Steven Gibbs

Sundays

With summer here, I'm able to go on my back deck early in the morning to read my bible and pray.  As the sun begins to break through the clouds, the birds celebrate the new day with loud singing and chirping.  They sense the new day and are excited about what is coming.  The sounds don't last all day, but begin to wane as the day warms up. 

I think this is a great metaphor for Sunday morning worship. 

On Sundays we worship God so that God's life can be breathed into us and so we can celebrate his goodness with other people. As the week wears on, sometimes that celebration may be begin to wane through the struggles of everyday life or through the tiredness and the busyness that we all experience. But then Sunday comes again, a day when we can come together and worship, to be re-energized and renewed and reminded of who God is and what he wants to do in our lives. Sundays can get us through the week. 

Be sure not to miss worship on Sundays, wherever you are.  Hopefully I’ll see you this Sunday as we come together to worship.

End of the Day

At the end of the day is an idiom that generally means, when everything has been considered.  For instance, “at the end of the day, you have to decide how you want to live.” 

At the end of the day is something we use to set our priorities in life to know what really counts. At the end of the day, am I really accomplishing everything I've been created to accomplish?

Wouldn’t it be great if we considered the end of the day – at the beginning of every day?  As we begin today, what will I be glad that I did at the end of the day?  At the beginning of today, who will I be glad I served at the end of the day?

What will you begin to do today that you will be glad you did at the end of the day?

Priorities

The New Year is a time when we usually re-evaluate our priorities.  We may think about our health, our or finances, and re-establish some priorities to be sure that we get them in order.  We then practice our priorities through disciplines.

When we establish the right priorities today, it brings order for us tomorrow.  By practicing our priorities through discipline, we bring order to our days and we accomplish those things that we see as important.

In the Bible we see that order can be another word for peace.  So, by establishing the right priorities today, we actually bring peace tomorrow.  By setting some time to place God as our priority today, we will have peace tomorrow.  No matter what the year brings, God will somehow bring peace that we cannot understand.

How are you practicing the priority of God in your life today?  I know you are eating healthier, exercising, or putting together a budget to establish secondary order in your life.  But how are you practicing primary order - by placing God first?

Lessons from a Tent

Another lesson I've learned from a tent - Travel Light.  When you're living in a tent, you don't have much space.  Anything that goes into the tent subtracts from your sleeping area.  It gets in the way and makes you feel cluttered.  It's impossible to keep organized.  For us neat freaks, that is a huge problem.

Also, you have to actually carry all of your stuff.  The have storage space that most of us have deludes us into thinking that we get to keep the stuff we store.  We're don't.  Stuff is heavy.  It gets in the way.  Most stuff is not even necessary. 

We need to learn to travel light.  We're not keeping this stuff, and it is a distraction to think otherwise. 

Lessons from a Tent

I recently spent a few days living in a tent.  This wasn't camping close to civilization.  No option to go to a Marriott or a Motel 6 or go back home. 

See, the Bible describes life on this earth as somewhat like living in a tent.  So we can learn some good lessons from living in a tent.

The first lesson is that I can try all I want to make the tent as comfortable as home, but it's not.  I can bring an air mattress, cooking utensils, and coffee.  It's still not home.  If I expect it to be like home, I'll be disappointed.

None of us are home yet.  The sooner we realize this, the better.  We'll quit striving to arrange this world to suit our needs, and remember that we are still on the trek home. 

Ask yourself, where am I trying to arrange for this life to be home?  That will reveal a gap in your understanding of your true home.  You'll begin to live differently.  Your expectations will change.

Open Ears

Recently our family left for a little vacation.  About 10 minutes into the trip we had to turn around to get the things we had forgotten.  I was certain I had told someone, "don't forget _____."  Somehow, no one heard me.  It wasn't that my mouth didn't open.  Their ears were the problem. 

One of the gifts that God gives us is ears to hear.  I just wonder how many times I don't hear what God is saying.  It's not that He isn't speaking.  My ears are the problem.  

Summer is busy.  Take time to notice. 

Belly Buttons

I am currently in Cusco, Peru with my oldest son Ethan. We're going to hike an ancient Inca trail to Macchu Piccu. The Incas referred to this sight as the belly button of the world because they believed it was a special center of spiritual power.

It's crazy to think that what they were searching for is found in those who are restored by Christ. Blowing my mind!

21

Today marks our 21st wedding anniversary.  Dang.  Seems like only yesterday...

That's alot of life together in the rearview mirror:  Moves, cars, kids, accidents, laughs, sicknesses, doctors, bank accounts, trips, cries, meals, regrets, projects, agreements, disagreements, celebrations, rearranging furniture, cleaning, cooking, carpooling, schooling, books, prayers, holding hands, smiles - you get the picture.

I'm not sure that 21 years ago today I really thought about what I wanted my life to look like on May 27, 2010.  I can't really predict what it will look like 21 years from now, May 27, 2031.  What can I do?  I can love well. 

My wife loves me well.  I hope to do the same to her and to those around me.  Most importantly, I want to be able to look back over my life and say I loved God well.  Everything else will fall into place. 

Milestones

I’ve got a couple of milestones coming up this week that I’ll write about later.

According to that infallible information source Wikipedia, a milestone (from the Latin milliarium) is one of a series of numbered markers placed along a road or boundary. Milestones are constructed to provide reference points along the road. This can be used to reassure travelers that the proper path is being followed, and to indicate either distance traveled or the remaining distance to a destination.

We should take time to pay attention to milestones in our life.  Talk about them.  Celebrate them.  Weep over them.  They can help us to be sure we know where we are in life.  They can also help us to remember where we’re going.  

Read The Book

As we talked about Sunday, most of us own a Bible - or should I say Bibles!  They are nice to have.  I've noticed at times when I have visited people's homes, they put their Bible out so that I'll think they're spiritual.  How do I know that?  The price tag is still on it :).

The point is not to just own a Bible, but to read it.  I wanted to include some reading plans that would help remove any intimidation factor.  

First Steps

Bible Gateway

Biography of Jesus

Hope this helps!

Hear and Follow

Pretty soon after introducing Jesus as the way to life, the author John pens two critical words for those interested in life.  Hear and Follow.

I wonder how much my expectations cloud what I hear.  Most of the time, we think of hearing God through a small whisper.  I expect God to be proper, almost subtle, and of course He can be.  He can speak to me through the words of someone else.  He can speak through a book or movie.  He can speak through a quiet thought that passes through my brain.  So, I start expecting that more. 

What if we expected something different?  I'm going to start asking for a different kind of hearing.  Something more like this.  

Smudge or Watermark

The question isn't "Will I make a mark in this world?"  The real question is, "What kind of mark will I make?"

We can leave a smudge.  You probably have those in your house, don't you?  It's gone with just a pump spray and wipe.  That's not exactly the way I would want my life to play out.

We can also leave a watermark.  This is a mark that reveals authenticity and excellence.  A mark that is revealed only when the light shines on it.  That's how we were designed. 

What is revealed when the light shines in you life?

Service and Honor

Most people who have any idea that God exists want to do what God's will.  God provides everything, and we want to keep our lives aligned with Him.  Many people, however, seem to never know what God wants.

In John 12, we see a hint at the answer to understanding what God wants for us.  Serving.  Unselfishness.  Sometimes God doesn't guide because nowhere in our life are we exhibiting selflessness.  Everything is for us.  On the surface, you would think our selfishness would be obvious.  But it's not.  It's hidden like a t.v. remote lost in the couch pillows.  

So, we must ask ourselves.  When is the last time I served someone?  My spouse.  An employee.  A neighbor.  Very simple question that gives us a practical step towards hearing God.

Jesus claims that God will honor us if we serve.  If you don't have God's honor, you are doomed.  Who are you serving?

Charge The Ball

When teaching kids how to catch grounders in baseball, we teach them to charge the ball.  In other words, if a ground ball is coming to you, go and get it.  If you charge the ball, it puts you in better position to catch the ball.  Don't wait for it to come to you.  If you don't play the ball, it will play you. 

Where are you not charging the ball?  If you have joined the Daniel Fast, are you letting the Fast play you?  Are you focused on what you'd like to eat, rather than on what God has in store for you?  One thing I've realized is how controlled we really are.  If I don't get what I want, I'm frustrated and irritable. 

Don't let the Fast play you.  Enjoy the opportunity to join with God and others through this time.  See the possibilities of what God can do through us.  Charge The Ball!

John 5

I love John 5, as we see Jesus in action.  A friend sent this to me today.  It's based on John 5, and reminds me of the "you" I'm praying for during our Daniel Fast.  Enjoy.  

Brennan Manning – speaking on the life of Rich Mullins:

There’s a scene in Thornton Wilder’s play The Angel That Troubled the Waters that to me really captures the essence of the life and the spirituality of Rich Mullins.  Ah… the scene is… A doctor comes to the pool every day wanting to be healed of his melancholy, and his gloom and his sadness, and, uh, finally when the angel appears, the doctor – he’s a medical doctor – goes to step into the water and the angel blocks his entrance and says, “No, step back, the healing is not for you.”  The doctor pleads, “But I’ve got to get into the water, I can’t live this way.”  The angel says, “No, this moment is not for you.”  And he says, “But how can I live this way?”

 

And she says – the angel says to him, “Doctor, without your wounds, where would your power be?  It is your melancholy that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men and women.  The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children of this earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living.  In love’s service, only wounded soldiers can serve.”

Sowing and Reaping

In John 4, we again see the biblical principle of sowing and reaping.  Sometimes we sow, sometimes we reap.  Sowing is the hard work.  No immediate gratification.  No guarantee that there will be a harvest. However, we need to be willing to trade what we want to see immediately for what will happen eventually.  

When you sit on the floor with 2 year olds on a Sunday morning, you may not immediately see the harvest.  When you do kid's motions to a kid's song in Splash, you may not immediately see the harvest.  When you sit on the floor with your Kidzu group and talk about a Bible story, you may not immediately see the harvest.  When you wave a car into the parking lot, call your middle/high school group, open the front door - for all of those you may not see the harvest - immediately.  

But you will see the harvest eventually.  Jesus states that reaper and sower will rejoice, together.  Eventually.  

Let's pray together that God would give us opportunities to sow immediately so that we can rejoice together eventually.