Friends! Part One

Posted by Pastor D | Posted on 12-01-2010

Category : Amazing things, Community, Connections, Cultural Relevance, Family Matters, Lifestyle, Relationships, Uncategorized, example, how ya' livin'

Alright folks… We are back into the Friends blog series. I took off for a few days. It is back! Remember, we are looking at a biblical view of friendship. I think one thing that can inspire us about friendships are examples of friendships. When we look at the bible we see David and Jonathan. David was the up and coming young man who would eventually be King of Israel and Jonathan was the song of the now king and he himself was next in line. Did you get it? David was going to be king and Jonathan was next in line, but not going to be king. With all of this they were the best of friends in spite of the differences and what could have been a point of contention they loved each other very much. When I look for a modern day example I have to go a little younger than David and Jonathan, but effective nonetheless.

I wish I had a picture with me to post so you can see, but maybe i will post it tomorrow for you. At any rate, the example of the David and Jonathan friendship I am referring to is my daughter Aria and her BFF Kendi. However,  i think BFF may be a little light to describe the love shared. Check this out;

  • They refer to each other as sisters
  • They have unconditional love for each other
  • They get excited to wear the same things
  • They have some of the same pains
  • They cry when they leave each other

I could go on about these things, but I won’t for fear of typing too much. In a matter of speaking their friendship is awesome and so the kind of thing God wants us to show to our friends. Our families are pretty close to each other, but these two trump even that. :-) The friendship they share is so special. I pray quite often that the friendship they have now will remain forever. My pastor back home in Los Angeles refers to his friends as being knittogether in the spirit. If there were even any two people that fit this mold my daughter Aria and Kendi do %100.

Okay, there is our friendship example and we will jump into some practical stuff tomorrow…

Peace!

Friends!

Posted by Pastor D | Posted on 07-01-2010

Category : Community, Connections, Cultural Relevance, Daily Babble, Family Matters, Lessons, Lifestyle, Uncategorized, how ya' livin'

Okay, don’t leave the blog yet! Finish the read. I know you are saying, “Friends, what’s that about?” Yes, I did watch the show Friends, but that is not what this is about, at least not directly. A few days ago I published a Twitter and Facebook update about God’s design for friendship and how it is mentioned in the bible. One of my Facebook friends asked where? So, this is my attempt to answer that question.

I will not jump into anything today, but over the next day or so I will be laying out some of what the bible says in regards to friendships. There are things that we are supposed to be in friendships and ways that friendships can bless us. I read a tweet this morning that asked the question, “Don’t you wish you had friends like Ross, Chandler, Joey, Monica, Rachel and Phoebe?” Hmmm….

See you tomorrow ~ Peace!

Wii Are Family

Posted by Pastor D | Posted on 05-01-2010

Category : Community, Connections, Cultural Relevance, Family Matters, Lessons, Lifestyle, Uncategorized, example

Ok, maybe this post is a little bit late, but it works for me. I say it is late because many of you reading that already have the Wii. Our family just got ours recently. So yes, we are on the late freight. it’s all good though. :-) In a time when family time is so devalued the Wii has hit the remedy spot on. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that the good folk at Nintendo have come up with the cure for every family ill, but I am saying they help with family time. Most families do not eat dinner together nor do they spend any time together. I love hangin’ with my family. We eat together, we hang together and we just enjoy being around each other. Now that the Wii has come into play we have begun to be (as if we weren’t already) competitive with one another. The Wii has not made their platform so that young men and old will be mesmerized by a screen with a headset to their ear playing combat, sports or other games into the wee hours of the night/morning. The sole premise of the Wii was to get families to play.

Notice if you will. All of the games have interactivity. All of the games or at least most of them encourage multi player involvement. Their focus is not on killer graphics as with other gaming systems (nope… I am not knocking any of them), but their focus is on us. Who is us? It is the family. I am not saying everyone in the world needs to head to the stores and buy a Wii (as if you could find one…lol), but I am applauding an admirable aim set by the Wii to encourage family time and interactivity.

This is by no means an exhaustive review. It is just my two cents. Peace!

Mistakes I Made ~ Part 2

Posted by Pastor D | Posted on 14-12-2009

Category : Church Planting, Church Stuff, Community, Cultural Relevance, Daily Babble, Family Matters, Launch Team, Lessons, Smart Stuff, Spiritual Fitness, Uncategorized, example, how ya' livin'

mistakeHere we go again. Remember, we are examining some mistakes we have made in our own individual lives and the steps we are taking to remedy those mistakes. I hope that you can take a look at how you have overcome some of your own mistakes while taking a gander at how I have screwed up. Admitting mistakes is always a humbling process. Many times we think we have it all together, but life always takes advantage of proving otherwise.

The mistake I want to take a peek at today is the mistake of doing it all yourself. This is almost always a surefire way to fail or reach burnout and maybe both. This is where I have been when dealing with pastoring a church. Now that we are on a path to launching a brand new movement I look back over things and say whew! I mean it. I get tired just thinking about all of the stuff I did on my own. I set up the sanctuary, children’s ministry and guest area. I set up the media which included video camera, laptop, projection and all sound. Wait, there’s more… I also led praise and worship, prayed, did announcements, raised the offering and preached. Aaargh! Is that a lot. I would say so. I have learned for future reference that doing it all is NOTa good thing. This happens to each of us in our home and work environments we try to do it all and reach burnout. The sad part about it is that the people around us will let us do it all and replace us when it is over.

A way to remedy this is to release people around us to get busy and do things as well as gathering people around you can and want to do things. my though was that I did not want to pressure people to step up and there was a fact that i had been burned before in regards to this. So, I said “I will just do it all” and if someone helps they help and if not it’s okay. In hindsight I can see that was such a stupid way of thinking and one that will definitely not be repeated. My lesson learned is to always get away from doing it all on your own. sometimes circumstances will necessitate doing it on your own, but that should only be for a while. After that point. Spread the love, share the joy and distribute the workload. Until tomorrow… Peace!!!

You Do NOT Know EVERYTHING!

Posted by Pastor D | Posted on 19-11-2009

Category : Amazing things, Community, Connections, Cultural Relevance, Daily Babble, Family Matters, Kids say the darndest things, Uncategorized, example

My kids love to play on the computer. My daughter likes to play on sites like www.barbie.com ~ www.petpalz.com etc., etc., etc. My son on the other land loves to watch Ninja Turtles online as well as play on www.nickjr.com as well as the Transformers section of the www.hasbro.com site. This is what he was doing the other night. Let me start by saying that my son is fiercely independent and headstrong, which can be a detriment if he does not learn to balance it. He was building robots online. I’ll tell you the truth, it is pretty cool. We have done this several times before and it is one his favorite things. Once he builds it, he prints it out. Homemade robots, BAM! While he was building he came up against a few obstacles that caused him to get really frustrated. I would ask him if he needed help during the difficult times. He would say no. I would come over to help him and he would push my hand away and say no. After he played a while longer he wanted to play another Transformers game. He could not find the game and he got upset again, but a little more upset this time. I asked him could I help him and then I came over to the computer to help. He was frustrated and said no, telling me he did not need help. All the while he continued to try to do what he did not know how to do. This made him even more frustrated. This is crazy, right? I told him “You need help because you do not know everything.”

 

God says this same thing to us on several occasions. We try to do things in life on our own strength and with our own knowledgebase, which is pretty small. When we compare what God can do and what God knows to what we can do and what we know there is no comparison. This is the same way with my son. I know so much more and am so much stronger than my son. In several situations I could help him get through if he would let me. God feels the same way. We make the journey harder than it really needs to be because we insist on doing it our own way with no help. I am sure we can all take a look back over the past week and see something we tried to do on our own and without God. It always ends up a mess. Quick lesson: When Jesus left the disciples He left them the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is called the Comforter or the Paraclete (helper). The whole motive behind the Holy Spirit is to be our helper. Why would we have someone who desires to be a helper, but refuse the help? That is insane and makes no sense. The more my son tried to do it on his own the more frustrated he would get. I would then get frustrated watching him because all I wanted to do was help him. Not only do we frustrate ourselves, but we frustrate the purposes of God because we do not invite Him in as the helper to everything we do. Does this sound uber-spiritual? Maybe, but the truth behind it is that we need to invite Him in to help and insure no further frustration. I have looked back to see this in my own life and I am learning more and more that a simple way to easy situational frustration is to invite God into where I am. How about you? Will you begin to invite God in so you can get help and ease your frustration?

This Is How WE Do It!

Posted by Pastor D | Posted on 04-11-2009

Category : Community, Cultural Relevance, Daily Babble, Family Matters, Purpose Church, Spiritual Fitness, Uncategorized, example, how ya' livin', witness

Anybody remember the 90′s? Me and one of my buddies from back home reminisce on the 90′s quite often. We talk about the music that was out back then. You know, hip-hop, R&B, etc., etc. That decade spawned some classic music. One of the bangers that came out then and still plays well even today is called This Is How We Do It!This was a song penned and sung by Montell Jordan. He is a West Coast guy as am I (Los Angeles in the house…) The song talked about the way Los Angeles people did things and how we do them in Los Angeles. The song talks about the phenomena of driving a black SUV or a 64 Impala low rider. The songs displayed several things that are native to Los Angeles. I think as Christians we also need to have that same king of song. There needs to be a This Is How We Do It kind of mentality.

There are several Christ followers that are in the marketplace. All Christians do not work in the church. There are Christians in politics, advertising, sports, network media, corporate America and the like. They are everywhere. When Christians are in this arena there is a lot of observation going on where we are concerned. Let me rephrase that. There are a lot of people watching what Christians do. Surprisingly this line often gets blurred. It gets blurred because what other people do they see Christians do the exactsame thing when it hits us. That messes up our witness to people who do not follow Christ. Answer the question; Why would a non-believer want to follow the Christ we talk about when they see us trippin’ the same way they do when life hits. We need to be the guy who does not give the fleeting glance and make the comment about the beautiful woman passing by. We need to be ones who do not laugh at the inappropriate joke when other people think it is funny. When frustration hits we do not need to be the ones cussing and going crazy like others may do. Why? People are watching what is being done by us who name the name of Jesus. The truth of the matter is people are way more moved by what they see than what they hear. The words of what we say are infused with power by what we have let people see. The song This Is How We Do It said regardless of how people in other cities do it, in Los Angeles we do it like this. I think that is awesome! How many times are we able to validly tell non-believers This Is How We Do It? I know it is not politically correct to say us and them, but there is an us and them in every arena. That is just how it is. There are executives and there are entry level. There are starters and there is the bench. Can you see what I am saying here? So, if there is an us and them that mean them are watching us to see if it being us even matters. Let’s have our conduct, lives, thoughts, decision and words line up with what Christ says and what the bible teaches. It is when we roll this way that we can say This Is How We Do It…..

What Can’t Daddy Do?

Posted by Pastor D | Posted on 23-10-2009

Category : Amazing things, Community, Connections, Daily Babble, Family Matters, Kids say the darndest things, Spiritual Fitness, Uncategorized, example

brokenYesterday my son and daughter were playing in the garage while my wife was gone. They wanted to ride their scooters in the garage. That was cool, they were ready to have fun. However, my son goes to get his scooter from the rack (Spiderman scooter, that is) and he sees that the plate is broken. You know the plates that hang on bike handlebars? He saw it was broken and was not a happy camper. He says to me “daddy my thing is broken on my scooter.” I immediately jump into action to begin repairs. He says to me, “daddy, but it’s missing the piece that holds it.” Right there I had light bulb moment (you just have to visualize the light bulb above my head). Once I told him that I would fix it he then proceeded to tell me what else was wrong with it that would stop me from fixing it. I said WOW!

This is the exact same thing we do to God when we are seeking restoration, fixing of broken things and the list goes on. We let God know the issue and then we proceed to tell God what else is wrong as if to say that the extra issue will make it impossible for God to do. You have got to be kidding me. :-) We tend to judge God’s ability to make things happen based on our own. We think it makes it tougher for God to handle when we see all of the broken pieces we have to deal with. We know that the bible says nothing is impossible for God. Things may cause us to go nuts, but that is not a big deal to God. My son was upset because He did not know how his scooter plate would get fixed, but I already had the plan for fixing and knew what needed to be done and nothing else He could say would make it harder to do. The next time we get into a jam and need some fixin’, some adjustment or restoration let’s not judge it on our terms, but by the One who are after to fix it.

GPS & Me… Part Two

Posted by Pastor D | Posted on 03-09-2009

Category : Amazing things, Church Planting, Church Stuff, Community, Connections, Cultural Relevance, Daily Babble, Family Matters, Purpose Church, Spiritual Fitness, Uncategorized, example

gpsHey everybody! It has been a few days since I have visited my blog. I wanted to jump back on the horse and continue with this GPS & Me blog series. I mentioned earlier that I love my GPS and do not know what I would do without it while I am going places that I have no idea where to go. The GPS whether on your phone or a Tom-Tom is invaluable in that it guides you places and it really useful when you are driving far away. This series is all about how me and maybe some of you out there relate God to the GPS.

One thing that gets me about the GPS is when I feel like it is telling me to go the wrong way I disobey it. Whoa! In our recent drive to Destin I wanted to go a certain way because I felt the GPS did not know what it was talking about. Everytime I have gone the way my feelings said the GPS in her kind voice had to reroute me. How many times when we are moving on our journey with God do we try to go another way because we do not like the way it feels the wayGod is leading us? That is a real question that I think lots of us can agree with. Many times while God (being our GPS) takes us somewhere on our journey we do not like the direction He gives because it does not feel right or better yet, it does not agree with our own internal sense of feeling. How about that? The elect5ronic GPS does not like that and neither does God. God knows what He is talking about and where He is leading us regardless of how we feel. I have come to the conclusion that God is not so much concerned with our comfortability as He is with our obedience in following Him. If you have lived any amount of time you know that following God does not always feel the best. God operates and gives accurate directions because of the perspective that He is viewing from. God is outside of time and we are in it. When you are outside of a situation it is much easier to see it in its entirety with an acute clarity.  Just like the GPS satellite that looks from space God sees differently.

Be encouraged while travelling in life and know that the direction will not always feel good, but it will always lead you to where you need to go. Join us tomorrow as we will talk about Keeping an ear to the voice!

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