For my outspoken Brother... love ya Bro!

I have appreciated my brother speaking up recently on some issues that he feels strongly about and while I don't agree with him on certain points, I still love him and look forward to hearing from him in the future. One of my favorite blogs deals with the issue of how to love but still disagree. here are some quotes, check the whole blog if you like.

"...If the body of Christ is going to demonstrate herself today in the corporate majesty of her collaboration and cooperation then Jesus will have to be our only focus and loving others will be our motivation, not a demand for conformity..."

"...Jesus asked us to love as we follow him; he didn’t ask us to agree. If we have to agree to love, then what hope have we? If a group has to all think alike to have fellowship then they have pitched a tent at some stage of the journey and will not grow on to know him. In most groups I’ve known, conformity has been the goal. Someone needs to set the standard for the group and people either go along or go away. Neither leads to the reality of Christ expressed among his people..."

"...So here is the problem today. Too many people think they alone are right and anyone who disagrees with them is a threat to their world. And it only takes one person like that in a group to destroy its ability to live, love and grow together. Until we have enough brothers and sisters that have a passion for truth that does not outrun their calling to love others, the body of Christ will continue to be fractured and impotent in the world. And they’ll have to have enough love to lovingly stand up to those who would be divisive among the family by demanding everyone think like they do..."

Quotes from lifestream.org blog titled "If you ever wonder why..."

James wonders why...

The fuel of Desperation by Matt Tullos

Great thoughts from my Friend Matt at www.tullos.org (I hope you don't mind me putting it on here Matt)

The fuel of Desperation leads us to the end of ourselves and into the presence of God.

Are you desperate yet?

It moves all the petty chips of our life into his hands

The fuel of desperation is a realization that we can never be good enough, never strong enough, to live a life of independence from God.

Are you desperate yet?

The fuel of desperation helps us realize that we are powerless against our own sin and that our
only hope is in God. In God alone.

Are you desperate yet?

The fuel of desperation compels us to open up our closets, or treasures, our secret wounds, our addictions because pride is no longer an option for us.

The fuel of desperation is coming to the cold realization that god is real, that He is holy and that he is the only for you.

The fuel of desperation is smelling the pig slop on your ankles and realizing that there is a father who is just beyond the western horizon of your soul.

The fuel of desperation involves a face down submission, spread eagle submission to God’s presence.

Are you Desperate?

Walking on the Greenway

We went to Riverfront park today to walk the greenway and I forgot the camera, so I had to resort to the camera on the cellphone. It a beautiful day and so warm that we didn't want to miss out

James found a vine that seemed to be used for swinging like Tarzan and gave it a try. Actually, John-John was the willing one to try it out, then James went for it after him.

Being Church

I read a great article/ chapter today at www.simplechurchjournal.com and found out it comes from a free downloadable book at www.simplechurchrevolution.com .

Here's what caught me...

Being Church

My Filipino friend, Molong Nacua, wrote an excellent article entitled “Being Church” that reminds us of the true meaning of “church:”

Church is where Christ lives, not the place where we meet. It is Christ-empowered people, a kingdom of priests for the purpose of winning against the works of the devil and establishing God's Kingdom (1 Cor. 3:17; Matt. 18:19; Ex. 19:6)… Christianity is not about doing church, but being the church. Church is not some place to go to participate in, but it is about being who you are in Christ and thus experiencing His real life in you. Your Christianity was never defined by attending a particular church. It is defined by Christ in you. In other words, you are a Christian 24/7, not because you participate in a two-hour worship service, but because Christ lives in you every minute of every day.

Rob Bell Interview at RelevantMagazine.com

This is just a clip from an interview that Relevant Magazine did with Rob Bell about his new book "Jesus wants to save Christians." - Looks like a good book, but you can't be afraid to think out of the religous box the church seems to be stuck in. Check it out

As the title of the book suggests, Jesus Wants To Save Christians. In your opinion, what are the biggest things we need saving from?

Boredom. Which is really despair in its non-caffeinated form. And boxes. Where we live in fear and where we put those who unsettle us.

You describe the plan of God for the church to be a gift to the world. Many people today would say that the church is anything but. What are some crucial changes that our churches need to make to become a Eucharist that is broken and poured out for the world?

1. Master the art of doubt. Faith needs it to survive.

2. Surrender the compulsive need to constantly remind people that according to your worldview you're going to heaven forever when you die and they're going to burn in hell forever.

3. Celebrate the good and the true and the beautiful wherever and whenever you find it regardless of the label it wears or the person it comes from or the place you found it. All things are yours.

4. Remember that the tax collectors and prostitutes loved to feast with Jesus and the religious establishment gossiped about him and dissected his teachings and questioned his commitment to orthodoxy and eventually had him killed. There's a lesson for us there.

Devotional Poem - Psalm 7

Once in a while, I sit down to journal about what I hear God saying from His word and it seems to just be "right" to journal with a rhyme. During my morning quiet time it happened. I'm reading through Psalms right now. I continue to enjoy reading in the Parallel Bible both NIV and The Message . Here's what I got out of Psalm 7

Troubles chasing, David's pacing
Truth be known, Justice shown
Hearts and minds sought, find the soft spots
God does it right, not without a fight
Sin breeds more, no escape for morally poor
I'm thanking God who makes things right,
I'm singing the fame of God's pure might.

Is this fun? I was tagged (and she said I wouldn't do it)

So I guess I'm supposed to list 5 weird things about myself. Myra said I wouldn't do it and she also said that I don't like to reveal my weirdness. I guess that's true, but I thought a bit about it and figure I can give a little glimpse.

1. I have a problem with getting rid of stuff, especially reciepts and old shoes
2. In High School I used to drink a V-8 and eat a Reeces before swim team practice
3. I still spell things the english way rather than the american way sometimes ie. Mobilisation or Mobilization???
4. I never played on a school soccer team, but now coach High School Soccer
5. I have to have a glass of water next to my bed everynight, and I get a little drink any time I wake up or get woken up.

There You go. Don't know how weird you think I am now, but I promise there's more. I don't really care how weird you think I am either (is that weird). I'm not tagging anyone, cause I don't like taking the time to think this stuff up, so I won't put anyone else throught it.

Mardi Gras and a Challenge for Lent

What a "Super" Sunday! God has really been working on me about living by faith- real faith, not passive, wimpy head knowledge stuff. I hope and pray that God will increase our faith and do great things as we live by faith, walk by faith, and grow in our faith.We had a great time at the Superbowl party. It was wonderful to see our church family come together for fellowship and football and all enjoy each others company. Happy Mardi Gras. As many of you know, today is Mardi gras, which means "fat tuesday". After living in New Orleans and on the Gulf Coast, Myra and I came to enjoy this day as a great holiday and family time, the place where our ministry together began and our first son was born. I know most people just see the scenes from Bourbon St. and come to a quick judgement on the whole thing. Regardless, for me know Mardi Gras is more a reminder of good times and that tommorrow is Ash Wednesday - The first day of Lent. Lent is the 40 day season before Easter that people often give up something to remind them of the Suffering that Christ endured for us. I would encourage you to give something up, but also would like to start something new. During Lent and hopefully beyond I would like to start a Prayer time during lunch on Thursday's. Eat before, or Eat after, or give up thursday lunch for lent, but come ready to pray at noon. We will plan on only taking about half an hour. If you have to get there late or leave early, please come anyway.

The last few days - Miraclewhipped

Myra, just asked me to blog the last few days since I, being a man, will use fewer words than she would. Really the hard part is putting all that we experienced today into words. So let me first start with Friday. We hosted the "international night" for the homeschool Co-op at our church on Friday night. It is a night when each family researches a different country, then comes together to share cultural food and information about the country. We chose Syria. The night went well, with about 12 families sharing and more in attendance. Saturday was a nice day to just "chill out," Sunday went well overall, with a few up and downs, but God brought us through. Chris Young shared a good message in the morning. We also issued a call to prayer and fasting for today, especially focused on two kids from the community that have just been diagnosed with Cancer. The morning started with Amos, our dog, waking us up around 5:30 barking for no good reason, other than to be God's alarm Clock. So we woke up and spent some good time in prayer before the girls woke. The morning was full of conversations and email with lots of people. Then, thanks to Vicki, Myra and I were able to go and visit the kids in Nashville. The first girl we went to is the grand-daughter of a lady in our church. she was having some strange bruising and by God's grace they figured out that it was the early stages of Leukemia. Her prognosis is good and other than the chemo should be better quite soon. We met the mother, talked with her for a while, while the daughter sat around, she was a little restless as any 5 year old would be after being in a hospital for over a week. when we asked if we could pray for her, it was awesome to see her spirit just settle down and accept the prayers of healing and hope. May God minister in a miraculous way to her and her family.
Next we went to visit the 4 yr old boy. he had experienced some pain in his hips, which they got checked a few months ago, but didn't find anything. Now, they found in and he has "type 4"cancer through his body and bone marrow. it is a hard situation and they have started aggressive chemo. They are in a part of the floor where only 2 people can go in, so the dad came out and we met him, then after getting some more info on the situation, Myra went back to talk with the mom and pray with the boy. I shared with the dad, that I had a vision this morning of God scooping and cleaning the cancer out of his son. We were able to talk a lot and share life together. Myra meanwhile got to go back and talk to the mom, and then pray with the boy. She said the same thing happened again, that when she came in, the boy didn't respond to her, but after asking to talk and pray with him, he perked up to see a picture of our kids and to hear of how Jesus loves him and wants to heal him. As Myra was leaving she asked him if he wanted anything, and he said yes, a spongebob toy. Wow, how easy is that. May God grant him healing, comfort and peace as well as a spongebob toy.
A trip to the cancer ward is a great dose of reality. We worry so much about such little things and not enough about the real important things. This day has been faith-stretching, bonding, and exhausting, but definitely defining. May God give us more days like this. May God also use this day of prayer and fasting to bring us together and use us more effectively

Community as Family

Here is a great article on what it means for us to be in community as Christians from a blog that I like to read. The challenge to me is being willing to share life with others. Plus, since this is a joint blog, I thought I would get on and post. if you are new to blogging, and want help on setting it up or setting up a "google reader" to easily read lots of blogs without having to search all over for them, let me know. I'd be glad to help.


from House Church Blog: House Church Basics -- Pt. 3: Missional Church by roger thoman

I am convinced that our communal Christian life must contain elements of both mission and authentic family. There is often a tension between these two: the need to be missional and focused outward and the need to be a family that is concerned for one another. Perhaps this tension is because we miss the point: both family and mission provide the opportunity for us to learn how to love for the sake of others.

I so appreciate Ruth Lang’s post on “family” (as in spiritual family) that I want to share some quotes:

Being born again means a huge family change! Being born again just can't be viewed in any other way. It's a drastic family change…

Love is the defining factor in our birth and relationship within this new family. When love is the one and only defining factor, the result is ultimately a weaving of our lives together, deeply into other people's lives. This weaving is out of genuine love and concern. This type of family interacts genuinely and therefore loves deeply every day of the week, (definitely not out of religious obligation). {Certainly it does not interact just a few times a week at some neat "services". If we would be honest, this interaction is really basically for self: so that we can feel better firstly about ourselves, then possibly secondly about others} That whole analogy that we read where Jesus talks of this concept of losing our lives for others ... we hear this over and over in the Bible, but in truth, this is something that can only begin to happen when we understand this idea of family in His Kingdom. Love in His family is love that is for the sake of others vs the retaining and reassurance of self. It is a huge shift…

Right doctrines, good deeds, and/or being able to articulate and interpret religious truths, such as how and when we should "do Church". These things are meaningless in any one and all of us, if we don't understand the simple truth of truly being birthed into His family and love within His family. We let our lives reflect this love for His family, 24/7.

This biblical practice of “family” is in many ways at the heart of mission. Jesus said the world would be attracted to us by our lifestyle and our love for one another. When mission and family-life are both practiced in the context of developing love for others, then, perhaps, they become perfect compliments.

You can read Ruth’s entire post here.

CFC FamilyTime

As we studied tonight about the Sabbath and it's importance in regard to orderliness, we started with an activity of drawing the 6 days of Creation. Usually we have an active, LOUD game but that just didn't seem right tonight as we were going to be discussing REST. There were six groups and here's what they came up with......so cool!


It was also really cool to end the night with the baptism of Daulton Foster at another local church. The coming together of two bodies in celebration of Daulton's committment to Christ was really cool and one of the great things we hope to see more of, churches all coming together for the Kingdom.

Listening to the Silence

Tonight at FamilyTime we talked about the Sabbath, what it is and what it means for us today. I found this article in a blog this week. I think we were all challenged to reconsider for ourselves and our families what resting in Christ really means. I gave this article to the youth to take home. Let us know how it speaks to you to.

Solitude and Sabbath are pretty heavy words, but both are practices we should incorporate into our daily routines (ok, weekly) in order for us to grow and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Solitude and Sabbath are more similar than they are different and should actually be accomplished together. A sabbath, in its biblical context, is rest from a day’s work and is meant to be enjoyed; it is something we should look forward to. This does not mean shutting yourself up in your room and depriving yourself of interaction with others, nor does it mean vegging out in front of the TV all day watching Mythbusters, sports, soaps or Project Runway marathons. Find something or somewhere that calms you, allows you to be silent before the Lord and refills your spirit. Solitude finds its way into your Sabbath almost unknowingly and gives God a chance to catch up with you. Slowing down and making time for solitude and a real Sabbath gives your body a chance to wind down and heart to open up—. Taking a Sabbath and quieting ourselves gets to the root of our lives, and it was designed for us to take advantage of.

Ready to Go Deeper? Start with just 5 minutes each morning to read a paragraph of the bible. Read through a gospel, Acts or one of the letters in the new testament.
Ask your self—what can I learn about God from this? What Can I learn about being a Christian from this? How can I apply this to my life today?