Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The Hardest Thing For Me To Do

I've been reading in the book of Psalms recently and I have been stuck on one particular chapter.

When I say "stuck", I mean that I find it difficulty to just keep reading on because the content of of one chapter just keeps rattling in my brain. Even more than that, it's rocking my world as to how I think God thinks and feels about me; actually, about all of us.

Now, maybe you're not like me & maybe you live completed convinced all the time that God absolutely adores you. Maybe you have soooo fully embraced His grace that no matter what you do, no matter how many times you mess up, no matter what vengeful thoughts you have, lustful desires you cave to, or angry things you say to your spouse; you are confident in God's abundant love for you.

OR, maybe you're more like me, and you have had a difficult time REALLY believing and embracing God's pure & unmeasured love for you. Then, to make it more difficult, every time you "mess up", you feel like you and God just took two steps back, & now you have to work hard to get His love level for you back up.

This is how we relate to each other as people
No, matter how good the friendship or relationship, truth is, none of us know how to fully love without strings or agenda or without giving "pay backs" when something gets messed up in the relationship. And here's where it gets spiritually messy, we tend to assume that God relates to us the same ways that people do.

I have long felt like a guy who barley ever "gets it right", and as such I am prone to think that people are usually disappointed in me or are just a skip away from being disappointed in me. Then when I really mess up, I'm certain that they are going to take out a withdraw from their bank of love for me. Now, here's where that leaps into the way I experience God.

I tend to believe God relates to me this same way

Over the last two weeks my daughters have both gotten pink eye & even thought they are over it now, the process of giving them their medicine drops was CRAZY!!

They fought me every single time. It got to the point that I had to pin them down, pull their eyes open, and squeeze the drops in while they SCREAMED! I guess I could have thought...
  • Don't you see that I'm helping you
  • Hold still, you're being ridiculous, grow up & get control of yourself
  • What, you don't trust me that I know best; stupid child
  • If you kick me one more time then you're on your own
  • I love you BUT after that behavior, I need my space for a while, please leave me alone.
  • This behavior totally comes from your mom's side of the family! :)
But instead, I held them during their rage, AND I held them after it. I loved them the same when they were kicking me, as I did when they were sitting in my lap reading a story before bed saying, "daddy, I love you".

See, my love for them IS NOT contingent on their behavior or even their love for me.

David, the author of Psalms says in chapter 73 verse 22,

"I was senseless and ignorant, I was a brute beast before you"

I don't know about you but "senseless, ignorant beast" seems to describe me pretty well sometimes, ok, many times.

Whether it's my attitude, my sin, my failures to love my wife sacrificially, my "foot in mouth" with a friend, my doubting that God is both good & in control, the list goes on... I am aware that I am a work in progress and that I mess up a lot. But my method of relating with God has often been, "ok, I'll try to mess up less so that you'll love me & not be annoyed with me".

But watch what David says about how God loves Him even while he is being a brute beast.

Verse, 23
"Yet, I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand"

those don't sound like the actions of an angry God that doesn't want us around him & is taking away a portion of His love from us until we earn it back again.

Those sound like the actions of a good, patient & loving dad.

Those sound like the behaviors of a God whose love IS NOT contingent on our behavior or even contingent on our love for Him.

I LOVE the thought that no matter what I do, my God is my dad, His name is Jesus, and no matter if I am being a good son or a brute beast HE IS WITH ME, HOLDING MY HAND, and His love NEVER decreases, never needs be earned, never needs be repaid. You know what I feel in that place and in that reality...

SECURE & SAFE

And that place, is a place, it's THE place, where God works His glorious magic in us to make us into the sons and the daughters He dreams we can still become.

This is a place I am learning more & more to live from with God, and I am being changed by it.

May you live both safe & secure today, hand in hand with Jesus.


Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Yup, It's Tuesday Again

Since the day I take off each week is Monday, that means that Tuesday is my Monday, so I'm going to start calling them Muesdays. And Muesdays are, well, they're the first day of the week back to work, need I say more!

ALTHOUGH, my morning began today with an early rise and some sweet time spent with Jesus in prayer, & reading His word, & trying to listen for His voice. I read a blog this morning that said,

"I believe there is a direct connection between success & time with the Lord."

Now, I'm not sure what his definition of success is, but I was thinking about all things I would like success in today, probably a lot of the same things you do...
  • Loving my wife well
  • Keeping my temper
  • Having a gentle & compassionate heart
  • Giving my kids tons of energy & affection when I get home from work
  • Seeing & stepping into the opportunities today that God gives me to be His witness
  • Living out of trust with God and not fear
  • Not falling asleep at my desk after lunch
So, whatever you have on your plate today that would create the places for success or failure, I hope you allow those words to ring true in your heart. Success is directly tied to your time with the Lord, where in a quiet place with you He can speak to you, comfort you & continue to shape you.

I also know that those times of quiet are so difficult to create sometimes. Maybe you need to take that time while the kids are napping today, or while at lunch, or on the ride home from work, or just take a really long bathroom break, read in the stall then come back to your desk with an exhausted look on your face; no one will ask anything!

I know this too, no one or nothing else, will fight for you to be able to have this time with God. I know it may feel like, "i can't afford the time" but may i suggest, you can't afford not to take the time. So, whatever your Muesday holds for you to do, I can promise, you will find your success tied to your connection & time spent with Jesus today.

Here's your Guerrilla Lovers Assignment today.

Map out how each day this week you can spend at least a solid 1/2 hour in prayer & reading the bible & listening for God's voice to you.

"How is that being guerrilla", you ask?

Our ability to love like guerrilla lovers comes from being saturated with the love of God. Creating regular space & time to sit & talk with God may be one of the best things you could ever do to serve the people around you in the name of our King & His kingdom.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Unrestrained Trust...

...produces unrestrained love!

That was how I closed the message last Sunday morning, and that phrase has been swirling around my head all week.

I am increasingly convinced that the most difficult task in the life of a follower of Jesus is to chose to daily TRUST JESUS, no matter the events, circumstances, tragedies or successes that surround you.

It seems like when things are going bad, we loose our trust in Him, and when things are going good we tend to attribute it to other things...
  • our hard work
  • dumb luck
  • coincidence
  • etc...
Not to say God has made us complete imbeciles that cannot do, decide or accomplish anything; like an infant that would just lay there are die without the interceding activity of it's parents.

BUT it is to say that we too often miss just how active a roll God does in fact play in our daily lives, and we easily miss that in that role, He works in ALL THINGS -- good, bad, tragic, and beautiful.

The trust that God is asking from us is so different that I think we often realize. He is not fundamentally asking us to trust that...
  • He'll make everything work out
  • Life will make sense
  • You'll find a spouse
  • We can change our city for Jesus
  • that cats won't be in heaven (sry)
but trust that --- We actually do, and Deeply do, MATTER TO HIM.

When we believe that, then we can enter every situation in life with confidence that God is good & God is in control. Not to mention the fact that I really do believe it's only in this place of trust that we really, truly, care about the people around us, and long to make a difference for the kingdom.

God is, His name is JESUS & He is NUTS about you.

Our unrestrained trust in Him produces unrestrained love flowing out of us; love that flows back to Him, and love that flows to our fellow man.

So here's your Guerrilla Lovers Assignment for the weekend.

This assignment is to be accomplished sometime over the the next three days (so before Monday).

It's simple, get your favorite love story movie & watch it.
Now, I know some of you guys just thought, "chick flic!!!" That's not what I said, I could be, but not necessarily. One of my favorite love stories is the movie, A Knights Tale.

WHAT!?

For me, the love tale in this movie is the love of a father for his son. A love that sets the entire movie into motion, and then culminates into the realized dreams that a dad once had for his little boy.

So, whatever movie it is for you that has the ability to grab your inner emotions & place of love, WATCH IT some time this weekend. If your married then watch it together. As you watch the movie here is all I want you to do. Focus on the thought that the actions of love in the story (the pursuit, the sacrifice, the passion) are all the realities of How God feels about you, and has pursued you, and has sacrificed for you.

Perhaps the reason the themes of the movie pull at you has always been about a deeper reality than the movie, but the reality that love has been pursuing you since before you were ever even born, and it's name is Jesus.


Thursday, October 21, 2010

Reversing The Order

I'm just getting back into my office after a morning of meetings with the E.A.C.H team.

If you haven't heard yet about E.A.C.H, well, it just may be the BIGGEST thing to hit the Metro Detroit area in decades, and it may possibly be one of the only times in our lifetime that we could see a move of God around us & among us like this.

I am CRAZY EXCITED. We rolled out the idea to a group of our leaders on Sunday after church & they are pretty stoked too. You will be hearing more & more very soon, but check out their website to learn a little more now.

Guerrilla Lovers Daily Assignment

Seems like yesterday's assignment stirred a lot of good things. Well, today's may stir the same but with more difficulty. Today I am asking you to reverse the order of yesterday.
Today, the challenge is to ask for forgiveness from someone you need to.

I think it's usually easier to extend forgiveness than to request it. But according to the the apostle Paul, it was the very embrace of HUMILITY that moved Jesus form heaven to earth...

Second chapter of the book of Philippians
5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very naturea]">[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very natureb]">[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

It takes nothing short of Jesus type humility to request forgiveness, to say those three little words, "I AM SORRY". It's a lot easier to say...
  • you were wrong
  • I hate you
  • you're at fault
  • I hate cats -- this has nothing to do with forgiveness, i just wanted to remind you that I do.
I realized over the last few weeks that I had been wrong in some assumptions I was making about someone, and I was then getting an attitude with them because of it. I had to confess that to them, apologize, & ask for their forgiveness. He was very gracious & willing to forgive & dismiss my offense; I think a friendship was birthed.

So, whether it's a co-worker, your spouse, a family member, a neighbor, WHOEVER. Today, get guerrilla by getting humble and asking for forgiveness to something that you know you need to.

Trust me, it will have greater impact for the kingdom that you can imagine. May you find the strength in Jesus to embody the humility of Jesus.

Keep sending in your stories, some really GREAT stories have been coming in, we want to know yours too. Send them to... mystory@paradoxchurch.com

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The First To Die

So my sister called me this morning with, "check this out, I don't think anyone has ever had this thought before...", being the first thing out of her mouth. And immediately several things went through my head, like...
  • No Rebecca, everyone HAS already realized that I am way cooler than you
  • Actually Rebecca, we are all ALREADY aware that toilet paper was a good invention
  • Well actually, everyone IS disturbed by the way Bob the builder was completely replaced by Handy Manny, very suspicious, clear conspiracy.
But she just kept talking while my brain kept imagining how she would finish this sentence.

And she finished with...

"even though Abel was the first person to ever die, that made him the FIRST person to EVER stand in the presence of God in heaven".

Hmmm, that wasn't one of the ideas running through my head.

If you're familiar with the story you may remember that Cain & Abel were the first two brothers of humanity; sons of Adam & Eve. And like all brothers, there was rivalry!

The story can be read HERE

Brothers are always trying to outdo each other and apparently with these two it wasn't any different, and the need to "outdo" for Cain, even extended into how he related to God. So, out of jealousy, Cain killed Abel. Usually the story ends here in our minds with regard to Abel. But, what a cool thought that my little sis had this morning.

Abel's tragedy became for him the experience of a life time that NO OTHER human ever got to have.

See, Abel was not just the first person to get to heaven, but in being the first he was there alone with God in full & pure form with NO OTHER human to have to share him with; at least for a while. That's BEAUTIFUL!

Often we kick the ground and get angry when things don't go our way, when life takes a U turn, when our plans don't seem to be working out, when people we love hurt us...
It's always easier to immediate get angry and think, "why me", "this isn't fair", "what did I do to deserve this", and then usually we find a person to blame for the situation we are in.

We blame our boss, a friend, our spouse, our kids, a co-worker; we look for our Cain to blame.

Now, I'm not trying to downplay that there are times in life that each of us have been mistreated, abused, and betrayed; some of us horribly so.

BUT - I wonder if some of us are so angry at our Cain that in our anger and imaginative revenge scenarios, are we oblivious to, and MISSING the fact that we are now standing in the presence of God.

I know that some of us have experienced horrible hurt & abuse by someone that we trusted and I am NOT downplaying that, or trying to say that some how what they did was actually good for us. But God is clear that He is powerful enough to take even the worst things done to us and squeeze something beautiful out of it.

It's what the apostle Paul was saying when he wrote in Romans 8:28,

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

What your "Cain" intended for evil, God will use for good & the best "GOOD" that God has to offer to us is always more of Himself, deeper relationship, more beautiful connection with His presence & love. We don't know what Abel did when he entered into heaven but I'm pretty certain he didn't stand at the edge of the heaven, staring back to earth & swearing at his stupid brother.

Whatever your Cain experience has been, if you're still standing at the edge of it, swearing at your stupid brother, then I pray you would TURN AROUND and see not only that God is there, but that He is waiting to birth something beautiful out of something painful.

This leads to our guerrilla lovers assignment for today.
I've been thinking about this one for a week, and I think now is a perfect time for it.

Who is your Cain? What would it look like for you to forgive them. If you're like me then you just went in your mind to the person that for you is the most difficult to forgive and you're thinking, "how the HECK am I going to do that!?!?".

Slow down tonto!

Start for today with someone else. Now, whoever the "most difficult person" is for you, I am not asking you to not eventually apply this to them, It's just that I realize there are some people that the process of forgiving is not going to be easy or quick. But, there are some "Cains" that we can more easily begin to forgive, and until we do I don't think we will see how Jesus is there in it with us, or how He is using it.

Talk to Jesus about how to do this. Do you write a letter, get together, or is this a decision you make in your heart today and then communicate it to them somehow latter. Jesus will lead you with wisdom if you ask Him.

Jesus, please grant us grace and strength to be the forgiveness you have been to us.


Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Holy Tuesday Batman!

Wow, I have been running like crazy today with meeting after meeting, call after call & STILL my in-box holds about 78 more "thing to do".

I need the sun to stand still for a few hours just so i can catch up.
So I apologize for such a late addition to the guerrilla lovers assignment today, but here it is.

I want you to clink in THIS LINK and watch the video. It's only about 6 minutes long & it's a clip from the conference I was recently at with a half dozen others from Paradox.

The speaker is a guy named Francis Chan, and I want you to listen to him talk about the weirdness of how we often and easily live out our Christianity. This Paradox, is the heart beat of the Guerrilla Lovers series, when we are REALLY in love with Jesus & in tune with HIS heartbeat, then, what flows from us will be powerful, will be beautiful, will be His kingdom.

But when we are disconnected for His heartbeat then what flows from us is not only un-biblical but it's a weird and warped form of Christianity. I love the line that he closes with (below) so watch the video and simply ask yourself if that's true for you, that's your assignment for today.

"I want my life to fit in this book (the bible) one day"

Monday, October 18, 2010

Kicking It Old School

Yesterday I was driving home from Chruch with my 2 three year old daughters in the car when they starting saying to me dad, "we're kicking it old school".

There was a song they sang yesterday that said that in it and so they sang it most of the rest of the day -- HALLARIOUS!!

Well, for today's guerilla assignment I want us to all kick it old school. In the Bible, in the Old Testament book of 1Thessalonians we are told to regulary encourage eachother. Verse 11 of chapter 5 says...

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing".

So, not only are we told to encourage eachother but there is an unmistakable link between our growing / being "built up" AND the levels and amount of encouragement we get / give to eachother.

We downplay the POWER of our words way to much.

Your assignment today is to send a note, email, phone call (u get the idea) of encouagment to someone else in our church. We all need to be more aware of the power we hold to BLESS eachother with our words, so use the power of ur words today to bless and build someone at Paradox.




Friday, October 15, 2010

Spread Some Good Gossip


Hey there guerrilla lovers!

Here's your assignment today - VERY easy!


Tell someone today about what we've been doing.

That's it? yup, that's it!

How is that a guerrilla lovers assignment? Well, we all know how FAST bad news spreads, let's see if we can spread good news as quickly, and with as much "passion to tell". There's a sumtin brewing and God is motivating His people in very cool ways.

So, find a way, an excuse, an opportunity to share with someone today about this thing called guerrilla compassion, and then take a minute to share with them a picture, a vision of what could happen if our city was overrun by people loving people.

So, you may need to walk out of your cubical, talk to your neighbor when you get home, start a conversation with a stranger, or just....

But, figure out a way today to casually share with someone (that doesn't know what we are doing) about what you've been doing these last two weeks with these assignments of compassion.

By the way, today is garbage day at my house, above is a picture of what we did for our garbage guys. We baked cookies & put them in a box with a few cokes, a letter to thank them, & a gift card to Tim Hortons - I LOVE how excited my kids are by this.

God bless !!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Guerilla Love Fest Day Assignment 11

For your assignment today make plans to give back or pass on something someone once gave to you.

Last night I had a friend give me back a gift I had once given them.

Now you can either conclude that I'm a crappy gift giver, and that they finally got the courage up to give it back (my wife has been known to do this a time or 2, which isn't a reflection of her appreciation, but a reflection of my "oh, u shouldn't have.." gift giving). Or, you can assume that they had the desire and opportunity to gift back to my wife & I what we once gifted to them.

So, they are my inspiration this morning. Maybe you give this thing to the person that once gave it to you, or you pass it on to someone else. Maybe it's the very same thing, or a new version of it. Maybe it's an actual thing, or money, or a service. The point is, pass on a blessing that someone once passed to you.

Spend tonight talking about this as a family then do it over the weekend. This is your Saturday & Sunday assignment "to do" assignment, tonight is planning.

Bringing the impact of the kingdom by LIVING IT OUT!

Get Guerrilla!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Some Good News

In case you missed it somehow, click HERE to see video of the first trapped miner in Chile being rescued.

In a day when the news seems to only LOVE bad news, it's great to see something good on T.V. being covered as priority news.
Watch for the little boy in the video, POWERFUL. I wonder if the miner being pulled out is his dad.

Can you imagine how different that little boy day is going to be today from yesterday.

Maybe that's a lesson for all of us, have you connected yet today with the one called Heavenly Father. When we learn to live in the grip & hold of our heavenly father, it changes the focus, priorities, joy, purpose, EVERYTHING of our day.

How do you live in the grip of Jesus? Well, there's no perfect, "do this, then that" answer. But, did you notice the emotion, and the intensity on the little boy's face? All he wanted was his dad.
My prayer for you & I today is that we will long with PASSION for our father who Himself emerged form the depths of the earth (the grave) to embrace us.

Guerrilla Lovers Assignment # 10

Ok, today is going to get a little more involved. All of us know somewhere where we're likely to see / find someone asking for help (begging for food, asking for money, etc...). At some point today, go to that place & help.

Bring big mac, or a whopper or something and pass it off. That's it.

I hope if you have a family that you're involving your kids in these assignments. let your kids see you do it, be a part of the planning, & let them feel the weight of a mom & dad serious about living out the kingdom of God to the people around them. Teaching our kids to go to church just teaches them to go to church, teach them to BE the church.

Go get guerrilla, loving Jesus, loving people, changing our city.


Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Kibbles & Bible

Do you often have a difficult time reading & understanding the bible?

If you answered "NO", then you must be from another planet.

Ok, so truthfully, what do you do? Do you plow through it, determined to at least "get it over with"? Do you put it aside & think, "at least I tried". Do you hide it in the dog's dish so he will chew it up and call it "kibbles & bible" so that you can say your dog ate it, or do you just wait for Sunday and let someone else make sense of it for you?

The thing is, the bible is a love letter, or rather, a collection of 66 love letters from the God of creation, to His creation, that's you & me. If we never or even only seldom read it then we will end up with as shallow of an understanding of God Himself as most of us have of the bible.
I know in our world of fast, transaction, information (twitter, FB, texting, etc...) we like knowledge to come in short, simple, and instant bursts. Unfortunately this is also why we know about so many things, but understand so little.

But, what about the whole hard to read part? Well, I completely agree that there are parts of the bible that can be so difficult to understand that it just gets discouraging to keep reading, but there are other parts that are so so simple that my 3 year old daughters get it!

But I think that's part of the problem. Too often we read the bible so broken up, that of course it doesn't make sense.

Over the summer I saw the movie Inception -- which was AMAZING -- but that movie was hard enough to follow having started it from the beginning. If you saw it, could you imagine having only seen parts of the movie, not in order, and then asking several different friends to try fill in the blanks for you afterwords - exactly!! You wouldn't have understood the movie - AT ALL. Matter of fact I think you need to see the movie a few times over to really get it. I mean, what the heck, was the top going to fall or not at the end!?!?!

The bible is a best selling story of such epic conflict, and romance, and climax that there is no way to "get it" when we read it in pieces, or when we solely rely on other people to help us understand it. Heck, even if you were to read it cover to cover you'd still have a lot of questions, & doing it again would answer some of them while creating others still.

Point? The point is, did you walk out of inception in the middle or when it got confusing, did you decide to just go play video games in the lobby? Stay with it, ask the Holy Spirit of God to give you understanding, & enjoy the fact that this is humanity's most beautiful story.

The complexity is an invitation INTO the story, an invitation to move to the edge of your seat with awe & wonder - "what just happened...". So, sit at the edge of your seat, don't get up & don't leave.

I would recommend to help you see the fuller nature of the "story" and how it makes more sense when read together, that you get a book called, "66 Love Letters" by a guy named Larry Crabb. I promise you won't regret using this as a guide to the Bible. I'm reading it right now & LOVING it.

Move to the edge of your seat, the best parts of the story are yet to come!

Guerrilla Lovers Assignment #9
For those of you looking here for today's assignment, here it is.
So often the person we so easily miss being a blessing to is our spouse. Today do something for your spouse that will surprise them & be a gift to them. Dudes, may I suggest that a gift card to Victoria secrets is not a gift for them! If you are not married then write a brief note of thanks to a couple that you know that serves as an example to you of the kind of marriage you want to have, and the kind of husband / wife you want to be.

Go get guerrilla, changing our city, in the name of Jesus, one act of compassion at a time.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Who Collects Your Garbage

Yesterday we talked at Paradox about learning to notice the people and the needs that are already, and always around us.

Possibly the most ignored, and never met person in each of our lives is our garbage man.
Your assignment today is to plan for how you can serve and thank your garbage man this week.

Maybe you leave him a 6 pack of pop, or bake him some cookies, or offer him your neighbor's annoying dog that barks all night - jk.
Whatever you do, make sure to leave a small note with it so he doesn't just throw it away or think you're trying to poison him.
What would be best, is if you are still home when the garbage guys typically get to your house, and you go personally give them what you plan and personally thank them.

Wouldn't it be cool if the same garbage guys have this happen to them several times, they'd think the world was turning upside-down; kinda the point too, isn't it!

Ok, so go plan but still keep your eyes open today, there are other ways God will use you if you're moving slow enough to see.


Saturday, October 9, 2010

Road Trip

We're headed home! I can't wait to see my family tonight and my church tomorrow, please pray we have an uneventful trip home.

Sean is at the wheel, the gps is already shaming our directional intelligence, and everyone is waking up, back to Detroit we go.

For today's Guerilla assignment, day 6, take the opportunity to look back over the week and and do one of two things. Either, repeat one of your favorite assignments or make up one of the ones you missed. Or get crazy and make your own, weekends will be free days so make sure to tell us what you do, especially if you make up your own.

See ya tomorrow paradox.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Everyone Is Selling Something

Welcome to day 5 of guerrilla lovin! If you've accomplished every task so far then super good for you! You Rock, truly.

If you missed one or more of the assignments then you're probably not alone. Don't get discouraged, if you miss a day then just get back into it the next day. The point isn't perfection, but steady & intentional, progress.

So as I get ready to head in for day 2 of the conference here is the assignment for today...

Put something you no longer need on Craig's list free spot for your area

We love to buy things, use them up, then sell them to make (usually) an insignificant buck back. And I know that every dollar counts so, even if you get $5 for something you spent $75 on, "at least it's something".

But I bet that item would mean so much more to some one truly needing it than the few bucks you'd get for selling it would mean to you.

Don't forget to be sending us your stories at mystory@paradoxchurch.com

Go get guerrilla!!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Guerrilla Lovers -- Day 4

It's very early right now as the van full of us make our way to the conference center with 13,000 other people that are here for the same conference. I'm not going to get excited though until I get some coffee in my body -- me need java!! Maybe when I get a cup full of the black liquid gold then Sean's joke will finally be funny.

So here's your Guerilla Loveers, love fest assignment #4
Often times, the chances we miss to be compassionate in the name of Jesus has more to do with being to busy to notice than just being unconcerned. So, today, make a point of introducing yourself to someone you see all of the time or at least often but never say hello to.

Go get guerrilla!



Wednesday, October 6, 2010

On The Road

So right now I'm in the van, on the road, and headed to Atlanta with 6 other people from Paradox.
Tom is driving and taking the curves a little fast -- ok, he's freaking me out right now!!

If he doesn't slow down I just might start screaming like a little girl or spill my hot coffee on him. But that will likely result in a crash so it looks like screaming is my only real option.

Today is day 3 of our Live Fest Project and here is your assignment today.

Guerrilla lovers, Love Fest 2010 assignment # 3

Today I want you to take second place all day (or maybe even 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc...). We are so inclined to be first at everything. Whether it's first in line, grabbing the closest parking spot, not letting the guy over who is trying to change lanes, quicker to walk through a door than to hold the door for someone else, grabbing the last of what you were eating instead of asking if anyone else wanted it; getting the idea!

So today, choose all day, at every opportunity, to put someone else ahead of yourself.

And if by chance some one asks you, "why", or even just says, "thanks", just smile and tell them, "love wins, God bless".

Don't forget to start telling us you stories at, mystory@paradoxchurch.com

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The Clowns Are Taking Over

For all of you with a fear of clowns, you're finally proved right! They've begun in Argentina, but don't think they aren't headed this way.

Read HERE and remember that I warned you here first.

Tomorrow, bright & early a group of Paradox people are headed down to Atlanta until Saturday. We will be there for a conference called Catalyst. If you check out the website you can join in on line for several aspects of the 4 day experience. We will all be driving there so please pray for safety of travel, pray that God speaks to us while there. Pray also that what He does to excite us we can all bring back to all of you.

Lastly, looking here for the day 2 Guerrilla lovers Love Fest task, then here it is.

Assignment # 2 -- Write a thank you note or letter to someone that wouldn't be expecting it. God brings a lot of people into our lives as a part of His process of shaping, and molding us, and loving us. Today, write a letter or at least a short note to someone that has been this kind of a person in your life & simply thank them. It doesn't have to be a long 20 page letter, it may just be a card with a short note. Maybe it's a funny card or a serious letter, it doesn't matter, do what is natural to who you are. However, try to make it handwritten and not email.

There is just something so much more personal & meaningful about a note like this when it was physically handled by the person sending it.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Love Fest 2010 - Day 1

Day 1, assignment # 1

For those of you at Paradox yesterday you know what this is. For those of you not there, catch up by listening HERE then join in.

Assignment: At some point today find out what a particular co-worker likes to drink or eat in the morning, and then pick one up for them on your way in tomorrow or a gift card to get one. Maybe a bagel, a doughnut, a coffee, etc... Another option is to do this for a neighbor living by you. Today is planning, tomorrow is delivery. If it's for a neighbor then leave it on their car before they come out in the morning. Leave a note (so they don't worry about turning the key in the ignition) that just says something like, "good neighbors MAKE the neighborhood, just wanted to say thanks".

Let's change our city, in the Name of Jesus, one small act of love after another.
let's get guerrilla -- God bless!!

Friday, October 1, 2010

Do You Tweet


Paradox is getting a twitter account.

Beginning on Monday morning we will start posting on our new twitter account. So, if you don't have one then get one. If you do have one then look us up and follow us.

Why?

Well, because Monday morning is the kick off to what we are calling our GOING GUERRILLA revolt, it's in response to our new Sunday morning series that will begin in just a few days.

What is the revolt? well, we hear there are ravage gorillas running loose in South East Michigan so we're hunting em down and making rugs! So, dudes with hairy chests & backs better stay in doors!

Sometimes I think I am the only one that laughs at myself, then my good friend Tom reminds me that is true, well, I though it was funny.

Actually the revolt is a revolt of love. Every single morning for the entire month of October we will be posting daily tasks that are simple ways to show the good news of Jesus love through good deeds.

MAN! This could be a crazy, exciting, life changing month so you better be planning on joining us because if you do, it just may change you & people around you, if you don't, I promise, you'll miss out.

Here's the twitter page CLICK HERE . We will also be posting these tasks on our facebook page too - CLICK HERE

Get ready to go guerrilla!