Meshing The Names

I recently read an article that talked about the latest trend in the UK for married couples - meshing names. Basically when people cannot decide which name to take they combine fragments of both to come up with a new name.

The article talked about Michael Pugh and Rebecca Griffin, they meshed their names to come up with Puffin. Before you laugh, and I know you are laughing at the image of the cute little birds with the bright orange beek, think a moment about what this teaches.

I don't know about what this couple believes, but to me it really shows the value of what the Bible teaches about marriage. It is a cool picture of 2 people becoming one. They bring their identities together and are a new person.

It is a refreshing commitment to the sanctity of marriage and one that might just make commitment and fidelity the cool thing that it really is.

Communication Communicates Character - Facebook and Beyond!

The title of this post came from a friend of mine who is a pastor in Arizona.

When I first heard it I thought wow that is a little over the top and then it got me thinking.

Most of us can probably think about the times when we have said something we wished we hadn't.

But would it shock you to realize that speech is just 1 of the many ways we communicate?

Actions - the way I do something to someone or for someone, whether I like it or not speaks volumes for what I think about the person.

Body Language & Facial Expressions - ever rolled your eyes at someone? Maybe let out a sarcastic laugh? What do you think that is communicating

Availability - try telling someone that you like them or love them but then tell then you have no time for them...don't think that will go down too well...

FACEBOOK/TWITTER - I am sure we know people who take a subtle jab at us via a comment or a status update...are we aware of how the way we use social media, speaks to people about what kind of person you are?

There are many more ways we communicate...but all of these ways speak volumes about what kind of person we really are?

Do you like the message you are communicating?

Investing Matters...In What?

I had the amazing opportunity to spend the weekend at a family reunion of my wife's uncles and aunts. Part of the weekend was spent reflecting on the gift of leaving a legacy that was left by the grandfather and grandmother in the family.

Grandpa Weaver was a church pastor and a business man. I heard stories of a man who believed in the importance of emotionally investing in people's lives. He would make children and grandchildren feel like they were the only ones that mattered.

Investment in anything takes time and it takes a plan...no one invests in anything without first thinking about the cost and how they will do it.  Sadly I wonder whether we have stopped investing in future generations. We are so concerned about our retirement and social security discussions but very rarely talk about the investment spiritually of the next generation 

Why don't we challenge ourselves to find someone in the next generation to invest in? The return will be greater than anything we can imagine!

Are your jeans unique?

So I have developed a new fashion passion (dude that is just the weirdest sounding phrase ever!).

I really want a pair of pre-ripped jeans. These are the kind of cool fashion items that look like they had a play date with a pit bull.

Most of these types of clothing have this tag on them somewhere: “These jeans have intentional flaws in order to make them unique.”

But I read a devotional somewhere that used that cool phrase to stress that God makes us that way. God makes us with genes that have some intentional flaws, quirks you may say, that are unique.

We may have personalities that seem quiet, or we may be crazy kind of people, we may have likes and dislikes that we think no one else does...but guess what God made us all with intentional quirks to use for his glory.

Once we are comfortable knowing that we are who we are not by chance but by design of the Living God, then our identity can be used in amazing ways.

Psalm 139 in the Bible says we are wonderfully and complexly made, it is time for us to embrace the unmistakably flawed and unique person God has made us to be!

Now off to find those jeans....

Faith Makes Sense

Recently as I was reading a book called Sharing Jesus without Fear, I came across a bizarre fact from Ripley's Believe It or Not! Strange Coincidences, for a tossed coin to fall to heads fifty times in a row would require one million people tossing ten coins a minute for forty hours a week, and then it would only occur once in every 900 years.

Did you get that? Go back and read that again.

Now, Fey the author of Sharing Jesus Without Fear, goes on to explain that the Old Testament contains around 30 prophecies about the birth death and resurrection of Jesus and around 240+ prophecies that were foretold and ended up coming true.

So put that back into coin flipping terminology that would be the equivalent of flipping a quarter until a person hits heads 240 times.

The odds? 1 in 1 billion.

Faith is not crazy, it is a matter of sensibility. That is upside down reasoning at best!

The best 25c ever spent!

In Lancaster County we have a grocery store called Aldi’s, part of a larger chain. In order to keep the cost of groceries down, customers need to bring quarters to unlock the shopping carts and bring their own shopping bags. My wife and I regularly shop there and I have found myself being in the store without a quarter and having to try and find empty boxes around the store to carry my groceries in.

 The Holy Spirit put on my heart the idea about turning up one evening to the store with a handful of quarters.  I arrived and began to wonder if this was really needed and I felt a resounding yes as I say two elderly ladies struggling by my car carrying groceries in half broken boxes. So I joyfully jumped out of my car and headed for the store.

Everybody who needed a cart was joyous in receiving the free cart. What I learned early on was that this was going to be more than anything a time to pray for everybody I saw walking in and out of the store. It was an incredible experience praying for people I don’t know or may never meet again. I was starting to feel like this was a waste of time, even though I was praying for so many people, simply because no one asked me why I was doing what I was doing. At just the right time, a mother and child came to the grocery store, I gave them the free cart, they actually had no change for their own cart. When she exited the store after taking the groceries to her car, her son came back and gave me the cart and I gave him the quarter. He looked confused, as he should have been because he knew he did not pay a quarter in the first place. It was then the mother asked me: “I don’t understand, why are you doing this?” Finally I had the chance. I said to her “because I love Jesus and I want to serve people”, she replied “I thought so.” She got in the car with her son and drove off.

There was no deep time of sharing the gospel with anyone. What the Lord Jesus did remind me of was that I have a role to play in evangelism. I have no idea what role I will play in the life of that mother and child. Maybe she has Christian friends who had tried to share the gospel with her and she wanted to see proof that God loves her, maybe all God wanted me to do was to be Christian who cared and valued her by serving.  I will never know and I am okay with that. 

It was the best 25c I ever spent!

Up The Down Escalator!

Ever tried walking up a down escalator? Totally fun, but oh so challenging!
But what happens if you stop walking...now that is not so fun.
I think the Christian life is much like this. Often I feel myself walking against what seems 'normal' and it is tempting to just stop. But stopping means trouble, it means danger and it means the dangerous possibility of stumbling back and stumbling back hard.
I was challenged this morning by the question "Am I a citizen of heaven or of earth?" My first response was I don't know...
But I am not sure I could really answer?
A.W. Tozer (a smart old dead Christian guy) asked these questions to help us think through our citizenship:
1) What do I desire most?
2) What do I think about the most?
3) Who do I admire most?
Answering and living out these questions probably will make us feel like we are walking up the down escalator!