I thought we were finished! Finally, we could sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor. After weeks of exhausting effort and the discomfort of trying something I do not feel especially well suited to do, I imagined the arrival and installation of our new kitchen appliances would quite nicely serve as an excellent finishing touch, like a perfectly placed cherry on the top of a banana split. I anticipated applause, affection, and adoration to come in waves from my family every time they walked across the new floor to get the milk from the new refrigerator, to pop a fresh bag of popcorn in the new microwave, to retrieve fresh cookies from the new oven, or to load dishes in the new dishwasher.
What was I thinking? Perhaps, by some fantastic estimation untouched by reality, a parent might justifiably expect one in five of their children may actually be glad for a new dishwasher. I should have known better. Such wild delusions of whimsy should have set off some sort of internal alarms in my mind. But, alas, I was unprepared for the real thief.
My fantasy began to be dismissed, blown away as one might wave off second-hand smoke, while the deliveryman showed me work I had not planned on that must be done before the appliances could be properly installed. My heart sank. Somewhere from deep inside my mind, a little boy was stomping the ground, waving his fist to the heavens, and whining, “It’s not fair! I thought I was done with all this! Not fair! Not fair! Not fair!”
I spoke today with a pastor friend of mine, a brother whom I hold in very high regard. He called to report where he had been the past year. We had not enjoyed any fellowship for twelve months. One year ago almost to the day, he had been riding high. In fact, we last spoke he radiated confidence and peace. He was fairly well busting out all over with joy and gratitude for where God had brought him and what God was doing in his life and ministry. He looked and sounded like a man who had just won a great race.
My friend is the founding pastor of the church he serves, and with constancy in his personal life and devotion in his ministry, he had laid a solid foundation upon which Lord Jesus Christ has been building His church. He overflowed with praise and thanksgiving when he told me last year that the church he pastors was about to baptize nearly 50 people in one service. Then, however, he went home from our meetings and found 6-8 months of turmoil that so troubled him that he nearly resigned.
In his voice, I could hear the same disappointment I felt about my kitchen, only his reason was more principled and his grief much more intense. He and the leaders of the church had worked hard and long. They had served faithfully, attained significant indicators of success, and had come to anticipate additional, perhaps even exponential growth as their momentum carried them on like a flywheel. Unexpectedly, however, they found themselves in a malaise, a kind of congregational depression. Within six months, this godly pastor assumed he was the problem. He reasoned that apparently he had taken the church has far as they could go without a change in leadership. He very nearly walked away.
Then they found sin in the camp. In the course of our phone conversation, this pastor related how they discovered a particular sin had crept into their church and begun to suck away life. As they applied themselves to deal with the core issue and the related breakdowns and losses that followed, the church seemed to be losing steam and families.
In a real sense, we are never truly finished here. So long as we breathe the air of these shadowlands, we have more to do with this life. We have not arrived – and never will in this life. While we live in the land of second chance, we are ever in the process of arriving. We will enter the joy of our Master’s rest when we get Home.
The enemy would have us settle. He would mislead us to substitute a poor facsimile of rest and reward here for that which Father holds for the faithful who do well, who finish well. Our foe would lead us to believe we deserve a break; we have worked hard, achieved some measure of success, and should now relax. Of course, the enemy would then have us fruitless, vulnerable, and unprepared to seize the opportunities God presents daily.
What did my pastor friend do? They faced the facts and applied biblical truth to their situation. They lost a number of families as well. At the end of the year, though, the church had actually continued to grow. Moreover, they had become more firmly rooted in the Word and in love. The pain produced new, unexpected advances in their pursuit of the kingdom. My brother also gained valuable insights that refreshed him personally and better armed him for ministry in Christ’s name.
What should we do when we realize we have more work to do? Face the facts. Adjust our aim for higher ends. Put one foot in front of the other and get back in the fray. Purpose to finish and to finish well.
I will finish my kitchen. By God’s grace and my wife’s patience, I will aim even to finish it well. I can endure today’s disappointments and unforeseen toil with the knowledge that God is not finished with me yet either.
To the ends of the earth until the end of time!
Pastor Rob
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007
The Invisible Fence
Several years ago, as a church planting missionary, I took on secular employment to supplement our family income. In addition to my work as a planter-pastor, I worked with the United States Postal Service, first as a clerk, then as a mail carrier. I learned a great deal about people and life as a postman.
As you are probably aware, every postal worker who walks a route tries to be on the alert for dogs in the neighborhood. Seems every puppy is born with an innate dislike for uniforms and the people who wear them. So, on my routes I used to carry a box of dog biscuits with the hope of making friends with any canine that crossed my path. Like the other mail carriers, I also carried pepper spray in case I met a pooch who did not want to be friends. One day, I discovered a new technology called the Invisible Fence®.
Invisible Fence® is an electronic pet containment system. Essentially, in order to keep their pet in the yard, pet owners install an underground wire around the perimeter of their home. The wire carries a radio signal, which emits a warning beep when the pet, sporting a lightweight receiver collar, gets too close to the boundary. If the pet ignores the warning signal and crosses beyond the boundary of the fence, the pet receives a mild electric shock.
One of my earliest encounters with the Invisible Fence® occurred while I delivered the mail to a family with a large Rottweiler who had not been impressed with my previous visits nor with my dog biscuits. One day I noticed little flags surrounding the yard’s border. I had no sooner noticed the flags than the guard dog noticed me. He came charging from the front porch barking threats that made clear his intentions whether or not you understood dog-talk. He was going to eat me alive! What happened next startled and amazed me. About four feet from the flags – and one flustered young pastor about to go postal with mace – the beast came to an abrupt halt and timidly backed away. You see, in his little canine mind he had been convinced that, although no chain link or bars were visible, he was in a cage.
That containment system is very much like a chain around an elephant’s leg. The chain attached to a stake in the ground is actually no match for the brawn of a mature elephant. However, what that elephant believes about the chain carries more weight than the truth.
We may think these poor pitiful animals are all too easily conned into compliance. Moreover, we may consider ourselves too intelligent for such deception. Tragically, however, I have come to believe we have been even more duped into sorry submission by our enemy.
As children, we happily understood God to be the Great Adventurer, to be everything the Bible and our Sunday School teachers portray Him to be. As we get older, our rubs against a twisted, jaded, fallen world cause us to become more … practical. God becomes more distant, less accessible, and the Bible seems less reliable to us. But the enemy has tricked us. As the serpent beguiled Eve, he challenges us to question what God really said and did and what His intentions truly were (Genesis 3:1-5).
This is why Jesus says we must become like little children if we will enter the kingdom of heaven. We need to rediscover the wonder and awe of a God bigger than us, bigger than the universe. We must learn again to walk, relying on stronger hands than ours to support us. We must run to Christ like little children who throw themselves into their parent’s arms when Dad comes home from work and kneels to receive them at the front door. We need to remember that God is great and God is good.
I began reciting daily and teaching our children this week a five-statement pledge of faith. Donna and I learned this from Beth Moore’s Bible study, Believing God. As a person, I want to see my walk with Christ Jesus become all He intends for it to be. As a partner, I want to help my wife be all she can be in Christ. As a parent, I am devoted to see them grow like Jesus: “… in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). And as a pastor, I yearn to see the flock I shepherd know Jesus more intimately and make Him known more intentionally. To that end, I want you to learn these declarations with us:
God is Who He says He is.
God can do what He says He can do.
I am who God says I am.
I can do all things through Christ.
God’s Word is alive and active in me.
I’m believing God!
Pastor Rob
As you are probably aware, every postal worker who walks a route tries to be on the alert for dogs in the neighborhood. Seems every puppy is born with an innate dislike for uniforms and the people who wear them. So, on my routes I used to carry a box of dog biscuits with the hope of making friends with any canine that crossed my path. Like the other mail carriers, I also carried pepper spray in case I met a pooch who did not want to be friends. One day, I discovered a new technology called the Invisible Fence®.
Invisible Fence® is an electronic pet containment system. Essentially, in order to keep their pet in the yard, pet owners install an underground wire around the perimeter of their home. The wire carries a radio signal, which emits a warning beep when the pet, sporting a lightweight receiver collar, gets too close to the boundary. If the pet ignores the warning signal and crosses beyond the boundary of the fence, the pet receives a mild electric shock.
One of my earliest encounters with the Invisible Fence® occurred while I delivered the mail to a family with a large Rottweiler who had not been impressed with my previous visits nor with my dog biscuits. One day I noticed little flags surrounding the yard’s border. I had no sooner noticed the flags than the guard dog noticed me. He came charging from the front porch barking threats that made clear his intentions whether or not you understood dog-talk. He was going to eat me alive! What happened next startled and amazed me. About four feet from the flags – and one flustered young pastor about to go postal with mace – the beast came to an abrupt halt and timidly backed away. You see, in his little canine mind he had been convinced that, although no chain link or bars were visible, he was in a cage.
That containment system is very much like a chain around an elephant’s leg. The chain attached to a stake in the ground is actually no match for the brawn of a mature elephant. However, what that elephant believes about the chain carries more weight than the truth.
We may think these poor pitiful animals are all too easily conned into compliance. Moreover, we may consider ourselves too intelligent for such deception. Tragically, however, I have come to believe we have been even more duped into sorry submission by our enemy.
As children, we happily understood God to be the Great Adventurer, to be everything the Bible and our Sunday School teachers portray Him to be. As we get older, our rubs against a twisted, jaded, fallen world cause us to become more … practical. God becomes more distant, less accessible, and the Bible seems less reliable to us. But the enemy has tricked us. As the serpent beguiled Eve, he challenges us to question what God really said and did and what His intentions truly were (Genesis 3:1-5).
This is why Jesus says we must become like little children if we will enter the kingdom of heaven. We need to rediscover the wonder and awe of a God bigger than us, bigger than the universe. We must learn again to walk, relying on stronger hands than ours to support us. We must run to Christ like little children who throw themselves into their parent’s arms when Dad comes home from work and kneels to receive them at the front door. We need to remember that God is great and God is good.
I began reciting daily and teaching our children this week a five-statement pledge of faith. Donna and I learned this from Beth Moore’s Bible study, Believing God. As a person, I want to see my walk with Christ Jesus become all He intends for it to be. As a partner, I want to help my wife be all she can be in Christ. As a parent, I am devoted to see them grow like Jesus: “… in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). And as a pastor, I yearn to see the flock I shepherd know Jesus more intimately and make Him known more intentionally. To that end, I want you to learn these declarations with us:
God is Who He says He is.
God can do what He says He can do.
I am who God says I am.
I can do all things through Christ.
God’s Word is alive and active in me.
I’m believing God!
Pastor Rob
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Last-minute Reminders
I have eagerly anticipated this weekend all year. The Fall Festival of Marriage at Ridgecrest – driving through the fall colors of the Smoky Mountains in autumn – worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ with hundreds of other couples at Ridgecrest – celebrating God’s grace and the gift of marriage – spending four days away with my bride and best friend – what’s not to love?
As eager as I have been for this retreat with Donna, a distinct melancholy crept in Thursday morning before we hit the road. Actually, it began to edge in Wednesday night. The most difficult aspect of any out-of-town trip is leaving home – not leaving the house, mind you, but leaving home, leaving our kids.
Our youngest are growing up … fast. In significant ways and beyond what their age typically suggests, they are responsible and reliable. They have demonstrated to their mother and me that they can be trusted. Still, even a grumpy old papa bear like me pauses when he hugs the cubs as they leave for school knowing he won’t be home when they return in the afternoon. Will they be okay? Will they be safe? Will the house still be standing when we return? I don’t mean to sound gloomy, but when Donna and I leave the family for short trips like this, I often wonder, “What if something happens to us? Will they know what to do? Will they remember what really matters?”
So, those last few moments before we head out are filled with longer hugs and last-minute instructions. Then, we write what we forgot to say on a note left behind.
Make sure to clean up. No television or computer games until the homework is done. Help each other. The meals are in the fridge. Be nice. Check on Papa – but don’t eat all his snacks. Have fun at Homecoming. Here’s the number to call if you need us. We will call to check on you. See you Sunday. Oh, don’t miss Sunday School and worship! Love, Mom and Dad
Deadlines and schedules and departure times have a way of clearing the fog of the day-to-day and reviving our focus on what matters most. When it’s time for “good-byes” and “see ya laters,” we want to make sure the important stuff is related one more time. We want the message to be clear and the transmission to be received intact. And we trust our expectations are as precious to those we leave behind as they are to us.
Hmmm. I wonder if Christ experienced any of these emotions or longings when He bid farewell to His disciples? Can our experiences give us any insight into our Lord’s instructions to us on that Galilean mountain: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations … observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).
Before He departed, Jesus Christ wanted to make sure His followers understood His heart and knew what was really important. He says, in effect: “As you go from this moment, make your life count – make disciples – remember what I have told you and trained you to do and be. Above all, remember, I love you and I am with you.”
I wonder if Jesus would have liked to add anything or repeat anything in a note like those we leave for our kids? But wait! Isn’t that precisely what we have in the New Testament? In fact, I find a remarkable parallel between our notes to our kids and Father’s letter to His children. He writes (hint: compare the note below with the note to our kids):
Stay clean. Stay pure. Don’t get distracted from the joyful work of the Kingdom by too much worldly leisure. Keep first things first. Finish your assignment, and finish well. Help one another. Encourage one another. I have meals prepared for you in My Word. Be kind to one another. Care for the people around you. Look out for one another. Find joy in this life’s foretastes of your glorious Homecoming. Remember, you can call on Me anytime. I am watching over you, protecting you, providing for you. I am coming back. I will see you soon. Until then, seize every opportunity to love your neighbors, love one another, and love Me! Love, Abba
I must be yours for I am His!
My Biggest Problem Ever
My twelve-year-old son, Joshua, got my attention Monday after school. He asked me, “Dad, what’s the biggest problem you have ever faced and how did you solve it?”
As any sane father should always do before blurting out whatever comes to mind, I responded to Joshua’s question with one of my own. “Why do you ask?”
“I need to interview someone and write about it for school tomorrow,” he responded.
Immediately, I began to make a mental short list of the biggest challenges I have faced so far. I processed my inventory and arranged the list in order of degree of difficulty. The degree of difficulty is directly proportional to the degree of despair and need for prayer each problem produced in me. I thought something like this:
1. Tearing out our kitchen floor (Degree of Difficulty: 10).
2. Maintaining some degree of civility and Christlikeness while tearing out our kitchen floor (Degree of Difficulty: 9.97).
3. Resisting the urge to burn the house down while tearing out our kitchen floor (Degree of Difficulty: 9.925).
4. Refraining from the desire to eat the cookies my wife bought for my children’s lunches and snacks (Degree of Difficulty: 9.9)
5. Muting my enthusiasm for Ohio State while my Michigan friends cope with disappointment and exchange national title hopes for Big Ten Championship aspirations (Degree of Difficulty: 9.875).
Okay. Maybe that’s not exactly the list I imagined when Joshua posed his question to me; although, I am certain the kitchen floor lurked in my subconscious. When my son asked about the biggest problem I had ever faced, my first thoughts were about relational challenges I meet every day, issues like these:
· How will I ever understand women – especially Donna, Lauryn, Bethany, Caitlyn … and my mom?
· How do I become the sort of man who can with integrity instruct and inspire my boys to become men?
· How can I lead each member of my family to love God with all their being, to love one another in the same way Jesus Christ loves us, and to love other people like themselves?
· How do I walk with God, truly walk the Talk or practice what I preach, in such a winsome way that will encourage and enable other people to walk with God?
· How do I ever hope to pastor this church to become what Father has called us to be and do – to make a total world impact to the glory of the Son in the advance of His Kingdom?
Intuitively awareness crept to my consciousness of two realities: First, even more than kitchen floors and Oreo cookies, these matters often bring me to a place of profound desperation and prayer. Second, these musings were not the stuff Joshua needed right at that moment. This was a school project after all!
So, I mulled over personal challenges and problems I have wrestled with over the years. In a flash I recalled a host of big-time, life-altering decisions (What career path should I pursue? Should I go to college? Where? Could Donna be the one? Should we answer the call to this church or that?). I thought about choices I had made – some good, some bad – and the consequences they brought into my life.
Suddenly, a fleeting moment of insight flashed across my mind. Every single challenge I have faced and each problem I have struggled to solve have shared the same common lineage. My biggest problem, I told my son, is my sin problem. The solution to my biggest problem – indeed, the solution of every challenge I have or ever will face – is found in the daily appropriation of the Gospel, the Good News, of Jesus Christ to my life. In every circumstance and decision, victory is realized only when I recognize I cannot solve this myself, I need help, and God extends that help to me in the person and provision of Jesus Christ. This is how my biggest problem was resolved, how my soul was saved, how my life continues to find meaning and purpose, and how I successfully meet the challenges every day presents – in Christ alone!
To the ends of the earth until the end of time!
Making Music Together
Beloved, tonight we will have a special kind of service. I have asked Randy to enlist as many people as possible to bring some special music. Call it a concert of praise or a singspiration service, I anticipate a worship gathering this evening made more meaningful as several of our faith family present special gifts and messages in song to the ear of the King in the hearing of His people.
This is not intended to be a talent showcase but a venue for folks to express their love to Jesus in a personal yet public way. Both are valuable – personal and public. My experience has been that music has a way of helping me open my heart to God’s mercies and majesty. So, when I make music to Him I worship Him in a very personal way. Moreover, when I make music to Him, because it is intended to bring Him glory, it should be witnessed by other people who may also consider His glory and praise Him.
I love to sing. I enjoy playing piano and guitar. Many and precious to me are the reverent times I spend with an instrument privately singing praise and petitions to an audience of One. When I can steal away for an hour or so simply to sit at the piano or take up my guitar and sing, my spirit is refreshed and my heart, relieved of the barnacles of this world, begins to believe again in His love, to hope and dream again.
Strangely, however, these private solo concerts are only a shadow of a deeper longing I have to praise my Redeemer. You see, I have enjoyed some rather lofty heights musically. I have experienced the thrill of joining my voice with large, well-trained choirs, with warm, folksy quartets, and with polished bands equally devoted to excellence in musicianship and in worship. Mine has been the pleasure to perform with other musicians high-brow classical music (a la Bach and Handel), southern Gospel (a la Rambo and Gaither), and more contemporary worship music (a la Moen, Redman, and original compositions), all “to the praise of His glorious grace” (Ephesians 1).
I have discovered something mysteriously satisfying in these group musical ventures – the unexpected fulfillment harmony with other voices and instruments provides. Something of a showman at heart and by experience, I rarely back away from opportunities to go solo. But were I given my druthers, I would heartily opt for the deep sense of satisfaction and completeness of sound and spirit making music with an ensemble gives me. The only provision I would require is that we not be satisfied simply making noise together but that we strive to make music that would thrill Father together.
I have heard it said, “A thousand voices tuned to the same instrument are automatically in tune with each other.” As a music lover and devotee of Christ, this statement resonates with me. That seems to me to be a worthy aim for you and me as we endeavor to do life together in and through Jesus Christ. The New Testament word is fellowship, from the rich term koinōnia. In the Bible, koinōnia describes the living communion of the saints – a close, three-sided relationship (God-you-me) characterized by “a readiness to share, a sense of equality among the participants, and a unity among the members.”
Sadly, the beautiful brawn of that word has been lost to us. When we hear the word “fellowship”, we may think of church dinners to which everyone brings a covered dish to share. Or, the more cynical among us – those who have been hurt over the years by toxic church-ianity – may imagine a clique who smile a lot and do their best to impress other people with their spirituality. Our unchurched neighbors may attach a similarly low view to the word. Weary of what they regard as feel-good religion and bothered by what they presume to be our charade of solidarity, they may think our fellowship is little more than an escape by which we Christians enclose ourselves in stagnant little huddles designed to affirm one another more than transform each other. Unfortunately, they probably have some grounds for their poor understanding of Christian fellowship. Of course, they may also be frightened by the powerful impact and considerable claims an authentic biblical fellowship portend for those who dare to live the real thing.
Beloved, we are meant to be “voices tuned to the same instrument,” Jesus Christ. We are each designed to produce harmonies rich and appealing that draw attention to our Melody. Our fellowship is a splendid symphony intended to manifest the truth about God and to draw people to Him. Let’s continue to learn to make beautiful music together and say like Bach: “Soli Deo gloria!” (To God alone be glory)!
To the ends of the earth until the end of time!
Live in the Plural
I have been reading the book of Hebrews as part of my devotional discipline the past week or so. I try to read and meditate over one chapter a day. What a tremendous manual of instruction, inspiration, and encouragement the Spirit has provided us through the pen of Hebrews’ author!
This week, Lord Holy Spirit ministered to me powerfully from Hebrews 10:19-25. Please take a moment to read that paragraph of Scripture. Keep your Bible open alongside this article as you read.
Hebrews 10:19-21 reminds me that through nothing attractive on my part, through no goodness of my own, but solely through the grace and mercy and love of God in Christ Jesus I have been offered intimate access to the Father. In the wonderful hymn, “Man of Sorrows, What a Name,” Philip Bliss wrote:
Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood,
sealed my pardon with His blood; Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Guilty, vile, and helpless we, spotless Lamb of God was He;
full atonement, can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Hebrews 10:22-25 reminds me that God has not only given me eternal life but also a prescription for the development of my new life here while I strain for eternity and Home. I find four admonitions in these verses that are essential to my growth and development. Real contentment and joy are found only here.
1. Get close to God every day – “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith (v 22).”
I am so thankful that when I came to Christ Jesus God did not say, “Okay, that’s good enough. Now hang in there until you get Home. I’ll see you then.” To be saved does not only mean we will go to heaven when we die. To be saved means I have been found and brought back to a place of belonging and worth and celebration today. God longs for me to begin and continue to know Him more intimately every day. He wants me to draw near to Him with confidence and joy – and that is where my deepest longings are met.
2. Hold on tight to hope – “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering (v 23).”
Lately, for me, the biggest threat to my hope has been my schedule. Almost every morning, as I leave the house for work, I wrestle with feelings of failure – missed opportunities to cherish my wife, to laugh with my children, to finish the floor. Every evening, as I head home, I struggle with a sense of failure – so many calls left unmade, so many people not seen, so many tasks undone, so much study untouched. God wants me to focus on right priorities and trust Him to make hope reality in my day-to-day experiences.
3. Provoke the saints – “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works (v 24).”
The Master’s aim is for you and me to stimulate Christ’s activity in and through each other’s lives. As parents, Donna and I will not be satisfied, nor considered good parents, if our children never grow. So, we try to nurture and guide our children to make choices that will lead them to be productive participants in life. As followers of Jesus Christ, we should have the same devotion to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
4. Live in the plural – “Meet together … encouraging one another (v 25).”
John Wesley said, “There is simply no such thing as a solitary Christian.” We need each other. God has designed us so that the primary proving ground of our growth in Christlikeness is in the context of open, honest, bold relationships and fellowship. The New Testament calls believers in Jesus “saints.” And that word is never used in the singular – it is always saints, never saint. We must learn to live in the plural!
By the way, Hebrews 10:25 closes with this: “… all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Paul told Timothy: “In the last days there will come times of great difficulty” (2 Timothy 3:1). Probably most of us could attest to increasing difficulties and discouragements. This makes our meeting together all the more urgent. Don’t let the enemy or the world or the flesh confuse you or lead you to believe you do not have time to meet with the body of Christ. The truth is we cannot afford not to live in the plural!
To the ends of the earth until the end of time!
In over Your Head?
Once again, I find myself in over my head. This is an all-too-frequent state of being for me, I think. On second thought, perhaps because I am not often enough in over my head I actually need to be in over my head more often, perhaps even perpetually. Sounds like an Aflac commercial, I know. Read on if you have any desire or hope to understand what you just read.
This past Monday I began a loathsome task – loathsome because it required me to handle tools with which I am not particularly familiar nor even remotely adept. What tools? Does it matter? Tools are tools. Hammers, saws, drills, planes – the proper identification and implementation of building and maintenance tools are all Greek to me! Actually, that is not quite accurate. I can read Greek with a modicum of understanding and appreciation! Fix-it books, the projects they assure me are do-able, and tools they recommend for success – these are foreign languages to me!
You see, my sweet wife suffers with a problem. Her first husband – that would be me – has little or no handyman skills whatsoever. Moreover, she has misguidedly determined that my shortcomings can be easily overcome by experience. So, six days ago I set myself to pulling up the old vinyl floor in our kitchen with a mind to put in a new tile floor by week’s end. With all the tools I could imagine would aid me on my quest, then, I started pulling up floor around 10:30 Monday morning.
Two and a half hours later the old floor was gone. “Not bad for an amateur,” thought I, but by then we had discovered a new problem. Underneath the old floor lurked an older floor, an uglier floor, a more stubborn floor. Despite my druthers to the contrary, we knew this floor had to come up also to get us to the original sub-floor. At the time that I write this article we are now at least 20 hours into the removal of this second vile layer and have succeeded only in the deletion of perhaps two-thirds.
In addition to our primary objective – the eradication of all floors not essential to the laying of a fine tile floor – we have had to deal with the repair of a water leak triggered by the removal of the old dishwasher. This water leak led to some damage to the drywall downstairs. When in the course of our corrections to said leak a certain member of my construction team fell from the ladder nearly breaking their crown, we incurred further damage to the aforementioned drywall. Why were none of these interruptions even hinted at in my fix-it book? Not even in a footnote!
The troubling flipside of dreams and visions is the doing of them. I have discovered it is one thing to aspire to climb to the mountaintop, and it is an entirely other thing actually to set your feet on the incline and start to climb. My wife and I have dreamed of a particular design and upgrade in our kitchen. I was happy with the ideas and the development of the design up to a point. That point revealed itself recently at the painful crossroads of its impact on my pocketbook, my schedule, and my body.
Get ready for an abrupt change of direction. Follow on to the end and you may find a reward.
This week I have been looking at our Annual Church Profile (ACP). Suffice it to say here that this is a report designed to reflect our growth in key areas over the previous twelve months. The numbers trouble me. Indications are prevalent that we are like the majority of churches in our land plateaued – a polite way of saying we are declining.
This is not really news to me. I knew when you agreed with God to call me as your pastor that we are a church who needs to transition and to rediscover God’s purpose for us. I have reckoned with God and our leaders that in order for us to grow again we must undergo a period of adjustment and modification that could reasonably require at least three years and perhaps as many as seven before we begin to see momentum in our advance of the kingdom. I must confess, I was a little disappointed to find our first year together has not already begun to produce the results and impact I believe God intends for us.
Then I looked at my kitchen floor again. Dreams take time and energy … and often the pursuit of vision presents detours. These unexpected layers are opportunities in disguise by which God may mold our character, or make us more fit and ready for the ultimate end, or test our devotion to finish the task and finish well, or to remind us that when we are in over our heads we are more apt to ask for His help.
I must be yours for I am His!
What's Your IQ?
What is your IQ? No, I don’t mean Intelligence Quotient. I am wondering this week about our Influence Quotient. What is our capacity to influence our circles of connection? How far can God count on us to share Jesus Christ? My study for today’s message from John 7 intersected with unexpected news this week, and led me to ponder a new take on my IQ and to provoke you to think again about your IQ also.
Here’s the unexpected news. Two men died this week. In fact, over a million people died this week across the planet. According to the Census Bureau, someone dies every 1.8 seconds. When you do the math that translates into 155,520 deaths every day. Anyway, back to my original statement.
Two men died this week. To the best of my knowledge, both men had trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord in this life. So, both men passed from the Shadowlands to a splendid reception in Heaven! Although both men had struggled with serious and debilitating health issues for the past year or so, today they are running and shouting without losing their breath. They are more vigorous and vibrant today than they ever dreamed of being here on earth. Indeed, they are more alive right now than any of us can begin to imagine.
As much as I would like to go on and on about Home, other thoughts about their lives intrigued me this week. For example, the respective impact each of these men made for King Jesus while here on earth fascinates me. It will help if you knew something about these two men.
One man I came to know personally. I cannot say I knew him well. I only met him within the last 10 months or so. In that time, however, I had several very pleasant conversations with him. I learned some admirable things about him. I liked this man. He exuded a pleasant, peaceful spirit and grinned broadly when I asked him if he had believed in Jesus Christ and received Him for all He is. He assured me He was born again.
I was troubled, however, by how easily he dismissed any notions of uniting with the Lord’s people, the body of Christ, the family of God, in worship, fellowship, or ministry. And I wondered as I attended his memorial service at the small number of people in attendance – less than 50 people, most of them family (his wife, their children, their grandchildren and great-grandchildren). I wondered how many lives he may have influenced for Christ.
The other man many of us have been familiar with over the years. Although I have yet to meet Dr. D. James Kennedy personally (I will look for him when I get Home), I have felt for years a strong bond to him. He has long been renowned as an eloquent and powerful preacher, a devoted and principled patriot, and a champion for the advance of Christ’s reign.
The scope of Dr. Kennedy’s impact in this life has been nothing less than … explosive. Indeed, his most remarkable contribution is the soul-winning resource he designed called Evangelism Explosion (EE). I read estimates that more than 5 million people have professed faith in Jesus Christ in over 211 nations through EE. I am not certain that would include hundreds of thousands of people in the
I marvel at how one man can be so mightily used of God! John Steinbeck wrote in The Grapes of Wrath: “One little man, with his mind made up, can move a lot of folks.” I imagine Steinbeck may have read Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring when Galadriel says: “One small person can change the course of the future.” I am certain Tolkien was well aware of what God can do with a band of unschooled men, hardly any more impressive than four hobbits, with whom He would spread the Gospel of grace from
Today, with John 7 as our base, allow the Holy Spirit to ask: What is your IQ? Does it need to be raised?
To the ends of the earth until the end of time!
How To Do God's Will
We all want to know God’s will, and to varying degrees, we tend to be rather committed to do His will. We long to know God’s will for multitudes of choices and opportunities strewn before us. Each one of us faces “major decisions” about which we seek God’s direction, His blessing, or at least His permission.
Should we take that job opportunity? Or move across the country? Where should we to go to college? Should we buy that house? What do we need to know about dating and marriage? Should we have more children? Could God be calling me to full-time ministry or foreign missions? The list goes on and on.
Ray Pritchard gave me some new perspective on how to know and do God’s will. He wrote:
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could have lunch with Jesus? Suppose the Lord Himself granted you 45 minutes in which you and He could have lunch together, and you could ask any question you wanted. Surely, somewhere along the way, you would say something like this. "Lord Jesus, am I doing what You want me to do? Because if I'm not, or if there is something else You want me to do, please let me know."
… That sort of face-to-face exchange will have to wait until we are in heaven. Between now and then, we will make thousands of personal choices, some big, some small, some trivial, some truly life-changing, and we will do it hoping, trusting, and praying we are doing God's will.
How then can we make decisions that align with God’s best for our lives? Well, I found some thrilling counsel from a personal paragraph penned by the Apostle Paul in Romans 15:22-29. Admittedly, I tend to rush on through these verses, but this week I lingered … and I learned.
22 That is why I have been prevented many times from coming to you. 23 But now I no longer have any work to do in these provinces, and I have strongly desired for many years to come to you 24 whenever I travel to
Here are several steps Paul took to live life in the center of God’s pleasure:
1. Seek first God's kingdom in your life and in the world. When Paul says, “That is why,” he refers to the previous paragraph (15:14-21) in which he declares his “aim to evangelize where Christ had not been named” (v 20). “That is why” Paul says he was “prevented” or “hindered” from his desire to come to
2. Make the best plans that you can. Paul stated his plans – well-conceived and thorough plans to come to
3. Humbly submit your plans to Father, saying, "Your will be done." Paul did in fact go to
4. Trust God to know what He is doing. Read 2 Corinthians 11:23-29. Then read Philippians 4:4-13. Paul knew that even were he to come to
To the ends of the earth until the end of time!
Finding Light in the Darkness
Thickening clouds interrupted the reception of our satellite receiver and, thereby, my much anticipated view of the Little League World Series on ESPN Thursday night. About fifteen minutes later, the lights went out at our house. Storms came roaring through around 8:00 pm. When the power blinked on and off several times, we scurried for candles in case the outages were prolonged.
Thankfully, we had power restored within a few minutes, so I was able to sit down to work and play at my desk in my study – the satellite signal was still intermittent. The ceiling fan stirred a gentle breeze from above, and the central air conditioner supplied cool air from the vent at my feet. Thank you, Mr. Edison. After our candle expedition, which turned up only four scented candles, the house was now not only well lit but also pleasantly aromatic. Ah, the subtle pleasures of life in 21st-century
I learned Friday morning that significant portions of the area, including
As you know my mind is prone to do, I began to dart down a dozen or so wild rabbit trails that began to present themselves in rapid order to my imagination. “Life would be a lot darker.” I remembered my study this week of John 6:16-20 and my meditation upon John’s references to darkness and contrasts with light in his Gospel. As I mulled over those notes in my mind, I imagined the terror that must have seized those hardy young men struggling in the dark against wind and waves. Memories of my children’s cries in the dark when they were younger morphed into recollections of my own fear of the dark both as a boy and, truthfully, even at times as an adult. The reality struck me that we are rarely ever as easily frightened in the light of day as we are when the lights go out. Just then, the radio station delivered a timely observation from Adrian Rogers: “Faith is like film. It develops in the dark.”
What do we do when from the threat of stormy seas we cannot see the lights of a safe harbor? What nightmares invade our minds and enslave our hearts when life leaves us in the dark? The great enemy of light is darkness. The great threat to illumination and insight is dimness and blindness. The terrible foe of faithfulness and fruitfulness is fear.
When lines of populated areas from
From our Wednesday night adult Bible study, here are four keys to peace in the midst of storms. Read Luke 24:36-49 and identify these four steps to find light in the darkness:
- Understand the Presence of Jesus in Your Life (vv 36-43; Acts 1:1-4).
- Understand the Plan in God’s Word (vv 44-47).
- Understand the Purpose of God for Your Life (vv 47-48).
- Understand the Power of the Holy Spirit in Your Life (v 49).
Let’s discover some more about how to live as children of light in the domain of darkness this morning. Find John 6:16-20. We can find hope from Jesus’ stroll through the storm to His distraught disciples.
To the ends of the earth until the end of time!
Year One: Soli Deo Gloria
One year ago (Sunday, August 20, 2006), I preached my first sermon here as your Pastor. A few weeks later, we published the first of our weekly “Fresh Words” in our bulletin. I grinned when I re-read the first paragraph of that entry this week:
Someone asked me this week if I felt at home yet. Well, perhaps you can’t tell from the smile on my face or the skip in my step, but I most assuredly feel as if I and my family have come home! Praise the Lord! And thank you,
May I say again, Thank you,
I was curious about what else may have been going on in my head and heart last year, so I went back to peruse my journal entries. A couple of excerpts seem apropos today. My prayers are amazingly constant.
Monday, August 21, 2006 – Today is my first Monday in the office as the new Senior Pastor of
Services yesterday were very nice. There continues to be a good, positive spirit among the people. And I believe God’s Spirit has been working in our services and, more importantly, in peoples’ hearts. I preached yesterday morning from John 4: 35-38 on vision – “What Do You See?” … Jesus, thank You for giving us eyes to see. Lord Holy Spirit, help us to pay attention, to lift up our eyes, to see the fields, to see what You see!
Last night I continued with the walk through Acts. I preached from Acts 3:11-26. Lord, I want to live in amazement at Your power and purposes. But I do not want to be surprised to see You working – as were the religious Jews when You brought healing to the man born lame.
Ah, much to do. I had better start making my lists. Father, give me focus and clarity. Please, Lord, do what You must in me to shepherd Your people here, to saturate
Tuesday, August 22, 2006 – “Mountains are not meant to envy,” writes John Piper with reference to how we should regard men like Charles Haddon Spurgeon. “Don’t envy,” he says. “Enjoy.”
Lord, I find in my heart today a deep longing to matter, to make a difference, to become a mountain. Spurgeon, Piper, Rogers, Lee, Allen … I feel as if I am like poor Simon who looked on what the Spirit was doing through Peter and John and envied them (Acts 8). Dear God, help me find my soul’s satisfaction in You and You alone. Help me discover my significance in Your way, Your timing, Your purposes.
Have Thine own way, Lord. Have Thine own way. Hold o’er my being absolute sway.
Fill with Thy Spirit ‘til all shall see Christ only, always, living in me!
Father, help me get my world in order. Help me see and seize what really matters and gladly loose my grip on the inconsequential. Make me a focused, faithful, and fruitful man for Your pleasure, Jesus.
… You, Lord, are indeed most glorified when I am most satisfied in You. May it be said of me that I was a man fully alive who tirelessly manifested the truth about You by a life of simple, unreserved devotion to the Lover of my soul. Whether You make of me a mountain or a valley, a river or a stream, a garden or a desert, Lord, please bring me to a place of profoundly deep contentment in You.
Beloved, may the same be said of us, His Bride. Let me close today’s article with the same declaration I make in nearly every journal entry: Soli Deo Gloria! That’s Latin for “To God alone be the glory!” May the years – decades, I am praying – of our service together bring glory to Jesus, joy to His church, and people into His kingdom! I can think of no one better to grow with than you. Soli Deo Gloria! Amen!
Pastor Rob
Three Random, Related Words
God has called me this week to be more still and to be still more often. When I have complied with the Spirit’s invitation, He has ministered to my spirit in a surprising way. Father has been showing me that I am not the next Charles Spurgeon, or even the next Adrian Rogers – great men and great pastors in my book. Moreover, according to our sweet Lord, I am not even comparable to contemporary leaders I respect like John Piper or Andy Stanley, or friends I admire like Rich Ratts, Larry Allen, or Roy Southerland. And while I have benefited tremendously from the input of mentors in my life like Herb Hodges, Ron Coppock, and Jeff Pound, I am not shaped to be carbon copies of them or their ministries.
God is reminding me that He has designed me to be someone even better than my short-sighted perceptions of my heroes. He has created me to be another unique contribution to His chorus of Image-bearers – namely, me, just me, only me, but especially me. I am the only me there ever has been and ever will be. Father has extended to me the opportunity to be me in such a way that I bring glory to His name as only I can do. Spurgeon, Piper, Ratts, and Hodges can never be me! I am exclusively, exceptionally fashioned by our Creator-King to bring an honor and a glory to Him that even my heroes cannot.
So, God has stirred me to consider just how He has shaped me. What are the skills, passions, and aptitudes He has crafted into me that define me and my potential to manifest the truth about Him to the world? Some folk who have known me for some time tell me that I am eager, energetic, and enthusiastic. I gravitate toward passion and ambition. Lately, however, I have felt sluggish and lethargic. I wonder if perhaps I have been too busy trying to be somebody God never created me to be or trying to pastor an idea of a church He never called me to pastor. [Selah – Stop and think about that.]
Last week I published in this space some remarks passed to me from Mark about a busy church he visited recently. Mark’s candor and insight struck me, especially his summary thoughts about looking for a church. From the first time I read Mark’s note, I have been using a profound word picture he shared to help me assess and reign in my efforts as a minister and as a man. He described the church this way: “They tried really hard to get 10 pounds in a 5-pound bag.”
Again, I ask, “How has God shaped me?” And in light of Mark’s comment, I am moved to wonder, am I trying really hard to get 10 pounds into a 5-pound bag? Am I even putting the sort of things into my bag that belong there? Groceries have their own bag and gym clothes another. But we don’t generally carry groceries in a duffle bag! [Selah – Stop and think about that.]
God’s Word exhorts: "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up" (Galatians 6:9). In the midst of my stillness, I received some encouragement from H.B. London, Jr., the Vice President of Pastoral Ministries at Focus on the Family. He related the following “Simple Solutions To Overcome Weariness,” which I hope help you as well.
1. Remember your church is God's church.
2. Don't put so much emphasis on the immediate — it's the long run that counts.
3. If you're tired, take some time off. You only complicate things when you burn the candle at both ends.
4. Please do not take yourself so seriously. Mellow out and just relax.
5. Identify your stress point. It might be something totally unrelated to your church life.
6. Determine not to live in isolation. Call a colleague.
7. Examine your "true" relationship with your Lord. Is it mechanical or relational?
8. Laugh! When was the last time you just had fun?
9. It is not just about you. It is about an audience of One — and you know who that is — and it is not someone giving you a hard time!
10. Prioritize — "Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" (Hebrews 12:1).
To the ends of the earth until the end of time!
Putting 10 Pounds in a 5-pound Bag
I don’t know about you, but I am just about worn out from summer break! We are now in what I am affectionately billing Committee Season – that stage of our church year when several key leadership teams sacrifice time from home and leisure in order to see to certain vital administrative necessities institutions like ours require. Please pray with me for the work of our Finance Committee, Nominating Committee, Long-Range Planning Committee, Children’s Ministry Leadership Team (KidzTown KommitteeJ), Trustees, etc. I thank Jesus daily for these faithful saints serving on our committees.
I have discovered a valuable life lesson to be gleaned from our current busy-ness with business. Perhaps an email I received this week brings some perspective and clarity to our conundrum. Mark and Wendy will be moving their precious family to the
Last Sunday I went to church … in
The service was overly complicated and, honestly, it was a service, not a time of worship. They had several songs, a special speaker, a baptism, a time for the kids to come sit up front and hear a special kids’ lesson, the sermon, and then, to top it off, they had the Lord’s Supper. They tried really hard to put 10 pounds in a 5-pound bag. All of those things were important, but there was so much that each item lost some of its importance.
With our upcoming move I’m starting to think about shopping for a new church when we get to
Here is what I want simply to say:
· The church I visited was not simple, it was terribly complicated, and I was turned off by it.
· A few things done well are better than a dozen things done poorly.
· If churched people are not excited about a church when they visit, you can double that lack of interest for the unchurched families who visit.
· If you want me to join a church, it better be good for my kids.
I have learned it is nigh impossible to radiate the joy of knowing Jesus when we’re stressed out doing religious work. I have also recognized that your pastor has been far too busy trying “really hard to put 10 pounds in a 5-pound bag.” Maybe it’s time we step back, take a deep breath, and … wait on the Lord!
To the ends of the earth until the end of time!
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