Impressions

Okay, So I have been thinking a lot about what else I would like to talk about concerning the sermon series you all are listening too, but to be honest there are just to many things I want to talk about. When I think about the sermons I think of issues like: sabbath, importance of Fathers, priorities, self examination and many many more things. But I wanted to open things up and see what gripped you. So I would love for you all to comment below on what impacted you the most from these sermons?

daniel

Price Tags

It is because of the price tags that we perceive, decide or embrace that we do everything. This is the main summation of Les' 2nd sermon. So the main question is, what are your prices tags next year. What do you feel like you need to guard? What are you putting the highest price tag on

Also any other discussion on the sermon is completely welcomed

daniel

Accepting Limits

This blog is part of y’alls June assignment, which is to listen to the sermons series Dolphins and Dragonflies which can be found at http://www.trinityomaha.com/igsbase/igstemplate.cfm?SRC=MD014&SRCN=index&GnavID=9&SnavID=29&TnavID=137. This post is in response to the first sermon from 8.13.06 entitled “Dolphins & Dragonflies” please let me know what you think.

Also for a simply blog post I don’t proof read, so please overlook bad grammar

Let me first start off by saying I love Les Beauchamp, he is intense, high energy and says crazy things. I listened to this sermon series when it originally came out and it has always griped me about what type of life I want to live as a Christian. As he shares about his personal journey, and that of his church, I am inspired, humbled and moved. I leave the message with one main thought in my head…

We were created to be supernatural AND have limits.

I think of how he spoke about the abundant life in the beginning, and how it means that you have enough for you and some to give away. How we are called to impact people and nations. How we are called to raise the dead, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers and cast out demons. But at the same time we individually are not called to do that for every single person, because we don’t have that capacity.
When Katie, my wife and I, first came on staff as interns at Wesley together (it was her 2nd year interning, my 1st) we were ready to make the year count. And the translation for that was that we wanted to be extremely busy. We wanted to talk to every single person, be at every prayer meeting, do something elaborate for our ministry areas all the time. But in the midst of trying to be really good interns, we neglected each other, and in almost 3 years of marriage are still learning how to set boundaries, and truly care for each other first.

The most impactful prayer meeting in my life is one I didn’t go too. Katie and I had started dating, we were falling in love, you know it was the good stuff. There was going to be a campus wide prayer meeting at the Sidney Stovall chapel on I think a Sunday night where we were going to pray for city wide revival. We had pushed the meeting big at Wesley, and my first two years of college if there was a prayer meeting I was there. What I didn’t realize that behind this go-go-go mentality was thoughts like, “for revival to come I need to be there,” “I have to be at the prayer meeting or the Lord will not move.” At the heart of this go-go-go was the belief where I was the cornerstone of the kingdom, and let me say this, you all are NOT the cornerstone of Wesley. I am not, Bob is not, no one here is- Jesus is. After coming to this realization as Katie and I were deciding whether to go to the prayer meeting or not, we decided to have a night in and we spent amazing time together, and the Lord genuinely taught me that it is not about me.

Let me say this, I am not promoting laziness. Things that you have committed to are yours to do. The last thing I would want is this to come across as accepting idleness. But what I think it really is about is accepting the fact that you are entrusted with certain things in life, and everything else is extra. When that extra (which isn’t bad) over-shadows what you are entrusted with, then there is a need for realignment. The Lord has set limits on us. For instance, the Lord has built our staff to around 75 interns. To have a really good conversation with someone it takes at least an hour. In your average day you probably have about 1-2 hours of down time that you can choose what you want to do. And so if you choose that time to have a 1 hour conversation with 1 person then it will take you November to have a conversation with everyone. We simply do not have the capacity to know every single person on staff in a best friend type relationship. But what we can do is accept the limit (time in this case) that God has placed on us, and live faithfully. While we can’t all be best friends, we can be a body that builds itself up in love and where everyone plays their part and everyone’s needs are meet.
So to reiterate, I guess I finish this sermon thinking about how we are called to great things, but so are other people, and so accept your limits, and live the life YOU are called to live

I love how Les says in the sermon, “There is no reason to fear disappointing people, and therefore do the wrong thing." Because the truth is many people feel so much pressure to intern and be a world changer, to be intern MVP, but the truth is there are always going to be people to talk to, things to pray about, events to plan, and those things are great, but asking yourself, "is this what I have been entrusted with" goes a long way in living YOUR life and setting healthy boundaries.

So thoughts…

daniel

OK. LAST POST FORREAL.

and i recommend watching this.

OKAY I'M DONE.

-a

Articles & thoughts.

Hey friends, I stumbled across some posts from Donald Miller (author of Blue Like Jazz and some other novels) that really challenged and encouraged me:

(1) Having Right Theology Does Not Mean You Know God
This first one is about how our theology can become an idol--the idea that we place our faith in our faith, and not in Jesus himself as the author and perfecter of it if you know what I mean.

(2) Could Your Church Survive If There Were No Sermons?
This second one really struck me as relevant to the environment we'll be living in next year. So many times, we depend on the pastor to spoon feed us enough, and them blame church or the church sermon if we don't get what we want. But church is a community, a living and breathing body. This article prompted me to think of how to play an active role in the body of Christ, not depending on our structure or looking to our leaders to tell us what to do--that's not their job.

Anyway, if you check these out, just let the Lord challenge you. For me it wasn't as much about word-for-word what Don Miller said, because I don't always agree with everything he says, BUT he has some really awesome ideas.

And as a side note, reading the comments about his blog posts were just as encouraging and challenging. Really made me think.

SORRY FOR THIS LONG POST. Love you guys.

-Autumn