Near and Far Faith

ROCKS.



More on that tomorrow.

I'm just amazed that I haven't lost the nerve yet. It's... easier. I stopped quickly doing the things that are tempting and it's that simple. I'm not this good though. This is answered prayer at it's best.

It's an easy schedule today, which is good, because yesterday was difficult. But still not as hard as I thought it would be.

If I have learned one thing it's that God is reliable. If He can provide for me in such a basic area as sustenance, He deserve more of my effort and devotion. I'm hearing Him clearer than before. I have to do this again... and again. The clarity is amazing. Now that I know I can, or that God can - really - I'm excited to fast more.

But now I'm thinking about th 5 Alarm burger that I will consume at Red Robin tonight (saliva).

It was delicious, but really, a let-down compared to the last 3 days.

It's just going to be a long day - pouring five yards of concrete and then heading to church to do an hour and a half of music for a benefit concert. Not my wisest decision when it came to scheduling this fast.

I almost passed out while I was screeting off the concrete this afternoon. I'm tired, but no more than usually. The greatest effect that I'm noticing is my mental sharpness... again. I'm praying that God will help me to remember the words tonight.

Later...
The concert went really well. Got to listen to some poetry, which I've never done. It was awesome! God gave me supernatural endurance today. I know there are people praying - I know my own limits and we passed them a while ago.

There's a clarity in this state of self-denial. It's very clear what's good and what's not. I think that's what God desires for us in life - if we are in tune with the spirit, life should be clear. As I look back, it is those times that I have been ignoring God that have been the most confusing.

Last Wednesday night the elders of Carpenter's challenged those who were at a prayer event to fast with us until Saturday evening. It was a sort of last minute thing, but I've been amazed at the response. On top of that, none of the elders have ever fasted for this long. It will be a total of about 65 hours. Here's my story of those hours.

Day 1
I was ok 'til lunch. I was just in the office today, but there's a lot of freedom here that I usually indulge in for food. Still the hunger is a constant reminder to pray for the church.

At home, I've never realized how much food just lays around. Seriously, we have cabinets. I think all of the food is slowly creeping towards me when I turn my back.

3 pm - Cher's stopping. I'm glad and grateful that she made it this far with me. But the smell of that chicken chili that she's re-heating from last night is the devil.

We had a 3-hour worship practice tonight gearing up for the Good Friday Benefit concert. Vitamin water has been very sustaining. No, prayer has been sustaining, the Vitamin water and all it's juiciness and fun label stories have been simply godly. Tomorrow I work with Josh pouring 5 yards of concrete and then doing this concert. I'm doubting the my wisdom, or lack of it. But I feel ok. Just hungry. I talked to the other elders and tried to encourage them. Jake says coffee is working for him, but his dad's having a hard time.

I noticed the greatest effect thus far at worship practice - my mental sharpness. Ok not that it was particularly razor before, but I'm forgetting words more than usual.

It means threatening, warning, worrying, or gloomy.

I got this morning and it looked sunny out. I love morning. I don't necessarily like getting up, but once I'm there, I love just soaking in the morning environment. Off in the distance though, this morning, over the Bethlehem hills were some decently dark clouds. I'm watching them move towards us (the green is the hills).In church, the Holy Spirit gives us ominous feelings. Something is coming. It a warning. It's a thought that says "you are about to enter a time when you WILL NEED GOD. So take precautions." The problem is that most of the time we ignore that feeling or forget about it. I'll admit, it's easier for me to say "I'll deal with it when it gets here." To selfishly think that I have what it takes spiritually. If I did then why would I need the warning.

I love the story of Peter walking on the water in Matthew 14. The part that gets me is verse 30 - But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. Where were the wind and the waves when He was in the boat? We're not talking cruise liner here. It's an over-sized dinghy. He didn't think about the challenge before he jumped ship. The only way I've ever heard this passage taught is that we should "get out of the boat" like Peter. No. Peter obviously did something wrong - he simply didn't honestly look at what was about to challenge him.

This is a big week for Carpenter's. Friday we're having a benefit concert for The Children's Home of Easton. Dan Deblass has taken so much weigh off my shoulders that I'm ridiculously grateful. It's for a great ministry, it's catered, there's a rocking band doing the concert... Then Sunday we start Lost. I'm excited about the lives that God's already changing through these things that haven't even happened yet. My cashier at Walmart last night asked me "How much do we pay at the door Friday" (yeah we're charging to get into church Friday night - $10 per person, $20 per family). There is potential this week for huge community change - life change. Satan's going to come at our families, our lustful temptations, and anything else that will distract us.

Heed the warning of the spirit. It's ominous for a reason. Don't go blindly into the pack of wolves.

Perry's post from a few days ago echoes so clearly with the philosophy of my heart that I've been striving for for years: if any part of the church is based on me (which happens when I say "yes" to everything and don't delegate, train up, and let go) it will fall apart without me. That's NOT the kind of ministry I want. You've got to read this if you lead ANYTHING!

How did the Hibbs spend their St. Pattie's day? The best way they knew how - together at The Banshee. It was an hour ride and completely spontaneous - but it was the best lunch you could have on St. Pattrick's Day... at an Irish Pub.

So it's 11:50 Sunday morning - Jim's preaching. I just had to brag on our worship team - Holyfire's Great kicked my butt, guitar wise, but the team has had the best performance they've ever had! They rocked. They were tight! Good job guys! Way to practice and focus! It's paying off!

1 Corinthians 9:26-27 - So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

In 1 Corinthians 9 Paul's telling people why he deserves to be provided for, physically, because he preaches the gospel. He says earlier in the chapter though that "We would rather put up with anything than be an obstacle to the Good News about Christ." Then He ends with the two verse above. I see a simple stumbling point in my life as a pastor and I just wanted to take a second to encourage others in two ways:

First, purpose in every step. It's too tempting to let auto-pilot take over, especially when we're worn out. Auto-pilot is when we do and say whatever comes naturally. The problem is what we do naturally is sin. Our selfish nature is our auto-pilot. We must be aware of every step that we take, making it purposefully towards a goal. One issue that keeps this from happening is a clear goal. Without a very clear and specific goal, be it in your day to day or your business, the auto-pilot switch is that much closer.

Secondly, without discipline like making each step purposeful, Paul says that we may disqualify ourselves. In my life, I've seen this in the arena of "practicing what you preach". It's old school and redundant, but the bottom line is this: it's a lot easier for me to tell people what to do than it is to show them by example. It always will be. This is so dangerous for preachers because we are exposing the truth of life and the direction that people should go regularly. However, doing this is like endorsing a product that you would never use yourself. It removes your credibility. Those who we are to be teaching will listen less and less.

That's what I learned today. Monday will be my 100th post!! I'll be doing my first ever video blog and sharing some key points from my Ignite message last week.

That's what I have to say about my Tuesday morning. Let me bring you up to speed... well first let me say that this tragedy has caused a lack of blogging - no that your bated breath has been overwhelming.

It was a good morning - I had some tasks to accomplish but I was confident and ready to start the day. Until I walked over to may car that was parked across the street from my house and saw only wires hanging out of my dash where my radio had been. The radio that I searched for and endlessly to get the right price AND attach my ipod to. But that doesn't really upset me - the radio. Yeah... they took my ipod too. Charger cable and all.

For any forensic experts, let me describe the scene: it was decently clean except for a bit of dirt on my seat. The radio had been carefully removed, not ripped, out of the dash.

Anyway... my ipod has left a hole in my heart. I didn't know how much I truly loved this piece of technology.

The application or lesson from this story? Godly enough, I was teaching on God as our father Tuesday night as part of our series on Romans with Ignite. It's a series I bought from Doug Field's vault on confidence. I was proud of my ipod. I admit that having one was a status symbol. Could I get a cheaper off-brand MP3 player? Sure. But I had an ipod. I have been made aware, as I shared with Ignite, of my confidence being misplaced. I'm a pastor though and that means I can really cover things like this and argue my confidence onto God, when it's really not there at all.

God's been pressing on me more and more how much clear vision is a necessity in church leadership, or any leadership for that matter. We've gone through a series of podcasts by Andy Stanley called Practically Speaking: The 7 Practices of Effective Ministry based on the book. The first one talks about clarifying the win. Here's the truth: without clear vision - meaning "This is what I expect to see - in detail - at the close of this task", interpretation is left up to any number of factors. To move forward anywhere we must know what the win is - the measurable outcome of the vision.

Financial Peace University has been changing our lives lately and it's only been a few weeks. We're in a better place financially than we've ever been. Check out Cherie's blog for more details on how we've been rocked HERE.

I'm going to try to be more consistent with some things in my life. Blogging for one - our secretary encouraged me to join her for a webinar (a web seminar... I feel more savvy - how about you?) Tuesday afternoon about church marketing. One of the points the guys made was that if you are going to reach people with relational marketing, it needs to be consistent. I'm going to do my best to blog Monday through Thursday.
Also, Steven Furtick talked about the example we set as pastors and it really echoed with some of the things that God's been pressing on me. Check it out here. My dress, my car's cleanliness, and my health are all things that I need to maintain a lot better than I am right now. They're little things that say a lot.

Like I said a few days ago though, I'm the excited monkey. I'm consistent in little. I've noticed though that I'm consistent in the things I'm passionate about - my family, golf, media. Making these changes last, for me, is all about asking God for the passion. Prayer should always be my first step.

The truth is that I know my image is shifty and inconsistent. I change my mind a lot - usually to make people happy. Time to grow forward and use the tattoo.

So this thought has been plaguing me in a morality sort of way. I feel very cold and mean for having these feelings but I feel the Lord's put them in my way to sort them out in light of proper biblical confrontation, as opposed to blog-vomiting my feelings of someone who has no immediate avenue for retort.

It's this feeling that there are some relationships that cross my path that I see no value in. Perhaps it's an acquaintance or one-time meeting with someone that I've seemed to click with, or maybe it's a faded relationship/friendship. I've been looking at these relationships for the past few years through an ongoing discussion about dual effort. Meaning that... to form a valuable relationship, both parties must put in decently equal amounts of effort. I've become calloused to the people that I always try to communicate with and see no return on. I have friends from college that I though I was close with, but close is not an event, as I'm finding, it's a constance in relationship effort.

So this has caused me to re-evaluate constantly the relationships in my life. Jesus held 12 in his circle and 3 of those in his confidence. It's not a number thing, it's a quality thing. As hard as it was at first, it has become easier to let go of friendships that are adding no value to your life. It's a big evaluation, but most relationships will show themselves out by simply ceasing communication. Those aren't worth the effort that you would sink in to re-establish time together. You will always be the one putting in more effort and it will leave you high and dry when the time comes.

There are always exceptions to every rule, but I know that the relationships that have added to my journey are the ones that put effort in equal to mine. Paul is a great example in my life. I view him as a very close friend and mentor in ministry. We worked together for a short time when I was in college and we've stayed close because of a mutual communication. Even more so then the communication and commonalities that we share though is Paul's willingness to spurn me on, honestly, in my journey. This is the kind of relationship worth keeping.

The trap is, though, to not do the right thing biblically when it comes to confrontation with the ones that we've let go. The truth is that they still deserve the same effort, despite the consequences or, often, lack of interaction, when there's confrontation at hand. God's not called us to avoidance, but to purity of motives (see Philippians 2:1-11). Taking the grown-up path is not complicated as we'd like to tell ourselves, it's just up hill.

I've been learning about Blog-frontation for the last few years - both circumstantially by watching and interacting with others AND by experiencing this phenomenon. It really goes back to root attitudes that in no way are new, but technology has allowed this snowball to grow exponentially and more rapidly. It's this idea of saying things on your blog that you won't say to people's faces.

I hate confrontation. I stutter. I stumble over my words. I nervously joke to get attention. And like most of us, I usually walk away from most of those conversations with a completely rethought version of it - thinking "I should've said it this way... that would've changed the outcome!" because I'm rarely satisfied with the result.

However, I believe that God has placed challenges in front of us to grow - move forward in spite of adversity. In other words, I believe that when we change course due to our comfort, God is disappointed in our choice. We are to offer ourselves as Romans 12 calls us too. Offering means selflessness. Turning away from confrontation is pridefully and selfishly going against the scripture and, among other things, it stunts our growth .

I want my blog to promote deepening relationships. That's my goal. I have seen both email and blogs used to simply avoid talking to people personally. It's contrary to Matthew 18 which says "go" to the other person and as The Message says "work it out between the two of you." Contextually I know that this is applicable to believers, but the principle arches over into all life.

Having to awkwardly work something out with someone says "No matter the comfort level, I'm willing to sit through that for the sake of our relationship".

It's like working out. My personality is that of the excited monkey - I bounce to the next tree when I see something slightly more shiny or tasty. So when I have worked out it has been inconsistent (which is one of my greatest faults). Because of that, I know this: I will be sore until I maintain consistency. And even when I adapt to that current routine, if I want to continue to grow I have to choose pain.

When people blog-front their thoughts on an issue that are resolvable through confrontation, it's choosing negative growth. Plain and simple. We can mask it well by calling on our necessity to "vent", which doesn't actually exist. It's a big temptation. It's easier for me to get all my thoughts down on paper and work things out there and just click send or post. Easier isn't better. Easier could be satanic. Don't over interpret that - but I believe that Satan's greatest temptation is the path that goes downhill.

I think I'll continue on this tomorrow. What about those that you don't really care if they like you or not? What about the people whose relationship you don't value?