There's a Song in the Air

In the first volume of his classic Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, CS Lewis portrays Narnia before the arrival of the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, and the subsequent thaw that heralds the coming of Aslan, as a land where it is “always winter and never Christmas.” Can anything be more dreadful to a child’s mind? Long frigid nights, shortened days colored dreary and gray, cold winds imposing their will on bare trees that can only creak in mournful complaint, week after tiresome week of school with Christmas vacation far from view, snow, ice, chill, and more snow, … Hold on a minute, that sounds a lot like winter in Michigan this year. To make matters worse, with the writers’ strike, I have to endure winter without some of my favorite television programs! (sigh)

Indeed, winter has maintained a relentless grip on us this year. Since early December, it seems creation has been chastising us with one wintry blast after another. In fact, we have had so many snow storms, ice events, and arctic temps on Saturday nights these past 8-10 weeks that I am very nearly convinced our enemy, the prince of the power of the air no less, has specifically targeted pastors’ hearts with this weather cycle and its impact on folks coming together on Sundays for worship and fellowship.

Take heart, beloved! I have some wonderful news! A most gladsome sound has reached my ear this week, a song with indiscernible lyrics but a most clear message in the melody. Three times this week, after long, cold nights, I have been greeted in the morning with the singing of birds! They have begun to greet the dawn just outside my bedroom window. Birds singing in the morning – surely the grip of winter must soon break!

They sang again this morning. They were still singing at mid-morning when a home health care professional visited my father-in-law. From my study, I heard him comment as well on the aviary arias (a fancy reference on my part to birdsong). He called the day “delightful” and declared it was especially so because of the birds singing.

Delightful – snow-covered, frosty, but delightful. The power of hope fascinates me. How marvelous that dreariness can be so easily transformed into delight. How magically hope warms our hearts, thaws our spirits from the icy clutch of despair, and stokes the embers of our courage so that we can trudge forward! When I had nearly resigned myself to give in to the gloom, hopeful whispers of joy steady me and stir me to look upward and outward again.

I find particularly intriguing today the messengers God often uses to transport hope from the holy majesty of His love to the humdrum monotony of our lives. The heralds He employs are not often grand, glorious, or awesome. Rarely does Father announce His graces and mercies into my life with the trumpets of angels or the rolling back of the skies like a curtain or anything my limited imagination might equate with a God-sized, heavenly declaration. He does not often bowl me over in dim or dark with an explosion of bright light. Instead, He seems to favor first dispelling the darkness and preparing my eyes to adjust with the softer glow of candles. He uses birdsong to melt the ice on my soul.

Seems to me God frequently introduces flickers of hope and joy with small and common things, hardly conspicuous and rarely ornate. Whether in plain sight or public hearing of any who would notice, God invites us to remember He is Who He says He is. He would remind anyone who would pay attention that He can, always has, and surely will continue to do what He says He can do. Winter may not want to let go, but let go it must, because God has ordained it so.

One man once heard God’s invitation to him when he was in the deepest throes of despair, a severe winter of the soul. What is particularly striking is how Aurelius Augustinus heard God call. The man, who would become better known to us as Saint Augustine, found himself weeping uncontrollably, in fitful despair at his failure to reconcile his heart with his mind and with his lifestyle. Try as he had, he could not find a truth that would liberate his soul from the emptiness his choices left him. Then he heard a child-like voice chanting what sounded like a nursery rhyme from beyond the garden where Augustine sat. The child sang, “Tolle, lege” – “take up and read.” He retrieved a copy of Paul’s epistles and began to read. God’s Word came alive for him that moment, and he finally found hope, joy, and new life in Christ that day. The messenger God used? Apparently, the instrument of God’s invitation to Augustine was a child singing a children’s song.

Have you ever thought God might desire to use you to be someone’s song? I believe He would use each of us if we were available to Him. His employment of us for eternal ends may very likely be so subtle, however, that even we, His instruments, might not recognize the impact of the song He sings through us to another person. Consider, for instance, an incident David Bruce reported to us in our prayer service Wednesday night.

While setting up his Pepsi display at the Speedway on Nine Mile and Pontiac this week, David nudged one two-liter over, which led to the whole stack rolling across the floor. As he set himself to picking up the mess, he thought how people just tend to walk on by rather than help one another. Then, to his surprise, someone stooped down and began to help him. When they looked at each other, they thought they recognized one another. As it turns out, David’s unexpected assistant, and God’s song of hope to him that day, also attends First Baptist Church – a young man named Nick! With no side-glances at God to get His favor, Nick simply saw a need and met a need. The result was a thawed, thankful heart.

“In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may … give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Pastor Rob

Love is a Verb

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about love. What is love? What does it really mean to love? When we say, “I love the Detroit Pistons, or Diet Pepsi Jazz, or my wife’s lasagna,” what does that suggest, if anything about other objects of my affection such as my wife, my kids, my church, or God?

I have wondered and worried this past month about what I could do for Donna this Valentine’s Day to convey to her how much I love her. What convinces Donna she is loved, treasured, cherished by me? How do I love my wife? More than the idea or feelings of love, how do I demonstrate to my bride I love her? How do I say to her that she has no competitors for my heart’s devotion? Is there enough evidence in my life to convict me of love in the first degree for my wife?

Saying “I love you” is nice, but is that all there is to love? If I say to Donna, “I love you,” every morning and every evening and countless times through the course of every day, is that enough? Surely love is more than a declaration, more than words spoken, sung, or put on paper. I mean, it’s a start, but merely saying the words does not a lover make me.

Perhaps the fact that I need her so much is proof I love her. I need her smile, her wit, her wisdom, her hugs. I need her near me to complete me, to protect me from myself, to encourage me and to cheer me on. But love cannot be defined by our need for the person or object we claim to love. That is actually selfish when we think about it.

In my quest to define love for my sweetheart, I have landed on a place of deep commitment and challenge. I come most near to loving her in a way that she feels loved when I invest myself in discovering what pleases her and then set myself to presenting that pleasure to her. Seems simple enough, but if I really want to show Donna I love her, a good place to start would be to ask, “Honey, when do you feel most loved by me?” Take care, however, that if the question is asked, there must be a commitment to act on what she says.

For instance, if I know that my wife feels loved by me when I spend time with her, when I rub her feet, or when I pray with her, well … love would prompt me to do so. If I know she feels loved when I help with tasks around the house or give my time and attention to our kids, love acts on that knowledge. If I learn she doesn’t want more jewelry or would be upset about our finances if I bought her a car, but that simply planning and taking a day or two away together fills her love cup to overflowing, not only do I save money, but I invest in our happiness when I hit the road with my beloved. In fact, if I know what pleases her but do not do that under the guise of finding the perfect gift, then I have actually shunned the perfect gift for my own ego’s sake. And that would not be love.

I learned a long time ago that if I truly love my wife, I could not play softball eight nights a week. I had to adjust my routine to accommodate her desires. Love is more than words. Love is more than feelings. Love is more that stuff. Love is a verb, an action verb. Love is demonstrated or proven authentic by the actions love takes. The Bible says, “we must not love in words or speech, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18).

How do we love God? For many of us, we almost instinctively answer the question by finishing the statement: We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind. Bravo! Jesus did in fact declare this to be the first and greatest commandment. But what in the world does that look like? What sets of attitudes, what sort of behavior will typify our lives if we love God with our whole being?

Perhaps some church people would follow up with: Well, if we love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind, then we are supposed to love our neighbor as we do ourselves. So, if we really love God we will love our neighbor. In fact, some would say we cannot honestly claim to love God unless that devotion moves us to love our neighbor. I would add, we cannot love our neighbor as ourselves until we love God first. But the question remains unanswered even still. How do we love our neighbors? What is love?

What are the indications in a person’s life that they do indeed truly love God? What if we were to ask God, “Lord, how could we show You we love you? What if God were to say, “Do this and I will know you love Me.” Well, actually, Jesus does say as much. He says:

If you love Me, show it by doing what I have told you. … the person who knows My commandments and keeps them, that’s who loves Me. … if a person loves me, he will carefully keep My word … Not loving Me means not keeping My words. … If you loved Me, you would be glad that I am on My way to the Father because the Father is the goal and purpose of My life (John 14:15-28, The Message).

If we love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind, then we will manifest that love in at least these three ways:

1. We will commit ourselves to know what He expects.

2. We will commit ourselves do what He expects.

3. We will commit ourselves to rejoice in His ways, even when we don’t feel His presence or understand His process.

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

Pastor Rob

To Grow or Not To Grow

Since becoming your pastor some eighteen months ago, I have definitely grown. In more ways than not, this growth has been much needed and gratefully received. For instance, I have grown in my capacity to love people. In addition, I have rejoiced in the growth Father has brought to my Bible study and my prayer life. I have also marveled at the opportunities He has provided me to lead people to Christ, though I have not been as faithful as I would like to seize each moment.

Some of my growth has been unexpected and, though needful, not particularly welcome when it began. For example, with the increase of my capacity to love people has come a commensurate amplification of heartache for people. I feel much more sharply than I can ever remember grief and anguish for other people when they lose loved ones, reap consequences of poor choices, or encounter the painful course life in these shadowlands affords.

I also miss people much more. On any given Sunday, when I see empty places once regularly occupied by one of our FBC family … well, it is very much akin to that first meal with my mom and siblings after Dad graduated to glory. It is as if a place remains at the table left vacant, but strangely filled with longing for someone dear to return.

I must admit, I have not always appreciated as quickly as I should the growth God brings to my sense of His greatness and my minuteness. Is it possible to grow in humility? Sounds ironic, but the truth is, while God has brought me to a place of much greater confidence in the glory and majesty of Jesus Christ, He has situated that place directly over the rubble of my own abandoned arrogance. This is good growth, but it is also more than humbling. It is often downright humiliating!

Indeed, in more ways than I can list here, I have grown since becoming your pastor in August 2006. At the end of each day, I am, for the most part, grateful for almost all the growth God has begun in me. One area of growth confronts me daily, however, about which I am not at all happy. Perhaps it is the most obvious growth to most of you (O wretched thought!). I have gained over 50 pounds in my brief tenure here! Yes, I have grown – over six inches in my waist alone!

This is not healthy growth. This growth threatens to shorten my lifespan and limit my effectiveness as a husband, father, and pastor. This growth must be arrested. Nay, more! This growth must be turned around.

This is not a new path for me. When I moved to Michigan, I weighed about 215 pounds and wore 38” trousers somewhat comfortably. A few years of travel across Michigan, dining out with pastors and leaders across our state, and keeping a pace that prohibited regular exercise, saw me balloon to nearly 260 pounds and finding 46” pants to be a tight fit. I was breathless after fifty paces, having trouble sleeping at night, and experiencing significant back pain.

Donna convinced me we needed a life change if I hoped to see any grand kids someday. We got serious about lifestyle, diet, and exercise. Within a brief three months, I had lost so much weight that people across the state wondered if I had become gravely ill or something. Eventually, I weighed just below 197 pounds and was nearly ready to wear 34” pants for the first time since college! I stayed fit until … well, about August 2006.

So, here I am, eighteen months later, and beginning to experience the same health hazards I thought I had conquered once and for all. This week, at the wise and loving insistence of my wife, I have taken up once more the challenge to better health. I wonder to myself, “Can I get this right this time?” I also remember five keys I discovered three years ago related not only to healthy physical life, but also to productive spiritual growth. These are the reason I have brought you on this personal testimonial thus far (as well as an invitation for my church to hold their pastor accountable).

1. We need to see the problem. If we do not own or admit there is a problem, we are not likely to change. Until we are dissatisfied with the status quo, we do not even desire to change. Einstein has been credited with the witticism: “Insanity is to keep doing what you have always done and expecting different results.” Put another way, if we keep doing what we have been doing, we will keep getting what we have been getting. If I want to be healthier and more productive, then I must address and alter the behaviors that have made me unhealthy. If we want to grow closer to God’s design for us, then we need to change our life patterns to produce that end.

2. We need to set a plan. My fitness plan involves adjusting my schedule, my diet, and my routine. I have to rid myself of some things and add some new. What’s your plan for growth in Christ this year? This week?

3. We need stay on principles. A friend commenting on diet plans told me a few years ago, “Any plan will work if you work the plan.” That is only as true as the foundation you build upon. I don’t think a plan like “eat only Snickers bars” will work. But if I have a passion to work a plan that is built on solid, reliable, time-tested principles, then that plan may work if I work it. God has given us clear instructions about how we can grow in Christ. Our plan must cleave to His direction, His life principles – prayer, Bible study, Love God, love one another, love our neighbor, etc.

4. We need the support of partners. When I set out to lose weight several years ago, a number of colleagues from whom I expected support actually discouraged me, even made fun of my attempts. I had a strong network of friends and family, however, who believed in the principles, the plan, and me. They were my partners. They cheered me on when I was tired and ready to quit. They guarded my practices and my portions. They loved me enough to hold me accountable, and they celebrated each milestone with me as well. Sounds a lot like what I understand the biblical concept of body life to be. Who are the 3-10 friends with whom you are growing closer to Jesus right now?

5. We need to settle on perseverance. This is not the first time, and probably will not be the last, that I have had to make significant changes to my life if I am going to be everything I hope to be for God’s glory. In each new season of life adjustment, I have had to determine early on that I was in this to the end – through good days and bad days. This struggle will not disappear in this lifetime. I must decide to choose the road to health for the rest of my life. In the same way, we must resolve always to know Jesus Christ more intimately and to make Him known more intentionally.

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

Pastor Rob

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