Been awhile since I've updated information about what I'm currently reading. "When last we left you..." I was reading Organic Community by Joseph Myers. Excellent book - finished it a couple of weeks ago. When I have some free time (chuckle) I'll post my thoughts on it here.

My newest read is Confessions of a Pastor by Craig Groeschel. This was an impulse buy a few months back - me and bookstores are not good mixes. I invariably wind up picking up a book or two that I seldom get around to reading anytime soon. Confessions was the same way. Bought it in January/February & just picked it up recently.

Craig is the founding pastor of LifeChurch, a multi-location church (10 nationwide locations & counting) based out of Edmond, OK. Andrea & I have been there several times & enjoyed every bit of every visit. Craig is an excellent communicator who very visibly has a passion for God. Confessions is the book form of a message series he did at LifeChurch sometime last year. One or two excerpts to share to give an idea of what the book is like...

These are taken from the chapter "I Worry Almost All the Time."

The evil one's tool of fear is meant to distract us from God's best. Fear and worry are a lot like a scarecrow. What harm can a scarecrow do? We scarecrow constructors know that the answer is "none," but the birds don't know that.

You're smarter than a bird. That's why the prophet Jeremiah says that some of the enemy's greatest threats are "like a scarecrow in a melon path.... Do not fear them; they can do no harm" (Jeremiah 10:5). Then he refocuses our attention where it belongs: "No one is like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is mighty in power" (v. 6).

If those black birds ever figured out our strategy, they'd realize that a scarecrow is actually a tip-off to the location of the best corn. So, isn't it possible that the very fears the enemy tries to plant in your mind are unwitting advertisements for God's good stuff? (Like a "Danger" sign on God's cookie jar.) Worry keeps you from God's best.

and one more...

I wonder how God feels when we don't take Him at his word. When we distrust His power and promises. When we worry instead of believing Him. George Mueller said it best: "The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety." Think about it. Worry brings turmoil. Faith brings peace. Worry takes you from God. Faith draws you to God. Worry changes nothing. Faith moves God's heart and can change everything for the better.