Yo that’s a tricky one.
Captions please…
12 05 2009Comments : 4 Comments »
Tags: Ashley, awkward, Jensen, toilet
Categories : Funny Stuff, Pictures, Uncategorized
FaceBook Inbox
30 04 2009Here’s an illustrative message that I did tonight for our current youth series “FaceBook” in Velocity… Check it out!
One of the unique features of FaceBook is it’s inbox. For those of you who are FB Gurus, you know that you can send a message to as many of your friends as you want… even if they don’t want you to send them a message they will still get it.
- Anybody ever receive a message in your inbox that went straight to the delete button because it was junk mail?
- Then there are those messages that have some value to them, so you keep them there to maybe to reread another time…
- And then there are those messages that you leave marked unread even after you’ve read them because they are important to you and you want to go back and be reminded of them.
Let’s talk to you about your SPIRITUAL INBOX.
You will receive messages everyday. What will you do with them?
3 Things to Help You Keep a Clean Inbox
1. Delete the Junk Mail – This is the mail you don’t want in your inbox!
Purify Yourselves…
God will forgive you… just ask Him. But REPENTANCE means turning away, doing a 180.
For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 17 “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 18″I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:17,18-7:1)
Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (2 Corinthians 7:1)
This verse shows an amazing definition of why we preach, we strive, we discipline… and we aim towards not living a sin-filled or sinful life. Because we want to please God and make Him happy because of our obedience.
2. Surround Yourself with Good Relationships – This is the mail you keep around to reread and encourage you.
Build up type people not tear down type people. Authentic people who tell you the truth in love.
Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” (1 Corinthians 15:33 NIV)
Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2 Timothy 2:22 KJV)
- Monitor your environments. – if you are an alcoholic, don’t hang out at a bar… RUN!
- Monitor your conversation. – a habit of talking crap about people, then THEN SHUT UP AND RUN!
- Monitor your triggers. – if an image or thought turns you on or leads you towards sin, THEN RUN!
3. Spend Time with God – The mail you read and mark unread so you can read again and again!
This is going to look different for all of you. Some people love being outside, some love being around others and they feel close to God, some just serve their butts off and they feel close to God, you need to find how it works for you.
My prayer times go a little something like this…
1. Make a daily appointment with God.
Being completely honest here, I am not perfect at this, I’m good at it… I have a desire to do it, it’s definitely not a ‘have-to’, not a burden, it’s a ‘get-to’ but it’s a discipline I must constantly work on… but I do miss some of my time with God… and… oh yeah… and I feel it!! So the missed appointments with the LORD will result in you having a DIS-appointment in the near future. We make appointments with doctors, agents, friends, whatev… but GOD is the only ONE that matters most and we need to make an appointment with Him before anybody else.
When you spend time with God, you must block out all distractions.
- I bring my iPhone (which doubles as my iPod and leave it on Airplane mode so I don’t get any calls.)
- I bring my Message Bible.
- I bring a personal growth book.
3. Prayer is a dialogue, not a monologue.
I usually kick it off with a rockin’ worship song to get my blood flowing and give God thanks for everything.
Psalm 100:4 NIV
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
Then I get into three or four worship songs that allow me to feel God’s presence… God shows up when we worship. And I pray for forgiveness, my family, creative ideas, my pastors, and anything else God puts in mind…. and a lot of praying in tongues.
Psalm 22:3 NLT
Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel (His people).
Next I read the Message Bible and allow God to speak to me through his word.
Romans 12:2 NIV
… but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may understand what is the will of God…
I then jump into a leadership book or business book.
Proverbs 19:8
He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; he who cherishes understanding prospers.
From here I just stay quiet and listen… listen for God’s still, small voice. It usually shows up in a thought.
1 Kings 19:11-13 ESV
11 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Interesting question… “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?”
And right now, God is asking you an ancient question that he asked Elijah… WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?
Comments : 2 Comments »
Categories : COMMUNICATE, Christianity, LEAD
Captions Please…
13 04 2009OK, so I’ve joined the ranks of bloggers who throw up random pictures for some cheap laughs…
Soooo CAPTIONS PLEASE!
Comments : 10 Comments »
Tags: Ashley, caption, Jensen, joaquin, phoenix
Categories : Funny Stuff, LIFE
Greetings Christanese Speakers
30 03 2009Head’s up! Feelin’ a bit feisty on this one!
About a week ago, I am in Starbucks finishing up some artwork for Tim Coleman’s pre-release (you should hit him up on FB and get one!) and I am pushing to get this thing done… I mean hustlin’ to really bust this out. Whenever I am in a Starbucks it’s usually loud and I can hear little pockets of isolated conversation here and there. 98% of the time I ignore what’s going on around me, especially this day because I was under such a tight deadline. This time was different, I caught myself eavesdropping for some reason… the reason was to share this with you 
Then it happened… I heard the cheesiest usage of Christianese ever.
It was this guy who was pitching this couple in their mid-forties a “new” product and a “fast-track to wealth.” It was the super-typical MLM speech. (Yes, I’ve done quite a few of them so please don’t ask me to do an MLM with you… thanks!) Anyways, he did a great job and finishes up with the closer. The married guy then tells the MLM guy that he’s a pastor. You would have thought that MLM guy just won the lottery. I mean he starts going on and on about how he can’t believe he was talking to a pastor this whole time. I was thinking, “Why? Would you have said something different in your pitch? Would you have changed your approach?” Then he says,”Well maybe we should touch and agree on this deal?!” UGGGHH. C’mon really, really?
Then he starts going on and on about how much of a “blessing” this business has been for him. Layin’ it on real thick-like. The pastor asked where he went to church and he said “Uh, well I haven’t been to church in a while, I just haven’t found the right place yet.” Yeah… ok… Please understand I am not judging this guy, it was an observation from my life experience. Anyhow, I left Starbucks kind of laughing it off. As I thought about it more I did start to get a bit irritated.
I can speak Christianese with the best of ‘em. A couple of my favorites I’ve heard and seen in action…
- “I didn’t feel led.” – Usually means, that takes way to much time, effort, energy, or money I wasn’t willing to give.
- “I’ll pray for you.” – Sometimes means, this conversation requires me to have compassion right now that I don’t want to give, so I am going to say this to get out of it.
I know it sounds harsh but unfortunately it is so true. We try and cover up our feelings with some flimsy Christianese line that makes us sound spiritual. But to God, you are like the Gong Show! (1 Cor. 13:1) Listen, I’m a tongue-talkin’, demon-stompin’, washed-in-the-blood-of-the-lamb, fired-up believer! (told you I could speak Christianese) But that doesn’t mean I have to alienate people with some sub-culture lingo that no one understands. We must be full of faith, but real and authentic at the same time. We must be full of love, enough love to be truthful with people. We need to allow ourselves to be open enough and honest enough and humble enough to not put up a front and make ourselves seem more spiritual than we are.
So all you Christianese speaking people… please stop.
Comments : 4 Comments »
Categories : COMMUNICATE, Christianity, LIFE, Rants
An Iron-Pumping Atheist
10 02 2009
So I am at the gym this morning and in a complete morning stare… you know the stare… the stare that lasts forever and everything else around you doesn’t matter. I was in one of those, staring at the news, and half listening to my iPod, and a story about our President’s stimulus package comes on. I’m not sure why I did what I did next but I just blurted out, “That’s retarded!” Well all political views aside right now… I usually don’t voice any type of opinion in public like that and the one time I do this big guy working out next to me, let’s call him ‘Muscles’, asks, “What’s retarded?” … Oh great… here we go.
Well I began to explain myself and that conversation led to another conversation which led to another conversation which resulted in me finding out Muscles is an atheist. It was a really weird conversation first thing in the morning and one I was completely caught off guard with.
The thing that I noticed most is how completely awkward I felt. I was listening to what he was saying and then thinking of a way to fire back to prove my point but halfway through I realized that I am not what I am trying to defend. What I mean is, just because he did not agree with what I believed does not mean that I have to defend myself. He wasn’t disagreeing with me personally. He just didn’t like what I stood for. So here I was “in a war within a war.” I was defending what I believed against Muscles but also battling within… the pride of self-preservation vs. the second command of Jesus… love your neighbor as yourself.
So within this split second I changed my demeanor, shut my mouth, and just listened to Muscles. He then walked away did a couple more sets and came back over to explain why he didn’t believe in God. He went on to tell me that he had a bad experience at church when he was a kid so he went his own way and did a lot of reading and felt like God didn’t make sense (he’s right in a way! Isaiah 55:8) I spoke as well as I could to that issue but ultimately I didn’t want to ruin my chances to speak into his life in the future so I just mainly listened. We then talked about our daughters, Disneyworld, and supplements. I just decided that I have nothing to defend and truly listened to what Muscles had to say. The thing is, I could have totally screwed this up by being a loudmouth arrogant jerk and defending my point but I venture to say it would have built a wall instead of a bridge.
Hopefully, because I dropped my defense and opened my ears, God will give me another opportunity to SHOW the love of Christ to Muscles again by just listening.
ha ha but who knows maybe he’s blogging about the right-wing, preacher, nutjob he ran into at the gym this morning!
Do you feel like you have to defend yourself?
Comments : 8 Comments »
Tags: Ashley, atheist, God, gym, Jensen
Categories : COMMUNICATE, LEAD, LIFE
