Godgrown

Updates from February, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Mark 10:33 am on February 28, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Seed Travelers 

  A favorite pastime: climbing a maple tree as high up as I could go, picking off a pair of helicopter seeds (also called whirly-gigs!) and let them loose.  They’d spin and glide to my heart’s delight.  Ah…the simple pleasures in life.

  It was amazing how far a helicopter seed could travel!  And they were designed for travel.

  So are you.

  If you follow Christ – you’re a traveler. You can’t say you follow Jesus and sit on your hands.  You have a seed and a wing – and you’ve been let loose!  The Spirit will blow you in places you could never imagine – and its up to you to simply do nothing…just be you. Let the DNA of Jesus do its work in the soil you land in – and in a couple of years, you won’t be able to recognize yourself – only God will get the glory!

  If you look carefully at these seeds – most of them are in pairs.  Go out with your “pair” (MICRO) in mission.  You might be able to preach the gospel with your words, but it is impossible to SHOW the gospel without a community.

  
   

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  Mark 9:12 am on January 14, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Its Not You, Its Me… 

  The prophet Isaiah, on behalf of the millions of disillusioned Jews of the 6th Century BCE asked the question – Has God lost his touch?

  9 Wake up, wake up, O Lord! Clothe yourself with strength!

  Flex your mighty right arm!

  Rouse yourself as in the days of old

  when you slew Egypt, the dragon of the Nile.

  10 Are you not the same today,

  the one who dried up the sea,

  making a path of escape through the depths

  so that your people could cross over?

  What about us?  Do we think that we are still speaking to the very same God who rescued the Israelite slaves from their oppressors?  Do we think that the God we pray to today has the same heart he had for the orphans and widows he had so many years ago?  Do we really believe that God has power to dry up oceans, to heal broken limbs and broken marriages, that God has power over death, and a clue as how to live a real life???

  If not…what God are you praying to?

  Do we really believe that “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever?” (Heb 13:8) What does that mean in a changing world – where cultures are constantly in flux, the needs of the world are always shifting, and our desires for a Savior may not be what they were 2000 years ago in Roman-ruled Palestine.

  Maybe Jesus is the same guy he’s always been…maybe its us who have changed?

  “Jesus, its not you…its me.”

  
   
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  Mark 8:30 am on November 29, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

  In that Day, You Will Say… 

  One of the best ways to practice the presence of God is to remember “5 bar moments” times in which you and God has crystal-clear reception (think, cell phones).  And to remember exactly how you felt in that intimate moment, then see if those feelings still feel true in the present, almost without fail, you can again sense God’s closeness!  This is a very helpful tool for me as I begin a time of worship; give it a try!

  But Isaiah introduces us to a new way of preparing our hearts – looking not into the past for intimate moments with the Divine, but looking into the future and expecting a day when God will be clearly present with you once again.

  1 “In that day you will say: ‘I will praise you, O LORD…’”

  This is a confident hope that things will get better, even as they get worse around you every day.  If today’s fears are too much for you to bear – and you are unable to truly center on God – put your mind on a future time when you will be able to sense his presence again.  Even in the midst of struggle, you can put your mind in a state of peace; knowing that even if God does not feel close now, his desire is to be close to you at all times.

  6 “Shout aloud and sign for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.” (emphasis mine)

  There are times when all you can do in worship is look forward to the day when you’ll have the strength to praise God again.  When times are as tough as they were in the Sixth Century BCE, all Isaiah could say to his Israelite brothers and sisters was that they were in bad days, and worse days still lay ahead of them.  But beyond all the misery, Isaiah kept his hope alive.