UnChristian

I am barreling through a rather interesting book titled, "unChristian." It was put out by the Barna Group (Cultural Researchers). The book was written to show an outsiders perspective on Christianity. The title says it all. The title unChristain reflects the most common response outsiders have towards the faith. "They think Christians no longer represent what Jesus had in mind, that Christianity is our society is not what it is meant to be. . . They admit they have a hard time actually seeing Jesus because of all the negative baggage that now surrounds him." The authors did research for the last 3 years, interviewing 1,000's of people both non-believers and believers as well as churches, organizations, etc.

The categorized their findings into 6 main sections. The six perceptions of OUTSIDERS than the six things the INSIDERS (the Christians) must do!

(1) HYPOCRITICAL:

Perception: Christians say one thing but live something entirely different.

New Perception: Christians are transparent about their flaws and act first, talk second.

(2) GET SAVED:

Perception: Christians are insincere and concerned only with converting others.

New Perception: Christians cultivate relationships and environments where others can be deeply transformed by God.

(3) ANTIHOMOSEXUAL:

Perception: Christians show contempt for gays and lesbians.

New Perception: Christians show compassion and love to all people, regardless of their lifestyle.

(4) SHELTERED:

Perception: Christians are boring, unintelligent, old-fashioned, and out of touch with reality.

New Perception: Christians are engaged, informed, and off sophisticated responses to the issues people face.

(5) TOO POLITICAL:

Perception: Christians are primarily motivated by a political agenda and promote right-wing politics.

New Perception: Christians are characterized by respecting people, thinking biblicalily, and finding solutions to complex issues.

(6) JUDGEMENTAL:

Perception: Christians are prideful and quick to find faults in others.

New Perception: Christians show grace by finding the good in others and seeing their potential to be Christ followers.

These findings are alarming. Christians are known for what they are against, not what they are for. What we do and say are two different things. I am guilty of these all. The last thing I want to happen is my life deter someone from receiving God's free gift of unconditional love and grace. This is a lot to swallow, I know, I feel the same way, but would if, Christians stopped attacking, and started accepting, what if Christians stopped talking and started acting in love.

Jesus said it best. Christians will be known by their LOVE. LOVE is a great place to start because LOVE never fails, the apostle Paul said.

Sacred Struggles

Once a week, my wife and I read a chapter in a book together. Here are the best thoughts and comments so you don't have to read the whole chapter.

I know, you don't have to thank me!!!!

You probably, never heard sacred and struggle in the same sentence, but as you will see they do have a lot more than you would think in common.

Notes from “Sacred Marriage” by Gary Thomas (Chapter Title—Sacred Struggles)

Opening Illustration of Mt. Everest (p. 128) . . . Mountains are made by collisions. . . In the same way, the collisions of marriage can create relationships of beauty. Beauty is often birthed in struggle. . . The more we fear to suffer the more we need to do so. . .Suffering is part of the Christian life Jesus modeled. . . Few people leave a marriage because it is too easy. . . How many saints had adversity sent to heaven and how many poor sinners has prosperity plunged into everlasting misery. . .Struggle makes us stronger, but we have to face the struggle head on, not run from it. . . God does not Christians from their problems, He helps Christians through their problems. . . We need to struggle to stay alive . . .Out of struggle comes character development. . . Mountain climbers step back before they tackle a tough mountain. . . Would I rather live a life of ease and comfort and remain immature in Christ or am I willing to be seasoned with suffering if by doing so I am conformed to the image of Christ? . . All marriages rub shoulders with adversity. . . that is why we make the promise at the altar ‘till death do us part”. . . what does that mean if we never are tested in that area? . . . our demands of comfort and ease show us what we want from life. . . are you allowing coasting to shape you? . . A good marriage is not something you find, it is something you work for. . . it takes struggle. . . you must crucify your selfishness . . . you must at times confront and at other times confess. . . the practice of forgiveness is essential. . . Marriage is both a gift and task to be accomplished. . .He (Abraham Lincoln) shown brighter when his personal life was darkest (he was having marriage problems at the time when he delivered the Gettysburg Address). . . One of the greatest presidents was marrying to one of most difficult first ladies. . . You might be married to a difficult person or one day might be, remember, that it is in those difficult moments that your character will be developed in ways that no other person or situation could.

The Gospel of Bart Ehrman

Last night, Liz and I went to Boston College to hear a Internationally known, New York Time's best selling author speak. Let me hit the rewind button. We were suppose to go to Boston College but we found ourselves at Boston University! That was not fun, so after we finally found Boston College. We made it into our seats. If you know anything about Bart Ehrman you know that he is a religious studies professor at University of North Carolina who does not believe in God, Jesus or that the Bible is a reliable historical document. He has been on TV multiple times as a commentator for the Da Vinici Code, The Gospel of Judas, etc. Again, He does not believe in Jesus. He made some comments yesterday that pierced my believing heart. So when question and answer time came, I was going to unleash, but I held back. I did challenge him at the table he was selling his books which I bought two. We went back and forth a little. One thing I could says is he knows the Bible as well as its history among other things better than most people I have heard or know of. One of my life goals is to write a book, called, The Gospel of Bart Ehrman, I thought of that last night after this experience, to refute, rebuttal, challenge, and do whatever I can to show that the Bible is valid, reliable and trustworthy!

One Year in Two Weeks

My wife and I just completed a graduate class (Survey of Church History) that takes 2 semesters (1 Year) in an undergraduate program in 2 weeks. Actually, it was only 7 classes that were 3 1/2 hours each. Within those 2 weeks, we had to read 2,000 pages and complete two exams. MY BRAIN HURTS!!! The prof. new everything. He even knew Billy Graham. His dad was actually best friends with him and preached along side of him during those famous evangelistic crusades that reached international recognition. If you have some time, check out http://www.youtube.com/ video's of Billy Graham. They are quite interesting.

Husband-Wife Discipleship Meeting (H-WDM)

One of my wife and my New Year Challenges for 2008 is to walk through a discipleship book together. We are using Discipleship Essentials by Greg Ogden. We just completed the first lesson on "Making Disciples." My wife and I have a core conviction that drives us: "Families First." Since I have committed my life to pasturing which is all about making disciples. I feel if I neglect to do this in my own family for the families who come to the church we are helping to plant or even the church, we will start somewhere down the road, I have failed as a husband and follower of Christ. I will be honest, I personally would not leave it up to a church to be discipleship. You might think I am crazy for saying that. I am crazy but not for saying that. There is no way possible the pastor at any church in the world could disciple every person in every family that comes to their church. It is not his responsibility. The responsibility is for each person to disciple their own family. The problem is families leave it up to the church to do what they are suppose to be doing. My goal is to be a full time follower of Christ and a part time pastor. What's yours? Is discipling your family (which just means teaching them personally through scheduled meeting times and modeling the Christian faith) a priority?

COSMOS

The Greek word for universe is COSMOS. COSMOS also means order . . . God created the UNIVERSE with ORDER . . . There is something about the ORDER of the UNIVERSE that reflects the character of GOD. . . The Bible says in Psalm 19, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands" . . . Both the Heavens and Skies give us a closer look at who God is and what HE does. Check out these pictures. . . I got this pic from the HUBBLE SATELLITE, I know, I got good connections!!. . . Check out the site http://www.hubblesite.org/ . . They have awesome pictures of the COSMOS. Have you ever thanked God for our COSMOS and its perfect order?

Down to Earth

What would you like to be remembered for when you die? A successful business man, an owner of a lot of property, millionaire, famous, rich, or whatever other title our culture says is important. I would rather be known as a person who lived a life of humility. The most humble people are the most lovable people. If you look at Jesus, the Son of God, who was the most down to earth person in the world, literally, did not have a successful business, great retirement plan or a houseful of stuff. What HE did leave was model for the world the best example of humility in history. God put his agenda to the side, stepped out of Heaven to meet our need. He did exactly what the Bible tells us to do. In Philippians, Paul challenges us to "consider others better than yourselves" (Phil. 2:3). If you want to check out a small group (BIBLE) study my wife and I led tonight on the subject of HUMILITY hit this link (http://myopen-source.blogspot.com/) Everything is there for you to lead a group or do a personal study on JESUS' most humble and courageous act, coming down to earth. Do you want to be remembered for somethng men do everyday or something, the Son of God, did once?

Marriage and Prayer

One of my wife and my marriage goals every year is to read a book together. We have found it a great way to be intentional about working on our marriage. We believe that our marriage will only work, if we work on our marriage. In the book were reading, Sacred Marriage, today’s chapter emphasized the importance of prayer in marriage.

Here are a couple thoughts from the book that stuck out from today’s chapter:

You can’t be a Christian unless you are a prayer! “Prayer is how we make sense of our lives in light of eternity.” The Christians who fails to pray will fail to grow as he/she should and will be trapped in a perpetual spiritual adolescence. Husbands are to respect their wives so that nothing will hinder their prayers. The apostle Peter said men must be considerate of their wives and treat them with respect so that nothing will hinder there prayers. Peter directly connected a husband’s attitude towards his wives with the fundamental Christian discipline of prayer. In essence, Peter said if you want to improve your prayer life improve your marriage. Instead of prayer being the tool that would refine my marriage, Peter tells us that marriage is the tool that will refine my prayers. Jesus even modeled this when he would leave the crowd to minister to the individual, while today we rationalize leaving the individual, particularly our spouses, to gain favor with the crowd.

Engagement Matters

My wife and I helped out at an engagement conference for pre-marrieds and pre-engageds. I love being around couples who are excited about their future together. You can see excited that married couples lose. The time a couples takes before marriage to invest in their relationship and deal with issues can save their future marriage. I heard it said today, "Before marriage use a microscope and after marriage use a telescope." One of my wife and my goals in life is to educate and strenghten marriages and families around us so that the divorce rate is lowered in our communities and church.

Church Plant Update

Today I learned a staggering number. At the minimum it will cost $150 per person. Let me put that number context. When you are starting a church without a building like this church, you have to rent a space. We are looking to rent a multi-purpose room from a school. The room is not a church so we have to buy everything we need to transform a school building into a church building atmosphere. We need to create the main worship experience or the main sanctuary, then places that cater to small children as well as older. The company we are looking at is called Portable Church. The package deal that is geared to a 300 person church is $63,000. The cool thing is you get everything from signage to place strategically in the community to boxes you store your equipment in during the week because remember we are going to be portable meaning set up and tear down each Sunday. The package even comes with a custom made trailer that fits everything. We are excited to take this step on this journey to plant a church in Beverly even though it is an extremely expensive step. I will be honest after seeing the building today for the first time, I believe we are going to fill it fast. Can't wait to blog about moving to a new location!! One thing I know is we tend to underestimate what God can do. My prayer is to pray big so that I never underestimate the power of God. So far so God!

New Year's Goal

One of my goals for 2008 is to set apart every Wednesday to fast & pray for specific present prayer needs and for our families future after graduate school. I started today. I am going to be honest with you. It is not easy, but so far so good. I have learned that when your body is physically hungry you are more spiritual aware of things going on around you. As I was listening to a message a pastor preached when he opened a coffee house in Washington D.C., before he bought the property they built on he walked around it and laid hands on it, praying for God to give them that building. He finally got the property and found out later that 4 people put higher bids them him and he got it. God heard and answered their prayers and did not let a lack of resources hinder them. After I heard that story I went to the school. I did what Joshua did at Jericho and walked around the building. I prayed and laid hands on it. Call me crazy, but God shows favor to those who look foolish for him. Look at Noah. He built a huge ark, filled it with animals without any trace of rain. Just look at Jesus. Before he launched his personal ministry that has changed the world. He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. (Side note: One of my life goals is to do a 40 day fast) If Jesus, the Son of God, relied on prayer and fasting, how much more should you and me?

Presence

Just wanted to share a couple thoughts from a sermon, I heard during the Christmas season on "Presence" not presents!

The preacher explained the geography of Christmas.

"I will leave my place and I will come to your place and I will take your place then we will go to my place."

Jesus left Heaven to come to Bethlehem then went to the Cross and back to Heaven.

The greatest gift you can give someone is the gift of Christmas. The giant God lowered himself to become a human bady. The gift of Christmas is presence. All the books in the world could not commuicate like the presence of God in the form of a human baby.

God communicates through presence. If you want to be compassionate, just be there. Presence will speak louder than any combination of words or deeds.

You can give the gift of Christmas all year round. The gift of presence, not presents. See God is into saving money!!!!!

I am a business owner

I started my first business!! It is sort of a business. I am selling T-shirts with my blog sites logo I just made. (You can tell I am bored). I am projecting to be a millionaire by the end of the night so get them while there hot!!! Here's the logo and below is the link. What do you think?

http://www.cafepress.com/jessbousa

Lion Chaser's Manifesto

I thought you might like to read this. I got this from Pastor Mark Batterson's blog site. A lot of these quotes are my life motto's. I bet you by the end you will find a couple for you to live by! These are great for the New Year.

"Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshiping what's right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze new trails. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don't try to be who you're not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away.Chase the lion."