This Morning's Message: Almost Self-Serve

For Pastors

Ten Things I Wish Somebody Had Told Me Fourteen Years Ago: Lessons I Have Learned Along The Way

1. You can say “yes” to God by saying “no” to the church. Learn how to say “no” to less important things. Put God first. Then your family. Then the church.

2. You will never meet everybody’s expectations, so stop trying.

3. Be a first-rate version of yourself and not a second-rate version of somebody else.

4. Listen to understand. Don’t listen to reply. 

5. Collaborate with other churches and pastors. Don’t compete with them. We are on the same team.

6. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who you perceive other people are today.

7. Take a weekly Sabbath. God didn't work seven days a week and you don't need to either. Use all your continuing education even if it is just taking a week away to read a few books, watch a few videos, gather with a few other clergy, and / or doing some reflecting. Use all your vacation. Play, pray, rest, restore, renew, replenish, reconcile. 

8. Have something you love to do that has nothing to do with the church.

9. Have a best friend or maybe co-best friends who accept who both for who you are and who you are not.

10. Have a life team. Three to five people who understand that one of their purposes in life is to encourage you, support you, serve you, love you, and help you grow. 

Independence and Freedom

Sunday's Column…Today

Friday is Independence Day. If your family is anything like mine, you will get the kids in the neighborhood parade, have the in-laws over for some BBQ, go swimming, hang out until it gets dark, and sit with the dog during the fireworks trying to convince her that the world is not coming to an end. Not much reflecting on why we get the day off.

What we are celebrating? Why do we celebrate it? And where does God fit in all this? 

I love history. Especially early American history. The passion of the people for independence and freedom is inspiring:

I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death! -Patrick Henry 

I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country. -Nathan Hale 

I have not yet begun to fight! -John Paul Jones 

We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately. -Benjamin Franklin 

It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible. -George Washington 

Independence and freedom are not the same. Independence means, for better or worse, we get to make the rules. The mistakes we get to live with are generally our own. Pre-Independence, the problem was taxation without representation. A few hundred years later, we still have taxes—gas taxes, income taxes, estate taxes, property taxes, sales taxes—to name a few. But instead of a king in London making the rules, a majority of citizens have decided such taxes are for the common good. Independence isn’t always perfect, but it sure beats the alternative. 

Freedom is different. Someone can be independent, but not free. The young adult may live by herself and be independent of her parents, but she is not necessarily free. She probably has some sort of debt, a boss, a landlord, and / or demanding friends. She makes her own choices, but has obligations and habits that strongly determine the choices she makes. She is independent, but is she really free? As a country, we may make our own rules, but because of things like debt and nuclear weapons, we are not totally free.

There is another sort of independence and freedom that matters ultimately and it is another sort altogether. It isn’t represented by a flag, but by a cross and a cup. The flag represents freedom to worship the King who embodied the cross and the cup. At the end of the day the flag doesn’t offer the freedoms matter the most: forgiveness, hope, courage, faith, peace, joy, and salvation. A person can live in an independent democracy and suffer a personal life of oppression while another can live under a dictatorship and experience personal freedom: not because of the flag, but because of the cross and the cup. 

Be grateful for independence and all those who have made it possible and embrace freedom. Two things worth celebrating.

The best it yet to come… 

Craig

WE Minute: Mission Challenge

A Few Thousand Words

Hoping we qualify in 2018

WE Garden. This is our plot.

Our first harvest.

This Week's Devo: How to Pray

This Morning's Message - Self-Serve: Prayer

This morning's message about prayer.

Maybe Someday

Lot with a view

Prayer

We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. –Mother Teresa

Some things can only happen in silence. Other things best happen in silence.

The Bible doesn’t give a whole lot of details about the prayer life of Jesus, but the few details given are more than enough to make the case that connection to God comes not from noise or restlessness nor disturbances or anxiety or boredom, but from solitude and silence.

Jesus prayed in lonely places (Mark 1:35). He taught the masses to find a quiet closet, shut the door, and have a conversation with God (Matthew 6:5-6). He sent the disciples ahead of him and went to the mountain to pray (Mark 6:45-46). Even in Gethsemane, he told Peter and the brothers they could go so far, but no further. At the moment Jesus needed God the most the last thing he needed was noise. He needed James and John arguing about who was greater just about as much as he needed Peter telling him that Peter would never deny Him. So Jesus took a few more steps, fell to his face, and began his private conversation with God (Mark 14:32-35).

Culture is full of noise and restlessness. Both are common, expected, and ordinary. But, noise and restlessness prevent us from experiencing God and embracing each other. iPads, iPods, iPhones, fifteen versions of ESPN, Twitter, Instagram, text messaging, busyness, consumerism, email, and eBay provide enough noise to make a jet engine sound like wind chime during a gentle breeze and enough restlessness to turn an exhausted pre-schooler into an insomniac. Being constantly connected to the noise and restlessness of the world ironically and sadly disconnects us from the abundant love of God and the genuine love of others. 

We confuse busyness with significance, entertainment with joy, and vast connectedness with vital communication. Our basic human needs of genuinely knowing God and others and authentically being known by God and others are being lost in the confusion and complexity of the world.

God simply says through the Psalmist: “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)

Unplug. Listen. Say “no” to what isn’t working. Rest. Relate. Reflect. Pray.

Prayer moves us in three directions: upward to God, inward to self, and outward toward others. It connects us to God like nothing else connects us to God. It connects us to others like nothing else connects us to others. Prayer also does something to us. Søren Kierkegaard wrote: 

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

Turn up the silence. Listen to God. Be fully present with others. Discover and embrace your true self. Be still. Be silent.

The best is yet to come…

Craig

WE Minute - Prayer

Mulberry Jalapeño Ribs

I use a Bradley smoker for this. Your smoker will work too. 
Let the ribs soak in some kind of fluid for a day or so. This time I used beer, but apple juice is good. Ginger ale is good too.

Take them out, dry them off, and coat them with olive oil. 

Dump a rub on both sides and smoke them for 2 hours at 200 degrees with apple wood. Sometimes I use hickory. 

Turn the smoke off, drench them in a fluid (again beer or apple juice), cover them in aluminum foil, and let them steam for about 2 hours at 200 degrees. This moistens them up and lets the meat fall off the bone. I also coated the ribs in a homemade mulberry, jalapeño, and honey jam before the final foil wrap. 

Turn the smoke back on, put a little bit more rub on and cook them for another hour at 200 degrees. It makes the outside crispy and a little barky. But the inside stays moist.

The mulberry and jalpeños were a good addition. They provided a good contrast of sweet and sour. Also gave it a good earthy taste.

This was probably my best batch of ribs to date.

This Week's Video Devo and Study Guide

Sermon: Reading the Bible

College World Series and David's Last Game

David after his last game for the season

Dreaming of next season

UC Irvine vs. Texas

Morning Run

Sunrise from the observation tower

The hill is a pain to climb, but the scenery was good.

Eating mulberries for a mid-run snack

After crossing the waterfall

Bible

It’s a book. It’s words either mean everything or they mean nothing at all. It’s the bestselling book of our time. It’s the best selling book of all time. 

Never has a book been more criticized. 

Never has a book been more quoted. 

Never has a book been more turned to in a time of need.

It’s part biography and history. Letters and prophecy that are simultaneously compelling and challenging. There is nothing quite like the poetry found in this book and the prose is just as brilliant. And then there is the Gospel or what the Greeks called εὐαγγέλιον. It simply means good news. 

The book is, of course, the Bible. Søren Keirkegaard wrote: “When you read God's Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, ‘It is talking to me, and about me.’” And he is correct. 

The woman sits next to her two children on a chair on the cemetery lawn. Five feet in front of them is a casket with two dozen roses on top. The pastor opens the Bible and turns to Psalm 23 and begins to read: “…and even through I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, You are with me.” The words mean everything or they mean nothing.

The man has hit rock bottom. His collection of poor choices have overwhelmed him. He has nowhere to turn. He remembers a story from his childhood. After thumbing through the index in a dusty Bible, he turns to Luke 15 and reads about a fellow prodigal who returns home and experiences the love of his father not because of what he has done, but because of who he is. Grace is the only thing he got from the story which is just as well because it was the only thing he really needed at the time. The words mean everything or they mean nothing.

Today we learn how to read the Bible. 

How to learn it 

How to love it 

How to live it 

In my own faith journey, I know this about the Bible: God is always there for me. I open the Bible, read it, and something happens. Peace, comfort, challenge, hope, grace. Something happens. 

I also know I don’t regret a single moment I have spent reading God’s Word. And I know, from experience, my life makes the most sense and has the most joy when I live my life according to God’s Word. No exceptions. 

I invite you to join me in reading the Bible, investigating God’s Word, and experiencing what it means to apply and practice biblical principles in our lives: as individuals, as families, and as a church.

The best is yet to come…

Craig

WE Minute: A Few Updates

Self-Serve Week 2: Busyness and Rest Video and Discussion Guide

Sermon: Busyness and Rest

This morning's message on being busy and carving out time in your life to experience God's rest and grace.

This Morning's Run

Getting started. Running in the rain.

Benjamin and the fungus

Mid-Run stop for mulberries

Crossing the slippery bridge

Post-Run Sprite in a Bottle

Be Still

We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. –Mother Teresa

Noise is a sound that causes disturbances and disorder. Restlessness is constant motion and activity that occurs as a result of anxiety or boredom. Disturbances. We don’t like them, but for some reason we live with them. Disturbances are normal and normal isn’t working because God isn’t found in noise. Anxiety is the lonely and scary place between “now” and “then.” Boredom is the hidden enemy who slowly and steadily steals the very thing God gives.

Noise. Restlessness. Disturbances. Anxiety. Boredom. This is not God’s plan for your life. (Jeremiah 29:11) Some things can only happen in silence. Other things best happen in silence. 

The Bible doesn’t give a whole lot of details about the prayer life of Jesus, but the few details given are more than enough to make the case that connection to God doesn’t come from noise or restlessness or disturbances or anxiety or boredom, but from solitude, Sabbath, and silence. 

Jesus prayed in lonely places. (Mark 1:35) He taught the masses to find a quiet closet, shut the door, and have a conversation with God. (Matthew 6:5-6) He sent the disciples ahead of him and went to the mountain to pray. (Mark 6:45-46) Even in Gethsemane, he told Peter and the brothers to stop and go no further. So Jesus took a few more steps, fell to his face, and began his private conversation with God. (Mark 14:32-35) 

Culture is full of noise and restlessness. Both are common, expected, and ordinary. But, noise and restlessness prevent us from experiencing God and embracing each other. iPads, iPods, iPhones, fifteen versions of ESPN, Twitter, text messaging, busyness, consumerism, email, and eBay provide enough noise to make a jet engine sound like wind chime during a gentle breeze and enough restlessness to turn an exhausted pre-schooler into an insomniac. Being constantly connected to the noise and restlessness of the world ironically and sadly disconnects us from the abundant love of God and the genuine love of others. We confuse busyness with significance, entertainment with joy, and vast connectedness with vital communication. Our basic human needs of genuinely knowing God and others and authentically being known by God and others are being lost in the confusion and complexity of the world. 

God simply says through the Psalmist: Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10) Unplug. Listen. Say “no” to what isn’t working. Rest. Relate. Turn up the silence. Listen to God. Be fully present with others. Discover and embrace your true self. Be still. Be silent. Be.

WE Minute: Busyness

Self Serve Small Group Study / Devotional Guide

Sermon - Getting Past Your Past

This morning's message on getting past your past. The aim is to not linger in the past, but to learn from it and move forward.