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The Best News of All

December 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Gospel of Luke Chapters 1-2 are quite simply among my favorite passages of all. God declares His love by taking on flesh and piercing the hopelessness of mankind in the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas is among many things the opportunity for us to take advantage of the love that conquers all things by embracing Jesus Christ as Lord and the answer to all that threatens us both temporally and eternally. ‘The late John Wesley, after a long life of labour and usefulness, concluded his course in perfect peace and holy triumph. A short time before his departure, when a person came into his room he tried to speak to him, but could not. Finding his friend could not understand him; he paused a little, and then with all his remaining strength he cried out, “The best of all is, God is with us.”‘ (from The Biblical Illustrator)

Merry Christmas to you and yours as we pause and reflect on this greatest gift of all. The best of all is, God is with us!

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A Thankful Heart

November 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Psalm 100:4-5, (NIV)
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

How good is God to bless us this day (and every day that we awake to His creation and His beauty) with the opportunity to live with the God of all creation, the author and sustainer of life? It is really good and thus very important to keep our focus on our God who loves us who is always bigger than our circumstances. A heightened focus is especially meaningful during the Thanksgiving holiday season.

In a day and time where humanity is lured to pay more attention to Black Friday than to  Good Friday, we are the Body of Christ whose voice resounds loudly through our thanksgiving that the grace of God through His Holy Spirit is still very much alive and at work in the world. Stop and take a moment to give thanks for what God has given you today, don’t be tempted to classify it good, bad, or even ugly, just give thanks for the fact that whatever you are in or about, God is there and at work from a posture of love for you! Happy Thanksgiving and celebrate that God is with us in and through Jesus Christ!

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Progress Not Perfection

September 29, 2011 By 1 Comment

Satisfaction?So what is the one thing? The one thing that brings you satisfaction like no other thing? Money, Fame, Prestige, Notoriety, Family, Faith, Marriage, Service? I guess the list could go on and on. However, it occurs to me that where we spend the majority of our time MUST be tied to what we value and seek in terms of satisfaction. The wisest of the wise wrote in Ecclesiastes 2:24, “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work…” NIV.

Our work must have a Kingdom impact that is transforming life for the better to really be satisfying in my opinion. What does that mean? It means that we are doing something meaningful enough to contribute to the well being of humankind and have generational impact according to cultural norms. However, Jesus and meaningful Christianity adds to that the infinite value of having eternal impact that redeems and closes the loop in understanding our ultimate purpose in life to glorify God in our personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

So how do we get our arms around making that happen? The same way one eats an elephant! A fellow board member shared an interesting article from the Harvard Business Review May 2011 issue (p.72) that I think is an excellent idea that is practically helpful. Professors Amabile and Kramer write of their discovery of  a progress principle: “Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work.  And the more frequently people experience a sense of progress, the more likely they are to be creatively productive in the long run.”

Progress is the key. Do you realize how potentially influential we can be just by helping our coworkers and friends grasp a hint of progress in their work on a daily basis? At the end of the day, there is nothing like feeling like a person who has made progress in meaningful work. let’s get contagious in sharing that kind of encouragement in helping others lay claim to the inch by inch progress we are making in the name of Christ for the transformation of the world!

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Fruitfulness

August 31, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Of all the facets involved in living as a disciple of Jesus Christ, which is the greatest differentiator in terms of effectiveness? According to Dr. Lovett Weems and the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary it is fruitfulness. Dr. Weems and Tom Berlin of the Floris UMC in Virginia have written an engaging book appropriately entitled, “Bearing Fruit” that speaks to the reality that fruitfulness is an infinitely better metric marker than faithfulness. The rationale is that fruitfulness includes faithfulness but also captures the biblical mandate of multiplication when it comes to being disciples of Jesus Christ who are making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Throughout the Gospels Jesus emphasized the metric of fruitfulness and was redundant in his teaching that, “we will know a tree by the fruit it bears.”  Disciples of Jesus are like trees or fruit bearing plants; we either live in fruitfulness or we don’t. Corporately, churches are charged with the same behavioral metric which means that a ministry of presence is good, as is a posture of faithfulness, but the Great Commandment and the Great Commission are measured behaviorally by the fruit born of the effort. Jesus did not go to the cross to grant us a license to live in apathy or ineffectiveness. In fact, Jesus went to the cross for the cause of maximum effectiveness as we live and love in His resurrection power and in Him through the Holy Spirit. 

May God set our face towards fruitfulness! In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Lord, let it be so! Amen

 

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Back to School

August 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It is a beautiful sight and brings new meaning to the term, “Back to School.” While we race around here making sure our kids have all new stuff to go back to school with everything in hand that one could possess, to see these kids who are so excited that this year for them is so much better.

They all have one uniform to wear to school, though 90% are hand me downs. They all have A pair of socks and A pair of shoes to wear (that is correct, just one pair of each). And finally, they will all get one meal this year at this school in the bush of Northern Nigeria, the only meal most will get all day long.

God is good, even when life isn’t perfect. Contact me and I’ll help steer you where you can make a difference bringing life,  love and help as you live out this beautiful verse in Matt 25:37-40,

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’  40 “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
NIV

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Learning to Accept God’s Love

July 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Give thanks indeed! The love of God is a magnificent gift as proclaimed by the writer of 2 Chronicles. But is not a static love but rather a dynamic love that really invites a response. To give thanks is a valid response but God’s real intent is that we would receive His love through the presence of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Body of Christ at work in the world.

It occurs to me as I write this from Camp Meeting at Lake Lanier amongst singing, preaching, teaching, and fellowship that it would be an awful mistake to know about God’s love but never learn how to accept it. That’s right, accepting God’s love to the extent that God desires is a learned behavior and requires our response.

God’s love is both proclaimed and tendered in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But we are only bystanders to the real benefit of that love is we just acknowledge this fact. By making Jesus both Christ AND Lord we open the door for the Holy Spirit to deliver “every good and perfect thing” into our lives, families, and circumstances. The biggest obstacle? That would be busyness!

In the name of Jesus Christ feel free to stop doing long enough to BE. Be available to stop and behold the beauty of God at work. Be open to allow God to pour grace, redemption, hope and forgiveness into your soul and spirit. And finally, be willing to let the love of God transform you and lift you up, be a lover of God in the present tense rather than rely on a faint memory of what once was.

Psalm 136 reveals the right kind of response when 26 times the writer stops to proclaim that God’s love endures forever and that he is personally experiencing the benefit thereof and enjoying immensely what it means to learn to accept that love. Lord, let it be so for you and me! Amen.

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Peace in the Middle East

May 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Rare is the article these days that objectively treats the Israeli-Palestinian dilemma with a biblical worldview. It seems that the info that the press picks up is either in down the right field line or the left field line in terms of political view.

Thus, as a consequence there is a lack of a biblical perspective because of the highly political bent, but only a leveraging of scripture carefully chosen to back the one side or the other depending on authorship. One of the latest was published by the UMC Board of Church and Society in the march 29, 2001 newsletter by the Rev. John Calhoun. True to form those playing left of centerfield have the ear of the GBCS largely because of the personal views of Jim Winkler which are not surprisingly like minded and pro-palestenian. I could not find an article looking back in the same newsletter that championed a pro-Israel sentiment though there may be one somewhere. Great liberty is taken in Rev. Calhoun’s article about some of our UMC Resolutions passed in 2000 and 2008 concerning the subject and I commend the fact that the words, “emphasis added” were included in the interpretation. Lots of emphasis added is the norm.
My point is that the way forward in the Middle East is not pro-Israeli and anti-Palestianian; nor is the way forward pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli. The way forward is God’s way which is peace and provision for all of God’s people and Abraham’s offspr. Can’t we be pro-both? Isn’t that faithful to the scriptural intent and promises we hold to be primary? Just thinking….

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A Time to Respond

May 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment


There is a time and a season for everything under the sun. So says Solomon in all of his Godly wisdom in Ecclesiastes 3.  After seeing Ringgold, Ga today the time for us is now.

Thanks to all who gave generously and brought supplies on Sunday to help the good folks who are hurting in Tuscaloosa. Kimberly Hamrick and Megan Fishburne parlayed the resources we gave with some resourced and people through the greek system at the Univ of Alabama and thousands have been fed and helped in the name of Christ. Well done Church!
Now back to our brothers and sisters in Ringgold. The Days Inn that you see in the photo is destroyed. The Ruby Tuesday and Waffle House Restaurants are collapsed. And the number of homes that have been rendered uninhabitable is mind boggling. Injury and loss of life is widespread. Pray for these hurting people. Give generously through UMCOR or your church to help them through. And thank God for the opportunity to join God where God is moving with the really good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ where people have been beaten down with the bad news now for a week. The Lord has blessed us to be a blessing!

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The New Normal of Christianity

April 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Can you remember back long enough to recall Detroit being king of industry, or Pittsburgh being the home of steel? Things change, don’t they? A year or so ago Dr. Gary Maxey, a member of Mount Pisgah UMC here in Atlanta, shared with me a study he was working on in terms of the impending global shift of Christianity.

Dr. Maxey, founder and then President of West Africa Theological Seminary, shared telling research that revealed that the migration of the heart of Christianity was en route to new central hubs, China and West Africa.

Christian Europe, once the bastion of the faith, was becoming increasingly more secular and North America was beginning to show signs along the same trend. According to a study just released referenced by Dr. Bill Bouknight in the latest Confessing Movement Happenings epage, (Research Corporation for Science Advancement shared at the American Physical Society Meeting in Dallas), this global shift in Christianity is gaining momentum and making Dr. Maxey an excellent prophet.

According to Bouknight’s article Christianity is dying in Australia, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Switzerland. This past Sunday more Anglicans attended church in Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda than did Anglicans in all of Canada, Britain, and and Episcopalians in the United States combined. More Christians church attended worship in China (who had no churches in 1970) than in all of Christian Europe combined. And there were more Roman Catholics in worship in the Philippines that in any single Roman Catholic country in Europe including Italy or Spain. Wow!

So where is America in all this? Better yet where are we in all this? The move of God cannot be stopped and I praise God for His move in Africa and China, but at the same time I beseech God for a wake up call for America and Europe.

What can we do? Praise God that at Mount Pisgah we are on the upswing with God and are seeing great and marvelous transformation by the Holy Spirit. We can also simply live the Christian faith out in the family, workplace, and community we are in and be disciples of Jesus who are making disciples of Jesus. Bottom line, Christianity has always been a generational model and we need to live in that responsibility. God bless you today with joy in living out your faith in Christ in service and generosity!

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Unlearning

April 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

So it’s all cool, right? I’m up like super early, 5 am, and it is just me and God. Got a real desire to live the life God intends so I think today I am just gonna be quiet to God speaks. Before I pray, before I read the Bible, before I read Chan or Batterson, or whoever’s got the next hot topic. Just me and God. It was beautiful.

In a few minutes God speaks right into my mind, “So, you think I am trying to teach you something?”. Eureka! Right to the heart of the matter. My non-verbal batter gushed forth from my mind to God’s ears, “Precisely, isn’t that what you are trying to do in all this? Aren’t you trying to teach me something?” (Long pregnant pause) “Nope”…God’s response is no, that is not it, and actually that is not at all it!

So what is the deal? “Actually, I am inviting you to unlearn the way you have learned how to navigate life without total dependence on me.”  Speechless is a good way to describe me at this point…God’s grace and love is so HUGE! To think the God of all creation and eternity has come to meet with me to share this pearl of great price early in the day in Johns Creek, GA!

The wheels of my mind are turning warp speed and then my gray matter offers, “you want me to unlearn?”   God responds, “Yep”. So, I guess I am back at mile marker 1 but never been more excited! My mind, will and emotions are now in touch with the spirit of God that is beckoning me to intimate obedience. It’s not a call to abandon my faith, it’s a call to abandon myself into the hands of Abba who loves Steve, forgives Steve, redeems Steve, empowers Steve, and wants far better for Steve than Steve can ever think or orchestrate. I love this journey! Join me. Christi is Risen, Christ is risen indeed!

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