bob robbins

funny monday

It is amazing to me how Chuck Norris has become such a pop icon that spans generations. I wish I new how things like this happen. My kids tell Church Norris jokes all the time. Here are a few funny things involving Chuck Norris.

• If you have five dollars and Chuck Norris has five dollars, Chuck Norris has more money than you.
• There is no 'ctrl' button on Chuck Norris's computer. Chuck Norris is always in control.
• Apple pays Chuck Norris 99 cents every time he listens to a song.
• Chuck Norris can sneeze with his eyes open.
• Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird.
• Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.
• Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice.
• When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.

Have a Chuck Norris kind of day!

twitter

You may have noticed the twitter feed on the right side of my blog. If you go to http://twitter.com/bobrobbins you can follow me on twitter.

Several times a day I send short updates on what is going on in my world. So if you want you can follow me and you can even have it sent to your phone or your computer.

my kids

Tomorrow we take our kids to get on a plane to go see grandparents in Texas. They will be in Texas for almost a month but we will join them at the end of their trip.

This is the first time that they have flown by themselves. I'm not sure how I feel this? On one hand it's super cool because they get to go on this cool adventure together but on the other hand that means they are growing up and I'm getting older.

Do you remember a time when you were a kid and you got to do something by yourself? What did you do and how did it make you feel?

worth waiting for

The Today Show recently did a story on waiting in line and they said that the average American in their lifetime will spend 2-3 years waiting in line. Here is the 3 minute story if you care to watch it.

One of the guys in the story says that we are drawn to lines. This is just more evidence that I am not normal because I don't won't to wait in line for anything. I hate going to the store because I don't won't to wait in line. There is no restaurant that is worth more than a 10-15 minute wait. I know I have issues but I'm working on it.

What do you think is worth waiting for? How long are you willing to wait?

the modern church learning from the amish

I watched The Outsiders: Teens Caught Between Freedom and Faith on ABC. It was about how Amish Adolescents 'Run Around' Before Committing to Church or Leaving Community. If you would like to read the story and watch some clips you can click here.

Admittidly I don't know very much about the Amish faith but it was very disturbing to see teenagers have to choose between family and a different way of life in the "real world. The Amish are aware that there are so many things in our world that can be destructive and as a result they have decided to isolate themselves hoping to remove all things destructive.

The thing I kept thinking while watching this story was that so many times the modern church (and many times Christian parents) goes Amish in the way it approaches many things. Instead of teaching people (and children) how to make wise choices we try to isolate people so that they are not faced with any difficult decisions.

We can't legislate morality and when we so focus on the rules and the do's and don'ts we miss out on the relationship the Jesus came for. Sometimes the church (and parents) are so afraid of people and (kids) making the wrong choices that we would just rather tell them what to do because it's easier than teaching them what to do.

I don't know if any of this makes since as you read it on your screen but in my heart I know that legalism is a real danger and anytime the church or families resort to legalism no one wins. There are indeed some things that are black and white and we should not try to make them gray. There are also some things that are gray and we should not try to make them black and white.

creativity

Creativity is very important to me and I am always looking for ways to increase my creativity. I have always believed that God creates us all to be creative but some people have been better at developing that creativity.

Strengthening your creativity skills can boost your creative output dramatically. If you would like to take a test that will score your level of creativity and show you areas that need improvement you can click here.

Here are the four areas that the test will score you in:

• Preserves New Ideas
• Seeks Challenges
• Broadens Skills and Knowledge
• Changes Physical and Social Environment

How are you using the creativity that God has given you?

lifepoint

There are so many things that I love about LifePoint! I was reminded of one of those things on Sunday. During our music time all the elementary kids hang out at the very front. It is very cool to watch them as they interact, sing, clap, and worship. There are not many places that have a inter-generational worship time the way we do and it is a beautiful thing to watch.

One of the things that I don't think the kids are aware of is that there are even younger kids that are watching them and wanting to be a part of this exciting event. On Sunday there was a young dude who took his first shot at hanging at the front with the other kids. What a cool thing to see kids so excited to be at church. It was one of those things that reminded me of why I do what I do.

I have the greatest job in the world.

buffet

I hate going to a buffet. Don't get me wrong, I love the food but that's the problem because I end up loving the food too much.

Yesterday my family went to a local buffet with some friends and on Wednesday they have steak and shrimp on the buffet. As we pulled into the parking lot my daughter asked if this is a non-stop buffet. She was curious because we had recently gone to a banquet that had buffet line that you went through but it was not "non-stop". We explained the difference and that this buffet was indeed non-stop and we could go back as many times as we wanted.

The steak was okay but the shrimp was great!

God is a little like a non-stop buffet. We can and should be going to Him often and the amazing thing is that every time we go Him he has something fresh and new.

How would your relationship with God be different if you approached it more like a non-stop buffet?

celtics win

I'm a huge basketball fan. I like college basketball the best but this year the NBA championship has been fun because it reminded me of the Bird vs. Magic match-ups from when I was a kid.

I love the way Ray Allen and Keven Garnett play and I think it was cool that the current celtics were able to bring a championship back to the great history of the Boston Celtics.

The most amazing thing is how the Celtics completely destroyed the Lakers. There is no way the score of an NBA championship game should be 131 to 92. If you get paid millions of dollars to compete then you better compete! If I owned the Lakers I would be asking my players to give me back some of that money because they did not earn it.

In my opinion each Sunday is like a NBA championship game and we as a church can't afford to give half an effort. LifePoint will not always get everything right but we will always give the best effort because God deserves our best.

reading

Those of you who know me well know that I am not a very good reader and I don't enjoy it. I force myself to do it because I know I need to. For the fist time in my life I have a reader - a good friend who loves to read and he is going to read several books for me this summer and give me a report on the book. How cool is that!

He just finished the first book, Pop Goes The Church by Tim Stevens. No real new things in the book for me but some great reminders.

Pop culture - not the church - is shaping the morals, faith, and values of our society.  In order to reach people and help them experience the life that Jesus can free them up to live, we have to get their attention by speaking in their language - the language of pop culture.  Most of them don’t speak the language of the church, and are turned off by those people who do.  But they do speak the language of Coldplay and Steven Spielberg, and we have to leverage that. 

My friend jotted down some key thoughts from the book for me and he said several times "Poop Goes The Church" showed up in his written report. It made me think how true that statement could be - I want to make sure that the church isn't POOP!

We need to work diligently to make sure the church is a place of excellence and not POOP.