When you want to produce a certain product it is important to have a model to work from. Continue reading
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How Am I Doing?
Posted on 6/25/09 by On the road with Jesus.
Spiritual evaluation is an important practice for discipleship. It is to look back and try to evaluate the past. What did we accomplish? Where did we fail? How can we do better. The problem is that evaluation of spiritual things is not all that easy. We can count statistics and we should, but that doesn’t really tell the story. Spiritual growth or health can’t always be objectively measured.
Several years ago this letter was written to the editor of a British paper:
“Dear Sir,
It seems ministers feel their sermons are very important and spend a great deal of time preparing them. I have been attending a church quite regularly for the past 30 years and I have probably heard 3,000 of them. To my consternation, I discovered that I cannot remember a single sermon. I wonder if a minister’s time might not be more profitably spent on something else?
Sincerely,…”
For weeks a debate was carried on through letters to the editor. Finally, the uproar ended when this letter was printed:
“Dear Sir,
I have been married for 30 years. During that time I have eaten 32,850 meals–mostly of my wife’s cooking. Suddenly, I have discovered that I cannot remember the menu of a single meal. And yet, I received nourishment from every single one of them. I have the distinct impression that without them, I would have starved to death long ago.
Sincerely,…”
This is not an argument against the need for spiritual evaluation any more than regular physicals. It is simply a reminder that it is not as simple as counting people or dollars as important as that is.
We know that when we don’t pray, worship(including hearing the Word of God proclaimed), share our lives together, and minister in Christ’s name we cannot be spiritually healthy and may die.
A spiritually healthy life-style–let’s go for it!
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The Real Thing
Posted on 5/25/09 by On the road with Jesus.
Recently, I asked a Sunday School class what a Spirit-filled church would look like. And we quickly discovered that is not an easy question to answer. To describe what something looks like can get really tricky.
As they say, “if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck,… Continue reading
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Lucy and The Queen Bug: Don't Confuse Me With the Facts
Posted on 4/14/09 by On the road with Jesus.
During the school year, in my last pastorate, I regularly sent e-mail devotionals to our college students who requested it. I would like to share one of those with you. It was based on a “Peanuts” cartoon:
In one early episode, Lucy, who’s always right about everything and knows everything (she thinks) is kneeling on the ground pointing to something.
She says to CB, “You know why that big black bug doesn’t move?”
“Because she’s the Queen Bug! She just sits there, see, while the other bugs do all the work.”
CB says, “That’s not a bug… Continue reading
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Father's Love Letter
Posted on 4/4/09 by On the road with Jesus.
Here is a great video. Check it and others at http://www.sermonspice.com
You can see it as a preview or purchase.
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Serious Advice on Stewardship (Not): “Getting Out of Debt”
Posted on 3/31/09 by On the road with Jesus.
Click here, watch the video, laugh and think about it.
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Indeed!
Posted on 3/4/09 by On the road with Jesus.
Sometime ago I ran across this story: “You probably do not remember the name Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin. During his day he was as powerful a man as there was on earth. A Russian Communist leader he took part in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, was editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda (which by the way means truth), and was a full member of the Politburo. His works on economics and political science are still read today. There is a story told about a journey he took… Continue reading
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Actions–then feelings.
Posted on 3/4/09 by On the road with Jesus.
In the church, we have devalued actions in favor of feelings.
Have you ever heard someone use the reason for not doing something as “I don’t feel like it.” We usually don’t mean, I’m sick when we say that; rather, I just don’t have the inclination or I don’t really want to. Of course all of us have to do things we “don’t feel like doing.” We go to work, take care of errands, etc. because we have to…. Continue reading
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Discipleship at Messiah 