Why We Do This.

An anonymous note was dropped in the offering this week at Connection Church.  It's a great reminder as to why we do what we do.  It reads...  

"The past few weeks I had events, plans and visitors and I was unable to attend church.  For the first time in my life, I can say I missed attending church.  I absolutely love our church and all the people who attend it! Thank you for all you've done and will continue to do! Thank you for helping me find and love Jesus again!"

WOW!  Humbled and thankful that we can be used like this.

Are You Tempting Jesus?

So, I was reading in Luke the other day about the temptation of Jesus. As I was reading this thought struck me. Is it possible that we tempt Jesus in the same way that Satan tempted him?

Satan first tempted Jesus by saying, "if you are the son of God, turn these stones into bread." Ever heard yourself say something like this..."If you are truly God, then bless me with money, take away my trials, make me comfortable and satisfied."

The second temptation was Satan taking Jesus up to the highest mountain and saying, "all this belongs to me, and I'll give it to you if you bow and worship me." Sound familiar? No, perhaps this does... "I am in charge of my life, and I'll worship you Jesus only to the extent of what is comfortable for me. I'll pick and choose what I believe."

The last temptation was Satan challenging Christ to throw himself off the temple and have his angels come to his rescue. Here's an all familiar saying... "if you are truly God, Jesus, then prove it by showing yourself strong on my behalf."

James tells us that God can not be tempted, yet it's amazing how we still try. Christ words of rebuke to Satan that day have implicit meaning for us today.

"Man does not live by bread alone." Message: Be less interested what I can do for you and more interested in what I can do in you.

"Worship the Lord your God and serve only him." Message: I'm not interested in conforming to anyone, but if you want to conform to my ways, I'll give you the grace to do so, and by the way...this is where life truly begins.

"You must not test the Lord your God." Message: You'll be much better off when you stop trying to test me and just start believing me.

Just a thought.

It's not God's Best...

I often hear preachers and other TV and radio personalities using this phrase when describing sin.  Is it just me, or is saying "It's not God's best for you," a pretty wimpy way of describing sin?  Almost seems like we're saying even though it's not God's best for you, he's still mildly ok with it.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

An Open Letter To My Facebook Friends Part 2

Yesterday I posted the first part of this letter, which listed the things I don't like about Facebook.  So, just to be fair, I thought I would post a sequal and share the things I like about Facebook.

1. I love all the scripture and inspirational thoughts that people post every day.  Especially from those of you who are part of Connection Church.  Knowing that you are in the word and growing in God is so encouraging to me.
2. I love the pictures of your kids as well as reading the little stories, antidotes and accomplishments you post about them.  It truly brings a smile to my face and whenever I see your  cute little munchkins, I always hold my iPad up for Tracy to see.  Kid's are great and they need all the positive reinforcement they can get.
3. I love when people posts positive things about their spouses and how much they love and appreciate them.  There's way too much negativity in our relationships and anytime I see someone affirming their spouse, it does my heart good.
4. I love reading about families in our church hanging out together and developing relationships together.  When I read about dinners, outings and such, I alway comment to my wife about how much I love seeing new relationships formed in our church.
5. I love reading your posts about the silly little mishaps you have on a daily basis.  I think good, clean self-deprecating humor is good for all of us.  It keeps things real.
6. I love reading the life-giving testimonies about what God is doing in all your lives.  He is a powerful, almighty God, whose arm is not too short to save.  Lifting him up for all to see is such a powerful thing, no matter what the medium.

Well, there you have it.  I think Facebook, when used in the right way is such a powerful thing.  Let's continue to redeem it for God's purposes.

An Open Letter To My Facebook Friends

Facebook is taking over the world, which is cool.  However, with it's preverbal take over, I think we all need to think through how we should use it.  Therefor, I have compiled list of things that I see people putting on Facebook that make me cringe and the reasons why.

1. I don't like it when people aire the negative aspects of their life for all to see.  Life is hard enough and to constantly post about how bad it is treating you is unfair to the rest of us.  I know there are times when we have prayer requests or needs, however, why not send a private message to your closest friends that you trust will pray with you rather than posting it on your wall for all to see.
2. I don't like it when people brag about how great their life is all the time.  Listen, we all know you fight with your spouse on occasion, your kids aren't always the greatest and things aren't always exploding with your business.  Just like the extremes of negativity make people cringe so do the extremes of positivity.
3. I don't like the check-in feature of Facebook because it makes it way to easy to judge each other based on our ventures.  Allow me to explain, if you complain in a post about how broke you always are (a clear violation of my first point), and I see you checking into a different restaurant every night, you're going to get judged...like it or not.  Equally, if your always posting about how great things are and I see you checking into your therapist...well you get the point.
4. I don't like when people make statements that everyone knows the truth behind, yet are so evasive that it's meaning can be easily denied.  Statements like, "I'm just so over it..." in the middle of the weekday says that you're having a really bad day at work and you hate your boss(es) - and we all know it.  However, if the powers at be happen to see your post and confront you on it, you can easily say you were talking about something else...which makes you less than honest.  The web has become one big mask that is way to easy to hide behind.
5. I don't like when guys use careless phrases to talk about their wives.  These phrases include words like "smokin, stone cold fox, such a hottie", etc.  I think that your wives deserve a lot more respect than that.  Stop using "Ricky Bobby" words to describe them.  It's no longer funny.
6. I don't like getting invited to events from friends who live hundreds and thousands of miles away.  I feel bad when I have to put "NO, not attending" in the RSVP box.  Rejection sucks, whether it's a mile or 1000 miles away...just saying.

Well, that's my little Facebook tirade.  Tomorrow I will follow up with things I like about Facebook...just to be fair.  Feel free to share your Facebook hangups as well. 

Operation Backpack 2011

Every year, Connection Church adopts a local elementary school for the entire school year.  As part of this endeavor, we set a summer goal to raise enough money to outfit every student with a backpack stuffed with supplies for the year.

This year we are once again adopting Edison Elementary School and we need to raise $4000.00 over the next 7 weeks and we need all of your help to make it happen.

Here are some ways you can help.

1. Set a personal/family goal for how many backpacks you can give.  Each backpack costs $10.00
2. Try to get your place of employment to donate an amount to Operation Backpack (100% of monies received goes directly to the project.)
3. Get your friends, family and co-workers to buy 1,2 or more backpacks.

We have cards available every Sunday for you to take to give to potential donors and you can also point them towards our website where they can donate online as well.  The URL is www.connectionchurch.me/operation-backpack.

God at the Movies

We kicked off our yearly July series, God at the Movies, this past Sunday with 2010 blockbuster movie, Inception.  I presented a very distinct Biblical parallel that I clearly saw within the movie.  It's clearly seen in the middle of the movie when Don Cobb is talking about the power of inception. "An idea is like a virus," he says, "resilient, highly contagious and the smallest seed of an idea can grow.  It can grow to define or destroy you."

That's the paradox we must all face.  What we choose to believe will define us or destroy us.  Believing God's ways always brings life, and believing Satan's lies, while it may seem to bring life, ultimately leads to death and destruction.

If you missed this past Sunday, you can catch the message here.

This week we are highlighting the movie, "The Blind Side."  Can't wait to see you there.

Modern day good Samaritan

For the latter half of 2010 into the first three months of 2011, I preached through the book of Mark. It was a very challenging book for our church as we have taken a very close look at the life of Christ.

There was about four weeks in which the greatest commandment and one of those weeks I was concentrating on the good Samaritan. In my study, I got to thinking how Jesus may have told it in today's terms. Here are my thoughts.

Jesus was talking to a bunch of evangelical, right-winged Christian's about the greatest commandment. "You shall love God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul, and the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

A man in the crowd, seeking to make himself feel better, asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?"

Jesus answered with the following story...

"A right winged radio talk show host, named Glenn Beck was on his way to the Fox News Studios for his late afternoon tv show. When he was a block away from the studios, he fell upon some gang bangers who beat him up, robbed him blind, took his book of Mormon and left him for dead.

Shortly after, Rush Limbaugh came his way, but he didn't stop. His radio show was starting shortly and he couldn't stand to think of letting his corporate sponsors down, after all Capitalism never sleeps.

A little time later, Bill O'Rielly walked by, but he didn't stop either. In fact, he crossed over to the other side of the street so not to get tangled up in the whole affair. After all, his TV show was starting shortly and the weight of the world is always resting on his shoulders because, "he's watching out for us!"

5 minutes after Bill O'Rielly passed by, Al Sharpton came strolling down the street on the way to being a special guest on O'Rielly's show, where he knew he was going to be called a pinhead. He saw Glenn Beck, had pity on him, went to where he was, bandaged his wounds, put him in his car and took him to Mercy Hospital where he gave them enough money to cover all his expenses.

After telling the story he looked at the smug man and asked, "who was Glenn Beck's neighbor? To which the man answered, "the one who showed pity on him."


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Friend's Day This Sunday At Connection Church

Friend's Day At Connection Church is happening this Sunday, 10 am at the AMC Veteran's 24 Movie Theater.

Who should you invite? Friends, family and anyone you may know that doesn't go to church elsewhere. Connection Church is a great place, a safe place to invite your friends and to show them who Jesus is and what his life-giving message is all about.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:9302 Anderson Rd Tampa, FL 33634 (AMC 24 Movie Theater)

I am glad the PO PO was there!

Today, I was using a local hangout as a makeshift office, when something caught my attention. It seemed that all of Hillsborough County Sheriff deputies converged on the joint for, none other than, an afternoon break (and no I wasn't at Dunkin Donuts).

I momentarily stopped what I was doing, watching to see if they would converse with one another. To my surprise, they didn't and other than a few curious glances, there was no interaction. I'm not sure why it struck me as odd, after all, just because they wear the same uniform doesn't necessarily make them friends.

I eventually went back to my studies and after a few minutes I heard a loud commotion coming from behind me. There was a man shouting, waiving a gun and demanding money. However, before he could get anywhere, the sheriff deputies seamlessly worked together and brought the guy down before anyone realized what was happening. It was amazing to watch a group of guys, who didn't know one another, work as if they did.

It's my conviction and understanding that Jesus when he prayed, "Make them one... (John 17:21)" was perhaps eluding to this type of scenario. I don't believe his prayer of oneness was a desire that we all be close friends, or be centered around the same ideologies (with the foundations of our faith being the exception), or even like one another. Rather, his prayer shows a desire for us to be unified in mission so that when the opportunity arises we are ready to join together to build his kingdom.

By the way, the event I described above, aside from the cops eating lunch, didn't actually happen, but I've watched enough cop shows to know that if a gunman did come in, it would have gone down in a similar way.

May we be as vigilant as the Church as the cops were in my imagination:)




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

What's God's Chief End

The first confession of the Westminster Catechism reads, "Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever." This was God's plan for man in his reason for creation, redemption and our future glorification.

What then is God's chief end? Some may say that if man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, then God's chief end is to glorify us by enjoying us forever. After all, aren't relationships supposed to be an equally mutual endeavor?

Scripture reveals to us that God's chief end is the same as our chief end...to glorify himself [God] and enjoy himself forever (Is. 46:1, Is 42:1, Ps 115:3, Ps 135:5-7, Jn 17:24-26). He exists for himself. There's a lot of sifting one must go through to understand this and it's importance, however, let me use an illustration that may help to at least take the lid off this mystery.

If you've ever flown on a commercial plane, you've heard the flight attendant before take off go over the safety rules for the aircraft. One of the instructions are, if the oxygen masks come down at any time during the flight and you are flying with small children, make sure you put your own mask on first, before securing the mask on your child.

The reason they give this instruction is really for the ultimate well being of the helpless child you are with. If the parent chief end isn't to take care of herself first, the safety and well being of the child will ultimately be in danger.

As helpless human beings that need the gracious mercy of a loving savior, we should take refuge in the fact that we serve a God who's chief end is himself. It's our only hope to receiving the grace he provides, for he get's glory when we live to find our joy in him, and without that, we are truly lost.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Why Fast?

Choosing to fast, is a purposeful choice you make to embrace suffering and suffering always has a way of stripping you bare and exposing the "true you" that lies within. When I fast, I get cranky and angry, I'm not pleasant to be around and I lose my joy pretty quickly.

Why do I get this way? Isn't fasting, after all, a discipline that is supposed to make me more joyful and more like Jesus? If I've lost my joy, what's the purpose?

Fasting is not what steals my joy. Rather, it's the idolatry that lives deep in my heart. It's this monster, when it is being starved, that steals my joy, snatches up my happiness, and leaves me cranky, angry and unpleasant.

This is why fasting is so important to the believer. Jesus uses our suffering of going without, to expose the very things that he demands lordship over. When that ugliness surfaces, take it to Jesus through confession and repentance, thanking him for showing you the areas that need to be submitted to him.

Whether it's through fasting or some other form of suffering that God allows in your life, remember it's there to build you up in him, so embrace it with the grace that Jesus provides.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Gospel Centered Life

There's a growing movement in the Church that says Jesus came to awaken something that fell asleep inside all of us. All of our dreams, recognized or not, reside in this sleeping giant, and if we just follow the teachings and principles of Jesus Christ he'll set us on a journey of actualization and awakening to get the life we've always wanted.

The true gospel, however, doesn't resonate or champion this cause at all, because there is nothing inside of us that is sleeping and waiting to be awakened. The problem that we all face, and the only reason Jesus Christ came, died and rose again is that we are dead, fully dead, and without him we have no hope of coming alive (Eph. 2:1-10). Any other interpretation of life simply falls short, leaving us groping for meaningless principles and useless mind games that can never get us out of our graves.

Jesus didn't come to awaken a sleeping giant, discover the hidden diamond in our lives, or to show us a better way to live. He came to give us himself. Through his finished work on the cross, he's become our destiny, our vision, our pearl of great price and without him we are completely and totally dead. Our only hope is in him and what he did on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21).

With this in mind, let's put our full trust and allegiance in him (Hebrews 12:1-2).


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad