To read #5 through #3 click here.

#2 Failure
It sounds a little weird, I know, but God is desperately trying to teach me how to fail. That is the only explanation I have for the fact that I seem to do it a lot. (And I mean a lot) I am convinced that God would rather use people who have learned to fail and fail on a grand scale then those that are only successful. I know that it is not His desire to see us fail, but I also know that He seems to teach me more through my failures then my success many times.

As the famous quote goes:

“Show me a man who has never failed,
I’ll show you a man who has never tried.”

I have never thought of my self as a great person, but I have never thought of myself as a failure either. That is what God is teaching me. I am. A big one at that. If I start to think of myself as anything other than that, then what need do I have for the power of Christ in my life.

I look back at the “heroes” of the Bible and think, “Wow, God had his pick of the whole world and chose these guys?” I mean go back through and look at the people He uses to affect His will throughout the Bible. Liars, prostitutes, cheaters, drunks, adulterers, murderers, cowards, and I could go on and on. The point is I am no better then these people. I just have to come to grips with that and admit it in order for Him to use me.

I AM A FAILURE!

Are you?

So I forgot to add this book to my recap of reading the other day. here are a few quick hits that I took form this book:

• Everything a church does creates an Impression, good and bad. What Impression are you making?
• If you don’t have a plan for guests they will notice and they will have a plan, to not come back.
• Marketing materials are a first impression. From the Web site on down to every printed piece in your building
• The building itself can leave an impression. Is it clean? Dirty? Cluttered? Full? Empty?
• Plan. Plan some more. Then Plan again. Make sure you are thinking of all the ways guests are going to come and plan for them.
• Put yourself in their shoes.

If you want to see why I was reading this book, check out this First Impressions Manual I put together for my church.
All in all if you are trying to do a better job with your guests this is a great read and will get your brain thinking.

G- “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you then these requirements: You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or eating the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this you will do well.” Acts 15:28,29

R- I think that as Christians we can often times put too much on the plate of new believers. we expect them to cut off every tie with their old sinful life and become everything God wants for them overnight. Well thats just not practical. The apostles faced this same dilemma in the new church. they had a bunch of new gentile converts and some of the Jews wanted then to adhere to Jewish law. I think that the church sometimes expects that of new believers and we end up pushing them away. We need to understand that they are new persons in Christ but that turning away from their old lifestyles takes time. The Apostles gave four things that I think we need to encourage in new believers

1. Do not  eat meat sacrificed to Idols(Maintaining Spiritual Purity)-obviously this keeps with the first commandment
2. Abstain from sexual immorality(Maintain Physical Purity)- keep your body pure
3. Do no consume blood(Maintain Emotional Purity)- blood was/is the thing that holds life. the heart was the center for the blood and our emotions
4. Do not eat meat from strangled Animals(Maintain Cultural Purity)- this was a big deal to the Jewish culture in the day and in following this new Christians were able to keep peace with the Jews and not create a barrier for more people to come to Christ.

These are the 4 things that we need  to be encouraging new Christians in, without expecting them to just up and change everything in their lives overnight.

O-Lord help me not only to encourage new believers to follow these four things, but also to follow them myself. Help me to give grace to those who accept you and to help them in becoming more mature in You, even as I strive daily in this myself.

W- One way I can put this into practice is to start a study for new believer in my church, helping them along, in their new faith.

THink about it!

Just Got the Word!

The moment you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived!  The first public beta of YouVersion.com is LIVE and is waiting for you!

Simply go to YouVersion.com and register.  After confirming your account, you’ll be able to:

• Search for scripture or scroll through our Bible Reader
• Star verses and content
• Tag verses and content
• Contribute images, videos, links, and text to passages
• Start journaling with the Journal tool
• See what others are sharing
• Email items to your friends and family
• Rate content
• And so much more…

Head on over there and check it out.

So I just got access to YouVersion beta, to demo and debug it, and i must say this is a great tool. I must hand it to the technocrati at LifeChurch.tv, they did an amazing job. I am not sure if I will use it but I know for a lot of people this will be a great tool for getting into the Word. check it out at youversion.com.