Friday! I love Friday, even better than Saturday. I especially love this Friday because… *whispering* I made it a whole week getting up early to walk/run. Last Friday, I bought some really cool exercise shirts and shorts… I’m obligated. Plus… I’m really tired of these extra 15 pounds. But I did it, and I lived. BTW, when you run until you think you’re going to die and then have to walk… that’s called ‘interval training’, not ‘wimping out’. However, in the ‘lack of positive reinforcement’ department, the scales haven’t moved. Jon tells me to be patient. I am not. Here’s what else is going on…

What am I writing? Not a living thing this week. I didn’t even plot or plan. Instead, I worked on VBS. It’s next week and I needed to get a handle on it. NEXT week, however, I hope to get started on a new draft. Claire’s book. I also plan to get the newsletter out next week- just a little late. (When I have a staff, this will never happen again, I’m sure.)

What have I learned? This week was ‘computer maintenance week’, electronic housekeeping- almost as much fun as the real stuff. This means next week, I won’t be able to find any files on my computer. I downloaded some audio file editing software from AVS4YOU. It was easy and intuitive. I also downloaded a ringtone maker, but haven’t had a chance to use it yet.

What am I reading? Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic by Anne Jackson. In this book, she is bold enough to shine a light on a reality most folks would prefer to ignore. The $64000 question, “Does working at this church interfere with your communion with Christ?” For whatever reasons, doing the ‘work’ of the church is sucking the life out of the workers. I admit I’ve been there, and not too long ago. Yes, I’ve tried to come down with the stomach flu between 8:30 and 9 a.m. on Sunday morning. Her discussion doesn’t pull any punches, but it’s not an exercise in church-bashing or staff-bashing. She’s quick to point out how we contribute to our own burnout when we lose focus on God whom we are to love with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. Her advice is simple, but not easy and may take a complete realignment in our thinking about how we ‘do’ ministry.

Two things struck me as I read. For a body who claims to depend on Christ’s strength, we are shamefully intolerant of frailties in our brother and sisters. Why would an unbelieving world want to bring their burdens to the foot of the cross when they see how we respond to each other. Perfection is not achieved in this life, period. We can’t expect in ourselves or demand it from others. Which brings me to the second point. Instead of transforming the culture, we have adapted the success-driven model around us, and have fallen into competitive comparison of our ministries. I think we genuinely want to see people transformed by the gospel, but the plan is God’s not ours. It is a very telling thing that minutes before His arrest, Jesus Christ prayed for our unity (John 17:21), not our protection, not our growth, not our success, but our unity.

Oh yeah, I’m also reading In the Wake of the Plague by Norman Cantor. My sister understands

In fact, she got it for me.

What has God taught me? Stay focused… because He gave His life, because He makes me whole, because He strengthens me (because I need it!), because He deserves my total devotion, because my purpose on this earth is give Him my whole being as a living sacrifice.

Last night while I skimmed over my Facebook updates, there was a little note about one of my nephews being tagged in a photo album called ‘our wedding’. For an instant, my brain jumped to ‘He got married?!’, especially since this particular nephew is notorious for being less than forthcoming with the details of his life. Of course, it wasn’t him… just a friend. Whew! But it made me think back to when his older brother got married. Alan was just shy of his 5th birthday, and the wedding reception was the biggest, best party he had ever been to. He loved the music, and danced with complete abandon. Five year old boys do just about everything with complete abandon. Of course it’s all on video, and you can hear Alan say, “Watch me, Dad!” I love that. He didn’t care what anyone around him was doing. He didn’t care if he was doing all the ‘right’ steps. His dad was there watching, and that was all that mattered.

I’ve been thinking about worship these last few days, and Alan taught me a lesson that evening that I still need to grasp completely. God wants me to enjoy His presence with that same joyful abandon. Just like Jon brought us to the wedding reception for the purpose of celebrating, God will bring me aside with Him to celebrate. (Isn’t that what worship is? Not all formal, stiff and lifeless.) I’m usually much more like the other Wiseman men at the reception, off to the side, hands in my pockets, missing the opportunity. I’m way too self-conscious, way too concerned with how things might look to everyone else. But if my Dad is watching and smiling, what else really matters?

The wedding reception only lasted a few hours, and in the same way, eventually I have to get back to the work that God gave me. There’s a day coming, though, when the wedding reception never ends, and I’ll be there, not just with my Dad, but with the Bridegroom Himself.

Most of us concede that if we really have to remember something, we write it down. Important information seems to come at us in lists. If you watch, Scripture is no different. Some of the lists you’re already familiar with- Ten Commandments, Fruit of the Spirit and so forth. Sometimes though, the lists are a little more subtle.

They can take the form of instructions, like in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 “Go… teach… baptize… teach.”

They can be attributes, as in 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

It might be an action plan. “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord and to do it and to teach the statutes and ordinances in Israel.” (Ezra 7:10) Yesterday we discussed being prepared for worship, and today, we’re prepared to work. Here’s our mission. We find out what God says, we do it, and we tell others. Why would we want to make it more complicated than that?

One of my favorite lists is in Ephesians 1:3-6. Check out the blessings in those few verses! “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

1. Every spiritual blessing (We could actually stop there. The rest of it explains some of what that entails.)

2. Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world

3. Holy & blameless before Him in love

4. Adopted as His children

5. Accepted by His grace, according to His will.

Now we could dicker about exactly how many things should or could be on the list… ‘Holy” and ‘blameless’ could be two separate items, but no matter how you cut it, that’s a pretty fantastic list. There’s another in Romans 5:1-11. Check out all that ‘we’ have, what ‘we’ were and what ‘we’ are now.

Noticing and even writing down the lists that are in Scripture cause us to slow down and consider the truth for an extra moment or two. I number them in the text or write them in the margin. Watch for lists in Scripture, and spend some time with them, at least as much time as the grocery list or that to-do list. After all, these will last much longer.

Today is the absolute last post on 2 Chronicles… at least until I come back around to it again. Chapter 35 describes the Passover that Josiah led the people to observe, and the account says in v. 18 that ‘There had been no Passover kept in Israel like that since the days of Samuel the prophet…’ For 400 years, the worship of God had not been what it was during those days. What made the difference? Thursday, we discussed the importance of having a leader who is following God with his whole heart and soul. I think there is another significant factor. Preparation. Seven times in that chapter, there is mention of preparation for worship.

I admit, I’m rarely ever properly prepared for a worship service. With children at home, I’m thankful just to get to church in one piece. But those times when I do have the opportunity to transition my heart and mind from the mundane things to the wonder and awe of God’s presence, something special happens. My preference would be to have some quiet time alone, then a good long music service before hearing the Word taught.

In some ways, that desire reminds me of Apollo 13. (Not the ‘Houston we have a problem” part- although some days I could make a case for that.) In order to conserve power, they had shut down almost every system in the craft. As the astronauts were getting closer to home, Jim Lovell was instructed to burn off some of the fuel. Without the computers, they risked veering off course from the thrust of the fuel burn. In order to stay on the proper heading, Lovell instructed the other two astronauts to keep the earth in the window. As long as they did that, they would stay on course. In other words, use that frame of reference beyond us, outside our situation. Stay centered on that no matter what happens around you. When my worship falls flat, that focus is what I’ve lost.

What am I writing? I finished the draft of Contingency and submitted the summary and first chapter to a contest. The prize is having an agent look at it. I’d be happy with some positive feedback. I’ve also begun working with Amanda on plotting the next book. I’m not going to start the actual writing until next month at the earliest.

What have I learned? No online geek stuff, but I’m learning MediaShout. Our computer master at church upgraded us, so if I have hopes of getting VBS on the big screen, I need to get a handle on the software. So far it’s fairly intuitive, but I’ll be building my cues this week.

What am I reading? Captured by Grace by David Jeremiah. He intertwines the story of John Newton and his tremendous hymn with Paul’s life and writings especially from Romans. He covers what grace means for us past, present and future. I think we have a decent grasp of grace’s role in our salvation, and how it results in our eternal life, but we’re less clear on what it means for us to walk in grace each day. I never cease to be impressed/amused by Dr. Jeremiah’s knack for alliteration. His chapter titles- The Captivating Presence of Grace, The Converting Power of Grace, The Comforting Provision… The Confident Promise… The Continual Praise… and five more! The book fits well with Max Lucado’s In the Grip of Grace. Both of these make me want to go back and read The Grace Awakening by Chuck Swindoll.That may be my favorite book.

On a side note- we got a pool pass this year, so I envisioned reading by the pool for an hour or two a day… Thanks to a mild, wet summer, it ain’t happened. So like the addict I am, for every book I’ve read, I’ve bought 2 or 3 more and have made NO headway on my stack. Oh well, maybe next week.

What has God taught me? In 2 Chronicles 29:11 Hezekiah encourages the priests and Levites “…do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him…” The Lord has chosen me… me… chosen by God. Okay, this was not new information, but a refresher never hurts. God doesn’t just save us because it’s a nice thing to do. He saves us for a purpose, for some kingdom work of eternal significance. Nothing I do (for Him) is wasted, no matter how small it may seem to me. God says to me, “Now, do not be negligent… Don’t sit on this grace, on this calling. Fulfill all that I have for you.”