50% of each purchase will go directly to Church of The Messiah, a mission organization in Guatemala.  Church of the Messiah began in 1974 as one church.  Since then it has grown to 17 churches across their entire country as well as schools and medical clinics.

LIST OF DEVOTIONALS

BENEFITS

EXCERPT

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God…

~Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)

Each of the four Gospels has a slightly different telling of the Christmas story, but did you know that Paul also told the Christmas story in Romans? The following passage from Romans 8 is not traditionally thought of as a “Christmas passage”, but the Message translation certainly opens our eyes to a new way of looking at Christmas.

God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem [of sin] as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.

~Romans 8:3-4 (MSG)

With nativity sets, ornaments, paintings and carols we typically picture Christmas as an innocently sweet scene. Yet from sin’s perspective Christmas was the first blow of God’s redemptive war hammer! When Satan peered into the stable, he didn’t see sweet little angels, sheep and swaddling clothes. He saw a mighty warrior waiting to burst forth from the manger and free humanity from sin’s slavery. He saw the first battle in a war that he would eventually lose.

The next time you look at that little nativity set or sing carols about the birth of Christ remember that God indeed went for sin’s jugular. He personally put on an earth suit, came onto the scene and made war against sin and death. Christmas was the bugle call informing the forces of Hell that they would soon be defeated!

Activity:

Look at nativity set or a picture and imagine Satan’s perspective of this scene.  How does it make you feel to know that this precious baby would ultimately become the most powerful warrior of all time?

Prayer:

Lord, let us see Christmas in a new light.  This year let us not only see Your love and beauty.  Let us also see Your power!

Yes, I’m a ridiculously fanatical Star Wars lover. I’ve collected Star Wars memorabilia since 1977 and I still enjoy collecting today. Two friends suggested that I write some kind of post about Star Wars and small groups, so here goes. All small groups have a few stereotypical people in them. Today we’ll give faces to a few of these group-member-stereotypes by comparing them to classic Star Wars characters.

Obi Wan Kenobi — The noble group leader who is trying to get a diverse bunch of people on the same page. He understands spiritual growth and the need everyone in the group has for it.  He’s not perfect though: he has martyr issues.

Luke Skywalker — The naive group member who dreams of things to come, and needs to become a little more connected with reality. This person has potential, but needs a lot of growth.

Han Solo — The cocky small group member who is a tough nut to crack.  He acts like he’s got everything together on the surface, but underneath he has real issues and needs the friendship-bond of faith far more than he realizes.

Chewbacca — The group member who seldom says anything, but is loyal to the rest of the group no matter what.

Princess Leia — The group member who recognizes the necessity of small groups and has a “whatever it takes” attitude when it comes to fulfilling the vision of small group ministry.  She asserts herself into a co-leader role whether or not she’s been asked to serve in that capacity.  Although she’s really committed to the group, NEVER ask her about the problem she has with kissing her brother.

See Threepio — Every group has “that person”: the super-needy, always complaining, never optimistic, paranoid, downer who is at the same time the group’s plucky comic relief.

Artoo Deetoo — The group servant.  He loves to help and make sure that everyone feels important. Everyone loves him to the extent that he’s almost the group mascot.

Aunt Beru — The “hostess” of the group.  She loves to bringing food and being the group “mom”.  She’s really nice, but don’t drink her blue milk.  It’s good for you, but tastes like Degoba swamp water.

Yoda — The small group coach who shows up from time to time with great advice and insight.  He makes group life look and sound easy, but his coaching is sometimes hard to put into practice.  He also has a slight tendency to talk over group members’ heads.  Plus that whole backwards-speak thing is just weird.  ”Out you must go, for your mission to succeed.”  I mean, seriously, who talks like that?!?!?

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I’ll never forget reading Brad Powell’s Change Your Church For Good:  The Art of Sacred Cow Tipping. It made me weep.  I wept because Brad accurately described so many churches I know and have been a part of.  They are churches who were once effectively reaching people, but they crept into decline.

I was reading the book on an airplane and looked out the window at the city below.  Within eyeshot there were hundreds of thousands of people living without the hope of Jesus.  Also within my view there were many churches like the ones described above.  It was too much for me to bear and I began to cry.  The guy next to me thought I was nuts, but I didn’t care.

Why do churches decline?  Why do churches lose their effectiveness and forget their mission? Powell answers those questions insightfully so I won’t try to answer them here.  I will say this though:  no one started any of those churches with the hope that they would one day plateau and decline.  No one started those churches desiring that they would lose sight of their vision and mission.  No one planted their churches designing them to die.  Rather, people made tremendous sacrifices to start those churches so that they would each be “the getting saved place”.

Let us never forget why the church exists.  It doesn’t exist to meet the needs of a fattening congregation.  The church exists for the same reason that Jesus came to earth:  to reach a dying and hurting world.  Let us recall our heritage of evangelism and doing whatever it takes to reach people who don’t know Jesus.  Let us fall on our knees broken before a Holy God and repent of our self centered sin.  Let us all again make each of our churches “the getting saved place.”

Consider this thought for a moment:  the greatest obstacle between you and what you want may be the very thing(s) that you want.  What do I mean?  The Apostle Peter says it far better than I ever could:

Since Jesus went through everything you’re going through and more, learn to think like him. Think of your sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get your own way. Then you’ll be able to live out your days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what you want.   1 Peter 4:1-2 (The Message)

Think of the thing(s) you so desperately want to acquire or achieve.  Then ask God to reveal if His desire for your life is different than your desire.  If you find that His desires and yours don’t align, spend the next week fasting and praying to discover what God wants and pursue that instead.  There is no better or safer place to be than in the center of God’s will for your life.

Groupon and Living Social are two super-hot websites that allow consumers to get great deals on products and services.  Similarly, Only144 is a new site that offers incredible deals to churches.

I’m writing about them today because they are having an amazing sale on some great small group curriculum.  Mark Driscoll, Tommy Nelson, and Matt Chandler have just finished three studies that are now available for small groups.  On Friday, July 29, 2011 Only144 is going to sell all three of these curriculums together for $144. The normal price for all three is $600, so that’s a savings of over 78%!!!

To help promote the sale, I’ve been authorized by Only144 to give away a set of all three curriculums to one reader.  To be eligible to win, you must leave a comment below answering the following question:  What is your favorite, funny one-liner?

TIP: Can’t think of a one liner, or don’t think you’re funny enough to enter? Click Here for help.

The one I think is funniest will win all three curriculums valued at $600!!  I’ll choose a winner on Friday, July 22 and notify you by email, so be sure to include a valid email address with your comment.

I haven’t gone anywhere, I’ve just been busy.  At New Life Bible Church we’re in the middle of a series called “Summer Blockbusters.” In this series we take a movie each week and teach a Biblical message that is found in the story of the film.  The idea isn’t original to me, we got the idea from LifeChurch.tv, but our people have LOVED it!!

Preparing for this series was not easy. It took lots of preparation, prayer, and just plain hard work. As a result, I found myself faced with some choices about how I was spending my time.

My priorities have always been simple and clear:

1. Christ first.
2. Family second.
3. Ministry third.

Blogging falls into the third category.

I love to blog, but recently I had to choose to neglect blogging for the sake of other priorities. The tasks on my ministry plate were overwhelmingly many and I decided that, for a season, blogging had to go. I discovered (if I wanted to badly enough) I could have kept blogging, but it would have taken away from my first two priorities.

The reasons I’m writing this post today are three-fold:

1. I’ve got time again. The pace of this series is behind me so I’m back to blogging.
2. I wanted to let my readers know what’s been going on with me.
3. I hope you’ll evaluate your own priorities.

While I didn’t like dropping my blog for a while, I did find the exercises in prioritization to be very helpful for my own personal growth. It’s always good to stop and really evaluate how I’m spending my time. It forces me to evaluate and remember what’s truly important. The exciting thing about the crazy season I’ve been in is that I’ve been even more intentional about my time with Jesus and my time with my family. I’ve missed blogging, and I’ve missed you (my readers) but I haven’t missed the relationships in my life that are most important.

I’d like to say that I always make the right choices regarding Christ and my family, but unfortunately I can’t. I’ve blown my priorities plenty over the years. I am glad to say, however, that throughout this most recent busy season I’ve managed to keep my priorities straight.

Lord, let my behaviors and my priorities of late always be the norm in my life.  Please help me to never neglect that which is TRULY important for the sake of that which is urgent or merely fun. May I always find my greatest pleasure in You!  Amen

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I once wrote about leadership biases and a friend named Cary Branscum asked, “How can we at least not be aware of our own bias?”  I added the italics for emphasis.  I don’t think Cary was necessarily asking for advice, but I thought he posed a fascinating question.  It made me wonder, how come we, as leaders, are sometimes not aware of our biases? Why do we have these blind spots?

1. We are too proud to notice them.
2. We don’t have people around us who will address our biases honestly.
3. We are too busy creating and implementing our agenda to notice them.

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For years I struggled with having my quiet time daily.  I’m not a morning person.  I wake up slowly.  As a result reading my Bible at the crack of dawn has been difficult, unenjoyable, and often not-very-meaningful.

I tried having my quiet time later in the day or in the evening, but that just didn’t work out either.  Too many distractions! Appointments, urgent phone calls, people knocking on the door, emails to answer, kids to play with, kids to bathe, kids to feed, TV to watch, the internet to explore, baseball games to attend, the Wii to play, and much more easily push aside spending time with God.

Then the YouVersion.com app was created for the iPhone.  Since getting this app over a year ago I’ve had better and more consistent time with God than ever in my life.  What did the trick for me is the back lit screen.  Now I can get up, leave the lights off, and read the Bible on my iPhone without going blind.  Sounds nuts, I know, but that one simple adjustment has made all the difference.

By the way, if you struggle with your devotional time like me you’ll relate to this video.

Bible Fantasy from Renaissance Church on Vimeo.

7 minutes for 7 days, using a back lit screen, reading on the treadmill?  What minor adjustments have made your time with God a little better and a little more consistent?