Have you ever noticed how much we criticize power unless it’s ours? Usually we criticize what we really want. And what we really want is power. I want it, but I don’t want you to have it.

Power is intoxicating, isn’t it? We want it. We crave it. But we don’t know how to really get it. So, as with many of our other unmet desires, we resort to being chronically frustrated, angry, depressed or a myriad of other unhealthy emotions.
So, how do we break free – and still get what we want?

We need to redefine what power is. We think we know power…because we’ve been abused by it. But, do we really know much about SPIRITUAL power?

I’m intrigued by Jesus’ approach to power in Matthew 20. If you didn’t get a chance to hear the sermon on this, you can check it out here. I’m intrigued because Jesus didn’t come down on his disciples because they wanted power. He just came down on them for the KIND of power they wanted…worldly power.

As usual, Jesus provided an alternative. The alternative to our worldly desire for power is the spiritual practice of Servanthood.
Servanthood is like graduate school at Harvard. It won’t be experienced nonchalantly. It takes intentionality. It requires that we sit at the feet of Jesus as an apprentice and learn from him:
“The last will be first”
“The greatest among you will be your servants”
“Love your enemies”

The power that Jesus brandished was spiritual power.  Power that came through being a servant.  Being submitted to someone else’s mission.  That’s the kind of power God wants us all to experience.  That’s Kingdom power.

It’s time to go to school on the subject of Servanthood. If you want to get started right away, begin by reading the book of Mark and noting every time Jesus gave up power…enjoy.

Please CLICK HERE for the Crave: Servanthood Study Guide PDF.

thanks,
Teaching Team

Light.  Dark.  Day.  Night.  Ebb.  Flow.  Work.  Rest. 6 days on.  1 day off.

It’s hard to miss God’s intention for His creation, isn’t it?  From the very first day a cosmic rhythm was strummed by God.  The reverberations were meant to infiltrate our lives.  Unfortunately, Rhythm & Rest are two of God’s gifts that we have chosen to  ignore.  We ignore them for one simple reason - we don’t trust them.  We don’t believe they will really meet our desires as much as our accomplishments will.  So…we bury ourselves, refuse to comply with God’s gifts, and then sink into the mire of life.  Maybe it’s time for something different.  Maybe it’s time to turn the noise of our lives into music.  Rhythm and Rest can help us do that.  Let’s get started.

If you missed the message on Rhythm & Rest, you can listen to it here.  Either way, I encourage you to watch a short addendum to the message that I’ve posted to YouTube:

Blessings on your journey towards better Health, better Community and more Happiness.  I leave with you with another thought from Mark Buchanan:

“When we get to busy, everything becomes either a trudge or a scramble, the doldrums or sheer mayhem. We get bored with the familiar, threatened by the unfamiliar. Our capacity for both steadfastness and adventure shrivels. We just want to be left alone… When we stop caring about the things we care about – that’s a signal we’re too busy. We have let ourselves be consumed by the things that feed the ego but starve the soul.”

~ Mark Buchanan, The Rest of God

Please CLICK HERE for the Crave Rest & Rhythm Study Guide PDF.

thanks,
Teaching Team

About fifteen years ago, a leader that I respected greatly challenged me to fast. I had never before considered fasting. Sure, I grew up reading the Bible and occasionally came across references to the practice, but the thought never occured to me to give it a try. This challenge began a long road of resisting the practice. I’m just not much into self-denial, especially when it comes to food. I feel hungry, I eat. Simple enough.

But I couldn’t escape the challenge. After all, this was a man I respected greatly. So, I began to read more on the subject. And, then the time came to give it a try. I set a date for my first fast…a really simple one: skipping one lunch. Oh my goodness, you’d have thought I’d starved myself for days. That entire afternoon, all I could think about was EATING! My head hurt; I couldn’t focus; my body screamed at me: FEED ME. When I finally ate dinner and assuaged the pain, I pretty much determined to never try that again!

But, fortunately I came across a book on fasting from one of my favorite authors and teachers: John Piper’s Hunger for God. This book provides a tremendously compelling answer for the question: why fast? Now, at a deep level, I understood the purpose of fasting. And I found that I actually wanted to fast.

In the years since, I’ve fasted on a number of occasions, and for a number of reasons. Never has it come easy; never have I enjoyed it like I enjoy eating a nice dinner. However, with only rare exception, at the end of each fast my soul has felt richer, more solid, and more complete.

And, so, I urge you to add fasting to your journey of faith. I’ve attached a couple PDF files - Prayer & Fasting and The Discipline of Fasting - each of which provide background and some simple helps regarding what to fast, where to start, what to do when you fast, etc. I’ve also attached the small-group study guide.

And, by fasting, may you “taste and see that the LORD is good” (Ps. 34:8).

Hungry for more of God,
Shane

Please CLICK HERE to download the CRAVE:Fasting PDF study guide.

God Bless,
Teaching Team

Off.  Turn it off.

Noise.  Noise.  Noise.  I wish I had more of it, don’t you?  More technological noise to distract my hands.  More entertainment noise to distract my mind.   More digital noise to distract my ears.  More visual noise to distract my eyes.  That’s what we need…more noise.

Or not.  With an increase in our cultural noise, I strangely find myself longing for…something.  How about you?  Until recently, I wasn’t sure what it was that I was longing for.  But, I think I’ve discovered it.  I long for more…SILENCE.

Shhh.  Stop talking to me.
Shhh.  Stop selling me.
Shhh.  Stop bombarding me.
Shhh.  Stop convincing me.
Shhh.  Stop ‘billboarding’ me.
Shhh.  Stop advertising to me.
Shhh.  Stop seducing me.
Shhh.  Stop distracting me.

I have a Savior to love.  I have a family to love.  I have a soul to protect.

I can’t continue to drift from one noise source to another, and fully protect my soul.

In our “CRAVE” series, we are discovering ancient pathways that lead us to our true desires, our true cravings.   Maybe you’ve not been able to articulate it…but I’ll bet you crave for SILENCE just like me.   But…then we face reality and that fleeting thought disappears as quick as it came.  It just can’t happen.  Not in the twenty first century.  Not with my hectic schedule.  Not with my life.  I guess that dream is for someone else, who lives somewhere else and can hire professionals to filter their noise.

What if what we crave for could be a reality?  Interested?

The spiritual disciplines of Silence & Solitude are lost arts, but they are the gateway to personal and spiritual renewal.

Ignore them and you can expect to be perpetually overwhelmed….frenzied.
Pay attention to them and you can expect to find renewal.

Let’s get started this week.  Find OR force 30 minutes of uninterrupted space into your schedule this week where you can be alone and free of noise.  See what happens.

In addition to the sermon on this subject, here are some resources you may find helpful on your journey of escape from the NOISE.

Please CLICK HERE to download the CRAVE: Silence & Solitude PDF study guide.

God Bless,
Teaching Team

Our series, CRAVE, continues this week looking at the spiritual discipline of Confession. In many ways this is the long lost discipline. Most Bible-believing churches over the past 200 years have been largely silent regarding Confession. It’s exciting to bring this discipline back to the forefront and rediscover the benefit and practice of Confession.

For further reading I recommend Confession of a Pastor by Craig Groeschel. Craig is a pastor in Oklahoma City and does a great service to the body of Christ by practicing Confession through the medium of a book.  His honesty will surprise you.

Our own Mark Morse has written a study guide to accompany the sermon this week. Please CLICK HERE to download the study guide.

grace and peace through Jesus,
Tim