had to find this and share with you. For those who were not at MC on THursday I had mentioned that as a child there were times I worried that I missed the rapture. If you had watched these movies as a child you too might have been afraid! lol! If you are really interested there are a bunch more clips on YouTube, but I warn you the beheadin scenes are creepy!!!!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Serve
Thinking back to Jeff's teaching this past Sunday on "Missional", he mentioned that doing Missional can be hard. Since I'm not allowed to raise my hand during the teaching, I'll ask it here...honestly, we have to each ask ourselves this if we truly want to call ourselves followers of Christ:
Why is doing Missional hard?
Be honest w/ yourself...
Why is doing Missional hard?
Be honest w/ yourself...
Friday, April 15, 2011
Thoughts in Jonah
I thought I would share with all of you my various journaled thoughts on Jonah:
Jonah went to distract himself from God. He wasn't going to Tarshish to sacrifice babies or rape and pillage the land, he was just going to do something other than what God wanted.
"Why have you done this?" Why would you run from the God who made the sea and the dry land? People talk of being rational and reasonable - what is more reasonable than doing the will of God? He made everything. He probably knows how to take care of it.
I want to know the awe that the sailors felt. Don't let me lose sight of Your Awesomeness through familiarity.
"Now the Lord had prepared a great fish." He was ready and waiting for Jonah. But He didn't speak to the fish until Jonah said his prayer. God gave the opportunity but waited for repentance to take action.
"They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy." - Jonah's proverb to himself in the midst of his prayer. When you think you can do your own thing because of how great you are, you are actively rejecting God.
We undervalue people. Plants and pets are cool because they do what we want them to, but people annoy and infuriate us. We notice the person that is putting himself in our way, ignore those that don't, and show special favor to those like us that want the same things as us. While I don't think we necessarily need to go out of our way to find people that irritate us, we do need to love. We need to love more than we do. Because God loves more than we do.
Jonah went to distract himself from God. He wasn't going to Tarshish to sacrifice babies or rape and pillage the land, he was just going to do something other than what God wanted.
"Why have you done this?" Why would you run from the God who made the sea and the dry land? People talk of being rational and reasonable - what is more reasonable than doing the will of God? He made everything. He probably knows how to take care of it.
I want to know the awe that the sailors felt. Don't let me lose sight of Your Awesomeness through familiarity.
"Now the Lord had prepared a great fish." He was ready and waiting for Jonah. But He didn't speak to the fish until Jonah said his prayer. God gave the opportunity but waited for repentance to take action.
"They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy." - Jonah's proverb to himself in the midst of his prayer. When you think you can do your own thing because of how great you are, you are actively rejecting God.
We undervalue people. Plants and pets are cool because they do what we want them to, but people annoy and infuriate us. We notice the person that is putting himself in our way, ignore those that don't, and show special favor to those like us that want the same things as us. While I don't think we necessarily need to go out of our way to find people that irritate us, we do need to love. We need to love more than we do. Because God loves more than we do.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Isaiah on Fasting
Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke;
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter -
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn....
I am meditating on this passage today.
This is what I think God is calling me to, our group to, the Church to...
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke;
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter -
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn....
I am meditating on this passage today.
This is what I think God is calling me to, our group to, the Church to...
Journal
Since I won't be at group tonight (2nd part of Varsity District Meet--will let y'all know about Regionals!), I figured I would post a little something on here to share with y'all. I left my journal at home and I'm writing at school (I know, not supposed to use time on the job for personal business, but who really follows that rule?).
When reading Jonah this week, I honestly only got through the first chapter or so until this morning while my cross country kiddos were running around the school, so I don't have a ton of interesting reflections, but a few things did cross my mind.
I am so much like Jonah, it scares/frustrates/embarrasses me."But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish." This sounds strikingly similar to the phrase in our corporate confessional of "We are running from Creation and our Creator." I know we should always have in mind what "big" thing God is calling us to do, but I think it's equally important to acknowledge daily (for me, many times during the day) when we don't obey God and what he calls us to do.
The funny thing is that, like Jonah, once I recognize my mistake and actually feel bad about not obeying God, I get down on myself and talk to God a bit like Jonah talked to the sailors on the boat. “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
One really important part of the book, in my opinion, is the difference in the time it takes for Jonah to respond and obey God's direction versus the people of Nineveh. It seems when reading the story that as soon as Jonah deliveredthe message from God, "The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth."6 It says, "When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust." Jonah literally had to have a team of others to force him to face what God was asking of him after literally running away from Him.
The application part of this book for me is to not just to hear God and acknowledge what he calls me to do and how he calls me to live, but also that I must not delay. Rather, I need to immediately turn from things that do not glorify Him and live how he is calling me to live.
~Sam
When reading Jonah this week, I honestly only got through the first chapter or so until this morning while my cross country kiddos were running around the school, so I don't have a ton of interesting reflections, but a few things did cross my mind.
I am so much like Jonah, it scares/frustrates/embarrasses me."But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish." This sounds strikingly similar to the phrase in our corporate confessional of "We are running from Creation and our Creator." I know we should always have in mind what "big" thing God is calling us to do, but I think it's equally important to acknowledge daily (for me, many times during the day) when we don't obey God and what he calls us to do.
The funny thing is that, like Jonah, once I recognize my mistake and actually feel bad about not obeying God, I get down on myself and talk to God a bit like Jonah talked to the sailors on the boat. “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
One really important part of the book, in my opinion, is the difference in the time it takes for Jonah to respond and obey God's direction versus the people of Nineveh. It seems when reading the story that as soon as Jonah deliveredthe message from God, "The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth."6 It says, "When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust." Jonah literally had to have a team of others to force him to face what God was asking of him after literally running away from Him.
The application part of this book for me is to not just to hear God and acknowledge what he calls me to do and how he calls me to live, but also that I must not delay. Rather, I need to immediately turn from things that do not glorify Him and live how he is calling me to live.
~Sam
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Not Just About Chocolate
Most of you know that I was raised Catholic, and the time of year where it is most noticeable that you are Catholic to non-Catholics is during lent. This was especially true for me since most of the people in my family were Southern Baptists. So at best, we were always a little weird during this time of year. Growing up, there wasn’t really this deeper understanding of what fasting during lent meant. For the most part, it was the time of year when you didn’t eat chocolate, or drink cokes, or eat candy. But it wasn’t until I got much older, and really tried to understand the meaning behind fasting, did the significance to fasting during lent really make sense.
There is so much more to fasting than just giving something up. The prophet Isaiah exclaims “Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?” And we have learned, the answer to all of these questions is no. God does not call us to fast just for the sake of fasting. God calls us to be renewed people. God calls us to live as He created us to live. We know we fall short of those intentions often, and one of the major benefits of fasting during lent, is it allows us time to focus on the areas of our lives where we have not lived as God has intended us to live. It allows us to focus on the areas of our lives where we have grown apart from who God has created us to be. It allows us to notice the things in our life that we are running from. And THOSE things are the things that we fast from. Those are the things that we choose to give up for lent. Not just to start them back up in 40 days once Easter comes, but instead to use lent as a catalyst to transform our lives to be more like the people God has created us to be. For some of us, that may mean giving up trips to the mall. For some of us, that may mean less time with our best friend the television. For some of us that may mean stopping our visits to websites on the computer that we just shouldn’t be visiting. However, for some of us it may not be giving anything up at all. It could be taking on something that we need to take on to start walking toward the fulfilled life God calls us to. We could be called to spend more time with our family instead of our work. We could be called to intentionally step into scripture more often. We could be called to get into better shape, instead of taking these bodies that God has blessed us with for granted. We could be called to literally call the people in our lives who we know we have hurt and ask for forgiveness. I’m not sure what it is that you may have to take on or what you may have to give up for this lent. You may not know what it is. That is part of why we fast together on Thursdays, when our stomach grumbles and the hunger pains become more frequent, let them become for us our call to prayer. A prayer that God would show us the areas where we need true fasting, and a prayer asking for strength to take the steps to live the life He calls us to live. For you, you just may need to give up chocolate. But one thing we should know about fasting, it’s not just about chocolate.
(Copy and paste this address for the teaching about fasting from last year’s gathering into your address bar…please listen: http://ecclesiaclearlake.org/2010/02/ )
There is so much more to fasting than just giving something up. The prophet Isaiah exclaims “Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?” And we have learned, the answer to all of these questions is no. God does not call us to fast just for the sake of fasting. God calls us to be renewed people. God calls us to live as He created us to live. We know we fall short of those intentions often, and one of the major benefits of fasting during lent, is it allows us time to focus on the areas of our lives where we have not lived as God has intended us to live. It allows us to focus on the areas of our lives where we have grown apart from who God has created us to be. It allows us to notice the things in our life that we are running from. And THOSE things are the things that we fast from. Those are the things that we choose to give up for lent. Not just to start them back up in 40 days once Easter comes, but instead to use lent as a catalyst to transform our lives to be more like the people God has created us to be. For some of us, that may mean giving up trips to the mall. For some of us, that may mean less time with our best friend the television. For some of us that may mean stopping our visits to websites on the computer that we just shouldn’t be visiting. However, for some of us it may not be giving anything up at all. It could be taking on something that we need to take on to start walking toward the fulfilled life God calls us to. We could be called to spend more time with our family instead of our work. We could be called to intentionally step into scripture more often. We could be called to get into better shape, instead of taking these bodies that God has blessed us with for granted. We could be called to literally call the people in our lives who we know we have hurt and ask for forgiveness. I’m not sure what it is that you may have to take on or what you may have to give up for this lent. You may not know what it is. That is part of why we fast together on Thursdays, when our stomach grumbles and the hunger pains become more frequent, let them become for us our call to prayer. A prayer that God would show us the areas where we need true fasting, and a prayer asking for strength to take the steps to live the life He calls us to live. For you, you just may need to give up chocolate. But one thing we should know about fasting, it’s not just about chocolate.
(Copy and paste this address for the teaching about fasting from last year’s gathering into your address bar…please listen: http://ecclesiaclearlake.org/2010/02/ )
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