Or in my case micro-blogging for http://www.innovation3gathering.com

I’ll see about setting up liveblogging like Tony Morgan over at http://www.tonymorganlive.com

but for me check out http://www.twitter.com/mburleson

Tonight I’m loving 1 Peter 1:3-9 (ESV).  emphasis is mine

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith–more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire–may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Jesus is faithful! God is faithful! He saved us, healed us, brought us back into right standing in him through Christ. When we go through “diverse trials and temptations”(James 1) let us come out rejoicing and praising the faithfulness of God and the revelation of what have through the cross.  Jesus was made to be the propitiation for our sin out of love! (1 John 4:10), in that all of God’s wrath towards all of mankind’s sin was satisfied on Jesus  at the cross and Jesus was then reconciled back unto God.  Because of that act of love, we can experience God’s unmerited love towards us as sinners and have the oppurutnity through us accepting what Jesus did to live in right standing and clean before God. 

I’m excited! Peter says it oh so well with the phrase “joy that is inexpressible”.  I hope that in this crazy time we live in with all the financial down time, hurt and pain and confusion of society and families, differences in expressions of our faith, that we do not forget the true love that was displayed for us by Jesus’ death that we may know real love  and find life with him. Let us take time to rejoice together and continue to share this good news that whoever finds God truly finds life!

Almighty God and Father of light, a child is born for us and a son is given to us. Your eternal Word leaped down from heaven in the silent watches of the night, and now your Church is filled with wonder at the nearness of her God. Open our hearts to receive his life and increase our vision with the rising of dawn, that our lives may be filled with his glory and his peace, who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

Merry Christmas!

from http://www.catholic.org/clife/prayers/prayer.php?p=344

Anne Jackson over at www.flowerdust.net has been talking about a secret project she has been working on the last few weeks…she has asked a few blogger friends to help…I was game.

SO IT’S TIME FOR THE LAUNCH OF 50000SHOES.COM!

soles4souls is an amazing charity in Nashville, TN that has one mission: get shoes to people who need shoes. over 300 million people around the world don’t have shoes and are forced to walk around unsafe and in potentially life-threatening conditions.

Anne had the opportunity to meet with wayne elsey, the founder and CEO of s4s and he asked her what is the craziest thing we could do using social media to meet this huge need? What kind of ridiculous goal could we create?  Here was the answer.

Let’s get money raised for 50,000 shoes in 50 days and make it as easy as possible for people to not only donate online, but to spread the word about the campaign. the only way this goal can be reached is if you not only donate $5, but spread the word!

So now right from Anne’s blog here is how it works…

HOW DOES IT WORK?
go to 50000shoes.com. a $5 donation buys two pairs of shoes.

everyone has $5 (or more!). and everyone has 2 minutes. from start to finish, donating is literally three clicks. no fluff. no hassle. anyone can donate. it is so, so easy!

and it’s easy to spread the word. use the graphics on your blog. email everyone you know. join the facebook group and ask your friends to do the same!

YOU CAN WIN A TRIP TO GIVE SOMEONE THEIR FIRST PAIR OF SHOES!
besides the fact that the blogging world can literally impact 50,000 people before the end of the year, one person (and their guest) will be chosen at random to hand deliver the shoes they purchased on a s4s trip to mexico. can you imagine handing someone their very first pair of shoes? it could be a child. or it could be a mother. or a father. or a grandmother. who knows?!

PLEASE DON’T CLICK AWAY…
we could have made the goal attainable - like 5000 shoes in 50 days. i have no doubt that could happen. but we wanted to show a watching world the positive power of social media. we wanted this to be a challenge for bloggers and people to unite in a way never before seen!

50,000 pairs of shoes in 50 days. THAT’S HUGE!!!!!

please donate. please blog about this. please email everyone you know about this.

five bucks. three clicks. two minutes. that’s all and it can make a HUGE difference!!

THE MATH
if 500 people influence 10 people to donate, and those people influence 5 more, that’s 50,000 pairs of shoes (because remember - $5 buys 2 pairs!)…please help make this a reality! let’s blow it out of the water…can we raise enough for 100,000 pairs? I THINK SO!!!

300 million people around the world need you!

chris and i donated on friday. we are spreading the word today.

please join in! even non bloggers can help. just email everyone you know! take up a collection in your office or at your church. do you know someone in the press who can do a story on this? be creative!!!

forbes.com and cnbc.com have already picked up on this…and we have only just begun. with your help (and only with your help) this can be a worldwide movement. i truly believe it can!

are you in?

====

Nashville-based Soles4Souls(TM) facilitates the donations of both new and used shoes, which are used to aid the hurting worldwide. Since its inception, Soles4Souls has distributed more than 3.5 million pairs (or one pair every 23 seconds) to people in 61 countries, including Honduras, Romania, Thailand, and the Sudan. The charity has been featured on CNN Headline News, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, ABC News, FOX, CBS, and hundreds of regional outlets around North America. Soles4Souls is a 501(c)(3) recognized by the IRS; donating parties are eligible for tax advantages. Visit www.giveshoes.org for more information.

Recently, I got the book “Now, Discover Your Strengths” by Marcus Buckingham and took the quiz. There is a newer version out I know, but this will do for now..

So without further delay, here are my top 5..

Strategic

The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allows you to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, you play out alternative scenarios, always asking, What if this happened? Okay, well what if this happened? This recurring question helps you see around the next corner. There you can evaluate accurately the potential obstacles. Guided by where you see each path leading, you start to make selections. You discard the paths that lead nowhere. You discard the paths that lead straight into resistance. You discard the paths that lead into a fog of confusion. You cull and make selections until you arrive at the chosen path your strategy. Armed with your strategy, you strike forward. This is your Strategic theme at work: What if? Select. Strike.

Woo 

Woo stands for winning others over. You enjoy the challenge of meeting new people and getting them to like you. Strangers are rarely intimidating to you. On the contrary, strangers can be energizing. You are drawn to them. You want to learn their names, ask them questions, and find some area of common interest so that you can strike up a conversation and build rapport. Some people shy away from starting up conversations because they worry about running out of things to say. You don’t. Not only are you rarely at a loss for words; you actually enjoy initiating with strangers because you derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection. Once that connection is made, you are quite happy to wrap it up and move on. There are new people to meet, new rooms to work, new crowds to mingle in. In your world there are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met yet.

Communication

You like to explain, to describe, to host, to speak in public, and to write. This is your Communication theme at work. Ideas are a dry beginning. Events are static. You feel a need to bring them to life, to energize them, to make them exciting and vivid. And so you turn events into stories and practice telling them. You take the dry idea and enliven it with images and examples and metaphors. You believe that most people have a very short attention span. They are bombarded by information, but very little of it survives. You want your information, whether an idea, an event, a product’s features and benefits, a discovery, or a lesson; to survive. You want to divert their attention toward you and then capture it, lock it in. This is what drives your hunt for the perfect phrase. This is what draws you toward dramatic words and powerful word combinations. This is why people like to listen to you. Your word pictures pique their interest, sharpen their world, and inspire them to act. 

Input

You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information, words, facts, books, and quotations, or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls, or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. If you read a great deal, it is not necessarily to refine your theories but, rather, to add more information to your archives. If you like to travel, it is because each new location offers novel artifacts and facts. These can be acquired and then stored away. Why are they worth storing? At the time of storing it is often hard to say exactly when or why you might need them, but who knows when they might become useful? With all those possible uses in mind, you really don’t feel comfortable throwing anything away. So you keep acquiring and compiling and filing stuff away. It’s interesting. It keeps your mind fresh. And perhaps one day some of it will prove valuable.

Maximizer

Excellence, not average, is your measure. Taking something from below average to slightly above average takes a great deal of effort and in your opinion is not very rewarding. Transforming something strong into something superb takes just as much effort but is much more thrilling. Strengths, whether yours or someone else’s, fascinate you. Like a diver after pearls, you search them out, watching for the telltale signs of a strength. A glimpse of untutored excellence, rapid learning, a skill mastered without recourse to steps, all these are clues that a strength may be in play. And having found a strength, you feel compelled to nurture it, refine it, and stretch it toward excellence. You polish the pearl until it shines. This natural sorting of strengths means that others see you as discriminating. You choose to spend time with people who appreciate your particular strengths. Likewise, you are attracted to others who seem to have found and cultivated their own strengths. You tend to avoid those who want to fix you and make you well rounded. You don’t want to spend your life bemoaning what you lack. Rather, you want to capitalize on the gifts with which you are blessed. It’s more fun. It’s more productive. And, counterintuitively, it is more demanding.

—-

What are your strengths?

Alright so I am still alive and in Edmond. I’m currently writing this from my “new” iPhone.

Really liking it so far. With this new wordpress app I may actually write more but no promises.

Go check out http://www.tulsaloop.com

..finds Life. And for me, that life is leading to Edmond, OK..

After 3 years of employment at RHEMA Bible Church/Kenneth Hagin Ministries and 13 years growing up in the church, I am leaving to take an IT position at LifeChurch.tv.

I leave Rhema with much affection and still plan on being involved as an alumni of Rhema Bible Training Center. I’m going to miss my good friends and co-workers, but the internet will help with the distance.

My transition will take place over the next four weeks and I will start down there mid-July. Looking forward to new adventures and new peoples.

I’m both excited and scared as this is the first real time away from home. Good thing is, it’s not too far from home!

More later. If you aren’t, follow me on twitter..

As I was sifting through my google reader, I stopped to read a post from Mark Beeson, Pastor of Granger Community Church, that he wrote about one of the sessions at Saddleback.

Rick Warren, the Pastor of Saddleback, made this statement, “The most counter-culture statement you can make in this world is, ‘It’s not about you.’”

This reminded me of a true story in that I had heard in my Intro To Pastoral Care class my second year at Rhema. (this is my retelling so I’ll do my best)

This pastor called our ministerial association in a complete rant and rave and how he was done with the church he was at. The staff member calmed the pastor and started trying to find the cause of this outburst. After some talking, the pastor said that his congregation was just ungrateful and non-caring about him. Recently, a congregation member had given him a gift. He opened it up to find a 5×7 picture of Jesus as the gift. This, he told the staff member, was the last straw.

The staff member responded with the question, who called you to where you are? Is your pastoring really just about you? Cause it’s not about you, it’s about Jesus and the people. So every time you look at the 5×7 picture, remember that it’s about the Him.

I know I’m guilty of such things in my own life, even in doing tech work. It’s really not about me or my wants, but about Christ and loving people; helping the hurting and the lost. In that pastor’s life, it seems that 5×7 picture came just at the right time, as a reminder of our purpose.

As Rick Warren noted in 2 Cor 4:5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. (ESV)

St Francis of Assisi prayed this prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, the truth;
Where there is doubt, the faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Let us endeavor to stay focused on the purpose and desires Christ has for us and not to use the cliche, but More of Him and Less of Me.

For it has been to long since I have blogged, I bid your forgiveness, oh blogging world.  Alas, the toils of life and work have sorely separated me from my abilty to write in leisure.

 Soon shall there be writings again, however, poor (which normally is so) they are!

Until that time, click thy mouse o’er and on these links.

• My Friend Seth has a question he needs answered about the church and world hunger
• Non-Friend Seth Godin has a great post about talking to Apple Support
• Church IT King, Jason Powell, has an IT staff position open..(chance of a lifetime if you ask me)
• SAN’s are pretty!  Though they lack blue LED’s…  (Take Note Dell Equallogic.. blue leds in the future..)
• Lastly for tonight, go check out, join up, find someway to join up.  http://www.ONEPrayer.com

OK so yes I am excited tonight.

I get home and I find a package on my table..

What package you say…(or not really but play along)

Well, a few months ago, just after I found out about Church IT RoundTable, I was searching through the vast amount of new blogs and had ran across one I really liked.

That blog happened to be Tim Stevens of Granger Community Church in Granger, IN.

Anyway, he had a contest about finding where he was writing his book at.  Well, I happened to know the city where he was staying quite well…and I guessed it!

So I opened the package up and looked inside and was excited to see.. his book!

I’ll be sure to post about it when I read it.

Go check out Tim Stevens and give a big hello!  (and go buy his book)!