Tithing - going public

I'm convicted! I've tried a few times but didn't see it through. Mark Batterson outlined his preaching on tithing here!

1) God can do more with 90% than I can do with 100%
2) U cannot out give God
3) 2 be blessed beyond your ability u need to give beyond your ability
4) When u start tithing, your financial problems become God's problem
5) The tithe keeps money from becoming your master
6) Tithing positions u 4 blessing
7) Tithing = Trusting

I love God - He's the God of second chances! Gotta do it ! - starting this pay !

Thinking about Laslo's hierarchy!

Maslo's Hierarchycame up in a discussion I was involved with today. In particular it made me think about the self-actualisation section at the top of the pyramid.
There were suggestions that the sort of thing that might be included in this were a payrise, a promotion and such like.
I don't know about you, but those are good external rewards, but I would feel more self-actualised if I realised I had played a part in seeing somebody else thrive in their gifting, or get master a skill/ability.
What about you?

Where are you looking ?

On Saturday evening Clayton my 9 yr old son and I trekked off to the Clacton on Sea Pier. We had a blast. With the writstband ticket He was in heaven. He went on everything numerous times. I went on mostly everything maximum twice !
Anyway I used to find the Paratrooper the hardest to stomach! The one at Clacton swings you out over the sea off the edge of the pier. And even though I knew I was safe, I was petrified. It wasn't until I fixed my gaze on the carriage in front of us that I felt safe. It occurs to me that looking at the "danger" I was in caused the fear. I able to overcome my fear by focussing on what had gone before me.
It reminded me of Hebrews 12:2 where we're reminded to fix our eyes on the one who has gone before us. Are you in fear? Where are you looking ?

Accountabilty for me on my computer

In this day and age - we need to hold ourselves accountable at various levels with people we trust. I have an accountability partner that gets an email like the one below every two weeks from XXXchurch.com, detailing any unsuitable sites that might have been viewed on my computer. I think its a great accountability tool.

check it out at www.xxxchurch.com

You are receiving this email from xxxxxx who has signed up for X3watch, an Internet accountability service from XXXchurch.com, and has identified you as their accountability partner.
Please see the information listed below for possible questionable websites that may have been visited over the past 2 week(s).
ONLY questionable websites will be listed.
------------------------------

-------------
Report Start Date: 05/30/2009

ip: 99.99.9.99

NOTE: IF NO SITES ARE LISTED THEN NO QUESTIONABLE SITES WERE VISITED.


////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


GET X3WATCH - The PRO Version!
*Technical Support
*Weekly Reports
*More Accountability Partners
*Multiple Users Per Computer.
*Option to Track All Computer Users
*Accountability Report Includes Web Site Weight (the higher, the more probable a bad site)
*Option Display Only Site Weight and Date Visited (in case your accountability partner also struggles).
*Includes Built-in Help and FAQ's for answering common questions.
All for a one-time low cost!
Go to www.x3watch.com and get it today.

GET MORE XXXCHURCH
X3Watch is free accountability software provided by XXXchurch.com - a non-profit organization which exists to bring awareness, openness, accountability and recovery to the church, society, and individuals in the issues of pornography.

Learn More About XXXchurch
Support the Ministry and Help Keep X3Watch Free! - Donate to X3:
http://xxxchurch.com/donate.html
Keep up to Date with XXXchurch - Sign up for the X3 Newsletter
http://xxxchurch.com/newsletter.html

I have come to give you church and church in abundance!!!

Reggie McNeal's new book Missional Renaissance lays out the shifts the church needs to make, to be who she's meant to be today.

One paragraph that sticks out for me is this one- it comes after he makes the point that people go to the airport to go somewhere else, the airport is not the destination even if it's beautiful:-

When the church thinks it's the destination, it also confuses the scorecard("Measuring success in Church"-me) It thinks that if people are hovering around the church, the church is winning The truth is, when that's the case, the church is really keeping people from where they want to go, from their real destination That destination is life Lucky for us, it just so happens this is what promised to bring us (He did not say, "I have come to give you church and give it to you more abundantly") Abundant live is lived out with loved ones, friends, and acquaintances in the marketplace, in the home, in the neighbourhood, in the world.

What do you reckon ?

Men's weekend - David and Giants

From the men's weekend:- We we're looking briefly at King David and his battle with Goliath.
Giants in peoples lives shout loud, try and intimidate and defy God and His people. They appear to be the champion.
But before He had arrived at this point. David had won unseen private battles in the isolation as a shepherd boy. Defeating fierce animals.
So with the private battles won he was ready for God to use him to defeat the giant.

What giants are on your horizon?
Are you winning your small private battles?
Will you be ready for a giant when it comes?

Am I ? Lord help me be ready !

Who are you listening to ?

Steven Furtick offers good counsel regularly. A recent blog made me think a bit more than usual. Thanks Steve!

We receive so many messages every day and have heard them from birth. We learn and seek to be discerning and sort out the good from the bad. Sometimes, perhaps when we were younger we listened to some from authority figures like parents, teachers etc, perhaps some were not so helpful.
I need to listen to the my Father's voice and ask him to help me remove the messages I've taken on board that are not the truth. More than that now I need to find my identity in Him - and filter all the messages through that.

HT: Steve Furtick

You gotta start off right otherwise you wont get there !

Love this guy. I find him really challenging in a good way!

From Alan Hirsch's blog
In a remark ascribed to Gordon Cosby, the pioneering leader of that remarkable community, Church of the Savior in Washington. DC, he noted that in over 60 years of significant ministry, he had observed that no groups that came together around a non-missional purpose (i.e. prayer, worship, study, etc.) ever ended up becoming missional. That it was only those groups that set out to be missional in the first place (while embracing prayer, worship, study, etc. in the process) that actually got to doing it. This observation fits with all the research done by Carl George and others that indicate that the vast majority of church activities and groups, even in a healthy church, are aimed at the insiders and fail to address the missional issues facing the church in any situation.
more here

Good challenge out of Orange Conference

SOmebody at the conference shared this on their blog... Reggie Joiner shared last night about Prodigal Son story at the Orange Conference! I was there last year and would've liked to go again this year ...

Comparing the Loving Father’s response to the returning son to that of the Older Brother.

LOVING FATHER: Preoccupied with whoever is missing
OLDER SON: Preoccupied with self

LOVING FATHER: operates on a context of forgiveness
OLDER SON: operates under a context of shame

LOVING FATHER: throws a party
OLDER SON: throws a fit

LOVING FATHER: confronts the older brothers thinking
OLDER SON: criticizes the loving father ways of thinking

LOVING FATHER: probably kept the porch light on for the sons return
OLDER SON: probably turned the light off and locked the door

As a church - our heart, our mission needs to be that of the LOVING FATHER. We need to treat every prodigal the way a loving father treats his prodigal son. We need to make sure our church emphasizes FORGIVENESS & JOY.

Good stuff to act on.

Expectations and excitement

Carey Niewhof has a great blog about getting what you came for. It got me thinking about what gets us excited. More over what do our kids see us getting excited about.
A question I asked my son last year - "What would you bring me if I asked you to bring me what was the most important thing in my life ?" - He told me my computer ! What a challenge !
How would your kids answer that question ?

One (young) person can make a difference

I've been impressed with the curriculum our Youth Pastor has been using recently from Youth For Christ USA Three Stories. "I was so impressed I bought the company" NOT - but i did subscribe to their youth evotional. Today's highlights a young person who is making a difference in their community and much further afield. Here's a snippet

"Nine months later, the No Cussing Club has a Web site, claims 10,000 members and boasts chapters in several states and countries. Hatch considers his greatest
achievement, though, to be getting his hometown of 25,000 to become a cuss-free
zone. "

Check out the whole evotional here

Seeing and Answering

I like the challenge that John Johnson heard N.T. Wright make recently:-

N.T. Wright reminded us to come to the biblical text with 1st century eyes and
21st century questions, rather than 19th century eyes and 16th century
questions. Most do not want to do the hard work of exegesis (that pulls us into
the 1st century), while others are too out of touch with present culture to know
the questions they must ask. Wright notes that there is a crisis in Western
democracy. These are dangerous times—threats of terror, an ecological crisis
that should have the attention of every believer, and a wave of books by Dawkins
and others intent on attacking the credibility of Christianity. There must be
cultural critique, but it must not be in the form of bashing, but rather be
about Spirit led discernment. Reasoned discourse is what will win the battle.
And Wright models this. It was clear in each of his talks that he has spent
considerable time seeking to discern the flow of the biblical books, the world
of the authors, while discerning the times in which we presently live. A good
model for all of us.

I think we need to ask God to open our ears and eyes as well as ask God for revelation

To hear the questions people are asking today. To see the Word speak from when it happened into today. The Answerer is the same yesterday, today and for ever.

What does that look like to you ?

What if ...

At our small group last night we were discussing loving together. And said the challenge was that we don't know each other that well. We asked what it would take to get to know each other better. So ..
What if we met with our small group more regularly even every other day. Maybe these times would be prayer times, sharing communion together, annointing of oil, laying hands on each other, speaking blessings over each other and of course singing God's praises. The kids would be there of course.
Billy Ritchie over in England has thoughts on these lines too.
What does it take to make this "What if... " a reality ? Choosing to make it a priority and finding like-minded people. Anything else ? ... WHat do you think ?

It broke Dad ! Can you fix it ?

I'm not a poetry kind of guy, but every once in a while a poem will really grab me. Ratna, one of our amazingly hard working and caring office staff here at First Alliance Church shared this poem with me last night.

First I was reminded of my son who had just yesterday morning asked me to help him build a Lego project, but then immediately after I start to help him pushes me out of the way so he can build it. A few minutes later he comes and grabs me again and syas he really, really really needs my help this time, because it seems to be broken and not working out right.

Next my mind goes to Moses and his grasping God's calling on His life to save his people in Egypt. He starts off by killing two Egyptians who abusing his fellow Jews, which he seemd to think fitted into the plan. However that only made him have to wait another forty years to nove into his calling!

Anyway I'll let you read the poem ...

Broken Dreams

As children bring their broken toys

with tears for us to mend,

I brought my broken dreams to God

because He was my friend.

But then, instead of leaving Him

in peace to work alone,

I hung around and tried to help

with ways that were my own.

At last, I snatched them back and cried,

"how can you be so slow?"

"My child," He said,

"what could I do?

You never did let go."

Author unknown

It just takes a spark to light a fire

It just takes a spark to light a fire. We do not even know the "fires" we have started. Some good, some not so good I'm sure!
Take this guy over here at the Fermi Project (check it out here). He's choosing to serve his community for an hour a week and somebody has copied his efforts.
At my church we're going through Forty days of Community and part of the small group actvitiy is to find a way the small group can show love. My group hasn't decided yet what we're going to do. I'm excited to see what we do, especially now that I'm thinking that our spark might just start a fire. Maybe with others or maybe even with the individuals in our group, maybe even me :)

As a child I remember being taught that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey that there was a large crowd that welcomed him. That was Palm Sunday. I was also taught that by the end of the week the whole crowd has turned against him. I've often wondered about that.
I've just been listening to a Bruxey Cavey podcast where he talks about the place Pontius Pilate offered to release Jesus, where the "crowd called for Barabbas to be set free and Jesus to be crucified. He explained that as far as he could make out the court where this took place held at best a maximum of 200 people. The Sanhedrin had arrested Jesus the night before and brought Jesus in the morning. He goes on to say that there were probably more than 3 or 400 in the Sanhedrin and thousands of staff at the Temple who would probably follow the "company" line. So it could have been that the "crowd" was a crowd of mostly the Sanhedrin. So maybe the crowd that welcomed and loved him on the Palm Sunday still loved him and hadn't turned 180 degrees.
Makes sense to me !

What do you think ?

Where to find joy ? Me! Me! Me!

Mark Driscoll - Helps us look for joy in the right way. Along the way he does a critique of the most popular preacher in the US. What a timely reminder for this day and age. Thanks Paul Dazet for finding that.

Offering video

These days most organisations let you know where any money they receive will go. In church I think sometimes we just assume everybody knows how the money will be spent or perhaps they check once a year in the annual report. So the concept behind this well made an put together video is refreshing. Offering plate video

What do you think ?

Discipleship - go with the program - NOT !

Discipleship programs and curriculums sem to be a good thing - they bring structure to an otherwise messy process. But what happens when you remove them, or the DVD breaks down, or you have to move away from where the program is ?

Bill Allison has a good look at this here
(http://cupojoewithbill.blogspot.com/2007/10/escalator-or-stairway-part-2.html).
How's your walk/escalator with God ?For me - it's so easy to get carried along and not take my own steps in my walk. One step at a time is ok!

Change, growth and maybe, even discipleship !

As you can see our Church's vision prayer focus is asking God to change us.

"Oh God, make us a body of people so transformed and empowered by
Your Spirit that our community, nation, and world will see and know
Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life"

I think we need to keep growing otherwise we go stale, stagnate and get bored. so where do we go from here ... John Johnson helps us think about this ...

Walter Brueggemann was asked—“If you came into a room of ten of the brightest, committed, determined to change the world kind of pastors, and had one word of advice, what would it be?” Without any hesitation, he responded—“Discover how it is people change, and build your ministry accordingly.” I hear him saying—find what it is that more than inspires—find what transforms people, what transforms all of their
being, and give your best ministry to that. This seems to be what Thomas has devoted himself to doing in his latest book—and where the church needs to get
its focus.