FROM FINISH TO START

I'm sitting here in the quiet early morning, listening to the birds outside joyfully greet a new day and it is well with my soul. The peace I feel this morning is entirely because of the hope I have; not just for myself but for all those that I know who have come to the cross and those that will. Is it wrong that I see beauty in the brutality that saved me? Like the beauty of Fall colors of a dying season I imagine a blood-stained cross on a hill with another cross to the left and one to the right. I think about Jesus there dying and how he thirsted and because of that I can drink living water. I think about Jesus in agony crying out to the Father to forgive and because of that I am shown mercy. I think about Jesus' cry to the Father "why have you forgotten me?" Out of that I am remembered and accepted. Most of what I'm feeling this morning is gratitude that I can walk in victory and I get to start at the finish line. All of the work has been accomplished; all the heavy lifting-done. When Jesus walked out of the tomb that couldn't contain Him the Spirit was set free to live within me, where too...He cannot be contained. I don't think there is any more I can say this morning. I'm overwhelmed.

One Drop

Have you ever really looked at what happens when a single drop of water falls into a puddle? When this tiny droplet of water, seemingly powerless on its own, hits the water you think its pretty much over for that droplet-right? It just disappears; it gets absorbed in something bigger and is lost forever without being noticed. This droplet has done little to contribute anything tangible...just an insignificant droplet. Interestingly that although this droplet was short-lived and seems to have gone quietly and become buried in the mass with no real legacy, nothing could be further from the truth. Although the droplet's time was short, it made a huge impact as it came face to face with the water puddle. This tiny insignificant droplet created ripples many time its own size that extended quite far and had great influence on those things in it, on it, and around the fringes.

John 7:38-Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."

Each of us, however small or insignificant we believe ourselves to be, have been given at least one gift that can change the life of another person and do so in a manner that even though we may never see the full impact of it; a random kindness, a gesture or expression of love of any kind, God will not waste it.

2000 years ago a droplet fell to Earth and perhaps you could say it was a tear of hope and a tear of joy. A drop of Living Water that impacted this world in such a way that it was never to be the same but transformed-redeemed. There is no better time than this Easter to reflect on the influence of a single drop from Heaven and the impact He made. What better gift to give back to God than to honor Him and make some waves of our own.

Happy Easter

NOTHING IS TOO SMALL FOR GOD

You can tell a little kid just about anything and they'll believe it, no matter how big or how small the tale is-they will believe just about anything you tell them.

I didn't pray much as a little kid. In fact praying was pretty much non-existent in my family. Back then my prayer ability was limited to my repetitious mastering of the two standards; one was the Lord's prayer and the other was the Hail Mary. As a young Catholic you pretty much had to stick to the standards. Looking back, that was chanting and not prayer at all; looking that far back conjures up memories I would rather not revisit anyway so back on track here.

Have you ever snuck up on your kids, when they were tiny and peeked in on them while they said a goodnight prayer or ever overheard them just talking to God casually? It's kind of funny to think about it that your little one might get wrapped up in a casual conversation with God sitting there at a little table, just the two of them; your little girl and God having a tea party. What imagery. Perhaps you've gotten a private glimpse of your little boy in despair over something so small in your eyes yet something huge in his as he barters with God; "God if you just do this for me I swear I'll never do (fill in the blank) again."

As these thoughts came into my head I got to thinking about how I tend to operate and wondered how many others are the same way. What I wondered about was the size box we tend to confine God to. Some of us keep Him in a small box and some in a big box. What I mean by that is-some of us look to God for help a lot and some of us very little. There are several reasons for this I suppose. In my case, I sometimes don't ask Him for help with the little things. It's easy to get caught up in thinking He doesn't have time for my little problem, after-all, He has much more important prayers to answer that this little trivial thing of mine...right? We're encouraged to dream God-sized dreams and to believe that God is bigger than any problem we face and that nothing is too big for God. In so doing, I think we sometimes, some of us anyway, get to thinking our little needs, wants, hopes and dreams are too small to bother God with. How can we distract Him from important stuff like healing a friend of cancer, mending a broken heart facing divorce or looking after a widow or orphan and feeding the hungry. How can we bother God with our petty little issues?

The thing that keeps coming into my head is "childlike Innocence". It's not about how we think God is or what we think He should do or how He should respond to us but that we should recognize Him as the God He is; God the Father. What kind of dad would deny his child even the simplest request? Whatever the need we should turn to God "expecting". No good dad would treat one child any differently from another. Every good dad loves all of his kids equally. Every good dad plays the role of tooth fairy. How ever small your need is-place it under your pillow tonight because nothing is too small for God.

The Church Has Left The Building

In just 4 long weeks (I say long because it seems like forever between Sundays), Kristi and I have learned a good bit about Jacob’s Well, our new church home. There is still so much more to learn and many new personal relationships to build. Opportunities abound for us to do just that. Observation and initiative will take care of that over time. Kristi hooked up with a young lady on our first visit actually and they really look forward to seeing each other each week and this has inspired Kristi to pursue her long desire to learn sign language. We’ve had opportunity to spend time privately with the pastors and their wives over coffee, pizza and sandwiches (I made good choices by the way) allowing them to learn a bit more about our heart and us-theirs. Life groups are an integral part of JW with several hosted through the week and we discussed that a good bit.

Last Sunday Kristi and I had lunch with Pastor Ken and his wife Kelly. What a great couple; we enjoyed the short time together. Ken brought a couple of books for me to read-“The Externally Focused Church” and “Sticky Church” and the accompanying DVD set. I just finished reading “Externally focused Church” I only had 7-days to complete it before passing it on. I felt a little intimidated that I had such a short time to read this book yet I think Ken knew I would probably get sucked in pretty good. I love this book and I am going to buy a copy so I have it for reference. I think this is essential reading for leadership at all churches involved in outreach or planning to. Though this book was written with a couple of specific church examples, it may as well have been written about Jacob's Well because you see its about churches being (as the title says) externally focused. Though teaching, saving, baptizing and serving the needs of the flock (internal focus) are all great and necessary, you aren't whole as a church unless you are serving the needy and serving community and doing so by commissioning your membership out of the confines of the four walls in doing so. From my observation, serving in these ways is not by “department” and by that I mean it’s not a philosophy of “we have a group for this and a group for that” but rather a church-wide philosophy. Certainly Life Groups take on some special interests as a small group as well and that is healthy in growing the group as a close-knit family of its own and serving needs of others as such. It is also healthy for a church to serve together as a larger body...youth and adults serving together even.

Last week, youth from Texas joined alongside Jacob’s Well in serving community; they like what JW is doing and believe in its vision and its commission by God. This week, youth are visiting from Arkansas also to serve alongside JW in the community. You know-its one thing to believe in your church and what God is doing with it; it’s a whole other thing when you are blessed that other churches believe in your church as well and I’m not just talking Texas and Arkansas, I’m talking other local churches JW partners with-yes, even across denominational lines to serve a common purpose-to simply serve.

I love Jacob’s Well. This church lives the heart of the gospel as a church that “thinks, cares and DOES.” I would love to say that God is doing great things at Jacob’s Well but its more than that. God is doing great things THROUGH Jacob’s Well. From what I see the outreach by Jacob’s Well is not an attempt to increase attendance or simply take care of their own with an internal focus…no, not at all. If someone asks you for a cup of cold water you give it to them, not as a condition of anything, not to bring them to Jesus, not to bring them to your church-no conditions. You give someone a cup of cold water for the same reason Jesus would, because that person is simply thirsty and needs a drink of water…period. You feed someone that is hungry because they need something to eat. You lift someone up because they are too weak to stand on their own.

You know, its probably a couple of more years before Jacobs Well breaks ground on a church building. Some might wonder how does a church survive-let alone thrive without a building? It just goes to show you that in fact church is not at all about brick and mortar or steeple-envy. Its about what happens the other 6-days of the week and where and how you spend your time serving. This is how you truly love God-by loving people tangibly. By being His hands and His feet, by putting your efforts where your mouth is walking the walk and putting boots on the ground...willing boots at that.

If you are looking for Jacob’s Well after Sunday service look quick because the church has left the building and that’s how its supposed to be.

Master Plan or Master's Plan?

Well this has been quite a weekend. No matter where I turned there was clear instruction and direction either from God directly or from teachers around me. This was the first weekend in a long time that I have spent pretty much its entirety in pursuit of Him. In different ways, a seemingly common theme was always present-obedience.

Have you ever been paralyzed by planning or over-thinking? You know-the kind like when Katrina devastated New Orleans and something as logistically simple as just getting some lousy water dropped was stagnated because it had to be considered and planned in the context of the "greater plan". Sometimes even in our workplace, home life and churches we paralyze our efforts by thinking even the smaller "micro-manageable things" need to be thoroughly planned out. That's more often than not (in my experience) a recipe for never-never land. What does all this have to do with my weekend? A message I was getting a lot and in several ways was that we need not always wait to be put on God's path and that we should be more determined and put ourselves on His path.

God has already called us to His purpose. I'm not saying we shouldn't be obedient to authority-by no means am I saying that. I know God will support a good plan. I know God supports vision-casting that is reasonable. I also think it must aggravate Him deeply when we get way too wrapped up in planning what He has already planned and vision-casting what He has already cast. People are hungry so GO! People need to be told the good news. Don't invite them over, take it to them! GO! The great commission was not/is not about sending invitations. I believe Jesus said "Go". So what are you and I waiting for- a plan...a vision? We have one. His plan-His vision. What more do you need? In this case-nothing. Wait for a master plan if you want but the Master's plan is already drafted so go! Go like there is no tomorrow because there may in fact not be one for somebody.

Fools Gold or the Kingdom of Heaven?

I've been up since 3:00 a.m. this morning. That's nuts I know, especially on a Saturday when I can sleep in but choose not to. I have been reading this morning and listening for insight and wisdom. I've done a lot of thinking and reflecting on things as I read (this behavior is known to many as A.D.D.). I prefer to call it a blessing. It seems whenever I'm deeply engaged with God, poverty and suffering dominate our connection. Sure-these things deeply concern God...without question you could say that these things are what matter the most to Him when it comes to our conduct and compassion for one another.

As I got deeper in thought and questioning what God expected me to do with this, I think He wants me to keep mindful of those around me as well as those distant from me as both are within reach one way or another. On a larger proportion my attention was drawn to our friends Troy and Shari serving as missionaries in Mongolia. I feel led to honor them this morning and thank God for them. Their story makes me want to do more, to be better at being the hands and feet of the Lord...to stop being content with what I have and trade in my fools gold for real treasure. Troy and Shari not only found the treasure-they sold most all of what they had to get it and I'm sure consider the transaction to have been a deal heavily in their favor. Matthew 13:44
"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field."

When I read that verse, for me, "fight the good fight" just comes up short. "Fight the good fight" just seems to have an aftertaste of "adequacy." In the midst of suffering and poverty all around us people raise their fist to heaven and cry to God "why do you let this happen" and yet we have no right to ask that. God on the other hand has every right to point at you and me and ask that.

I suppose some of us can do more for starters and instead of asking ourselves "how much am I expected to do or how much am I expected to give?" We should say more often "how much can I do and how much can I give?" Maybe if attitudes about serving and giving radically begin to change among Christians in a big way we might finally realize that fools gold has no value because it never did.

Our New Church Home

Well, I said we were going to post something when Kristi and I settled on our new church home so here it is. My intent is not to do a sales-pitch; I just want to be informative. If you are seeking or just curious, there are a few links below. Those of you that know our heart will see quite clearly why Kristi and I were drawn to Jacob’s Well in Plano. Though “The Well” is only a couple of years old it is quite mature. With land already acquired, it is hoped that the church building will be underway in the not too distant future. We are very excited to be a part of an extremely dynamic family of believers. Kristi and I would be happy to share more with you if you like. Just call or email.

He called-we answered; and we are excited about what God has planned for us-wherever and whenever.

What is Jacob’s Well?

Jacob’s Well Home Makeover project reported by Channel 2 News

Other community involvement

Want to know more?