Thanks for the assistance. This is where I ended up with. Our yearly music series will be based based on the longing expressed by today’s music. I’m still looking for good hooks and I think this one fits the bill. Thoughts?
I couldn’t help but laugh as one of our daughters explained our sons most recent adventure. I overheard her telling a friend that Nathan had his thespian removed.
Let’s face it, I had this picture of a guy holding a skull coming out of our son’s stomach. I mean he had the baggy pants and everything. “To be or not to be” would have been quite a question.
So since my daughter couldn’t keep a thespian and an appendix straight does it mean she didn’t know what she was talking about? Does it mean she didn’t understand? Would you tell her she was incorrect or just mistaken? Would you consider such an offense disrespectful to the one who made her?
In the end I wonder if we don’t make to much out of words at times when ideas are understood and lived by.
How many theological thespians live in your world?
You can either laugh or cry. I was preaching on Sunday and a group of young men ages 10 and 11 started to get a little rowdy in the back row. Well one of those children happened to be our oldest son.
So as they start to get to where I can hear them I begin to think about what I should do. I look around as I am talking and they seem to be distracting me more than others. I look to see if any of the parents of the other kids have noticed their behavior. Then I watch as my son gets up and leaves and comes to the front row with his mother.
Well that seems to settle everyone down and I was glad because I was thinking about taking a walk back to ask them about what was so funny.
So I’m finishing up, focused on our second message in the series The Zone based on clips from the old Twilight Zone. I’m thinking I’m so proud of our son because he realized that behavior wasn’t appropriate and he wanted to distance himself.
Well, it turns out that actually his stomach was in pain and he found it unbearable so he went to sit with his mom. So much for the pat on the back I gave myself during my message.
So, our son spends the rest of Sunday very sick. By the evening my wife decides (Dad thinks he should just tough it out, everything will be fine in the morning) to take our son to urgent care. Well they are closed so they end up at the hospital.
Of course dad is thinking how much is that going to cost when my wife calls to inform me that our son Nathan wants me to come to the hospital, they are about to do a CT scan and something is definitely wrong.
So at 2:00 a.m. I was walking into a room with my son who had just left surgery. He had his appendix removed around 1:00 a.m.
Needless to say that wasn’t my plan for the day but thankfully my wife overruled my ‘everything will be alright.’ I just got to the office to get some things. Thankfully everything went well and he will be home by the evening.
I won’t know what to think the next time he bails on bad behavior or maybe he won’t and I will be forced to ask him what he is doing from the pulpit. That is never good.
You know my other idea is to do soft rock tunes. Something like Soft Rock/Strong God or something.
Don’t make me have to do it.
Just a little reminder of what we are looking at.
Maybe this will inspire everyone else.
I was listening to Death Cab for Cutie’s new album Narrow Stairs today and I thought about hooks. Song two I Will Possess Your Heart just really hit me and I was thinking of classic hooks from songs.
Anyway, each year I do a series of messages based on different popular songs. The first year it was from the 80’s. Last year it was Classic Rock and I was thinking this year I would focus on great hooks. So, I need your help, give me your favorite music with great hooks.
What do you have for me? One that comes to mind is Under Pressure by Queen. Just ask Vanilla Ice. What are yours?
Recently I sat down with the editor and owner of a Christian newspaper. We discussed many different topics but when we hit on one that was close to my heart, I really got going. I think you can recognize someone’s passion by the way they talk about it. I began to talk about the church and the call to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
To make a long story short, the owner and editor of the paper has given me the opportunity to contribute a column to the paper entitled Hands and Feet.
It just seems like another step in this journey of giving ideas away and connecting like minded people.
Keep me in your prayers because writing for a paper, keeping focus and building on ideas is something I need to work on. The biggest hurdle is where do you start.
Knowing me and what I do and what I love, how would you introduce such a column?
Another day, another drive, another funeral.
Life is very fragile. I don’t think I appreciate the very miracle of being alive. How many close calls have you had? I remember very distinctly in Iowa once as an intersection turned into slow motion as a car flew through a red light. I remember distinctly looking at a pole thinking I’m going to hit that only to swerve at the last minute.
If I think of my life I think of many times when it was close, very close. I don’t think I appreciate life enough. It is not whether or not we die but that more of us don’t die I suppose.
Another day, another drive, another funeral. Too many friends and family passing away it seems. Please pray for the May’s.
All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. Galatians 2:10
I was preparing for a message on living by the Spirit this past Sunday and I couldn’t help but think about this verse. So matter of fact from Paul isn’t it? In the first part of Galatians he spends time talking about his calling and how it happened and how his theology developed when he discusses his arrival at Jerusalem. He meets with the leaders of the church to discuss his ministry efforts and what does Paul take time to mention? That is right, that they wanted to make sure that I remembered the poor.
What should probably be more interesting is that Paul explains that he was anxious to do just that. The King James says what he was forward to do. The Greek could be defined as to exert one’s self, endeavor or make haste. Sounds pretty important to me.
One of the things missed because of the way we read the New Testament is what is truly important to God. You see the main issue in the New Testament is whether or not Jesus is the Messiah. The Jews doubted and Gentiles were programmed not to believe. That was what people needed to understand.
Why does this matter, because the way people are treated and socially impacted can easily get lost because the New Testament text overwhelming deals with Jesus as Messiah. That is the question at point that needed to be answered. The treatment of the marginalized and poor can not be missed in the New Testament but that is not the hottest topic or at the top of the agenda. Jesus and what he has done was.
Am I making sense?
The treatment of the poor and marginalized are in the pages but that part of being a part of God’s kingdom was already understood. A passage like Galatians 2:10 just reminds us of that fact.
Please don’t think that impacting the world for the poor and marginalized is either contrary to focusing on Jesus or secondary just because it is not the focus of the New Testament. Yes Jesus is the answer but to simply focus on that misses what it means to follow after Jesus once you believe.
In the end it is powerful to see the church wake up to this fact. Helping those in need is not one of many options for a church, it is part and parcel of the story.
What do you do with vacation? Have you ever heard someone say they needed a vacation from their vacation? We typically take two weeks to go to Montana to see my wife’s parents in June. Unfortunately they are moving to Colorado so we ended up going to Brownsville, Texas with my family.
My wife totally loved it and so did the kids but I missed my trip to Montana to hang out and fish. I find fishing to be a great time to connect with God. I missed that on this vacation. We had the eight nieces and nephews having a blast either in the ocean or the pool.
We spent some time with an old college friend. He told me at one point that it sounded like I already had the answer that I was seeking. I guess he was right.
I have some new opportunities and I am excited about where we are going. We watched Prince Caspian and I was reminded that everything has its time. You can’t force it or make it when you want it to be.
In the end I am convicted more than ever that we must push out as a body as the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. To much inward focus has crippled the salt and light of the church. That is my passion and will be my focus moving forward.
I have some information to share next week that excites me along these lines.
