Devotion

I’m working on a discipleship class where I’ll be teaching ‘devotional life skills’.  The study has caused me to evaluate my own ‘devotional’ situation.   It’s becoming more and more fluid as I try to put some form and function to it.  There were times in my life where I needed a rigid structure in my devotional life.  Every day I would have a set format for what I was going to do as far as; reading, prayer and journaling were involved.  I needed that regiment, and my life was blessed by it.  At another stage in my life, that same format took on a more ‘obligatory’ nature to it.  I felt like I was knocking out a daily punch list, rather than communing with God.  Nowadays, my devotional practice has become more organic.

Books

I have a couple of books of a ‘devotional’ nature that I keep on hand. 

The High Call of Hope

People have a tendency to interchange the phrase “I wish…” with “I hope…”. Those who do this have no idea what hope means. And yet, even as I make this statement, I simultaneously confess, that I don’t fully understand what ‘hope’ means. It used to be so easy to say, “I hope in this or that…”, but then I learned that this little word speaks of a positive expectation.

Preparing Our Hearts for What?

Some of my thinking is changing.  I guess, since none of us are perfect, we should all have a continual progression of thinking.

Maybe it’s a little thing, or a big thing.

We say this in church, but do we ever question it?  We address our time of worship and ascribe to it the purpose of ‘preparing our hearts to receive the Word’.  It struck me today.  "Wait a minute!  We worship God to worship God.  It is not a device of mental preparation." 

I’m not going to totally discount the value that worship might have for me personally.  The value is a reality, however, I’m not going to focus on it.  My motivation for worship should never be, in any way, personally beneficial.  Allow that to be a side issue.  Priority number one:  God is worshipped because God should be worshipped.

As  I continued to think about it, I found the opposite to bear more truth.  Learning the Word should prepare our hearts to worship.  That sounds way more appropriate to me.

This is what I’m thinking about right now.

Is It Enough To Just Teach The Bible?

Our fellowship has some good strengths. I took a survey. Most of the people say that we are strong in: Teaching, Worship and Fellowship. Those are really good things.

We are weak in Leadership, Discipleship and Serving/Evangelism. That’s bad.

My biggest lesson of 09 is: “Invest in your strengths”. We are going to invest in our strength of Teaching, to be more intentional about discipleship, in order to raise up more leaders, who will in turn enable us to be a serving church again. Why? I want to serve better. -I’m starting, by giving the Bible the boot.

Arturo Gutierrez + Bill

this guy has amazing fingers… -the end is really scary.

more about "Arturo Gutierrez + Bill", posted with vodpod

Flies

more about "Flies", posted with vodpod

Music In The Work Camp

The Gutierrez Brothers… and me.

more about "Music In The Work Camp", posted with vodpod

Fixing The Broken i-Pod Nano

yes, those are fireworks on my shelf.

more about "Fixing The Broken i-Pod Nano", posted with vodpod

Big-time Pastors. Small-time Pastors.

Vizcaiano: 10/17

I’m wondering if it’s possible to reverse the experience that I just had this past week.  We spoke to pastors who needed encouragement in the areas of grace and Biblical Interpretation.  The feedback from our messages was incredible.  So many of these guys were trained up in legalism.  So many of these guys take the doctrines and the traditions of their denominations as being the final authority.  In no way did we try to promote Calvary Chapel, but we did promote truth.  Very difficult issues were addressed.  Some of these guys will be changing.

We came to them and addressed some issues that were significant in their culture.  I’m wondering now, if it’s possible to bring guys like these to the U.S. to address issues that are significant in our culture.

We need to hear about faithfulness.  We need to hear about commitment.  We need to hear about contentment.  We need to hear about poverty.  We need to hear about discomfort and inconvenience.

Every year, my fellowship of churches holds a pastor’s conference.  Most of us are pastoring congregations between 50-150 people.  Most of us aren’t located in high population regions.  In spite of the norm, every year, we hear from mega church pastors.  I’m not opposed to these guys and I find their messages encouraging, but they are speaking from one world into a completely different world.  The unspoken message that many of these small town pastors hear is: ‘if you’re faithful, God will bless you with a lot of people.’  No one says this.  Some guys say the opposite, but, when a small time guy looks up to the big time guy, he’s still thinking, ‘Wow, it must be cool to have: staff pastors, secretaries, subwoofers and green rooms.”

This message can’t be avoided.  Truth be known, it’s more an issue of the small time pastor’s immaturity than anything else.

Small time pastors with big time expectations need to hear from some of these servants in Mexico.  They need to hear from the pastors I’ve worked with in Sudan.  They need to hear from the pastors I’ve worked with in Nepal.

I just spent an incredible week with some big time pastors.  Most of them don’t own cars.  Most of them don’t receive any kind of salary.  Some of them have walked away from the thousands of dollars that they were making in the drug trade, to serve Jesus in poverty.

Small time pastors in America are quitting because there are only 50 people in their fellowship.  Small time pastors are quitting because they can’t draw a salary.  Small time pastors are quitting because it’s hard.  (Don’t get me wrong.  There is, for some, a time to quit).  Small time pastors are thinking too much about themselves.

When we start thinking too much about ourselves, we need to go and hang out with some big time pastors.

I just did.

It won’t take long.  Soon, I’ll start thinking about myself again.

Good thing they’ve invited me back.

Jon Gave Me a Cassette Tape

10/11/09

I’m a rookie.  What is ten years?

Does it take a decade to even begin to learn? 

It has for me.  For the past year or so, I feel like the incubation of knowledge and experience has just begun to hatch.  The shell is cracking, or so it would seem.

Today I was in one of those situations where I stood in front of men who have been around much longer than me.  They have sacrificed more.  They have been preaching more.  They humble me… more.

I stood before these men and taught them how to interpret the Scriptures.  Some of them have been interpreting the scriptures since before I was born.  Why was I standing before them with this topic?

I don’t know… but there I was, and I was baffled by the privilege. 

What became more baffling was the response.  They’ve been asking questions all afternoon.  They are hungry for more understanding.

Not all the faces were smiling.  Some of them weren’t happy about my teaching.  I gave them some basic ground rules and guidelines for interpreting the scriptures.  I basically gave them the info that is available here on the blog… back a few posts.  For some of these guys, accepting these ground rules means serious trouble for their doctrines, traditions and denominational standing.  Many of the denominations and traditions are granted a higher authority than the Word.  making the Word a priority will, for some of these men, mean big trouble.  Ultimately, I believe, it will translate over to a greater freedom in their faith, but with freedom, there is usually a price to pay. 

The teaching team is taking them through Galatians.  Yet again, those who hold to legalistic traditions are being instructed and rebuked.

There’s a lot of potential for change happening here.  A pastor liberated from legalism leads to a congregation liberated from legalism, which leads to discipleship which is liberated from legalism, which leads to future church plants being liberated from legalism. 

This is amazing to me.

The work we do here, might impact the future of the Christian church in the Baja Peninsula in a big way.  That’s coo!

There is already abounding grace.  Now, for some of these guys, that abounding grace is being revealed.  Somehow, I get to be part of this.

It is God’s will that enabled me to be here.  I say this, however, by faith.  My eyes see a path of un-connected randomness.

in 1984, Jon Preussner gave me a cassette tape that he didn’t like.

I loved it.

The band was Undercover.

The lead singer was Bill Walden.

Bill Walden is a fellow Calvary Chapel pastor.

I decided that I needed to be friends with Bill.

I became friends with Bill.

I went to Oregon to be one of 8 guys in a class.

Bill was in that class.

We talked about missions.

Bill sent me an email, inviting me to Mexico.

Bill picked me up in San Diego, and we drove 12 hours down an empty road to a new building filled up with Pastors and church leaders.

I’m glad that Jon gave me that cassette.  I’m glad that I got to be a cracked rookie… just a shepherd boy slinging rocks at Giants.  Just a 14 year old boy with a cassette tape in his hand… a cassette tape that led to an opportunity to change lives in the middle of the Baja Peninsula 25 years later. 

Wow.

God does cool things.