HIATUS

Please forgive the ten day blog hiatus I'm beginning tomorrow.  

I'll see you again around March 5.  

Thanks for reading and following.  

DUDE

Woman should submit to their husbands - not just in some things, but in everything.  EVERYTHING!!

Made ya look, didn't I?

Actually, that's in the Bible, so I'll not retract it - but that statement is kind of assuming the husband she's submitting to is loving her sacrificially.  Pretty easy to submit to that kind of dude.

Jesus told us dudes to love our wives the way He loves the church.  He died for the church.

So between the two of us, you have it easy, lady.  You just have to submit.  We dudes have to die.

Seems fair.

You have to die, or your marriage won't work.
If you're going to hit your 50th anniversary, you have to die.
You have to die or you're going to fall out over the silliest little things.

'You have to die or your marriage won't work.'

Marriage won't work until a dude dies.

Every now and then that selfish wild nature inside us kicks in and you have to kill it again - and if you don't, it'll destroy you and what you have.

So Jesus died.

The problem with us dudes is - instead of dying, we want to give stuff.

'Here's the credit card, honey.  Get yourself something nice.'
'Do I love you?  Sure, I do.  I got us this house, didn't I?'

Christ gave Himself.

I'm talking about you - not your organs.  I'm talking about you.  I'm talking about your guts - your thoughts - your fears - your tears - your emotions - your passions - your male intensity.  She wants you standing at the gate of your house with your arms and legs spread, fighting back the enemy from your doorstep for her.

She wants your everything, dude.

Jesus showed us how by giving Himself.

And be blessed.

MARDI GRAS

Once again this year, 300+ School of Urban Missions students gathered in New Orleans for teaching, training and ultimate evangelism on the streets at Mardi Gras.  

I can't describe how proud I am of our own Journey Ministry College students - part of the S.U.M. system - for their courage, passion and vision to see lost people won for Christ.

I'm also so proud of our JMC Cohort Director, Pastor Gabe Mills and Pastor Lisa Kurman, evangelism practicum leader.  Both are here in New Orleans leading our students.

These pictures illustrate the team in worship and spreading the love of Jesus in a dark setting:

COLLECTIVE

I had the blessing and privilege of being part of the Communicator's Collective today.  It's a first for Journey Church -- several aspiring young communicators gathered together to learn, collaborate, soak up, be mentored and trained in the art of communication.

It's Pastor Jon Brown's brainchild and he hosted it -- but it was awesome to be able to share with this group of cutting edge young leaders.

Every weekend something happens over 400,000 times in the United States.  A pastor stands to communicate a message.  If an average talk lasts about 30 minutes and if roughly 50 million folks attend church on an average Sunday, then every weekend in America people spend 23 million hours = 950,000 days = 137,000 weeks = 2,600 years -- listening to sermons.

And if the average pastor spends 10 hours preparing a talk, pastors will cumulatively spend 4 million man hours = 166,000 days = 24,000 weeks = 460 years -- preparing sermons every weekend.

Given those stats, how important do you think preaching is?

Based on the Communicator's Collective room today, the future for sharing the Gospel looks bright.

And be blessed.

GENEROUS

I wish I could say we were born generous.  It would be such a nice, neat statement to make.  I'd feel better about myself - and this post - if I just wrote it down and closed blog shop for today.

But it isn't true.  We aren't born generous.  We're born selfish.

Does that sound harsh?

Does it not even sound true?

How long before your child learns the world revolves around him/her and acts like it?  How long before his/her first word is 'no' or - shockingly even - 'mine?'

We aren't born generous.  We're born selfish and we need God to come do a work in our hearts in this area.  Because generosity comes from Him.  Selfishness, on the other hand, comes from the devil.

Yes.  It's that evil.  The devil.

He was selfish way back when he fell from heaven.  The Bible book of Isaiah tells us Satan said: 'I will be exalted.  I will sit on a throne.  I will be like God."  I ... I ... I ... I ...  statements of selfishness.

We all fight the same selfishness battle on a daily basis.

You're driving down the road with a friend.  You see a house - or a car - that you secretly envy.  And someone in your car says: 'You know the guy who owns that is a Christian?'

"Really?!  Pffft.  He should sell that (house/car) and give the excess to people who really need it."

We seem to have a personal theology that any house bigger than our house - any car nicer than our car - should be sold and the excess given to help people.

We aren't born generous.  We're born selfish.

We do that with a lot of things.  That's selfishness - that's greed - that's envy - that's jealousy.  Because if we cared about all those things the way we say we do, we'd sell our car or house and give the excess to the poor.

It's the age-old cover up.  We aren't born generous.  We're born selfish.  We care about ourselves.

Oh, we have moments of brilliant unselfishness, but most of us don't live generously on a moment-to-moment basis.

This is our challenge as sacrificial, God-fearing, Christ-honoring followers of Jesus.

Be generous.

And be blessed.