I encourage all of you who are married (and if you are not, you can get a head start if you plan to be married some day (just stay away from “two-drink” for now ) to check out their site for some great ideas on how to keep a marriage fresh and exciting. I love Mark and Kay’s hearts for keeping marriage an adventure and making your spouse THE most important human on the planet. When our relationships are in proper order, God first and our spouse second, it is amazing at how God will use that. I was challenged a lot over the 4 days that Mark spoke. Challenged to be a better husband, father and follower of Christ.

Ultimately, as I walked away from the week of messages and all the camp activities with my family, one theme kept jumping out at me: risk. Trust God and risk it all for Him. For the life of me, I really don’t know why Christ-followers don’t do this ALL the time. If you aren’t following Jesus, you get a pass. But if you are, your life isn’t yours anyway. And, besides, it is a vapor. “But a mist.” Why won’t we risk it all for the One who gave it all? Honestly, is it really a “risk” to give your life to the Creator of everything?  Life is far too short to be caught up in the material world, and by that I mean the world outside of the Kingdom of God. God’s Kingdom is the only thing worth building because it will last for eternity. I pray that God will strengthen me to live for Him and not waste time on things that are here today and gone tomorrow. I pray that for you too.

In this update:

- building relationships in Willo

- important meeting on July 29th

- next gathering

Thanks for taking the time to get up to speed and thank you for praying for us and this ministry.

Stay with me…too often I think followers of Christ suppose that the Christian life should be intuitive and come like salvation, as a free gift. I guess that makes some sense. After all, we receive the  ”gift of the Spirit” when we become Christ followers, don’t we? Since we have the Spirit, it follows that the Spirit will guide our lives, that we’ll walk in holiness simply because we’ve got the Spirit. I wish that were true. But it isn’t. I wish Christian marriage were easy. But it is not. I wish being a Godly dad came naturally, but it doesn’t.  I wish I didn’t struggle with anger. But, I do.

Jesus tells us plainly that “each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Each day.  To deal with the trouble of the day, Peter reminds us to “put away” malice, “purify” your souls and to “supplement our faith” with thing like steadfastness and godliness.  Paul commands us to do things like “submit” “forgive” “admonish” “receive” and “put on love.” Each requires action from us. Not to save us but to sanctify, or purify, us. Will it take God’s grace? Yes. Will it take us engaging activity in your sanctification? Yes. The Christian life doesn’t just happen. Remember, just like that pianist who makes your jaw drop didn’t crawl out of their Pampers and stumble into playing Beethoven, people don’t have thriving marriages and relationships on accident. It takes sacrifice, dedication, time and a whole lot of work. God wants the best for you but He doesn’t give it to you passively. “Put on” the things of God and toil with us toward holiness….

When the Bible talks about sin, it clothes it in the enemy’s jersey. Sin stands in the way between you and your goal of living for God. What if we treated sin like Algeria (my first ever world cup reference) or, better yet, a world cup referee! (2nd ever world cup reference). I hear a collective “violent growl” out there now!

Paul reminds us constantly that we have to put sin to death. You don’t put things to death passively. Yes, sin is ultimately defeated by the Cross and we cannot add to or take away from that. But, what I’m talking about here is walking daily with Christ in light of the Cross. The Scriptures consistently speak of pursuing God with all diligence. We must treat sin like a cancer that desires to consume our souls. We attack cancer violently, knowing that allowing it to live means death to our physical bodies. We should be more violent in our war against sin. Kill it while it is little; don’t let it grow.

yeeeeeeeeehhhhhhssss!

Anyone who has planted a church quickly learns that there is no shortage of material on the subject. Countless books, talks, manuals, seminars, and coaching-sessions are there waiting for every insecure/fearful church planter (which is pretty much all of us) to consume. I’ve tried to be open to input from many different sources and at the same time, chose wisely when it comes to the bottomless pit of information. With that in mind, I recently downloaded a few talks from Exponential. One of the speakers was Francis Chan, who comes to the subject with lots of experience and transparency. Francis began a church 16 years ago that God has used to reach thousands but recently he and his wife have decided to leave the comfort of what they have to step out again. The talk he gave at Exponential was unlike most main session conference talks I’ve heard; it had a rawness and an “unrehearsed-ness” to it that most don’t. He seems unsure but sure,  scared but courageous. His wife offers input too and shares how it feels to be a mom of four stepping into so much uncertainty. I know most may not download this audio (Francis Chan Main Session) and listen, but for those who do, I promise you will be challenged. You may disagree. You may question Francis. But, you’ll be forced to think.

I’ll just warn you now: the application of Francis’ talk isn’t too sexy. It has lots to do with suffering for Christ. Hate that. The talk reminded me of some posts I’ve done on fasting and how that fasting can provide some “suffering” that draws us closer to Christ. (I’ve included parts of those posts below.) With that in mind, I am challenging everyone who is a part of day|twelve to fast next Tuesday, June 22nd. Anyone who knows the story of day|twelve knows that fasting on Tuesdays in June will always be dear to my heart. ; ) So, please join us in fasting next Tuesday. Some things we’ll be praying for that day (and other days of course):

- Gina’s friend, Tina, who is in a battle for her life. We are praying for a miracle.

- for God to draw the people of Central Phoenix to Him.

- more relationships in the community.

- clarity regarding adding staff this fall and for God to bring the right fit.

- next steps, ministry/office space, planning…pretty much everything that goes with planting a church.

- for God to draw our team closer, even in times where we are not meeting every week.

- for anything on your hearts; please respond with a comment if you’d like to add to the list.

___________________

Jentezen Franklin wrote a great book on the subject which he aptly titles Fasting. He provides so many insights but the biggest for me was his teaching on Jesus’ sermon on the mount. If you know “the talk” you know that Jesus makes these three statements: “when you give” “when you pray” and “when you fast.” (Matt. 6) For the follower of Christ, fasting is part of a threefold approach to growth.  It is essential.

I finished a fast lastnight (along with my wife and many friends) and I’ve been blown away with what God has done.  I was a part of a worship and prayer event last night and witnessed the power of God like I’ve few times before. People were honestly and sincerely experiencing His healing.  Then, today, I got to pray with a friend and his daughter as she surrendered to Christ.  At home, we are seeing the beginnings of break-throughs with our kids and our marriage is gaining more and more strength. God has been so faithful.

I’m not saying that when we fast we’ll get earth-shattering “results.”  (But, again, Jesus tells us that fasting leads to the miraculous.) It’s really not about that. It is about seeking Him above all, even above King Stomach as Jentezen Franklin dubs it. Press in and seek God through fasting. It is His plan. His way. Follow Him.

But, what I am saying is that putting something that is not God as ultimate in your life is extremely unfair to that “thing” and will ultimately lead to depression and devastation. The only “thing” that has the weight and substance to handle being ultimate is  God. He bears all things and is the giver of everything good. When He is ultimate, life works as designed.  When we allow Him to shape our time, our kids, vacations, homes, jobs and hobbies, these things ultimately become a very meaningful act of worship…but, not ultimate.

- serving the city

- preaching at second mile church on 05|30|10…

- 06|06|10 vision meeting…

Anyway, while it may shock many of you, I’ve found myself questioning the value of twitter and facebook on numerous occasions recently. While I cannot truthfully say that I’ve ever seriously considered quitting social media, I do believe there is a darkside to it that many don’t talk about. Besides being an enormous time-waster for many, I’ve found that it can breed insecurity and pride, which manifest themselves in all sorts of ways. Most of you can come up with several examples on your own, and if you cannot, then it may be time for a reality check.  Pride and insecurity aside, Justin makes an interesting point about what the over-use of the internet/social media does to him:

Not that the internet is an evil thing, it is just, for me, a time and mind sucker. My attention span drops dramatically when I spend a day or two on the internet, as does my ability to read and formulate sentences. This is anecdotal evidence, but there are emerging studies that show prolonged internet use rewrites the pathways of your brain and not in a good way.

I concur. There have been numerous times when I’ve lacked my normal focus, focus that I became accustomed to while in law school and in other academic pursuits.  Often, I can trace these “episodes” back to some some “mind sucking” time spent on the World Wide Web. So, what does it mean for me? Am I ready to kick social media and the internet to the curb….

No, not entirely.  I believe that social media, the internet and blogging are a very useful tools, especially for a church planter. These media allow for a rapid dissemination of information and provide some great ways to stay connected to those you love (and for some, to those they dislike). I believe that the internet and social media can be used effectively in the right context and in the right amounts. However, I do think, for me anyway, curtailing my usage is wise. I don’t need tweetdeck running 24/7. I don’t need to know the instant someone posts pictures from their trip to Wendy’s on #fb (okay, that was for all the #twittergeeks out there! : ) ). There’s a lot we can go without knowing…there really is. Again, I’m not saying that technology in and of itself is bad, like most things, it is neutral, neither inherently good or bad. We just need to make sure we are using it in moderation, for its maximum good, and not saturating our lives with it.

I appreciate Justin’s article because I think he’s right in many ways and, more than that, I think it takes serious leadership to draw a line in the sand like he has done. I also track with his desire to read more, write more, get outside more and to take in more of life, sans the screens. Speaking of which…I just picked up a book, The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped our Worldview, last week. I’ve found the opening pages fascinating and since it is about 500 pages of heavy-lifting, I’m setting myself up for a little less twitter time.

Whether you’ve ever given sworn, legal testimony or not you’ve probably heard those words. Sounds redundant but there’s power in redundancy at times. It is important to tell the truth, leaving nothing out and adding nothing to it….

We in the church could learn a lot from this. Too often we fall short of providing the whole truth because… 1. we feel weird; 2. we don’t think it is important, 3. we don’t want to sound like we are selling something, 4. we don’t want to offend, 5. we don’t recognize and live in the whole truth…etc.

Quick illustration: when (not if ) you serve in the community and someone asks you why, what do you say? Do you say it is because it is the right thing to do? That is true. Do you say it is because you love people? That is true. Do you say it is because you believe we should all serve the community? That is true. All of these reasons are true…but are they the whole truth? If you are a follower of Christ, don’t you serve because Jesus first served you? Don’t you serve because as a follower of Christ Jesus asks you to love your community and serve those in it? Isn’t the WHOLE truth more like this:

Q: “why are you serving?”

A: “well we are doing this project because we love people and this community and we want to serve.  We believe that Jesus calls us to love and care for this city and serve our neighbors. He does that for us..He loves us and serves us and Jesus wants me to be here to serve you today. Serving you is a big part of what  means to follow Christ. That’s why I am here.”

…that is the truth, the WHOLE truth, and nothing but the truth. It isn’t dramatic or hyperboloic. It is sharing the Gospel in word and deed. I pray that we quit being so darned covert … let’s serve and let’s tell people why…it isn’t because we are such great people it is because we serve a loving and caring God who loves us and serves us and calls us to do the same. Let’s set the record straight about who Jesus is and what His people look like. We can only do this by telling the whole truth.