Many of us are already focused on Easter. We are making our plans. Planning what we'll do with friends and family and more. But this week, this week that we are in really matters. Don't move too quickly towards Easter forgetting something really important that happened this very week and could happen to you again THIS WEEK!In the Eastern Orthodox church, millions of people are remembering Lazarus, the friend whom Jesus loved but died and was raised to life again. It's called "The Feast of Lazarus" and it's important because the raising of Lazarus foreshadowed the raising of Jesus and Jesus knew it. As Lazarus walked forth from the tomb, Jesus would have looked at this amazing sight thinking something like this: I will be doing what Lazarus is doing in only a few, short days.Only a week after Lazarus was raised to life, Jesus was in deep trouble. He entered the Passion Week--the week before his death and Lazarus would have been on his heart and his mind. We read in John 12 that Jesus even went back to the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha and it was there that Mary anointed his feet with the sweet smelling fragrance of perfume and Jesus loved this aromatic comfort because he knew the stench of death was right around the corner.Do yourself a favor this weekend and re-read the story of Lazarus in John 11. It has all the drama of a best selling novel and a block buster movie. It's a story that changed an ordinary man's life into the stuff of transformation! -----------------------Here's the link to the book I wrote on Lazarus two years ago. It is the PREQUEL to The Jesus Life. The last chapter of The Lazarus Life raises the questions that I attempt to answer in The Jesus Life which is now released!https:/www.amazon.com/The-Lazarus-Life-Spiritual-Transformation/dp/1434799956/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333108074&sr=8-1
Unpackaging The Jesus Life
It’s profound that the initial followers of Jesus were never called, “Christians.” They were called, “followers of the way” (see Acts 9:2, 19:23; 22:4; 24:14, 22). Evidently the new ways Jesus offered were so significant compared to their own futile ways that their name even reflected the direction in which they chose to travel in life. They followed the Jesus ways. The followed, the Jesus ways because the Jesus ways led to actually experiencing the Jesus Life.
Today, in our tolerant, afraid to offend anyone at any cost way of living, we have lost the way that leads to life. We’ve become the tired ones; the weary ones; the burned out on religion ones that Jesus came to help. Over the next several days and blog entries, I’m going to give you an overview of each of the ways I describe that we need to live—to return to actually reclaim and recover what we’ve lost. If it’s life we want and most desperately need, then we will need to return to the one and many ways that Jesus lived his life. First, let me address the obvious question I’m getting: Are there just eight ways we need to follow in order to live the abundant life you describe in your book? No, there are many ways that Jesus lived his life out for us to see as a model—as a way for us to live. In my book, I do not discuss some of the most obvious; most written about or sung about ways. For example, I do not talk about reading your Bible or praying or witnessing or going to church. There’s a plethora of books and sermons on such things I simply did not want to add my voice to this already crowded bookshelf. What I did in my new book, The Jesus Life was to explore eight ways that I ‘ve not seen written about, rarely talked about or spoken about—yet they are as obvious as the nose on your face. It does not take a degree in rocket science to be a follower of Jesus and to actually start living a better life than you’re living at the moment. But it will require a course correction. In the book I talk about the easy goal of simply trying to improve your life by 25%. Think of this way, what letter grade would you give your marriage, your closest friendships, your family life, etc. ? What if it was possible to improve your life from a “D” to a “B”. That’s what I’m talking about in the book. Get the book. Start reading it and let’s have a discussion about it on the blog. Along the way, I’m going to offer a few incentives to encourage us to begin to follow the ways of Jesus. For example during April, we’re offering $50 gift certificate to a grocery store to be best written or video story that explains having a family meal together and what happened in the meal time. The rules are explained on our homepage www.pottersinn.com under “buzz.” Throw your questions to me and I gnaw on them and give you some feedback—the best I can about the life I think we’re all so desperate to live. But first, you have to get the book. Why don’t you order a few extra right now during the book’s release at Amazon.com and give them away to a few people you like and one or two you’re struggling with right now (the honest chapter on difficult relationships will help you here). And let’s get started living a life that is more in the way Jesus lived than how we’re doing it at the moment. --------------------------Here's the Amazon link to buy your copy now and get started:https:/www.amazon.com/The-Jesus-Life-Authentic-Christianity/dp/143470064X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332966572&sr=8-1
A Picture of Friendship: An Oyster
I've learned some lessons while at the beach that seems worth to share here.Of all the shells that wash ashore, the ugliest of them all is the oyster shell. Amidst the spectacular and intriguing sand-dollars which are perfectly round with an embedded cross in the center, the amazing clam shells which are symmetrical, sturdy and smooth and the beautiful periwinkle shells which are multi-colored in rich hues of purple, pink and magenta. Then there is the oyster shell.The oyster shell is ugly—no real color other then gray. It is awkward—with bulges, layers and protrusions, this shell has washed up, worn with the pounding of a thousand waves and eons of sand bars that it has washed across. But it is rough, with sharp cutting edges and pointed ends that can easily cut your foot if you walk on it while it waits for someone to pick it up. But no one really picks up an oyster shell. The beach is littered with these shells that lie unwanted and abandoned to all the early morning shell seekers who comb the beach each morning for the riches that the tide has rolled in at night.But oysters do not grow alone. Oysters grow in community. Each oyster attaches itself to the next making oyster beds where all of the oysters live together. Little rough looking roots or feet grow from the center of the shell and grab hold of anything that appears to be solid, strong and stable.As I’ve looked at these shells in these days, I’m reminded that the oyster shells are the ideal metaphor of Christian community: rough, sometimes cutting, often ugly, and many layers. All the oysters are attached—bound by some rooting system which protects them from the solo oyster being washed away. There are no solo oysters—they only live in community.None of us are perfect. We all messes--just like the looks of every oyster bed I've ever seen. Some of us are rough. Some of us are broken. Some of us have personalities that are layered, amazing and some very plain. Yet, all of us are like the oyster. The mass of individuals coming together because there is strength in numbers; we need each other to survive well; together we can do what we cannot do alone! And there's one more important thing about the oyster.In parts of the world, great pearls of great price actually grown inside of the oysters. A small grain of sand is formed with the oyster’s own ways of making a pearl out of an something that is irritating. From the irritation comes a pearl—something valuable—something beautiful—something that makes the oyster itself very, very valuable indeed.
- What is the pearl that you’ve gained from your oyster friends?
- How have your fellow oyster shells hurt you in your efforts to live your life?
- How do you feel that you are rooted to the others in your oyster bed?
-------------------------------------------------------- The Jesus Life NewsWe're encouraging our friends now to purchase the book through Amazon to help the book get recognized, noticed and above all the message read! So, we'd like to ask that you please consider purchasing a couple of copies of the book between March 28 and April 15 to help the book move up the charts so that bookstore owners, reviewers and people everywhere might take notice and get the book and read it---being impacted by the message!Here's the link:https:/www.amazon.com/The-Jesus-Life-Authentic-Christianity/dp/143470064X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332933455&sr=8-1Here's the first Amazon Review and we're so thankful for a "5 Star review"--please add your review as it helps the book get noticed and recommended!https:/www.amazon.com/The-Jesus-Life-Authentic-Christianity/product-reviews/143470064X/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1 This particular entry about the Oyster shell is expanded in The Jesus Life section on community and friendship. Here's what one blogger wrote about that chapter just this week: Here's the link to her blog:https:/thoughtsaplenty-barbryan.blogspot.com/2012/03/categorizing-your-friendships.html?spref=fb Please help us by: 1. Getting The Jesus Life for your friends, leaders, pastors and family! A great Easter gift!2. Share your reaction to the book with your friends and encourage them to get it.3. Consider The Jesus Life for your BOOK CLUB or next small group study--our Sunday School Class.4. Help spread the word through Facebook, Twitter and notes!5. Please write a review on Amazon.com. NOW is the time to help spread the word and get a grass root movement going about the book!
The Gift of the Sea: A Lesson in Solitude
“The world today does not understand, in either man or woman, the need to be alone. How inexplicable it seems. Anything else will be accepted as a better excuse. If one sets aside time for a business appointment, a trip to the hairdresser, a social engagement, or a shopping expedition, that time is accepted as inviolable. But if one says, I cannot come because that is my hour to be alone, one is considered rude, egotistical or strange. What a commentary on our civilization, when being alone is considered suspect, when one has to apologize for it, make excuses, hide the fact that one practices it—like a secret vice! Actually, there are among the most important times in one’s life—when one is alone. Certain springs are tapped only when we are alone.” The Gift of the Sea, p.44The beach invites us to re-think our lives. Such open spaces, unobstructed vistas and the ebb and tide of the waves make it possible to think about the trajectory of one’s life and if one likes the way they are headed. This is happening to me during our pilgrimage at the beach. Today, in reading The Gift of the Sea again, deep feelings surfaced within me.Solitude is something I was late in understanding in my life and work. After completing an under-graduate degree, three year graduate degree and work on my doctorate--I now realize that no teacher, preacher, mentor or friend introduced me to solitude until solitude came and found me in my broken estate. Perhaps no one might really embrace solitude until they have to or might die. There, I realized that people could not energize my heart nor give water to my soul—only solitude could. What work could a preventative lesson in solitude offer leaders? This is what fuels my soul now to keep going at my work in Potter's Inn.Now I wonder why in all of my attempts to learn the things of God, to read the books about God and to listen to a thousand speakers talk to be for God was I not introduced to the need—no, the necessity of solitude. Some of us are too busy. Some of us live too much in our heads and some of us have stripped all the gears of our soul so that there is no slowing down at all. (In Chapter 3 of The Jesus Life, I show how Jesus lived his life in a rhythm of solitude, then engagement in his work).In all of our efforts to try to help people, one great injustice we are doing is not helping people understand the power of solitude. We have developed great programs to teach English as a second language; programs to dig wells, programs to do most everything except teach people the life giving way of Jesus, himself when he embraced solitude as a normal way to refuel is own soul and renew his heart’s purpose. We love our music and the tiny gadgets that provide the music, but what of the quiet? What of the Great Silence that men and women of old practiced every night—every night throughout their lives? But where has the voice been to speak to us about something as native to the soul as being quiet and knowing God. Even the Psalmist said, “Be still and know that I am God (Ps. 46:10). When then, is the church so quiet on teaching on such a vital subject as solitude?Something so vital, so necessary and so needed should not have to wait until we are broken, piled up in a heaping mess and desperate to stumble upon something so simple as solitude? It’s counter-intuitive isn’t it? That through silence we hear what we cannot hear in any other way.In a compelling chapter that I read this morning from Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s, The Gift of the Sea, (Chapter 3), I feel better equipped to answer the pleas of the woman in Baltimore and the man in Denver who complains, “My life is so full, how then can you expect me to do this—to practice quiet?” I will now say, “It is not another additional thing you need to do in your life. It is THE essential thing we have to do to experience a sense of abundance in our life rather than feeling so empty, so depleted, so tired and worn out and calling that false life—the abundant life.
Day Two at the Beach: The Lesson of Retreat and Return
“The bare beauty of the channeled whelk tells me that one answer, and perhaps a first step, is in simplification of life, in cutting out some of the distractions. But how? Total retirement is not possible. I cannot shed my responsibilities. I cannot permanently inhabit a desert island. I cannot be a monk in the midst of family life. I would not want to be. The solution for me, surely, is neither in total renunciation of the world, nor in total acceptance of it. I must find a balance somewhere, or an alternating rhythm between these two extremes, a swinging of the pendulum between solitude and communion, between retreat and return. In my periods of retreat, perhaps I can learn something to carry back into my worldly life. I can at least practice for these two weeks the simplification of outward life, as a beginning. I an follow this superficial clue and see where it leads. Here in beach living, I can try.” TGOTS, p. 24 Many, I know, myself included are living more of a divided life than a fulfilling one. More of a fragmented life, than a whole one. More of a posture of surviving than thriving. Yet, when one reads the very words of Jesus, himself—it is the sense of the abundance of life that we are in search of in our “one wild and precious life.”Here on my beach pilgrimage, I find myself yet again, asking the same questions: How can I make life work better? What am I doing wrong? What steps can I talk to live and cultivate the abundant life Jesus said could be mine? How can I live in the ebb and flow of life and not fight the current so much?Anne Morrow Lindbergh gives us a clue on Day Two of our Pilgrimage. It is to embrace the alternating rhythms of life rather than digging into accepting the same ole—same ole. The life that seems inescapable is actually just that—escapable and I must learn this and to escape more often. We need rhythm. I need this time at the beach. My soul is craving it. The sighs are too deep for words and my stare at the ebbing horizon shows me that my mind is still busy with all of the distractions that I packed up and brought here. How will we get all of this done? Can’t we take a break now? What will people think of us if we cocoon and re-emerge? Will we even want to re-emerge?Lindbergh coaches us to begin to simplify the outer world as the first step—to let go of the so many things that burden us. Our time obligations, our involvements, our meetings and to shed them the way the hermit crab sheds his shell. This is what one does on a true retreat. You remove yourself from the begging of people and begin to listen to the begging of one’s own heart—the begging from God, perhaps. In the shedding, there is freedom and the freedom is what we all want, I think. There is an ebb and flow in life and there is not always ebb--neither is there always flow. There is a rhythm to everything that has life and to stay alive and live alive, I have to learn to live in rhythm. (In Chapter 2 and 3 of The Jesus Life, I go into this in much more detail).You move into a simpler flow and cadence of life—then return to your world with all of the breathless living and the plaque of hurry-sickness. You learn to live in the rhythm of both ways of living—not just one. There is time for both and there must be time for both if one longs to live the undivided life—or as I am calling it, the Jesus life. He lived in this rhythm and so must I. There is absolutely nothing attractive about a person lives a manic life in search of the peace that God gives through rhythm—through time—through retreat.I am glad to be reminded that the life of retreat and return is a crucial and vital cadence that we must live. Today, I must give myself permission to live at the beach; to let go of all I brought here and to rid myself of all the burdens I have carried here. They do not fit in the suitcase one packs to live at the beach for a few weeks.And I must remember that all of these burdens will be there for me to pack up and resume carrying when we leave this place. But for now, there must be the beach. There must be rhythm. The mountains will be there when I get back. But for now, I must let go of my mental, spiritual, emotional and relational backback and prepare to receive the Gift of the Sea.
Day One: The Gift of the Sea
“The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open and choiceless as a beach—waiting for a gift from the sea." -TGOTS, p.11 I am not so sure that I have come so much to be rewarded as I have come as a pilgrim. Perhaps, though, all who come searching come longing for a reward. Since I have come searching, then, yes, I have come wanting the reward.The mountains can teach one many things: glory, wonder, awe and humility and since I live in the high ranges of Colorado, my soul is needing something else—something that the beach offers. Yet, what it offers, I do not yet know.I have come vacant in my soul, tired in my bones and longing in my heart. I have come needy I suppose; a beggar, perhaps. I Here the rhythm of the tides will be my teachers. The ebb and flow of the waves my constant reminders. The wide, empty beach mentors.On Day One at the beach, I am wondering how to exchange the greediness of my time; the impatience of my mind as well as all of my soul’s anxious things for the peace of the sea this morning.This morning, the sea looks as calm as it looked when Jesus, himself spoke into it and the waves died down and the calm took over. I want to be taken over. Yes, that is what I long for this morning. I want to be taken over and in saying this, I confess on day one that I acknowledge my need. I would not have come at all if I were not in need! -----------------------------------We are on a pilgrimage of both work and rest--exchanging the glory of the mountains of Colorado for the quiet of a barrier island off the coast of North Carolina. We have a week before our first ministry happens with a couple coming here for a soul care intensive and we await these quiet days before the full release of The Jesus Life. In the Chapter 1, I describe our need for a different kind of life and why this is so important! Join us in the book's invitation to experience The Jesus Life.
From the Mountains to an Island Pilgrimage
Months ago now, Gwen and I received many invitations from churches and groups up and down the east coast for the Spring 2012. We decided to do an experiment. Knowing how wearying travel can be, we thought, "Let's try to base in North Carolina--our former home, and travel up and down the east coast to all of these events rather than fly back to Colorado each time. It's really wearing to travel so much. It is so draining actually that we often say, "Is this really worth it?" And were it not for the warm, tearful "thanks" that we receive, I really don't think we'd travel like we do at present.Last Sunday night as we awaited a plane change in O'Hare in Chicago, it dawned on me that we had been in O'Hare for the past five Sundays in a row going somewhere. Speaking somewhere. Offering our ministry somewhere. It was a depressing thought to be in an airport more on Sundays than you've been in church or enjoying time with really good, life-giving friends!So, tomorrow we start a road trip and head to a small, narrow barrier island off the coast of North Carolina. Yes, we're taking Laz, our Golden Retriever in our Prius for the 2000 mile trek. We'll be exchanging what is historically, the two most snow ladened months in Colorado for the ocean waves of a tiny island where there are no motels or hotels... only little private cottages. We've rented a little 2 bedroom place where we'll hunker down. We will not be off though. We've tried a new rhythm of engage and then disengage for the weeks we are there...something I write about in The Jesus Life. A leader and spouse will fly to this island from Alaska for their soul care intensive with us. 10 couples from across the US will gather with us for the first "Jesus Life Retreat" in a 10 bedroom/10 bath, ocean front home we're rented for a long weekend. Then we'll head to Richmond, VA the home of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist (my roots) to start their first ever training in soul care for their missionaries.I'm afraid as I look at the schedule, there's not enough time to roam the beach, watch the turtles and dolphins and read Ann Morrow Lindberg's The Gift of the Sea, the prophetess of all sea coasts and coastal pilgrimages everywhere and for all time. How could anyone go to the shore without a copy of her book in your hands? She'll be our companion once again as we make this pilgrimage! We're sorting through our books now to tote along.Since the beginning of time, people have gone on religious pilgrimages in search of the peace such an experience offers. Tomorrow begins ours. We often tell leaders, "Those who care must be cared for!" And this trip for Gwen and me is that kind of pilgrimage. Gwen is still recovering from her extensive spinal surgery and I feel like I need to recover from a long season of writing, speaking and more. While not quite a sabbatical, this is our experiment to try to care for our own souls. We chose another place of beauty--the coast and are exchanging the brown of Colorado's high desert for the spring of dogwoods, azaleas and redbuds. It will be beauty to pierce our soul, as Simone Weil, a French writer tells us.We look forward to altering the trajectory of our lives. Who wants to be in airports more than community? Who wants to sit for hours in waiting lobbies when their are waves to stare at and seagulls to chase? Don't we all need a time to re-think where we're headed and if we really want what's at the end of such a path or not?So we embark! We'll be posting and Gwen promises to make her first blog entry in a long, long time on this pilgrimage.Let's go!
Jesus Without the Paraphernalia!
In a remote area of the Copper Canyons in the Mexican state of Chihuahua lives a reclusive people group named the Tarahumara. This tribe has the remarkable ability to run fast, run long distances, and run without injury over rugged mountainous terrain. Their racing method defies the billion dollar industry of Nike, Adidas and other footwear businesses that have spent years developing an ideal shoe filled with gel, air pockets, rubber or other secret elements. What defies logic, money, scientific research and common sense is that the Tarahumara run barefoot. That’s right! They run on their unprotected God-given feet. In the running world, this tribe is now legendary. Christopher McDougall’s bestselling book, Born to Run, tells the story of these greatest long distance runners. Now runners around the world are embracing the novel idea that to run fast and without injury, all one needs to do is run without any encumbrance; no gel sole, no novel tread, and no laces, buckles or clips.I share this because when I read McDougall’s book, I saw a similarity in what has happened to those of us who call ourselves Christians—followers of Jesus—but who have picked up so many add-ons, extras, rules, regulations, tips and techniques about how to live the Christian life. What if we could just go back to the barefoot rabbi himself and follow him to see how he lived his life? What if actually following his simple ways could lead the to life we are in search of?Imagine Jesus--without all the add-ons! Imagine Jesus without all of the religious paraphernalia! Imagine following the God in the flesh man who came to show us the way. No trapping. No programs. No techniques. Just Jesus.How is that we have become so terribly lost in our world, void of actually experiencing exactly what Jesus came to give us--life? I suggest it is that we have embellished the truth by 200+ denominations all insisting on their own way as the right way. We fight rather than follow Jesus. We study rather than follow. We add on because we don't trust that his way is really enough in our world.To live the Jesus Life, we are going to need to go back and dump out our spiritual back-backs where we have stored wrong information, old assumptions and notebooks crammed full of tips and techniques. Why not grab lunch or coffee with a friend and ask: What add-ons do you think you may have incorporated into your relationship with Jesus? What can be jettisoned?--------------------------------------------------------------------------In The Jesus Life, I argue that we lost our way and that since Jesus called himself "the way"...then we will need to go back and actually follow his ways if we want to experience his life. Please join us on the journey by ordering a copy---hey why not order several copies of The Jesus Life. If your order through us, we'll give you absolutely FREE a copy of Embracing Soul Care, which is a daily devotional to read and is an excellent tool to care for your soul as your re-think Jesus and all he came to give us! Click on the offer on the right and you'll be taken to our bookstore through Potter's Inn. We have the books in stock RIGHT NOW and will ship them out to you ASAP!Or here's the link the Amazon where you can order and get a special "pre-order" price which will certainly increase when the book is released through Amazon:https:/www.amazon.com/The-Jesus-Life-Authentic-Christianity/dp/143470064X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331571855&sr=8-1
The Life and Death of Marriage
We are about ready to lead 85 couples into the greatest mystery of life and that is the relationship between a man and woman in marriage. Marriage is a sacred tool used by God to revolutionize the human heart--the heart of two people who join together in marriage. There are issues for the single person to work through, but the issues of marriage brings to single souls together and in the mystery of the journey, the two become one.Tonight, we will give a talk focusing on this theme: Closing the Gap. In every marriage gaps form which widen and separate the two thirsty souls and there are no exceptions. I'm going to outline five forces which seem determined to push couples apart rather than bring them together. The five I will explore are:
- The busyness of life and the residual affect on marriages.
- The unresolved issues of the past. Every person in the marriage brings dirty laundry to the marriage and when the baggage is big, the problems are bigger!
- A common but profound mis-understanding about what authentic intimacy is and looks like. True intimacy is defined this way: INTO-ME-See. And because of our fear of letting this happen. We live isolated, disconnected and alone in the marriage.
- The fact that most couples live out their marriage only with a horizontal understanding of each other and void of a vertical one. Marriage is sacred and their is no secular space within any marriage.
- Our tendency in marriage is to forget that the human heart has four chambers and all four chambers need to be opened in marriage. The fourth chamber is where the secrets of the past, the lies of the present and the longings of the future reside. As my mentor poet, Mary Oliver has told us, "The Heart has many dungeons. Bring the light. Bring the light!" How we need the light of Jesus to help a marriage really function the way that God intended.
We'd appreciate the prayers of our all of our readers and friends as we lead these 85 couples into the great mystery of their relationships and as we descend into the fourth chamber of the husband's heart and the wife's soul.It's an noble task we're about to undertake and it's not an easy assignment at all!We are in Baltimore, MD at Central Presbyterian Church.
In Search of the Abundant Life
Our best hope for a
ctually experiencing this abundant life is for us to go back to the One who said “I am the way, the truth and the life.”[1] The problem is that many of us have majored on only one-third of this amazing, self-disclosing, God-revealing decree. It seems we have developed a fetish for the truth. Churches offer what they think is the right doctrine instead of helping people discover the life Jesus came to give. We fight over dogma insisting that believing the right thing will yield the right life. The truth is the Pharisees in Jesus day did the same thing so many Christians are doing today. We are on information overload. We go to Bible studies, attend seminars and have heard thousands of sermons but this one reality remains: information and the amassing of information, no matter how true it is does not lead to life transformation.
This is not the age of information…
This is the time of loaves and fishes.
- David Whyte
We have believed that the pursuit of truth alone will yield a life worth living, and so we have emphasized doctrine over life, facts over vitality, and information over transformation. Because of our relentless pursuit to get everything right, we’ve gotten it all wrong.Transformation is an experience. It’s something that happens to a person that alters the trajectory and quality of life from that point forward. It’s transformation that we most need to live the life we most want.It saddens me that my own church is embroiled in a denominational squabble which is now on the news and TV. We can build our theological silos and hunker down in them but the fact remains, that what most people are looking for is life--a life that is vital, real and sustainable. Here's the bottom line, it's Jesus who offers this life--not a denomination--not even a single church! What worries me when churches squabble is that we move off center of the real message of Jesus. We get sidetracked in lesser messages; splintering people and making mountains out of molehills. Because I've been through this squabble once in my life in a former denomination which split, I just simply will not get involved in this one. There are far too many people who are surviving than thriving and my life's purpose is about helping people THRIVE! I want people to experience The Jesus Life!-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I'm excited that the Jesus Life is in the warehouse--and at the moment in trucks moving across the country--soon to be showing up in your local bookstores. Potter's Inn is offering a very special offer to our friends! If you buy your copy of The Jesus Life through Potter's Inn, then we'll send you FREE a copy of my book, Embracing Soul Care, which is a daily devotional; a 360 journey around your heart and soul. Each entry is topical and comes with three questions which go below the waterline to help you think through your own life more clearly. You get two books for the price of one. The Link on the blog takes you to the Potter's Inn store when you can purchase this special offering--and only through Potter's Inn!It's our way of saying thanks!