Testimony

camel or comrade?

lets just say that camaraderie is like water. camels don't need much. are you a camel or a comrade?

i was reading about camels, for no particular reason, but noticed a number of things about camels that relate to the idea of camaraderie, or the lack there of.

camels don't need water the way we need it. yeah, they need it, but not like us. i was reading that a camel can lose up to 20-25% of its body weight due to sweating before it is in danger of health risks... if the human body loses only 15% of body weight through dehydration it goes into cardiac failure! the lack of water will actually destroy your heart's chances of survival.

camels are set up for water retention. if we retain water we get depressed... haha, that was a joke.

seriously though, a camel's nostrils are created to reintegrate moisture, when they sweat (only once their body temp reaches 106) most of the sweat helps cool their body below their coat. a camel's kidneys and intestines are so efficient in saving water their urine comes out like syrup and their feces comes out so dry you could start a fire with it immediately.

everything about a camel has been fine tuned to retain water and to survive in a dry climate.

we are not that way. we just aren't. we need water. we show symptoms of dehydration after losing only 2% of our normal water volume. we need it.

camaraderie is like water to my soul. i need it more than most things.

now, i think we each make a decision. camel or comrade. look at your life. are you a camel, do you live like you don't need anyone, are your relationships surface and for the purpose of accomplishing a goal, or are you a comrade to those around you?

if tomorrow you were suddenly surrounded with a new life and new people and you could no longer be in relationship with those you know now, would you weep for the loss of their camaraderie?

i'm not asking if you would be sad you wouldn't see them anymore or for a while. would you miss their camaraderie? camaraderie is the quality of affording easy familiarity and sociability. do you offer that to others, are you in relationship with people that offer it to you?

i don't want to be a camel. i want to be human. and being human means i need water regularly. it means i need camaraderie. i think you need it too.

i will do my best to give it to you and will be thankful when i receive it from you.

long awaiting

cyndi and i have not been on a legitimate vacation since our honeymoon in May of 2002, so this next week is something we have been long awaiting.

we're taking the family down to Daytona Beach in Florida and we're going to just sit on the beach for a week. i won't be answering my phone or email. i may twitter, but i won't be communicating with anyone else but my family.

some of you know this isn't going to be easy completely. i like being connected. i like talking to people and texting and twittering and all that. but my family needs my undivided attention more. i'm reading a book called "The Rest of God" by Mark Buchanan about sabbath. not many people celebrate sabbath.

i used the word celebrate intentionally. often sabbath is something 'observed' and sometimes begrudgingly. we celebrate at church and birthdays and weddings, but in rest, we often feel like we are just waiting for the rest to be over. that isn't rest. that isn't sabbath.

i am going to attempt sabbath in this next week. rest from work, and hopefully experience the rest of my family.

sabbath was made for man, not the other way around. it isn't supposed to be a legalistic weight of waiting. it is supposed to be a coronation of the deepness of God meeting with the shallowness of our own hearts. without it, we waste away. with it we learn that we truly are wasting nothing in resting.

a friend of mine once told me that God can do more with six days than we can do with seven.

i'm hoping to continue a consistent celebration of sabbath even after our long awaited vacation has ended. i encourage you to seek out sabbath and if you feel unable, ask God to show you his rest and how you can get to a place of consistent sabbath and finding the rest of God.

new and unmoved

this sunday marked the beginning of a new chapter in the life of The Vine, we moved into our new facility and held our first services at a new address. everything was new! okay, not everything...it was the same worship band and pastors and sound board and offering baskets and etc. etc....

pastor david made some incredible observations about progress and moving forward and you can go listen to his first sermon in the new facility here.

lately i've been reading a lot of the old testament, and have been taking in all the times the temple and city of jerusalem was destroyed and rebuilt and destroyed and rebuilt...or built in the first place for that matter.

God has always been clear about one thing, from the days of a moving tent (the israelites were the first mobile church) to the days of solomon's great temple...God's home is not in a tent or a building and cannot be restrained to a location or contained in one place.

neither is God a destination. we are on and in a journey "toward" God, but God is not "somewhere". God is here. God is there. God is everywhere. so we may move, but God remains unmoved. God was just as much in the last location as in the new location.

we are continually beginning and entering newness, but nothing is new to God. God is not new; God is not old...God is.

so what we are doing now, is new, but God is unmoved.

what we know for sure is God is seeking those that will worship Him in spirit and in truth...and without getting into what that means, because i've heard 10 differing interpretations on that, what is clear is that spirit and truth has nothing to do with location and everything to do with state of being.

bigger and newer things can make you think you have arrived or that you can relax and sit back... but i know this about myself; i don't need a big new building or anything else that would give the sense of 'arriving' to lull me into complacency...i will do that all on my own.

and then is when i choose... be present with God or be present in a place. be aware of the movement of Jesus and the Spirit all around me, or think about the next thing i have to do.

though God is unmoved, we are being called to be moved. though the world continually pushes and prods for the new and improved, i want to see the new and unmoved.

no limit dippin'

see that sauce in the middle? did you know if you want extra Zax Sauce at Zaxby's it costs $.25? can you think of another fast food joint that charges for dipping sauce?

think about Arby's or Chick-fil-A or McDonald's or any of the many restaurants that have a slew of dipping sauces. not one of them charges for extra sauce. as a matter of fact, many of them have keg like dispensers of their signature sauces. no limit dipping.

i wonder how many customers Zaxby's has lost because their sauce costs extra if they want more than one, or if they'd like some sauce for a meal that didn't include any already? it may seem incidental, but people can be fickle. i wonder what you think? should it be free like so many of the others?

i of course apply all these little things i notice to the church. what is the church's "signature sauce"? is it something that should be free? or should it cost something?

oh! like grace maybe? or maybe something else? what do you think?

i remember when i was a kid and i'd go to Arby's. i would take my sandwich over to the Arby's sauce pump and literally drown my sandwich in sauce. i really can't recall the taste of the roast beef even, only the sauce. how much money would Arby's save by charging for anything over half an ounce? would they lose that in additional sales lost due to their sauce snobbery?

so again, what is the church's signature sauce and do we or should we hand it out freely, even if used in excess, or should it be rationed?

choose your battles...

I read something interesting about Conflict in 2 Chronicles yesterday. I had never noticed this before.

Josiah was a great king. He rid the nation of foreign Gods like no other had, celebrated Passover in a way no other king had, but at the end of his reign he died because of an avoidable battle.

He didn't know the difference between his battle and "a" battle. He takes his army out to meet King Neco, who is on his way to fight an unnamed enemy. King Neco tells Josiah not to get involved because God is for him and Josiah would lose.

Then the bible says something strange, it says King Neco was right. God was with this king from Egypt. But Josiah disguises himself and they battle anyway and Josiah is killed with a random arrow.

I started wondering why he fought. Was it an old grudge against Egypt? Was King Neco on his way to battle one of Josiah's friends? We're not really told.

What we are told is King Josiah died pointlessly in a battle that wasn't his business and ended up fighting against the God he loved and served more faithfully than most of the kings in Jerusalem.

Because he didn't know the difference between his battle and "a" battle, he died.

It is particularly sad to read what happens to his people and his country in the following few months and years because of his death. This is an important lesson for me and think its worth asking the question to you....

What battles are you fighting? Any chance you're actually fighting against God?

I get the sneaking suspicion Josiah thought God could never be with or for a King from Egypt...and sometimes we may be convinced God couldn't be in or for or with this or that or the other, and we open our mouth and disagree before seeking God to make sure we aren't really fighting him in the name of fighting "a" battle.

be like me, be like me, be like me, lie to me

i'm pretty convinced it is ingrained into our nature to expect others to be like us. in other words, we crave uniformity.

when you are a certain type of person, you tend to feel this more than others. i think creatives feel this a ton. creatives tend to be stereotyped to oblivion...they're lazy, unorganized, messy, late, procrastinators, with untucked shirts, uncut hair, pierced everything, and no money.

these are of course are all lies, but are all true. i have been lazy, unorganized, messy, late, procrastinated, left my shirt untucked when it was 'appropriate' to tuck it in, left my hair ragged even when it makes people uncomfortable, pierced my ears 5 times and my eyebrow and can be known as something of a mooch.

now. i have been these things, and many 'creatives' have been these things, not nearly always all of them at once, and even if they were, why are some so uncomfortable with it? the answer is often, but not always, uniformity.

i have a friend that works at a large church and has been there for around 8 years. she is a creative to the very fiber of her being. she has been overlooked, ignored and devalued time and time again over the course of that time. after as long as she has been around, she is starting to gain some ground. after nearing a decade, the need for her to look the same, act the same, be the same, has started to decrease...dare i say some have even celebrated her.

i knew another creative that was basically told 'if you would cut your hair and dress nicer you would probably be on staff at this church already.'

and yes, creatives do it too...judging the straight lace.

we walk about life saying 'be like me, be like me, be like me..." and what we are really saying is 'i'd rather you lie to me.' we are more comfortable with people lying about themselves to fit in than celebrating who they really are.

so who are you?
are you willing to let people tell the truth?
be like you

Insane Campaign Explained Video...

pass this on to everyone you know by copying and pasting this link...
http://www.hurl.ws/472w

things i've learned (am learning)

a couple days ago i went through all of my journals and made a list of important things i've written down in the past 8 years or so... many are from people i look up to, some are from moments i've had with God... let me know which ones resonate with you

• callousness is the devil's home
• seek God first before everything else
• buy wisdom
• bow your soul
• submit to leadership
• be aware
• be careful about being too smart
• you don't learn grace only once
• obedience is highly valued
• God wants your character to rise to the level of your ability
• its about knowing the Father
• be genuinely interested in others
• be diligent with what is in front of you
• grow in competency 
• it takes 2 years to work your first day and 4 years to really know someone
• confess to God and man
• as soon as you're afraid to lose it, you've lost it
• be a living tool
• the sabbath is a matter of life and death
• there is peace in serving others
• God resists the proud
• structure is key
• don't succeed at something that doesn't matter
• don't ask for "staying power", but for His power
• let God do what God will do
• a fool is full of opinions
• discipline is the bridge between desire and delight
• what will your sin cost me?
• there are no such things as secrets
• all my fountains are in Him
• feelings lie
• focusing on morality doesn't produce morality
• the kingdom of God is wherever Jesus is king
• add value to people
• stay on the altar
• being a christian is about becoming
• there are certain things that will never be your role
• in the absence of leadership, lead
• do little things well
• a spiritually bored church is boring to the lost
• judas couldn't sell the perfume, so he sold Jesus...what are you selling?
• it is always good to remember what God has done
• i get to choose how i believe
• let the peace of Christ rule in your heart
• the grumbler lives in a state of self-induced stress
• there is a direct relation between how thankful you are and the strength of your faith
• am i more concerned with God's kingdom or mine?
• couch yourself as a learner
• i am here to prepare others for acts of service
• we are unnecessarily dramatic people
• grow in awareness of the impact of every moment
• all the world knows He is God
• be supportive, not suspicious 
• His words are life and breath, so breath deep
• don't go to Hagar for what is promised in Sarah
• don't live on yesterday's faith
• when we get ridiculous we see things no one has seen before
• being disciplined harvests righteousness and peace
• don't answer when not asked
• don't confuse being a witness with being a participant
• if you have a problem mouth, you have a problem heart
• we live our lives through the window of eternity because faith is what convinces us we're not crazy
• there reason some pastors don't worship is they are used to being worshipped
• the holy spirit brings rest
• integrity can be caught
• you have to be a good follower to be a good leader
• connect with God through hiddenness
• you reproduce who you are
• innocence is important
• he is not like us
• like completes love
• we don't lead people to where we are but to who God is
• you will attract more birds with bread than with stones
• we represent the Father with every moment and every word
• its better to deal with it now, not letting it define you, than to wait and always struggle
• don't worship God with something that cost you nothing
• God doesn't want our information, but our realization
• careful when "evaluating" not to be "elevating" yourself
• do your best to value the people above the process
• unity requires intentionality 
• learn the difference between the need to "confront" and the desire to "control"

imaginary lines

We draw imaginary lines habitually, like an addict distracted from what is really happening in front of us because of our internal knee-jerk need to get a fix, we draw lines.

A good example is the Insane Campaign we are doing at The Vine. I sent the support letter to everyone in my email explaining how we are trying to finish a facility to benefit the kingdom of God in the area of Braselton, Georgia. One response I got basically asked me not to send this letter to anyone from “their” church.

A line was drawn because this person didn’t understand and they have good reason to think the people from their church wouldn’t understand why a person from one church would give dollars to another church in America.

Now, that same person or same church has no problem when a missionary to another country asks for dollars to help finish a facility to expand the kingdom of God in that non-North American area. Why the line?

Think about when Paul from the Bible would go on missions, the churches he had started helped support the ones he was now starting, and they all basically would have fit within a geographic location smaller than the United States.

Can you imagine people writing Paul back and saying, “We won’t be supporting this particular venture of yours because it’s relatively close geographically. If you however choose to travel further away, beyond our own country’s border, we would consider helping.”

Lines are stupid. God didn’t put these lines here. Its ridiculous.