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Introduction: How many of you enjoy a game of Hide and Seek?   Do you enjoy hiding or seeking more?   Throughout Scripture, we see the idea of hide and seek.   So because it is the Hide N Seek program today, I plan to share a few Scriptures to remind us of our HNS Theme Verses: Keep me as the apple of your eye; HIDE me in the shadow of your wings, (Psalm 17:8) & 33  But SEEK first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33) Hide-- Throughout Scripture, God Hides Us ·          When was the first mention of hiding in the Bible?   In the garden, after Adam and Eve sinned. Despite their sin, God found them and shared the gospel for the first time (Genesis 3:15-he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel) ·          All of us are tempted to hide when we sin.   But God through Jesus has made a way ...

Each year, my Christmas list includes lots of books.  So, at the start of each year, I like to share the new books that I received.  Here is one of my new books for 2019:

For the rest of 2018, I will be sharing books I recommend because they are some of my favorites.  New Book Friday will resume in January. Enjoy!

Here are some of my favorite tweets from the last few weeks.  This is one of the blessings of social media where we can hear the gospel from people all over the world. If you like the tweet, go and follow the person on Twitter. “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” - Colossians 3:3 @jaredcwilson Multiplication is not a strategy, it is a posture. Multiplication comes naturally when you are in the right posture. Multiplication is about making much of Jesus.  (Andy Owen) #hesstonmb When it comes to knowing God and Jesus Christ, there is no such thing as a spectator sport. We are not justified to sit; we are justified to run. That’s why He gives us his Spirit to keep us running the race. He also gives us each other, (Jack Miller) The religious relate to worship like it earns favour because they have no use for grace. The rebellious relate to worship as optional, because they have yet to understand grace. The repentant relate to worship like oxyge...

The Magnificent Journey Early Christians called themselves people on the way. Journey-a good metaphor of the Christian life It is to be magnificent, epic. You can live in the available kingdom now not just in heaven. Robert Frost-The Road Not Taken-Metaphor as an act of surrender I am going to surrender the kingdom of Jim for the kingdom of God. Matthew 6:33-Seek ye first the kingdom-center of Sermon on the Mount Matthew 7:13-14-Jesus is telling the truth, there is something about the human person who does not like to surrender We live in a world whose values are very different.  They are telling us to stay in control. The key to the Christian journey, wrote Dallas is the “surrender of a lesser, dying self for a greater eternal one.” Put simply, the yes of surrender is greater than the no of self-denial. What is gained is far greater than what is lost. Two Prayers of Surrender Wesley’s Covenant Prayer St. Ignatius of Loyola “Suscipe” Pra...

Today, I am headed to Wichita to attended The Apprentice Gathering at Friends University.  I have wanted to attend this conference for several years.  I first heard about the conference when we were using the book Good and Beautiful God by James Bryan Smith for a Sunday School class.  James Bryan Smith is a professor at Friends and will be one of the speakers.  I look forward to these few days as we focus on the theme-Journey: Living Deep in the Kingdom. Check back over the next few days for quotes from speakers.

For the next five Fridays, I will be sharing books that I am recommending for my God is....Sermon Series.  Each of these helps us learn more about who God is.

Christmas has come and gone.  So, every year after Christmas I share new books that I received as gifts.  I love to read and appreciate the gift of books.  So, here is today's New Book Friday:

Today's Favorite Book(s) Friday is a trilogy of books by James Bryan Smith.  I have enjoyed all three books especially the focus on the false narratives many Christians have and looking to the Jesus narrative.  Smith is a professor at Friends University in Wichita, KS and founder of the Apprentice Institute.

This is a new feature on the blog.  Usually on Mondays, I get caught up on my favorite podcasts.  This usually results in a lot of tweeting on that day.  However, if you are at work and not checking Twitter during that time, you might miss some of the great truth being shared by others.  So, I am sharing some of best tweets from the previous week which include great wisdom and truth. We want the Lamb to be beheld, so we must hold him up high and long. We proclaim not helpful hints but eternal visions. @jaredcwilson  The empty tomb is the "Amen" of the Father to the "It is Finished" of His Son. @pauldunk  the way to engage the will, the path to a willing spirit, is not effort but prayer. @mockingbirdnyc  As soon as juice ran down Adam's chin, the Snake said, "You're finished!" As soon as juice ran down Jesus' chin, He cried, "It is finished!" @benjimagness  the Christian story reveals a God who sacrifices for His creation out...

This is a new feature on the blog.  Usually on Mondays, I get caught up on my favorite podcasts.  This usually results in a lot of tweeting on that day.  However, if you are at work and not checking Twitter during that time, you might miss some of the great truth being shared by others.  So, I am sharing some of best tweets from the previous week which include great wisdom and truth. The same act of faith that constantly looks to Christ alone for justification looks to Christ alone for sanctification and glorification. @MichaelHorton_  The important thing is the presence of faith in Christ not the intensity or degree of faith. @whitehorseinn #Abraham  Dead religion invites you to burdensome obedience. It's all riding on you. The gospel invites us into freedom & loving obedience. @pauldunk Read God's Word. Underline heavily everything about what our Savior has done for us. You need this... (Bo Giertz) No matter what we face, we face it wi...

Let's be honest.  Bible memorization is hard.  Kids do it so easily, but as adults we struggle.  It is so encouraging when that verse comes to mind on that rough day.  Or you have a verse to share with a friend as you meet for coffee or lunch? Bible memorization is a good thing.  What matters most is the motivation.  Are we doing it to prove we are better Christians than someone else? Are we doing it to make God love us more?  Or are we doing it out of gratitude and joy for what God has DONE for us? As a pastoral staff, we are memorizing Colossians 3:1-17 because we want to go deeper in our relationship with Christ.  So, I thought I would share these amazing verses as it might just help me memorize a few more words. 3 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3  For you died, a...

Below are the books I am currently reading.  How about you?  What books are you reading right now?  

In the adult Go Deeper class I teach, we will be going through Good and Beautiful Community by James Bryan Smith in the next month.  It is book 3 of the Apprentice series.  The first two books look at who God is and how we live.  Book 3 focuses on us as the body of Christ. Below are some quotes from the introduction: When we move into this area, it is easy to lose the main focus (the heart) and put all of the emphasis on the wrong thing (the activity itself). Living faith is trust and confidence in God expressed in acts of love in our human relations and encounters with one another. Personal piety without social action can also become self-righteous and insensitive and lead to burnout. The problems are, ironically, identical. Both tend to see their actions (service or prayer) as they way to earn the favor of God and humans...And both lead to burnout because they are not empowered by the Spirit, only by the flesh. We are prone, he said, to put the emphasis on the a...

I finished reading through the devotion, Hidden in Christ by James Bryan Smith yesterday.  I loved it!  I would recommend it to all of you.  It is a great reminder of who God is and who we are in Christ.  It is based on Colossians 3:1-17.  It has 30 entries based on words from this passage.  One of my favorite parts of the 30 entries is the affirmation at the end. Here is the affirmation at the end of the book based on praying "in Jesus' name." "I am privileged to act, to pray, to minister and to do all that I do in Jesus' name. I do not act alone; I operate with the power and presence of Jesus in all that I do." May we all love others today in the power and presence of Jesus!

I am about halfway through Hidden in Christ by James Bryan Smith.  I thought I would share a few qutoes from the last few chapters I have read. Making the adjustment from the ways of the world to the ways of the kingdom is hard. But guilt is a poor motivator. Being an apprentice of Jesus is not about rules and laws, it is about identity and place.  The Christian life is not an if-then obligation ("If I do this, then God will do that.") It is a because-therefore opportunity ("Because I am one in whom Christ dwells, therefore I will . . .") The better way to encourage change is to remind people who they are now in contrast to who they once were. God gave us mouths and tongues to comfort and encourage one another.

Are you still reading?  I hope so.  There is so much false, inaccurate, or partial information regarding the wrath of God.  How do you view the wrath of God?  James Bryan Smith in Hidden in Christ offers a helpful explanation of this topic.  Here are several quotes from his devotional: "We have two phrases difficult to reconcile: the love of God and the wrath of God. Unless we find a way to understand how both can be true of God, we end up with a Jekyll and Hyde kind of God. . .And yet I do not believe that God's wrath is the same as human anger. We get angry when we don't get our way, and we scowl and stew and sometimes take it out on someone or something. That is not the kind of anger that God expresses." "God set up an order, a good order, and if we rebel from that order, we suffer. That is what the wrath of God is. Wrath is not God's disposition toward us; wrath is God's arrangement regarding sin." "God is for us--that is why he hates...

I am continuing my reading of Hidden in Christ by James Bryan Smith.  He will be at Faith and Life Bookstore in Newton, KS on October 12 from 1-2 p.m. signing Hidden in Christ. Here are thoughts from his devotion on desires: Desires expand when we give them a place in our lives that they do not deserve. Many of our sins are the result of disordered natural desires. Desire becomes sin when it moves from being something we enjoy to something we seek as our main desire. But when God is not the center of what we do, then we must fill that void with something, and when we do, we find that the desire is insatiable. As we express our longing for God, God meets us, and our heart finds what it is looking for. All of our other desires are consequently transformed. They are seen for what they are (things to be enjoyed), not invested in for what they are not (things to find our ultimate meaning in). Desires are not bad. It is only when we try to fill a void that ...

Today, I am sharing some quotes on the topic of grace that I included in my Sunday School class on Sunday.  Enjoy meditating on these thoughts from various authors! Jesus (Luke 15) is striking at the heart of the problem we have with grace: we don’t like it. It seems unfair, but in reality it is perfectly fair. God is gracious to all. It smacks against our performance-based-acceptance narrative. (James Bryan Smith in Good and Beautiful God) Real life is long on law and short on grace—the demands never stop, the failures pile up, and fear sets in. Life requires many things from us—a stable marriage, successful children, a certain quality of life. Anyone living inside the guilt, anxiety, and uncertainty of daily life knows that the weight of life is heavy. We are all in need of some relief. Bestselling author Tullian Tchividjian is convinced our exhausted world needs a fresh encounter with God's inexhaustible grace—His one-way love. Sadly, however, Chris...

As part of my prayer time yesterday I sang the above hymn as suggested by James Bryan Smith in Hidden in Christ. He writes the following: I also enjoy singing (to myself) that beautiful hymn by Francis Havergal, "Take My Life and Let It Be." I sing it slowly and reflect on the lyrics: take my moments. . .take my lips. . .take my voice. . .take my feet. Set your mind on these truths. I suspect you will see sin a whole new light, not as something you ought to try to stop but as something you would never want to do in light of who you are. He continues with an affirmation and prayer that I think are important for you to be reminded of today. AFFIRMATION  I am sacred and special, a holy vessel, a temple of Jesus. Sin has no power over me, and it can only harm me. Therefore, I have no interest in it. PRAYER Gracious Abba, I need your help to see myself as you see me. I forget who I am and find myself drawn to sin. But in your eyes it is beneath my dignity. Help me to s...