a repost...

i read this post this morning and wanted to share it here.

You Can't Follow Jesus, A blog post by Steven Furtick

Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me?
John 13:36-38

The propelling force behind Peter’s denial wasn’t his lack of faith. Otherwise he wouldn’t have made the claims he did. It was his overestimation of his faith. He believed he was ready to die for Jesus. But he wasn’t, and Jesus knew it.

So Jesus said the unthinkable: you can’t follow me.

That doesn’t sound like Jesus. After all, this is the Jesus who had told Peter to leave his family, profession, and home to follow Him. Now Jesus is telling Peter he can’t follow Him. Sounds schizophrenic.

But it wasn’t. Jesus knew exactly what He was doing because He knew the exact measure of Peter’s faith.

Peter had initially followed Jesus.
Peter had followed Him on the water.
But he wasn’t ready to follow Jesus to the cross.

Peter wasn’t ready to follow Jesus everywhere. Not at that moment.
You’re not ready to follow Jesus everywhere either. Not at this moment.

And here’s the truth: Jesus isn’t expecting you to. While we definitely often overestimate our own faith, I think we underestimate the grace and patience of Jesus for our lack of faith even more. Jesus expects you to exercise the faith that you have, not the faith that you still have to develop.

There are places in your life where your faith is still lacking. There are moments where you still struggle. The question for you in those places and in those moments is the same as it was for Peter: will you really lay down your life for Jesus?

And the answer is no.
But that is why He laid down His life for you.

That’s what He was leaving to do when He told Peter he couldn’t follow Him.
And that’s what He’s done for you when you can’t follow Him.

Practice the measure of faith that you have. Follow Jesus where you can.
But know that His grace covers you when you can’t and He is patient with you while you are developing the faith to follow Him where you can’t go right now.

if you're in a spiritual funk... a repost

here's a blog that steven furtick of elevation church posted today called, "if you're in a spiritual funk today, you might want to..."

-Pray out loud.
-Write your prayer out.
-Read your Bible out loud. Start here.
-Apologize to someone. Even if it’s not primarily your fault.
-Talk to someone you trust. If you don’t have someone, hire a professional.
-Rest.
-Exercise.
-Start eating better.
-Drive around listening to a sermon.
-Turn up some worship music really loud. Shut the door. Sing along.
-Go back and do the thing you know you were supposed to do.
-Get organized.
-Repent.
-Encourage somebody who would never expect it.
-Get back in church. Serve somewhere.
-Quit complaining.
-Go on a date with your wife.
-Tell somebody thank you.
-Give some money away.
-Call on the name of Jesus.
-Remember how far He’s brought you.
-Realize that He’ll never ever leave you.

Just a few ideas to get you started.

You can take it from here…

hallelujah

i am a fan of the jeff buckley song, Hallelujah. here are two videos of my favorite versions of the song. one is the justin timberlake/matt morris rendition (recorded for a benefit for haiti), the other is phil wickham.

to view justin timberlake video, click here.

to view phil wickham video, click here

pomplamoose music

dude. check this out. weird name but creative music... here's a brilliant remake of a somewhat popular song.

facebook-ers... click here to see the video.

i won.

so i was perusing through twitter updates this evening and came across this one:

JesusNeedsNewPR

The 10,000th Tweet winners are: @Jessetheradical @3Hill @stephaniegates @Mattdantodd@katiebessaot (@WaterbrookPress will DM u tomorrow!)

i was quite surprised to see my name in the list. here's the contest... and all i had to do was "retweet" about it to win:

WATERBROOK PRESS NEWS

Author Matthew Paul Turner celebrates 10,000 tweets!

Help us celebrate Matthew Paul Turner’s 10,000th Tweet on Twitter and you can win!

We’re giving away advanced copies of Matthew’s new book releasing in February 2010, Hear No Evil: My Story of Innocence, Music, and the Holy Ghost and $25 iTunes gift cards to 5 winners.

To enter, simply re- tweet Matthew’s message:

RT@JesusNeedsNewPR: Help me celebrate my 10,000 tweet! Win a copy of my new book Hear No Evil & $25 in iTunes $: http://j.mp/4snIXu

'

Check out matthew paul turner's website for more information about the author and other books he's written. i read his book, churched, and it's one of my top reads for the year. i highly recommend it.

straight up...

here's a video that my friend michael did of a classic... enjoy.

financial advice from a 4 year old.

so i came across this video on this blog and i wanted to share...

Elijah Offering Video from Elevation Church on Vimeo.

pretty insightful, huh?

does God exist?

making friends w/ pain... a repost

here is a blog that i read this morning by james tealy, a friend of a friend of mine.

Pain is not the enemy. Comfort is not your friend. I wish I could remember now where I read these ideas. (Maybe some of you can identify the source.) They’ve begun to echo in my mind in recent days and I’ve decided it is time I learn to make friends with pain. It’s seems counter-intuitive and upside down. It is! In fact it is also extremely biblical.

Perhaps it was the 80’s that destroyed this truth in me. Maybe it’s the fault of the American dream. Maybe it was Spock and his “live long and prosper” nonsense or a hundred TV preachers wooing me toward my “double portion.” Sirens, every one of them.

At some point I decided that comfort was God’s will for my life and pain therefore was obviously outside of His will. In fact to be honest, I decided that God would never want me or my family or friends to experience pain so when pain has arrived, when tragedy made its surprise introduction, my heart immediately began to doubt God.

But Pain is not the enemy! Comfort is not your friend! Take a moment to open a Bible and read 1 Peter 1:3-9. (I know your inclination is to just keep reading and ignore the Bible, but come on…comfort is not your friend…go get a Bible and stretch yourself a bit). Our “new birth into a living hope” was accomplished through Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection. The path to hope was a painful one. Peter suggests that the pain we face is refining us, purifying us, shaping us.

Maybe you’re like me and have developed a very low tolerance for pain. Maybe you have little stomach for discomfort. Remember this: the power of the One Most High God is made perfect in your weakness (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). So when pain surprises you with a visit, open your door, extend your hand. Make friends with pain.

He's not finished with me yet...

with the craziness of life, it's easy to get overwhelmed. i'm so thankful that God knows what he's doing, b/c it seems that i rarely do. here's a new favorite song by brandon heath:

Brandon Heath - Wait and See from Provident Label Group on Vimeo.

if you have trouble viewing the video from here, click here.

brings a whole new meeting to the term "wedding party!"

i found this video on facebook today. i laughed hard and enjoyed it. my mom told me i'm not allowed to steal their idea. it totally brings a whole new meeting to the "wedding party!"

this ended up on facebook

this picture of me just ended up on facebook... you never know what's going to pop up.

blog readers

i've noticed that i've received some heavy reader traffic from carrollton and garland, tx. i'm curious who you are. comment and let me know. =)

things they don't teach you in seminary...

i came across this interesting blog and thought it was worthy of a repost... here is 9marks.com's list of 17 things seminary doesn't teach:

1. How to tell a man his wife just died.
2. How to tell a couple they should not get married.
3. How to tell a staff member he is fired.
4. How to tell my wife that I am depressed.
5. How to tell someone that he or she is foolish.
6. How to encourage someone who has given up on life.
7. How to plead with a man to stay with his wife.
8. How to give comfort to a woman whose husband just left her.
9. How to give comfort to a mother who just suffered a miscarriage.
10. How to navigate the IRS tax code for pastors.
11. How to chair an elders’ meeting.
12. How to organize and manage a church budget.
13. How to balance church responsibilities with family life.
14. How to do a wedding and a funeral.
15. How to administer the Lord’s Supper.
16. How to best use technology for the sake of the kingdom.
17. How to shield my kids from the pressures of being a PK.

a carrie underwood parody...

i saw this video this morning and actually LOL-ed (for those who are text-talk illiterate, that means laughed out loud) when i saw this video here. it's a pastor's wife's parody to the tune of carrie underwood song, think before he cheats.

cavities and community

here is a recent blog from one of the pastors at my church, josh patterson:

I have a good friend who just went to the dentist and has nine cavities. At one time? Nine? I asked my friend, “Do you brush with sugar?” How is this possible? I thought it had to be some kind of record. But, my friend informed me that we have another mutual friend who had 13 cavities in one visit. This was not as shocking to me because this friend is from Louisiana and, well, just the fact that there are 13 teeth in the first place is something noteworthy.

The cavity scandal generated a lot of questions for me. I began polling people to better understand this mystery, and, hopefully to find the key to cavity free teeth. Did you have your teeth sealed at the dentist? Most had. I asked if people brushed. Most do (at least once a day). Do you floss? Most don’t (count me in the “no” category). In general most people had their teeth sealed, brushed daily and flossed intermittently. Isn’t this the formula we are supposed to follow? Close. The last piece of the puzzle is a regular trip to the dentist. And, interestingly enough, an infrequent visit to the dentist was the common denominator in my lackluster research.

What does this have to do with anything? Apparently, a lot. A visit to the dentist is a preventative measure. It gives us the opportunity to catch something early. It allows us the chance to have someone else assess the situation and help. My friends who are cavity laden have waited years between a visit to the dentist (they had dental insurance the whole time). This has led me to think about the parallel to my own life. Neglecting checkups from others is costly.

If I live in isolation, never open up and let someone else check out what’s going on, then I run the risk of rotting out. I might be doing some of the “prescribed” measures, but I can’t do these alone. They are insufficient in isolation and are most effective in community. Cavities are one thing, but rotting your heart is a whole new issue. Who knew that cavities and community had some parallels?

sideshow in downtown denton

what i thought was going to be a nice low-key evening at home... turned into one of the weirdest experiences of my life. my friends susan and dale called to see if i wanted to join them for dinner. even though i had already eaten, i gladly accepted the invitation to hangout with them before they leave town for spring break tomorrow. after enjoying a meal and conversation at el guapo's mexican restaurant, we headed to downtown denton to go to a used book store. the book store was closed... but we found this guy hanging out on the square (this video is of him playing tonight, whoever posted it was on top of things! i've only been home about 20 minutes):

of course, we got sucked in and ended up watching the majority of his show. it was quite the experience... we all agreed, we'd never be the same again.

shallow by brock gill

the following is a post from brock gill's blog:

in the past decade there has been a trend in many churches. i have seen that many churches have tried to become more cool, cute, or trendy. much of this has to do with competing with the next church to keep or attract members. i have heard countless people tell me stories of how their church or the church down the road has dumbed it down to try and reach people. some call it “seeker sensitive” and others call it “being relevant”. i am afraid that our attempts to be cool or seeker friendly or whatever have backfired.(click here to read more about this)

i dont want you to hear me say that churches that remained traditional are the ones who are doing it right. i think there are many traditional churches who are guilty of the same problem but in a different way. i also dont want you to hear me say that all churches who have become progressive or modern are doing it wrong. my point is this. in our attempts to become more hip and cool we have become very shallow. the church thought that if we simplify the message and cookie cut the service and play a fun video then unchurched people will think we are cool and want to join the faith. what began for some as good intentions may actually be the absolute wrong thing to do.

here is why. young people today are dealing with real life issues. they do not want a shallow, basic, 1-2-3 sermon to make all their problems go away. they want real answers to real problems. they are far more complex than we give them credit for. they are far more hungry than we even realize. teenagers and college students are looking for the answer. they havent seen it work for their parents. they havent seen it work in our government. they havent seen it work in hollywood. and they are not finding it at church.

we are shallow and misinformed about our young people in america. are you offended that i am blasting the church? ok good. now i have your attention. do your own survey of 20 somethings in your city. most teenagers leave church when they graduate. some say 70% and some say as many as 86% of all teenagers who attend church drop out and do not return to church as soon as they graduate high school. if you survey teenagers in your own youth group today you will find that almost none of them even know basic christian doctrine. they do not even know the basics. most of them cant even tell you a biblical answer for salvation. most teenagers cannot even quote more than 3 verses from the bible. sad? very sad.

we have become so shallow and dont even realize it. we think we are having good services on sundays but the truth is, that is all they are, services. and to tell you the truth, most people are bored out of their minds. maybe its time for us to seek the face of God and quit playing church. maybe we need to rethink our entire approach.

what about you? what do you think?

now if you are a pastor and want to know how to deal with this issue i have something you might find helpful. click here.

and now to explain myself. the above post hasnt been written because i hate the church. the opposite is true. i have a tremendous burden for the thousands of young people i encounter each week across this country. i care about people. i want to see people find the answer. im just afraid that we are not giving it to them. my hope is that pastors, leaders, and believers everywhere will open their eyes to a huge problem. my goal is for you to start dialogue with people in your community. i am not picking a fight. i dont want you to pick a fight with anyone else. we just need to act.

-------------------

so what do you (readers) think about his post? i, personally... completely agree.

confessions

this is hilarious. being a worship leader and a techie... i can appreciate all sides represented here.

to view the entire video, go to: http://confessionsvideo.com/.

the credit crisis

i came across this today and thought it was worthy of a post. if you are confused by the credit crisis that we're in... this does a great job of breaking it down.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.