The Phil Files

Got to London and Copenhagen late, but safe. Good ol’ ATT came through with another flop, promising me data access in Europe and so far they are a big bust on Blackberry.

Interesting flights. Both international flights, Dallas to London and London to Copenhagen took off late. After waiting 7 hours to get a flight out of DFW, we waited on the tarmac another hour more with problems to a seat, the movie system, and some unknown things “not to worry about” as we were about to take off over the Ocean. About an hour into the flight, about the time dinner was to be served, we received the ill fated, “If you are a doctor or a certified emergency medical technician, please punch your call button.” Thankfully, the guy who had the broken seat and was moved to a seat without the movie only took two Ambien and was in a sleep induced zombie state and not worse off, but it sure spiced up supper.

When we arrived in Copenhagen, having a real heat wave, our luggage arrived … but my bag was the very last one off the plane. Whew! Then we had a bit of hike from the central rail station to the hotel — Donna my describe the “hike” in more dramatic terms, but since we do not have internet access except in the hotel office, that will have to wait.

Headed to the water tomorrow. Can’t wait and maybe I am not supposed to have internet for awhile!

Grace ya!ll

Phil

Our View from the Gate - Lovely

Well, here we sit all tired and restless,
hoped for London, still in Texas.

Yep folks, we are off for a bit of respite in the cooler regions north of Europe. But having left the house at 9:15 this morning, we are still sitting at the DFW airport at 5:40 p.m. Saving $300 per ticket seemed like a smart move about 5 hours ago. Oh how the thinking changes over time.

We have heard from Zach and Mandy and they are on their way from Newark to Copenhagen. We will join them there some time tomorrow … Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.

We are still in a pretty good frame of mind for the view, the wait, and with the help of some baby back ribs and 43 trips to the bathroom. Of course, knowing that there will be no internet for the next 12 days is both terrifying and exhilirating … I will take the latter.

Grace to you all!

Such a lovely couple, especially with all that waiting!

We rejoice with John and Ginger, along with sisters Vanessa and Ava, on the arrival of David John this morning. The proud dad, John, has long and generously given of his expertise and programming skills to Heartlight.org

Blessings to the whole family!

O, and David John, welcome to our world. God’s blessings be with you and your family.

My friend and ministry partner, Vann, suggested I take a look at Ed Stetzer’s blog on the decline of Southern Baptists and the trend stats that suggest this is going to continue. As I read through the post, I was struck by several things that Ed emphasized and the implications for those of us who are committed to Jesus Christ as Son of God and Lord and the authority of Scripture, but who are not Baptists.

First, Ed warned against blaming any one thing or group and scapegoating them. These are bigger and systemic issues as well as cultural challenges that we face in our churches and groups.

Second, the temptation is to “turn left” and soften some theological stances is not the answer. The research suggests that softening doctrinal stances, especially on the authority of Scripture and the unique and singular Lordship of Jesus, only speeds up the decline.

Third, we must recognize we live in a challenging culture, but as Ed says:

Is the culture getting worse? Sure it is. But we should be the ones giving a reason for our hope rather than hoping for a reason [to explain our decline].

His suggestion is a renewal of Great Commission passion and seize this truly bad news as an opportunity for transformational change:

We have been lulled into evangelistic complacency and missional inaction. … I think we need to see this as the bad news it is but also an opportunity to change. … It is an opportunity for discovering a regenerate church membership living on mission.
It is an open door to pray for God’s reviving of the church.

The question Ed leaves all of us with is this — because every careful observer realizes that the influence of a genuine Christian faith has lost significant ground in Western culture and is losing more every day: if change only occurs when we feel enough pain to want to change, then do we feel enough pain? Will we respond, or will we simply look the other way and stay on our current (and declining) course of inaction?

In a time of religious consumerism, what will we do to live for Jesus and help others find their hope in Him?

Vann and I will begin a discussion related to this issue, and others, using the book Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Tullian Tchividjian. Look for the discussion on each of our blogs (click for Vann’s Blog) on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Hope you will join the discussion.

This week’s Hearlight.org article, “The Power to Risk,” furnishes the background for this post. I would encourage you to read the article and please, I’d love to get your input into this discussion.

So frequently, our first reaction to anything that calls for risk in churchland is to pull out the old and often repeated maxim: “I’d rather be safe than sorry.” This maxim — or more accurately, this excuse — places anything new into the spiritually questionable category. Little by little, this mentality can so pervade a group that it gets to the point that it are afraid of doing anything for fear it might mess something up. The group gets so afraid of messing up, that it ends up doing nothing and thinking that it should be should be rewarded for simply existing. The Master, however, in Jesus’ parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, makes clear that the those who use this “play it safe” mentality with what God’s has entrusted to them are “evil and lazy.”

I love this Frances Chan piece on this principle that dramatically brings home the foolishness of the “play it safe” mentality:

So what are you called by Jesus to risk for the Kingdom? Have you thought about it? I would love for you to put down some specific things for you to risk for the Lord. (There are questions that follow the very end of this post to help you consider these things.

And as you try to discover that one calling Jesus is challenging you to embrace, view this sarcastic piece written to make us laugh and maybe get a little bit angry as we peer into a community called  Bubble Creek Canyon. We would probably feel spiritually protected here, but I am not sure how much good we would be able to do for the Kingdom.

LIFE Questions to Consider:

Why do you think so many Bible-believing followers of Jesus approach life and their discipleship with the idea, “I would rather be safe than sorry.”

Read the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30 and discuss the following questions:

• Is the theme of this parable using our talents?

• Look at verses 18 and verses 24-30: what was the problem with this servant?

• How did his view of God effect his decision to just bury his “bag of gold” (his talent)?

• How did this servant practice the “better safe than sorry” principle in his use of what the master entrusted to him?

• What was the verdict of the master on this servant and why?

Jesus called His followers to be His witnesses – to tell all that He had done in their lives and in His ministry – to the whole world (Acts 1:8).

• Why do you think it is so hard for folks to “witness” to what Christ has done in their lives today?

• When is the last time you heard a follower of Jesus say, “We cannot help but speak of what we have seen and heard”? (cf. Acts 4:18-20)

Do you think that most of Jesus’ modern followers’ inability to witness to Him is tied to their unwillingness to risk for Him and need His presence in their lives?

What promises about Jesus’ presence in our lives can you remember and what are they tied to in our lives? (Here are so examples to get you started:)

• Matthew 28:18-20
• Hebrews 13:5-6
• Romans 8:32-39
• Matthew 25:31-46

Some Saturday’s are just better than others. I got up early today to go out to the country to have some guy time with my friend, Tom Allen.

Of course, before we could go anywhere, we first had to fuel up at Cracker Barrel — can’t have guy time on an empty stomach. Then off to the ranch near Noddle. After driving around and looking at some of the ranch, we decided to take a quick little fishing break. Using a big spinner bait and some plastics, we caught 9 bass in about 40 minutes. Great fun.

Now Tom generally considers his wife, Judy, to be the accomplished fisherperson in the clan, but today, Tom went bushman to snag himself a couple of bass. Cool stuff!

And that’s what the weather was, too. Cool. Perfect and cool.

Then off to explore more of the ranch. After tooling around awhile, we crossed beautiful Sweetwater Creek. So we got out, grabbed a couple of rods, and began to poke around in the waters along the creek. A few perch, a breakoff on a good byte, and several snags in the trees. Then I look up and Tom was fighting a good size fish. When he pulled it in, it was 3 1/2 lb. catfish he caught on an artificial bait. Crazy, but crazy fun. We celebrated with some Dr. Pepper and some target shooting with our handguns.

We bounced around over some more ranch land and found a place Native Americans had made their arrowheads and spearheads. Shards of chipped flint were all around and I found a small bounding stone, used to do the finer chipping on the flint rock.

We tried one more fishing spot on the way out, but the water was too muddy and shallow, so we decided that by this time, our Cracker Barrel fuel had been spent. Seemed we had no choice but to make a bit of a detour and go to Mrs. Allens (no relation to Tom) for some of that legendary, homestyle, cookin’ in Sweetwater USA.

Hard to beat that for a guy day. All in all, we caught a bunch of fish, saw Native American artifacts, shot guns, got some sun, had great weather, and ingested enough calories and cholesterol for a full week.

Now to top it off, just a short power nap and I’ll be ready for more!