Things I See

There are many passages of scripture that bring us comfort and encouragement as we journey on toward our final home.  But, one in particular is my favorite.  John 14:1-4.

¹"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. ²In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. ⁴You know the way to the place where I am going."

Sometimes I miss little things in life because of the stresses and business that tends to consume me.  Mostly do to the fact that I can't say "no" very well.  However this Christmas, I got to see the truth of this passage while preparing a gift for some wonderful kids.

Mark Thomason is a great friend and keyboard player.  I am blessed to know him and his family.  Mark asked if I would help him transform his home office into a playroom for his girls, Erin and Emily.  We started on Tuesday with removing office stuff and painting, and finished at 2am Dec 25th.

Now during the prep and painting, the running of wire in conduit, I never really had a spiritual though.  We may have talked about the worship set for the coming week, but nothing deep or life altering.  To tell the truth, setting up a wii, projector, screen, sound system and lights, we were more irreverent that reverent.  But something happened to me on Christmas morning when the girls had opened all there presents and then went down stairs to put them away.

Emily saw the bow on the door and said "did we get a new door?'.  I about fell over.  Mark told her now and had the girls open the door to there new game room.  It was awesome!  The girls were blown away!  Erin looked around with her mouth hanging open.  Emily stopped in the middle of the room and turned around to face her dad and mom and yelled "This is awesome!"  That's when what Jesus told us in John 14:1-4 hit me. 

While we are sleeping and doing life, our Jesus is working on a room in our Fathers house for us.  And I know that I will walk into my room and yell "This is Awesome!"

Starbucks Observation

Okay, I am sitting at the Starbucks store in Decatur, AL.  I am studying Jesus, trends in technology, blogging, reading and enjoy the people.  As I watched people come in and place orders, I had this thought; People come to Starbucks because they want a great coffee beverage, not to be convinced that coffee beverages are great.  The customer comes in and is asked what they would like and the customer orders.  Now a fist time customer will look at the menu, and maybe inquire about a certain beverage, but they know why Starbucks is there.  They don't expect a pizza from Starbucks.

So then I thought about churches.  And I could totally be off here, but if someone comes to your church, don't they expect to here about God, and maybe even Jesus?  Did someone already invite them?  Did someone already tell them about Jesus?  Did they hear the audible voice of God say "get to church"?
When someone comes to Starbucks, the Barista doesn't explain the way the coffee beans are grown and processed to become the awesome beverage you are enjoying.  No, they make it and you enjoy.  In church we need to present Christ and let people enjoy him.  How to present Christ?

• Be yourself and reflect his love to everyone who walks through the door.  Everyone!!  If by being yourself you are judgemental and unhappy about life, you may need to do some self evaluation.  Ask someone that will tell you the truth, not someone who surgarcoats it. 
  
• If  you are a teaching Pastor, teach a practical life lesson, something anyone can start applying to their everyday journey.
• You must believe in the product, or in the case of the church, the message of Christ.  If you really don't think Christ can change lives, well, you might want to talk to him about that.  
• Celebrate change.  When Starbucks announced the new instant coffee, I didn't hear one employee at my, yes my, store complain about it.  In fact they were giving out free samples.
• I call the Starbucks I go to "my store", because it is where I spend my money and time.  Let people know that you support "your church".  I don't bash other Starbucks stores, there is only one other in Decatur at Target, but I celebrate the whole Starbucks experience. We should celebrate the Kingdom of God the same way.  You may have your favorite place to worship, but don't bash the church down the street.

So I hope I was able to translate what was going on in my mind to "paper".  I started blogging to do just that.  If you have any comments or additions please share.  

I want to go Deeper

There is a song that I learned early on in my journey with Jesus by a band named Delirious?.  The lyrics of the first line go "I wanna go deeper, but I don't know how to swim...".  I have thought about this subject over the last few weeks and decided to write about it.  Gonna be simple cause that is how I am.

The first step in going deeper, and I mean in the things of God, is learning how to swim.  If you don't have the basic fundamentals of swimming, you will drown.  Even exploring the deep things of God.  How many times have you met someone who just crossed the line of faith and they are confused because some more advanced believer started talking to them about the millennial reign of Christ, or the end times?  Or my personal favorite, the Nephilim. All great things to know, but can really overwhelm someone who is trying to stop looking at porn, get over a lifetime of addiction, or just wants to take the nest step on the journey.

I remember Navy dive school very clearly.  They didn't just stick us out on a dive boat and throw us in after we learned what the acronym SCUBA meant.  They didn't even let us put on gear until they knew we could float on our own (with your hands and feet tied).  Then when you got to put on your gear, you practiced in a pool with a bunch of instructors watching you to see if you were doing okay.  Then every once in a while, an instructor would dive from the surface an put you and your buddy into a "situation" to see how you would react. I am using the term "situation" very loosely here.  I never made it to the pool week due to asthma.  See they have to make sure you are ready.

So ya, I want to go deeper, but can I teach people how to swim first?  Can I swim myself?  Do I get so deep that I never come up?  I love that Jesus, who definitely was deep, keep it simple and on the surface for us.  I think each person should decide for themselves what deeper is, and then go there.  If you want to study Tozer, go for it.  I wouldn't spring that stuff on your small group of new believers.  It's a challenge to just get your head around John 1.

Thoughts and comments very welcomed....