Archive for October, 2008
Posted on 2008 10, 27 by Scott Turner
my aunt lana passed away last week. she was 67 and had an incredibly tough life. at 17, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (ms) and little by little it took over her body and caused horrific physical issues (numbness, loss of balance, lack of coordination, weakness, blurred vision, slurred speech, and sudden paralysis). she was confined to a wheelchair for over 45 years. she lived in a nursing home. she suffered everyday of her adult life. she refused to let ms win. she lived a life of compassion and servanthood (she always helped others and genuinely cared for anyone she could). she read her bible, prayed and sang hymns everyday. she trusted God for healing and never let go of her faith in Him. she never complained, never blamed God or others. she was the life of the party and would light up the room when she rolled in. she had an eternal perspective and knew that one day her savior would fully restore her and give her a new body.
aunt lana is my hero! she will always be. i will forever remember her as a warrior. she inspires me to: trust God more, to not let set-backs get me down, to stop making excuses about what i can’t do, to keep my joy in the midst of the battle, to refuse to quit and to get my eyes off of myself and my problems and touch the life of someone nearby.
revelation 2:3 (MSG) says, “you have patiently suffered for me without quitting.” God help us to live our lives the way aunt lana did - patient, joyful, and with a fierce passion to never give up, to never give in. ms couldn’t hold you back, paralysis couldn’t stop you, even death wasn’t able to conquer you.
aunt lana, i realized when i looked in the casket that you were long gone, that you had fought the good fight of faith, you had kept the faith, that you finished your course on earth. aunt lana i love you, miss you and can’t wait to see you in the life to come.
Posted on 2008 10, 20 by Scott Turner
you look at the world and you immediately see (now more than ever) that people seem hopeless. Hopelessness is an epidemic that is spreading at an alarming rate. this weekend I got a note that said, “i can’t even find one tiny piece of hope left. i’m actually beginning to fear. i have more downs than ups and i feel totally hopeless.”
i can relate (at least a little) to how this person feels. when our church trailer was stolen, i can honestly say that mary and i both immediately trusted God and knew that he would take care of the summit. but, this past week, i found myself putting my hope in other people to step up and help us out financially. i realized that my hope had somehow slightly shifted from God to people (from looking up, to looking out). huge mistake, should have known better, but thankful that the Holy Spirit helped me to identify it quickly.
the best definition of hope (in my opinion) is simple, but powerful - hope = God is in control. God is fully in control of my life, my family, the summit, and this world. earlier today, i read psalm 121 - “i look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains? no, my strength comes from God, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.” my hope is not in anything or anyone in this world, my hope is in the creator of everything and everyone in the world.
i sincerely pray that regardless of what is going on in your life right now (or no matter how hopeless you feel) - that you would simply look up and remember that God is in control.
Posted on 2008 10, 14 by Scott Turner
life is chaotic right now. i already have a very full life as a husband, father, spiritual leader, mentor, soccer coach and out-of-shape tennis player - but, when you add in all the responsibilities that flooded me because our trailer was stolen (the insurance paperwork, the gathering of receipts, the errands, the rental / borrowing of gear, and about 50 other things), i’m just trying to stay sane and keep my head above water. in the midst of this craziness, mary, the girls and I are having the time of our lives and we have a peace that can’t be explained.
God is obviously at work and giving us the joy, strength and insight to deal with the confusion and clutter that is surrounding our church and our lives. in the middle of this mess, we had a phenomenal service sunday (it was chaos trying to set-up and get borrowed gear working right, there were too many set-backs to count - but we made it), it was one of the top 3 services in the history of our young church. i’m learning that i can be calm even when chaos surrounds me. God delievers me from the demonic static and distress. Psalm 51 (msg) says, “God make a fresh start in me, share a genesis week from the chaos of my life… put a fresh wind in my sails! I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.”
Jesus spoke to the chaos and it became still (He is the same yesterday, today and forever).
I pray that in the midst of your chaos you find the calm.
Posted on 2008 10, 09 by Scott Turner
i’m currently in atlanta at the catalyst conf. (hosted by andy stanley and northpoint church). i will update you on what i’m learning - today was incredible. top notch speakers, fresh music and a super-creative atmosphere. catalyst is coming to the o.c. next april and i’ve gotta take our entire leadership team.
one definition of “catalyst” is something that causes an important event to happen. the theft of our church trailer has acted as a catalyst to unite our church and bring us (some much needed) God-given momentum. just 72 hours before our trailer got ripped off - i had fasted and prayed for God to unite us as a church (john 17:20), to send a fresh wave over us (Isaiah 51:15), and to help us reach outsiders (Luke 5:31). i had no clue that God would answer our prayer through a catalytic event. God is uniting us, sending a wave of change and growth and gracing us to reach people that are far from him. this week we have the in-n-out cookout trailer coming to the summit to fill everyone present with the holy burger (yes, these burgers are supernaturally tasty - only second to the krabby patties that spongebob cooks at the krusty krab).
i can’t wait until sunday to see what God will do this week at the summit. my heart overflows with sincere thanks to the enemy for providing the catalyst for us to unite and multiply. a stolen trailer has acted as a catalytic material to accelerate what God wants to do at the summit.
Posted on 2008 10, 06 by Scott Turner
the second verse in the bible describes how the earth was “empty” and then describes how God starts filling it with life. a few verses later God creates man and charges him to “fill the earth”. the prophet jeremiah said that God made the world to be filled with life, not to be a place of empty chaos. over and over in the bible we see God filling the emptiness of humanity. God fills the emptiness of the poor widow’s jars with oil. Jesus fills the emptiness of the multitude by feeding them (and there were even left overs). the Holy Spirit shows up and fills every single Christ follower in the early church. so, i’m convinced that God will fill the emptiness that we currently see and feel at the summit church. i see our emptiness as an opportunity for God to move. he is moving, he is faithful, he is starting to fill us - soon we will overflow.
here is an update on what has happened in the past few days:
Posted on 2008 10, 01 by Scott Turner
our brand new church trailer was stolen - it had all of our gear in it (over $90,000 worth)! so satan is officially a punk! the trailer was jacked from our secure storage facility and we have the 3 crooks on video (i’m seriously considering putting it on youtube if enough of you comment and request to view it). basically they show up with a budget rent-a-truck and snoop around the lot for almost a full hour. then they back up to our trailer, hitch it up and take off. by the way, we totally forgive the trailer jackers and pray that somehow they experience God’s love, mercy and forgiveness in the near future. ok, to further complicate things, our insurance company is basically trying to denying our claim due to a typo on the policy (yes, a typographical error that they made), so we had to retain an attorney late last night (he has agreed to represent us free of charge - talk about a miracle). the upside is that there is such a fierce spirit of faith in the church right now and you can sense serious unity and momentum. one way or another God will restore all our stuff and help us rebuild. satan (the punk) must have thought if he jacked our stuff he could stop our church. he was dead wrong! the punk has poked the bear - it’s time to chase the punk, grizzly swat him to the ground and make him pay. leviticus 26:7-8 says, “you will chase down your enemies and slaughter them… all your enemies will fall.” the enemy will wish he never messed with us - he will pay for being a punk.