Yes, the Bible can be boring to read (especially if you know how the story ends), challenging to understand and written in a very archaic way. BUT - It has the potential to change your life IF you approach it with an open mind and refuse to let your feelings and opinions shape what you read.

Next, find a Bible reading plan that works for you! YouVersion is a great online tool that can help you with this!

If you know almost nothing about the Bible, or it's history, here are two great books to get you started:

A Book You'll Actually Read on the Old Testament

A Book You'll Actually Read on the New Testament

C'mon, you can do this!

1) If I see one more Facebook or Twitter post that starts out, "Let's be clear on this: OBAMA did NOT kill Bin Laden..." I might punch someone in the throat. Who freakin' cares? The guy is dead and Obama happens to be the president who is going to receive the credit. Good for him. It's seriously odd to me how some people would prefer for the leader of our country to always receive negative publicity.

2) "Not to take credit, but I totally said we should kill Bin Laden, like, 10 years ago."  - Stephen Colbert 

3) There are a lot of quotes (some fake and some real) popping up in the social media world which hint at the idea that killing of Bin Laden is a sad way for the USA to respond to his actions or that anyone excited over his death must lack genuine love, compassion and forgiveness. That's simply not true.

4) Bin Laden's death has caused more Bible verses to be taken out of context than probably any other event in human history.

5) When they release Osama's death photos... I'm looking at them. Just so you know!

That pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?

- Humility allows me to see that I'm just a tiny part of a much bigger kingdom.

- Humility causes me to apologize quickly when I've wronged someone.

- Humility keeps my words and attitude in check when I disagree with somebody.

- Humility motivates me to add value to others, rather than looking for others to add value to me.

- Humility makes my life about Jesus, instead of expecting Him to make it about me.

Let me make a very generalized statement: The most arrogant and proud people I know are often the ones in spiritual leadership. It's true. People in church leadership struggle with this a lot. Just look at the Pharisees. It's almost as if spiritual leaders have an expectation to be served, honored, respected, adored and trusted. It is sick.

In the end, humility reflects the attitude of Jesus (Philippians 2:5-8) and helps us evaluate whether or not we're really maturing.

I don't now why this is, but it seems to be a theme in the teachings of Jesus. He was constantly taking the focus off of "religious looking" people and placing it onto the people nobody would consider religious.

It's as if he was saying, "The way you judge spirituality is all wrong". 

One way Jesus judged spirituality was FAITHFULNESS. People who were faithful always impressed Him.

In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus reveals to us that what we do with our resources, talents and time is a big indicator of whether or not we're moving forward in our spiritual journey.

In other words, the mundane routine of praying, obeying Scripture, volunteering, giving, encouraging, using our talents, etc. can all be indicators of spiritual growth, if they are coupled with FAITHFULNESS. Anybody can commit doing something, but showing up and doing it day after day or week after week is a mark of maturity.

Anybody can read one verse and build a whole theology off of it. In fact, lots of people do.

This is why the "prosperity gospel" is so annoying to me. People will take a few random Bible verses that focus on the financial blessing of God, and allow it to become the foundation for their life. That's stupid.

Although there are multiple times in Scripture where we read about God's financial blessing, we also read a lot about people who experienced economic difficulties.

It is fun to point out the people in Scripture who somehow avoided being killed by lions, but there were others whose fate turned out very differently.

It is inspirational to read about people who were miraculously rescued from prison, but it's important to remember that others died in prison.

The Christian life has it's ups and downs. It is not always going to result in health, wealth and prosperity. (see Hebrews 11:32-38)

Last week, I had someone who doesn't attend Great Lakes Church challenge me on our spiritual depth 'cause during the music portion of our service there isn't anyone dancing, shouting, or waving banners as talked about in the book of Psalms. They were convinced that since Scripture references those expressions of worship... we must not be at the same level spiritually that they are.

Um, the book of Psalms also says... "Praise him with a blast of the ram's horn; praise him with the lyre and harp!" (Psalm 150:3) Of course, after I brought this up, the person admitted they don't do any of that.

Ugh! Don't become so obsessed with a style that fits your personality that you miss the whole idea that God can be worshiped in multiple ways and that His big concern is the heart of the person worshiping!

Stop picking and choosing verses at random. It's dangerous and spiritually immature.

The good news is that it's not impossible! There are a few ways we can determine whether or not we're growing spiritually. Here's one...

Seriously. Nobody wants to hear how great you are and how crappy everyone else is. We know you don't drink wine, hang out with bad influences or ever say a bad word. As a matter of fact, you are probably one notch above Jesus on the perfection ladder. Over time, spiritually immature people become jerks for Jesus. 

Unfortunately, I spent a lot of years at this place in my life. That's why I hate it so much.

Over time, I've grown to realize that it's healthy and spiritual to place the emphasis on myself, my sins and my failures. In the end, I don't have to worry about being labeled a hypocrite 'cause I've made it clear all along... I am a Christian because I need Jesus. If I was perfect, I wouldn't need His love, grace or forgiveness.

On another note, spiritual maturity is an incredibly difficult thing to measure. In Jesus day, everyone thought the Pharisees were spiritually mature 'cause they could recite Scripture, follow rules and exhibit incredible self-discipline. Jesus, however, rebuked the Pharisees more than anyone else 'cause of their pious attitudes and spiritual arrogance.

So how do we evaluate whether or not we're growing in spiritual maturity?  

- We recognize that a different style of ministry doesn't mean someone loves God more or less.

- We realize that you can't evaluate someone's love for God based on how high they lift their hands, how loud they pray or how passionate they sing.

- We find ourselves praying for God's blessing on other churches.

- We understand that spiritual growth is a process and we refuse to question someone's love for God 'cause they are at a different place in their spiritual journey than we are.

*On Saturday and Sunday, volunteers organized two separate events to help offset some of the costs for one of our  Growth Group's upcoming mission trip to Brooklyn, New York (Metro Ministries). Collectively, they raised over $2500!

*Last night, we packed out a local church for our Worship Night. It was bitter-sweet 'cause we ran out of space, confirming our thoughts that it was our last event there for all-church gatherings. By the way, 71 people went public with their faith by being water baptized!!!!! That's freakin' exciting.

*All of our teams did a great job this weekend, but I want to give a shout out to our tech team and music team who arrived at 7am yesterday to set up for church at Tinseltown Theater. When we were done, they tore everything down and drove to our Worship Night location to set everything up again. They stayed to the very end and were the last to leave on Sunday evening. These teams are incredible.

That being said, here are some basic filters:

1) God's Laws - If Scripture clearly states God's standard on something, we don't need to pray about it or wonder whether or not it's God's will. For example, don't kill... don't steal... and don't read Twilight books are all examples of God's laws

2) God's Principles - If Scripture is unclear on something, it's best to filter your decision through what you know about God. Is the decision your making going to oppose God's character? How about His love or His grace? If so, don't do it.

3) God's Wisdom - This is a great filter! Based on your past experiences, current circumstances and future hopes and dreams... what is the wise thing to do?