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Why We Lost…or Did We?
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken We lost. 5-4. A crushing loss after an unbroken string of losses dating back to Roe vs. Wade in 1973. This most recent loss, same sex marriage, happened a long time ago, not on June, 26, 2015. That loss happened when we decided to trade in God’s weakness for our power and chose to trust political process instead of spiritual resources… Don’t get me wrong. As citizens of the United States of America we should use every means our constitution gives us to advance our cause, but we cannot depend on our rights to make our nation right. Surely we know that when…
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Transforming the Heart
Leadership is Broken Because Leaders are Unbroken Nearly three hundred years ago, Jonathan Edwards wrote on of the greatest Christian classics of all time entitled, Religious Affections. By “Affections” Edwards meant the deepest desires and drives of the heart. For Edwards, this is what our faith is about, and, while he doesn’t need me to confirm him, I believe he is absolutely right. I also believe his perspective is missing in today’s thinking. Edwards said, “. . . no one is ever changed, either by doctrine. . . or by preaching or teaching of another, unless the affections are moved by these things. . . . there is…
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Live the Jesus Lifestyle – Make Disciples
Leadership is Broken Because Leaders Are Unbroken The most disobeyed directive Jesus ever gave is the last directive Jesus ever gave: make disciples. Nothing could be plainer than Jesus’ final marching orders: make disciples! That’s what He said, that’s what He meant. Yet all over the world we find pastors, churches, deacons, elders and church members who are radically disobedient. Some are ignorant, others are willful, but many are disobedient nonetheless. Pastors give in to tradition and the demands of their people and choose to disobey Jesus’ final command. Many seem to think that ministry is about making them successful or keeping their job secure, which they confuse—often unconsciously and…
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Garissa
5:00 AM, April 2, 2015, Garissa University College, Garissa, Kenya. For sleepy heads it’s time to roll over and get a few more hours of sleep. For all nighters it’s time to grab another cup of coffee and push a little harder. For serious students it’s time to get up and review for today’s exam. For party types it’s time to find a bed somewhere and sleep it off once again. For committed Christians it’s time to gather for prayer. For al-Shabaab it’s time to kill. For Josephine, student leader of the Cru movement on campus, it’s time to die… The Christians gathered at the appointed time, 5:00 AM, under…
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Easter’s Unanswered Question
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Sunday morning dawn. In many ways the first dawn. Three grieving women on their way to a rich man’s tomb, though a poor man lay in it. They came to pay their final respects on the first Easter Sunday to that poor man, but a huge stone lay at the mouth of the tomb placed there by Roman soldiers. Who would move it for them? Yet it was already moved when they arrived. A young man dressed in white told them Jesus wasn’t there. But where was He? They didn’t get it. Do you? Oh, you get the part where Jesus is raised…
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Not Your Grandmother’s Lumbago
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken With friends like us the cross hardly needs enemies, although it has many. Think of how we distort the cross. Many of us probably heard our grandmothers say, “My lumbago is killing me. It’s my cross. I must bear it.” Right then, before we knew what the cross was, we knew we didn’t want one if it made us feel the way Grandma felt. Or it’s presented to us as some horrible struggle we must endure because we follow Jesus. Now it’s true that the cross can mean rejection and persecution for the cause of Christ, but there’s more to it than that……
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Wall Breakers Anonymous
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken Sooner or later all of us hit the wall of inadequacy. There are no exceptions, no escape. There’s only denial, cover up, and futile efforts to break through, get over, get around, or dig under this utterly unexpected roadblock in life. The problem is everything we’ve done before doesn’t work. The barrier may be a career killer or a family struggle or a relationship block, but whatever it is, it matters to us, and we want it to end NOW!But nothing we do makes any difference because this unexpected and unwanted hindrance remains. We try all our tried and true methods, but they…
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You Can’t Come in at the Door
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken So High You Can’t Get Over It, So Wide You Can’t Get Around It, So Low You Can’t Get Under It—But You CAN’T Go in at the Door When I was a boy I used to go to a Good News Club in my neighborhood. A Good News Club is a weekly gathering for children in which they sing some memorable songs, do some fun things, hear a fascinating Bible story, and meet some wonderful caring adults. One song we sang goes like this: So high you can’t get over it, so wide you can’t get around it, so…
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A Worth it Heart
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken So what is a worth it heart? What is a heart that gives rise to worth it days that result in worth it years and produce a worth it life? A worth it heart is a heart that has learned to navigate the wall of inadequacy. The wall of inadequacy is that place in life to which Jesus brings all of us to teach us the most foundational principle of life and leadership:You must do what you cannot do with what you do not have for the rest of your lives. Jesus did that with His men when He commanded them to, “Go…
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2015: A Worth it Year – From Now to Forever
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken They say time stands still, and it certainly feels that way at times. The weeks become months, the months become years, the seasons become memories, and we are deceived into thinking time has been standing still. That is until we take a long look into the mirror or run into an old friend who doesn’t recognize us. That’s when we realize time doesn’t stand still. Then we ask, “Where has the time gone?” When I think about my life, that’s the question I ask. Lynna and I announced our engagement on New Year’s Eve 1964, fifty years ago! Kent and Joel are…