Where Were You Dave?

I looked at my legs and my feet from the hospital bed – I knew they were mine because those were the shoes and jeans I was wearing when I left the house. I tried to move my feet but nothing happened. I tried to move my legs but I couldn’t even feel them. I started to feel a little lightheaded so I closed my eyes. I could hear the sounds of medical equipment all around me. The inflating of the blood pressure cuffs, the beeping of the heart rate monitors, and the sound of the IV infusion pumps as I slipped in and out of consciousness. I opened my eyes again and looked at my IV pump. I tried to guess how much longer I had before the bag would be completely empty. I started to feel lightheaded again so I closed my eyes. I awoke again and thought I should text my wife and let her know what is happening. I reached for my bag to get my phone. It wasn’t easy. Everything seemed to be in slow motion. My arms felt heavy, my left hand limited by the IV needle and my right by the wires from the monitor. I unzipped my bag slowly so as not to rip out the IV or detach the monitor and took out my phone and started to text my wife, “so…”

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A Little Wisdom – Humility

Ever wonder why we think highly of the educated and powerful while viewing those who have wisdom as relics fit for the wards at the old-age home? Could it be the fact that western culture has very little time for humility? …Sometimes the word humble is used to describe a successful person’s beginnings. Have you ever considered what is suggested by this? Stating that a person came from humble beginnings to emphasize how far they have come suggests they have gone from being nothing to being something. In other words, humble = bad, their new success = good.

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A Little Understanding – A Culturally Relevant Landscape and Décor

When you hear we need to make sure our church service is culturally relevant, be excited, but approach it with cautious optimism. Both the Christ follower and those who are trying to find out what this Christ following thing is all about understand everything in terms of the culture in which they live. This makes a culturally relevant church necessary. The problem only comes when cultural relevance becomes cultural dominance that dictates the message presented so that the ways of the world become the ways of the church…

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A Little Understanding – What Does the Décor and Landscape of Our Lives Look Like?

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but wealso glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:1-5 NIV

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A Little Understanding – The Protective Wrap

I have used the words “protective covering” to describe the roof, but why have I chosen to create a whole different section and name for the walls when they serve the same protective function?  The walls that frame the outside of the building share many of the design basics as the roof, and yet I call it a “wrap,” not a “covering.” The answer is simple. There is one thing that we find in all protective wraps but in very few protective coverings: windows and doors. Necessary but counterproductive, they invite the outside in.

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A Little Understanding – The Proper Protective Covering

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world…” Romans 12:2 (NIV)

Rain and wind lack any will of their own. They have no agenda or goals, and yet their destruction seems almost orchestrated. Water from a light shower runs slowly down the roof, wearing away the surface until it breaks through. Breezes gently blow, applying slight pressure then releasing, weakening the bond that holds the shingle in position. At some point, as if there was a meeting to plan an attack, the skies get dark, the winds pick up, and rain begins to fall. Weak points and worn-through sections are the first to fall to this offensive, but that isn’t the end. The wind opens a point of entry followed by the rain, and before you know it, they have compromised the protective layer and begun destroying everything it once guarded.

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