Southland Christian Church

Seriously, what would we do without public access television? This Christmas season if you are feeling down or if you have done something that you would categorize as embarrassing, this clip should give you hope!

We’ve settled the debate about the best burrito. Now it’s time to determine the best Christmas movie of all-time! You may need to invite some friends over and watch them together. I’ll reveal the winner next week. 

Author Donald Miller is coming to speak in our weekend services at Southland March 13/14! If you haven’t read his new book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years you should. I read an excerpt from it in my message this past weekend about the concept of story and how our lives “feel written” because there is a “Writer who is writing us into his story.” Many of you have read his widely-popular book Blue Like Jazz which is a really fun book to read as well. Mark your calendar and definitely bring a friend because Donald is one of the best story tellers you’ll ever hear and even better than that, he is one of the most authentic people you will ever have the privilege of hearing.

It was close! Very close! But at the end of the day after all the votes were counted…Qdoba came out on top! Chipotle ran a close second, just 20 votes behind the winner and poor Moe’s…in spite of the discounts that Moe’s offers, it came in a distant third. Personally, I’m a Chipotle guy! I could eat there every day! My only problem with Chipotle is I have to drive a good distance to get to one so a lot of days I end up at Qdoba and don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan! I especially like the Qdoba card where after so many purchases you get a free burrito! I’m all about the bargain!

Yesterday I polished off a “Hickory Pit Panini” from JJ McBrewster’s…well-worth your time and money! It’s the best BBQ sandwich I’ve had in town (put the melon sauce on it). They’re being featured by the Food Network because of their BBQ. If there is a better BBQ sandwich out there, please let me know where to go and I’ll check it out.

Let's settle the long debated issue once and for all! No more heated debates about who gives more chicken. No more passionate conversations about who serves the best salsa. No more intense dialogue about naked and streaking burritos. Which one really is the best? We have a moral and digestive responsibility to make the call before 2010 starts! Black beans or Pinto? Cast your vote now...no more beating around the bush! Rise up! Defend your guacamole!

Update: The polls are closed, and the winner has been announced.

I want to challenge you to memorize and apply Philippians 2:1-4 to your life this week.

Philippians 2:1-4
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

And I've linked to five more worship songs for this week:

• Revelation Song (Kari Jobe) iTunes Store Link
• From the Inside Out (Hillsong United) iTunes Store Link
• Oh, Happiness iTunes Store Link
• The Time Has Come (Hillsong United) iTunes Store Link
• You'll Come (Hillsong United) iTunes Store Link

In the days after my dad died, there were several moments when the pain was so heavy and suffocating, I had no expression to capture the loneliness I was feeling. I can remember having to pull off the road to cry. I can remember sitting in my drive way not wanting to go through the front door because I didn’t want my kids to see me hurting. I can remember sitting in my office early one Sunday morning struggling to get my composure and not having an ounce of energy in my body, thinking, “There is no way I can stand up in front of people today and preach!” I am a pastor who preaches and not a preacher who pastors. So the condition of my heart is so critical in any message I feel led to share. And when my heart is broken…well…everything breaks…

Music ministers to me more effectively than anything. And being an introvert, if you give me music and quiet space and time, something “other worldly” happens in my heart. I’ve attached a video of a David Crowder concert in a House of Blues in San Diego…so please ignore the lack of auditory and cinematography excellence and the young woman who suddenly screams out in the second verse! It’s the lyrics and the music that God used to pick me up and breathe new life and joy back into my hollow heart.

And after you watch/listen/experience this, read John 10:27-29 from the Message. 

A. The Christian Age

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In his book The Unstoppable Force, author Erwin McManus writes, “Those of us who live in this window of history must consider ourselves uniquely appointed by God. God chooses not only the places but also the times in which we live. He has privileged us to live not only in the greatest expansion of human population but also with the greatest opportunity for the spread of the Gospel. I am convinced that God would not allow us to live in a time of such great opportunity if he did not have on his heart the desire to pour out the greatest movement of the Spirit in human history. We must consider strategies for incremental growth or nominal growth as inadequate, and we must re-examine our assumptions of how the Spirit of God desires to work through the church. We must not be satisfied until we enter into an EXPLOSION of global transformation that matches the challenge that has been entrusted to us

One of the best ways to keep from sinning is to serve. Who needs you today to pick up a basin of water and a towel? Who needs their feet washed? Who needs you to be Jesus to them today?