Randy Frazee Quote

                 

                
The following quote by Randy Frazee, creator of the BELIEVE church-wide experience is great.   I hope it motivates you as it does me.  We begin a week from Sunday, September 13!  

“Many Christians don’t know what they believe and why.   The problem isn’t that people lack a hunger for God’s Word.  In fact research tells us that the number one thing people want from their church is for it to help them understand the Bible.   

It’s one thing to know the story of the Bible, it’s another thing to live it.  

Grounded in carefully selected scriptures BELIEVE will guide our whole church family, small groups and families alike, on a deepening journey, showing people of all ages how to think, act, and be more like Jesus.   

This Bible Study will walk you through the key beliefs, practices and virtues of the Christian faith.  And when these timeless truths are understood, believed in our hearts, and applied to our daily living, they will transform a life, a family, a church, a city, a nation and even our world.  

It will be a great journey together toward being finally able to declare “I know what I believe and why”.  

The following resources will help you make the most of your BELIEVE journey.  The Adult resources are available at Church and the student and children’s resources can be order either through the church or directly by you through Amazon.   

NOTE:   The BELIEVE scripture book is available on Kindle at a reduced price and the Kindle version does have all the scripture passages printed with their book and verse references.

 

Emotionally Healthy Leader Inventory

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Are You an Emotionally Healthy Leader?
Take the Inventory and Score Yourself!  

Sunday, August 30, 2015
Jeff Lampl

Today’s post (by way of Dr. Scot McKnight of Northern Seminary) comes from Peter Scazzero’s new book, aptly titled The Emotionally Healthy Leader.  It is Scarzarro’s follow up to Emotionally Healthy Spirituality which we studied in January and February.    It is a set of questions that can be asked to see if you are an emotionally healthy leader in your family, at work, or in the church.  It occurs to me that completing this inventory is a great way on the Sabbath to reconnect your life with God’s purposes.   Take the inventory and let God “speak” to you!  Jeff  

“Being an emotionally unhealthy leader is not an all-or-nothing condition; it operates on a continuum that ranges from mild to severe, and may change from one season of life and ministry to the next. Use the list of statements that follow to get an idea of where you’re at right now. Next to each statement, write down the number that best describes your response. Use the following scale:

5 = Always true of me
4 = Frequently true of me
3 = Occasionally true of me
2 = Rarely true of me
1 = Never true of me  

1. I take sufficient time to experience and process difficult emotions such as anger, fear, and sadness.
2. I am able to identify how issues from my family of origin impact my relationships and leadership—both negatively and positively.
3. (If married): The way I spend my time and energy reflects the value that my marriage—not leadership—is my first priority.
(If single): The way I spend my time and energy reflects the value that living out a healthy singleness—not leadership—is my first priority.
4. (If married): I experience a direct connection between my oneness with Jesus and oneness with my spouse.
(If single): I experience a direct connection between my oneness with Jesus and closeness with my friends and family.
5. No matter how busy I am, I consistently practice the spiritual disciplines of solitude and silence.
6. I regularly read Scripture and pray in order to enjoy communion with God and not just in service of leading others.
7. I practice Sabbath—a weekly twenty-four-hour period – in which I stop my work, rest, and delight in God’s many gifts.
8. I view Sabbath as a spiritual discipline that is essential for both my personal life and my leadership.
9. I take time to practice prayerful discernment when making plans and decisions.
10. I measure the success of planning and decision-making I primarily in terms of discerning and doing God’s will (rather than exclusively by measures such as attendance growth, excellence in programming, or expanded impact in the world).
11. With those who report to me, I consistently devote a portion of my supervision time to help them in their inner life with God.
12. I do not avoid difficult conversations with team members about their performance or behavior.
13. I feel comfortable talking about the use of power in connection with my role and that of others.
14. I have articulated and established healthy boundaries in relationships that have overlapping roles (for example, with friends and family who are also employees or key volunteers, etc.).
15. Instead of avoiding endings and losses, I embrace them and see them as a fundamental part of the way God works.
16. I am able to prayerfully and thoughtfully let go of initiatives, volunteers, or programs when they aren’t working well, doing so clearly and with compassion.  

Take a moment to briefly review your responses. What stands out most to you? Although there is no definitive scoring for the assessment, at the end of the chapter (page 46 [below]) are some general observations that may help you understand more about where you’re at.  

Wherever you find yourself, the good news is that you can make progress and learn to become an increasingly healthy leader. In fact, God has specifically wired our bodies and neurochemistry for transformation and change—even into our nineties! So even if the truth about the current state of your leadership is sobering, don’t be discouraged. If someone like me can learn and grow through all the failures and mistakes I’ve made, it is possible for anyone to make progress in becoming an emotionally healthy leader!

[From p. 46] If you scored mostly ones and twos, your leadership is more unhealthy than healthy, and you are likely functioning emotionally at the level of a child or infant.
If you scored mostly twos and threes, you have begun the journey, but you are likely functioning emotionally at the level of an adolescent.
If you scored mostly fours and fives, your leadership is more healthy than unhealthy, and you are likely functioning emotionally at the level of an adult.

 
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Believe Promo

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Friday, August 28, 2015
Jeff Lampl

    Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe;
help me overcome my unbelief!”
Mark 9:24

“What I believe drives everything”  

“It is impossible to live inconsistent with what I believe”  

“What I do tells me what I believe”  

If you are a beginner in the Christian faith, this Bible Engagement Experience beginning Sunday, September 13, will give you the foundation you need.  

If you are a long time believer this series will target the gaps between what your mind says it believes and the behaviors which betray a deeper belief in something other than God’s purposes for your life.   For you this series will be a challenge to connect your actions to your beliefs so that you experience the fresh air of the life of God being released in you.  

The grid below will give you a preview of how God will be engaging you personally through his Word and the journey of belief that you can embark on with your family.  Do your best not to miss a week!   

The books you will need are available in the lobby Sunday morning.

 
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Where Did Eve Come From?

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WHERE DID EVE COME FROM?
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Jeff Lampl

"So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.  Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”      Genesis 2:21-23  

Some Christians believe that this story must be read in a literal word for word way that depicts exactly what happened and how it happened.   Others believe the writer intended it to be read as a God given, but not literalistic, story that tells us what we need to know about God and about ourselves.  

Both groups of Christians believe Genesis to be the inspired Word of God and it’s really cool when each group respects the other group, is curious about how the others came to their conclusions and seek to learn from them.  

So, is this passage a God given ‘story’ to communicate an important truth or did God literally take one of Adam’s ribs out of his body and form a woman out of that rib or is it both?  

John Walton, professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, writes the following

“When we read about Adam being put into a “deep sleep” and Eve being “made,” we automatically think Adam is being put under for surgery. But an ancient audience wouldn’t have thought like that. The Hebrew word for “deep sleep” is used throughout the Old Testament to refer to a visionary experience. That’s the way an Israelite reader would have [read Genesis 2]. So I believe this deep sleep for Adam was visionary, not a surgical operation. In other words, he sees something about Eve”.

However we read today’s passage, it is a way of communicating to us what God was doing when He created “human” (adam which is singular) in 1:27   and then described this singular human as plural, male and female.

A man is created in the image of God.  A woman is created in the image of God.  Yet neither fully so.  They need each other.   In marriage the two get put back together as a “one flesh” union, each providing the other the characteristics of the image of God that the other lacks.   In marriage the two become one, equal and complementary partners in completing task one (1:28a) of the blessing/vocation/calling of multiplying and filling the earth with a flourishing, vital and vibrant society of God’s children who know they are loved by God and in return love Him back and love each other.

Do you approach your marriage, your husband or wife, as your first and primary calling?   Do you believe that God made that calling a priority over calling #2 which is work?   How have you kept these two callings in their proper order?   Is there anything you need to change to get your priorities right?   Personally I do not think that it is ever too late to do so.

 
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A Testimony

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                                                                       A Testimony
                                                            Wednesday, August 26, 2015                                    

“God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation”          2 Corinthians 5:18 (ESV)

“Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”
                                Isaiah 58:12 (NIV2011)  

On Sunday, Fran Lutz gave his testimony about his struggle to be a man of God and integrity in the workplace.  Trust me when I say you need to read this.    Jeff  

Career vs Calling—Why Monday Matters

Hello. My name is Fran Lutz and I AM a work-a-holic. I am addicted to work, this world, and its ways. As an addict, I must profess my addiction and vigilantly follow my recovery plan.  So this is my story.

July 2002

Step 1: I admitted I was powerless over work-a-holism and my addiction—that my life had become unmanageable.
Step 2: I came to believe that a Power greater than myself could restore me.
Step 3: I made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God, as I understood Him at the time.
Step 4: I made a search and fearless moral inventory of myself.

. . . . and so on through steps 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12

Author Christopher Morley first penned the words “rat race” in 1939. In the 76 years since, the term rate race has evolved to describe the hopeless pursuit of a good life always just out of reach—a treadmill upon which we seemingly can’t stop walking or we will fall off.  Many of us today, especially me, are desperately trying to win the wrong race.  For the world in which we live has established its own ideas about how to accomplish the good life--ideas far different than God’s!  So how did I become an addict and get caught up in this rat race in the first place?  Quite simply, my story is the story of Adam and Eve as told in Genesis.  Here is my version of the story, told in the first person:

Genesis, Chapter 3, Verses: 4-7 – Fran’s New World Amplified Edition

“. . . . and the world (the serpent) said to Fran:

“Surely, you will not die!  For God knows that when you taste and eat of this world, your eyes will be opened, and you will BE like GOD—people will honor and praise you.  So, when Fran saw that the world, and its work, was good, good for buying food and drink, vacations, and many things that he liked but did not need . . . . and he saw that the world’s work was a delight to his eyes and his ego . . . . and that his work made people around him think he was wise . . . Well . . . .Fran gladly ate of the world and its work, and then he also
passed it to his wife, his children, his friends, and his family . . . . who also ate of the world and its lies.”

THEN Fran’s eyes were opened and he knew that he was naked!

This is how the rat race started, my addiction began and how, after years, instead of me asking why Monday matters, I began believing that Friday matters. Wishing for Friday (and the weekend). And as I feed on the world and its lies, my addiction grows.

A few weeks ago, Jeff asked me to give my testimony on work and Genesis 3—or as I call it—“Career vs Calling & Why Monday Matters”. Ever since he asked, I have been painfully reminded of my nakedness and my addiction to this world and its work—most recently, with my son Daniel.

Now Daniel is an amazing young man, a 17-year old rising high school senior with a brilliant mind and a beautiful heart.  For many kids, like Daniel, this is a time focused on the future; a time for choosing colleges and picking a future career path.  But this is also exactly where the world, aided by my addictions, nefariously seeps into our thoughts.  Prep tests, hired SAT tutors, extra AP courses, student resume building, college essays about how you will change the world, college admission pep talks: all pointing a path to the good life—the successful life.

But what are we talking about here: career or God’s calling?

To me, my intentions seemed pure: help give my son Daniel the greatest opportunity to get into the best universities in America, to gain a first-class education, culminating in a purposeful, high-potential career as a future physicist or engineer. . . . all building blocks to a good life!  Right?

But what am I teaching my son?

Thanks to my daughter, Emma, who is reading the Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis, I was reminded of a powerful passage about a man, who after a life filed with distractions, exclaims as he enters hell:  “I now see that I spent most of my life in doing neither what I ought to do nor what I liked to do!  Doing NOTHING that mattered”.  And NOTHING is very strong; strong enough to steal away a man’s best years, not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why (i.e.: the rat race).

Currently, I work as an executive for a national non-profit organization, whose mission is to fight for social, political, and economic justice for low-income, low-wealth people and communities across America.  To most, this seems like a very noble profession, perhaps even worthy of God’s calling.  However, I challenge you, it is not what we do (for work) that makes it Godly or noble but how we do our work and why we do our work.

So why does Monday matter?  And why does it matter at my job?

Because I see that no matter how well I carry out the work’s mission, something will always be missing.  People can have all the political freedom and economic mobility in the world—free from prejudice, bigotry, racism, and oppression—all good things themselves.  People can have the very best this world has to offer. But that’s just it.. . . . .the very best this world has to offer is not and is never enough!  Because of what we know and believe as Christians, a life without God is . . . . well . . . .life without life!

As Jeff shared from Genesis, we live in a broken world. It will always be broken. Broken this Monday and 100,000 Mondays from now until we reconcile ourselves and others with God.

So as I look at work through God’s eyes, work becomes a calling rather than a career.

So what does God call me to do?

God tells me no clearer and more excitingly than in 2^nd Corinthians (5:20). I read it in the first person to make it personal to me:

“For God has given me the task of reconciling people to Him.
He is entrusting to me this wonderful message of reconciliation.
I am, INDEED, Christ’s ambassador.
God is making his appeal through me.”  

Christ’s ambassador: you have to admit now that’s a quite job description!  

As a recovering addict, but still an addict, I personally need such word pictures and reminders to help me visualize and hold onto the truth . . . . to keep me moving forward and not sliding back. The prophet Isaiah gives me one such vivid and truly beautiful word picture of what I want to become and how I want to work.  Again, I read it in the first person to make it real for me.

                                 From Chapter 58:

“. . . . and if I spend myself in behalf of the hungry,
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed.
Then my light will rise in the darkness.
And my night will become like the noonday sun.
I will be like a well-watered garden.
Like a spring whose water never fails.
I will be called a Repairer of Broken Walls.
A Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”  

I WANT to become this Repairer of Broken Walls, this Restorer of Streets.  

So knowing this: every day, I ask myself one simple question before I step through my office door:  

“Fran, this day, will the world come nearer to the reconciling plan of God because of what I believe AND what I say and do today?”  

Thank you for letting me share with you today and, as my community of believers, I sincerely thank you for working in my life and keeping me accountable on my own road to recovery and restoration with God.  

You truly have been and are a Repairer of Broken Walls in my life. God Bless.

 
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Working is an Act of Dignity

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WORKING IS AN ACT OF DIGNITY
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Jeff Lampl

Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”    Genesis 1:28 (NLT)  

”The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”
                  Genesis 2:15  

Immediately after “creating human beings in his own image” (Genesis 1:27), God blesses them.  What does God bless them with?  Two tasks to accomplish!  As partners with God and God’s representatives on earth, humans are to continue building the thriving, flourishing, vibrant world of life on planet earth that the previous verses describe.  

The first task was to multiply and fill the earth, essentially to reproduce and grow God’s family, the family for which God had built the home in which God and his children (us) were to dwell.  

Task two was to govern, subdue, reign, rule over, depending on the translation.  They are “work” words.   Human beings are given the vocation, the calling of making a flourishing society out of the raw material of the home which God provided for us.  Whether one’s task is sweeping the floor, or running a fortune 500 company, all work has dignity, all work matters, and all work is a reflection of the image of God.  Of course if your work contributes to the decay of society, your work, to the degree that it inhibits God’s purposes, loses its dignity.  

My reading of these texts tells me that your work matters.   It is holy, sacred, and reflects the image of God.   These texts tell me that you were built to work, that unless you work (somehow living your purpose as a co-builder with God of a God honoring and people honoring society regardless of your life circumstance, you cannot be what you were created to be.   You were made in God’s image, part of which is work, and without work you cannot live into the image of God in which you were created.  

Every time I think that my work is just a job, or that work is a necessary evil or that work is something to get out of, or that my working is unnecessary if I have enough money, or that work should be easy, I am denigrating the image of God in me.  

Of course all of the above is easier said than done.  What to do?   

Know that what you believe drives everything you do, and all your attitudes.   Choose to believe, to believe that  . . . . well, read the box below.   Take it to work with you.   Remind yourself of these biblical truths.   Reflect on them.  And let them shape your days as you enter them.

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Belive

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                                                                                     Monday, August 24, 2015
                                                                                Jeff Lampl

 

19 Days until BELIEVE, a Bible Engagement Experience which will take you on a 30 week journey from head knowledge to heart knowledge, the kind of knowledge that actually believes what your mind says it believes.  What I actually believe is what I do.   What I belief drives my behavior.  These 30 weeks are about believing.   And the Bible will be the key.     

Below are the first three pages in Chapter One of the Believe Scripture book which I hope each of you will purchase. Of course if you are diligent in looking up the scriptures for each week and making sure you have their context right you won’t need to purchase this book.   However, I suspect that buying it and having it all readily available for the next 30 weeks will make you more likely to actually read the Bible.   AND THAT’S THE GOAL.
 

Page one gives you the Topic, Key Idea, and Key Verse.  The rest of the chapter is comprised of carefully selected (by scholars whom I greatly respect) scriptures in the very readable NIV translation with introductions to each section (italics-see above) meant to set the reading in context and act as a guide to help you fully grasp what you are reading.  

We offer this resource to you so that you will read the Bible for all it’s worth: 

10 Key Beliefs of the Christian Faith
10 Key Practices of a Jesus-follower
10 Key Virtues of a Person Who is Becoming More Like Jesus  

Do you remember what the Steward on the airplane tells you before you take off?   He says “put on your oxygen mask first”.   If you can’t breathe you can’t help anyone else including your children.  I and all your leaders are hoping you will do this with the Bible.   Get into it yourself first.    

The children and teens will be doing BELIEVE with the adults which means you can discuss it at home.   Go to Amazon and purchase the books for your kids and then do their age appropriate readings with them.  

The BELIEVE book (pictured above) and the companion devotional THINK ACT BELIEVE LIKE JESUS are being sold now in the lobby on Sundays and are also available during the week in the church office.  The rest of the materials below are available through the church by special request or just go to Amazon and make your order.  

In this way you will become the BELIEVE “parent/teacher” of the things of God that your children need, not from someone else, but from you.

 
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Sabbath

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SABBATH
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Jeff Lampl

From the Celtic Book of Prayer, for Morning Prayer

Canticle

Christ, as a light
illumine and guide me.
Christ, as a shield
overshadow me.
Christ under me;
Christ over me;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;
in the mouth of each who speaks unto me.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light;
Christ as a shield;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.

 
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Day Seven: A 24 Hour Period of Time?

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“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.  So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”    Genesis 2:1-3 (ESV)  

Why no “there was evening and there was day, the seventh day” as we read in Genesis one describing the previous six days?  

The writer to the Hebrews tell us: 

For (God) has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” . . .

⁶ Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷ again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”

. . .  ⁹ So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, ¹⁰ for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

¹¹ Let us therefore strive to enter that rest . . . “   Hebrews 4:7-11 (ESV)  

Rest on day seven is the whole object of creation. It’s the culmination and purpose and goal of the first six days. This is when God comes to dwell in the home that has been prepared.  And God’s presence in the cosmos, the universe, the “home” he created, in which are meant to flourish with Him has not ceased.  He occupies every square inch, every split second of this world.  God made not only a home for people; he made a home for himself, though he has no need of a home for himself.  The previous six days were all about creating a sacred space where he could dwell with us, and in that relationship we could then flourish.

In short, we are living in Day Seven.  We are surrounded by God.  The writer to the Hebrews warns us not to harden our hearts, lest we miss Day Seven and God Himself.   Miss that and we’ve missed everything.   It seems to me that the only thing to fear in life is to come to the end of our lives on earth only to discover that we have missed everything.

“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God . . . Let us therefore strive to enter that rest” 

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