Missional Distractions: My Appetite

February 4, 2012 in Missional Distractions with 1 Comment

Confession

I must confess… I am a starter.  You might ask… “What do you mean?”  I love to start things.  It can be projects around the house.  It might be cool new websites.  I love to innovate, in other words, make things better.  I’ll call this the “starter drive”.  For the sake of this discussion let’s talk about it as our appetite.

Why appetite?

An appetite is something that God created.  Everyone has one… everyone at some point has a drive to eat food.  It a natural function of our bodies.  So, when I think about this “starter drive” its very similar to an appetite.

I heard a sermon from Andy Stanley about appetites in which he says, “Our appetites are never finally, and fully satisfied.”  The sermon was about the story of Esau and Jacob (Genesis 25).  Check out the story is you aren’t familiar with it.  It a great example of trading away the future for the immediate. Continue Reading…

Leading My Heart

January 31, 2012 in Blog with 0 Comments

This post is the product of something God started stirring in me about a year ago.  It started when I preached a message about financial responsibility.  I had the opportunity to share about Matthew 6:19-24.  Here’s the link to a few posts about the sermon.

Anyway… I sat down to write this post about a month ago, and after about 900 words it was so cluttered I decided to start from scratch.  So as a disclaimer, there is no way to completely explain every theological angle within this post.  So, I trust that you will see my heart behind the next few statements as I attempt to process what God is doing in my heart.

For years I’ve been teaching Matthew 6:19-24… and every time I reference this passage it is always in the context of money.  Yes, that is true… Jesus does talk about money in this passage.  Yes, we have tons to learn about money from this passage. Continue Reading…

Like a Child

January 21, 2012 in Blog with 0 Comments

I am learning alot through the Bible courses I am taking and I am very thankful for all the books, lectures, professors, and resources that have helped me grasp Biblical truth and theology.  However, my heart has been finding peace in a different mindset this past week.  In the midst of all the busy ministry work and school work, God has renewed a very simple truth in my heart; that He loves children.  

There is a new CD out by a Christian artist named Matt Papa and on that CD, one tract is titled, “I Want to Be a Child Again.”  The first listen to the song brought a simple response of, “Ah, thats a good one” in my mind.  But I listened again…and again.  The message began to pierce deeply into my Spirit and I found myself just kind of thinking about the ways of children.  Children just go for things.  Life is about finding joy and laughing and playing.  They believe…they rest…they love those who love them with little question and a short memory of hurt…children have heros they wanna be like and trust those who provide for their needs.  The list could go on and if you took it further, you would find that there are many characteristics of children that are so beautiful.

Continue Reading…

The Gift of a Budget

December 31, 2011 in Missional Distractions, Money with 0 Comments

Cash MoneyDuring the most giving season of the year… it’s time to get serious about how we spend money.  The good ole Green Backs (cash) is an interesting topic.  We never talk about it, and when we do it’s often highly offensive…

I grew up in a family system that encouraged us to talk through our problems.  It was completely normal for me to talk to my parents about deep issues including how money is spent.  From what I can remember, I think our family talked about almost every dime that was spent… yes, we talked about it before it was spent.

This was a healthy model for me as I grew into adulthood.  In fact, I remember on multiple occasions my parents challenging me on the topic of money and how I was spending my money. Continue Reading…

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