It is hard to believe how quickly this year is flying by.  I can’t believe it is Christmas already.

This fall has been really encouraging for me at Green Hills where I pastor.  We have had a spike in attendance and have seen many new people join our faith community.

The most exciting thing however has been that our people have become excited to serve the underserved.  Brad and I really feel that it is nothing that we have done to bring this about but it has been God who has been doing something special in our church’s heart.  To save some space I just want to give you a list of some of the things that we have been encouraged by our people’s obedience.

1.  Our college students put together 127 bags of basic toiletries and Bibles for homeless people.  They have chosen to put these bags into their cars so they can hand them out when they see people in need.

2.  We were able to put together over 90 shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child

3.  Our small groups have adopted 2 families who were in great need.  One of our groups is dedicating a Saturday to go repair and clean the trailer of their adopted family.

Our most exciting event this fall was this Sunday when we had Gwen and Suzanna from 147millionorphans.com come and share about how God has been moving them to champion the cause of adoption and care for orphans.  There wasn’t a dry eye in the place.  They have partnered with Katie Davis and Amazima ministries in Uganda and have created a clothing line to raise funds to feed orphans and provide grants for families who want to adopt.

We really encourage you to check out the video and their story.  We podcasted the service on itunes.  (The first half of the podcast is my Sermon and the last half is Gwen’s story of how God is using them.)  http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=274809927.

We also showed a video of what Katie Davis is doing in Uganda.  You can see it here: http://www.greenhillschurch.org/media.htm

lIf you want to find out more about 147 Million orphans  visit their website: http://www.147millionorphans.com/ I also really want you to visit Katie Davis’ blog:  kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/ It will melt your heart.

This is the real heart of Christmas!  To be the body of Jesus to a lost an hurting world, showing them that the savior cares for them and inviting them into a relationship with Jesus.

Christ is All

Serving children who have needs is something that always grabs my heart.  I started sponsoring a child several years ago and it is one of the best decisions I have ever made.  To be honest it is a sacrifice.  Even though it isn’t a ton of money every month, its only $38 a month, it still is a sacrifice to care for someone else.  To be a good compassion sponsor you need to open your heart to someone else.  You need to pray for your child.  You need to write them and let them know who you are.  Sadly, I don’t do a good job of keeping up with my compassion kid.  But today I watched this video that challenged me.  If you have 5 minutes today please watch it.  It is so worth it.

I love to wander a strange city. There is something about being immersed in a vast urban jungle surrounded by throngs of strangers. The annonomity that crowded streets and unknown arenas are a perfect platform to find a respite from the rat race of everyday life.
So when my wife Tabitha had to do continuing ed for her degree in Chicago I got really excited. While she has been in class I have been on a spiritual retreat in an unlikely location, downtown Chicago.

It has been very fun so far. I spent my morning reading my Bible and journaling in a quiet part near Lake Michigan. This afternoon I going to just wander the Magnificent mile. It’s been refreshing to refocus and reconnect with God.

We all go through periods of intense disappointment and struggle.  Often it may feel like God has abandoned us.  In times like that I often feel like God is angry with me.  The story of Lazarus in John 11 deals with all these issues.  I am always really surprised when I read John 11:6 and see that Jesus when he heard that Lazarus was really sick, waited 2 more days before he came to his rescue.  It seems heartless that Jesus would allow someone that he was so close to and considered to be such a close friend, die so suddenly.   In a similar way, often we feel like Jesus is delaying needlessly when we need him most.  But God has not forgotten us.  He has not forgotten who we are.  Check out this week’s sermon “LIFE and DEATH” at Green Hills Church to hear the rest of the story.  Just click the link to listen: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=274809927.

I am trying something new next weekend.  I am attempting my first triathlon.  Its actually a tri-sprint, with smaller distances than what you find in an Olympic triathlon.  The race I am attempting to complete is the  McMinnville Triathalon in McMinnville TN.  You can check it out here http://www.team-magic.com/events/mcminnville/index.html

It has been a lot of fun getting ready to do this race.  My wife and I have been training to do it together.  Neither of us have ever swum much for distance although we were both life-guards during our  college years.  So being complete dorks, we learned how to swim efficiently by reading the book “Total Immersion” by Terry Laughlin. You can check out his website here:  http://www.totalimmersion.net/

It has been amazing to go from barely being able to swim a lap to being able to swim a half mile easily.  When I started trying to learn how to swim efficiently I was overwhelmed at how badly I swam.  I didn’t think I ever be able to swim the distance we were going to have to swim for our race.  Along the way, I learned something really important.   If you invest small amounts of time on a regular basis into any activity or discipline, you will see results that you never anticipated.  I was so surprised how quickly I developed the skill of swimming  by spending a little bit of time practicing something every week.   I was a dork about swimming.  I brought my book with me to the pool and would pause between laps to evaluate how I was doing in my drills.  I asked my wife for coaching and asked her to evaluate my swimming form.  Little by little I realized that I was getting better and swimming was getting easier.

A couple of weeks ago I realized to my surprise that  I really enjoy swimming.  When I am done with my workout, I feel refreshed and rejuvenated instead of tired and sweaty.  I think I enjoy it even more because I know I am getting better at it. Even thought the task of learning how to swim efficiently seemed daunting last winter, I now find swimming exhilarating.

The power of seeing results by daily investing time into something important can translate into every part of our lives.  I have been challenging myself to invest time daily in my walk with God.  It is really easy to become lax in my study of God’s word and in my prayer time.  I easily become busy with checking email or starting to work and before I know it, I have completely ignored God.  So, what I am trying to do is to spend 3o minutes with God every morning before I do anything else.  Just me, my Bible and Journal and my coffee (can’t forget that of course).  I think that if I spend every day focusing on Jesus and learning God’s word I will find that a year from now I will have grown in my faith significantly.  I am trying to do the following things.

1.  Read a passage of scripture every day.  I try to just pick a book of the Bible and read through it.  I usually read a chapter or 2 a day but sometimes I will just read a couple of verses and go deeper in them if I feel that God wants me to pause there.

2.  I am memorizing one new scripture passage a week.  I am trying to do scripture memory in a 3 week rotation.  I memorize one new section every week but I keep reviewing and mediating on the scripture passages I learned that last 2 weeks.  Note cards are invaluable in this process.  I write out each verse and keep it in my Bible.

3.  I journal every morning.  I try to write down insights from the scripture I am reading and I write down all my prayers.  This keeps me focused and fully present.

4.  Finally read other books to make me grow.  I am convinced that unless I read extensively I will never grow. So, I am reading books by people much wiser than I am.  Right now I am reading Tim Keller’s “The Reason for God.”  Its a great read!

If you are anything like me your life is a checklist.  I wake up and the first thing I think about is what I need to do that day.  I seem to have been born with a personal task master wired into my brain that is OCD about arranging the items I have to do in order of importance, urgency and the most efficient order to do them in.   There is always something new to do and something new to see.  So if I want to do something, even if it is fun, I just add it to the list and proceed to execute that task with as much precision and focus as I can muster.  Unfortunately, I get so busy thinking about what is next and how to do it that I miss the beauty and pleasure in what I am currently doing.  It’s what I call the curse of “NEXT”.

It is so easy to live in the future and not in the present.  If we are not careful, we can miss life while we plow right through it.  I used to think that when I got my iPhone my life would be so much easier because I could keep my calendar synced up and I could find a lot of extra time once I had all my calendar issues settled.  But instead of being less busy, I have simply filled the time with other busy things.

This week I have been thinking about the concept of slowing down.  John Ortberg, the author of “T he Life You Have Always Wanted”,  devotes a whole chapter that is very worth reading about this concept.  His premise is that if we don’t slow down we will miss the most important things in this life.  Ortberg says we must choose to slow our life down or else it will constantly be out of control.  We will never enjoy life unless we choose to slow down.  No one else can do that for us.  We must practice it as a discipline.  In the same way that we train for a 5K or a Triathlon, we must train to be people who enjoy the moment.

Last year I had the opportunity to start a church.  Although it is a labor of love, it is a lot of hard work.  There is constantly something to do and people to minister to.  In the midst of all this I must choose to slow myself so that I can enjoy the journey God is allowing me to go through.  There will never be another beginning to Green Hills Church.  If I am not careful, I will miss the joy in seeing a new church bloom.

We all need seasons in our lives to rest.  Doing things are very important, but if life is constantly doing and never being then it is not enjoyable.  I don’t want to be a human doing, I want to be a human being.  That’s why God has given us the Sabbath, a time to rest.  God from the beginning has chosen to model that we need to take time in our lives to rest.  He told the people of Israel to rest every week and every 7 years they had to let their land rest.  Rest is very important.  It allows us to live, not just to do.

Summer time is a great time to slow down.  The pace of life around us naturally slows down due to the change in seasons. This summer, my Co-Pastor, Brad and I decided that we were going to enjoy the summer.  We decided that we were going to slow down and choose to rest because the fall is an exciting and very busy time.  It’s just really hard to honor that commitment.  But this week I have realized that summer is passing by very quickly and if I don’t choose to slow myself, I will enter the fall fatigued.

So here are some ideas on how to proactively rest.  I don’t mean that you shouldn’t go to work or that you should slack off on work but I think there are some ways to slow life down.  First of all turn the TV off.  Thats right.  Football isn’t here yet and all your favorite shows are on hiatus until the fall, so why do we need to watch reruns for hours at a time at night?   Try this, instead of watching TV, pick out a book and immerse your mind into another world.  I know some people like reading non-fiction, I think there is no substitute for escapist fiction.

A second idea is to choose to be either 5 minutes early or 5 minutes late to things.  You would be surprised how much pressure you relieve when you do this.  You take the control of the situation instead of falling into the tyranny of deadlines.

Lastly, I think a great way to slow down is to remove something from your calendar that is important.  Our lives are constantly filled with things that are important and urgent.  Many things we think are important really aren’t.  I often find myself doing things that I dont want to do, in hopes of impressing someone.  Sometimes we need to let those things that only seem important to fade away into the background and let the truly important things like family and God rise to the forefront.

Some of you have checked out my buddy Josh Bronleewe’s music- especially his song “Wake Up” that I posted a while back on the blog.  I was listening to a new song he posted on his myspace page called “Highway.”  It’s really mellow and it slowed me down as I listened to it.  I hope you like it:  http://www.myspace.com/joshbronleewe

I had a first for me last night.  Tab and I got a chance to go to the Nashville Sounds game.  If you don’t know who the Sounds are, they are the Milwaukee Brewer’s AAA affiliate.  It was my first time to go to one of their games.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun it was.  We dined on $1 hotdogs and chocolate ice cream in a waffle cone.  Seriously is there anything more relaxing that watching a late afternoon baseball game.  It seems like time just stands still.   There was actually a lot of good talent on the field.  Thanks to some online research on ESPN.com and Buster Olney’s blog I found out that they have an absolute stud in their 22 year old short stop, Alcides Escobar. You can read Buster’s blog here: http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4306954&name=olney_buster

If you got a free evening, I highly recommend you checking out a Sounds game.

Here are some pictures of the event.

Rob Bell put this video/talk together and it is really inspiring.  He talks about the value of serving others and how to be blessing.   Of course it has his trademark creativity and relevant explanation of Old Testament teaching.  If you have 5 minutes to watch it I promise it will move your soul.

To see the video just cut and paste the link:

http://player.flannel.org/compassion?referer=corner

Compassion is an amazing ministry that helps underserved children around the world.  Check this video out!  This will move your heart!

I heard through some friends about a man named, David who is battling brain cancer.  He found out that he has a tumor in his brain that is around his comprehension and language centers.   I couldn’t imagine going through an experience like that.  I wanted to turn you on to his blog because it is incredibly inspiring to hear his heart.  This is right in line with what I have been writing recently about trusting God when bad things happen to us.

Here is something that David posted recently:

This tumor was specifically designed for me by God.
The other day my sister sent me an article written by John Piper called ‘Don’t Waste your Cancer’ <http://www.hopetriumphant.com/don%27t_waste_your_cancer.htm> .  Written on the eve of John’s prostate surgery, his first point is:

1. You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.

“It will not do to say that God only uses our cancer but does not design it. What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design. If God foresees molecular developments becoming cancer, he can stop it or not. If he does not, he has a purpose. Since he is infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a ‘design’. If you don’t believe your cancer is designed for you by God, you will waste it.”

God didn’t give me a bum leg or a sore back. He has designed a tumor to grow in my brain in the specific place – the exact location – where I would never ever want it to be.  He has intricately fused a massive lesion into the middle of my comprehension and language centers.  He has calcified cancerous tissues around the speech production areas of my brain; the essence of my personality, my career and my future.

If God were about to tell a compelling story with my life that ended in His glorification, this is a pretty incredible way to start it.  After all, would we still talk about Goliath if he wasn’t a giant?

This is the beginning of a new story, but I want to make a clarification.  This new story is about God, not me. So I confidently declare Psalm 20:6-9.

6 Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the saving strength of His right hand.

7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

8 They have bowed down and fallen;
But we have risen and stand upright.

9 Save, LORD!
May the King answer us when we call.

Please be praying for David.  If you want to follow along his blog is:  http://www.jumpdavidjump.typepad.com/