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February 2006 Archives
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February 24, 2006
Consumer Christianity
Filed under: God, Faith & Spirituality
In my western culture paradigm of thinking that everything tangible is within my reach, I am discontented with the empty sensation that comes from getting it now and paying for it later.
Not surprising that the Kingdom of God goes at it the other way.
I regret the times when I have been moved more by sermons that taught me how to cling to the promises rather than run to the promiser maker. When I live life as though it were a business, I find myself more concerned with staying in the black when I know Jesus wants us in the red. When we're in the red, his blood covers us, his love sustains us, and his hope frees us.
The one thing I ask of the LORD--
the thing I seek most--
is to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life,
delighting in the LORD's perfections
and meditating in his Temple.
- Psalm 27:4 (NLT)
I want to focus more on just being with Jesus, and not so much on making sure I'm cashing in on all of his promises.
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February 15, 2006
Security
Filed under: God, Faith & Spirituality
In his recently re-released book, The Importance of Being Foolish, Brennan Manning spends a considerable - almost uncomfortable - amount of time talking to me personally. I hate it when he does this because I wonder and worry what everyone else is getting out of the book if he's addressing only my issues.
When we cling to a miserable sense of security, the possibility of transparency is utterly defeated. Just as the sunrise of faith requires the sunset of our former unbelief, our false ideas, and our erroneous and circumscribed convictions, so the dawn of trust requires the abandonment of our craving for material and spiritual reassurances. Security in the Lord Jesus implies that we no longer calculate or count the cost.
Brennan prefaces this punch with some poignant ponderments that "every Christian must answer in total candor."
- Do I hunger for Jesus Christ?
- Do I yearn to spend time alone with Jesus in prayer?
- Is he the most important person in my life?
- Does he fill my soul with a song of joy?
- Is he on my lips as a shout of praise?
- Do I eagerly turn to his memoirs, his Testament, to learn more of him?
- Do I thirst for the living water of his Holy Spirit?
- Am I making the effort to die daily to anything and everything that inhibits, diminishes, or threatens my friendship with him?
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