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It’s been a couple of days since my last update. Just sort of been disinterested in blogging. I guess I have the after holidays blues.

But more than that, I feel an inner groaning for redemption. Come Lord Jesus, come!

Temporary and fleeting…

"For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end" (Psalm 48:14)

 

A word from the Word: Read Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the teacher.

"Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless" (Eccl. 1:2)

 

Food for Thought: Temporary and fleeting…

Ecclesiastes is one of those books that if you’re not careful, you will find yourself avoiding. I know this is true for other books, books that we don’t understand. But what if I told you that Ecclesiastes is one of the most relevant books in the entirety of Scripture? Hopefully an eyebrow raised, and a curious look befell your face.

 

Ecclesiastes is a book where the author admits he is searching for meaning and purpose in this life. Notice how he begins:

 

1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

 2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!"
       says the Teacher.
       "Utterly meaningless!
       Everything is meaningless."

 3 What does man gain from all his labor
       at which he toils under the sun?

 4 Generations come and generations go,
       but the earth remains forever.

 5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
       and hurries back to where it rises.

 6 The wind blows to the south
       and turns to the north;
       round and round it goes,
       ever returning on its course.

 7 All streams flow into the sea,
       yet the sea is never full.
       To the place the streams come from,
       there they return again.

 8 All things are wearisome,
       more than one can say.
       The eye never has enough of seeing,
       nor the ear its fill of hearing.

 9 What has been will be again,
       what has been done will be done again;
       there is nothing new under the sun.

 10 Is there anything of which one can say,
       "Look! This is something new"?
       It was here already, long ago;
       it was here before our time.

 11 There is no remembrance of men of old,
       and even those who are yet to come
       will not be remembered
       by those who follow.

 

I’ll admit, I have had trouble with the opening few verses. I don’t like to think of life as being meaningless, but what if I suggested to you that the Hebrew word that is used in this verse, would be better translated as breaze or breath. This would better capture what is being meant here, that often the things we try to find meaning in are but a breath, they are fleeting (Iain Provan. NIV Application Commentary, Ecclesiastes. , pps. 51-53).

 

We live in a world where the prevailing message to us is "do whatever you want, whenever you want, with whomever you want."  Everything from Burger King to Sinatra tell us do things are our own way. We are consumer driven society, more concerned with the accumulation of stuff than the care of our own souls. This resembles the world of the author, who identifies himself as a son of David, King of Jerusalem. Traditionally, the authorship of Ecclesiastes has been attributed, but with the rise of modern Biblical criticism, the authorship of Ecclesiastes has been thrown into question. I think there is enough internal and external evidence to support Solomonic authorship. In the author’s own day, he reveals how he attempted to quench the deep soul hungering for something bigger than himself through every means possible. The author tried, wisdom, wealth, woman, etc. All of these things, he tells us are temporary, fleeting, a chasing after the wind.

 

I want to draw your attention to Eccl. 1:11, pay attention to what is said there. There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow. Sharp words, but true. We are society hyped up on the notion of bigger and better things. We tell our children from a very early age, that they have to be beautiful, smart, wealthy, and leave a mark on the world. Adults in our culture prostitute themselves to the god of money, and in so doing are destroying homes. Their castles of sand will collapse, and the author of Ecclesiastes tells us their perceived great accomplishments won’t be remembered.

 

So, what are we to do? Jesus draw us into the same truth that Solomon does, that life is temporary and we aren’t to get attached to worldly things. Do you typcially see a U-Haul following a herse? I didn’t think so. Jesus remedy to a world plagued by consumerism and self is self-denial (Lk. 14:26). For in dying to ourselves, and dying to our current world systems, then we will find life. We don’t need more self-help books or seminars. We need to be more like Jesus. 

 

Paul shares with us how at one time, he valued the externals of religion. When it came to the letter of the law, Paul was fautless. Paul’s life was consumed with crossing all of his "t’s" and dotting all of his "i’s." But then when Christ disrupted Paul’s self-absorbed religiousity, the great persecutor would become the Apostle of second chances. Paul was driven no more by rules and appearance, he was no consumed with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul knew the value of dying to himself and shares this truth,  "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more I consider everything a loss compared to surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ…" (Phil 3:7-8) over in Galatians 2:20, he writes, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

 

We all need more Jesus Christ in our life, and in the process of pursuing Him, know that he too pursues us. A life centered on Jesus Christ takes the emphasis of off us, and our achievements and anchors us on the rock solid foundation of the gospel.

When the van won’t start…

 

"Be still and know that I am God…" (Psalm 46:10)

 

A word from the Word: Read Psalm 46 and Mark 4:35-41

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1)

 

 The holidays and a busy travel schedule has kept me on the go. I am slowing down a bit, at least for a short time, so I wanted to resume our time together in God’s Word. I hope your holidays were great and that your New Year has gotten off to a good start.

 

This weekend, our youth group and I am some amazing chaperones went to Arlington, Texas for a big youth rally. I love Winterfest and this year I believe was my 7th or 8th year of going as a sponsor or as a group leader. The kids that have gone before have been my biggest advertisement, and so we had quite a few new faces and the same could be said for my adults who give up their weekend to go with us.

 

Everyone began arriving at church on Friday afternoon, bags were packed, sandwiches were made, the trailer was hooked up, the vans had gas, we circled in prayer, and then Satan began to attempt to unravel our weekend before it really began. One of our vans wouldn’t turn over. I had just taken it moments before to the gas station, and now it wouldn’t start. We were able to swap out vans, and then when we stopped to eat our early dinner, we somehow forgot to pack half of our sandwiches. It’s gets better, when we finally arrive at the convention center, we were actually 20 minutes early, all the kids and sponsors went to the first evening session and I went to get our hotel rooms. I didn’t have enough credit on my church card to cover all ten of our rooms. Thankfully, I had another card.

 

After the evening activites were done, we all were going to go back to our suite for a devotional and some instructions in the morning. As I was preparing to order for pizza for some starving kids, a sponsor had called me and reported she and her girls were harassed by one of the hotel’s security guards.

 

After putting out some small fires, I arrived in our devotional room 30 minutes late, and was greeted by one young high schooler, who was hungry and tired and asked for food. I was ready to pull my hair out, I guess his request was the straw that broke the camels back.

 

I write all of that to remind you what I was reminded of again…

 

God is in control. His plans are always best, and no matter what we experience our troubles are light and momentary. This weekend turned out to be one of the best weekends at Winterfest I have ever been a part of. The times of worship were great, the responses of the kids in our group who were moved by the Spirit to either accept Jesus or renew their faith was great.

 

I was reminded that Jesus turns messes into beautiful works of art. When things don’t go the way we plan or intend for them to go, we shouldn’t lose sleep over those things. I was forced to grapple with whether or not I would trust that God would take care of things or not. He always takes care of things.

 

I share this incident from our past weekend, because I know you have dealt with similar moments. When the car breaks down, or the unexpected bill comes that you can’t pay. We all have those moments when we feel like we are on a storm tossed sea and our Jesus is asleep in the stern. We stress out over the waves and the force of the wind. But we forget that we aren’t traveling alone. Jesus Christ not only goes with us, He speaks peace over our lives when we aren’t able to handle what comes are way.

 

So, if you had a weekend like mine. Spend some time today, reading Mark 4 and Psalm 46 and be reminded of who is in charge. Life runs smoother when we let God run things. Amen.

Winterfest

Winterfest Southwest was great. I will write more, I am tired and and need to sleep! Just know, there is no better truth than to ground yourself in the rock solid truth of Jesus Christ. He is our source of life, hope, peace, and joy.

 

 

Ministry ramblings, and thoughts on Christ and culture

I know, I have joined the ranks of infrequent bloggers. I apologize to any and all who have stumbled across this blog by accident or for some strange reason by choice. Alot has been going on in our church, busy with planning and preparing for Winterfest; planning and preparing for LTC; In the beginning stages of planning and dreaming for VBS; and praying about the possibility of revamping our entire education set up. Things are a stir in our church.

 

I am convinced probably more than ever that if there ever was a time to think about how we relate to, minister to, share Christ with our world the church must begin to think of how to impact culture. But the church hasn’t always handled culture well. For a long time, the church took the ostrich approach and buried it’s head and pretended it couldn’t see, or hear what was going on outside. This creates an "us" vs. "them" mindset. Or another option for the church is to throw off every thing and join with culture, prostituting itself for the sake of relevancy. I don’t believe this is the best option or the one that brings Christ any glory. I do believe that there is a point in which we must think of Christ, the church and culture and how these interact. I think the church should be a bridge, not a high suspension type bridge that is miles away from the danger of the current, but a bridge that at times is right in the thick of water, at times swamped by the current but a bridge nonetheless that provides a way from a dark and bleak world to a community impacted by the light of Christ. I believe that church and culture can co-exist, it has to. From the church’s inception, culture has been and will be a reality until Christ comes again.

 

The first century struggled with how to live in a community surrounded by an anything goes culture. The first century church lived in a world with quite a variety of religious options. Spirituality was prevelent everywhere. But still this first community of Christian believers struggled to intersect culture with the Gospel. Isn’t that our own struggle today? How do we bridge the culture we find ourselves in, remained unstained by the world and yet make the message of Christ relevant? If the church in the 21st century is going to impact our world, then we have got to get our priorities in order. Christianity has always been about Jesus Christ and how we live in community with God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Son. Pretending that there are more important things than Jesus, takes the focus off of the cross and the Christ that died there and places it somewhere elese, somehwere I believe that Christ never intended the focus to go.

 

Living out faith in the 21st century world is an invitation to join with God in his work in the world, and a surrending to him to complete his work in us. We have to recapture our place in the Story, and help others to share their stories, so that they can too find their place in the Story. The best part of all of this, is that the God who parted the Red Sea, and told Gideon to go to war with only 300 men armed with torches and water pots instead of 32,000 is still the same God that invites us to partner with him to change the world today.

 

How we will respond to God’s invitation?

NCYM

I have been home for a few days and still excited about this year’s NCYM (National Conference on Youth Ministries). My wife and I has looked forward to the 2006 conference ever since we left Colorado Springs at the outset of 2005. So, it should be no surprise that we are eagerly anticipating the 2007 conference.

I got to catch up on some friendships, make some new ones and particpate in some amazing worship, was fed by some of the brightest minds, and was broken.

The theme for the conference was “Who am I?” We spent the week looking at our identity in Christ. If we don’t find our identity in him, and look elsewhere we will never discover who we are. I know that may sound so simple, but it’s true.

I mentioned above I was broken. It had been a long time since I’ve been moved in the way I was at the conference. Each day, through the classes, worship times and the general sessions, God was breaking me and taking me to a place where I needed to catch a vision of Him and see myself as the one whom to God has said yes (2 Cor. 1:18-22). I don’t know about you, but I have struggled with accepting my role in the kingdom. I can relate with Paul’s words about being as one abnormally born. I didn’t grow up in the church, I didn’t attend a Bible college. I was a walk on for the Lord. I came to Christ with a lot of problems, alot of insecurities, and at times it has been difficult to see myself as Christ sees me. But, I really felt like I was able to do two things that I have had a hard time doing. The first one, was surrending my limitation to God’s power and the second is related, surrendering my limitations to God’s purposes. I don’t know what it was about this week, but for the first time in my ministry I really believed that who I am, is who God wants me to be, and that where I am, is where He has willed. It was refreshing and humbling to hear the Lord say “I am with you, I called you to be where you are.”

This conference was certainly the best one I have ever attended. To the NCYM board, brothers and sisters, thank you for what you do for Christ and what you do for youth workers. The blessings are too numerous to count.

happy new year!

Happy New Year!

2006 is here. I am sure like many of you, my wife and I watched the ball drop. It was sad seeing Dick Clark in the condition he was in. But, the New Year celebration isn’t the same without him.

With the New Year comes the chance to think about some goals, or resolutions for this new year. What are yours? I would be interested in hearing from you to see what your resolutions for ‘06 are.

Here are mine:
1. to deepen my relationship with Christ (getting in the Word more, and on my knees more)
2. to love my wife more deeply and compassionately
3. to be the best daddy to the two most wonderful girls in the world
4. to be a better youth minister
5. to be a better friend
6. to love those who are sometimes the most difficult to love
7. to lose weight, to exercise, and take care of my body
8. to be a better blogger.

Happy New Year to all of you. May 2006 be a year of many blessings and a year of going deeper into the heart of Christ.