Any life worth living will have its share of fears. In our current teaching series at Mountainview, we're using the story of Benaiah (2 Samuel 23:20-23) to highlight what a life of passion looks like. In the course of one paragraph, Benaiah squares off against two Moabites, a 500-lb lion, and a huge Egyptian. Given that the invention of Prozac is still centuries away, it's likely Benaiah had a few fears. This is an important point: a life of passion is not one in which fears are absent. That sort of life would be mundane, not magnificent. A life of passion is one in which our largest, scariest fears are out-sized by our faith in God. As we headed into communion, I shared a story about Abraham Lincoln that Walt Whitman first wrote about in 1882: In the gloomiest period of the war, he had a call from a large…
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I read an interesting article about how to get over your glory days at the Art of Manliness Blog. Tip number one: create new firsts.
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At last, science creates something useful! Check out this article in Popular Science. It describes how you can convert a gasoline-powered car to run off coffee. It's called the Carpuccino (no, I'm not making that up). This Car Runs on Coffee
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"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21). Without bounds. Unable to be contained. Beyond our wildest expectations. Our God is able to do immeasurably more than all we can think to ask. He exceeds our most vivid imaginations. When we think we've exhausted every possible angle, conceived every possible solution ... God stands there and says, "You're just getting started." The Westminster Catachism explains the ultimate aim of every Christ-follower in this way: "Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." The church was designed to bring glory to God. As we trust in God to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine --…
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We kicked off a new series this weekend at Mountainview called "Chase the Lion." It's based on a book by Mark Batterson that features an obscure character from the Old Testament - Benaiah. I had the privilege of kicking off the series with a message entitled, "Defying the Odds." The basic premise was this: your view of God will determine the size of the challenges you tackle. Our creative arts team did a fantastic job of designing the stage. Our music was good, as it always is. At our second service I had the opportunity to baptize a young lady into Christ as her mom stood near by. Tonight we hosted "Laugh All Night," a Christian comedy concert to benefit mission efforts in Haiti. It was very well attended and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I was a bit disappointed that there was no open mic ... but that's probably…
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