Psalm 119

Been thinking about this verse that I was led to this morning:

Psalm 119: 89-96 (from the Message)
What you say goes, God,
and stays, as permanent as the heavens.
Your truth never goes out of fashion;
it's as up-to-date as the earth when the sun comes up.
Your Word and truth are dependable as ever;
that's what you ordered—you set the earth going.
If your revelation hadn't delighted me so,
I would have given up when the hard times came.
But I'll never forget the advice you gave me;
you saved my life with those wise words.
Save me! I'm all yours.
I look high and low for your words of wisdom.
The wicked lie in ambush to destroy me,
but I'm only concerned with your plans for me.
I see the limits to everything human,
but the horizons can't contain your commands!

God has saved me. My focus is on His plans for my life. I am limited as human being but God has no limits!

Peace.

Jesus vs. Christians

We showed this video last weekend during our services at The Orchard.
We were continuing our series, Confessions of a blue jean wearin', Starbucks addicted pastor.
Scott's talk was titled, "I Don't like [MOST] Christians."
That was his confession.
There was a lot of tension in the room for a while.
We had a HUGE response.
More people have responded positively to this message than any other during this series.

We have had several churches and leaders ask if they can use the video, which is good and bad.
Good in that we have been able to take something simple like this video and impact lives all over the country. Bad in that it takes something like this video to educate us to this fact. Bad in that followers of Christ are viewed this way.

This video was shot with one camera, our in-house video guru, and our lead pastor on the north side of Chicago.



What do you think? What are you going to do about this?
Peace.

In the Quiet

I sat in the dark of our auditorium today just being still, being quiet. Listening, seeking, wondering and dreaming. It was probably one of the most rewarding experiences of my day.

When do you seek God? Is it only when you go to church (and maybe that's only a couple of times a year)? We typically seek something greater than ourselves when we have reached our limit.

When we have reached the point where we can't seem to do anything else on our own.

What about all the other times?

We began a new series at The Orchard this last Sunday called Soul Cravings and started talking about the deep things... the things our soul just innately craves. We were designed to have these, almost primal longings for our Creator. Sometimes we don't understand it or maybe haven't identified with it in a very long time. Maybe we've shut it away for so long we don't even remember, but it's there. If you search deep down, every human being has been wired to seek out something higher than himself.

To ask questions. To search for answers from someone outside of themselves.

I challenge you to seek out God today, even if for the first time. To find some quiet place and just search for Him. I promise if you chase after him you'll find He's been waiting for you all along.

Peace.