“Our son Marcus believes nothing is true and anything is permitted. And our daughter Julia thinks the only thing that matters is her own pleasure.”

“I am afraid for our children, what happens to a society when all restraints are removed? I see our children consumed with watching blood be spilled in the arena. I see them seeking an unending diet of sensual pleasure. Where does it all lead? How can intemperate minds be free when they’re slaves to their own passions?”

“Rome tolerated every abominable practice, embraced every foul idea in the name of freedom and the rights of the common man. Citizens no longer carried on deviant behavior in private, but pridefully displayed it in public. It was those with moral values who could no longer freely walk in a public park without having to witness a revolting display”

These excerpts form the book really made me take a hard look at the society we live in and the life that I lead. Like anyone else I want to live a life of freedom, but as I grow In Christ I see that freedom has less and less to do with doing anything you want and more to do with allowing yourself to be so disciplined that you are free from being a slave to your own desires. People think that freedom comes from giving into whatever you want, I would submit that continually giving in leads you to a life of slavery to yourself and your desires. May we be a people that truly live free in the confides of self discipline and purity.

I was one of the Campus Crusade students helping out at Brewfest in the vans on Saturday night. I just wanted to share a story with you from the night because your ministry that night was so awesome.

First of all, I was going in thinking… man… drunk people really frustrate me, and I can also remember wondering how people would receive the gospel when intoxicated. I thought, honestly, at first, that it might be kind useless to share the gospel with someone drunk and getting a free van ride home. It was a stupid and prideful thing to think, but that’s honestly when I was thinking! I knew they would appreciate the ride home and make that connection to the church, but I definitely wasn’t expected what happened.

I stood in line and started conversations with people and then would get onto the van with them in hopes of continuing the conversation. I met Katie and Kate, two girls aged about 25 from Denver. Katie was throwing up when I walked up to them. I got her a bottle of water and some towels and then offered to pray for her. She was thankful to have someone taking care of her.

Kate, her friend, however, was a lot more sober. She got deeply involved in conversation with me, and I ended up being able to share the gospel with her. She received it, and at first, it was kind of like, “maybe someday I’ll get there.” She talked about how good she felt after going to a church service and how her Christian aunt had been trying to reach out to her.

I remember I said something like, “how does it make you feel that God put me in your path?” She actually responded that she thought it felt like God was reaching down to her in her lowest point. I talked about asking God for a blank sheet of paper, to start over and live for something better than how she was living now. She was starting to get really serious in her sentences, noting that she really needed this. I got out my Cru Knowing God Personally booklet and asked her which circle she wanted to fit into… a life without Christ in the picture or the circle with the self yielding to Christ, and she very excitedly pointed to the second circle.

I asked if I could pray with her and help her receive the Holy Spirit. When we got out of the van, she grabbed me in a very tight embrace, and tears rolling down her face, she said out loud that she needed Jesus and wanted to be forgiven. Wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I prayed for her for a while, and she stood there for a while and just hugged me tightly. As she walked away, she turned back and said, “thank you for helping me start to change my life.”

How cool is that? Praise God!!!!! I was so excited. She was so honest and it was so real. I gave her my email, and she said she’d be in contact.

What an encouraging story and one that will keep us going back to Brewfest year after year. (Even if it takes me 3 days to recover).

Let Love Live.

I just recieved this update from a missionary in Iran. My good friend Beth Gardner got this from Precepts Ministries. It just goes to show how Love can overpower evil and how in the midst of trouble hope and love will always remain. Iran is my country of origin and I will always be proud to be Iranian. Read the following account of reaching out to others:

As the world has been focused on Ir@n this week, we have been praying for the believers inside the country.  Here is a first-hand story we just received today….

One of the women in a house church movement felt led of the Lord to get some cold bottled water and some snacks and take them to part of Tehran where the protesters where in the streets. 

She saw three college students walking away from the protests and they looked very tired, thirsty and discouraged.  She went up to them and offered a cold drink of water and some snacks.  They were very grateful and thankful to receive this offer.

She asked who they were and where they lived.  They were students at the University of Tehran and lived in the dormitories.  They were afraid to go back to the dorms because the police might come, drag them out of the dorm rooms and beat them.  They had been awake for almost three days with very little sleep. 

She asked if any of them lived in Tehran .  One student said their parents lived in Tehran .  So she drove the students to the home of the parents.

At the home, the parents invited her into their home and thanked her for her kind gift of water and food.  She felt led by God to share the Good News with the parents and the students.  The family was eager to hear this message.

In the midst of the turmoil and upheaval in Ir@n, pray that random acts of kindness – such as offering cold bottled water and snacks – will lead many people to Christ!

Please continue to pray for God to work in this situation.

Scripture tells us, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12). What this verse shows us is that no body in their own strength will or even can pursue God without some sort of spiritual intervention. This is where God comes in. As you peruse the pages of the scriptures you see God intervening in the lives of people and initiating the relationship with them. God came to Abram and initiated Abram’s (eventually Abraham)ministry. God initiated with Moses, the disciples, and eventually Saul (who became the Apostle Paul). God is a God of initiation and His love for His creation and people is so strong that He will initiate relationship and do whatever it takes to start this process (Meet someone in a burning bush, make someone blind, etc…)

How does this impact us? If there is no one that is holy or righteous, then what hope is there for us? Once again, God initiated and this time Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice. John 6:44-46 says, “No one can come to me (Jesus) unless the Father who sent me draws him. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.” It is the Father that draws people to Himself through the empowering of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the means in which the Father draws people to himself. This is where we come in when it comes to evangelism. In obedience we are to pray that the Father draws the hearts of our friends and family towards Himself and that He would use the Holy Spirit in amazing ways to accomplish this task. We also are called to pray for our friend’s hearts to be open to this draw of the Holy Spirit and to respond to it in love.

Can God do all of this without our “help”. YES, God does not need our help, however He INVITES us to be involved in this process and I don’t know about you but I love partnering with God in this way.

May we be a people that ask the Spirit to work and move in the lives of many others. May we pray that their hearts will be open and that they would respond in obedience in Love (The way God wants). But above all else, may we be a people that love and are open to living a life that brings glory and honor to our God.

99.9% of the time we see so much of the beauty of what it means to explore the world as a young child, but there is that 0.1% that we shake our head at in amazement. It is amazing to me how she can have the whole floor to crawl around on, a plethora of toys laid out on the carpet designed for her enjoyment and she gravitates towards one thing that she is not supposed to touch. This week the chilly temperatures have caused us to turn off our AC and actually light our fireplace (Which is unheard of for June). On Monday morning I spent the morning at home studying for an exam I have coming up this week and I was sitting by the fire as Olivia was playing on the carpet. Her Aunt Laela just bought her the coolesttoy that Olivia seems to love yet it wasn’t this toy that caught her attention, it was the flickering fire that she wanted to play with. She proceeded to crawl over to the fireplace where I sternly said ”No” to and picked her up and directed her in the opposite direction.

She made a frustrated sound (which is usually a growl) and turned back around to head towards the fire. It reminded me so much of us a humans. We think we know what we want and we will actually go as far as to say, “God, I dont care what you think. I know how to take care of myself and I will “touch” what I want to touch.” I cant tell you how many times I knew I shouldnt do a certain thing yet find myself licking my wounds after I get ‘burned’. I wonder what would happen if we would view God’s standards a little differently. A lot of Christ Followers seem to throw the Commandments the Lord set out for His people in the Old Testament out because of the Grace given through the sacrifice of Jesus. We are not to ignore the standards of God, they were set for us as God’s people as instances of worship and honor to our Heavenly Father.

The old story goes; If you want to get a kid to touch a hot stove, tell him not to touch it. Have you ever wondered about yourself? Do you find yourself doing those things that you know you shouldn’t do? The apostle Paul found himself in this position when he wrote:

¹⁴We know that the law is spiritual; butI am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

 ²¹So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

The Scriptures tell us that we are marked with sin because of the sin of the first Adam. Yet, it is the second Adam (Jesus) that cleanses us from our sins and because of this we can come to God in perfect relationship.

I love my daughter dearly and delight in her no matter what, even when she does things that I dont want her to do, my motivation isn’t to take fun away from her, it is simply to protect her from the imminent harm that will come when she dabbles with “fire”. We as followers of Christ are New Creations on the inside, yet we are wrapped in flesh and it is our flesh that desires the things of this world and not things from above.

May we learn to honor God with our actions as well as our hearts.

About a year and a half ago he came to our nine70 staff meetings and talked to our young adult staff about the importance of time management and how to manage your time more effectively. It was a lifechanging experience for me personally and it really impacted our team. Last Fall I asked him to come talk to a group of our Pastors here at Timberline and we spent about 4 straight weeks with him talking about leadership and managing our time as leaders.

He recently sent us an email that was a great encouragement to me in one key area of leadership, the email focused on PERSEVERANCE. There are many traits that will help leaders succeed but perseverance is one of those non-negotiables within leadership. The email included the following experpt from the book The Best Way Out is Always Through by BJ Gallagher. It is called “Staying the Course”. The message of this excerpt is timely and hit home for me. I tend to be a perfectionist and I know that there are insecurities in my life that cause me to want to be a perfectionist. I am asking God to show me these areas of my life. I think having high standards is a good thing, but not when it drives you frustration. May the message of this blog encourage you to look at life a little differently and allow you to stop and enjoy all life brings.

I hope you enjoy it and it encourages you:

Our journey of life is about progress,  not perfection. It’s not about doing one thing 100% better – it’s a matter of doing 100 things, 1% better each day. Progress is evolutionary not revolutionary, and most days we measure our progress in inches, not miles. What matters most is showing up for your life whether you feel like it or not. Ask yourself, “What two or three little things can I do today that would move me forward?”

You’ll be amazed  at how much distance you can cover by taking it in increments.

The little things add up; the inches turn to miles; and we string together our efforts like so many pearls. Before long, look what you have – a whole strand!

Ah… beautiful.

Now what does a burger restaurant review have to do with being a Youth Pastor? Well if you look at the formula that makes In-N-Out a success in the business world you may see that there is a major principle that we can all learn from. In-N-Out has made a living on a fairly sparse menu. Their menu is simple and hasn’t changed in years: hamburger, cheeseburger, double-double (Double Stacked burger), fries, coke, shake (See above). That’s it. We can all name fast food places that offer many types of food but we don’t go there unless we absolutely have to. With this type of steamed down menu In-N-Out is able to provide excellent quality because they are focused on perfecting a few items.

JACK OF ALL TRADES, MASTER OF NONE

Ever heard the phrase, “Jack of all trades, master of none”. Unfortunately for many of us this phrase rings true within the context of ministry.

If you take a look at most churches and ministries there are lots of events going on and ministries offered but how successful can they be? Everyone has 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week, yet some people seem to accomplish more than others and some ministries seem to be making more of an impact than others. Why is that? What are they doing? Chances are they are doing less.

If you take a poll of Youth Pastors nation-wide you will probably hear that the majority of them don’t have enough time to accomplish all they want. I heard someone recently say that if you don’t have time to accomplish all that you want in ministry then you are probably doing some things that God doesn’t want you doing. The problem isn’t that Youth Pastors are lazy or don’t know what they are doing, the problem is that most Youth Pastors are simply doing too much. If you want to accomplish more within ministry then you will have to learn how to do less.

This principle of stewardship was communicated by our Lord in the 15^th chapter of John’s Gospel. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” (John 15:1-2). Here Jesus shows us that each of our lives is represented by a branch that bears fruit. Look at verse 2, the skilled gardener cuts off fruit from branches that are fruitful so that the branch will be even more fruitful.

How does this effect you? A lot of us have a plethora of ministries offered and tons of great events for those within our ministry influence. But if you are anything like me you find yourself doing a whole lot of “stuff”, but not really doing what you set out to do in the first place. Impact lives for Christ. Those Pastors that learn that they cant do everything and focus their attention on what’s important are able to make a huge difference in the lives of people. I know Pastors that will spend hours on Facebook and their blog-site yet spend little time building face to face relationships with those within their ministry and even less time preparing for the spiritual direction of their flock. A couple of years ago our leaders saw that our ministry was great at putting on outreach events but we were falling way short in the area of discipling our students. We vowed to put into place the principle of John 15:1-2 and stopped doing outreach events for one year so that we could focus our attention on doing a few things (Discipleship) and doing it well. The crazy thing with cutting off fruit is that fruit is good. The reason a branch exists is to produce fruit, but that’s where a skilled gardener comes in. A skilled gardener can identify which fruit has more potential to grow and cuts off the fruit that isn’t likely to produce as much fruit. In ministry everything you are doing is probably good, but as Jim Collins says, “Good is the enemy of great”.

I challenge you to take a look at all that you are doing and all that your ministry is doing. What in your ministry can be “cut off” so that other areas of your life / ministry can become even more fruitful. I used to wonder why I couldn’t get a taco or a salad at In-N-Out, but  after understating this principle I am glad and will have another Animal Style Burger while I visit the West Coast.

Carmelo was a part of a documentary filmed in his home town of Baltimore warning people of “snitching” (giving information to authorities) about things going on in the neighborhood. This same documentary had friends of his threatening to lynch Larry Brown (the Olympic coach at the time) if Carmelo was benched for any amount of time. He knew it was being filmed and should have known better. Those in the basketball world labeled him a trouble maker and a black eye in the NBA.  On the court he was suspended 15 games for a fight that broke out with the New York Knicks in which Carmelo threw a sucker punch that landed on an opposing player’s face. He has been arrested and charged with marijuana possession, a charge that was later dropped because a friend took the blame for the marijuana. His most recent legal trouble found Carmelo picked up for a DUI while driving in the early morning hours on a Denver freeway. All in all Carmelo has had a horrible reputation and any dream he  had of becoming an NBA icon was quickly diminishing because of his on the court and off the court antics. However, his participation on the 2008 USA Olympic Basketball team seems to have changed Carmelo for the better.

During these NBA playoffs there has been much attention given to the young Carmelo, however, this attention is not about his performance on the basketball court. It seems that almost any conversation about Carmelo on sports networks is giving credit for Carmelo’s on the court success to the fact that he seems to have matured greatly off the court. In an interview with ESPN Carmelo said that his exposure to last year’s Olympic team has impacted him greatly. He saw a team that was focused on being the best team, not a team of individuals focused on being All Stars. Carmelo talked of the work ethic that he witnessed and how he recognized that if he wanted to be successful in the NBA he would have to change his attitude and, more importantly, his off the court attitude.

A couple of weeks before the 2008-2009 NBA season started the Denver Nuggets traded for hometown hero Chauncey Billups. Chauncey Billups is a very talented basketball player but is better known for be a gentleman within the NBA.  The Denver and national media have given Chauncey a lot of credit in Carmelo’s maturity. It seems that the last 18 months have changed Carmelo as a basketball player and more importantly as a human being. Carmelo Anthony has become a basketball icon and is one of the biggest stars in the NBA at this point. As a leader I think that there is a lot to be learned of Carmelo’s journey.

Carmelo Anthony is a leader. Not only because he can play basketball well, but because he is an influencer. I don’t know Carmelo at all, but I would bet that he never saw himself as much of a leader because great leaders don’t ever know they are great leaders. The difference is that Carmelo used to influence people in a negative way and now it seems that he has grasped the idea of impacting people and taking responsibility for influencing people in a positive way. What’s different about him? What changed? Again, I don’t know Carmelo Anthony at all, but I bet that the last 18 months have everything to do with this newly perceived maturity.

He has cut his hair and not only have his off the court troubles subsided, but even his post-game interviews reflect his new-found maturity. In this year’s NBA Western Conference Playoffs the Carmelo’s team played a physically grueling series with the Dallas Mavericks. This series got pretty chippy at times and tempers and emotions ran high. The old Carmelo may have mouthed off in post-game interviews but this year’s installment of Carmelo Anthony was cool, collected and very mature in how he handled questions from the media about the “dirty play” between the Nuggets and the Mavericks.

GREAT LEADERS SURROUND THEMSELVES WITH GREAT LEADERS

Carmelo’s experience on the 2008 USA Olympic basketball team opened his eyes to the way others go about their work. There is a lesson in this: sometimes the best thing we can do is put ourselves in a place where we are surrounded with people that are more successful than we are at a certain task. In Carmelo’s world it was surrounding himself with Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, etc… for me as a Pastor it is seeking out those who have been where I am at and are where I want to be. Right now I am seeking out conversations with Pastors who have been faithful servants of God longer than I have been alive. It is not horrible to surround yourself with people that are on the same level as you or are where you have been, but to grow personally and especially in your leadership ability you need to seek out people that are where you want to go. If longevity is what you are looking for, look for people that have been doing your profession for years. The reason we don’t do this is either pride or fear. Either we think we don’t need to seek out others to see how they go about their lives because we have it all figured out or we are too afraid of facing the truth about ourselves and in turn shy away from surrounding ourselves with those that have gone before us.

I encourage you to find people that you can talk to about your profession or career. What have they done that helped them become successful? What are their daily, weekly, monthly habits / goals? What are they doing that you are not doing and what are you doing that they would advise you not to do? It seems that these kinds of conversations have happened between Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony and it seems to have impacted Carmelo for the better.

These are great questions to ask and to contemplate as leaders. I am personally very proud to see the maturity in Carmelo Anthony and I am thankful for his example of maturity and for the lesson in it for all of us. Is there a “Chauncey” you can surround yourself with in life? Everyone needs a “Timothy” in who they mentor, we all need a “Barnabas” that encourages us, and everone of us needs a “Paul” (Or Chauncey) who can mentor us. May you find yours.

Go Nuggets.

He loves this bike and is VERY talented. This was recently done by the news team at Colorado State Univeristy. I hope you enjoy.

Let Love Live

Ryan is a great guy and from hearing about his background and the pastors that he listens to and reads I can tell that he is very passionate about teaching the Word of God. We had a great conversation about church dynamics and how different churches fit into God’s plan in reaching communities. There is no way that one church can reach, equip and disciple everyone within a city but a whole bunch of churches in a city can reach the city for Christ. Ryan understands that well. His honesty and humility came about in our breakfast. I am truly excited about their new venture and I am thankful that the Lord brought us together to talk.

I told him that we at nine70 would be praying for him and we believe in supporting and equipping the Body of Christ (Not just Timberline / nine70) to reach others.

You can follow Ryan’s blog at:http://www.smalltownpreacher.com/ I hope that you will visit him and when he and his family come to town, lets do our best to welcome him in the Spirit of Jesus.

Let Love Live.