I love seeing KFA-ers in their 'natural habitats.' Joelene and I had the opportunity to spend all day in a Chicago Federal Courtroom with KFA-er Sam Der Yeghiayan - Federal Judge for the Northern District of Illinois. The judge holds an extra distinction as being the first American immigrant (born in Syria and raised in Lebanon) federal judge in the United States.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
SIGHTING: KFA-er
I love seeing KFA-ers in their 'natural habitats.' Joelene and I had the opportunity to spend all day in a Chicago Federal Courtroom with KFA-er Sam Der Yeghiayan - Federal Judge for the Northern District of Illinois. The judge holds an extra distinction as being the first American immigrant (born in Syria and raised in Lebanon) federal judge in the United States.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
MESSAGE
Monday, June 28, 2010
MANDELA
Here are Nelson Mandela's Eight Principles of Leadership ... worth pondering:
Friday, June 25, 2010
GOSPEL
Thursday, June 24, 2010
IDEA
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
ALARM 2
I mentioned a few days ago on the blog that the fire alarm had gone off in our Seattle hotel room last week. It was annoying to everyone who had to go stand outside in the middle of the early evening, and yet - if it had been an emergency, we would all have been grateful for the noisy alarm.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
DAD
Let your children hear you bless the Lord for His sovereignty and Kingship.
So at the breakfast table - at the dinner table - when you take them to bed at night --- let them hear you say, “Lord, I bless You that Your Kingdom rules over all people -- over all governments -- over all weather systems -- over all animals -- over all galaxies -- over our family, God. I bless You, I bless You, I bless You, I bless You, Amen. Let's eat!"
Wouldn’t that be impressive to your children? Wouldn’t something go down deep in their spirits to hear you talk and pray like that. “Weather systems, Dad? Really? What are you talking about? God of the weather over KENOSHA?” YES!
Let your children hear you bless the Lord for His justice and righteousness.
Let them hear you say: “Lord, I bless You because you advocate for the poor and the weak and the oppressed - those being treated unjustly here and around the world. You are the Ruler over all and justice will be done, if not in this age, in the age to come. Amen. Let's eat."
Let them hear your heart, not just your brain. Because if you look like God doesn’t have your heart, why on earth should they give Him theirs? Let them hear you bless the Lord for His righteousness and justice.
Let your children hear you bless the Lord for His mercy and forgiveness.
This will be the most powerful thing your kids will ever hear coming from your mouth because it will just crush you to the ground - and they need to see and hear that.
Kids will hear all the do's and don'ts. That’s all Christianity becomes to them very often. But that's not what Christianity is at all. What a wonderful miracle to see them come to the place where they say, “Christianity is the fact that my dad says his sins are forgiven ... that dad says he has experienced God’s mercy ... and if that's true, God might forgive things in my heart that even my own mom and dad don’t know about.” What a wonderful gift to our children and families.
So yes, come to church ... go to all the classes ... get in a small group ... stand next to your children at church and let them see and hear you blessing the Lord. GREAT!
THEN ... go home and model this life for your family.
And be blessed, dad.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
RANKING
Thursday, June 17, 2010
DENOMINATIONS
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
ALARM
Monday, June 14, 2010
TRIVIAL
Sunday, June 13, 2010
MARS HILL
It was great to visit Seattle's Mars Hill Church today. It's one of the most innovative churches in the country as well as one of the fastest growing. Currently they are in 10 different campuses all over Seattle and one in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
STAIRWAY
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
DECADE IIIb
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
DECADE IIIa
Monday, June 7, 2010
CHAMPIONS
Sunday, June 6, 2010
IMITATION
Today in church we had some people come up and test the 'fake' against the 'original.' Is it a real COACH bag or an imitation? Is it a real bowl of Cocoa Krispies or a knock-off? Is it really Elvis singing on the recording or an impersonator?
That's the question we then asked about ourselves. Are we real Christians or are we imitation believers? Ephesians 5:1 says we're to be imitators of God. Tough gig when God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and eternal. Yet the Bible says it.
And in that passage it says the ways we imitate God are by walking in love -- by walking toward God and walking away from sin. But one of the reasons we end up with congregations full of bitter church people is because bitter church people walk away from sin - good for them - but they don’t walk in love.
So they’ve walked away from some of the worst things in life, but after 50 years of walking away - and this can happen to 20- and 30- and 40-year olds, too - now they find they have no love. All they have is what they’ve given up and they’re bitter because others haven’t given up what they’ve given up. And love has avoided them.
But Christ calls us to walk in love ... walking in love comes first. Love always does. It is the central piece to our life in Christ. GOD IS LOVE ... and ... WE LOVE BECAUSE CHRIST FIRST LOVED US.
That’s how the world knows we’re not a cheap imitation of a Christ-follower.
You will spend the rest of your life growing up into who you are in Christ - and you’ll do that by walking in love and walking away from sin. OR ... you’ll become a good religious person - you’ll be moral - and you’ll walk away from sin all right, but you won’t walk in love. You’ll walk away from the bad, but you won’t walk toward Christ. And the result is that you will actually do harm to your spiritual walk, your family's spiritual walk and you will prevent the possibility of darkness around you turning into light.
And this is so important because many of us are not intentionally walking in love - we’re not intentionally walking away from sin. Instead, we’ve kind of lulled ourselves into a spiritual sleepwalk.
It would be my dream for our city to say about KFA:
‘The people at that church just live differently. They’re normal, but there’s something about the way they live that is so appealing.’ AND ... ‘They sure do love people. They’re not imitation Christians ... they're the real thing.’
We’re getting there.
And be blessed.