Thankful for the complaints

Happy Thanksgiving.

For most of us, plans are in full swing and expectations are high. Finishing a shortened work/school week leading into a day of over indulgence (fancy talk for pigging out) followed by even more decadence (another fancy word for waste) as we shop till we drop, we see why it’s the most wonderful time of the year!

At least, it better be, since we will be paying for it on the treadmill and out of the checkbook for months.

Still, Happy Thanksgiving!

If I asked most people what Thanksgiving was about, we’d get the standard three “F”s:
* Family
* Food
* Football

Then, once we got past all that honesty we’d remember that somewhere between the trip to Grandmas and the tryptophan coma, we’re supposed to be thankful for something, right?

So, what are we thankful for on Continue reading “Thankful for the complaints”

Audio Devotional

Here is a 22 day audio devotional based on Psalm 119.

It’s 22 tracks of daily devotions about 2-4 minutes each. The project is designed to help people start, or restart a regular daily devotion time with God.

I’m calling it the ABC’s of Devotion for several reasons:

1. It’s easy to start and do (easy as ABC)

2. It uses Psalm 119 as it’s content, which has 22 sections; one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet (their ABCs)

3. Just like singing the ABCs… its a little habit forming. They say (whoever they are) that it takes 21 days to start a habit and with this being a 22 track project there is a good chance we can make daily time with God a new habit in people’s lives.

You can click and listen right here, or right click and download to your desktop. Or, if you want to go big guns, you can download this zip file and get all 22 in a single download: click here

 

Here’s a suggested pattern for your daily time with God using the ABC’s:

  1. Pray and ask that God would speak to you and that you would hear clearly what He’s saying
  2. Read the passage for that day
  3. Listen to that day’s track
  4. Pray again and commit to God some point of application that you can take away from that days devotion

Each day in the 21 day audio devotional journey is available below:

DAY 1

DAY 2

DAY 3

DAY 4

DAY 5

DAY 6

DAY 7

DAY 8

DAY 9

DAY 10

DAY 11

DAY 12

DAY 13

DAY 14

DAY 15

DAY 16

DAY 17

DAY 18

DAY 19

DAY 20

DAY 21

 

DAY 22 

 

 

 

 

The ABC’s of daily devotion

I just finished a pretty unique recording project, and I am actually quiet pleased with it!

It’s 22 tracks of daily devotions about 2-4 minutes each. The project is designed to help people start, or restart a regular daily devotion time with God.

I’m calling it the ABC’s of Devotion for several reasons:

1. It’s easy to start and do (easy as ABC)

2. It uses Psalm 119 as it’s content, which has 22 sections; one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet (their ABCs)

3. Just like singing the ABCs… its a little habit forming. They say (whoever they are) that it takes 21 days to start a habit and with this being a 22 track project there is a good chance we can make daily time with God a new habit in people’s lives.

Anyway, I love the way the project turned out. I love the quality of the recordings. And, I love having a resource that can help people get consistent in their daily walk with the Lord.

So, I thought I’d post Day 1 for the CrossEyedLife community and see what you think. Thanks for checking it out!

Here’s a suggested pattern for your daily time with God using the ABC’s:

  1. Pray and ask that God would speak to you and that you would hear clearly what He’s saying
  2. Read the passage for that day
  3. Listen to that day’s track
  4. Pray again and commit to God some point of application that you can take away from that days devotion

Sharing Our Faith…

If you have any questions about what is playing above, I’d love to speak with you.

If what you see playing above makes perfect sense to you, I’d love to hear from you.

If what you see above confuses you, thrills you, makes you angry, or does nothing at all inside of you, I’d love to connect with you.

The decision about what to do with Jesus is the most important one of your life. Feel free to email me at andy@crosseyedlife.com.

Righteous… redefined

I had the opportunity to speak at the chapel service for Central Christian College in McPherson, Ks, this past week. I always enjoy speaking at colleges and chapel services, but this week was a real opportunity.

I was the lead speaker for their Justice Week: a call for all Christians to recognize the weak, the poor, the over looked and bring Godly justice to the world.

Awesome!

Below you will find the podcast for this message, but there are a couple of notes:

1) I recorded it with my iPhone setting on a music stand with my notes. So, if you hear some rustling… it’s just me.

2) I referenced/used a video during the message from The International Justice Mission. I am including a link for you to watch it after the message and see what they saw: VIDEO FROM IJM

The passage that I taught from is Proverbs 29:7

“The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.”

I’d encourage you readers/listeners to do the same as I did the students. Do something to bring justice to a broken world. Here are a few options:

When walking on water is only step one…

I must give credit where it is due.

I have been reading a book by Pastor Steven Furtick called Sun Stand Still. I’m not finished with it so I can’t fully recommend it yet, but so far… pretty awesome (Kindle says I’m 59% finished, so, I give it a full 59% endorsement).Sun Stand Still Cover

By the way, it may be a while before I finish. It’s a treadmill book which makes it pretty slow going. Highlighting is almost impossible.

One of the great concepts in the book is with worth repeating, but as any even mediocre preacher worth his weight in bulletins knows, you can’t just repeat it. You have to improve it.

I got this.

I love the concept of hearing, speaking and doing. If we are going to have audacious faith that allows us to be used by God to do what would be impossible without Him, we must be in the Biblical pattern of hearing, speaking and doing. According to Furtick:

  • Hearing the Word initiates faith
  • Speaking the Word activates faith
  • Doing the Word demonstrates faith

One without the other two is pointless. Two without the third is a shame. All three together are a powder keg of spiritual movement that comes from, operates in and produces God stuff in our lives.

Continue reading “When walking on water is only step one…”

Don’t make the same mistake twice

Over the last few weeks I have been studying the book of Hebrews with some awesome guys.

I’ll be honest, it’s a tough book. It’s tough enough that most scholars aren’t even really sure who wrote it, but they are confident that it lines up with Scripture and is a valuable part of our Bible.

As the name implies, it was written to Hebrews, so even though it’s a New Testament book it reflects back on much of what happened in the Hebrew nation of the Old Testament. In the first quarter of the book, there is a warning that basically goes like this: “Do not make the same mistakes you saw those who came before you make.” (Hebrews 3:16-4:2)

Pretty easy advice, eh?

Not so much.

  • Have you ever seen somebody run into a car because they were watching a wreck on the other side of the road?
  • Have you ever seen someone fail a test because they cheated off someone dumber than they were?
  • Have you ever told your children not to do something and explained a specific consequence, only to walk out of the room and have them do exactly what you told them not to do?

We humans are difficult that way. Kind of slow, a little rebellious and continually irritating. (Resist the urge to put these labels on someone else… if you’re human, this applies to us all)

Continue reading “Don’t make the same mistake twice”