Family Resemblance

When you look in the mirror, do you ever see your parents? Sometimes, I recognize the slightest suggestion of my dad in the face looking back at me. When I do, I tend to pause and soak in a small wave of nostalgia. On those rare occasions when I catch him in my reflection, I savor a bit of melancholy because I miss him. I breathe a prayer of gratitude for what he gave me and because I will see him again. And, more often than not, I entertain a hint of astonishment that he and I should be so much alike despite my convictions to the contrary when I was much younger.

My dad and I seemed to be anything but similar to me in my youth and young adult years. He was built like an offensive lineman – 6’5” and 350+ pounds, a big, burly, ex-marine. His hands were large, strong, and calloused from years of manly labor. Although, I have become something of a man of … girth, my build when I was younger was better-suited for gymnastics. My hands are only calloused on the fingertips from playing guitar, and I do not have ideally-sized hands to play the piano, as much as I like doing so.

Dad was a quiet man not likely to offer his opinion freely or to draw attention to himself, especially in large groups. He sang in the church choir from time-to-time, and would sing “funny” songs when he was in a jovial mood, but he was never one to sing a solo. His oldest son, however, never met a quiet moment he couldn’t “fix.” If I am nothing else, I suppose it is fair to say, I am … loud.

Dad liked Johnny Cash, John Wayne, war movies and westerns, TV wrestling, Archie Bunker, and fishing. I, on the other hand, favored Barry Manilow, Al Pacino, classic horror flicks and sci-fi, Major League Baseball’s Game of the Week with Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek, and baseball. He rose early every morning; I slept in as late and as often as I could. He wore a cowboy hat and work boots; I wore a baseball cap and Adidas. So, I am understandably alarmed when I see my dad in me, though less so than I used to be. And I am downright flabbergasted when I overhear my wife in another room tell someone, “Rob looks a lot like Jake sometimes.”

I wonder if people think my kids look like me. For their sakes, I hope not! Still, when I step back and take a careful look, I notice strong familial resemblances our five share with one another, and thankfully, with their beautiful mother as well. In fact, Donna and the girls could easily be mistaken for four sisters. I think it is the combination of their eyes, their smiles, and their height!

Of course, when we look at other families, we are not so hampered by our personal stories or biases. In our own church family, there’s no mistaking who Grace and Hannah’s mom and dad are. The same holds for the Spencers, the Taylors, the Rudds, the Baldens, the Elys, et cetera, et cetera …

Time helps us spot the family likeness as well. I like to check up on old friends, many of whom I have not seen for quite a while – one reason why I am especially grateful for virtual communities like Facebook. I especially enjoy the pictures of old friends’ children. When I look at recent family pictures of my friends Brad and Leann with their gorgeous kiddos, for instance, I see Brad all over the faces of his sons, especially Isaiah. The same is true for other friends with whom I recently re-connected on Facebook, like Brad and Karen, and Terry and Tamara. Their children all carry a strong, and pleasing, family resemblance.

This reminds me of an interesting text. Genesis 5 suggests something wonderful and worrisome about our family likeness.

On the day that God created man, He created him in the likeness of God; … Adam … fathered [a child] in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth (Genesis 5:1-3).

In other words, just like I carry a resemblance to my father, I also carry and pass on to my children the image of our father, Adam. We have all been born in the image of Seth’s father, Adam. Adam’s likeness in us represents a flawed image destabilized by self-centeredness and deadened by sin. This is not really good news.

Thanks be to God, however, Adam’s is not the only image we bear! Blaise Pascal observed, “Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.” In Adam, we find our shame and disgrace. In God, we find we find our dignity and distinction – God’s original intent for creating Adam in His own likeness. In Christ, we find Father’s image and intent gloriously restored! And we are called to be and become His image-bearers again. Hooray! and Hallelujah!

In The High Calling Daily Reflection for Friday, January 25, 2008, Mark D. Roberts insightfully writes:

Seth was born in the image of his father, Adam ("image" in Hebrew = demut; used also in Gen. 1:26). This statement in verse 3 comes just after verse 1 reiterates the fact that God created human beings in His own image (demut). Even though sin has infected all of life, human beings still bear the image of God, however tarnished that image might be. We are not completely and utterly evil because God's image remains at the core of our being. From our parents, grandparents, and all of our ancestors, we receive an identity that reflects the very image of God, however imperfectly. We long for the day when we might see God as in a mirror, when we will know both God and ourselves fully as we are restored by God's grace (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Hmm … Look again in the mirror, look sharp every day in the mirror, and keep an eye out for our family resemblance!

Pastor Rob

Teach Us To Pray

God is clearly adjusting my life-view by a fresh study I have taken up on Jesus’ instructions on prayer. God has begun to change even the words I choose to use when I pray. He is using a certain pattern based on the model prayer Jesus gave His disciples to bring a welcome and long overdue revival to my prayer life. As I have prayed in this way, I am beginning to see my values and expectations begin to make a marked journey away from self-centeredness and earthy limitations to a pronounced God-centeredness and a refreshing heavenly-mindedness.

I have begun to share this with a number of folks lately – both one-on-one and in teaching venues like our Wednesday night prayer services. I want to include them here for all of you, to remind some of you, to inform most of you, but to help all of us grow in our prayer life. Consider the familiar beginning of Jesus’ teaching on prayer in Matthew 6:9-10.

⁹ Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. ¹⁰ Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:9-10, HCSB).

Notice some key words and phrases and the grammatical construction of Jesus’ first instruction on how we should pray.

Therefore … Remember, whenever you find “therefore” in Scripture, always ask what’s the “therefore” there for? In this case, Jesus makes a point of distinction between the prayers of hypocrites and the prayer life of His disciples. A hypocrite is essentially someone who acts contrary to their nature. It is contrary to the nature of fallen man, even religious fallen man, either to practice righteousness (6:1) or to pray without a deadly over-attention to self and lack of regard for God. So, the hypocrites pray in such a way as possibly to impress God but definitely to impress people. Their public religious displays betray their lack of private substantive interaction with God or reflection on their own state. Jesus declares forthrightly, “Don’t be like them!” (Matthew 6:8). We should not be the object of our own prayers, neither should other people be, but God and God alone!

Since we are not to pray like hypocrites pray, how then should we pray? Jesus says, “You should pray like this.” We tend to glance over this statement, and in so doing, miss a critical reality. This model prayer states God’s expectations for our prayers. He listens to hear these sentiments pressing on our hearts and bursting through to the praise of His glory. If we do not know these instructions are Almighty God’s firm expectations, we cannot help but to trivialize and reduce this prayer to merely a nice passage to memorize or certain words we must religiously repeat. We miss the point altogether.

Our Father in heaven ... The prime distinction between our prayers and those of hypocrites is in the nature of our relationship with God. He is available to us – like a father to his children – yet He is “in heaven” – holy and other than us. This terrible chasm is bridged in the person of our Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our prayers find their origin in our connection with Father through Christ. We can come to the Father only through the Son (John 14:6). Our prayers flow from a spring derived from our humility, our abandonment of our own goodness or worthiness, and our absolute dependence upon our High Priest.

This dependence, however, is no longer desperate but certain. “We have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19). Hooray! and Hallelujah! We “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith … [we] hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering” (Hebrews 10:22-23). We find our legs and stand in the congregation of the righteous comforted and encouraged by the provision made that we actually belong in that company.

When we pray, then, we should begin by celebrating all that Jesus Christ has afforded us by His grace. We are now free and forgiven, adopted as heirs, yea, joint-heirs with Christ. We are, by virtue of no goodness on our part but totally by the grace and mercy of God, now the sons and daughters of God! He is “Our Father in heaven!” Hallelujah!

On earth as it is in heaven … At first blush, the three phrases that follow our appeal to Father each begin with a verb (aorist imperative) and suggest the intention on Jesus’ part of a strong parallelism. These are not three separate requests independent of one another. These are three variations of a single theme. We may see the connection more clearly by this literal translation from the original language:

• Let be honored, or let be hallowed the name of You;
• Let come the kingdom of You;
• Let be done the will of You.

Then, a phrase clarifies what the fulfillment of these three requests should look like: as in heaven also on earth. So, I read them as follows:

• Let be honored or hallowed the name of You as in heaven also on earth;
• Let come the kingdom of You as in heaven also on earth;
• Let be done the will of You as in heaven also on earth.

This provokes some important questions and powerful implications. How is Father’s name honored in heaven? How is Father’s reign manifest in heaven? How is Father’s will done in heaven? How can our experiences here reflect heaven?

O, Lord, teach us to pray and practice righteousness as in heaven also on earth!

Pastor Rob

Have You Had a Baby Lately

Good news! Glad news! Great news! Ashton Elise Rudd was born at 10:28 Friday morning – 8 1/2 pounds of healthy baby girl carrying joy and hope like a contagion passed from mother to father to siblings to friends.
Donna and I enjoyed the honor of being with Shawna and David just moments before Ashton was delivered and celebrating with all the Rudds, alongside Debbie and Karen Jarrell, barely thirty minutes afterwards. We watched with delight some of the precious “firsts” in her life such as her first introductions to her brothers, Andrew and then Stephen – apparently the first time either of them had ever held a baby or cared to do so. They both did very well, and I am confident they will be outstanding big brothers.

As Donna and I left Shawna’s room with Karen, I listened as the ladies exchanged pleasant “mom” talk mixed with “nurse” talk. We each seemed to share similar feelings. We were, I think, above all thankful – thankful for the hope-filled wonder of new births, thankful for the sweet innocence and absolute dependence newborns display, and thankful for the warmth and nurture babies inspire in families. We were moved by our quiet experience with the Rudds to be thankful for babies, thankful for the birth of our own children, thankful for families like David and Shawna’s who love each other and make such safe havens for babies to grow, and thankful for our own families. And, honestly, as wondrous and sweet as the scene was, I was also thankful that David was a new father, and I was not! I am unequivocally thankful God has graced Ashton Elise with a fine godly Daddy like David, and I am unreservedly grateful we have graduated from our own baby days – at least until grandbabies begin to arrive.

As we drove home from our visit with the Rudds at the hospital, I made some calls to announce Ashton’s birth to our church family. I was thankful for a family of faith who would be so excited to share David and Shawna’s joy. I imagined how we as a church might be a reliable network to support and care for Ashton and encourage her family as they raise her in “the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” I believe Ashton is the first baby born to a family in our flock since I became your pastor. Soon she will be joined by Robby and Teresa Green’s first child. I wonder how we will love these children and their families. What will we do, what can we do, what can we dream of doing to encourage these parents and to make straight the path of the Lord’s coming into these babies’ lives?

Somewhere between the hospital and home, I received an epiphany. Why, I wondered are the births of babies so precious to us? Moreover, since we are so strangely anointed with new hope and elation when babies are born, why do we not have more babies? So, I announced to Donna that Ashton Elise Rudd would be the inspiration for my article this week, and the theme would be, “Have you had a baby lately?” She has grown somewhat accustomed to my lunacy over the years, so my bride was not unduly alarmed at my pronouncement. She calmly responded, “You mean spiritually, right?”

Precisely because the birth of newborns holds such meaning for us, Jesus used birth to describe the experience every person must have in order “to see the kingdom of God,” to be made alive to God. We must be “born again.” Consider with me a few implications of the new birth that Ashton’s arrival inspired in me. Space allows only for these two:

1. Where do babies come from? God designed us so that when a man and woman love one another and share the most profound intimacy we can know in this flesh, a new life begins. Essentially, when people care enough to give themselves to one another, new life begins. God intends for responsible adults who love one another to produce babies by their union, whose love for one another can reasonably portray the mystery of Christ’s love for His church (Ephesians 5:31-32). Seed provided by the male fertilizes the female egg to produce new life that grows in the womb in anticipation of the birth event.

God intends for His bride to share in love with Him such a divine intimacy (John 17:20-21) that our union with Him will produce new life. The seed of His word should find a ready and earnest welcome in our hearts so that we become, as it were, infused with Gospel potential. Our fellowship should be the soil, the womb wherein lives like spiritual embryos grow and develop and breakthrough to new birth in Christ.

2. In the womb, a baby is safe and nurtured to term. Before birth, that baby does not encounter light or sound, at least not fully, and does not engage in the intimacies of relationships where we hold and are held or we touch and are touched. Do we not agree that womb-life is not all there is to life? Are we not saddened when a baby does not survive the womb to live the life for which parents paint walls, build cribs, buy clothes, and establish college savings accounts?

Similarly, a person who is not yet born again still lives in the dark enjoying temporary security and pleasure. No matter how high the life they seem to live here now, however, if they are not born again, they have not truly lived. The dreams Father has for twice-born people are never realized by those born only once – dreams of light and song and embraces and wonder and foretastes here in this life of the glory and splendor of eternal life at Home.

Have we had any babies lately? Have we enjoyed the sacred joy of gathering with our faith family to celebrate a new birth? Have we seen our love with God make our union with Him a life-producing baby factory? Have we prayed and wept with fervor over the implications for a life that has never left the womb of earth-life, never been born again, and, therefore, never lived?

To the ends of the earth until the end of time!

Pastor Rob

My Heart's Desire for You

For the better part of my first 20 or so years, an annual rite of passage marked the early days of January. Each year I would reflect on the past and make plans for the future. My aspirations matured over that time from hopes to make the baseball team one year to intentions to be a better student or commitments to read the Bible through in another year. All these year-to-year machinations were quite natural, unscripted, and simple. Basically, I wanted to become a better person.

My New Year ritual became more complex, and undeniably much more sweet, when God brought Donna into my life. Suddenly, my resolutions had to account for a girl who would soon begin to complete me, to add dimensions to my experience I could never have expected and would not desire now ever to lose. My yearly assessments and adjustments were no longer minimal, me-centered exercises. They began to include a delightful duty to become a better partner.

I have discovered a new impression, a growing awareness that presents itself with the dawn of each New Year. What began as a somewhat indecipherable whisper to my spirit on January 1, 1987 (my first New Year’s Day as someone’s Daddy), seems to have grown in volume and in mass each year to the point that now my soul resounds annually with a mild and passionate roar I can almost define with words. Since becoming a father, every New Year brings me more clarity, conviction, and concern about the world my children must pass through to get Home. Each January finds me giving ever more thought to what the next 12 months hold for my tribe. As I strain to make out what is just now rising upon the distant horizon, I invariably anticipate the next five, ten, or twenty years. O, Lord, how might I become a better parent?

How will our kiddos fare in 2008? Are they ready for the next leg of their race? If they should find themselves in the throes of the worst-case scenario (whatever that may be), are they confident enough in God’s love, wisdom, and power to trust Him? Should they fail miserably, are they assured enough of our love for them that they find and rest in the harbor of their parents’ nurture and not to be defined by their failure? Should they succeed beyond their wildest imaginations, are they so grounded in God’s Word, so God-centered in their orientation, that they effectively maneuver around the slippery slopes and subtle pits of their triumph and find ways to honor the Giver and to serve other people?

Parents usually have definite desires for their children’s lives and designs on them as well. Donna and I are not exceptions to this general rule. We want, I suppose, what most parents want for their kids – healthy growth from childhood through adolescence to adulthood, an education that prepares them to excel, and bright prospects for their future prosperity.

In addition to these basic aspirations for our children, Donna and I hope for, pray for, and purposefully pursue some specific aims for their lives. Sure, prestigious jobs, supportive spouses who love them unreservedly, safe and secure home life, and lots of healthy, happy children – these would be sweet trimmings we would welcome in our kids’ futures. These bits and pieces, however, are actually mere accessories that, while they may make the ride less bumpy, perhaps even more enjoyable, are not at all essential to their journeys. No, the stuff we would see saturate our children’s lives is of a more simple and sturdy nature.

We want each child to know Jesus Christ personally and intimately. We want them to love His bride, the church. We want them to dream God-sized, God-given dreams and follow those dreams with gusto and grit. We want each son and daughter to engage fully in Father’s adventurous purposes for their lives. We want them to enter the fray boldly and resolutely, eager and equipped to endure to the end. We want our children to be ever-increasing in their drive towards Heaven so that when they break through the veil at life’s finish line their momentum carries them “farther up and further in” on that glorious shore than we ever imagined. We want them to bring many people with them in their wake.

While I have come to expect the annual anthem calling me to parental attentiveness and prayer, these past two New Year’s Days (2007 and 2008) I began to hear a new voice in the chorus. Did I say a new voice? Actually, I am hearing now what seems to be an entire choir singing. Admittedly, I was not so aware of this new part last year, but this past week the intensity of this relatively new set of burdens has surprised me. Now, in addition to my responsibility to become the best person, partner, and parent I can be, the New Year greets me with the welcome weight to become a better pastor.

[Please notice the order: person, partner, parent, pastor. Before God, I must be a better person before I can be a better partner, a better partner before a better parent, and a better parent before a better pastor. My tendency is to try to set those priorities on end and work from the back to the front. My walk with God comes before my walk with my spouse. Similarly, my walk with Donna precedes my walk with my children as my walk with them does my walk as your pastor.]

As a husband and father, I yearn to see my loved ones grow and prosper. In the same way, as your pastor, I long to see you, beloved, grow and prosper in 2008 and beyond. God has kindled this desire on my part for you, and He has used it this season with fresh and more pressing urgency to direct my prayers and study. I covet for you, beloved, a dream akin to that I expressed above for my children (the italicized paragraph). So, today we will begin two new series of messages. The next five Sunday mornings we will consider what it means to be “born again” (my supreme desire for us all). Sunday evenings, we will seek to chart a course for 2008 based on five foundational practices we need for this journey. These two series will be deeply personal and distinctly pastoral as God graces me to share my heart’s longing for each one of you.

To the ends of the earth until the end of time!

Pastor Rob