CASE IN POINT…TODAY!!!

We are usually anywhere from 4-6 weeks ahead in our writing. But let me give you a snapshot of what that really means…Here we GO!!!

• 6 weeks in advance everyone gets a writing assignment.

• 3 weeks out your rough draft manuscript is due…it is at this point that we as a team strip it apart and bleed red ink all over it to make it better. You cannot come with your feelings attached to it. You have to know that the team makes you and your message better.

• 2 weeks out you come back with version number two. Again we bleed, cut, and add new material. At this point it almost becomes therapeutic to cut the fat away.

• The week of the message you come with the final draft. At this point that baby is ready to be born. We have labored and toiled over it and now it is time to see that bad boy come into the world. This is where we see the payoff of all the hard work we have put into what God has instilled in us

So back to yesterday. We start a new series on Sunday called “Worldview.” We are going to be starting with Judaism and we have LABORED…I mean LABORED over this one. We started with a 32 page manuscript…cut it down to 17…cut it down to 13…and after yesterdays weed wack fest we have it down to 9 1/2 pages. For an hour and a half yesterday we cut almost three pages and 2500 words. After this whole process, lots of input, a monstrosity of cutting, and praying that what we have is what God wants his people to hear, we will preach this message with all our heart this weekend.

To hear the finished product of what God is doing in us as a team join me this weekend at Compass Roanoke at one of our two services…

9am or 10:30am at our new location in the NEW Roanoke Elementary School. If you cannot be with us go to the media section of our website and start this series with us there.

Here is to life.love.and creativity!!!

A few months ago I read Donald Miller’s book “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.” Very rarely do I read 200 hundred plus page books in one sitting, but this was one of those rare moments. Every page I turned was full of highlighting and underlining. I wrote things in the margins. I was transformed by the words and thoughts that Mr. Miller had brought to life for me. It provoked thought about my story. The entire book was about just that. It was continually asking,

“What kind of story are you living?”

I got to the end of the book and that question lingered in me for days, maybe even weeks. But I did what I normally do with a book that I am finished with. I closed it, glanced one last time at the cover and then put it on the shelf with the countless other books I have finished. This book that was so impacting on me was now just a distant memory. The thought of living a better story was just that…a thought. And now that very thought was fleeting. That was until a week ago. I had a friend sit down and share with me a vision that he had about bringing peoples true stories to the forefront within the church. Not the kind of stories that we try to fool people into believing that we are living, but the story that we are actually living. In essence he was saying that it is not until we get honest with the story we are actually living, that we can live out the story we were meant to be living. As I listened to him share this I was jarred back into the reality of that question that rocked me months ago.

What kind of story am I living right now?

I immediately directed him to Mr. Miller’s book. He admittedly told me that he was not a veracious reader by any stretch, and I told him he would not be able to put it down. I was right and three days later he was done reading it and had found the same challenge I had found. So with all that said, I picked it back up and am currently re-reading it. I am again confronted with the question mentioned above. The difference this time is that I am not satisfied to just ask and wrestle with the question. I am not content with letting the question linger on a shelf and no further. My desire is that I would actually live a better story. That the chapters and the content would have lasting meaning and impact on my wife, my kids, my ministry, and the Kingdom of God that I serve. Not only do I long for a better story, but God longs for us to have a better story. In fact he created us for a better story. So today as you read this and wrestle with your story ask yourself this…

WHAT KIND OF STORY AM I LIVING RIGHT NOW?

Now lets conversate…

“IF THE POINT OF LIFE IS THE SAME AS THE POINT OF A STORY, THE POINT OF LIFE IS CHARACTER TRANSFORMATION.”

-Donald Miller in A Million Miles in a Thousand Years-

This week I am at staff retreat with the greatest team ever assembled. Our lead pastor Drew Sherman shared what I would consider some of the greatest and most impactful leadership thoughts I have ever heard. Here are the notes that I took today and if you want more please contact me. I promise you will not be disappointed.

LEADERSHIPTHOUGHTS

Last week my friend Blaine had the opportunity to speak at the ECHO Conference here in Dallas.

Unfortunately I was not able to attend, but he made his notes available online. One of the quotes that struck me was the one above. I have not been able to get it out of my mind.

So here is my question….

Do you believe the above statement? Why or why not?

YOU CAN GET THE NOTES HERE

For the life of me I cannot remember where I found this image last week, but in its simplicity it speaks volumes of truth to me.

Do me a favor.

Look over this image…

Process what you are reading…

and then,

Ask yourself the question…

ARE YOU HAPPY?

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK? ARE YOU HAPPY AND IF NOT WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE?

Do you find yourself saying things like, “I wish there were more hours in the day.” Or “Life is good but really busy.” Or ” I would love to spend more time with my spouse, my kids, my family, my friends, or God, but…there is not enough time.” Maybe it is time to slow down.

What do you need to do this week to slow down and invest in what truly matters?

However…all three of these things show up right next to each other in scripture. Right now some of your just shook your head and condemned me for saying that such things might be in scripture. Don’t believe me…? Turn to Leviticus 18, 19, & 20. You will find very quickly that it does in fact deal with all the above and more. For some reason we read those words together and get offended, yet God makes a point to talk about all of them.

In fact, God sings a similar song as the Sesame Street crew above. The exception is, is that God is saying that in fact all three of these belong here. In fact without one of them the other two will eventually overshadow God himself. So what did I learn in my weird journey through Leviticus this morning.

1. God has a “no off limits” policy with us his creation. If we want to know, he is willing to share. Even when we don’t want to know…God usually shares. I LOVE THAT ABOUT GOD!!!

2. I read Leviticus 18:23 and it says this, “A man must never defile himself by having sexual intercourse with an animal, and a woman must never present herself to a male animal in order to have intercourse with it; THIS IS A TERRIBLE PERVERSION!!!” After reading that I wrote in the margin of my bible these words, “Thought this was a given.” But apparently it was not, because God had to take the time to make mention of it. I even began thinking how perverse a people, that God had to make sure to tell them this. Then I realized that we have done and will do things that God has to say, “STOP DOING____________BECAUSE THIS IS A TERRIBLE PERVERSION!!!” Just because we think it is a given does not mean that it necessarily is. Sometimes God has to spell it out in detail and very explicitly for us to understand what we are not to do.

3. What God really longs for in us is this…HOLINESS!!! In Leviticus 19:2 he says, “You MUST be holy because I, the Lord Your God, AM HOLY!!! If we do not have Holiness we are simply a lost and perverse group of people. If we are not constantly trying to become like God himself we are no more than the Terrible Perversion that God speaks against in scripture. Not to mention that God uses the word MUST here. Implying that this is not optional if we are going to call him our God.

I am amazed at how God uses these crazy laws, thoughts, and topics to simply remind us that all these things are keeping us from the most important thing…HOLINESS!!!

As I read and study Leviticus the one common theme is that God wants and longs for his creation, his chosen people to simply…

BE HOLY AS GOD HIMSELF IS HOLY!!!

What crazy things have you read in scripture that have caused you to stop, think, and change?

He responded with this. He said, “I have come to find that the Holy Spirit frustrates me more than anything. I have found the harder I try and understand it, the more frustrated I become.” I immediately went into “help save my friend from despair” mode. He promptly stopped me and said, “It’s ok, I hope the Holy Spirit frustrates me the rest of my life. That is how I know that God is still revealing himself to me today.”

WOW!!!

I was taken back by his answer.
I was frustrated now that I was not frustrated by the Holy Spirit.

Was I living in such a way that the Holy Spirit decided to not reveal more of God to me until I was willing to step into that frustration?

SO…

With that said I sit here in a quiet little coffee shop wrestling and being frustrated by the Holy Spirit today. Today I started reading in the book of Leviticus and I have been haunted by what takes place in the first eight chapters. At first glance it is nothing more than God telling them how to make atonement for certain actions. However, a deeper look reveals more to the minds eye.

There is this phrase amidst it all. It is this…“WHEN they become aware of THEIR SIN…”

Wait…what? Did you feel that? Yeah that is the kick in the gut.

What on earth does this mean? When they become aware of their sin…?

You mean it is not just simply being revealed to them? It is not plain as day and right in front of them to grab a hold of? God is not hammering it into their minds for them to understand? At first I read those words and wanted to know how one can repent of something that they have no idea they are doing? But then I realized that eventually all things come to light. That all things are revealed that are not good and pleasing to God.

As I came to this new (again) revelation I realized that I was once again frustrated. This time however, I was frustrated in a completely different way. My frustration came from the fact that I wanted to now know WHAT SIN IN MY LIFE DO I NEED TO BECOME AWARE OF!!!?

What is it that is keeping me from being all that God longs for me?

What is is that is keeping me from being the husband and father he calls me to?

What is it that is keeping me from sharing the love and passion of Him with others?

What is it that may in fact be keeping me from having an intensely intimate relationship with him like I never have before?

All I know is this…When I become aware of what it is…I will do the only natural thing I know to do…

FALL ON MY FACE IN REPENTANCE AND OFFER ALL OF MYSELF BACK TO GOD HIMSELF!!!!

-What is the one thing that the Holy Spirit of God is frustrating you with today?-