Acts 9:1-31

I'm contemplating Acts 9 for this weeks sermon (Saul's conversion) and I have two interesting thoughts.

First, it's interesting what happens when someone encounters Jesus.  Saul thinks he is honoring God but in reality is persecuting Him (Acts 9:5).  After he encounters Jesus he does an immediate turn around.  The same passion that he had originally now gets refocused by Jesus and is used the way that God intended it.  What happens to us when we meet Jesus?  I don't think we are surprised when the rough edges are sanded off of us or we loose our bad habits but are we willing to allow Jesus to completely transform our lives.  For Paul, Jesus wasn't just an upgrade, it was a complete revision (from Saul 1.0 to Paul 2.0).  His entire identity got changed. Who he was, what he did - everything.  Shouldn't we expect the same when we encounter Jesus - the idea that everything that we thought we were Jesus might just revise.

Another observation is how the church responded to Saul.  Ananias is not overly happy about it (Acts 9:13-14).  The apostles are hesitant (Acts 9:26).  It is so easy for us to preach about changed lives but sometimes we have a hard time accepting them.  I don't believe that Saul was on anyone's "target list" for potential converts.  He was the enemy who not only hated the church, but he did everything in his power to destroy it - even to the point murder.  Yet Jesus had plans for him (isn't that just like Jesus!).

Sometimes I think we look at people and predetermine who is "saveable" and who is not.  We are selective on who actually hears the gospel.  And when they come to the church some people are given a pass and others are put under higher scrutiny.  This has been a stumbling block for the church for centuries.  Recently, a good friend of mine was explaining to me where the terms "soul food" and "soul music" came from.  It seems that at one time, the church believed that those of African decent did not have souls (thus the justification for slavery).  The use of the word "soul" in the African American culture was to counter the belief that they were soulless.

How many people do we believe are soulless?  Who is beyond Jesus?  We all know the answer is no one but how do our actions answer this question?  Who are the Sauls, Samaritans, Barbarians or Slaves of our day?  Who can't you ever imagine coming to Jesus?

I'm pretty sure Jesus can imagine them coming to Him.  Perhaps we should ask Him how we can help.

Happy Birthday

Emily turned eighteen yesterday.  Like every birthday since the kids were little, I took her out for breakfast.  It has become a tradition with all the kids (and Cindy) that dad takes them to breakfast on their birthday morning.  They plan, sometime weeks in advance, for where we are going to go.  When they were little we went to McDonald's.  Then one of the local dinners.  Now Emily is growing up - she wanted a good breakfast so we went to Egg Haven - a classy (and expensive) joint.

The realization of having an eighteen year old is starting to hit home.  Breakfast conversations when they were little were always tricky.  Talking sports, or friends, or plans for the day.  The silly smirks from the kids because there were with dad without their siblings being there with them.  But this time it was different.  We talked about school, friends and relationships.  By early next year, she will probably be moving away from home and heading to school.  The plans she made last winter / spring now have to be reconsidered (dance and soccer.)  She is learning to juggle much and beginning to figure out what she wants in life.  In some ways, she seems ahead of her friends in her thinking.  And that really doesn't surprise me.

Cindy was eighteen (and a half!) when I met her (I just turned nineteen).  In truth, that reality is what it hitting me the hardest.  I felt so old and mature when I met Cindy.  I knew what I wanted, I knew where I wanted to go, and I knew that I wanted Cindy to come with me.  I was in a relationship with someone else when I met this red-headed girl on the steps of the Scalabrini Retreat Center in Stone Park, IL in the fall of 1987.  There was a group of us waiting to get in.  We were going to be leaders in an upcoming TEC retreat and we were waiting of the guy with the keys to show up so that we could have our first meeting.  My friends Dave and Gabe were there - and we were trying to be cool in an uncool, nonconformist kinda way.  But there was something about this girl...I could not get my eyes off of her.  She was wearing a dark jacket, kinda surplus looking.  And she had short red hair, kinda new wave-ish.  And her eyes, I kept looking at her eyes.  There was something about her - I thought I knew her from somewhere, but where?  I just couldn't get my eyes off of her...

That's the bit that is hitting me the hardest with Emily.  She is at that age now. 

We went to Six Flags yesterday for her birthday.  As we were leaving for the park, we passed a house in our neighborhood where a man who appeared to be in his mid twenty's was sitting on the front porch.  He was sitting very compactly, hands in in his lap, legs pressed together, stooped down, looking intensely at an object he was holding in the palms of his hands.  Over the top of his hands I could see a tiny head.  There seemed to be a sense of joy and wonder in the man's face as he starred into this little ones face.  I'm pretty sure he did not notice us drive by, but I noticed him.  Eighteen years ago that was me.  Emily was so tiny that she could fit in the palm of my hand.  I remember the first time that I held her, sitting in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Rockford Memorial Hospital, staring at the tiny life.  I was twenty-four.  It had been five and a half years since that night on the steps of the retreat center.  And here was this tiny life.  I thought I had it all planed out.  I thought I knew what I wanted and where I wanted to go.  And now there was this tiny life in the palm of my hands.  And at that point I realized how little I actually knew.

Emily came too early and had to stay at the hospital so the Doctors showed compassion to Cindy and extended her stay so that she could be with the baby.  They didn't show me the same compassion - I had to go home.  Because Emily came so early, she had to go to a specialized hospital about forty minutes from our home.  The drive home was excruciating.  I remember feeling joyful and terrified at the same time.  Joyful that everyone was fine.  Terrified that Emily was so tiny and sick.  Joyful at being a new dad.  Terrified at being a new father.  I wasn't a block away from the hospital when I broke down in the car and cried.  I remember pleading with God - asking for Him to give Emily health.  I remember pleading with Him for help because I didn't know what I was doing.  I felt so grown up at nineteen, but now I felt so young at twenty-four.  Life is funny that way.

We were leaving the water park portion of Six Flags yesterday when I was joking with Emily about what Cindy and I were going to do once we got old.  I told her that we were going to move away and that she could take the church over and pastor it.  She looked at me and said no way!  She knew what she wanted to do and what she felt God was calling her to and it wasn't that!  We laughed but deep down inside I realized that my little girl was growing up.  She knows what she wants and she knows where she wants to go.  She is like her dad in that way.  The reality of that is still hitting home...

It's Saturday!

Looking to be a crazy day today.  My sermon is done but I haven't started my Grow Questions yet.  One of these days I'm going to figure out how do to these quicker!  We still need to get the bulletin done and it looks like I may be leading worship tomorrow - Cindy's voice has not healed fully yet and James is out of town tomorrow (have mercy one me!) so I need to put a set together.  After that, Cindy needs to get prepared for a wedding that she is doing tomorrow (printing out her book, preparing the certificate).  We also want to get hair-cuts sometime today, run up to Rockford for the wedding rehearsal (I may need to be her backup if her voice fails), drop off the sound equipment with someone for setup tonight, stop by Cody's graduation party and, oh yeah, we have a Fire game tonight.  Just another nice quiet Saturday!

For all you Cubs fans out there, here is an interesting article from John Armstrong regarding Wrigley Field.  I know that you will read this and just say it's another Cubbie Hater (and then you will say I am one too for posting the article) but I can't really disagree with him.  I know that there is some kind of nostalgia about the place, but it let's be real - the parking stinks, the sight lines stink (especially if you are behind a post), the bathrooms still stink, and the place feels cramped.  Oh, and as a neutral (and I really do believe that I am a neutral), I have never gone to a game at Wrigley and have had a good conversation with someone there about baseball.  I've done this at other parks across the nation (Milwaukee, Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit and US. Cellular - plus numerous other Minor League parks) but never in Wrigley (I've been there more times then I can count).  Instead it always seems hostile if you are not a Cubs fan (even to neutrals).  I just don't get it.

My wife and oldest son are Cub's fans, so I go for them (and I keep my mouth shut for them).  I actually ignore the cross town classic to keep peace in the house.  But if you were to ask me where I would love to see a baseball game - it would not be Wrigley (to be honest, out of all the ball parks I have been to, I really liked Turner Field).

Now back to our previously scheduled Saturday already in progress......

LinkedIn

Spent last night messing around with my LinkedIn account.  I think I was an early adapter for this .   I opened my account in January of 2007 and quickly forgot about it (I tend to sign up for a bunch of new stuff and then forget about them. I had a twitter account for years before I actually used it).  Back then there were only a handful of people who I knew that used it (I think I was turned on to it by Jordon Cooper).  Recently, I have been getting a lot of connection requests (which I were simply ignoring).   Last night I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

Amazingly, I now have a bunch of friends on LinkedIn - I was shocked.  I actually think I'm beginning to like it - although I'm still trying to figure it out.  If your reading this and are on LinkedIn, look me up.

Acts 3

I've been studding Acts 3 for this Sunday's sermon and some interesting thoughts keep coming up.  This is the story of the blind beggar at the temple gate and it's interesting how this story progresses.  Peter and John are going to the temple like they usually do - there was nothing special on this day.  This is what they always did (this is what many in their society did as well.)  Day in, day out - same ole same ole.  Yet God seems to have different plans and takes them on a wild ride.  First the beggar gets healed, then Peter preaches, then they get arrested and another 2000 come to the church. 

Here is the interesting part for me: this is completely unplanned by Peter and John.  I wonder what their plans were for the day.  Perhaps temple, then some dinner.  Just a quiet evening....but God seemed to have other plans.  This really got me thinking.  Would we be willing to do something like this?  Would we be willing to allow God to disturb our quiet evening?  

I think we find a comfort in planning (I know I do).  There is safety there.  We like to make sure that all of our t's are crossed and out i's are dotted.  And while there is nothing wrong in planning, do we unintentionally plan God out of the equation? 

Thoughts?

It's time...

...to re-engage.
...to re-activate.
...to do.
...to stop procrastinating.
...to wake up.
...to turn this thing back on.

I think it's time to start writing again.

St. Arbucks

Interesting article by Bob Hyatt at Out of Ur this morning.  But truth be told - I like the graphic the best.

Morning Reading...

Woke up this morning to a pair of great articles on different topics.

First, Dan Edelen at Cerulean Sanctum asks the question: "Does anyone still care about the Great Commission".  In the midst of his article he says this:

How is it that we can get whipped into a frenzy about aiding the poor, stopping same sex marriage, putting more conservatives into the halls of American power, and a million other causes, but the simple act of helping lead a lost soul to Christ is something we have neither time nor energy for?
Let’s be honest here. The Great Commission no longer compels us. The proof is right before our eyes, but we don’t want to see it.

Link

 I've been thinking about this stuff for the past couple of years.  We seem to have more passion for doing what Pat Robinson tells us to do then what Jesus tells us to do.

The other comes from Tim Challies at Challies Dot Com and is a review of Leonard Sax's book "Boys Adrift".

He narrows in on five factors: changes in educational models; video games; medications for ADHD; endocrine disruptors; and a lack of good role models. Schools, he says, have begun to focus on academics at too early an age, leaving boys hating education from their earliest days. Programs that focus more on fun and less on academics up to age seven or eight would reap educational dividends. Important also is the distinction between learning as merely collecting facts and learning as experience. Regarding video games he believes that boys today are dedicating far too much time to this form of entertainment. As boys play these games they gain false perceptions of power and inadvertently remove themselves from reality until eventually they prefer the world of video games over the real world. ADHD is vastly over-diagnosed and huge numbers of boys are given medications they simply do not need. These medications have been proven to change the way boys develop and do far more than simply calm down hyperactive children. Endocrine disruptors, and especially artificial estrogens found in plastic bottles and other similar products, are delaying boys’ development (while accelerating girls’ development) and contributing to many associated problems. And finally, boys are suffering from a distinct lack of good and manly role models, both in their homes and in their communities. Each of these five areas receives a chapter-length treatment and in each case the arguments are convincing. Yet the book does not end with only this list of problems, but with the author’s attempts to suggest solutions.

Link
Interesting stuff

The elephant in the room.

I saw this last week on another blog (sorry, I don't remember who) and I figured now would be a good time to post it here (since my readership should be at an all time low.)  Disclaimer - this is supposed to be satire.  There is a real gem if you can make it to the end.  Colbert leaves us with a difficult truth - perhaps a truth that we have been wanting to ignore for too long.

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Welcome 2011

Happy New Year!  May God bless you in this upcoming year!