Jesusgreek

Chasing Lions (part seven) Looking Foolish “Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion.  And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear.” ·   Things that were fun as kids are foolish now ·   Ex. Bubbles, sprinkler, skipping, How about climbing trees? ·   We are called to climb trees! Climbing trees is actually a biblical metaphor in Luke 19. ·   Read Luke 19:1-10 ·   We read stories like this and don’t think much of it. But how many adults do you know that still climb trees? Not too many. ·   I love the mental picture of this tax collector in a three-piece suit climbing a tree just to get a glimpse o...

Chasing Lions (part six) Seizing Opportunities “Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion.  And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear.” ·   Pray ·   Life is like a puzzle—4pc, 9pc, jigsaw ·   What if there was a missing piece? Almost complete is not the same as completed. ·   Benaiah never had to look back at the lion and cave and think of what if. ·   Nestled into Colossians 4 there is a verse that doesn’t get much air time, but I think it’s a great definition of spiritual maturity. If all of us obeyed this verse it would revolutionize our lives. ·   Colossians 4:5 says: “Make the most of every opportunity.” · ...

“Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion.  And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear.” The Domino Effect ·   On October 31st, 1517, a monk named Martin Luther walked up to the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany and posted a piece of  paper on the church doors. His 95 theses attack the practice of indulgences—the selling of forgiveness by the church. Luther was put on trial. He was excommunicated from the church. But that one act of courage had a domino effect—it ignited the Protestant Reformation. ·   On April 18th, 1945, a factory owner named Oskar Schindler had a list of 1097 names manually typed—297 women and 800 ...

Chasing Lions (part four) “Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear.” · Benaiah didn’t wake up on that morning and have it all planned out. · He was confident in whatever the day held that God was in control but there was still uncertainty. · It is so easy to read about an incident that occurred three thousand years ago and fail to appreciate the element of surprise because we know how the story ends. What you need to see is that killing the lion was not a foregone conclusion. · Hand-to-hand combat with another human is one thing. Humans have tendencies. You can predict p...

Chasing Lions (part two) “Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear.” · Easy to read that passage and overlook the fear factor · I’m sure Benaiah had to of been a little scared. · The thing that sets lion chasers apart is they do not run from the thing that scares them. · Easy to look at our own fears in terms of phobias. · But what if we looked at our fears through the lens of conditioned response. · What if we fear because we have programmed ourselves to? · During the 1890s Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov was looking at salivation in dogs in response to being fed, when...

Chasing Lions (part one) · Let me make a prediction: your biggest regret at the end of your life won’t be the things you did that you wish you hadn’t.  Your biggest regret will be the things you didn’t do but wish you had. · Prediction based on a study that showed that time is a key factor in what we regret. · Over the short-term, we tend to regret actions—things we did that we wish we hadn’t. 53%-47% But over the long-haul, we tend to regret inactions—things we didn’t do but wish we had. 84%-16% · Fair share of regrets, things we wish we could take back (superman) · But I’m convinced that our deepest regrets at the end of our lives will be the risks not taken, the opportunities not seized, and the dreams not pursued. · Church has become fixated on sins of commission.  Don’t do this.  Don’t do that.  And you’re alright. · You can do nothing wrong and still do nothing right. · We operate by a holi...

If you've been a follower of "Jesusgreek" for the past few years or if you have just randomly stumbled upon this little blog by accident, you'll notice there ain't a whole lot gong on. My post are either repost from other blogs and articles I like or if they're my original thoughts then they're few and far between. Although I have lots to say and often find myself thinking, "Hey that would be a good blog post", between family and leading a mission organization / church plant I just don't have the time. So I think a happy medium for me would be to post my sermon / message notes each week. This way I'm at least staying somewhat committed to this blog and at the same time contributing my somewhat original thoughts and ideas. Sure there might still be a random shared article or movie review update, but for the most part I'm going to try to jump back on the blog horse by keeping you, my followers (and by follower I really mean my mom), u...

Each year I keep a running list of the movies I've watched from that particular year. As I watch more and more films, the list will grow. On average I see about 20 movies a year in the theater. I've also got three kids under the age of twelve, so yeah we see a lot of kids flicks.  My 5 star ratings system is pretty straight forward... ***** I would own this movie **** I would watch again *** A good and enjoyable movie but not worth seeing again ** Waste of time * I'm dumber for having watched it So with that being said, here's my list for 2015: 1) Star Wars: The Force Awakens ***** 2) Inside Out ***** 3) Ant Man **** 4) The Hateful Eight **** 5) Paddington **** 6) Daddy's Home **** 7) Avengers Age of Ulton **** 8) Peanuts**** 9) Spy *** 10) Good Dinosaur *** 11) Goosebumps *** 12) Jurassic World *** 13) Minions *** 14) Hotel Transylvania 2 *** 15) Home *** 16) The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water *

My friend Tami Rumfelt from  www.tamiwithani.com  and WBFJ radio shared the following post to her Facebook page yesterday. I love when transparency, vulnerability, honesty, and real life are able to be shared on a public stage without fear of rejection or judgment. Wouldn't it be great if more Christian leaders in the public spotlight were as open as Tami?  “Yesterday, I was thinking about how difficult last year was for family. It was just one struggle after another, many of which were financial in nature. I became very discouraged and even depressed at times. But, now having a little distance from it all, I could see that we made it through. We never went hungry. BOTH mortgages were paid every month. We celebrated a beautiful and abundant Christmas with our three healthy children. By the grace of God, we made it. How much stress and worry was wasted on things that would eventually work themselves out? As I continued to think about this, I wondered what it ...

There are plenty of choices for church conferences in 2015. So whether you are looking for a youth conference, creative ministry conference, or just a general Christian conference, here are some events to consider. JANUARY 2015 Jan 2 :: Passion Conference #1 (Atlanta, GA) Speakers:  Francis Chan, Louie Giglio, Carl Lentz, John Piper, Ben Stuart Length : 3 days Jan 5 :: National Conference Youth Ministries (Dallas, TX) Speakers:  Rick Atchley, Eugene Cho, Dave Clayton, David Fraze, Megan Hutchinson, Mark Matlock, Jonathan McKee, Kara Powell, Chris Seidman Length:  4 days Cost:  $100-$375 Jan 13 :: Sentralized Conference (Chicago, IL) Speakers:  Brad Brisco, Dave Ferguson, Darryl Ford, Lance Ford, Michael Frost, Dori Gorman, Hugh Halter, Helen Lee, Eric Lerew, Scott Nelson, Sher Sheets, Tim Soerens Length:  2 days Cost:  $89 Jan 15 :: Passion Conference #2 (Atlanta, GA) Speakers:  Christine Caine, Louie Giglio, Lecrae, John Piper, Judah S...