Rob Bell is one of my favorite communicators.  Rob is the Pastor for the Mars Hill church in Grand Rapids, Michigan and the guy who does the NOOMA videos as well as many other speaking engagements around the world.  He has a gift for putting big, deep thoughts into simple, short messages.  I have used some of his videos as a teaching aid and have borrowed some of his sermon thoughts for classes I have taught.  Anyway, there are more and more preachers and churches turning to video to assist with sharing ideas, both in sermons and outside the normal meeting times and I often enjoy the provoking thoughts that come from them.

One such video was recently released by Josh Ross.  Josh is the preacher at the Sycamore View Church of Christ in Memphis, TN and even though I don’t know him all that well, someone I consider a friend and one of the next great communicators for God.  I have learned a lot from Josh over the past few years through his blog and some of his sermons I have been able to hear.  His greatest claim to fame is being a son of Rick (another one of my favorite communicator of God’s message) and Beverly Ross (a gifted communicator and wonderful family counselor), dear friends of mine.  Josh has some great thoughts in his video about what freedom means for us.  Enjoy!

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Grace and peace to you.

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24 broadcast the last episode on Monday night.  It’s a show I came to late but got caught up in the rough world of Jack Bauer, a U.S. counter-terrorism operative who found the people who did not want to be found, extracted information from people who did not want to share information and who eliminated people who didn’t want to play nice.  In many ways, Bauer epitomized who almost every man wants to be, a warrior who is willing to do whatever necessary to obtain positive results.  There are many lessons to be learned from Bauer, some negative and some positive.  For instance, Jack could be overbearing with people, whether friend or foe.  On the other hand, his willingness to go and fight whatever evil when necessary is exactly what many of us wish we could do.  I will miss 24 and Jack Bauer, not the extreme violence that started to permeate this last season, but the hero, the guy who would fight against the bad folks to protect us and keep us safe.

As I say that, I wonder if the appeal isn’t partially because Bauer reminds us of someone we need, someone who will protect us, someone who will sacrifice everything to protect us from the evil that wants to snare us and destroy us.

I don’t have the relationship I want with God…yet.  It’s getting better but there are still days I feel like I’m drifting through life trying to deal with my problems and disappointments and forgetting to bring God in, to seek his help, protection and guidance.  Today is a better day because that is what I did to start my day and I feel a sense of peace I didn’t have yesterday.  Today is a better day because God is involved from the get-go.
Grace and peace to you.

 
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It’s after noon and I still haven’t started off my day like I thought I would.  What’s new?

Tonight is the FINALE (final ever) episode of 24.  I can’t believe it.  I thought Jack Bauer would live forever and would still be taking out bad guys when he is 80.  A friend told me that Jack was going to get killed tonight.  Surely not, but I told my friend if Bauer did get killed, I would never watch 24 again. 

Happy birthday to my dad.  I won’t say how young he is but he’s got 2 years to go before hitting 80.  I remember when I thought someone who was 78 is ancient.  I don’t think that way so much today.  Of course, I remember people having their 40th birthday when I was a kid and I thought that was old.  Whew!

The Rangers didn’t fair so well with the Cubs but the sale sounds like it is finally going through for the Greenburg/Ryan group.  Normally I would have been to 5 or 6 games by now but I’ve only made it to 2 this year.  Different situations have impacted my ability to go but my son’s baseball schedule has certainly impacted my ability to watch/listen to games but I rather be watching him play any day.

How do kids grow so fast?  I have one that is nearly driving and will fly the coup in the next couple of years.  That doesn’t seem feasible since I was walking her into kindergarten just a few weeks ago. 

That’s all for now.  I hope to have something of more substance posted soon.  I know I have a video link I want to share with you. 

Grace and peace to you.var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”); document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src='” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”)); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-12356560-1”); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.   Romans 8:38-39  (NIV)
 

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I made a statement in class Wednesday night that if you don’t believe God loves you, you don’t know God.  Now that sounds silly to some people but I know a lot of people who say they are Christians who don’t know God, the God who loves them unconditionally, the God who doesn’t look at them as someone who has failed but as someone who has promise and purpose, the God who will let nothing, NO-THING come between Him and his creation.  I know people who have separated themselves from an intimate relationship with Christ because they have sin, suffering, a huge burden that they don’t want to share or release because of shame or fear and all they can do is stand apart from God because they don’t know His love.  Oh, they still show up at church and do the right stuff but they are miserable inside.

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God is love.

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But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:8  (NIV)
 

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While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Even in my sin, Christ died for me.
I sin but Christ still loves me.

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God loves me, always.
Always.

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Grace and peace to you.
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Arizona is making all the news lately with new immigration laws and protests.  I have to admit I haven’t paid attention to the news in the past few weeks and don’t know much about what Arizona has done but it obviously has some folks riled up.  Illegal immigration has become a hot-button issue since the past election and while I am certainly not a scholar on the subject, I have been thinking about what my response to the issue should be. 

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As a white man in America who has a good job and pays more taxes than I think I should, it is easy to be upset about these people sneaking into our country and using our resources without paying taxes and, in fact, getting a free ride on the back of my tax dollars.  From that perspective, it’s easy to get bent out of shape over illegal immigration.

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As a Christian, I see opportunity.  Opportunity to help people who are fleeing something that isn’t what they want, fleeing something that has oppressed them or prevented them from being who they can be and I have knowledge of something that they might want – Christ.  I see opportunity to not only help them find a better life in this world but maybe even minister to them and help them find an opportunity greater than anything the United States can offer them.  Opportunity to be Christ-like towards them, to feed them and clothe them and give them shelter.

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The trick is that taking the opportunity requires something of me while complaining about tax dollars allows me to stay insulated in my cozy cocoon. 

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What would Christ have me do?

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Grace and peace to you.
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My content today is stolen.  It’s from a kid (I call him a kid because he finds ways to mention how young he is at times) who desperately wants to know his Lord better, more intimately.  When I started reading his blog I often thought, “whoa, slow down young man” but as I read it more and more I think, “whoa, stop and think about that statement for a minute because it’s really good.”  I’m stealing from his blog today. 

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he credit today goes to Josh Ross.  Josh in the minister at Sycamore View in Memphis and he has a big heart for God and being God’s servant.  Go here ( www.sycamoreview.org ) and watch the video that shows up on the left hand side of the page under the title Unchained.  Then, go read his blog post from last week here ( http://preacherjosh.blogspot.com/2010/05/when-im-70.html ).

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Josh.

Grace and peace to you.

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I went to a Rangers game on Wednesday night that was a great game.  The return of Derek Holland and six homeruns and a 10-1 Rangers win over Oakland.  I met some friends there and we walked to the entrance way with out tickets but they wouldn’t scan.  On further review, we all realized the tickets were for Tuesday night, the 11th and we were there on Wednesday night, the 12th.  Oops.  It worked out well as we were able to exchange the tickets for some in the same general area, see a 9 inning game instead of a 13 inning game and see the Rangers win.  Cool!

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I went to a funeral on Thursday.  Jim Barner was 43 years old on the day he died and one of the neatest people I’ve ever known.  He would drop everything to help anyone and never met a stranger.  The people speaking about him all talked about how he exhibited Jesus’ life on earth and that is true.  Jim was too young to die and will be missed by so many but I believe today he communes with God and Jim has won the victory.  The line that stuck with me was “life is not about the duration but the donation.”  Amen.

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I wonder how many people who read my blog (maybe 10) and don’t comment (8 – thanks Rick and Kyle for being my 20%’ers) think I’ve fallen and hit my head for bringing Buddha into the conversation. 

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OK, I pulled up Google Analytics (free plug for Google) and 27% of my visitors come from Rick Ross’ blog.  Thanks Rick.  I’ve had 17 unique visitors in the last month.  OK, that’s a little depressing to my ego but I never really meant for this site to be for anyone but me so that’s 16 more than I intended to ever see it.  It’s obvious most people don’t wake up wondering if I had written anything because they view nearly 3 pages at a time.  I’ve had 1 visitor from Cebu in the Phillipines and 1 from White Rock, Canada.  Seriously.  Also, Wal-Mart must be on to me because I had 1 visitor from Bentonville, Arkansas.  Someone from Humble comes back every now and then…cool…someone from Killeen and someone from Porter.  Where is Porter?  Fascinating stuff.  OK, I appreciate all of you but the Canadian and Phillipines visitors are really cool.  I’m international!  🙂

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Read your Bibles.  God wants to tell you something.

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I was sitting in a room earlier this week a bit stressed so I opened the Bible on my phone to Psalms and decided to sweep my finger over the screen to let it scroll through the chapters trusting that where it landed was what God wanted me to read.  A friend calls it Bible roulette.  Anyway, it stopped, I opened and I read what I am 100% sure God wanted me to see.  He is sovereign.

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Grace and peace to you.
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I was talking to a friend who is studying Buddhism to better understand other world religions and he offered up the point that the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism all deal with suffering.  Our discussion turned to the idea that our churches have done little to help us understand suffering and the fact that it is a fact of life.  WE WILL SUFFER.  The world is a rough place and it is ruled by a force that wants to destroy us.  Maybe Christianity would do well to spend more time discussing suffering, it’s implications and how God plans to help us overcome suffering. 

Let’s talk about grace and mercy and Heaven.  They are great topics but I’m one of those folks that runs into a lot of suffering on a daily basis.  I’ve faced my own and have good friends who are and have suffered in ways I do not want to experience and in those times, I find it is when good Christians most question God and His ways.  I can’t help but wonder if we wouldn’t question less or be better prepared if we began treating suffering as one of the basic tenets of following Christ.

Let’s admit it.  Adam and Eve suffered, Cain and Abel suffered, God’s chosen people suffered, Abraham, Moses, Jonah, Daniel…should I go on?  The Bible is full of suffering.  Have you heard of a guy named Job?  God allowed Satan to make Job suffer.  Allowed it! 

The beauty is in the fact that there is a line God will not let Satan cross.  WE WILL SUFFER but, if we trust in the Lord and persevere there is a line, drawn at the foot of the cross, that crosses over to a life of perfect peace free of suffering.  Oh, I won’t see it in this life but God has something planned for me that is immensely greater than what I know now. 

Plan to suffer but know in that suffering that God has something great in store for you, something not only without suffering but with joy and peace that I cannot adequately put in words.  There is something much greater waiting for us if we will hold God’s hand as we walk through this present suffering.

Grace and peace to you.
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I often hear mention of “protecting our way of life” as something of utmost importance.  What is this “way of life” that is spoken of and what makes it so important?

I struggle mightily with the way I live and the question of how God wants me to live.  Is it important to God that I drive a new, more reliable vehicle?  Is it important to God that I have a certain size house, a pool, a great yard?  Is it important to God that I have health insurance or if I get a cost of living adjustment every year?  Is it important to God that I have a healthy 401k, that I live in a country where I can eat anything I want whenever I want, that I can buy clothes at the hippest stores, that I have an iPhone and other electrical gadgets?  Is that the way of life that needs to be important to protect?  If so, I’m doing alright.

On the other hand, is the way of life I need to be living one that has me interacting with the poor, the hurting, the addicts, the lost, the hopeless, the hungry, the homeless?  Is the way of life I need to be living supposed to look like what Jesus did or the life I described in the previous paragraph?  What is the way of life I need to be protecting?  Living?  It’s easy for me to do the other things because they are convenient and they are normal with the people I most associate with.  It’s hard to do the things that Jesus did because I would have to go looking for these folks.  I would have to go places I might not always go and be with people I might not feel comfortable being with.  People who eat much different than me, maybe even smell much different than me.

I am praying for conviction and courage.  I want my way of life to be God’s way of life for me.  I have already seen how he can use me in my weakness with people I am comfortable with and I wonder what He could do with me where I might be more needed.

Next time you speak of protecting your way of life, spend a little time asking yourself if that’s the way God wants you living life.

Grace and peace to you.

In Christ alone, my hope is found…

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My hope.  I have woken up so many mornings hopeful for something; a good day, good weather, a bad thing would just go away, strength, courage, a money tree, a hug and kiss from my kids, to know that I am loved unconditionally.  Selfishly, I wake up and I pray for many things and many people but I am always included because I hope for many things – nothing more than hoping for Jesus return so I can begin an eternity in the presence of my King.  The joy is knowing that it is my hope, to know it is mine and to know that I can and should have hope because of Christ.

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In Christ alone, my hope is found…

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Grace and peace to you.
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