"Among the plastic saints of our times, Jesus has to do all the dying, and all we want to hear is another sermon about his dying." A.W. Tozer
A little over a week ago, we took some of our college students to a conference in Myrtle Beach. One of the elements that was incredible about the weekend was having Shane and Shane lead the worship for the event. One line in one of their songs, really hit me hard: May the vision of You be the death of me.
It has made me think a lot about the topic of vision and here’s what I’ve realized. A lot of people quote Proverbs 29:18 and talk about how people will die without vision, which I totally agree with. Without a divine spark inside of us (vision), we will all die without reaching our maximum potential in God and end up separated from him. However, when I think about what the message of the Bible, I realized that when we do have vision from God, we still die. The difference is that when we have vision from God, the death that comes brings new life. Luke 9:24 tells me that "whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."
Here’s what I’ve discovered in my life recently. Whenever I get closer to God, my vision dies and a much bigger vision comes to mind. Visions that are God sized. God’s story is not one that ends with Christ dying on a cross. That is simply the beginning of so much more. A death of us. Another birth of life.
If anyone actually reads this much anymore, stop chasing your vision. Let the vision of God be the death of you.
This has got to be the cutest family ever. Isaiah was sporting the baby tux.
Isaiah is now a little over four months old and he’s incredible. Can’t you tell?
Check out that smile
Dad’s cheesing it
A couple of weeks ago
Mercy is a spiritual gift that I do not have. Well…let me put it this way…I just don’t have mercy for stupid Christians. I really don’t. It’s amazing to me how some Christians act and I seem to have a knack for meeting some of the really crazy ones.
Last night before our youth service, as the band was rehearsing, a lady came bursting into the room flailing her arms in the air. At first I thought there must be some major problem going on, because the lady seemed to almost be in tears. We stopped playing and then I realized that I’ve seen this lady before. Long story short, for about the third time since I’ve been here, a Christian lady from the community behind our church came in and lit into me for having "loud music." I’ve been patient with her before, but last night…wow…I couldn’t take it anymore. Here’s some snippets:
Crazy lady: "People have pictures falling off the wall because of how loud the music is down here."
Me: "I think some of your community has the gift of exaggeration. My office right here has pictures on the wall that don’t seem to fall of with the loud music."
Crazy lady: "There are a couple of people in our community that need to be reached for Christ, and things like this keep them from church."
Me: "We will have 100 youth in here that need to hear about Christ. I tell you what…you reach those two and I’ll reach the 100 in here."
Crazy lady: "I go to ___ ___ Baptist Church and our youth pastor doesn’t have to use loud music to reach kids"
Me: "Well…he can continue reaching those kids. We’re gonna reach those that he is not reaching."
Crazy lady: "If you would only take it down one decibel, it would make a huge difference."
Me: "It would take a lot more than one decibel to make a difference."
Luckily, another pastor who is well gifted with mercy, came in and escorted her out. It was nuts.
Here’s the deal…whenever you are reaching people, there will always be opposition. Usually, it’s from people like this lady who really have no clue what it’s all about. Don’t waste your time with them. There are more important things in this world than dealing with idiots that claim to be Christians, yet bash you every chance they get.
On a funny note…she did bear a striking resemblance to this lady:
Well…it’s been a while. I just thought I’d put some pics up for everyone’s viewing pleasure. Here’s Isaiah at 3 1/2 months old (taken today). Tell us what ya think! We’re pretty sure he’s around 17 pounds now. Crazy!!
Ok…I know I haven’t blogged in awhile, but this week I will be back at it. I have a lot of different things on my mind so i will definitely be here. Anyways, to tide ya over, here are a few newer pics of Isaiah. He is 10 weeks old today and weighs about 14 1/2 pounds!
I have to say, the Christmas series at Granger Community Church has got my attention. It is awesome to see churches that will do whatever it takes to get the message across.
