The Sweetest Frame

Today I was tremendously blessed by two different speakers at Calvary. The Lord spoke loud and clear to me. Lesson 1: Don't serve out of guilt or even duty. Pray to be motivated by love. Ephesians 5: 1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Lesson 2: Follow Me. John 21: 22 Jesus answered, "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me." Thanks to Jim and Luke for delivering God's word.

Today was one of the hardest days that I've had in a long time. Today we told our church family that we are moving to Indiana this summer. I'm very excited about what the Lord has in store, but it is also very hard to think about leaving so many close friends. God has been so good to us while we have lived here . How do you tell people that you love that you are leaving? I couldn't find an easy way to do it. We have spent over 13 years with our church family laughing, and singing, and ministering together. And lots of eating too! And every now and then there was some crying and lots of praying. When you go through so many events with your church family, it brings you close. And yet, when God is calling, we must follow . In my heart I know that staying when God said to move, would only bring difficulty. And I also know that this move isn't just about our family serving in a new place, but also someone new serving here. I know that God has great things in store ...

We've just entered week 2 of our series "Don't Waste Your Life." I think it is already connecting well. One of the questions we are asking is "What makes Jesus look beautiful?" Another way to think about this is to ask yourself who in your life loves Christ and how can you tell? Sunday morning I was reminded that what our community needs to see is a church that is really in love with Jesus and one that loves the people that He loves. Sunday Night we followed this up with a concert of prayer and the Lord continued to cement this type of thinking in our hearts. Please keep praying for this series. We are hoping to have a special speaker this Sunday, but she has really been battling her health. Please pray with us that if it is the Lord's will she will be able to come this Sunday.

Today in our Storm Series we looked at Psalm 46... 1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah This series has been a real encouragement to me. It has been a reminder of just how much God loves his children. We also used Rob Bell's Nooma video entitled RAIN . You can check it out on YouTube if you like. I know Bell is pretty controversial, but his Nooma series is well done, and will encourage and inspire. That being said, it is still a good idea to check what is being taught - no matter who is doing the teaching.

We showed this video clip from Anita Renfroe on Sunday and it cracks me up every time I see it. How true!

This is a quote from my message today. I was getting a little carried away discussing the idea of " Come and See " vs. " Go and Tell." Some of the terminology commonly used with this is " Missional/Incarnational vs Attractional ." I know Perry Noble thinks this discussion is a waste of time, but he truly has one of the best "attractional" churches that I know of. Looking at this in an extremely simplistic manner, in the Old Testament God used more of a Come and See approach and in the New Testament we are directed to Go and Tell. Come and See was an opportunity for God to draw people to Himself by blessing the nation of Israel. The nations would "Come and See" what God was doing and they would hopefully want to know more about Him. But in the New Testament commission passages, we are sent out on mission with God. We are to Go and Tell of the great things that we have seen and heard. We are to model Jesus' incarnation with o...

This may have been one of the most enjoyable messages of this series so far. We finally started trying to answer some of the questions about the New Heaven and the New Earth. I have about a million questions, but Randy Alcorn has done a good job discussing many of them. What will the city be like? How large is it? Will there be time in Heaven? What about animals and pets? What will the land look like? What about the great river? Thinking about these things has really made me long to see what the Lord has in store. I know that there is much more to life than just waiting for Heaven. But as heaven appears even more "sweet" it pushes me to please the Lord with every moment he has given me. Sometime later this week I hope to address the question: " What kind of Coffee will be served in the New Jerusalem ." :) As for ESPN, I don't know Stuart Scott's eschatology, but I doubt we will be staring at his image or shouting "en fuego" on the streets of gold. ...

We had a really good day. I thoroughly enjoy watching our guys cook breakfast and watching everyone chip in to help. We have young and old working together to put out a breakfast for about 80 people. These guys know what they are doing and the food was delicious. Our worship team has been going through some transition recently, but today everything came together. Something special happened as we sang The Wonderful Cross . I hope the Lord was pleased. It was pleasing to sing praises to Him. How was Easter Sunday in your neck of the woods?

It never gets old. I love to see people obeying the Lord in baptism. This past Sunday Nancy was baptized. Nancy came to Christ at our Christmas Eve Service . She is part of our regular crew that meets on Wednesday mornings. We've been going through SIMPLE and our study on baptism was a great encouragement to her. I've been teasing her that I was going to hold her under for a while, but I didn't follow through. When she came out of the water she let out a shout. She is hungry for the Lord and I can't wait to see what God will do with her life.

This weekend I added a new blog from Collide Magazine to my reader . In one of the articles they discussed the local church service and its dependence upon electricity. Well today it happened, the power cycled off and on about 5 or 6 times. The first time we were singing "How Great is Our God" with mics, electric guitars, and Easy Worship projecting the words. When the power went out we just kept singing. It was one of those aha! moments when you realize that you don't need all of the "extras" to glorify your Maker. The power cycled back on at the end of the song, so we went with it. As I hit the last chord on the electric guitar the power went away again, and cycled back on again. My pedal reset to the 1 setting which is a crunchy loud distorted sound. I kind of let it ring out and then just smiled and everyone laughed. (We usually don't have much "crunch" in our service) The power cycled back off and on again while we had our soldier who was bac...

This Sunday we looked at the Rich Farmer from Luke 12 . We had some good discussion after the message as to whether the Rich Fool's main problem was his greed or his arrogance. I'm sure he had issues with both. I find it striking that when Jesus addresses the crowd after the brother fighting for his inheritance has questioned the Lord, that Jesus makes two strong statements: 15 Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Basically, "Watch out for greed" and "Remember that the value of life isn't about the value of stuff." The whole series on money has really got me thinking. What should be the deciding factors in our use of material wealth and resources? A couple questions have been working on me so far... 1. If what I have isn't being used for God's Glory, then why am I keeping it ? 2. Do I need this? How do you decide if you s...

We finished our series on Money, Money, Money yesterday. We found a great video clip There's Something about Benjamin . Kudos to the guys and gals who produced this one. It was hilarious.

We started our series on money and stewardship today. The basic idea we wanted to convey was that everything belongs to God. We found a great video clip that really carries this idea. You can see the video clip of God Pie on youtube or click below

Tonight we looked at the Church of Laodicea. They thought they were rich and self-sufficient, but the Lord saw them as blind, wretched, naked, and poor. Yet in the midst of their lukewarmness, he calls to them. Revelation 20:3 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. It never gets old. I don't understand the grace of Jesus. But even when we are far from Him, He comes knocking. He comes to us. He desires to be with us. It is unfathomable to me. The Lord of all the universe, wants me to eat with him.

This video clip has provided tons of entertainment for me and my son. We also showed it at Church Sunday as a reminder to "get out of the boat." Usually when you take a faith risk - you are so rewarded you want to do it again. This video really demonstrates that idea.

When I was preparing for the first " Bless Back " message I came across this verse from 2 Corinthians 9 11 You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. The phrase that keeps sticking with me is that God doesn't want us to be occasionally generous - he wants us to be generous on every occasion . My prayer this time of year is that God would help me to not just do something nice every once in a while, but this would be a habit. After all, He has blessed me so that I can Bless Back!

God does it again. When I think there is no other way to understand a certain passage, God enlightens me again. Purity. What do you think of when you hear this word? Clean. Absence of dirt, filth, etc... What does a pure person look like or even a pure heart? God rearranged my thinking once again yesterday. Purity is not just about being clean it is mainly about having a single mind. It is about being focused on one thing. That one thing is God. What's the greatest commandment? Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' Notice the "all" in the above verse. Purity is singleness of heart and mind. James 4:8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Notice the problem with the people who needed purification -- they were double minded. You can't be pure if your focused on God and something els...

We had another good day of services at church today. We reminded to give God our very best. I showed the "death crawl" clip from Facing The Giants . If you want to check it out click here or check out the embedded video below. God also answered a huge prayer for me this morning. I am so thankful when God answers a specific prayer.

When preparing for the "Teach Us to Pray" series, I was reminded about something I had heard a while back. Is it proper to pray to Jesus? If you'll notice the model prayer, we are instructed to pray to the Father. We pray to the Father in the name of Jesus. Is it improper to pray to Jesus? Well here are some other scriptures that might answer that question... The Words of Jesus… John 14:13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. The Words of Stephen… Acts 7:59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep. The Words of John and the Church… Revelation 22:20He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. So while it is our model to P...

We started the God@Work campaign yesterday. ( www.isGodatwork.com ) I was so excited to preach. I hope the words came out right. I spoke from Romans 12:1-2 and I think the Lord really spoke to me if to no one else. It's amazing how I have separated the secular and the sacred in my own life. I have been reminded in the past week that God wants all of my life and that my joy and my duty to him is complete obedience. Sometimes obedience is reading the Bible and sometimes it is mowing the lawn. But the truth is God can be and should be honored in both. Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Sometimes I think we elevate the sacred too much. Wh...