Notes from Sunday

The following are some of the notes from Kinnaman's talk at CCV.

What is our motive as we follow Christ?
-Make disciples or make Christians to occupy buildings?

Christianity no longer looks like Jesus intended it to look.
-This is a difficult statement to make and even more difficult to understand.
-The message of Jesus will be offensive does mean that we have to offend.

What are the images of our faith?
How are they being expressed in our lives?

Depth in our faith.
-We've embraced Jesus, but haven't become disciples.
-He shared a freakish stat about the amount of Christians that don't embrace a Biblical world view. If you've read the book you've seen this chart.

He shared from Luke 7.
-Jesus feet are anointed with oil by the sinful woman.
-Jesus tells the parable of forgiven debt

She gave because she was forgiven much by Jesus. Simon didn't give because he embraced an idea, but not a faith with depth. His faith was a barrier to others and not a bridge.

Is your life a spiritual barrier to others?

Valley of the sun

So, I was fortunate to spend a couple of days in one of my favorite places this week. Phoenix...it is a great city. Sure it's busy, you can see the air, traffic is as backed up as a guy who ate too much cheese. But I love it and it's nice to feel surrounded by people. There's something comforting about it.

I'm heading back there tomorrow to here David Kinnaman share about his new book unChristian. It's excellent and is a must read for anyone who takes their faith seriously. He will be sharing at the alternative service at CCV.

In preparation for tomorrow, I've been searching my heart. I would like to think I'm culturally savvy enough to take on any subject. But, I think that's my biggest issue. Pride. I'm all of the chapters in that book and it's embarrassing. I need redemption from it all. I need hope and grace to navigate through this life.

In the midst of this crappy reality. I seek to follow Jesus. Praying that humility will be embodied in my life on the road ahead.

It dawned on me how much opportunity I have to cling to hope. Hope is the fuel for living in a timely way with timeless faith.

Allergies

For as long as I can remember I've been allergic to something. Milk when I was little. Penicillin when I was a toddler. Girls when I was in junior high. Bills when I was in college. When I was young, my mom would always warn me to avoid cats and so I did with a holy passion. Unfortunately, last year I found out I'm allergic to dogs and everything else in Kansas. Allergies, they suck, really bad. For those of you fortunate enough to not battle allergies. I heart you.

I was reading about some organic vitamins that would help me lose visceral fat, rest better and fight against harmful allergens. And I thought, sweet, let's go for it and then I read reviews of the products through amazon and the comments spoke to otherwise. My hopes crushed..

I say this because this morning while David was wiping his eyes like an old lady at a Neil Diamond concert, it donned on me that we all could move to Hawaii. Because everyone from the midwest moves here to get away from allergies, but then it sunk in that there is more green in Hawaii than there is in Kansas. Although we might accidentally run into the cast members of Lost and make the journey totally worth it.

Fellow allergy sufferers I feel your pain. I heard Iceland has no allergy issues. Maybe that would work?

Catching up...

Today was a beautiful day. The weather is so nice here that at times I have to scratch myself to remember that I live in Arizona in the mountains. What an incredible gift to live, work, raise kids in such an amazing place.

Don't get me wrong, I loved Manhattan. The sun didn't come out quite as often as it does here.

I'm trying this blogging thing out. My friend Chris encouraged me to try. Of course his blogs kicks butt and mine reads like the part of the paper that you take to the bathroom with you just to make it through the experience.

For better or worse, I'm here and I will apologize in advance. :)