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If I could write just one book in my lifetime, it would be about following Jesus. For as long as I've been a Christian, I have been drawn to the gospels, particularly to the teachings of Jesus on the subject of discipleship.  When I discovered that there are only six passages in the four gospels in which Jesus describes what it means to be His disciple—and one more in which He commissions us to make disciples—I began to dream of writing a book that would help Christians live out those seven passages.

That was 25 years ago.  I've preached on the discipleship sayings of Jesus in every church I've pastored, and 10 years ago I wrote a 30,000-word manuscript (which has been copied and bound in-house and sold at cost).  Finally, five months ago, I pitched Follow Me to a few editors at the Mt. Hermon Christian Writer's Conference.  One who asked to see a formal proposal was the Executive Editor at Revell, a division of Baker Books.  I learned a lot about the publishing business over the next few months—enough to think a book contract was a dream that might never come true.  But in early June Revell contacted me and asked if the book was still available.  That began a multi-step, two-month process that culminated in a contract.

So I'm no longer dreaming about writing a book; I'm actually writing one.  Forty thousand words are due February 1.  My strong desire is to write fresh, Spirit-empowered words (not just to edit what I wrote a decade ago), and to excel at both writing and preaching during the next six months, so that both Sunridge Church and the wider body of Christ will benefit.

To those who have prayed for me and cheered me on as I have ventured into this new ministry arena, thank you.  And please don't stop praying!

This morning, in a message called How to Get Your Finances in Shape, I compared financial fitness to physical fitness.  I said that, just as our decisions about eating and exercise determine our physical health, money-related decisions determine our financial health.

As I was wrapping up my message in the first service, I ad-libbed that making right choices is like choosing a granola bar over a pecan roll.

Then, between services, I was feeling a little hungry.  I decided to head to the green room (where the worship band hangs out), because almost every Sunday there are home-baked goodies there.  But today, there was only one kind of snack.

You guessed it:  Granola bars.

I love God's sense of humor.  And the granola bar--okay, bars--weren't bad.

Today at Sunridge I concluded my Game of Life series with a message entitled Trivial Pursuit.  I planned to begin the message by telling the story of a poem published in the March 25, 1939 edition of the Saturday Evening Post.  My wife Robin reads my manuscript every Saturday, and she rarely suggests major changes.  But yesterday she said to me, “Honey, you need a different introduction.”  I have learned to never ignore her advice, so I cut the story out.

But thanks to my “Leftovers” page, I get to tell you about the deleted scene that I left on the editing room floor. 

The poem, “The Night They Burned Shanghai”, was written Robert D. Abrahams.  It was about a Philadelphia couple that was driving across town to play bridge with some friends.  They talked casually about the heroic revolutionary battles that had been fought on the very land they were driving through, and their conversation evolved into a discussion of world travel.  They dreamed aloud about where they wanted to go, and they agreed that they would have to cross Shanghai, China off the list because on that very night it was being burned to the ground by the Japanese Army in a battle that preceded World War II.  Then they arrived at their friend’s home and played bridge. 

The poem ends with two haunting stanzas that speak (to me at least) of the sadness of living a life of trivial pursuits:

Tonight Shanghai is burning

And we are dying too

What bomb more surely mortal

Than death inside of you  

For some men die by shrapnel

And some go down in flames

But most men perish inch by inch

In play at little games. 

When I was in college and seminary, my favorite speaker quoted that last stanza in more than one of his talks, and it had a jarring effect on me.  I hoped it would have the same effect on those I spoke to this morning.  But I’m glad I followed wise advice and opted for plain talk rather than poetry.

If you’d like to hear my thoughts on how to live a life of true purpose rather than trivial pursuits, click here.

"There is nothing quite as exhilarating as getting out of bed in the morning, going back into the world, and knowing why."
 
That's a quote from the book Jesus Christ, Disciplemaker, by Bill Hull, and I think it expresses a deep desire that most of us have. It's the desire to live a purpose-filled life. Ephesians 2:10 says that "we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Verses like that whisper to our soul that we were put on this Earth for a reason, that God has a plan to use us in some special way. We tend to search for that plan most aggressively when we are young, but even if time and exhaustion has worn down our idealism, we retain the stubborn hope that our lives will not just be a pursuit of the trivial, but a fulfillment of God's purpose for our lives.
 
The question is, how do you discover that purpose? How do you figure out, not just God's general will for everybody, but His specific calling for you? I'm looking forward to sharing my thoughts on that subject this Sunday at Sunridge.

I just had an interesting conversation with three of my co-workers about Twitter.  None of the three do it, nor do they understand it.  I told them I would post a funny YouTube video about tweeting, but that video has been loaded up with advertising, so instead I'm embedding a more informational video.  Take a look ... and tell me what you think.  Do you Twitter?  Why or why not?  Is it a great idea, or is it pointless?  How can Twitter be used for good?