“Look!  The Lord is advancing against Egypt, riding on a swift cloud.  The idols of Egypt tremble.”  Isaiah 19:1

Is this a welcomed sight or frightening to you?  If you’re God’s people – you’re excited because God is advancing toward the enemy.  However, if you have the idols of Egypt in your life, you’re trembling at the sight of the Lord coming.

When I read this yesterday, I thought of two stories – the one where Rachel hid her father’s idols underneath her on the horse.  And the other being Achan where he purposefully hid the idols he had stolen.

My prayer was, “Lord, help me if I’ve hidden any of Egypt’s idols in my life.  Look deep inside, because sometimes I just look at the surface sins.”  I need to keep doing this – and pray to hear His voice.

We need to tremble before the Lord out of a desire to NEVER dis-please Him.  This way when He comes advancing against the Enemy – it will be a welcome sight to us.  If it’s not a welcome sight to you today – repent, and submit to His discipline.  He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Marriage is such an amazing gift from God.  Jess is such an amazing gift from God.  This week, I’ve been looking through pictures of us from the last 4 years – just thinking about the experiences we’ve had and the love that has grown in our life.  Here are some of the things that I’ve learned over the last 4 years with Jess.

• Love is an action, and emotions follow. You might laugh, but I honestly went into marriage thinking the feelings would be there if I was really in love.  But what I learned was that the feelings of love come, when I’ve taken the time to serve my wife by doing the dishes or helping her with something.
• Forgiving quickly is possible. Jess is so amazing at this!  She taught me this up close for the first time in my life.  She taught me what it meant to forgive quickly and to REALLY forgive, not reserve the right to bring it back up.
• My relationship to Jess will long outlast the church I’m pastoring.  Andy Stanley once paraphrased the passage in Ephesians saying that Jesus was telling us, “You take care of your bride, and I’ll make sure my bride is taken care of.”  Jesus established marriage for the world to see an example of how much He truly loves His church.  I’m showing Jesus to the world, when my wife is loved, listened to, and cared about.
• God gives His best when you put the decision in His hands. Here’s how God gave me the best…

1. Jess is the most beautiful girl I know.
2. Jess loves Jesus so much and wants to please Him more than me.
3. Jess loves the ministry – and is called for life to it – like I am.
4. Jess has an amazing laugh (especially when she laughs at my jokes – ha!).
5. Jess works harder than almost anyone I know – she has an amazing work ethic which really challenged me early in our marriage when I was really lazy.
6. Jess is a great listener.  And she really relies on God, before she gives someone advice.
7. Jess does a phenomenal job of balancing our checkbook – having faith, and being creative when we the money’s not there.
8. Jess loves me – faults and all.  And by doing that – has shown me Jesus’ love for me.  How awesome!

Well, here we go heading toward our 5th year together.  Our marriage has never been better!  It has been hard work to join our lives together, but so worth it.  And I’ve been telling Jess this stuff long before I told all you out there in blog land.

I love you, Jess!  Here we go…

We are way too lazy, and we waste way too much time (how’s that for an opening?).  Of course we’re not all that way, but it is good to think about how we spend our time.  Are we spending it on the right things?

If God is giving you a season to study and work ahead on projects, make sure you are doing that!  Because chances are, you’re coming up on a season where you are not going to have that time at your disposal.

I’m going toward the end of a season of studying and working ahead.  And when the second week of June hits, I’m going to hit the ground running.  I’ll be working with people, leading teams, starting programs in REPO, and even doing my first wedding!  If I hadn’t used this season of preparation well, then I would be stressed and out of control as these days approached.

But I haven’t always done this well…and that’s how I learned the lesson.  Maybe this post is for you right now.

I had a great weekend, that started off by fasting my laptop for almost the entire 4 day weekend from school. Here’s some thoughts from the weekend…

1.  I spend way too much time “doing tasks” on my computer and not enough time “living life” with others.  I intend to change that.

2.  It’s hard building relationship with new friends, but SO worth it.  Over Friday thru Monday I hung out with 7 people that I had never hung out with before.  I don’t know if that’s hard for you, but it’s hard for me doing that.  I think I cling to friendships I know a lot more, because when I hang with people I don’t know – the relationship has to be built.  Sometimes it’s easier to be on auto-pilot with the “regulars”, rather than digging in to each others’ lives with new friends.

3.  I love Jesus, His Word, His Church. Anything with the brand name, Jesus, is something I’m DYING to get.

4.  God has challenged me to pray for others more, because my prayers often take a selfish nature.  I now have another prayer list of people in my life – to strategically pray through.  I’ve never liked prayer lists, but know nothing better to remember to pray for the people in my life.  Anybody doing anything a little different in this area?

Yeah.  That’s it.  I’m really refreshed and rejuvenated to do God’s work this week.  Only 14 days of school left!  Woo hoo!!!  Talk to you soon.

TJ

I’m off school Friday thru Monday.  My goal is to make this a computer free weekend.

I have become glued to this thing with my job being teaching computers in school, and most of the work I do for REPO (student outreach at our church) taking place on here.

So, I’m out – have a great weekend.  And I’ll return emails Tuesday.

Gonna enjoy the sun!  Peace.

We meet so few GREAT people in our lives.  And I’m so grateful for the godly heroes who have impacted my life.  You know, the people who can captivate a crowd of hundreds, yet compassionately listen to the one.  The person who has people serving him or her, yet wipes up the bathroom floor after others.  The people who loved you when you didn’t care if they did.  The people who challenged us when we didn’t want it.  The people who we look back and our hearts just ache to spend a few more minutes with them.

The really GREAT ones, are great because they have let Jesus shine through them.  They are DEAD, He is ALIVE in them.

And, of course, if we see them as great, imagine what we’ll think when we see Jesus?!  The Great ONE!

There are always people sitting on the sidelines who want to offer advice.  In a football game, if you’re playing sometimes you don’t see everything.  But that’s why you talk to the Coach who is upstairs in the box!  To listen to the backup quarterback who doesn’t take snaps and never leads people – is a big mistake when you’re trying to win!  See what Teddy had to said about that…

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”  Teddy Roosevelt

“those cold timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”  – doesn’t sound like life abundant that Jesus promised.

Sometimes we get so obsessed with doing the will of God, and we spend so many countless hours trying to figure out what He wants us to do.  But, we walk by our neighbor’s house who needs help cleaning up their lawn (all the while asking God what He wants us to do).

The other day I was asking God how I could put more action to my faith.  Just then I drove by a family from our church and saw them walking.  I said to myself – Wow, that must suck to have to walk.  And kept driving!  The Holy Spirit only had to clear his throat, “Ahem!”   And with that, I turned the car around, picked them up and drove them home.

JUST DO SOMETHING!  Fulfill His call to make disciples, serve, love others – and fulfill it today!  It may not be perfect, but I’m pretty sure He’s alright with something that’s just good.

We miss too many opportunities because we want to keep our eyes shut in prayer, and won’t open them to the world around us.

Off the top of my head…

I learn from a lot of great pastors and leaders from around the world, because of this great thing called the Internet.  Many of them have huge churches, are great at what they do, love Jesus with their whole lives and make disciples like crazy.

But I don’t think I’d ever bring them in to consult us on how to run a church in an urban area.

In this time when we have strategies and plans of churches so readily accessible, it’s tempting to just cut and paste their ministry strategy into our area.  BUT, THAT JUST WON’T WORK!

A wise pastor in our day and time will…

1.  Spend the most time on their face before God, begging Him to use them in their city.
2. Use the Bible as their church growth book.
3. Pick up wise counsel along the way from books, blogs, and best friends.
4. Start somewhere, and just do something to make an impact in their city.  It doesn’t have to be perfect.

If we stopped relying so much on other’s strategies, we might quiet ourselves long enough to hear God’s heart for our city.

I’m glad God called me to the city (my heart is in the city), and them to the suburbs.  And they’re probably glad God called us to the city, and them to the suburbs.  I pray we make disciples wherever we are and stop trying to take what others have heard on their face before God and make it our vision.

This morning I read about an 8th grade boy in Louisiana who tried to shoot a teacher yesterday and then shot himself (see HERE).  As I read the details and reactions from his mom and school administrators I had a few thoughts go through my mind.

1.  Perception is reality (whether you believe it or not).

The sheriff said that the boy makes reference to himself as an outcast in the letter, but that nothing in his record would indicate that.  His mother agreed.  But just because they don’t believe that, doesn’t mean he didn’t feel that.  And for many teens, feeling are reality.  I’m not saying we have to believe their feelings as reality, but I am saying that their feelings are REAL and that they need someone to listen to them.

2.  So many students (as well as adults) are their own worst enemy.

Many students go inward with their pain so as not to burden or hurt others.  They bottle it up until they either hurt themselves (ie. cutting, self injury) or violently hurt someone else (ie. school shooting, jumping someone).  Where is their release valve?  As a Christian, prayer and forgiveness are huge release valves.  And once again, sometimes just talking about it with a trusted person can help them.

3.  We desire the appearance of safety, rather than really being safe.

It irritates me that this school has metal detectors, yet they don’t use them all the time.  What are they there for?  Here in our city, I’ve substitute taught in many school with metal detectors that would beep like crazy and the security guard would just tell the kid to come through.  We feel like if it looks safe, then we are safe.  The problem is – the students know that is NOT true, even if we fool ourselves into believing it.
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Ultimately, Jesus is the ONLY hope for this young boy.  He is greater than our feelings and knows everything (1 John 3:20 – NLT).  He is a friend that never leaves us, no matter what.  He is a great listener, whenever we need to talk.

But, we still gotta do better at listening to people – so they can see Jesus through us.  There are 1,000 other students who would never shoot up a school, but are dying to be heard today.  Will we listen?