sacrifice

i was doing a word study last night on the word "sacrifice". i chased the rabbit back to psalm 50. the main nugget i took away from my study is that we offer sacrifices to God and then we forget the significance of the sacrifice so easily. as followers of Christ we must realize that we are giving up everything to follow Jesus because a true sacrifice is giving something that costs. most of us would agree that our lives are things we place a high value upon. the great thing about our faith is that Jesus says we are to give up our lives for His sake and for the Gospel and then you will actually save your life (Mark 8:35). yet, still it seems like we are so unwilling to give up comforts and habits that make our lives easy but steer us further from a Christ-centered life.

Jesus never said this whole thing we call life as a follower of Him was going to be easy. i was reading an interview with Francis Chan where he spoke about the commitment to follow Christ that Christians have made. he says this:
"Jesus almost gave an anti-altar call. 'are you sure you're supposed to be here? maybe you should leave because you don't understand the commitment to hate your father, mother, wife, kids. you still want to be here? pick up your cross and follow me.' Jesus preached sacrifice."

Jesus preached sacrifice. Jesus preached SACRIFICE!! sacrifice.

so, i broke the law today

i was going 34 mph in a 25 mph zone and i got caught. not only did i get caught but i got pulled over by a bike cop who was not even on his bike (you can go ahead and laugh at me now). he was standing in a parking lot, flagged me down and pulled me over. "license, registration and proof of insurance" has to be one of my favorite phrases!

God, ruin me?

i heard a message a couple of weeks ago in atlanta and it is still working on me. the realness, truth and authenticity sparked something in me. it is continuing to resonate in my heart and my mind, and is still challenging me. there were 3 points that craig groeschel made in his talk, for God to: heal me, stretch me and ruin me. i believe that God had me hear that message for a reason. it did something to all the other 12,000 pastors and church workers at the conference as well. this past week i have been praying over what that talk is still doing in my life. i want to be healed by God when i am hurt and i want to be stretched by God to follow after Him more. the real question is: do i want to give my life fully to God to the point where i pray for Him to ruin me so i can take my pride out of the equation and He can glorified through my life?

we hold on to our own lives so tightly sometimes. i pray that God would continue to work this Scripture through me: "for whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." Matthew 16:25

CATALYST Wrap Up

what a great conference! i heard so many great talks that were definitely from God and really spoke to our team. the emcees, lanny donoho and reggie joiner were awesome. they brought in a school bus, an elephant and jeff foxworthy. some inspiring stories were from a choir in africa and a student who started an organization to fight aids when he was 9 yrs old. here are some things i got from some of the speakers:

andy stanley - your moral authority gives you the boldness to lead. let what you have to say about these areas (forgivess, family, finances) match your practices in these areas.

become preoccupied with those you haven't reached as opposed to those you are trying to keep.

craig groeschel - honest. pray for God to heal me, stretch me, and ruin me.

matt chandler - guard your life and doctrine. speak truth directly from the Word in a contextualized language that people can understand.

steven furtick - passion. Scripture memorization. in between the promise God has given you and the payoff of that promise, there is a process.

dave ramsey - i have never heard ramsey speak on anything besides financial management. he spoke on the enemies of unity and it was phenomenal. the 5 enemies of unity: poor communication, gossip, unresolved disagreements, lack of shared purpose, sanctioned incompetence.

jim collins - humility is the signature quality of level 5 leaders.


what a blessing from God that this conference was for me, for our team, and for our church. the Spirit of God was definitely in that place.

day one in the ATL

well, phillip, kevin and i arrived in atlanta for catalyst early this morning. we got a few hours of sleep in and then we were off to the conference. our pre-lab session with reggie joiner, chief creative officer of the rethink group, was phenomenal. he spoke about momentum and how we have a tendency to not want to change things that we create.

in the afternoon, phillip took us to a very well built church, NPM's Buckhead Church. we got to do a tour and some q&a with some of their student ministry staff. today has been quite a treat thus far. the main stage sessions begin tomorrow!

another bonus: the house we are staying in is SICK! thanks steve.

insight

i was not much of a reader until i transferred to CSU. since i've graduated i read even more than i did in college. i think i just didn't enjoy reading books teachers assigned in school because i wasn't interested in the subject. i love reading books about leadership, christianity, small groups, ministry, etc.

a book that i'm currently reading is Walking The Small Group Tightrope by Donahue & Robinson from WCA. the book talks about polarity management which is the recognition of many people trying to accomplish opposing facets of life simultaneously. it takes that theory and applies it to small group ministry. i can't give away all of the insights but if you are leading a small group you should definitely give it a look.