I have a question for you. What kind of juice do you get when you squeeze a lemon? Lemon juice, right?
Thursday, June 30, 2011
SQUEEZE
I have a question for you. What kind of juice do you get when you squeeze a lemon? Lemon juice, right?
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
REWARD
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
BLINDSPOT
Last week I was driving along the interstate in lower Michigan -- moving along in the far right lane going at least 65 (but not one mph faster), and I promise you, before changing lanes, I looked over my left shoulder. Seeing nothing, I began to move into the left lane when a Gold Wing motorcycle veered away from me within feet of being hit. My nerves were rattled for a couple of minutes thinking about the 'what if' of that whole scenario and also because I knew I had clearly glanced over my shoulder to check my blind spot -- but I still missed him -- which is why they call it a blind spot. (And which is why I hope my wife doesn't read this blog because she was sleeping at the time and it only reinforces why she insists I wear a helmet when I ride a motorcycle).
Monday, June 27, 2011
CENTIPEDE
I'm not easily distracted. After a weekend speaking in front of lots of people, I might have somebody approach and ask: 'Did that crying baby distract you?' And I'll say: 'What crying baby? There was a crying baby?' I'm just focused and zoned in.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
MST - JANUARY
I am pumped to be taking a group of guys to Thailand on a missions trip in January. We met at our house today for lunch and talk and it's a great group of men, each with great hearts. This will be my second trip and three of the guys going are repeat guys from last year when we were there.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
APPLE
I don't mind at all borrowing from T. Morgan for today's blog posting. I talk alot about change on the blog, not because there isn't anything else to talk about or because I don't think our organization has changed - it has - but because I believe change continues to be difficult. I have said for some time that 'change should be the new constant' and we need to learn to become significantly more comfortable with it than we currently are. So here are some thoughts from T. Morgan on the subject that resonate with me ...
'I have a number of Apple products in my home, but I wouldn’t consider myself to be an Apple fanboy. I didn’t run out and purchase an iPad when they first came out (but) I still believe Apple offers incredible products and solutions.
With that in mind, it’s been interesting to watch the reaction of diehard Apple fans in the last week after they released the new Final Cut Pro X — it’s the software they sell for video editing ... Folks that have used the software in the past ... are in an uproar about the new release.
The situation is a good reminder that no matter how much your fans love you, they don’t like change. The crazy thing is Apple has proven time and time again how important change is to an organization. They’ve changed their product line up and focus. After products are released, they routinely make changes to improve their performance. Apple wouldn’t be what it is today if it didn’t embrace change … even though people don’t like change.
I thought this was an interesting quote from TechCrunch writer MG Siegler in today’s article:
“And perhaps it’s extra infuriating for some because it’s almost like these companies don’t even think twice about making such changes. And the harsh truth is that they shouldn’t. When you start to second guess yourself and let the masses dictate your product decisions, you’re done.”
That’s a powerful insight. And, believe it or not, it’s consistent with what Jesus taught. People haven’t liked change for a couple thousand years. Check this out:
One day some people said to Jesus, “John the Baptist’s disciples fast and pray regularly, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why are your disciples always eating and drinking?”
Jesus responded, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment.
“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins. But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.” (Luke 5:33-39)
Willingness to embrace change is a key difference between great organizations (including churches) and those that are willing to settle for mediocrity and eventually become obsolete. You may think you’re doing people a favor by keeping things the same to keep people happy, but many times what’s comfortable isn’t what’s healthy.
Organizations need to change. Relationships need to change. People need to change. We hate change, but we need to change.'
Amen.
And be blessed.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
SOUP
I love soup. My favorites are New England chowder, wild rice, vegetable, minestrone, pasta fagioli and black bean. I think soups that are designed to be cold (vichyssoise, gaspacho) are a travesty to soup-dom. This week I had the opportunity to take advantage of a soup bar for dinner. And when I say 'take advantage,' that's what I mean. There is nothing better than endless bowls of great soup.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
DO
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
MACKINAC
For the past couple of days in celebration of our 30th anniversary, Joelene and I have been on Mackinac Island staying at a bed & breakfast enjoying ourselves. There are no cars allowed here at all, so we've been ...
Monday, June 20, 2011
ANNIVERSARY 30
I am a rich man. Today Joelene and I celebrate 30 years of marriage together -- 30 years to the same awesome woman -- together the parents of three terrific adult daughters. Over the past few years we've added two amazing sons-in-law, one grandson, with one granddaughter on the way.
- Marry your best friend. Don't settle for someone you have to talk yourself into 'liking' from the get go.
- Don’t expect to change them. What you marry is exactly what you'll get.
- Take trips together without the kids. Our kids never really understood this - they're beginning to now.
- Laugh together - but without it being at the expense of each other.
- Talk about things.
- Go to bed together … every night.
- Flirt.
- Decide who does what and then allow each person to do it well within the marriage.
- Give the other one freedom to soar and be their biggest cheerleader.
- Keep it spicy (you know what I mean).
- Never say anything negative about them.
- Dream together.
- Play together.
- Pray together.
- Don't have secrets.
- Establish boundaries with the opposite sex - not because you're so 'hot' or so 'irresistible' - (you aren't) - but because it honors your best friend and because it is right.
- Go on dates and hold hands. We did today - on day 10,950 (not including leap year days).
- Decide together how to spend your money.
- Don’t let your kids or your job become the priority.
- Say “I love you” often.
- Commit to God first and her/him as a close second.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
STOOL
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!
God calls us to live wisely and well in circumstances that can’t always be understood or changed. In John 17, Jesus is meeting with His disciples for the last time before He is crucified. He is praying for them - and part of His prayer is: ‘Father, I’ve finished My work down here. This world has been no particular friend of mine. I’ve loved it, but it hasn’t really loved Me ... but I’m going to leave here shortly.’ Then, He said, probably to the dismay of His disciples, ‘But My disciples will be left in it.’
Jesus was praying about the fact that He would be leaving them in a world that was hostile to the purposes of God -- and one of the things we have to accept if we’re going to be disciples of Jesus Christ is this: The environment we’ve been left in is an environment that will not necessarily be friendly to us being disciples of Christ.
What many of us seem to want is an environment that is pre-disposed and hospitable to God’s purposes, but it isn’t --- and it isn’t going to be. Jesus said it wouldn’t be friendly to us. Yet ... He has left us in it.
That’s the first thing. The second thing Jesus said was: ‘You are left in the world, but you are not of the world.’ In other words - the challenge was not only to be left in a world that was less than wonderful, but there was a clear distinction between the life of the disciple and the culture the disciple was living in.
So - I’m left in it ... I don’t have to like it, but I’m here. Therefore, I’m going to try to find as many ways as I can to totally withdraw from it. I’m going to find as many ways as possible to build a buffer between this hostile world and me. I’ll box myself in; I’ll circle the wagons in this present world. Right?
Not quite. Not of the world, yet in the world. That’s the second thing. Then Jesus said there was a third thing the disciples (and we) need to know. You are also going to be sent to the world.
And so Jesus gave us this three-legged stool - this tripod - that immediately puts great tension on the follower of Jesus Christ --- in the world, not of the world, but sent to the world.
If it were just a matter of being left in the world but not having to be concerned about being of it, then we could say, ‘OK, I’m left here - and there’s all kinds of disgusting stuff down here I know God doesn’t approve of -- so I’ll isolate myself from this cruel, nasty world.’
And believe it or not, it is relatively easy to do this in the American church today. This is one of the reasons so many churches have over-full menus of programs -- that, if you wanted to -- you could live most of your life in an Evangelical Christian privatized sub-cultural bubble. That is one of the reasons we believe in staying true to our focused mission and purpose at KFA of discipling and equipping thru Sunday morning and Wednesday night discipleship small groups as well as weekly life groups - because we believe God has also called us to lifestyles that are relational - one of our church values - which requires time for every believer. We’re not going to provide something for you every night of the week - we want you out in your neighborhood on mission.
So if you just concentrate on the not being of it part, you can become isolated from the world. And if you concentrate on the left in it part, you can become very unhappy with God for leaving you here in all this mess. And if you concentrate on the sent to it part, you can become over-interested in identifying with a culture that is very much anti-God. And it’s easy to do any one of those three.
But we’re not free to choose any one of those - we’re called to stand on the three-legged stool and hold these in some tension and balance ... in the world -- not of the world -- yet sent to the world.
We are called to be separated by our values - and yet to be in touch with our society by understanding it and having relationships so we can be agents of change in it. That is the daily challenge of the Christian disciple.
And be blessed.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
ASK
Thursday, June 16, 2011
PASSION
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
WHATEVER
Monday, June 13, 2011
SEIZE
Sunday, June 12, 2011
PRIMARY
Saturday, June 11, 2011
HAGGLING
I was recently in Morocco and, of course, had to pick up some goods for me and my family members. I bought some teapots, jewelry, knives (for the guys), candles, cloth placemats and a leather satchel (for me).
Friday, June 10, 2011
LIP-SYNCHING
Thursday, June 9, 2011
ALWAYS
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
STARS
We have to remember at all times who we are as a church and what God has put us on Highway 50 in Kenosha to be/do. We may be called to do several things actually, but at the core of who we are is to be a group of people who are focused on people far from God. Our mission is Jesus' mission - 'to seek and save the lost.'
Sunday, June 5, 2011
HARLOTRY
I would guess everyone reading this is guilty at one point or another of harlotry toward God. (How's that for an opening blog sentence?) We are guilty of allowing our hearts to run after other lovers. Everyone has gotten his kicks from ambition - money - power - sex -- you know what it is -- you name it.
Yet God has not given up on you. He has not quit His wife of harlotry. He has not divorced her. In fact - despite the unfaithfulness, God promises to take you alone into the wilderness so He can show His love to you - harlot though you have been.
He says, 'Even though you’ve been so unfaithful, we’ll start over the way it was at the engagement - when you thought I was worth trusting - when you’d follow me anywhere - we’ll start over.'
The first half of 2011 can be wiped away. There can be paradise between you and God again. “I’ve always kept My Word,” God says. “I’ve always been faithful ... now you can be too.” He wants you back - He wants you all the way back.
It’s not: ‘OK, you can come live in the house, but because of what you’ve done and your terrible mistakes, that’s about as far as you’re going to be allowed to get - keep your distance - stay over there away from me. You take your meals over there; I’ll take mine over here.‘
No. God will not hold you at a distance. He wants you all the way back - the conversation - the affection - the intimacy - the togetherness - the most profound union imaginable will be granted to you ... if you will just come home.
That’s the meaning of the Gospel. God comes to welcome back His wife of harlotry. Even though His creation - the people He has made with His own hands have strayed so far and chased after other lovers, He sends His one and only Son, Jesus, to buy her back again at very great cost to Himself. And in spite of it all, He lovingly and graciously promises her great hope and safety and a future -- and He says, “We can start over.” We can start over.
God is relentlessly pursuing a wife of prostitution - that’s us - and the good news is that He knows we’ve sold ourselves for a song and a dance and yet He stands here today and draws you back. It is the most encouraging thing you will hear all year long.
God has a completely irrational love for you. Don’t try to make sense of it. Just accept it. He loves you and He keeps making a way for us to come back to Him over and over and over again, even though we have cheated on Him. That’s the story of Jesus.
And be blessed.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
WISCONSIN CITIES
I'm just in this track (rut) right now (see last two blog postings) with the cities thing. I'll probably move on after this one --- but here are the top ten cities in my own present state of Wisconsin that I would kind of like to visit someday ...