Cinco de Viernes: P-P-P-PRAAAISE REPORT

January 27, 2012 in oh internets, you are full of so many things. 0

I’ve been sleeping on an air mattress for the past four months, and as expected the sleep has been mediocre. I like to tell people that it makes my back stronger. But the sleep turned from mediocre to terrible about a week ago when the mattress got a leak. I’d pump it up before going to bed, fall asleep and than wake up around 6 to a deflated mattress and wire bed frame. It wasn’t fun. But by the good graces of a friend I received a FUTON. It’s a couch, it’s a bed, it’s AMAZING. Can you say PRRRAAAIIIIISSSSSEEE REPORT?!

Anyways, here’s what you’re here for…..

1. Apparently this is blog about Mentorship week on the interwebs. Michael Hyatt posted today on Five Ways to Find a Mentor, and earlier in the week Brad Lomenick did the same. Both articles are great practical resources on getting and being mentored. When I was looking for a mentor I came across Jeff Goin’s article on the subject, and it’s my favorite of the three.

2. Don’t Like Your Job? Here’s some great wisdom on work, vocation, and motives behind staying/leaving a job. If I wrote what I learned this year from working a job that isn’t my dream job it would be this. Difficult words to hear, but true nonetheless.

3. “Forsake all fraudulent success.  Make Jesus your goal, your arrival, your identity, your comfort, your okayness, and he’ll gladly give himself to you — and on terms of grace.  But reach for anything else, and it will turn into its opposite and betray you.” Read the whole post from Ray Ortlund here.

4. New York Times article titled “The Book of Books: What Literature Owes the Bible.” The title says it all. Good piece.

5. A song from my favorite Russian Jew Pianist.

That’s the week! What great finds am I missing from the internet? Do you wish that you had a COUCH that turned into a BED?

Little Burning Bonsai Tree

January 24, 2012 in Time with Teh Lemonsmith 0

Photo credit: Pedrosimoes7 (Creative Commons)

I wonder if living by faith, becomes any easier with age. Like it comes to a point where it’s like breathing, and you don’t have to think about it anymore questioning and pondering your decisions. Do you eventually reach a mountain top of faith where you’re just like yea i need to do that and head off in that direction confident that it is what God wants of you?

I sure hope so.

Mother Teresa said to “not waste our time in looking for extraordinary experiences in our life of contemplation but live by pure faith, ever watchful and ready for His coming by doing our day-to-day duties with extraordinary love and devotion.”

I agree with her, but I wish it wasn’t so. My wish would be for God to do the whole burning bush thing every day for me. That I’d wake up, rub the sleep out of my eyes, and than turn over to a little burning bonsai tree that sat on my nightstand. I’d listen to God talk through the burning bonsai giving me a checklist of daily to-dos, and a 2 week forecast of what was to come. Today you need to go to work, give the homeless dude at Safeway five dollars, call your buddy on the phone and ask him how he is doing. Next week your rent is due, but don’t worry I’ll make sure you have enough money in the bank.

I get that faith is what brings us close to God. I get it. It’s just that having faith in God is hard to muster up sometimes.

thanks for letting me borrow the prayer Merton.

“MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

Tell the Good News

January 23, 2012 in This needs to be read. 0

I wanted to hear what Jesus had to say so I read through the red letters in the book of Luke taking note of the portions that stood out. Jesus really knew how to phrase things to get a person’s attention.

Luke 4:18-19 - “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Luke 5:31-32 - “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Luke 6:20-26 -  “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”

Luke 7:22-23 - “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

Luke 9:23-26 – “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”

Luke 9:58 – “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

Luke 9:62 - “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Luke 10:2 - “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Luke 12:8 – “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God”

Luke 12:22-34 – “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Luke 15:7 – “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

Luke 15:22-24 - “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”

Luke 23:34 - “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”

Luke 24:46-47 - “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

Conversation

January 22, 2012 in Time with Teh Lemonsmith 0

David Crowder Band – Oh My God

January 21, 2012 in Let your ears listen to this one. 0

Blatantly ripped from Usher.

Cinco de Viernes: WE HAVE RAIN!

January 20, 2012 in oh internets, you are full of so many things. 2

Well, the rain has finally come. I flip from side to side on liking and disliking the rain. I like that our reservoirs will fill up, the crops will be watered, and California will be one step closer from not erupting in its annual firestorm. But, I can already tell after two days of riding the continental in the rain that I’ll be quickly jump from the “rain is a blessing!” to the “rain is a curse” ship. But right now I’m on the first ship, humming Indiana Jones, riding through puddles, and getting absolutely soaked. fun. fun.

I’m assuming most of you will be inside this weekend as the water comes down. Here’s five internet treasures to comb through as you read books, drink coffee, and watch the rain pour, pour, pour.

1. An artists spin on Hitchcock and “The Birds.”

2. I have an outdated chunky cellphone that randomly shuts off, but does a fine job of being a telephone and that’s it. Consequently, you’ll never see me in a room full of people glued to my phone. Everyone else in the world has a smartphone and everyone in the world pulls it out the moment they get bored, feel awkward, or every five seconds when it buzzes. I can’t stand it. If you’re hanging out with people, please hang out with the people. You came to hang out, not sit together while individually playing with our phone. Here’s a great idea from a guy who shares my sentiment and who decided to make a fun game of it.

3. I love Francis Chan’s heart, his sincerity, but most of all I love that after reading or watching him preach I know that he hangs with Christ, and it creates in me a desire to want to hang out with Christ. If I had lunch with him I would want him to just tell me about him and Jesus, and what it’s like for him. Here’s a powerful sermon from Chan.

4. Cormac McCarthy is one of the great American authors of our time. He has penned “The Road”, “Blood Meridian”, “All the Pretty Horses” and more. Cormac’s writing style is distinct, and a genius decided to copy the style and create the page Yelping with Cormac where in the voice of McCarthy he writes reviews. brilliant and hilarious.

5. New York Times article on being quiet. Interesting.

What if?

January 18, 2012 in Time with Teh Lemonsmith 0

what if this was the year you started taking your faith seriously?

what if you looked at the words of Jesus and really let them soak in?

what if you made time to pray?

what if you read the promises of the bible and believed them?

what if you listened trusting that God had something to say to you?

what if more than wanting to be the most brilliant theologian, the most charismatic speaker, the most well-known pastor, you wanted to be connected to God?

what if you took a step of faith?

what if Jesus meant what he said?

What if the God who answered the prayers of Elijah, David, and Joseph wants to answer your prayers?

What if you fed the hungry, befriended the friendless,  helped the needy, even if it meant being outside your comfort zone?

What if you woke up each day thanking God?

What if the creator of the universe is aching for you to speak to Him?

What if you stopped criticizing the church, and began to change the church?

What if you loved your neighbor as yourself?

What if?

Tobacco Killed My Camera

January 16, 2012 in Time with Teh Lemonsmith 3

I found it under the mattress. Blue package, intricate logo and a warning that “Smoking Kills.” People leave all kinds of stuff in hostels. I had heard stories of cleaners finding iPods, drug paraphernalia, jewelry, hats, knives, and just about anything else you could imagine. Only earlier in the week I happened upon 50 euros which would be my greatest find. I hurried to the grocer grinning with my luck, and filled a bag of potatoes, pasta and bread to make a proper feast. That was a good day. Continue Reading…

Shaping Our World by Following Christ

January 14, 2012 in This needs to be read. 1

“If you are to shape your world in following Christ, it is not enough to say that being a Christian and being a professional or an academic (to address these worlds particularly for the moment) is about high moral standards, using every opportunity to talk to people about Jesus, praying for or with your students, being fair in your grading and honest in your speaking. All that is vital and necessary, but you are called to something much, much more. You are called, prayerfully, to discern where in your discipline the human project is showing signs of exile and humbly and boldly to act symbolically in ways that declare that the powers have been defeated, that the kingdom has come in Jesus the Jewish Messiah, that the new way of being human has been unveiled, and to be prepared to tell the story that explains what these symbols are all about. And in all this you are to declare, in symbol and praxis, in story and articulate answers to questions, that Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not; that Jesus is Lord and Marx, Freud and Nietzsche are not; that Jesus is Lord and neither modernity nor postmodernity is. When Paul spoke of the gospel, he was not talking primarily about a system of salvation but about the announcement, in symbol and word, that Jesus is the true Lord of the world, the true light of the world.”

-The Challenge of Jesus, N.T. Wright

Cinco de Viernes: OH MY GOODNESS!

January 13, 2012 in oh internets, you are full of so many things. 2

Don’t worry everybody Cinco de Viernes is continuing forward in this new year! Surprisingly with the end of the world fast approaching the internet continues to churn out interesting articles, cat pictures, and funny videos. With my keen eye for excellence I present the five things on the internet that captured my attention for more then 10 seconds. Continue Reading…

Page 1 of 4712345»102030...Last »