This means that in the Greek culture, when sin was talked about they instantly gained a mental picture of missing the mark with an arrow. Really interesting. I have always loved metaphors and parables, because they help you really grasp the full meaning of a teaching and continue to remember it long after it has been spoken. So, hopefully this helps you understand another viewpoint of what "sin" was seen as.

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I wrote a blog entry a while back about finding God hidden stories this Christmas, you can read it here. I have been saving this story for a few weeks now. I wanted to give it to you all on Christmas. This is not my story but another persons story that I have claimed as my own… it was hard not to cry when I heard it. A person in the church community I go to told us this story… it was the Sunday after I wrote the stories of Christmas post. For the sake of her identity I will refer to her as Sue.

Sue got up in front of the church to tell us about what had happened. The pastor had just mentioned how Sue’s story had touched him and he wanted us all to hear it. Sue began to tell us how she was going to Wal-Mart over the weekend to try to finish up her Christmas shopping (Just like every other person in the US) She fought the crowds all the way back to the lay-away section where she was going to pick up some presents that she had been paying on. In front of her was this man who was holding on to a five dollar bill tightly and he was talking to the sales clerk. Sue could not help but over hear the conversation and apparently the man was trying to buy some shoes out of lay-away for his child. Sue heard the sales clerk tell the man, "Sir, I’m sorry but I told you when you first brought these shoes here for lay-away that it was going to cost more than five dollars to get them out… you don’t have enough." Sue could tell the man was having a hard time accepting what the sales clerk was saying. Five dollars was all that he had… and his child really needed these new shoes. Sue silently prayed thanking God for this opportunity that was just given to her. She had the opportunity to help someone in the middle of all this shopping chaos.

Sue spoke up and said, "Sir, I would like to buy those shoes for you if you will let me." The man quickly agreed and was very thankful. Sue handed over the $6 to $10 dollars to pay out the shoes and gave the man his child’s gift and wished him a Merry Christmas. He was of course very thankful and took the shoes and left. Sue paid out her lay-away items and left to go home, thankful that God would let her small amount of money help someone so much.

This is where we thought the story ended…. but it didn’t…

Sue went on to tell us that a few weeks went by and she received a phone call out of nowhere. She answered it and on the other side was a woman’s voice. The woman asked if this was Sue. Sue was wondering what this was all about. The woman proceeded to tell her that she was the sales clerk at the lay-away counter a few weeks ago where Sue had helped the man purchase shoes for his child. She told Sue that she wanted to call her to tell her something. Sue asked what it was and this is what the sales clerk told her. She said: "Sue, no one knew but that day when you helped that man buy those shoes for his child I was planning on taking my life when I clocked out from work. I had already planned the entire thing and was prepared to do it. I had decided that the world was just too bad and I was not happy with life. When you paid for that man’s shoes, it shocked me. It showed me that there were still good people in this world and maybe the world was not as bad as it might have seemed. I decided then that I was not going to end my life but instead was going to keep on and I wanted to call you to tell you myself… Thank you." Sue was speechless.

You see… stories are everywhere… opportunities are everywhere… waiting for us to find them. Sue thought that all she had done was help a man provide his child shoes. She was completely unaware of what God was really doing. Sue had no idea that by being Jesus to someone, EVEN IN THE SMALLEST FASHION, she played a part in showing a third party sales clerk that life was worth living.

So, this Christmas… may you be Jesus…. may you find that even the little things can be so big…. may you see that the true spirit of Christmas is not just on one day… but everyday… may you look past the crowds and chaos… and reach out a hand to help someone… may you find the God hidden stories that wait for you everyday…. and respond… and may you find that God uses shoes of all sizes for more than just walking.

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HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 106 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Brandon		Gross
There are 392,959 people in the U.S. with the first name Brandon. Statistically the 142nd most popular first name. 99.24 percent of people with the first name Brandon are male.		There are 80,992 people in the U.S. with the last name Gross. Statistically the 406th most popular last name. (tied with 20 other last names) Famous people with the last name Gross: Mary Gross Michael Gross Paul Gro

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Jesus new the culture when he was here on earth. He talked about what was going on, he answered the questions that others were wondering (to their surprise many times he answered with a question, which was customary), he was familiar with what made people tick. Paul even spoke about becoming all things to all men that he might win a few. I think Paul was talking about be aware of culture. He became a Jew the the Jews and a Gentile to the Gentiles. He tried to understand where they were and met them there. Maybe there is something we could all learn from that. Just a thought… what are your thoughts?

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What have I learned through all this?

Coolness will not keep the kids but relationships and sustanence will. I was reading one of Josh McDowell’s books about a year ago that had a really good point in it. He said that youth ministry can be looked at like a scale. If you put all your weight on coolness, games, and atmosphere and relationships… withouth any weight on sound Bible teaching, then it will not keep the kids and the scale will tip. On the other hand if you put all your weight on strict Bible teaching with no relationship then you will not keep the kids and the scale will tip. It’s a 50 – 50 scale. Youth groups need to have sound biblical teaching, Barna stats have shown this is an area youth ministry has been failing in. On the other side youth groups need to have a relationship level with games and atmosphere that will encourage them to talk with one another and, well just enjoy themselves.

If you have both sides of the scale working, then you will have a youth ministry that is growing spiritually. Think about it this way… how do you learn?? How did you learn when you were young?? What were your favorite teachers that you learned the most from?? The best teachers were the ones who were able to make their lesson come to life and usually they had good relationships and atmosphere in their classrooms. Youth ministry doesn’t need more coolness to be effective, just more life and balance. We need to re-evaluate how we teach and become better so we can be more effective. No one likes to be hammered with Bible for hours where the teacher resembles a Scrooge more than Jesus. Jesus brought life to his teaching with parables and stories. Jesus also was good at relationships since he could be found many times eating with people and laughing. Jesus taught more depth than anyone ever and he also put focus on relationships. Not so much on coolness.

What are your thoughts???

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You see, apparently there is a whole new level of ubergeek that I did not know existed. Maybe it existed once a long time ago. You know, the time where if you could make a fire out of rocks you were this kind of ubergeek. But now this ubergeek only exists in the shadows of their closet listening to the hummmm of processors. LED’s, and 10 Terabyte RAID 10,000 RPM hard drives. Well, all I have to say is they are real and they can be seen only one time a year…. Game console release day, day, day, day.. (echo for effect).

I call them Superdooperubergeeks…

You see, a Superdooperubergeek is about as rare as they come. They have crossed the vast lands of cyberspace and are adventurers of their own kind. Superdooperubergeeks are bigger than web 2.0… they are more like web 7.2 1/2. They are the guys and girls that laugh at the speed of an Intel Extreme dual Core processor… because they made one that fast 10 years ago… They are the ones that intimidate Bill Gates … They exist… you just have to look hard enough.

Back to the story,

Walmart guy informed my friend that Superdooperubergeeks had already been lining up days before the release. Days! I guess by now we have all seen the lines of drenched Superdooperubergeeks, waiting in line at their local Best Buy or Walmart.. cold… tired… smelly (just joking) ready get their hands on what they had been waiting for… a brand new PS3.

Well, its unfortunate but our Walmart already had more people waiting in line than stock of PS3’s they had to sell… Surprise!!!. Oh well… I was going to sell mine anyway.

So, for you few Superdooperubergeeks out there that were able to get you hands on a brand new PS3… I salute you… you set a standard that few ubergeeks ever attain and even fewer know exist…

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I don’t know about you but I am sensitive to the old phrase, "Just like the good old days." I use it and I know you do too. I am always thinking about some time in the past that I think was better than today.

I know you understand…

• Back in grade school on the playground.
• High school football games.
• Hanging out at Krystal for those midnight college snacks.
• The time BM (before marriage) when you could do as you pleased.
• After marriage, the time BK (before kids) when you dated every weekend.
• The time of innocence with your children.
• The time before the kids knew about money.
• and the list goes on.

You and I both know, there is no time in our past that was truly perfect. I can remember many terrorizing moments on the grade school playground and we did not always win our high school football games. I often wish I had the time to spend doing what I want when I get home from work just like before my children were born. However, coming home to the open arms of my children excited to see daddy is priceless. It just does not get any better.

I think what we fear is change. Here at Nspire software, things are always changing. To show you some change, take a look at these splash screens. You can see some of the transformation we have gone through. We are always working to make our church software better. Very rarely do we ever look back and wish we could go back to an earlier version. We add new features and update the software often. That is the nature of software development. It would not be fun if there was no change or new things to learn.  Where would we be if we were not trying to improve our ministries.

I do not know where we will be in the future. We are working hard to get the next update finished. I am certain my children will teach me a new trick any day now. It will not be long before they are gone. I know you are working hard to innovate and begin new ministry projects at your churches. Things are always changing.

I am sure the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Teachers of the Law wished for the good old days after the crucified Jesus had risen from the grave. Little did they know that in just a few years Jerusalem would be burning and the temple destroyed by the Romans. What time in their history would they have wished to visit or relive.

Jesus changed everything. The culmination of all God’s planning. The final sacrifice for sin. Isn’t it wonderful some things do not change!

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We have been doing a lot of thinking around the office about what church software should look like. Now I don’t mean just graphics and pretty buttons, I’m talking about vision… what should the vision of church software look like. It’s incredible how vision can change everything… completely. We are in a process of reimagining or, might I say, dreaming our vision here at Nspire. Creativity is flowing… new things are happening… and I think God is in the middle of it. I hear from churches everyday and how they use the software; and how they see the software… I am inspired by many of them but some situations I struggle with.

Let me explain…

I spoke with a guy from a Youth for Christ chapter in Wisconsin last week. This guy really has a heart for youth and is PASSIONATE about what he is doing… ministry. This guy could not say enough about how Nspire was helping him in ministry. I want to explain what he meant by help. He was not excited about how Nspire performed every feature under the sun… he was excited about what it did for his ministry. He talked about how it helped him with knowing who was not there and how it was helping them in their Juvenile delinquent ministry. The stories were incredible (i hope to share more later), but most of all you could hear the passion in his voice and the deep appreciation for what Nspire was doing, not what it was as software features, but what it was doing.

I almost jumped out of my seat

I was so excited to hear from this guy.  I was excited because he saw Nspire for what it was created to be and what we envisioned it to look like and act like. He caught the vision! So many times we get caught up in so many things we lose our vision. Nspire was not created to be like every other church software, it was not created to be a phone book, or just a glorified excel sheet. Nspire was created with real heart, from real ministers, who wanted something to be real and affect, impact, change, and HELP ministry and ministers. Nspire is more than just church software. Nspire is our heart and vision made real and tangible. When a church purchases Nspire they are not just purchasing our software… they are purchasing our vision, heart, and in a sense… us. We make up Nspire and I can say even if I didn’t work here I WOULD STILL USE IT, WHY??? because I know the heart that is behind it and because it is real and true… it’s what church software should look like.

- Learn more about Nspire church software by going to www.nspiresoftware.com -

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How’s this: success is largely about keeping your promises.

Seth’s Blog: Successful?

We all want to be successful, first, biggest, MEGA. So often we are willing to do anything it takes including sacrifice our integrity.

Whether you are the CEO of a company, the Lead Pastor, or the youth intern, we need to do what we say.

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