Congratulations.

I want to congratulate Nik Baumgart and his family on becoming the new Senior Pastor of Marysville First Assembly, the church in which I grew up spiritually. The church has had some difficult times lately and I pray that under his leadership, things can turn around. There is and always will be a special place in my heart for that church.

Amazing Grace

I watched the movie Amazing Grace the other night. It was a bit slow, but the story was great. If you haven't heard of it, it is the story of a man named Wilberforce who was a member of Parliament (but not Funkadelic) in Britain in the late 1700's early 1800's. He had a passion to see the slave trade abolished in the British empire. Year after year, he would introduce a bill calling for the abolition of slavery, and every year, he would be laughed out of the building. After years of struggle, he finally realized his dream, slavery was abolished.
The movie made me think about my own life and whether or not I have the same passion to see people freed from their spiritual chains as Wilberforce had to see people freed from their iron ones. I should, but sadly, I don't. I should hate their chains with a righteous anger. I should be consumed with the idea that people every day are being sold into spiritual bondage and equally consumed with the fact that I know who can redeem them, but to be quite honest, it doesn't keep me up at night.
I don't always understand my apathy. I do, however, understand that the more self-centered and self-focused I am, the less I care about other people. That is not the kind of person I want to be, nor is it the kind of person God has made me to be. Nevertheless, this is where I find myself today; needing to be shaken.

Do you have a passion that keeps you up at night?

Fortune

We had a Pastor's night out tonight. We all met at The Rock pizza place in Covington and then we headed up to Cutter's Point for some coffee. When we showed up, there was some live music going on and it was a guy from Zambia named Fortune. Dude was phenomenal! You will hear that name again believe you me.
It is awesome to be a part of a team like this one. I have never felt more appreciated.

Done with the Herb

I finished my herbal cleanse yesterday. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was essentially a 10 day whole foods diet with a few supplements. I feel pretty good. I started eating healthier and exercising every day about a month ago and then started the cleanse. All together I have lost 11 lbs in the last 4 1/2 weeks. The danger is now that I'm done with the cleanse, I could start bad eating habits again. I am going to celebrate being finished today with a feast and then back to healthy again.
I have a weight loss goal of 20lbs and I am more than half way there.

He

He just wouldn't accept that they were right and he was wrong. He wouldn't conform to the popular opinion that that was just the way things were, and they hated him for that. "His mind doesn't work right." they said. "He's dangerous." Despite their best efforts to keep him quiet and subdue him, he would not bow. He had this confidence that no matter what happened, he was not alone. They hated him for that too. Playing on the fears of rejection, they convinced the populace that he was not one of them and in typical mob fashion, he was killed, but in the midst of the violence, something amazing happened. In an act of selflessness never before seen or since equaled, he asked that they be forgiven. Suddenly it was evident that greater forces were at work. There was a sense that somehow his death had made a difference. The fact that he died alone seemed to cement the idea that we didn't have to be alone. Their rejection of him meant that we would never have to live without the security of acceptance and the knowledge that we are loved beyond our ability to comprehend.
He did that.

Puzzling Behavior

Just got back from the gym. I kind of had to because I wanted to watch Monday Night Football and my wife wanted to watch John and Kate Plus blah blah blah and there are TVs at the gym. I pretty much ruled the crap out of the elliptical machine. Anyway, it always puzzles me when people get on the treadmill and put the incline level up and then hang on to the front of the treadmill and lean back essentially negating the excersizacle benefits of the incline. That's right, I said excersizacle. Write it down.

Another Great Sunday

I got home from church today and after a little lunch, headed to the gym because I didn't have to lead a service. Did 68 minutes on the elliptical machine, 1008 calories burned. So I got home today and I was thinking about the day; What a great church! I really feel like we are gaining momentum with our worship in the area of participation. We began a series on missions and today we had three church planters come and tell their stories and we blessed them. Sometime during the third service it became clear to me that we are a church that isn't simply trying to survive but we are the kind of church that really wants other churches to succeed. We aren't the kind of church that plays the jealousy game, but the kind that is outwardly focused. The fact that we are committed to missions the week after our own groundbreaking ceremony shouts volumes. I love my church. There has been a great feeling in the place the last 3 or 4 weeks and attendance has been up like crazy.
One student brought a friend today who had never been in church before. That's exciting by itself but his mother told me that the guest was impressed with the music. Man, that gets me going. There is sort of an expectation that music in the church is sub-par. I would like to see that change, and we are making progress.
One funny story: Right before the third service, one of the musicians, who shall remain nameless, said "Hey you haven't broken a string in a while." And another nameless musician said "Yeah, you're due." I said "What are you doing!? Quit jinxing me." So we went out and during the first song, guess what happened? Yep, broken string.