So, You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore by Jake Colsen

This is probably the book that has impacted me the most so far this year. The book is "So, You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore" by Jake Colsen (Wayne Jacobsen/Dave Coleman). Here are some important points directly from the book:

I’m not talking about what you’re doing. Are you filled with the love of Jesus like you were the first day you believed in him?

It’s about life-God’s real life filling your own. He moves in so that you will no longer entertain any doubts about his reality. It is freedom. It is joy and peace no matter what happens. This is the kind of life that he came to share with everyone who will give up trying to control their own lives and embrace his agenda.

Just be real with Father and resist the urges to crawl back into your shell and silently endure lifelessness. Ask him to forgive you for substituting anything for the power of his love and invite him to show you how your diligent efforts at good works for him may be obscuring his love for you. Let God do the rest. He will draw you to himself.

We’re not changed by the promises we make to God, but by the promises he makes to us. When we make commitments that we can live up to only for a brief period, our guilt multiplies when we fail. Upset that God doesn’t do more to help us, we usually end up medicating our guilt with something like drugs, alcohol, food, shopping or anything else that dulls the pain or it creeps out of us through anger or lust.

We sin to fill up broken places, to try to fight for what we think is best for us, or by reacting to our guilt and shame. Once you discover how much he loves you, all that changes. As you grow in trusting him, you will find yourself increasingly free from sin.

Don’t use our conversations to try to change others. Until they are looking for the same things you are, people will not understand.

Real body life isn’t built on accountability. It’s built on love. We’re to encourage each other in the journey without trying to conform people to the standard we think they need.

When you can trust his love in each moment, you’ll really know how to live free. Just keep coming to him and watch what he will do. He’s the Father who knows you better than you know yourself and even loves you more than you love yourself. Ask him to help you see how much he loves you. That will make all the difference.

Simply let God connect you with those brothers and sisters he wants you to walk with for now. Think less about ‘starting’ something than just learning to share your life in God with others on a similar journey.

When we’re looking to the future, we’re not listening to Father. Anything we do to try and guarantee stability on our own terms will actually rob us of the freedom to simply follow him today. We’ll resort to our own wisdom instead of following his. The greatest freedom God can give you is to trust his ability to take care of you each day.

Instead of trying to build a house church, learn to love each other and share each other’s journey. Who is he asking you to walk alongside right now and how can you encourage them?

No church model will produce God’s life in you. It works the other way around. Our life in God, shared together, expresses itself as the church.

The freedom to be honest and the freedom to struggle are key to a real friendship.
Honestly, there’s not one thing you can do to make him love you any more today; and there’s not one thing you can do to make him love you any less either. He just loves you.

Simple Church

What Is Simple Church? from Expectation Media on Vimeo.

Beer and Baptism

When we baptize new believers we have taken Neil Cole’s advice which is, “baptize people as soon as possible and as publicly as possible.” In short, we throw a party. Not for the already-churched, but for the families and friends of the person being baptized.

Read the rest HERE

Another Week in Xenia Ohio

Some thoughts from this week as I read more in my One Year Bible:

• From Deuteronomy 10, what does God require of his people? Fear Him, Walk in His ways, Love Him, and to serve Him

• Hear the Word and put it into practice (Luke 8:21)

• The Lord is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and soul (Deuteronomy 13:3)

• In Luke 9:1 Jesus specifically gave the twelve disciples power and authority to drive out demons and cure diseases

• Why did Jesus often tell people to not tell anyone who he was? (Luke 9)

• A man is praised according to his wisdom (Proverbs 12:8)

• In Luke 9 we see the disciples arguing which of them was the greatest. Jesus told them that the least is really the greatest.

• He who works the land will have abundant food, he who chases fantasies lacks judgement (Proverbs 12:11)

Other activities of the week included:

• Having a $60 million dollar contract awarded to Northrop Grumman at work on Tuesday (no fooling...April 1st...agh...)

• House church at Tim Horton’s Wednesday evening (where we started our “the price has been paid” campaign)

• Getting basement plans and permit applications on Thursday for finishing the basement in our house

• Watching the grass come alive and turn green for another mowing season!

Taxes Are Done!

This past Monday was a holiday for me (President’s Day) so I worked a few hours on my Federal and State taxes and got them e-filed. I’ll be getting small refunds from our friendly Federal and State governments. In April I’ll pay about half of the refunds back to the city of Xenia and the Xenia school district. Oh well, easy come, easy go!

Wednesday evening our family participated in house church and had a good discussion around James 1.

Thursday my 16-year old son interviewed with Walgreen’s and came away with a new part time job. Next week he’ll be starting there as a service clerk a couple of days each week. Ah, the hurdles of growing up!

My time in Scripture this week produced the following thoughts:

• Jesus was baptized, called some disciples, began teaching and healing, went to a solitary place to pray, which are all good examples for us (Mark 1)
• Folly is undisciplined and without knowledge (Proverbs 9:13)
• Jesus was associated with sinners…they were/are the ones who need him. Jesus was angry and distressed about people with stubborn hearts (Mark 2)
• Laziness makes poor, diligence brings wealth (Proverbs 10:4)
• In Mark 4 we read the story of the farmer sowing seed, some seed the birds ate, some seed fell on rocky soil, some seed grew among thorns and eventually were choked out, and some seed landed in good soil and produced a harvest
• Some people are seeing but not perceiving, some people are hearing but not understanding (Mark 4:12)
• Leviticus is just so full of rules and regulations; thank God we’re not under that system!
• People were amazed at the wisdom of Jesus; he was amazed at their lack of faith (Mark 6)
• You rebuke and discipline men for their sin; you consume their wealth like a moth – each man is but a breath (Ps 39:11)
  

How are you progressing on your 2007 taxes?

Finishing Well

From now on I plan to post less words but post more often since I’ve learned how blogging is supposed to work :-)

This week I finished the books of Matthew and Exodus and started into the books of Mark and Leviticus for my Scripture reading:

• God chooses, fills with skill, ability and knowledge (Exodus 31)
• I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. (Psalm 32:8)
• All who are skilled are to contribute (Exodus 35) and the Lord is the one who gives skill and ability (Exodus 36)
• The most important event in all of history – Jesus died on a cross (Matthew 27) and rose from the dead! (Matthew 28)
• Make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to obey (Matthew 28)
• The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10)

Tuesday was a snow day for me. It started with an authorized delay due to the bad weather. My wife had a patient she needed to see so she went to work for a few hours. By the time she returned home I had decided it wouldn’t be worth going to the office. What a life!

House church Wednesday evening was at Tim Horton’s here in Xenia. We had planned to meet and then visit a brother and sister briefly for communion and prayer. Since they didn’t feel up to it, we just stayed at Tim Horton's. Our time of discussion was about the command to love one another and what that looks like. Most of the love languages came up (i.e. time, words, etc) along with "meeting a specific need" and "taking initiative to contact".

Friday evening our family finished watching the video series “Strategies for Success: Blueprint for Achievement” by Zig Ziglar. This final lesson was focused on setting goals in all areas of life and maintaining a balanced life.

My notes from reading lesson 4 in Og Mandino’s University of Success this week:

• The will to fail is disguised as purposeless activity or routine
• What are you best equipped to do?
• What is your personal contribution to the world?
• The intention to fail is filling life so full of secondary activity that there is no time left to perform your best work

Hope, Direction, and Encouragement

Welcome to the month of February…already! Here are some of the things that were memorable from this past week.

Last Sunday our family had brunch together, as is our custom, along with a time of discussion, planning and calendar review. This time has become more and more important as the kids mature and are involved in their own individual activities.

On Monday evening President Bush gave his final State of the Union address. Although I didn’t see very much of it, I was prompted to ask the question “What’s the state of my life?” That’s probably a good question for all of us to ask one month into a New Year. So, what’s the state of your life?

Tuesday morning, my 16 year old son passed another College Level Examination Program (CLEP) test and now has a total of 21 college credits. Did I mention how proud of him I am?

At house church Wednesday evening, the guys group had some good discussion on 1 John 2 about loving your brother and what that looks like in our lives. We also discussed gratitude, spiritual struggles, and solitude.

After dinner Friday evening our family watched the fourth lesson in the video series “Strategies for Success: Blueprint for Achievement” by Zig Ziglar. This fourth lesson taught more about the things that people really want. As a reader of this blog, if you send me an email (you can use the email link at the VIEW MY COMPLETE PROFILE page), I’ll send you the list of 10 things people really want. A key thought that caught my attention this week is that people need 1) hope, 2) direction, and 3) encouragement.

Here are the things that stood out to me this week as I read Scripture:

• Consider the end of your life when you will groan and say “How I hated discipline”, “How I spurned correction”, “I would not obey or listen” (Proverbs 5)
• Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven? (answer found in Matthew 18)
• People need to be encouraged and set free (Exodus 6:9)
• Even though I might do a lot of good things, that’s not enough. I either have to be perfect (didn’t happen) or I have to accept Jesus payment in my place (Matthew 19)
• The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it (Psalm 24:1)
• Whoever wants to be great must serve, just as Jesus came to serve (Matthew 20)
• Questions, Parables, and Old Testament quotes were methods Jesus used to communicate (Matthew 21)

Bonus thoughts from my reading of Lesson 2 of Og Mandino’s University of Success:

• Success is an inside job.
• Do you think of yourself as a success?
• Is your life full of purpose or aimlessness?
• Do you accept your batting average or do you have unrealistic high expectations?
• Do you realize there is a price to pay for success and that it (success) is not free?
• Joy balances effort!
• Do you experience satisfaction or enjoyment that comes from having the right attitude?
• Regarding spirituality, do you have a relationship with God?

So, in summary, what’s the state of your life? Do you have hope? Do you have direction? Who/what are the sources of encouragement for you?