Mike Edmisten Follower of Jesus. Husband of Nicki. Father of Ryan & Brock. Communicator of the Word.

Prosperity Gospel

We're finishing up our LIE$ series tomorrow at ACC. As I've said before, I love preaching on money. If that sounds weird, let me clarify. I love preaching the truth about money.

I'm not sure you can find a more historically abused subject in preaching than the subject of money. I love preaching the truth about finances because it brings freedom. But there is a lot of junk theology out there about money. The "health and wealth gospel" is unfortunately alive and well. John Piper rips it to shreds in this three minute video. (Thanks to my buddy, Wade Allen, for tuning me in to this video.)

Wow. That's about all I can say.

Rounding Third and Heading for Home…

I don't normally blog on Fridays (my day off), but I couldn't let this day pass without processing a few thoughts about Joe Nuxhall. I woke up this morning, flipped on the news, and heard the sad report that the longtime Reds broadcaster passed away last night.

Joe Nuxhall set the record for the youngest person to play Major League Baseball when his pitching career began at 15 years old. He was a two time All-Star.

But his status as a legend truly began in the broadcast booth. He and Marty Brennaman called Reds games together for three decades.

The Ol' Lefthander was also deeply involved in community issues, specifically with character education for young people. He was quite generous with his time and his resources.

My love of baseball began by listening to Marty and Joe on the radio. Joe definitely wasn't the most polished announcer ever, but his love of the game was evident. I always loved hearing him get excited. "Get out baseball! Get out! Get out! Homerun!" That was classic Joe.

Goodbye, Joe. Thanks for the memories.

Bring It

This is the weekend, ACC! This is the Sunday where we're all going to bring it!

Check out the details here.

Attacks

I pulled this quote off my brother Jeff's blog. It's from Chesty Puller, one of the most decorated war heroes in our country's history.

During the Korean War (one of his many combat assignments), Puller said, "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things."

I've felt that way in certain seasons of my life. There have been times where it seemed that the attacks were so many and so intense that I felt completely surrounded. It seemed as if everybody wanted to take me down.

But when I look back on these times, they usually preceded a time of incredible blessing. Satan is a smart dude and he knows when something big is coming down the pike. He'll often try to derail it by convincing you to give up before it happens. If you give up before you realize the blessing of God, then Satan is thrilled.

I've seen so many people who are ready to give their life to Christ and then they're nailed with an attack in their lives.

I've talked with people who are seemingly still wet from the water of baptism and something in their life falls apart.

I've known guys with incredible talent and potential who left the ministry because of intense criticism.

I've seen churches retreat from their mission and run back to the safe and secure "we've always done it this way" approach because the mission is just too hard.

Sometimes when it seems that we're being bombarded on all sides, it's because God is getting ready to unleash something big in our lives. Maybe the only key to seeing that blessing come to fruition is perseverance. Just hanging on a little bit longer.

When we're feeling attacked from all sides, it's important to remember that God is powerful and that he is present. That's why I love these verses from the Bible.

God's army was invisible, but it was present nonetheless. And that same God has promised his powerful presence with us.

Are you getting hit? Hang in there. Attacks seem never ending? Don't give up. God may be positioning his invisible army in preparation to release something unbelievable in your life. But if you quit, you may never see what it could have been.

A Special Day

I heard on the radio this morning that today is National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day.

Let us celebrate.

No More Devil

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are no more. Tampa Bay's Major League Baseball team has officially changed its name to the Tampa Bay Rays.

(Thanks to one of my new favorite blogs, Prayers For Blowouts, for this news.)

I guess there's actually a little bit of chatter on certain message boards that Christian groups were pushing for the name change because they didn't like to see the word "Devil" included in the team's moniker.

Oh please, people.

First of all, I have a hard time believing that any significant number of Christians contacted the team to complain about the name. I would certainly like to think that we all have more important things to do.

Secondly, for any Christian who actually was offended by the name…it is a nickname of an animal! The manta ray is also known as the devil ray or (gasp!) the devilfish.

So for whatever it's worth, the name has officially been changed. And for the sake of all that is sane and reasonable, I hope that it was simply because the management wanted a new look and feel for their team. Being connected with this kind of goofy petition is the last thing in the world we need as God's church.

News Items

Are you keeping up with what's hot and fresh at ACC? We are always posting news items on our website. It's really easy to take advantage of this tool to keep up on what's happening.

You don't even have to go to our website to get the news. You can subscribe to our RSS feed. For those of us who are technically challenged, this sounds a lot more impressive than it actually is. Subscribing is simple and it's all explained on our website.

But even if you choose not to subscribe, be sure to check out the site often to keep up on what's happening.

You can see the news items and subscribe to the RSS feed here.

Point of View

On my way to work this morning I was behind a truck that had this simple message on the back:

John 3:16

I started reflecting on how three simple numbers, 3:16, can mean so much. (Not sure about the significance of John 3:16? Read it here.) The totality of our Heavenly Father's love and compassion are summed up in those three numbers. Wow!

As I was pondering this, I looked over at a gas station and saw the price per gallon boldly displayed on their sign:

$3.16

What a nasty, ugly set of numbers!

I guess it all depends on your point of view.

Perspective

It's not been the best of weeks in the Edmisten household. I've been sick all week. Nicki is also feeling kind of rough. Add to that the fact that we can't park in our own driveway right now. Apparently the ditches and culverts weren't installed properly in our neighborhood, so part of our front yard and driveway have been completely torn apart. Finding parking on our narrow street is definitely a pain and it'll be more than a week until we can park in our driveway again.

But God has definitely provided some perspective for me this week. I've talked to several people in our church family and in my personal life who definitely have bigger problems than I do. My little issues are piddley by comparison.

One marked area of growth that I've seen in my personal faith is the concern that I have for others. God has definitely grown my heart and my compassion, mostly because I've learned to focus on others instead of just being consumed with myself.

Do I wish my family felt better? Sure.

Do I wish my front yard wasn't a construction zone? Of course.

But God has blessed me with the opportunity to minister to people who have real problems and real pain in their lives. That helps me keep everything in my life in perspective.

Furtick on Excellence

Ok, it's probably obvious to you by now that I'm not going to get around to any serious blogging this week. I'm only running on about half of my cylinders this week due to this ever-present sinus junk. ("Sinus junk" is the official medical term for my condition. Look it up.)

My limited creativity has all gone into my sermon prep this week, which left my blog out in the cold. But I don't want to leave you empty-handed for the entire week, so I thought I'd share something my buddy Steven Furtick wrote. (Actually, I've never met Steven. But I'm pretty sure we would be buddies.)

He wrote a short but powerful post on why we pursue excellence in the church.

You can check out the post here.

Steven, you nailed it.