SHARING?

We have been talking about how God has blessed us (materially and financially) and that we in turn ought to be blessing others (materially and financially).
That sharing of blessing invovles helping those on the margins of society, the homeless, poor, sick etc. And whenever we talk about such things there are those who become upset and very defensive....I was trying to figure out why that is (beyond the obvious fact that we highly value money. It along with our kids are the closet things to our heart) and maybe it is the fact that we just dont want to share.

One of the first things we try to teach our kids as they begin to play with others is that they need to share. But it seems the older we get someone needs to teach us to share.

"The Gift of Psalms" book review

“The Gift of Psalms” (published by Thomas Nelson) is a devotional book from 50 of the best known Psalms. Along with a devotion for 50 Psalms it comes with a CD. The book itself is beautifully put together, nicely laid out with glossy pages.
The devotions as, stated in the title, cover some of the best known Psalms. At that point the book takes on a big challenge. With a plethora of devotional books on the market, to try to come up with some new and original devotionals from the Psalms, the book falls short. The devotionals themselves are somewhat boring to read, though they tend to be a little more interesting hearing them read from the CD
I always have problems with authors who feel they have to correct the scriptures because it does not quite fit their theology.
Eg. On the 24th Psalm where David says “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?” (referring to heaven) David answers, “He who has clean hands and a pure heart…” The writer then says, “Not one of us can say that he or she has ‘clean hands and a pure heart…’ If that is the case then I suppose none of us will go to heaven and thus we are doomed to a life of trials and temptations without any hope of a happy hereafter.
Out of a possible 5 stars I would give the book 2.

YOU GOT TO SEE THIS

This is a commercial that was to air during the superbowl, but NBC rejected it. Since then it has been seen by over a million people on youtube.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyfmtUjNJEk

Raising Christian Kids?

As we talked about money and material wealth yesterday morning, with the idea that God owns everything and everything we have belongs to God and anything we have is only because God has allowed us to have it (from the parable of the talents Matthew 24)

A comment was made that we try to raise our kids as Christians. As I think about that this morning, what does that mean? What does it mean to raise our kids as Christians?

Assuming (and hoping) that we would say we raise our kids to be like Jesus, What kind of Jesus?
There are at least 2 types of Jesus. The one Jesus is the American Jesus. This Jesus is middle class, hard working-good pay, nice acting, suburban Jesus.
The other Jesus is the biblical Jesus. Homeless, not owning anything, concerned about the outcast of society (poor, sick, naked etc), persecuted, crucified Jesus.

Which Jesus are we raising our kids to be like?

Free e-book

Here is a link for a free leadership e-book put together by Exponential network


http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/docs/leadershiplearnings-V1.pdf