The Quest
The quest for honor is a passionate pursuit of a different kind of greatness.
Though its path runs counter to selfish ambition, it is no less ambitious.
It inspires those who long to live heroic lives.
It calls us to a new kind of courage.
It demands so much of us.
Integrity not only harnesses our passions, but focuses our intentions.
There are some paths, some options and some directions that we simply will not choose.
From Ken Blanchard's Book, The Servant Leader
Soar!
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Wrath of God
Keith Cowart gave a fantastic message this morning on the wrath of God from Hosea. Many believe that the old testament God is a god of wrath and the new testament God is a god of grace. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He had wrath in the OT and he has wrath today. Wrath means "passionate anger". God's passionate anger comes out of His passionate love for us. When God speaks anger, it is always to draw Israel back to Him.
God is holy. God is 100% pure. Sin is sin because it is contrary to the very nature of God. It is anti-God, anti-life. He knows it will kill us. And it isn't just sex, drugs and rock and roll....it is pride, it is envy, it is selfishness, it is gossip, it is lust. Satan dresses it up and makes it pretty but it always has a hook and it clutches our soul and kills our life.
God hates this because He knows the cost. He sees us pulled toward the sin and He knows the outcome. God gave himself totally to us knowing we would turn on him.
We can see this in our relationship with our children. We see the decisions they are making and we know the outcome of those decisions. When we counsel them to not make a certain decision and they defy us and do it anyway, it angers us. It angers us because we know best, we know the outcome and we know the ultimate cost of the poor decision. It angers us because our children, like sheep, have gone astray -- they turn their backs on us and the love we offer them in our advice.
So it is with God.
Sin steals, kills and destroys.
God sees it - He sees what it does to us, He sees that it pulls us away from Him, He knows that it makes us deaf and blind.
He is jealous lover of my soul.
He passionately loves me and only wants fullness for my life.
Sin makes my life less than full - less than the design God has for my life.
He stands firm, He is my rock and He alone breaks the bondage.
Freedom! Freedom!
He breaks and destroys the bondage that snares me so I can be free to worship Him fully!
F R E E D O M !!!!
Go to www.youtube.com and type in "Lifetime Everything Skit" - and watch this 5 minute skit.
It is an incredibly powerful picture of God loving us, showing us all the good He created. Then, it shows all sorts of temptations coming against man, pulling man away from Him. It shows the depravity of mankind. In desperation, man turns back to God and God is there to pull man out of the fire and fully restore him.
There was not a dry eye in the service this morning following this message and this powerful illustration.
Soar!
Keith Cowart gave a fantastic message this morning on the wrath of God from Hosea. Many believe that the old testament God is a god of wrath and the new testament God is a god of grace. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He had wrath in the OT and he has wrath today. Wrath means "passionate anger". God's passionate anger comes out of His passionate love for us. When God speaks anger, it is always to draw Israel back to Him.
God is holy. God is 100% pure. Sin is sin because it is contrary to the very nature of God. It is anti-God, anti-life. He knows it will kill us. And it isn't just sex, drugs and rock and roll....it is pride, it is envy, it is selfishness, it is gossip, it is lust. Satan dresses it up and makes it pretty but it always has a hook and it clutches our soul and kills our life.
God hates this because He knows the cost. He sees us pulled toward the sin and He knows the outcome. God gave himself totally to us knowing we would turn on him.
We can see this in our relationship with our children. We see the decisions they are making and we know the outcome of those decisions. When we counsel them to not make a certain decision and they defy us and do it anyway, it angers us. It angers us because we know best, we know the outcome and we know the ultimate cost of the poor decision. It angers us because our children, like sheep, have gone astray -- they turn their backs on us and the love we offer them in our advice.
So it is with God.
Sin steals, kills and destroys.
God sees it - He sees what it does to us, He sees that it pulls us away from Him, He knows that it makes us deaf and blind.
He is jealous lover of my soul.
He passionately loves me and only wants fullness for my life.
Sin makes my life less than full - less than the design God has for my life.
He stands firm, He is my rock and He alone breaks the bondage.
Freedom! Freedom!
He breaks and destroys the bondage that snares me so I can be free to worship Him fully!
F R E E D O M !!!!
Go to www.youtube.com and type in "Lifetime Everything Skit" - and watch this 5 minute skit.
It is an incredibly powerful picture of God loving us, showing us all the good He created. Then, it shows all sorts of temptations coming against man, pulling man away from Him. It shows the depravity of mankind. In desperation, man turns back to God and God is there to pull man out of the fire and fully restore him.
There was not a dry eye in the service this morning following this message and this powerful illustration.
Soar!
Monday, August 06, 2007
Dangerous Men
I've written a good bit about how the church has dulled men down into compliant, dutiful and nice creatures - and then wonders at some point, "Where are all the men?" The men get enough of this and either check out emotionally from the church or just decide to hunt or play golf on Sundays. Men weren't created to be women. We aren't designed to sit around and share our feelings and have a large circle of other men that we call to check in on every few days. We aren't homemakers and generally aren't cooks. We change the channel a lot. We don't talk very much and most men don't enjoy a nice phone conversation. Men are different animals and thank the Lord for that. God made men and women very different for a reason - it is a beautiful design that only He could have dreamed up.
So why is it that the church has seemingly dulled men down into complacent, tame creatures? What would the church have to gain from telling men that they are supposed to be nice, dutiful creatures? Control. The church wants to control "the situation" at all times. Oftentimes, that means that even the Holy Spirit isn't even welcome. Where the Spirit is working, there is naturally a lack of control and a lot of Pastors don't want to risk losing control. Consider this from Eldredge's daily email;
"That strength so essential to men is also what makes them heros. If a neighborhood is safe, it's because of the strength of men. Slavery was stopped by the strength of men, at a terrible price to them and their families. The Nazis were stopped by men. Apartheid wasn't defeated by women...this is simply to remind us that God made men the way they are because we desperately need men to be the way they are designed. Yes, a man is a dangerous thing. So is a scalpel. It can wound or it can save your life. You don't make it safe by making it dull; you put it in the hands of someone who knows what he's doing.
If you have spent anytime around horses, you know a stallion can be a major problem. They're strong, very strong, and they've got a mind of their own. Stallions typically don't like to be bridled, and they can get downright aggressive - especially if there are mares around. A stallion is hard to tame. If you want a safer, quieter animal, there's an easy solution: castrate him. A gelding is much more compliant. You can lead him around by the nose; he'll do what he's told without putting up a fuss. There's only one problem: Geldings don't give life. They can't come through for you the way a stallion can. A stallion is dangerous all right, but if want the life he offers, you have to have the danger too. They go together."
Wow. This hit me right where I am. I have been in two management situations recently that speak to this. One is in business (and I've written about it) and the other is in the church. In the church case, it is a situation where the men/leadership of the church have not been led. The men have been castrated. Those that dared to be a stallion and say "Wait a minute, I don't agree with this" have been taken out and belittled. Anything that challenged the Pastor's authority hasn't been welcome. Total and absolute control is the number one priority of the ministry. The Pastor hasn't trusted his leadership and as a result has turned the men into geldings. They are good men. Really good men. But, the Pastor hasn't adopted a servant leadership model - he hasn't made it his mission to raise up and train the men of the church. He hasn't helped the wild young stallions grow up into the fully mature, fully useful stallions they were designed to be --- bold and wild and powerful tools for God's kingdom.
Imagine a church where the Pastor set out to build his men into the stallions God intended. Imagine if he made leadership and specifically, servant leadership, one of the key foundations of the ministry. Imagine a church that made it it's business to raise up, train, equip and then empower men to lead. Imagine a church that had programs for 6th grade boys, high school boys, young single men, newly married men, 40-something men, etc. that tought the men at each step what it means to be a stallion - a man of God. Think of what this would mean. Imagine what that church could do in the community. Think about how many men would be at that church to grab this message. Think of what it would do for the women. Don't they crave this? Don't women crave real, strong, powerful, visionary men of God? Don't women want to led? Don't they admire men that are bold in their manhood? Imagine what this would do for families? Men of God trained up all along the way in God - what kind of Dad's are these guys going to be? What kind of husbands? It would shake the foundation of the church.
This is possible. The road map is right in front of it. Imagine. Just imagine.
Soar!
I've written a good bit about how the church has dulled men down into compliant, dutiful and nice creatures - and then wonders at some point, "Where are all the men?" The men get enough of this and either check out emotionally from the church or just decide to hunt or play golf on Sundays. Men weren't created to be women. We aren't designed to sit around and share our feelings and have a large circle of other men that we call to check in on every few days. We aren't homemakers and generally aren't cooks. We change the channel a lot. We don't talk very much and most men don't enjoy a nice phone conversation. Men are different animals and thank the Lord for that. God made men and women very different for a reason - it is a beautiful design that only He could have dreamed up.
So why is it that the church has seemingly dulled men down into complacent, tame creatures? What would the church have to gain from telling men that they are supposed to be nice, dutiful creatures? Control. The church wants to control "the situation" at all times. Oftentimes, that means that even the Holy Spirit isn't even welcome. Where the Spirit is working, there is naturally a lack of control and a lot of Pastors don't want to risk losing control. Consider this from Eldredge's daily email;
"That strength so essential to men is also what makes them heros. If a neighborhood is safe, it's because of the strength of men. Slavery was stopped by the strength of men, at a terrible price to them and their families. The Nazis were stopped by men. Apartheid wasn't defeated by women...this is simply to remind us that God made men the way they are because we desperately need men to be the way they are designed. Yes, a man is a dangerous thing. So is a scalpel. It can wound or it can save your life. You don't make it safe by making it dull; you put it in the hands of someone who knows what he's doing.
If you have spent anytime around horses, you know a stallion can be a major problem. They're strong, very strong, and they've got a mind of their own. Stallions typically don't like to be bridled, and they can get downright aggressive - especially if there are mares around. A stallion is hard to tame. If you want a safer, quieter animal, there's an easy solution: castrate him. A gelding is much more compliant. You can lead him around by the nose; he'll do what he's told without putting up a fuss. There's only one problem: Geldings don't give life. They can't come through for you the way a stallion can. A stallion is dangerous all right, but if want the life he offers, you have to have the danger too. They go together."
Wow. This hit me right where I am. I have been in two management situations recently that speak to this. One is in business (and I've written about it) and the other is in the church. In the church case, it is a situation where the men/leadership of the church have not been led. The men have been castrated. Those that dared to be a stallion and say "Wait a minute, I don't agree with this" have been taken out and belittled. Anything that challenged the Pastor's authority hasn't been welcome. Total and absolute control is the number one priority of the ministry. The Pastor hasn't trusted his leadership and as a result has turned the men into geldings. They are good men. Really good men. But, the Pastor hasn't adopted a servant leadership model - he hasn't made it his mission to raise up and train the men of the church. He hasn't helped the wild young stallions grow up into the fully mature, fully useful stallions they were designed to be --- bold and wild and powerful tools for God's kingdom.
Imagine a church where the Pastor set out to build his men into the stallions God intended. Imagine if he made leadership and specifically, servant leadership, one of the key foundations of the ministry. Imagine a church that made it it's business to raise up, train, equip and then empower men to lead. Imagine a church that had programs for 6th grade boys, high school boys, young single men, newly married men, 40-something men, etc. that tought the men at each step what it means to be a stallion - a man of God. Think of what this would mean. Imagine what that church could do in the community. Think about how many men would be at that church to grab this message. Think of what it would do for the women. Don't they crave this? Don't women crave real, strong, powerful, visionary men of God? Don't women want to led? Don't they admire men that are bold in their manhood? Imagine what this would do for families? Men of God trained up all along the way in God - what kind of Dad's are these guys going to be? What kind of husbands? It would shake the foundation of the church.
This is possible. The road map is right in front of it. Imagine. Just imagine.
Soar!
Saturday, August 04, 2007
The Passion of following Christ
I've written much lately about Aslan being on the move. He is! Much is happening in Columbus and I can see God setting up the steps for a lot of big things to come. The initial steps are falling into place. What God can do is earth shaking and it is cool to see the steps starting to unfold.
Much is happening in my life as well. This has been the best 18 months of my spiritual life. God has taken me through a second awakening. Like what He is doing in Columbus, I see that He is shaping me for ... more. So much more. So much more than a 9 to 5 stockbroker, paying my taxes, raising my kids, loving my wife and being dutiful. So much more.
Time is short for all of us. We were coming home from the beach today and we hit a bug (or rather a bug hit our windshield at 75mph) on I-10. My daughter saw it and heard the loud plunk as he hit the windshield. She said, "Oh well, I guess he died." I used that to make a point for her..."Today was his day, every bug has a windshield out there with his name on it - it is coming for us all."
The point of this is one of take aways from this awakening in me is that God has shown me over and over again that life is precious and time is short. It is oh so short. We all have a bullet out there with our name on it. Our day is coming. What we make of this life is oh so important.
Erwin McManus said in his book Chasing Daylight, "There are few things more inspiring that a life lived with passionate clarity...Those men and women you admire, who somehow seem to live life to the fullest, would probably be the first to tell you that they are no different from you and me. It's not about talent or giftedness or intelligence; it's about moving out of passivity into activity. It is about a refusal to live a life in neutral and to value the irreplacable nuture of every moment. For these individuals, time is a precious commodity. It is about treating each day as a gift from God and recognizing that every moment lost can never be regained."
We all make mistakes in life but each day the sun drops, the sky turns dark and night fall comes. The day ends and so do those mistakes. They are over and done with. God gives us night to rest and erase the blackboard of our life. Then as the sun rises in the dawn, we are given light and an entirely new day of fresh dreams, fresh hope and fresh opportunities to serve others and love others through Christ. Each day is a new opportunity, a new start and a new adventure.
This awakening in me has been about putting first things first and about seizing the moment of each day God gives me. Any day (and some day) a windshield is coming with my name on it (and your name too). Time is short. Seize the moment.
Soar!
I've written much lately about Aslan being on the move. He is! Much is happening in Columbus and I can see God setting up the steps for a lot of big things to come. The initial steps are falling into place. What God can do is earth shaking and it is cool to see the steps starting to unfold.
Much is happening in my life as well. This has been the best 18 months of my spiritual life. God has taken me through a second awakening. Like what He is doing in Columbus, I see that He is shaping me for ... more. So much more. So much more than a 9 to 5 stockbroker, paying my taxes, raising my kids, loving my wife and being dutiful. So much more.
Time is short for all of us. We were coming home from the beach today and we hit a bug (or rather a bug hit our windshield at 75mph) on I-10. My daughter saw it and heard the loud plunk as he hit the windshield. She said, "Oh well, I guess he died." I used that to make a point for her..."Today was his day, every bug has a windshield out there with his name on it - it is coming for us all."
The point of this is one of take aways from this awakening in me is that God has shown me over and over again that life is precious and time is short. It is oh so short. We all have a bullet out there with our name on it. Our day is coming. What we make of this life is oh so important.
Erwin McManus said in his book Chasing Daylight, "There are few things more inspiring that a life lived with passionate clarity...Those men and women you admire, who somehow seem to live life to the fullest, would probably be the first to tell you that they are no different from you and me. It's not about talent or giftedness or intelligence; it's about moving out of passivity into activity. It is about a refusal to live a life in neutral and to value the irreplacable nuture of every moment. For these individuals, time is a precious commodity. It is about treating each day as a gift from God and recognizing that every moment lost can never be regained."
We all make mistakes in life but each day the sun drops, the sky turns dark and night fall comes. The day ends and so do those mistakes. They are over and done with. God gives us night to rest and erase the blackboard of our life. Then as the sun rises in the dawn, we are given light and an entirely new day of fresh dreams, fresh hope and fresh opportunities to serve others and love others through Christ. Each day is a new opportunity, a new start and a new adventure.
This awakening in me has been about putting first things first and about seizing the moment of each day God gives me. Any day (and some day) a windshield is coming with my name on it (and your name too). Time is short. Seize the moment.
Soar!
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