The Dance Of The Trinity

I picked up a book over the Christmas break…one I have a good shot at starting and finishing in a normal pace. I’m real good at starting books, then nibbling away at a slow mouse eating cheese pace. Sometimes hanging in the indefinite started phase.

The “40 Days Living The Jesus Creed,” by Scot McKnight is built around unpacking the Jesus Creed (Mark 12:29-31) in 40 bite size chapters. Although small, 5 – 7 pages, they are packed full of great wisdom and insight.

I’m currently digging into “The Divine Dance” chapter. McKnight takes a deeper look at the “one” Jesus describes about His relationship with the Father in John 10:30, 38. This oneness is seen as the dance of the Trinity. Here is McKnights perspective,

“God is a community of mutually indwelling persons where each person delightfully dances with the other in endless holy love.”

I love the picture that paints of the Trinity. It’s honestly something I never thought of when pondering the mystery of the Trinity, but makes total sense! I can see a divine dance now as I think about the Trinity relationships.

McKnight does an awesome job driving this home in a real life application manner towards the end of the chapter. Here are a couple of paragraphs…well worth the read below:

“God is love. The music of God is love. Anyone who loves God and loves others is dancing, whether he or she knows it or not, to the divine dance. To love is to walk onto the divine dance floor.”

“So when Jesus calls us to love God and to love other, He invites us to join Him in the divine dance of the Trinity. Perhaps the greatest news in the universe is that we have been invited to dance on God’s dance floor. We don’t have to worry about whether or not someone will invite us to this dance; we don’t even have to worry about whom we might dance with; and we don’t have to dance well to join in God’s dance.”

“Love isn’t something we produce. Love, like dancing, is surrendering to the music on the divine dance floor. We may need to remind ourselves of the words from the previous chapter, because these words express the music of God: ‘God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them’ (1 John 4:16).”

How are you dancing today? I see this picture painted by McKnight from the truths found in the word, and I want to join the divine dance today!

Breathe In & Smile Out,
Chris

Light On…Turn Off!

I would usually include the link to the subject of this blog…but, I wouldn’t want to frustrate you or waste your time with what I would deem the dumbest Artist iPhone App implementation I’ve seen to date.

David Cook’s “Light On” iPhone Application for the single leaves me screaming “turn it off, and don’t pay $1.99!” Couple of blaring bad feature and design builds on this:

1) It’s a paid app @ $1.99…Hey David, take a look at what Akon, Pink, Snow Patrol, and others are doing for FREE

2) The lighter is less functional than the slew of other FREE lighter apps that are out there….and doesn’t let you move the flame by tilting the iPhone like ALL the other lighter apps do.

3) IT ONLY STREAMS ONE SONG!!!! Where are the snippets of the other tracks off the album? Hello, the consumer expects at least snippets for FREE, let alone paid.

4) Where are the videos? Please reference Akon app for FREE, with 5 videos!

5) Share with a friend feature doesn’t send a LINK TO GET THE APP in the email. Come on guys, this is basic stuff here!

6) Where is the bio, photos, news updates, tour dates! ALL the FREE artist apps at least have these elements.

7) iPod Touch compatibility? Obvious miss, poor execution.

8.) If I’m going to pay for a single…why would I pay $1.99 to have an application control my play-ability…paying $1 more than the single itself.

So, here is a screen shot of the bad application…along with the top review that is a one star for the lack of iPod compatibility or mention that it was incompatible in the app description.

 

Breathe In & Smile Out,
Chris

The Church of Convenience

If you don’t believe the Church in the U.S. is like a sleeping giant that needs to be woken up…and we could end up a dying giant and disconnected like the church fell in Europe…then take a look at these stats:

Some of these stats are staggering…out of 44,000 churches in the U.S. less than .5 percent show growth of 10% or less. The giant is dying! And in our little Baldwin County, there are 100,000 un-churched residents…waiting to be invited to a church…..waiting to be involved….wanting to make a difference in their life if just prompted.

It’s true about our culture here in the land of the free. We are a nation of convenience….we are a church of convenience in so many ways. Is it the 20/80 rule? Are there 20% of the people doing 80% of the work! If we don’t feel comfortable, we are so quick to move on…move out…and do what we want to do. This revelation came to fruition when the couple I ran into at Sams after church had come to our service before…but decided not to come back after the pastor said “if you join this church you are going to serve.” They didn’t like “the way that came across…”

I almost fell out of my shoes…. That’s when i casually mentioned that there were 100k people in Baldwin County who needed someone to serve! The bottom line is God has always intended to fulfill his plan through the church…yesterday, today, and tomorrow. You gotta to be in church and serving for this plan to be realized in your life.

One last parting thought, I’ve been struck by a small group study I did about a year ago. This was from Rick Warren, basically a sequel to the 40 days of purpose…titled the 40 days of community. My lasting impression from the truths in that study was, IT IS NEVER CONVENIENT TO BE A CHRISTIAN. If it is, then you aren’t living out God’s plan!

Breathe In and Live Out,
Chris

In The Rocking Chair

That guy in the chair my little buddy colored is about how feel this week. The world is rocking me back and forth, shaking this cold/sickness, and trying to get back in the groove.

More blogs and tweets to come..meanwhile enjoy Ethan’s masterpiece.

Breathe In & Smile Out,
Chris

P.S.
I don’t love rocking chairs 🙂