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Lessons from the Little Piggy gone to market

One Body, Many Parts

 12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized bya one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

a Or with; or in
The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (1 Co 12:12-27). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

 

 

I am learning a lot from my body lately. Not by choice, probably because I was never a willing student in the first place. Nonetheless, I have some valuable lessons being heaped upon me.

Suffering from these chronic chiari headaches, I have learned how to try and cope and push through the day to day stuff even when you’d rather just lay down. It’s helped me cinch up a couple of notches on my baby belt and quit pegging out my wuss-o-meter.

 

That is, unless Kathy’s around and then I lay it on thick because she is awesome with the neck rubs. No one forward her this article… don’t ruin this for me!

Continue reading “Lessons from the Little Piggy gone to market”

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It’s Hero time!

I’ve spent this past Monday afternoon with a couple hundred grade schoolers here at Venue 302… yeah, day off!

Actually, it’s been fun. They are being rewarded for making their end of the year reading goals by getting the faris-at-venueafternoon free from class and kicking back to watch a movie here at our facilities. So, with popcorn and cookies in hand these kiddos sat down to watch The Tale of Despereaux.

I had never seen it, kinda cute.

As the movie was getting underway and the plot was setting up, the ‘stinger’ line is given: “A hero never appears until the world needs one“.

Enter title character Despereaux.

A great little movie about bravery, hope and the little guy making it big. But, I started thinking about the premise.

Is it true? Do heros wait to appear when they are needed? Do circumstance create our saviors?

At first, there seems to be some Biblical support for this. Galatians chapter four says:

4But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

Just looking at this verse it appears that God waited to send Jesus until we needed Him, but that can’t be right…

If that logic were correct then it would mean humans hadn’t pegged out the sin meter unil 2,000 years ago, and there was no need for a Savior until Jesus actually made the scene at the BC/AD split. Continue reading “It’s Hero time!”

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Contentment is so frustrating

Last night I had the privilege of speaking to Christian Challenge, the college aged ministry meeting here in the Hutchinson area.

I spoke on the issue of contentment, and as weird as it sounds… I have been totally fired up about contentment! This spring I have spoken at half a dozen schools and colleges and have talked about contentment almost every time (even at our own SURGE Bible Study once). But, last night I finally got it on video.

Hope you enjoy! (BTW… if you ‘right click’ the video you can ZOOM and watch it full screen if you’d like. A new feature on our new site!)

PS- Don’f forget to subscribe to CrossEyedLife if you haven’t already done it. It’s free, easy and no hassle. See the widget on the top right of this page!

Continue reading “Contentment is so frustrating”

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Welcome, or… at least welcome back!

After a couple years of maintaining the CROSSEYEDLIFE we have decided to take a giant leap forward technologically.

It’s so exciting.

Much of what has happened is behind the scenes, but it’s going to mean some very public benifits. Changing providers, hosters and structures will allow the site to be much more nimble and easier to change.

Plus, there are a good number of widgets on the sidebars that are there for fun (clocks, twitters, MAVS updates, online radio) and for real use (eBible, Calendar, library suggestions, Compassion Connection and partnering with external blogging sites: Technorati Profile). These will be continually changing.

All the content is here from the previous site, but the comments to the posts have been lost. It’s one of the reason I had to leave behind the old hoster. They kind of handcuffed what we could and couldn’t do.

The teaching resources (all the archived messages and such) are no longer a siderbar item, they have their own page with broader descriptions and logos for visual depictions. This should make things much easier to find. You can find that link on the top and the left sidebar of each page.

Finally, even if you had been a subscriber to the CROSSEYEDLIFE, PLEASE NOTE… THIS IS A NEW SITE AND NO SUBSCRIPTIONS HAVE TRANSFERRED!!!

I cherish your connection and really hope you’ll take 20 seconds to provide your email in the subscription box you see at the top of the right hand sidebar. Your email is kept private and is only used when an update is made to CROSSEYEDLIFE. A copy of that article is sent to you and you can read it, or link to the actual site… thats it. Please, consider subscribing right now.

Well, this is just a technological blog update, but I can’t miss an opportunity to give you something worth chewing on. One of the new features of this site is suggested books widget (down on the botton right). One of the books I have on the list there is from a favorite speaker/author of mine.barbarian-way

Let me tell you, I know it’s Mother’s Day weekend, but you read this one and you’ll grow a beard. It drips with testosterone. AWESOME!

Here’s a taste:

 “If you are a follower of Christ and you have allowed yourself to be domesticated, you have lost the power of who you are and who God intends you to be. You were not created to be normal. God’s desire for you in compliance and conformity. You have been baptized by Spirit and fire. Asleep within you is a barbarian, a savage to all who love the prim and proper. You most go to the primal place and enter the presence of the Most High God, for there you will be changed by His presence. Let Him unleash the untamed faith within you.”

– Erwin Raphael McManus “The Barbarian Way”
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Expectations

 I am not a natural optimist. In fact, my natural propensity for fear, tends to lead me the…er, other way.

So, trying to have a positive expectation is not the norm for me. If I am getting ready for travel then I think about every nightmarish movie scene of plane, train and automobile disasters I have ever seen and simply overlay my face into the scenery… fun!

If I get a mysterious phone call and need an urgent reply, then I am sure that the person on the other end of the phone message has had their life completely unraveled or hates me… or their life has completely unraveled because they hate me… super fun!

If I have a soar throat, it’s never sinus drainage, it’s always some precursor to cancer, a rare disease in its final stages that will only be discovered in my autopsy, or the final mutation of the swine flu that has evolved to its pristine killer form within me… uber fun! Continue reading “Expectations”