A Little Crazy

Galatians 5:6 “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

Read It:

Sports fans paint their faces, cars, and sometimes their bellies.  Avid shoppers line up at 4am for the big sale, with an action plan for maneuvering store to store to get the best deals. When people love something, they tend to get a little crazy!   They go ALL IN with their heart, their time, their resources and their actions.  You don’t have to guess at the object of their affection because it’s obvious from their sheer devotion.

And when Someone steps into your life and changes it forever, you can’t help but get a little crazy.  When Jesus gives you a whole new purpose in life, when He sets you free from all of that baggage you couldn’t wrestle free of on your own, you want the world to know!  It’s time to remember that the God we serve showed crazy love toward us in dying for us while we were still sinners.  And it’s time to show Him some crazy love in return.

How do we do that?  We love.  Crazy love starts inward.  We love God because He first loved us (Rom 5:8).  Just like those avid sports fans, we rejoice, we cheer, we celebrate all that God has done.  We receive the love He lavished on us in Christ and we let it overflow as we share it with others.  And this crazy love is loud – it’s evident, on display, not only by what we say but even more so by what we do.

And we grow.   Crazy love moves forward.  We take action day by day to walk out our faith.  We undergo a continuous process of surrendering to God our hurts, hang-ups, and habits in exchange for His grace and healing.  We discover Biblical truth, apply it, and watch Christ change us from the inside out.

And we serve.  Crazy love moves outward.  Jesus Himself did not come to be served but to serve (Mark 10:45).  And we, as Christ’s followers, should have that same attitude.  We’ve been given a crazy amount of love, joy, grace, forgiveness and hope in Jesus Christ.  We get to share that same hope with others in our homes, our church, our community and our world.  To serve like crazy, we simply need to take the opportunities in front of us today to love out loud, like Jesus loved.  We’ve got the Hope of New Life living in us.  That’s worth showing some Crazy Love for!

Download it:

1 John 3:16 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

Apply it:

1)    Spend some time reflecting on what Jesus means to you.  Remember what He has done in your life, how he has rescued you.  Thank Him for that.  Thank Him for the ways He is growing and changing you.

2)    Ask God to lead you in showing some crazy love to those in your home, your office, your class or your community this week.  Ask Him to bring to mind some specific ideas that would be of service to someone and then obey!

Yesterday was Awesome!

I’m so proud of our students – some 125 plus worked in servant project all around town on Saturday and then a group of 75 students worked as behind the scenes servants yesterday on campus.  Great job gang!

Then last night was probably the sweetest family conference we’ve had in my 8 years… The prayer time was very special.  I’m so fired up seeing who shows up to rejoice, celebrate God’s activity and pray for a greater harvest of real life change.

We are in the midst of our greatest days as a church thus far – watch who turns sour and just know, they are not in step with what God is doing right now.  Let’s pray for each other that none of us would fall prey to the deception and discouragement of the enemy.

I’m so tempted to start talking about the Christmas season and promoting the opportunities to invite a friend… But I’ll hold off one more week – because this is the season to be thankful!  Honestly, THIS is my most favorite week of the entire year.  BE THANKFUL for all God is doing and has done for you.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (ok – I just admitted I’m old, no one under 30 years old will even know what that phrase means…) what a great day at Sugar Hill Church yesterday!  You responded so well to the message yesterday… At the time of this writing I don’t know all the details from the commitments yesterday… Will have to post more on that later.  But one small indicator of your response was that we sold out of the Crazy Love books yesterday… we’ll have more available this Sunday.

I always enjoy celebrating with those following Christ in baptism… That never gets old!  Check out the video we showed to finish the message from yesterday — it kind of recaps the tone of 2009 – the stories of life change have been incredible!!

Devotional from yesterday’s message will be posted tomorrow!

 

 

It’s Going to be a Crazy Christmas!

Who is my Neighbor?

Luke 10:29-35 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”  In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³²So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵The next day he took out two silver coins^[e] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

Read It:

Do you know what Christ said was the second greatest command?  Out of all of the thousands of laws, Christ said they could be summed up into two:  loving God first and loving your neighbor as yourself.  But who is your neighbor?  In the story of the Good Samaritan, an expert in the law – meaning a very religious man, well versed in all of the religious texts and traditions, asked Jesus this very question.  But look closely at the verse.  Look at his motivation.  “He wanted to justify himself.”

In the story of the Good Samaritan, it is often easy to read with great judgment toward this man, as well as to the priest and the Levite who passed by man who had been beaten and left for dead.  We think, “what jerks!” and “how selfish.”  But the challenging part of this story is how often you and I live the same way.  How often do you and I seek to justify ourselves with, “I’m too busy.”  “I can’t save everyone.”  “That wouldn’t be safe.”  “That would cost too much money and I need that for…”  or  “That’s not for me, I know someone else will take care of it.”

In this global age, our neighbors are not just the people on our street or in our jobs and schools, but also our brothers and sisters around the world.  And every day, in our own streets, and towns and in thousands of others across the globe, people are being beaten, abused, robbed, lied to, ignored, left for dead –spiritually, emotionally and physically.  And many times, God’s people are more interested in justifying themselves (like the expert in the law in this parable), or in keeping away from the pain and mess of these realities in life.  We are too busy, too jaded, and the need seems overwhelming.  So we compartmentalize.  We “cross by on the other side” just like the men did in this story.  We count the cost of reaching out and find it to be too high, so we walk on and we pretend the need is not there.

That needs to change.  God forbid that His people think we are too good or too clean to reach out and pour salve on the gaping wounds of those crushed and cast down.  God forbid that we would seek our own justification at the expense of deliberately neglecting what God commanded us to do.  God forbid that we leave the care of the downcast and the hurting to governments and to the lost, when it should be God’s own people generously responding and loving the destitute, the imprisoned, the widow, the orphan and the needy.  Today, these are our neighbors.  And loving like Christ asked us to will cost us.  It will cost, as it did for the Good Samaritan: our time, our resources, and our compassion.  But rest assured, our disobedience would cost us more.  Start today, where you are, with what you have, with who you know. Lovingly give a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name and begin the process of loving your neighbor as yourself.

Pray It:

Oh God, forgive me.  Too often in my life, I am not the Good Samaritan to those I pass by.  Too often, I issue excuses.  I get too busy.  I refuse to get “dirty.”  I treasure safety, convenience, and good looking compassion.  But you have called me to love my neighbor, regardless of those things.  Show me today, “Who is My neighbor?” and help me to ask that not to justify myself, but to lovingly respond in obedience to your command that I love my neighbor as myself.  Show me tangible ways to express love to my neighbors today, even when it’s inconvenient and costly.

Download it:

Luke 10:36-37 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”  Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Apply it:

1)  Read Luke 10:25-37  (www.biblegateway.com) As you read, ask God to show you which person in the story most closely reflects your attitude? Is it the expert in the law?  The priest?  The Samaritan?

2)    As we prayed above, ask God to show you two things today:

1. Who is your neighbor?
2. How can you tangibly demonstrate His love to them?

At The Dead Sea

Partners for the Middle East

Here’s an article from my recent trip to the Middle East. I’m asking God to raise up champions from within Sugar Hill Church to partner with our workers in the Middle East.  If you’d like to go with me on my next trip probably sometime in February or first of March – please contact my assistant Beth beth@mysugarhillchurch.com so she can get details to you.  This was my third time to the Middle East and God used it to capture my heart for the Arab World.  Our time is short.  Our opportunity is now.  Is He calling you to be a part of fulfilling the mission.  Let me here from you.

It’s Game Time!

James 2:14-19 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.  But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

Read It:

It’s game day.  You belong to a team.  You’re suited up in all the appropriate gear.  You’ve been trained and educated in the game.  You’ve practiced and you’ve planned. The clock strikes.  It’s time to take it to the field.  But you and your teammates sit in the locker room, glued to studying playbooks and reviewing old films – films of how you’ve played in the past, how others have won and lost, and how those who are making the most as champions today are playing the game.  And while you sit in the locker room critiquing and planning and theorizing the best way to play the game, you are forfeiting the game you were meant to play.  You are losing without even trying.

Friends, that’s how many of us in the church are today.  In Christ, we’ve been made a team. He has given us everything we need pertaining to life and godliness.  He has given us the plays to make a difference in the world in His Holy Word.  He has shown us the darkness, sickness, disease, and injustice that we must go out on the field and tackle.  Yet, most of us are sitting in the warmth of our comfortable locker room, rehearsing old tapes of someone else’s obedience.  But YOU were issued a jersey.  YOU were called to the field, where YOU have to run and tackle and get dirty.

But unlike a football game, the plays you’re called to make are for life.  We are called to rescue the abandoned and persecuted, to advocate for those who have no voice (Proverbs 31:8-9).  To answer this call means we have to get up and get busy.  We have to be aggressive about making plays to accomplish this.  We cannot fill playbooks with theory. We must roll up our sleeves and get out there. (James 1:22)  Jesus is our coach, our leader, our example.  He sought us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8)  He told us to go out into the highways and byways to show His love (Luke 14:23).  He sent us out to make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20).  Where did we ever get the idea that the lost will magically wonder into our locker room?

The game clock has already started.  There’s no more time for sidelines and locker rooms.  It’s time to lay it all out on the field.  It will be messy.  It will cost us.  We may get thrown around or trip as we play, but the point is we must get in the game if we’re to win it. We must, today, not tomorrow, get out into the world and reach the widow, the orphan, the lonely and the oppressed.  We must take the Good News of the Gospel to the hurting.  So get out there!  Game on!!!

Pray It:

God, if I’m honest, I live a lot my life with You either hanging out on the sidelines or in the locker room.  I profess to care for the hurting, the abandoned, the outcast, but I don’t do a lot about it.  I pray that would change.  I pray You would break my heart for what breaks Yours.  I pray that You would give me tangible opportunities to use the gifts and resources You’ve given me to share Your truth in deed and in word.  Help me to get out on the field, even when it’s messy.  Stir in me a sense of urgency for Your work.  Lead me by Your Word and Your Spirit.

Download it:

Hebrews 4:2 “For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.”

Apply it:

1)    Ask God to show you where you are in the game.  Are you in the locker room, the stands, the commentary box, or out on the field?  Talk with Him about why you are where you are and ask Him for His leadership and courage to play a more effective game.

2)    Ask God to show you tangible ways you can reach out to the poor, the needy, the destitute, the hurting, as he has asked you to in His Word.  Obey what He asks of You.

In God We Trust

1 Timothy 6:17-18 ^”Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”

Read It:

In God We Trust.  Is it just a lip-service motto printed on our money, or is it a foundational belief written on our hearts?  Do you and I really trust God with our finances?  Trust means reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence; confident expectation of something; hope.

In these days of incredible instability, it’s hard to find anything we feel we can trust. Be sure of this:  In God we CAN trust.  He does not lack integrity, strength, ability or surety.  What God says, He will do. So you and I can trust Him with confident expectation.

We often have difficulty trusting God with our finances, because it is the source of our livelihood, our survival.  God knows this and that’s why, over and over again in His Word, He instructs us to approach our finances with trust and with wisdom.  The same God who was strong enough to deliver us from sin is the same God who can deliver us financially.  If we can trust Him with our souls, we can surely trust Him with our dollars.

To trust God with our finances means we surrender to His principles of money management.  We begin to realize that “our” money is really His and He can ask us to do with it what He desires.  We can trust that God is not out to get our money.  He doesn’t need it.  What God is after is our hearts.  He wants us to trust Him to provide for us, not a number on a bank statement.  He wants us to be free to live and to love generously, not to live nervously tied to watching stock numbers and economist projections.  So take the challenge to trust God today like you never have before in your finances.  Obey the principles outlined in His Word.  Let every dollar, every financial decision proclaim “In God We Trust!”

Pray It:

God you are trustworthy.  There is no one like You, nor will there ever be.  Thank You that You are faithful, even when I am faithless.  God, I lift up my finances to You today.  No matter how circumstances change, Your faithfulness does not.  Please help me to trust You and to obey what You ask of me in my finances.  You are a good Provider and I can rest in that.

Download it:

Matthew 6:19-24 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Apply it:

1)    Spend some time writing out a rough list of all of your monthly expenses.  As you do, ask God to show you how you can grow in trusting Him more with each area of your finances.

2)    Ask God to show you one way you can stretch your faith in the area of finances this week, and do it.  Maybe it’s believing His promise about the tithe, maybe it’s giving out of your own need to others, maybe it’s helping someone you know could use it.  Step out in faith and trust Him!

The Master of Money?

Remember

Deuteronomy 6:12-14 “then watch yourself, that you do not forget the LORD who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall fear only the LORD your God; and you shall worship Him and swear by His name.  You shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you…”

Read It:

Don’t forget where you came from.  Don’t forget Whose you are.  Over and over again throughout the pages of scripture, God encourages us to remember our roots.  To go ALL IN with Christ, we must have the right pursuit – Christ Himself, we must proclaim His truth to those around us, and we must always remember that we are His people.  One of the spiritual habits of a healthy home is to understand the role of church in this world and in our life and to understand how to honor it.

Some people have been wounded by the church.  Others have been exposed to all the hypocrisy there.  As a result, some have little to no respect for the church.

While it’s true that there is brokenness in the church, we must not forget that the church is called Christ’s bride.  If it’s valuable to God, it must be valuable to us.  We can’t be pro-God and anti-Church.   There is a dimension of God’s power that we can’t find by ourselves.  And there is part of our destiny that we’ll never discover apart from the body.

The church is not a belief, a building, a country club, or a social outlet.  It’s not a place for good business contacts.  We don’t make church decisions based on how it makes us feel.   The church is a group of imperfect people whom Christ died for. We collectively gather to remember all that is True, about God’s love, His faithfulness, His redemptive work on the Cross, and His continuing work of changing us to be more like Him.  Together, we remember Whose We are and all that He has done for us.   Being part of the church is not just about a building to hold formal ceremonies of weddings, dedications and church services.  It’s about an ongoing opportunity to walk with others in discovering all that God has for us in this life and the next.  It’s the place we learn to apply God’s truth to every arena of life and to live ALL IN.

Pray It:

God, help me to see the church the way you see it.  Help me to see that it is something you created to help me grow in life.  I pray I would not see it as a chore, a country club, or a snake pit.  Instead, I pray You would give me eyes to see that the church is Your people, bought with Your precious blood, each of us living daily by Your grace and mercy.

Download it:

Exodus 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”

Apply it:

1)    Pray for your church today.   Pray for the hurting people who attend.  Pray for those who’ve been hurt by others in the church.  Pray for the staff and leadership of the church.

2)    Look for one way you can build up your church this week.  (Write a note of encouragement to someone in the church, help with a special project, join the prayer team, etc.)