Alone

Last week I was having my customary weekly coffee with my dear friend. We meet quite regularly - to my great enjoyment - to discuss life and build relationship. This particular time we were discussing our children, our role as fathers and comparing notes on raising teenage boys (both of us have just entered that stage in our lives) and what wisdom we could impart upon them as they enter manhood.

As we spoke my friend looked at me and said "sometimes I just don't know what to say, I can't find the right words." He continued - "the other day all I could think of was telling him, that I am will be there to help him in his struggles and weaknesses and I would never be ashamed of him." I could not believe it. Here my friend was telling me that he could not think of the words to say and yet he said some of the most beautiful words that a father could ever speak to his son . . . . "you are not alone!"

What a wonderful thing for a young man to here, his father, will be there. His father loves him and will never be shamed by him. What more could a boy going into manhood ask for? His father loves him and will help him in his weaknesses and struggles that lie ahead.

In Deuteronomy 6: 5-9 we see God command the following of Israel:

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Notice what he says . . . impress them on your children and then he says how this should be done by speaking it to them in every area and every moment in their lives. At meals, when walking, when going to bed, when getting up from bed. God even tells them to put it on the door-frames of their homes so they see it continually. What God is saying here is "parents, don't leave your kids alone!" Be with them, walk with them, toil with them, strive with them, why? So they know the truth. So they know they can beat the struggles, so they know who God is.

At a time when teenagers are known for not wanting their parents around or wanting to put distance between themselves and home, it is more important than ever to engage, to support and to walk with our kids.

There is nothing worse than feeling alone, feeling isolated and that there is nowhere to turn with struggles. We can't afford to leave our kids alone, the stakes are to high and if we are not there, who will speak the truth to them?

Carson - Joshua 1:9

Wind

In I Kings 18 we find that God tells Elijah to present himself to King Ahab because He will finally send rain after a three year drought. Now for my money the best part of this passage is not Elijah, but is found in verse 3 which says "and Ahab had summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of his palace (Obadiah was a devout believe in the Lord.)"

Is there any doubt that the reign of Ahab and Jezebel was one of the most evil, ruthless and corrupt regimes in the history? The very next verse talks about how Jezebel was running around killing the Lord's prophets, yet here we have Obadiah, a devout believer, in the midst of such danger and such risk!

If you look throughout scripture you kind of see this pattern of risk and danger rather than safety:

• Abram left the comforts of his home in Ur
• Moses went back to Egypt
• David went with no armor to face the giant Goliath, the champion of champions in the Philistine army - he did this as a teenager!
• Daniel & his friends stood up to the Kings of Babylon as teenagers
• Prophets spoke out about the corrupt kings of Judah & Israel
• Jesus took his disciples, his young disciples, to places like the Decapolis & to see a demon possessed man in a grave yard!
• Stephen preached in front of an angry mob and was killed for it
• Paul risked shipwreck and stoning and beatings all for the name of Christ

If this is the pattern we see in scripture, if we see the followers of Christ sticking their necks out in the name of the Gospel then why are we content to play it safe? We loathe the idea of taking a risk, of being injured or being thrust into a dangerous situation, because it is not comfortable, not easy, or harm may come to us.

We do this to our kids as well. We keep them isolated from the dangers of the world, from the things that could harm them, cause them hurt or pain, we try to make the road easy for them and allow them to avoid hardship or danger so we can raise them as "good kids". In reality, we are not preparing them for real life and if we do this, we are raising weak kids. For we have not been called by God to play it safe. We have been called to be lights in the darkness and told by Jesus to not be surprised if people hate us - that is not a call to safety and comfort.

My wife told me the story this past week of the scientists who lived in the experiment called the Biosphere. The story was relayed to me that one of the things that failed in this experiment was that the trees were dying and despite their attempts they could not keep them alive. It turns out that the trees were dying because of their lack of exposure to wind. Trees, when they are young, need wind! The wind blows against them and as it pushes against them, it in turn makes them stronger, more solid, able to stand up against it as they grow and when it blows harder. How are we or how are our kids doing with no wind?

I am not suggesting we throw our kids to the wolves and not provide any parental guidance, but I am suggesting we allow our kids to explore, to test the waters, the engage the wind, to not play it safe all of the time. Sooner or later the wind, the trials, the danger will come into their lives and we as parents will not always be able to be there, they will need to stand on their own and at that point playing it safe won't be an option.

Developing risk takers who are not afraid of what wind will blow, what giants they may face or comfort zones they will abandon, because of the Christ we serve, what a great comfort that would be and there is nothing safer than love of Christ!

An Amazing God!

http://rheacambodia.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/catherine-and-green-pit-viper/#comment-54

Riddled With Fear

Over the last few Sunday’s we have been studying the “I Am” statements that Jesus makes in the book of John and as a result we have been working our way through the book. While Joey has taught the majority of the lessons (thanks Joey!), two weeks ago I taught on John 10 where Jesus says, “I Am the Door & The Good Shepherd.”  

While there is a lot of meat to chew on in this chapter, the one thing that stood out to me and has had me thinking since is Jesus’ statement in verse 10 – “The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full” (NIV)  - This literally means a supreme or superior life.

Does it get any better than living a life to its fullest? 

This is what Jesus says about why He came - so we as His children can live a life to the full!  

So if that is the case why are so many of us who follow Jesus charged and driven by fear and pessimism? I am continually confounded by believers I meet who are continually worrying and fretting over –

- the down economy
- war
- failure
- my kids
- that my kids may fail
- politics
- the environment
- potential job loss
- violence
- the media
- Etc. Etc. Etc.

Is this what was intended for us? 

Clearly not! 

If there were ever a group of people that should be living life boldly, with no fear, it should be us. We should live with an understanding that a trust in Jesus is a life lived to the full!

Paul understood this almost better than anyone and he was shipwrecked, beaten, imprisoned, stoned, jailed, and whipped but he knew “that if God is for us, who can be against us?”

The body needs to stop living in a state of fear. We need to stop raising our kids in a protectionist mode; we need to stop fretting about the things around us, worrying about the things that may or may not happen. We need instead to lay hold to the promise of a life to the full and begin to experience the true freedom of a life in the Kingdom of God.

Moo!!

Can You Catch The Cow?

catchthatcow.com

Students of Culture

I received an e-mail today from someone who was offering me tickets to what they said was a "Christian" Rock concert (quotation marks mine).  I thought this was interesting as for the last few weeks I have been doing a lot of reading, studying and thinking about culture and how we as followers of Christ are to be a part of it and engage it.

I know there has been a plethora of information published about this topic but it is still inescapable that the Christian world has created a culture in a response to the world at large. We have Christian Bookstores, Christian radio, Christian music.  I have heard people referred to as Christian artists, comedians, musicians, athletes, etc.  

In the  words of Makoto Fujimura Christian should not be an adjective

but a noun.

Why is it that we refuse to engage or be students of our culture?  Why do we instead erect these markets that so separate us from the world that it makes it virtually impossible to minister to and serve the lost?  What is out there that makes us insular and wanting to live in the bubble?

If we look throughout scripture Joseph engaged the Egyptian culture so much so that he rose to second in the kingdom.  Daniel was a student of the Babylonian culture that he achieved the confidence of the king.  Paul knew the Athenian culture and even saw beauty in it and how could he not?  All of these men, while fervent followers of God immersed themselves in their cultures and in doing so were used by God in amazing ways to change the world.

If there was ever a time for us as believers to shine a light by being part of and engaging our culture, its now.  We can't wait for the world to come to us, we are the ones that have to step out of our bubble and transform from adjectives to nouns.

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Can You See Me Now?

Romans 1:18-32 is one of those passages that I have always had a hard time digesting.  Overall I would be fine with it, except for that phrase "for they are without excuse."  It seems pretty harsh to me that because someone does not see God's invisible attributes and pick-up His divine nature through nature that therefore they are without excuse and given over to their depraved nature.

However, this week during my study I realized that this passage is not at all about a harsh, judgmental God.  This passage actually speaks so much to the love of God and His desire to reach mankind!  Think about it . . . . God so desires to have a relationship with man that He made sure He could be found in the trees, in the air, in animals, mountains, lakes, forests, oceans, the night sky and everywhere and even in the complexity that is the human being a.k.a made in His image.  This is a God who wants to be known and found and because of that is giving every chance for man to do so.

Pretty amazing, the creator of the universe wanting to be known by me and all of man.  WOW!

Little Red Packages

In the last two days I have received several invites to "Red Envelope Day".   All of the invites I have received have been from Christian friends who no doubt love Jesus; so before I signed-up I went to the Red Envelope Facebook page to get more information.

Red Envelope Day is an event that has been designed to, in the founders of the events words, "show our President and the world that the voices of those of us who do not believe abortion is acceptable are not silent and must be heard." This is largely in response to Presidents Obama's statement that he would move to overturn the Freedom of Choice Act if elected President.

While I find abortion vile and reprehensible as an act, I continue to marvel at the churches and believers to it. Some of the quotes from the site are below

"I wish we could send 50 million red envelopes, one for every child who died [in the U.S.] before having a chance to live."

"It may seem that those who believe abortion is wrong are in a minority. It may seem like we have no voice and it's shameful to even bring it up. Let us show our President and the world that the voices of those of us who do not believe abortion is acceptable are not silent and must be heard."

"Together we can change the heart of The President and save the lives of millions of children."

"An empty red envelope will send a message to President Barack Obama that there is moral outrage in this country over this issue"

There is no doubt that the lives of 50 million children being killed is a tragedy and so are the thousands who are killed in wars and the close to 6 million globally (1 every 5 seconds) who die each year of hunger. I pray that the same voice for the right of the unborn are wanting the same as the living who also are helpless and have no choice as they by happenstance were born in the wrong country.

I also wonder when we as believers started to demand that we have a voice?   Why are we so determined to have a voice?   Truth is we have had a voice for many years when it comes to abortion and have used that voice by and large to convince the world that we are mean spirited, unloving and harsh.   I do not think this is what Jesus had in mind.   I wonder what would happen if instead of "demanding to be heard" we used our voice to:

- speak to these pregnant women and tell them we love them
- used our voice to serve them
- used our voice to pray on their behalf
- used our voice to tell them that while we hoped they chose life that regardless we will still love them and so would God and Jesus
- used our voice to offer to adopt these babies and allow these mom's to see their precious baby grow and live

- instead of using our voice we just listened speak of their pain and confusion

It seems to me that if we use our voice in that matter, the Spirit of God would then change the hearts of men and women as only He can. The the love of Jesus would permeate and we would see more lives being brought into the world and hearts changed.

Maybe instead of being outraged we need to be loving.   The times Jesus became outraged was with the religious of the day.   There was plenty for Him in that day of which to be outraged, the Romans were as pagan as you get, but we see Him loving those who needed love. Listening to them, speaking with them, serving them and ultimately dying for them, for us .... all of us.

I pray that we use our voice in such a manner and instead of outrage and demands, we love and serve and allow the Spirit to do His work through us and in this understand that we in and of ourselves will not change men, only Jesus can.