greg | bearss

So I got a text message from a new pastor friend that came to visit as he has been contemplating being a part of the movement God has been doing through LakePointe. It was interesting that he related Psalms 126 to what God is doing at LakePointe and worship that he experienced. As I read it there were so many things that popped out that I couldn’t help but share: This Psalm was written and likely refers to the return of the Jews from captivity and slavery from Babylon returning to Jerusalem c.a. 538B.C. can you imagine the feeling of being taken to a foreign land for almost 70 years and finally you get to return to your home? It’s must have been surreal--like a dream that you have been dreaming for so long when it becomes reality you still feel as though it’s a dream. (maybe the same way Peter felt being rescued & released from prison in the middle of the night by an angel of the Lord- Acts 12:9 ) This reminds me of what we have been seeing at LakePointe where there have be...

We Are All Beggars (Readings from the "Through-the-Bible Reading Plan"  Oct 30th) Job 21, Mark 5 & 6 What's been hitting me today is there are so many things that are out of my control.  For a high "D" personality and a high "I" (meaning I'm a control freak that likes to influence people) this is very difficult to swallow.  Even today my middle daughter is in the ER because of stomach pains she has been having and I cannot control this situation.  I have been praying for God to heal her and His ultimate will to happen, I have asked several prayer warriors to join me in this prayer but ultimately I am just a beggar before God. Reading today more of Job's story-line is a reminder that the unjust prosper and the follower's of Yahweh don't always have it easy.  We are just beggars of God's mercy and we pray for strength and understanding that can only come from Him when we are in the middle of some junk that we don't understand....

Day 5 of Crazy Love readings! Readings for today are Matthew 5, Luke 5, and John 5. Today I find myself still dealing with the tough words of Jesus.  I am still pondering what it means to "die to myself, and live for God."  I decided to read today's lessons from the "Authorized Version"  the King James Version.  It will make some of you happy as I have gotten emails asking why I don't use it and teach from it, but that is not my intent.  I am reading it because that's what my browser in www.youversion.com defaulted to and as I read it in the KJV, I actually had to think about what I was reading as some of the words are so different than the words we use today, so I actually have to think about what I am reading.   See, it seems to me that the words Jesus says and teaches are easily read over and heads nod but the reality of them rarely sink in.  I have to confess the same is true for me quite often I wander over words that I have read several times, a...

This is the first blog that I have done since leaving for Uganda this Summer.  It's long over due and I finally believe I have something that the Lord would have me share so hang on! First I have to say that I love it when our church comes together and studies the bible everyday TOGETHER !  We are reading through the Gospels(Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John) in the next 30 days.  If you wanna join you can see the reading plan www.youversion.com and select the "gospel reading plan."    Today is day 3 and I love me some "J to da B!"  I often wonder what people would do with John the Baptist today?  Would he look like a hippie and be out in the desert somewhere in CA?  Would people listen?  Would the message be the same?  What would people FB and Twitter? This cat was wearing camel's hair, leather belt (before it was cool), and his dinner was locust and honey!  This obviously would cause him to be different now and even then!   So...

Sitting with the boyz for our Band of Brothers, we were reading through and talking about Romans 11 . We decided we needed to surrender to God, search His plan. We don't want to do circles in life! We talked about how the Israelites went through the desert it took 40 years because of they were unfaithful what would normally only take a few weeks to trek. They wandered because they wanted to do things their way not God's way. We decided that we didn't want to ride the merry-go-round anymore. We don't want to turn circles because of our unfaithfulness. We want to do what God wants us to do. What our faithful God has determined before our birth for us to do. But we realize we have to yield to Him and lay down our desires to seek His desires. To understand the Doxology that Paul ends Chapter 11: 33Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34"Who has know...

We are on the road back from New Orleans at a Wendy's that has wifi, crazy all the menu's are on a lcd screen and move, guess this is where it's heading, I think I like it! Just a quick check in to say reading through Romans has helped me see it actually in action the last 3 days. I have been speaking 3 times a day to the youth and to adult leaders. Challenging them to go and make a difference in this world with the one life they have for Jesus. To take Romans 5,6, & 8 and see how to put this into action with the story of their life! I will upload video from these difference makers as well as the stories that have come out of this, one word synopsis--AMAZING! Thank you to all who were praying that God would speak loud through me and somehow use me to reach out to this next generation. They have been answered and it's been neat to see the leaders and youth respond. One quick story I got from a youth leader, after challenging his youth they went back to their h...

This is a great section of Romans! Paul begins to explain the change that happens in our lives as we grow in faith. We are not controlled by sin any longer like we used to be! We no longer live immoral lives or careless living for our selves—it has been drowned. That's why I have to go back and refer to our Baptism Bash as we watched 63 people step into the water we have the perfect view of what God is doing and talking about as we see them go into the water--sin drowned washed away & as they come out of the water they are raised out with Jesus into new life! I am going to post our Baptism Video and dare you to watch it with this in mind. You will begin to see the wonder of grace that our Father gives us! This gift from our Father frees us from our inheritance of birth. You were born with an inheritance. I love talking inheritance language, when we understand from our great-great-great-great-to the nth great grand parents Adam & Eve their first sin ear...

What a day it's been, on the trek to New Orleans to speak at The National Youth Gathering for the LCMS. I have been thinking a lot about what to say to leaders of the Next Generation, and to the Next Generation. I have titled my sessions for the youth--Starting A Missional Renaissance In Your Community and for the adult leaders--Using Technology To Reach The Next Generation. What to say to 20,000+ teens, what to say to their leaders? The main thought I have is simply Romans 5, the challenge to love the way God loves, the challenge to react the way He does to people. I believe it's easy for us to receive love from our Father, it's easy to read Romans 5 and say, "yeah, that's for me baby, I am justified by faith and I do have peace with God now." The harder place to go and live is the place where we are willing to extend the same grace and love that we have been given to those around us. More than that, we are to extend that same love, grace, and recon...

I know this is going to rub some people the wrong way but you have to understand the blog for today. I am sitting with Red Beard, Big Will, & Doc Bryce-2 tattoo artists and one DJ! (think there's a rap song in there somewhere) We are going through Romans 4 and discussing how we are saved apart from the law. We talked about circumcision and how that isn't required any more! (thank goodness) We are not saved by keeping the law! We talked about how it's all about FAITH! That Abraham was credited righteous before he was circumcised and it's not about the law. We talked about how the law is a: Curb, Mirror, & Guide! We can't live up to God's standard-PERFECTION. So we understand the promise comes by FAITH-vs.16 that we don't have to be circumcised we cannot keep the law but it's all about faith in Jesus. So now we have this discussion about what happens if we are driving our car and have a head on wreck with a semi and the last thing that co...

Check out the intro for our message series, Six Feet Under:

Enjoying what God is doing in the book of Romans, hearing great feedback from many of you how it is impacting your family and your daily walk with Jesus! If you have not had a chance to read or follow along it's not too late! Tomorrow we read Romans 4. Have a great night!

The crux of today's reading in Romans 3 is a stark reminder that we can do nothing in our own righteousness that can fix the brokenness of sin that we inherited from our great great great great to the nth great grandparent Adam & Eve. We in fact are dead in our sin and by our own power and might we are still dead--we cannot do enough good and the mirror of the law is a reflection of who we really are--dead. But when we hear the words of God in verses 23-24: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. We hear the clear message of life that comes from God our Father to us through Jesus Christ! The words that remind us that we cannot keep the law, we will always fall short in the end, but that we have been redeemed. We are the redeemed because of the "free gift" give to us by our Father, the gift of His Son Jesus the Christ! How are you doing with your memory ve...

ROMANS 2 Love the ‘moxy’ of Paul, there is no denying who he’s talking to and he’s not pulling any punches! This chapter of Romans is a call out to you and to me, to use Matthew 7:1-5 Hearing the echos of Matthew 7:1-5 in Paul’s words it’s time to “check the log” before we hunt for splinters. Or, from the old school day’s you’d have to bring back some Ice Cube and Das Effects “you better check yourself before you wreck yourself...” (clean version of course) I think it’s easy for us to do the head nod when we here others called out for things like Paul did in the end of Romans ( 1:18-32 ), idol worship, murder, homosexual practices, violent people, faithless, greedy, arrogant, envy and the list goes on. We love to point our crooked finger in that direction but fail to look into the mirror and see that it’s really a picture of us that we see--OUCH! vs. 1 “you are condemning yourself, because you pass judgement on them and yet you do the same things.” Hypocrisy is one of the s...

It’s been a great day, if you are following along with our Six Feet Under Series you read Romans 1 today. This is a great prelude to the letter Paul sends out to those living in Rome. The first fifteen verses are a great synopsis of the gospel message that he has given his life for. But, there’s something about verse 16 that always causes me to bow up and get excited! "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." Paul’s words are not cheap and meaningless they come from the heart from a place where the gospel namely the proclamation of Jesus Christ as Savior of the world has cost him everything! He has made everyone mad, the Jewish people of that time because they believed that only they were God’s people but then the Paul is trying to break through to the Gentiles (person who is non-Jewish). To top off all the drama the leaders of the Christian Church were in confl...

Reflecting on Sunday there were so many things that I noticed that really made me smile and allowed me to see God’s hand in our worship and today! I want to highlight just a few of the Pointe’s that I saw stand out from today: + It was very cool to see for the first service people come together to solve a problem we have never had before. For those that missed it we had a fire alarm go off in the middle of worship that would not shut off. I was so proud of the worship band as they stayed composed and continued to worship at the point they realized there wasn’t a fire. Pointe for the devil he is going to have to do more than set off fire alarms to keep us from worshipping Jesus! + Again the band stepped it up today as they were thrown a curve ball and we had our guitarist call in this morning sick and unable to make it. (this was the first time in 4 years that we had a musician call in Sunday morning to my memory) The band stepped up and our bass player went to guitar and sound m...

Can't wait to take a journey of grace with you as we dive into Six Feet Under and study the book of Romans. The memory verse for this week is: Romans 6:23 The wages of SIN is DEATH but the FREE gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. My prayer is that you will find real life, true life in Jesus and understand the gift of grace that has been given to us by God our Father! Stay tuned for the reading plan for the coming weeks as we go Six Feet Under!

It seems like the church has somehow lost focus on reaching people the church is suppose to be for---those who don't know God. I think it really is easy to get satisfied with our own tribe and "holy huddle" that we forget about those who Jesus came to find-those who were lost. I am amazed at the teaching that He gives, and the "essieo" of His teaching wanting to help those who marginalized and helpless, He gives all He has for them. Jesus look out at them as "sheep with out a shepherd" http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+6:34&version=NIV I want that kind of compassion yet if I'm honest it's rare to get and keeping it is a fight. It's far easier to look at the sheep in the pen and think that's where all my attention needs to be, because there are needs. Yet at the same time I see Jesus leave town, even when everyone there isn't healed... I do believe we are called to balance. There is a both and here that nee...