A Little Creativity

I don't usually like receiving those cute little stories that jam up our in-boxes on an hourly bases but I read this one and I am glad I did... (this doesnt give you permission to clog up my inbox with cute little stories by the way) Enjoy!

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet.  He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help."  There were only a few coins in the hat.
A man was walking by.  He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat.  He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words.  He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon the hat began to fill up.  A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy.  That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were.  The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning?  What did you write?"
The man said, "I only wrote the truth.  I said what you said but in a different way." I wrote: "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it."
Both signs told people that the boy was blind.  But the first sign simply said the boy was blind.  The second sign told people that they were so blessed that they were not blind.  Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

We have the greatest message that could ever be told to any and all who are willing to hear. How we tell that story can and will impact those who hear it for a lifetime. It is an incredible responsibility we have to tell the story but what's even more incredible is that God trusts us to share that story.  Don't  take for granted that your method can impact your message. A little creativity can go a long way...

Breaking the Tension

Hello

It's way past 11:30

My mind will not shut down

I am awake when I should be sleeping

Reviewing the goals I wrote for my ministry teams five days ago

Actually since I changed every one of them I cant claim I set them last week

I love visioneering and creating and setting goals for huge accomplishments

But I am a dreamer and narrowing my focus is all but impossible

I will do my best to narrow big dreams

In to short concise statements

Then sleep until 5:30

Goodnight

Thanksgiving?

I love Christmas... I really do. It is one of my favorite times of the year. It always has been. There are so many blessings that come with Christmas, blessings that go way beyond the presents. Family, friends, traditions and memories collectively accumulate in to an annual celebration of blessing until one of two things occurs:
1. Our hearts become overwhelmed by the blessing and we in turn offer grattitude in humble and sometimes uncomfortable ways.
2. We become so accustomed to the blessing that we assume the blessing as if we somehow deserve to be blessed and in turn discard our gratitude.

These two scenarios play out in Luke 17 as Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem. Luke tells the story of ten men with Leprosy meeting Jesus as he entered a village between Samaria and Galilee. He says they stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice for Jesus to have pity on them. Jesus, of course, did take pity on them and then instructed them to go show themselves to the priest. While the men were on their way to see the priest they were cleansed of their sickness. One of the ten, noticing he had been healed made his way back to Christ. The bible tells us that he "He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him." Jesus was obviously perplexed that out of the ten men only one came back to thank him and asked the one, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?"

I don't know, nor will I try to understand, the hearts of the nine men who did not come back to see Jesus. They may have been so overcome with joy that they were quick to run and tell their friends and family about their new and improved lives or maybe they were filled with such emotion, they got caught up in the moment and lost track of where the blessing came from. I do know this, they accepted the blessing and discarded the one who blessed them.

In our world, where anything we want is only as far away as we are willing to go, it is easy to assume the blessing and discard the gratitude. We see it play out every year about this time; Thanksgiving becomes a speed bump on the road to Christmas. People almost treat it as though the four day weekend was conceived to make time in our busy schedules for hanging lights and setting up the tree. As much as I love Christmas and all the joy the season brings I think it is very important that we do not forget the gratitude that goes along with the Thanksgiving holiday.

This Thanksgiving holiday, don't skip the gratitude and go straight for the blessing. Before the tree goes up, before the lights turn on take time to thank God for what He has done. Go back to God, realizing that He has given you so much and thank Him for the blessings that make your life possible. Even when the rest of the world forgets, you be the one to go back and fall at the feet of Christ Jesus, then you can go on living the blessing he so graciously gives to all of us.

21 Random Thoughts

1. I love the holidays! They remind me that tradition means something and that new traditions are essential for creating new memories.

2. Basketball provides lots of life lessons for me.

3. I may be addicted to social media. Determining boundaries has proven to be difficult.

4. Emotion can be your worst enemy or your best friend and sometimes it's one disguised as the other.

5. Learning and Mentoring go hand in hand. Keeping what you learn to yourself is arrogant and self serving.

6. I haven't written a song in 15+ years. Disappointing

7. "If you build it, they will come" is not a biblical concept, neither is "God helps those who help themselves". Both are quotes, one from a movie the other from a founding father.

8.The Matrix was a revolutionary Movie... to bad the sequels were not. A lesson we could all learn from.

9. The experiences God used to change our lives will not be the same experiences He uses to change the lives of those around us. We are not called to recreate for others what God created for us.

10. My life is a musical.

11. Only God can change your life. No church, religion, government or person can change your existence, no matter what they promise. No they can't.

12. I have many pet peeves... most of which are things I hate about myself.

13. Exaggeration is just a rationalization for lying.

14. I need Jesus as much as anyone.

15. To ignore any one part of the Gospel is to ignore the whole.

16. You cannot claim to follow Christ and reject His body. Quit pretending that you can. If you are not a part of a church body find one or finally admit you just hate the fact that Christ died for all the people you can't stand.

17. When we are in the worst economic crises since the great depression, discourage your wife from wearing the dress made with real sterling silver.

18. When God invests in you, make sure you provide a good return on His investment.

19. I love my job but it can be very hard at times.

20. Love God more than you love your spouse, love your spouse more than you love your kids and love your kids more than you love anything left in life. Not the other way around.

21. Creativity is.

The Church Office

We had a blast with our 2009 Annual Thanksgiving Banquet at FCC. For those of you that were not able to attend I am posting this video so you can share in the experience. Enjoy!

Twitter

For the past several weeks I have been using a new (to me) social connectivity tool called Twitter. Twitter asks one simple question "What are you doing?" and gives you 140 "characters" to answer. This simple phrase has sparked a movement on the internet that is quickly redefining how we communicate over the internet.



Tuesday's Question of the week: What are you doing?

Breakfast and Mad Props Friday

BREAKFAST! It's meaning is deeper than just the first meal in the morning. It actually signifies the end of a prolonged period without eating or fasting. It literally means to break your fast. Since fasting can be abstaining from more than just food I decided early this month to fast from blogging. Today is my blog breakfast! Twisted logic I know but you get the meaning I am sure.

Mad props this week goes out to my boy Wes Schaefer.

Since high school Wes has dealt with one addiction after another. Each new addiction would eventually leave him wanting more than the drugs had to offer. After searching for a "high" bigger and better than the last one, Wes eventually found himself addicted to Meth and ultimately close to destroying his own life. With the help of his family, friends and church, Wes entered a drug rehabilitation facility and one year later stood before those same people and proclaimed God's victory in his life. You can see him in this video holding up a sign that says "Addicted to Meth" and then "Clean And Sober! & Forgiven".



His sign was ginormous and rightfully so. God had done a major work in his life. Afterwards Wes sent me a text thanking me for asking him to participate in the event and wrote "That was a better high than any drug had ever given me". Wes had experienced the life changing power of the Gospel and it was powerful to witness.

For most people this would be enough. Enough because their lives were changed by God and they were now free to go about living their lives, building their careers, raising families and going to church. This has not been the case for Wes. Wes recognizes the power of God to change his life. He understood the power of addiction that he was under was significant but that God's power was greater and as a result, he wants everyone to experience that same saving power in their own lives. Now Wes is actively sharing the power of God with others. He recently hosted an event at the church building to help raise awareness about the destructive nature of Meth addiction and is constantly on the lookout for ways to share the Gospel with people who are far from God.

So Mad Prop's to Wes. He is exhibiting the true nature of the Christ. He knows first hand the power of the Gospel and desires to share its life changing power with others. He is an inspiration to me and many others around him. I can't wait to see what God does with him next...

Everyone join me in giving Mad Prop's to Wes.

Happy New Year!

2009 is all about discipline for me personally. I am not much on the traditional new year's resolutions but I am big on setting goals. If you break a resolution you essentially let yourself (and those to whom you made your resolution) down. A goal however recognizes that its going to take some effort to achieve. I am a flawed man. The best I can do as an individual, a husband, a father and a minister is to set goals that will ultimately help me be the man God wants me to be.

Here are my goals for 2009

1. Spend more time with my Family and Friends.
This seems pretty generic but the truth is, I am a workaholic. It is not unusual for me to spend 60-70 hours per week working on worship services, rehearsals, learning music, editing video, creating graphics, designing sets, managing ministries and meeting with all of the people involved in the aforementioned list. One of my major personal goals is to cut back on the amount of hours I spend doing "church work" and increase the number of hours I spend with my family and friends. This one goal is going to require the most discipline.

2. Read through the Bible.
I haven't read through the whole Bible in a while. I am actually participating in a daily reading that will take me through the entire Bible in one year and the New Testament twice. Another needed discipline.

3. Take a big risk.
I am not sure what this means right now but I have a few ideas. God is working on me in several areas that will require huge steps of faith. When I look back at 2008 I don't see many places where I took any kind of risk. The hard part for me is that I am a risk taker. So much of my past has been about taking risks (it drives my boss and my wife crazy) and yet somewhere I stopped and began playing it safe. This year there will be some risks and they will be big.

4. Take two family vacations.
This is going to be the toughest. First of all, vacations cost money and not that we are poor but we don't make the kind of money that will allow us to take a vacation for five very often. This will require financial discipline. Secondly, we are pushing it every year to get in one family vacation. In 2008 we didn't even take one. This year I am committing to take two vacations. They may be to a hotel in OKC to visit the Zoo for three days but we will figure out a way to make it happen. See goal #1... needed discipline.

5. Complete Twelve Hours towards my degree.
I am still working towards that ever elusive college degree. I often joke that my goal is to graduate before my twelve year old son does. Little by little I am chipping away at my goal of graduating someday. This year I need twelve hours to feel good about my progress. You guessed it... discipline.

There they are. Now that it is out there, you are all invited to hold me accountable to these five goals. Of course there are other things I want to do this year but these are the priorities.

Have a great New Year!!