On my 20 mile daily drive through the country to Champaign this week, I have been looking for signs of Spring. I know that it is early in February and Spring is 40 days away, but I am a Spring fanatic. I love everything about Spring in Illinois. Even in February, if you look closely, you can see the change of season happening.

While I was searching for signs, like different types of birds returning, the thought occurred to me, “I wondered if others could see more signs of Christ in me?” Have I shown love and compassion in the everyday frustrations of life? What would others say about you? Could they tell that Christ is in you?

As most of you who may know, Grace Community is hosting a Church Online experience through Lifechurch.tv on Wednesday nights at 10:00pm. We just finished up tonight’s experience and let me just tell you…tonight was Amazing! I am beyond thrilled that our church and our amazing online volunteers get to see how God is moving and working ONLINE! Every week, I just get more and more excited about our involvement with Church Online. Over the course of the night there were people from thirty-seven different countries joining us, worshipping with us, hearing truth. On top of that, there were really great conversations going on in the chat room, one of our live prayer volunteers was able to pray with someone seeking prayer, and five people raised their hands to say that they wanted to make changes in their lives. Our God is life changing! Tonight, three people became Christ followers! GRACE COMMUNITY, that is three more “one mores”. Our God is so great.

Earlier today, I was putting the lesson together for the preschoolers in Grace Place and part of the lesson is to learn the song, “Our God is so Big, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do.” And I would like to add there is no place too insignificant for God to move. Online or Offline God is moving and working…how awesome that we get to see it!

So you should know that I am a person that always struggles with extremes. For example, when I was 17, I had a pretty impressive music collection. My mom had never really let us listen to “secular” music growing up, so when I got my own car…I got my music on! Well, one day, my youth pastor asked a question about if people would know that you are Christian by your CDs. What? Anyways, this is what my mom always said and I thought that was a grand sign that I should give up all music that didn’t mention Jesus. So in a rage of passion I was driving down the road one day and threw all of my CDs out the window (I still shudder when I think about it). I felt so FREE…for about 2 hours. Once my emotional high was over, I realized that what I did was dumb. I “messed with Texas”, or for those who don’t speak Texan…I littered, threw hundreds of dollars out the window, and just reacted in an extreme way. God didn’t tell me to throw my CDs out the window, I just chose the craziest option. Maybe if I were smarter I would have prayed and investigated why it was that I felt the need to throw my CDs out the window, but I was 17 and apparently not logical. Two hours later I couldn’t even remember why I had done it in the first place. Annoying.

So anyways, the reason I told that ridiculous story was to say that I have the same problems when it comes to reading scripture. I feel like I am always struggling to balance between taking things literally and then taking them as “up for interpretation.” I was reading James 1:22-25, and I am really having another balance issue. I would hate to be called a legalistic person (gasp), but at the same time why would God tell us to “Not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says,” if it wasn’t important? But why is that so hard to do? Honestly, if I really did a thorough examination of my life, about 89% is about me and maintaining a life that goes at the pace and on the cue of the world. So that leaves about 11% of my whole being to God. Why do I think that I have that option? Or even as you keep reading James 1:23-24, “Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” Am I forgetting who I am? The extreme side to me says to just get rid of all of the things in my life that are causing me to not be able to “do what the Bible says.” But the other extreme says, “well compared to so and so, you are doing pretty good.” Why am I willing to be so extreme as to throw my music out the stinkin’ window; but not extreme when it comes to not merely listening to what the Bible says…but doing it? If this is real, if my relationship with God is important, if loving God is so transformational, then why is it not my priority to get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the Word in me…the Word that can save me? (James 1:21)

I am struggling with this scripture right now because I know that there is a possibility that it won’t stick. The possibility that I will have this moment of passion and then forget again “who I am”. (James 1:23-24) I will tell myself, that we live on earth so I must keep up with all the earth demands of me. I might try to get away with, “I have no choice but to go shopping and watch tv in my spare time instead of seeking the face of God, because I have to have ‘me’ time and it’s important to stay relevant to culture!” or maybe, “My relationships with people are important, but it is not important to mention God because I have to see them everyday and what if it is awkward?” I don’t know yet what it looks like, but maybe we are supposed to be extreme? The vast love of God doesn’t make sense. The way He changes lives doesn’t make sense. Maybe we are not supposed to make sense to the world around us. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what is says.” It excites me to think about what our relationships, families, homes and churches would look like if each of us lived to the extreme. I think that the world would have no choice but to notice.
*please note that I am not suggesting you throw your iPod out the window of your car.

February 1 will mark the sixth month since I pulled into Champaign in a Penske truck carrying everything I own and I must say that I have been abundantly blessed during this time.  I felt it would be appropriate to share a few things that I have learned and observed:

1. Never underestimate the amazing blessing of dreaming and living on God’s scale of possibility.  Less than a year ago I could tell you very little about the State of Illinois and for sure had no inkling of an idea that I would find it to be such a great home.  In the last 6 months I have been blown away by the unfolding of God’s plan as Amanda and I were obedient to His call to lay our lives in His hands and follow His lead.  God continues to accomplish things in our lives and in the life of Grace Community that we never even had the idea to dream of and I know that He isn’t finished yet.

2. Never underestimate the goodness and generosity that God has placed in the hearts of His people.  Over and over since we’ve been here I have witnessed this church of relatively few people be used by God to minister in BIG ways because of the generosity and selflessness of the church.  I am amazed as need after need is met due to the continual outpouring of those who long to help “one more”.

3. Never underestimate the value of being in a place where you never meet a stranger.  The relationships that exist here are an amazing gift from God.  My wife and I left pretty much all of the most significant relationships we’ve had in our lives up to this point in Texas but we have not felt alone for even a minute due to the warmth and love of people who were eager to take us into their lives and become part of our life. Whether it’s something as simple as a smile and a hug or having a t-shirt made with my daughter’s picture on it, we truly feel as if we are part of a community that is amazingly supportive and life-giving.

I could go on forever, but my space is limited so I will leave it at these three points and say that I am glad to be part of the special thing that God is doing at Grace Community Church and I hope that  you are too!

ABOUT THE MESSAGE

Many people are walking too close to the line when comes to sexual sin.  We all need “Moral Margin” in our life.  If you could not be with us at Grace yesterday you can watch the message at the link below.  Also, don’t forget to talk it over this week.  You can find the Talk It Over sheets to the right of the message as a PDF file.

http://findinggrace.com/messages/

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Church Online - pray for our online team as we lead this Wednesday night at 10pm.  This weeks topic should make for some interesting conversations.

Super Bowl Party - This coming Sunday bring your favorite party food and a drink to share.  We will begin to gather around 4:30pm.  This is a great opportunity to invite a friend to join you at Grace.

Here is the information to sign-up online for the marathon aid station and below are a few details on what will happen race day.

It’s quick and easy, just click this link: Illinois Marathon Volunteer Sign-up, select “Grace Community Church” for the Group Name, and enter the password: findinggrace

You will be asked to fill out a form, including shirt size for your volunteer shirt, and that’s it! You will receive a confirmation e-mail after signing up. Everyone needs to sign up individually, this lets the marathon organizers know that the aid station will be fully staffed and makes sure you get a t-shirt in the correct size : )

Some details…
The Illinois Marathon is Saturday May 1st, 2010.   We are at the same site as last year (north side of Kirby, just west of Duncan), but due to course changes our aid station is mile 19.1 (last year we were mile 15).   We should have a schedule similar to last year.  The runners have 4 more miles to reach our aid station, but the race starts a half hour earlier, so we should see our first runner at 9:15-9:30 and the last one somewhere around 12:30.  The crazy busy time will be about 10-11 and we should be cleaned up and done by 1:00. If your schedule is tight and you are able to help during the busy time (10-11), that would be great.  We will need some people to come early to setup, so let me know if you can do this (7:30-8ish).

If you have any questions, please come talk to me. That’s about it. Sign-up, it will be a blast!!

Terry

It’s already been an exciting year in 2010 as we continue to enjoy sweet fellowship at Grace and are seeing God birth many great things! We have hit the ground running with weekly youth group meetings on Sunday night and I have to say that every week I have more and more fun with this great group of students. Another exciting happening is our joining with LifeChurch.tv and their online church by hosting a weekly service. We hosted our first official experience this past Wednesday and it has already been an amazing blessing and will no doubt continue to blow us away as we connect with people from all over the world! I hope that you have enjoyed this year so far and that you will pursue one thing that God lays on your heart.

How has your first month of 2010 been?

One of my favorite books that I read last year was “Dangerous Wonder” by the late Michael Yaconelli.

This book helped me to see the wonder and absolute joy of my relationship with God, and discover childlike faith. It also made me examine areas of my life.

Michael writes about four obstacles that get in the way of adults living a childlike faith.

One of those is “The obstacle of the banal: we become so immersed in our culture and in the material needs and wants of life, that we fail to live in abject dependence on God for every breath of air and every bite of bread.”

The quote from the book that has stuck with me most is; “When our possessions possess us- imprison us- risk and adventure become impossible.” Wow, he is talking about financial margin and all my stuff. This quote drove a deep desire to develop a plan that would pay off all of my family’s debt, including our mortgage. That way Terry and I will have major margin in our finances, and be ready for whatever adventure God has for us. That excites me!! We are not there yet, but I can already imagine the freedom that will bring.

Are you at a place where your stuff is imprisoning you? If God were to present a risk or adventure to you today, would you decline because of your stuff or would you be free to take the leap of faith He is asking?

Tonight is the launch of Grace Community’s church online experience through Lifechurch.tv! I am so excited. So excited in fact that all day yesterday I was singing an adaptation of little orphan Annie’s song, “Tomorrow, Tomorrow, our online church launch is tomorrow!”

One of my last courses in graduate school was a research and data analysis class.  As part of the course, the professor required us to review the work of researchers in a newer branch of psychology called “positive psychology”.  The basic aim of research in positive psychology is answering the question of, “What makes people happy?”  This week I was reminded of the research of one particular researcher named Barry Schwartz “The Paradox of Choice”  In his research he has found that more options for choices can seem like a much better chance for happiness, but actually generally leads to less satisfaction with the choices made.  This seems to be caused by the nagging feeling that with so many options when you choose one you might be missing out on something else.  He calls this, “Doing better and feeling worse.”  Although this research seems new to the world, a simple review of the book of Ecclesiastes shows us that “there is nothing new under the sun” and that having more is not necessarily “better”.

Craig gave us a great challenge of longing and thirsting for what is “better” this week.  He challenged the idea that is promoted in the world that happiness means having more, or something, newer, or bigger.  More or less Craig made an argument that happiness is found in having what is “better”, but “better” does not necessarily mean that which is the newest and most advanced or most endorsed.  ”Better” was not in having anything but in being rooted in one thing: connection with God.  Over and over in scripture we see the principle that we will be blessed (which means “happy” or “fulfilled”) whenever we “Lean not into our own understanding” (Proverbs 3:1-10) or “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33).  I think the apostle Paul puts it well in Philippians 4:11-13 when he says that he has “learned to be content in all things…” because he knows that he “can do all things through Christ who strengthens” him.  You see, when we know and are connected to the source of happiness, we are blessed and life is “better” regardless of what things we do or do not have.

What are some ways that we can find what is “better”?