reverse.

A little over a year ago I was in the middle of some of the biggest struggles and doubts of my life. I was searching and desiring to know what God really wanted from my life and what my life as a Christian was supposed to be about. I had spent so much time in Church, and Christian School, and Seminary and more Church that I think I was starting to forget what it was all about in the first place.

So I dove into the one place that made the most sense for me - Jesus’ Prayer. The one in Matthew 6 where he is telling his disciples what to pray for. I thought, “If this is what Jesus wanted his disciples to pray for, isn’t this what I should be about?” I spent a long time just turning the prayer over in my mind, thinking it, praying it, even living it. (As a side note, it is amazing how fast the prayer for daily bread becomes a real prayer and not a spiritual one when you actually need daily bread and are not sure where resources will come from day to day.) Anyways, back to our story… it all changed one night as I was meditating on the prayer.

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west hills baptist

We are at West Hills Baptist Church in Pittsburgh, PA today sharing the dream of Red Door. It is looking like it is going to be a great day. Please pray for us as we share our hopes and teach about what it means to be a people who spend our lives bringing heaven to earth. The pastor here, Larry Walker, is a great guy with a huge heart who has spent time with me over the past year. It is a privilege to be able to share here with them as our churches continue moving forward as partners in the Kingdom mission.

I got a job!

I got a job! God has provided in such an amazing way with a job here in Cincinnati - well, Blue Ash to be exact. So here’s the story…

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the kingdom of men?

Welcoming a New Reality

A changed world will only come about when we are changed humans. God is at work within His world when he is at work within us. He is a HUGE and amazing God - the creator of worlds, and the recreator of us. Wow.

Check out this great post by Mike Bishop at www.whatischurch.com. Best line… “We think it’s about changing the world – He knows it’s about changing us.”
Welcoming a New Reality

A Wake-Up Call

Check this out over at YouTube. Susan Boyle sings, “I Dreamed a Dream”
I love the judges remarks! Especially the comments from the girl judge. Isn’t it always better when it’s unexpected? Maybe that is part of why God chooses the foolish of this world to serve as his wake-up call. He chooses the beaten and the torn, the broken and the desperate to become his light that shines his glory and fame. He chooses us - the foolish - to confound and astound the wise and the powerful.

May we be the fools… 1 Corinthians 1.27

It’s Friday.

Tony Campolo is a man whose life has been about expanding and advancing the Kingdom of Heaven into this world. He has challenged Christians in America to live out a faith that explains the Good News. Years ago he preached a message called, “It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming”. The words and challenges in the message continue to resonate with all of us today. May they challenge you to live a life beyond the darkness threatening to oppresses us and those around us. And may your words and actions declare to a hurting world that God is on a mission to restore and redeem us all.

It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming (via tonycampolo.org)
Note: download by right clicking and choosing “save link (or target) as…”

Reverse.

Watch this video first (it’s quick). Then read below.

Shocking right? What a beautiful reminder of our brokenness and the need to reverse the direction of our self-destruction. The poem, in a simple way, reminds us that to change the way things are moving we must move in reverse. If we are tired of seeing marriages ending, poverty expanding, families losing, the environment disintegrating, and another generation failing then we need to stop and move the other way.

But how?
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8.1-9.34

Matthew 8:1-9.34 | Matthew has this huge chunk of miracle stories, large enough to choke a mule, all grouped together in chapters 8 and 9. You have to understand that it is well worth the time to take these stories as individual nuggets, sitting on them for a few hours, or even a few days; but there are times when it is incredibly clarifying (not to mention satisfying…mmmm…mmmmm) to step back from our “bible microscope” and look at the big picture Matthew is painting.

These miracle stories are loaded with the healings of people who are in agony: some have leprosy, another guy is paralyzed, another one is naked and possessed by a demon (not good on either account!), still others are blind or mute, and one girl is just stone-cold dead. Jesus heals them all. He even has a moment where he tells, no, commands, the winds and the waves to stop. This is earth-shattering stuff. But why does he do it?

What’s the point of all the miracles?

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8.5-13

Matthew 8:5-13 | The Sermon on the Mount was more than words to Jesus. As he descends down the mountain he touches an outcast and now receives the “enemy”. A Roman Centurion, of all people, seeks Jesus out and asks him if he would heal his servant’s suffering. Could you imagine the hush that would have come over the crowd as a centurion approaches this rabbi? Why was this centurion even seeking him out? What was Jesus going to say? Would Jesus actually help these foreign soldiers?

Not only does Jesus listen to him, he agrees to go and heal the centurion’s servant. Jesus is living out the words “love your enemies” right in front of us. But maybe even more amazing is the response of the centurion. He stops Jesus (imagine stopping Jesus… “no, wait a second Jesus“) and says something that at first appears a bit strange but is so profound it should make us take a second and think. In fact, it was such an amazing insight that the text says Jesus was “astonished”. Okay, I said a second ago, imagine stopping Jesus… now imagine astonishing Jesus!
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