Hello there myself, glad to meet me

When was your last ‘Aha” moment?

I love those, and… I hate those. When you have a real-deal “Aha” moment it can be incredible relief, even victory. Or, quite often it can plummet you into a spiral of depressive humility because of personal stupidity.

Guess it just depends on the particular “Aha” you are experiencing.

I love seeing these moments in my kids. I still remember watching ‘just past toddler’ Noah trying to pound a screw into some scrap wood with a hammer. When I introduced him to a screwdriver… I was a genius.

The Prodigal Son story is one of those stories that tends to lead people to their own “Aha” moment, generation after generation. Relationships restored, addictions admitted, hypocrisy revealed… the list goes on and on.

Ironically, it’s an “Aha” moment within the story itself that is at the heart of Jesus’ teaching. It’s not that the incredible love of the Father, or the overwhelming stupidity of the younger son, or the amazing hope of redemption take a back seat to anything else. But, they all pivot on the gut-wrenching “Aha” moment of this wayward, reckless kid!

Continue reading “Hello there myself, glad to meet me”

Something to share

In our faith community at CrossPoint we’ve been talking alot about how much God values the lost, disconnected and hurt. But, its all just talk until we do something.

So, I’ve pulled out something from my past to share, in hopes that you will take it and turn around to share it yourself.

Back in the day I used to be a hardline HTML code writer and built websites for churches and ministries. I also toyed around with a little video animation. That’s when I came up with this video version of what is called One-Verse Evangelism… I prefer to call “God’s Plan, Simplified!”

Please watch it, download it, email it, embed it, post it… whatever you can do that you think might make an impact.

It’s just something I want to share with you, hoping you might share it with others. The download link is just above the video.

Lord Jesus, we are all broken, frail and messed, but in your hands we can be made to do mazing things. Please help today be the day that you start to use us to do amazing things in the life of someone else. In Jesus name, Amen.

By the way, if you have stumbled across this site and would like to make a change; if you need to turn things over to God, then pray the prayer at the end of the video and shoot me an email. I’d love to help get you started on the journey!

Andy’s Email

Right click the link below to download:
DOWNLOAD THIS VIDEO

Something to share from Andy Addis on Vimeo.

Don’t grow weary

I had the awesome opportunity to speak with and encourage the staff and volunteers of the Open Door Pregnancy Care Center in Hutchinson, Ks.

It was a small lunch gathering, but an awesome people and a great time.

Sorry about the backlight…. nothing I could do about the environment… just think of it as a podcast with moving shadows!

The teaching is from 2 Thessalonians 3

11 For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. 12 Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. 13 As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.

Don’t Grow Weary from Andy Addis on Vimeo.

Where am I?

So, have you ever been lost? I mean flat out, turned around, no clue, GPS wouldn’t help lost.

I remember driving from Great Bend, Ks, to some secluded mountain park in Colorado that I couldn’t get you to today if you paid me a million dollars. I was an early grade schooler with the family at an annual family reunion.

At some point in the afternoon the kids were getting hungry and restless, but dinner was still a couple hours away. That’s when my step dad and uncle decided to take the kiddos on a little mountain hike.

You know, something just long enough to distract the kids and be back in time for the big ol’ potluck.

It was fun at first, and as a kiddo, I wasn’t keeping track of time, but even a mildly ADD child like myself could tell we’d been out there too long.

So, I started paying attention to some details before I made the discovery:

  • Step dad and uncle kept having us rest while they stepped aside for a ‘whispered’ argument
  • Uncle took off his T-shirt and started tearing strips off and tying them to trees
  • The look of terror on their faces when we kept finding those pieces of his shirt

It all lead to my conclusive discovery: there was no denying it, we were lost!

Though the adults never admitted it, all the kiddos new we were lost when we emerged from the tree line just after dark and all the mommas lost it.

Lots of hugging’ and cussin’ (the former at the kids, the latter at the men).

It’s a painful thing to be lost. It’s a scary thing to be lost and not know it.

Still, lostness is one of the dominant issues of the gospel.

  • The story of Genesis describes the beginning of our lostness.
  • The Old Testament chronicles a people of lostness.
  • The Gospels find the answer to lostness.
  • The entirety of the New Testament is manual for lostness recovery.

In fact, Jesus gave His personal vision/mission statement in Luke 19:10 when He said, “The Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost.”

That’s what Jesus is all about, the reason He came and the purpose of the cross and the grave. Lostness is a condition that is curable, and Jesus doesn’t have the answer, He is the Answer.

I don’t think there is a Christian alive who denies the centrality “lostness” as a biblical theme. We are even grateful, awestruck and worshipful about it. One of the church’s favorite songs includes the line, “I once was lost but now I’m found.”

The problem isn’t with our own appreciation for being found, forgiven, rescued and redeemed. The problem is the disconnect for those who are still lost.

Pastor Perry Noble has said, “Found people find people.”

Pastor Ed Young, Jr, echoed, “The radically rescued, rescue radically.”

We need to rekindle an urgency, a passion, a fire for reaching the lost!

It is our responsibility.

Our church is about to start a series called LOST focusing on the 3 parables of Jesus concerning lostness. We often see the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son as messages of grace and mercy for those who have wandered and squandered in life.

But, if you read closely, Jesus had a deeper meaning. Obviously, grace and mercy extended to the lost is an appropriate application of these stories.

However, the fact that Jesus told all three stories in a row, to an audience of the over-churched (known as the pharisees), in response to church people talking smack about the lost gives these three stories a much dire inference.

Jesus wasn’t talking to the lost… He was talking to the found. He was making it very clear that found people find people, the radically rescued rescue radically and that if we are going to be like Jesus we have to be about His mission: to seek and save the lost.

So, here’s what we are going to do: pray for those you know who are not going to church, invite them to services with you (again and again and again), serve them in whatever ways you can that will draw them to Jesus, and talk to them about what Jesus means to you.

By the way, on that last one, you can’t really mess up your own story… it’s your story, so, have no fear.

Whatever church you attend, make sure that you are on a mission. This weekend, bring someone with you because if you are going to be like Jesus, you have to make your passion, mission and desire seeking what He is seeking.

God WILL give you more than you can handle

I love watching Mythbusters. Tackling urban legends and misconceptions, putting them to the test with high speed cameras, hands on testing and real science… it’s an Addis family favorite.

Can you save yourself by jumping upward in a crashing elevator? Is it possible to fly using a lawn chair and helium filled balloons? Can ninjas really catch arrows shot at their head?

Now that’s some high quality entertainment!

One of my favorite parts of that show is the fan (or ‘not so much’ fan) letters they receive. It’s crazy to me how some people will dogmatically hold to a belief in something that is undeniably proven BUSTED. Or, how some will completely refuse the reality of something that was crowned PLAUSIBLE and has 60 minutes of video footage to back it up.

“I don’t care what the Mythbusters say, you can pop popcorn with your cellphone… I’ve seen it on YouTube!”
Continue reading “God WILL give you more than you can handle”