I'm moving

I have a lot I want to share again, so it is time that I get back to the blogging world. That being said, I don't want to use blogger anymore. i am moving over to wordpress by next week. That site will be briangormanfcc.wordpress.com

Physical and Spiritual

I have gotten tired of starting to write a blog and then not finishing them. We'll see how this works.

Book Review: The Noticer by Andrew Williams

I love books, I hate spending money.  Thomas Nelson publishers have provided a great solution for me.  They have allowed me to review one of the books that is being released today for free as long as I write about it.  So here it goes.

The book is The Noticer by Andy Andrews.  You may be familiar with him from his other book, The Traveler's Gift.

Now, it is worth noting that I am not a fan of reading fiction.  I don't have a lot of time to read, so I want to make sure that I can gain the greatest amount of new information in the shortest time, which is usually done through non-fiction.  But the book was such a fast read that I didn't mind at all.

I can say I thoroughly enjoyed the book and found it to be a  a compelling story being used to set up a variety of great quotes and life truths for people in a variety of situations.

Also, being a lover of history, the author uses so many historical and biographical references to drive home his ideas that almost every page had something useful for personal development or for basic knowledge growth.  He even describes historical biographies as "adventure books!"  I love that.

The story basically follows a man name Jones, not Mr. Jones (but as a lover of Counting Crows, I couldn't get the song out of my head anyway).  Jones is some type of drifter/sage who is full of what he calls "perspective".  He helps various people see how they can grow and improve their unique life situations if they just look at them a little differently.

The book deals with topics such as poverty, old age, ambition, integrity, marriage, dating and others.

It is a great "catch all" book that is filled with wit, wisdom, knowledge and it is short enough you can finish it very quickly.

Here are three quotes that I connected with:
  1) "Ask yourself this question every day: 'What is it about me that other people would change if they could?" (pg. 15)
  2) "Most folks figure a true friend is someone who accepts them as they are.  But that's dangerous garbage to believe" (pg. 30)
  3) "I think more people would want to go to heaven, if they weren't afraid it'd be like church when they got there!" (pg. 96)

Some thoughts about worship feedback

So . . . Sunday was interesting. 

I wanted so bad to give a deeply inspiring and positive message about the freedom that is found in Christ when we get over ourselves and start to truly walk out of the slavery that we find ourselves in, especially the slavery of dark secrets. 

I failed miserably (I'm not writing for sympathy or hoping you will disagree with me, I know what I did). 

As I told Jeff Bush after the first service, "I'm sorry.  I was flying the plane, I saw the mountain, I just couldn't pull up."

I drove that message into such a dark place that even I was depressed at the end of it.  Here I am trying to share the good news of Jesus Christ and I made it depressing.

A few weeks ago someone asked me if I was going to be preaching for Easter Sunday.  I told them, "No.  Easter needs to be a positive and happy message so Brian Henry will be preaching.  I don't really do positive and happy that well, he does."

How true, how true.

Then, because I wasn't being depressing enough, I went off on my rant about the general atmosphere of worship in our church.

Since then, I have had a few people tell me how much they appreciated the rant, and others tell me how disappointed they were in the way that I shared it.

So, wherever you stand on it, let me share this.  I stand by what I did.

I came across as smug and condescending.  It came out as arrogant and rude.  I did not mean for that and would not share it the same way if (or when) I need to do that again.

But, it needed to be said.  I know that there were individuals in church on Easter who had real struggles and deep pain walking into church.  Others were fully engaged and caught up in the truth of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior.  I get that, my rant was not for you.  The sentiment that I shared was for the others.

It was for the ones who would rather sit and complain about volume (either too loud or too soft), song selection (not enough hymns, too many hymns, what's a hymn), musical style (drums are too pounding and the bass was rumbling, I need more snare drum and I wish I could feel the bass guitar more), and for the people who are more concerned with getting through the service so that they can at least say they were in church on Easter.  It was for those who sit there and critique the atmosphere but choose not to participate which would go a long way for improving the atmosphere.  It was for those who are distracted by trivial events and miss the fact that Jesus, who was dead, has risen from the grave to destroy the works of the Devil and set the world right once more.

It was for those who have chosen to be very religious and completely miss out on the relationship that you are called to.  Because in a religion there is no reason to be excited, you are just trying to get through and get to heaven.  In a relationship you are overwhelmed with what God has done, is doing and is going to do and there is nothing that will keep you from expressing that joy.  The same way that you can be in a wonderful and engaging conversation with a friend and completely ignore everything that is going on around you.

Am I sorry for the way that I shared my opinion (and know that it was only my opinion and not those of the church leadership)?  A little.  I do not want to polarize people on such a topic.

But if I had chosen not to share, I could not say that I truly love this church family.  I love this church family too much to allow some of those within it to remain unconnected with the joy and the power of a resurrected savior.  I worry for some that they are very religious, but have a small relationship.

If you were offended by the way that I shared it, I am sorry.  If you were offended by what I shared, it may be time for a self evaluation.

Lent Adventure - Day 15

It finally happened.  I failed.  The worst part is that it wasn't really my fault.  Here is how it all went down.

My wife saw a recipe on Rachael Ray for this chicken gumbo that also included a special type of sausage.  I was not concerned about the meal, because it was supposed to be chicken based and most sausage of that type is pork based.  I ate two plates, then packed some up for lunch the next day.

The next morning I was getting ready to leave and saw the package that the sausage came in.  There it was, about 5 ingredients in; "beef".  So there was not a lot of beef, but there was still red meat in there. 

Now, at this point I have two choices.  Eat the stuff for lunch as well and give up on the whole red meat thing, or start again.  I started again.  I gave JR (the student minister) my gumbo and he gave me some left over chicken dish.  For the meal at church that night they had beef stew.  I had salad (even the bologna has some beef in it).

There are going to be times in our life when we will fail God, either intentionally or unintentionally.  Leviticus tells us that we are guilty whether we know it or not (this will be the theme of Sunday's message).  The issue is not our failure, but our response to our failure.  Do we give up, or start fresh knowing that God's mercies are new every morning. 

If you have failed or fallen short of you Lent goals, start over. Don't let yourself off the hood that easily.  Apologize to God and get going again.

Lent Adventure - Day 10

Last night the family and I went to Trader Joe's in Northbrook and my wife wanted me to try this amazing Jewish deli named Max and Benny's.  The place was unbelievable, but there was one major problem.  When I go to a Jewish deli, there is only one thing I want to order; the Reuben.  I had been told that it was out of this world there, and was all set to order it when I remembered that the main ingredient was corned BEEF.  (This red meat thing is begining to be more of a challenge than I had originally thought.)  I had not considered that at all while planning to order since it was a Reuben sandwich, not a corned beef sandwich.

Often those things that trip us up in our journey are not labeled, "sin".  There is the old phrase, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."  It is shockingly true for many of us. 

What are those sins that seem to show up in your life over and over?  What are the ones that seem to just sneak up on you without paying attention, or the ones that you try to justify away?

I almost asked my wife for a bite of her sadwich thinking that it would only be one bite, even if it was beef, because we would not be able to come back for quite a while.  That is when it dawned on me, that is the point.  Sacrifice that does not require sacrifice is not much of a sacrifice.

Continue to keep watch and pray, not just for those items you are trying to give up for Lent, but for all of your sins and those things that keep you from being fully engaged with God.

Lent Adventure- Day 7

One week down, only 33 days to go. 

Sometimes people get the false notion that when we make sacrifices and offerings to God that our life will go easier and God will give us more in return.  There are times when that holds true, but there are other times when the exact opposite happens.  Sometimes we find that our sacrifices are returned with requests for even more. 

Perhaps that you have found God asking more from you than you had planned to give.  Perhaps you have found that in the darkness of Lent, things have gotten darker.

If that is what you have found, remember John the Baptist who spent his whole life telling people to get right with God and follow the one to come after him; Jesus.  Then he ends up in a Roman prison questioning his own teachings by sending some of his followers to ask Jesus if he really was the Messiah.

Soon after, John was beheaded even after all he gave.

A question that is worth asking yourself sometimes is whether or not you would serve God even if the rest of you life was filled with darkness or do you just follow and serve Him when He sends you sunshine and rainbows.