Revival

Wisdom The Hard Way

I know a lot of stuff. I’m not bragging, you know a lot of stuff too! We all know a lot of stuff. That doesn’t make us smart and, unless applied correctly, it doesn’t even make us competent. Our brains are full of stuff. The smartest people in the world have additional stuff in comparison to us average people. The rest of us, the less smart and even lesser smart people know stuff. The truly wise people, they know stuff too but there is something more, something different about the stuff they know or at least to the way that stuff is incorporated in their lives.

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The Ultimate Insult

I have been told over and over again that the kinetic energy of hand propelled projectiles of varying masses at different speeds is far greater than the mouth released projectiles of differing decibel levels and durations. While I cannot cite the exact research organization or the paper in which this was published nor can I say with any certainty that it was properly peer reviewed; I can, without any hesitation state, based upon the sheer number of repetitions of this saying in school yards across the world, there is raw data and therefore a high potential that the hypothesis has been or will be proved or disproved. Wow, now I feel all sciencie. Look at me talking kinetic energy and peer reviewed papers. Don’t worry, I’ve exhausted all my science so we can move on.

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Transition – Discovering God’s Call for Your Church

Many of you know that my calling is to a very specific field of ministry in the church. I am a transitional pastor. I help congregations discover God’s call for their collective of Christ followers. I met Bruce Cormier and his wife Lesia at my last transition. Together we, the collective of Christ followers called Cornerstone Christian Fellowship – Mimico and myself, set out on what ended up being an 18 month journey to understand what God was saying about the future of our church. We had a building. We had a small in-person congregation of about 30 and a similar sized online group who, in their younger years had attended in person. It took me 18 months to get to this point and Bruce managed to say it in just over 1500 words!

This little church has close to doubled in size and continues to grow under their new permanent pastor. The biggest question we needed to answer was about the building the church owned. As you read this, maybe your church needs to ask itself the same question they were asking:

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I Want To Be Tormented

It seems to be an odd desire. If someone said this to me, it would certainly suggest that they were a little off. I not only want to be tormented, I want to a Lot. Are you getting concerned? Are you wondering about my mental stability? If my premise for this post is convincing, you too will be asking to be tormented, you will want to be a Lot. Now you are probably very concerned.

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It’s Like Putting Lipstick on a Pig

I know the phrase. I’ve used the phrase. One thing I haven’t done is tried putting lipstick on a pig. The logistics alone make this quite the monumental feat. As I said, I’ve never tried but if you use your imagination, you can hear the squeals, picture the battle of wills and even smell the… those with a less vibrant imagination are thankful they don’t see, hear, feel and smell the way those of us who can get lost in our own thoughts do. Putting that aside, putting lipstick on a pig is not only tough, it’s not worth the effort.

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He Loves Me Just The Way I Am

I don’t know about you, but I find this comforting. In my life I have sinned too much to ask God to love me based on who I am or what I have done. To be loved just as I am, is a miracle in itself. While I believe I love others with some of the same unconditional love, I must admit I often fail. I want to be like Jesus. I want to offer truly unconditional love. I want to love like Jesus. I guess I just have to stop expecting others to do what is right, to change, to seek to be more like they were created to be, lowering my expectations so I can simply love. To be like Jesus is to love with no standard, no expectations; to live and let live, isn’t it?

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