Much has went on over the past couple of months, which has taken focus away from updating the blog.  Catalyst was on hold for a while, we have it running again with a temporary speaker on the AM, while I focus on a family matter. Here is a short recap of the last session we had on Crazy Love before the break.

The title of this session was “When You’re In Love”

When you are in love you go to great lengths to be with the one you love.  I remember everything I would do when I first met my wife.  The back and forth driving, the late nights…just to be able to spend a few minutes after work with her.  The many times I would phone her in the payphone while working (this was before cell phones and txt’ing).

The question that was dropped at the start of this sessions was “Are we deeply in love with Jesus Christ?” 

Many times, we will just say, “Yes”.  But we need to examine our lives and see if that is really the case.  Even as I type this recap, I am examining some things in my life, and it is gut check time, are there changes to be made, focus to give.  Let’s be honest.

Are we craving a genuine love relationship with Him?

Galatians 5:13-14

Why are the words of Psalm 63:1-5 not an honest reflection of our lives most days?

Are we fooling ourselves? Can we really be in love with God and that it would be the most satisfying aspect of our lives?

God wants to change us, He died so that we could change. But are we letting Him change us?

Revelation 3:20

James 4:8

John 10:10

Not in the future, but in the now.

As we begin to focus more on Christ, loving Him and others becomes more natural.  As long as we are pursuing Him, we are satisfied in Him. It is when we stop actively loving Him that we find ourselves restless and gravitating towards other means of fulfillment.

We can experience closeness with God…these verses can help us communicate with Him.

Psalm 131:2

Psalm 4:7-8

Psalm 16:11

Psalm 28:7

Psalm 90:14

Psalm 119:111

Tell God:

• that you want Him to change you
• that you love to genuinely enjoy Him
• how you want to experience true satisfaction and pleasure and joy in your relationship with Him
• that you want to love Him more than anything on this earth
• that you want to treasure the kingdom of heaven so much that you’d willingly sell everything in order to get it
• what you like about Him
• what you appreciate
• what you struggle with
• what you are angry about
• what causes you to get frustrated
• that you want to experience His love
• how you feel
• what is really important to you
• what isn’t important to you
• that you want Him to change you

Here is the recap from the second Catalyst talk in the series, “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan.

The title was “Profile of the Lukewarm”.  The talk was back in November on the 29th.

Fact: Jesus is not interested in those who fake it.

Is there evidence of the kingdom of God in your life?

Or are you choking it out slowly by spending too much time, energy, money, and thought on the things that can distract us away from Christ?

Hard hitting scripture to think about – Phil 3:10

Would you describe yourself as in love with Jesus Christ? Or do the words halfhearted, lukewarm, and partially committed fit better?

Lukewarm people attend church – Isaiah 29:13

They give money to charity and the church – I Chron 21:24, Luke 21:1-4

Don’t really want to be saved from their sin – John 10:10, Rom 6:1-2

Moved by radical stories about what people are doing for Christ  - James 1:22, James 4:17, Matt 21:28-31

Rarely share their faith – Matt 10:32-33

Gauge themselves to the secular world – Luke 18":11-12

Jesus is a part of their lives; only a part – Luke 9:57-62

Love God, but not with all of their heart, soul and strength – Matt 22:37-38

Love others, but do not try to love others as they love themselves – Matt 5:43-47, Luke 14:12-14

Will serve God and others, but there are limits on what they will do – Luke 18:21-25

Jesus said, Luke 14:31-33

Jesus asks for everything.

When you go through all the scripture that Chan uses, it is quite an eye opening and challenging chapter of the book. It did stir up some comments and lots of questions from those in attendance in Catalyst that morning.

It has been a long time since I posted on my blog.  I need to get back into a regular groove. 

In Catalyst we have been going through a series called “Crazy Love”, based on the Francis Chan book of the same title.

This session was November 15. Here is a quick recap.

• Creation is simply amazing. God as creator, made over 350,000,000,000 (est.) galaxies. Generations of people never knew they existed.  What is our response when we look up on a clear summer evening and see the expansive universe?
• Look at the intricate detail of creation.  A caterpillar as 228 distinct muscles in its head.  The precision of the human body on how it all works together when healthy.  For instance, when you study how insulin is produced and regulated in someone without diabetes…when it doesn’t work you have the different forms of diabetes.  Precision.
• Whatever God’s reason are to make such diversity, creativity and sophistication the point of it all is for His glory.
• We are called to worship Him.  All creation echo the truth that He is glorious.

How do we learn to know God? Here are some basic and crucial points about God. Scriptures used somewhere under each point when teaching are in brackets.

• God is Holy – This means He is set apart, distinct from us. Perfectly set apart, with nothing and no one to compare Him to. (Exodus 3:14)
• God is eternal – We all had a beginning. Everything in creation had at one point in time a start to their existence, a specific time.  Everything that is but God.  He always had been, since before there was an earth.  Big bang…only when God spoke into existence the beginning of time, I guess there may have been some sort of big bang (not the scientific theory). (Psalm 102:12, 27)
• God is all-knowing – We can fool some people about who we really are.  Put on the masks.  But that is impossible with God. He knows us deeply and specifically. (Hebrews 4:13)
• God is all-powerful – Colossians 1:16, tells us everything was created for God.  We live though as if God is created for us, to do what ever we what.  Maybe we have watched too many Aladdin movies from Walt Disney. (Pslam 115:3, Daniel 4:35)
• God is fair and just – God is the only being who is good, and the standards are set by Him. (Proverbs 8:13)

When we stand in the awed silence before a mighty, fearsome God, whose tremendous worth becomes even more apparent as we see our own puny selves in comparison.

I will be posting recaps of session’s 2 & 3 soon (or at least that is the plan)

Here a recap from the last Catalyst session we had a couple of weeks ago. This past Sunday was a special Remembrance Day service and we did not have a session.

This was part 4 of 4 in the Social Justice series, titled “We Can Do Something”. 

There is a always a question that people ask themselves when they encounter the issues of social justice.  They see the issues, the needs, the hurts etc  and wonder what could I, one person do?  God uses some ordinary people to accomplish some great things….just open the Bible read a few narratives, see where these people came from, were called out from.  Then read the beginning of the Book of Acts, specifically Acts 1:8.

These were the scriptures we used in the session:

Ephesians 2:10, Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:17, I Peter 3:15, I John 3:17, Matthew 23:23, John 10:10

• Seeking justice is the task of bringing the truth and power to bear on behalf of those who are oppressed.
• There are roles for everyone to engage in Social Justice
• Pastors, Teachers etc…need to be teaching about the God of Justice. Teaching about the authority of the Word of God, to know God’s passion for justice.  They can show us how God can use everyone to meet the needs of social justice.
• Frontline workers…live in the communities where the victims of abuse live. Living and working among the poor.
• There are so many gifted, talents of people that can help meet the needs of the oppressed, Christians that are trained as police officers, nurses, doctors, lawyers, business, politicians, cooks etc.  These talents and skills can be used to help meet the needs of these people in situations not just in places around the globe, but in the neighbourhoods and communities that they travel to work in everyday.
• Poetry, art, music, video, these are creative talents that can be used to help capture and tell the story to others to show what is happening.  To help bring awareness and attention.
• No matter what talent a person has, God can use it to help someone in need.

We ended the session and the series with the following two scriptures:

Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 25:31-46

The next series starting next week is based on the book by Francis Chan, called “Crazy Love”.

This past weekend there was no Catalyst due to the installation service of Bishop Hanscom and Pastor Jeremy. It was a great service to be a part of today.

We are half done the series on Social Justice.  2 down and 2 more to go.  This upcoming weekend we will be back at it. Also, it should the first Catalyst Meet-Up.  This is where members of Catalyst will gather somewhere in the city and discuss the topic we have covered in the Sunday Catalyst gathering. The meeting place will be announced Sunday and through the Facebook group.

I am also planning the next couple of series…the next series will be based off the book by Francis Chan, “Crazy Love”, this book is amazing. The following one may be based on txt messaging, and Facebook/Twitter DMs…..where I will take questions from Catalyst throughout the week and preCatalyst and answer and teach based off the questions. 

I am posting from my Blackberry, sitting around the campfire. So there will not be any links to content mentioned in this post.

One of my last posts was about my lack of reading recently.

On my wishlist was the book by Francis Chan, “Crazy Love”. Last week, I noticed a tweet by Don Ryan that he was reading the book and loved it. He also mentioned that it would challenage you.

I picked it up last Friday at Borders in the Poconos. I am really liking the book, and agree with Don, it challenages you.

I am just under half way through at this point. Looking forward to finishing the rest of the book.