daddy4ms

Below you will find a book review for Saving the Saved by Bryan Loritts.  I received a free advance electronic copy of the book for an honest review.  This book releases today.  As the title suggests, this book is about moving from trying harder and performance in the Christian life into living from who God says we are.  The book is comprised of 3 parts: What Goodness Isn't, Authentic Goodness and Living In and Reflecting God's Performance-Free Love based on the gospel of Matthew. Loritts does an excellent job of presenting the reason this book is needed through examples from Scripture, his own life and the church. It reminds us that our relationship with Christ is not based on our performance for Him or what he calls "meritocracy".  Instead, Bryan helps us refocus on Christ and what it means to abide or be in relationship with Him. I would recommend this book for anyone especially those who are striving to earn God's love or who question their i...

Yeah, me too.  All of us fall into the hypocrite category because we say one thing and do another. Scott Sauls has an excellent chapter in Jesus Outside the Lines on this topic.  Here are some of my favorite quotes from the chapter: It reminds me that God's relentless grip on me, not my relentless grip on God, keeps me in his love. Shouldn't we evaluate Jesus on his own merits rather than the flaws of his followers? There is something incredibly attractive and inviting about people who stop pointing fingers and posing and pretending to be totally good and totally right, and instead start taking themselves less seriously and openly and freely admit that they are not yet what they should be. The Bible helps us see how: it is the loveliness of Jesus, and only the loveliness of Jesus, that can make hypocrites lovely. Humbled by our own hypocrisy and drawn to how the loveliness of Jesus can transform us, we must preoccupy ourselves less with trying to be l...

This is the final post on my thoughts from Sabbatical.  I have already posted on rest and relationships that occurred during these 3 months.  Today I would like to share reflections from Sabbatical.  Here they are in no particular order: God is good and I am loved .  The words of a new song capture this thought, "You're a good good Father. It's who you are. It's who you are. It's who you are.  And I am loved by you. It's who I am. It's who I am. It's who I am. You're perfect in all of your ways." I Am His-Identity- For many people, what we do defines us.  For pastors, this can especially be true.  So, how would my identity be affected by not going "to work" for 3 months.  Early during my time off, I heard God whisper, "I Am His."  This helped me remind myself throughout these last few months that my identity in Christ is so important. Abiding/Fruit Bearing/Good Works -I am combining all of these because they are related....

On Monday, June 1st, I had the opportunity to talk with Josh Allen, Executive Pastor and Brian Haynes, Lead Pastor of Bay Area First Baptist Church in Houston, Texas.  Many of you might be familiar with Brian Haynes as he is the author of The Legacy Path. We give out this book to parents during our parent/child dedication at Hesston MB Church. I was interested in how the milestones are being implemented in Haynes' new church. In addition, I had questions about curriculum and how milestones strategy affects children's ministry. Here are thoughts from my two conversations: Vision drives specific ministries.  I know this, but it was repeated by both Josh and Brian. Everything they do in children, youth or adult ministry is determined by their vision which is "Bay Area exists to glorify God by making disciples , equipping families , and serving the world  with the Gospel of Jesus Christ." Brian shared that is important to recognize "how" w...

While I was traveling to Exponential conference, I finished Gospel by J.D. Greear.  I highly recommend this book to everyone.  J.D. (who I happen to love his name as a fellow initialer) does a great job explaining how the gospel impacts all we do.  Today, I am going to share some introductory quotes.  In a few days, I will share his Gospel Prayer.  Enjoy these quotes! I want you to see the gospel not only as the means by which you get into heaven, but as the driving force behind every single moment of your life. The goal of the gospel is to produce a type of people consumed with passion for God and love for others. but read fruit comes only from one place: abiding in Jesus. . .In the same way, spiritual fruit isn't made by focusing on the commands of spiritual growth. . .but true spiritual fruit comes from getting swept up in intimate, loving encounters with Jesus Christ. His love is the soil in which all of the fruits of the Sprit grow. . ....

It is interesting that when troubles come in our lives, we tend to focus on them.  If your bank account is at zero (and ours has been many times over the years), we can become obsessed with lack of money and stress over it.  Or you can fill in your problem.  However, God has challenged us to look to Him rather than focus on our problems, worries, or stresses.  I hope this quote from Dutch Sheets will encourage you today: "Unfortunately, rather than spending our energy on abiding, we get sidetracked by the dilemma we're facing. A molehill easily becomes a mountain when stared at for too long. So it is with your soul's crisis. Staring at the problem, obsessing over it, yelling at or pleading with it . . .no amount of focus on the problem removes it. Don't major in the problem; focus on the solution." So, today choose to focus on Jesus rather than the problem.

As I mentioned yesterday, I finished Becoming Who You Are by Dutch Sheets.  One statement has caused me to reflect a lot on how we teach and disciple.  The statement was: "Because all truth comes to  you in seed form." I started to think about how we expect our children or other believers to hear a truth and then immediately see the fruit of it in their lives.  I realized this did not happen in my life.  Yet I can expect it  in others and can become impatient when it does not.  This pointed me to the parable of the soils found in Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8. Sheets goes on to explain what he means by this quote: "It became what I call the "seed principle." The concept of a seed indicates a process of growth until fruition. Suddenly I knew I couldn't expect freedom while short-circuiting the process. In the same way, you can't presume to gain freedom in problem areas of your life if you haven't abided in God's logos regarding those area...

As I mentioned yesterday, I am sharing two quotes from Dutch Sheets book, Becoming Who You Are. Because they are longer, I wanted to give you a day to process them.  Here he shares the similarities to chewing gum and discipleship. "What in the world does chewing gum have to do with discipleship and abiding? Don't burst my bubble--work with me, okay? When we listen to our pastor or someone else preach on the Word, we're taking in the rhema (spoken words). As we wake up each morning and spend time studying the Bible, we're consuming the graphe (written words). But the longer we spend chewing--thinking, rehashing--on God's truth, in my brother's terms, the "tastier" it gets. The more we chew, the more rhema and graphe become logos --the message in the words, the understanding--and this transforms the soul."

This is the title of Chapter 13 of Dutch Sheets book, Becoming Who You Are . He talks about the importance of discipleship.  Sounds like another book I am reading called DiscipleShift. He had two great paragraphs that I am going to share-one today and one tomorrow. Think about how these quotes influence our discipleship. "Tragically, the church's majority misses out on this call to commitment. Rather than pledge to a lifelong quest of soul renovation that comes from a deep relationship with Jesus, we coast as mere acquaintances of His who happen to be "converted." We are believers, yet we're not disciples. In fact, many of us approach our faith the same way we approached high school, as a necessary requirement, something we endure to get to heaven, rather than investing in it and experiencing fulfillment."

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Currently, Pastor Brad & I are reading through, "The Legacy Path" by Brian Haynes.  I have written a review of the book here . As I mentioned in that review, Chapter 2 is worth the price of the book in my opinion.  In it, Haynes takes us to John 15 to learn more about what it means to abide.  Before reading his words, he encourages us to go to John 15 and read & study this passage.  I have included it here for your convenience from the ESV:   1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears m...