Tiger should be given a lot of space and grace. He did an amazing job humbling himself and taking full responsibility for his actions. He wasn’t blame shifting or making excuses. He is deeply sorry.

My heart goes out to Tiger. I’ve been a huge fan. I just wish he got the concept of forgiveness. Tiger said, “I have a lot to atone for.” Although he took full responsibility for his mistakes he never brought up the issue of forgiveness. His goal is to rehabilitate himself so that through being a better person he can atone for what he did wrong and have us believe in him again.

Wow… so very different than the gospel. The gospel says that we do better because we have been forgiven. Our sins are atoned for because of the good actions of someone else – Jesus. Our faith is in God who forgives not in ourselves to do better. Forgiveness is granted because a person humbly asks. Trust is restored because a forgiven person’s actions prove trustworthy.

Bubba Watson tweeted this morning: “Morning All! Tiger speaks today, but we all need to ask forgiveness because we all SIN and make mistakes!! GOD FORGIVES! #loveeveryone ” I love it! God forgives, but forgiveness does need to be asked for. I teach my kids the difference between “I am sorry” and “Will you forgive me?” – big difference!

I am praying for Tiger and his family. So grateful for God’s grace and forgiveness. How I want everyone to experience it. Except for the grace of God, there go I. It’s level ground at the foot of the cross.

Have you ever called a friend and just wanted to share some good news? It’s so great when someone listens wells and is just excited with you. It’s a drag when the person hardly hears you or one ups you with what’s been even more amazing in his/her life.

Have you ever called a friend to dump your rotten day and vent? One person simply listens empathetically and you’re deeply helped by sharing your heart and processing. Another tries to fix the situation, and you hang up frustrated.

There’s a time for problem solving or even having a tough conversation. Just don’t start there.

The Bible gives us this practical insight on being a good friend: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” (Rom 12:15)

Take the great advice and practice it on others. Slow down. Tune in. You’ll be a true friend by simply rejoicing with those who rejoice, and weeping with those who weep.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

At dinner we go around the table and everyone tells two things from their day. What was one high? What was one low? It’s a fun way to hear about everyone’s day. I actually learn some fun things about my kids.

Here’s an interesting thing. Amelia (3) hasn’t figured out the difference between a high and a low. Her high and her low are always both fun highs. Hmmm… something about child-like faith and such a happy view of the world.

How does community and living in harmony come about?

One answer: Reading Scripture and receiving encouragement, hope and endurance. How many people do you know would say that a key to Christian community is reading Scripture.

This morning as I was reading my Bible (for NT 100 days) I was struck by this amazing connection between Scripture and living in harmony.

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Rom 15:4)

Scripture produces in us endurance and encouragement – giving us hope. We think of this in an individual way. I get endurance, encouragement and hope. But watch the connection in the next two verses…

“May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom 15:5-6)

Wow! Living in harmony is tied to our receiving encouragement and endurance from God – which God just said that we get from the Scripture. So…

Community will be experienced by a people who love and read Scripture – learning to receive encouragement, strength, wisdom, humility, and grace from the words of life.

Amelia prays the Lord’s Prayer from Kendrick Vinar on Vimeo.

Tommy Zukoski is the lead pastor/planter. He’s been building relationships, taking a church planter’s class, went through a church planter’s assessment, and getting to know his community. He’s determined and patient to do what it takes to make an impact for Christ.

We’ll be serving Tommy and helping him be a success, by God’s grace. He’s fundraising, and we’re putting together a strategic plan for launching. I look forward to seeing what God will do through Synergy Church in Charlotte.

Three minor girls were rescued early morning yesterday at the Pune train station. Freedom Firm operatives, acting on information from IJM in Kolkata, mobilized Pune police officers to rescue the girls and arrest the four traffickers as they left the train station. A brothel owner seen awaiting these girls at the train station went away empty handed but was arrested later.

This is our third rescue in four weeks.

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A link to a newspaper article about the rescues is below.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Pune/4-arrested-in-human-trafficking-case/articleshow/4750625.cms

Steve Sjogren mentioned to me once the phrase the “speed of soul” – I love it. Our bodies can run at a pace faster than our souls. We have the ability to produce adrenalin and kick it up a notch when it’s necessary. Living at that pace, day after day, isn’t healthy. It’s also not productive in the long-run.

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz wrote the book, The Power of Full Engagement. The authors help professional athletes train. Many athletes actually over train. They don’t allow their body sufficient time to recover and gain full strength. By training so hard without rest, they are actually losing efficiency and effectiveness. They can maximize their output by getting into a healthy rhythm of stress (workout) and rest.

So here’s to the SPEED OF SOUL – living with a healthy rhythm of work, rest, family, and fun. Three things that help me.

1. Starting the day with a big drink of God – reading His Word and prayer stills the heart, refreshes the soul, and feeds the spirit.

2. Take some breaks during the day – allow yourself to experience a valley between peaks of work. Don’t schedule meetings back to back (I’m speaking to myself now).

3. Unplug at least an hour or two before bed. Read, relax, and put the laptop down. Don’t put it on twitter that you’re relaxing.

“Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psa 46:10)

A computer guru at Grace Church, Ray Hooker, sent me the following thoughts on “pinging” people. Pretty cool application.

Ray:
I thought I would give you an extended explanation of “ping” and some
interesting analogies for human “pinging”.

The developers of the Internet knew that it would be important to be
able to test the ability to connect between two points in the
Internet. So they developed a special format to send a small bit of
data between two points to verify connectivity. They called this bit
of data an ICMP packet. They also built into the software that talks
across the network the feature that it will automatically return an
ICMP packet if it receives one. It is automatic. They developed a
simple program name “ping” which will send an ICMP packet to whereever
you specify give you messages about what happens. In windows the
results are fairly technical though the original ping would simply say
“xyz is alive”. Sometimes people disable this feature for security
reasons, so that they can essentially hide their presence to some
degree.

One interesting analogy is that most people respond when you touch
base with them. It is built by God into the human to respond since we
desire relationship. Of course there are some people who try to shut
that down and hide, but not most people.

Twestival is a global meeting of the Twitter community on Feb. 12 in 185+ cities around the world to raise support for those without clean water.

Check out the video below as found of charity: water Scott Harrison shares the vision.

charity: water for Twestival from charity: water on Vimeo.