Just a short vid to get you smiling!

I dont usually post forwards but this one is special...puts life into perspective. Plus...using coffee in an anaolgy can never be bad....right? : )

  

Coffee vs The Cup Its In                        

     A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together
to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into
complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the
professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and
an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain
looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves
to the coffee.

     When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:
"If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving
behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only
the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

     Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most
cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.

     What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you
consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each
other's cups. Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and
position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain
Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality
of Life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to
enjoy the coffee God has provided us."

     "God brews the coffee, not the cups.... Enjoy your coffee! "The
happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best
of everything."

     "Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the
rest to God. You are the miracle, my friend, Your life either shines a
light - or casts a shadow.

Para-church organizations exist because church is the single most visible expression of a Christian culture that is self-indulgent and entirely harmless to everyone except itself.

OUCH!!!!

"I can't impress this on you too strongly. God is looking over your shoulder. Christ himself is the Judge, with the final say on everyone, living and dead. He is about to break into the open with his rule, so proclaim the Message with intensity; keep on your watch. Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don't ever quit. Just keep it simple." 

2 Timothy 4:1-2 (MSG)

 

"We have elevated the "how to do church" to the point where it takes a professional or even a professional team to pull it off. We have made it about attracting an audience rather than raising up an army.

We have raised the bar on how to do church but lowered the bar as to what it means to be a disciple. If you give up 1.5 hours per week...you're considered a good disciple. Thats not how Jesus did it.

What we need to do is raise the bar as to what it means to be a disciple and lower the bar as to how we "do church".

Neil Cole - Author of Organic Church    

 

The 'Following Jesus' Manifesto

1. Stop talking about Jesus. Just stop. If we loved the people around us half as much as we say we love Jesus the rest of this manifesto would be entirely redundant.
2. Live a secret life. Invest the time, effort and vulnerability necessary to delve deeply into the scripture and prayer. Spend long periods of time in stillness. There is no shortcut to this, there is no other way. Without a deep and secret life we soon find ourselves talking about Jesus instead of being like Jesus.
3. Stop pretending. I'm a Christian, and I suck. So do you. Let's get that out of the way, shall we?
4. Give more than you get. There will always be more than enough.
5. Be present for those around you. Following Jesus has nothing to do with your work, your resume or your income. In fact, nothing that matters does.
6. Treasure broken-ness. Our broken places are sacred spaces in our heart. Honour them. Value them. In doing so you love the unlovely, publicly declaring the beauty of God's image in everyone. Greet the broken with comfort and cool water.
7. Throw a party.
8. Know Jesus well enough to recognize him on the street. This is rather important, because he can always be found on the street - and he usually looks more like a pan-handler than a preacher.
9. Accept ingratitude and abuse as a fixed cost. Embrace them, and then go the extra mile.
10. If you follow Jesus, you will anger religious people. This is how you will know.

This manifesto was found on the following website. I thought it was worth posting...hope you liked it and will take it to heart.

Jeff

http://mission.squarespace.com/-journal/

 What does this remind you of?

"All are welcome to come to Jesus and his community as they are. The church should be a hospital for sick sinners, not a museum for saints. But no one is welcome to stay as they are, whatever their particular sins. Nor should they expect the church to baptize their sins and call them good. "

Just some random thoughts on the passage : )

Acts 26:16-18
16 'Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

I saw some nuggets in here that I have overlooked in the previous times I have read this passage.

1) Jesus tells Paul to share his testimony. He says "what you have seen" (your past) and will see of me (his purpose/ calling...where God is leading him and what God is leading him to do and say)

2) Jesus promises Paul that He will rescue him out of the hand of his enemy (both Jew and Gentile)...while Paul is fulfilling his purpose.  Isn't it great that Jesus is in control : ) No wonder Paul had a sense of peace even while in prison, shipwrecked, and even after getting beat up.

3) Forgiveness is offered to both Jew and Gentile.

a) It would appear that Jewish folks, although God's chosen people, still need to be saved by faith just as the Gentiles.   

b) This verse would indicate that it is Gods will that none should perish...therefore contradicting Calvinistic teachings. (Some are chosen for salvation and others are not) This is a hot topic we should save for another time

Check out this scripture verse:
 
2 cor. 2:14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

Wow...so we are suppposed to be this aroma of God...or the "fragrance of Christ".  I dont think this is the kind of fragrance you can just apply on to yourself, the way one might put on cologne or perfume. (Thats what a modern day Pharisee might do) No, I think this is a natural "smell"...the kind that just oozes out of you. It comes from the inside of your being...from who you are.

Have you ever met someone that did'nt advertise they were a Christian but you just knew it? No fish symbol on their car...not wearing a Christian t-shirt with spoofy slogan...not talking in christian lingo...yet somehow you knew they were a follower of Jesus. I'm telling you...it must have been the "aroma" : )

Do you know anybody that smells bad? Not "Body Odor" bad... but their "spiritual aroma" is not appealing in slightest way? Me too. I cant help but feel there are times when my "fragrance" isn't so great. We can "play church" and wear a fake smile but our "aroma" will eventually supercede our greatest performance. We all fall short, so lets remember we need Jesus.  Only He can cleanse us...and make us smell good. If we try and do it on our own....it the equivelant of putting on a bottle of cheap perfume. (We think it's covering well... but those we come across are are trying to flee our presence).

Enough rambling for now....

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Here is a list of my "Top 7"  favorite books. Tough to decide since there are so many good ones. But here I go.... Jeff

1) Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell

From Publishers Weekly
Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Mich., offers an innovative and intriguing, if uneven, first book. This introduction to the Christian faith is definitely outside the usual evangelical box. Bell wants to offer "a fresh take on Jesus"—a riff that begins with the assertion that Jesus wanted to "call people to live in tune with reality" and that he "had no use for religion."

2) Confessions of a Pastor - Craig Groeshel

Book Description
The Dark Side of a Pastor's Life - A Breath of Fresh Air Are you tired of pretending? Living walled up? Going only skin deep? Craig Groeschel , pastor of the thriving LifeChurch.tv, sure was. And in his refreshingly raw and real book, he comes clean. Not that he has anything other than typical, human stuff to confess. Check out a few of his musings: I have to work hard to stay sexually pure, I hate prayer meetings, sometimes I doubt God , and I can't stand a lot of Christians . Through his incredible honesty, he opens the door for you to follow suit. Are you ready to dig deep and let God shine through the genuine you? No more living just to please others. No more hiding. You can be who God called you to be. You can live for an audience of One.

3) The Gutter - Craig Gross

Book Description
Why did an all-knowing, all-powerful God send the perfection of His kingdom—His only Son—to the earth through the gutter? Why did Jesus spend so much time, reaching out to people in their own secret, dark places? Why do His followers so often turn away from those very same situations? The Gutter chronicles the author’s journey to the gutter, telling the stories and sharing the insights he gained while spending time with the people who dwell there.

The Gutter serves as a manifesto for all different types of people in the Church: those who yearn to impact the culture around them, those who have reassessed their discovery of Christ and want to make their story known, and those who are seeking out new, fresh ways of exhibiting Christ’s love to the poor in spirit.

4) Under the Overpass - Mike Yankoski

Review - Amazon.com One day during a powerful sermon, Mike Yankoski had a paradigm shift as a believer in Christ. He decided that he needed to become the Christian that he claimed to be. That epiphany evolved into a daring plan: drop out of "normal" life and live for five months as a homeless person. After prayer and counsel, he found a kindred spirit named Sam Purvis to accompany him for safety's sake, and they did just that. Equal parts travel journal and faith chronicle, "Under the Overpass" is their fascinating story.

While most Christians (myself included) dream about the radical things they would *like* to do for God, Mike and Sam actually stepped out and did them. They traveled around the US to five different cities and spent about a month in each. They lived by their wits: panhandling, sleeping under bridges, eating discarded food, and getting to know the grungy homeless most of us dismiss as being lazy, addicts, crazy, or all three. They also experienced the best and worst of "regular" people, Christian or not - those who went out of their way to help, along with ones who taunted them or threw them out of coffee shops and churches.

5) The Irresistible Revolution - Shane Claiborne

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. If there is such a thing as a disarming radical, 30-year-old Claiborne is it. A former Tennessee Methodist and born-again, high school prom king, Claiborne is now a founding member of one of a growing number of radical faith communities. His is called the Simple Way, located in a destitute neighborhood of Philadelphia. It is a house of young believers, some single, some married, who live among the poor and homeless. They call themselves "ordinary radicals" because they attempt to live like Christ and the earliest converts to Christianity, ignoring social status and unencumbered by material comforts. Claiborne's chatty and compelling narrative is magnetic—his stories (from galvanizing a student movement that saved a group of homeless families from eviction to reaching Mother Teresa herself from a dorm phone at 2 a.m.) draw the reader in with humor and intimacy, only to turn the most common ways of practicing religion upside down. He somehow skewers the insulation of suburban living and the hypocrisy of wealthy churches without any self-righteous finger pointing. "The world," he says, "cannot afford the American dream." Claiborne's conviction, personal experience and description of others like him are a clarion call to rethink the meaning of church, conversion and Christianity; no reader will go away unshaken.

6) Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller

From Publishers Weekly
Miller is a young writer, speaker and campus ministry leader. An earnest evangelical who nearly lost his faith, he went on a spiritual journey, found some progressive politics and most importantly, discovered Jesus' relevance for everyday life. This book, in its own elliptical way, tells the tale of that journey. But the narrative is episodic rather than linear, Miller's style evocative rather than rational and his analysis personally revealing rather than profoundly insightful. As such, it offers a postmodern riff on the classic evangelical presentation of the Gospel, complete with a concluding call to commitment. Written as a series of short essays on vaguely theological topics (faith, grace, belief, confession, church), and disguised theological topics (magic, romance, shifts, money), it is at times plodding or simplistic (how to go to church and not get angry? "pray... and go to the church God shows you"), and sometimes falls into merely self-indulgent musing. But more often Miller is enjoyably clever, and his story is telling and beautiful, even poignant. (The story of the reverse confession booth is worth the price of the book.) The title is meant to be evocative, and the subtitle-"Non-Religious" thoughts about "Christian Spirituality"-indicates Miller's distrust of the institutional church and his desire to appeal to those experimenting with other flavors of spirituality.

7) Organic Church - Neil Cole

Reviews:
"This book is profound, practical, and a pleasure to read. It stretches our thinking and brings us to a place where we can see the Kingdom of God spread across the world in our generation. This book has come at the right time."
--John C. Maxwell, founder, INJOY, INJOY Stewardship Services and EQUIP

"I heartily recommend this book. It is packed with deep insights; you will find no fluff in it. Among the books on church planting, it offers a rare combination of attributes: it is biblical and well written, its model has proven effective, and it is authored by a practitioner rather than an observer or an ivory-tower theoretician."
--Curtis Sergeant, directory of church planting, Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, California