Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
Here is the first of many podcasts. This is definitely still in beta, so if you have any problems, comment on this post and let us know. I will also be submitting this to iTunes, so that you will be able to download the podcast automatically every week. Thanks for listening!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:50 — 17.9MB)
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
It’s amazing what you can “get used to”. I’ve seen pictures of steel workers casually eating lunch on a narrow beam hundreds of feet above the street below. I’ve heard pilots who fly jets faster than sound describe it as “another day at the office”. I’m not sure when it happens…what causes it…but it’s easy to “get used to” anything. It’s easy to lose your sense of wonder.
I have a confession to make. I’ve been guilty of “losing my sense of wonder” about actionchurch. Somehow the miraculous was becoming “routine”. The most amazing thing that I have ever seen happen in my lifetime was becoming ”a day at the office”. I forgot just for a moment that very few people even realize that a place like actionchurch…a place where they can hear some “real” ancient answers for the universal questions of life…a place where they can be “themselves” but still hear about Jesus- exists.
As I spoke to the photographer from the Dispatch on Sunday about what happens on a “typical” Sunday morning…I realized that she didn’t think anything that happened at actionchurch is “typical”. She was right…it isn’t typical. Definitely not normal. Certainly not something we “deserve”. More people need to know about it. We cannot just “keep it for ourselves”. We can’t let it become “routine”. The stakes are too high…too many people need to know that God is with them, even when they are in a “pit”.
Disturb me, Lord, when my dreams come true, only because I dreamed too small. Disturb me when I arrive safely, only because I sailed too close to the shore. Disturb me when the things I have gained cause me to lose my thirst for more of You. Disturb me when I have acquired success, only to lose my desire for excellence. Disturb me when I give up too soon and settle too far short of the goals You have set for my life. Amen.” – Author Unknown.
Monday, March 30th, 2009
Over the past couple months I have begun to read through the Gospels. Now that I have come to Luke,the third of four accounts of Jesus’ life, I feel as though I am reading the same things over and over again. I know that each Gospel varies slightly in accordance with the author’s perspective, yet these differences are sometimes so minimal that they are hard to notice. Today though, a slight variant stood out…like a Mac Product 
I started at Luke 23, at which Jesus is brought before Pilate before His crucifixion. Pilate is insisting that Jesus innocent, yet the the crowd is persistent in saying that He is not.
Luke 23:5 – But they were vehement. “He’s stirring up unrest among the people with his teaching, disturbing the peace everywhere, starting in Galilee and now all through Judea. He’s a dangerous man, endangering the peace .”
I stopped after the last line and reread it- “He’s a dangerous man, endangering the peace.” I have read this passage before and simply disagreed with what the crowd was saying about Jesus, thinking that they didn’t know what they were talking about. You see though, the crowd is completely accurate in saying this, Jesus is dangerous! He does not promise a peaceful and oh so sweet life; as a matter of fact, many times Jesus does endanger the peace.
Just like actionchurch discussed in Part One of My Name Is Joe, God does not promise to protect His followers from trouble, but instead uses the hard, challenging, and sometimes seemingly hopeless or peace-less times to ultimately heal us, make us a stronger person. At the time, a current situation may seem dangerous and hurtful, yet it is in these times that we are being molded into something we can not yet perceive. God does have a plan to turn bad things into good, and when we trust him to guide us, we have nothing to fear. So Yes, Jesus is a dangerous man, endangering the peace, yet I trust that He has a greater plan and will use any situation for something awesome!
