Have A Blessed New Year...see Psalm 1

I have just turned 40 so even though it’s a biblical number, we are going to deviate from 40 to 52 and from days to weeks…that right, I want 2008 to be a day by day experience of delighting in the presence of God. It was on my 40th Birthday that God impressed this chapter on me and I carved out a prayer based on this chapter. I want to expand on that prayer as I challenge us all to a high calling for this new year!

I have a longing for this year for Southside to be a place of deep feeling, sound thinking and right actions. We are on the very cusp of the landswap materializing and a new community being born right around us. There are necessary changes coming and we need to be ready and what better place to get direction than Psalm 1. This chapter gives us godly counsel for us to prospers for all the right reasons.

Over the past years we have walked through many different 40 day challenges from the purpose driven life, to discovering our SHAPE, 40 days of community and last year we walked through 40 days of lent and celebration as we looked at the different feasts of Israel.

Blessed is the man

The word blessed...

That word blessed can be somewhat overused and bland in the English language. The Hebrew term is much more descriptive, especially with its plural ending. A workable translation would be, "Oh, the happiness, many times over ..."There are two verbs in Hebrew meaning "to bless." One is b rak and the other, ' shar. Psalm 1 uses ' shar. What's the difference you ask? B rak is always used of God or by God; it is something God does or is; it is an act of grace, bestowment. On the other hand, ' shar is always used of and for man; the man who is said to be ' shar has done something to deserve the word being applied to him; it is a congratulating, a place of favour because of a decision made.

who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked


In this chapter, the reader is presented with some clear cut guidance and you are either moving in the direction of the wicked or the direction of the blessed. We have two directions, two lifestyles, two destinies. The Psalmist is standing at the doorway and calling us to choose life, choose being rooted, choose blessing. Often we think of wicked as being someone who is really evil, but here in this passage the wicked are those who choose to rule out God in their everyday living. One is God centered and the other is self centered.

The clearest example of this in the OT is Abraham and Lot (Gen 13:12-13) Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. (13) Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.


Second, Samson thought he could handle a Philistine woman. Compromised values. The inherent risk and danger of dating a non believer

Who do you hold court with, whose words influence you to action. Who is it that you would call a close friend because as an old proverb says, ‘show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are.’ Now there are certainly people hopefully in your life that are acquaintances and those who you love to see come to the Lord. We are talking about a different person here. The environment which you choose affects you. Spend enough time in the company of a person that always cursing and you will find yourself more easily led to curse. Hang out with people who are always doubting their faith and you will too. It is the law of attraction.

or stand in the way of sinners


Do we realize that we are on the wrong path? What does it mean to stand in the way of sinners? Is it that realization that we live in such an affluent culture that a trip to a third world country is what it takes to wake us to the reality that we are all too easily led astray. It is the same path of temptation that our non Christians battle with and it is the want for more. How easily do we adopt our culture’s habits and outlooks?


or sit in the seat of mockers.

To sit in the seat of mockers…is translated dwelling place, to be at home. The shift here moves from the soul to action, from action to decision, from decision to habit and finally habit to stronghold


2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
To delight is about the emotions and the thoughts. There is a longing, a yearning to really know the way. It is that motivation that David would also speak of when He said in Psalm 37:4 when we truly delight in Him, He will give us the desires of our heart.
Psalm 132:4,5 I will allow no sleep to my eyes, no slumber to my eyelids,
5 till I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob
That is the kind of passion that keeps you awake until You’ve met with God. Pray with me for that fire in our eyes and in our hearts.
Joshua 1:7,8

Delighting involves both our mind and heart. If we neglect the mind we can drift into a wrong understanding of God. If we neglect the heart, then we just have dead orthodoxy. We need to delight with our whole being, mind, emotions and will.

and on his law he meditates day and night

The idea of day and night has also been seen by many as literal morning and evening dwelling on God’s Word but other theologians have picked up on another meaning and that is the understanding of meditating on the LORD…YAHWEH, the personal covenanting God in light and darkness. The day represents when life is good, when we can see what God is doing. The night speaks to the pain, the lack of understanding, the discouragement, the lack of enlightenment.
O, how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day.How sweet are thy words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (119:97, 103)


Mark 1:35Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. If it is good for Jesus, it is good for me.

Delighting in the law… it is exciting, pleasing and powerful… it is transforming


Meditating on His Word - the early church fathers used a word called ‘ruminate’ and

For the Jewish people, it was the idea of a clean animal in Leviticus which was chew and rechew its own cud. For us it is that need for 'mental chewing' on the words of Scripture so that it really is absorbed into our being.

Never reduce Christianity to a matter of following rules, demands, resolution and your own willpower. Following Jesus is about who we love, what we delight in and what tastes good to us. John 3:19 states it best that when Jesus,’ the light came into the world and men loved darkness rather than light.’ The righteous and the wicked are separated by what they delight in… the revelation of God or the way of the world. So, you say, well, Jack, I’m not feeling it. My answer is this…pray for new taste buds on the tongue of your heart and meditate on the staggering promises of God’ Word.
We don’t naturally do this…we often starve ourselves hungry and then we wonder what’s wrong…you have to pray for the hunger. The ability to delight in God’s wisdom is a supernatural thing and that is why we desperately need to pray for it.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
What is your root system like? We can’t see the roots of a beautiful tree. It is the hidden part of your life that makes you strong and beautiful.

George Müller lived from 1805 to 1898 and is famous for establishing numerous orphanages and relying on God for help in remarkable ways. Listen to his testimony about how and why to meditate on Scripture.
While I was staying at Nailsworth, I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man may be nourished.

What kind of fruit bearing tree do you know that has leaves that don’t wither…this is a very special kind of tree which takes us right back to the garden of Eden…. A place of perfection and real blessing.

The leaf does not wither… this person has joy because they have a vital relationship with God.


The Takeaway:

Three Things

1.There is a place where you can live where there is blessing
2. It comes with a cost, it won’t be easy. Growth in character and righteousness takes time.
3. The more you meditate on His Word, the more you delight in it and the more you delight in Him, the more you will meditate on Him

The goal of meditation is to know God better and to apply his word to our lives. This reaches well beyond just knowing facts about the Bible. It calls us to trust the God of the Bible.

Faith of A Child

I want to focus on what childlike faith look like as it represents our entrance into the kingdom. This passage teaches us the truth of childlike faith, humility and acceptance as we began life in the kingdom. It also represents the same attitude that we must embrace so that others may see the reality of kingdom life in us.

Jesus challenged any type of ‘doorkeeper’ mentality that kept people from coming to Him. He stripped away all the layers of man made rules and wanted people to discover Him with the wonder of a child. May we come today and experience the presence of Jesus with that kind of awe as we see Him through the eyes of a child.




MORPH…. to change and become like little children…


Let’s talk about children

They are unpredictable - You never know what they are going to say. They don’t have filters and embarrass us at times, but often they surprise you and we are captured by what they say….out of the mouth of babes right!

Is it time to do something unpredictable, something radical to recapture your faith?? Maybe it is time to draw outside the lines? Have you lost the gleam in your eyes, a faith that stand speechless in Jesus’ presence?



They are filled with wonder and love to play and dream- They can easily get lost in the moment of fresh discovery.

The critical issue facing the church is dullness. We cannot let ourselves fall into this slumber. The Good News has become okay news. Christianity is no longer life changing, it is life enhancing. God wants us to be ‘wide-eyed and mystified’ to steal a title from an album.

The greatest enemy to the faith states one writer maybe that we have Christians who are no longer astonished and amazed.

The story of Rylan’ faith…April 19th was a great day for me.

It was one of those days that I took Rylan to the rink for parent/ tot hockey and in the dressing room he started talking to me about when I get to be a grandpa, get grey hair and all that good stuff. Then the subject moved to dying and he was concerned about when I would die and so the conversation moved to heaven and how you get there. He then asked me, "So, when I go to the doctor, will he see Jesus in my heart?" He expressed last night that he wanted to ask Jesus into his heart. So, we prayed together and he continued praying thanking Jesus for dying for his sins. After I told him that he is not only my son, but God's son as well. He wanted me to know that he was Jesus' son too! He then yelled out "I am a Christian" from his loft bed so Jord, Bryn and Addi could hear what happened.


AW Tozer ‘the culture is putting out the light in men and women’s souls’


It is time to find the place where the wonder of faith can be experienced. Maybe it is a time to consider wild abandon, risky faith, quiet listening, happy terror! He came to rescue you from the flatness of your soul

It is that time of the year again where we are reminded of Mary, a young woman, a virgin betrothed to young guy in town by the name of Joseph. They had the respect of their community, I’m sure everybody thought ‘what a neat couple’ and plans were in the making for a great wedding…and then an angel shows up and turns a predictable engagement into a walking nightmare. Joseph has to embrace a pregnancy that is not his. As a couple they have to deal emotionally with the death of so many innocent babies because of their child. They have to flee the country, live in exile and such is the great adventure of faith!

Has God given you a crazy dream…pray for it to become a reality but prepared to commit to it as Lois so wonderfully put it to me last time, ‘stepping out in faith means you actually have to get out there and walk on a limb!

Maybe it is time to quit college or university and take a year off to go on the mission field. Maybe it is time to give up a secure job and go back to school. Maybe it is time to leave the corporation because the work is killing you!

Are your possessions possessing you?

What is the other option? The danger is that the voice will grow silent inside of you, the still small voice of God leading you, giving you dreams for His kingdom because the blaring noise crying out to you from work, from culture is so loud in your life telling you that the only thing that really matters is your work, how much you make and if you want fun, just wait for the weekend…


What about play?

Mike Yaconelli writes “play is an expression of God’s presence in the world; one clear sign of God’s absence in society in the absence of playfulness and laughter. Play is not an escape; it is the way to release the life-smothering grip of busyness, stress and anxiety.

What if we invited people over to our home and, instead of telling them about our joy, lived it by playing with them?

Come humble like a child v4


L’Arche community is where the majority of the members of the community are physically and mentally challenged.

The following is a blessing given to Henri Nouwen by his spiritual mentor. Henri served ten years at L’Arche in Toronto from ’86 –‘96 in seemingly oblivion. After all, prior to that he was a professor of theology at Harvard and Yale… However it was his writings on discovering God have captured many of us because of what he learned there at L’Arche. He wrote on solitude, community and ministry as the three avenues to create space for God to speak.


May all your expectations be frustrated, may all your plans be thwarted. May all of your desires be withered into nothingness, that you may experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God the Father, the Son and the Spirit.”

Children accept the fact that they are not in control, there is someone bigger that is running the show. They ask a lot of questions and often they speak more to the relationship than to the answer. They know that they are secure because someone cares for them.

Well adjusted children know that they don’t always get what they want, but they can sure be persistent! They don’t give up easily!

Being humble doesn’t mean being passive. It is actively pursuing the will of God, having the heart of a servant and doing it with grace no matter what position you have.

In Luke 21 we discover a widow who came every day to the temple to give her small offering in the face of enormous ridicule, people would look down on her and demean the size of her gift, but she had that type of humility and abandonment to offer what little she had and Jesus recognized it for what it was.

God hides Himself in difficulty, in the challenges, in the shadows, in the failure and disappointment as well as the light and great surprises, but He is always there…

Deborah and the images of people standing at the foot of her bed…He is waiting for us to discover Him, waiting for us to learn.

Humility also means that we are not afraid to ask for help. We admit that we don’t have all the answers. We don’t know how everything will turn out. Our strength is found in admitting our weaknesses and realizing that good Christians are not always strong. As adults we just become more and more hesistant to admit we are in trouble

Put the welcome mat out!! v5

God forgive us for any type of ‘doorkeeper’ mentality that holds us back from embracing all people from every kind of background and experience.

It is the type of attitude that says that my way of worshipping God or my approach to God is superior to yours or this is the formula for prayer

We need to learn how to pray like children, no clichés, just being real with God and praying exactly what it on your mind. They are honest, simple and direct

It is worrying more about our appearances than who we really are. It is that thought process of wondering what will people think of me if I really run into Jesus’ lap and I embrace His presence. It may be the same mentality that comes into your mind if you thought about raising your hands in worship. I don’t want to appear too different from everyone else.

That is exactly what is going through the minds of those trying to keep the children from Jesus. We need to have decency and order.


The Takeaway

Rediscover your faith in Jesus through the eyes of a child, the wonder, the humility and abandonment.

Questions For Discussion and Small Groups


What’s the difference between being childlike and childish?
I long for a life that explodes with meaning and is filled with wonder, risk and danger. Do you think life should be lived dangerously? What would a dangerous life look like for you?
Can you name one prominent dream stealer in your life? Did you realize that dream or lose it?
Childlike faith is a faith that longs for God and seeks Him wherever He may be-even in the place of no answers. How do you think you can meet God in “the place of no answers?

Questions are provided from Dangerous Wonder (available in our library)

1 minute of fame in NYC!!

Well, Sharon and I decided to celebrate my 40th / our 18th anniversary in NYC and we had an unbelievable time from seeing the bright lights, big city at Times Square to the decorated and packed Macy's! We also strolled in Central Park, watched the production STOMP and celebrated our anniversary at a Thai restaurant, the Holy Basil. We ate at Tom's Restaurant, the one seen in Seinfield and navigated the metro subway. However, the highlight of our trip came on our last day, December 11th '07 as we woke up at 4:15am to catch the subway from Queens to go to Columbus Ave and 66th to see Regis and Kelly Live. We waited there in the stand by line from 5:50am to 7:40am, enjoyed free hot chocolate and we were 7th and 8th in line. We also hit it off right away with #6, Carin from DC who we discovered to be a Christian as well. Check out her blog at http://wanderer.oozy.ws/ She retells the story much better than me...So, at 7:40am, they gave us our numbers and we grabbed brkfst at Starbucks. We were back in line at 8:30am and then at 8:45am, they would eventually take in 12 of us and we got front row seats in the corner on the left side. I took my coat off, get settled and a producer came up to us and asked us if we wanted to dance and we said SURE!!! So, after 10 minutes of practice, we were on to do our thing... The icing on the cake was that this was their Christmas gift week so everyone in the studio audience received $500- gift cards...are you kidding me!!! What a blast, God is good, real good to this crazy pastor and his amazing wife who got another few, "you look like Cameron Diaz" in line to make her day! :) Here is the link to the video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arVbEaO4Rdk

Doing The Impossible...

I have been thinking a lot about that word this week. You put together a inter-faith symposium on religion and global peace that places a rabbi, a religious cleric from Islam and an ordained minister together to talk about what we share together and that would be impossible in many parts of the world. Well, I was there and it happened on Wednesday night at Milton Sports Center. I t was put on by a branch of Sunni Muslims, Ahmadiyya, who proclaim love for all and hatred for none quite different than Shite muslims who are very violent. We talked about understanding each other as well and visiting each other’s places of worship.

There has been a real concerted effort to bring Muslims and Christians together to dialogue about what we agree about. This movement now has a website where you can sign on http://www.acommonword.com/. It is an open letter to Christians signed by 138 Muslim leaders calling for peaceful coexistence and 300 leading Evangelicals leaders have responded with an affirmation towards this end with the acknowledgement of loving God and loving neighbour. I have to agree with Glenn Penner that there is something even more important than peace and that is truth and we need to realize that anything that does not proclaim Jesus as Lord is a counterfeit. We need to focus on opportunities just not just to keep the peace, but share about Jesus! Check out his writings at persecutedchurch.blogspot.com

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6


The ability to please God without faith

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Hebrews 11:6

I love how the KJV captures the pursuit as it uses the word diligence. It is persistent application of doing things God’s way and He keeps asking me not to do what comes naturally, but supernaturally. You want to keep getting what you always got then do things the way you’ve always done them.

However, if you are ready to walk across the threshold to living your life by faith, be prepared to have your eyes opened wide.

Remember this that you won’t change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of changing. As Sharon shared last week about being stuck… are you there? Are you ready to move forward? God wants you to change, He wants you to please Him, but you can’t do it in your own strength. You need supernatural empowerment from on high. Pray that the HS would reignite your faith, recapture your heart.

How far are you willing to go to earnestly seek him. There was one such man who wanted God’s blessing on His life so desperately he stayed up all night and wrestled with the Lord until the Lord touched him in such a way that he became completely dependent on him for His every move. In Genesis 22, his name, Jacob was changed to Israel, from a deceiver to one who met God face to face, one who wrestled with God and experienced the fullness of His presence. Make no mistake about it that it came at a price.

In Genesis 32:25, the man that He wrestled with was no ordinary man, but a heavenly wrestler of God and He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so what is the significance of that? No longer could Jacob wrestle, now He was forced to cling to God, to lean his entire weight on Him! Jacob was brought to the end of his own resources

He was physically left limping with the constant reminder to not do things in His own strength. How has God touched you to make you realize that you can’t do it, you can’t live the Christian life. It is only as we desperately come to God, cry out to Him and say walk me through this journey. I don’t have the strength, I don’t have the resilience. Walking in faith says God says I need you to live your life through me…that is faith, believing that in faith God is going to direct your steps, that He is going to reveal the answer as we pray, as we close ourselves into Him!

Without faith, without His blessing, you can’t please God, it is a futile attempt.


The Multiplication of God’s Kingdom Matthew 13:18,19

It cannot be tracked!

Then Jesus asked, "What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches."

Faith is something that grows, it does not remain stagnant. It starts as a mustard seed, but faith multiplied is like a mustard seed which grows into a tree. We are to be rooted in faith in such a way that others can rest on the faith, the evidence of and the strength that lies within its branches. It is a movement done in such a way that it grows beyond itself.

There has been a lot of caution out there going against a recent book being made into a movie called ‘The Golden Compass’ and rightly so, we need to be aware of this. Apparently the author aim is to destroy faith in our children being a self proclaimed atheist. It has certainly gotten a lot of airplay on talk radio and the warnings are out there. There are some catholic school boards that have removed the book from their school libraries. The Christian church is best when we are on the offence not the defence.

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18

Maybe its hard to get the image of a mustard tree in your head so I’ll give you one we can all relate to. Let’s talk about dandelions, now that is a movement. Do you have any idea how much money is spent on trying to eradicate them?? OK, I don’t know, but rest assured it’s a ton! They are a seed producing, manufacturing system. They are so committed to reproduction that they only stay beautiful for a couple of weeks. We need to be a dandelion church and give ourselves away. Church growth told us to look good and be good, but God wants us to give our faith away, start new small groups (house churches), give our stuff to others, share our faith stories, get the message out there. There is more to pursue in life that just not being disturbed by our neighbors!

We need to be a movement of faith and telling our own ‘golden stories of faith’ that point to the True North Star and when He shows up and does the impossible.

The things you do in faith. Matthew 17:20

He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20

One writer put it this way: “The prayer of faith is a definite request made in definite faith for a definite answer.” Faith is believing God will show up, God will make a way because you know you can’t!

Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen.
J Oswald Saunders

The Takeaway:

We serve the God of the impossible, but we can’t go there unless we step out in faith and believe.

Questions For Discussion and Small Groups:

1. How can your faith be increased to believe God for the impossible?

2. Glenn Penner from http://www.persecution.net/ shares, “the Quranic verse (Aal 'Imran 3:64) that served as the inspiration for the Muslim leaders in their open letter entitled "A Common Word Between Us and You" in http://www.acommonword.com/ is not a call to come together and live in peace despite our differences. The call of the passage in its context (Aal 'Imran 3:64-71) is a call for Christians and Jews to give up the lies of their faith and submit to Islam. It is not a call to find

common ground; it is a call to surrender!

Do we truly have common ground with Judaism and Islam? Should we be cautious of this movement? Why?

3. “The prayer of faith is a definite request made in definite faith for a definite answer. What definite prayer requests are you making to God?