One Month To Live: Day 1

Day 1 Living the Dash

2009 has been a very memorable year: new job in full-time ministry, turned 30, purchased a home, and Sheridan started Kindergarten. A lot has happened! With all these things happening, turning 30 has had an impact. Not in an “I’m getting old” kind of way, but instead it has me finding a parallel with Jesus’ life. Jesus began his full-time ministry at the age of 30. I quickly learned a positive of working in ministry is flexibility. But that can become a negative to the most important group I’m called to lead: my family. This new chapter in my life has made me take a hard look at my priorities.

You might say, Jesus had an advantage, in a kind of twisted way. He knew when his time would come. He knew the future and how much time he had left. The time between the final preparation in the desert and his resurrection was just 3 years. You and I, on the other hand, have no clue when our time will be up. I hope that I have many years to serve in this capacity. I absolutely love what I get to do at and count it an honor and privilege to be on staff on CrossPoint. But I’m not guaranteed another day. So, starting a new chapter in my life around the same age as Jesus, I thought it would be good to look at the ultimate model to see how he began his ministry. What I found has revolutionized how I prioritize.

He preached and taught. He healed many people. He traveled from town to town and each place was never the same when he left. He spent time with a lot of people. We know that side of Jesus. But what really spoke to me was who Jesus didn’t spend a lot of time with. Remember: Jesus knew how little time he would have to do ministry, yet he regularly pulled away for rest, and he spent intentional time with his growth group (the disciples) as well as the 3 in his inner-circle, his successors. Also, he was never in a hurry. Others would try to rush him, but he stayed on mission and definitely did not “dash to live”. He knew his priorities and so God began to teach me what living is all about and that it requires being intentional in how we prioritize.

If we found out we only had 30 days to live, our personal relationship with God and relationships with those closest to us would be our main, maybe even the only, priorities. I’m looking forward to the next 30 days because, just like most others, it’s easy for life to catch up with me. Things come in that clutter up our day and I start “dashing to live” instead of living the dash. So I’m excited about what God will teach us through these next 30 days together.

Mark 3: Doing Good On the Sabbath

Continuing journey through the Gospel of Mark.

Mark 3:1-2 – Jesus returns to the synagogue and meets a man with a shriveled hand.  The Pharisees have their camera phones and recorders ready to catch Jesus every move.  They are just waiting for him to do something to break their rules.  They want to limit how Jesus can do ministry because he doesn’t fit in their traditions.

Mark 3:3 – Jesus, knowing the paparazzi that is following him, asks the man to stand up where everyone can see.

Mark 3:4 – Jesus asked the crowd a question that gets to the heart of the issue.  What was God’s intention for the sabbath?  Is it ok to do good or evil on that day?  No one tried to answer.

Mark 3:5 – Jesus, now angry because of the stubborness of the people, heals the man’s hand.

Mark 3:6 – And this is when the Pharisees wanted to find help in eliminating Jesus.  “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”  The Pharisees (religious group) wanted to seek help from the Herodian (government rulers) to get rid of Jesus as they both saw him as a threat to their power.

Mark 3:7-10 – Jesus tries to withdraw from the crowd but a crowd follows him because they have seen his miracles.

Mark 3:11-12 – Demons would testify of who Jesus was.  But he would shut them up because he was not ready to be identified yet.  Note the difference: Pharisees believed Jesus was blaspheming while the demons who came in contact with Jesus would, in fear, openly proclaim him as the Son of God.

Mark 3:13-19 – Jesus chooses the twelve.  This growth group of future leaders would eventually turn the world upside down.  Their message still being spread over 2000 years later.

The Word (Book of John)

This week I’ve been reading through John 1-3 along with our Growth Groups.  This morning, I started reading those chapters in The Message paraphrase, which has one of my favorite verses in John 1:14:

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.

This is the essense of the vision of CrossPoint Church.  We desire to be just like Jesus and take it to our neighborhood.  It’s easy for churches to become inward-focused and try to keep the status quo and serve each other.  Now while I do believe that is one important aspect of community, it’s not the only concern.  As followers of Christ, we should also desire to be the hands and feet of Jesus and meet the needs (both spiritual and physical) in our community.  Jesus exemplified it for us and we should do everything we can to follow that example.

Each Growth Group will be responisble for a Servant Evangelism event sometime in the next 8 weeks.  I can’t wait to see what God will do when these groups spread God’s love across this county!

Currently Reading

Shuffling two books right now:

Small groups are coming to CrossPoint this fall. I’ve been a member of a small group, so I have that knowledge, but I’m really trying to absorb the bigger picture of small groups in relation to creating community in the local church. At CrossPoint, we want to be a church of small groups, not just with small groups. And the Ed Young book is teaching me to tap into the God-given gift of creativity.

Two trips out of town have now created a backlog of books to read as I’ve hit several big bookstores. I was trying to read one and then buy another so that I don’t create a backlog. Too late! Just more to go through, which isn’t a bad thing by any means.