What Counts?

•November 3, 2009 • 2 Comments

I was reading in Galatians 6 the other day, and something that Paul wrote to the church of Galatia just JUMPED off the page to me.  He said;

“…WHAT COUNTS is a new creation”

Have you ever been at the place where the outward demonstration of your Christianity became more important than the inward manifestation of it?  If you’re anything like the rest of us, than you’ve probably already nodded yes to that one, and you know exactly what I’m talking about.

It frustrates me to no end sometimes, how we can end up “counting” the things that don’t really count… how we place significant value on some of the ‘outward’ demonstrations of our faith that aren’t of much consequence in the light of eternity.

How we dress for church.  What songs we sing and instruments we use to accompany them.  The nice brass communion plates that adorn the ‘in remembrance of Him’ heavy oak table starring in churches across the land.  Hymnals in the pews.  ‘Christianese’ language that we don’t use anywhere else in the world.  Attending church every week, but not necessarily participating in a deeper way.  Boycotting such ‘worldly’ events like Halloween and crawling into a shell when they come around every year (I even had someone try to convince me that Christmas and Easter were of pagan origin and it was an offense to God for us to celebrate them in our church)… GOOD NIGHT!!

We’re getting caught up in all the wrong things.  We’re trained to believe that if we fall in line with the status quo of the “program” of church, we’ll be just fine.  Meanwhile, some of the most important ‘inward’ manifestations of spiritual maturity go ignored for years in our lives.

This is EXACTLY what Paul was dealing with in Galatians 6.  He knew that the people of that church were losing focus off of the things that truly counted.  Instead, they were worried about making sure people were obeying the laws of circumcision.

In other words, they were teaching that their spirituality was directly connected to this OUTWARD act.  AND – if you had followed the crowds by coming into line with that requirement, you were then qualified to make a good impression on others, and even BOAST about your spirituality.

Doesn’t this sound a little familiar?

Rightfully so, Paul brought some much needed correction to their error.  He simply told them (in verse 15) that NEITHER circumcision, or uncircumcision MEANS ANYTHING… what COUNTS is a new creation.  What counts is having an authentic spirituality BEHIND the demonstration.  What counts is the evidence of an inward manifestation of that spirituality that is far more significant that the outward expression of it.

Let’s remember what counts, and do everything we can to lay hold of that.

JJ

SHIFT happens.

•October 27, 2009 • 1 Comment

This is another official update to the original “Shift Happens” video. This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology.  For more information, or to join the conversation, please visit http://mediaconvergence.economist.com and http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com.

A Good Beginning

•October 21, 2009 • 1 Comment

I’ve been meditating recently on something one of my mentors shared with me a while ago, and it continues to impact my life today.

“The world is full of MANY great starters, but FEW good finishers.”

Many years later, I’ve found this statement to be an undisputably truthful description of our human nature.  Look everywhere, and you will see people getting passionate about starting something well.  A business opportunity.  A diet.  A savings plan.  A New Year’s resolution.  A new way of living.  But, somewhere along the way, scores of people are giving up.

Professional sports players often start a season with a hot streak, only to cool off later when it really counts.  An employee’s work ethic and positive spirit are exemplary for the first month, until the commonness and familiarity of the job breed contempt for it.  A new romantic adventure unfolds as each party involved puts their best foot forward, but later grow tired of such efforts and fall back into the patterns of their true selves.  A new Christian is passionate and excited about the things of God, only to slip into boredom, apathy and an overall lack of interest.

It’s all living proof to us that a good beginning really is no guarantee!!

In Galatians 5:7, Paul writes:

“You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?”

Let me expand and paraphrase this thought…  “It seemed to me that you got off to a really good start in your relationship with God… but somewhere along the way, you lost your drive.  You lost your passion.  You lost your commitment.  And now, it doesn’t appear to me that you’re running at all!  So – the question I want to ask is: WHO CUT IN ON YOU?”

Those words have been resonating in my heart lately.  Who or what was it that came into your life, and literally interrupted the amazing momentum you once had as you were moving forward in your pursuit of God?  Whatever it was, this question forces us to identify the culprit and deal with it immediately.

Even Jesus saw through the good beginnings and wasn’t impressed.  We see His displeasure towards them when He told the crowds in Luke 14; “For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will RIDICULE HIM.”

Let’s all take these words to heart today, and make sure we remember that a good beginning is no guarantee.  Be a good finisher!

JJ

Always

•September 30, 2009 • 1 Comment

You have to be able to laugh at human nature sometimes. And typically, what I find myself laughing at most, is catching someone else doing something I would never want to be caught doing.  You know what I’m talking about, because if you’re like me, you probably seen some pretty weird things out there in the realm of humanity… for example:

  • Some rustic looking guy picking his nose while driving down the road, oblivious that you’ve just witnessed his own personal mining expedition.
  • That sweet old lady who just knocked some trinket down off the shelf by accident, and as it shattered into pieces, she looks the other way as if it never happened.
  • The punk aggressive driver that whisks by you in a nanosecond, only to be centered out and caught red handed (can I say “red footed”?) by the police officer a few minutes down the road.

You know that feeling of seeing people in the middle of moments like these – We laugh at them… We are disgusted by them… Then we are glad we are NOT them.

But somewhere in the dark recesses of our consciousness, we are reminded that could have been us.  I’ve picked before. I’ve sped before. I’ve done things by accident and prayed that no one saw what just happened.

This got me to thinking, and I realized that this actually doesn’t ever HAVE to be us.  We have control over this.  We don’t have control over being caught – but we have control over doing things we wouldn’t ever want to be caught doing… and I’m talking about matters much more important that picking and bumping! Working harder when the boss gets on the scene. Raising our hands in worship when the pastor looks our way. Hitting the brakes or putting on the seatbelt when we notice that cop car.

Shouldn’t we be doing the right thing outside of the motivation of getting caught?

Galatians 4:18 tells us – “It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so ALWAYS, not just when I am with you.”

Paul is telling the Galatians that it is totally OK to be zealous about the things of God – but don’t just do it for show. Don’t just do it when he is around.  Do it ALWAYS.

It seems like even back then, God’s people wrestled with doing things differently in front of important people that they would never do alone. This may have impressed other men, but God wasn’t impressed at all.

And so, here we are today… monkeying around in this same paradigm. Not praying at home like we pray at small group. Not worshipping in our closets and cars like we do at church. Not treating our spouse with the same love & respect privately that we do publically. Not living private lives that match up with our public presentation.

It begs us to ask ourselves the question, “If my public and private lives were to meet for coffee, would they even recognize each other?”

The answer can be yes, if we are living a life of ALWAYS.

Boiling it Down.

•September 29, 2009 • 2 Comments

BOILING IT DOWN.

Have you ever left a pot cooking on the stove unattended, only to come back to see the results of your forgetfulness? Maybe you can remember getting trapped in a conversation that seemed like it was never going to end – wishing for that person to just get to the point. Or what about our need as a college student, to weed through all of the jargon in that text book, and boil it down to the bottom line? You might even have an illustration born out of your own experience…

Simply stated (to stay in line with today’s post): to boil something down implies a reducing of something in bulk or size by boiling, or condensing something down into an equivalent in summary.

In other words, get rid of all the extra filler, and let me see what truly remains. Strip away all the layers of stuffing, and show me what is at the heart of it all.

Today, I was sitting over tea with our intern from the Bible College, and the Holy Spirit prompted me to share 2 Corinthians 13:14 with him.  It reads, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all“.

I think this is a really profound statement Paul is making here, and it gets overlooked far too often since it is closing out his second letter to the Corinthians.

Grace. Love. Fellowship.

After all that he writes about the gifts of the Spirit. After all that he gives us on the subject of love. After all of his statements on hardships, joy, generosity, worship, the resurrection, and tongues… he boiled it down to these three simple things.

Check out how he connects each of them to the 3 persons of the Trinity. Jesus life brings us GRACE. The Father’s unconditional LOVE is at the core of everything. The Holy Spirit was sent to have FELLOWSHIP (relationship) with you.

The amazing grace of Jesus. The unconditional love of our Father God. The never-ending fellowship of the Holy Spirit. May all of you have ALL of this that there is to have.

Has your faith journey become so confusing and complicated that you’re losing your passion? Coming back to the simplicity of the most powerful elements of our journeys in faith is pretty incredible, and realigns your spirit in the right direction again.

Dream with me about your life being filled with these 3 things. Filled with the grace of Jesus. Steamrolled by the love of the Father. Saturated in fellowship with the beloved Holy Spirit.

Which do you need the most today? It’s yours to be had. Paul said so…

What are you waiting for? Take hold of it now.

JJ

Plugged in again…

•September 23, 2009 • 1 Comment

OK – so the last month has been pretty crazy.  Moved houses.  Lost a good friend to cancer.  Launched a fall series at our church.  Got 2 interns rolling in the ministry.  Have 2 upcoming weddings to officiate, and Carter started Grade 1 at school.  There’s even more, but I’d rather not bore you with all the yada yada yada’s.

So, it’s all made it a bit tough to stay up to date here on the Epic Change blog, but things are beginning to settle down now, and that’s good news!

Speaking of good news, there’s even more!  Though I haven’t been able to make any time to post this last month, I’ve still been journaling, which means I’ll be plugging back in and get some regular entries going here again…

So, thanks for your patience, and keep your eyes peeled for the new juice =)

J.

Time and Urgency.

•August 19, 2009 • 2 Comments

Time and urgency seem to be uniquely tied together…

If your essay isn’t due for another month… you’re not really sweating it yet. If your flight doesn’t leave for another week, you’re not even thinking of packing. If that camp or retreat you’re preaching isn’t for another 6 months, you’ve got lots of time to get ready for it.

When there’s lots of time, there’s little urgency.

Now, let’s flip the coin. That essay is due tonight at midnight, and you’re only half way done. The big exam is tomorrow, and you really wish you had’ve studied more to feel ready for it, so instead you’re CRAMMING. You want that birthday package to arrive on time to your sister, so you pay an extra $12.75 for the ‘RUSH’ delivery, which you wouldn’t have had to if you thought of it three days earlier. Can’t you just feel the pressure?

When there’s little time, there’s lots of urgency.

Let’s face it – unpreparedness stinks. It adds unnecessary pressure. It throws our life of kilter, and it COSTS us extra energy, time and money. If we keep putting off the important things, we end up being caught in a ‘too much to do, not enough time’ situation.

I’ve been thinking of all this, because last week, an incredible man of God passed away, and is now in the Presence of God for eternity.

Roosevelt Hunter was so many things to so many people. He was one of the greatest preacher’s anyone has ever heard. He was a dreamer. He was a mentor. He was a friend. He was a family man. In so many ways, he was a hero – which was affirmed by the fact that nearly a thousand people traveled to Florida to celebrate his life one more time at his funeral.

In his passing, you could say that he left a lot of things behind. A wife, and two children. A continent of churches. A contact list full of friends, and a quiver full of proteges. But I want to focus in one one of the most important things he left behind.

His example.

Roosevelt’s life truly embodied a life of FULLNESS. Every message in the pulpit. Every conversation. Every exchange. Every minute of every day seemed to be full of life, joy, purpose and authenticity.

He was never waiting around for an opportunity to make a difference. He was never waiting around for change. He became the change. He MADE a difference in every moment. He was a champion of the NOW.

And now that he has passed on to the next dimension, he leaves us behind with a powerful legacy to follow:

Tomorrow has no guarantees. Make a difference TODAY. Make your life count NOW. In all things. In all relationships. In all conversations. In all tasks. In all purposes. Though it may seem like we have a lifetime ahead of us, let us all forbid the urgency of eternity to escape our hearts… because we never really know how much time we have left.

Someone is counting on us. Somewhere. Somehow.

JJ.

Tuesday Morning Reflections

•August 4, 2009 • Leave a Comment

Some of the thoughts going through my head today…

  • Carrie and the kids are away visiting family in Illinois for a week. I really don’t like them being out of my heart and home for any period of time at all. They are such a GIFT to me, and I always seem to realize it most when they’re gone.
  • I was driving to church this morning, and experienced God in a fresh way in the Explorer. Was it because I just recently exhausted myself cleaning it inside and out? Probably not. Actually, I just turned off the radio (which can be a crutch sometimes) and meditated in the silence. Proverbs 3:6 [in ALL your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths] came to mind, and became a friendly “bump in the rudder” for me to remember to include God in everything I do – even the little insignificant things.
  • Putting the final touches on a backpack full of sermons for next week’s youth camp I’ll be preaching at. Oh yes, and there are BIG BAD BEARS where we’re staying, which means nobody should have a problem with late night escapades from any of the campers! At least they’ll be awake for my sermons =)
  • I’m really proud of the people from Kingsview who have responded so well in their generosity towards missions, as we have seen a huge jump in giving recently. I’m clapping for you – keep up the good work!
  • The curls are gone. Yep – all gone.
  • If you say what God wants you to say, then all the criticism in the world doesn’t matter. If you don’t say what God wants you to say, then all the compliments in the world don’t matter. – Mark Batterson
  • WE;OJREO()@*&(VERP90U5N4*^085DSO;JNFSLD;JF NSDJNF459*^@.
  • OH, sorry about that… I just passed out for a moment there and my head fell on the keyboard when I looked at my Harley calendar and saw that we are in AUGUST already. Breathe, Jeff and collect yourself.
  • God knew what He was doing when He created coffee! OK, well He knew what He was doing when He created everything [even fire ants] but I choose to celebrate His creation in coffee today… Bottoms up!
  • Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all of my days [Psalm 23:6].

JJ

ATTITUDE

•July 22, 2009 • 2 Comments

John Maxwell once said: ‘You can’t be a smart cookie if you have a crummy attitude.’

I kind of laugh at these funny cliche quotes that make a play on words to get the point across. But this one really does carry a strong scent of truth to it.

A crummy attitude seems to be something we are so quick to notice and loathe in the life of another, yet so slow and slack to pick up on in our own life. Or maybe not slow and slack – but rather unwilling.

We feel justified in our attitude because of the circumstances that caused it. A broken relationship. An unrealized expectation. An unfulfilled promise. These things and more cause us to feel ripped off. Slighted. Cheated out of what we deserve.

Wait a minute – “deserve“???

It blows my mind how we get trapped into this ‘I deserve’ mindset in the church. That’s because we’ve actually got A LOT MORE than what we deserve. By the grace of God and His unmerited favor towards us, we are on our way to living a life of fullness and abundance – yet we somehow get the idea in our heads that we ‘deserve’ more.

So much of our attitude ties in to our expectations of what we feel is due to us… owed to us. And, when someone or something causes us to fall short in these things, our attitude can tend to become a little ‘crummy’.

BUT – If I were to start counting everything good in my life that I can’t lay claim to ‘deserving’, it would demolish my own concept of what I think I ‘deserve’, and bring a fresh awareness to the goodness of God in my life.

Maybe I’m not so cheated after all. Maybe I’m acting like a spoiled brat and need to recalibrate my attitude about things a little.

You’ve probably heard that famous Swindoll quote that states, ‘life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we respond to it.’ I really think he is on to something here. I wonder if we’re more empowered to walk through the difficulties of our lives, when we back off from asking God to change the external circumstances, and instead, ask for His help in changing our attitude toward them.

What do you think???

JJ

Monday Morning Reflections

•July 20, 2009 • Leave a Comment

A few thoughts as I am heading into a GREAT week…

  • Monday mornings are a great time for me to think, pray and internalize everything that is happening in life, family and ministry… which has me wondering why the world has ‘villified’ Mondays so much – I think they’re great and can’t believe I took them as an off day for so many years. It is one of my most productive days of the week.
  • There is too much to do and not enough time – which means I have to be vigilant about how I spend my time, and what get’s my attention in terms of high value and high priority things to do.
  • I’m thinking about a statement I read this morning: “It’s been said that Hollywood is brilliant at making fake things look real and Christians are brilliant at making real things look fake.” WOW. All the way true? I don’t think so… but there’s something to be said here, and Barna’s research proves it.
  • I just came off a week of ’stay-cation’ with my family, and have a fresh sense of the power and beauty of God’s institution of the family. Carrie, Carter and Mykah are permanent fixtures in my life and really the most beautiful centerpieces in the home of my heart…
  • Central Community Church in St. Catharines, is doing a bang up job, and Bill Markham is a brilliant communicator.  I came away with a big list of thoughts and ideas to pray through for Kingsview.  It really goes to show the power in unity. When we are all alone, we’re trapped by the limitations of our own abilities and creativity.  BUT – when we collaborate together, those things multiply and everybody wins.
  • I really missed being with everyone at Kingsview this last Sunday, and it felt strange not being in Stoney Creek with them. My heart is so tied into this place!
  • I haven’t prayed much yet today, so heading off to meet with God now…