But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.
-Matt. 2:6

Think of all the great cities that have written about over the course of human history. When God set in motion the master plan to buy creation back through the sacrifice of His Son, He could have chosen any city to begin. Alexandria, Rome, Cairo, London, Athens, Babylon, Jerusalem, Thebes, and many others cities have well chronicled greatness in the eyes of history. The incarnation of Jesus Christ could have happened anyhere in the world.

But the best that God has to give often escapes our gaze because we are looking in the wrong places. It is not in human greatness God is most clearly seen. It is in our weakness, smallness, frailty and fragility where His brightness shines the strongest.

Any location was available, but He chose a little place named Bethlehem to start His story.

God is still launching BIG plans in little places.

And His eyes are not looking to the rich, the powerful, the famous, and the talented. He is simply looking for hearts that are fully devoted to Him.

A loyal heart is not a BIG place, but a little space where God can begin BIG things.

May He begin with us.

Have you ever wondered why we forget to pray? Why it seems like something we should do, versus something we get to do? Why we seldom feel empty when we don’t speak to God?

I believe our lack of focused prayer is directly connected to the lack of danger in our lives. We have insulated ourselves from danger, risk, and adventure. Because we are not in harm’s way, prayer is an option rather than a necessity.

Prayer has become a chore and a duty, easily overlooked due to our forgetfulness and/or boredom. Prayer and connecting with God is exercise of the spiritual elite, a luxury to be enjoyed in ’spiritual spaces’ but not everyday spaces.

We must venture out into The Deep, reclaiming our calling as adventures, risk takers, and true followers of Jesus.

But we better watch out, it is dangerous out there.

We might need to pray and ask for God’s help.

We are living in a season of change. Not only are we in the month where we promise that we will change, but we along with the changes in the White House, different brands and companies are using the change theme in their taglines.

Ikea is telling us to ‘Embrace Change’, Audi is saying that ‘Progress is Beautiful’, and Pepsi is goes on to declare that, ‘every generation refreshes the world.’

We all want to change, to get better, more focused, to be more organized, etc.. We want to put away the habits or quirks that block us from God’s best. We want to be, as Matthew Kelly would say ‘the best version of ourselves’.

But if change is going to be more than a catchy tagline, we can’t just ‘think about change’, or ‘hope to change’, but we must INVEST in change. We must invest in the areas and habits that will help build the momentum for change.

This is not an easy task.

But if regularly invest 30 min in our area of desired change, in 30 days we would actually be changing; rather than just thinking about it.

An awkward thing happened to me last week. It may have happened to you. It was a Sunday and a scary thought popped in my head suddenly as I was greeting people and saying hello: I THINK I FORGOT TO PUT ON MY DEODORANT!

I kept greeting and smiling, as an unpleasant feeling swept over me. I considered my options. “Am I okay? Can I hold on? Did I really forget?”

One of our leaders told me in the prayer room, “You have really got a new smell going today!”. I wasn’t sure if she was extremely discerning, liked my new cologne, or had stumbled upon my little um….problem.

I started to get more anxious about the whole thing.

So I really started to sweat.

I walked over to Tiffany and quietly explained to her my dilemna.

She stepped closer and gave me a super-undercover sniff (she has a nose like a Bloodhound!) to get a whiff.

She looked at me and said I was cool.

For now.

So for the rest of the morning I did all my Pastor stuff, speaking, leading, greeting, etc with my arms neatly pressed up close to my body.

It was an awkward moment, to say the least.

After I got home and checked myself, got myself together, I began to think.

My whole morning was impacted by what I believed to be a lack of deodorant.

But am I (and are you) as concerned about the lack of prayer in my life?

When I leave my house without really connecting with Jesus and spending time in His presence am I bothered?

Does it make me sweat?

Do I check myself?

Whenever I leave my house I need to make sure I am covered.

Covered with prayer.

And making sure I use my deodorant.

From Soul Man blog by Marvin Williams: Exposed at the Golden Arches.

A reminder about our inner life.

On Tuesday, the 44th President of the United States was sworn into office. It was an amazing moment on so many levels, with Barack Obama being the first African American to hold the office of President, the huge crowds, the sense of change in the atmosphere, etc.

It was truly a moment.

I thought about my grandparents, and my relatives that have passed on that lived in the Jim Crow South, struggling with racism and prejudice as a regular part of life. I wondered about how they would have felt witnessing this amazing scene.

As I sat in front of the television set on Monday with Tiffany and the girls, small tears welled up in my eyes as the Obamas stepped to the stage. I was challenged, inspired, and almost speechless.

The event had a much deeper impact on me than I could have anticipated.

I am still shaken by what I saw.

Let’s us faithfully pray for the President and his family. These are challenging times where wisdom and sound judgement is desperately needed.

May the new President do well.

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.
-Romans 13:1

Somewhere along the line we forgot that world transformation is our destiny, purpose, and reason for being. Jesus shook the world forever in 3 years. After He came, everything changed.

After The Ascension, he left a small band of revolutionaries that turned the world upside down. These ‘happy few’ (to borrow a phrase from Shakespeare) fully understood their mission, mandate, and their identity as men and women.

They were to destroy the works of Darkness with the Message of Light, and live on this planet as aliens from another world.

They weren’t natives. They were ambassadors sent from the Embassy of The Kingdom of God. They weren’t sent to exist quietly, but to start a revolution.

We have lost that edge in our generation. We have misplaced the prophetic sharpness that comes with living a life of abandonement. We are but ‘renters’ not ‘owners’ while on this earth.

That doesn’t mean that we are destined to a life of pain. It just means that we are created for a life of purpose.

We are space travelers and adventurers.

We are aliens from another world, called to change this one.

“It is not what I don’t know about the bible that bothers me; it is what I know.”

-Mark Twain

Are you bothered yet?

Today Tiffany and I went to Borders Bookstore (one of my favorite spots!) to pick up The Bible Illuminated. I grabbed a copy while Tiffany got a pretzel from the cafe.

When we got to the counter to purchase the bible, the cashier and I recognized each other (I really love to hang out there!). When she saw what we were getting she said, “Oh, I have one of those and I am reading it myself.”

I asked her if she had ever read the Bible before.

“Well…..a long time ago. Like when I was in Sunday School. But I started this after reading a bible narrative where the bible stories are told like a story. Now I am getting all this information, and I am actually reading the bible!”

I smiled, asked her name and thanked her for helping us. We are going to put her on our prayer list of people that we are urgently crying out to God to authentically find Him. It seems that she is definately on the path.

I am again challenged to make His story truly come alive.

Let’s capture the imagination of a generation.

This is an interesting idea for a book. I ordered it and am looking forward to checking it out.

All church leaders probably need to read this.

When God tells us to do something, go somewhere, give something away, let something (or someone) go, we are supposed to do it.

And even though it may be difficult, most of us can pinpoint an instance in our journey where he directed us in a certain way and we obeyed Him.

But though we did what He asked, we are still struggling with the same issue as if it was never dealt with.

Has that ever happened to you? Is it happening to you?

In most cases the reason why that relationship, nasty habit, weakness, or whatever, has come back from the dead in our lives is a simple one.

We never burned the bridge. We said ‘Yes’ to Jesus but reserved a secret path back to the place He told us never to return to.

And when things got tough, when we got stressed, when we got tempted…..we went back.

When God speaks we must obey.

And when we obey, the bridge must be burned.

May God give us the strength and courage to be bridge burners.