Equipping & Transforming Weblog

My Last Swing!

Lcoff — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:46:46 +0000

I’m going to give this online mode of communication one last try. My plan is to blog at least three times a week through September. These posts will include a mix of my personal quiet time notes (WCC’s summer reading plan), info about what is happening at Wallula Christian Church and stuff you are far less interested in concerning my family and our daily happenings.

I want to be consistent in blogging to improve my writing skills, communicate better as a leader at Wallula Christian Church and hopefully have a little bit of an online record for my kids concerning my thoughts on their lives.

If by the end of September, I have not been faithful to this mode of communication I think I’ll hang ‘em up for good – - or at least for Michael Jordan good!

Bridezilla!

Lcoff — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:29:31 +0000

This Sunday we’ll be starting a new sermon series at Wallula Christian Church. Bridezilla! will examine six couples in scripture to see what we can learn about Godly marriages, living all out for God and more! I hope you’ll try hard to join us this Sunday at 9:00 am or 10:30 am as we begin this series with the very first married couple, Adam and Eve.

Choosing Holiness

Lcoff — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:24:55 +0000

Scripture: Numbers 6

Observation: God has always called His people to continue growing closer to Him. The Nazerite vows are really interesting. It is interesting how almost every possible situation is thought of, including what to do if someone suddenly drops dead beside you! (I wonder how often that happened?) The most interesting thing to me, though, was that this vow was voluntary. Up to this point, God has pretty much said, this group will do this, and that tribe will do that, but the Nazerite vow was left up to each individual. It was their responsibility to set themselves apart.

Application: Jesus makes us Holy. His blood covers us and sets us apart. But, it is our choice, our responsibility to accept that gift. After we’ve accepted Jesus it is our choice as to what steps we’ll take to move closer to Him.

Prayer: God help me set myself apart.

Play in Space

Lcoff — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:07:14 +0000

This is my first season coaching Lacey’s soccer team. I’m learning a lot about the world’s most popular game. It is a very fluid game – as such one of the most difficult concepts to teach young players (in my very limited experience) is the idea of positions. There are different positions on a soccer team and each of those positions has slightly different responsibilities, but the tricky this is that all of those positions are very fluid. They tend to shift from place to place around the field. Young players have the tendency to herd around the ball and simply follow the ball wherever it goes. Therefor, one of the most important principles to learn in soccer is to play in space. Teammates have to learn to trust each other and to spread out. They must divvy up the responsibilities of covering the field of play and trust each other to follow through on those responsibilities. Further they have to "man up" the opposing team. If a team continues to follow the ball, huddling together, forgetting to cover the opposing team… well the game will be lost. This principle is so important that you can hear little league soccer coaches imploring their team at practices and games to spread out! Play in space!

On Sunday mornings we need to remember the same principle at Wallula. We need to play in space. It is really easy to follow the comfortable and important relationships we’ve developed over the years while our guests go "uncovered." Our banquet team does a great job of preparing coffee and refreshments that make our time of fellowship very enjoyable, I’m just afraid not may of our guests feel "invited." This Sunday why not grab a cup of coffee & then spread out, head down to the worship center and foyer – - even with your cup of coffee & find someone you’ve never talked to, introduce yourself, ask if you can bring them a cup of coffee. Let’s do our best to make everyone feel welcome at Wallula! An easy way to increase the welcome quotient is to play in space!

The Ultimate Bail-Out

Lcoff — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:20:34 +0000

Scripture: Leviticus 25

Observation: The Year of Jubilee sounds great! No more debt! No more slavery! Everyone gets to go home again! There is no evidence in scripture (that I know of) that supports the year of Jubilee ever actually being practiced… It’s almost like people could not forgive enough on our own – - we can’t conceive of this total redemption – - complete forgiveness!

Application: Jesus forgives us! No, really, he absolutely, completely forgives us!

Prayer: Father, thank you for Jesus! Forgive me for not sharing, for not showing that same kind of forgiveness in my life.

Nascar and the Vice Presidential Debate

Lcoff — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:41:32 +0000

I’ve decided not to watch any more VP debates for four more years. I’ve had my fill. I felt a little guilty last night. I felt guilty and I’ve decided to stop watching Vice Presidential candidates debate for the same reason I don’t watch Nascar… I’m only rooting for a wreck.

Seriously, I expected one of the two candidates to make a huge mistake. Maybe they would ask a guy in a wheel chair to stand up or they would look confused at the mention of the Bush doctrine, but alas both did fairly well. Now I believe one side won, but I think that’s mostly due to a closer alignment with my particular views than on that candidates performance in the debate.

I’m not smart enough to talk about many of the issues out there today, but I think both debators made tactical errors last night:

Biden: Senator Biden missed a real opportunity when asked about the difference between how he voted and how Senator Obama voted on the bail out bill. It was a great opportunity to talk about courage in leadership – the willingness of his presidential nominee to align himself with more than "yes" men… The cup half empty/half full answer was just okay…

Palin: I’m not sure If Governor Palin should constantly be mentioning that she was the mayor of a small Alaskan town. I don’t want the mayor of the town I live in to be Vice President (no offense). I mean Jerry Springer was a mayor…

Just my two cents… (and the ideas aren’t even worth that much)

Worship, Rest and Play!

Lcoff — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:29:41 +0000

Scripture: Leviticus 23

Observation: God wants us to take plenty of time to worship Him, plenty of time to rest and plenty of time to party! Over and over through this section of scripture God instructs His people to stop their regular work and gather in sacred assembly.

Application: We need to stop our usual work and get together to worship, rest and play! God wants the relationships we enjoy in the church to be fabulous, trumped only by our relationship with Him. Is there a place for an old fashion church revival? Is there a way to stop our lives as usual & just focus on Him?

Prayer: God help me to stop & worship you. Father how do we follow through with this principle today?

Because He said so?

Lcoff — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:49:54 +0000

Scripture: Leviticus 19

Observation: Chapter 19 is filled with actions we should take and descriptions of how we ought to treat people. There could be tons of different motivations given as to why God would want us to live this way. Our health is at stake, our relationships would be damaged etc. But, the only motivation listed is because the Lord is our God… In other words we should choose to live in a way that honors Him because He is God.

Application: Sometimes athletes and sports teams are most effective when they dedicate their efforts to someone important to them, you know, win one for the Gipper, boys! Well, the choices we make in lifestyle are no different. We make various choices based on who they will effect most. If we are most concerned with our spouse or our kids our choices may vary than if we are only worried about ourselves. God is so big! He has done so much for each of us that His provision demands we live in a way that honors Him.

Prayer: Fahter God I love you! Thanks for taking care of me. Thanks for being my God.

Crawling out of Holes

Lcoff — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:04:34 +0000

I love reading the stories in the Old Testament about the kings of Israel. I’m drawn to the sometimes flawed leadership so many of these men and the men around them displayed. I was reading this morning about Saul and his army engaged in battle with Philistines in 1 Samuel 13 & 14. Saul rushes ahead with out listening to all of God’s instructions and is eventually rebuked by God through the prophet Samuel. Saul finds himself "hiding" in caves with six hundred men with the Philistine army breathing down his neck. To make matters worse, none of his men are armed! Only Saul and his son Jonathan have swords! This is, to say the least, quite a predicament.

Saul seems content to hide in his hole. Jonathan, though, decides to venture out. He talks his ‘plan’ over with his armor bearer. Basically Jonathan has in mind walking out and showing themselves to the Philistine army and then playing it by ear… The best part of the story is the explination Jonathan gives to his armor bearer to justify his decision, "perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf." Wow! Jonathan decides that after showing themselves to the enemy they will listen to the enemies response. If the Philistines tell them to stay where they are, they will and if the enemy tells them to advance, well, they’ll listen to that as well, trusting that God will be with them!

Jonathan advances on the Philistines trusting God and kills twenty enemy soldiers that day. He refused to hide in the rocks. He trusted that perhaps God would act in his behalf. Mark Batterson asks a great question wondering how many believers act with the opposite idea in mind; perhaps the Lord will not act in my behalf .

My prayer for Wallula Christian Church is that we would not stay hidden in the rocks, that we would not act out of the presumption that God will not act. But instead, we would boldly venture out, unarmed, undermanned, prayerfully confident that maybe, just maybe, the Lord would act on our behalf!

Nothing New Under the Sun

Lcoff — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:08:04 +0000

Scripture: Leviticus 18

Observation: Chapter 18 is PG-13 rated material at its very best. It is basically a list of sexual activity to avoid. This list is amazing in that there really isn’t anything new under the sun. Every kind of strange way to distance ourselves from God has been practiced – - basically since sin entered the world. God makes it clear in Leviticus 18; His idea of marriage is between one man and one woman.

Application: The legal definition of marriage in our country is, very literally, up for debate. It is also not nbearly as important as God’s definition. The consequences to defiling His idea of marriage goes far beyond losing a tax break or increasing insurance cost. Playing Marriage outside of God’s idea of marriage defiles us – - makes us "unclean" – - it seriously puts into jeopardy our most important relationship.

Prayer: God, thank you for designing us for relationships. Father, I pray for the marriages here at Wallula, in our community and in our country. I lift up those relationships struggling right now. I pray for our leaders and for the elections going on around our country involving this important institution. Father please protect my marriage – - I am so thankful for Cherie and I continue to pray that you would keep her and protect her.