The "yokes" on me...

Pastor Russ really challenged me yesterday through his message.

In particular, he quoted a scripture that felt like it leapt off the page to me:

Matthew 11:30 says: " For My yoke is easy...".

The work "my" struck me as I remembered something that I had learned years ago: There are many things that have been passed down as tradition about Jesus and his disciples that might or might not be true. One of those traditions involves Jesus and yokes. It seems that the common belief is that Jesus and his earthly father, Joseph, were famous yoke-makers. People traveled days just to buy them because the were so well constructed.

The entire verse reads: 28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

I love the "my". It almost seems that he is proud of this ownership and skill. If the tradition is true, it would make so much sense.

What else would the Master make?

A piece of tack that is used for guiding and controlling animals so that the MOST potential is reached with each animal. A bad yoke injures the animal and doesn't allow the full potential of strength to be reached. Poorly constructed yokes make the animal work harder than it should. It also makes it harder to control and guide the beast.

Jesus doesn't guide with force.

That isn't the kind of gentleman he is.

Also what I love here is that he says it's up to us. He says, "Take my yoke and you will learn from me." It's our choice whether or not to put it on.

Oxen, after a while, know where their master wants them to go and what he wants the to do with just the slightest touch. Is it like that the first day they wear a yoke? Of course not. But through time, through truly understanding the needs, the voice, and the gentle but firm instruction of their master, oxen (some of the strongest most willful animals in the world) can create fields of plowed soil in very little time. The added benefit of a well-constructed yoke was that the burden that the beasts would carry seem so much less because it is fitted to the animal. Each animal is unique and requires it own, specially designed yoke to have the reach it's full potential.

How much like those beasts we can be!

How much we need to own that decision to take on the yoke (that is, to take on his authority and guidance of the Holy Spirit while submitting to him). Our life will be so much richer, fuller, and spirit-led. It is the only way we can reach our full potential in Him...

Alright, Jesus. Yoke me! :)

President Obama Bumps His Head on Marine One... Hits Hard! (exclusive audio)

LOL!!!!

Obama Attempts Window Entry.

I finally had to do this... The King of the World, Obamessiah, is having a couple troubles of late... Can you say Gerald Ford???

Unveiled...

First, apologies to everyone for the gap in blogging. Work has been oppressive the last 4 weeks. Between that and traveling I haven't had a lot of "free" time.

I'm hoping that over the next couple months I will be able to consistently move through a theme that is really hitting my heart hard.

3 weeks ago, my church in Jax had a night of worship and prayer that was really powerful. The message focused around Tozer's classic "The Pursuit of God". He said that Tozer wrote that entire book on his knees during a cross country train ride. The part that he focused on was a challenge to our view of God and the "unveiling" of our hearts.

I'm not going to delve too much into this now, but one part struck me particularly hard: God knows we have a veil over our hearts. Some of these veils are thick, some our thinner, but we all have them. It does affect our relationship with God and can only be removed by him.

Something to think about... How many things have you done to grow closer to God through your own effort? What were the results?

No offense Hannah (or Mylie, or whatever), but THIS is the best of both worlds...

This song has been a theme for us for a couple weeks now...

I saw this and thought it reminded me of a great time in the past: daycamp. Can easily see Cara leading he kids with Chris to this song.

Just so cool...

I TRIPLE Dog Dare You....

HAMMOND, Ind. - In a scene straight out of the movie "A Christmas Story," a 10-year-old Hammond boy got his tongue stuck to a metal light pole.

Police say the unidentified 4th grader was able to tell them a friend had dared him to lick the pole Wednesday night. Temperatures in Hammond were around 10 degrees at the time.

By the time an ambulance arrived, the boy was able to yank his tongue off the frozen pole.

Police say ambulance personnel explained to the boy's mother how to care for his bleeding tongue.

House Hunting...

So, which one would you pick? I was in a neighborhood today that had 1.5 million dollar homes. I took these pics before the cops showed up...(jk) :)

If you have a couple mil, it's not bad. Right on the beach in beautiful St. Augustine.

I have my favorite... Can you guess which one???

Whoa.

Glory To The King

Still one of my fav's...

Happy New Prayer...

I've been trying to figure out what to do for the new year. I was going to post a video from our New Year's Eve celebration at Southpoint. It was so much fun!

But, it didn't seem fitting somehow. So, I waited. Now, after this morning, I know...

I'm a guy that responds to challenges. Always have. I don't know if it's just a byproduct of my sex or how I'm wired. Don't tell me I can't do better... Me no likey...

This morning, Pastor Russ had a really great challenging message about prayer. I met Pastor Russ briefly on New Year's Eve. He asked how we found Southpoint (they've been experiencing exponential growth the last four months) and I told him the hard facts: Internet search, website, visit. But that wasn't the whole truth. I was looking for heart. Authenicity of the heart. I sensed it immediately with Pastor Russ the weeks I heard him speak. I've been thirsty for a challenge for a couple years. Some would say that I should just motivate myself and that is valid. But, like I said, I need challenges...

Back to heart. I've not been real proud of my heart lately, especially the last six months. This has been my responsibility and I've not responded well to it. I've not dealt properly with things that changed around me. I put my feelings for people I truly love interfere with what I was sure God really wanted me to do. Please don't read too much into that, it was more situational than personal.

Eventually, I knew that God would reveal the next step and place for my growth. It has been so long that I have seen God moving within and without me. I wanted to be in a healthy place so that I could grow. I am not naive. I know that we are all fallible. I know we are all imperfect. Just as sure am I that God blesses when he feels like it. Not when we deserve it or earn it. There are a lot of people out there that can't understand why God isn't blessing them because they are closer to Him than people that are experiencing a blessing. There are a lot of sinful people that go farther into ministry or other "christian" endeavors than some much better people.

God blesses based on what HE wants and needs to do rather than what WE think. We are all in places and face things that help us to become what he wants us to be.

God has been pressing me in the area of prayer. In my life as a Christ follower my prayer life was and is pretty poor. I talk to God throughout my day, so I do pray, but I don't focus it like I should. More "shotgun" than "rifle" would be a good description. As I immerse myself into Southpoint I was looking for God to confirm some of these things.

Today Pastor Russ started his next series. His vision for Southpoint is much like SouthField, my old church. Impact. Let's not grow by transfers, let's impact Jax for Christ with new believers. He believes that is just around the bend and only needs what we can do...Pray. Concerted, focused, specific prayer. That applys to time, effort, and follow through. It is good to be listening again to someone who loves to challenge and say things that the world would consider controversial.

I'm embarking on this with purpose. I haven't any excuses not to. My reading in the Word took me to a study on the Lord's prayer and prayer in general this morning. As I sat waiting for the service to start I prayed that I would have a heart for prayer. Real, effective, passionate prayer. Pastor Russ' series is called "I'm M.A.D.". It's his heart for our church. M.A.D. stands for Making A Difference and his call to prayer for our church is the beginning of that belief. Prayer has preceded every great move of God. It still does.

So, "Happy New Prayer" is appropriate. I want to pray in new ways, with a new view of it, and with a love for it like Christ had. Day and night the disciples of Christ were with him. They saw him walk through crowds that wanted to kill him, perform miracles, and know everything about them. They also saw that he was human and like them in so many ways. Only one thing was different. Jesus prayed. He prayed like no one they had ever seen and probably like no one WE have ever known and seen.

I want to be more like Jesus. I'm counting on him to help.

Happy New Year, everyone!!

A Blessed Christmas To All...

Merry Christmas to all I love and care for. You all mean more to me than you could ever know or understand.

Please pray for me and my family this Christmas time. It is a time of many challenges for all of us and stress is palatable around here.

Again, love to all. He is still alive...

"Glory to God in the Highest and Peace on Earth to all Men...

I've been disturbed for years at the trend of people worshipping angels. TV shows, books, news articles...all talking about angels and what they do for us and what they are - blah, blah, blah...

I know that angels are real and all about us. The Bible says that, not me. I believe, no, I KNOW that angels watch over Christi and our kids. Too many times I've seen them about to fall or something else that would have hurt them and for some reason, they don't. A lot of times it defies gravity, logic, and everything else.

That is one of the reasons why I was so struck by this photo and article. Here's the link: http://www.thestate.com/breaking/story/629997.html

I started reading it, admittedly, because of the photo and kept reading because the young lady involved has Hydrocephalus just like Christi except much worse.

So, have you ever had an angel experience? Has God sent you an angel? Have you seen one? I know it can seem out there, but although it isn't common, it does happen. Oh yeah, it's even biblical.

Take that Blago, Illinois taxes, and, ahem, bad weather...

It's official. I'm a Florida resident. I can feel my blood thinning now. I don't know if I can get used to this good weather all the time. Imagine those beautiful, mild summer days in Illinois and having them around all the time. yeah. It really is THAT good.

So, what's next? A conceal and carry permit, of course. Then....a TAN! Woo-hoo...

Which Rat Do You See???

Ok, find the rat in this picture....

Palm Reading...CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!

All hail the Christmas Palm!

I was feeling a little melancholy for my 12' tree so I decided to get a replacement for my apartment....

More Beach pics...and a prayer request.

Took these pics while I talked to my buddy Aaron. He goes in for surgery on his wrist as is a little apprehensive about it as he has never been "out" before. Pray for him to have a quick recovery and not a lot of pain. They are inserting a plate into his wrist to stabilize it so be sure to refer to him as Aaron "Steve Austin" Shellhorn when addressing his Lee Majoristocracy...

Get well, Brother!!

Church shopping 101

I haven't been a church shopper in 16 years. Literally. In January, 16 years ago, Rachel and I attended what has become Southfield Community Church for the first time. After serving for so many years and trying to get into the mind of the person looking for a church home, I have to say that it was nothing like I thought.

Because it is the 2000's, I started with the web and searched for great churches in Jacksonville. I also searched for a fellow Willow Creek Association (WCA) church as our church is part of that organization. A bunch of churches came up so I searched sites to look for churches that would be compatible for us.

Part of this move is trying to find a church home before anything else. I am most concerned with a biblically sound church followed by great groups for my kids to be a part of. I feel that if I help the kids to make connections quickly it will help them through this time. A lot of people are not from here so many kids will be able to relate to our kids.

So, what are the chances that the VERY FIRST church I'd go to I'd like. A bunch. I went to another one later, but I was really impacted by the message and atmosphere. Nothing is perfect, but for the most part, I felt like this could be our church home. The next test: bringing the fam. We will go when we all come down here after Christmas and give me the thumb up or down.

The church, funny enough, is called Southpoint Community Church. Again, what are the chances of that? Their web page is: http://www.southpointcc.com/

Please pray for us that we will find our home down here. Thanks.

A Beautiful Place....

Finally. I finally got to the beach today. It was so pretty. It was around 1:30 pm today and I was close to the coast so I decided to take my lunch and head over. Today, it was 75 and sunny. People are just drawn there. I was walking around and there were just a couple others taking a stroll with the seagulls all around.

I'll let the pics tell the story. Just beautiful...

Sweet Home....Jacksonville????

Well. It's officially official... I landed today from a snowstorm in Chicago to 65 degrees and palm trees swaying in the sun in Jacksonville. The two hour delay at O'hare helped cement my decision as the appropriate one.

I'm attaching a couple pics of my corporate apartment... It is SO nice. Imagine, I FINALLY have a nice bachelor pad and I'm not a bachelor!!!

Oh, well.

I'm so thankful that I'm exhausted. I'm hitting the sack pretty soon as the hour time difference is my biggest hurdle. I'm also disciplining my self to early rising since I'm alone here. I HATE being away from my family and lonliness is the only thing that really cripples me spiritually if I'm not careful.

Thanks for all the kind words from so many of you at church Sunday. I cannot express how I feel about so many of you. I miss you all already...

Happy Thanksgiving!! (with a Christmas twist)

Feel Like I'm Falling