The Most Amazing Conversion

In the book of Acts there are many amazing stories of life change...people who did not know Christ, heard the Gospel and had their worlds radically turned upside down. One of them is in chapter 10, where we see Peter guided by the Holy Spirit, lead Cornelius and his entire household to the Lord. The surprising part of this story is that Cornelius was a Gentile... a Roman military leader, to be specific. Now to this point, all of the converts to the Way (Christianity) were Jews. But God first changes Peter's mind regarding clean and unclean through a vision, and then He pours out his Holy Spirit out on a room full of non-Jews so as to leave no room for argument.

Amazing, right? But not the MOST amazing...

The most amazing conversion actually happens in the next chapter. Very soon, the people who had already accepted Christ (all Jewish) hear about what happened and when Peter comes back to Jerusalem, they jump him. Those who are already in the club aren't so sure that these new people really belong. Well that never happens today, does it?

But Peter explains everything thing that happened and then...

• the deacons decide to pray about it, or maybe
• it gets added to the agenda for the next board meeting, or
• the congregation votes on whether to accept the Gentile believers or not, or...
  

you fill in the blank. What have you seen happen when God is moving in a new way and those who are open to hearing from God get to a certain point before the rest of the "circumcised believers" do?

After Peter explained how God was moving, verse 18 reads, "When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God..."

Now maybe I'm too cynical, but that was the most amazing conversion ever!

May God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Deep is what you do

DANG!! I've never been as tempted to take what someone else wrote and claim it as mine. The temptation is because what I'm about to link is exactly what I have been thinking. Perry has been reading my mail, it seems. I really hope that you click here and read this post, but just in case you don't, here are some highlights...

I have always said that deep is not what you know–but rather what you do. I have seen some of the deepest people I have ever known here at NewSpring Church…let me give you a few examples…

• DEEP is a single mother raising two kids and who has a full time job–yet finds the time to volunteer here at NewSpring every weekend.
• DEEP is the single dad who told me the other day that he works two jobs to support he and his daughter, but that he has gotten a third job so that he can contribute to the campaign, and every dollar he makes doing it over the next three years is going to Gametime.
• DEEP is the college student who refused to give up on her friend, kept inviting her to church, gave her a Bible, was available to her to talk and ask questions…and as a result her friend received Christ.
• DEEP are the parents who are watching a child go down a path that is destructive and is breaking their hearts, yet they claim that God is in control.
• DEEP is the guy in his 30’s who was diagnosed with cancer and only given a few months to live…and through it all his love for Jesus grew stronger and he told everyone how good God was…right up until the last minute of his life.

I could go on and on…but DEEP is NOT knowing a lot of information, but rather being able to apply what you do know to your everyday life…and at the end of the day the name of Jesus is lifted up…no matter what!

or how about this...

I just want people to know Christ. I want people to see Scriptures NOT as a textbook–but rather as a letter from God that communicates who Jesus is and what He has done. I want to see people come to Christ. I want to see families healed. I want to see the poor served. I want to see the excluded included. I want to see people get out of debt. I want to see people discover their spiritual gift. I want to see people find God’s purpose. I want to see Jesus Christ lifted up!

Is that “deep?” Probably not–but it is what God has put on my heart and I am going to try my best to follow His vision Jesus Christ saved me…II Corinthians 5:17 came true in my life…and I honestly think I could think about that for the rest of my life and never truly grasp exactly what happened.

Deep is what you do...I love that. Don't be surprised to hear that out of my mouth for a long time to come.

Hump Day Humor 10-24-07

So as much as I pride myself on being decisive, the connection between these two made it too close to call, so please enjoy your very own Weird Al Star Wars two-fer...

Twitter

On almost every blog I read, the author is twittering. In case you don't capisce, twitter is an app that lets you post to your blog via cell phone. Twittering usually consists of short little updates as to a person's whereabouts, frame of mind, progress on a project or toward a destination of some kind. Snippets.

I don't twitter. I don't text message people, mostly because I so seldom have a need to that I generally forget its even an option...I'd rather just call. And also, I'm cheap a good steward. Texting costs and even though I don't pay for it (NC3 pays for my cell phone) I can't really justify spending money so that I can laboriously type in messages on a cell phone instead of just calling.

Besides, when I blog, it almost always is a major effort. With the exception of my humor contributions a la youtube.com, I almost never fire off a quip. Therefore when time is short, blogging often gets pushed to the back burner. Heck, the whole reason I'm even writing this post is to satisfy the not-so-silent minority of folks who begin harassing me if I wait too long.

So don't expect me to Twitter anytime soon, and don't expect me to care about your twittering ...unless you're, like, Santa or something. That would be cool. I wonder if Santa blogs?

Hump day Humor 10-10-07

This weeks offering to cheer you past the middle of the week.

Are you old-school enough for this?

Hump day Humor 10-3-07

Oops... A good friend pointed out that I didn't post my second ever hump day humor yesterday. I'm so embarrassed. To try to make up for my failure, I reached way back into the vaults for a clip that can't fail. Don't know how many of my blogging pals are homestarrunner fans, but here is my hump day +1 offering.

Everything Must Change (mostly me)

If we are going to be perfect in heaven, why didn't just create us perfect down here? Seriously... I know very well the whole explanation that God created us to love him and to be loved by Him, and that free will is the only way that we could actually choose to love God and not be robots and so on and so forth.

Then why is it going to be different in heaven? Why will we, who are decidedly imperfect, suddenly become perfect? Why didn't God just put us straight into heaven?

Now before you start on the three-page theological email or comment to fix my poor heretical thinking, let me say that I'm not all that concerned about the answer to my own questions. God did what He did. BUT (there's always a but) I am concerned about what these questions suggest.

I believe God's main plan for mankind happens on earth not in heaven.

So what, right? If I believe what I just wrote, then I no longer can excuse myself for not trying to change this world.

Brian McLaren has a new book called "Everything Must Change," and I believe it's going to shake some people up in a very good and needed way.

In it he breaks down the major crises that the world faces into 4 headings: the prosperity crisis, the equity crisis, the security crisis and the problem of religion. This is huge. The problems in our world are not going away easily.

But change is possible. I read the Bible and I see God using His people to change the world...most of the time enabled by a major miracle from Him. I want to see that today! I want to be a person that He uses to change the world. I'm not going to be content to wait for heaven. I'm not going to wait until I'm older, smarter, wiser, richer or __________ (you fill in the blank).

God, please use me today to begin changing the world. I'm not sure what that's going to mean yet, but I don't want to wait around until I do! I'm ready God. Go for it!

God's Tour Guides

For three years in the early nineties, I worked at an upscale souvenir shop on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Our bread and butter was selling unique T-shirts to the millions of tourists who descend upon N.O. every year. I liked working in the Quarter for the most part and enjoyed sales to a degree. But what I really liked was when someone wanted to know about the history or culture of the city. If someone asked one of our workers a question about what to do or why this was like that, they always were sent to me, and I loved it. I think I could have been a million-dollar tour guide if such a thing exists.

Now there are lots of tour guides in New Orleans but so many times, even though the guide knows the locations and history and dates, they often come off a little dry. When I had out-of-town guests, I loved taking them around and showing off my city and sharing with them all of the things that made me love New Orleans like I did. And that's the difference... I loved New Orleans. I was passionate about the story of New Orleans. I was a part of the story of New Orleans and it was apparent to those that received the "New Orleans a la Corbett" experience.


When we talk to our friends or neighbors about church, do they see it as just something we do or part of the fabric of our lives? Are we inviting people to a church history/morality lesson or are we inviting them to jump right into the middle of the greatest adventure... the single greatest love story that has ever been written AND IS STILL BEING WRITTEN TODAY!

What would your neighbor guess to be the most important thing in your life? Your house... your cars... your lawn... your softball team... your job... your involvement in PTO or Boy Scouts? Because what ever it is that they see, it's probably not far from the truth.

We need to be sharing our real life stories of adventure and service and passion and love. Peoples lives are changed when they become a part of the story of God and his love affair with humanity. What story are you telling? What part in the story are you playing?