A Living Legacy

I have never attended Northpoint Church, but I am a fan of the founding pastor, Andy Stanley.  I have watched him on television and online and read several of his books.  He has an amazing ability to make ancient biblical truths seem brand new and applicable to what I am going through at that time.   Andy's dad was Charles Stanley.  Charles served in full time ministry for over 50 years and passed away a couple of weeks ago.  I am certain that much of who Andy is came from his dad, Charles.  Their relationship was sometimes strained, especially when Andy made the decision to leave his dad's church and start his own church.  Since then, they have been able to work through any differences, and Andy credits his dad with helping to make him into the man that he is today.  I found this great conversation between them from a few years ago.   I hope that any of you that watch this will take the opportunity to have a similar discussion with your dad - or with your kids.

Card Tricks

 

Tarot Cards have been used for centuries to assist clairvoyants with seeing things beyond what normal people are able to see.  Tarot cards are still used today as a part of the global phenomenon of New Age spirituality.  New Age spirituality is difficult to define, but it is based on the idea that the mind, body and spirit are all connected and that anything that feels good, is good.  Doreen Virtue was raised in the Christian Science Church and was attracted to New Age thinking and the power of Tarot cards, but she didn't like the scary Tarot cards including the Hanging Man, Death and The Devil.  She created a new deck of cards called Angel Cards that eliminated the scary cards, and the cards became wildly popular.  At one time, she was the highest selling New Age author and was in high demand at speaking engagements.  One day, while listening to a sermon on the radio, she was convicted that everything she had been teaching for the last several years had been a lie.  The key Bible verse from the sermon was 2 Timothy 4:3. "For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine: but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires."  "Wanting to have their ears tickled" is such a strangely true statement.  Many of us are constantly looking for people to tell us things that we want to believe - that make us feel good.  But what we really need is the truth.  The truth is we are sinners, and we are responsible for our sin.  We can do nothing without the saving grace of God that was purchased by the death of His son, Jesus, on the cross.  Doreen's acknowledgement that her teachings had been false shattered her world, but she now uses her platform to share the message of Jesus.  For more on Doreen and the pastor that preached her saving sermon, click here.

Patience, my son

 Last night, at our small group gathering, we were talking about the fifth chapter of James.  Verse 8 reads: "You also, be patient.  Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand."  That verse is so rich and so convicting to me.  Productivity, I excel at.  Patience, not so much.  In fact, being productive (getting a lot done in a short amount of time) is actually the enemy of patience (waiting peacefully).  And patience is especially hard for me when I feel like someone else is slowing me down.  So how are we supposed to be more patient?   "Establish our hearts".  What does that even mean?  To establish is "to set up on a firm or permanent basis".   I know the firm foundation for me is the trinity.   So if I need to set up my heart on a firm foundation, I need to find time to do that.   Maybe I can find a way to apply my gift of being able to focus on a task and achieving it to establishing my heart.  But, it will probably look very different.  As opposed to accomplishing a bunch of tasks, I will need to force myself to schedule time to slow down, stop working, be quiet and listen.  I  hope that working on establishing my heart will help to make me more patient 24/7.  I hope the same for you.

Crossed Up

 

Last year, I attended the wedding for the son of one of my close friends.  The bride and groom work for Passion City Church, and they were blessed to have Louie Giglio, the lead pastor there, perform the ceremony.  I knew about Louie before that day, but I hadn't followed him closely.  His handling of the ceremony was beautiful.  Of course it was God centered, but it was also very personal as he knows the couple closely.  Since then, I have been watching with interest the work that Louie and Passion City Church have been doing to build God's kingdom here on earth, and it seems everything they do is filled with excellence.  In 2019, they produced this video which tells the story of the cross - how it was meant to be a symbol of death and destruction, but God turned it into a symbol of life and redemption.  I hope you will take a few minutes to dwell on this miracle of God - the most important miracle ever performed.

Chief Camp Counselor

In my weekly Spot On The Lake blog, I posted about an All Abilities Camp that the Fellowship of Christian Athletes is hosting at the end of April.  I had the pleasure of meeting Jason Myers this week.  Jason leads the Broad River FCA in northeast Georgia and is the person in charge of initiating and executing the camp.  Jason served for many years as a teacher and a coach at Prince Avenue Christian School in Athens.  He coached baseball, basketball and softball while he was there.  In 2018, he joined FCA and continues his work there today.  Jason doesn't talk about it much, but he is battling with a health condition called Ataxia.  Ataxia is a degenerative disease of the nervous system that affects coordination and speech.   Jason has not let his condition slow him down.  In fact, he would say that the condition has pushed him to bigger and better things, and he praises God for every day that he is able to help build God's kingdom here on earth.  Jason is an inspiration to the other FCA leaders, the students he impacts and to everyone he comes in contact with - including me.  Thank you Jason for modeling a life that looks like Jesus.

The Watcher

I found an interesting blog written by a mom reporting an interaction with her 6 year old daughter.  After church, the mom's daughter took her 1 year old sister to play on the fenced playground while her mom and dad talked with friends within eyeshot.  After a period of time, the mom offered to hold the one year old so the six year old could play on her own.  The six year old responded, "It's ok mom.  I love watching her.  It's fun for me. I'm the shepherd, and she's my little sheep."  This was an obvious reference to the bible story that she had learned in church, but the statement, "I love watching her" struck a chord with the mom.  We have heard that Jesus loves us thousands of times, but the fact that Jesus loves watching us shines a whole new light on our relationship.   It can be very comforting to know Jesus is there - and also frightening that He is also watching us when we aren't acting like we should.  It is beautiful that children can sometimes describe the truth so clearly.  Maybe that's why Jesus directed us to become like little children.   I hope you can see God and His creation through the eyes of a child today.  For the full original post, click here.

Cece and Whit

I was looking for some good worship music this morning and came across "The Goodness of God".  The song was written by Jenn Johnson of Bethel Music about 4 years ago, but was recently covered by CeCe Winans.  Cece has 15 Grammy's, more than any other Christian artist, and she shows why in her cover of this great song.   I also saw this morning that Cece was best friends with Whitney Houston.   I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when they were singing together.  I guess this is the next best thing.   All praise to God for gifting Cece with immense talent, and to Cece for using that talent for His glory.