Thursday, June 25, 2009 @ 2:51 pm by Josh Burcham

Life isn’t a guarantee. We don’t know for sure that we will make it home tomorrow. We need to make the most of the time has allotted to us. Take hold of the steering wheel and seize each day! A buddy of mine, John, had a near death experience this past weekend that helped me realized that my time of this earth could be shorter than I thought and need to live each day as such:

I was struggling and kicking like crazy, but I wasn’t getting anywhere. Well many things ran through my head, one being “do I swim sideways, no that’s the ocean… crap what do I do?” then I started thinking “well I guess this is how I go… sucking in salt river pee water!” then it hit me… the rock wall, no literally I hit the rock wall, hard! Then I grabbed a hold of the wall, planted my feet on the side of it and pushed up and to the right. Then I started kicking, and grabbing, and pulling, then I see the dark ring again, and this time it’s getting closer and closer. Then I break through the dark, green, hazy water and find myself in the middle of a different group of people. I hear a voice say “did he pop up yet” I look around and see that there were rescue people at the top of the rock wall just looking down in the water, waiting for me to pop up. No problem, it’s not like I could have used the help, sheesh! I then swam over to my group and saw my wife crying, it was so sad I felt horrible for scaring her like that.

Read the rest of the story over at My Full Length Feature Life.

Thursday, June 25, 2009 @ 9:02 am by Josh Burcham

Stealing from Brad Ruggles on this post, it was too good to pass up: “There’s an ancient principle that says you can learn more about something by first defining what it’s NOT before you try to define what it IS. Let’s take a look at a few things that Church ISN’T.”

Church Isn’t About Protecting Christians From The World
Some of the church environments I experienced maintained that the church was a haven of peace and hope in a horrible, broken world. We were the sheep. They were the wolves. We had to protect our sheep by keeping the wolves out. We were “in the world but not of it,” remember? While there are many churches who consciously or sub-consciously adhere to the idea of being a place to hide from the evils of the world, I remind you the type of company Jesus kept when he walked this earth. He could have adopted the Pharisee’s method of separating himself entirely from everything “unclean.” Instead, he was known as a “friend of sinners.” Can our church say that?

Church Isn’t A Location or Building
While most of us know this intuitively, we still need to be reminded that the church isn’t a specific building or location. Our buildings and programs create environments for church to happen but they are no more or less sacred than our living room or even the neighborhood pub.

Church Isn’t About You
This one is the most important distinction in my opinion. Church isn’t about YOU. It’s about THEM. I have no patience for people who visit a church and come home complaining that the music was too loud, the message too long or the air conditioning too cold. Some people view church as a “pick-me-up,” a little boost of joy and happiness to get them through the week. Show up, sing a couple songs, shake a few hands, go home and pull out the potroast. The church was never meant to be a place to cater to Christian’s comforts. It is and always has been about “seeking and saving those who are lost.” (Luke 19:10)

Read the rest of What Church ISN’T over at bradruggles.com.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 @ 2:04 pm by Josh Burcham

I was talking with a buddy last week and he was telling me about some chruch planting stories from San Diego. These stories had to be posted onto you. There is a group or domination of churches that is looking to plant churches in the San Diego and they have taken an interesting avenue to fund those churches. They have approached older churches that are having a tough time with growth and conversions and asking a God-size dream question: will you close down your church and sell the assets to help fund a new church plant?

How crazy and irrational is that dream? Not for the church planters, but for the church selling it’s property. It’s not normal. It doesn’t make sense and yet there are churches dreaming big and selling their campuses. Millions of dollars is being passed off to church plants to reach new groups of people with Christ message of love and salivation. Now that is a crazy God-size dream. And for a boomer-generation to give up their churches for the greater good of the kingdom is AMAZING. I admire your obedience to Christ and your selflessness for the kingdom.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 @ 9:37 am by Josh Burcham

This past week my brother-in-law, Steve, emailed me with these questions: “What do you think about the “fear of God”? Do you think there is a fear of God in the church today?  Should we fear God?  Do you fear God?” I didn’t feel I did the questions true justice and as I thought about my response to the questions over the weekend I’ve come to some conclusions:

Let me start with Truth. Two stories come to mind that happen in scripture one with Isaiah and the other with John. Both recount their experience in the temple court before our Creator.
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Sunday, June 21, 2009 @ 11:04 am by Josh Burcham

There are so many great things that I could say about my dad. It’s funny, I was at work working with a customer last week that wore the same cologne as my Dad and it reminded me of a feeling that kids feel around great fathers. A sense of love, safety, acceptance, encouragement and the ability to take on the world.

Don’t know if you know this or not dad, but kids develop their image of God by their relationship with their dads. And I have to say, though we haven’t lived in the same state the majority of my life, I have a real sense of who God is because you are my dad. A God with unconditional love, a God that is their anytime I need Him, a God that comforts, a God that desire more out of me and a God that bring peace to my life.

Thanks Dad! Thanks for being a great dad and giving me a glimpse and understanding of my Heavenly Father. Thank you for your example of a great dad! Love you, Dad!

Side note: this picture of Jeff is classic!

Friday, June 19, 2009 @ 3:06 pm by Josh Burcham

The last edition of Raised on 90′s TV. Tear. Tear. I have a list of TV shows I miss watching and the list is long. I think I’ve worn out this series of posts, but I didn’t want to leave you hanging. Here are some others shows you should YouTube: Chip ‘n Dale’s Rescue Rangers, Kenan and Kel, Ren and Stimpy, Tiny Toons, Darkwing Duck, Boy Meets World, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Jetsons, Alf, Hey Arnold! Goof Troop, Swat Cats, Ahh Real Monsters, and Mighty Ducks. Check them out! (more…)

Thursday, June 18, 2009 @ 10:25 am by Josh Burcham

Let us change things up a bit and pull out our trusting photo camera. The exercises this week are going to require you to capture still moments of your life. Time for you amateur photographers to show off your skills and maybe I can get you to shoot some pictures of me for JoshBurcham.com and some future projects.

From Caffeine for the Creative Mind: 250 Exercises to Wake Up Your Brain, here are your two exercises: (more…)

Monday, June 15, 2009 @ 10:55 am by Josh Burcham

Now we are trucking right down memory lane. In this edition to Raised on 90′s TV will focus on non-cartoon shows. Watching some of these episode, makes me think I wasn’t hard to entertain when I was younger. Not that it has changed much.
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