Citizens-WebI discovered a band called Citizens through a friend on Facebook the other day. These guys are from Seattle, and have an incredible sound. If you are a David Crowder fan, you need to give these guys a listen. I’m pretty impressed, and have had this playing all week.

Right now, you can get their latest album free on Noisetrade. I don’t know how long this will last, so if you want it, you’d better grab it while it’s there.

Enjoy this video of one of the songs on this album, called I Am Living In A Land Of Death.

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A Study In Contrasts

I’ve been using a pretty comprehensive plan for reading through the Bible for a few years now. This plan exposes me to every single word of God’s message to mankind at least once per year, and many passages much more than that. In fact, some parts get read once a month, or once every couple of months.

Flowing Stream

When I started using this strategy to read the Bible, I had the foresight to purchase a new Bible at the same time. I did this, because I wanted a good study Bible, with good notes and references, to go along with my reading. An unexpected benefit of this purchase has been seeing how many notes and thoughts I’ve added to the margins since starting this plan.

There is a large amount of my own notes, highlights, underlines, and references that have been added over the past few years. It’s kind of cool to look through this Bible and realize that all of this is from the past three years. It’s amazing to see just how much God’s word has impacted my life as a result.

Looking back through this Bible, one of the most impacting portions of Scripture on my life has been the book of Psalms. There are notes and highlights and scribbles and thoughts scattered all throughout these pages. Simply looking back through my own notes in this one book is somewhat overwhelming.

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Helping Others Succeed

Leadership happens at a variety of levels in any organization. So many different levels equals a lot of different people contributing to the success of the mission, and the accomplishment of the vision. With so many irons in the fire, how can each of the players participate in seeing success?

Success Starts Here

Take a church for example. Our church has several different levels of leadership. We have a group of elders who are the primary, spiritual leaders of our church. Then there’s the lead minister, which is my role. I play a very visible part in the leadership of our church.

Then there are our deacons, and ministry team leaders, and various other levels of leadership.

As perhaps the most visible leader in our church, I see my role being fulfilled in a couple of different ways. First, I play a significant part in casting the vision to our leadership team and to our congregation. But second, I also want to make sure that the rest of our people here are successful in their roles.

In a very real way, their success… in the children’s ministry, or the worship team, or benevolence and outreach to the community… is my success. And that equals success for the church as a whole.

I see four ways that I can help others in my organization succeed, so that we all win.

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Coffee Break – 06.09.2014

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Numbers By The Cup – I often hear many people complain about the high price of good coffee. What most people don’t understand is that we are living in an era of third-wave coffee. With so much effort being put into the coffee industry, from the plantations, to the processing, to the exporting, and then the importing, shelving and selling, right to you and me, the consumers, there is a lot of effort involved.

9 Unsolved Mysteries Of The Old West – As a kid, I dreamed of finding one of the lost gold mines out west. The only problem is that I’d never been out west. Kind of prohibits the finding of one… This post shares a variety of interesting, unanswered questions of the Old West.

The Deepest Hole In The World – I found this incredible interesting. I always assumed that the deepest hole in the world was naturally formed. Not so. This video shows where it is, why it’s there, and what we’ve learned from it.

The 10 Least Popular Books Of The Bible – Ever wonder what books of the Bible are the least read? Wonder no more. This infographic will tell you all about it.

7 Benefits Of Going Through Hard Times – Most of us strive to avoid suffering. But hard times can, and do, provide a benefit for our lives. This post gives a good overview of several of those benefits.

Prayer In The Life Of Jesus – Jesus spent a lot of time in prayer. There are multiple accounts in the New Testament of Jesus slipping off and praying, or praying with his disciples, or teaching others how to pray. This article shifts the view a bit to where Jesus prayed, with whom he prayed, and when he prayed. He also references a book in this article that I’ve found to be very encouraging to spiritual growth: A Call To Spiritual Reformation, by D. A. Carson. I highly recommend that you grab a copy of this and read it.

Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it. – Winston Churchill

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Memorize Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:10-11

With this section of the letter, Paul shifts back to a focus on Timothy and his ministry, with some further encouragement. His instructions here are pretty simple. Timothy is to continue to imitate Paul, putting into practice the things he has learned from his mentor, what he has seen played out in Paul’s life, and keep the gospel as his prime priority. Take a look at this week’s passage in 2 Timothy 3:10-11:

2 Timothy 3:10-11

Paul begins this section of exhortation with an emphatic declaration, “You, however…” This sets Timothy’s ministry apart from the false teachers that Paul has spent much of this letter addressing. Their false doctrine and the consequences of it differ greatly from that of Timothy. Paul lists a series of descriptors here, about his own life, that Timothy is aware of and that he can learn from. Timothy knows about…