I’m curious to have you guys watch this video and react. Let me know what you think.
Tweets
Tweets by mikewindley-
Recent Posts
Links
Admin
Interesting Concept
Posted in Church in General, Making Sense of Faith, Sermons, Videos
Leave a comment
Disturb Me
I was relistening to a sermon that I heard at a conference last. The speaker was Craig Groeschel of lifechurch.tv. I don’t know a lot about him, but I was convicted by his message. Anyway…as part of the conclusion to his message, he quoted from the poem below and prayed that our lives would be “disturbed.” I do pray that God would “Disturb me” to the point that I truly rid my life of self and leaving to please me but to truly fulfill God’s call on my love to love and serve Him and my “neighbors.” Disturb me God.
“Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst for the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back the horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future in strength, courage, hope and love.”
Sir Francis Drake
Posted in Making Sense of Faith, Poetry, Prayer, Quotables, Sermons
Leave a comment
Pastor Panic
I think I’ve been “thrown off” all week b/c of the Memorial Day off on Monday. It’s great having a day off with family and friends, but it really kills the routine. Oddly, several times on Monday, I had this repeated thought of panic as we spent time with people from church. Here’s why – I’m normally only spending time with family and friends on a Saturday afternoon. If it’s Saturday, that generally means I’m giving a sermon the next day, which is usually mostly if not completely done on Saturday. But, on Monday, it felt like a Saturday, and I kepy thinking, “Oh no! It’s Saturday. I’ve got to preach tomorrow. What am I preaching on?!? Why don’t I know? How can I be so unprepared?!? Oh. Wait. It’s Memorial Day. Monday. Whew. No sermon tomorrow. ” And the panic subsides. Then, like a half hour later, the same panic repeats itself!
Anyway…happy belated Memorial Day. This weekend we conclude our message series at church on “Church As It Should Be.” Check out the podcasts if you’d like. I pray that The Bridge will truly be “Church As It Should Be.”
Posted in Church in General, Family, Fun, Sermons
1 Comment
About my Granddad
I’m too tired and lack motivation this morning to go into too much detail, but wanted to say a word about my granddad. He’s 90 years old. Just made a visit to see him yesterday. I really need to sit down sometime and recount the memories I have of him. He is such a model of what a man was intended to be. There is so much I could say, but for now, suffice it to say that I will never forget being at his house one night several years ago. I was probably in college, maybe high school. It was time for bed, perhaps around 11:00pm, and I walked by his room. There he was, down on his knees, praying to his Father in heaven. That image, on him on his knees, hands folded, praying by his bedside, was branded in my brain. What humilty. What reverence. What dependence.
Now, mind you, my granddad is a man’s man. He was in the navy, at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed, farmed, logged, built highways, truck driving, loves my grandmother and treats her with respect, chewed tobacco most of his life until he decided to give it up so he could give the money he saved to help support missionairies, would not harm anyone but would kick your butt if you needed it, etc. But there he was in prayer. On his knees. Praying to God who saves. Praying for his family, friends, church, world. Praying for me. I’m going to miss thoses prayers when he is gone. Here’s to hoping he gets to keep prayin’ in heaven!
Thanks granddaddy Windley.
Posted in Family, Making Sense of Faith, Prayer
1 Comment
I have no bread…
We had a great Connection Group last night. We are currently doing a study on the life of Jesus through the book of Luke in the New Testament. We are also using a study guide by Max Lucado to help us along.
Anyway…Chapter 11 basically starts with “The Lord’s Prayer” that most of us have either memorized or have at least heard at some point in our lives. You know, ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come…” You get the point. But immediately following this Lord’s Prayer, Jesus tells another story about prayer illustrated my 3 friends. One friend comes to another from out of town, at night, and needs a place to stay and something to eat. The second friend receives him into his house, but doesn’t have anything for him to eat, so he goes to friend #3’s house, knocks at the door and requests bread. Friend #3 eventually rises from bed and provides friend #2 with bread to give to friend #1. It is a picture of prayer. In this story, I am generally friend #2. I have many friend #1’s, and they come to me with a need (shelter and food in the story. In real life the needs are healed marriages, recovery from addiction, friendship, counsel, hope, healing, salvation, new life, etc.) Friend #3 is God. As friend #2, when friend #1 comes with a need, sometimes I have something to offer (shelter). But I have no bread. There is only so much I can do for them. I wish I had the answer, the solution, the healing, the hope. But I don’t. I want so badly to help them, but I’m empty. But b/c I want to help them, I go to friend #3, God, and ask for help. He has the answer. He has the hope. He has the life. He has the bread. He is the bread of life.
I may not be making much sense here, but this story is really getting to me. I know SO many people with GREAT BIG NEEDS. And I want to be a good friend, a good pastor. I so want to help them. I so want to make it right for them. But I’m limited. I don’t have any “bread.” But I know who does. God does. So I can pray. I can knock on the door of God and boldly and persistently ask Him for His aid. If I truly care about these friends, I will offer what I have, and I will go to God with all I am and plead with Him on their behalf.
Do you have friends like that? Are you a friend like that? Honestly, our world, our community, is filled with people who are hurting and hopeless and in need of help. Will we plead for them? Let’s go together before God and plead for our friends. He has the bread. He’ll give it to us to give to them.
Waffle House
Alright, so I already wrote briefly about this on my Twitter site, but seriously, could the Waffle House be any dirtier? I know people who swear by the Waffle House, and admittedly, the food is good. But why, why, why is every Waffle House so dirty? And why was there 7 employees in the restaurant and I was the only one there for 20 minutes. And for the hour and 10 minutes I was there, there might have been maybe a total of 8 people in the joint including me and Hunter.
Anyway…I hadn’t blogged in several days and felt I needed to get that out. Stay tuned for some more spiritual sounding blog entries in the coming days. I’ve got something in mind. And also say a prayer for the three year old boy who went missing yesterday. Hopefully he will be found safe and sound. Also, a pastor friend of mine just sent me an email indicating that the missing lady who is presumed murdered in Charlotte was a member or attender of his church. Pray for her family and that church family.
Posted in Food, Fun, Prayer
Leave a comment
Great Quote
My buddy Joe is as infamous as me at borrowing great quotes from others. Here’s today’s:
“Create the fellowship you crave.” – Brian Hollinger.
Brian probably “borrowed” it from someone else! But here’s the point – we all want to grow, develop, etc. And we can sit around and have a huge pity party about how we’re stuck and we wish that this or that environment was available to help us grow, or, we can go and create the fellowship we crave. If you want to grow and go deeper with God, don’t wait for others. Don’t wait for the church to create a program to take you to the next level. Pursue God. Take responsibility. Learn to grow on your own. Create the fellowship you crave.
And Twitter.
Posted in Fun, Helping Others, Making Sense of Faith
Leave a comment
Bridge on Facebook
Did you know that The Bridge is a “group” on Facebook that you can join? What? You don’t know what Facebook is? Well, go to www.Facebook.com and sign up for a free account. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt. And if you like it, add me as you Facebook friend and I’ll send you an invite to join The Bridge group.
Anyway…I’ve never talked about Facebook here. The best thing about Facebook is that I’ve reconnected with several friends from high school and college that I haven’t connected with in years! I always love it when I get an email from my Facebook account b/c many times it means an old friend has found me on Facebook and wants to reconnect. That’s good stuff. I can’t wait to find out who will find me (or I find them) on Facebook. So check out Facebook and maybe look for some of your old friends!
Btw, my Facebook profile can be found at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=888035337. I think you have to be a facebook member and my “friend” to see my info.
I hope I get an email from some of you out there requesting my “friendship.”
Oh, and join www.twitter.com. I long for “followers!” Find me at www.twitter.com/MikeWindley.
Posted in Church in General, Fun
Leave a comment
My Lovely Wife
Well, I’m making the plunge into Twitter. Only time will tell how this will work out. Generally, I’m a least 2 years, if not 10, behind technology. I don’t know how long people have been twittering, but, nobody I know is really talking about it. If you are on Twitter, please, follow me. I’m at http://twitter.com/MikeWindley. If you don’t know about Twitter, click here! The video and explanation there will tell you just about all you need to know to Twitter!
MikeWindley.com 