Worrying?

Greetings everyone! A few thoughts for today.

In the Bible class I have been attending lately at church we have been studying Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love (excellent book, I highly recommend it!). Yesterday we talked about how arragent it is for us to get so uptight about our lives. We don’t trust God enough.

A friend in class relayed a text message he received earlier that week. It was a quote from a music group. He said that we are so concerned about our own kingdom that we don’t have time to work in God’s Kingdom.

That was very striking to me.

Let’s be about advancing God’s Kingdom today, not our own.

Comments, thoughts, questions, etc are always welcomed and encouraged.

God bless. Grace and Peace.

Zack

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What To Expect In School

Greetings everyone! Just a few things I’ve been thinking about for a while. This came to my mind while studying at Sunset, and been thinking about it harder since then.

When you go to school, you can expect to do three (3) things. One, you can expect to learn in school. It should be expected you would need to sit at your teacher’s feet and take notes. You should expect to have healthy dialogue with your teacher and classmates about what is going on in class.

Two, you can expect to be challenged in school. School isn’t supposed to be easy.  You should expect to stretch your mind, and thinking hard about what you learn about.

And three, you can expect to do some work in school. Doing homework assignments and other school stuff helps lead to learning. When I was at Sunset several of our assignments were about Bible memory work, papers, book reports, etc. Why were assigned to do that? Bible memory work, to hide God’s word in our hearts. Papers, so our teachers could see we are thinking through some serious biblical issues. Book readings and reports, so we can see what other people think about the scriptures, and our reponse to it.

School is very valuable to our learning.

Your thoughts, comments, questions, etc are always welcomed and encouraged.

God bless. Grace and Peace.

Zack

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Mercies In Disguise.

Greetings everyone! Just a thought for the  day.

I live in the Dallas area. There is a nation-wide Christian Bookstore company here I go to on occasion. In the store, they play a local Christian radio station.

The last two times I have been in the store a song called Mercies In Disguise was playing. I thought the lyrics are very thoughtful, thought-provoking, and touching in so many ways. Let me share a few of the words with.

All I can remember are the chorus:

“What if Your mercies come through rain drops.

What if  Your healing comes through tears.

What if a few sleep-less nights is what it takes to know Your near.

What if the trials of this life are really mercies in disguise”.

I personally really like the chorus here. I don’t know the rest of it, or who sings it. If anyone does know, please fill me in.

This reminds me of Paul in the Bible. How in 2nd Corinthians when he talks about the times when he and his fellow-travelers were almost killed on several occasions; and later on in the letter he tells them that momentary trials are storing up eternal glory for all of them. Simply amazing.

Your thoughts, comments, questions, etc are always welcomed and encouraged.

God bless. Grace and Peace.

Zack

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September 11, 2001: Never Forgotten.

One of the worest days in the United States of America’s history rocked our world eleven or twelve years ago today.

Let us never forget that horrible day. But let us also never forget that God is still on the throne. Jesus is still Lord. And the tomb is still empty.

God bless us. Grace and Peace.

Zack

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Jacey Faith Chism

Greetings everyone! Welcome to the world to Jacey Faith Chism! She is the third child born to my brother-in-law and sister Jake and Angie Chism.

Can’t wait to meet you Jacey! Love you already 🙂

God bless! Grace and Peace.

Zack (aka Uncle Z-bo).

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Red Letter Revolution

Greetings everyone! I just found out about a book coming out in October. I am totally stocked about it!

It is called Red Letter Revolution by Shane Claiborne and Tony Campelo. It is about looking at what Jesus said in the Bible and living as close to what He said as we can. This book sounds really intriguing. I am totally stocked and excited about it.

A few months ago I read Radical Restoration by Lagard Smith. It was equally intriguing and eye-opening as Red Letter Revolution sounds like. Radical Restoration looked at the Bible and how our first century brethren did church, and looked at our modern day churches and compared. In truth, there is no comparison. We are far and away from the first century ideal.

I don’t mean to go into the particulars about that, just to show the similarities of Lagard’s Radical Restoration, and Shane and Tony’s Red Letter Revolution are to each other.

If you like, please go to google.com and look up Red Letter Revolution and check out what is listed, especially the book’s website. And in October, I hope you all purchase and read it. I surely will.

Your comments, thoughts, questions, etc are always welcomed and encouraged.

God bless. Grace and Peace.

Zack

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Something To Checkout.

Greetings everyone! Sorry for the blog absentce. I’ll be back this week. And hope everyone had a great Labor Day yesterday.

Earlier today I watched some videos on the blog of a friend. My friend, Steve Hovater, preaches in Tennesse. He has been taking graduate school classes on the missional church in the doctor of ministry program.

I recommend going to his blog (stevenhovater.com/wordpress) and watch his videos. There are seven total. I watched each of them today and wish my friend all the best as he pursues his doctorate from there.

Hope eveyryone has a great day. Be blessed. Grace and Peace.

Zack

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