…unless you want to really take a hard look at yourself.

I just finished reading “Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God” by Francis Chan.  I’ve heard very good things about this book for quite a while and it’s been sitting on my shelf for a few months but I hadn’t read it until this past week. I think partly because I was scared of what it would do to me.

This is a challenging book that will really make you take a look at your life, at your faith and at your relationships.  Francis doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to looking at things like what a lukewarm christian looks like today (as referenced in Revelation 3:16).  He challenges you to take a look at your priorities – where are you spending your time and your money.  He makes us think about whether we are giving our best to God – our first fruits…or whether we are just giving him our leftovers.  He talks about how the God of the universe – the Creator of everything WANTS to have a relationship with you…wants you to pursue Him, to spend time with Him. He offers HOPE to us that while we can never become perfect in this life and that we will make mistakes and fall short that God has given us his GRACE so that we can have a relationship with him.

I could go on and on but the bottom line is that I think it’s really a great book and I would strongly recommend you take the time to pick it up.  It will get you thinking and looking at things with a Kingdom viewpoint.  I know it’s got me thinking about a lot of things in my own life.

If you’ve already read it I’d love to hear your thoughts – leave me a comment and share how it’s affected you.

Well, our vacation is over and it’s time to get back our “normal” life.  Over the last week we had an amazing time together as a family.  We spent a lot of time having fun on and in the water – learned that our youngest is the best (or luckiest) fisher of the group – had an amazing hike in the Smokey Mountains to Abram’s Falls in Cade’s Cove and saw some beautiful scenery and enjoyed each others company.

I was able to get a little bit of reading done this week and feel somewhat relaxed.  I’ve got a few more blog posts to come in the next day or so but I though I’d just let the pictures do the talking for tonight.  Check out Beth’s latest blog for some of her thoughts right here.

Enjoy.

As I mentioned a few days ago, my family has been down in Florida enjoying the sun and sand in Fort Myers for the last week.  I finally got to join them on Friday.  In two days we’ve seen the waters of the Gulf Coast, the waters of the pool at the house we were staying at and then today we trekked across Florida to head to the east coast and spend some time riding the waves at the beach in Jacksonville.   Tomorrow we will hit the beach one last time and then head up to Tennessee to visit Beth’s mom and dad where there will be more water as they live on the shore of beautiful Tellico Lake.

Here are a few pictures from the last few days.  Oh, and please don’t adjust your screen – the red on my shoulders is real…I got a little bit too much sun the first day!

For the last week and a half I have had a quiet house as Beth and the kids have been down in Florida enjoying the beautiful gulf coast.  While some may think, “Cool, you’re ‘bach-ing’ it” — it can get lonely.  I’m used to traveling and being away from them…but this is the first time I’ve been left alone in the house for this long.  The truth is…I miss them…a lot.

Fortunately, I will be boarding a plane this evening to head down and join them.  While I won’t land until midnight and won’t see the kids until the morning I do get to see my amazing wife tonight and I couldn’t be happier.

We’re spending tomorrow in Fort Myers and enjoying the sun and the sand at the Gulf of Mexico and then on Saturday we’re heading across the peninsula to Jacksonville Beach so we can spend a day riding the waves of the Atlantic.  The competition will be ON between Taylor and I as to who can ride the waves the farthest.

On Sunday we will be heading up to Tennessee to spend the week with Beth’s mom and dad on the shores of Lake Tellico (the picture in my header was taken from their backyard).  It will be a week of hiking the Smokies, jet-skis, tubing, boating, fishing and just relaxing.  I hope to get some reading done this week as my pile of books keeps getting bigger and bigger.  I may even get a blog post or two in!

Most of all though, I’m just looking forward to spending time with the most important people in the world to me – my wife and kids.

Another good day of worship today.  We blended the worship a bit with Seth and I doing the prelude and the special music and Sandy doing the hymns on the organ.  This isn’t the first time that we’ve blended the worship – however, this is the first time that we’ve used electric guitars and a drum loop.

The day started out with a couple of announcements about two of the new ministries that we are starting up this fall – a Women’s Connexion’s programs and a Small Group Connexions program.  We are passing out surveys for people to fill out so that we can ensure that as we continue to plan for the fall we try to do our best to meet the needs of the congregation in both of these areas.  It is truly a blessing to see the way that God is beginning to work in this body of Christ.

For the prelude we did Fee’s “All Because of Jesus”.  Seth and I were both on electric for this one with me playing rhythm and Seth add the “flavor”  I used my Fender G-DEC 30  to add in a basic double-kick drum loop.  It worked pretty well with the exception of me forgetting to drop out at one point – it didn’t affect the song, it just didn’t allow it to grow like I wanted it to.

We then did two hymns on the organ, “Blessed Assurance” and “Nothing But the Blood” – both great powerful songs.

Chuck preached on Ephesians 1:3-14 (NIV).  The scripture reminds us that we are chosen by god and that it is in Christ that we are chosen, in him that we are redeemed.  So, based on that scripture and where Chuck took the message I felt it was only appropriate to do Big Daddy Weave’s “In Christ”.  This went really well – I was on the acoustic for this one and Seth added the electric in – no loops.

The service closed with “Victory in Jesus” on the organ.

All in all things went really well.  I received some positive feedback about the music we provided which was encouraging.  We didn’t have many of the “younger” crowd in the congregation this week so I was a little concerned.  The one thing that I love about this family is that while that type of music may now be their favorite they are not negative about it.  In all the time that I’ve been there the only negative comment I’ve received was that my guitar was too loud one time and overpowered the vocals (and he was absolutely right).  This congregation knows that in order to reach more people with the Gospel we have to do new things and so they support everything that we are doing.

This post is also a part of the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival at FredMcKinnon.Com – check it out for other worship leader’s reflections.

I just got done listening to a really powerful sermon by Pete Wilson of Crosspoint Church in Nashville (and there is a GREAT story at 21:24 that I can SO relate to).  The message was from the Sunday after Easter and is called “Waiting on Hope”.  It talks about Saturday (between Good Friday and Easter Sunday) and you can listen to it (and their others) by downloading the podcast for free from iTunes.  Click HERE for this message.

One of the things that Pete said that really struck me hard, was that “True hope develops not only when you accept God’s Power but when you accept God’s timing”.

“God’s timing”

How many times do we pray for something, dream something, hope something and expect it to just happen?  We believe it will happen because we believe in God – we just don’t want to wait.

I’ve been on a journey over the last few years with regards to following God’s call on my life.  It hasn’t always been easy.  I know where I want to be, but I don’t want to wait on His timing.  A good friend of mine shared with me that as he was praying for some discernment on something he was given the word “patience” by God.

I am confident that God’s plan for my life is bigger and better than any plan I could come up with for my life.

I am confident that He can do whatever He wants in me and through me.

I am confident that everything I’ve gone through and am going through is preparing me for what it is that He has planned.

I just don’t want to wait.

But I know I have to.

How about You?

I know it’s been a while since I’ve blogged – and I promise I’ll get back to it this week.  In the meantime check this out.

Apparently Shaq twittered that he wants to challenge this guy to a game of H-O-R-S-E!!  I say bring it!  Ever since that tweet this guy has become an internet sensation.  You can read more about him and the challenge in this article.  No matter what happens though – you’ve got to admit that these shots are AMAZING!!

Thanks to Vitamin Z for bringing this to my attention.