This past Sunday was no exception. We were subbing in as music leaders for some friends at City View Church near downtown Grand Rapids. Musically speaking, we were well prepared for that morning. We had been practicing the songs all week long. We knew what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it. Yet mentally, I can speak for myself in saying that I was nowhere close to having a right focus or attitude toward leading the congregation in singing praises to God. As we gathered up our things and packed up the car that morning, we realized that something had been forgotten. So Annie ran back inside while I finished putting things away. As she got back into the car, I realized that I did not remember exactly how to get to the church. I started to pull it up on Google maps but my phone was conveniently running slow when I needed it to pull up the address instantly. Annie said that she would just pull it up on her GPS which just ended up annoying me even more since my phone should have made that unnecessary. When we finally got on the road, the GPS pointed us in the wrong direction from where we were coming out. So we had to make a u-turn in order to get back on track. Needless to say, I was less than thrilled with the morning’s events and found myself quickly sinking in the quicksand.

It is hard to know where to begin with that scenario. Time is always an issue for me no matter the day of the week. Living in the south for several years only seemed to enable my bad habit. There just never seems to be enough hours in the day to get everything done. I think that it is one of the reasons why people like myself are always running a few minutes late to things. We try to squeeze too many things into too little time. So it is always best to plan out your day and build in time for possible changes to your schedule of events or issues that pop up unexpectedly. Do not try to conquer the world in 16 hours. Be reasonable with what you can get done and be disciplined enough to work toward it. And leave early enough to enjoy that CD, audiobook, or sports talk radio on the ride over.

Time is far from the biggest concern here. This story reveals how quickly a person can be thrown off balance by things that really do not matter. To sum it up, we lose perspective far too easily. I allowed a forgotten item, an under-performing cellphone, and a wrong turn to dictate my attitude for a portion of the day. Of course, this phenomenon is not limited to Sunday mornings. It happens nearly every day with varying degrees of effectiveness. We can focus so much on these little events in our day that we completely forget about the majesty of God, the goodness of his creation (which we enjoy everyday), and the glories of the gospel that led to our salvation. The presence of God and his work in the world bear far greater consequences than an obstructed phone call or missed note in a song. I’m not saying that deficiencies and problems should not bother us to some degree. However, we should not allow them to overshadow the glory of God and good news of the gospel. He saved us from sin and death. He is redeeming the world so that one day we will not have to worry about injustice, disease, and death. He is sanctifying us everyday so that we are drawn further away from sin and closer to the heart of Christ. These are the things that define us as Christians.

On Sunday morning, I lost sight of what really mattered. But like every other moment, God corrected my blurry vision and allowed me to see the glorious riches of his grace. He allowed me to spend a few hours with a beautiful community of fellow believers so that we might all sing about the truths of an all-consuming gospel with one voice.

The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

What I have discovered is accountability is useless.

Accountability is only as valuable as the transparency you and I offer in the context of that accountability.

We have a unique ability as humans to fool each other. It is easy for me to fake you out. It is easy for you to lie to my face. It is easy to pretend like your marriage is better than it really is. It is easy to offer just enough accountability to make yourself look spiritual. At the same time that partial accountability can be so dangerous because you are not only fooling me, you are fooling yourself.

The truth is you and I can meet every Wednesday and I can lie to you. The truth is that you can have several circles of accountability and unless you are 100% transparent in at least one of those circles, implosion is on the horizon.

I am not saying you should be 100% transparent with everyone, but I am saying you should be 100% transparent with someone. I have two people in my life that if I am asked a question I give 100% of the truth; I withhold nothing. I know if I am struggling or need to confess something, or am in a dark place, I can share that with these two people.

One of the biggest mistakes I made in my life, my marriage and my ministry is I substituted accountability for transparency. Accountability without transparency is useless. It is easier in the short term to offer accountability and it seems more spiritual?but you experience more of the grace and mercy and love of Christ when you offer transparency.

In fact, when you are willing to offer transparency, you will find you don’t need to be held accountable.

I have had several attempts at accountability fail for the very reasons mentioned here. If you are not willing to be completely open and honest about everything to your accountability partner then you will not find true accountability. Instead, you will have created the illusion of accountability in order to ease your conscience. That may be a more dangerous and unhelpful position than having no accountability at all.

(HT: Zach Nielsen)

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Hebrews 7:24-25

I don’t have to like highway billboards, but may I never ever tire of responding to the question, Are You Saved?, for there’s no question more humbling to me and honoring of you. So very Amen, I pray, Jesus, in your merciful and mighty-to-save name.

Dear Lord Jesus, driving into my home state recently, I came upon a billboard that pushed some buttons before it raised my palms. Just through the mountains of North Carolina, there is was, bold and in big red letters, Are You Saved? I’ll be honest, my first response was, “What an un-cool, cost-ineffective, out-of-date, impersonal way to do evangelism.” Then I ruminated, “People that put up highway signs like that are clueless about the gospel. They’re usually legalists and moralists, and have no idea about a theology of imputed righteousness. They’re culturally out-of-touch and don’t realize what a turn-off that kind of signage is.”

But after my momentary-arrogance and billboard-pontification, your Spirit gently disrupted my “cool” with this thought, “You completely avoided the question, Are You Saved?”

I continued driving, but that’s when one palm went up anyway, for indeed, I am saved, Jesus, unabashedly and unashamedly so. And there’s only one reason and there’s only one basis… I have come to God through you. You are the permanent priest who offered the perfect sacrifice for me, once and for all. You completed your work on the cross and you will complete your work in me. You live forever and you forever live to thoroughly save me, and your whole pan-national trans-generational Bride. You were my substitute by your life and your death, and now you’re my righteousness and intercessor before the Father. Am I saved? Most definitely and most delightfully!

99 Balloons from Igniter Media on Vimeo.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no illusions of a Utopian Christian world being created by acts of kindness. The world is not made of gumdrops and unicorns. Sometimes our efforts to serve and share are rejected and even mocked. Persecution and rejection come with the territory. That should be no surprise to us since Christ himself was mocked and spat on throughout his ministry and even as he went to his death. But I do not think our biggest problem is a fear of rejection born out of many experiences. We don’t have the experiences to even begin to justify that problem. I think that the struggle to go deeper in our commitment to Christ comes from our misunderstanding of reality. Being born again, we have been given a new set eyes, a new heart, and a new mind so that we might see the world as Jesus sees it. Of course, this new vision of reality comes progressively. We will never see or understand things perfectly. We will never embody Christ perfectly. We grow into our faith over the course of our entire lives. Yet it seems that many times we are content with going through the motions of our Christian faith instead of really pushing our faith as far as it will go and asking the tough questions. What takes greatest precedence in our life? How is our time and money spent? What have we been reading and studying lately? What prayers have we offered up? What physical needs have we met? How have we made the gospel known? These are the type of questions we should be asking constantly. And we should push each other to go deeper in our commitment to Christ. We have been born again. We are his children devoted to his ways for his glory. And we should sacrifice everything we have in order to glorify God and fully devote ourselves to him in every way possible since he is deserving of such adoration and loyalty.

As I examine my own life, I realize how often my words are betrayed by my life. I want to believe that I don’t waste time or spend my money in frivolous ways. I want to believe that I’m serving in meaningful ways that are helping people in need on a regular basis. I want to believe that I am spending hours each day mining the treasures of God’s Word. In reality, I fail miserably at all of these things. I praise God that my salvation is not dependent on them. However, I realize that there is limitless room and a great need for growth in my life. I want to be more faithful than I am right now. We need others in our lives who can be used by God to push us in that direction. That is what we should find in the church. It is also what we should be as the church…a community of Jesus worshipers who challenge one another to go deeper in their devotion and affection for our Savior. So let’s challenge one another to press on closer toward Christ on a daily basis. Let’s be the church and let God take care of the rest.

I’m not the type of person who puts a lot of stock in statistics one way or another. People sometimes build entire arguments or make important decisions based mostly on statistical data. I believe it is a mistake. Don’t get me wrong, statistics can be helpful. They can help us understand trends or give us an idea of what people think. However, statistics need to be understood amidst the context of their environment and influencers. That being said, let me hit you with some stats posted by Zach Nielsen that I found very thought provoking.

At the recent Passion 2010 conference in Atlanta, this is what was accomplished through the giving of 20,000 twentysomethings that showed up.

Building an education center for the Dalit people of India through Operation Mobilization.  Goal–$75,000. Given–$92,753.91.

Small business loans for women in Haiti through Hope International.  Goal–200 x $200 loans. Given–$64,412.34 for 322 loans.

Bible translation for Shatika and Rom People of SE Asia with OneVerse.  Goal–translate 4000 verses at a cost of $100,000. Given–3134 verses/$78.359.

Sponsor 100 seminary students in the Middle East with E3 Partners.  Goal–$30,000. Given–$45,318/151 students.

Build 10 wells in Guatemala with Living Water.  Goal–$50,000. Given–$113.865/22 wells built.

Provide 100 cleft palate surgeries for children in Afghanistan with Cure International.  Goal–$55,000. Given–$68,160.54/111 children get surgeries.

Package and send Bibles to unreached people in Asia through Bibles Unbound.  Goal–3000 Bibles packaged and $3000 to cover cost. Given/Done–3000 Bibles packaged/$9,530.56 given to send more.

Build a border outpost in Nepal to intercept sex trafficking victims through Not For Sale.  Goal–$25,000. Given–$86,516.72 for 3+ border outposts.

Support a Child Survival project in Indonesia through Compassion International.  Goal–100 students x $20 a month for one year = $24,000. Given–205 students x $20 a month for one year = $50,170. (The 12 month commitment represents pledges for this cause).

Package meals through our partner Feed My Starving Children.  Goal–package 100,000 meals at Passion 2010 and give $17,500 to cover costs. Given/Done–108,432 meals packaged and $17,533.32 given.

Sponsor children affected by HIV/AIDS in Mozambique with World Vision.  Goal–200 students x $35 monthly/package 1000 Caregiver kits. Given–174 students x $35 monthly/1000 caregiver kits assembled.

Drink coffee and fund projects in Ethiopia through our partner Gobeana Coffee.  Given–$24,548.
Total given at Passion 2010 = $724,480.42.

IN ADDITION, a family at Passion 2010 matched the total as of Tuesday morning with a gift of $668.597.00.

And here’s what Michael Kelly had to say about it all:

That is audacious. It’s astounding. It’s unbelievable.

And perhaps there’s a ton we can learn there. Maybe in discipleship as a whole, the problem isn’t that people are getting left behind; maybe it’s that we’re not expecting enough from them. Not expecting enough financially. Enough commitment. Enough intellectual output. Maybe Christ was onto something when he said that if anyone wants to follow Him, they should come and die.

So what do you think? Do we expect too little from our church, fellow Christians, and ourselves? Personally, I think Michael makes a good point. Maybe we live by a comfortable Christianity that expects little beyond regular attendance on Sunday and Wednesday, monthly tithing, and enrollment in one of the hottest new programs to hit the church since Jabez. More on this tomorrow…but feel free to leave some thoughts.

(HT: Zach Nielsen)

If you can’t see this video (for Facebookers), click here.

(HT: Zach Nielsen)