Life is a journey.
It’s a journey that began the moment you were conceived and it will continue throughout your existence.
There are certain things your soul longs for on this journey and, whether you realize it or not, your life is shaped by your search for them – worth, significance, acceptance, love, peace, are all needs felt by all.
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I recently read an article by John Ortberg entitled, “Higher Stakes Friendships.” He talked about these so called “five rules of friendship” this group of guys used as guidelines for their conversations. The “five rules” were…
1. We can ask anything, no holds barred.
2. If you answer, you must tell the truth, as much as you know it.
3. If you don’t answer, you must say why you won’t or can’t answer.
4. Everything that is said to each other will be held in absolute confidence.
5. We will make absolutely no judgments of each other.
I like these “five rules.” The only thing I might add is to number 5. While we won’t make any judgments of each other we will speak truth into one another’s lives.
You know, I’m humbled and thankful to be able to say that I actually have a handful of people in my life that I can and do have these kind of conversations with.
Having someone you can call at 3am….matters.
Having someone that can look you in the eye and tell you you’ve absolutely lost your flippin’ mind…matters.
Having someone who’s there on your way up and they’re just as close on the way down…matters.
So my encouragement to you is don’t settle for anything less than deep relationships that…matter.
We wrapped up our series “Unseen” yesterday at Cross Point by talking about the amazing parallel between Jesus’s time in the wilderness compared to the Israelites’ time in the wilderness.
Jesus is driven into the wilderness for 40 days after God’s statement of love and affirmation (his baptism). The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years after being set free, a statement of God’s love and affirmation.
Now, if you know the story, you may remember that the Hebrew people had trouble trusting God when they were in the wilderness. God continually told them…
You are chosen, You are loved, You are set free.
But it would only take a few days in between each sign/miracle before the people started focusing on the wilderness surrounding them more than on God’s love and deliverance. So they decided they wanted to go back. They’d rather be a slave to Pharaoh than to have to live in the unpredictable wilderness where they had to trust God on a daily basis.
Now, like the Israelites, Jesus is driven into the wilderness. What Jesus does is astounding because he transforms this wilderness experience.
How does He do this?
His secret is that He goes in completely confident of who He is. He is God’s beloved son: chosen, called, and loved.
And he did what the Israelites could not do. He passed the wilderness test. He walked away from so many of the temptations that snare you and I almost every day.
All of this tells me that my most important weapon in the wilderness is the knowledge that: You are loved beyond your wildest imagination by a God who never changes.
In the wilderness we’re tempted to think that God has abandoned us, but that’s simply not true. The wilderness is a time to be reminded that even though life is not turning out the way we want it to, God is still faithful and we are still loved.
Why do you think we have such a difficult time remembering our identity in Christ as loved, chosen and called?
I love my church. By that I mean I love the people in my church. I love the way they inspire me to love and live more like Jesus.
The church I’ve been privileged to serve in often gets “tagged” as a church full of young hipsters. I’m not a big fan of stereotypes because what I know is that our church is made up of all kinds of people. People of different generations, different backgrounds, all on a journey to figure out what it really means to follow Jesus.
Yesterday I had the chance to meet Terry. Terry has gone to Cross Point for a couple years but I’ve never had the chance to sit down with him until yesterday. We didn’t get to visit for long but I loved this soft spoken guy from the moment I met him.
His father died when he was a child. His mother was verbally and physically abusive. He drowned his pain with alcohol abuse for decades. And although he’s been sober for 16 years his bitterness and anger toward his deceased mother continued to rage.
Almost everyday I come in contact with people who are allowing unforgiven anger and bitterness from their past to destroy them today. Unknowingly their unwillingness to forgive is impacting their marriage, the way they treat their kids and their attitude toward most everything in life.
I’m not going to pretend like forgiveness is always easy because we all know it isn’t. Some of you have been hurt in ways I can’t imagine. Someone wounded you, or betrayed you, or lied to you or maybe cheated you. You’re afraid if you let go of the hurt, they get away with something. And you’re right, to forgive you will pay a high cost. In fact, the only thing that will cost you more than forgiveness is not forgiving someone.
I know you want to see them hurt back, but that desire is a weight or burden that actually becomes a part of you. You’ll carry that weight from relationship to relationship, from season to season and if you carry that bitterness and anger around long enough it will choke the joy out of your life.
It costs a lot to forgive. But to not forgive will eventually cost you your heart.
A couple months ago at Cross Point we challenged our community to leave behind their anger and bitterness and Terry responded to this Gospel message by finally letting go of the right to get even with his mother who had hurt him in so many ways. After some 50 years he finally set his burden down and experienced the freedom that comes along with forgiveness.
Terry told me that everyday since he hears God telling him…”I always have and I always will love you.”
That’s a good word for all of us today, don’t you think?
I’ve admitted for a long time that I think “I Stink At Prayer.” While my confession had more to do with my personal prayer life I never thought about the impact of my public prayer life. Gordan MacDonald recently shared some challenging words when it comes to our public prayers, pleading for us to be more thoughtful and intentional with them. Here’s what he recently had to say in Leadership Journal…
Can I be frank? I’m distressed by the low quality of public prayer that is being heard in too many worship services today. Too often, prayer is used as a transition from one event to another. But what if the pastoral prayer was (as some like to say) a main event?
When Solomon dedicated the temple, a large part of his public leadership was a quite pastoral prayer. He knelt and said, “Lord, there is none like you … you’ve kept your promises … please give attention to my prayer … may you hear the prayer your servant prays toward his place … deliver us when we’ve been defeated … teach us the way to live … help us to walk in your ways … when we sin, please forgive.”
This is not a lightweight prayer. It takes in everybody in the crowd. As he opens the gates of the temple, the king (little k) is interceding to the King (big K) on behalf of all who will come to worship.
I love to be in worship when young men and women are leading. And many of them lead us so well. But when they come to the place where prayer is appropriate, the substance of the prayer sometimes reveals a person who has hardly thought for a minute what they are going to say next. If the music was done like the praying, we’d probably switch bands rather quickly.
“God … we just want to thank you for this day … that we just could … just … sing to you … that we could … just … love you.”
Well meant, those words. But they lack thought; they lack power, and they fail to lodge themselves in the souls of their hearers. The aged one losing control of his life who is listening for assurance. The sinner who is listening for hope. The addict who listens for deliverance. And the joyful person, who listens for thanksgiving.
Prayer can be intentional, thoughtful, powerful. Let’s give our prayers the energy and depth that our Audience—and our audience—deserves.
So here’s a few questions this article leads me to ask.
1) Do you think our public prayers should be more of a “main event” to our church services?
2) Should our public prayers be more intentional and thoughtful and less light and lacking substance?
3) Is there a danger we could become like the Pharisees who used their prayers to sound more spiritual than others?
What do you think?
There are few things that threaten my ability to live and lead in humility like a spirit of entitlement.
In today’s culture, it’s really easy to get caught up inside of what’s been called the “empire of entitlement.” Inside of this empire I start to think…
-Life should revolve around ME.
-Relationships are about meeting MY needs.
-Fruitful ministry is the result of MY effort.
-The things I have are because of MY hard work.
In this empire of entitlement I lose awareness that EVERYTHING is a gift, and it becomes so easy to lose perspective on just how much I have.
I have to be very careful, especially when things are going well, that I don’t live inside of the delusions of this empire for long. As soon as I start to believe that I have what I have because of MY hard work, it quickly leads to all kinds of unhealthy extremes. When I sense myself drifting in this direction, I have to remind myself of Scriptures like this one in Deuteronomy. Moses warning is so relevant to many of us today. Especially those of us in leadership.
Deut 8:14-18
14 Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. 15 Do not forget that He led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! 16He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. 17He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’ 18 Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.
Who did it?
Who grew it?
Who led it?
Who inspired the idea?
Who got you through the crisis?
Who took it to the next level?
He did. As in, not you.
So today as we seek to lead and love, let us all remember this simple truth: There is a God and it’s not you. Abandon your power and control for humility and surrender. Today may we fall so in love with Jesus that we are ready to follow him wherever he guides, always trusting that, with him, we will find life and find it abundantly.
Do you ever struggle inside of this “empire of entitlement” forgetting it’s God who gives you the power to accomplish what you accomplish and gain all that you gain?
Yesterday I jumped on Time’s online news site to see the top 10 viewed news stories of the day. It usually gives me a quick snap shot of what’s being discussed nationally. Sometimes it leads to a blog post or message illustration, but more than anything I look at it for a quick pulse of what’s going on.
What really stood out to me was that three of the top ten stories included a reference to Facebook. Here’s the stories and a brief description.
Nephew Sues Uncle Over Awkward Facebook Photos
Woman Reportedly Burns Down House After Facebook Un-Friending
Woman Discovers Her Husband’s Other Wife on Facebook
At first I thought, What the heck? People on Facebook have gone crazy. People need to get off the social network and get a life. But Facebook isn’t the problem. Facebook is now where we see the brokenness of humanity being played out everyday.
Facebook didn’t cause a divorce, a lawsuit, or an arsonist.
Sin did.
Facebook’s just a reminder that everyone needs healing. Everyone.
Matt 5 has really been heavy on my heart lately. Jesus said,
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
So be present today. Allow your light to shine bright.
Listen.
Learn.
Love.
Live.
Why?
Because everyone you bump into today at the grocery, at school, at work, and yes, even on Facebook, needs healing, needs Jesus.
