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World Cup (unfair and me screaming at the TV)

So I am sitting here watching the World Cup match between USA and Algeria as I write this blog.  For those of you who are not familiar with World Cup, it is possibly the biggest sporting event in the world.  Here in the U.S. it is not a big deal, but many countries live and breathe this soccer (futbol as it is called everywhere else) tournament every 4 years.  For instance, France was just recently eliminated and the headline back home was “The End of the World.”

Anyway, there are 32 teams in this tournament, and they are divided into 8 different groups.  Each country will play the other 3 teams in their group and receive 3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie and 0 for a loss.  The 2 teams with the most points from each group advance to the next round. 

The United States tied their first two matches (in soccer they call them matches, not games) and so now they need a win against Algeria to advance to the next round.  In the first half the United States came up with a big goal to take the lead, but it was called back because of offsides.  I am not even going to try and describe offsides to you here, but in replay it was obvious that the U.S. player was not offsides and the goal should have been allowed. 

The game continued on and the U.S. had some great opportunties.  They had many great plays and hit a couple of shots off the posts and goalie, but never quite got the ball into the back of the net.   It was a difficult and frustrating game to watch, but the most frustrating thing was knowing that the U.S. should have been playing from ahead for the whole game after their early goal was disallowed. 

I don’t know about you, but one of the things that I find most frustrating is unfairness.  I always have.  I can’t stand seeing someone wrongly accused or someone treated unfairly.   If you were with me while watching this match you would have heard me screaming at the television quite often.   Nothing inappropriate, but I was definitely quite vocal about the unfairness I was watching.

But that got me thinking about Jesus.  I know that watching soccer may not usually cause you to think about Jesus, but let me explain.  You see, Jesus endured the most unfair event ever.  He was wrongfully accused, arrested, tried, beaten and murdered on a cross.  But Jesus didn’t yell or scream, he endured it all in silence.  Isaiah 53:7 prophesied about this event saying, “he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”  Jesus endured all of that outrage, humility, pain and suffering and death for us, and he did it without every raising His voice in His own defense. 

There is something that I should learn from that.  I can get pretty worked up about unfair things that are miniscule in comparison to what Jesus endured.  Jesus’ example is excellent for me to remember when I am faced with something that I consider to be unfair.

But beyond that, because of His silent sacrifice, we receive a great victory.  Eternity with Him in Heaven.  What an amazing outcome out of what was a terribly unfair event.  Jesus silently endured a terribly unfair event and turned it into the greatest  victory of all time.   A victory that I should celebrate everyday of my life.

By the way, while I was writing this blog, the U.S. game came down to the final minutes.  Actually, regulation time had run out and the game was into it’s final 4 minutes of what is called “stoppage” time.  And with less than 4 minutes left, the U.S. made a great charge down the field and scored the winning goal.  With that outcome, combined with the result of the other game in their group (between England and Slovenia), the U.S. not only advanced to the next round, but won their group.  After enduring an unfair event (with me screaming at the television), the U.S. team came away with a wonderful victory.  Obviously nothing compared to what Jesus accomplished, but still I was jumping up and down and screaming at the television once again, only this time in a much different way than I had before.  Go U.S.A.!

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Open Wide Your Mouth

Today in my devotions I came across Psalm 81:10, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt.  Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.”  That is a beautiful and powerful verse.  When I think of it, I get the picture of a nest of baby birds with their mouths wide open toward the sky waiting for their mother to feed them.  They have their mouths so wide open that you can’t even see their face.  They are hungry and they know that food is coming.  So they are straining with every ounce of muscle they have to be ready to receive that food.

Today I had a conversation with a woman whose husband has been out of work for several months and they are not able to pay for this month’s rent.  She has been trusting God and knowing that He has a plan, but she is tired.  She is ready for this to be over.  She is ready for God to come swooping in and give them what they need.  She is waiting and wondering where God is in the midst of this.

And I don’t blame her.  I understand how she feels.  How do those two pictures go together?  God says “open wide your mouth and I will fill it.”  So what’s the deal?  Is her mouth not wide open enough?  Where is the filling?

Have you ever felt like that?  Have you ever wondered where God is in the midst of what you are going through?  Have you ever wondered what God is doing and when He is going to come along and provide what you are hungry for and in need of?  Those are tough times, are they not?  So how do we wait for feeding time?  How do we hang on for God?

Let’s consider this verse from Psalm 81 a little closer.  Notice that first we see a reminder of who God is.  That God is faithful and more than capable of providing for our every need.  We have seen God at work over and over again and we can know that He is able to care for our needs today just like He did for the Israelites so many years ago.

So the first place we need to start is with trust.  We need to trust God.  He knows our needs and actually knows even better than we do what is best for us.  And He is fully capable of meeting those needs.  He has proved Himself faithful time and again and we can trust in Him.  But I believe the second part of that verse carries this concept to a whole new level.  Opening wide our mouths is an action for us to take.  It is us saying that we know that God is powerful, and faithful, and that He will provide, and us actively putting ourselves in the position for God to pour out whatever we need from Him.

Now along with that goes an understanding that we are vulnerable in that position.  Think of the birds for a moment.  They opened their mouths so wide that they couldn’t possibly see what was coming.  They trusted their mother to not only feed them, but to give them what would be good for them.  The mother bird could put anything into their mouths at that moment and they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.  Opening our mouths wide in expectation puts us in a position of vulnerability before the Lord.  And I believe that vulnerability is key.

When we are in that position we are saying to God, fill me Lord, I trust in you to give me whatever you choose to give me.  When we get to that position we are abandoning our plans and putting ourselves completely in His hands, trusting that whatever He gives us will be exactly what we need. 

Many times we want God to feed us or help us, but only as long as His plan comes into line with what we want for ourselves.  We want Him to feed us, but we want to choose the menu.  But God wants us in this position we see in Psalm 81:10, with our mouths so far wide open that we are completely trusting Him to give us what we need.

I know some of you out there are hurting and hungry.  I want to invite you to open wide your mouths to the Lord.  Remember His faithfulness and power, and trust Him to give you exactly what you need.  Open wide your mouth to the Lord and let Him fill it.

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The Gift of the Willing Heart

So yes it has been several weeks since my last blog.  Actually it has been just over a month.  Sorry about that to all of you out there who have been checking back to see what’s new. I will try to do better.   Things have been a little swamped lately at The River and all my extra free time has gone to getting us transitioned out of our ministry center and into my garage.  We have been in this process for several months, but things finally came to a head over the last month or so and we are finally out.  Praise the Lord!  We will now be saving about $1,300/month.  That is money that we really didn’t have to begin with, so it will be really nice to have that off the books.  God has really provided in getting things taken care of and we are very grateful.

So what has kept me so busy was working on the ministry center to get it back to its original condition and moving out all of our stuff.  For those of you who know me, you know that I am not the most qualified handyman, so that was some experience.  

Before becoming a pastor, I never realized all the different things that I would spend my time doing in that role.  But one of the great things that I have learnedsince becoming a pastor is the imporatnce of saying “yes” to opportunities to serve.  I am not saying that we need to say “yes” to everything, but I believe we have become too good at saying “no.”  One of my least favorite phrases is, “that’s not my gift.” 

Now please understand, I do think it is important for us to be operating in our areas of giftedness and I don’t want to see people overextended and getting burned out because they are trying to do things that they are simply not supposed to be doing.  But we also need to realize that there are some things that just need to be done, and if you are available, then maybe God is wanting you to do it.  Sometimes all God wants is a willing heart.  He is fully capable of helping you do whatever needs to be done.

For instance, I have found myself over the last few months: fixing drywall, painting walls and ceilings, vacuuming, tossing junk, moving office furniture and boxes from one location to another, putting together shelving units, adding a floor to my attic for storage, making phone calls to cancel different services, and all kinds of other administrative and constructive jobs.  None of those things are areas where I am gifted, passionate about, talented in, or even vaguely interested in at all.  But all of it had to be done. 

I am not writing this to complain.  God has been very faithful in helping us get out of the ministry center and He has provided a variety of people over the last few months to help in different ways.  And I am thankful for each and every one of you and I know that many of you were operating outside of your giftedness as well.  But I am writing this to talk about what I have learned over these last few months.  What I have learned is that sometimes things just need to be done and God wants someone who is willing to do it.  Not because they are gifted or passionate or anything else, simply because it needs to be done.  Sometimes the greatest gift is the gift of the willing heart. 

We have a lot of work to do at The River and we need everyone’s help.   My prayer is that both you and I would have a willing heart for whatever God has for us to do.

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Noah’s Ark?

You may have heard the reports that  a group, called Noah’s Ark Ministries International, are claiming that they have found Noah’s Ark.  This combined Turkish/Chinese group have stated that they believe with 99.9% accuracy, that they have found the remnants of the ark encased in a glacier on Mount Ararat in Eastern Turkey.  They claim to have carbon dated some of the wood at 4,800 years old. 

If you are interested in finding out more about this story, you can check out the news article from the perspective of ABC News at http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/finding-noahs-ark-filmmaker-found-pieces-biblical-treausure/story?id=10495740

I don’t know if what they found is really the ark that we read about in the Bible, or not, but when it comes right down to it, it really doesn’t matter.  Our faith does not rest on what is found or not found by archaeologists, geologists, anthropologists, and other scientists.  Our faith is not based on what we can and can’t prove.

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”  That doesn’t mean that as Christians we have to turn our brains off, but ultimately our faith is not based on what scientists prove, it is based on God as He reveals Himself to us in His Word.

There are some great scientists out there who are pursuing their fields of study from a Biblical perspective and I greatly appreciate their work.  One of my favorite museums is The Creation Museum, which is located just outside of Cincinatti. A good portion of the museum is dedicated to the great flood and Noah’s ark and how the impact of a worldwide cataclysmic event, like the flood, would have changed the earth’s landscape and could account for the reason scientists claim that the earth is billions of years old.  You can find out more about The Creation Museum at, http://creationmuseum.org/

I enjoy The Creation Museum, I have taken several classes in geology and physical geography, I even had a subscription to Biblical Archaeology for awhile, so I enjoy the intellectual pursuit of answers about how this earth came to be and how we can understand it better.  But ultimately I begin with the Bible and everything else must be interpreted by what I read there.  And what is found or not found by archaeologists over the years is not going to dictate what I believe.  Hebrews 11 goes on to say in verse 3, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” 

As we walk through this world and examine the universe around us we need to start with faith.

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Tebow or not Tebow, That Is The Question!

So this weekend was the NFL Draft.  I am a Redskins fan and I also root for the Colts and the Vikings (based on where I used to live and where I live now).  So I followed all three of those teams along with some of my favorite college players to see what happened.

If you are unfamliar with the NFL Draft, here is how it works.  Each NFL team gets assigned a draft number based on how they did in the previous season.  The worst teams pick first and the better teams pick later.  Then the draft is divided into rounds and each team, one at a time, selects a player from the college ranks to join their team. 

The teams make their picks based on a number of criteria.  Obviously, they have watched how those players did in their college careers.  They also have an event, called the NFL Combine, each year before the draft where the players get measured and weighed and then perform a number of drills that are meant to measure their speed and strength and other physical factors.  There are also other criteria like IQ tests and personal interviews that go into the mix and eventually each team ranks the players available based on how they have interpreted all those criteria.

Going into the draft the player that caused the most debate was QB Tim Tebow from Florida.  First of all let me just say that I have always liked Tebow.  He is a strong Christian man with excellent character.  There was a phenomenal interview with him in ESPN the magazine back in the fall of 2009, where he basically shared the plan of salvation and they included it in the article.  

The reason there was so much debate about Tebow before the draft was because although he is considered one of the greatest college football players to have ever played the game, some question whether or not he will be able to transfer that success into the NFL.  His detractors question his size, his physical ability, his throwing style, and the offense that he played in during college.

The highlight of the NFL Draft this weekend was the selection of Tim Tebow by the Denver Broncos with the 25th pick of the first round.  Immediately the debate raged on by the announcers who said that he didn’t have what it takes to be a great NFL quarterback.  But the Broncos chose not to focus on his physical qualities, and his throwing motion and instead focused on his leadership ability, his strong work ethic, his character, and his passion and commitment for the game.  And for that reason, they chose him earlier than most experts had him going.

It remains to be seen as to whether Tebow ends up having a great NFL career or not, but this got me thinking about something the Bible tells us about how God looks at man.  In the book of I Samuel, chapter 16, we see that God has told Samuel to go and annoint a new king for Israel.  He sends him to Bethlehem to the home of Jesse.  When Samuel arrives Jesse has his sons parade in front of him one at a time.  The first son comes up and he is a great physical specimen, and Samuel assumes that this is who the Lord wants him to anoint, but God tells Samuel this in verse 7, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.  The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

God then leads Samuel to pass on all of Jesse’s sons until he arrives at David, who is the youngest brother and God chooses him to be the king of Israel.  And of course David turns out to be, “a man after God’s own heart” and a great king of Israel. 

I am not saying that the Broncos measured Tebow the way that God measured David, but I do appreciate they way they focused more on his heart and character, than on his physical characteristics.  Maybe if we had more teams focusing on heart and character when drafting players we might have less issues like what we see happening with Ben Roethlisburger, and so many other professional athletes these days.

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The Happy Ending

I like to read.  I read non-fiction books to help with my ministry, leadership, spiritual development, and other things and then in my spare time I also enjoy reading fiction.  Lately I have been enjoying some of Clive Cussler’s novels. 

Today as I was reading, I was getting drawn into the suspense and intrigue of the story and I was wondering how it was all going to work out.  There were a lot of twists and turns and a few times the story began heading in a direction that seemed to lead to an outcome I would not be pleased with.  But then I realized that regardless of what new development came up in the story, everything was eventually going to work out in the end.  

In Cussler’s novels the good guys always win, the storyline always gets resolved, everything eventually works out for the best.  Actually, most fiction is like that.  Not all, but the majority of fiction novels eventually wind up with things working out in the end.  That is one of the nice things about reading.  It means that you can enjoy reading the book, you can experience the adventure and the intrigue and yet all the while you can know that everything will work out in the end. 

As I was thinking about that, I realized that in reality that is true with our life in Christ as well.  Life is filled with ups and downs.  Things don’t always go our way.  We have our share of hardships and difficulties along with our joys and triumphs.  Life is an adventure, it is filled with intriguing possibilities.  We may not enjoy everything that happens along the way, but ultimately, if we are in Christ, we can be assured that everything will work out in the end. 

We already know how things are going to turn out.  One day the Lord will return to usher in His Kingdom. Life as we know it will come to an end, but there will be a new Heaven and a new earth and we will spend eternity with our Lord.  We can be assured of that good ending if we are in Christ. 

That amazing fact allows us to look at life here on earth in a different way.  We can approach this life with peace, knowing that no matter what happens, God’s victory is secure.  Everything will come together at the end of the story.  So I encourage you with those words.

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Passing By

So I am writing this blog while sitting at Dunn Bros. on Chestnut Street (41) in beautiful downtown Chaska, Minnesota.  It is a little more empty than normal for this time of day, and there is a sign on the front door that says that they are now closing at 4 p.m.  The reason given is because of the closure of 41.

For those of you non-locals, just a block or so south of Dunn Bros., heading out of Chaska on 41 there is a bridge that takes you over the Minnesota River.  Unfortunately right now, the road is closed because of water damage on the other side of the bridge due to the flooding that happened a few weeks ago.  That means that many people from Shakopee and other areas on the other side of the river must go either to the west or to the east to find a way across to this side of the river.  It is an incovenience for many people, including at least one man from our church who right now has to take the long way around to come and be with us on Sunday mornings.  Thanks Ed!

But the reason I mention this today is because of the effect that this road closure has on Dunn Bros.  Like I said earlier, it is not as full here as usual and there is a sign on the door that says they are closing at 4.  The reason for this lull in activity is that since 41 is closed, many people who would typically pass by here on their way to or from work, are not passing by, and that hurts business. 

Businessess rely on traffic, because as people pass by, they are enticed to stop and come in and spend money.  With the road closed, Dunn Bros. is missing at least a portion of their regular business simply because people are not passing by.  Instead they must rely on people, like me, who come here as a destination.

So let me use this as a quick analogy for temptation.  James 1:14,15 says, “but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.  Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”   As we continue on our journey through life, there are many opportunities for us to fall into sin.  We say that we want to do good and we want to make good choices, but we find ourselves giving way to temptation, being dragged away and enticed. 

So how do we stop that?  Well, what we see happening at Dunn Bros. is a good reminder.  People are taking a different route on their journey and are not passing by anymore, and since they don’t pass by they are obviously not tempted to come in.  Dunn Bros is still here and they could still come in and enjoy a nice cup of coffee, but they would need to make it a destination, not just because they passed by. 

The same is true with our lives.  On our journey through life, we need to intentionally stop passing by temptation.  We think we will be strong enough to resist the temptation when we see it, but why allow ourselves to be tempted when a simple change in our journey can allow us to not even face the temptation as often?  For instance, let’s say internet pornography is a temptation that you find difficult to resist.  If you keep getting on the internet without any safeguards in place then you are going to find yourself passing by areas of temptation that will entice you to fall into sin.  Try steering away from that route.  Stop using the internet without safeguards.  Find ways to take a different route so that you don’t even pass by.  And before you know it, you will find that the sin doesn’t so easily entangle you anymore.

Now before I close this blog, I think it is important for me to say that I don’t mean that Dunn Bros. is a source of sin or temptation.  I just like the analogy of not passing by.  The opposite is true of Dunn Bros.  I think this is a great place and I really want Mike and the Dunn Bros crew to make it through this tough time.  So I encourage you to make Dunn Bros a destination, and not just come in when you pass by.

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Flood Stages

flood-stages-13So yesterday my family and I went downtown and parked our van near Dunn Bros.  Then we walked over to the bridge heading out of town and joined the throng of people checking out the river.  The bridge was blocked off to traffic because 41 was flooded heading out of town, and there were hundreds of people taking advantage of the beautiful weather to get a look at the river at flood stage.  It was a lot of fun and we ran into several people from the church and also made some new friends.

The river itself is not expected to crest until Wednesday and appears to be rising at a steady rate thanks to all the snow we enjoyed this winter.  Thanks to the work of the town leaders in building up the dike over the last few years, there does not seem to be any danger of Chaska flooding, but the river is definitely at flood stage and it was interesting to stand on the bridge and watch the strong currents of the river as it stretched over it’s banks submerging fields, forests, walkways, and even the local baseball park. 

Speaking of flooding, the Lord gives us a powerful promise in Malachi 3:10, “‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.  Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.'” 

Isn’t that a beautiful picture?  God pouring out such a river of blessing that it overflows the river banks and floods the countryside of our lives.  God is more than capable of meeting our every need and nothing is impossible with Him.  This idea of tithing to the Lord even when we are struggling financially is counterintuitive, but we need to remember that we can never outgive God.  He loves us more than we can imagine and He delights in giving us good gifts.  As we are faithful in giving back to Him from the firstfruits of what He has given to us, He takes care of us in ways that we never could have even imagined.  We need to recognize that we can fully trust in God to take care of us, even when our balance sheet is upside down.  We need to give back to Him first, and trust Him to do what seems impossible.  Then take a walk down to the riverbank and watch His river of blessing flood the countryside of our lives.

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On the Bubble

So this is the week that the NCAA Basketball Tournament starts.  The brackets were unveiled yesterday.  This is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love filling out a bracket and then watching the games as the tournament progresses.  But one of the interesting discussions on Monday is about the teams that were on the bubble heading into the weekend and the debate that ensues about whether the right teams made it into the tournament or not.

For those of you who are not familiar with the term, “on the bubble” let me take a moment and explain it.  The NCAA Tournament only has space for 65 teams.  About 30 of those teams make it in through an automatic bid which goes to the winners of the different conferences.  The other 35 teams are selected as “at large teams” by a committee.  Usually most of those 35 teams had a great season and obviously deserve a spot in the tournament, but the last 4 or 5 spots in the tournament are always up for grabs and could go to about 8 or 10 different teams.  Those 8-10 teams are considered to be “on the bubble” and that means that about half of them will make it and the other half will not.  This year some of the bubble teams that made it were Minnesota, Utah State, and Florida and some of the bubble teams that just missed the cut were Mississippi State, Virginia Tech, and Illinois.

Imagine being one of these “bubble” teams waiting to see if you made it to the tournament or not.  The wait was probably quite excruciating.  But ultimately the teams only had themselves to blame.  Those teams were on the bubble because they didn’t take care of business when they needed to.  Instead of excelling, they were just mediocre.  Minnesota is a great example.  They had a decent season, going 21-13 on the season, but they had some bad losses including losing to Northwestern and Michigan down the stretch.  They ended up having a good run in the Big Ten Championship to get off the bubble and into the tournament, but if they had not had that late rally they probably would have found themselves on the outside looking in.

The “on the bubble” teams wound up there because they were satisfied with mediocrity instead of excellence.  They had some good moments, but they also had too many bad moments that kept them mired in mediocrity.  They could have taken care of business all along and stayed away from the “bubble.”

So why am I blogging about the NCAA Tournament?  The reason is because I believe that we have a tendency to live our lives “on the bubble.”  Instead of excelling, we just kind of slide by.  We don’t put the priority on abiding in Christ that we should and we spend too much time flirting with things that have no business in our lives.  I believe the Lord wants us to get off “the bubble” and excel.  Let me remind us of what we read in Revelation 3:15-16: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

I want to challenge us to not be satisfied with living life “on the bubble.”  Let’s step up and follow the Lord with everything we’ve got!

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Authentic Community: Proximity and Purpose

Last night at our Leadership Team Meeting, we started talking about “Authentic Community.”  It was a good conversation.  I thought I would share a little bit about this topic in a post, because it is part of our vision statement and it is an imporant piece of who we are in ministry. 

So what is “Authentic Community?”  We get a picture of what it looks like in Acts 2:42-47.  There we see believers who are truly devoted to one another.  So often a church is simply a bunch of loosely connected individuals.  Authentic community happens when we decide to be committed to one another.

In order to build “Authentic Community” there are 2 things that need to happen.  Proximity and purpose.  First of all, we need “proximity.”  That simply means that we need to spend time together.  Hebrews 10:24,25 reminds us of how important this is, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.  Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”  Too often we forget how important it is for us to be together.  We don’t make it a priority and we consider ourselves too busy to make time for being together outside of Sunday morning.  Then we wonder why we don’t have stronger relationships.  We need to be in proximity with each other if we are going to develop authentic community.  

Then in addition to proximity, we also need purpose.  Consider Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spritiual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”  God has a purpose for us to be together.  We need to recognize that purpose and develop the level of depth that is going to allow that kind of purpose to happen.  So often we are content to simply talk about things like the weather, sports, work, current events and other similar topics.  We need to go beyond that and start talking about where we see God at work, what He is teaching us in our walk with Him, what we are struggling with in our lives, and even where we have fallen. 

When we commit ourselves to proximity and purpose, then we will begin to have authentic community.  Let’s not be satisfied with anything less!