For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
- 1 Cor. 3:11-15
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
-2 Cor. 5:10
“…man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment…”
-Hebrews 9:27
Every one of us has a death sentence. One day our life will come to an end.
Though we all know this, we often live as though we don’t.
And because we don’t keep our death sentence in view, we put a strain on our life sentence.
Though this earthly life will end, followers of Christ are promised a eternal life with Jesus. But before entering into eternal life, we will be judged.
Not judged whether we are going to heaven or not, but evaluated on how we lived our lives on earth.
Were we faithful? Were we loving? Were we about the Father’s business? Were we good managers with what we have been given? Were we servants? How did we spend our money? How did we invest our time? How did we use our talents?
Did we honor God?
One Day we will give a throrough account to King Jesus for the life that He gave us on loan.
Creative excuses won’t be enough.
Only what is founded in Jesus will stand the test of fire.
With this knowledge, it would be wise to prepare for the fire.
There was a moment during worship on Thursday night where there was such passion and intensity, that I was shocked. To see that many people (over 2000) praising and crying out to Jesus that fiercely…wow.
I have only witnessed that raw intensity in worship of Jesus a few times in my life (and to see our little girls singing and crying out to God was awesome!).
I am convinced that we are going to see a move of God in our generation. We are going to see it. The culmination of years of prayers, tears, and sacrifice. It is going to happen.
The love of Jesus is going to be expressed worldwide in a way that we haven’t ever seen before.
A move of God is coming.
And I am going to be a part of the movement.
The movement to change the world in the name of Jesus.
In 1964, Bob Dylan wrote the lyics, ” …you’d better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone, for the times they are a-changin.” Those words couldn’t apply more to our present epoch. We live in the new frontier of rapidly changing times.
With social networks such as Facebook, Youtube and Ustream our communication has drastically changed since 1964. This change has affected the definition of our words and brought about the creation of new ones (see . . .terabyte, HDTV, WiFi, DVR). So with a million different voices clamoring for the heart of this igeneration, how does the church clearly communicate the timeless love and message of Jesus?
‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
- Zechariah 4:6
I have a problem.
You might have it too.
This problem is so subtle it’s easy to miss.
My problem is that I have a tendency to pray and believe only to the degree that I have the resources to meet (or come close to meeting) the prayer request myself.
I ask of God according to my own pocket.
Instead of thinking about His pocket, I limit things to my pocket.
And I have a very small pocket.
This week I have felt challenged by God to pray differently.
To pray BIG prayers.
To ask for supernatural encounters, divine appointments, and other things far beyond human ability.
Because God has a BIG pocket, and He wants to come through for His children in a BIG way.
Carl is a balloon salesman who along with his wife Ellie, have a dream. Their dream is to visit a place called Paradise Falls.
The couple has grown old together in the restored abandoned house. Unable to have children, they repeatedly try to save up for their trip to Paradise Falls, but something always seems to come up that requires their savings. One day, Carl is finally able to buy tickets to South America. On the day he plans to surprise her, Ellie gets sick with what will become a fatal illness.
The rest of the film details Carl Fredrickson’s quest to honor his wife’s legacy and redeem the dream that had gone unfulfilled for so very long.
And through a harrowing adventure that contains talking dogs and a flying house, Carl steps into his dream at long last.
In the real world exists many Carl Fredricksons.
People that wake up everyday to unfulfilled hopes and unrealized dreams.
There are countless stories behind these sleeping dreams.
Mistakes. Missed opportunity. Injustice. Lack of access.
And there are millions of reasons why these dreams sleep, but there is only one reason that they awaken:
Someone decides to wake them up.
Someone stops making excuses. Someone stops blaming others. Someone stops regretting the past. Someone stops focusing on the why-nots.
Someone makes a choice to live differently.
To be courageous.
To be dangerous.
To take a leap.
To renounce the familiar.
To do something never been attempted.
And yes, it’s risky.
But a dream has never been redeemed without exercising a little faith.
These world-class athletes according to their website “live by a code. A pledge to themselves and everyone else. Protect this House. I will.”
This is an awesome spot. And even if “protecting this house” in this case is simply about winning a game or promoting a brand, it definitely gets the juices flowing.
It makes me want to get in the gym, lift some weights, get out and run.
But it also challenges me.
Because who is “protecting” God’s House?
When indiffference and apathy are the too common response to the things of God, when the lifestyles of followers of Christ mirror the lifestyles of that don’t claim Him, when we would just as often spend a day at the lake rather than in the presence of God, who is protecting God’s House?
The psalmist in the above scripture says “zeal for Your House consumes me.” What this means is that the purposes of God, the ideas of God, the values of God dominated His person. It was like a consuming fire in the writer’s soul.
When is the last time that could be said about us?
When is the last time we said, “I Will”?
Things like:
I Will be broken over a broken generation
I Will pray with passion for those to whom Jesus is a stranger.
I will serve others with loving generosity knowing that my reward is in heaven.
I Will see the world with an eternal perspective.
I Will use every resource I have to pursue the purpose of Jesus for my life.
I Will not be satisfied with mediocrity but will give my best to achieve His best.
I Will love Jesus with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength.
I Will live a pure and holy life before Jesus.
I Will hold nothing back.
I Will live as if Heaven is my Home and that Hell is real.
I Will never quit.
Let’s be a generation that commits to “protect” His house. Let’s be a generation that not only says “I Will”, but “We Will.”
The Mad Hatter: [Points to Alice’s heart] In there.
Like Alice we have, “lost our muchness”.
Lost our moxie, our courage, our imagination. We have stopped hoping, dreaming, and believing.
Resigned to a hopeless, dreamless, faithless world we do our best to convince others to live there with us. Instead of inspiring others into “muchness“, we lead them into leastness. Having allowed ourselves to be made small, we do our very best to shrink others.
I had a conversation with high-school senior a few weeks ago. As is my custom with any high-school upperclass student, I asked what she was going to do after she graduated.
Her face crinkled up.
“Maybe I will get a job.”
“Maybe I will go to school.”
“Maybe I will…”
I interrupted.
“What do you want to do?”
“Hmmmm. Maybe sports medicine.”
“Cool. What school do you want to go to?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay. Let me ask you this: If I gave you 10 million dollars right now, what would you do? Where would you go? What is your dream?”
“Oh. Maybe I would go to UCLA or University of Arizona. Then I could work in someone’s practice.”
“What if you had YOUR OWN PRACTICE? What if you had a huge sports complex with your name on the front and you helped train and rehab the best athletes from all over the world? Wouldn’t that be cool?”
“Yeah, it would.”
I smiled back, but she didn’t seem too convinced. Recalling the conversation, it appeared that the legions of leastness had already gotten to her. Had already crushed her hopes, sabotaged her dreams, and broken her beliefs.
Somewhere along the way she lost her muchness.
So I tried to give her some of mine.
I’m still hoping, dreaming, and believing in the impossible. Still jotting down ideas and scribbling plans that have never been seen before or heard of at all.
For many of these impossible dreams I am:
Too old, too young, too poor, too little known, too this or too that.
And many of these impossible dreams are:
Too wild, too crazy, too dangerous, too risky, too unprecedented, too strange, too odd, too expensive, too this or too that.
But I refuse to listen to the legions of leastness.
Their favorite way to start a sentence is, “That is too…”, and then they fill in the blank with a word designed to steal muchness.
But I’m determined to keep my muchness.
And I am hoping that you are determined to keeping your muchness too.
“You’re mad, bonkers, off your head! But I’ll tell you a secret: All the best people are.”
On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are
How fragile we are how fragile we are
-from the song Fragile by Sting
“Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
-James 4:14
In the past few weeks we have been reminded of the fragility of life.
I want to thank everyone that was a part of Easter Week at Renaissance. Was the best one we have had yet. “The Promise” was a huge hit. The Easter Egg Hunt was incredible (above is a picture of the kids scrambling for eggs!). And Easter Sunday was a powerful time in the presence of Jesus as we started the 1st Sunday of “The Talk” where seeking souls found Jesus.
A few other thoughts:
*Invite the SAME people that you invited this past weekend to Renaissance Church, to Renaissance this week. Let’s not let Christmas be the next time you speak with them about coming to church!
*Keep doing what you have been doing to get your friends to Renaissance. Keep praying for the folks that weren’t able to come, or didn’t receive Christ. Jesus isn’t through with them, and He isn’t through using you to reach them.
*Keep praying for Renaissance Church and our leaders of Renaissance. We need the wisdom of Jesus to do what He wants us to do, and be what He wants us to be.
*My prayer for our church is that Jesus would transform us to transform the world through us.
*Keep pursing Jesus passionately. Consistent investments lead to consist returns.
*And don’t forget that…we are just getting started!
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
- 1 Cor. 3:11-15
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
-2 Cor. 5:10
“…man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment…”
-Hebrews 9:27
Every one of us has a death sentence. One day our life will come to an end.
Though we all know this, we often live as though we don’t.
And because we don’t keep our death sentence in view, we put a strain on our life sentence.
Though this earthly life will end, followers of Christ are promised a eternal life with Jesus. But before entering into eternal life, we will be judged.
Not judged whether we are going to heaven or not, but evaluated on how we lived our lives on earth.
Were we faithful? Were we loving? Were we about the Father’s business? Were we good managers with what we have been given? Were we servants? How did we spend our money? How did we invest our time? How did we use our talents?
Did we honor God?
One Day we will give a throrough account to King Jesus for the life that He gave us on loan.
Creative excuses won’t be enough.
Only what is founded in Jesus will stand the test of fire.
With this knowledge, it would be wise to prepare for the fire.
Because the fire is coming.
Whether we are ready or not.
Posted in The Future, Faith | No Comments »
At Jesus Culture Conference with Tiffany and the girls.
Unbelievable event. Absolutely unbelievable.
There was a moment during worship on Thursday night where there was such passion and intensity, that I was shocked. To see that many people (over 2000) praising and crying out to Jesus that fiercely…wow.
I have only witnessed that raw intensity in worship of Jesus a few times in my life (and to see our little girls singing and crying out to God was awesome!).
I am convinced that we are going to see a move of God in our generation. We are going to see it. The culmination of years of prayers, tears, and sacrifice. It is going to happen.
The love of Jesus is going to be expressed worldwide in a way that we haven’t ever seen before.
A move of God is coming.
And I am going to be a part of the movement.
The movement to change the world in the name of Jesus.
Posted in The Church, Media/Culture, The Future, Worship, World Change | 1 Comment »
In 1964, Bob Dylan wrote the lyics, ” …you’d better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone, for the times they are a-changin.” Those words couldn’t apply more to our present epoch. We live in the new frontier of rapidly changing times.
With social networks such as Facebook, Youtube and Ustream our communication has drastically changed since 1964. This change has affected the definition of our words and brought about the creation of new ones (see . . .terabyte, HDTV, WiFi, DVR). So with a million different voices clamoring for the heart of this igeneration, how does the church clearly communicate the timeless love and message of Jesus?
To check out 1st 2 messages of the New Frontier Series, click here for “Inheritance” and here for “Flip the Switch”.
Posted in The Church, Media/Culture, The Future, Creativity/Innovation | No Comments »
‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
- Zechariah 4:6
I have a problem.
You might have it too.
This problem is so subtle it’s easy to miss.
My problem is that I have a tendency to pray and believe only to the degree that I have the resources to meet (or come close to meeting) the prayer request myself.
I ask of God according to my own pocket.
Instead of thinking about His pocket, I limit things to my pocket.
And I have a very small pocket.
This week I have felt challenged by God to pray differently.
To pray BIG prayers.
To ask for supernatural encounters, divine appointments, and other things far beyond human ability.
Because God has a BIG pocket, and He wants to come through for His children in a BIG way.
Posted in Prayer, The Future, Faith | No Comments »
Up is a beautiful movie that tells the story of Carl Fredrickson.
Carl is a balloon salesman who along with his wife Ellie, have a dream. Their dream is to visit a place called Paradise Falls.
The couple has grown old together in the restored abandoned house. Unable to have children, they repeatedly try to save up for their trip to Paradise Falls, but something always seems to come up that requires their savings. One day, Carl is finally able to buy tickets to South America. On the day he plans to surprise her, Ellie gets sick with what will become a fatal illness.
The rest of the film details Carl Fredrickson’s quest to honor his wife’s legacy and redeem the dream that had gone unfulfilled for so very long.
And through a harrowing adventure that contains talking dogs and a flying house, Carl steps into his dream at long last.
In the real world exists many Carl Fredricksons.
People that wake up everyday to unfulfilled hopes and unrealized dreams.
There are countless stories behind these sleeping dreams.
Mistakes. Missed opportunity. Injustice. Lack of access.
And there are millions of reasons why these dreams sleep, but there is only one reason that they awaken:
Someone decides to wake them up.
Someone stops making excuses. Someone stops blaming others. Someone stops regretting the past. Someone stops focusing on the why-nots.
Someone makes a choice to live differently.
To be courageous.
To be dangerous.
To take a leap.
To renounce the familiar.
To do something never been attempted.
And yes, it’s risky.
But a dream has never been redeemed without exercising a little faith.
Posted in Media/Culture, The Future, Leadership, Dream Awake | No Comments »
The dryer at the Newman house broke last week.
So Tiffany and I have been hanging out at Laundry Mat lately.
This past Friday we were taking our newly dried clothes out the dryer (for $3.50!).
I told Tiffany to go fast. To stuff everything into the hamper as quick as possible (folding wasn’t necessary) so we could get out of there.
She wondered why.
I told her that there was a lady behind us with sunglasses that seemed to watching us.
I didn’t want her to see my underwear.
I mean, who wears sunglasses in a Laundry Mat?
It was a little…suspicious.
Maybe the reason she was wearing sunglasses was so she could steal glances at the undergarments of other people.
I didn’t want to be her next victim.
Most of us feel the same way.
We don’t want to allow others to see our underwear, or the more hidden parts of our lives.
It makes us feel weak.
It makes us feel vulnerable.
It exposes us.
But without friends that have access to the fraility of our person, we can’t truly be strong.
Someone, somewhere, needs to see your underwear.
Just not the Sunglass Lady in the Laundry Mat!
“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”
-James 5:16
Posted in Relationships, The Future, Discipleship | 1 Comment »
“…zeal for your house consumes me…”
-Ps. 69:9
Under Armor Athletic Apparel has a commercial that has been airing throughout the NBA Playoffs. It is called, “I Will”. The theme to this piece to communicate a sense of ownership, passion, and hunger to win.
These world-class athletes according to their website “live by a code. A pledge to themselves and everyone else. Protect this House. I will.”
This is an awesome spot. And even if “protecting this house” in this case is simply about winning a game or promoting a brand, it definitely gets the juices flowing.
It makes me want to get in the gym, lift some weights, get out and run.
But it also challenges me.
Because who is “protecting” God’s House?
When indiffference and apathy are the too common response to the things of God, when the lifestyles of followers of Christ mirror the lifestyles of that don’t claim Him, when we would just as often spend a day at the lake rather than in the presence of God, who is protecting God’s House?
The psalmist in the above scripture says “zeal for Your House consumes me.” What this means is that the purposes of God, the ideas of God, the values of God dominated His person. It was like a consuming fire in the writer’s soul.
When is the last time that could be said about us?
When is the last time we said, “I Will”?
Things like:
I Will be broken over a broken generation
I Will pray with passion for those to whom Jesus is a stranger.
I will serve others with loving generosity knowing that my reward is in heaven.
I Will see the world with an eternal perspective.
I Will use every resource I have to pursue the purpose of Jesus for my life.
I Will not be satisfied with mediocrity but will give my best to achieve His best.
I Will love Jesus with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength.
I Will live a pure and holy life before Jesus.
I Will hold nothing back.
I Will live as if Heaven is my Home and that Hell is real.
I Will never quit.
Let’s be a generation that commits to “protect” His house. Let’s be a generation that not only says “I Will”, but “We Will.”
We Will Protect His House.
Amen.
Posted in The Church, The Future, Leadership, Sports | No Comments »
Mad Hatter: You’ve lost your “muchness”
Alice Kingsley: My “muchness”?
The Mad Hatter: [Points to Alice’s heart] In there.
Like Alice we have, “lost our muchness”.
Lost our moxie, our courage, our imagination. We have stopped hoping, dreaming, and believing.
Resigned to a hopeless, dreamless, faithless world we do our best to convince others to live there with us. Instead of inspiring others into “muchness“, we lead them into leastness. Having allowed ourselves to be made small, we do our very best to shrink others.
I had a conversation with high-school senior a few weeks ago. As is my custom with any high-school upperclass student, I asked what she was going to do after she graduated.
Her face crinkled up.
“Maybe I will get a job.”
“Maybe I will go to school.”
“Maybe I will…”
I interrupted.
“What do you want to do?”
“Hmmmm. Maybe sports medicine.”
“Cool. What school do you want to go to?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay. Let me ask you this: If I gave you 10 million dollars right now, what would you do? Where would you go? What is your dream?”
“Oh. Maybe I would go to UCLA or University of Arizona. Then I could work in someone’s practice.”
“What if you had YOUR OWN PRACTICE? What if you had a huge sports complex with your name on the front and you helped train and rehab the best athletes from all over the world? Wouldn’t that be cool?”
“Yeah, it would.”
I smiled back, but she didn’t seem too convinced. Recalling the conversation, it appeared that the legions of leastness had already gotten to her. Had already crushed her hopes, sabotaged her dreams, and broken her beliefs.
Somewhere along the way she lost her muchness.
So I tried to give her some of mine.
I’m still hoping, dreaming, and believing in the impossible. Still jotting down ideas and scribbling plans that have never been seen before or heard of at all.
For many of these impossible dreams I am:
Too old, too young, too poor, too little known, too this or too that.
And many of these impossible dreams are:
Too wild, too crazy, too dangerous, too risky, too unprecedented, too strange, too odd, too expensive, too this or too that.
But I refuse to listen to the legions of leastness.
Their favorite way to start a sentence is, “That is too…”, and then they fill in the blank with a word designed to steal muchness.
But I’m determined to keep my muchness.
And I am hoping that you are determined to keeping your muchness too.
“You’re mad, bonkers, off your head! But I’ll tell you a secret: All the best people are.”
-Charles Kingsley
Posted in Media/Culture, The Future, Leadership, Creativity/Innovation, Dream Awake | 1 Comment »
What amazing adventure will go on today?
Where is going to take you?
Who are you going to meet?
What are going to see?
How brave will you be?
How much faith will you need?
What amazing adventure will you go on today?
Posted in The Future, Creativity/Innovation, Dream Awake | No Comments »
On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are
How fragile we are how fragile we are
-from the song Fragile by Sting
“Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
-James 4:14
In the past few weeks we have been reminded of the fragility of life.
A mine explosion in West Virginia. A plane crash that kills the President of Poland. Mud slides in Brazil(above picture). A fatal head-on collision in Sacramento.
And there are more. Many more.
Too many to name.
While we know that life is short, and tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone…we often live as if those realities aren’t true.
We make extremely short-term decisions while acting as if we have all the time in the world.
But the truth is that our world is running out of time.
In a moment we could be standing before God, giving an account of our days.
In a moment this life could be over.
In a moment we could be standing in eternity.
In a moment everything that we know could be a thing of the past.
In a moment.
Somewhere along the way we have lost our vision of eternity.
Because we have lost our vision, our moments have lost their value.
When we understand the fragility of the moments we have, we learn to value our moments.
Question: How are you valuing your moments?
Posted in Media/Culture, The Future | No Comments »
I want to thank everyone that was a part of Easter Week at Renaissance. Was the best one we have had yet. “The Promise” was a huge hit. The Easter Egg Hunt was incredible (above is a picture of the kids scrambling for eggs!). And Easter Sunday was a powerful time in the presence of Jesus as we started the 1st Sunday of “The Talk” where seeking souls found Jesus.
A few other thoughts:
*Invite the SAME people that you invited this past weekend to Renaissance Church, to Renaissance this week. Let’s not let Christmas be the next time you speak with them about coming to church!
*Keep doing what you have been doing to get your friends to Renaissance. Keep praying for the folks that weren’t able to come, or didn’t receive Christ. Jesus isn’t through with them, and He isn’t through using you to reach them.
*Keep praying for Renaissance Church and our leaders of Renaissance. We need the wisdom of Jesus to do what He wants us to do, and be what He wants us to be.
*My prayer for our church is that Jesus would transform us to transform the world through us.
*Keep pursing Jesus passionately. Consistent investments lead to consist returns.
*And don’t forget that…we are just getting started!
Posted in The Church, The Future | 2 Comments »