We made it to Playa del Carmen yesterday, and after a terrible wait in the immigration line, we got to our hotel. So far everything is fantastic. More later, and a couple of pictures.
Please join me in praying for my friend Mark Presley and his family. Mark’s dad collapsed with a brain hemorrhage on Sunday. You can follow Mark’s posts about it at sonofwhale.com.
If you haven’t heard about Josh Hamilton, he lost in the Home Run Derby last night in spite of hitting 28 homers in the first round. They kept talking about his previous addiction, and what a great comeback story it is, but didn’t really give the whole picture. Here’s a link to “the rest of the story”…
We saw the new Will Smith blockbuster over the weekend. I was really surprised. I was expecting “X-Men 4″. The turn midway through into a character movie instead of a straight out action movie was a somewhat welcome twist.
Having grown up in a very bland church that helped me to cultivate little more than a sense of “fire insurance”, it was quite a shock after I was married to begin attending a much more “Pentecostal” church with my wife.
After years of resisting, I finally gave in and decided to open myself to the possibility that maybe there was something to this whole “spiritual gifts” thing beyond just, “Hey I’m good at helping people”, or “I make lots of money, so I’m good at giving.” I asked God to show me what it was he wanted me to learn, and tried to look on with different eyes. Instead of the freak show I had seen before, God showed me that these people with their hands raised or speaking in tongues or running around the church were not only there to KNOW Him, but to also EXPERIENCE Him. In fact, I never even saw a single snake!
So apparently I hurt somebody’s feelings with my last post. That’s unfortunate and was unintended. What was intended as a general statement about the state of the church was taken as a personal attack, and for that I’m sorry. I hear lots of feedback about lots of different things when it comes to church life. I just happened to choose to write about this one.
To read into my post that I don’t see value in bible teaching is a bit of a stretch though. I lead a home based small group bible study. My passion, even above reaching the lost(shame on me), is to see those who have been redeemed actually live a transformed life. Unfortunately, it really doesn’t happen that much. The best way for that to happen, short of an immediate act of God, is to study the bible and to replace the garbage of the world with the truth of the Christ who died to set us free.
I would also like to see people(in the general sense, not anyone specific) do something with that knowledge once it has been obtained. That should be one of those truths learned from our study of the bible, and that was the intended message of my previous post.
No one may read this. Some may read this and be offended. That’s not the point. I’m not targeting anyone, I’m just thinking. A friend of mine recently said they were looking for ‘longer sermons with better teaching”. Out of a sense of politeness I didn’t challenge him. I just nodded. But it left me wondering.
Dr. Jeff has often said, “I only have one sermon, I just present it differently every time.” Though initially that struck me as odd, it really is true. The Gospel is the Gospel. Like it or not, receive it or not. There are only so many ways to whitewash the same fence. We had a guest pastor from South Africa this week who put it in a way that really grabbed me. To paraphrase, he said, “It’s not my job to sit and argue theology, it’s my job to DO the word of God.” Though I’m not always the best doer of the word, that really stuck me as a powerful statement coming from the mouth of a minister.
People like to throw around jargon like “consumer mentality” and the like, and I ususally have a problem with jargon and generalization. But isn’t that really at the heart of this very matter? Isn’t it more important for me to be a doer of the word and not simply a hearer of the word? At what point have I heard enough. Though I understand the importance of learning more about the character of God, don’t I already know all I need to know? God is who He says He is. He sent His son to die as a payment for my sins. Through His blood I am forgiven and will spend eternity with HIm.
The recent sermon series at FBC McKinney has further opened my eyes. It has been titled “When the Church Leaves the Building” and has been a challenge to live with a missional mindset, instead of just living. There is a list of hundreds of service opportunities that will take place in the McKinney area during Transforming Your World week from April 20-27. On Sunday the 27th, they will actually close the church doors for the morning and are asking everyone to serve their community in some manner. That’s pretty gutsy.
To some, this may sound like pandering, and that’s ok. I don’t really care. A church that spends Sunday sermons encouraging people to get off their butts and reach out to the lost and the hurting is exactly where I want to be. A leader that expends his capital in building doers of the word and not hearers is my kind of guy.
Sure a big percentage of people are still going to say, “I will be happy to support your ‘missional activities’ with my checkbook.” That’s ok. It takes money to change things. But this is another of those times when, if in eternity we get to look back and see that lives were changed and people came to know Christ because we weren’t sitting around in pews one Sunday in April of 2008 hearing a long sermon where we parsed words, and learned the Greek root and memorized another scripture we never plan to put into practice, then I say “Bring it on”!
Buying and selling a house is extremely stressful. Anybody that has done it before knows that. But isn’t if funny how easy it is to get distracted by circumstance. Tammy and I had these great reasons for the move. We were prayerful about the decision and felt like we were trying to act in accordance with God’s will. During the ordeal we had lots of different prayers, “Can this please be over?”, “We don’t need a lot of money, just enough to get in the new house.”, “I know God will send the right person in the right situation where this will be a real blessing to them”, “Can this please be over?”.
Driving back and forth to Melissa to take the girls to school everyday got to be really old. Making offer after offer on houses only to have them rejected got really old. Keeping the house in ship shape everyday got really old(We had over 50 showings in our 85 days on the market). Though there was peace on most days about it, sometimes there wasn’t.
It’s funny how when it was all over and we look back on it, everyone of those little prayers regarding the move was answered. When the time was right. We got as much money as we needed. A lady in the middle of a divorce who needed a house in the same school zone as her elementary kids came along, a house in Melissa came available at a serious discount, and others. It was definitely one of those times of faith building where it seems like God just seems to be shaking his head and asking you, “When are you going to realize once and for all that I’ve got this covered?”
After all this time, I guess I know what’s wrong with me. I don’t know if anybody even watched Eli Stone last week, but I bet they did since it had the Lost lead in. I finally don’t feel so weird knowing someone else has days where George Michael just shows up at random times and sings song, even if it is a fictional character… Tammy occasionally finds it irritating that I think everyday life should be a musical.
Tammy and I both grew up in the country, so we know about living in the country. Though we live in a neighborhood in Melissa just a few exits from our old house in McKinney, it’s still pretty “country” here. We find ourselves making lots of Jeff Foxworthy type comments about our new surroundings. Our current list of signs you live in the country…
1. The speed limit where you enter your neighborhood is 65.
2. You have seen someone drive their tractor to the local Sonic.
3. There are cows 50 yards from your front door.
4. You can actually see the stars at night.
We are loving our new house. It’s still a work in progress, and I can’t walk through the garage yet, but it’s coming along.
