Have you been Erocked today?
Passion: The degree of difficulty one will endure to reach the goal or the degree of difficulty one will endure for the object of your passion.
Lust/Desire: The fleshly desire for something or someone that is centered on self and self gratification.
Differences between lust and passion
Lust Passion
Centered around self Centered around others
Leads to sin Leads to satisfaction
Short Term Long Term
Emotion or feeling based Principle or vision based
How is your relationship with God?
In my previous post I talked about how last year spiritually I got knocked down and for a good portion of it I was in fog. I can look back now and see that I was living an unhealthy life in many ways. I gained a bunch of weight that I had worked so hard the fall before to shed by eating junk, getting away from my daily workout routine and really not caring. I was also not being healthy spiritually. I put on a show to others and stopped reading the Bible and became very distant from God. As I described in my post, I let several things get to me and I just didn’t know to care. I was on cruise control.
My entire life was on cruise control. I went to and from the church office in a daily cruise. I took my daughter too and from school. I had a routine that kept me buys and kept me from seeing how far in the dumps I was. I would wake up, shower, get her ready, say goodbye to my wife, drop my daughter off at child care, come to the office, check email, check Facebook, do what I had to do for church (get things ready for Sunday and Wednesday), stop about five o’clock and go pick up my daughter, pick up fast food, eat dinner, say goodbye to my wife as she went to work, play games with my daughter, put her to bed, watch tv, play on the computer, go to bed and repeat the cycle. This happened from April 2012 until October 2012. And then I started getting awake call from God.
God said enough was enough…and I finally listened. I had to make some changes. The biggest was putting Him back in the center of my life. You would think working in the church for all these years, preaching and teaching on these I would know better. But being in the day to day activity of the church, my christian walk became just part of my job. I had forgotten my love for God. I had let busy work take over my relationship and ministry. I was just BLAH!
The last few months have been amazing to see God in my life again. I’m working to put myself out of the way again and let God move. During the next few days I am going to share some things.
This song at Passion this year really has been my prayer for 2013. Take a listen!
Chris Tomlin – Awake My Soul Lyrics (feat. Lecrae)
Chris Tomlin:
Breathe on me, breath of God, breathe on me
Breathe on me, breath of God, breathe on me
I come alive, I’m alive when you breathe on me
I come alive, I’m alive when you breathe on me
Chorus:
Awake, awake, awake my soul,
God resurrect these bones
From death to life, for you alone
Awake my soul
Speak to me, word of God, speak to me
Speak to me, word of God, speak to me
I come alive, I’m alive when you speak to me
I come alive, I’m alive when you speak to me
Chorus:
Awake, awake, awake my soul,
God resurrect these bones
From death to life, for you alone
Awake my soul
Lecrae:
Then He said to me,
“Prophesy to these bones and say to them,
Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!
This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones,
I will make breath into you,
And you will come to life.”
So I prophesied as I was commanded.
As I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound,
And the bones came together, bone to bone.
And I looked, and tendons and the flesh appeared on them,
And skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Then He said to me,
Prophesy to the breath,
Prophesy, son of man, and say to it,
Come from four winds, oh breath, and breathe.
Chorus:
Awake, awake, awake my soul,
God resurrect these bones
From death to life, for you alone
Awake my soul
Awake, awake, awake my soul,
God resurrect these bones
From death to life, for you alone
Awake my soul
Lecrae:
Yeah, I’m not alone, I realize
I breathe out, I come alive
Your word gives life to my dry bones
Your breath tells death it can ride on
Awake me, make me a living stone,
A testament to your throne, I
I’m nothing without you, I’m on my own
The only one who satisfies my soul
For the last several months, I have been rather quiet on my blog with a few random blogs here and there after being a almost daily blogger for some time. Part of it has been ego, there other is hard to explain. Over the next week I’m will be returning to the world of blogging and explain where I have been and what went right and wrong in my personal walk with God as well as how it impacted many areas of personal ministry including this blog.
For the past few months I have stayed silent in many ways. And the main reason is because a good part of last year I was in a spiritual rut. Really not sure when it started. Multiple things helped start it looking back now and instead of grasping hold of God I ran from Him instead. During the past two months, I have sat down to write this and start blogging again, but every time I never felt that I was ready.
I think most of that came from not being back mentally and spiritually. 2012 beat me up in many ways.
Not recognizing the joys in life
I was more concerned that when we finally sold our house in Charlotte on how we were going to pay for the new house here. When God was providing I did not acknowledge Him. Everything lined up in the end, we had more than enough money to close on our new house and move. But I was so far in a rut it was tough.
When our son was born in November, things started to change. A week off and away from work. Being with family. Seeing a healthy son. Having time to slow down. Seeing the abundance of love from friends, church members, new neighbors, and social media. Being Still and finally talking to God again. November and December were a great time of spiritual renewal in my life. And January 1-4 at Passion 2013, God threw gas onto the flame that had started to burn again.
It is really hard being in a spiritual rut no matter what career choice you have. But it is even tougher to see it and get out of it when you are in ministry. And even harder when you a strong-willed and have trouble reaching out to ask for help.
I’m in the process of getting a few guys locally to meet regularly to keep this from happening to any of us in ministry.
This morning a friend posted an article on the University of Tennessee’s Head Football Coach Derek Dooley. As I read it the last two paragraphs made me think about how the fishbowl of college football coaches is very similar to Church staff.
I know that’s no excuse to keep a coach on staff, but at that moment, I realized something that I’d forgotten. I’d forgotten that every word I write, whether Dooley reads it or not, affects someone. It might be his wife, his family, his parents or his players. I realized that Dooley hasn’t broken any regulations. He hasn’t given the university a bad name or spoken unprofessionally about anyone involved in the program. He’s committed no crime.
Fans would do well to remember the positives as well as the negatives and post facts, not just opinions. Tennessee fans might want to reconsider their hate for a man who has pulled their team through adversity, who came (along with his family) when Lane Kiffin left and who won’t leave unless he’s pushed out.
Too often in ministry I have seen staff members judged by their last failed program, idea, Bible Study, event, and even sermon series. There are “seasons” in church staff lives that they go through tough times, yet do not share it with laity. There are “seasons” of down numbers and down programs. Instead of providing help for the staff, laity talk behind their back, leave the church, do not offer to step up and help. They treat them just like alumni and fans do to coaches. They see them as expendable and look for the next greatest thing instead of supporting them and joining them along side in ministry. They forget they have families they often hear the gossip and negativity. They forget about the small things they could do instead of complaining on Facebook, at Circles, at public events. They want more, but do not help. I’ve seen many great church staff leave ministry because of this. They get criticized, work their tail off, are not fed because of teaching multiple things, they aren’t asked how they are doing spiritually by laity, and are thrown out beaten up from working in the church. I’ve seen others that go from church to church, moving their families over and over and every church they go to ends in the same hot seat due to churches not taking care of their staff.
The latest losing streak for a coach that is labeled on the hot seat is no different than a ministry staff member who has a tough time finding volunteers to help, or gives a bad sermon series. They are human and sometimes need time to build their team and make changes. Laity see the present instead of the groundwork that has been laid for the future of the programs.
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