Church

After Christmas I will be preaching a two-part series at Mountainview called "Under New Management."  The basic premise is this: When you invite Jesus into your life, be careful.  When he takes up residence, he likes to change things around. The first message will be "Closed for Remodeling," picking up on this idea that salvation and transformation go hand-in-hand.  God loves us as we are ... but has no intention of leaving us there. The second message will be "Casting Nets or Casting Stones."  This is the one I'm currently ruminating (!) over.   As Christ-followers, we can choose to be a person who casts stones -- like those in John 8:1-11.  To those who felt "holier than thou" Jesus offered this challenge: ""If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Too many Christ-followers are stone throwers.  It's easy for…

When we enter into a relationship with Jesus, we give him the right to go through our spiritual closet and add new items, as well as throwing out a few things.  I can just imagine Jesus saying, "These pants really don’t match that shirt any more.  Throw them out." That's one of the reasons that salvation is also referred to as conversion or transformation.  It's not just about "being saved."  It's about being transformed into the likeness of Jesus.  No small task. What gets converted?  For one thing, Jesus has given us a new way of conducting ourselves in our relationships.  To be thrown out are things such as selfishness, greed, conceit, envy ... those old clothes that endanger our relationships.  It might have been comfortable to wear selfishness on a cold winter's day, but it's not appropriate anymore. We also take on new goals as part of this conversion…

One of my favorite chapters in Primal by Mark Batterson is called "The Tribe of the Transplanted."  It begins by discussing the topic of heart transplants and how the recipients are changed.  Those who received new hearts spoke of having new desires, new passions.  They spoke of having a sense of responsibility to the men and women who donated their hearts. Taking it from physiology to spirituality, Batterson then writes, "When you give your heart to Christ, Christ gives His heart to you."  We become a part of the tribe of the transplanted.  Having the heart of Jesus within us should move us to act and feel differently. Unfortunately, many Christ-followers are often viewed as heartless.  And this is where Batterson talks about approaching our culture heart-first instead of head-first.  He calls compassion the "ultimate apologetic." "If you are in Christ and Christ is in you, you cannot be okay…

I've been privileged to review a copy of "Primal" by Mark Batterson.  It's about how today's church needs to rediscover what the Great Commandment means: "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'  The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:29-31). As Batterson points out, we're not only not great at the Great Commandment, we're sometimes not even good at it. The book examines the four ways we are called to love God: Heart: compassion Soul: wonder Mind: curiosity Strength: energy The modern church often went out head-first into the world.  Primal encourages us to go heart-first into the world.  Loving God with all of…

One of the guys I follow on Twitter is Brad Lomenick, a fellow who works with Catalyst -- a movement of young Christian leaders.  Recently he passed along a link to an article at Fast Company that compared tap water and bottled water.  Though I did buy the girls stainless steel water bottles, I'm not heavily invested in stainless steel.  This graphic, however, is quite enlightening: To see a larger version, visit onlineeducation.net.