Baby is here

Abigail Hope is here! She weighed 7lbs 11oz and 20 inches long. She is a beautiful creation of God. I will have pics up soon. We have family in town and church friends bringing us food for a few weeks; life is good.

Mowing my grass

What a topic huh? "Mowing my Grass". You start to wander why people read blogs when we put up titles like "Mowing my Grass". Well, who said anyone is reading this blog anyway? Ha!

I love to think about God being a God of order. From the way He puts our bodies and minds together to the order or the universe and atmosphere. Things are neat and in place with God.

We as human beings love order as well. Do we do it well? That is another question. There is something about unmowed (not a word, at least spell check said so) grass and a messy yard that doesn't look good, or looks like "white trash" as my wife says. It's weird because although it is messy, something in us still doesn't always want to clean it up, or in this case mow it up, but once we do it we feel good and things seem to be in order. That's it. I'm finished. Nothing too deep, just go and mow your grass and I'll mow mine and together we will not look like "white trash".

Jesus didn't play

When speaking of the Pharisees, Sadducee's, religious leaders and whoever else possibly came to disprove Jesus, he did not play around. As I continue my study of Matthew and see how Jesus related to people, I see how he had compassion and loved the crowds, taught his disciples and ripped the Pharisees a new one.

Jesus constantly took down their logic, and reminded them of the scriptures. In chapters 21 and 22 are filled with Jesus talking with and to the Pharisees. In chapter 23 he rips them apart.

I think that Jesus did not receive them well because of a few things. Just to mention one, Jesus saw their pride. That is one of the main thing about the Pharisees, they "knew" it all, but yet they really missed it all. A sad verse for the Pharisees is when Jesus said, "For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people's faces. You wont go in yourselves, and you don't let others in either." Jesus constantly uses the phrase "What sorrow awaits you."

We need to make sure that, as Christ followers, that we follow Christ. It can be easy for us to shift and become like the Pharisees if we do not watch out. And as we see, Jesus was not too fond of them, to say the least.

Working out

I love working out. When I work out I start eating a little better as well. I am getting back in the rhythm and am getting near my old record goals. For some reason it feels good to push 200+ pounds off your chest a few times. Hopefully by this summer I will get back to 320lbs bench. Yes, I am bragging, I worked for it.

OK let me get spiritual. Working out and our spiritual lives are a lot alike. Both take discipline and consistency. It helps to have an accountability partner both. You also see results in both. I hope I stay as pumped about my spiritual walk as I am with my work out plan.

Out of Imagination: Mark Batterson

I read this from Mark and thought it was great. So, he is writing my blog today.

All the speakers at Awaken have ten minutes to speak. I knew it was going to fly by, but what a rush of adrenaline. Serious time warp! I had to start wrapping up the minute I started ramping up! Thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I decided to speak on one of the greatest dangers we face as leaders. Neurological studies have shown that over the course of time, there is a cognitive shift from right-brain to left-brain. And if we don't find a way to stop the shift, memory overtakes imagination. We stop creating the future and start repeating the past. We stop innovating and start imitating. We stop doing ministry out of imagination and start doing ministry out of memory.

A few years ago I read something R.T Kendall wrote that impacted me: "The greatest opposition to what God is doing today comes from those who were on the cutting edge of what God was doing yesterday."

I don't want that to be me!

One of the byproducts of the neurological shift away from right-brain imagination toward left-brain logic is that we become too logical. And it seems fitting on April Fool's Day to say that great leaders are illogical. The people God uses the most are people that aren't afraid of looking foolish. In fact, if you aren't willing to look foolish you're foolish!

I shared a little bit of our coffeehouse experience in my ten minutes. I still remember feeling so foolish when I called the previous owners of 201 F Street, NE. It was owned by two Jewish lawyers. NCC was only about 100-150 people at that point. And we didn't have one red cent in the bank. It felt foolish asking if they would sell the property when we didn't even have the capability of buying it. But that's one dimension of faith--the willingness to look foolish.

I Corinthians 1:27 says that God uses foolish things to shame the wise. Nothing has changed. He still uses fools. So maybe the church should adopt April Fool's Day and make it a holy day!

meetings

I love to meet with people. It does not matter what we meet about or talk about; just spending time with people energizes me. God has definitely wired me to be a net-worker. I met with Hung and Wayne on Monday for mentoring. They totally challenge me and pour wisdom in my life. I met with my friend Joe yesterday and was encouraged about his ministry and how ripe it was. Today I met with Shannon, Chris and Michael. Some stuff was planning and some discussion.

I am encouraged when I meet with people. It does not even matter what we are meeting about. I think that it is just spending time with someone to encourage, challenge, think, pray and just talk about different things in life.

As I read through Matthew, I see how Jesus loved people. He was constantly with the crowds; wow, how he loved the crowds.

Be with people. Love people.

I do not like "Christian" Pharisees

I am studying the life of Christ in the book of Matthew. I can see why many people like Jesus, but do not like His followers. The crowds constantly followed Jesus. Every time Jesus was in an argument it was with a Pharisee. Many people today would not step a foot inside a church, but would probably hang out with Jesus all day if He came down in physical form again.

What's wrong with this picture? Everything. Christians are suppose to put together what the Scriptures say is the body of Christ. Many times we are perceived as a body of hypocrites or a body of people with an agenda. What happened to just loving people? Where did that go? There are a lot of "Christian" Pharisees out there.

We (I) need to realize the purpose of my life. It is not to convert people. It is to love people. Yeah I hope they put faith in Christ, but I have nothing to do with that, it is a sovereign God who saves. I hope today I would love people for who they are.