Tag Archives: change

Batterson on Chasing the Holy Spirit in Wild Goose Chase

22 Aug

Once again I am a little behind the current book release scene in reading Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson but I did finally get around to reading this book last week.  After a quick tally for 2009 I discovered that this was around book number twenty-five for me this year and out of all the popular (none scholarly) books I have read so far, Wild Goose Chase had to be one of the best. 

Reading Blue Like Jazz and Wild Goose Chase back to back was very interesting and they complimented each other very well, even though they were very different books.

Batterson walks through, in very practical ways, how we go about chasing after the Holy Spirit (as Celtic Christians called Him, An Geadh-Glas, or the Wild Goose), or our lack there-of.  Often we go through life from one routine to the next and our spiritual life becomes, to us, boring.  As Batterson explains, God never meant the Christian life to be mundane and boring.  It is dangerous, bold, exciting, and adventurous… when we learn to depend on Him and follow the Holy Spirit instead of our own selfish ambitions.

As I have mentioned in my blog many times in the past, I have never thought God intended our life to be the pursuit of a good 9-5 job, a nice house with a two-car garage (and two cars to go in the driveway because we can’t get them in the garage), a 401k, and early retirement so we can play golf until we are called home to heaven.  An over exaggeration perhaps, that might be “the American dream”, but I don’t think it is God’s dream for us (or at least not for me).  Batterson brings this home and sums it up like this:

  • Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death
  • Set God-Sized Goals
  • Pursue God-ordained passions
  • Don’t let fear dictate your decisions
  • Don’t take the easy way out

As I read through each chapter it became aware to me that Batterson has been following me around without me knowing it, and I appreciate him writing a book just for me.  What a great reminder it was to read about living boldly for Christ and not getting stuck into a routine of ineffectiveness.

The book was a quick read, easy to understand, and applies to a great many Believers in the U.S. today.  It was probably written more for the layman or pastor but anyone interested in following the Holy Spirit, wherever it leads, can’t go wrong with Wild Goose Chase.

Other Posts Related to this Topic

President’s Day and Altocumulus Cloud Observations

16 Feb

President’s Day and Altocumulus Cloud Observations

Change is coming, all we have to do is look up and observe.  You may be asking yourself what does Andrew Jackson, the Blue Angels, and Altocumulus Clouds have in common.  Not much, but today, call it an observation.  Today being President’s Day, we are observing a day to celebrate the office of U.S. President if not the actual presidential person.  Since President’s day has been on the marketing horizon for a week or so the stations like National Geographic Channel and others have been doing biographies of each president.

I was only able to watch two, Lincoln and Jackson, but I still learned a bit from each and haven’t really had time to discern the historical quality of each show, but they were both informational non-the-less.

Andrew Jackson had a pretty incredible stay as President.  Outside of the Native Indians Trail of Tears when they were forcibly removed from the eastern part of the United States, he tried to do some great things as President, bold ideas that never took hold, but gave us a gimps of who he was and how he thought.  Jackson was the only President to ever pay off the national debt.  This should be a shock to us today when there is little hope of ever paying off the national debt when we move to pass an almost $900 billion spending stimulus package, but he was the only President to do so, ever.

What I liked about the story of Andrew Jackson was how the narration ended.  He spent a good part of his life in politics out of love for this country, but also for people’s freedom to be able to vote and live in a free country, and that the government should be run by it’s people.  It stated that Jackson would be dumbfounded and appalled that less than 50% of people vote today, and most are not even interesting in the politics of today.

An amazing statement since government control of it’s people has been passed down through history from the beginning of time.  We don’t all have to be political junkies, but everything the government does today has an effect on how we live our lives today.  We fought the British over a 4% tax on its people and today we don’t even notice when our taxes are raised by that small an amount. Observation.

The Blue Angels comes from a message given by Rusty yesterday about a man who came to know his Savior and later found himself face to face with the beauty of his Creator through the cockpit of a fighter jet.  After weeks of coming to a Bible study with his wife, the words of John chapter 3 in the story of Nicodemus came to life and he became a new creation.

He tells a story of this Marine fighter pilot who sees the sun rise from his cockpit and cried after recognizing that he now knows who created the sun itself.  It made me think about how many days we see the sun come up and don’t think twice about its beauty and how much more beautiful is our creator.  This pilot must have seen the sun rise from a cockpit of a plane 1,000 times before this, but this day it was different.  Observation.

Altocumulus Clouds are these clouds that roll in like waves or ripples in the sky, Alto (middle) Cumulus (heap or pile), and can be seen in advance of a storm system (like the one that is supposed to be here on Wednesday).  For those who don’t know, I am a little bit of a weather buff and have always liked to observe the weather that goes on around us every day.  Today a large band of Altocumulus clouds rolled in about 8am and were quickly starting to dissipate when I went out and took this shot.

Altocumulus Clouds Photo

How many times have you looked up at the clouds and recognized a specific type of clouds like we had here in Auburn this morning?  Are we all to busy to do that any more?  I have to admit, I recognized the system but for the life of me could not remember the name of the clouds, so a special thanks goes out to James Spann (Meteorologist for ABC 33/40 in Birmingham) for the quick answer to my question.

Altocumulus clouds signify change is coming.  All we have to do is look up and oberve.

Other Posts Related to this Topic

Grace Without Change is Just an Escape from Responsibility

11 Aug

Grace Without Change is Just an Escape from Responsibility

This past Sunday was the last part of the “money” series at our church. I was so surprised with this series. It was informative, scriptural, and not the same typical money sermon series I was expecting and use to. The opening music from Worship Journey was something unique and different each week, like Pink Floyd’s “Money”, and the Beetles “Can’t Buy Me Love”.

Part of the message this Sunday was about God’s grace. The grace He has given us to make mistakes, learn from them, and move on. A quote that really caught my attention was:

Grace without change is just an escape from responsibility

I think that is a great way to put it. It doesn’t mean we can just keep living these same mistakes continuously without true repentance and change, sometimes we do need to make lifestyle or lifelong changes first. There are some of us who have made these changes long ago, but still struggle with the reasons. This is a great reminder of the freedom in God’s love, and the grace He has given to us all.

This series was a very refreshing look at one of the most talked about subjects in the Bible, money. I would encourage anyone who is interested to listen to the podcasts and see for themselves. Thanks Cornerstone.

Other Posts Related to this Topic