Friday, July 09, 2004
“I have a suspicion that God has leveraged in his direction, that human beings, when we see beauty, when we have a sense of artistry, when we’re astonished by something that is noble and pure and true, it inspires us it creates awe in us and it draws us to the creator of the universe.” Erwin Raphael McManus
Okay readers, what's your opinion on this one?
(1) comments
Okay readers, what's your opinion on this one?
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
"My read is that a generation of churches have chosen to keep their traditions and lose their children. And I think that's the greatest tragedy because people are far more important than style and structure rituals and traditions." Erwin Raphael McManus
What do you think, church?
(0) comments
What do you think, church?
Well I am back. Things are starting to fall into place, it feels like the idea factory is turned back on and things are starting to come to mind again, praise God. As I faced this time of illness, a few things came to mind. First off I want to say something. Every good thing in my life, every creative idea that I get and share, every blessing from the air I breathe on down is all from God. There have been times where I have wondered whether or noot I have been giving Him all the glory or whether I was keeping it for myself, so I want to make that clear. A.M.O.K. is God's ministry. A.M.O.K. is meant and designed to draw people into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It is not about me. I need to keep that in perspective.
Perspective is what this experience has been about in a lot of ways. I preached about "you may not have tomorrow," all the while assuming that at 40 I had all the time in the world. I've spent the last 8 weeks realizing that that is not the case. I am totally and completely dependent on God and that when God is done with me, when my mission is complete, I will leave this world. For the rest of my life, my intent is to live for His glory. My intent is to live each day as if it were a prescious gift from God because, newsflash, it is. My intent is to put my family a close second behind my God and stop trying to be important on my own but rather to do the will of God and love the people that already consider me important in their lives.
I used to ask God to bless what I was doing, my intent now is to ask God to let me be a part of what He is doing. I believe that God is doing something in the arts even now. I believe that God is calling people of all disciplines to use their gifts to cross all language barriers with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My prayer is that he will let me be a part of that, (I almost said a small part, but the size is entirely up to him and fully do not intend to put any limits on what he can do)
In closing I want to say that I can see now that God went to extreem lengths to get my attention. Pay close attention to Him and don't make him do the same thing to you. He loves you enough to do it.
(0) comments
Perspective is what this experience has been about in a lot of ways. I preached about "you may not have tomorrow," all the while assuming that at 40 I had all the time in the world. I've spent the last 8 weeks realizing that that is not the case. I am totally and completely dependent on God and that when God is done with me, when my mission is complete, I will leave this world. For the rest of my life, my intent is to live for His glory. My intent is to live each day as if it were a prescious gift from God because, newsflash, it is. My intent is to put my family a close second behind my God and stop trying to be important on my own but rather to do the will of God and love the people that already consider me important in their lives.
I used to ask God to bless what I was doing, my intent now is to ask God to let me be a part of what He is doing. I believe that God is doing something in the arts even now. I believe that God is calling people of all disciplines to use their gifts to cross all language barriers with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My prayer is that he will let me be a part of that, (I almost said a small part, but the size is entirely up to him and fully do not intend to put any limits on what he can do)
In closing I want to say that I can see now that God went to extreem lengths to get my attention. Pay close attention to Him and don't make him do the same thing to you. He loves you enough to do it.
