It's not about you...

It's not about you...  This was the quote that my wife will probably be most remembered for at our church in Iowa.  This last Saturday night our church family honored us with a party.  It was a blessing to hear how God had worked in people's lives while we were in proximity.  As good as it was to hear people praise what God had done through me it was even better to hear what one lady had to say about my wife.  I have always said that my wife is amazing, it is just cool to hear other people agree.  

Her quote is one that proves to me that God has laid this vision for Journey the Way on both of us, because I see and hear in her the values that I want to live out.  Of all of the core values that I hope we live out, humility is by far the hardest one for me to flesh out.  Most of us I think struggle with this one because so much of our time and energy is spent on us.  We think about us, and even when we think of someone else, we usually think of them in terms of how we are affected by them.  The beauty of humility is that to achieve it all we have to do is stop thinking of ourselves.  Because after all IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU!  It's about HIM!

Chad

Humility, is it in you?

Humility is one of those elusive characteristics.  If you focus too hard on being humble you are in danger of being proud about your humility.  My good friend and former student Jamie wrote an excellent piece on Humility and the Church you can read it here.  

The Apostle Paul said in the book of Philippians 2:3-8 that Humility isn't about us at all.  

Philippians 2:3-8 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,even death on a cross.

Paul challenges us to look out for the interests of others.  This was exemplified to me this week by some amazing friends of mine who dropped what they were doing to help me out.  I had three friends drop what they were doing to help me paint my garage so that we can hopefully close on our house at the end of this week.  I don't think they realized it but when they did that they were reflecting the image of Christ.  You see when we stop thinking of ourselves and start thinking of others we have the mind of Christ and model Humility.  True humility helps point people to the cross.  

Chad

Leaving all to follow...

So I was reading in Matthew this morning and came across a very familiar passage that hit me in a fresh way this morning.  Matthew 4:18-22 is the story of Jesus calling his first Disciples.  

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." ²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. ²²Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

There is something to be said about the commitment of those men who left everything to follow a man they knew little about.  I think the appeal for adventure and something new drew them in.  Plus the fact that this was no ordinary man who was asking them to follow.  I wonder sometimes if they had any idea what they were getting themselves into.  These were ordinary men who God would use to start an extraordinary movement that continues to this day.  

It is my belief that God is calling some of you to join us in this adventure to Journey The Way of Christ, and to see lives forever changed by the power of the gospel.  I don't know what you will have to leave behind, but I do know that the ride will be wild.  1 Corinthians 11:1 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

Chad