I finally finished The Shack today. What an amazing book!

The insights into grace, forgiveness and a bunch of other huge issues are brilliantly woven through the pages of a heart-rending, then heart-warming story.

It is an absolute must-read for anyone who has been hurt in life – of course that means everyone!

I bet yesterday’s post (see Pennies From Heaven below) is doing some people’s heads in. I think gambling at best is a waste of money that indicates bad stewardship and at worst is an addiction, especially aimed at the poor.

But I still love what happened at True North.

Explain it? Why should I even bother trying or pretend that I know the answer?

Of course as a real friend, I’ve already let Bert know that should he find this thing problematical, I will be happy to relieve him of the source of the pressure – in a heartbeat. That’s what friends do!

My friend Bert Crabbe is facing serious space issues over at www.truenorthchurch.net and is planning to introduce a fifth service in September.

When he announced the addition to his church recently, he suggested that was the best plan unless someone had a spare couple of million laying around. So I hear today that the following week someone in his congregation bought a scratch-off lottery card, won $3 million and gave it to the church!

I love what God is doing over there.

Weird way to get money, but then I gather God likes to push the limits.

+ Started the day with the customary Monday morning extended workout at the gym – it was hard work today and I came up shy of my normal distance, mainly because a chatty friend was on the treadmill beside me for a while and I can’t run flat out while maintaining a conversation. Heaven knows I need all my breath to survive when I’m running. There’s none left to be sociable!

+ Went to my regular WW group – as a member – where I lost all my weight. Down 0.6lb on the week, which is good.

+I spent the rest of the day with my grandson Jace, while his mother took care of all the final stuff she needed to get ready for them to leave for Ireland tomorrow. We threw a baseball around, swam in their pool, went out for lunch and generally had a good time. Great way to spend a day off – hardly relaxing, but a lot of fun. He’s a great kid!

+ Chatted with Gill. She comes back from Texas tomorrow and it will be good to have her home. We’ve been together for almost 39 years and we’re happy with that – we’re still not over enthusiastic about times apart.

+ Becky got her visa today to come and spend six months with us from the end of next month. Her parents sent their condolences. Our folks are going to love her. I hope we don’t work her to death!

+ Did I say Lesaya did an outrageous job teaching yesterday? If you didn’t catch the service for whatever reason, check out the podcast on our website – http://www.churchatthemovies.com/index.php?page=podcast - it will be there by mid-week.

+ Some of the guys we are meeting on our Saturday Soup Kitchen outreach have started attending Celebrate Recovery – that’s cool.

+ Still reading The Shack – if you haven’t you really need to. Won’t give anything away here, just take my word for it and if you don’t like the book, I’ll refund what you paid for it.

+ Rough crowd we have in our church, so let me set the record straight. I know I did nothing whatever up front during this morning’s service, but while others were still sleeping soundly, way before everything started at the theater, I picked up the bagels – and the donuts too for that matter – so that the cafe would be well stocked. So whatever my detractors teasingly suggest, I did do something useful today after all!

+ Lesaya did an outstanding job teaching on Acts 16 today, continuing our Keepin’ It Real series. She brought so much good stuff I’ll need to listen to the podcast to take it all in.

+ One statement she made has been messing with my head all day – We were created inadequate. That’s a powerful, freeing statement and reminds me that God made me in such a way that I couldn’t reach my potential without him.

+ Talked to Gill this afternoon and while we were having torrential rain, with her  it was sunny and 104 down in Little Elm, TX. I think I’d rather take my chances with the rain.

+ Good crowd in church for a July Sunday. A number of new folks around and in general a very good day.

+ Kids are absolutely loving the Kidmo/ L’il K summer program.

+ My Expedition  passed 150,000 miles a couple of days ago. It has been a good truck and hopefully will continue to be for several years to come.

+ Went to a Sweet Sixteen party this evening for twin girls in our church. I remember them being born and that makes me feel old. Two great girls.

+ Charlotte and Jace leave for Ireland on Tuesday. It will be weird around here without them. We get Spencer, their four months old Wheaton Terrier, while they’re away.

+ Next Sunday we have a good friend of mine in from the UK and he’ll be teaching. I first met Peter Butt when we arrived at Bible School as freshmen 40 years ago on September 6th and we’ve been friends ever since.

+ The Mets won, which is just as well since a certain idiot is still recovering from sitting up after midnight last night only to see them lose in the 14th inning. I think I’m becoming Americanized.

+ British passport expires next month. Planning to renew it, despite being a U.S. citizen. If I flash it when I visit the UK, I get to walk through the shorter immigration lines, so it’s well worth it!

I’ve been looking through a load of old photos to find some stuff we might want to use during our 10th Anniversary month and came across this one – around 1976 I believe. Look at all that long, black hair!!!

Picture was taken in a moment of slimness too by the look of it.

Those were the days!

+ We’re virtually at the weekend already. How the heck did that happen?

+ Looking forward to Sunday. Great feedback from last week. I think a lot of folks appreciated me setting the record straight on why legalism is not just obnoxious, it’s evil. That would be because it detracts from the work of the cross, suggests the sacrifice of Christ was not enough and that man-made petty rules can make up the difference. Dangerous, devilish poppycock!

+ Looking forward to having Becky Tait join us at the end of August for six months. She just graduated art college in Scotland with an impressive degree and is taking a year out now – six months of which will be spent here helping us as an intern. It will be fun to have her around as Gill and I have literally known her her whole life. I conducted her parents’ wedding!

+ Not much time for reading this week, but have progressed a bit with The Shack. Compelling reading. We have a load for sale on Sunday.

+ Spent the afternoon in Shea with my grandson. Mets won and are top of their division. Not a single member of the classless Phillies was on the field or anywhere to be seen for the national anthem – that’s bad. Glad we kicked their butts.

+ Trying to get a set of DVDs of Perry Noble’s Man Series – it will be a great small group to offer for guys in the fall. A good addition to some outstanding stuff Lesaya is lining up.

+ Getting ready for the Street Fair on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. We got connected with a lot of people through that last year. We’re getting a design done to have our new church van wrapped (totally covered with graphics) and that will be the focal point of our “booth” on the day. Just stopped off at Bruno’s Bar in Ronkonkoma and chatted with the owners. They’re going to look into getting us a better spot in the Fair than last year – always pays to know a bar owner!

+ I miss Gill. She’s in Texas for a few days looking after the kids as Donna is at a Mary Kay Convention.

+ Great seat today at Shea – front of the section, looking right down on home plate and along the third base line, but I can’t believe how tight it was. My legs still hurt!

+ Looking into taking all the pastoral team to the Multi-Site Church Conference in Charlotte at the end of September. Would have loved to have made the Seattle one in May, just to get chance to listen to Mark Driscoll and see his church, but when it comes to multi-site, the guys down in Charlotte are second to none, so it would probably be good to check them out.

+ Enough, I’m tired. Bed beckons!

One of the best peices of mindless nonsense currently being aired on network TV has got to be ABC’s Wipeout. It’s a great relaxant at the end of a busy day – you can switch your brain off and watch a weird and wonderful assortment of human beings competing to complete obstacle courses that invariably end up with water or mud.

It’s recommended viewing for our pastoral team over the next few weeks as we’re looking at going with a Wipeout theme for our first major series of the fall. I love some of the ideas that are coming together, including having our own competition.

The serious side of this will be looking at what the Bible says about handling the major crises we may face in life – how you get back on board after you wipeout!

Great series taking shape. I wonder if we could use the Surfaris hit from the 60’s as a theme song? Guess we need to go with something a bit more current – or do we???

Back in the early 80’s when I was battling to bring a very traditional denominational church into the 19th century (some subtle humor there!), within a twelve months period I was approached by a solid dozen chuerches that were in the same denomination, asking me to consider filling their vacancy for a pastor.

One of those requests came in the form of a highly respected ageing pastor arriving unannounced on our doorstep in the north east of Scotland to say God told him in a dream that I was the man to replace him following his imminent retirement. He had established a good, strong church near London and while succeeding him would have been a daunting task, the problem was that God may have confided in him, but He hadn’t said a word to me! I declined.

Today I happened upon the website of another church that actively pursued me and for a moment I went cold as I thought, “What if I had accepted that invitation?”

But I didn’t. I didn’t respond positively to the approach from a church in a North Wales beach resort either or any of the others.

My approach to pursuing the difficult task in Scotland was one Robert Kennedy would have been proud of – Some see things the way they are and ask Why? Others see things the way they could be and ask Why not? So I stayed where I was and pressed against tremendous opposition to implement the vision God had given me.

There is no doubt that decisions I made then affected where I am today.

Staying in Scotland I came to meet someone who was instrumental in me being invited to preach in the USA. Here I met another person who invited me to visit Long Island. And the rest, as they say, is history.

It also affected who I am. Back then I established the fact that I don’t take the easy way out. I don’t run. And I’m not afraid of opposition. I’ll press forward with God’s plans through hell and high water.

Having settled all those issues, life is good, so I’d rather not think about “What if?”

Monday is my day off, so I generally start out by spending a little extra time in the gym. I typically start the week with a totally cardio workout of 8 miles running on the treadmill followed by 2 miles on the elyptical. Then I crawl back home!

 This morning’s effort was made a heck of a lot easier by the outstanding stuff I listened to on my iPod.

First came a gem of a sermon from Perry Noble preached at NewSpring Church on March 30th as part of The Man Series. It’s entitled Protectile Dysfunction and I would recommend that every man who reads this goes to iTunes and finds that particular message. I’d tell you how to do it, but I haven’t yet discovered how to access Perry’s archives – you can do it though, you have to be smarter than me!

Next up today I listened to the Passion album God Of This City. I downloaded it a week or so ago, but heard it for the first time today. Outstanding, especially the title song. So while you’re in iTunes trying to figure out Perry’s archives so you can tell me, do yourself a favor and if you don’t have this album, download it.

It’s not really fatigue that gets to me at the gym, it’s boredom (I think I was ADD before it was even defined) and having something really good to listen to sure helps.