Believe

I hope you had a good Easter. More than that I hope you had a thoughtful Easter. We always harp that we don’t focus enough at Christmas time but at least we are engaged in Christmas. There is not the same hoop-la at Easter so it seems to come and go – fast!

I know I intended to sit and watch “The Passion” again this year, but with little kids and all the hectic things of life it didn’t get done. It was good to be able to sit and think about why we believe and what a difference it makes in our life when we “live into” that belief.

We look at people in scripture and history and see the differences it made in their life when they went from disbelief to belief. It is encouraging and even exciting to see what God does in other peoples life but what about yours? What difference has believing made in your life? Are you living into that belief or is it a separate part of who you are? What could living into your belief bring to your life?

Stop and think about your faith and belief.

What has it brought? What more could it bring?

Happy "post" Easter

Griff

Discipline of Celebration?or Celebration of Discipline?

It really is a wierd to have both words in a phrase.

As I sat and listened to Glen's message on Sunday I was struck by how much sense it really makes.

In one way we need to remember (discipline ourselves) to realize how much we have to celebrate in Christ. How HUGE a difference he makes in our life no matter what we are going through or what trial we are facing. His victory that we will celebrate this Sunday should bring perspective every day we live.

In another way all together, we need to see the celebration that comes out of being like Jesus, imitating who he is and how he lived through the power of his Spirit living within us. Glen made the statement "Celebration without regrets." Oh how close to home and how true that is for us. What else in life can bring such sweet celebration as leaning into and learning through his Spirit how to live more like him?

It's only through Jesus we can do that.

What does a life of true "regret-less" celebration look like for you? How are you trying to live into that? What celebration has "imitating" Jesus brought to your life?

Griff

Into the Wild of Simplicity

As I listened to Glen’s message on Sunday I couldn’t help but think about a movie my wife and I watched that week called, “Into the Wild”. We watched the movie because my wife and a friend had read the book and were fascinated by it. After graduating from Emory University in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch in the movie) abandons his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Some called him a hero and some called him a selfish idiot.

I was fascinated by this story because I saw that he was searching for something other than what the world, and in particular materialistic America, had to offer him. The story depicts him as disgusted by his parents pursuit of the American dream and how neglected he was because of their fierce pursuit of wealth.

I would recommend the movie for the sake of the message (be careful there is some nudity and language) and I’m sure my wife would recommend the book. I think the story is tragic because there are so many of us that know what he was looking for but couldn’t seem to find. Maybe it’s because many of us don’t live it out very well. He came across some Christians in his journey but they couldn’t or didn’t compel him to understand the beauty and freedom of a life TRULY GIVEN to God. This, I think, is the definition of what simplicity really is: To fully live for God. Anything else is what Glen described as duplicity.

How duplicitous are we, really? It is such a tough thing to measure. We of course need things and other relationships and pursuits in life to function. So, how do we know if we are living these things out in a way that honors a simple life lived for God or a duplicitous life that is really for our pursuits and we’ve allowed God to be a part? There is a HUGE difference in between the two.

I am glad we chose to discuss this spiritual practice of simplicity. I am convicted it is one we all need to practice more diligently. If we do, we will know what we are truly living for and be free of the things that ensnare us. These things subtly bring the bondage and complexity of duplicity to our lives. Within such bondage we can’t fully live for and experience God in our lives.

Your thoughts?

Griff

Weekend Service Prayer

Several of you have asked about the prayer we used this weekend. Here it is, I hope it moves you and convicts you in ways that encourage you to imitate Jesus.

-From A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie

Holy God, I grieve and lament before thee that I am still so prone to sin and so little inclined to obedience:
So much attached to the pleasure of sense, so negligent of things spiritual:
So prompt to gratify my body, so slow to nourish my soul:
So greedy for present delight, so indifferent to lasting blessedness:
So fond of idleness, so indisposed for labor:
So soon at play, so late at prayer:
So brisk in the service of self, so slack in the service of others:
So eager to get, so reluctant to give:
So lofty in my profession, so low in my practice:
So full of good intentions, so backward to fulfill them:
So severe with my neighbors, so indulgent with myself:
So eager to find fault, so resentful at being found fault with:
So little able for great tasks, so discontented with small ones;
So weak in adversity, so swollen and self-satisfied in prosperity:
So helpless apart form thee, and yet so little willing to be bound to thee.

O merciful heart of God, grant me yet again thy forgiveness. Hear my sorrowful tale and in thy great mercy blot it out from the book of thy remembrance. Give me faith so to lay hold of thine own holiness and so to rejoice in the righteousness of Christ my Savior that, resting on his merits rather than on my own, I may more and more become conformed to his likeness, my will becoming one with his in obedience to thine. All this I ask for his holy name’s sake. Amen.

Keep leaning into Jesus,

Griff

Constant Connection & Transformation

Is prayer really constant connection with God? Is prayer like being able to text God? Can I carry a piece of glass and remember to be in communication with God?

This might be a really different way to think about prayer but maybe that’s exactly what we need. We are talking about the need to “Imitate” Jesus in order to experience the transformation we so desperately long for. What about you? How transformed have you been in your journey with God? I’d like to make a bet. I bet you, the transformation was tied to times spent in prayer. Am I right? If you can’t say you’ve experienced any real transformation I’d also bet you’ve never taken prayer seriously as a way of “constant connection” with God. Am I right?

It’s really not that I am that smart. (I know I don’t have to convince you of this.) I think it’s a simple thing that we fail to live into. Jesus and the followers of Jesus in scripture were SERIOUS pray-ers. God showed up and did some pretty huge, miraculous, transformational things. Prayer that calls out to God and asks for His will to happen by people with open and surrendered hearts is a crazy thing. Go ahead. I DARE YOU! Start constant connection and ask for His will. When you get an idea of what that is, pray like mad for it in faith and then stand back and be amazed at what He does.

Any one have a story they’d like to share. I prayed once for six months that God would humble me. (I know that was stupid, but not really.) He answered it for 18 months with 3 tough blows to my ego and identity. That set me up for 18 months of peace and prosperity to be followed by another 2 years of extreme humbling and difficulty. Now again, I am experiencing some great peace. God, you can stop answering that prayer at least for now. The cool thing is the greatest transformation in my life came in those difficult and humbling times. Okay, enough about me.

Let’s hear your constant connection transformation stories.

Silence Revisited

Several of you have asked about the text on the video during our "Silence and Solitude Experiment" a couple weeks ago. Go ahead and use this as a time of silence and let me know what happens. Shhh...

Why is silence so hard to deal with?

183 million people are regularly exposed to noise levels labeled as excessive by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Do you have a cell phone? A pager? Voice-mail?

Do you have a cell phone with voice-mail and e-mail?

Do you have a TV? More than 1 TV?

Do you have a radio on all day? On at work, in the car, at home?

Is there such a thing as visual noise?

Do you wish there were more billboards along the roads you drive?

Do we have enough strip malls yet?

Do you feel like God is distant?

Do you wish God’s voice would be louder in your life?

Is there a connection between the amount of noise in our lives and our inability to hear God?

SUV’s and minivans now come with separate CD and DVD systems for the backseats.

You can buy wired clothing now. Coats and jackets equipped with cell phones and MP3 players.

Try this.

Make yourself comfortable in your chair and begin breathing slowly as you read.

Then Moses and the priests, who are Levites, said to all Israel, “Be silent, Oh Israel, and listen!” _Deuteronomy 27:9

Search your hearts and be silent. _Pslams 4:4

But the Lord is in His holy temple: Let all the earth be silent before Him.
_Habakkuk 2:20

Come to me, all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.
_Jesus in Matthew 11

If I am not still, and if I don’t listen, how is Jesus going to give me rest?

Have you spent the same amount of time worrying and talking about your difficult, confusing situations as you have spent in silence, listening to what God might have to say?

Why is talking so much easier than listening?

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. _Luke 5:16

These were regular disciplines Jesus had. Silence. Solitude.

When was the last time you were in a solitary place?

What is it about silence that is so difficult?

Why is it easier to surround myself with noise and keep moving than to stop, be silent and listen?

How much noise do I voluntarily subject myself to?

Does my schedule, my time, my life look like that of a person who wants to hear God’s voice?

Maybe the healing and guidance we desperately need is not going to come from one more meeting or therapy session or sermon or self-help book but from simply listening for the voice of God.

Do you really believe that God’s voice is more interesting than the voices around you?

Is it possible that you have been searching for God in the winds, the earthquakes, and fires and He is waiting to speak to you in the silence? Silence.