Real Marriage Conference – Session #1: Friend (Not Plural!) With Benefits

Yesterday and today, my lovely wife and I went to the Real Marriage Conference, with Pastor Mark & Grace Driscoll, at Crossroads Church in Corona, CA.

This post and the following posts are my notes from the event. After all the posts, I will also post general reflections.

• Across all major research, the #1 thing that couples say they want is friendship.
• Friendship is an eternal attribute of God. The God of the Bible exists in eternal friendship. Jesus had close friends and lived in community while on Earth. Another way to think about it… God is a friend who has friends.
• The real problem in all relationships and in the world is sin, and the answer is Jesus.
• Friendship with Jesus is the key to and the only way to have real friendship in your marriage. 

Surrendering to The Precious Good News & Being Divinely Equipped for the Great Commission

The Gospel and the Bible are so challenging… yet so simple.  It is truly incredible that short or common passages constantly speak the same Truths throughout centuries… to you, me, and others in different ways.

In a recent small group we were led to explore and pray through the following passages. We only had ~15 minutes to pray and journal, but I feel God really illuminated scripture to me and impressed his Truth, love, and sacrifice on my heart in that short period of time. [continue reading...]

An Evening with Francis Chan @ Crossroads Church in Corona, CA

Last night, my wife and I, along with friends from our church went to Crossroads Church in Corona, CA for “An Evening with Francis Chan”. The evening started with great worship led by Rend Collective Experiment, a worship group from Ireland, and Rachel Chan (Francis Chan’s daughter), followed by a message from Francis Chan. As expected, the message was simple, yet incredibly convicting and challenging.

One of the most beautiful elements of Christianity… is that while doctrine and theology can be quite “thick” and there are lot of smart-sounding -ologies, -isms, -ications, etc… the message of the Gospel is elegantly simple. Jesus was God in a human body, who loved and served all of humanity past, present, and future, by sacrificing his perfect life, being brutally murdered on a cross, coming back to life, and going back to God the Father. Through His sacrifice, we get to experience a real relationship with the Creator of the Universe… the one, true, living God. As part of that, Christians are charged with serving humanity as Christ did, for the purpose of professing and multiplying Christ’s name to the nations.

Francis Chan is one of my favorite pastors. I have read all his books: Crazy Love, Forgotten God, and Erasing Hell.  He obviously deeply loves Christ and serves him well. He is one of my favorite pastors not just because he is a great and passionate communicator… but because the Holy Spirit and the gift of joy-in-Jesus just exudes from him. [continue reading...]

Romance Idea #6 – Hide a Love Note in the Pillowcase

During the day, write a sweet love note  that encourages, blesses, or compliments your honey, and slip it into her pillowcase. For those of you that are beginners… it’s OK if the note contains a few suggestive and spicy sentiments that make her blush .

After a long day doing who knows what, she will rest her head on the pillow… It will crinkle, make a noise, and she will know “somethin’ ain’t right”. She will then reach into the pillowcase only to find your note!

Even better… you will be in the room with her and be able to see her face light up in appreciation and joy.

A God Story: Mars Hill Church – “God’s Work, Our Witness”

Mars Hill Church, planted and led by Pastor Mark Driscoll is one of the most influential mega-churches churches in the United States. They are the 43rd largest AND the 43rd fastest growing church in the USA. In my opinion, numbers only matter because they are potentially an indication of Holy Spirit actively changing lives and of Jesus’ name being known / multiplied in the nations.

Mars Hill is much more than a “big church”; they are a church that preaches the Gospel soundly, passionately, unapologetically, loudly, and devoutly. They also provide many many many many many (many many!) teaching and training resources  to believers, non-believers, ministry leaders, and other churches.

Mars Hill recently launched a sermon series “God’s Story, Our Witness” (I really like that sermon series title!) by releasing a video that tells the story of Mars Hill from the beginning to today (the video located at the bottom of this post). The leaders and servants at Mars Hill Church were horribly and wonderful ill-equipped by all accounts. They would never have been capable of what’s been accomplished if not for the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s why I call it a God Story! Praise God for their obedience.

While it is no secret I am a fan of Driscoll’s direct, “intellectual”, and fervent teaching… The purpose of this “God Story” is NOT to extol Driscoll… but to praise God for the beautiful collision of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit with submitted, faithful, hard working disciples. As Christians, we should celebrate, learn from, be thankful for, be inspired by, and be driven to action by God’s work through and in other believers. (… continue reading…)