Most of you know that I had the honor of starting a new church last September. We’ve experienced some really great things, God is moving in our congregation, and our baby church is growing up fast. It’s been really cool and most of us have the strong feeling that we’ve stumbled on something really special!
When we first moved into the building, we all had to roll up our sleeves and get the place ready. You see, it had been a bar for almost 100 years before we moved in. We painted, put in new carpeting, did some deep cleaning, and of course tore out the bar.
The only thing we didn’t do was hang up any crosses. Come to think of it, there’s not a shred of religious symbolism anywhere. It’s not that we’re opposed to those things. It just never came to mind. In the midst of planning, reaching out to the neighborhood, praying for the sick, and worshiping Jesus, it hadn’t dawned on us that we should have a cross up somewhere.
An older gentleman asked me shortly after we launched why there were no crosses and I just scratched my head and said, “Uh…I dunno…”
My question is… should we have a cross somewhere on our church? Can God use us to bless our city and expand His Kingdom if we don’t have religious symbols? Please let me know what you think and why.
To cross or not to cross? Leave your answer below…
Not to long ago, a friend of mine recommended I see an ART specialist for some severe back pain I was having. If you’re not familiar with ART, it stands for active release technique and it’s practiced by only a small number of professionals across the country, many of them chiropractors.
During an ART session, the practitioner will apply pressure to the areas of the body that cause pain. The idea is to influence adhesions to release so that mobility can be restored and pain can go away. I’m probably butchering that description and ART specialists will now send me hate mail, but at least that’s what I understood it to be.
During my first visit to the office, I sat in the waiting room not knowing what to expect. I was halfway through a painfully boring magazine when I heard a woman scream from the Dr’s office, “OWWWW! LORD HAVE MERCY!!! It didn’t exactly give me a warm fuzzy feeling about being treated. When they called my name, I wanted to run!
I was ushered into a changing room where I had to strip down to my undershirt and a pair of shorts. From there, I stepped into the Dr’s office where there was a very masochistic looking table in the middle of the room that he jokingly called “the rack”. Oh boy…
When I got on the table, the Dr asked me about my mobility and where it hurt. When I told him, he waved his assistant over and gave him some instructions. This is where the fun (err..torture) began. The assistant proceeded to pull my leg back in an unnatural direction while the Dr dug his hands deep into the most painful parts. I thought, “Holy crap!! What have I gotten myself into?!”
There I was laying on my side, leg being stretched behind me like he was trying to tear off a crab leg and the ART Dr was digging, with both hands, full force into the part of my leg that’s uncomfortably close to the groinal reagion. (I made the word “groinal” up, but you get the picture.)
It hurt like crazy, and all I could do was lay there, eyes watering, holding back the urge to yell like the woman who was in here before me.
After what felt like forever, he was done. He extended his hand and helped me off the table. I was a little light headed from the pain, but he was done. You know what else? I felt better. For the most part anyway.
It made me think though. (If it didn’t, I wouldn’t be writing about it.) How many times have I been in this place with God?
Sometimes our lives get off kilter. We allow thought patterns, attitudes, offenses, and just junk into our lives, and before we know it, we’re walking kind of funny. Maybe not enough for the whole world to notice, but slightly off. This small hobble eventually effects our decisions and can lead us away from being who God made us instead of towards.
When this happens, I usually see God work in me much like the ART Dr.
First, He strips me. My cool exterior gets peeled back to reveal the guy inside who doesn’t have it all together. I’m exposed, naked, and I have to make an honest confession to someone in my life.
Next, He instructs me. The Dr told me to lay on my side. Sometimes God will instruct me to read a passage, say a prayer, get help from my accountability partner, make apologies, and so on. It’s important to follow God’s instructions or the next part can hurt even worse than it needs to or, even worse, you won’t complete the process fully and the needed restoration won’t come.
Third, He stretches me and digs deep into the wounded areas of my life. Having a bruise poked at, scab peeled off, or deep wound addressed sucks. There’s no other way to put it. Allowing God to shape us and heals us requires doing things we may have never done before. It can get extremely uncomfortable. You feel like an eye without a lid, vulnerable and insecure, but The Doctor knows what He’s doing and we can trust Him no matter how bad it hurts and no matter how much we want to run back to our comfortable baggage. Let Him do His work in you so you can get to the last part.
Lastly, He helps me off the table and tells me it’s going to be all right. It’s an amazing experience when we feel the arm of God around our shoulders. He’s proud of us when we endure the pain needed to be corrected, adjusted, healed, restored. We quickly forget the pain and just love and trust the one who helps us to walk like Him. I write this with tears of gratitude for all the times He’s given me His hand, helped me off the table of painful lessons, honest rebukes, and jarring adjustments. Every time, He tells me He loves me and that He’s proud of me. I’m thankful for every one.
Search your heart. Are you experiencing pain today? Are you sure God isn’t trying to adjust you? Is He building character in you, making you more like Him? Go through it, not around it. The pain will fade and you’ll experience His joy and blessing.
“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” Philippians 1:6
Recently, I had the pleasure of appearing in a micro-budget independent film produced right here in the Quad Cities. It was directed by David Clevenger of Shepherd King Films, his fourth film.
I had a very small part, but I got to say the best line (I made it up)… then I got killed. It kind of looks like red snot flying out of my back but it’s supposed to be blood.
Can you spot the line I made up? Post it in the comments and I’ll tell you if you’re right! Enjoy this two and a half minute clip featuring my big role…
I read, in a book, this story about Napolean. It goes like this:
The great French conqueror, Napolean, in his quest to rule the world, was quite surprised on one occasion when he encountered unexpected resistance while attempting to capture an island in the Mediterranean. The fighting was fierce and he lost many good men in the battle before finally overcoming the enemy.
Napolean and his generals were having a celebration feast when from out of nowhere, it seemed, a young officer approached him. Napolean saw the young man and asked abruptly, “What do you want?”
The young man said, “Sir, please give me this island.”
The generals were deeply offended at the brashness of the young man. But, suddenly, Napolean asked for pen and ink, promptly writing out a deed to the island. He then signed it and gave it to the impetuous officer.
By this time the generals were astounded. They asked their leader, “How could you give away the island to that young man when so many of our men paid such a high price to obtain it?”
Napolean responded, “He honored me by the magnitude of his request.”
Did you catch that? “He honored me by the magnitude of his request”!!
You know, I think sometimes we simply pray too small. We pray prayers that might come to pass on their own because we’re afraid to believe for the impossible. We pray safe prayers, for things that we can make happen on our own with hard work and perseverance. We pray for mud piles, but God wants us to pray for islands!
This story about Napolean provokes me to ask God for the impossible, implausible, and downright grandiose. I believe the Lord is honored by those kinds of prayers.
What’s YOUR island? Let me encourage you to bring your massive, hairy, crazy dream to God and see what happens. In fact, why don’t you start right here? If you’re willing to put yourself out there and share your impossible prayer in the comments section, I’ll commit to agreeing in prayer with you for it.
If you’re reading this, and would like to pray for the requests posted here, just hit that reply link under the request and let that person know you’re praying for them.
I’ll start OK? My big prayer is to be able to take three missions trips a year, including one to Africa this August to visit the well our church just financed. It’s a $4,300 trip, but it might as well be a million dollar trip for us.
Most of you know that I had the honor of starting a new church last September. We’ve experienced some really great things, God is moving in our congregation, and our baby church is growing up fast. It’s been really cool and most of us have the strong feeling that we’ve stumbled on something really special!
Not to long ago, a friend of mine recommended I see an ART specialist for some severe back pain I was having. If you’re not familiar with ART, it stands for active release technique and it’s practiced by only a small number of professionals across the country, many of them chiropractors.
I read, 
