moments

“Time is a tyrant; it consumes choices left unmade.” – Erwin McManus, Chasing Daylight

 

On Saturday we took our oldest daughter Faith, along with my mom, to the airport. For the next two weeks Faith is going to be in Missouri spending time with my family and then will head to Denver to spend time with Gina’s family. It is just two weeks, but for her mom and dad it seems like an eternity.  In just the few days that Faith has been gone it has helped me appreciate more the time I have with her. Yes, I know she’s just entering the 1^st grade, but I also know in the blink of an eye she’ll be clutching her high school diploma.  I’m thankful that God has burned that vision in my mind because it ignites a passion to seize every moment I have with her and our other children. There’s something very powerful about living a life of purpose, embracing every moment and pressing into what God has for us every day. As we’ve been discovering together, God had a specific plan for the Israelites when He gave them the promised land: It is time to break camp and move on. …I am giving all this land to you! Go in and occupy it! (Duet. 1) God clearly was saying to His people that it is time to seize the moment. Go and do what I’ve told you to do. Yet, they slept on the opportunity and missed it. In a blink, it was gone. So, today, what moments do you need to embrace? Step into them!  Remember, time consumes choices left unmade…

eleven days…and counting

So, how’d the Israelites get from 11 days to 14,600 days?  Great question and one that probably can’t be answered completely in a paragraph, but simply put the Israelites didn’t trust God. They lacked faith. (It is amazing how little things have changed in a few thousand years.)  Even though these same people had seen God part the Red Sea through the hand of Moses (Ex. 14), provide water from a rock (Ex. 17) and manna from heaven (Ex. 16), they still doubted that God would or could do what He said He would do. God promised an amazing piece of the world and told them it was His gift to them: “I am giving all this land to you! Go in and occupy it, for it’s the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors and all of their decedents.” (Deut. 1:8)  Doesn’t get much simpler than that. But, of course, to occupy the land they would have to trust that God would once again deliver on His promise.

As we read the story we see that they got to the edge of the land in exactly the time they should of….then…..they stopped. They doubted. And, that generation never entered the promise. They made it to the promise but never embraced it because they thought it would cost them too much and they doubted God would deliver.  They stood right there at the precipice of the promise and STOPPED!  Is the promise of God in your sight? Why have you stopped?

eleven days

As I sat down to read the Scriptures this morning, I ventured back to Deuteronomy (I have to admit I’ve skipped some Old Testament reading in my yearly Bible reading plan this year. ) I wasn’t quite sure what God would have for me there but after reading just a few lines I read something that I can’t ever recall reading before: “Normally, it takes only eleven days to travel of Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea…” (Deut. 1:2, NLT) Eleven days? So, what’s the big deal? Well, what should have taken the Israelites ELEVEN DAYS took them FOURTY YEARS…or, by simple calculation: 14,600 DAYS!  You see, God wanted to give the Promised Land to the Israelites and they were a short eleven day journey away from receiving this amazing gift from the Lord but instead they bickered, doubted and rebelled their way to a journey that would last 14,600 days. That absolutely blows my mind.  There’s so much more to this story but the question for now is “what is taking us years that God could do in days?”  What issue has handcuffed you for years that you could be on the way to defeating in a few weeks if you faced it head on and seriously dealt with it?  Eleven days or forty years? It is up to us.

no limits

 

Lots of thoughts went through my head as I watched a hobbled Tiger Woods hit a putt on Sunday to push the US Open into a playoff…wow, amazing, clutch, focus, determination, will…the list goes on. Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that Tiger Woods is the standard by which other golfers today are measured.  My favorite story about Tiger comes earlier in his career when, already ranked No.1 in the world, he totally reconstructed his golf swing because he knew he could get better. For Tiger, nothing is off limits; everything can be challenged and questioned in an effort to become the standard. 

When I read the story of the rich young ruler, I see some similarities and one vast difference. This rich young guy who seemingly had it all and had lived a good religious life asked Jesus if there was anything else he needed to do to enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus said simply, “one thing you lack, sell everything, give to the poor … and then come and follow me.” (Luke 18:22) We don’t really get to see the rest of this guy’s story because it ends right there. For the rich guy, his money was off limits. You can have it all Jesus…but just not this. Not my money; not my safety; not my position; not my __________. 

one

We all know the saying that two heads are better than one, but the ironic thing is that the saying implies that the two heads are actually one. That is, when two people are working together toward a common goal and challenging and encouraging and loving each other through the process then two heads are better than one.  But, when two heads are consumed with their own desires, speak negatively of each other and generally just tear one another apart, well, then two heads aren’t better.  There is nothing quite like a unified team where each has the other’s back and each is giving everything toward a common goal. Whether in sports, business, politics, the church or family, unity on a team wins. That is why I’m so excited about this current series, One Prayer (www.oneprayer.com). The vision is so simple and so pure. One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God. (Eph. 4:5) The church coming together as one has powerful implications. Even on an individual our lives either bring unity or our lives divide. I pray that our motives, words and actions unify.

connected loneliness?

It is a weird time to be alive. At a time when we can connect to pretty much anyone at anytime anywhere in the world, many of us still find ourselves feeling isolated and lonely. How can that be? Well, I think if we look a little deeper we might find that in the process of “connecting with others” many of us do so in an attempt to serve our own identities and own needs. After all, marketing slogans like “Have it your way!” “What can brown do for you?” and others focusing on “good old No.1” are very popular and effective. And behind every slogan, is a service to meet our every need. If you have the cash, you can have someone make your bed, do your shopping, walk your dog, heck, you can even pay someone to raise your kids for you… .  We want to be unique, yet we want “mainstream” acceptance and that has gotten a lot of us to this weird place of what we might call “connected loneliness” (see except below from Barna for more on this subject). Strange. Or is it? 

driver’s seat

“…my religion is kind of like baseball: Baseball I do on the weekends, religion I do even less…” – unknown

 

So the question that you should be asking yourself after last weekend is this: what am I fanatical about? Let me help you answer that question: what do you set your schedule around?  what takes priority in your family?  Too often for me, my time isn’t spent on things that last.  I remember when I was first called a “sports fanatic.” I was offended. Not because it wasn’t true, but because sports, honestly, drove my schedule and deep inside of me, I wasn’t proud of that.  When does the game start? When is my tee time? When does the softball tournament start?  My time was built around these questions. For you those questions may revolve around shopping, kids, work…etc. Remember, these things in and of themselves are not “evil.” The problem comes when God takes a back seat and when everything else in our life determines how we spend our time.  It was Jesus who said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat–I am.” (Luke 4:23).  I pray that we all become fanatical about God and that when people look at us they see Jesus first.

 

FYI, I’m going to try to get my message posted online and when I do I’ll send you a link to it.  In the meantime, here’s a link to the intro video that played before my message this weekend.  Enjoy. http://www.ad-films.com/films.htm

fan or fanatic?

Last week, I had the privilege of interviewing a few of our fellow Phoenicians outside Chase Field in downtown Phoenix. I went there as part of my preparation for this weekend’s message, part 2 of Fanatic. Armed with a microphone and a camera we had one main question for the people we ran into: “what are you fanatical about?”  Since we were outside of a baseball stadium, we did get some predictable answers…but, this is a city full of diversity so we got plenty of other good stuff too. I think what surprised me the most was not so much what I heard but what I didn’t hear. There was one interview in particular still plays over in my mind….

worship

Lately when I walk through the door after a day at work our 16 month old girl, Bella, has been greeting me with shrills of “Dadda, Dadda, Dadda.” She runs to me with her arms above her head and a huge smile on her face…makes my eyes tear up a little just thinking about it.  Love fills her and the only thing her little 16-month-old self knows to do is to show it.  I think this is what Jesus had in mind when He said, unless you become like a little child, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  (Mark 10:15) Children’s hearts are so open; they are extremely loyal; and they so desire to know and love their mommies and daddies. And, they aren’t afraid to show their love…regardless of who may be looking or what else is going on.  So, how are we doing in this area?  

choices

The choices we make today create our future tomorrow. Simple thought and one we’d probably all agree with but do we really live our lives consciously aware that every decision we make has a destination?  Sometimes bad choices have small consequences and at times no consequences at all.  Other bad choices lead to lost jobs, lost spouses or even death.  Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived and he taught us a thing or two about the devastation of bad choices. (Proverbs 7)  Often we know when we are about to make a bad decision, but our desires replace God’s and we continue to walk down a path that takes us away from where God is leading.  It can take days, months or even years sometimes for us to see the outcome of our decisions, good or bad.  Often we get impatient when our faithfulness in our decision-making isn’t seen immediately. Just as often when we end up in a bad place spiritually, relationally or financially we wonder “how did I get here?” Whether good or bad, we need to understand that we are where we are largely (of course there are things that happen outside of our control) because of the decisions we have made.  What decisions are you making today that are creating your tomorrow?