Story about apathy and coldness toward strangers

Thanks to Faith L for letting me use this.

"I met a Turkish family who just arrived in the states five days prior in preparation for their oldest daughter to finish her college education. I was the first American to talk to them.... This family had been here five days already and NOBODY took the time to talk to them."

Quote from "Christy" by Catherine Marshall

"David suspected that he did not yet know how to preach or what to preach so that people's hearts would be ignited and changed. I wonder how many preachers did know. And in that case, what could they do except fall back on building programs, creating more church organizations, appointing more committees, calling more meetings, plunging into (what as the new term?) social service work, - all of the busy busy church activities for which Alice had a delightful tag: "digging worms instead of fishing."

Story about being enslaved to your own appetites

"That reminds me of a story told that in the fourteenth century there were three brothers that were all Dukes in Belgium. One of them was named Renald and he was a very large man and had a nickname of Crassis which was Latin for fat. He and his younger brother Edward got into a dispute. And Edward took over his brother's kingdom. Edward put his brother in prison in the Newkirk Castle. He built a special cell for him - special because it had a door and windows but no locks. The problem was that the door and windows were a little smaller than normal and Renald could not get through them. Every day Edward would send sumptuous foods for his brother to eat. Crassis instead of dieting and losing weight to get out of the prison in fact put on weight. When charged by others about the cruelty of imprisoning his brother Edward would tell them that his brother is not a prisoner, he could leave anytime."

Direct text taken from siddye.blogspot.com

Originally heard story from James McDonald sermon.

Research more before actually using

Cliff's Notes to Romans 1-6

Romans 1 - Gentiles are sinners
2 - Jews are sinners
3 - All are sinners
4 - Salvation is by Faith
5 - God's grace is for all
6 - Sanctification by His death

Gathered listening to a James McDonald sermon.

Multiplying like rabbits cartoon

multiplication, abstinence, sex, self control, birth control

Things to Remember from Leadershift, by Don Cousins

Chapter 1:
pgs 17-18, 2 great stories about leading and following
pg 20:Leadership is not the most important or most needed gift
pg 21: What gift does the Apostle Paul call us to seek? Prophesy! (I Cor 14)
pg 33: Ephesians 4:11... this was a good explanation of the 5 'leadership effect' gifts. (What do I have? Teacher, pastor?)
pg 35: "A true leader is not someone who can do the work of ten people, but someone who can organize, [equip & motivate] ten people to do the work." Dale Galloway. (Good for COCUSA site directors) If you hold a leadership position but are not equipping the saints for the work of service than you are not a leader. Biblically, Leading = Equipping.
pg 37: The Holy Spirit has distributed gifts so that there are the exact number of Eph 4:11 people and Eph 4:12 people.
Pg 39: Those in leadership positions must focus their ministry on equipping others for the work of service. That is what God designed them to do.

Chapter 2:
pg 46: God allows circumstances that will press us to search him. Jeremiah 29:11-13.
pg 48: It's time to leave COCUSA when "there's a better job for me than what I'm doing and a better person for my job than me."
pg 52: Don't be afraid to pray: "If your yoke is easy, then what's this I'm yoked to? If your burden is light, whose burden am I carrying?"
pg 53-55: Sad, scary stats for pastors. How can I encourage those that I'm around?
pg 56: "Good news: God is in the business of healing broken people. Bad news: Participation in God's work i sproducing broken people. How Ironic. We can onlyi conclude that we're not doing God's work in God's way- "

Chapter 3: Success Heresy
pg 62: Do I just notice the numbers, or am I focused on them?
pg 63: A focus on numbers alone will never leave you satisfied
pg 66: Don't get lost while trying to reach the lost... What if Jesus focused on numbers?
pg 67: Are you building your 'little k' kindom or God's 'Big K' Kingdom?
pg 68: We know nothing of the numbers for most New Testament churches
Pg 70: We must know how GOD defines success. 4?s for every believer (not just someone in ministry or churches)
1) Are you being faithful? (parable of the talents- the success is based on faithfulness, not on numbers. pg 73: God has given: talents, material resources, education, spiritual gifts. Use what you've been given and that is success! If you're doing that, numbers don't matter!
pg 74: 2) Are you bearing fruit? Not #s, but who you are! Does your life ahve fruit? What is your percentage of Galatians 5:22-23? (And then the external fruit of lives being changed.. not just bodies in a building)
Einstein: "Not all that counts can be counted, and not all that can be counted counts."
3) Are you fulfilled? Joy! (Luke 10:17, John 15:11)
4) Are you making God famous? Less focus on me. Be anonymous. God's name.
In God's kingdom one person can be successful!

Chapter 4: Serving Heresy
The motive: WHY we serve in the kingdom is important.
Heresies: Reasons we do NOT serve: 1) God needs our help. 2) God wants a payback- we can't work long enough or hard enough to say 'thanks' 3) Serving is doing something for God. (correct- we serve one another)
Biblical Truth: 1) Our participation in the work of His kingdom brings his blessings to and through our lives. (God is STILL giving to us!)
2) God displays himself through his blessings to us, thereby bringing glory to his name (see success chapter

Chapter 5: Credit Heresy
pg 103: babysitter instructions (long) vs Jesus instructions (one line) in Acts 1
pg 104: waiting = praying in Acts 1. Everything was dependent on (waiting for) the Holy Spirit.
120 + Holy Spirit = 3000. (Bet on Bible Math!)
p 108-109: Jesus gets Holy Spirit at the start of his ministry (Luke 3:21-22) resists devil (Luke 4:1-2) helps teaching (v14-15)
pg 110: Paul and Zechariah speak of waiting for the Holy Spirit. "Wait, then cooperate"
Pg 112-117: A crash-course on how Willow Creek started... a must read for anyone who bashes them for being a Mega-Church.
pg 118: "By crediting human factors as the cause behind spiritual responsiveness, I'd be overlooking the one true key. While true, I'd actually be guilty of something far more significant: I would be robbing God of His deserved glory. To point to human factors as the explanation for what God accomplishes is heresy. To assign credit to man that rightfully belongs to God is a form of blasphemy."
-- but we hold up ministries that are 'cutting edge' and leaders that are gifted... forgetting it is God behind them.
pg 120: "Formulating strategy apart from the move of the Spirit is a waste of time. Copying other ministries' strategy because they saw fruit as they cooperated with the Spirit is an even bigger waste of time."

Chapter Six: The Organizational Heresy
2 organizational models presented:
pg 121- (the bad one): Institutional.. A)Board Led, B) Staff Run (p 126), C) Congregation Served (like a health club, p 127, members needs determine the staff, services, and programs), D) World Ignored p128.
If this stat is true it is mind boggling: 50% of American churches failed to add one person by conversion last year. WHOA!
p130: "In many communities the unsaved population doesn't even see the church as a relevant option for addressing the challenges they face in life."
p131 (the good model): Biblical- A)Board Protected (elders protect against false teaching and sin, in times of trial and work .. scripture reference in book for each..) Elders help represent God to the people, not people in a democracy.
p139 B) Staff Led- Not just paid staff. There are good ?s for the effectiveness of each group here.
C) Congregation Serving "The Biblical church is a serving army. D) World Served... the key to evangelism- "find a need and meet it." (What are needs in my social circles?)

Chapter 9: The Zone of God's anointing. How do we get into 'the zone'? It will lead to fruit!
p 217 Ask others so you are not WRONG about your gifts.
p 218 Put down your own EGO
p 221 "We don't shape people to fit jobs, we shape jobs to fit people."
Institutionalism defined: putting the organization ahead of other factors. (see Lighthouse video)

Chapter 10: (Worth re-reading and noting more extensively)
Every believer serving: is that the flagship of your church? How can you make it so?
#1) Every believer is a priest!
#2) Leaders must equip (good questions about this on pg 235)
#3) Believers must 'get' gifts- Story of people's passions, pg 238-240
#4) The opportunity to experience success. (Biblical success! See chapter 3) "Equipped saints will ultimately do the work of service to far greater degrees and with much more (Biblical) success than used saints ever will."
I can't NOT do this (pg 241)

Quote about ending

In the academy award-winning classic Cocktail, Coughlin tells young Flanagan, "Everything ends badly, otherwise it wouldn't end."

Scribbled notes from relationship talk at Grace UMC

Brittany and I's experience
how dating has helped my marriage


Story 1: Nannette and I
Lesson 1: You should like the girl

Lesson 2: You should be ready-
responsible: who wakes you up in the morning?
respectful: how do you treat girls?
You can be a boy if you're a boy... but don't chase girls until you're a man

Story 3: Friends w/ unsaved wives?
Lesson 3: Be Saved & Marry smart

Story 4: Brittany and I
Lesson 4: It's worth the wait (MD 10 yrs)

So What Does it All Mean?

This video creates SO much tension. I love it... Not sure when or how I'll use it... but I need to

Albert Einstein quote

"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."

Thanks to Dave Getz for finding this quote