More Than Words

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Jon Stolpe

It seems like God is hitting me over the head with a message recently. Following Christ and sharing His love is so much more than words – knowing words, memorizing words, and studying words.

While I think it’s important to read, study, and understand the Bible, I think it’s so much more important to put these teachings into action – into following Christ with our hands and feet. This message has been hammered home in a few different but obvious mediums.

First, I was catching up on my blog reading on Saturday morning when I came across this video in a blog post by Ryan Tate at Discipulus. In the video, Francis Chan shares some simple but obvious thoughts about discipleship – what it is and what it is not.

Next, I was finishing up Love Does by Bob Goff on Sunday morning (I shared about this book on my blog yesterday). Towards the end of the book, Bob offers his thoughts on Bible study:

What’s up with equating “Bible study” with knowing God anyway? Wouldn’t it be a horrible thing if we studies the ones we loved instead of bonding in deeper ways by doing things with them? I’d never want to get married to a girl no matter how much I studied her. I’d rather take her sailing or fishing or eat cotton candy with her on a Ferris wheel. I don’t think knowing what her name means in Greek is going to help me love her more. In fact, they have a name for guys who just study things about a person they like but don’t do anything about it – they’re called bachelors.

So I started getting together with the same guys each week and instead of calling it a Bible study, we call it a “Bible doing.” We’ve been at it for fifteen years now, and I’ve found there’s a big difference between the two. At our Bible doing, we read what God has to say and then focus all of our attention on what we are going to do about it. Just agreeing isn’t enough. I can’t think of a single time where Jesus asked His friends to just agree with Him.

Finally, I was in church on Sunday morning when our guest pastor, Paul Williams, asked the question in his sermon – “What if we loved our neighbor as ourselves?” In Paul’s sermon, he used the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) to point out that anyone and everyone is our neighbor. Then he used the story of the Rich Young Man (Matthew 19:16-30) to remind us that we’re to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and part of this is learning to love ourselves. Finally, Paul turned to Matthew 22:15-40. In this passage, the Pharisees and Sadducees are having a conversation with Jesus. (These men were known to have the Bible (The Old Testament) memorized knowing every single law that was supposed to be followed. At the end of this passage, Jesus answers questions thrown out with a famous passage, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” It’s that simple. It doesn’t matter how much we know about the Bible if we’re not loving God and loving others with all we’ve got.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Three times nailed over the head in a matter of 24 hours. Do you think God was trying to tell me something?

The truth is I grew up in a pastor’s family. I was known as the Bible geek in my freshman English class for knowing all the answers to the Bible questions. I’ve even prided myself on the knowledge I’ve gained and retained along the way. Knowledge is okay (and is important for maintaining a sound doctrine and for reminding us of Biblical truths and standards), but action is even more important. James states it well:

Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:17

I get so tired of all the political back and forth at this time of the year. One side is trying to find the candidate who is the most Christian. The other side is trying to find a government who will fix everything and create programs for our neighbors. Wouldn’t it be a different world if Christians actually stepped up and loved their neighbors with action and not just words. I think this is a challenge for all of us – including me. And that’s how I’m being stretched right now! I want my faith to be more than words.

How about you? How are you loving your neighbor? Is your faith and love for others based on words or based on action?

Book Review: Love Does by Bob Goff

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Jon Stolpe

A couple of months ago, I gave away Love Does to a lucky reader on my blog. I hadn’t read the book at that point, but I had heard some good things. Now that I finished the book for myself, I can see why Love Does deserves all the attention.

Love Does is a collection of stories from the ordinary life of author, lawyer, and big thinker, Bob Goff. In Love Does, Bob takes readers into an extraordinary world by matching up things that we might consider ordinary with thoughts and actions that go beyond normal. I love this! It’s part of my goal for my own blog – to see God’s love through the ins and outs and ups and downs of daily life. I think Bob does a wonderful job seeing God’s love in the things that happen in and around is life.

Love Does inspires readers to quit studying and talking about love. It inspires readers to put love into action. Love becomes an action word – a verb – when we open our eyes to see love lived out in every opportunity and moment. Bob challenges readers to put down the books about love and to stop all the theoretical talk about what love means. He challenges readers to go out an put love into action.

Bob’s stories are meant to be shared, are meant to inspire, are meant to encourage action. Love Does is a book that I will come back to from time to time for reminders and inspiration. And I recommend Love Does to anyone who desires to discover an incredible life in an ordinary world.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Announcing June Giveaway Winners

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Jon Stolpe

Last week, I announced that I would be giving away two prizes to lucky winners. The winners were selected randomly, but their chances increased based on interaction on the blog and other social media platforms. This was the first time, I’ve tried something quite like this, and I’m happy to say that the results were promising. I added several new subscribers to the blog and new fans of the Jon Stolpe Stretched Facebook Fan Page. There were also new commenters on the blog this week, and The Stretched Blog received several plugs this week via Twitter. Overall, the blog experienced the third highest week of traffic since the beginning of the year. I will definitely be trying this type of giveaway again.

Okay, I’ve delayed long enough. Here are the winners of this month’s giveaway:

Winner of Platform by Michael Hyatt: Mark Sullens

(Mark entered by being a fan of the Jon Stolpe Stretched Facebook Fan Page.)

Winner of Love Does by Bob Goff: Tim McNatt

(Tim entered by being a subscriber of The Stretched Blog.)

I’ll be reaching out to the winners this week via e-mail to confirm mailing addresses. Thanks to everyone for entering this month’s giveaway!

What would you like to see me giveaway next month? What other giveaways should The Stretched Community check out?

Giveaway: Platform & Love Does

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Jon Stolpe

This month, I’m trying something new – a giveaway! I’ll give away Platform by Michael Hyatt to one lucky winner, and I’ll give away Love Does by Bob Goff to a second lucky winner. Both of these books were recently released and are on my “to-read” list. You can increase your chances of winning by taking the following actions:

(1) Subscribe to the Stretched blog. On the right side of the main page, there’s an easy place for you to enter your e-mail, so you get Stretched delivered to your e-mail everyday. I’ll give you 5 points for this task. (If you’re already a subscriber, you’ll automatically get 5 points!) I won’t share your e-mail with anyone else.

(2) ‘Like’ the Jon Stolpe Stretched Facebook Fan Page. I’ll give you 3 points for this task. (If you already like Jon Stolpe Stretched, you’ll automatically get 3 points!)

(3) Post a link to this blog on Twitter. In order to get credit for this task, you must include my twitter handle in your tweet – @jonstolpe. I’ll give you 2 points for this task. I’ll throw in 2 points each day that you tweet this between now and the end of the contest.

(4) Leave a comment on this post. Finally, I’ll give you 2 more points if you leave a comment on this post. The best comments will answer one of these questions. What is something that you have won in the past? What do you think I should give away next month? What is on your “to-read” list?

You have one week to enter this contest. I will announce the winners next week.