3.27.2009
Worship in eternity and Eden.
The Bible tells us that Lucifer was the worship leader in heaven. Before our world began, before we had the potential of singing praise to God, Lucifer stood before God and orchestrated the heavenly hosts in songs of praise and worship.
Yet at some point, this angel of light felt the worship directed to God would be better directed to him.
Somehow, he was able to convince 1/3 of the angels to follow him to rule and reign over a small planet, circulating a third rate star in an unremarkable part of the universe.
And so it began.
Lucifer’s name would change to Satan, the devil, the accuser, the serpent…and his goal was to stop any of these bi-nature bipeds from joining the remaining angels in heaven in articulating worship to the God he despised.
After earth was created, his first victory came when he popped the duel questions.
“Did God really say that?”
“What good thing is He hiding?
Underlying those questions was “is God Good…does He do good.”
If the enemy could get mankind to doubt the very goodness of God’s nature and dealings, and then act accordingly it would be game, set, and match. Never again would he have to hear the worship of the Creator come into his created ears.
All the theology, debates, anger, confusion and frustration surrounding religion and Christianity come down to this:
Is God Good…does He do good?
What will you do with that information?
So what happens when their offspring approach God in worship?
That’s next….
3.13.2009
Forgiveness Myths
The most terrifying 4 letters in the Bible are "as we."
Jesus prayed "forgive our sins AS WE forgive those who have sinned against us." i know what i need to be forgiven for...but what of those who have hurt me...
A few people have asked me to publish my acronym about the myths about forgiveness.... well here it is.
F.A.M.P. " i fent my fids to fummer famp." ...you're welcome.
Forgiveness is not:
Forgetting: Only God forgets. You may have heard "forgive and forget" but i think it should be said "forgive and obsess less." I know i am wrestling w/ unforgiveness because i have all these wonderful discussions in my head where i say all these funny cutting things, and the person i am angry at says nothing.
You won't forget most of the big offenses you live through. The devil won't let you. BUT you can obsess less today than you did a year ago...or a month ago. Celebrate those moments! Those moments where you have to be reminded of the offence mean you are working towards truly forgiving a person.
Approval: Forgiving someone does not mean you approve of what the
y did. In fact, part of the forgiveness process means confronting the reality that what someone did to you was evil...not just annoying, but evil. You're forgiving them means that what they did was wrong, but you're forgiveness starts God on making it right.
Remember, as long as you forgive, you win. Unforgiveness is like drinking poision and waiting for the other person to die.
Moment: Forgiveness is not a one time event. Frequently, truly forgiving will be a process...and sometimes a lengthy one. The best thing you can do is to praise God for the strength to have survived the offence, and just pray "Lord thank you that i have faith enough to forgive ____ as you have forgiven me." Being able to turn these moments from feeling angry to feeling thankful is one of the best skills you can learn.
Permission: Forgiving someone is not permission to let them do the same thing again. The power to forgive is deeply linked to the power to discern. After you forgive someone, you have the discernment to know when pigs are being offered pearls....or pearls are being tossed to pigs...something like that.
Forgiveness is the heart of God. He refuses to let anyone bear His name who won't forgive. The cross is the great equalizer... the sin committed against me are nailed to the same cross alongside the sins i have committed against others.
Bottom line: forgiveness is releasing God to be the judge...and not me.
Jesus prayed "forgive our sins AS WE forgive those who have sinned against us." i know what i need to be forgiven for...but what of those who have hurt me...
A few people have asked me to publish my acronym about the myths about forgiveness.... well here it is.
F.A.M.P. " i fent my fids to fummer famp." ...you're welcome.
Forgiveness is not:
Forgetting: Only God forgets. You may have heard "forgive and forget" but i think it should be said "forgive and obsess less." I know i am wrestling w/ unforgiveness because i have all these wonderful discussions in my head where i say all these funny cutting things, and the person i am angry at says nothing.
You won't forget most of the big offenses you live through. The devil won't let you. BUT you can obsess less today than you did a year ago...or a month ago. Celebrate those moments! Those moments where you have to be reminded of the offence mean you are working towards truly forgiving a person.
Approval: Forgiving someone does not mean you approve of what the
y did. In fact, part of the forgiveness process means confronting the reality that what someone did to you was evil...not just annoying, but evil. You're forgiving them means that what they did was wrong, but you're forgiveness starts God on making it right.
Remember, as long as you forgive, you win. Unforgiveness is like drinking poision and waiting for the other person to die.
Moment: Forgiveness is not a one time event. Frequently, truly forgiving will be a process...and sometimes a lengthy one. The best thing you can do is to praise God for the strength to have survived the offence, and just pray "Lord thank you that i have faith enough to forgive ____ as you have forgiven me." Being able to turn these moments from feeling angry to feeling thankful is one of the best skills you can learn.
Permission: Forgiving someone is not permission to let them do the same thing again. The power to forgive is deeply linked to the power to discern. After you forgive someone, you have the discernment to know when pigs are being offered pearls....or pearls are being tossed to pigs...something like that.
Forgiveness is the heart of God. He refuses to let anyone bear His name who won't forgive. The cross is the great equalizer... the sin committed against me are nailed to the same cross alongside the sins i have committed against others.
Bottom line: forgiveness is releasing God to be the judge...and not me.
3.11.2009
Obama, West Wing, and preaching
Below is a great Monday Morning Memo by Roy H. Williams...aka the Wizzard of Ads. Mondaymorningmemo.com
Some of you know that i intend to write a book w/ the working title "what commercial writers can teach preachers." The main concept is that the world is being changed 30 seconds at a time as opposed to 30 minutes at a time.
This will be the start of one of the chapters... the edited article is below with my thoughts after that... because i need just one more outlet.
The MondayMorningMemo© of Roy H. Williams, the Wizard of Ads®
The Monday Morning Memo for February 16, 2009
Let Me Tell You a Story...Magic Words to Penetrate the Filter,Erase Suspicion and Lower the Guard
Our bodies contain approximately 100 million sensory receptors that allow us to see, hear, taste, touch and smell physical reality. But the brain contains 10 thousand billion synapses. This means we’re roughly 100,000 times better equipped to experience a world that does not exist, than a world that does.
The first step in persuasion is to entice your target to imagine doing the thing you want them to do.
Four and a half years ago in the summer of 2004, a screenwriter named Eli Attie began creating a persona for a new fictional character that would appear on The West Wing.Matt Santos (played by Jimmy Smits) would be a young congressman, new to Washington, a working-class member of an ethnic minority.
Prior to running for public office, our fictional character Santos had been a community organizer in a major city (Houston.) Screenwriter Eli Attie admitted to The Guardian, a British newspaper, that he was inspired in 2004 by a young Illinois politician – not yet even a US senator – by the name of Barack Obama, a community organizer from Chicago.
As a result of Attie’s attraction to Obama, the 2006 television season showed us a glittering, fictional candidate for the presidency, a happily married, young minority male with 2 children who would run against a moderate Republican opponent from a western state.
The imaginary Republican senator, Arnie Vinick (played by Alan Alda,) was unpopular with his conservative base due to his moderate views. His principal opponent in the fictional Republican primary was the Rev. Don Butler, a Christian preacher. Keep in mind these West Wingepisodes aired 18 months before the nomination battle between John McCain and Mike Huckabee.
But wait, it gets weirder.
Ten years ago, Aaron Sorkin admitted that he based The West Wing’sJosh Lyman on Rahm Emanuel, who served in Bill Clinton’s White House. Both Lyman and Emanuel are Jewish. Both are brilliant. Both mail dead fish to opponents who make them angry.
In the 2006 season of The West Wing, seasoned White House staffer Josh Lyman serves as campaign manager for the long-shot, minority candidate. When his candidate wins, Lyman is named Chief of Staff.
Two years laterRahm Emanuel, the real Josh Lyman,will become Barack Obama's Chief of Staff.Was it all a plot?
Don’t be ridiculous. It’s just an example of how we tend to act out the things we’ve seen in our mind.
Roy H. Williams
In my mind, preaching is helping people make the WORD become flesh. So how does creating fiction relate to preaching?
What i love about Roy's article is that a good preacher- like a good commercial- has the audience envisioning themselves in the story-passage-applications offered. Preachers lose and potentially insult their people by assuming that any application is separated from their real life.
Like a Lexus commercial running during Spongebob.
If you are preaching about compassion, let them see look of gratitude from the single mom you are handing a bag of food to. If you are encouraging people to pray, paint a specific enough picture that they can see themselves in the picture. Their world, their concerns, their obstacles. Don't just tell them to pray for their kids, let them feel your heart praying for your kids. Or better yet, let them feel God's heart for their kids.
Remember, too many generalities are like spraying teflon on their spirit.
Your creativity in creating a "fictional" example that rings true, will enable your listeners to turn fiction into reality.
West Wing did that w/ the Presidency, preachers can do that with Godliness.
and THAT is a tough sell...
Some of you know that i intend to write a book w/ the working title "what commercial writers can teach preachers." The main concept is that the world is being changed 30 seconds at a time as opposed to 30 minutes at a time.
This will be the start of one of the chapters... the edited article is below with my thoughts after that... because i need just one more outlet.
The MondayMorningMemo© of Roy H. Williams, the Wizard of Ads®
The Monday Morning Memo for February 16, 2009
Let Me Tell You a Story...Magic Words to Penetrate the Filter,Erase Suspicion and Lower the Guard
Our bodies contain approximately 100 million sensory receptors that allow us to see, hear, taste, touch and smell physical reality. But the brain contains 10 thousand billion synapses. This means we’re roughly 100,000 times better equipped to experience a world that does not exist, than a world that does.
The first step in persuasion is to entice your target to imagine doing the thing you want them to do.
Four and a half years ago in the summer of 2004, a screenwriter named Eli Attie began creating a persona for a new fictional character that would appear on The West Wing.Matt Santos (played by Jimmy Smits) would be a young congressman, new to Washington, a working-class member of an ethnic minority.
Prior to running for public office, our fictional character Santos had been a community organizer in a major city (Houston.) Screenwriter Eli Attie admitted to The Guardian, a British newspaper, that he was inspired in 2004 by a young Illinois politician – not yet even a US senator – by the name of Barack Obama, a community organizer from Chicago.
As a result of Attie’s attraction to Obama, the 2006 television season showed us a glittering, fictional candidate for the presidency, a happily married, young minority male with 2 children who would run against a moderate Republican opponent from a western state.
The imaginary Republican senator, Arnie Vinick (played by Alan Alda,) was unpopular with his conservative base due to his moderate views. His principal opponent in the fictional Republican primary was the Rev. Don Butler, a Christian preacher. Keep in mind these West Wingepisodes aired 18 months before the nomination battle between John McCain and Mike Huckabee.
But wait, it gets weirder.
Ten years ago, Aaron Sorkin admitted that he based The West Wing’sJosh Lyman on Rahm Emanuel, who served in Bill Clinton’s White House. Both Lyman and Emanuel are Jewish. Both are brilliant. Both mail dead fish to opponents who make them angry.
In the 2006 season of The West Wing, seasoned White House staffer Josh Lyman serves as campaign manager for the long-shot, minority candidate. When his candidate wins, Lyman is named Chief of Staff.
Two years laterRahm Emanuel, the real Josh Lyman,will become Barack Obama's Chief of Staff.Was it all a plot?
Don’t be ridiculous. It’s just an example of how we tend to act out the things we’ve seen in our mind.
Roy H. Williams
In my mind, preaching is helping people make the WORD become flesh. So how does creating fiction relate to preaching?
What i love about Roy's article is that a good preacher- like a good commercial- has the audience envisioning themselves in the story-passage-applications offered. Preachers lose and potentially insult their people by assuming that any application is separated from their real life.
Like a Lexus commercial running during Spongebob.
If you are preaching about compassion, let them see look of gratitude from the single mom you are handing a bag of food to. If you are encouraging people to pray, paint a specific enough picture that they can see themselves in the picture. Their world, their concerns, their obstacles. Don't just tell them to pray for their kids, let them feel your heart praying for your kids. Or better yet, let them feel God's heart for their kids.
Remember, too many generalities are like spraying teflon on their spirit.
Your creativity in creating a "fictional" example that rings true, will enable your listeners to turn fiction into reality.
West Wing did that w/ the Presidency, preachers can do that with Godliness.
and THAT is a tough sell...
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