Notes from the dogeared pages of #32

Today I retired journal #32. It is always good to look back on the thoughts and reflections. The quotes and jots. The drawings and scribbles. So here are a few random notes from the dogeared pages of #32. - A love letter from a stranger means nothing to us...but even a tiny note from my wife means the world...most of our not liking scripture is just not understanding or being in relationship with the one from who the letters were written

- Discipleship: action needs to be important, not just a Bible study...Application is a must throughout, but doctrine has to be important or at least clarifying of the essentials...contracts is necessary; this is a commitment you will only get what you put in...

-[vision casting] ENVISION a new culture SHARE vision with everyone GET ALIGNMENT with leadership MODEL the culture you want to create FORM URGENCY sense

- "Boredom is the natural byproduct of redundancy...and church ministry is redundant by nature." ... create new and fresh experiences with God instead of repeating the same stories over and over and over again..we tell the same old stories about God because we are having no new experiences with him...the pastor needs to teach and lead in a way that creates new opportunities and new experiences for the church family...but my teaching and leadership cannot be new, fresh, and alive if my personal experience of God is not new, fresh, and alive

- Pull away...look within...look around...Fill up...change it up

- "Greed is a sign of slavery; you have to hold on to something because you NEED it" - "Generosity is a sign of freedom." - Cody Cannon

- "People who don't know Christ do not get to OUT-SERVE Christians." -Cody Cannon

You're Welcome: most highlighted quotes

A few days ago, I came across an Amazon page indicating the top highlighted quotes of all time on the Kindle. By no surprise, there were a ton of Hunger Games quotes. Either way, it was pretty interesting to see the things which stuck out to the most people reading ALL books found on the Kindle at this point. Here were some of my favorites:

#1 - "Because sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them." - Catching Fire, Hunger Games 

#4 - "It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it takes to fall apart."  - Mocking Jay, Hunger Games

#8 - "Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us." - Pride & Prejudice

#23 - "What is childlike humility? It’s not the lack of intelligence, but the lack of guile. The lack of an agenda. It’s that precious, fleeting time before we have accumulated enough pride or position to care what other people might think" - Heaven is for Real

#31 - “What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say.” - 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

#33 - "While the goal of the American dream is to make much of us, the goal of the gospel is to make much of God." - Radical

#36 - "Those three things—autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward—are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying." - Outliers

#38 - "life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent." - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

#45 - "Pretend to be completely in control and people will assume that you are." - Steve Jobs

Christians - by Carol Wimmer

Christians - By Carol Wimmer

When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not shouting "I'm clean livin'." I'm whispering "I was lost, Now I'm found and forgiven."

When I say... "I am a Christian" I don't speak of this with pride. I'm confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not trying to be strong. I'm professing that I'm weak And need His strength to carry on.

When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not bragging of success. I'm admitting I have failed And need God to clean my mess.

When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not claiming to be perfect, My flaws are far too visible But, God believes I am worth it.

When I say... "I am a Christian" I still feel the sting of pain. I have my share of heartaches So I call upon His name.

When I say... "I am a Christian" I'm not holier than thou, I'm just a simple sinner Who received God's good grace, somehow!

Trust me; I'm a doctor [sorta] - guest post

Today I guest posted at my friend Malisa's page:------ I am sort of a doctor, or I should say I am a doctor of sorts. I have no patients and I prescribe no drugs. I have not exhaustively studied human anatomy to know the inner workings of disease and healing.

I am a pastor and I do have congregants. I prescribe books, music, films, and verses. I have spent years studying the anatomy of the heart, soul, and mind in order to recognize the inner workings of brokenness and the hope of restoration.

Doctors and I both want to see healing and restoration of broken places. Ergo, I am a doctor, right?

Here are a few of my most common prescriptions...read more here

Prayer molecules

A woman in the church who is quite sick and whose doctors are frustratingly running out of options still continues to go to her small community group. She is asked to share her story at this next week's meeting, and she jokes with the group leader on the phone, "Oh, you just want me to hurry up and share because you think I'll be gone sooner than later." It's one of the heaviest jokes you have ever heard, but you laugh because it is still light enough.

At the group meeting, she shares that God has given her a few pictures lately of what prayer really is. One picture is of molecules. She explains that prayer is like a molecule, and each prayer a person gives for a person, a situation, or circumstance is another molecule attaching itself to the mass.

One prayer by itself floats alone, but when more and more people pray, all the molecules connect and cover.

Beautiful. 

The 4 keys to soaring in life

When you fly somewhere there are a few questions they ask you at the airport. If you hope to really fly and soar in life, there are a few questions to answer.

Where are you headed? Do you have baggage to check? How much does your baggage weigh? Are you carrying anything for anyone else?

Through the looking-glass [self]

There is a social psychological concept called the looking-glass self that essentially breaks down to theorizing we become more and more what the most important person in our life thinks we are. You have seen the popular memes online reflecting what different people think we actually do for a living!

In life, there are many people who have different perceptions of who we really are. Exes are going to have a different perception of you than your momma. Co-workers are going to have different perceptions of you than your spouse.

The looking-glass self theorizes that we will often so strongly believe that we actually become the person the most important person in our life perceives us to be.

This brings up a couple vital questions:

1. Who IS the most important person my life? (and why is it not God?) Before you answer, realize we give certain people importance in our lives. Moreover, the most important person in our lives is not always the most 'positive-impact' person in our life. For many people the most important person in their life might be the abusive parent, and that impacts how that person really perceives himself. We may give too much importance to the person we are dating who perceives you as the one make him feel better, and she begins to believe she is only exactly that.

If you are a believer, this first question necessarily proposes a second question. Why is God not the most important person in your life?

Of course we say He is, but theory is different than practice. Can you honestly say (not on this page, but in your heart of hearts) that your relationship with Jesus is THE most important relationship you have and maintain? Can you say that God's perception of you is who you really are, or are you really becoming who some other person perceives you to be; someone to whom you have GIVEN more importance than God?

2. Who does God perceive me to be?  If God is the most important person in our life and our relationship with Jesus IS the most important relationship we have, then the second question to answer is "WHO does God perceive me to be?"

Let me give you a couple verses to think of this.

1 John 3:1 is my favorite verse in all of scripture. "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are." Do you believe and KNOW YOURSELF as a child of the perfect Father who loves perfectly?

In John 13:23, the disciple calles himself "the one Jesus loves." What would change in your life if you actually believed enough to BECOME 'the one Jesus loves'? What needs to change for you to peer through the looking-glass and see what God sees?

3 Easy Steps to My Give-away!!!

A couple weeks ago, I released my 4 track spoken word EP at my bandcamp page. Even though $4 does not seem like much to pay, I would like to give away a couple free downloads of my EP. Here are the rules to be entered for a chance to win one of those downloads. 1. Go to my bandcamp page and listen to each track.  2. Write a blog post about the EP. Talk about what you like or dislike about it. Talk about your favorite track from the EP and why it is your favorite. Encourage your readers to check it out. (be sure to include a link to ragamuffinpc.bandcamp.com) 3. Tweet me, Email Me, or post to my facebook wall a link to your post.

And thats it! I will randomly choose 2 winners Thursday (3/22) and contact the winners with their free download instructions.

Invitation

If you are a dreamer, come inIf you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer... If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire For we have some flax-golden tales to spin Come in! Come in!

-Shel Silverstein

Won't Stop Calling My Name - EP

Yeah, enough prodding from friends has moved me to make a 4 track spoken word EP. At this point, it is only an EP, which means I am writing and working on a full length. It also means this one does not have original music for the tracks. I am working with some other musicians to create some music tracks to back each of the tracks on the full length.

For now, I would be honored if you would like to grab the EP. You can sample it below, and you can grab it at

ragamuffinpc.bandcamp.com

[bandcamp album=1107388974 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=tall2]

Welcome Haddisen Peace Walker

Life has changed dramatically again! We went from being Tonya, PC, and Bryleigh to being "The Walkers". Instead of being attended by Bryleigh, I entered into the stage of life of being flanked by "the girls". On Friday, February 24, 2012 we welcomed into the world and our life, Haddisen Peace Walker. I believe that you speak life into your children's name. You speak meaning into their name and life.

"Addison" means 'son of Adam' or earth. We added the H because we love the nickname "Haddie" but do not like the names traditionally paired with it (Harriet or Henrietta). We also love that Haddisen is a unique name we have not seen elsewhere.

As a whole, Haddisen Peace is very redemptive as a name. The meaning of Haddisen draws you back to God's original and peaceful plan for His world and His people. There was perfection and true 'shalom', but of course, with generations of choice, humanity has terribly broken the orignal state God put in place.

Followers of Jesus and believers look to scripture without getting stuck in the cynicism and skepticism typical of our world's outlook. They actually believe and take God at His Word that he is making all things new (Rev. 21:5). They believe God will restore and repair what is broken. Not only WILL but IS! They believe peace (shalom) is possible.

My hope for Haddisen Peace is that she will live her life with a restoration lens through which she sees herself, God, and God's world. I hope she learns to see life not as it is, but as it ought to be.