I wrote this post over a year ago but because of the recent earthquake on the east coast I’ve revised and reposted.
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Up until now I can say that I have had little to no interest in seismic shifting and tectonic plates but all this recent activity has got me, and many more, thinking about the fact that we are at the mercy of either the environment (which is cold, arbitrary, unfeeling, and erratic), or under a sovereign God (who is just, holy, ignored, misunderstood, and above all loving).
NASA scientists have said that the 8.8 earthquake in Chile may have changed the entire Earth’s rotation and shortened the length of days on our planet. “Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth’s axis,” NASA officials said that the effects of the Chile earthquake moved Earth’s figure axis by about 3 inches (8 cm or milliseconds).
Plate tectonics (from the Latin tectonicus – means “building”) and is derived from a scientific theory which describes the large shifts in the Earth’s Lithospere which is a theory building on the concept of continental drift (of which I know very little). The lithosphere is broken up into what are called tectonic plates and in the case of Earth, there are currently seven to eight major and many minor plates. The plate which shifted causing the latest earthquake in Chili is known as the Vazca Plate and is a part of the volcanic “Pacific Ring of Fire” being responsible for 80% to 90% of the Earth’s volcanic activity.
We see in the book of Joshua how this prophet of God asked that the Sun stand still… and it did. There are many cases of God commanding creation to do His will. Some instances were examples of Him moving on behalf of his people and some were only to display His power and ultimate authority over all things. I have no clue what all these recent environmental events mean for the earth or for us as humans but being a Christian I believe that God knows whats up with his creation and how to fix it if he pleases. In these troubled days, may it be said of us who follow after God that we looked to Jesus and put our entire self and cares upon Him.
“DISCIPLINE – Without this essential quality, all other gifts remain as dwarfs: they cannot grow. So discipline appears first on our list. Before we can conquer the world we must first conquer the self. A leader is a person who has learned to obey a discipline from without, and has then taken on a more rigorous discipline from within. Those who rebel against authority and scorn self-discipline – who shrink from the rigors and turn from the sacrifices – do not qualify to lead. Many who drop out of ministry are sufficiently gifted, but have large ares of life floating free from the Holy Spirit’s control. Lazy and disorganized people never rise to true leadership.” J. Oswald Sanders Spiritual Leadership.
Those “large ares of life floating free from the Holy Spirit’s control” are like tectonic plates in our lives. Yes the earth moves and stops at the sound of God’s voice, but unlike the earth we were created in God’s own image complete with a will to follow Him.. or after our own desires. I have, like many of you, felt plates in my own life, and in the lives of others, shift with dramatic force. If I have learned anything from this it is to surrender to God these “areas of life floating free” from the Holy Spirit’s control. Even though the size of some of our short-comings may seem to be an irreconcilable force. As Spurgeon would say, “Look to Jesus and live!”
Sources Sited: Spiritual Leadership (Sanders), Wiki, Yahoo, and Answers in Genesis. Read the full story’s here / here / and here.
Fairfield Indiana is on the Brookville Lake in Franklin County Indiana located about 40 minutes north of Cincinnati. It also happens to be where my parents live. Fairfield was a quaint little town in Southern Indiana that time forgot and has no obit as well. You see, in 1932 there was a statewide flood that demolished little towns like Fairfield. They had a town hall, a service station, a school, a hotel, park, a dump, two grocery stores (right next to one another), and a Methodist Church. If you liked a girl in Fairfield but she didn’t want you, you had to go to Laurel, because to one of their own’s admission, no one was good enough for Brookville which became the county seat after Fairfield lost it’s bidding because of some push over politicking. One local, said in a surly tone that, “We’re happy for them.”
It was a town of around 560 people in 1932 and it’s said that nothing ever good came out of Fairfield. Fairfield was in a valley and the only road in or out went through a covered bridge. After the flood 150 or so people left for good until another flood came through called World War 2. FDR started a campaign trying to get America out of the great depression pumping government money into repairing waterways and causeways encouraging everyone one on the state level to create more and better reservoirs to help townships and cities to be more self-sufficient. It didn’t look good for Fairfield seeing that the valley they were in held a natural levy that kept the town from being totally submerged under water.
The inevitable happened in 1965 when the town was flooded again which made for it to be nearly a total loss. The government decided it was time to end this issue and a buy out was offered to people for their homes. While the old people held out for a better offer it never came. A few hid out in the hills until 1970 when a some precise bombing let out the waters of the Brookville Lake burying Fairfield for good. Sounds like it would make a good movie doesn’t it? Fairfield Indiana has a dedicated few that have started a little website with “A link to Brookville, more than they would do for us.” Some locals say that the Brookville Lake should really be the Fairfield Lake.
Even though Fairfield was only a town for a little over a century it still bears a mark in the hearts of school children, farmers, sweethearts, and shop owners. We all have a “Fairfield” in our lives. Oh we try to act like it was never there but there are deep valley experiences in life that we cannot deny.
Psalm 23 says:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Two weeks ago at New Hope we asked the question if you could honestly say that “The Lord is my Shepherd”. “If we don’t have the Great Shepherd as our shepherd our lives end up with us calling the shots. Its not a good idea! We will end up saying the 23rd of Psalms our own way. That’s not good either… It will sound something like this: I am my own shepherd, I am always in need. I stumble from mall to mall and shrink to shrink, seeking relief but never finding it. I creep through the valley of death and fall apart. I fear everything from pesticides to power lines, and I’m starting to act like my mother. I go down to the weekly staff meeting and am surrounded by my enemies. I go home and even the goldfish scowls at me. I anoint my headache with extra strength Tylenol. My Jack Daniels runneth over. Surely misery and misfortune will follow me and I will live in self doubt for the rest of my lonely life. Why is it the ones who most need a shepherd resist Him so?” (From traveling Light by Max Lucado)
You can break Psalm 23 into two parts. Verses 1-3 address God in third person. ”He leads me…”, “He restores…” There’s a switch from third to second person at verse 4 and stays true through the rest of the chapter. ”Your rod and staff…”, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”
Why does this bear any significance?
Because We talk ABOUT the Shepherd in the pasture and talk TO the shepherd in the valley.
David spent a lot of his years as a shepherd. He knew that God was an experienced and competent shepherd. He knew that a good shepherd must choose, especially in rough terrain, the direct, and yet least rugged track, some straight and safe path. The word “righteousness” suggests moral and religious behavior, but some say it is a physical meaning of directness and simplicity. Like a competent shepherd, God is a model of fairness and fidelity.
In other words, we can’t take short-cuts on the paths of righteousness, but God is the Lord of the path. As long as we follow God’s leading we can be assured that He will take the best route for us. Whatever you are going through right now just be confident that your heavenly Father will never leave you or forsake you.
I’m currently reading through Calvin’s Institues of Christian Religion after some encouragement from a distant mentor of mine to delve into some Christian Classics instead of feeding only from the trough of contemporary thought. The charge was to read a classic in between each newer book so that I can be exposed to some great minds who spent a giant amount of time with God.
Calvin’s first thought of a person’s turning to faith in Christ is based on the thought that we can only understand what God is offering us through Jesus by first recognizing our utter spiritual deficit and also discovering the standard of Holiness by comparing it to ourselves.
This is from chapter one…
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He (God) being the only standard by the application of which this conviction (of our broken humanity) can be produced. For, since we are all naturally prone to hypocrisy, any empty semblance of righteousness is quite enough to satisfy us instead of righteousness itself. And since nothing appears within us or around us that is not tainted with very great impurity, so long as we keep our mind within the confines of human pollution, anything which is in some small degree less defiled delights us as if it were most pure just as an eye, to which nothing but black had been previously presented…”
One thing I often say at New Hope is ”all we have to offer is the love and grace of Jesus Christ”. With that said I’m convinced that anything else we have to offer as a church outside of that amounts to nothing in the end (Philippians 3:10). I quoted John Piper this past Sunday saying, “I am not a self-replenishing spring. My bucket leaks. My spirit does not revive on the run.” The same is true for the vision of a church. Andy says that “vision leaks” and I believe him. Fighting to keep the vision fresh in front of God’s people takes:
1) CONSISTENCY in repeating the same message so that we can all wear the same jersey and read from the same playbook.
2) CREATIVITY in finding new a fresh ways of saying the same message over and over.
3) CONSCIOUSNESS knowing that the vision we receive from the Holy Spirit is not a linear process.
While I like the idea of minimalism, reducing the church’s responsibility and character to nothing more than a few words can cause us to have sn underwhelming message. Most of us have the assumption that our simplest of sayings have great depth and can be unpacked in a 5 minute discussion with a friend at Burger King. If all we have is a simple statement that sounds good but has nothing attached to it than we need to pour over the plans God has given us instead of taking everything we heard on the podcast for wrote.
I read the news more than I watch. An app on my Droid lets me put all the blogs, websites, twitter feeds, and other news sources in an easily accessible order. I saw that this news company was hiring and read a job description they posted from the BIZ DEVELOPMENT section. Here is a section of it:
What We’re Looking For
- At least 3-5 years of business development and/or sales experience, with expertise in digital / emerging media and social media
- Impressive set of contacts in the traditional publishing, online publishing and/or advertising worlds
- Outgoing, charismatic personality: terrific at building new relationships as well as managing existing partnerships
- Ability to handle large volume of projects at the same time
- Highly organized, efficient and can prioritize in situations without a lot of direction
Details
- Work as part of the growing business development and operations team to source and close deals
- Build relationships with publishers and the advertising community
- Collaborate with third-party services to source mutually beneficial deals
- Represent Pulse at trade shows and conferences
- Share the enthusiasm and energy of working in a high-profile, fast-paced startup
How to Apply
- Download and use one of our apps on iPhone, iPad or Android. We’ll talk to you about the experience as a part of the interview process.
- Send us your resume at jobs [at] alphonsolabs [dot] com. If you have projects you are proud of, let us know.
Perks
- Free healthy lunches delivered fresh each day from the best local restaurants
- Free healthy snacks and drinks from the Pulse Kitchen
- Pulse Happy Hours celebrating each product and feature launch
- Pulse Ski Trip to Tahoe & other retreats and events!
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My point: Are we able to clearly and compellingly cast the vision like this company did in the job description above. Are we really convinced of the marching orders we’ve received or are we parroting something someone said that applies to another group of people in an area of the country or the world, for that matter, that you are not ministering in?
Are you taking time to read? I’m not talking about the paper, or Cosmo, or Sports Illustrated. Few things are as portable and free than the knowledge we gain from reading GREAT books. I’m reading a great book right now by John Piper and have been for about 6 weeks. Piper quotes C.H. Spurgeon saying, “A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than by twenty books which ave been merely skimmed.” Wesley was known to have only have had 3 books on his shelf at any given moment of which he memorized.
I took 2/3rd’s of my library to Half Priced books while living in Pittsburgh a year ago so I could sell them for a few titles I really wanted on my bookshelf. Reading great books is not only for your benefit but for your people (whomever they may be). Piper says that “Your people can tell if you’ve been walking with the giants or watching TV.
Start that book today and talk about it quickly with someone else to further internalize the material. You’ll be glad you did!
I had one of those moments today after spending some time in a book about prayer. It was a God moment and you know one when it happens.
If you’re anything like the rest of us than prayer doesn’t happen naturally. Prayer doesn’t happen because it involves intimacy. That word scares most men that I know. I thought having a forward facing camera on my phone would be cool for video chat until I thought about it.. I really don’t want to look at someone in a phone conversation.
A word I would like to use as a replacment for intimacy is brotherhood. Most men don’t want an “intimate” relationship with other men as much they do a brotherhood or fellowship.
Having a relationship with God must not be reduced from intamacy to an arm punching band of dudes.. but taking the masculinity away from God doesn’t help either.
I always would hear people say that you are lucky in life to have one close friend. I believe it because I know a lot of people but the number of people that I allow myself to get close to gets smaller every passing year.
With that said the term brotherhood means a great deal. Football teams have it. Marines have it. But seldom do we have it with our heavenly Father. I read a verse that seems to bear a great deal of weight in reference to this.
The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 3:10 “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
The more we suffer for Christ, the more we experience real brotherhood. God invites us into a deeper sense of knowing Him by realizing and embracing the rhythm of dilemma and deliverance and seeing His hand in the entire ordeal.
Choosing that over a life of ease forfeits a spiritual blessing of knowing a brotherhood that you can’t experience anywhere else. Successful teams use the same playbook and tend to repeat one another frequently. Be willing to choose that.. you’re closer to it than you think.
Capitol One is famous for the saying “What’s in your wallet?” The commercials are funny and lighthearted, and they make having a credit card from them exciting because you get to add a picture onto the front of the card. I’ll admit that I have a card from Capitol One that I don’t carry a balance on, but I have made purchases on it and have for the last few years. An email I received today from them told me to “reward my wallet with more money” by getting a second card from them. Shameless.Most card companies want you to take as much credit as you can, and they make it easy on you with a 0% interest rate for the first 6 months.
If you have ever gotten snagged into the trap of having a significant amount of debt, along with a ridiculous interest rate, then you know that having another card with a lower rate seems reasonable… until that card goes up to 15-25% like it always does. The average American has $8,000 in credit card debt, aside from school and car loans, and a mortgage. Most of us, at one point, have paid off a credit card with another credit card.
Recently, I have been challenged by my reading of a book by John Piper called Brothers, We are not Professionals. One thing Piper warns against in Chapter 5 is called the “Debtor’s Ethic”. 1 Corinthians 3:13 is quoted saying, “If I give all I have, and I give my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” Another text is quoted in 1 Corinthians 4:5 which says the Lord “will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.” Based on this, Piper says that , “We must not be content with just doing good things. We must labor to see that good things are done with God-exalting motives, lest we find in the end that our sacrifices were for nothing. The debtor’s ethic has a deadly appeal to immature Christians. It comes packaged as a gratitude ethic and says things like: “God has done so much for you. Now what will you do for Him? He gave His life for you. Now how much will you give to Him?” The Christian life is pictured as an effort to pay the debt back that we owe to God. The admission is made that we will never fully pay it off, but the debtor’s ethic demands that we work at it. Good deeds and religious acts are the installment payments we make on the unending debt we owe God.
I feel that this is something we need to remind ourselves often because of the shaping that happens to our theology as a result of credit cards, school loans, our justice system, and everyday relationships we have that are based on a “What have you done for me lately?” culture. God has a total commitment to His glory, and He will NEVER share it with anyone. Your faith is even a gift from God. We are expected to work for God but not in a way that pays God back for the incredible gift He has given us. Piper says that “Good deeds do not pay back grace. They borrow more grace.“
It’s as if we borrow against another credit card to pay off a credit card.
I sit here thinking of someone close to me that never answers my phone calls. I have been asking God what I should do, because my heart tells me to stop calling. The way I feel is not modeling the grace I’ve received from my heavenly Father. Piper goes on to say that “The difference between Uncle Sam and Jesus is that Uncle Sam won’t enlist you in his service unless you are healthy, and Jesus won’t enlist you unless you’re sick. ”Christianity is fundamentally convalescence. Patients do not serve their physicians. They trust them for good prescriptions.” Until you understand this, don’t serve God.
This is a Mothers’ Day posting. I’m writing without apology and with appreciation for the time and undying love that I have been a recipient of from my own mother and as an witness of in the life and work of my sweet wife as she mothers our four children.
As a pastor it’s very hard on Mother’s Day not to get too sentimental about motherhood because:
- for some, motherhood is an accident, and not always a welcome one;
- for some, biological motherhood isn’t possible;
- for some, mothers weren’t all that nice;
- for some, motherhood under the very best of circumstances is still less than a bed of roses.
I have to agree with George Bernard Shaw when he says, ”Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family. But here again, because there is nothing to sell, there is a very general disposition to regard a mother’s work as no work at all, and to take it as a matter of course that she should not be paid for it.”
To go a bit further in the words of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, ”By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class.”
Why bother with Mothers’ Day at all? I’ll tell you why — It’s because Mothers are in constant demand for love and caring. For all its stumbling blocks, pitfalls and broken dreams, for all the soiled diapers, rides to lessons, school, and the mall, broken heirlooms, misunderstandings, and spoiled plans, Motherhood is an innovative part of God’s plan to bring love and caring to light. It is a shadow, but a very true picture of God’s love for us.
Here are a few ways to honor Mom this week.
1. Call & Send her a Card (duh!)
2. Dress up and go with her to church on Sunday. If you can’t because you don’t live close to her or she is now passed, dress nice anyway to show her respect.
3. Take her out to Dinner.
4. Wear a red carnation (Mother’s Day tradition)
5. If you are mad at her, or holding a grudge for something – forgive her once and for all. It will give you both a brand new start.
If you do nothing else, thank God for your mother. The first command with a promise in Scripture was to honor her and your father so that you can live a long and fulfilled life. I leave you with this quote: “A Mother’s love is like being warmed by the sun from both sides at once. Author Unknown
Mom, if you’re reading this I want you to know that I love you. Thank you for not getting to mad when I broke the owl cookie jar!! It went to a good cause of me getting back into the house through the kitchen window when it was locked so I could get my mousse!
Your buddy,
Timothy
- This weekend we experienced God moving in our community like we had never experienced at New Hope with Easter and the Egg Drop.
- We asked for 45 helpers and had 73 show up to help at our Egg Drop.
- Our helicopter technician cancelled on us within 12 hours of the event but we were able to find his replacement literally in the 11th hour to come up from Cincinnati.
- The weather man called for 90% chance of thunderstorms and we had not one drop of rain.
- We anticipated 1500 people coming to the event and we hosted almost 3400.
- Easter service was great today with many first time visitors, 3 salvations, and a record attendance of 208!
- We’ve seen 48 people receive Christ since last year this time.
- I would have never imagined that we would have seen this type of growth so far when we came a year ago last week.
- Excited for Chris Lewis and family to come to New Hope in May. They will truly be a blessing to New Hope.
- Anticipating great things from emerging leaders at New Hope being trained right now to lead ministries, Bible studies, and coordinating environments.
- Never worried about money issues but we have three strong supporters coming off of our personal support this month. Praying for God’s leading in securing more financial partners.
- Our systems need tweaking. They have served us well up until now but need strengthening if we are to really lay out a support network for newcomers.
- So incredibly thankful for my wife. She has given me and our family incredible support and deserves a whole lot more thanks and appreciation than what I’ve given her.
