The month of love is upon us. When we think of love, it’s usually either romantic love or kindred love, especially around Valentine’s Day. But that form of love comes pretty easily (most of the time). What about the kind of love that’s hard? What about loving those that I don’t want to love? What about loving those that I consciously avoid? What about loving those who have hurt me or wronged me?
But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. – Luke 6:27-35 (ESV)
This month, in the midst of flowers, and cards, and candy, and chocolate, let us not forget that we are also called to love those who are hard to love, those who hate us, those who curse us or hurt us; to be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful. Let us see the soul in others that is in desperate need of the grace of Christ, just as we were once also. What are the ways that you are loving the enemies in your life?
With the explosive growth of the iTunes app store since its opening, it is getting harder and harder to find good apps among the mess of cheap novelties and child toys. There have been a few apps that I have found only because I read about them on a blog or top 10 list somewhere. So I figured I would share some of the apps that I enjoy and use regularly. I’m pretty picky about most of my apps and I don’t like to spend too much money on them, so rest assured, this is a list of both well-developed and functioning apps, as well as affordable (most of them are free). You can click on each app’s icon to visit its page in the iTunes store.
Echofon Pro
This is one of the cleanest, well-developed Twitter apps available. Push notifications, lists support, desktop sync, Instapaper, bit.ly, and Twitpic, all in one sleek app. When looking at the other apps out there, I just don’t see another that matches up with this one. Totally worth the $4.99.
This app is no secret. They finally incorporated push notifications. Another cool feature is the ability to sync friends’ Facebook pics with the pics in your contact list. Being able to post updates to my pages is also nice to have. Great app, great UI, clean, fast, and free.
NetNewsWire
I use NetNewsWire for Mac to keep up with the blogs I read, so its nice to have this app that syncs read/unread feeds. I use the free version because the ads aren’t obtrusive, but you can go ad free for $4.99. It loads pretty quickly for me, and I’m only using the Edge network.
Evernote
I love this app. I use Evernote for iPhone, Mac and online, and its all synced up together, no matter where I take my notes. It’s a great tool for project management with a well designed layout and UI. I use EN for all my note taking and laying out project and events. Best of all, its free.
TouchToDo
I have searched high and low for the right task/project management app. This one is near perfect. Schedule ToDo’s, events, projects, and then todo’s, events, or checklists within projects. It can also sync with Google calendar. And its on sale right now (01/11/10) for $0.99.
WordPress
I don’t do much blogging on the run, but when I do, this app is great. It gives me the ability to post new blogs or drafts on a landscape keyboard, and manage my comments, posts, and pages. The only missing feature that I would like to see is blog stats. But hey, it is a free app.
YouVersion
I’ve always thought the icon for this app was kind of ugly, especially for something put out by Lifechurch.tv. But besides that, it’s an awesome tool for reading scripture in creative ways with the contributions, reading plans, and live events. This great app is free.
Logos
I use YouVersion for simply reading because it loads faster, but I use Logos more for studying. Logos is one of the leaders in Bible study software, and this app is no exception. Excellent tool for word studies with all your major translations, and best of all, its free. A must-have Bible app.
Diggle
Diggle is a super clean app for keeping up with articles and more from Digg.com. I got this when it was free, and now it costs $2.99. Very sleek and well designed UI. I would say that this is probably the best Digg.com app out there. If you keep up with Digg.com, get this app.
Tap Forms
This is a very cool app for storing all that information that you never think you need, until that moment that you need it and you don’t have it (like account numbers, license numbers, memberships, etc.) I use the free Lite version which allows 15 records. Full version is $8.99.
Convertbot
This app has one of the coolest designed UI’s of any app I use. Converts area, volume, time, temp, speed, mass, length, data size, and currency. Super fast and just straight cool. Beats all the other conversion apps out there. I happened to get it when it was free, but it’s now only $0.99.
Lose It!
This is a great calorie counter and weight loss tracker. Has tons of pre-stored food and restaurant items. You can track your progress online and set up accountability partners to help you achieve your goals. I use it daily and it really helps. This is a top-notch free app.
Golfshot
This is a great way for tracking your game improvement and handicap. It provides chart breakdowns of driving and putting accuracy, and more. I use the free version. If you’re really serious, you can get the full feature GPS version with rangefinder and course maps for $29.99.
I am always checking up with Craig’s List. I went from CraigsPhone to this one. This one is the fastest I’ve used, has a great UI, and allows me to post items with pics from my phone. Great for those quick curb alerts. Would love to see push notifications for new listings. App is $0.99 or free for Lite version.
ProPresenter Remote
I use ProPresenter every week for our student ministry @MHBCjax. This remote connects through wifi to enable you to access and control your presentation scripts and media. This app works great and is very easy to use. Very well designed, which is expected, and well worth the $4.99.
iTunes Remote
This is another remote that I use weekly. We have music playing in our student environment and this enables me to control songs, playlists, volume, etc. without going back to the computer or soundboard. Excellent UI that looks just like the iPhone’s iPod. This is a free app.
So those are some of the apps that I use regularly. I have plenty more on my phone, but not really any more that I felt needed to be mentioned here. I hope that maybe this list helped you some with discovering new apps or better apps than you might be using now. What are some of your favorite apps?
We saw the trailer for Babies last week at the theatre and I must say that I am quite interested in seeing this movie. The film follows four babies from across the globe during the first year of their lives, displaying the universal similarities of the first stages of life, and the vast differences that make up the cultural uniqueness of each baby’s experience during this time. It can be so hard to imagine life any other way than the way we know it and have experienced it. I think the idea of this documentary is great and as a parent, I’m very interested in seeing the comparisons of these different cultures and their own forms of child rearing. Here is the official trailer for the movie from Focus Features…
The Search For God and Guinness by Stephen Mansfield (New York Times best selling author of The Faith of Barack Obama) is the latest book I received from Thomas Nelson for review. I must say that the title made me curious. At first, I thought that maybe it was a new collection of ministry ideas with an edgy title striving for clever. But simply put, it’s a well written and entertaining biography of the Guinness family and company. Yes, Guinness, as in beer. Calm down. I’m just reviewing the book. Mansfield takes you through the development of beer throughout history and then takes you into the birth and growth of the world renowned Guinness company, highlighting the exceptional integrity of the business and the Christian faith of the Guinness family. Overall, the book had its interesting moments and entertained throughout. If you’re into history, then you would enjoy this book. If you think beer is devil juice, you may learn something from this book. For me, I give it 3 out of 5 stars. Kept me reading, but probably not something that I’ll read again.
It’s that time of year again. Time for some awesome weather, great food, football, friends, and family. And with this change of season, we are rapidly approaching one of the most anticipated holidays of the year, Christmas. For many people, the anxiety or excitement of buying gifts has already started to set in. And the closer we get to December, the more the stress levels start to rise. But when we look at how we, as Americans, spend our Christmas holiday, it should bring about a few questions in regard to some of our traditions and what we are really celebrating. I’m not here to get all Scrooge on you, but I do want to raise a question that I believe to very serious. Why do we celebrate the birth of our Savior by spending money, lots of money, on things that people really don’t need? Is this how Jesus would have intended to celebrate the miracle of his incarnation? I mean, how many people go into debt during this season, just because they feel obligated to buy stuff? I know that people brought gifts to Jesus when he was born, but what does that have to do with us? They brought gifts for Jesus, not for each other. So what if we decided that our Christmas tradition was really not advancing the kingdom of God, but yet was hindering it with greed, and stress, and depression, and idolatry, and covetousness? What if, instead of buying people a bunch of stuff that they really dont need or things that really don’t affect anyone else’s lives, we sought ways to really have an impact on lives that are in true need? Don’t waste your Christmas.
What I wanted to do was to share some ways that you can use the money that you would otherwise waste on petty gifts and use it to really reach people and change lives and meet needs. There are so many organizations out there that make these efforts possible and this is not an exhaustive list by any means. These are just a few of the organizations that I like and would recommend. Some offer the ability to impact communities through your own purchases, some offer the chance to purchase necessities for others, and some offer the chance to help simply through charitable giving. Please don’t just stop here. I have included a link for each organization for you to find more information and resources about each one. I have also included a video for several of them that I would encourage you to watch.
Advent Conspiracy (www.adventconspiracy.org)
The video pretty much says it all, so pease check it out and I’ll let it do the explaining about this organization and their mission. Even if you don’t do anything through Advent Conspiracy, I hope this video will motivate you to do something. Check out their website for more info.
Kiva (www.kiva.org)
Kiva allows you to directly provide micro-loans to people across the world seeking to either start or maintain their own small business. As they pay the money back, you then can start sending it to other people in need. It’s very cool. Check out their website to see how this works and check out the video below to get an idea of what this organization is making possible.
TOMS Shoes (www.tomsshoes.com)
TOMS Shoes has a simple vision. For every pair of shoes they sale, they give a pair to a child in need. So you buy a pair and someone else gets a pair. Simple and very cool. And they are pretty dang comfortable too. Buy your family and friends a pair of TOMS for Christmas. Check out the website for more info and the video below.
Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee (www.DrinkCoffeeDoGood.com)
Everyone loves coffee. Especially great coffee. Especially great coffee with a great ministry. When you brew coffee at your holiday parties, why not brew a pot that has a lasting effect across the globe? Land of a Thousand Hills is a coffee company based out of Atlanta, GA. They get all of their coffee from Rwanda and work through community trade to provide substantial living wages for coffee farmers in Rwanda and also promote economic sustainability through providing micro-loans to genocide widows and other entrepreneurs, as well as other projects. Not only does LOTH have an awesome mission, but they have some of the best coffee that you can get. The geographical and climate conditions in Rwanda are some of the most pristine conditions for growing coffee. Add to that the growing pride that farmers are taking in producing a quality crop as a result of the work LOTH is doing, and the fact that they roast everything fresh in small batches, and you will be hard pressed to find a better bean anywhere else. Check out the website for more info and how to order some coffee. Here’s a video of Tony Steward getting the scoop from my pal Robert Crow of LOTH at the Catalyst Conference.
Cards From Africa (www.cardsfromafrica.com)
Cards From Africa is exactly what the name entails, cards from Africa. But its more than just that. These cards are handmade by orphaned youth from the Rwandan genocide and various diseases such as HIV/AIDS or malaria. This organization provides fair trade living wages and teaches their workers entrepreneurial, management, and practical business skills to help them lead a sustainable living and improve the economic conditions of their communities. The cards are very cool and well priced for being handmade and having an impact. Everyone buys cards during the holidays, so why not have an impact on lives in need at the same time? Check out the video below and go to their website for more info.
Blood:Water Mission (www.bloodwatermission.com)
Blood:Water Mission is an organization that is seeking to provide aid for HIV/AIDS and water crises throughout Africa. This organization was founded by the members of Jars of Clay in order to bring about awareness of the crisis that exists in Africa with poor water problems and lack of clean water and with the spread of HIV/AIDS. They seek to provide sources of clean blood and clean water. Check out the video below with members of Jars of Clay and go to their website for more info.
Rice Bowls (www.ricebowls.org)
Rice Bowls are an easy way to support Christian orphanages around the world. Its easy. You receive a rice bowl, which is essentially a piggy bank that looks like a bowl of rice, and you fill it with loose change. Once the bowl is full, you send it back to them and the money goes towards purchasing food for the orphanages. Check out the video below and visit their website for more info.
Samaritan’s Purse (www.SamaritansPurse.org)
You may have heard of Samaritan’s Purse through their Christmas initiative, Operation Christmas Child. This is a project where churches get involved and fill shoes boxes with toys, school supplies, and hygiene products for children in need around the world. Another cool part of Samaritan’s Purse is their Gift Catalog. Through this catalog, you can purchase items such as agricultural supplies, livestock, and more. This is something that kids can easily get into with picking out the different animals to purchase for families in need. You can also volunteer at a packaging center near you. Visit the website for info and to browse the catalog, and check out the video below.
Compassion International and World Vision (www.compassion.com)(www.worldvision.org)
I put these two organizations together because they are much alike. Both of these offer the chance to financially “adopt” a child to whom you can donate a regular amount to support their various needs, such as hygiene supplies, clothing, school support, and more. You can check out their websites for more information about adopting a child. Both organizations also offer other ways to support than adopting a child. World Vision has a gift catalog that is very similar that of Samaritan’s Purse, where you can order various agricultural and living needs for those in need.
Prison Fellowship (www.forgivedontforget.com)(www.prisonfellowship.org)
Prison Fellowship has started a program that is very similar to the concept of TOMS Shoes. It is their Forgive, Don’t Forget initiative and for every t-shirt you buy, they give a dress shirt and tie to a newly released prison inmate. Each year, more than 700,000 inmates are released from prison. Most of them leave with no more than a few bucks and an old pair of clothes, making it difficult to find a job and start a life outside of prison. About 50% of them end up back in prison. Prison Fellowship also has a program where you can send gifts for children whose parents are incarcerated. Check out the Forgive, Don’t Forget website and the Prison Fellowship website for more info on these projects.
Gift Card Giver (www.giftcardgiver.com)
How many gift cards do you have laying around or in your wallet that still need to be used up? How often do you receive gift cards as a gift that you never find time to use? Gift Card Giver is an organization that collects new and used gift cards that are then used to help those in need. A $5 gift card might not seem like much, but 10 people giving $5 gift cards can mean a new coat for someone who would otherwise go cold this winter. Very cool idea. So, do you have any laying around? Check out their website for more info.
Your Community (down the street)
Seriously. There are needs within your direct community. What are they? How about throwing an awesome party where everyone brainstorms ideas for reaching out to the people around you during the holiday season. Bake cookies for people. Chop firewood for people. Make quilts for people. Do something. This is a time of celebration for the miraculous birth of our Savior. So lets celebrate it by serving people, and helping people, and meeting needs, and demonstrating grace, and communicating the gospel in word and deed. We have the hope of the world and as we celebrate the day when that hope touched down on earth, let’s do it in a way that brings him all the glory and honor that he so rightly deserves. Don’t waste your Christmas.
This morning at Murray Hill Baptist was awesome. Just to bring you up to speed in case you haven’t read my last blog or dont follow me on Twitter of Facebook… Our church recently started a project called Operation: Neighbor. A handful of people were chosen to lead a team and come up with a unique way to reach out to unmet needs in our local community. We had 4 weeks to plan and complete our projects, and this morning each group presented theirs to the church and gave a report of the event. We had teams who put together an outreach event for foster children, providing them with free haircuts, hygiene kits, food, and simply loved on them; teams who held car clinics for single moms; teams who cleaned up foreclosure properties in the area that had become eyesores for surrounding neighbors and businesses; and more.
Our team was led by Charis Axtell, who may be one the most mature 15-year-old girls that I have met. Our group consisted of mostly teens from our youth group, and so we decided to search for a need that is commonly unmet within our local teens. The project we came up with was to reach out to local pregnant teenage girls and hold a baby shower for them. We wanted to show them love and mercy, and provide many of the necessities for raising a newborn child that they may often have trouble affording. We sought donations and were greatly blessed with what we received over the three weeks of development. We held the shower for 5 girls, ranging from age 15 to 18. Each girl received everything from car seats, to diapers, to clothes, playpens, wipes, toys, and more. Each girl was so sweet and genuinely grateful and it was such a blessing to demonstrate the grace of God to them and show them that they are still worthy of our love and care.
I put together a recap video of the event that we shared with the church this morning, and I wanted to share it here with everyone else. God is doing some awesome things through the church family at Murray Hill Baptist, and I am so honored and excited to be a part of it.
“To reach people no one else is reaching, we must do things no one else is doing.” – Craig Groeschel
Our church (Murray Hill Baptist) has begun an outreach project called “OPERATION: Neighbor.” This operation consists of several teams, each developing their own outreach project to be completed over the next few weeks. Our team, the orange team, is being led by one of the students in our youth group, and is comprised of several other students and a handful of adults, including Katrina and myself. It took us some time to come up with a project idea, but we finally settled on one. And I am pumped up about it. Mainly because it is something that I have never seen done before with a church and it is such a great need and opportunity that is often overlooked. So what are we doing?
We are holding a baby shower for pregnant teenagers in a local high school. Yes, pregnant teenage girls. We are inviting them into our church for a baby shower. Why? Because these girls are so often frowned upon by church communities. They might as well wear a scarlet letter across their forehead. And these girls are headed down a very tough path and are in such great need for support, compassion, grace, and redemption. And that is what we want to bring them. The hope of redemption. This is not a celebration of the choices and actions that brought them to this point, but it is an opportunity to show them that they are still worthy of love and mercy, regardless of what they have done. This is an opportunity to show them that there is a church community that truly cares about them, instead of turning their nose up and spouting gossip about them.
Because of the burden of carrying and supporting a child while in school, many girls simply drop out. And many never really recover from this rough situation, as their life becomes a constant uphill battle. Most of them will be in a position to receive health benefits through Florida Medicaid and help with formula and milk through WIC, but there is not much help available for getting diapers, wipes, clothes, and other essentials for supporting a baby.
And so we are looking to provide all that we can for them. And we are asking for help. We need diapers, wipes, bottles, baby clothes, car seats, swings, and anything else that a young mother would need to care for her baby. If you are able to donate anything, please either Email me here, Facebook me here, Twitter me here, or if you live in Jacksonville, you can drop any items off at Murray Hill Baptist Church 4300 Post St. Jacksonville, FL 32205. You can also mail any items to that address if you do not live in the Jacksonville area.
Another way you can help out is by posting a link to this blog on your own blog, or Tweet it and ask people to re-Tweet it, or post a link on Facebook, or FriendFeed, or Tumblr, or Posterous, or email it. Whatever. Basically, just get the word out. Here is a shortened url that you can use to direct people here: http://bit.ly/hDchD.
I am so excited about the opportunity to minister to these girls, and I give my greatest thanks to anyone who can help.
I am pretty stoked about the Catalyst conference next month. I dont know what ticket sales are like this year in comparison to the past two years, but there seems to be a ton of buzz about the conference this year. Buzz that is to be expected when you have a line-up that includes Andy Stanley, Louie Giglio, Rob Bell, Francis Chan, Chuck Swindoll, Tony Dungy, Matt Chandler, Malcolm Gladwell, Dave Ramsey, and more; plus labs with Ed Stetzer, Perry Noble, Andy Crouch, Dave Gibbons, Chris Seay, Mark Batterson, Nancy Ortberg, Reggie McNeal, Carlos Whittaker, Anne Jackson, Margaret Feinberg, Aaron Keyes, and many more. How could there not be buzz about that sort of line-up on top of the incredible Catalyst experience, worship, and networking that everyone is looking forward to. Needless to say, I pumped. And I hope you are to (that is if you’re going, if not, you can be pumped for those of us who are).
Now here is the second thing to be pumped about. While you are at Catalyst, you will have the amazing luxury of enjoying the best cup of coffee you have ever tasted, for FREE… and ALL YOU WANT! Myself, along with the Land of a Thousand Hills team will be serving you a perfect cup of coffee throughout the entire conference. If you don’t know about Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee, then surely this must be your first time attending Catalyst. If you have attended and still don’t know what Land of a Thousand Hills is, then I will pray for you. You can check out their website at DrinkCoffeeDoGood.com. Along with serving you premium, small-batch, hand roasted, Rwandan specialty coffee, we will also be there to answer any questions you may have about the company, their ministry in Rwanda, and how you can start a coffee ministry in your church or organization that will have a lasting impact on the Rwandan farmers and communities that Land of a Thousand Hills works with. Come by and see us, and please, please, avoid the temptation to swing by that certain corner shop on the way to the arena. We’ll provide you with something so much better.
Also, just so you know, the official Catalyst hashtag for Twitter is #CAT09. Follow Land of a Thousand Hills on Twitter at @1000HillsCoffee. We’ll be updating live from the conference, so keep up with what’s going on.
Drink Coffee. Do Good.
I saw this commercial during the Barclays Golf Tournament. This has got to be one of the best commercials from concept to production that I have seen in a long time.
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison
Florence Chadwick was a competitive swimmer during the 1950’s. She was the first person in history to successfully swim across the English channel both ways. On July 4, 1952, Chadwick attempted to become to first woman to swim across the 21 mile wide Catalina Channel, from Catalina Island to Palos Verde on the California coast. This would be an amazing feat, as the weather conditions were hardly suitable for this kind of swim. The water was ice cold and the fog was so heavy that she could hardly see the boats with family and friends that followed her. She even had support boats shooting off sharks that came near. After 15 hours and 55 minutes of swimming, Chadwick asked to be pulled into the boat. She felt that she would not be able to successfully finish the swim. After giving up, she found out that she was only about half a mile from the finish point. Chadwick later made this comment to a reporter, “Look, I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen land I know I could have made it.” The fog had made her unable to see her goal, and it had felt to her like she was getting nowhere. Two months later, Chadwick returned to attempt the swim across the Catalina Channel once again. This time, she made it, in 13 hours, 47 minutes, and 55 seconds.
You may have heard this true story before, but I bring this up to ask the question, “Where are you going?” What is your mission? What is your goal? What is the end that you are working towards?
In leadership, vision is everything. Without the right vision, it becomes so easy to lose focus of where you are going and to start feeling like you are just treading water. It becomes so easy to burn out and give up. Know where you are going, what you are doing to get there, and why you are doing it. Reduce the fog the clouds the end goal that you are working towards by keeping the vision out in front of everyone. Encourage your people, reward hard work, and celebrate the wins.
