Loving People

After my second meeting today where the common theme is frustration with people I am realizing that we need a bit of perspective on how to truly love people in a practical way on a daily basis, even as christians, we are most of the times the worst at this.  We also need a way to tell whether or not we are truly acting in love, Jesus said in John 13:35:

"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you LOVE one another..."

Jesus did not say the world will know you are my disciples because you are busy doing good, or at church every week, or you know a lot about the Bible.....can I just say none of that matters to the world.  What they need to see is love.  The question now becomes how do I know if I am loving people?

These are the things that love is according to 1 Corinthians chapter 13:

It is:  patient, kind, it is not jealous, it does not brag, it is not prideful, it does not dishonor others, it is not selfish, it is not easily angered, it does not keep a record of wrongs, love does not take joy in evil but rejoices in the truth, it ALWAYS protects, always hopes, never let's go.

We who say we know Christ need to be intentional I think with at least the first one.  Love is patient.  You want to honor God?  Don't focus this week on trying to look good to others, be patient with them, then you know you are drawing closer to Jesus.

Counting the Cost

Met with my family this morning about what we feel God is asking from us in this next season and we went over Luke 14:28-33 which reads:

  “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? ²⁹ For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, ³⁰ saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

   ³¹ “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³² If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. ³³ In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples."

I wanted my children to hear me say, "I am willing to lose everything for the cause of Christ."  And to let them know I have counted the cost at age 36, and that they need to also.  Our world and our society is quickly becoming hostile to the Gospel of Christ and we need to be willing to think about what that might look like over the next decades and be willing to suffer jail time, ridicule or death in order that some may know the love of their Creator, the God of heaven and Earth and their Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ.

So I would ask you, have you counted the cost of following Jesus?  If you have and you have surrendered everything to Him you know the joy and hope from which I am speaking.  If you have not I would challenge you with all the love that is in my heart because I care for you to sit down today and count everything but the knowledge of Jesus Christ as nothing.  He IS our treasure,  He IS our reward, He is our focus and He IS COMING for those who have made Him their refuge.

God made you for the Secret Place not the Platform

In my morning Bible/prayer time a few days ago I was reading in Psalms and I came to the realization that God had made me for the sole purpose of what I was currently doing at that very moment.  Simply sitting on the couch, holding my Bible and learning about who He is and merely spending time with Him.  That is when I felt deep down in my gut that God did not create me for the Platform (public life), He created me for the secret place.  the place where no one sees me or hears me but Him, a place of intimacy.  I believe when we realize that we were made for the sole purpose of knowing Him and being known by Him we begin to see the truth about who we are and who he really is and what life is all about....everything else (cares of this life) will diminish out of sight......

SORE!!!

So the 18th I decided to go run and break my distance record.  Which was previously the 5 mile mark.  I set off on a route through Bella Vista Arkansas that totaled 7.4 miles.  I left at 5:50 pm and around 7:10 pm my wife Sarah calls and asks my if i need her to pick me up because it is totally dark at this point.  I thought I was about 10 to 12 minutes out so I said "no".  I then arrived at my house at 7:30 pm....needless to say 7.4 miles and 1 hr and 40 minutes of running and I did break my record.  But nothing says "I love you" more than you wife laughing at you on day two of the recovery.  Her words this morning after composing herself at the way I walked out of the bedroom were, "You look like you went from 36 to 89 over night"....thanks baby!  No really, I do love you and I am glad we can laugh about the small things in life...

Family Pictures 2011 - Thank you Rebecca Kenny!!!!!

These are some of the pictures that Rebecca Kenny took of our family in September of 2011.  How time flies!

New additions to our Compassion family!

This is Javilla (left), who is 4. And Tuyizere (right), who is 8. If you have never had the opportunity to help with this type of ministry, I would suggest it. These kids are amazing. And what a chance for us here in America to reach out and affect someone that we will probably never meet until Christ returns. Javilla and Tuyizere, we love you!!

Winter Jam

Here are some pics from Winter Jam at the Maybee Center in Tulsa that we just went to. It was cool. Skillet, Barlow Girl, and some others were there. The kids had a blast!! That skillet chick can rock!