I just want you to know that I heard one of the most hilarious things ever….  This blog entry is for free… not one of the weekly entries that are designed to challenge you… no, this one is for fun! and hopefully makes you crack up!

 

i don’t know if you have heard anything about Passion Conferences, or what, but they have a podcast where every week they are going to have different people on from now until passion 07 in january… the last one had John Piper.  and John is normally very serious but this podcast had something hysterical!  check this out…. and enjoy!

 

Click Here To Listen to “John Piper is Bad.mov

 

 

if you would like to join the passion podcast click here. 

 

 

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For me, thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays, getting better every year.  This year was no exception.  And let it be known that my mother cooked for our family an enormous meal, an amazing meal.  My mom is an amazing cook.  simply said…. AMAZING!

 

of course what would this holiday be without… leftovers?

 

I don’t know how thanksgiving works for you… but if it is anything like my family you know what the term “leftovers” means… the days following a large meal where the excess food that was left from the big meal are consumed…

 

I had an interesting thought this week about leftovers though….  My mom usually cooks a big meal, and for most of the thanksgivings I can remember, my family has been the host to a large group of people, our guests.  My mom can spend anywhere from several hours to several days [like she did this year cooking a new recipe of mashed potatoes... MHMH!]. I have always noticed how my mom will spend forever, and in many times more than forever, preparing a meal for our guests, so it is one they will remember.  What a great act of love!

 

After we have our “big meal” the guests leave, and our family usually indulges in the days to come the benefits of hosting thanksgiving… the leftovers!  Those reheated quick lunches and dinners, where everyone helps themselves… the epitome of the Tupperware container.

 

 

but I was thinking this week how strange it would be if my mom spent days upon days upon days cooking an unbelievable meal so that our family could eat if first on Wednesday [the day before thanksgiving] so that we could strategically have a “help-yourself” meal full of leftovers for when our guests arrive.

 

This just wouldn’t fly in my household…  and I know it wouldn’t go over well for our guests.  Imagine the way they would feel.  Rejected.  Unwanted.  a felling of a lower posistion. Is this how we are to make our guests feel?  

 

no.

 

What about God though?  

 

 

 

What I realized after thinking about this during the past week is that we sooooo often in life, we cook a really REALLY big meal for ourselves, and just give God whatever is left.  He gets the “help-yourself” meal. The crap.  The scraps.  He gets the extra that wasn’t eaten at the intended time… but worse yet, He wasn’t even invited to our big meal… he usually is for most of us… an  afterthought:

 

 

“if my salary goes up, I’ll be able to give you more God!”

 

“if you just answer this one prayer, I will never ask again”

 

“oh, I put everything I had in God’s hands” [after I did what I wanted]

 

“If you let me win the lottery, you know I will give you 10% of it.”

 

 

 

These are all the things we say when we are giving God our leftovers.  

 

In the book of Romans in the bible, the writer paul asks us “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” the rhetorical answer to this question is simply … no-one.  

 

not a single one of us, me included, have ever done anything worthy enough for God to give us stuff… but why is it that we keep on giving God our leftovers? You wouldn’t give your guest the leftovers, you wouldn’t give your family members at christmas the gifts that you never used last year that you received, your not going to take your girlfriend or boyfriend to Burger King for your anniversary.  So why give God what is of no value to him… the blemished offering?

 

Leviticus chapter 1 talks about giving God burnt offerings…. but my question is why do we keep doing it?  what is the value of your creator?  what are the burnt offerings that you continually offer to God? your money?  your relationships?  your job?  or how about your time?  how about your passions?  

 

how about your life?

 

 

 

stop giving your guest, the most amazing creator, the one who was and is to come…  you leftovers.

 

Its time to cook him the big meal…. by giving him everything you make, including your life!

 

 

-L.

 

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The first blog entry that was ever put on this site was about the launch of a new ministry that God was brewing in the midst of both my life, and the lives of many in north nashville.  I wrote about how I expected just to walk in the door and do what I have done so many times before in so many other atmospheres.  The thing was that we asked God to take over, and He did!  But the reason it was great was simply because God took charge, and it wasn’t the act of someone in the room or anyone on my team.

 

Well the thing I never told you was that that ministry has been through a number of changes, due mainly to the fact that we wanted God to lead.  God always gave us enough vision to take the next step, but nothing further than that. 

 

God has always wanted us to rely on him, because when we rely on God that is where the most amount of dedication to his purposes is fulfilled.  If we were to live life and be content with everything that we are going through and didn’t really feel a need to have God in our lives, that would become a period of distance from us and God. 

 

God doesn’t reveal his whole plan to us because he like holding us in the palm of his hands and he wants us to know that we are to follow him. 

 

 

A friend of mine here in nashville has taught me something lately…. We are never really “called” to ministry, or called to do this or called to do that, The only thing that Jesus Christ ever calls us to is HIM! 

 

 

Everything else happens to spur out of the relationship and love that we have for Christ, and that is what causes us to follow after his purposes and to do things in accordance to his will. 

 

 

TONIGHT was a night that I realized that I am not called to anything but Jesus.  Tonight was the last night for Echo Nashville. God obviously had different plans for our lives, if nothing else to teach our team that the only thing God is concerned with is following him!  not some ministry, not some person, or job. 

 

God’s not calling me to a position in the collegiate generation, and He’s not calling us to change the world.

 

 

God’s calling us to HIM. 

To HIS son!

 

 

So what are you  running toward? How are you responding to God’s miraculous love for you and his calling upon your life?

 

 

 

God’s calling… are you picking up?

 

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So… after 9 months of having this blog, i have finally decided to put some organization to this whole thing… to help the “regulars” expect things..

 

the good thing about this is if people don’t like this, which I don’t really understand, or I can’t keep up, i can always go back to the update the blog whenever I have something compelling to say! 

 

needless to say here is the new format:

 

every saturday, sunday or monday night I will upload a new blog entry!  I hope this will help those that may use this blog as a devotion or something to start out your week… 

 

Hopefully what God can offer through this is an opportunity to challenge you early in the week and let him motivate you to think about something out of the ordinary, what ever you call it… this will allow God to move in your entire week!

 

I also hope that I will share insight from other people, friends who have written challenging things for me before, or really cool insight to what I have been going through ect. 

 

So whatever you call this new structure, <insert title here>, I’m really excited that God is going to be able to use this to challenge as many people as he brings to this site.  I also open up the floor to people who may have something that God is challenging them with to send it my way!  luke@lukemcelroy.com I would love to make this an open site where people have the ability to share with others things that God is teaching them… so that we can all benefit from what God wants us to learn!

 

 

 

so next sunday -ish, be on the lookout for a new entry!  God has really been teaching me what it means to be “called” to something!  and I think this will resonate with each of you!  

 

 

 

-L

 

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