Westside Church

I’ve been reflecting this week on the scope of God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ.  In Christ God has forgiven all of our sins (Heb. 10:11-18).  As I consider the implications of this, I can’t help but recognize how scandalous the gospel really is.  All of my sins?  Does this include the sins of my past, present, and future?  What about major sins?  I can’t help but thinking that I’m going to find the conditions in the fine print somewhere.  After all, that’s a lot of sin for one man’s death to atone for.  So, what is the scope of God’s forgiveness?  Does it come with limits, pre-conditions, or disclaimers?

It’s every year as the fall season begins that I’m reminded of an important Biblical principal that I’ve committed myself to following.  It’s the principal of margin.  After a summer full of unstructured fun, Fall comes around and reminds me that it’s time to start being productive again.  It’s time to put my nose to the grindstone at work.  It’s that time of the year when all of our community activities begin.  It’s time to pay off all of those summer trips as well.  Don’t forget that the holidays are only a few months away.  Sometimes it feels like it’s necessary to run at maximum capacity just to keep up with all of these demands.  It’s important to ask the question – will I survive at this pace?

The church I grew up in had a special guest one Sunday morning that was running for president.  I don’t remember his name, but I do remember that everyone was encouraged to vote for this candidate because he was a Christian.  I thought that sounded like a pretty good idea as a youngster, but now… I’m not so sure.

It would be impossible to overemphasize how important it is for those of you who are married to continue dating your spouse after your wedding day.  I always like to say, “date your spouse, or someone else will.”  That may sound blunt, but it is often a reality.  In this post, I want to talk to you fathers about how important it is for you to take your daughters on dates as well.

I can’t think of anything more humbling than to teach from the Bible on the subject of eschatology (end times theology).  At times it feels like trying to interpret the meaning of abstract art.  Jesus seemed to indicate the mysterious nature of the end times when he said, “no one knows the day or the hour” (Mt. 24:36).  This prophetic statement has certainly been proved true over time.  Christians have always had difficulty agreeing on just about everything in the Bible, but when it comes to understanding end times events, the diversity of opinion is, well… diverse.

I just thought I'd pass this along.  I've heard of some crazy survival stories before, but this one takes the cake!  

I’ve mentioned a few times that I was contemplating giving up TV for lent until I remembered that this is the month of March and along with the Lenten season that means March madness.  My choice to give up sugar for the forty-six days of Lent has proved to be difficult, but if I had chosen to give up TV I would’ve failed miserably by now.  Why?  I never would’ve been able to resist checking out the PAC-10 championship game i

Growing up with a non-denominational church background, I had little exposure to the church calendar, or church liturgy for that matter.  It was never expressly taught, but I grew up with the attitude that liturgy was about religion and religion was just another system constructed by men to earn our way into God’s good graces.  Over the years, I’ve come to discover that in many ways this is true.  Religious systems can easily become cold and impersonal ways to relate with God.  However, I’ve also noticed that there are many seasons in which my heart becomes hard and my faith grows cold and I don’t even have a system to blame it on.  In fact, it’s in those moments that a fresh approach to developing my faith is what I need.  This is what I’ve come to discover about lent.  It’s an exciting, fresh way to cultivate my faith.  Here’s why I’m looking forward to this Lenten season…

In case you haven't seen this video clip yet, I thought I would post it here and share it with you.  Ann Timson, a seventy year old grandmother from Northhampton, England puts the beat down on several would be thieves who are attempting a jewelry heist.  This is the stuff of legend.  The thieves are armed with sledge hammers and in comes this little old lady armed to the teeth with her hand bag.  She was quoted as saying, "somebody had to do something." 

I’ve always had a difficult time believing in miracles.  It’s funny because the biggest miracle of them all, Jesus rising from the dead, is something I’ve staked my life upon, however, having the faith to believe that God will heal my friends’ cancer is something I have relegated to the impossible.  Recently, I was praying for a friend following one of our church services at Westside.  He was struggling with severe back pain and was scheduled for emergency surgery within days from that Sunday morning.  He was miraculously healed!  There was no denying it.  He came in limping and went out skipping and jumping.  My dilemma is…what does this mean?

At Westside church, the church where I pastor, we are in the middle of a 12-week teaching series called “Who is Jesus.”  There is certainly no shortage of opinions out there when it comes to interpreting who Jesus was.  Jesus has been the subject of more books than I could read in a lifetime.  He is the most remarkable human being to ever walk the face of the earth. 

Every year I sign up to participate in fantasy football with a dozen other guys from the church for a little friendly competition.  This years’ season is drawing to a close and I finished in a very mediocre fifth place.  I probably could’ve made it to the championship game if I would’ve replaced my starting wide receiver, who’s status was questionable, with one of the healthy receivers on my bench, but I didn’t and I lost.  I’ve decided not to blame myself though. It’s God’s fault.  After all, he could’ve warned me of the injury.   Ok, not really, but do you see how easy that is?

One of the greatest joys I have in being a pastor is knowing that my nine year old son Josiah wants to follow in my footsteps.  It’s difficult to discern how serious he is about actually following through with this, after all, I wanted to be a professional football player at that age, however, he does seem to genuinely admire what I do.  This gives me the chance to teach him the tools of the trade.  I’ll often take him with me on

Last week I talked about a perception that exists in our world today that faith is irrational.  However, upon further investigation, we can identify an element of faith that exists within every worldview.  Even those who look to science to discover the origins of life are required to accept their hypothesis on faith.  It turns out faith is not such a bad thing.  In fact, one could even say that faith in God is the most rational position to take in life.

In our current teaching series at Westside Church, “The Social Network”, we are taking a closer look at how technology has the power to shape our relational lives.  While our lives become ever more busy, we rely more and more upon emails, phone conversations, and Facebook updates to stay in touch with friends and family.  However, do we ever stop to think how this might be harmful to us in the long run?

We are starting a new sermon series next week called, “Carbon Copy.”  The idea being that as believers in Jesus, we are called to be like Jesus.  That’s exactly what it means to be a “Christian”, a term that was first used to describe the believers in Antioch around 40CE.  At first, the term was used in derision, or mockery of the early believers.  It literally means, “little Christs.”  Eventually, however, Christians used it to describe themselves as a name that described perfectly their goal in life to emulate their Savior, Jesus Christ (1 Peter 4:16).

I’m in the middle of our family summer vacation, but I thought I’d take a few moments and reflect upon what was an incredible Annual meeting with our members last Sunday afternoon, the 18th.  Most Annual Report meetings are predictable in nature.  You go over the financial numbers, report on the various ministries, staff changes, past year accomplishments, etc.

Have you ever found yourself sitting on the toilet thinking, “you know, this would be a great place to eat dinner?”  Yeah, me neither.  But at least one entrepreneur has turned this crazy idea into a huge profit.  The “Modern Toilet” restaurant in Taiwan has its customers going again and again and again (pun completely intentional).  In reading about this restaurant I was reminded of a phrase my mom used when I was a kid.

Earlier this week, Corbett Stubbert and I, along with a few hundred other pastors from the Seattle area, had the opportunity to hear from Greg Lauri of Harvest ministries.  Coming to Seattle Nov 5-7, Greg Lauri will be holding a Harvest crusade at the Key Arena that will potentially draw 36,000 people to hear the message of the gospel.  Greg Lauri is an incredible evangelist with a very inspiring story and a passion for reaching people for Jesus Christ (more about Greg Lauri here).  While I was instantly drawn to Greg and inspired by his story, I have some reservations about reaching people through giant crusades in mass quantities.  I’ve had to ask myself the question, is this something we should get on board with and support as a church?  Here’s a few reasons why I believe the answer to that question is, “Yes!” 

I celebrate advances in technology as much as the next person (will work for Ipad), however, over the last few weeks I’ve been taking a closer look at some of the negative side effects that come along with our beloved progress.  Technology, just like anything else, can be used for good, or evil.  For example, consider the age-old debate about whether or not there is such a thing as Christian music.  The answer – music is amoral and just like binary code it can be used to express something beautiful, or something debase and sinful (to see what I mean check out the imbedded video below).  Sure they’re singing about Jesus, but I question whether or not he still wants to be their friend after they released that song on youtube.

This summer, beginning on May 30th, we will be teaching through the book of James at Westside Church.  I’ve spent the past month studying for this series and the more I learn about this book and it’s author James, the brother of Jesus, the more excited I’ve become about what God is going to teach us through the writings of Jesus little brother James.

Let's be honest, the disciples weren't the “A-team” by any stretch of the imagination.  They were a rag tag group of fisherman, tax-collectors, and zealots.  There wasn't a man among them who could be considered a revolutionary.  In fact, when Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, they wilted like flowers in the desert sun.  Peter attempted to defend Jesus when he still anticipated that Jesus would miraculously smite all of his captors, but when it became clear this was not his intention, he ran away.  The scriptures say that all but John and a few of the women were absent at the time of Jesus crucifixion.  John was a teenager who didn't know any better.  The women wouldn't be seen as a threat and were able to be present without fear of harm.   

Many people argue that unless the resurrection can be proved, they cannot put their faith in Jesus Christ.  I would argue that until the resurrection can be disproved, one is compelled to come up with an explanation for how Christianity emerged in the first century, toppling the Roman empire from within, and has now become the world's largest religion showing no signs of slowing down.  How do we explain this?  I believe the answer lies in the reality of Jesus' resurrection.

St. Patricks day is coming!  Seriously, aren't you excited?  I've never really celebrated St. Patrick's day before.  I can't really say I'm a big fan of green beer, shamrock decorations, or bag pipes and leprechauns freak me out! So, St. Patrick's day has never had much appeal to me in the past.  However, this year my wife signed my daughters up for highland dance lessons and guess what?  We're partying Irish style!

This last week we challenged married couples at Westside to pray with each other every day.  Many have taken on this challenge and the feedback we've received so far has been excellent.  It's amazing that something as simple as praying with one another can have such a positive impact upon the marriage relationship.  What's more amazing is that something as effective as praying together as a couple can be so neglected.  Statistically, only 8% of Christian couples pray together on a regular basis.  Obviously, there are some hurdles that we need to clear in order to make praying together as a couple a priority.  So, here's my top ten “Couples' prayer tips”.

Deborah and I just returned from a five day pastor's conference in sunny Southern California.  The trip was great, however, we returned home to a war zone.  All four of our kids have had the flu and on Tuesday, Deborah was hit with it.  It's weeks like this that really test a marriage.  Ironically, we're in the middle of a series at Westside called “The Vow”.  This week I put together a suggested reading plan to go deeper into God's word and explore further his plan for marriage.  Wow, I really needed that this week.

Celebrating one's divorce is all the rage these days.  Sales are skyrocketing for divorce “celebration” cards, divorce party supplies , and divorce cakes.  Yes, the effects of a divorce can be devastating, especially when children are involved, and you may have lost half of your stuff, but what if you could make your friends buy it back for you?  Would that make you feel better?

As a church, we are heartbroken for the people of Haiti who are living through the tragic aftermath of the catastrophic earthquake that hit on January 12, 2010.  As a people, they have inspired us with their great faith and resilience.  We continue to pray for Haiti that God would be "an ever-present help in their time of need".

How many of you have finished Christmas shopping?  Well, I only have four gifts left on my list…..both sets of parents. My mom wants leather gloves, I am getting my dad and Jay’s dad musical ties (not really, but they may be reading this so hush, hush), but what to get my mother in law? Buying Christmas gifts is really bothersome to me because it is so expected.  It makes me feel like it is not from the heart. 

The recent buzz surrounding Tiger Woods little accident over the weekend has peaked my curiosity more than most of the celebrity gossip that is out there.  I could care less about another Brittany Spears meltdown, or the latest appearance of Michael Jackson (is he really dead?), or Jessica and Tony's rocky relationship, but this Tiger Woods story is surprising.  Tiger is the model of perfection.  He doesn't make mistakes.  He has the perfect golf swing that can be repeated under pressure time and time again.  His putting stroke is flawless even in the most pressure packed scenario.  He has the perfect family with two kids and two dogs.  Do I need to mention his perfect bank account, or his beautiful mansion.