Tag: death

The Walking Dead

Posted on by larry.lundstrom


Keeping up with appearances even when you don’t feel like it. It happens. It’s the norm to be “fine” when you’re not. It’s expected and almost required. But if you stay there; ungrateful, conflicted and bitter and try to fake a smile or put on a show you will eventually wind up in an extremely dangerous place.

We were not meant to fake it. We were never meant to walk dead. It goes against everything we are about. You even feel the twist internally when you try and do it. Two scriptures come to mind when I think about this topic. One is towards all of us and the other is pointed directly at religious leaders who claim to know Jesus.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” http://bible.us/John15.5.NIV

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. http://bible.us/Matt23.27.NIV

Don’t pretend like you can get away with this kind of living. You were never meant to bear the full weight of this fallen world. So why try it alone?

Artwork available for download (Photoshop PSD):
The Walking Dead

Stairway to Heaven – LIVE Tomorrow!

Posted on by larry.lundstrom

Pumped about our new series, “So You’re Dead… Now What?” What will happen to you the second after you die? Tomorrow’s message is going to be pretty cool, it’s titled “Stairway to Heaven” — Join us tomorrow and judge for yourself if the band lives up to Led Zepplin’s original! See you there http://live.gfcfamily.com 9:30am & 11:00am cst.

Paradise

Posted on by larry.lundstrom

Paradise, Texas June Sunset

It has now been a month since I have relocated to Paradise, Texas. For the first time in four weeks I have been able to spend more than three days in a row with my beautiful wife and two amazing kiddos! I thought it would be tough but tolerable to be here without them waiting for school to end and for the house to sell. It’s been tougher than I could have imagined. The good news is we are moving our essentials up this weekend!

Imagine 81 acres in the country with a stocked fishing pond, a metal barn that has been converted into a house and wide open space to roam. There is also a creek that cuts through the rock & hills lined with huge trees! Every bit of the area was created to photograph. Beautiful wild Texas flowers, tall grass perfect for horses, cattle and a spectacular sunset every night! God knows what we desire and in time He speaks.

This was a very tough transition for us relationally – we are starting over 100% in every way. For me things went quiet almost over night. Timing is never what we expect but each step has been one of faith – and believe me mountains have moved. For Myra she is leaving so many great friends and memories. But somehow it seems like God is underlining that He created us to do life together. He has a purpose for us that we do not yet fully see or even understand and that He desires our full attention.

Funny – how just two years ago I sat in my car in a shopping mall parking lot reading over with the faith of a mustard seed we could move mountains. I literally began to pray for mountains to move, for anything to move – for one particular brick on a wall to just move an inch! I trust God, I have faith that He loves us and would do anything for us – He truly does want to give us our heart’s desire – it’s just not the way we ask or expect sometimes. Honestly, I began to pray that He would give us Colby back – that losing him had caused so much pain – left wounds that we could not repair. Just as in 2 Kings – I expected for God to raise him and give him back to us. I truly believe God could do that and I wanted to see it happen. That we did not deserve to lose our son and that Colby did not deserve to go at the age of three – especially to Cancer.

For the next two years – I prayed, pushed, ran out of patience and let myself burn out. I was insistent on my timing for everything; our finances, my marriage, for leaders to lead & love, for negative or blinded people to find Jesus again – to forgive. I had faith that a mountain would move but I was more focused on my wants rather than His will. Even though I was not asking for anything out of the norm – I was unknowingly expecting it to happen now. I was fighting God. Again. I kept it up until I exhausted everything in me.

When we tell God that we are in control we are taking the first steps to totally messing up. I promise. We can move mountains without God – it’s called dynamite – it ugly and destructive. It’s impatience, selfishness and hurtful. Blasting your way through a mountain to get your way is not His plan.

When questioning His plan and thinking about heading out with our own He allowed us to go through some of the toughest yet most clarifying trials in our life. He hammered us with trials and storms and each brought a clear choice. Each one with very clear consequences. It was then I heard clearly “it’s your will or Mine”. In his grace, He allowed us to see that he was in control, that we have no clue what’s best for us. He knows exactly who we are and how He wants to use us.  We had to choose. Especially since we claim to believe that Jesus died for us – and that we are to spread His story to the world, but we could not be in His will without choosing Him every-time – not just when we feel like it. Every time.

Mountains have moved. Our hearts have moved. Our vision, passion and love have moved. Stone by stone I have seen the mountain move. I am grateful to have chosen Him every step of the way.

God thank you for who you are – we truly do get to experience Paradise with you, here on this earth if we simply seek and trust you. Thank you for calling us to a place where relationships are first – with You & with others. Thank you that we are on our way to being totally who you created us to be. Thank you for using us.

Clean Drinking Water & Supplies for Haiti.

Posted on by larry.lundstrom

What we can do to help those impacted by recent earthquake:

1. Pray for the people in Haiti.

2. Pray for our pastor of disaster relief Jerry Davis and our team as they go into Haiti and direct our relief effort.

3. Give to the relief effort to provide water filtration systems and other needed relief supplies to the people of Haiti.

Oral Roberts Memorial Service – Monday, December 21 2pm CST

Posted on by larry.lundstrom

Celebrating the Life of Oral Roberts: The Man Who Obeyed God
January 24, 1918 – December 15, 2009

Join us online tomorrow for the live stream of Oral Roberts Memorial Services. http://www.orm.cc I am told there will be more than 200,000 people joining in to watch the online service. Amazing.

Here are some quotes from Oral Roberts from his site.

“Expect a miracle!”

“In the midst of the turmoil, the fear, the anxiety that’s in our nation and in our world, as I was walking and meditating, I heard the voice of God. I’ve heard that voice many times; it’s familiar to me, and there’s no way that I can fail to understand it’s His voice because I’m familiar with it.”

“God is a good God, and the devil is a bad devil.”

“Something GOOD is going to happen to you today!”

“God wants you well. God wants you prosperous. God wants you a whole person.”

“God came to take off you what the devil put on you,
To take out of you what the devil put in you,
To put back on you what the devil took off you,
And to put back in you what the devil took out.”

“I respect doctors, and one reason is that they have grasped this eternal truth and are against sickness and for health. Consciously or unconsciously, they have a pretty good theology of healing. Sometimes I wish we Christians had such a good theology of healing. Then we might be less inclined to argue about whether it’s God’s will to heal or not.”

I just saved a bunch of money on my insurance

Posted on by larry.lundstrom

Thank you TwitterFone. Seriously. I have had two crazy missed accidents because I was trying to update a twitter status while driving. Yes, addiction is the word that comes to mind. And, since the so called near death experiences I have stopped twittering while driving. Anyway, get signed up – this new app allows users to record audio and it translates into text then posts to your twitter account. Fun stuff. Technology is awesome.

Link here: http://www.twitterfone.com/
Oh and if you don’t have twitter yet, it’s never too late to start =) http://www.twitter.com

News: “Freak” Hurricane Ike Will Cost $22 Billion by National Geographic

Posted on by larry.lundstrom

The news is labeling Hurricane Ike as a #freak. Intersting. We were not even expecting the storm to hit Galveston until 12 hours before. Kind of scary to see peoples faces and reactions when the news started predicting the path to hit us, directly. We scrambled and put together emergency plans and communication channels just before the storm hit. National Geographic sums it up well. Right before it hit us, it smacked right into Cuba and Haiti. Check out the shots and video:

“Hurricane Ike will be entered into the record books for the severe damage it inflicted in and around Galveston, Texas, experts say. “This one’s going to be famous for a long time, if for no other reason than it hit Texas, which hadn’t gotten a strike by a damaging hurricane in 25 years,” said Jeff Masters, director of Weather Underground, a private commercial forecasting service.”

The shot above is from the video “Giant Waves Crash Over Buildings” in Cuba.

link here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080915-hurricane-ike.html

Life in Galveston, Texas since Hurricane #Ike

Posted on by larry.lundstrom

From Boston.com “News Stories in Photographs”. These are actually the first photos I have seen since Hurricane #Ike hit. Our power was out up until yesterday and the local news is not covering the story as much now.

“In its brief lifespan of only 13 days, Hurricane Ike wreaked great deal of havoc. Affecting several countries including Cuba, Haiti, and the United States, Ike is blamed for approximately 114 deaths (74 in Haiti alone), and damages that are still being tallied, with estimates topping $10 billion. Many shoreline communities of Galveston, Texas were wiped from the map by the winds, storm surge and the walls of debris pushed along by Ike – though Galveston was spared the level of disaster it suffered in 1900. ”

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/the_short_but_eventful_life_of

Legacy or Leftovers

Posted on by larry.lundstrom

Pouring a fresh cup of coffee this morning and thinking about how cool it would be to tap into the coffee business. My Grandmother just told me about six weeks back that her brother owned a Community Coffee plant in Monroe, Louisiana (Jack Kelley). How cool is that? Our family owned a community coffee plant. I love the taste of Community Coffee (almost as much as Starbucks). It just really makes me think about the risk he had to take to get that bad boy off the ground. I can only imagine the amount of hard work and time that was invested. Was he able to leave the plant to someone he trusted; to his kids or to a friend? Did he sell out and use the money for something even bigger or did he just blow it on something else? I will definitely have to dig a bit to pull out the details on that one. How cool would it be to know that one day you would be left something as big as a Community Coffee plant? That opportunity would be amazing!

Family History and Legacy is interesting for me. I have not exactly been left a Community Coffee plant. To be honest, to think about what our parents left us is extremely painful at times, yet some parts are so mysteriously gratifying. Although things have been tough, we are struggling well today.

Option #1 – Leave a Legacy

Our mom invested in us Spiritually, she followed Christ and submitted her life to God – not perfectly but she did. She loved us, she loved others, she loved life and we saw it. She got all that from her mother who got that from her Father – my great grandfather. They have instilled a deep rich love for God and Christ that I am so grateful for. Even though I have struggled through this life I know I have a Father God who cares for me and has invested in me and protects me even today. So my mom, grandmother and great grandfather loved Christ – for some reason they all chose to settle down with people who couldn’t care less. Two very important words come to mind: equally yoked. This inequality in Christ and contrasting views of life have made a ripple in our family that we are still battling today.

Option #2 – Leave a Painful Leftover

When I think of leftovers, I think of the stuff that we were left with and are still struggling through today even with God leading and guiding us. We are still paying for what our parents left us. This isn’t your normal mid-life crisis bullet list – we were left with some crazy stuff (Drugs and Alcohol use, domestic violence, loss of parents, divorce, shame, guilt and physical abuse just for starters) that has really brought all of us to our knees to focus on God’s plan for our lives. At times we have allowed our parents decisions to impact our choices in a negative way which brings about more of the same. What a quick lesson.

Myra and I talk about this every now and then about how God must have a plan for our lives – it is really amazing when we look back and see what we have experienced and how God has protected us. The trick is for us to do the hard work and trust God to help lead us into a place where we can leave a legacy for our kids. It’s time to throw out the leftovers.

At the Leadership Summit Bill Hybels presented the life of Mother Teresa as an amazing testimony to leaving a legacy. She clearly heard God’s call on her life and left everything she knew to go care for the sickest in the world. She did not live to leave a legacy she just answered a call to care for others which left an amazing impact. She was not all jacked up on her ego, escaping in drugs, trying to be like everyone else and buy a better life. She simply prayed that God would use her and that He would speak to her and that He would love her. He did. Even when she did not feel so loved, she still did His work. She left an amazing legacy.

Am I going to inherit and pass on a successful coffee plant or even something greater? We were designed to leave a legacy of love and impact; to let God work through us. We were designed to pass on His legacy. As I begin to think about the legacy that was left for Myra and me and our brothers and sisters it makes me want to live a life that our kids will one day be proud to share with their friends and family. That we have had a glimpse of the life that we were created for and that we will make the choices that will leave a legacy that will outlast us.

Also, here’s one last thing you might be interested in, get a Legacy Journal to get started thinking about the legacy you are leaving your family, friends and community: http://www.legacyjournal.org/