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.
Sunday after I came home from a great afternoon and evening of confirmation, Middle School, and High School, my wife had the TV on the Oscars. For me I was not interested because I was ready to watch the new episode of The Walking Dead! But since I have it set on the DVR and I could easily watch it and fast forward the commercials later that night, I decided to sit through it. As I was watching, I thought about the big deal the media makes about the Red Carpet prior to all awards shows.
The BIG Question E! always ask at these events is “Who are you wearing?” followed by “Why?”
All of the big stars spend months getting the right dress, jewelry, and outfit to make a splash and to be noticed on the Red Carpet. They want to be known for what they wear and want to be leading story on the best dressed and be on all the upcoming magazine covers.
Are we seen being clothed in God’s righteous to our friends, co-workers, church friends? If not WHY?
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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