Forced Devotion

Well, not FORCED, persay. Maybe it would be better to classify it as "had to be written by a certain time" devotion.

For the upcoming smash-hit NATIVITY: LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION from Group Publishing, I'm having to write out leader books for separate rooms, and part of the copy for the books is a devotional. Here is an excerpt from one, let me know what you think!

ROOM LEADER GUIDE for “THE NATIVITY: And Baby Makes Three”

Devotional
Main Idea: With Great Blessing Comes Great Responsibility
Scripture: Genesis 17:1-9

It’s no secret that one of the most blessed people in the Bible was Abraham. The Father of Nations. God made a covenant with him that he and all of the generations to follow would be blessed; kings would be among Abraham’s descendants!

However, as with many of the prophesies and promises, it comes with a proviso. God tells us that He will do something - if we do something. Everyone gets a measure of faith, but faith without works is coffin-faith, believe in Jesus Christ and you shall have everlasting life, I’ll open the door when you knock, and so on and so forth.

You will be blessed, Oh, Artist Formerly Known As Abram! You shall birth kings (well, Sarah, anyway) and your kid’s kid’s kids will rule and reign! You will hold up your son from Pride Rock and tell him that everything the light touches will be his!

BUT.

You have to keep up your end of the bargain, Abraham. Oh, and all of your kids, too. That’s YOUR end of the covenant. Keep it, and be blessed forever.

Yikes. Doesn’t SOUND hard, doesn’t LOOK hard on paper, but we all know that keeping promises every day sometimes gets a little difficult. Especially when it’s been a long day at work, things didn’t go according to plan, and now your son is sitting on the porch, waiting for you with his ball glove.

Because you promised you’d play catch with him last week.

With great blessing comes great responsibility. Think about Abraham, being a Father to nations; or Mary and Joseph, given charge to be (basically) step-parents to God’s Son. What an incredible blessing…but what great responsibility!

Questions:
1.In what ways have you, in your life, been blessed? Has the blessing added to your sense of responsibility, as in having a child?

2.We try, but even the Bible reminds us that we all sin, we all fall short of the glory. Do you believe that God has grace for our mess-ups? In what way?

3.Think about the birth of Jesus. Not ideal circumstances, young parents, no family around to help. Talk about how you felt as a young parent…the worries, the excitement, the blessing and the responsibility.

Feathers For Arrows

"Crossing the Col D'Obbia, the mule laden with our luggage sank in the snow, nor could it be recovered until its load was removed; then, but not till then, it scrambled out of the hole it had made, and pursued its journey. It reminded us of mariners casting out the lading into the sea to save the vessel, and we were led to meditate upon the dangers of Christians heavily laden with earthly possessions, and the wise way in which the gracious Father unloads them by their losses that they may be enabled to pursue their journey to heaven, and no longer sink in the snow of carnal-mindedness."

Wow. No one writes likes this anymore. Thick prose, perfect verbiage that paints on the canvas of your mind.

And still makes a great point.

It feels heightened, as if written with quill and inkpot, rather than MacBook Pro. It is a small excerpt from Feathers for Arrows, a book of illustrations by C.H. Spurgeon, and I happened upon in by accident; one of those web pages that you have no idea how you got there...but I'm supremely glad I did.

I was pondering this morning about the passage in Matthew, where Jesus talks about not being able to serve two masters. You'll hate one, and love the other, Jesus says. But in reading some commentaries on this Scripture, another perspective emerged:

Two masters cannot share one slave.

In ancient times, two masters rarely shared slaves. But when they did, it always led to divided interests. Two masters cannot have complete control over one slave, because the slave must give fully of himself to only one master.

So basically, God either has all of you, or none of you. It's a sobering thought, to be sure. I might think that I am completely sold out to God, and His leading, and His direction and instruction, but I know there are things that I want to do, that I want to have, and that I want to possess.

All of me, or none of me. Not parts, not pieces. Nothing hidden, or held back. Everything, or nothing. Treasure for the here and now, or treasure for the hereafter. It makes me wonder just how many Christians are truly bondslaves, as Paul calls them. I know I'm not. As much as I want to be, desire at times still trumps destiny.

But Lord, I'm striving. I know we all are, just trying day by day to keep the world at bay while we strain to hear His voice. Some days are easier, and some days are impossible. It's encouraging, however, to know that God will lift the burden, help us shake off the luggage, or as Spurgeon writes so eloquently,

"the wise way in which the gracious Father unloads them by their losses that they may be enabled to pursue their journey to heaven, and no longer sink in the snow of carnal-mindedness."

God enables us to lose that we may gain. Amazing, amazing thought.

I Think I Might Be In Love

Is there anyone else out there who loves watching the Special Features on a DVD?

Not just the bloopers, or the outtakes, but the 'Making Of' featurettes, the commentaries, the behind the scenes.

I've been known to watch a movie on our miniDVD player, then go back and watch it again immediately after, with the commentary on. And honestly, it doesn't matter what movie. It could be UP, The Mummy 3, Batman Begins, or Bruce Almighty...I think I might be in love with learning how movies are made.

Case in point, I subjected my wife (bless her heart) to an 18 minute online video of J.J. Abrams talking about LOST, MI:3, his process, and the wonders of a mystery box.

*WARNING*

There is one swear word in this video. Don't let your kids watch!

*WARNING*



I think I might be in love with the idea of the mystery box.

The speed at which Abrams creates, foresees and adapts, he may as well be Borg. But with style. With mojo, with a step-ahead creativity that sets a standard instead of brashly and poorly copying and regurgitating.

Re-inventor.

J.J. Abrams is a re-inventor. Which, in my opinion, is better than an inventor, because not only can he invent new things, he can take something that already exists, change it and make it better. He invents new things while using old models, enough to remind us of the old model, but clearly delivers something completely new.

But to be a part of the process...to be in the mix of the creation...THAT'S what trips my trigger. I can't imagine what the actual creation must have been like; a constant stream of color and form and life, all colliding, God expressing His deepest character through His creation.

No wonder He took a break after a while.

I feel as though that place, that open heaven, that what if, land of pretend, use all things necessary, bounce house of creativity is exactly where I need to be. I want to be.

I think I might be in love with bounce houses.

I've said this to many people before, and I'll continue to say it until I get on the other side of it:

I don't want to be the person in line, clamoring for the next big thing. I want to help create the next big thing.

Not for me, or my name, but just to be a part of that process. I look forward to days where I come home and am completely spent mentally because I've been so innovative. I look forward to the day where I can see kids enraptured and learning at what I've helped create. I look forward to days where kids are pointed toward the One who for six days squeezed every ounce of His creativity over a formless void, only to learn that since they were created in His image, they can be just as squeezy.

I'll get there. You watch.

And while you watch, I'm going to watch another DVD Commentary.

MIRACLE

I slept through the night.

She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain

I believe that we as human beings are blessed with an innate sense of things that are outside the normal five senses...a gut feeling, your conscience, the Holy Spirit...that little something that gnaws away at your insides. The kind of feeling that, if you follow it, looking back you think, 'well, THAT was an interesting coincidence'.

But I believe there is no such thing as coincidence, either. :)

That 'nudge' that tells you to call that person back, that 'stop' that tells you to go back in the house because you know you forgot something, even that 'whim' that tells you to drive a different way to work. You can call it whatever you want.

You need to start listening to it.

It's something deeper than just your own desires, or your own wants. It's a feeling of inevitability. It's GOING to happen, you just know it. In your knower. Down below the cockles of your heart, in the sub-cockle area, you just know it.

That's the way I feel today. That top-of-the-roller-coaster, coming-out-of-the-tunnel, looking-around-the-corner feeling. Tony singing "Could Be" from West Side Story. Hey, look, what's that sound, everybody look what's comin' round.

And it makes me smile.

Freedom

This is an excerpt from a weekly pick-me-up I send to our leadership team...thought it fit good here!

In my devotional this morning (which is downloaded on my new Sony eReader, btw), there was a pretty funny story that I'd like to share:

"A man once escaped from prison by digging his way out through a tunnel and breaking through the floor of preschool daycare facility.

The prisoner shouted, 'I'm free! I'm free!' to which a preschooler replied, 'Well, I'm four.'"

The rest of the teaching for the morning talks about how the Jews understood what kind of freedom Jesus was preaching, about as much as the preschooler understood the prisoner. Do we really know what true freedom is? Would we know it if it busted through our floor and shouted at us? The kind of freedom that the Bible teaches is, in my opinion, a little hard to grasp. We are so bound by the trappings of this world that it's hard to quote-unquote 'break free', or enjoy real, I mean real freedom.

Freedom from worry, Matthew 6:25-31.
Freedom from death and decay, Romans 8:21.
Freedom from concerns, 1 Corinthians 7:32.

Freedom from the constraints of the Law, freedom from servitude, freedom from an unhealthy thought life, you name it. Jesus did not come here to replace the Law, He came to fulfill it. And the way that He fulfills it for us is to remove us from having to jump through religious hoops in order to curry God's favor. We're free from animal sacrifices, thank God. PETA would have a field day. We're free. Imagine if there was a day where you didn't worry about something or other. Imagine if there wasn't anything that popped up in the day to completely wreck your schedule (and therefore your mood) that you couldn't handle or flow with. Imagine a peaceful home, even though you have four kids and a dog.

And a husband.

Complete freedom. Outstretched arms, sun-warmed face, mountain shouting freedom.

You can have it. Just let Jesus conquer the space between your ears....because that's where all of your battles are anyway. I'd encourage you to think about what your life would be like if you lived completely free. I'm not talking off-the-grid, no Social Security number, grow your own crops and stockpile your own guns freedom, I'm talking clear direction, focus of thought, positive, self-affirming thinking, You can do it. You can handle it.

Freedom.

The Eve of Thirty-Five

Is it bad that I'll spend two hours on my day off playing my son's DSi, trying to figure out how to defeat Midbus on Bowser's Inside Story?

Is it okay that I like my riding mower but hate my lawn?

Is it wrong that I know exactly when bowel movements are going to be, and schedule around them?

Is it bad that I don't want to tweet?

Is it wrong that I mentally fist pump when my son laughs at the mean neighbor?

Is it bad that I just want to pinch my daughter's face all the time, even when she says, "Da-AD!!"

Is it wrong to look back at the last 34 years and think that I've done an okay job so far?

Is it wrong that I don't worry about the economy?

Is it an anomaly that I actually feel prepared to one day have "the talk" with my kids?

Am I not normal because I still think my wife is cute?

What is this new feeling of accomplishment I get when I sweep out the garage?

Why do I get the urge to go into Office Depot to just look around?

Or spend time just walking around Lowe's? I don't need to buy anything.

Is it wrong to absolutely HATE the way Abercrombie and Fitch smells up the mall?

Speaking of, what the heck is that cologne called? "Eau de l'Homme en Sueur sans Chemise"?

Just Google Translate it.

Is it bad that I think I can still run around with kids and not be sore the next day?

You tell me. I'm 35 tomorrow...and I'm loving it.