May 9
Lousy T-Shirt, next In a Pit with a Lion
Saturday, May 9, 2009 @ 5:11 pm by Josh Burcham
I meet with a group of guys every week and God has used these men to challenge, encourage and at time just put me in my place. There have been raised voices, yelling, cussing, crying and a whole other range of emotions as we learn and are challenged to love God and love people. I can’t wait to see what is next in this story.
But we have officially finished our first book! We actually went out to dinner with wives (except for me, I don’t have one) to celebrate the occasion and now we are eagerly awaiting the new book to start! I don’t know what our problem is, but apparently our group can only work through books with crazy long titles.
This is my thoughts that I wrote down in my moleskin about Lousy T-shirt:
- The more we understand God’s love for us. The more we are able to be express-ers of that love. I can’t love others like Christ loved me, until I understand how He loved me. The more I understand and experience the more I can love like Jesus loved.
- It always starts with your heart and a great place to start is humbling yourself. “get over yourself, you aren’t that great.”
- God changes heart, not us. “I [Paul] planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” 1 Corinthians 3:6-7
- I have the privilege to worship the Most High God. Creator of the universe. Sinful me. God still loves my praise.
- “I typically view the person in front of me as an obstacle to accomplishing my true mission, but Jesus viewed the person in front of Him as His true mission.” -Lousy T-shirt pg. 122
- Jesus washed feet! The position of the lowest servant in the household He took upon Himself. How do we show that same type of love and service to those around us? Do we let people take advantage of us? I would say yes, yes we do. Because we want them to meet Jesus and experience His love. We get over ourselves and just love others.
- Forgiveness doesn’t make sense.
- I know what it means to have a true enemy, one out to get me, and I am called to love them!
- It is not always quiet. There is noise in life and you have to push through it and hear God’s whisper. Don’t get me wrong, we still need to be still and know that He is God, but we still need to learn how to hear God’s voice in the chaos of life.
- The “Good News” isn’t good to people anymore. You can blame that on whatever you want, but the fact of the matter it’s true. We need to love people the way Jesus loved them. Making the “good news” good again.
- The bible speaks truth, always. “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double‑edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12. Scripture speaks to the heart. Not sometimes, but always. If the Bible isn’t speaking to your heart, it is your heart that has the issue.
We are about to continue to this next book. I encourage you to start the journey if you haven’t already. Open your Bible and let God examine your heart!
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