iron sharpen's iron

In his book "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" Patrick Lencioni says that constructive conflict is good for any organization. He says that when people on a team trust each other, are not selfish and truly want to see the group's success they should be open to criticism and conflict.

In proverbs 27:17 it says, "as iron sharpens iron so a good friends sharpen each other".

The church sometimes is the most sensitive ground out there. I don't know which one it is, but it is one of these problems. 1. they lack the trust (faith) needed to allow this iron to sharpen them. 2. they are selfish and don't care if the church succeeds or not. They are only concerned about their own feelings or their own success. 3. Lastly, harmony and comfort is more appealing then building the Kingdom of God.

On Sunday 5/2 I preached that the apostles criticized Peter for going into a Gentile's home. It was their constructive criticism that brought out Peter's testimony of God delivering the Gentiles. This in turn brought out praise for God. One of Two things could have happened which would have stifled the testimony. The apostles could have thought it is too painful to criticize Peter and kept their mouths shut. This would have resulted in them going around Peter's back and discussing their frustrations. The other response that could have gone wrong is that Peter could have gotten upset for their critique and argued back instead of just plainly telling the apostles about what had happened.

The truth is, many of our churches, families and companies are dysfunctional. We need to look at ourselves and reevaluate our priorities. Then we need to be open to other's comments so that we can learn and be sharpened. I just ran spell check and it came back with some critism. I was happy to listen becuase I wanted my blog to be correct. How come we can't take that type of harsh words from friends?

Amen!

Why you should start your own blog!

We are in the time of history where every one's voice can be heard. I am amazed what every brain is capable of imagining. Blogging is your opportunity to have your imagination and ideas out there for other's to learn from and think about.

To start your own blog you can go to a couple places. They are completely free and extremely easy. The place I use and recommend is http://www.blogspot.com/. Just follow the steps to create a user account and wa la, your in. Start posting and let me know so I can subscribe and read your interesting ideas and thoughts.

Then go to Google's reader to subscribe to some of your other favorite blogs. Every day you can sign into the reader and it will let you know if there are any new posts from you friends.

The last thing that you can do is when you are posting a new blog, it is always helpful to the whole system to quote and link your blog to other people's blogs. This helps you get some credibility with the search engines and it helps your friend's blogs get some credibility as well. You can do this by typing in the quote. Then high light the quote with your mouse. At the top of where you type your blog there is a tool bar. In that tool bar is a picture of a world with a chain link on top of it. Click on that icon. This will bring up a box where you can type or "copy" the link's address. When you are done the link will appear in your blog as the blue w/line under it indicating you can click on it and it will bring you to another web site.

When people click on your links to other people's blogs or web sites then the engines recognize your blog is connected to others and that other's have good enough content to be linked. It is a win / win situation.

A couple blogs you should watch and I would recommend linking their material when ever you can is Tim Figley III and Joshua Allen. They are always posting great things that will help you with every day life.

Thank you for your time. I welcome any comments and corrections.

Peace,

Mark Taylor

Joy

Laughing. Uncontrolled. Rolling on the Floor. Smiling ear to ear. Happy. Filled with life.

Church?

What is your strength? Mine is the joy of the Lord.

"Everybody is singing now.
Cause we're so happy.

Everybody is dancing now.
Cause we're so happy." (Georgian Banov )

Peace,

Mark

Crayon

What happens to the half used little broken piece of a crayon. It seems the life span is the point and the rear end. Once you start stipping the paper, it is time to throw away and replace with a new sharper crayon.

Somewhere there is a grayish paper with some stark black lines begging to be filled with color. There is a little hand, bored wishing it could hold an aqua-marine or magenta crayon. Even if it was a little piece to fill the boring page with life and zest.

God wants to take the trash of yesterday and the boreing future, and splash them together with the glory of today.

Who cares how sharp the crayon, does it still have color? Who cares what tomorrow holds, it is the tapestry of life. Will you allow God to mix it and make it colorful?

Can you imagine?

I saw a picture today of Palestine at the Gaza strip. It is so hard to imagine the quality of life in such a war stricken part of the world. A year ago they had elections and they voted to have the Hamas Terrorist group to be the majority in their politics. There must be a real need for security when a scared, starving and failing state turns to a terrorist for protection.

Can we feel bad for people who think their only hope is to kill? Can our heart break for those who are so broken that they don't even know what normal life looks like? How can they ever know peace?

What do you think the road to peace is in the middle east? What role can we play in finding real solutions?

Why this title?

At East Palestine we are about 3 things. Life. Liberty. Pursuit of Holiness.

Life - We are a life giving church. We desire to create life giving experiences where people feel the presence of God.

Liberty - We believe in Jesus we are freed from the bondage of Satan and have new liberties in Christ.

Pursuit of Holiness - Everyone is in pursuit of something, whether they want to be or not. What pursuit is more worthy than seeking the face of God? Becoming God-Like? Here at EP Naz we want to help you with that pursuit. To actually increase your ability to live like Jesus did, to be holy!