Angels in the Outfield

In the Disney movie, Angels in the Outfield, there is a 'memorable' scene where the coach holds a press conference in order to clear up any confusion about angels helping his team. At the conference, he is prepared to deny all the rumors about angels. Something ends up coming over him though and, instead, he ends up saying that he actually believes that angels have been helping his team. (If only this were the Cubbies!) Most kids likely don't question anything about this movie-probably because it seems like nothing more than a fantasy. It does bring up an interesting question though: do angels exist? And if so, what role do they play in our lives? As abstract of a topic as this is, we are going to tackle it this week at Cutting Edge. We'll be challenging the students with a story from Acts 12 where Peter is freed from prison by an angel sent by God. We'll be using this passage to teach the students that not only do angels exist, but they have God ordained roles in our lives. Not sure for yourself? Neither was Peter. For a while, he thought he was dreaming as the angel was rescuing him! Once his chains were removed, though, he quickly stopped doubting.

Check out Psalm 91:11- "For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways..." Maybe the term 'guardian angel' isn't so cliche after all? We're shown in many places throughout scripture that angels do, in fact, exist. I think we are just skeptical though because we've made angels out to be recycled dead people floating around the world with butterfly wings, halos, and harps! The bible doesn't give us concrete evidence of any of those things! Instead, it does show us that angels are real, that God created them, and that he uses angels to protect His people-just like the angel that rescued Peter from Prison in Acts 12!

Love God with all your heart....

Did you know that hearts have cellular memories and brain-like hormones? Probably not, but research suggests as much. Research has also shown how the majority of heart transplant patients receive a whole new set of sensory responses, cravings, and habits.

Thankfully, neither I nor my loved ones have had to experience the thought of getting a new heart. At least not in the physical sense. In Ezekiel 36:26, though, God makes it pretty clear that I have experienced a heart transplant in a different sort of way. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."

You see, when you decide to follow Christ, it is your heart that is changed. More often than not though, we tend to let our heart stay the same, and merely change our behavior.

God calls us to something different though. He calls us to a life where we receive a new heart-a heart that has new cravings and new habits. You see, it is important that our behavior changes to reflect God's love in us; but the reason that behavior changes should come from a new heart.

That is what loving God with all your heart is about. It's about noticing pain and suffering and doing something about it. Mark Batterson puts it this way-Loving God with all your heart means that your heart breaks for the things that break God's heart.

Primal: A Reading Rainbow Moment

Two weeks ago I dove into a new book. This one has been sitting on my shelf for quite some time and I've felt rather guilty about it as the author sent me a copy for free. (By the way, thanks Mark Batterson!) Anyhow, I was captivated within a page. Batterson is a great story teller and he doesn't mess around with fluff at the beginning of his books.

A friend of mine always asks what the nugget of any book is. This book's nugget is pretty clear: "Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." -Mark 12:30

As this is the greatest commandment, you'd think that Christians would spend a lot of time making sure we're doing it. I don't know that we are though. I think that is why Batterson spends nearly 200 pages on what it means to fulfill this commandment.

Primal made me think. It made me question. At times, it made me hurt.

I'm going to go ahead and recommend this book to you. Definitely read it. If you don't want to buy it-I'll give you mine. (Seth Godin told me to.)

I thought it was so good that I wrote a High School sermon series based off of it. I'll be blogging about that soon! I hope you'll read this-really, I do.

Once upon a time...

....I scheduled an hour every Monday to write a new post.

For my two readers out there, I am deeply sorry. The posts will begin again roughly about now.