Crazy Love Chapter 5

Update on John's test results

First of all, please let me thank everyone for your kind thoughts and prayers. I also wanted to give a quick update on my situation just to let everybody know how things went this morning. The doctor confirmed he received results for all but one of the tests done last Friday.  All tests so far indicate the adrenal gland tumors do not appear to be producing hormones but are INCONCLUSIVE on if the tumors are benign or malignant. The one remaining test not back yet is only hormone related, so it will not provide the answers we are looking for either. The next step is to submit to a special CATSCAN of the adrenal glands for which the doctor wants to wait till around the third week of October.  The delay is to space out radiation exposure (I had a multiple exposures from my initial hospital visit) and to see if any rapid tumor growth can be detected. I was also told that these tumors have to be monitored for at least 4+ years as well even if they are eventually found benign at this time. So I am not completely out of the woods even with a good CATSCAN but I’ll take any win I can get at this point. So, this has turned back into a waiting and patience game for me and I plan to take one day a time and try not worry about something that I have very little control over. Take care all and I hope you have a good week. 

God Bless. John

Untitled: Writing Your Family Story

I'm loving this message series at - one of the best since we've been at Cornerstone over the past 5 years. If you've missed any of them, I would highly encourage you to watch the videos. Week 3& 4 were particularly good:

Untitled: Writing your family story - Week 3

Untitled: Writing Your Family Story - Week 3 from Cornerstone Chandler on Vimeo.

Untitled: Writing your family story - Week 4

Untitled: Writing Your Family Story - Week 4 from Cornerstone Chandler on Vimeo.

Crazy Love Week Two - Travis' reflections

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes

James 4:13-14

Life is short. Yet we don't live like it is. We act like it's all about us - that everything revolves around us. We go to funerals and we say things like - "he/she had a good life". But do we really mean that? Can we really say that person lived their life fully for the Kingdom? We make life all about our goals and accomplishments. We spend our time making a name for ourselves and gathering attention to us. I like how the book describes how we make mini-kingdoms for ourselves. But do we think about how we can vanish from this world at any time? Years after your life is over, no one will probably care.

You know, I used to have a huge struggle with what people think about me. It's still a struggle here and there, but God has really worked in this area of my life. I would please people, defend myself, brag about my accomplishments - anything to make myself look good to people. It makes me sick that this was how I spent most of ministry life. I'm not saying I didn't do anything for God, but a lot of it was for my glory as well. God and I were this tag team. I no longer desire a life like this - I want to live a life worthy of God's glory. I want an epic life that reflects God's character and how amazing He is.

Last year I took a long look at my retirement savings and decided that I wasn't putting enough into it to live off of when I retire. So I restructured it and I'm now dumping tons of money into it. I will say that I will be pretty well off if I make it to my 60's or when I retire. So now I laugh at that statement - If I make it to my 60's. That's just it - there's no guarantee that I will make it to my 60's. I could die today. And can I say that I lived my life fully for the Kingdom? These are the questions I want to continue to ask myself as I move forward in life.

This part of the book really convicted me. It made me look at how busy I can make my life.

WORRY implies that we don't quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take of what's happening in our lives. 
STRESS says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control.

Basically, these two behaviors communicate that it's okay to sin and not trust God because the stuff in my life is somehow exceptional. Both worry and stress reek of arrogance. They declare our tendency to forget that we've been forgiven, that our lives here are brief, that we are headed to a place where we won't be lonely, afraid, or hurt ever again, and that in the context of God's strength, our problems are small, indeed.

Why are we so quick to forget God? Who do we think we are?

Crazy Love Week One - Travis' reflections

Hey guys.. because I won't be able to meet with you guys on a regular basis, I thought I would post my own reflections on Crazy Love on this blog each week. I'm really enjoying the study this time around and I look forward to seeing you guys soon - Travis

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.

Ecclesiastes 5:1-2

I love this verse from the book. Do we all have this approach when we are in prayer with our heavenly Father? Do we have this awe factor of God when we have alone time with Him. I know I don’t. My time with God is good. I feel I talk to Him throughout my day. But my alone time with Him isn’t always spent wisely. I get distracted easily and I make worldly things more important than Him.

In this study I was asked to answer this question – what would be my first words out of my mouth when I first come into the presence of God? I immediately teared up and I thought “why me?”. Why does God continue to pursue a broken-down person like me? When I think of how He sent His son to die for us and that He loves me unconditionally despite my rebellion, it blows me away. And the thing is, God uses me over and over again – even after I fail. Everyday I am used as His witness and for that I am grateful.

Revelations 4 gives this amazing picture of John coming into the presence of God. Some of it sounds amazing and some of it sounds weird. But when it comes down to it, can words really describe what it is like to come into the presence of God? I love the picture of constant eternal worship of our Heavenly Father. It sounds amazing! How I long to even worship my Lord and Savior for an hour a day.

I need to slow my days down. I need to make time for God and gaze at how awesome He is. I need to allow my time with Him to flow through my everyday life schedule. I want my thoughts and approach to life to always reflect Christ and how He first loved me.

I love this video - how cool would it be to stop and pause our busy days and praise our Lord and Savior this way??