A prayer of Daily Offering ...

O Lord, take and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess, you have given me; I surrender it all to you to be disposed of according to your will. Give me only your love and your grace; with these I will be rich enough, and will desire nothing more. Amen.

I'm struck by its boldness through its character of surrender. Am I strong enough to pray it for myself? Are we caring enough to pray it for our families? Are we daring enough to pray it for our church(es)?

It's Maundy Thursday, the day when the Church remembers the new commandment (Mandatum, where we get "Maundy") of Jesus--love one another as I have loved you. May we open ourselves to the surrender that Jesus showed to his Father so we, too, may receive eternal life--now, here, today.

Great Ideas aren't Mine ...

... they're God's.

I'm sitting at my computer yesterday, typing up an email to a colleague to invite her and the people with disabilities she serves to join us for worship at our Annual Synod Assembly. I think her group needs to be there because we need them to complete our worship gathering. Without their presence, we're very empty. They bring joy and remind us of the gift of God's diverse people.

All I had in mind was inviting them to join us in worship. Come, be there, sing, pray, and eat God's grace in the Lord's supper with us. And then the idea struck me, why not invite them to lead worship?

It was one of those moments where I knew the idea was not mine. It was planted like a seed in the dark ground. God opened a hole in my brain, removed dirt, and placed this wonderful idea there.

I was moved to thankfulness and continued reminder that my "great" ideas aren't really mine. They're God's. Now, I'm just waiting on her reply (which I'm thinking will be "yes").

I wonder if this is how the writers of our Bible worked. They sat down with their quills and scrolls, started trying to articulate what they had heard/seen God say/do, and then God planted these ideas that weren't theirs but solely his. Is this the process behind our proclamation that God's Word is "inspired"? I certainly felt it.

Free eBook

Who doesn't love a free eBook now and then? The folks at Church Planting Network are offering a free eBook that has compiled hundreds of blog posts from current church-culture influencers on the topic of leadership. There's some great insights here, from just a quick read through on my part.

Click Here for the freebie.

You're welcome.

a test in the google docs sphere of life.

if you have 3.4 minutes, please help me out in a little experiment. we're looking for a cost effective way to do registration forms for our church (read "cheap, free" here). i've used the google form for other places but never set one up on my own. let's see how it goes.

click below.

My Google Form

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