I’m still in Greensboro, NC. But as I converse with people here, I find one thing true about my hometown: it is a party city. Everyone I talk to here in Guilford County has either attended a party in Greenville, or knows that Greenville is a party town. That’s our reputation. Pitt County consumes 3% of the entire national alcohol consumption amount. That is a lot of beer. Seriously. It is up to the people of God to change the culture into one that more glorifies God through His creation.
Archive for July, 2007
Greenville and Reputation
Monday, July 16th, 2007Keeping Our Words Afloat
Sunday, July 15th, 2007I’ve been reading in 1 Samuel lately, and today was a devotion in chapter 3. This verse came out in my reading:
And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.
This is spectacular. How often do our words and ideas hit brick walls, and fizzle out? No one hears them, and if they do, they don’t listen [definitely a difference]. To me as a preacher, this is more of a miracle than the parting of the Red Sea or a talking donkey. For someone’s words to always be heard, understood, and applied is nothing short of miraculous.
Lord, let my words never hit the ground.
Communicating Dreams
Thursday, July 12th, 2007While living in a hotel room for the past few days in Greensboro, NC, I’ve had the pleasure of rooming with my employer and stepfather. He’s a great guy, and would definitely laugh at this post, so don’t think I’m ridiculing him at all. But there’s this one thing about Rick that tickles me to death: he talks in his sleep. Bad. I don’t mean mumbling, but audible snippets of the English language. And I will just sit there and listen to him. The other night he was in a chase, but he was the chaser. He used to be in both law enforcement and special forces, and we had talked about some of his escapades earlier that day, so the dream made sense. But here’s the thing about Rick’s communication: you never get the full story.
All I heard from him was this phrase: “stop and I’ll get you”. I literally busted out laughing as I was watching Top Chef (great show, by the way). I had no context, no other snippet. But I figured it was a chasing dream later when he mumbled “there, I finally caught you”. Heh.
My point is this: when we mumble about our dreams, only offering snippets, people have to guess what we’re dreaming about. They never get the full story. People have no context. Our vision has to be fully articulated in order for others to catch it. People often misquote Proverbs 29:18 (the vision there is a prophetic vision, that is, Scripture), but a better text for explaining the necessity for vision-communication is Scripture itself. Throughout Scripture, it is clear that it is the communication of God’s vision to God’s people.
Go communicate your vision. Clearly. No mumbling. By the way……chase God, not people.
