Do you know what I love? I love having people around me who are irrationally, foolishly, and radically committed to getting me to Jesus Christ! I love that God has created this huge vacuum in my life that only He can fill. I also love that God has wired me and created me for others. (Gen 2.18; Acts 2.42) It's not that I get to 'share life' with others... I am made to pursue life, Christ, mystery, beauty, wonder, awe, life-change, and world change with others. I am made, by God, to have others on the corner of my mat carrying me to Him. I am made to carry the mat of my friends and to relentlessly commit to getting them to Christ. I am pre-wired by God for that very purpose. I need others. So do you. Otherwise, I am paralyzed by my 3x6 mat that holds my small thoughts, dreams, commentary about the faith, impact..... and on and on. I don't want to be paralyzed!

God, because He is infinitely knowledgeable, has wired me to commit and connect to others. Jesus connected with 12.... Deeply connected with 3.... and exegeted God's action concerning others as he walked this earth. I love that challenge yesterday. Honestly, I am a bit of a loner. I choose to be alone before I choose a crowd, anyday. I love the continual, biblical challenge to step out of my own comfort zone and seek others. I don't want to live paralyzed by my small goals. I want to surround myself by people who relentlessly seek to get me to Jesus! So, I asked myself yesterday.. what is one step that I need to make in order to more deeply commit to an others first perspective?

I will wrestle with that answer. I hope that we all will. At EBC, we think that we are onto something which we will initiate in January. Because we are passionate for the Word... for serving... and for others, we intend to open our small groups even more. We are going to unite in the Word for a season. We are going to birth multiple small groups. We are going to grow, as one after One. I am so primed about this season in the life of EBC.

Perhaps a single step for you may be opening your home in January? It may be leading a small group in the study of the Word? It may be committing to a small group?

What is the step?...... Give chase!

Feel free to comment below.

By Grace... For Glory,
Mark

Just when I think that the annual Tailgate Fest cannot get any better.... it happens again. It was beautiful to watch kids play..... to stand in the middle of the concourse and listen to the laughter.... to smell amazing food.... to look at everyone wearing the colors of their favorite teams..... to experience our students playing 'trash cans' and throwing down some sweet rhythms.... to watch Ian and Jamie utterly and completely free the fools..... to have our kids enjoy the night of their lives as they jumped, played, and loved life... it was beautiful! It was the church being the church in the most beautiful of ways! Hey, we even threw a marriage proposal into the mix. A group is gathering and eating and enjoying a sweet little fire... that seems like a good time to ask the woman that you love to marry you! I love the tailgate fest! We'll do it again next year!!

We kicked off the series with the cry to 'free to fool'. At times, it's just foolish to consider following Christ. It's foolish to dream of changing the world... to consider expanding the fame of our God... to anticipate that God doesn't merely consider using you, but fully intends to use you for His greatest glory as you find your greatest satisfaction in Him. When you come to know Christ, two things begin to track as you grow into His image. Christ-likeness and Child-likeness track simultaneously in your heart. Spiritual maturity is becoming more and more like Christ and more and more like a child.

Like a child, I want to believe that God is. I want to believe that God moves. Like a child, I want to believe that He can do as He chooses. I want to believe God-sized things and actually see Him bring His activity into fruition. I want to care far less about what others think and I want to care far more about what God thinks. I want to be God-conscious rather than self-conscious! I want to walk on water.... free captives.... live for His glory.... revel in Him.... dance... dream.... hope.... and vision! I want Christ.

I want the Word (logos = the written, living,and indwelling Christ) to dwell in me richly. I want to encourage others as I sing, dance, live, move and have my being in Him. I want to confound the wise and the strong and the together, because God chooses to free a fool like me - in all my simplicity and incapability - to most glorify His name.

I want Christ. I want to be a fool for Christ. I want to be surrounded by fools, so that we might just release His character in this earth.

Freeing fools... that's Jesus!

Enjoy today. Comment, if you like, by clicking below.

By Grace... For Glory,

Mark

What the praying man does is to bring his will into line with the will of God so God can do what He has all along been willing to do. This whole idea of prayer and God leading us into things that we could never accomplish on our own simply stuns me. Honestly, I don't want people to be able to explain my life. Beyond that, I long for things to be happening beneath the banner of Emmanuel that are simply inexplicable apart from God's life and presence living through us.

So, I want to make the most of every opportunity. I want to seek to know God, so much so that my reaction and my life is a 'gut reaction'. What flows from my life and my decisions and my relationships and my expenditures and my passions and my pain are visceral statements about the core of who I am in Christ. It seems to me that this capacity to grow into a tree and to lend shade to the weary (spiritually and physically) and life to the soaring is directly correlated to my willingness to know God. I want to know Him. As the Emmanuel family, I want to explore the depths in Christ together. I want to be known for knowing Him!

The aramaic word for prayer can be translated 'to set a trap'. Being a person who pursues Christ and pursues His Word allows me to 'set the trap' in order to catch every opportunity that God sends our way. As the writer of the book of Chronicles states, the eyes of the Lord scan the land searching for those whose hearts are radically turned on to His heart. When He finds those people, He will invite them to join Him in what He is already willingly doing.

So, seek God. As Matthew 13.31 - 32 unpacks for us, the Kingdom of God looks like a bunch of people who really can become a bunch of scrub bushes. Yet, when Christ steps in, we can become trees SO THAT those around us who are weary or those who are soaring might find life! May we be a people who have found, in Christ, more than enough. May we rest there, in Him! May the weary and the impassioned find sustenance in Who they find is in our life and IS our life!

I love these words from the interview with Dr. Bill Bright.... I am a doulos (a bond servant) of Jesus Christ. The overarching goal of my life is to simply know the will of my master, Jesus Christ, and to align my life with His will. I don't have to be successful..... I simply must know Christ and that knowledge eliminates problems. All that is left is opportunities to see and join God at work.

God is willing and He is acting. Prayer invokes our lives into His will and His actions. Let's chase the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Jesus Christ), so that He can guide us toward other lions worth chasing!

Give chase. Feel free to comment below.

By Grace... For Glory,

Mark