An Exersize in Grace

Today I am in downtown Pittsburgh, PA. The heart of french fries (they eat them on their salads here...)– hot wing – pretzels – sub shops – doughnuts – bagels – coffee … you name it. It’s downtown USA… oh so tempting. There are soooo many tall high rise – steel (of course, remember that they named their football team all about that steel stuff) buildings. Each building is loaded with people, tons of people working all day long and needing french fries – hot wing – pretzels – sub shops – doughnuts – bagels - coffee… you name it.

Did I join them this morning? You betcha. Bruegger’s bagels is in the middle of the town square, great coffee and bagels and good spot to sit and read my book, The Equipping Church by Sue Mallory. It’s about serving together to transform lives. Awesome read.

Afterwards, I hit the exercise room at the Hilton where I’m staying. It has a bunch of treadmills. So today I ran for 30+ minutes with my good friend Perry Noble of NewSpring Church. All I could do is just listen and hear God talking to me thru Perry. It was awesome. I couldn’t get a word in edgewise, my heart rate was up around 155 beats per minute according to the monitor and Perry was talking 200, 250, 300 wpm so I just shut up and listened. He was talking about losing your salvation. Can you? Well… he kept talked about it for 54 minutes.

Did you realize that as a believer, sin is knowing Jesus and denying Him? Huh? Did you know that? Huh? I did… but I guess I never really looked at it that way. Peter denied Jesus, even though he followed Him, loved Him, believed in Him, prayed to Him… he denied Him. Jesus knew beforehand that he would. Read it again, Jesus knew beforehand that he would deny Him and yet He still loved Peter and forgave him and NEVER took away his salvation.

Wow. That’s Grace.

Perry asked me if I ever did the same thing, you know… deny Jesus like Peter did. And I’m like dude, no way, deny Jesus, you gotta be a fool to do that AND have a death wish on yourself. Really? He said. Don’t people deny Him every day when they look at others in a lust full way, or when they have a couple of drinks, or gossip about others or not help people in need? After all Jesus said we need to be like Him and I don’t remember reading where He did any of these things. My heart rate was now hitting the 175 mark… I was being smacked in the face with a hand held mirror. “Denier denier you’re a denier, nah nah nah nah nah.”

Grace baby, grace. God’s grace. God’s love. He knows every thing about you,even that you will deny Him BEFORE you will do it. The Apostle Paul (and he was a huge mess) says in Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Did you get that? No condemnation as a believer. And No condemnation means no loss of salvation.

Wow. That’s Grace.

Oh yea, you too can exercise with Perry, or Rob, or Andy Stanley, or John Piper,or Jud Wilhite or Bill Hybels or any one you wish… just like I do… on my MP3 player. They are all available for free download via podcasts with iTunes. This way they can become you’re good friends too.

Wow. That’s Grace.

Man-Up : An Epic size story

It's 6:15 AM. Yes in the early morning. God has rotated His earth, and we fall out of bed to a half lit sky. Morning rays just awakening, dew on the cool early grass.

Coffee is brewing, the Krispy Kreme folks were up all night. God does not sleep. He stands guardian watch over us as we rest. (thank you).

This morning, the men of Southbrook poured into the video cafe' to catch a glimpse of His glory.



















We were treated to a video by John Eldridge (Wild at Heart). The video is called Epic, same title as his new book, "A retelling of the gospel in four acts, John Eldredge invites us to revisit the drama of life, viewing God not only as the author but also as the lead actor, exploring His motives and His heart. Eldredge examines the power of story, the universal longing for a "plot" that makes sense deep inside us, our desire for a meaningful role to play, our love of books and movies, and how all of this points us to the gospel itself."

Awesome stuff. Great table talk, great men. Thanks to Alan Abbott for leading this!

Southbrook-Monroe Update

Hi Gang,

Jay here with a Saturday photo update on the Southbrook-Monroe construction.

We have awesome volunteers!!!

Come join them!!! Yes you!!!

But... But.... "But I don't know what I would be able to do, I'd just be in the way."

It doesn't matter if you have any construction experience...
or not!!

You CAN help.

And it's NEEDED!!

Attend Southbrook-Monroe this weekend

Hi everyone;

Pastor Rob would like to invite all of you and your families to attend church this weekend at the Southbrook-Monroe campus, 10am service.

Pastor Rob will be the live speaker this weekend there.

I would love to see well over 300 folks and their children there. Yes we can fit all of you. There is plenty of children's classes and care available so you can sit and listen to God's Word.

Here are the directions from Southbrook-Central (Click here)

It's very close to our Southbrook-Monroe campus. It's in the finishing stages so you might want to stop by there after and peek into the windows.

Thanks and we look forward to seeing you and your families there.

Relations –vs- Relationships

Last Monday morning at 6:15am our regular “Man-Up” men’s group met as they do every week. What started out as a challenge from Pastor Rob to get together once a month has grown into a once a week gathering of men to build our relationships in Christ and with each other. We started as a table of 8, each one of us has kept inviting others and this Monday we were 18. Can you believe that? 18 men getting up earlier than normal on a work day to meet for coffee and Christ. It’s awesome.

Now I’m not going to say who our group leader is because it would go to his head. His initials are ... Pastor Paul…

This week he was talking about 1John. In chapter 4, The Apostle John is teaching about God’s love for us. “4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows God. 4:8 The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Then in 4:11 “Dear friends, if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another.”

What is God’s love? I’m not talking 1Corintians 13… “Love is…” I’m talking about Forgiveness, Grace, Favor, Kindness, Compassion, Accepted, Generous, Helpful, Obedient, and most of all Unconditional.

This is the love from God.

Are we (you and me) loving one another in the same way. Think about it. Or is there, are the people in your life that you are UnForgiving, UnGraceful, Un-Favored, UnKind, UnCompassionate, UnAccepting , UnGenerous, UnHelpful, Non-Obedient to and worst of all loving Conditionaly???

If so, 1John 4 continues with this, 4:20 ” If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

Ouch. That hurt.

Bob Lenz, Youth Pastor, Speaker, Author say in his new book “Grace - For Those Who Think They Don't Measure Up” “People are hurting, and they need hope. They need someone to tell them they are loved, accepted, and forgiven, no matter what they’ve done, no matter what kind of family they come from.”

I have a lot of relations in my life. Folks I’ve met here and there. Some I barely know and some I know really well. Probably thousands upon thousands over my first 55 years so far. What’s the difference between them? Most of them are a relation that has occurred. I’ve met them, said hey, shook hands, we’ve chatted maybe even sat next to each other in church. But really, for some reason have never taken the time to build a relationship with them, really gotten to know them, who they are, their kids, their likes, dislikes, their passions, their dreams, listened to their prayers. Maybe because I applied one of the UNwords to them? Have you ever done that with someone? We are withholding our love from them.

I’ll leave you with the end of 1John 4, “4:21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

UnConditionally.

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