LIFT blog
a collection of ideas, essays, devotions, clips, links - and some stray thoughts we rounded up
about
LIFT Renewal Ministries is a non-profit ministry established for the purpose of helping pastors and congregations deepen their experience of Jesus Christ. Our founding director, Rev. William A. Johnson, is an ordained minister in the United Methodist church. read more
browse archives
reading list
- Between the Bridge and the River
Craig Ferguson - A Failure of Nerve
Edwin Friedman - First, Break All the Rules
Buckingham & Coffman - Testimony to the Exiles
Rev. Mark Feldmeir - Good to Great
Jim Collins - The Path
Laurie Beth Jones
Gifting
As of noon on Friday, there are only 56,880 minutes left until the start of 2009…and only 46,800 minutes left until Christmas. Just enough time for each of us to finish our Holiday gift lists and head for the shopping malls! Are you ready?
For myself, I’m not the list-making kind of person. That kind of approach doesn’t come naturally to me. Worse yet, I’m a notoriously impatient gift-giver. Which is to say that when I have a gift to give to someone, I usually can’t wait for Christmas, or their birthday, or whatever. I want to give it to them right now, without any further delay. My impatience is even more acute when I’m giving a gift that really fits the person; a truly inspired gift that will delight the recipient and bring years of joy and usefulness to them. And the worst cases of “I can’t stand the wait” for me are the gifts I’ve made with my own hands--the gifts that have cost me something of myself, and my time, and my creativity.
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Jesus, You Ask Too Much
In terms of the ordinary world around us, Jesus sometimes asks too
much. Take for example his teaching in Luke 6:27-38. It is filled with
wonderful, idealized thoughts about the Kingdom of God. But who
really lives like that? Forgive wrongdoers? Love our enemies? Pray for
the welfare of our abusers? ABUSERS? It’s all well and good for an
hour of inspiration on Sunday morning, but who really lives like that?
This is some of the most straightforward teaching in the Bible, yet it
is also among the hardest to hear.
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I’d Rather Not
HOLY WEEK MEDITATION FOR PASTORS
Of all the places I’ve never been, none is so vivid in my imagination as the Garden of Gethsemane. I know people who’ve actually been there and have tried to describe it to me, but I’ve never been. Perhaps one day I’ll go. I’ll save some nickels, or perhaps round up some church members and lead a junket to the Holy Land, and I’ll get to Jerusalem and I’ll walk right up there with the guide and I’ll see the place. If I’m ever able to do that I suppose my imagination will need to yield itself to the facts about Gethsemane, and that will be alright. But as it stands right now, Gethsemane is for me an inward place, a spiritual place, a place where truths are revealed and where faith is tried and proved.
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