Disciples in training

 

Our small group from church is now in Chapter 9 The Divine Conspiracy.  Dallas Willard will be giving sound wisdom on what it means to be a disciple of Christ.  But before diving in, he warns us of four objectives which are NOT primary in becoming disciples.  He lists 1) external conformity to the wording of Jesus’ teachings about how to respond in certain situations, 2) profession of perfectly correct doctrine, 3) faithfulness to activities of the church and 4) seeking special states of mind or ecstatic experiences all as non-primary.   While none are bad in and of themselves, they just do not create the kind of transformation that God wants for us.  Stay tuned for what does.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Perspective

The Young Messiah is opening in theaters tomorrow around the country.  I am always interested to see the origins of religious themed movies and how they are received by the public.  Anne Rice wrote the book which the movie is based on.  Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt tells the story of the 7 year old Jesus through his own eyes.   The premise sounds interesting to me.   I was surprised to find that while Ms. Rice was raised Catholic, she later became agnostic as a young adult, and then returned to Catholicism during the period that she wrote the book.   She has now distanced herself from the church again over her positions on social issues, but claims that God is still a big part of her life.  It will be interesting to see how all of the searching might play out in her depiction of Jesus in this movie.

Running for Him

In my SpotOnTheLake post this week, I featured 16 year old, Grace Cromer, who started Pennies for Preemies, a non-profit organization helping families of babies born prematurely.   There is another family I know who had two precious daughters born prematurely.  Caroline and Abby were born to Catherine and Michael Goforth.  Catherine was our go-to babysitter on our  street when my kids were young.   We knew from an early age that Catherine was special, and she has grown into an amazing wife, mom and lover of Jesus.  The twins are thriving and they now have two additional sisters.  Catherine and her husband have been closely involved in Young Life for many years.  Young Life is an organization that promotes adults forming bonds with kids to help shape them into the people that God intended.  Catherine is running a half-marathon in Asheville in support of her association with Young Life.  Run, Catherine, Run!

Papal prophecy

I’m not Catholic, but I have enjoyed watching the wide reception of Pope Francis since his appointment.  He seems like a real “down to earth” guy that is particularly concerned with the well-being of all people and not so much with the pomp and circumstance surrounding his position.  Francis made the news this week for stating:  “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.”  Most assume he was referring to Donald Trump’s desire to build a wall between the United States and Mexico.  I don’t know if a wall would help or hurt our situation, but I was a little surprised that Francis made such a strong statement.  I know Donald Trump thinks he is a Christian, even if he is flawed just like me.  I wouldn’t think his position on building a wall would make that determination, even if it is the wrong thing to do.  Let me know what you think.

Our Father

Our winter semester of church connect groups started up last week.   We are reading through the second half of Dallas Willard’s Divine Conspiracy.   Chapter 7 is titled “The Community of Prayerful Love”, and the second half of the chapter is taking apart the Lord’s Prayer.  The prayer begins with “Our Father”, and Willard describes how important these first two words are.  In addressing God as Our Father, we are recognizing him as our creator and acknowledging our place below him.  We are also imagining the love of God to be more like the love of a perfect parent for his or her child than any other type of love.   Willard’s description makes me feel like I could meditate on those two words for my morning quiet time without having to move on to the rest of the prayer.  I think I will.

 

 

 

Pine Cove – The Back Story

My business post this week at SpotOnTheLake.com was about a camp that will be opening on Lake Hartwell in 2017.  I wanted to add a little more background.  It was in January of 2012 when I received a call from a gentleman from Texas.  I had posted a photo on Google Earth, and he found it as he was looking for property around Lake Hartwell.   He was looking for 100+ acres with good lake views that would be easy to build on.  He told me he wanted to build a camp at Lake Hartwell to tell people about Jesus.  I get a lot of calls from “dreamers”.  Most of them follow their dream with “and we would like to get someone to donate the land to us.”   Well, this dreamer was Bill McKenzie, and he didn’t need anyone to give him anything.  He founded Pine Cove Camps in Texas and was looking to expand by opening a camp in the southeast.  The picture in this post shows Bill in the center with two of  his associates on their first trip to Lake Hartwell to scout properties.  Little did we know at the time that the property they ended up purchasing in 2015 was literally a stone’s throw from the Google Earth photo that Bill had clicked on three years earlier.  Praise God for soldiers like Bill, and praise God for His provision.  I can’t wait to see what He will do at Pine Cove Chimney Point.

Take a stand

I hesitated to make this post because I am no political expert, and I did not want anyone to think I was pretending to be one.  The whole political process frustrates me because it is so difficult for me to understand where candidates really stand.  It often feels like they are telling each “group” exactly what they want to hear.  There is a spin for everything.  I appreciated this response by Marco Rubio to a question at a rally about where he stands on his faith.  I am not sure that this is a reason to make him president, but it sure does make me respect him as a man.