reverent fear

Dale Rooks, a school crossing guard in Florida, tried everything to get cars to slow down through the school zone. But nothing worked…until he took a blow dryer and wrapped it in electrical tape, making it look like a radar gun.

Dale just points the thing at cars, and it’s incredible how quickly they hit the brakes.

"It’s almost comical," Dale says. "It’s amazing how well it works."

Do you ever notice how when you see a police car the natural reaction is to touch the brakes and check your speed even if you are not speeding. Why? Because we have a healthy fear of getting a ticket.

People aren’t afraid of the crossing guard and what he can do to them, but they are afraid of the police and what the police can do to them. They obey not because of what they are being asked to do (slow down) but because of WHO is asking them. 

When it comes to doing what the Lord asks us, we need to make sure our emphasis is on WHO gave the order – not WHAT the order is.

“Be holy, because I am holy.” 17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1.16-19)

God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, And to be held in reverence by all those around Him. (Psalm 89.7)

If you missed Does Satan exist you can watch the whole thing here.

set your tivo for march 26

Slapdown: Mark Driscoll vs. Deepak Chopra on the Existence of Satan

The devil -- also known as Satan, Lucifer and Beelzebub -- has become the primary antagonist in almost every major religion. He is seen as the rebel, a serpent and a fallen angel who tempts mortals into committing sin, and preys upon their despair. But does Satan really exist?

Watch "The Nightline Face-Off: Does Satan Exist?" March 26 on ABCNews.com and on "Nightline" at 11:35 p.m. ET.

The "Nightline Face-Off" launched two years ago by asking the question "Does God Exist?" The Face-Off aired on ABCNews.com and more than 15,000 comments were posted on the Web site as viewers engaged in the debate.

The conversation will pick up with a debate on the devil in Seattle at the Mars Hill Church, moderated by Dan Harris, who covers faith issues for the network.

On one side of the debate is Deepak Chopra, famous philosopher and author of "Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment" and Bishop Carlton Pearson, author of "The Gospel of Inclusion." They will argue that Satan does not exist.

Chopra is the founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in California. He specializes in mind-body medicine and gives lectures and speeches around the world.

Pearson began his spiritual journey as a fourth-generation Pentecostal minister who enjoyed a vast following as an heir apparent to Oral Roberts. But his revelation almost a decade ago that a loving God would not condemn people to hell just because they are not Christian caused him to question the very existence of hell and the devil. It also caused him to lose the vast majority of his congregation. Since then, he has become an independent spiritual leader in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and preaches his message that God loves all mankind.

On the other side will be Pastor Mark Driscoll of the Mars Hill Church and Annie Lobert, founder of the international Christian ministry "Hookers for Jesus," who will argue that the devil does exist, and has made a personal impact on their lives.

idol

According to MTV.com: "more than half of this year's crop of finalists — including Danny Gokey, Michael Sarver, Kris Allen, Scott MacIntyre, Matt Giraud and Lil Rounds — either have a strong affiliation with the church or are worship leaders in their communities.

"I think that Christians probably watch the show all the time but maybe don't admit it. But this gives them someone to root for in this cast who is not just talented but also follows their faith, and people want to get behind contestants who align with their views," said Joanne Brokaw, who writes the Gospel Soundcheck" column for the spirituality Web site BeliefNet.com. "Christian music has always had this cheesy label attached to it, and this shows that a Christian singer can have artistic integrity and they are people who can really sing." To read the full article, go to MTV.com

Who are you rooting for? Come on, it's okay to admit that you watch idol. I am pulling for Danny Gokey.

one quadrillion synapses

If you regularly read blogs, you must have Mark Batterson's in your favorites. Check out his post from last week:

I came across an interesting factoid today as I was researching for my next book.

The human body has approximately 100,000,000 (one hundred million) sensory receptors that enable us to see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. And that is a testament to our Divine Designer. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. By the way, when was the last time you thanked God for each of your senses? We have seven million cones that enable us to perceive about ten million different colors. Doesn't it seem like we owe God seven million thank yous?

Now here is what I found fascinating: neurologists estimate that the average three-year old has 1,000,000,000,000,000 (one quadrillion) synaptic connections.

Honestly, those numbers numb us. But I think they reveal something significant. Our ability to imagine things in our mind is far greater than our ability to interpret physical reality. Mathematically speaking, imagination is ten million times more powerful than our five senses put together!

Naturalism is living down to the limit of our one hundred million sensory receptions. It is the inability or unwillingness to perceive reality that is beyond our five senses. The end result? Our universes shrinks to the size of our senses.

Faith is living beyond our five senses. It is being certain of what we do not see. One dimension of faith is imagining what our five senses can't perceive or confirm. It is extra-sensory perception. And that is why faith often seems like it is out of touch with reality. But that is because it is ten million times more powerful than our senses!

One of my favorite verses is Ephesians 3:20. It is actually our most-used benediction at National Community Church.

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and throughout all generations for ever and ever, Amen.

Translation? God is able to do immeasurably more than we can imagine with our one quadrillion synapses. Amazing isn't it? Our imagination is ten million times more powerful than our five senses. But God is still able to do infinitely more than anything any of us can imagine with our one quadrillion synaptic connections. And to top it off, no mind has conceived of what God has prepared for us!

jury duty

On Monday I was summoned to the Allegheny Court House to find out if I had been selected for jury duty. I hoped that I would not be chosen purely because I did not want to lose a week of my time, however, after sitting there for hours, I kind of hoped that I would get selected. While I was waiting I was reading a book called the Apocalypse Code by Hank Hanegraff (Highly recommend if you want to explore different ways of interpreting the prophetic passages in the Bible), and I thought that it was ironic that the person beside me was reading I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell.

At the end of the day I found out that I was selected. We finished up today and after much deliberation found the defendant guilty. Here are some of my thoughts.

-It is much different than TV.

-When hearing the evidence we were all expecting CSI (Not reality).

-It is difficult to get 12 people to all agree on one thing.

-For some reason I enjoyed the atmosphere of the courthouse, lawyers, law enforcement, judges, etc.

-It is very tiring listening to hours of testimony.

-I took my responsibility very seriously.

-I very much enjoyed being on the jury and would like to do it again.

-Sbarros Pizza rocks!

failing forward

Read this on Craig Groeschel's blog. Great Stuff!

Here are some things to remember when something you attempt fails.
Failure is an event, not a person.
Failure isn’t final.
Failure is often the first step toward success.
A ministry that has stopped failing has stopped growing.
Failure is not an option, it is a necessity.
If you fail and don’t learn from it, you’ve failed twice. Don’t waste a failure.
The antidote to the fear of failure isn’t success, but small doses of failure. (Credit to Mark Batterson for a similar quote.)

new message series this sunday

I am excited about a new series beginning this Sunday, March 15th. Thirsty … for more of God, more of His Spirit, more of His presence? Has your heart become a little crusty? Is it parched? Jesus invites us to come to Him thirsty and drink deeply of the living water that He has for us. John wrote, “If you are thirsty, come! If you want living water, take it. It’s free! (Rev 22:17) Join us for this new message series, and come thirsty!

what was once lost is now found

We had a great baptismal service this past Sunday. We have a tradition at Journey that the first sound that each person hears when they come out of the water is the church rejoicing at the top of their lungs. Wow, did we raise the roof on Sunday as 10 people were baptized! What a great day.

Have you ever noticed how socks seem to disappear? Why do we just get one back after the laundry is done? Even more frustrating is when the remote to the TV or dvd player disappears. We always blamed the kids because we know that we didn't lose it.

A few days ago my cell phone fell into the cushions on our couch so we pulled them off only to find that it was gone, vanished just like a plane in the Bermuda Triangle. So we called it and it rang from within the couch. We found it inside the bottom of the couch which was hard to get at, but while Kara's hand was inside the couch, guess what else we found? Our long lost dvd remote. We had checked everywhere and after being gone for about a year, what was once lost has now been found. Woohooo! I know, not real spiritual, but it sure was nice to find it. Have you checked inside the guts of your couch? You never know what you will find.

save the daylight

one day catalyst and what makes you mad?

Catalyst One Day
I had the opportunity to go to Atlanta last week for Catalyst One Day and the speakers were Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel. I went down with one of the guys in my pastoral small group and we had a great time connecting in the car (about 20 hours total). He is also the one that hooked me up with the free ticket (Thanks, Bruce). Here are few highlights:

New triggers momentum.
Adding anything new, by definition generates some kind of momentum
It is triggered by one of three things, new leadership, new direction, new programs or a new product.

Look for ways to upgrade your presentations (David always kills Goliath).
You rarely regain momentum by simply doing what you did to create it in the first place.

Limitations are often the breeding ground for innovations.
God often guides what he doesn’t provide. Peter ... silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have ...

We must love the long term game enough to endure the short term pain.
We must love the mission enough to make the difficult call.

What Makes You Mad?
We got back Friday evening and the next day Patsy and I went down to the Strip District in Pittsburgh and had a great time checking out the different stores and smelling the different foods and getting a few almond macaroons. When we were leaving, a mini van passed us on the right and nailed a parked car. It did not even hit the brakes-it just kept on moving. I tried my very best to catch it so I could get the plate number and call the police, but I got stuck at a light. I could not believe how mad that made me. It really ticked me off that he did that, and it bothered me that I could not catch his vehicle to turn him in. In the grand scheme of things, this is a small injustice, but it still irritated the heck out of me. What kind injustice makes you mad?