Living With The New Attitude

Living With THE New Attitude

Living God’s Way – part 7

1 Peter 4:1-11

We’re back…

What an awesome time Laurie & I had on our trip out west. It was a lot of fun and as always is the case with us, we had many adventures and crazy stuff happen a long the way, which I am sure you will hear about over time… It’ll kind of just trickle out of us over the coming weeks..

Last Saturday night – I went to church at Saddleback Community Church (church that is sponsoring the 40 days of purpose). Rich Warren had a pretty good message. In his message he shared how he had just came back from a trip to a maximum security prison up north. A prisoner were 2 inmates last spring did the 40 days of purpose campaign… They now have a church – of 150 people… About 70 guys have been baptized into Christ… A revival is starting in that place as guys from all the different gangs are coming to Christ… IMAGINE - -f we put our hearts into this 40 days as much as these prisoners did – what we could see happen here…

AND – on Sunday morning…we went to Mosaic (Seizing your divine moment). It was awesome too… - Erwin Mcmanus was kicking off a message series that Sunday called One Unbelievable Life…

BUT - one of the biggest highlights of the trip was to see up close God’s incredible creation – it was the main reason for the trip. AND – for me seeing that creation began as we took off on our flight out of Atlanta and it ended as we lifted off Friday from LAX in California.

YOU KNOW - I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing what our God & Father simply spoke into existence. The variety, the beauty, the colors…

Flying above an ocean of clouds as far as the eye can see never gets old to me… AND - when I looked down at that sea of white - I told Laurie that my Father made that…

AND - looking down from the plane at the huge mountains (dry & rocky) and that flat barren wilderness that went on for miles and miles was awesome too… It was a different kind of beauty.

We walked through a forest fall of giant red woods stretching out into the sky – some as old as 1200 years…

AND – we got to do what I had always wanted to do… Drive up the pacific coast in a convertible… It was so awesome– it was unbelievable… I felt like a 4 year old a Disney world… The blue ocean, the rolling hills, the tall mountains, the jagged rocks, the crashing waves… went on for mile after mile from LA to SF… it just blew me away. Most of the time I didn’t even know which way to look (to the right – to left – in front of me or behind me…)

ON – our way back to LA on Thursday, we found a place where we could drive down to the beach right below the cliffs… we grabbed our chairs, went our separate ways with a beach chair and Larry Crabbs book, The Pressures Off – there’s A New Way To Live…

It was unbelievable… sitting there… right in the middle of the waves crashing, the blue skies, the rugged cliffs… At one point I sat on this huge rock – with waves crashing around me… I looked down and on this rock – there were small plants growing in some of it’s cracks… Our God is a God of life and you see that life everywhere – you just can’t stop it…

WELL – I think it’s time for me to leave what Steve & Laurie did for their summer vacation (but I have a slide show for those who want to hang around for a couple of hours after church)..

OKAY – today is our 7th week in our message series on 1 Peter. A letter written by that great fisherman… A man who like us - knew both the thrill of victory & the agony of defeat…

• A man who knew what it was like to walk on water – and who also knew what it was like to sink into the crashing waves…

• A man who knew what it was like to leave everything to follow Jesus and who also knew what it was like to deny even knowing him…

• A letter written by a man who loved Christ and loved his church so much that he died for them (crucified upside down)… \

What an amazing letter this is, that Peter wrote to a bunch of beaten down, beaten up & persecuted believers in the first century.