Quotes.4

How about this one:

It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up. - W. Somerset Maugham

Ever feel like this? What is it about sleeping in on a Sarturday morning that feels so good?

Quotes.3

Here's one that really gets me pumped up:

Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity. - Horace Mann

If you've been following my blogs this week, yesterday's may've seemed a little critical. I admit I after reading it the tone sure sounded critical to me. That wasn't my intention, however. I was trying to be motivational, and it came up a bit short of that aim (at least, I felt). Horace, on the other hand, hit a homerun with his statement.

I want The Church to take this quote to heart. Who's The Church? You and I. We are The Church. Lately, I've become discontent with my content. I'm too content - physically, spiritually, at work, and at home. I've been running, reading, praying, loving, serving, evaluating, eating better, and striving for excellence at work more than ever. I want Christ to be exalted in every way in my body, my words, my actions, my thoughts, and most importantly my life.

What about you? If you were to die today, what victory for humanity would you be "ashamed" you didn't achieve? What victories are you winning?

Quotes.2

Here's one from perhaps one of the smartest man in the 20th century.

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value. - Albert Einstein

For me, not to seem like Debbie Downer, but the modern Church seems more bent on success than values. How can I say that? For instance:

• The divorce rate amongst conservative Christians are higher than those outside the Church.
• 37% of born-again Christians believe if a person is good enough they can earn their way into Heaven.
• 26% of born-agains believe "that while Jesus lived on the earth He committed sins, like other people" compared to 41% of all adults.
• Nearly all born-again Christians say their religious faith is extrememly important to them, however only 9% of all born-agains tithe 10% of their income.

From these examples, it's easy to see why the world looks elsewhere besides Christ. From observing Christians, they see we don't value marraige, God's Word (i.e., Eph. 2:8-9), Christ's character, and Christians certainly don't put their money where their mouth is. Why? Because we are more interested in numbers, programs, buildings, etc....all the things that don't last. Instead, we should be focusing on the character of the Church, and instilling Christ-centered values in those who attend weekly.

What are your thoughts?

Quotes

Thought this week I'd use some quotes from "famous" people to stimulate some thoughts and discussions. Here's the first one:

"Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning." - Bill Gates

What I think what Mr. Gates is trying to say is "My time is valuable, and church takes up too much of it on Sunday mornings."

Do you agree? Are church services too long? Not long enough? How does your church demonstrate it values each attendee's time?

Happy Easter Everybody!

He is RISEN!

Thinking of "Joe"

"Joe" was one of my best friends (I'm using a pseudo-name for privacy). I say "was" because our relationship is not what it used to be.

I met "Joe" my freshman year at college, and we immediately connected on many levels. Sports. Love of the outdoors. Politics. Zest for education and broadening our horizons. Living life for all its worth. Leadership. Cigars. And especially, Christ.

"Joe" introduced me to Rich Mullins - the first Christian musician who truly impressed me. He challenged me to pour myself into my daily quiet times. He reminded me a lot of King David - a warrior poet, a true renaissance man. He was a major player in my spiritual growth and development. Iron sharpened iron.

I don't know when or where or how it happened. Maybe it was from his overbearing father's unmet expectations. Maybe it was on his 100-day-trek across Europe the summer after he graduated from undergrad. Or maybe during the other trips he took to other countries. All I know is somewhere, somehow "Joe" lost his faith. Somehow his view of Christ as Savior, Redeemer, and Lord became blurred and compromised and "narrow-minded." Silver tarnished. Iron rusted and became brittle.

Our last conversation (via email) ended like this:

I respect you and your faith. All I ask is that you respect my new outlook on life. Please respect that I have put a lot of thought into this decision. If you want to continue our relationship, please keep your thoughts about Jesus to yourself. You can not change my mind. "Joe"

Today I fasted from sunrise to sunset. Mainly to prepare and to reflect upon Easter. As I did so, I was reminded that Easter is a celebration of Resurrection. Despair gave way to Hope. Gloom took a backseat to Joy. Death exited. Life triumphantly took center stage. And I prayed for "Joe" that this Easter would be the Resurrection of his faith in Christ.

May He truly become ALIVE in YOU this weekend!

Are You Training?

Couldn't help but to share this....truly good stuff!
(For clarification's sake, the term "chauvanistic" used in the clip in Japaneses culture refers to the Emperor's right-hand man, not a bossy, pig-headed husband.)

You can view the video clip here. I tried to embed it but couldn't.

Do you find it said that someone has to train another to say "I love you?" Do you say it enough yourself?

More Pillar Lovin'

So if you follow my blog at all, you may remember me pluggin' for one of my favorite Christian bands called Pillar recently. What's cool is I just realized today that you can still get a free "listen-to" of their newest album right here. What's so awesome about this link is you get to hear Rob Beckley, the lead singer (and LC.tv boy!) give an intro to each and every song - kind of a "behind-the-scenes" look into that noggin o' his and what he and the band were thinking when they penned the lyrics.

Hope you enjoy and GO OUT AND BUY THE ALBUM!

Question????

As you all know I am a pharmacist working in a retail setting. This involves dealing with the public. I look at my job as if it's my ministry. Lately I've been mulling over this question in my mind, and I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Is the customer always right?

Discuss.

Is God Happy?

In Chapter Two of Sacred Marraige, Thomas says:

"The first purpose in marraige...is to please God. The challenge of course, is that it is utterly selfless living; rather than asking, "What will make me happy?" we are told that we must ask, "What will make God happy."

As I've examined my heart and marraige, I can say I've got some work to do in the selfish department. For example:

• Helping more around the house
• Cleaning up after myself (yes, that includes whitey tighties!)
• Focusing more on Michele than the TV
• Most importantly, making more time for quiet time with God daily (rather than that extra 30 minutes of sleep)

What about you? Is God happy? Why or why not?

Marraige Isn't for Your Happiness

My LifeGroup just started reading this book together. The first chapter was a doozy! In it, the author posed this question:

"What if God designed marraige to make us holy more than to make us happy?"

What are your thoughts?

If You Aren't Discipling....

...then you are being discipled. The question is, who or what is discipling you?

Webster's defines a disciple as this. The part that bugs me is "..accepts and assists...". What in my life am I "accepting" or "assisting" that's contrary to God's will? What or who am I allowing to do this?

There are a lot of forces out there trying hard to be your discipler. Examples might include:

• Television executives/producers (if it's funny, it can't be sinful now can it?)
• Hollywood (you gotta be thin to win!)
• Homosexual agenda (6000 years of man & wife is just a fluke?)
• The American Dream (credit cards are great, right?)
• Pornography (Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition is all about selling swimsuits, right?)
• Barney (don't get me started)

If you were to take an honest look at your life, what are you allowing to disciple you, perhaps in a manner contrary to God's best?

1x1x33=THE WORLD

Raise your hand if you like math. Sickos. Me? I'm not a particular math lover. However, since it's an integral part of my job, I've had to become cozy with it. In fact, I even had to minor in it while majoring in Chemistry. I know. I just outed myself as a geek.

Jesus on the other hand, loved math. He was particularly good at multiplication. For example:

5 loaves x 2 fish = 5000 men well-fed (not to mention the women & kids) + 12 extra basketfulls.

Jesus was a multiplier. He expects His disciples to be multipliers too. It was part of His charge before ascending into the Heavens (wouldn't that have been cool to see by the way?): "Go...make disciples of all the nations...". Making disciples was His way of multiplying Himself, and we are called to do it also.

So, let me give you something to ponder. Let's say I take one guy and invest one year in him. I spend one year teaching him to study Scripture, how to pray, how to evangelize, and how to teach others the way I was teaching him. At the end of the year I tell him "Congrats! You've graduated, now go do what I've shown and taught you to do." At the end of year one, how many disciples are there? 2. He and I.

So we both go find one person that next year and do it all over again. At the end of year two we now have....4 disciples. Exciting, huh? So, now all 4 of us go at it the next year and at that year's New Year's party there will be....8 of us. See where I'm going? Each year the disciples double. If we kept this going for say...15 years we would have...wait for it...32,768 disciples! That's the size of a small city. Well, it we kept at it for 23 years we would have...8.4 million disciples or the equivalent to the population of New York City. In 23 short years! So what if we did it for 33 years? We would have 8.6 billion disciples, or roughly the population of the ENTIRE PLANET EARTH! 33 short years. We could essentially evangelize the world. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but what was that phrase JC used? Oh yeah! Make disciples of all the nations.

What do you think? Can we do it?