Refocus Your Life

While I was in college, I went through a personal Bible study called Experiencing God. At a time in my life when I was searching desperately for direction in life, God used this book to teach me one central truth: The Christian life is about adjusting your life to God's agenda. In other words, we're not saved to live for ourselves. We're saved to serve God, allowing Him to accomplish His purposes through us.

Every once in a while (actually, quite often), we have to refocus our lives. SO, last week I went out and bought the newly revised edition of Experiencing God, and I'm going through this study once again. Here are a few quotes that jumped out at me over the first week:

• "Real Christianity is not merely a religion; it is a relationship with a Person." (8)
• "What is God's will for my life? is NOT the right question. I think the proper question is, What is God's will?" (15)
• "You cannot stay the way you are and go with God." (21)
• "God knows you can't do it! He wants to do it Himself THROUGH you." (38)

Carrie (my wife) went through this study in high school, and she also is going through it again. If you've never read it, we highly recommend it. If you have read it, we highly recommend you read it again! Do you sense that you're not experiencing God like you want to or like you once did? It may be time to refocus your life.

Rockbridge Seminary

Right now, I'm taking a faculty orientation course for Rockbridge Seminary. It's a fully online seminary and designs its curriculum around the 5 purposes of the church. Just over the first few weeks of the course, what I'm learning has challenged my traditional thinking about higher education. For example, there may be more participation among the professor and fellow students in a healthy online community compared with a face-to-face classroom setting. Rockbridge encourages students to dialogue with each other and learn from each other, as opposed to the "expert teacher" just dishing out information that needs to be memorized for an upcoming test. The professor acts more like a coach or mentor.

What impresses me most about the co-founders of Rockbridge is their commitment to helping students live out the eternal purposes of God wherever they are. If you are interested in getting a seminary degree without leaving your ministry position, I encourage you to check Rockbridge out (http://www.rockbridgeseminary.org/). You'll be impressed too!

Oak Ridge Boys tradition!

For the last 6 years, Carrie and I have attended an Oak Ridge Boys concert at the Kentucky State Fair in Louisville. This year made 7 in a row!! Andy Gilley took our picture before we left. No, Carrie did not wear the t-shirt to Louisville, but I was not ashamed to wear mine! Carrie says my t-shirt is scary--

"Heaven Isn't Too Far Away"

That's actually a line from an old Warrant song. (Warrant was a heavy metal band back in the 80s. See picture below.). Anyway, for my morning devotional, I'm going through a workbook titled Heaven, by Randy Alcorn. A quote popped out at me today, and I just had to share it:

A young woman was visiting a missionary in Eastern Europe and asked her, "Isn't it hard being so far away from your grown children and missing important events in their lives?"

"Sure," the missionary replied. "But in Heaven we'll have all the time together we want. Right now there's kingdom work that needs to be done." (121)

Sometimes I'm guilty of thinking only about this life here on earth. The missionary's perspective is on target. She's thinking about her real home--Heaven. She realizes that "Heaven isn't too far away."

40 Days of Faith Begins!

Today marks the first day of "40 Days of Faith." We've already posted the first daily reading on the official "40 Days" website: http://www.40dof.com/. I invite you to go to this website each day and participate in pursuing the path of faith with us. Feel free to leave comments.

One of my greatest struggles is unbelief. I want to be in control, and I want everything to happen on my timetable. Well, I'm slowly learning that God works however He wants to work. And you know what? He knows best. And I'm learning to rest in that fact. And over the next 40 days, I'm asking God to grow my faith in such a way that I will trust Him in every area of my life.

Will you pursue the path with me?

A Serious Baseball Fan

You may have heard about this news story, but a 25 year-old man in Queens killed his mom while he was watching the New York Mets lose last Saturday. Now I love baseball and am very passionate about the Braves, but that's a little overboard, don't you think?