Living Unfiltered for God

In these strange times in which we are living, “church” looks a lot different these days. As we’re told we cannot meet in groups larger than 10 – and even that is discouraged – we must find new ways to stay connected to our church and our friends. I am blessed in that our church, Christ Community Church in Cumming, GA, is being very creative and intentional about keeping us all connected. One of the things we’ve started doing is reading the Book of Acts together, as a church, albeit on our own. The connection is knowing that over the course of the next two weeks, we will all be reading the same couple of chapters every day. Along the way, we’ve been encouraged to share any insights and revelations that come about. This piece has been birthed out of that encouragement... In Acts Chapter 3 (part of yesterday’s reading) we come across the following situation… “Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to be...

I spent last week at one of my favorite places on the planet. It isn’t really the place itself that makes it so special (although it is beautiful), rather the people that I see there. And the God that I get to spend so much time with while I’m there. We were attending our annual CFO (Camp Farthest Out) family camp at Lake Yale, Florida. For my wife and I, this was our fourteenth consecutive year. Some folks have been going for more than 30 years, and about a quarter of the people attending this year were there for their first time. It’s always an incredible week of learning, worshiping, fellowshipping and soaking. Funny, we say we go there to rest but “rest” is not really what happens. In the Spirit, yes, but in the natural we are typically pretty busy!  Any of you who have read my words in this space before, know that I speak – and write – about this camp a lot. It’s at this camp where God first put it on my heart to begin writing and start this blog. You will be seeing me ...

There are some things you never think you're going to have to deal with in this life. Or maybe, you just never think about them - at least not for long - because the chances of them happening are so very slim. At least... you think the chances are slim. For me, you could classify, "having one of my step-daughters be diagnosed with Breast Cancer" in that category. Well, regardless of what the odds of that happening really were, here we are. What I thought could (or would) never happen, has happened. The details are hers to share, but the last two months have been a very emotional roller coaster ride for her and our entire family. And tomorrow, our daughter Michelle, will go through her first round of chemotherapy. While her prognosis is very good, the next few months will see her facing a challenge no parent ever wants to see their child have to endure.  From the beginning of this, I have held on to Romans 8:28 , " And we know that in all things God works for...

When you think about worship, what comes to mind? For many, it is most often relegated to that time at the beginning of your church service where you listen to some songs and maybe even sing along. Others, may take it a bit further and consider their giving (of time, talents and treasure) to be an act or worship as well. I think it's a lot more than that, though. I believe that worship is a 24/7/365 kind of thing! In his book The Air I Breathe , Louie Giglio provides a wonderful definition of worship, that is also somewhat challenging. He writes that,  "Worship is...  our response,  both personal and corporate,  to God -  for who He is!  and what He has done!  expressed in and by the things we say  and the way we live." That last part sounds a lot like what we've been talking about as "living unfiltered for God", doesn't it? Since we've established that our obedience to God reflects and exhibits our love for God, then we ...

Have you ever really thought about this question? I suspect, that as Christians, we spend a lot more time thinking about God's love for us, than we do about how we actually love Him? Perhaps during worship at church or elsewhere, we praise Him and offer our love to Him through our words and singing and so forth, but day to day, hour by hour, how do we express our love to the One who created us, beyond just telling Him? Jesus makes it very clear that we are to, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." ( Matthew 22:37 ) He tells us in the very next verse that this is the first and greatest commandment, so it's a big deal! But how do we do that? What does that really look like? Fortunately, Jesus makes it similarly clear in the 14th chapter of John, in several different ways that, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching." ( John 14:23 ) So then, it appears that to love God is to obey God. In essence then...