Weekly Devotional Thought

Hey all,

Been WICKED slack on posting and thought I should get back on the train.  The way this works is I post a devotional thought per week (and other thoughts daily) and then we discuss and share.  If you want to be a guest blogger, e-mail me at CFletcher@mannachurch.org with your post you would like me to consider.

Reading in Colossians for today’s #Word360 reading reminded me of the power of the cross.  At Manna Church, we are going through a series on Religion and examining the damaging effects of losing our focus on the cross and Jesus as our only hope for not only salvation, but the ability to walk daily with Him.

Colossians 2:9-10 – “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ.”

Throw the cross into this equation and now we have an amazingly simple (yet seemingly difficult to grasp) truth.

Jesus died on the cross to take your place and to grant you His righteousness.  Now, we have the fullness of Christ and it is only through commune and relationship with him that we have the ability to walk with Him.

This has been a hugely deep statement for me….. I have lived a relatively “good life.”  A preacher’s kid who was saved at 3 and never committed any of the “big sins.”  Here’s the issue: THE CROSS WASN’T JUST TO SAVE YOU!!! IT IS ALSO TO SANCTIFY YOU AND TO EMPOWER YOU TO FOLLOW HIM!!!   Stew on it for a bit……

 

Sometimes, I superglue my eyelids…….

I know I’ve been ranting and raving about “margins” and taking the time to create “margins” of 30 minutes or more to give space to create.  So it was in that mindset that I ran across this story (courtesy of Reader’s Digest via David Michalski) and thought – LOOK WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE MARGINS!!!!

“Superglue for artificial nails looks a lot like artificial tears, and sometimes people grab the wrong bottle.  They literally glue their eyelids together, and we have to cut their eyelashes to get them apart.  We probably see that ONCE A MONTH.  Read the label before you put anything in your eye.” – Robert Noeker, MD Professor of ophthalmology at University of Pittsburgh

Now, this is an extreme case, but what would happen if we built margin into our days?  We wouldn’t be rushing around grabbing the wrong bottle(s).  What’s the craziest thing you’ve done in a rush?

Let me show you how much I care….

As I type this, I have been sitting in a room for 45 minutes waiting to meet with a professional who I am paying for a service/consultation. Let me catch you up:
1. Parking – my wife asked me, “is this a spot?” Fact: it’s confusing to note where I should be parking.
2. Waiting room – smelly and old.
3. Appointment room – dirty with extension chords, and stained wallpaper from 1970′s.
4. Professional – currently 47 minutes late.
Conclusion: your words matter very little if everything else you are communicating isn’t great. This individual has already placed me at odds and we haven’t even met yet.
Takeaway:
1. What are your non-verbals communicating? Smell, decor, how you dress, etc
2. If you have no margin in your schedule, chronic lateness results.
3. Run a vacuum

“I have the whole story……”

Presumption – the idea that I know enough information to make a determination. How often are our presumptions made before we even go to get another view on a story? I find that mine most often are set in an instant. What a shame.
If the experts are to be believed, most of communication is listening and since most of leadership is communication, there must be a link between listening and leading. We can infer from this that perhaps decisions should come later in the process.
How are you cultivating the art of less presuming and more listening?

Remember common sense??

In today’s suit happy, noisy, and sound byte driven world, remember to hold on to the simple things as long as you can.  I have a saying, “Are we IBM?”  If the answer is “no,” then don’t plan systems, policies, structures, decisions, etc around a hierarchical process that eliminates common sense.  Fight to keep the processes simple, the reports uncomplicated, the people unhindered by red tape, and your decisions grounded.

IBM is a huge company and rightfully must have sweeping policies and procedures in order to keep their behemoth afloat.  But you and I aren’t IBM, so remember common sense.

Challenge to create

We have 24 hours or 1,440 minutes or 86,4000 seconds in a day.  When you think in terms of 30 minute blocks of time, it seems like we must waste so much time throughout the day, right?  I mean, if you sleep 8 hours a night then that leaves you 32 thirty minute blocks throughout the day.  That just blew my mind – 32 thirty minute blocks!?!?!?

Suddenly, I have some vision to make sure that I keep the mundane scheduled into shorter blocks and I work harder to create margin in my day to create.  God made you unique/special/important and then put you on the earth at this time and place in order to make change happen.  What are you doing to create?  What are you doing to create change?

Scheduled a few of those blocks of 30 minutes throughout your day to create/dream/get vision/etc.  Short of ideas?  Read the Bible, observe that the early church did, go do that.

What can you do to create?  What can you create?

Happy 4th of July!!!

I’m not a sappy guy, AND there are plenty of things about America that embarrass me and with which I disagree. BUT I just wanted to quickly post about my love for my country on our independence day.
I am proud to be from a country that appreciates freedom of worship and my freedom to tell others of Jesus love.
I am proud to be from a long line of military men and women. Fletchers have served in every major conflict on which the USA has engaged. I don’t care what you think about the merits of conflict(s), but their sacrifice protected your right to voice your thoughts.
I am proud to be from a country that has, in the past more than today, opened their arms to the foreigner and the alien. If not, I wouldn’t be here and neither would my wife.
Mostly, I enjoy the freedoms that have allowed me to raise this lovely family of mine.
Why are you proud of America?

Free For all Friday

Each week, we ring in the weekend with a Free For all Friday post.  My/Our chance to just post whatever we feel like rambling on concerning and let the chips fall where they may.

This week’s episode finds me in the mood to tackle a really burdensome issue – my front lawn.  As I sit in the air conditioned house about to begin my second cup of coffee, my grass has just reached mid-calf (no, not a heifer, MY calf), in some spots.  This is rather embarrassing and I feel compelled to head out into the wilderness, dodging the occasional tiger as the monkeys playfully banter overhead, but it conjures some bitter feelings for me.

See, when I was lad (just a few short years ago as I am still considered by some to be a lad), weekends were spent as a family out amidst the steadily warming elements.  Tasks were divided among edger, lawn mower, raker, weeds, etc etc (this was also aided by the fact that my father sired a battalion) and were accomplished in half the time of an individual working alone.  However, the sheer size of the lot (and capacity of the archaic 18th century relic  that my dad called a “lawn mower”)  meant that if you drew lawn mower duty, you were stuck for a good 1.5-2hrs and would thus be at a distinct caloric disadvantage when it came whatever-sport-time.  After a few years of these indentured activities, we began a discourse with our to-date reasonable and logical father and began to float the idea of some hired help.  ”Perhaps..” said we, “if we hired a gentlemen of considerable lawn skill, we might spend the time recreating as a family and thus strengthen the bonds of our world-changing capacity.”  A fair argument, all things considered, but one that had the success rate and discussion time of a pay cut in Congress.  We were told that we WERE building family ties and that, best of all, we had the glorious chance to build this thing called “character.”

Fast forward a few years (I am still a lad, remember) and I have since moved out of my parents house and now experience all the joys of home ownership – dismal home values, lawn care, aging HVAC units, a pathetic seller’s market…… just to name a few.  As I begin to venture into the great unknown with hopes of tunneling my way to my garage, my dad’s lawn crew is likely arriving at his house ready to build their character (and get paid).  It is this emotional scarring that has lead me to this second cup of coffee (nothing like a man’s breath after 2 successive cups of coffee).

So if you drive past my house and see me engaging in the emotionally draining exercise of building my character and drawing closer to my family by moseying along behind a motorized spinning blade, shed a tear with me.  I fully expect some will judge the grown man who weeps his way through a hedge trimming, but they know not my tale of treachery.  In the days to come, the traveling minstrels will tell of my tale and the sizable size of my burgeoning character.

The key

I spoke to a room full of rowdy teenagers this morning as part of Gen-Ignite’s theJourney internship program.  We talked about the importance of a lifestyle of worship and some tips to engaging in a life-giving corporate musical worship experience.  I’ll rehash that, at some point, but as I prepared, I couldn’t get away from an issue that was staring me right in the face.

As Christians, we love hearing teaching from great communicators and learning how to strengthen our walk with Jesus, BUT there are two keys for Christians to be able to get anything from a teaching (and I told the kids this this morning, so get ready to write):

1. Read the Bible.  God created you to bring glory to Himself.  The chief end of man is to glorify God.  THEN He dictated a book full of things about Himself, how He liked to be worshiped, how His Son behaved, etc, etc.  In order to be able to apply ANY Christian concept, we need to know a thing or two about the founder of this whole thing…..

2. Pray.  When Jesus died on the cross, the veil that covered access to the Holy of Holies (in the temple) was torn and we no longer needed a mediator.  Prayer is the direct link to the creator of the Universe.

Apply daily, repeat as needed, watch things go to a whole new level.

Look both ways

This morning I did a speed work set on my bike with a group of folks.  As I rode my bike home through my residential neighborhood, I noticed a driver approach an intersection, begin to roll through it, glance to his right and then pull out.  He stopped his car 6 inches shy of hitting my bike (with my feet clipped into the pedals).  This brush with an individual who had forgotten the basic rules of driving (10 and 2, look both ways, don’t hit people), reminded me that sometimes we forget to “look both ways” before plenty of things.

1. “Look both ways” before you speak.  Proverbs says even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent.  The flip side – even a wise man is thought a fool if he forgets to look both ways before he speaks.

2. “Look both ways” before you act.  How many heart aches could have been avoided this way?

3. “Look both ways” before you hit people while driving your car.

What do you think?  To what else should we apply this idea of “look both ways?”