Revitalize Your Church

"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow if death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."   -- Thomas Merton

How do you know if you're making the right move?  Bill Blankschaen shared the following 5 questions to discern a life change: 1.  Are you centered on what matters most? 2.  Are you clear on your calling? 3.  Are you growing where you are? 4.  Are you running from ____________? 5.  Are you willing to move forward? Read the entire post here via Ed Stetzer .

Here's a video I made for the online Spiritual Formation Class I'm teaching for Wesley Seminary.

Walking in the truth . . . requires not only the active engagement of our minds but also the warm embrace of our hearts. If we don't keep both in view, a generous heart can make error look like truth, just as arrogance can make truth look like error. Who can measure the confusion that occurs when truth is spoken with condemnation and self-righteousness, while lies are told with patience and love? Truth spoken without love is devastatingly harmful. Love expressed without truth is tragically misleading. -- Mart De Haan, Radio Bible Class (via Jim Watkins )

"You can't go on 'seeing through' things forever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to 'see through' first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To 'see through' all things is not the same as to see." - C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man ( from bob.blog )

Great article on those who find themselves living "Plan B."