Technology

Excerpt from New Research Explores How Technology Drives Generation Gap | The Barna Update | The Barna Group

February 23, 2009

(Ventura, California) - Technology is fast becoming the latest driving force behind what is often called the "generation gap." While Americans of every age have become quite comfortable with and dependent on technology, a new study by The Barna Group explores how technology is shaping different experiences and expectations among generations.

Although all Americans - both young and old - benefit from technology, the generational divide brought on by digital tools is significant. The key findings of the research include the fact that each successive generation is adopting and using technology at a significantly greater pace than their predecessors. Yet, the study also shows the exponential reliance on digital tools among Americans under the age of 25.

...

Deciphering the Results

The survey data points to a number of conclusions, according to David Kinnaman, president of The Barna Group:

1. Even though young people are sometimes called the "Net Generation," every age segment is becoming dependent on the Internet. In fact, because Boomers and Busters represent about two-thirds of the adult population, they are far more numerous users of technology than are adults under the age of 25. For instance, the majority of online purchases are made by those between the age of 30 and 55. And many of the bloggers, music downloaders and users of social networking websites are from the Boomer and Buster cohorts.
2. Still, despite the preponderance of middle-age technology users, the nation's youngest adults (Mosaics) are light-years ahead in their personal integration of these technologies, even blazing beyond the comfort of Busters. While Busters differ dramatically from their predecessors, Mosaics are even further down the path of integrating technologies into their lifestyles. On effect of this is that younger adults do not think of themselves as consumers of content; for better and for worse, they consider themselves to be content creators.
3. All Americans are increasingly dependent on new digital technologies to acquire entertainment, products, content, information and stimulation. However, older adults tend to use technology for information and convenience. Younger adults rely on technology to facilitate their search for meaning and connection. These technologies have begun to rewire the ways in which people - especially the young - meet, express themselves, use content and stay connected.
4. For church leaders, it is notable that a minority of churchgoing Mosaics and Busters are accessing their congregation’s podcasts and website. While technology keeps progressing and penetrating every aspect of life, churches have to work hard to keep pace with the way people access and use content, while also instructing churchgoers on the potency of electronic tools and techniques.
5. Since technology is pervasive, many of the age-old questions about human development and human flourishing are taking on new dimension. How does technology help or hinder communication, or for that matter, relationships between the generations? Are social skills better or worse? Are reading and writing skills improving or not? And what does adequate preparation for tomorrow’s workforce look like? Educators, parents, youthworkers and other leaders must continually fine-tune their responses to these issues.

...

(link found at EdStetzer.Com )

Spirit to spirit

Outcomes vs. Inputs by Mark Batterson | Evotional

I'm at a place in my life where I don't care about outcomes. I'm focused on inputs. I don't care about extrinsics. I'm focused on intrinsics. If we simply do the right things, God is going to bless it. Period.

Throughout my ministry, I've found that when I focus on numbers I get easily discouraged or distracted. Numbers can easily become more important than people. And it generally leads toward pride or jealousy. And what we need to do is refocus on doing the rights things: meditate on God's word, pray through, obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit, genuinely love people. And when you do the right things, everything takes care of itself.

To put it another way, I'm not concerned about church growth. I'm concerned about personal growth. And if you're experiencing personal growth, church growth will take care of itself.

I feel like God gave me a promise today while I was praying. I'm careful sharing things like these. I didn't hear an audible voice. I never have! But God speaks Spirit to spirit. And I felt like the Lord impressed this simple thought on me: if you pray twice as much you'll accomplish twice as much. I think sometimes ministry becomes a hamster's wheel. We do more and accomplish less. On one level we think, if I pray more I'll have less time to do what needs to be done. But if you pray, maybe it'll take half as long.

Here's what I'm getting at. I feel like the Lord was saying: write less and pray more. Same with preaching prep. I'm not saying you shouldn't study, but what do you think will have more impact? Twenty hours of study? Or fifteen hours of study plus five hours of prayer?

Well-Being

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Jeremiah 29:7

Light, Hope, Peace

“God of This City”
Chris Tomlin

You’re the God of this city
You’re the King of these people
You’re the Lord of this nation
You are

You’re the light in this darkness
You’re the hope to the hopeless
You’re the peace to the restless
You are

For there is no-one like our God
There is no-one like our God

Greater things have yet to come
Greater things are still to be done
In this city
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things have still to be done here

You’re the Lord of creation
The creator of all things
You’re the King above all kings

You’re the strength in the weakness
You’re the love to the broken
You’re the joy in the sadness

Greater things have yet to come
Greater things have still to be done
In this city
Where glory shines from hearts alive
With praise for You and
Love for you in this city

Inane Discussions

Run away from infantile indulgence. Run after mature righteousness—faith, love, peace—joining those who are in honest and serious prayer before God. Refuse to get involved in inane discussions; they always end up in fights. God's servant must not be argumentative, but a gentle listener and a teacher who keeps cool, working firmly but patiently with those who refuse to obey. You never know how or when God might sober them up with a change of heart and a turning to the truth, enabling them to escape the Devil's trap, where they are caught and held captive, forced to run his errands.

2 Timothy 2: 22-26 (The Message)

Self-Control

A person without self-control
is like a house with its doors and windows knocked out.

Proverbs 25:28 (The Message)

Father's Love

Chris Tomlin God Is On Our Side Lyrics

Everyone around the world
Hear the joyful sound
See the heavens open up
Hear the music coming down
Nothing's gonna separate us from the Father's love
I can't help but celebrate
'Cause we're not alone

...

Tertium Quid

It is hard for us to realize this today, but when Christianity first arose in the world it was not called a religion. It was the non-religion. Imagine the neighbors of early Christians asking them about their faith. "Where's your temple?" they'd ask. The Christians would reply that they didn't have a temple. "But how could that be? Where do your priests labor?" The Christians would have replied that they didn't have priests. "But ... but," the neighbors would have sputtered, "where are the sacrifices made to please your gods?" The Christians would have responded that they did not make sacrifices anymore. Jesus himself was the temple to end all temples, the priest to end all priests, and the sacrifice to end all sacrifices.

No one had ever heard anything like this. So the Romans called them "atheists," because what the Christians were saying about spiritual reality was unique and could not be classified with the other religions of the world. This parable explains why they were absolutely right to call them atheists.

The irony of this should not be lost on us, standing as we do in the midst of the modern culture wars. To most people in our society, Christianity is religion and moralism. The only alternative to it (besides some other world religion) is pluralistic secularism. But from the beginning it was not so. Christianity was recognized as a tertium quid, something else entirely.

The crucial point here is that, in general, religiously observant people were offended by Jesus, but those estranged from religious and moral observance were intrigued and attracted to him. We see this throughout the New Testament accounts of Jesus's life. In every case where Jesus meets a religious person and a sexual outcast (as in Luke 7) or a religious person and a racial outcast (as in John 3-4) or a religious person and a political outcast (as in Luke 19), the outcast is the one who connects with Jesus and the elder-brother type does not. Jesus says to the respectable religious leaders "the tax collectors and the prostitutes enter the kingdom before you" (Matthew 21:31).

The Prodigal God by Tim Keller, pp. 14-15.

Freedom

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ

FREE TO LIVE

Galatians 5:18
If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law

Paul said that walking according to the Spirit is not license: an excessive or undisciplined freedom constituting an abuse of privilege. As a Christian you may see the phrase "You are not under the Law" in Galatians 5:18 and exclaim, "Wow, I'm free! Walking in the Spirit means I can do anything I want!" Not at all. In the previous verse Paul wrote, "You may not do the things that you please." Being led by the Spirit doesn't mean you are free to do anything you want to do. It means you are finally free to live a responsible, moral life--something you were incapable of doing when you were the prisoner of your flesh.

Once I was invited to speak to a religion class at a Catholic high school on the topic of Protestant Christianity. At the end of my talk, an athletic-looking, street-wise student raised his hand and asked, "Do you have a lot of don'ts in your church?"

Sensing that he had a deeper motive, I answered, "What you really want to ask me is if we have any freedom, right?" He nodded.

"Sure, I'm free to do whatever I want to do," I answered. "I'm free to rob a bank. But I'm mature enough to realize that I would be in bondage to that act for the rest of my life. I'd have to cover up my crime, go into hiding, or eventually pay for what I did. I'm also free to tell a lie. But if I do, I have to keep telling it, and I have to remember who I told it to and how I told it or I will get caught. I'm free to do drugs, abuse alcohol, and live a sexually immoral lifestyle. All of those 'freedoms' lead to bondage. I'm free to make those choices, but considering the consequences, would I really be free?"

What appears to be freedom to some people isn't really freedom, but a return to bondage (Galatians 5:1). God's laws, from which we seek to be free, are not restrictive, but protective. Your real freedom is your ability to choose to live responsibly within the context of the protective guidelines God has established for our lives.

Prayer:

Thank You, Lord, for the privilege I have to choose to live in freedom. Help me not to abuse that privilege today and find myself in bondage.

Banquet

Excerpt from Liquid Leadership for a Third-Culture Church by Dave Gibbons | Out of Ur

The following is an excerpt from Dave Gibbons’ new book The Monkey and the Fish (Zondervan, 2009).

The church is called to be a third-culture community. Third culture is about the two purposes of life for every Christ follower: loving God and loving your neighbor.

Without question, there are a lot of effective strategies and fruitful ideas being used in the church and in ministry today. Third culture is not simply a strategy but the way we are to live. One may not be naturally third culture, but we are called to move toward this vision. It seems that more than ever the world is open to such leadership. I say this simply because we have experienced it in communities where we seriously pursued a third-culture lifestyle in diverse cultural contexts spanning several continents and saw how people gravitate toward this adaptive, liquid-type leader.

...

That whole scene reminds me of a story in Luke 14 about another banquet that is jam-packed with prophetic power for us in the new millennium.

Jesus tells the story of a great feast being prepared in the kingdom of God. The host of the banquet has worked feverishly and is enthusiastic about this feast. So he dispatches a servant to visit all of the people who were invited to the banquet to make sure they are coming. One by one, however, they all tell the servant they aren’t going to be able to attend. They’re busy attending to transactions and urgent matters. They appreciate the invitation but have to take a rain check.

In response, the deeply disappointed host deploys his servant to go throughout the city to invite everyone he sees to the banquet—the homeless, the crippled, the lame, the poor, anyone he encounters. The servant lobs invitations to all comers, and before long, it’s clear the banquet tables are going to be filled after all with all manner of grateful, joyful people, people who are not too busy. Jesus quietly closes with the haunting admonition that not one of the people who were originally invited will taste the greatest buffet of all time.

Like all of Jesus’ parables, there’s plenty of mystery in this story for us to burrow into. What did he mean by this sad, jarring story? Well, to me, there’s a message for us in the church today.

As I travel to different nations, I see God’s beautiful sculpting hand creatively at work, as unmistakable as it is unobtrusive. Spectacular spiritual shifts are occurring. But I wonder if the church is sometimes too busy, too distracted, too inwardly focused to sense all that’s happening, all that could be, all that will be—with us or without us. Is it possible that we are so consumed with managing churches and ministries and organizations that we’re missing out on an international spiritual banquet like we’ve never seen before? Is it possible that the reality of the new world we’re living in gives the church an opportunity we’ve never had before, a chance for the church to be what we’ve always dreamed it could be?

...

In writing this book, my hope is that we will sacrificially foster and prioritize next-generation thinking, next-generation methods, and next-generation leaders in the church so that the global movement Jesus began will be known first and foremost for sharing love without strings, healing, extravagant radical compassion, and radical reconciliation with the world so lovingly breathed into existence by our creator.

Authors@Google

Tim Keller, Authors@Google, March 5, 2008, discussing his book The Reason for God.

This is admittedly long (just over an hour), but is well worth the time to hear Tim Keller's talk and then his response to the audience questions.

Elder Brothers

Jesus's teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If our churches aren't appealing to younger brothers, they must be more full of elder brothers than we'd like to think.

Tim Keller, The Prodigal God [pp. 15-16]

Missio Dei

"Here is the inescapable truth: If we want to follow God's will -- if we want to fall in line with the story of biblical history, if we truly want to be followers of Jesus in the world -- then we need to understand God's sending -- and respond to it. But don't miss this key element in that statement: It's God's mission. We derive our mission from the missio Dei. We don't go because Bono or Bill Gates are going. We don't go because the planet is in peril. We don't even go because we want to help people. Of course we want to help, and we don't want to turn away when we recognize wrong that need to be righted, but those aren't the main things. We go because we are joining God in His mission."

Sent: Living the Missional Nature of the Church by Ed Stetzer, page 4.

More Joy

Psalm 4: 6-8 (The Message)

Why is everyone hungry for more? "More, more," they say.
"More, more."
I have God's more-than-enough,
More joy in one ordinary day

Than they get in all their shopping sprees.
At day's end I'm ready for sound sleep,
For you, God, have put my life back together.

---

Excerpt from Psalm 4: The Who post at Miscellanies:

...

So can we be happy if God takes away all our stuff—or even worse?

In this Psalm, David was surrounded by trials and temptations and loss. David was cornered, he was hunted by his own son who usurped his throne, he was both the target of slander and defenseless to it, he was pierced with the hot lead of gossip fired from the barrel of loose tongues, he was humiliated publicly, he was surrounded by lies that further undermined his authority, and he was even brought down low by his friends, who became a cloud of doom further darkening his life.

This Psalm perplexes those of us in a western materialistic climate, because despite experiencing the loss of everything, David was filled with joy. He had joy because he had God.

Communion with God was David’s joy, a joy untouched by the slander, untouched by the loss, untouched by the outward gloom, a sweet fellowship enjoyed in reflection and prayer in the quiet peacefulness of night, those dark hours when the terror of anxiety often breaks into the silence with piercing screams to steal and destroy joy, moments now calmed for communion with God.

It was God who deposited this joy in David’s heart, a joy similar to the joy filling the heart during times of material abundance and prosperity, but a different joy altogether, a joy untethered from physical comforts, untethered from the approval of others, untethered from the plunge of Wall Street.

We, too, can find this joy if we find it in God, as we walk in God’s Word, as we know Him, as we love Him, as we delight in His goodness. And as we walk this path, joy, untouchable by circumstances, fills our hearts.

It is a good thing, and rightly do we enjoy, a bank account with money, a table with food, and several pair of clothes. These gifts each flow from God’s generosity towards each of us. But the possessions are small, temporary gifts compared to the fountain of joy He offers us.

To have God as our own, being united to Him through the death of His Son on the cross, is to possess the source of all joy, not merely enjoying temporary gifts, but to directly enjoy God, who is the source of our “infinite, self-sufficient, all-sufficient, essential, overflowing good” (Edwards).

This is the one secret to joy and happiness that you will not find printed in 40-point fluorescent green font on the cover of a magazine cover in the check-out line at the grocery store:

Get God, then seek Him all of your days, and discover with the Psalmist that the source of eternal joy is not in the what, it’s in the Who.

Mission

Excerpt from Missional Tribe Interview with Ed Stetzer

MT: Any practical advice to pastors and leaders on how to ensure that proclamation (as Frost would put it) is not de-emphasized in their efforts to move their faith communities toward a more missional stance?

Ed: I think you have to see it as one mission but with different facets.

To see all of this as one mission requires a biblical understanding of the gospel and the mission. The beginning point is to bring people into the mission (by seeing them become believers and followers of the King); the second phase involves forming groups of these believers together into transformational units (churches); the third aspect involves fulfilling the one mission (of bringing more into the mission AND serving the hurting) to the point that societal and cultural impact takes place.

While these often do not happen in a perfectly sequential way, a progression can be witnessed or identified. Hence, because of the order some conclude that a priority of evangelism exists. It is a fair statement, but incomplete.

A "priority" often creates a dichotomy where there can only be one. It is not either/or. Really, it is not even "both/and"--it is "one mission." Churches that choose to join God on his one mission see the transformation of individuals because it is intensely evangelistic, the transformation of cooperative units as new congregations are formed, and the transformation of society because it cares about the world, because Jesus called the church to advance His kingdom in the world.

Perhaps a solution to our false trichotomy can be found by understanding the gospel and the Kingdom. Though the church is not the Kingdom of God, it is a sign and an instrument of the Kingdom. But, how does one enter the Kingdom? Well, by repenting of sin (a response to evangelism). Note the message and the response, "But when they believed Philip, as he proclaimed the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized" (Acts 8:12, HCSB).

As Christians we have an obligation to care about society--and the increasing evangelical consensus on the Kingdom of God calls us to plant new churches and engage in good works because of our Kingdom obligation. Jesus calls us to serve the poor and care about our communities so that we might obey the King and demonstrate His Kingdom, showing and sharing the good news of Jesus.

Thus, proclamation leads people to Christ who then join together in the larger mission. That mission is to see the world transformed by the gospel. The focus is to see people and society more like Jesus would have it be--and the church is the tool God uses to accomplish that agenda. The church is not the goal; the gospel of the Kingdom is the goal and the church is the tool. As such, we invite people to "repent and be baptized" (Acts 8:12) and then to be a part of the mission of Jesus to serve (Luke 4) and to save (Luke 19:10).

No Regrets

Lyrics (some) from The Motions by Matthew West

This might hurt
It`s not safe
But i know that i`ve gotta make a change
I don`t care
If i break
At least i`ll be feeling something
`cause just ok
Is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don`t wanna go through the motions
I don`t wanna go one more day
Without your all consuming passion inside of me
I don`t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if i had given everything?
Instead of going through the motions

No regrets
Not this time
I`m gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let your love
Make me whole
I think i`m finally feeling something

...

Battleground

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ

THE BATTLE OF THE MIND

Romans 7:25; 8:1
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! . . . There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus

Romans 7:22, 23, pinpoints the battleground for the contest between me and sin: "For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members."

Where does my desire to do what's right reside? Paul uses the phrase "the inner man," referring to my new self where my spirit and God's Spirit are in union. This is the eternal part of me. And where does sin wage its war to keep me from doing what I really want to do? In the physical members of my body (James 4:1). Sin operates through my flesh, that learned independence that continues to promote rebellion against God. This is the temporal part of me. Where then do these two opponents wage war (Galatians 5:17)? The battleground is my mind. That's why it is so important that we learn how to renew our minds (Romans 12:2) and to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Paul concluded his description of the contest between sin and the new self with the exclamation: "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24). Notice that he didn't say, "Sinful man that I am !" Wretched means miserable, and there is no one more miserable than the person who has allowed sin to reign in his mortal body. If we use our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness, we give the devil an opportunity in our lives, and he brings only misery.

The good news is that Romans 7:24 is followed by Romans 7:25 and Romans 8:1: "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! . . . There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." The battle for the mind is a winnable war.

Prayer:

Thank You, Jesus, for knowing me, understanding me, and providing for me a way of escape for every possible temptation.

New Name

Devotional by Christine Wyrtzen

AUTHORITY TO CHANGE A NAME

(Andrew) brought him to Jesus, Jesus looked at him, and said, "You are Simon the son of John, you shall be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter). John 1:42

Simon must have been astounded when Jesus called him by name, and then declared that he would change it to something else. The first was surprising since they had never met. The second was earth shattering.

For a Jew, which Simon was, changing a name was something only God did. A name was an important thing in that culture. It not only spoke of your identity but of your future calling. It is said that an orthodox Jew would have been excommunicated if he tried to change his name. He would be violating divine authority.

God changed the names of Abram, of Sarai, and of Jacob. Each change was due to God's call on their life and His touch on their identity. Simon's change to Peter was no different. The young man who stood in front of Jesus would hardly resemble the older apostle who would use his mouth so eloquently in defense of the Gospel of Christ. As a young disciple, He spoke recklessly and tainted the purposes of the kingdom.

God gives each of His children a brand new name. A few feel they know what it is now, but for most, it will be revealed privately in heaven. (Rev.2:17) He is our Creator, our "owner", and has all rights to name us, call us, and rewrite our destiny.

The question is this. Am I willing to disown the identity shaped by human will? Parents tell their children, "You talk too much. You're not as bright as your brother. You're lazy. Your mouth will always get you into trouble." I, as a child, soak in the labels and it can define me for a lifetime if I let it. When I became a child of God, He became my Father and I began to grow up with Him as my parent. His desire is for me to discover my new place, my real self, my true calling. My part is being willing to place the sacred ways of my family on the altar, renounce any ways of Egypt, in order to embrace my God-given identity. Who is "Christine - in Christ"? Who are "you - in Christ"? That is the question that calls us to prayer, study, reflection, and application.


Like Peter, I pray I don't resemble the young woman who came to you. May confidence and joy mark the rest of my days. In Jesus name, Amen

One-of-a-Kind Son of God

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

"This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is."

John 3: 16-21 (The Message)

Parts

^27-31You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything. You're familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his "body":

apostles
prophets
teachers
miracle workers
healers
helpers
organizers
those who pray in tongues.
But it's obvious by now, isn't it, that Christ's church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It's not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called "important" parts.

But now I want to lay out a far better way for you.

1 Corinthians 12 (The Message)

Heart Goes Out

Lyrics (partial) from Warren Barfield's My Heart Goes Out to You

She sat a table away
Staring into space
In her own little world
And I saw a tear in her eye
Like a window to the mind
Of a frightened little girl
She never said a word
But I know I clearly heard
A cry for help
And I wanted to answer
I wanted to tell her

CHORUS:
My heart goes out to you
You don't even know me
You don't even know
Oh my heart goes out to you
And I don't know what else to do
To reach you now
My heart goes out

But I'm still glued to my chair
She's unaware
There's little time
And though my intentions are good
If I'm misunderstood
The price could be high
I can't fix whatever's wrong
But if I fail to pass along
Someone cares
The price could be greater
This can't wait til later

BRIDGE:
For God has loved the world so much
He send His only Son
From Heaven to earth
Well there's a distance love covered
She's just a table over
All she needs is a shoulder

Knowing God

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ

YOUR CONCEPT OF GOD

Matthew 7:11
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

Most people in spiritual conflict have a distorted concept of God. Mentally they may have embraced correct theology, but emotionally they feel something different. True concepts of God are filtered through a grid of negative experiences to produce false concepts of God. These false concepts must be replaced by truth in order for freedom to be realized.

A pastor's wife who came to me for counseling told me about her rigidly moral home which was dominated by her demanding mother. The father was a wimp who knew better than to interrupt the mother's tirades against their daughter.

"You really love Jesus, don't you?" I asked the pastor's wife.

"Oh, yes," she responded.

"And you really love the Holy Spirit?"

"Yes, I do."

"But you don't even like God the Father, do you?"

She could only respond with tears. Her concept of the heavenly Father was distorted by the image of her earthly father. She perceived Jesus and the Holy Spirit as actively involved with her, but in her mind God the Father, like her earthly father, just sat around passive and uncaring while she went through torture in her life.

I often ask, "If you performed better, would God love you more?" Most people know the right answer: no. But when I ask if they feel loved by God, most express that they show more love and concern for their own children than they expect God to show for them (see Luke 11:9-13). This is all part of Satan's strategy to raise up thoughts against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:5). If the enemy can keep people from a true concept of God, he can destroy their hope in God.

Prayer:

Dear Father, I don't want any distorted concepts of You to come between us. Correct me where my concepts are wrong so I can know You in complete truth.

Lives Together

You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts—limbs, organs, cells—but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

...

The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

You are Christ's body—that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything.

1 Corinthians 12: 12-13, 25-27 (The Message)

Hearing God's Voice

You Can't Sing What You Can't Hear post from Mark Batterson

I recently read a fascinating story about a musical trainer who worked with Opera singers who could not hit certain notes within an Octave, even though the notes fell within their vocal range. It was a mystery. The trainer did extensive testing on their vocal chords, but he couldn’t find any reason why they couldn’t hit those notes. On a whim, he tested their hearing. And what he discovered is that these Opera singers could not sing a note they could not hear. The problem wasn’t singing. The problem was hearing.


Made me think of that phrase that is repeated throughout the New Testament: he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says. I think many of us are trapped in negative cycles or sinful habits or destructive addictions because we haven't heard the loving voice of our Heavenly Father say, "This is my child in whom I am well pleased."

When you start to hear the voice of God--His loving voice, His graceful voice, His assuring voice, His powerful voice--you begin to sing what you're heard. By the way, this is why it's so important to read the Word. When you open the Bible God opens His mouth.

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Great Is Your Faithfulness

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ

THE ULTIMATE FAITH-OBJECT

Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever

The fact that you claim to believe is not the issue of faith. It's what you believe or in whom you believe that will determine whether or not your faith will be rewarded. Everybody walks by faith every day. Every time you drive on the highway, you do so by faith. Are the objects of your faith on the highway reliable? Most of the time they are because most drivers drive safely. But you may have been involved in an accident because you placed your faith in another driver who proved to be untrustworthy.

What happens when the object of your faith fails you? You give up on it--maybe not immediately, but how many failures would you tolerate before saying never again? Once faith is damaged or lost, it is very difficult to regain. Your belief isn't the problem; it's the object of your belief that either rewards or destroys your f aith. If your marriage partner has been unfaithful to you, or a friend or relative has hurt you badly, your faith in that person is weak because he or she did not live up to your trust. When faith in a person is shattered, it may take months to rebuild it.

Some faith-objects, however, are solid. You set your watch, plan your calendar, and schedule your day believing that the earth will continue to revolve on its axis and rotate around the sun at its current speed. If the earth's orbit shifted just a few degrees, our lives would be turned to chaos. But so far the laws governing the physical universe have been among the most trustworthy faith-objects we have.

The ultimate faith-object, of course, is not the sun, but the Son. It is His immutability--the fact that He never changes--that makes Him eminently trustworthy (Numbers 23:19; Malachi 3:6). He has never failed to be and do all that He said He would be and do. He is eternally faithful.

Prayer:

All I have needed Your hand has provided. Great is Your faithfulness, Lord, unto me.

New Life Story

Excerpt from 2/3/09 email message from Sr. Pastor at St. Peter's Church, Mt. Pleasant, SC

I picked up the following example of the kind of transformation and conversion that takes place when you become a Christian from a friend of mine.

When a single man with a career as a fisherman falls in love, gets married and feels called to settle down and become a lawyer, he is, in a major way, switching the essential story lines of his life. He will have to rearrange his life to fit this new story.

No one would say that going to law school to get licensed as a lawyer was some sort of overzealousness or fanaticism. Few would think that by pledging to be faithful to the woman he loves that he was being overly exclusive.

No. He was simply taking appropriate and rational steps to fully live into his new life story once he made the decision to change from being a fisherman.

Becoming a Christian is a lot like this - it is a lot like you adopting a new life story. When you become a follower of Jesus you switch life stories, you enter the story of God. You no longer live for those things (whatever they were ... like fishing ... that used to define your life). And when the vision of a different life - life lived with Jesus in the Kingdom of God- is clear and compelling, when you have firmly decided to follow it, then you will begin to look for ways to implement it in your life.

Movie

Excerpt from A Good Look in the Mirror by Brandon Fibbs | Christianity Today about the movie we watched last night.

It is a very interesting, thought provoking and convicting movie.

Dan Merchant has an agenda, and he doesn't care who knows it.

"I want us all to have a conversation," he said while weaving his car through traffic, sandwiched between events promoting his new film, Lord Save Us From Your Followers. "My agenda is for people outside the faith to come away with a more complete picture of who Christians are, or are at least are trying to be.

"My agenda is for Christians to understand how we sound to others and actually listen to those who disagree with us or who don't understand us, instead of being so quick to fight. I think that some of the basic fundamentals of the gospel—love your enemy as yourself, love one another—have somehow been lost."

Merchant's documentary turns on a deceptively simple question: Why is the gospel of love dividing America? Christianity, he contends, is far more interested in the "gospel of being right" than the gospel of Jesus Christ. Fed up with the strident language and angry rhetoric that have come to define modern Christendom, Merchant, a veteran of the entertainment industry, set out to explore the flashpoint of faith and culture in America.

Merchant is ready with a quick answer for what he sees as Christianity's principal failings. With a nonchalant manner that miraculously never comes across as judgmental, Merchant zeroes in on politicians who use God to win elections, Christian organizations who bait the world and then cry foul when the world fights back, religious leaders who set themselves up to interpret global events as God's wrath, and the church's attitude toward abortion and homosexuality as its pet sins.

"We're not good at living the truth," he says. "I just want us all to live up to it instead of making excuses for why we can't. What grieves me the most is our ability to judge, dismiss and separate from other people, whether because of race, denomination, sexual orientation, divorce. We do a really good job of saying God came to save everyone—except you and you and you. We need to take a page from Jesus' radical compassion. The Lord's bar is as high as you can get: Love your enemy as yourself. I would just love the church to be better known for what it is for rather than what it is against."

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Get God

Body

Romans 12: 4-13 (The Message)

In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.

If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.

Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

Church

Dan Kimball (Vintage Faith) talks about being at "Recalibrating Church"

I am on the plane flying home from being at a really refreshing and wonderful 2 days up at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon. It was an event called "Recalibrating Church" that Shapevine and George Fox Seminary put on. The event was 4 hours long and it was done in the format with each presenter giving a 15-20 minute message. Then the panel would interact and ask questions and interact as well as those in attendance asking questions. As a presenter you sat on the stage for 4 hours while each person spoke and then interacted.

You can read recaps of the event here by Rick Meigs and another here by Janet Frazer.

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These are the thoughts of Tyler (manofdepravity.com) on what he heard:

Yesterday I had the unique chance to learn from Dan Kimball, Leonard Sweet, Frank Viola, Alan Hirsch, and Mary Kate Morse. It was a day to look at all things about the church universal and the local church in order to question: why and how. Here were some the highlight thoughts and quotes from the day for me (I’ll bold my favorites of the favorites):

• “So much of church is creating a sub-cultural bubble but not engaging with culture.” Dan Kimball
• “Everything has to be mission. There is a heaven and there is a hell.” Dan Kimball
• “Organic church life is not native to this planet. It began before time in the Godhead.” Frank Viola
• The winning of souls is not the end it is the beginning.
• “Leadership is not just something that someone brings into a room and accomplishes.” Mary Kate Morse
• “Most churches teach that the church is a living organism, but in my experience it is pious rhetoric.” Frank Viola
• “We need to do ministry to the body and be missional to the world.” Len Sweet
• “There are burning bushes everywhere.” Len Sweet
• “If the cutting edge is not Jesus Christ, you are chasing trees that have no squirrels.” Frank Viola
• “God does not exist in order for people to be saved.” Frank Viola
• “God is Christ-like.” Alan Hirsch

Peace

Christian Working Woman Transcript

Thursday, February 05, 2009 - Wisdom For the Workplace


Do you need a word of wisdom for the workplace today? My words of wisdom for today: Don’t let anxiety or fear rob you of God’s peace.

Are you feeling anxious about something today? Are you very disturbed over a situation in your life? Does it seem impossible to find any rest and peace right now? A passage in Isaiah 48 is very helpful when you are not at peace. Let’s look at verses 17 and 18 of that chapter:

This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

Anxiety and unrest are often a result of our failure to pay attention to what we know about God. Rarely do we need some new truth or principle to help us out; we just need to practice what we know already.

I find that I rarely make a deliberate decision to wander from God's principles. It's simply a failure to pay attention to what I know already. My focus gets fractured. I move slightly off-center, simply because I haven't paid attention like I should.

And when that happens, the results are loss of peace, loss of rest, anxiety, frustration. When you start to dig underneath those outward effects, you often discover that the cause is failure to pay attention to God's commands. It may be something that seems very small, but if we walk away from doing it God's way, we can expect to lose the peace and rest we so need.

The Lord told his people, "If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river." If you're missing peace in your life today, see if there's some area where you're not paying attention to God. Once you get that straightened out, that wonderful, marvelous, indescribable peace will return, like a river, flooding your heart and calming your nerves.

The Text of My Life

But me he caught—reached all the way
from sky to sea; he pulled me out
Of that ocean of hate, that enemy chaos,
the void in which I was drowning.
They hit me when I was down,
but God stuck by me.
He stood me up on a wide-open field;
I stood there saved—surprised to be loved!

God made my life complete
when I placed all the pieces before him.
When I got my act together,
he gave me a fresh start.
Now I'm alert to God's ways;
I don't take God for granted.
Every day I review the ways he works;
I try not to miss a trick.
I feel put back together,
and I'm watching my step.
God rewrote the text of my life
when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.

Psalm 18: 16-24 (The Message)

Children of Light

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ

AN ENTIRELY NEW SELF

Ephesians 5:8
You were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light

Ephesians 5:8 describes the essential change of nature which occurs at salvation. It doesn't say you were in darkness; it says you were darkness. Darkness was your nature, your very essence, as an unbeliever. Nor does it say you are now in the light; it says you are light. God changed your basic nature from darkness to light. The issue in this passage is not improving your nature. Your new nature is already determined. The issue is learning to walk in harmony with your new nature.

Why do you need the nature of Christ within you? So you can be like Christ, not just act like Him. God has not given us the power to imitate Him. He has made us partakers of His nature so that we can actually be like Him. You don't become a Christian by acting like one. We are not on a performance basis with God. He doesn't say, "Here are My standards, now you measure up." He knows you can't solve the problem of an old sinful self by simply improving your behavior. He must change your nature, give you an entirely new self--the life of Christ in you--which is the grace you need to measure up to His standards.

That was the point of His message in the Sermon on the Mount: "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:20). The scribes and Pharisees were the religious perfectionists of their day. They had external behavior down to a science, but their hearts were like the insides of a tomb: reeking of death. Jesus is only interested in creating new persons from the inside out by infusing in them a brand-new nature and creating in them a new self. Only after He changes your identity and makes you a partaker of His nature will you be able to change your behavior.

Prayer:

Dear Jesus, thank You for rescuing me from the kingdom of darkness and transferring me into Your marvelous light. I choose to walk as a child of light today.

Drama of the Eternal

Excerpt from Three Dramas that Drive Us by Skye Jethani | Out of Ur

At any given moment we are each engaged in three dramas, but only one of them ultimately matters.

First, there is the drama of the practical. These are the events and measurable conditions that surround us every day. For many church leaders the current drama of the practical involves the economic crisis and keeping their ministries solvent. At other times the drama of the practical is about increasing attendance, launching a new program, or financing a building campaign. Those men and women who learn to master the drama of the practical are often the most revered and celebrated. They know how to get things done so we buy their books, attend their conferences, and listen to their advice.

But there is a second drama that many practical actors ignore—the drama of the theoretical. While we are busy living our lives and doing our ministry, there is a deeper drama informing and guiding our decisions. This drama of the theoretical is where our assumptions and beliefs are at play; where our often unspoken philosophy of ministry is behind the scenes pulling the levers and pushing the buttons—what we believe about the church, mission, culture, and theology. Those with more reflective faculties are able to speak and identify this drama of the theoretical in a way many practical dramatists simply cannot. For this reason, as my college professor used to say, they often find themselves writing about the world rather than running it.

Most pastors and church leaders, as well as the resources created to help them, are primarily concerned with these two dramas—the practical and the theoretical. What should I think and what should I do? For this reason we often ask secular experts in the practical and theoretical to help us lead our churches. But we deceive ourselves if we believe these two dramas comprise the bulk of our life or significance. Because behind the drama of the practical, and far deeper than the drama of the theoretical, there lies a third drama more powerful than either and whose outcome controls them both—the drama of the eternal.

The Quaker missionary and scholar Thomas Kelly wrote about this deeper drama as World War II was escalating:

Out in front of us is the drama of men and of nations, seething, struggling, laboring, dying. Upon this tragic drama in these days our eyes are all set in anxious watchfulness and in prayer. But within the silences of the souls of men an eternal drama is ever being enacted, in these days as well as in others. And on the outcome of this inner drama rests, ultimately, the outer pageant of history. It is the drama of the Hound of Heaven baying relentlessly upon the track of man.

We are not merely managers of religious institutions with practical duties. Neither are we merely thought-leaders living on the rarified air of theory and vision. We are spiritual leaders called to shepherd the souls of women, men, and children. Of all people we are called to be most aware and sensitive to the drama of the eternal. And yet I hear so little about this responsibility among church leaders today because playing in the drama of the eternal is something secular leadership gurus and cultural pundits cannot teach us. But if we, the leaders of the church, will not take up this responsibility then who will?

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Living

Excerpt of lyrics from Toby Mac "Lose My Soul"

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How do I sense the tide that's rising?
De-sensitizing me from living in light of eternity,
How do I sense the tide that's rising?
It's hypnotizing me from living in light of eternity,
How do I sense the tide that's rising?
De-sensitizing me from living in light of eternity.

(Lord what we gon do,We're relying on you,
all eyes are on you Lord,
all eyes are on you, all eyes are on you Jesus.)

I don't want to gain the whole world, and lose my soul,
Don't wanna walk away, let me hear the people say.
(Don't let me lose my soul, my soul.)
I don't want to gain the whole world, and lose my soul,
(This is my honesty, Father, won't you cover me.)
I don't want to gain the whole world, and lose my soul,
(Don't wanna walk away, and all those people say)
I don't want to gain the whole world, and lose my soul,
(Don't wanna lose, I don't wanna lose my soul.)

Lord forgive us when we get consumed by the things of this world,
That fight for our love, and our passion,
As our eyes are open wide and on you.
Grant us the privilege of your world view,
And may your kingdom be, what wakes us up, and lays us down.

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His Grace

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ

A RADICAL, INNER TRANSFORMATION

1 Corinthians 15:10
By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain

If you believe that you are part light and part darkness, part saint and part sinner, you will live in a very mediocre manner with little to distinguish you from the non-Christian. You may confess your proneness to sin and strive to do better, but you will live a continually defeated life because you perceive yourself to be only a sinner saved by grace who is hanging on until the rapture. Satan knows he can do nothing about who you really are, but if he can get you to believe you are no different from the natural person, then you will behave no differently from the natural person.

Why does this profile describe so many Christians? Because we are ignorant of our true identity in Christ. God's work of atonement in changing sinners to saints is His greatest accomplishment on earth. The inner change, justification, is effected at the moment of salvation. The outer change in the believer's daily walk, sanctification, continues throughout life. But the progressive work of sanctification is only fully effective when the radical, inner transformation of justification is realized and appropriated by faith.

"But didn't I read somewhere that Paul referred to himself as the chief of sinners?" you may wonder. Yes, but he was referring to his nature before his conversion to Christ (1 Timothy 1:12-16). He made a similar statement of self-depreciation in 1 Corinthians 15:9, but continued by saying: "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain" (verse 10). Paul knew that who he was before Christ and who he became in Christ were two separate identities.

If you claim to be just a sinner, what will you do? You will sin! You are professing that sin is at the core of your identity. That's not what the Bible teaches. Why don't we just believe God that Jesus is at the core of our being and then begin to live like it by His Spirit?