Guerrilla Lovers

This Sunday we're beginning a new series called -- Guerrilla Lovers.

The series will be based on a book written by Vince Antonucci, which is based on a book written by God, you may have heard of it, it's called the bible. Vince, and a church he started in Virgina Beach were involved in helping us start Paradox. Vince has recently launched another church in Vegas called, The Verve.

This a DON'T MISS series. It's going to be packed with some serious fun, all kinds of laughing & crying, an occasional food fight, awesome music, proof that Canada has WMDs, and an explanation of how Jesus changed the entire course of human history in three short years, and how He has given to us that same power.

If you haven't ordered your copy of the book yet then you can do that HERE. I promise, if you get the book & read it along with the series on Sundays, it will make for a potentially, life changing few weeks.

If you want to read a little me more about the book from Vince himself before you buy it then click HERE.

Sunday will be here in just a few days so make sure to be there, invite a few friends, and come ready for the revolution to return.

Toronto Church Plant Update

Hey Gang,

Lot's of good things are going on with Tim & Melissa Heerebout in Toronto with their work to plant the church.

Read below for an update from Tim!
----------------------------------------------------

Hey Friends,

I just wanted to let you know that last night was the launch of our not-for-profit collective in Toronto last night. It was AWESOME! Thanks to everyone who prayed this one through! Here are some highlights from the evening:

- We had over 100 guests come in last night (this is HUGE for an unknown group in Toronto on a weeknight)

- We have raised at least $800 for Habitat for Humanity Toronto

- Today alone we've added 10 new faces to our Facebook friends - 10 people who we can have further interactions with. I expect that number to keep growing!

So with our goals in mind of having Vox be our tool for building relationships that will help us plant a church it was just awesome. God used the night's events to help us gain standing in our new community which only serves to open more doors to relationship.

I wish I had some pictures to share with you but we need to get them from the photographers. I hope to have some for you next week.

Many thanks again - peace to all of you!
--
Tim Heerebout
www.twitter.com/timheerebout

Purple Cat Purple Cat What Do You See...

...no I'm not high this morning & there is nothing in my coffee but cream. But that phrase will probably roll around in my head all day now.

My wife & I woke up at a godless, early hour this morning to my daughters, who not only decided the world needed to start well before the sun but, were completely wired like they had been eating cinnabons all night long.

As one of my girls crawled into our bed to lay there the other sat at the end of the bed reading (by that I mean she has completely memorized most pages -- it's a short book) a book, and she was reading it so loud she might have woke the neighbors too...

Blue bird blue bird what do you see, I see a purple cat looking at me. Purple cat purple cat...

And on and on and on she went from blue birds, to white dogs & black sheep -- clearly the author of this book is no animal expert because I think the sheep should be white & the dog should be black.

The whole event made me think of verse in the book of Psalms chapter 30, verse 5;

Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Last night our staff had their weekly meeting & there is a lot going on in the lives of the people at Paradox and in the lives of the people around us. I think we all left the meeting last night having accomplished less agenda than we expected and, left more depressed than when we had arrived.

I told my wife when I got home that I realize more & more that there is so much , loss, pain & tragedy going on around us all the time that every single day there is reason to live horribly depressed. If you're looking for a reason to be depressed then just wake up every morning.

Combine that with the fact that as human beings, we are naturally inclined to gravitate towards bad, depressing & sad news WAY MORE than we are inclined to gravitate towards good news. We are more interested in hearing bad news. That's why local news only ever seems to have bad stuff to tell -- it sells -- no one would watch otherwise. There was actually a news channel some time ago that tried to have a nightly news show about the good stuff going on in the city --- fewer & fewer people tuned in, and it eventually shut down - no one was interested.

But, our God, whose name is Jesus tells us that joy comes in the morning, and in a book in the bible called Lamentations (3:22-23) we read...

²² The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
²³ Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.

I wonder if we put the same intensity & curiosity into looking for the presence of God's mercies & joy as we do in looking for the next tragic story to hear & share, how might we begin to see things differently.

Today, even though I'm waking up with plenty of reasons to stay in bed, covers pulled over my head, and listening to the cure (pretty much every song they sing is depressing) I was given the gift to see joy & mercy in the form of my three year old daughter reading to us at the foot of my bed.
I'm not trying to overplay that moment, trust me, I am inclined as much as anyone else to bad & tragic news, and this particular morning there is more of it that I am aware of than I know what to do with.

BUT -- Our God is named Jesus, He is not dead, He sits on His throne in heaven as much as He sits in our inner being. He has plan & purpose in ALL THINGS, and this world is not forever, it will end & the next chapter beyond it is the world we were made for; a world where there is no more suffering, or tears. Between now & then, living in our sobering world, there are certainly things to be depressed about, but there is JOY, & there is BEAUTY, and there is reason to wake & rise & sing, and this morning God reminded me of that in the form of my precious little girl telling us about purple cats & black sheep.

May you take time today to look for the joy & mercies of Jesus -- they are there.

Introducing Restore Church

There are so many people that I've met in the last two years that are feeling the pull of God to move here to the Detroit area to start a church.

God is up to something very huge that is less and less behind the scenes. He is moving Himself to the forefront of something in our city that is huge.

One of the guys coming here from Oregon to plant a church is on his way here now, some of his team has already moved here.

The church is called Restore click HERE to meet them & hear more.

Theology Fail

Doing all I can to keep you the best informed, and sharpest thinking blog audience I can, has me passing on other blogs & their articles to you from time to time.

Below is one such blog & article worth taking time to read.

Click the link below to read about one of the greatest heretics the church has ever known & the lies he spread that effected thousands.

Stay sharp, stay informed, and stay in the bible so that you may know a lie when you hear it.

Was Jesus really born of a woman...?

Rob Murphy

This morning I was able to catch up with my good friend Rob Murphy who has come back state side after being gone this last year to Zambia, Africa.

Rob is easily one of the coolest people I know & one of the most, "like Christ" people I've ever met.

Rob & his family (wife, 4 daughters & a son) all live in Zambia & work at an orphanage taking care of sick & dying children, most of them are infected with HIV.

His quote while eating breakfast this morning, that plunged deep into my heart was,

"when I go back in two weeks I know I'll hold more dying babies & I know we'll save save some and we'll bury some. It's tempting to wall off my heart to not feel it but I wont. I'll cry my eyes out & love them like Jesus does, right into His arms".

Rob and I have been friends for a decade & have worked together, played together, dreamed together & are again thinking God is up to something more in our friendship that just a friendship.

If you go to Paradox then I think you will be learning more of Rob & the work he & his family are doing in Africa, but below are a few links of places where you can learn more now.

He & his family are heroes for the kingdom.

Click here to see their website

Click here to see Rob's face book

The Sky Is Falling

I had a friend ask me a question the other day so I'll pose it to you.

If tomorrow morning the world were to fall apart (maybe an asteroid hit it, or a nuclear bomb or some other world wide crisis were to bring the entire world to a stand still) and, in an instant you were forced to reevaluate everything. What would no longer matter to you in that moment? Why does it matter to you now? Should it?

Go ahead and chew on that one with all your free brain space today.

There's a lot that takes up precious physical, mental & emotional space in our lives that really just doesn't matter, and in fact is taking life away from you. Everything worth doing has a cost so remember the key here isn't discovering what, "takes life away form you" as much as it is what, "really doesn't matter". May we replace the really doesn't matter with the really does matter and may we live, breathe & even suffer well & with purpose.

May God grant you rest, peace, insight & courage today.

We're Gonna Party Like It's 33 A.D.

Prince (aka: weird sign gun in purple) was way off on his guess of the best year to PAR-TAY!!

This week as we keep on in our series, "Deadliest Catch", we're going to look at the HOW of last week. Last week I said we are all made as followers to be spiritual fishermen, this week I'll reveal to you the secret of the how.

I know you're all so excited to hear it so hear ya go, a little sneak peak, the secret to learning how to reach people with the message and love of Jesus is to (drum roll please...)

learn how to throw better parties!

So, come & come excited & bring a pen & paper, you're going to want to write this stuff down. And if you come in a purple shirt and shout out, "I love Prince" at some point during the message, I'll walk off stage and dance on the main floor.

Broken - Part 2

Did you take time to think through the question I asked the other day?

To who have you given the permission to hurt you with words & challenges you need to hear. To who have you given that right, and to who have you given that trust?

The more I have thought that over, the more I am drawn to re-examine the passage of scripture in which Jesus entrusts deeper parts of Himself with three friends.

Remember, It was about Jesus that I quoted the other day, "he did not entrust Himself to men, for He knew their hearts".
So the question is, did He ever entrust more of Himself to some people than He did to others.

The answer: Yes.

The story of this is found in the book of Matthew in chapter 17. You may want to stop for a minute and read Matthew 16:1-17:13 so that some of what I say next will have context.

Now, this is a serious moment of, "our relationship just went to the next level". Jesus, who has invited a small group of men into His life (12), has chosen to invite an even smaller group (3) into His glory. I think this is hugely important because I think we all have a glory about us.

One author named John Eldredge calls the sum of your life a story. Our stories are the combination of the experiences and the people that have hurt us, the experiences and the people that have blessed us, and the way God is working it all together to form us more into Christ.

Your story is the narrative of God's personal & redemptive work in you that is both realized and even that which is yet to come...

...and because of that, I believe that your story is your glory.

Jesus shows the 3 disciples a deeper part of who He is by showing them a fuller picture of His glory. He showed them deeper & fuller parts of His true identity; His glory.
When we entrust deeper and fuller parts of who we are with people, we are doing a very similar thing. Maybe the first thing worth noting is that Jesus had 12 disciples -- 12 -- but it was only with three of them that He shared this deeper layer of His glory.

One thing I see from Jesus is that even among His good friends (remember we're only talking 12 people here) He was careful to not give the deepest parts of Himself to them all, but only to three. Was He creating a clique, was he being exclusive, was He being fake with the other 9 disciples, were they just back up friends that really didn't matter to Him? I don't think so. I think Jesus had a close group of Friends (12) but even among His close friends, He chose to reveal deeper parts of who He was and is with only some of them.

The Hebrew language (which is a large part of the language that the bible was originally written in) has different words for different expressions of love in human relationships. One of these words is the word Raya & another is the word Ahava.

Raya means things like good friend & even best friend, a person that is deeply important to you. These are the type of people in life that we count on & count on us, people that matter to us. I think Jesus definitely had a Raya love with His 12 disciples (friends). We all have raya friends.

I am going to marry a couple later today and the groom and the bride will each have 5 people standing beside them as they pledge their "I Dos" to each other. I would suspect that the groom feels raya with the guys that will stand at his side, as does the bride with the girls that will stand at her side.

But I would also expect that the groom may not have the same level of relationship with every single person at his side. Maybe because of different shared experiences or different shared values or whatever, I bet there's a good chance that with some of these guys this groom has entrusted more of his glory than he has to others.

Now this other word, ahava, goes a bit deeper. Ahava is still a layer of love, but it's a layer of love that is more reflective of what this groom and bride will commit to each other. Ahava is more about a CHOICE to trust and a COMMITMENT to endure. What makes an enduring marriage endure is not about feelings (raya) but promise, commitment, and a determination to trust and stick it out through thick and thin. The thing about ahava is that it's an equally shared commitment and an equally shared choice, to trust.

So what's the point: What makes an enduring friendship endure is not about feelings (raya) but promise, commitment, and a determination to trust and stick it out through thick and thin. The thing about ahava is that it's an equally shared commitment and an equally shared choice, to trust.

Maybe some of the hurt we have had with people that have seemed to take advantage of or even exploit the parts of our glory that we have entrusted with them, is because we were trying to have an ahava friendship with a person that was only interested in or only capable of a raya friendship.

Ahava is a choice, a promise and a commitment. There comes a point in any friendship that to go deeper, to places where you entrust yourself to other people in ways that you even allow them the right to be a proverbs friend (a friend that can wound you to grow you) where you must together be entrusting ahava to each other.

Who are your raya friends and who could be an ahava friend? Have you honored the ahava that people have entrusted to you? Giving ahava is always risky, but without this risk in friendship you will only ever hide the deepest parts of you you are.

In part 3 of this post I want to explore more the idea of what to look for in a friendship in which you can entrust ahava.

Your Turn

Today only, I'm asking for your comments.

I don't really know what the heck is going on in this picture but it made me laugh so I'll offer it to you with one request.

Comment back below with a caption. The best caption will get verbal praise tomorrow. Click on the comments link below to add your caption.

Broken - Part 1

This last week, I had two of the more frustrating & difficult conversations that I've had in a while.

Frustrating because they were conversations in which 2 different friends came to me with 2 different "concerns" they had about me.

Difficult because I actually listened more than defended myself (a rare moment where I got it right in a conversation like this) and as I did, I realized ------- they we're right.

Who knew my secret lifestyle as an international bank robber was that big a deal!?!!?

Ok, so it wasn't anything like that but, both times were painful looks at ways I still need to grow as a man, a leader, a pastor, and a follower of Jesus.

I told my one friend that what is difficult about seeing more deeply the places that God is trying to grow you is like having a wart on your face. The thing is, you know you have a wart on your face but then someone gives you a mirror to see it and when you do your reaction is, "what the CRAP, I have a wart on my face?!"

I am well aware that I have not "arrived" but when I got a good look at this in different ways this last week, well, it was tough. Even today, I'm trying not to just say just blow it all off or down play it, but the temptation to do so is there.

I know this is why the Author of the book of Psalms once wrote,

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

David was well aware that not only did he have spiritual, blind spots but, he also knew he needed the living God to show them to Him, and then lead him from those places and ways of living.

Sometimes these experiences happen when the living God Himself speaks to us

but sometimes He uses a friend.

The author of the book of Proverbs once wrote,

Better is open rebuke
than hidden love. Wounds from a friend can be trusted,
but an enemy multiplies kisses.

I am grateful in a way I can't express today, grateful for friends that don't hide their love, but are willing to wound me to grow me. But even more, I am thankful for the love, grace & mercy of Jesus that accepts me and my brokenness and is at work to make me more & more like Jesus.
Which is in part what the apostle Paul was saying when in the book of Romans he wrote,

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

God is at work in me, God is at work in you, God is at work in us.

While talking about some of the brokenness in our own lives, and in that of some people around us the other night, my wife said to me that she is more and more aware that we are all just broken people trying to point each other to a perfect, beautiful & lovely God who fixes & heals our brokenness.

I know we have all had people in our lives that have tried at times to challenge us, and "help" us, and yet have only hurt us. I realize that not every person that thinks they have the right to tell you how to grow or change, in fact has that right. Sometimes, some of the people that think they know us the best know us the least, and our heart needs to be guarded from them.

Even Jesus had to be smart about who He allowed to get close to Him & have access to His heart. It's in part why the book of John says of Jesus,

But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men.

Some of us have entrusted our hearts to people that we should not have, to people that have abused our hearts, and we learned then to guard our hearts. But sometimes it's easier to just guard your heart from everyone than to try to figure out who you CAN entrust your heart to.

To who have you given the permission to hurt you with words & challenges you need to hear. To who have you given that right, and to who have you given that trust?

I will write more on this subject throughout the week. In part two I want to discuss how to know who this person should be & what signs to look for in a friend that you can trust with the keys to your heart.

Today, I am thankful for Jesus who is active in me & actively shaping me, and I am thankful for friends who are invested in that journey with me.

Broken people, loving broken people & pointing each other towards our beautiful Jesus.

** If you'd like to read the passages I quoted and study this more then see,

• Psalms 139
  
• Romans 8
  
• Proverbs 27
  
• John 2
  

Friday Advice column

Last weekend I was at a wedding with my wife at the Pine Knob Mansion.

It was a beautiful setting with the sun that had just gone down, 2 good friends to accompany our walk in the warm air, and a rolling golf course to walk hand in hand on (not all 4 of us, just my wife and I, but that would have looked funny).

As we all stood overlooking one of the distant putting greens and enjoying the slow pace, the quiet evening, and the good company, we suddenly heard a sound that was not a part of the planed walk.

WATER

Or to be more specific, the underground, sprinkler system. And this is no ordinary sprinkler system, no, this system is made to water an entire golf course. So, both the amount of water it spits out, as well as the pressure with which it comes out are impressive, as long as you're not standing directly above them!!

Like my wife was

At first I thought that maybe my wife was loosing bladder control at a young age, until the stream turned up and shot 25 yards in distance, and then hit me with a force that almost knocked me back.

As the sprinkler and all his friends began to pop up everywhere we RAN, but it was for not, we were all wet and my wife was drenched & dripping.

As we attempted to dodged the crisscrossing fire of 40psi water, we hit the pavement and one friend slipped and fell like a kid on a slip N slide, glasses went flying, things were broken, my wife was already wet so I used her as a shield, and one friend with military training took point and lead us out like we were on a house to house raid in the streets of Baghdad.

We all laughed, helped dry each other off & made sure there were no wounds for which we needed to call in a medic.

But we learned never to walk on the beautiful greens of a golf course at night, or you may end up in the middle of sprinkler system, Vietnam.

Hey, I don't know what your weekend plans involve, but just in case they were to include a romantic, golf course, walk, I thought I'd pass on the advice.

Your welcome & see ya Sunday as we finish off our Summer long study through the book of Philippians.

The Middle Road

"We think that they want cake, but they actually want steak and potatoes, and we keep giving them cake", is my favorite quote from the below article. If you read the article and you are not a teenager, don't check out!

I would disagree that this is a "teenager problem" and argue that this is a problem with people of any age. Matter of fact, the sad truth is there's plenty of evidence that shows that churches in the western culture are the most guilty of this type of watered down, cultural Christianity. Why? Because we have become spiritually fat & self-centered as a result of our consumerist culture.

We have SO MUCH at our fingertips and we are are told all the time how much we DESERVE, and as a result we have forgotten to live for something bigger than ourselves (namely the Lord God named Jesus) . We have forgotten in the church that life is found in death, and that we have a King to serve, and a kingdom to sacrifice for.

I've attached an article to read and a video to watch. The video is from a pastor named Francis Chan & he's awesome, watch it and then read the article.

May we live our love for Jesus!

Video - click here

Article - click here