paulurban.blogs.com

Basketball season

 Basketball season started yesterday.  Spencer helped lead Mona Shores middle school to a 33-28 victory over Holland Christian.  He had 7 points and played great!  Plus, it's doubly fun because I grew up going to Holland public schools and I always enjoy when Holland Christian gets beat.  He was excited about playing and helping lead the team in scoring honors.

sunshine, weekends, a big fish, and a cold morning.

Had a great weekend.  Great weather, lots of yard work done, a visit from family.  Loved, loved, loved all the sunshine and warm weather, although Sunday morning was cold.  Especially when I went to church at 7:45 am, rolled down my passenger side window to clear off the condensation, and then the motor quit and the window wouldn't roll up!  I rode to church FREEZING!  At least it wasn't raining.

Had a great day at The Journey today.  I like the new black wall behind the stage, and the band did a great job.  We showed a stupid video, and by that, I mean stupid.  Maybe the dumbest we've ever done.  I enjoyed speaking today.  It's a difficult message because there's just so much there to talk about and so little time to do it.  Hopefully it connected okay.  I do think the larger issue when it comes to the stories of the Bible, is what do we believe about God and who He is.  We tackled some of the fairy-tale stories of the Bible and focused on Jonah and a big fish.

Lots to do this week, and just as big of a topic come Sunday.

By the way, for those who are looking for it - The Bible was written over 1600 years, 40 different authors, 3 different continents, 3 different languages.  Copyists were meticulous.  They would throw away any scroll where there were mistakes or it didn't match up with the original.  There's over 6,000 manuscripts of the New Testament with the earliest being within 150 years of the original.  That's compared to 643 manuscripts of the Illiad by Homer with the earliest being within 500 years of the original.  If you'd like more information you can check out Lee Strobel's book The Case for Faith and The Case for Christ.  Lee is a former atheist and investigative journalist.  

Where does your "extra" money go?

Matt talked about money this last week at The Journey.  It's a tough subject, and it's tough because we all love money (usually a lot more than we should), and we never feel like we have enough.  But, the truth is, everyone has "extra" money that they spend.  Some people spend it on large screen tv's, some on extended, super-duper cable, some on eating out, some on coffee every day, some on their house, or vacations, or buying expensive toys.

Jen and I don't have expanded cable, we don't go out to eat a lot, we don't drive super-sweet new rides, or have some $150 a month cell phone plan, BUT, what we do with our "extra" money has always been to use it in two areas.  We want to be generous and give some away, and we love to travel.  So, we have a family goal of giving away over a 1/4 of our income (we're not there yet), and we always save any extra money to travel - just the two of us, and as a family.  In the past, we've taken our trips to Florida, and the Bahamas, and our 15th Anniversary to Italy.  We're getting ready for a family vacation coming up soon, and we're excited.

Here's the exciting part for us - we've always had all the money we needed for the trip "up front".  We've never had to put any of our vacations on credit.  We've never had to "borrow" from other funds to pay for the cost of a trip.  That brings great peace of mind, and helps us to really enjoy when we travel.  We budget out our trip (including budgeting to the high end of what we think we'll spend) and then we raise that much money before we go.  Simple, yet effective.  It means we have to wait longer than we would like, but delayed gratification can be a very good thing.  It took us 3 years to save for Italy.  2 1/2 for our next trip.  But, we love the memories they create.

Where does your "extra" money go?  The first thing you may need to do, is figure that out - because if you don't think you have "extra" money, or you don't know where it goes - that's a problem.  And, my guess is, you'll never be able to be as generous as you really want to.

Hi, my name is Paul, and I'm selfish.

That's the truth.  I think there's probably some of that in each of us.  We want what we want.  We get frustrated when things don't go our way.  We get irritated when we have to change our schedule or our plans for someone else.  We even hear people say "I've got to look after myself, because if I don't, no one else will".

Yet, flying in the face of this innate selfishness is my life with Jesus.  My life connected to Him calls me to be unselfish, to put others first, to look for ways to serve, and even give my money away.  That's not easy.  There are lots of times I don't want to do that, and lots of times that I don't.  Even when I do, I have moments of frustration "how come no one else served, or put that person first, or gave their money away.  That can also lead to pride.

That selfish part of me will always be with me, like some unwanted mark on my body, I presume.  But, the more that I walk with Jesus, the less dominant it's becoming.  Don't be fooled, it's still pretty prevalent.  But, not as much as it used to be.  And, isn't that the point of this journey with God.  It's a journey, it's a process, and we're simply taking steps in the right direction.

What in your life is getting better than it used to be, the longer you walk in relationship with Jesus?

the least of these

Jesus said that whatever we do to the least of these, it's like we do it to Him. 

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for those who are helpless and broken.  It's why I served in the inner city of North St. Louis, it's one of the reasons we got connected to House of Hope Home in Kenya, Africa, it's why Jen and I have supported Compassion children for the last 20 years. .

But, for whatever reason, we haven't ever felt called to adopt an orphan.  I hope (and think) we'd be willing, if God asked us to, but so far . . .

I wanted to let you know about something coming up if you've ever thought about adoption or how you might reach into the world and rescue one of the 143 million orphans around the world, or even one of the 6,000 in Michigan.  One of the verses that spurred our thoughts about our need to respond to the HIV/Aids and orphan crisis in Africa was this one from James 1:27. 

If you're interested in the possibility of adoption, or want to simply hear more about the plight of orphans in the world, there is a free event being held this Sunday night, Nov. 8, at Forest Park Covenant Church.  The event, called "Hear God's Call to Care for the Orphan" is a simulcast event and will last from 5-7 pm.  For directions or more information, click on the link here to Forest Park.   

Recession?

Matt talked about generosity yesterday.  I thought he did a great job.  One of the things that Matt said is that generosity is not born out abundance.  Lest you think I'm taking a shot at Journeyers, there's lots of other people that read this blog.

But, here's something I don't get - I don't get people who claim to be Jesus-followers (some who are long-time Jesus followers) but are not generous, and who don't bring back to God what was His in the first place.  I know people will say - "well, I give my time."  "I give my talent, because I don't have a lot of money".  But, like Matt said - money is close to our heart and where our heart is, that's where our treaure is. 

What I'm also amazed by, is the number of people who are not yet followers, or are new followers, and give faithfully.  That blows me away, and it so honors God. 

Here's the ironic thing - if you were to look at the two groups from the outside, you'd think the first group was the more spiritually mature.  But, spiritually maturity is all about having a heart for God and the things He cares about, and our money, and our generosity are certainly close to the heart of God.

When we live generous lives, by the way, we're recession proof; because we're on God's side - we're trusting Him to be our provider, we're living life His way.  And, I've learned through the years, that you can't outgive God.  So, are you recession proof?

Story Conference

Matt and I were in Chicago all day yesterday for a conference called "Story".  We were there with all the other Christian conference celebrities:  Ben Arment, Tim Stevens, Tony Morgan, Carlos Whitakker, Todd Rhodes, etc. (not that most of you would know them), but I thought that it's funny how small the Christian ministry world is.

Anyway - it was an interesting and helpful conference.  I believe it reignited some creativity in both Matt and I, and gave us a lot to think about in regards to how to tell, share, live the story of the Bible.  It was a long day though.  8:30-5:30 conference, lose an hour, get lost for 40 minutes, and get home about 11:45 pm.  Good day, but I'm not going to sit for the first 8 hours of the day, today.

Mile markers

Well, my baby blue, my grandma car reached a milestone on Sunday after church.  See the evidence below.

 
 Ride on big blue, ride on!!
 

the more the better?

Chip & Dan Heath, co-authors of a GREAT business book called Made to Stick, made a very relevant and brilliant observation, that Tim Stevens was talking about on his blog:

The more choices you have, the less participation you have.

That runs counter-intuitive, doesn't it?  You would think that the more choices the more participation, but it actually works exactly the opposite.  The more choices people have, the more difficult it is for them to make a decision, and the more apt they are to walk away making no decision.

In the context of the church, it's often more difficult for people to participate when they have to choose between 40 different programs, versus knowing that what we do are Journey Groups, Sunday gatherings, and serving in our community.  They know their options, they know the next steps, and they can step into participating. 

What are your thoughts?  

When?

When does the "honeymoon" wear off?

When does a newleywed just become "wed"?

When does that new couch that you love so much, just become the sofa?

When does a church plant become an established church?

When does a new Christian become an old Christian?

When does creativity become "the way we've always done it"?

When does learning about Jesus go from being a passion to a chore?

When do you realize that you're there, and it's horrible, and you dream of the days when it was new and fresh?  And, how do you change that?  OR, how do you keep yourself from getting there?

What in your life, used to be new and exciting and fresh and challenging, but has gotten old and stale?  When did it happen?  Or are you still holding it off?