10 Things Every New Believer Should Know

(via Brian Mavis)

Recently, a twenty-something friend became a Christian, and he asked me, “What are the top ten things for a new Christian to learn within the first year?” (Apparently, he is a David Letterman fan.)

This is a wise question because if you are off by a few degrees at the start and you travel that path for a while, you will be off by miles later. I know that from experience. I have been a Christian for over twenty-five years, and God has had to redirect me on multiple things because of what I mistakenly believed early on about being a Christian. And it is better to learn sooner than later.

So here are the ten things (not necessarily in any particular order) that I thought my new Christian friend should sink down deep into his heart, head, and hands as he travels his first year with Jesus:

1. The one thing that the Bible emphasizes more than us loving God and people is that God loves us. He loves us first and most. God isn’t in heaven plucking a daisy saying, “I love you” when you obey and “I love you not” when you sin. He cannot not love you (Rom. 5:8 and 1 Jn. 4:16).
2. Your motivation for and the purpose of learning, serving, worshipping, giving, reaching, reading, praying, etc. is to grow relationally more in love with God and people (Mt. 22:36-40).
3. You not only are saved by grace, but you grow by it, too. A common trap for new and growing Christians is trying to clean up their lives without God’s help. This is a false equation: The less you sin = the less you need God’s grace. You can’t sin less and love more without the strength of God’s grace.
4. Don’t trample all over the Great Commandment (love God, love people) trying to obey the Great Commission (go and make disciples). New and enthusiastic Christians often do this. Instead, lead people to Jesus by loving people to Jesus (1 Cor. 13:1-3). If they ask you why live the way you do, humbly and simply share with them why you put your hope in Jesus.
5. Love your neighbors—your literal neighbors—the ones you have, not the ones you wish you had.Do this because you are a Christian, not just because you want them to be Christians.
6. Focus on Jesus, His cross, His resurrection, and His kingdom. When you confessed Jesus as the living Lord and Messiah, you never said—and will never say—anything more meaningful. Jesus is God with skin. No other “religious leader” (Moses, Buddha, Muhammad) is His equal. They were mere men; Jesus is God who became a man. He is the center and circumference—the hub and rim of all of life and creation. All of the world’s greatest gifts—love, life, truth, grace, etc.—have a name. Jesus.
7. God cares about your whole life, not just your “spiritual life.” It is a mistake to think that God is only concerned about a section of your life called “your soul” or “your spirit.” God cares about and is to be Lord of all of your life—personal, emotional, social, familial, financial, physical, vocational, sexual, intellectual, and so on.
8. Love other Christians who go to different churches (or no church at all) and who aren’t like you. Unfortunately, many Christians and churches view their “brand” of Christianity as the only true or most true type of Christianity. They may not think they are the only Christians, but they do think they are the best or most right ones. This is a prideful and sinful attitude that grieves Jesus and dismembers His body. Strive for unity in the body of Christ by praying humbly and thankfully for other Christians.
9. Pray with your Bible open. There are many different spiritual exercises (fasting, solitude, serving, etc.), but the two most important ones are communicating and communing with God through prayer and listening to and learning about God through the Scriptures. Prayerfully read about Jesus (in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Prayerfully read about the beginning of the church in a book called Acts. Prayerfully read some letters written by Christians for Christians—some good ones to start with are James, Philippians, and Ephesians.
10. Find a Christian mentor. You will need help and encouragement in this journey with Jesus. Ask an older Christian (of the same gender as you) to mentor you. Look for someone who displays the attitudes and actions that were described above. Be a blessing to them in return.

Christianity is not a list, but a life; it’s not a chart, but a charter. But new Christians will learn new things. Some of those things will be true but not important. Some things will be off by degrees that can lead them astray. Other things will be just plain wrong. Help new Christians learn to follow Jesus by being their best at what matters most to Him.

A Major Worship Obstacle

**This was written by a friend of mine, but it's so good, I really wanted to share it with you!!**

One of the biggest obstacles for many people in worship comes when it’s time to sing a song or a line they don’t fully mean or haven’t fully lived up to.

Lines that declare that we’re ready to sacrifice everything, when giving 10% of our income feels like a harder sacrifice to make than martyrdom. Songs about God’s glory being our greatest passion, when it’s usually our greatest afterthought.

Some choose not to sing these lines or songs at all. They wouldn’t dare sing something they don’t mean or live. Others sing them, but feel like they’re being hypocritical.

Both of these groups miss an essential truth of worship:
Worship isn’t an assessment of my performance but a statement of my intention.

If I had to completely mean and live every word every time I sang it, I would never sing. Nobody would. Even the men who wrote the Psalms.

By still singing, we’re not being hypocritical. We’re training our flesh to submit to our spirit. We’re stating our intentions. We’re saying, “Make this true, Lord. I want my life to catch up to the truth I’m singing.”

I want your glory to be my greatest passion.
I want to be willing to sacrifice everything for you.

It’d only be hypocritical if we had no intention of living up to these declarations.

And consider this: even if you had your act completely together, you’d still be just as unworthy to sing a single syllable. But God has commanded you to worship anyway. And that’s because your performance and feelings aren’t the admission price for true worship... Jesus’ blood is.

So continue to sing. Continue to worship. Let the discrepancy between the words you’re singing and the life you’re living be an engine for repentance. Not a cause for shame or silence.

--Corbett's note: if you liked this, check out stevenfurtick.com for more.

Conan's farewell speech: Kinetic Typography

This is amazing cool!!

Conan O'Brien Kinetic Typography from Jacob Gilbreath on Vimeo.

Buy-in Takes Being Heard

When you are part of a team, sometimes you don't get your way. That's reality. Sometimes even when you've made your best case for what you see as the best or only solution, the majority or the team leader will go a different way. It's crucial that when the decision is made, everyone jump on board.

• "So we're taking the conservative approach instead of the higher risk/reward tack that I wanted."
• "So we're going down a road that I've already been down and I'm certain it won't work."
• "So we're going to make that hire instead of this other person that I've got a great gut feeling about."

Regardless of what the decision is, it's imperative that every team member jump on the bandwagon and become the final decision's biggest cheerleaders.

What does it take for that to happen? If the members of your team are leaders or even people with opinions at all, they will need to feel that they've been heard. Assuming that the team is made up of people who are more about the success of the team or organization than they are about just getting their own way (perhaps that's a large assumption)... If people are about team success, they will be able to go along with the decision a lot better if they believe that their ideas were heard and given proper consideration.

Failing in this will often lead to team members undercutting the decision that was agreed on. Divisiveness... lobbying... passive aggressive non-action... These are common when people haven't bought in.

Leaders, if you want your team to buy in to the decision -- even if they disagree -- you must make them feel heard. You may have to let your meeting go beyond the 90 minutes you had planned. You may need to table a decision until everyone is heard. You may have to listen when you're already sure of what to do. But failure to do so guarantees that people walk away feeling unheard, unvalidated and hedging on the decision made.

Give your team a chance to be heard and they will buy in!

Doritos Superbowl Ad

Is this blasphemy?



What do you think and why?

You want style points, go watch figure skating...

Many of you know I'm a huge LSU Tigers fan. I just read a great piece at an LSU blog -- And The Valley Shook. If LSU/College Football interests you, check it out:

Delusional Optimism Is Not Disappointed

Fox Sports currently ranks LSU as the "fifth most disappointing team" in the country. Here's what they say:

The Tigers are 2-0, but it took the NCAA's microscope to neutralize their first opponent (North Carolina) and the best possible draw from the SEC East (Vanderbilt) to get them there. As luck would have it, their next two games are against Mississippi State and West Virginia, two teams that have floundered so far this season. Is Les Miles really this lucky? No. Alabama, Arkansas and Auburn should get three L's for the Mad Hatter and put him officially on the hot seat.

As the founder of the Delusional Optimism campaign here at ATVS, I'm officially sick of this crap. It's not that Fox Sports, an entity that has consistently proven through their horrid bowl game coverage that they know less than nothing about college football, is ripping on LSU. It's that this is a consensus view.

The dominant storyline on LSU is always the most negative one the media can find. Is it because ESPN FoxAlabama bloggers the Illuminati the Eastern Media Conspiracy everybody hates LSU? Of course not. It's because the media is lazy. Once they find a storyline, or a meme, the media simply makes every fact fit that storyline. And the media meme is that LSU isn't that good.

T Kyle King, a pretty bright guy and a great Georgia blogger who I'm positive has no anti-LSU agenda, left LSU off of his Blog Poll ballot. Why? Because LSU still has to prove something to be ranked. Remember, LSU is a team that finished 3^rd in the SEC last year, won 9 games, finished in the top 20 in every poll, and played in a January 1^st bowl. This year, all LSU has done is been one of two teams to beat two BCS teams in its first two games (and the only one to do win both of those games on the road). Now, what exactly does LSU have to prove just to make the ballot?

And this is not to say Kyle is wrong. He could very well be right. Besides, he's absolutely entitled to rank whoever the hell he wants, so please don't read this an attack on his ballot - that is 100% not the point. The point here is that a fairly neutral fan has an extremely negative impression of LSU, and I don't think his opinion is an outlier. It fits the narrative.

And it's a narrative LSU fans largely control. LSU beat Vanderbilt by TWENTY FOUR points. LSU fans have largely treated the game as a nail biter, and the nation at large has followed our lead. Oh, but it was close in the third quarter? Fine. In the UNC game, LSU was beating the Heels by 20 points in the fourth quarter. A young team lost focus and let UNC back in the game, needing a stop on the last play to seal a victory that, frankly, should have been sealed an hour before. Was this portrayed as a young team letting a team off the mat (which is hardly a flattering narrative anyway)? Of course not. By and large, it's been portrayed as a nail biter as well, and many outlets stated that UNC outplayed LSU. Which, I guess is true if you only watched the fourth quarter.

However, the most negative storyline was adopted not just by the mainstream media and most neutral fans, but by LSU fans. Think about how a 17-14 LSU win over Mississippi State, keyed by several drops by wide open receivers, would play in the media. Think what the message boards would look like. Hell, you don't have to imagine, take a gander at what they looked like last year. Then contrast that with the largely positive reaction to Auburn's win over MSU.

LSU is 11-4 over it's last 15 games. There are eight BCS conference teams who have a better record over the same span. Eight. And one of them is Cincinnati, who just got pantsed by NC State. Fifth most disappointing team in the country?

Only if you're disappointed by wins. You want style points, go watch figure skating.

Lessons Learned Sailing

A few weeks ago, my friend Mark took me sailing. Probably I listened to too much Jimmy Buffet growing up, but I’ve always thought that I would make a good sailor. I’m sure Mark would tell you I have a lot still to learn but I believe there are many life lessons to learn from sailing.

Something I learned on our little adventure is that your destination dictates your methods. For the most part, we weren’t heading anywhere. We went out onto the lake and for the most part we sailed wherever the wind would take us. Our sailing was much less about trying to get anywhere specific and more about keeping the sail in a good position to build as much speed as possible. There wasn’t a lot of wind that particular day, so we often found ourselves waiting for a “puff” of wind to catch the sail and get us moving. Now our destination was very important when it was time to go home. Speed and the perfect heel were less important than successfully arriving at the boat slip from which we departed and our actions reflected that… namely Mark took back the helm. ;-)

Here are a few conclusions I drew from our trip that I believe relate to our every day life.

• You can do a lot of work and cover a lot of ground, but without clear goals and/or destination, you’re probably not accomplishing much. I see this in my own life as I navigate through a very busy ministry season and an increasingly complex home life… if I don’t set clear goals for myself—both at work and at home—I’m mostly ineffective.

• You can’t make the wind blow. God’s Holy Spirit is compared to a wind in the bible and just like that day on Saylorville Lake, we can’t make the wind blow, but we can raise and position the sails. We can build disciplines and routines into our lives (prayer, worship, bible reading, solitude, etc.) that position us for movement when the Holy Spirit “blows.” We can’t make it blow, but we can become ready for when it does.

I hope this is as meaningful for you as it has been for me. Who knows… maybe we’ll pass each other on the lake sometime.