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I’m totally addicted to good podcasts now. Recently, I learned that Mosaic Church now does a podcast of Erwin McManus’ sermons. I’d never heard of Erwin before last year’s Catalyst Conference. However he was a speaker last year and also this year. Each time I heard him speak, I really impressed with his ability to communicate. I was excited to hear about this podcast being available.

I’m 13 minutes into a sermon titled “Extraordinary Insight” and I just had to pause it and come and post this quote. Erwin has just stated that “God is not trying to control your life…. God longs to shape your heart.” WOW! This goes with what I have been sharing with people for quite some time now.

I’ve heard so many people say, I’m just seeking God’s will for me in this decision. For example, should I move to another state and take this job? If it’s God’s will for me, He will simply close doors here and open doors there. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say these types of things…

I’ve never had any scripture to back up my theory.. But I’ve shared from my heart that I believe God leaves the decision up to us. His will is not so much to control our next move on this earth, but His will is to transform HOW we make our decisions, to TRANSFORM our priorities. When someone asks me, do you think I should move? I say… What is it that God has laid on your heart for you to do? What priorities has he laid on your heart? What principles and values have you learned from Him? The question should more be… Do you think that you can accomplish these things that God has laid on your heart more here, or there?

I’ve also been known to state that there may be no “wrong decision” in should you move or not. The decision is yours to make and God will be with you and wortk through your life if you allow him, no matter if you choose to stay or to go. Even if you make a decision that simply tuns out to be a very “un-wise,” bad decision on many levels….. God will still be there to help you each and ever step of the way in this journey of life that you are on.

WOW! I’ve never heard anyone preach this before… But this statement from Erwin McManus reinforces what I’ve been sharing with people…. “God isn’t trying to control your life… God longs to shape your heart!”

I recently received an article via email that talked about applying the concept of thinking outside of the box in the context of Sales. However, as I read the article, I was immediately drawn to thoughts of the way we “do church.” Do we ever think about Church outside of the box? Do we tend to think God only works within the church buildings, sunday school classes, or yes, even cell groups? Here’s a bit from the article to chew on…

Youth and Creativity
In one series of I.Q. tests given to children ages 2 – 4 years, 95% of the children were found to be highly creative with curious, questioning minds and an ability for abstract thinking.

When the same children were tested again at age 7, only 5% still demonstrated high levels of creativity. In the ensuing years, they had learned to conform; “If you want to get along, you had better go along,” is what they had discovered.

The Dangers of Conformity
They had learned to color between the lines, to sit in neat little rows, to do and say what the other kids did and said, and to do as they were told. Over time, they lost the wonderful fearless spontaneity of youth and learned to suppress ideas and insights that were unusual or different.

Is it me, or did I begin to loose some of my original ZEAL for the lost, my desire to “GO OUT AND WIN THE WORLD FOR CHRIST” when I was taught to sit in the church building, to get involved in the ministries that all the other members were involved in, and started to do as I was told by the church leadership? Could the structure of the traditional church be contributing to the loss of the fearless spontaneity of our new birth in Christ. Does the structure of the church suppress idea and insights that are unusual or different?

I’m not blasting any specific church here. I ask this question even of the cell church model that I believe so strongly in? As I read this, I thought of how careful we must be to avoid squashing the creative thinking that flows from the Holy Spirit in reaching the lost world for Christ. Too often I try to put God in a box. Heck, even I’m learning that I’ve been trying to put god in a box called “cell church.” Don’t think for a second that I’ve lost any passion for cells or that I don’t still believe that the cell church model is the most effective structure for the church in accomplishing the task of transformational discipleship.

However, even I have been guilty of not thinking outside of the box of cells. This is an area that God is speaking to me. God is bigger than the cell church model. He’s bigger than our church buildings with all it’s ministry programs. I believe that God desires not to be held in any type of box or within any walls.

How can we think about ministry to the lost outside of the box of our church facility, our cell groups, etc? Are we so conformed to reaching the lost teh way we’ve alwasy done it? Are we open to new ideas? Are we willing to change?

Just thoughts that I’ve been pondering.

Okay, so I’ve never been a huge fan of the “ipod.” Why? Well, why should I get excited about a device that plays music only? I have a pocket pc which I use as a contact manager, a calendar, and task manager. My pocket PC has “many” other uses as well, one of which is that it also plays music files. If you hook up your ipod to my sterio or a decent set of headphones, the music doesn’t sound any better than when it comes from my pocket pc. So why bother carrying around another device in my pockets that are already overloaded?

Things are changing though. Apple’s release of the Video Ipod “could” win me over. What’s weird is that my Pocket PC has the ability to play movies and videos as well. So why is the new video Ipod appealing? While digital music has generally been made available in a uniform standard file known as the mp3, digital video content does not have any such standard. Sure there are other digital audio formats out there, but mp3 has the bull share of the market.

I know that most of my friends are not tech geeks like I am and so if I were to start talking about divX, bit torrent, and codecs, I would loose nearly 95% of the readers to my blog. So for those 5% of you who are interested, I will simply refer you to this story about why I agree that the video Ipod may just be what the doctor ordered to make h.264 the new standard for digital video.

Here’s the story: The Clicker: Apple’s real plan for iPod video?

If what this article says, comes true, and I can sync my calendar and contacts into the ipod and the next generation video ipod has the ability to input into new contact info and appointments into the system as well as the abilltiy to record directly into the ipod, then I may just be interested in owning one.

But heck, by that time, there may just be a handy way of playing h.264 files on my pocketPC. The verdic? The video ipod is not on my wishlist just yet…. And it may never be. But then again… Who Knows?