Spiritual Mimics

In 1 Thess 2:8 Paul said “We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God's Good News but our own lives, too.” Paul gives us a picture of what it truly means to disciple someone. It is so much more than just teaching someone what is in the Bible. It is allowing someone access to your life in such a way that you model the message for them.
Jesus did this. For three years he spent most of His time with the 12 disciples. Ate with them, traveled with them, played with them, He allowed them access to His life as a model for them to follow.
For both Jesus and Paul, discipleship was so much more than just imparting knowledge through teaching or lecturing. In fact in 2 Thess 3:7 Paul says: “For you know that you ought to imitate us.” The word he uses here is a Greek word that was used for actors that we get the word in the English language mimic. The power of this word implies we are to intentionally study the actions, thoughts, attitude and attributes of this person so that we can mimic their life in every way. A picture of discipleship!
Paul was not afraid to tell others to follow his example. He showed them how to live as followers of Jesus. As others watched the Word work in Paul’s life, the message of the Bible was more powerful than just learning it in a lecture or a reading.
Do you allow those around you who are under your spiritual influence to get close enough to see the Word of God working in your life? It’s great that we teach the Bible, but people need an example to follow, a life to mimic.
There may be areas of your life that you feel you do not want to expose to others for fear they will think less of you or that you would not want them to follow. These are areas we need to be honest about with the Holy Spirit and ask Him to give us the power to help our lives line up with our words and most important His Word.
Make it a prayer of your heart that your lifestyle and choices will make the message of the gospel stronger. People need good examples that they can follow. They need you to be a model of the grace and mercy of God.
Take a few moments and reflect on the time when you first gave you life to Jesus. What kind of access did those who had an influence in your spiritual journey allow in their lives? Who are you allowing that kind of access to in your life now? Making disciples…
Most important if there are areas of your life that you would not want anyone to mimic, be honest with the Lord and allow Him to touch you in that area. Because those areas of our lives will keep us from allowing people to get close to us and keep us from being used to the full capacity that God wants to use us.

The Day After The Battle

I have heard the phrase many times: “The day after the battle is more important than the day of the battle.” The truth of that statement is one reason I love doing a weekend wrap-up on Monday’s.

Let’s begin with all the exciting important stuff: 3 people made decisions to follow Jesus this weekend; 1 at our Continental Ranch campus and 2 at the Oro Valley campus. Yeah God – Let’s all stop for a moment and give Him praise. He is transforming lives!!! Also, 3 folks were baptized.

Our student band led worship at the O.V. campus – talk about a great way to celebrate the teaching topic – Relevant Environment! Great job gang. We are hoping to get them for a weekend of worship leading at the CR campus next. Great feedback and a wonderful time of worship.

I hope and pray you resonated with the weekend message. I look forward to continuing to partner with you to create Relevant Environments where we can continue to lead people who are far from God to be followers of Jesus.

When Failure Is Not An Option

After this last weekends message I received this article from a friend of mine who is a pilot. He served as an F-16 pilot in the military as well as an instructor. I asked his permission to post it in my blog - you will love this real life story from a fighter pilot! Thanks Ned. I looking forward to getting up in the wild blue yonder with you again someday soon.

Jeff

Flirting with a mishap…when failure is not an option

Ned Linch

CFI/II

9Gs in an F-16 forces you down into your seat compressing your spine, overstresses every muscle in your body, squeezes the sweat from every pore, ruptures thousands of capillaries in your forearms, drives blood downward to the feet, and stretches your face instantly aging your appearance 50 years. As the sweat burns your eyes and the Gs restrict your vision, you persevere, adapt, and maintain the focus on flying the jet, straining every major muscle group in your body, and properly breathing with quick bursts of air exchanges while not giving up the fight. It’s all about man and machine against an opponent and a 3-dimensional skill in flux at all times with no definitive answer to any questions on the subject…just lots of opinions and techniques. In the end, killing the bandit with your gun is all that really matters in a dogfight; otherwise you’ve failed in your mission as a fighter pilot and failure is not an option.

“There I was” in a dogfight over the frigid waters of the Yellow Sea, 60 miles off the coast of The Kun (Kunsan Air Base, South Korea) with the smell of burning oil leaking into the cockpit. Should I knock-it-off (KIO) or continue pressing the attack? I’ve smelled this oily, humid air many times after flying a jet that had recently been in maintenance. It should be OK, right? Failure is not an option! After a nanosecond of rationalizing, I elected to continue with tunnel vision, my “fangs” out, and pulling aggressively to gun my opponent. Bad move.

As I carved through the skies in my viper, the burning smell intensified to a point that it distracted me from focusing on fighting and pulling Gs. The logical side of my brain finally engaged and I knocked-it-off, started climbing, and pointing my nose toward home. Good call, especially since the oil pressure reading was now less than 10 PSI which means LAND ASAP! To point toward home first and then analyze the situation is a built-in flight discipline reaction. However, I should have knocked-it-off earlier before allowing my fangs to control my decision making. About all I could do at this point was point toward home, climb, use minimal throttle movements, and pray because failure (ejecting into the frigid waters) was not an option.

It seemed like an eternity before reaching a 1:1 (the rule-of-thumb glide ratio for the F-16 which is 1 mile for every 1000’ of altitude) with Kunsan. Finally, I could relax just enough to allow the seat cushion to reform in the seat. After circling down from high key in idle power and landing the jet, maintenance said I had about 1 minute left on the engine before it would have seized. It was another lucky day and the Lord was keenly watching over me.

The human body is able to detect stimuli long before the mind has consciously put it all together. It should be cut and dry, but the wiring in our brains prevents conscious, logical thought during critical and urgent moments. If something doesn’t look, smell, and/or sound right, then it’s time to KIO. Electing to continue with a known problem is a crapshoot game and a balance between risk and reward. You must keep the focus and discipline to balance out the brain’s weaknesses to prevent rash decisions.

“There I was” seven years later, on a night, Operation Iraqi Freedom combat mission over a ragging sandstorm with troops desperately calling for help. I was faced with the decision of my life. To press and fly beyond the limits of my aircraft and all established rules of engagement or leave these men behind who were being overrun by a numerically superior force. The weather was not conducive to flying an F-16 at night in a sandstorm with zero illumination for our Night Vision Goggles. Without hesitation, my wingman and I elected to continue and descend into the storm where we repeatedly descended below safe altitudes to attack the enemy in near zero visibility conditions. In the end, the troops escaped and were later rescued. We survived through pure will power to not fail; however, it was a balancing act between emotion and logical thought. It was the toughest night of my entire career to balance life with a group of men that I will never know. This was not a situation to KIO for safety and danger. We were deep in enemy territory and no one else was there to help. If a kid was drowning in your pool, you’d jump in regardless of the risk. This night required us to abandon all established rules in order to complete the mission. We had to act now because failure was not an option.

A few years after the war, “There I was again”, but this time in my experimental Vans RV-4. Ironically, I was trying to make it home from a funeral with evening thunderstorms along our route. With my 4-year old daughter in my backseat, I elected to continue home in the dark and land on a dimly lit grass strip surrounded by tall trees. I can still see my daughter’s face lit up by the lighting from nearby clouds. As I reflect on that evening, I’ll admit that I allowed my fangs or emotions to control my decision making in order to get home that evening. Although I mitigated the risk with experience, flight following, extra fuel and remaining VFR over major highways, this was a bad move and I swore I’d never do that again.

How many times does it take for someone to press the fuel, the weather, a maintenance problem, and/or fatigue before learning a lesson? History repeats itself and the only way we can break this mentality is for pilots to avoid continuing the flight when things aren’t right.

Yes, there are times to balance risk with reward such as a rescue attempt or delivering critical medical supplies to a disaster zone. However, more times than not, it’s best to be ultraconservative and wait out the weather, land with more than enough reserve fuel, and avoid that night flight over rugged, unfamiliar terrain.

Electing to continue and putting yourself in a tight corner with high risk is flirting with a mishap. I challenge you to think logically and prevent your fangs from controlling your decisions when things don’t look, smell, or sound right because failure is never an option.

Lt Col Edward H. "Ned" Linch III (USAF retired) is a CFI/II, Vans RV-4 owner & pilot, Delta 737 pilot, and a retired USAF F-16 instructor pilot. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross for valor in combat.

Copyrighted 2010, Lt Col Edward H. "Ned" Linch III

You Are Not A Failure Until You Fail To Get Back Up

This last weekend was awesome: We had 5 people make decisions to follow Jesus and 5 others made commitments to the habits necessary to jump start their spiritual growth and be more like Jesus at our Cross Training Grow course. During this course we took an overview look at the three basic spiritual habits every Christian needs in order to grow: daily time with God (prayer and Bible study), giving, and fellowship. We had a great growing together. Here is what Jeremy, a teenager who attended this weekend, had to say about the Grow course: “the grow class at my church was fun and really good I learned a lot.” By the way Jeremy, I loved having you in the course, it is so exciting to be a part of your spiritual journey as a follower of Jesus – you rock!!!
I hope you all enjoyed our special guest, BOZO, and that his appearance will help each of us remember that “you are not a failure until you fail to get back up.” Remember what the Bible says: “The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.” (Prov. 24:16, NLT)

Did you hear about the Girlfriends big 80s party from the weekend? I heard it was a great connection time relationally for our ladies as well as a great fun time. Most important one of own campus leaders, John Scalise, show up as Richard Simmons and did a little fitness training for the ladies. I am working on getting the video of that and incorporating it into our next series: The Good, The Bad and The Manly.

As we come to the end of “The Voice Of Truth”, the one thing that I pray you are left with above anything is this: Keep your eyes on Jesus! In Matt. 14, Peter got out of the boat in faith and walked on water to Jesus. He began to sink when he took his eyes off of the Lord and focused on the wind and the waves. Fear gripped his heart. God calls us to step out of the boat and live a life of faith. The most important part of stepping out of the boat is; Keep your eyes on Jesus!!!

I Don't Understand It, But It Makes Life Worth Living

A little boy was selling newspapers on the corner,
the people were in and out of the cold.

The little boy was so cold that he wasn't trying
to sell many papers.

He walked up to a policeman and said,
"Mister, you wouldn't happen to know where a poor boy
could find a warm place to sleep tonight would you?

"You see, I sleep in a box up around the corner there and
down the alley and it's awful cold in there for tonight.
Sure would be nice to have a warm place to stay."

The policeman looked down at the little boy and said, "You
go down the street to that big white house and you knock
on the door. When they come out the door you just say
John 3:16, and they will let you in."

So he did. He walked up the steps and knocked on the
door, and a lady answered. He looked up and said,
"John 3:16." The lady said, "Come on in, Son."

She took him in and she sat him down in a split! bottom
rocker in front of a great big old fireplace, and she went
off.. The boy sat there for a while and thought to himself:
John 3:16 . I don't understand it, but it sure makes a
cold boy warm.

Later she came back and asked him "Are you hungry ? "
He said, "Well, just a little.. I haven't eaten in a couple of
days, and I guess I could stand a little bit of food,"

The lady took him in the kitchen and sat him down to a table
full of wonderful food. He ate and ate until he couldn't eat
any more. Then he thought to himself:
John 3:16. Boy, I sure don't understand it but it sure
makes a hungry boy full.

She took him upstairs to a bathroom to a huge bathtub
filled with warm water, and he sat there and soaked for a
while. As he soaked, he thought to himself: John 3:16
I sure don't understand it, but it sure makes a dirty boy
clean. You know, I've not had a bath, a real bath, in my
whole life. The only bath I ever had was when I stood in
front of that big old fire hydrant as they flushed it out.

The lady came in and got him... She took him to a room,
tucked him into a big old feather bed, pulled the covers
up around his neck, kissed him goodnight and turned out
the lights... As he lay in the darkness and looked out the
window at the snow coming down on that cold night,
he thought to himself: John 3:16...I don't understand it but
it sure makes a tired boy rested.

The next morning the lady came back up and took him
down again to that same big table full of food. After he
ate, she took him back to that same big old split bottom
rocker in front of the fireplace and picked up
a big old Bible.

She sat down in front of him and looked into his young face.
"Do you understand John 3:16 ?" she asked gently... He
replied, "No, Ma'am, I don't. The first time I ever heard it
was last night when the policeman told me to use it,"
She opened The Bible to John 3:16 and began to explain
to him about Jesus. Right there, in front of that big old fireplace,
he gave his heart and life to Jesus. He sat there
and thought: John 3:16 -- don't understand it, but it sure
makes a lost boy feel safe.

You know, I have to confess, I don't understand it either,
how God was willing to send His Son to die for me, and how
Jesus would agree to do such a thing.

I don't understand the agony of the Father and
every angel in heaven as they watched Jesus suffer and die.

I don't understand the intense love for ME that kept Jesus on the cross till the end.
I don't understand it, but it sure does make life worth living!

The Sweet Life

What a great weekend! I spent the weekend at the Alive Church Continental Ranch campus. Toby did a great job teaching, it was awesome for me to see him on the big screen, I loved it! I do have to warn Toby though that there will be some retribution for saying that those jeans were mine - get ready!
We had one person make a commitment for Jesus this weekend - yeah God!!! And a lot of folks get free from the bondage of guilt. Not only does God free us from the guilt of our past but He wants us to live a guilt free life. Awe sweet freedom. Thanks again Toby for the great teaching - to live guilt free GET REAL, with myself, with God and with others - love it.
What's us with the cookies and milk? If someone is having a chocolate chip cookie and some milk on stage, next time I say they should have enough for all of us.

Living The Sweet Life, Jeff