Filed under: Tar Heel Life
Year for what you ask? This is the year for NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship # 6 (‘24, ‘57, ‘82, ‘93, ‘05, ‘09) and ACC Championship #18. The Tar Heels have the most talented roster of any team in the country. At the end of the 2007-2008 season, the Tar Heel’s future looked bleak as their three top scorers were dialing in on the 2008 NBA Draft. Not long after the news was public, info was also given that the players would not hire agents which apparently allowed them to stay eligible for the next NCAA season. Well, as destiny would have it, they all three tested the NBA Draft waters and decided to return to Chapel Hill.
Our beloved Tar Heels are pre-ranked #1 in both the AP & USA Today Coaches’ Polls. Add to that pre-season rankings of #1 in the ACC (obviously in light of national rankings) and Tyler Hansborough picked as the pre-season Player of the year AND both Tyler “Psycho T” Hansborough and Ty Lawson as pre-season ALL ACC and what else could you say but National Championship BABYYYY! (Sounds better coming from Dickie V). Check this link for more. GO ‘HEELS!
Filed under: Uncategorized
So, here we are getting ready for the weekend. You might be planning your schedule and thinking about a place for dinner tonight. Well, if you live in the Pittsburgh area, you might want to head up to Denny’s Beer belly Pub for burger and fries. Wait, check that. Maybe just the burger. Check out the story of a man who ate a 20.2 lb burger in under 5 hours.
Now I think this is pretty cool and gross at the same time. But as I approach Sunday morning and finish preparing my message about the materialistic mindset in our country I can see how Brad night of burger gorging resembles how we indulge and gorge ourselves here in the U.S. And you know what really grabs me is that It ’s no different in the church and among God’s people.
There’s no doubt that our government’s recent bailouts of banks is symptomatic of the core condition of the hearts of people in this country. Hearts that find a sense of entitlement when it comes to getting more and more stuff. In the church, we consistently live life as though we believe that Jesus doesn’t want us to really go without. We even have thoughts that if we are “freakishly” frugal we won’t be relevant to the world around us. Well I think the picture of Brad Sciullo eating that burger “for fun” is art imitating real life. We crave things that we cannot afford to have even to an excess that is beyond our ability to care for it all.
But, as Christians, we have sold ourselves on the idea that it’s ok to have stuff as long as we still give a “percent“ to God. (That’s our church tithing mantra.) But friends, that’s not what Jesus teaches us in Matthew 19 when He responds to a rich young man’s request.
Now, I do not believe Jesus is saying that all Christians need to sell everything they have. But I do believe that for those of us who would even ask that question, we need to seek out what God would have sell instead of figuring how little to give and still get “in” with Jesus. Take a few minutes in your weekend schedule to ask God to show you what He would have do to reverse the corrupt notion that you and I need more stuff. If we have truly been changed on the inside by Jesus, we will certainly respond to the needs of people even as Jesus modeled it. And it won’t happen if we are more committed to things than to living out the heart change that God has brought to out lives, a change that moves from the inside out. (Just like that burger did the next day in Brad’s life:)
Filed under: Uncategorized
Today has been a great day. A team of 6 from our church took Panera to a local middle school. Great opportunity to say thanks for all they do in a school that doesn’t always get appreciated. It hit me that we can’t stop celebrated community heroes. As churches who want to reach their communities, we jumped to serve after 911, but was it only in view of tragedy or is part of our DNA? It has to be part of our DNA if we really want to connect with people to show them how much God loves them. It is the DNA of Highview and we will keep on looking for ways to show it.
(By the way, we had extra bagels, so we I dropped them off at an elementary school in the area. Double wham!)
People love change. Don’t think so? Just try to watch TV with with a family of four or more. You don’t always find a show that everyone likes. Our family changes the channel constantly. Why? Because we don’t like watching boring commercials. There’s so much flyin’ around the political scene shouting for change. It seems to be the easiest platform to build but the hardest one to really execute. “Everybody wants change,” one side will say. But do we really want change? I guess if we really take a hard look at our lives, we will discover that we really do want change. We just want change that makes us happy and doesn’t require us to sacrifice or make radical changes in the way that we live. There is no question that we need to change.
Jesus was all about change. No, really He was. It doesn’t take you long as read through the Gospels to see that Jesus changed the way everybody looked at religion. Check this out–no more synagogue, no more alter sacrifices, no more high priests (just The High Priest), no more “Jews only,” no more external judging but internal inspection. You can’t read about Jesus and accept His message without embracing change. The fact of the Gospel is that we all have to come to a place where we change. Our individual change is either a reflection of our selfish “me” focus or of our life lived by Christ (Galatians 2:20).
But aren’t there some things that never change? Yes! God’s heart for people never changes. God’s plan for how we are to live never changes. God’s plan for marriage never changes. Take a look at Matthew 19. Jesus responds to a stupid question from the Pharisees as they try, once again, to “trick Him.” But when they ask a question about Moses, divorce and marriage, Jesus doesn’t argue with Moses. He goes back to the original design that God laid out for marriage. He responds to their questions with a question (as he so often did). He asked them if they had read what is recorded in Genesis about the beginning of marriage?
The change that many of us need in our own lives is the change that points us back to what we know about God and His plan for us. Take time today to go back and read.
Filed under: living
Okay, so they weren’t green. Everybody knows that there’s no better apple on the planet than a good Fuji. We started our day off by reading Psalm 65 and Proverbs 4. Then we made our yearly trip to Huber’s for some apple picking and pick our fall pumpkins. I love fall.
Listen to what we read this morning.
Psalm 65:5-7 (NIV)
5 You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, 6 who formed the mountains by your power, having armed yourself with strength, 7 who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations.
In the wake of the recent financial unravelings from this past week, it seemed comforting as we read the words of the psalmist. I have at least one conversation a day about the grave situation in which our country finds itself. Now, don’t be misled. Our country is in a serious situation. The character of our people (that includes all of us – Wall Street bankers and middle class employees) has been exposed. We have lived like no one else by purchasing what we cannot afford. There are consequences for our behavior and those consequences are coming to bear. There is most definitely turmoil in our nation.
But amidst the craziness and scampering to move acorns from tree to tree, don’t forget that our heavenly Father knows and cares. Be wise, don’t be fearful. Be discerning, don’t react. As I walked through the apple orchard this morning, I was quietly reminded that those apples aren’t concerned about Wall Street. (I’m sure the farmers are.) We may be forced to make some drastic changes in the way we live. That probably wouldn’t hurt us. But don’t doubt the Giver of life. Look to Him for insight and understanding. He longs to give good gifts to His children. What God gifted our family with today was His very creation and man, those apples were good
