Tithe Rap

What a great day it has been. I worked out with Alyson, had lunch with some new friends, came home and was absolutely blown away by this youtube clip a friend sent me. Before you watch it, please make sure you fall in one of the three categories below. Enjoy!

This is for: 

1) pastors who are looking for a new way to get their people to learn to tithe. 

2) people who want to know how much they should tithe. 

3) people who like the Beastie Boys and Run DMC.

Wednesday Morning Pastors Group

This morning I met with several pastors in Nashville at the local coffee brewery (STARBUCKS). Like always, it was so good to sit down with them and hear what God is doing in each of their and their church's lives. There is absolutely nothing more encouraging than seeing God still at work in lives today!

I wish each of you could see our group! We are SO different from each another. For instance, we are all at different points in life and we are apart of different denominations.  I love our individuality and differences though. They keep me laughing and "on my toes," for sure. Yet despite our differences we all desperately seek to passionately serve God better. We are different, but Christ brings us together. 

It truly is an honor to be able to meet with them each Wednesday. I don't deserve to be with this group of great men, but for some reason God has placed me in their life. They build me up, they encourage me, they speak truth into my life, they hold my hands up when I don't feel like I can anymore, they support me, respect me, and most importantly they pray for me (at least they tell me they do). :)

And so this post is a post praising God for individuality, and for men that truly walk in boldness and grace. We are different and to us that's okay. I think our individuality is what makes this group such a joy to be a part of. So, thank you Jesus for letting us be different so we can laugh at each other and hear fun and different stories each Wednesday morning! 

I love you guys! The youtube clip below (that you all told me about) makes me think of us. I hope we can always laugh with each other and build each other up. My prayer for everyone else is that you can find a group similar to ours to live, thrive, and be encouraged in. Do you have a group like that already?

My Heart.

A church member, Bill Pope, sent this clip to me yesterday. I have to admit I didn't watch it because at first glance I saw it was a YouTube clip. But as I got bored last night I ended up reading everything I skimmed over earlier. I have to admit, I think the clip is a little cheesy, but there is a part of me that likes it too. 

[Watch the clip or this next part won't make sense!]

I'm glad people can't walk up and put a stethoscope on my heart and listen to it's theme song for the moment. I know it's hard for you all to believe :) but my heart doesn't always sing the chorus to the "Hallelujah Chorus." But, I don't think our hearts have to. Everyone in the Bible went through different phases of their walk with God. David would get angry; Moses would get frustrated; Anna would get anxious; Hannah would get sad on occasion that she gave her son away to the local priest (at least if she is like any other mom, she would get sad!). 

So although these giants of our faith made it to the "good book (BIBLE)," and even seem more righteous than I or we will ever be, their emotions and feelings were like any other human beings that changed on occasion. The key is that they pursued the Lord and His righteousness so much so that they wouldn't let their emotions and feelings dictate their relationship with Him. My prayer for me, and for all you who will read this, is that we won't let our emotions and feelings ever stop us from ultimate claiming, "HALLELUJAH!"

Finding Favor

This Sunday my sermon is going to be on favor. As I started to research favor, I realized that it is similar to grace in that it comes from the same root word, or Greek root word (Charis). And so to see what the Twitter world thought of the two words, I simply asked.

I have to admit I was surprised that everyone was right on. To sum it all up they mainly said that the difference is that grace is gifted and favor is earned. To elaborate on that a bit, Grace is the gift that God has given us to make us acceptable to be in His presence. It’s the agent that cleans us from our sin, so it can be defined as the gift that gets us to God.

Favor is the agent we earn that propels us to be better than just graced enough to get to God. So therefore, walking in favor is different than walking in grace. We walk in grace when we confess our sins and seek God. We walk in favor when God releases an influence on us, so that others are inclined to cooperate with us.

But favor doesn’t come just by knowing God! There’s more to it! I’m reminded of Jacob. You remember that story right? In a nutshell, the story goes that Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the Lord (some say it was God Himself and other’s have said it was Jesus) and Jacob said that he wasn’t going to let the angel go until it blessed him. Hosea has something interesting to say about this wrestling match. In Chapter 12:4, Hosea says, “Yes, he (Jacob) struggled with the Angel and prevailed; He wept, and sought favor from Him. He found Him in Bethel.” To put it bluntly, Jacob wrestled with God! God would have known who He was wrestling with don’t you think? I would at least!

Now, I don’t know what you all think of favor, but I have to admit it’s something that I’m searching for in my life. Proverbs 19:12 says, "The king’s anger is like the roar of a lion, but his favor is like welcome rain."
For me that means it takes a dry and empty walk with the Lord and makes it refreshing (sounds good to me!). But this doesn’t come from just knowing God; it comes from embracing God’s mission, embodying God’s name, and Obeying God’s Word.

So my question is, and you don’t have to answer this on here if you don’t want, do we do as little as it takes to still be Christian, or do we do what it takes to find favor? For me, I want to find favor!

Book Review #2

Check out this review that I wrote as a Thomas Nelson book reviewer for Max Lucado's book For the Tough Time: Reaching Toward Heaven For Hope. It was posted here.

If your life is like mine, the question is never will times get hard, it’s when will times get hard. Life has a crazy way of throwing curve balls at me when I least expect it – mainly when things are going great. And when the tough times come, I want to know how to react and respond.

As a pastor, I would love to tell you that I respond and react as Godly as possible. The reality for me is that when tough times come, I have to struggle hard to remember the promises of God and lean on Him rather than my own understanding. But you know, it has been when I turn to Christ that I regain the pep in my step and the courage, strength, and confidence to face the days ahead.

This is precisely what Lucado’s book did for me - it gave me a fresh outlook on living life with a renewed hope. I didn’t read this book when I was in a “valley” of sorts trying to find my way back to the “mountain top.” I read this book when everything was going normal as can be. And yet it took me to the “mountain top” – the place where courage and confidence reigns supreme.

Whether you are in the valley or on top of the mountain, read Max Lucado’s book, For The Tough Times: Reaching Toward Heaven for Hope. I promise you won’t regret it.

You can purchase the book HERE. 

REALITY

What a crazy past couple of weeks! I was in Miami two days hanging out with some good friends, the Bahamas for three days, Tulsa for three days, and now I am trying to catch up with email, twitter, blogs, etc. Alyson and I had such a great time away. The cruise wasn't the best cruise in the world, but hanging out with Alyson and having absolutely nothing to do but play scrabble and a few other games WAS the best.

However, like any vacation, it had to come to an end. So now we are having to "get down to the nitty gritty" (as Nacho Libre would say) and get back to reality. Reality is one of those words to me that stir up a lot of different emotions. For the most part, I don't like it. I live in a dream world, so reality is a natural accountability partner that is always letting me know what I can do now. In other words, it keeps me grounded so that I can concentrate on the present.

Yesterday as I talked to a person in my community, he kept saying, "I've been a Christian for years, yet something seems to be missing in my life." As I've had time to reflect on the conversation, I wonder why? For so many of us, why do we feel like something is missing? And this morning, as I've thought and prayed over this very thought, I've come to the realization that it's because many of us look so far in the future we don't see God standing right beside of us right now. We miss God because we aren't looking for God right here and now.

As I was on the cruise with Alyson, I was able to dream a lot about our future. You know, where we may be in five and ten years; if or how many kids we will have; even who will be our best friends at the time. But to be blunt, who cares. I'm so excited that God is in control of all that. I've learned that I can sit here and make all kind of plans for the future and some or none of it may come true. For me, God has had a funny way of allowing me to do stupid things to ruin my future plans yet get me in line so I can join His master plan.

But His master plan always is in the present and the future. It is both one and the other. Sure, God's team wins, but we as individuals can lose if we don't make sure we are currently playing in the same game on the same team. And this has to do with present reality.

We can still dream about the future and make plans of what we wish to happen. The reality is we have to plan! BUT the reality of life is that it's not always what we want it to be, but it is always where we find ourselves. Right now, I find myself in a coffee shop in East Nashville. That means it's here and now my influence begins. It's here, the land beneath my feet, where God has me to do His work. For me to do anything else but bring God glory and honor in what I'm doing here is to miss out on the reality that God is present, alive, and with me. The cool thing about God is he's in your reality too.

Where are you now and what can you be doing in the present to glorify and honor God in what you're doing?