Katrina Watts is the director of Grace Acres (the preschool ministry) and Family Ministry Coordinator at Grace Community Church.  She also helps out with Remix on Wednesday nights, and is a community group leader.  She, and her co-leader, do an amazing job leading their group, and I’m so glad that the Lord is using her to build community and help people take steps of faith.

She and her group had a cook-out the other night, and this picture was taken (Katrina’s the one standing up, with a black shirt on).  What caption would you put under it for her?  What’s Katrina thinking?  Is she mad?  Confused?  Why is she not smiling?  Leave your caption as a comment (and feel free to leave more than one comment!).  I’ll give you guys a few days, and the winning caption will receive a copy of the book that Katrina’s group is going through, Crazy Love, by Francis Chan.  I’ll alert the winner by email.

??????

 

Have you ever had an unsolvable argument with somebody because neither of you knew the answer to a certain, random, completely unimportant question?  Like “What was the final score from the 2007 NFL Super Bowl football game?” or “How many stop signs are there in the state of TN?”  or “How many hours would it take watch all 3 extended versions of Lord of the Rings?”  You can wait until one of you has time to look it up, or…enter ChaCha.  It’s a mobile answer service.  Just text any question you have to the phone number 242242 (which spells ChaCha), they’ll route your question to a knowledgeable person, who will text you back with the answer.   ChaCha gets hundreds of thousands of questions a day.

I’ve been using it for a while now, and really love it.  Laura doesn’t like it…she says it’s not reliable (of course, she usually says that when it proves her wrong!…hah…j/k…kind of).  It’s about as reliable as any web engine search or Wikipedia.  It’s answered lots of questions I have.  Most of my questions are completely random.  Here’s an assortment:

Ques: Where did the chicago cubs get their name? I haven’t heard of any bear sightings in the Chicagoland area.

Ans: The name ‘Cubs’ was imposed upon the team in 1902 by a newspaper writer who thought the team looked very young.

Ques: How many Sham-Wows would it take to soak up the water in a typical baptismal?

Ans: Probably at least 5,000 sham wows, but if you only had one sham wow, you could just keep wringing it out!

Ques: What is the line on the University of TN/University of FL game this weekend?

Ans: There isn’t a line. They are not playing this weekend.

My response: Yes they are. 615 est.

Ans: yeah, you’re rt. Fl by 14.

So, what question are you going to ask ChaCha? Post them here as a comment!

 

Whether you like golf or not, Phil Mickelson is a likable kind of guy.  I love how he’s willing to take the risky shot from behind a tree that everybody else would be afraid to take.  He’s not scared to fire a 4-iron at a pin that’s tucked into the back corner of a green guarded by bunkers and water.  Instead of playing it safe, he’ll flop a wedge from a buried lie in the trap to a pin position that’s running away from him on a green that is slicker than putting in your bathtub.  Though it is that same “grip it and rip it” attitude that costs him championship titles, you’ve got to love his win-at-all-costs attitude.

What I also respect about Phil is his devotion to his family off of the course.  I remember the 1999 US Open.  His wife, Amy, was pregnant and was due any day.  He was fighting for the lead (and this would be his first Major win, so this tournament was really important to him) with Payne Stewart, but the tournament wasn’t of first importance.  Of first importance was his wife and soon-to-be-born daughter.  So he carried a pager with him all week, ready to walk off the course the instant he received the page from his wife.

Now, nearly 10 years later, Amy has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  So what is Phil to do?  Continue traveling with the PGA tour?  Pour more and more hours into his job to avoid the difficulties of home?  No.  Phil is taking time off to be with his wife and family (granted, Phil has more money than most, and so has the freedom to take time off and still financially survive).  To me, that’s a noble move.

Phil has put his reputation on the line in order to make his family more important than his job.  Investing in his family is more important than getting that next big win.

Maybe we husbands could learn something from Phil.  Lets evaluate what is of utmost importance to us.  Is it our job?  Our reputation?  That next “big win”?  Or is it our family?

Here’s a tribute to one of the craziest shots I ever saw Phil make.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PslA4WcSos&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

 

I hate the expression, “You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.”  I want both! I recently posted this to Twitter:

Would U prefer 2 sit under a pastor who knows Scripture really well but communicates poorly or who’s a gr8 speaker but knows less Scripture?

I received lots of feedback, ones that brought up more questions:

Which is easier to learn, Scripture or speaking?

What is our faith really built upon?  Polished speaking or sound theology?

Isn’t that why God made a concordance? (personally, this question made me laugh)

Here’s my thought.  Is “both” too much to demand?

Is the Gospel not worth our every ounce of effort to “get it right?”  Should we not study historical theology, systematic theology, original languages, multiple translations, other pastors, commentaries, dictionaries, surveys, hermeneutics, biblical theology, all with the end goal of communicating the “correct” Gospel?  What we believe is so important.  Paul rips the Galatian Christians because of their wrong belief:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. Galatians 1:6-7

What we believe, and what we lead others to believe, is highly important.  We owe it to those we are leading to get it right!

On the other side of the coin, is the Gospel not worth every ounce of our effort to communicate it effectively?  If we communicate poorly, we are really saying, “The Gospel is not valuable enough to me or for you for me to work on my communication skills.”  It’s not enough to just “get the Gospel right” because the Gospel was never meant to stay with you, but was meant to spread to the ends of the earth.  How does that happen?  (hint: It doesn’t spread through the water).  We need to continue to improve the way that we articulate it, thinking through the way that it lands on those to whom we are preaching.  Are you communicating in a way that leaves people offended at the Gospel (which is, by nature, offensive…you’re telling somebody that they’re a sinner, can’t do any good for themselves, and need someone to rescue them!), or offended that you continue to harp on your “pet” sins, elevating gray issues and condemning those who don’t have the exact same convictions?  Are people left more confused about God than when they came?  Or do they walk out left with a real choice, knowing full-well the meaning and implications of your message?  I’m not talking about the Gospel needing your eloquent speech (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).  I’m talking about the Gospel deserving a clear explanation, given in a way that people can understand and digest.

So, is it too much to ask for the true Gospel to be communicated well?  I don’t think so.

Proclaim Christ.  Proclaim him often.  Proclaim him well.