I am still amazed at all God did at New Life on Sunday! I feel so privileged to have covenanted with so many people to serve Him in Pacifica. The message from Jentezen Franklin we heard as part of One Prayer has left so many thoughts replaying in my mind. Here are a couple of quotes:
“When we meet Jesus we want Him to say Well done good and faithful servant …..not medium rare!!! We must make sure the fire is burning strong if we are to be well done”
“In the Old Testament God had a tabernacle for His people now he has a people for His tabernacle”
…….but One Prayer also has me thinking in a number of ways that relate to my day to day priorites and this morning I was wondering… since the Bible tells me that The Spirit is interceding for me (Romans 8 26-27) I wonder what God’s one prayer for me might be today. No not a vague one, someting more specific… ‘ Jonathan if you only remember one thing I ask you to do today please……..
…….remember to say something encouraging to _______
……. make some time to spend with _______ and remind them how much I love them
…….. please make a start on _______ I said I would help but you have to start!
How about you………
I probably won’t be blogging for a few days ( Maggie and I are taking a few days vacation) but I look forward to continuing the conversation when I get back
There are some things you think you just won’t do and yes, you’ve guessed it, for me blogging was one of those! I mean let’s face it my typing is beyond bad. I have two entirely illiterate fingers and six more very unhelpful contributors ….. (if your counting and confused the other two are thumbs, even I know that, and they currently do not know the alphabet!). I can of course use spell check but my problem is that often it does not recognize the words that come out enough to give me reasonable alternatives. If it could speak, perish the thought, I think it would repeat ,”you have to be joking,” with monotonous regularity. I had read the occasional erudite offering of well-constructed theological thought from one person or another and drawn the conclusion that it was just not for me. You see, I have a confession to make I do not like to do things, at least in public, that I can’t convince myself I can be good at . Yes I know that’s pride, why do you think I began the sentence with confess!
So what changed my mind ……… well maybe God suggested that a good dose of humiliation would be good (you know you really did not have to agree that fast!). … Actually I began to read a number of blogs more regularly from people who seem to me to be really good at it Tony Morgan, Perry Noble Craig Groeschel, Mark Batterson to name a few. I noticed that I was drawn in as I started to experience an entirely new form (for me) of thought provoking conversation. The sharing of quotes from books, questions one is asking or meditations on scripture. Casting these things before a wider audience seems to have great value. In 1998 a movie was made called ” Living out Loud’ a title stolen I believe from Emile Zola. I have no idea of the plot but “living out loud” was the description that came to my mind as I contemplated beginning to blog. Mark Battersonshared some amazingly helpful thoughts in a recent blog entitled Ten Blog Tips……… he encourages us to know the audience of our blogs asks the question if we would blog if nobody read it! My hope its to be able to answer that question in the affirmative and to write as a vehicle to clarify and articulate the my own thinking, such as it is!!. However, I suspect my primary audience will be the New Life Church Family, I want to know what you think. So I invite you to join the conversation, come back regularly respond often
” The Attentive Life” by Leighton Ford continues to fuel a number of thought lines that God seems to have been prompting in me. They seem to focus on the importance of intentionality in our lives. How much of my day to day life is “intentional” and how much is “accidental”? How much of that which seems accidental would God have preferred to be intentional and how many things did He have to say to me unexpectedly when He would have preferred to have spoken quietly to an attentive child. Maggie said to me that one of the great things about vacation is that she is enjoys “the undivided attention of her husband” for extended periods of time………… I wonder can God say the same? Is He enjoying my undivided attention for extended periods of time?
From the Zebra Bag 