Altar Ego by Craig Groeschel

Do you ever look in the mirror and think, “there should be more to life than this. I hate my life. My inside does not match my outside. Somewhere there is a huge disconnect.” I know I have and I know Craig Groeschel has because he wrote about it in his newest book, Altar Ego.

Craig grew up attending church yet didn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus until he was in college and he woke up one morning thinking the very thoughts I mention above. Later that day he fell to his knees on a baseball field and confessed he wasn’t able to do his life on his own.  He is the lead pastor of lifechurch.tv, the largest church in America today with over 15 campuses across the nation. People from all over the world tune in via the internet to listen to him preach.

In case you are wondering if I misspelled the word “altar” or if they misspelled it, the answer is “not on your life.” We are to lay our ego down on God‘s altar and pick up the person He created us to be. But before we can pick up that person, we have to lay down our own desires and learn who God says we are.

We also have to believe it. We have to say, “I am God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works!” and live like we believe it. We have to deny, turn off and ignore the inner self saying who we aren’t. Before we can do that though, we have to know who we are in God’s eyes. Just how does He see us, really. We all know He sees us as perfect and holy because that has been preached for decades. Yet we still don’t seem to really know, deep down know, who we are in Him.

Craig takes us through the steps he used in his own journey.  He tells us we are God’s masterpiece, an overcomer and God’s ambassador. Lest you think you’re “just ___________________(fill in the blank), he is quick to point out, “you are an undercover agent for God Most High in ____________________ (fill in the blank).

He says often in the book, “When you know who you are, you will know what to do.”   We are to “sacrifice cultural relativity for eternal values.” How? By Living with patience, integrity, honor, and gratitude. We are to sacrifice self-justification for passionate obedience. How? By praying bold prayers, using bold behavior, using bold words and being bold in our obedience.

If you want to know how all this is done, you’re going to have to get the book and read it for yourself. If while you wait, you want to hear a few messages on this subject click here and you can watch Craig preach on these very things.

This book held my attention from the first word. It’s an excellent book for anyone. I would highly recommend it to youth leaders, Sunday school teachers and small group/Bible study leaders.  If you’re serious about wanting to know what God says about you, what He says you are, read this book. Underline, make notes in the margins. You’ll be glad you did. And the world will be changed.

 

I received a free copy of this book  from the publisher for the purpose of review.

 

Fearless Daughters of the Bible

I’ve been pondering just what I should do about this book, Fearless Daughters of the Bible by J. Lee Grady.  I haven’t yet been able to finish it and that is part of my conundrum.

You see in the introduction and first chapter I was offended by the author three times.  I do not believe anyone who lives with anyone of the opposite gender is qualified to write a book about and for the opposite gender. I do not believe I am in anyway qualified to write a book about men of the Bible for men today. Because I’m not a man. I have lived with one for most of my life, I have several male friends, I regularly interact with men, and I am married to one. That does not qualify me to write a book for them or about them at all.

The author of Fearless Daughters of the Bible is a man. He feels qualified to write a book for woman and about women because he is married and has daughters. But ladies, I’m going to be perfectly frank with you, he doesn’t get it because he doesn’t get us.

This is NOT a blog post for bashing men. If you are thinking that is all I am doing, you couldn’t be further from the truth. That is not my intent.

Women throughout history have been maligned by men, our gender has been accused of using our power of influence and even our beauty for evil. J. Lee Grady states in his opening chapter that Sarah‘s beauty got her in trouble.

It wasn’t her beauty. In fact, she wasn’t even the one “in trouble.” No, the one “in trouble” was non other than her husband, Abraham. Why was he in trouble? Because he told her to lie about their relationship to save his own scrawny neck.

Yes, Sarah was indeed beautiful. But that wasn’t the problem. Abraham’s lack of faith was the problem.

The other thing that offended, he tells a story of a missionary who was asked to be the senior pastor a church in Singapore. She believed it was unbiblical for women to be senior pastors. She prayed about it and changed her mind. Now, I do believe women are not to be  in authority over men, I believe women, biblically are no to be pastors. Lead women’s Bible studies, sure, pastor a church? No.

I am so tired of people claiming God changed their mind and so now they are doing what man asked of them because “it was wrong before but now it’s right.” God doesn’t change! If it was for the first century church, it’s wrong for the twenty-first century church. Even though Paul penned the words, he did so under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Sigh.

So there you have it. I obviously can’t say I recommend this book.

 

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of an honest review.

“I’ll be in an asylum”

Last night at the supper table I shared with my family a gasp-for-my-breath moment I had in church this past Sunday.

I was sitting in church, minding my own business while listening intently to what the pastor was sharing, when out of the blue this thought hit me,

You don’t have a will. You have no idea who will take charge of your children when Mr. FullCup and yourself depart this earth.

It’s true. We don’t have a will. We haven’t asked anyone specifically to guardian our children in the event of our passing.  We are both entering a “more interesting” age, an age when it is definitely easier to tell you what doesn’t hurt in the morning, than what does. We’re old people with young children.

I thought immediately of a young man in our church, the girls are crazy about him and we all love him. But he doesn’t have a Mrs. I don’t know about you but I’m a little leery of sending my girls to live with a man alone, even though we love him and trust him. I just can’t do it.

Then I thought of two friends who are married (to each other, in fact, which is an added bonus) and wondered if we should ask them. My mind though kept going back to the young man.  It was flitting so quickly between the couple and young man I was afraid I would get whiplash.

Anyway, I was telling my family about this mental conversation I was having and kept having despite repeat mental slaps to the head and shouting “FOCUS!” I told my girls that really it could all be a moot point because if we expired when our oldest was 18, she would automatically get guardianship of her younger sister.

The younger sister looked at me in abject horror.

The older one gloated. She also was trying to figure out what grade her sister would be be and said, “You would be in………”

“High school?” from the younger sister.

When her older sister didn’t reply because she was still thinking, the younger one said:

“An asylum?”

Mondays

You know, every now and again a book keeps coming to your attention and you keep rejecting it until finally you can reject it no more. So you find yourself reading this book you’ve passed over so many times. You’re sure you won’t like the book. You have the “why bother” attitude.

And then you’re sucked into the good book vortex and you have no hopes of ever getting out alive. I just read such a book.

Bet you couldn’t have guessed that, right?

If you are debating reading Mondays with My Old Pastor by Jose Ruis Navajo, please, debate no further and read the book!

Jose Ruis Navajo is a young pastor who is really struggling with every aspect of ministry life. His wife encouraged him to speak to his hold pastor.  Now I do need to interject here a moment and let you know the use of “old pastor” is not at all derogatory, but is in reference to his being older and a former pastor.

He calls his old pastor and sets up a time to visit on Monday. Without really the real situation Jose was dealing with he spoke to every aspect of the struggle.

They meet for several weeks and there is a chapter for each Monday. And each one will have you reaching for your pen, or pencil as you underline great truths you’ve known for years but never really thought of it that way.

There are a million quotes I could post here but I want you to read the book. So I’ll just give you one.

“My life has sprung forth from the shade of the cross. I have always lived protected by it, and I want the cross to be the ladder that lifts me up to His presence when my times comes.”

Honestly, dear readers, you need to read this book!

I received this book free from the publisher which in no way affected my positive review.

 

This might be a rant.

Because I might be in the mood.

I heard this morning on the radio about a church across the state from me who helps pastors in India. They were sharing a need the Indian pastors had. The need was for school supplies for the children of India. School supplies they had to buy  for school but the families did not have the funds to provide them.

They started sharing that by saying “We woke up in a warm bed. You wasted a lot of hot water getting ready for your day. You drove in ONE of your cars to go to work.”

They laid the guilt on thick. And I say NO MORE. The Bible clearly states that God determines our boundaries. He determines where we are born. Am I saying God loves me more than He love the people of India because I was born in the United States of America and not in India?

Not at all. I’m not saying that because I don’t believe it. Not for an instant. I have been blessed by God and I am not opposed at all to share the blessings He has given me.

However, I am completely opposed to those who think the way to get money is to guilt trip Christians into giving. The Bible clearly states God loves a CHEERFUL giver. One who gives from the heart and not out of compulsion. In other words, no one is telling you that you HAVE to give.

The Bible also very clearly states if a man (woman) doesn’t work they don’t eat.That is not a principle just for Americans. Know how I know that? America wasn’t discovered yet.

A few years ago I was attending the Global Leadership Summit and heard a man from Africa speak to this very thing. He said the way to help the starving in Africa was NOT to send them money hand over fist. It was, according to him, to give them work. Teach them skills they could use to earn a living. America it seems is not the only country with an entitlement mentality problem. Apparently the world over when people realize they can get money by NOT working they opt for the easy way and don’t work.

So the answer is not to throw money, it’s not to guilt people into   giving, it’s to teach the poor around the globe to work. Teach them a marketable skill and let them provide for themselves. And watch everyone’s economy grow.

I will not be made to feel guilty for owning a house, car (yes, we have one car), and having hot water. I will not be made to feel guilty because God choose America as my place of birth.

God Smiles

Do you ever have those times when you just know God is smiling at you? Times when things happen and you know it is just because of Him and it has nothing to do with you at all? Times when the fact that He loves you goes way a nice thought in your head and infiltrates your entire being?

Me too. In fact I just had one.

Our pastor and I are polar opposite in personality. He is very detailed, he plans everything. I’m sure he plans on planning. He has plans for his plans, if you know what I mean. I am so not detailed oriented at all. I can focus on details but it usually ends in a headache for me and every now and again I’m forced to jump out of the detail box and run like a crazy freak around the building. Maybe you’ve seen me? This can result in some all in fun teasing.

Every week our pastor has a sermon outline for the administrative assistant to make as well as  power point presentation slides to do. He wants all his lines to match up exactly. I usually know they didn’t quite make it when he hands the outline back with a lot of blue markings on it.

The end of last week our pastor was out of town on a much needed time of relaxing.The week prior he had planned on being gone but that fell through, he still took the Sunday off. So that meant two weeks in a row I did not have to do the outline or the powerpoint slides. Yay me!

This morning I was busy with those (oh and the outline does not mean I have to come with his three points. No, it’s an outline for the bulletin. Complete with fill-in the blanks to keep people from sleeping in the pews) and ack! It’s time to take the girls to piano lessons. Oh ack again, the 11 year is still being taught math, take the younger one and go.

Come back and take the older one.

Each time I left I left in a hurry and thought I’d text the pastor from the stoplight down the hill. Darn light was green. The next light was red though until I got out my phone. I checked the clock on my way back after droping the second girl off and I had approximately 15 minutes to work before needing to head out the door again.

Then God Smiled at me.

I received a text from a good friend and the girls’ piano teacher, “Would you like me to drop the girls off after lessons?”

Bless you, my dear wonderful friend and even more wonderful Friend!

It just made me smile and made my day!

Abstract

I am not Type-A. In fact I am so not type-A I think I am type-Z. What is “type-z” you ask? The furthest  thing from type-a you can get and still be in the alphabet.

I am abstract. I don’t plan. I fly by the seat of my pants. The pictures in my house are not hung with all edges the same height. They are generally straight though because Mr. FullCup makes sure of that. If I had to have all my ducks in a row, it would not be a very straight row.  I am not a detail-oriented person by any stretch of the imagination.

That is not to say I can’t focus on details. I can. I spent 7 years working as dental assistant and for that  you have to be able to focus on details.  I also spent a few years working as an administrative assistant/ secretary. Detail. Detail. Detail.

Last week the pastor asked that I create a document for our associate pastor. He wanted a sign up sheet for a 12-hour prayer vigil at our church on the National Day of Prayer.  He told me how to design it and I gave it my best shot. I emailed it to the associate pastor on Thursday or Friday of last week.

Then the poop hit the fan in a not so good way. The computer in the church office crashed due to not one but four trojan horses running rampant. Yeah and you thought you had problems.

I was asked about the sign up on Sunday by the pastor. I told him I had emailed it to the other pastor and hadn’t heard anything back.

Monday I have to ask the associate pastor to send it back as I am not pleased with the file and can’t find it on the computer at all.

Which brings me to today. And the point of this session of yammering. I fixed the file. I got it the way I wanted it. I printed it off and showed the pastor.

He is type-a. He is into details. He likes all his boxes to line up in neat little rows. He wasn’t as pleased as I was with the document. He enjoys teasing me about our vastly different personalities.

I truly like the differences in people. I like that there are abstract people like me and concrete people like him. I really do. It can just be so hard to work with a concrete thinker-person.

I sweated and worked on this document for a couple of hours, at  one point scratching the whole thing and starting over. I tried everything I could to get my boxes all in a row. I worked hard to get the columns the same length. I held on to my sanity by a sliver of a thread while I added to the margins and subtracted from the margins.

If I was Catholic I might have said a few Hail Mary‘s while I worked with paper orientation. I sweated it out while I again changed the height on all the boxes. Only to find half of one box in the next column and the third column was half a block shorter than the other two.

But I was done. I was finished. I could think of no other way to get it all even-steven. So with a prayer and a shudder, I sent it to the printer.

With great fear and trepidation, I handed it to the pastor when I next saw him.

He loved it.

And we all say “Glory! Hallelujah!”

Screaming like a banshee

I am once again filling in our church office. I don’t mind doing it at all. In fact, I feel honored that I can and that they let me do it.  I know there are more people who are much more qualified to fill in than I am but still they let me.

Yesterday morning the pastor called before I got there and left a message. In it he said he was going to take a few hours and rest before coming in the office. Now you have to know something, this man works like a dog. Actually that isn’t true, I think a dog takes more naps and breaks than the pastor does. Our pastor worked several extra hours last week preparing for the funeral and just being available to the family and the church family. He did all this in addition to preparing his sermon for Sunday and everything else he does.

Whew. It makes me tired just thinking about it. I didn’t think anything about his taking a few hours to rest and not coming in until around noon. Until he called around 10:30 or 11 and said he’d be coming in “in a few hours.”

He did show up around 1. Which really was not a problem. Until the office phone rang, while he was standing in the office hollering.

Or screaming like a girl. Take your pick.

Just why was he screaming? He was opening his mail and got a paper cut from something heavier than copy paper, heavier than card stock. But not as heavy as a manila folder or a cardboard box. He was hollering and shaking his hand so violently I was afraid it would look like I had killed the pastor in there.

Which I would never do. I just had a horrible thought. I’ve been hooked on CSI: Miami the past couple of weeks and let’s just wonder what would happen if this poor man were to turn up dead some place? Would I be the second on the suspect list? Second because you know the spouse is always the first.

I am just going to go out on a limb and say this, I do not wish the man dead or injured. Not at all. Mainly because I’m way too nice for, and partly for two other reasons, 1) I’m afraid of his wife and 2) I get sick at the sight of blood.

I don’t mean just a little upset stomach. No, it’s more than a simple bout of nausea. It’s  not pretty. And let’s not talk about it anymore.

Medication for Meditation

In church yesterday the pastor was a little lost, which in and of itself is hysterically funny. To me. But then I’m the type of girl who walks into a church in a strange city and tells the pastor I’m lost.

Yes, I’ve done that…on purpose. It was more fun, of course once I realized what he thought I was saying and what I was actually saying were not quite the same thing.

Picture this, the opening song and announcements have been made, everyone is seated when you hear a booming voice coming from the general regions of the ceiling, “I’m COMING!”

That will put the fear of God into you right quick.

The  pastor then appeared and I’ll not lie, it was a letdown. He said something about always forgetting his mic. He announces some prayer requests and asks if there are any others and then says, “Now we’ll have a time of silent meditation.” Only he didn’t really mean it. What he meant to say was, “And now Mr. GreyPants will lead us in another song.”

Immediately following that song the pastor stepped to the pulpit and announced that “Now we will have a time of mild medication.”

(I am working on a few other blog posts that I’ll get posted this week and I still have our week 7 update on Catherin.)