WithoutWax.tv by Pete Wilson | Tag Archive | sync
Tag Archive - sync

You’re My Healer

July 14, 2008 in Cross Point Church, God, Leadership, Religion, Videos with 66 Comments

Yesterday at Cross Point Nashville we continued the never-ending series entitled SYNC. We talked about choosing the spiritual discipline of perseverance in the midst of our suffering, hardships, and pain.

I closed with Psalm 147:3 which says, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

That verse is so powerful to me. It’s a reminder to me that God is my healer. He doesn’t always heal in the way I expect him to or when I expect him to, but he is my healer. He can and will bring about redemption and restoration.

Here’s the song we closed the day with. I know you’re busy. I know you probably have another dozen or so blogs left to read. But will you take a few minutes to listen to this song? Will you let God speak to you through this?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4xsWldmqAo]

I’m wondering today where you need God to be healer for you?

-In your marriage?

-In your finances?

-In a stressful family situation?

-In the midst of sickness?

Can we have one of those totally honest moments today where you just fill in this blank and then we’ll pray for each other today. Go ahead, fill it in!

I NEED GOD TO BE MY HEALER IN _____________________________

Pray Less and Listen More!

June 30, 2008 in Cross Point Church, God, Leadership, Preaching, Religion with 34 Comments

We are continuing our series at Cross Point we’ve entitled “SYNC”. We’re spending the summer looking at the disciplines, the rhythms, and the practices that we should arrange our life around if we really want Christ to be formed in our life.

Yesterday we talked about prayer.

I confessed to our church that in many ways I have reduced prayer down to a transaction. I’ve reduced God down to a vending machine. I go to him when I need something. Truth be known, I really don’t know what to do with God when I get done with my “list”.

God is teaching me these days that prayer is about so much more than my “list”. God is so much bigger than the vending machine I’ve reduced him to. I worship a God that breathed life into me so that I can know Him and love Him. And he longs to have a relationship with me.

So my commitment this week is that I’m going to pray less and listen more. When I get done with my list, I’m just going to sit in His presence. I’m going to see if just maybe God has something he wants to say to me.

How about you? What is God teaching you about prayer these days? What is God showing you about himself?

Continue The Conversation (SYNC-Part 3)

June 16, 2008 in Cross Point Church, God, Preaching, Religion with 42 Comments

CTC is where we take a snippet from Sunday’s message and turn it into a conversation. Most of you know that I would much rather sit down one on one over a cup of coffee and have a discussion than to stand up on stage and just deliver a message. So here’s what I want to talk about:

Yesterday I talked about the importance of Scripture in our lives.

Jesus said in Mathew 12:35, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.”

This verse explains a lot. There is a direct correlation between what you take in and what comes out of you (please refrain from potty humor here). If Christ being formed in your life is an actual goal for you, then you need to spend some time evaluating what you’re immersing your heart and mind in.

David Watson once said…

“As I spent time chewing over the endless assurances and promises to be found in the Bible, so my faith in the living God grew stronger and held me safe in his hands. God’s word to us, especially his word spoken by his Spirit through the Bible, is the very ingredient that feeds our faith. If we feed our souls regularly on God’s word, several times each day, we should become robust spiritually just as we feed on ordinary food several times each day, and become robust physically. Nothing is more important than hearing and obeying the word of God.”

So how are you guys doing with this? Is scripture an integral part of your daily life? Why or why not?

Continue The Conversation (SYNC-Part 2)

June 9, 2008 in Church Planting, Cross Point Church, God, Leadership, Preaching, Religion with 54 Comments

Welcome back to Continue The Conversation where we take a snippet of Sunday’s message and create a conversations out of it.

This weekend we continued our new series entitled SYNC. In this series we are talking about spiritual transformation. Yesterday, I talked about the importance of solitude and the dangers of hurry.

I had to confess that my life is often dominated by hurry in such a way that in reduces my chances for Christ to be formed in me. I suffer from a sort of “Hurry Sickness” that I first heard about from John Ortberg.

So how do you know if you suffer from “hurry sickness”?

  • You might suffer from it if your a chronic multi-tasker that tries to drive, text, eat, and put on make-up at the same time.
  • You might suffer from this disease if you tend to make up mock games with your kids like “who can eat breakfast the fastest”, just so you can get out the door.
  • You might suffer from this disease if you can’t sit still for more than five minutes without creating a list of things you need to be doing, so you will feel productive.

Hurry is addictive. It’s so addictive that I often find myself hurrying even when I don’t need to. And the problem might not be what you think it is.

I used to think that I hurry because I have a busy job with a lot of responsibilities. I used to think I was always in a hurry because I have a busy social life and 3 little boys that are constantly on the go.

The truth is, I choose hurry. And I choose it because of what it does to my ego. Hurry makes me feel important. Hurry gets my adrenaline going. Hurry keeps me from having to slow down to see and hear the truth about my inner life.

And the sad reality is until I slow down, Christ will never be truly be formed in me. See you can’t microwave spiritual transformation.

John 15:4-6

How about you? Do you suffer from “hurry sickness”? Is hurry keeping your from “abiding” in Christ?

*A watercooler post.

Continue The Conversation (Week 1 of Sync)

June 2, 2008 in Church Planting, Cross Point Church, God, Leadership, Preaching with 73 Comments

One of the downsides to preaching is the lack of participation. I can’t stand to be a talking head. So, one of the things I want to try to do on the blog is to take a part of Sunday’s message to discuss here. This is a great opportunity for you guys to interact, comment, question and continue the conversation that we start on Sundays at Cross Point.

I hope you will feel free to participate whether you were there or not. So here we go…

In yesterday’s message I said, “I hear Christians all the time saying they think one of the problems with the world is that we just simply want too much. We want this and we want that. I don’t agree. I think in reality we want too little. I think most of us have settled. I think we have settled for a mediocre version of life. I think we have settled for a mediocre version of life where we chase after such frivolous things like money, and success and power, and applause.”

Last night someone sent me this great quote from C.S. Lewis where he said..

Our Lord finds our desire, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

I went on to say…”It’s almost like we have forgotten that spiritual transformation is possible. It’s possible that Christ can be formed in us. It’s possible to love like Jesus loved and live like Jesus lived. It’s possible, but first we must want that. We must want that more than we want anything else in this world.”

I followed by admitting that I’m not really sure I want this more than anything else. I would like to say I do, but I think I would by lying. If you looked at where I spend my time and my energy, you would come to the unfortunate conclusion that there are many things in this world I want more than Christ being formed in my life.

How about you? Do you want too little? Have you settled? Do you want this more than anything this world has to offer?

Let’s discuss,

Pete