Crash!

We distributed the New Testament on CD Sunday morning to everyone who would take a copy. The idea behind it is to spend the next 40 days going through the NT. If a person devotes just 28 minutes a day, the goal can be reached. So I started the Mp3 in iTunes yesterday as I studied for tonight's teaching.

Listening to the way Matthew paints his picture of Jesus and His ministry was really interesting. Not pouring over the text in a Bible like I usually do, I was forced to slow down and listen. It played all afternoon.

I love hearing about Jesus - what He did, and especially who He is. And listening as the disciples tried to figure Him out and understand His Kingdom mission was cool too.

So I'm rolling along, enjoying the scenery, and I get to this:

21 From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that he had to go to Jerusalem, and he told them what would happen to him there. He would suffer at the hands of the leaders and the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, and he would be raised on the third day.

22 But Peter took him aside and corrected him. "Heaven forbid, Lord," he said. "This will never happen to you!"

23 Jesus turned to Peter and said, "Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, and not from God's." Matt 16:21-23 (NLT)

Crash!

Ah, Peter. As we say in the South, "God bless him." He wanted to do right, but it just wasn't in his nature to do right for too long. He just couldn't grasp the concept of living life with God at the core.

I was reading about computer hard drives yesterday, comparing features, speed, etc., then I came across a pretty important measurement that I had forgotten about.

Mean Time Between Failures

Yep, every hard drive is going to fail. Not a question of if, but when. So the manufacturers rate the average time each hard drive goes between a catastrophic failure and let you know up front. Obviously you want to choose one that's expected to go a long time before it crashes.

Peter's mean time between failures was pretty short back then. But turn over to the book of Acts and you'll see a different person emerge - a man of boldness and purpose, who is firmly in the center of God's will. Sure he still has "glitches", but he's God's man, looking at life through the eyes of the heart of God.

The difference? The Holy Spirit.

Friends, a life totally surrendered to God - living in the wisdom and the power of the Holy Spirit - will reduce your "mean time between failures" just as it did for Peter. Won't you decide right now to stop living for yourself and turn everything in and about your life to Jesus?

I can't wait to see what great things God is going to do. (And hear about what He did!)

Grace!

David

They listened to his heart.
Little - less - nothing! - and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.
(from Out, out, by Robert Frost)

It's the anniversary of one of the worst events to befall my generation. The attacks on America that beautiful day in September were a shock to our collective soul. For a while, we rallied - uniting as a people against the hate that would drive some to spend their life's blood as casually as a coin tossed in a fountain. For a time, we cared - cared about those killed, cared about those wounded, cared about doing something about the evil that spawned such hate.

For a while we stepped back and considered just how brief a life we have.

We even thought about God.

Then, since we weren't personally affected, we went back to the mall, back to you tube and MySpace, back to our American lives.

Because life goes on.
Because that's what we do.
Because it's hard to focus on what really matters and exclude the trivial.

That's not a new development.

19 As they left, a religion scholar asked if he could go along. "I'll go with you, wherever," he said. 20 Jesus was curt: "Are you ready to rough it? We're not staying in the best inns, you know." 21 Another follower said, "Master, excuse me for a couple of days, please. I have my father's funeral to take care of." 22 Jesus refused. "First things first. Your business is life, not death. Follow me. Pursue life." Matt 8:19-22 (MSG)

Harsh, isn't it?

You'd have to look further into the culture to realize that what's happening here is that the religion scholar wants to place a down payment on salvation rather than putting himself fully into Jesus' care. His father almost certainly wasn't dead - grieving people did not go to public gatherings like this one. His father might have lived for 10-20 more years.

Jesus was challenging the man to decide right now to follow Him - no hesitation - nothing held back. He wanted the man 100% personally invested in a changed life.

Jesus first today. Jesus first tomorrow. Jesus first everyday of your life.

Can you do that?

It goes against everything this culture tells you - against everything you've learned. You've been trained to be superficial.

Decide to follow Him. Not just one time down the church's aisle, but everyday.

For without Jesus, you are dead.

Harsh isn't it.

But oh so true.

Shalom,

David

The Searchers

It's been five days now, since adventurer Steve Fossett took off from a private airstrip near his home and disappeared. The area in Nevada that it's presumed he may have crashed in is so remote and so rugged that the only way to really search it is from the air. So planes, helicopters, and even satellite imagery are being used in an effort to find Steve.

Last night, I got an email from Amazon asking me if I'd like to help. Since I'm a tech geek, I signed up for their "Mechanical Turk" program that essentially keeps you in the loop on new technical advances. So I guess since Steve Fossett is someone who has contributed greatly to those advances, the folks at Amazon are counting him as one of their own and enlisting everyone they can - even people thousands of miles away - to find the lost by pouring over Google maps images of the search area..

Whatever it takes. Reminded me of another search party.

1 By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. 2 The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends." 3 Their grumbling triggered this story.
4 "Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? 5 When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, 6 and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, 'Celebrate with me! I've found my lost sheep!' 7 Count on it— there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue. Luke 15:1-7 (MSG)

They can count me in.

I come from a long line of people who know what it's like to be lost, and who are trying to follow the example of Jesus, who left everything to find sinners like me and bring them home.

Grace and peace,

David