First, there was a very long dream that everyone around us was turning into zombies.  And no, I don’t watch zombie movies.

Then I dreamed that my older daughter repeatedly spoke up while I was preaching and asked how much longer the sermon was going to be.  I responded that every time she asked was making it take that much longer, so let’s get on with it, shall we?

Then I dreamed about putting pieces of a Snicker bar in my car’s tank for fuel.

I see three possibilities:

1. Eating nachos after 10 p.m. is a bad idea.
2. There is some underlying fear of my friends turning into zombies that is surfacing from my subconscious.
3. I need therapy.

Thanks to Peggy, my worship leader, for sharing this with me.

In Primal, Mark asserts we have made following Christ too difficult with our man-made constructs and rules.  Jesus taught that the core issue in having a right relationship with God is embracing the Great Commandment.  We are to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.  Batterson equates these elements to compassion, wonder, curiosity, and power, explaining how these four themes drive us closer to Jesus as we walk in them.

As always, Batterson’s writing style is informal and easy to follow.  He does a good job of “putting the cookies on the bottom shelf,” making lofty insights very accessible for all readers.

Primal also does a good job of unpacking what the Great Commandment means in everyday life.  I had often wondered why Jesus mentioned the mind and the soul in the same list, for in my understanding, the soul is made up of the mind, will, and emotions.  Mark clarified this a great deal for me in this book.

One observation that I especially like is that the church is often viewed as heartless because we have “engaged our culture mind-first instead of heart-first.”  Yet, when Jesus describes the four primal elements of love, the heart is listed first.  Mark correctly observes that the mind “often remains closed to truth” until the heart has been “opened by compassion.”  He asserts, “Compassion is the ultimate apologetic.”

There is a wealth of wisdom in this work, and an abundance of fodder for future sermons.  Primal is a book that I will keep on my shelf and utilize for a long time to come.

You can order a copy of Primal here.  My thanks to WaterBrook Multnomah Books for providing me a copy of Primal to review.

The joy that comes from serving in this way is contagious.  It was beautiful to watch everyone work together, laugh, and dream together as they prepared to share Christ’s love in our community.

Did you know that serving and giving in this way is worship?

Jesus said, “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’  The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me’” (Matthew 25:37-40 NIV).

Whatever we do to serve another, to enrich his or her life, and to bless him or her, Jesus considers it an act of kindness toward Him.  Isn’t that amazing?  By loving you, I’m loving Jesus!  By serving you, I’m serving Jesus!

That means that regardless of how those we serve may respond, we have acted in worship of our Lord.  We have taken on the attitude of the wise men who brought gifts to Jesus as a toddler.

When was the last time you worshipped Jesus by giving to or serving someone in need?

Five Characteristics of Weak Leaders by Michael Hyatt.  Excellent lessons from the Civil War.  An absolute must-read if you are in any kind of leadership role.

Trust is not a Two-Way Street by Anne Jackson.  A very thought-provoking look at how love and trust come into play when we are mistreated by others.

Fearlessness by Mark Batterson.  Challenging post on facing our fears.

Great stuff here!  Enjoy!

1. It’s lonely to lead
2. It’s dangerous to succeed
3. It’s hardest at home
4. It’s essential to be real
5. It’s painful to obey
6. Brokenness and failure are necessary
7. My attitude is more important than my actions
8. Integrity eclipse image
9. God’s way is always better than my way
10. Christlikeness begins and ends with humility

Today I was supposed to be in Macedonia with our MAPS team from New Life to minister with a missionary for a week.  The night before we were scheduled to leave, we discovered an issue with one of team members’ passport.  Long story short, it didn’t work out for us to make the trip at this time.

Here’s the thing:  Everyone on the team had a peace about.  Our families had a peace about it.  There is a strong sense that this is right and that we were not supposed to go right now.

Why?  I don’t know.  But God knows.

Why then, if the Lord was going to slam the door shut at the last minute, did He let us go through all of the preparation and fight the battles necessary to make the trip?

I don’t know.  But God knows.

And I do have a clue about it, at least for my part.  Through a series of events and trends, a significant financial need arose the week before we were to make the trip.  It was severe enough that I was very concerned, and getting pretty upset.

So what happened?  Well, without going into details, the Lord spoke through a series of experiences and encounters to show me that I was not walking by faith regarding His provision.  Once I came to that realization, I repented and found a good measure of peace.  And then the next day, God supernaturally met the financial need.

I learned something about my own heart and about God’s provision, all in one whack.

Sometimes we are too consumed with what is happening to us and around us, and we miss what God is wanting to do IN us.

There’s a great line in the first Matrix movie (the only installment of the trilogy worth watching, by the way), where Neo is coming to realize that he is “The One,” even though the Oracle had indirectly led him to believe that he was not.  Morpheus says to him, “There is a difference between knowing the Path and walking the Path.”

We don’t always know what path we are on, and we sometimes are on a different path than we believe.  But this I know:  When we commit our lives to Jesus Christ, He orders our steps and directs our paths.

I’m taking great comfort in that today.

(By the way, were were able to keep our plane tickets and are planning to make the trip next spring.  So, now we get to take more people!)

I spent a few hours at the doctor’s office today after hitting my little toe on the hearth of our fireplace while walking through the house the morning.

The verdict:  Yep.  Fractured and dislocated.

Fortunately, the doctor said that it will still be okay for me to make the trip to Macedonia next week.

I’ve been trying to come up with the most “manly” version of my story possible.  After all, stubbing my toe on the hearth doesn’t really invoke images of Rambo, does it?  Well, the best I can come up with is that my injury is “the result of a high velocity collision with a sheet of limestone.”  It’s true, and it sounds a little better than “this little piggy hit the fireplace.”

The doctor I saw today was excellent.  He is a Christian, and he prayed for me before we left, and even prayed over our trip to Macedonia.

At any rate, here is a picture of the x-ray.  You can see the fracture running diagonally from left to right down the length of the bone.

Please keep me in your prayers for the next few days as I recover.

What he writes, the reader experiences.  His books do not merely inform, but rather they transport the reader into the story so that he or she shares a moment of discovery or insight with the author.

So it is with Max’s new release, Fearless:  Imagine Your Life without Fear.  Many common fears are explored.  From the fear of personal sorrow and pain to the fear of global calamity, Max carries the reader through each experience as only he can, then pulls the curtain back unveiling God’s perspective on our insecurities.

As with Lucado’s other writings, there is not a lot of “how-to’s” and “three step plans” here.  He does not give us a formula to eliminate fear in our lives.  Instead, Max teaches us in the same manner as Jesus: through the power of story.  A life lesson embedded in a common experience.  Insight from incident.  Revelation from observation.  Rather than techniques for dealing with fear, Max delivers us to God’s embrace so that we can hear the reassuring whisper of the Holy Spirit: “Do not be afraid.”

I encourage you to pick up a copy of Fearless.  Let Max paint you a picture of your life without fear.