A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

This is just a small glimpse into all thats going on in my brain these past few weeks.  I have no idea how to put all of this down into a blog post so I’m going to try this.

Unity

u·ni·ty

Unity is a simple concept and if exercised in the right places can be very powerful.  Imagine the power of a church where all the members are unified.  If all the members of that church are in a oneness of mind and in harmony.  There wouldn’t be any critics or complaining within that church.  Everyone working together on one goal to spread the good news of Jesus Christ!  That would be an awesome thing to be apart of and see happen.

• All are sinners and cannot do anything to save themselves. (Romans 3:23)
• Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is a perfect Savior for sinners, even the worst. (John 6:37-44; Hebrews 7:25)
• Jesus Christ died for sinners, was buried, and rose again on the third day. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)
• It is the power of God for salvation to all who believe. (Romans 1:16)
• Salvation comes only through Jesus. (Acts 4:12)
• Salvation is the gift of God by His grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and not by any works you do. (Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:4-7)
• Salvation comes through the blood of Christ, which makes the sinner righteous before God and brings reconciliation with Him. (Romans 3:25, 5:9)
• Salvation comes at the moment the sinner believes the gospel. (Romans 10:9-13; Ephesians 1:13-14)
• Salvation is granted by God and secured by God. (John 10:27-30)
• Jesus perfectly accomplished and completed all the works necessary to save sinners just like you. (John 19:30)
• Salvation is completely of God and not of man in any way, and it is to the glory of God alone. (Romans 8:28-30; Romans 9; Ephesians 1)

Tags: gospel, Jesus, saved, unity

Your Creed and Your Deed.

Nehemiah is a very familiar story considering where we are in our current economic situation here in the U.S.  Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem as the Governor to rebuild the city.  Through all the road blocks that he encounters he never loses sight of the goal to rebuild the wall around the city.  Here is one of the road blocks that Nehemiah encounters that shows how he lived the creed and was true to the deed.  He was authentic!

Let’s got to the scripture with Nehemiah 5

1 Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their Jewish brothers. 2 Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.”

3 Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.”

4 Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. 5 Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our countrymen and though our sons are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”

6 When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. 7 I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are exacting usury from your own countrymen!” So I called together a large meeting to deal with them 8 and said: “As far as possible, we have bought back our Jewish brothers who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your brothers, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say.

9 So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? 10 I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let the exacting of usury stop! 11 Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the usury you are charging them—the hundredth part of the money, grain, new wine and oil.”

12 “We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.”
Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised. 13 I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “In this way may God shake out of his house and possessions every man who does not keep this promise. So may such a man be shaken out and emptied!”
At this the whole assembly said, “Amen,” and praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised.

14 Moreover, from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, until his thirty-second year—twelve years—neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. 15 But the earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that. 16 Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for the work; we did not acquire any land.

17 Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations. 18 Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people.

Nehemiah did not ask the the nobles and officials to do anything that he didn’t do himself.  He was authentic and driven by doing God’s will not his.  He was intentional with his task at hand and continued to the end even when times were tough.

Tags: creed, deed, finances, nehemiah

Grounded for a Moment.

So, I’m walking out the door headed to the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta.  I have been so jazzed about going all week.  There are tons of blogs talking about it and a lot of buzz in general about the event.  My twitter updates are buzzing me constantly with people that are already there or on their way talking about this event.  With all of that noise rattling around in my head I came to the realization why I’m going.  I’m going to learn how to be a better leader!  I’m a Dad with a beautiful wife and two kids that need me to be the best Christ like leader I can.  I want to serve them they way Christ would want me too.  I’m going to steal a portion of the mission statement we use at Cornerstone and use it for my mission statement for this catalyst conference:

Learning how to lead my family to know and serve Jesus.

Tags: Jesus, leadership, service

Headed to Catalyst 08

I’m headed to Catalyst 08 tomorrow evening.  I’m looking forward to hearing from some of the speakers.  Here are some of the all star speakers lined up at Catalyst.

• Andy Stanley - Lead Pastor North Point Community Church.  I just love to hear this guy speak.
• Jim Collins - Author of “Good to Great.”  This is a book Lisa Pierce used as a reference during a Alabama Rural Ministries board meeting.
• Craig Groeschel - Senior Pastor LifeChurch.tv Amazing things going on here.

There are several other amazing speakers check them out at the Catalyst site.

I’m pretty excited about going but I have to leave my family behind for a couple of days.  I hope they can get along without me. :)  I know they can I’m just going to miss them.

Tags: Catalyst

Psalm 23 Reading

Tags: psalm 23

Gumstix Computers

I have been checking out these very small expandable computers for a long time now and trying to figure out a cool application for them.

The only thing I can come up with so far that interests me is a network device.  The network device would plug into someones home network and act as a internet content filter.  That means it would scan and block out any unwanted web sites/links/images/emails and such on your home network as you use the internet.  There are even some add on boards that could make it a WiFi hotspot.  So the options in this are really rich.

Can you think of anything that a really small computer would be useful for?

Tags: content filter, gumstix