Inspired to Impact the World :: Monday E-Devotion

Coming off the high of being at the Southern Baptist Convention and Pastor's Conference is awesome. I keep running some of the images, stories and celebration through my mind only to find more stuff that gets my motor going. No, I am not talking about the controversies or tough business. I am talking about the stuff that makes being part of a group of like minded people so exciting.

We choose to be a part of the group because we can accomplish more together than we can alone. I believe the greatest impact of the convention was the pressing forward of our method of supporting missions, the Cooperative Program (learn more at www.cpmissions.net).

I don't want to bore you with other stuff, but I do want to give you some stuff to think about. This year's Pastor's Conference was 'off the hook'. That means awesome. This event takes place every year. I have been to 10 or so of them, and this one was by far the best.

In today's e-devotion I want to give you some notes from Erwin McManus and what he shared last Monday afternoon (as well as a couple other notes from me. I pray you will be challenged to serve God with greater gusto!

"People aren't turned off to Jesus, they're just tired of Christians who don't really follow him." - Rick Warren

That is an awesome statement from Rick Warren. McManus used Acts 17:16-27 as his text and shared how we are to get the world, the lost people, to hear our Savior's story. Paul, in those verses, pointed out that the people at Mars Hill had an unknown God in the Areopagus. At that point the Apostle turned the people to see that God is who and what they have need of.

Here are just a few of the big points I got from Erwin McManus (learn more about him at his church website www.mosaic.org):

--- you can be close to God and have God all around you and be oblivious to God.

--- the church isn't here for us. We are here for the world.

--- they are not rejecting us. They just don't understand what we are saying (we have to speak the language of lost people).

--- if our story is not connecting with lost people it is not connecting what we know.

--- some people think they have to be irrelevant to believe in God.

--- become a prophet of "the unknown god", what people (and us) do not know can be known. (Unknown is the sense in which a person does not know, understand or connect to the one true God.)

--- a pastor is an interpreter of information.

That stuff lit my fire.

Francis Chan's "Forgotten God" (brand new book)

One of the most powerful preachers, writers and leaders of our time, in my opinion, is Francis Chan. His first book, Crazy Love , revolutionized my thoughts about God's love as well as my interacting with God. Now it is time for a brand new book from Chan being released tomorrow, September 1st. The book is Forgotten God . This is a phenomenal book about the power that Christians and the church can and must tap into. All of it is within the Holy Spirit. Francis talks about the power that was seen in the book of Acts when the Holy Spirit began to move among people. It is true that many have avoided or maybe forgotten what the Holy Spirit is all about. And like the Savior who poured out His life and blood so we have reason to rejoice, we were made to lay down our lives and give until it hurts. We are most alive when we are loving and actively giving of ourselves because we were made to do these things. It is when we live like this that the Spirit of God moves and ac...

inspiration from C.S. Lewis

There are many people, past and present, who get our attention by what they write or say or share. For me C.S. Lewis is one of those. He was a prolific writer who continues to grab the attention of thinkers from many different points of view. Lewis first grabbed my attention when I was in 5 th grader, and our teacher, Mrs. Foy, shared The Chronicles of Narnia with our class. It was a powerful time that this dreamer opened doors to thinking like I had never lived before. He wrote of faith, of far off places and of strong figures who found their character rooted deep in God. C.S. Lewis was born in 1898 and died in 1963, 7 years before I was born. It wasn’t until his 30’s that under the influence of his friend Tolkien that he came to be a Christian. He was raised in a traditional church going home, turned away from God as an Atheist in his teen years and through trying to stay away from God and faith returned to God with...

Catalyst ticket arrived

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Michael Harrison's e-devotion

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