Lenten fast

This is really on the second year I have gotten into the idea behind Lent. I think the focus on inner renewal and focusing on the resurrection and its implications for our lives and ministry is worth the effort. So, as part of my Lenten fast, I am giving up blogging for the next 40 days. I will resume the day after Easter. In the meantime, I ask that you pray for my family. My wife is due April 4. Our third girl, Miley Elizabeth is scheduled to enter the world that morning. Also, pray for my ministry, this time of year at our congregation is insanely busy with all of the LTC preparations, and other demands on my time. A blog break would be nice, I am also working on foregoing coffee during this season of fasting.

 See ya’ll after Easter.

Levitcus: God is involved in the details of life

I want to draw your attention to the book of Leviticus. Twenty Seven chapters of regulations and laws. What God spoke to Moses on Sinai, in the book of Exodus, he expounds upon in Leviticus. Leviticus is God’s care for the daily life of the new-free people of God from Egypt. There are rules for sacrifices, feast times, relationships, purity, disease control, dietary instructions, and worship. Reall of life is dealt with. Sometimes we get to thinking that God isn’t involved in our day to day lives. If God is so other-worldly, surely he doesn’t care about the details of our lives. This line of thinking is simply not true. For the picture of God we are given in Leviticus is one of a loving God, actively pursuing his people in relationship. God desires obedience, longs to dwell with his people. This same God that was in the details of Levitics is the same Yahwheh that is involved in the details of your life. He still relentless pursues you today and desires to live among us as he did his wilderness children. God still desires our obedience. While we may not live under the law, we still daily bear the responsibility of loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving our neighbors. These two commands, sum up the Law and the prophets. These two commands affect all areas of life, just as the details given in Leviticus. God is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow!

to quick to critique

I spoke from Acts 2:14-41 Sunday night. Peter’s first sermon, on Pentecost. The day the Spirit came, the day the church was born. I love Acts 2, but for more than a simplistic love for my heritage. The last fews in the churches of Christ, all I have heard from Acts 2 is focus on v. 38, “repent and be baptized.” It dawned on me that point of Peter’s sermon is not baptism, but the story of what God has done in and is doing through Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Peter’s Pentecost sermon is all about Jesus. Baptsim is the faith response to Peter’s message of God’s working in Jesus. While baptism is not the point, it is certainly worth mentioning…This baptism that we undergo signals a new allegiance, life of total submission to God. Baptism re-enacts the story of Jesus, so when we go down into the water, we to are dying to our self-absorbed lives, we are buried and then we are arise out of the water reciepents of the Spirit of God to walk in the newness of life, and to begin sharing the good news of what God is doing in the world and has done in and through Jesus. Peter begins by telling the crowd that had gathered in the presence of strange rushing wind, and the hearing of their native tongues that the last days had dawned and that Jesus was the fulfillment of OT prophecy and all of our hope(qouting Joel, and Psalms 16 and 110).

I got to the end of this text, where it says, “With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation (v.40).” It occured to me that far often Christian people have been to quick to critique the culture and slow to proclaim the Christ. In our world today, before we can tell others about the dangers in our world we have to earn the right to speak into their lives, this is what Peter had done through the powerful manifestation of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Also, people in our world today want to see if our message meshes with our lives. I think the example of Peter is clear, throughout the rest of the known details about his ministry in Acts he lived message he preached. He, and the rest of the early church were missional. Christianity in its infancy was a fringe movement, with the task of taking the story of Jesus to the world. It should come as no suprise that the earliest Christians lived the message they preached.

Jump ahead some 2000 years. We do church instead of living as the church. We hide in our buildings and have made church about attendance and appearance. We’ve forgotten the missional thrust of our faith, to take this message of Jesus and his hope into our broken world. We are called to be salt and light and offer healing and wholeness to our world. I believe we are saved to do good works (Eph 2:10). We are called to live the mission of Christ for the good of the world. We are to be God’s kingdom outposts, places of healing, places of shelter, places of refuge, places of hope. We are to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our world. I concluded the lesson Sunday night by sharing a question I think our community, and culture at large is asking of the church:

“what kind of neighbors are we going to be?”

I think we answer this question by building relationships in our community, and finding out what issues make the residents of our towns heart-sick, and we partner with them in these endeavors getting our hands and feet dirty for the kingdom of God.

Talking to your children about sex

I just read a recent article, that reports that parent’s views of sexuality does affect their children’s views. The big finding in the article, which hits home for me being the father of two daughters and another on the way, that the better relationship a father has with his daughters, the more likely they are to post-pone having sex.

Read the article for yourself, the link is provided above. I also say two staggering statistics that I think are worth sharing as well.

1. Taken from the HomeWord parent newsletter:

46.8% of Teens Have Had Sexual Intercourse. Every other year, the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, is conducted by the U.S. Center for Disease Control. The survey is conducted every two years during the spring semester and provides data representative of 9th through 12th grade students in public and private schools throughout the United States. The 2005 results of the YRBS reveal that there was no statistically meaningful change in the percentage of teens who have engaged in sexual intercourse since the 2003 survey. (In the past ten years, the percentage rate has fallen from 53.1% to its current level.) 62.8% of sexually active teens said they used a condom during their last sexual intercourse. This too remained statistically unchanged from the 2003 survey. Source: National Youth Risk Behavior Survey

2. Also taken from the HomeWord parent newsletter:

Most Americans Have Had Premarital Sex. Almost all Americans have premarital sex, says a report published in December, 2006 that analyzes federal data over time and suggests programs focusing on sexual abstinence until marriage may be unrealistic. The study, which used statistics from the 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, asked about 40,000 people ages 15-44 about their sexual behavior and traced the trends in premarital sex back to the 1950s. Of those interviewed in 2002, 95% reported they had had premarital sex. Source: USA Today.

There is no question that we live in a sexually charged world. As a parent and a youth worker, I worry about my children and the children I minister to. We musn’t be afraid to speak up about sex and teach our children about why waiting until marriage is always the right choice. Does any one even doubt the influence of media and culture on the views of sex our young people have? Our culture is sex-saturated that making it through adolescence unscathed from all of the sexual temptation is a daunting task, one as youth ministers and parents we must be willing to partner with our young people to help them navigate through.

Bed time rituals

This is the second week in a row, where right before my oldest goes to bed, I sit down next her and we read a couple of Bible verses from a book mark that takes your child through a series of verses from a pre-selected topic. Rachel is three, and has the attention span of of a 3.5 year old. But, she sits through the readings, head on my shoulder and nods with approval through the reading. She asks some questions, interrupts me often, and says “daddy, I love you,” alot. It is the most precious time of my day. After we read, we pray. I let her lead a prayer, and then I have been teaching her the Lord’s prayer not to just let her learn it to recite the words. But, the Lord’s prayer is plea for the kingdom of God to continue to break into our world, we are asking for God to make it more like heaven here, for reconcilation, for provision and for purification. I want my little one’s growing up thinking about, experiencing and living the petition in this ancient prayer. So, we pray it regularly. Last night, nearing the end, I was saying, “for yours is the kingdom, and the…” she cut me off and said “the power and the glory.” I almost cried. She is memorizing it, slowly, but she is getting it.

Now, Kenzie is another story. We look at the Bible story book, and inevitably, she will turn the page before I get done reading that particular page. But, both of my girls love books, and they love it when their daddy reads to them.

What do you do or did you do to get your children ready for bed?

from a locked room to interaction

The first Thursday of every month, a couple of available students go downtown to our church’s compassion center. A place of free medical, free legal, free treatment for people from our town and surroudning area that can’t afford health insurance, perscriptions, legal aid and other needs they have that most Americans would consider basic needs. Anway, over the last 3 years the students and I really haven’t done much there as far as ministering to the patients is concerned. We have said “hello” in passing, but never have initiated conversation or offered to do anything for those folks.

The way the compassion works is this, the people line up, they get inside, they sit, they get their need met and go home. Well, I really feel like the Lord has been calling me there to real ministry, so last night following the Lord’s leading, we launched a new phase of our youth group’s trek there. I sent my students around to the various people to ask them if we could pray for them or a loved one. I was amazed by the response of the people, a gloomy atomosphere became a place of optimism and the dark cloud of shame that hung over people’s heads for being in a position to require aid lifted. I think for the first time these folks felt the dignity of their humanity. Let’s be honest, sometimes when in a service work such as this, there is a tendency to see patients as a quota to be met, or a prescription to be filled. I want for our community there to be a noticeable difference when these good people walk into our doors, a difference that lets people know that our church body really cares about them.

So, our kids and I after making the rounds among the scattered people, went upstairs to assigned work room for our other reason for going there. But, before we really started working, we prayed and we basically asked that God’s shalom would permeate the workers and the lives of the people that migrate to our compassion center week after week. This experience moved my kids from observer Christians to stepping out into the unknown waters of practicing and professing Christians. Our churches are full of observers. Those that come to church to sit and take notes and then go home. Those who have very little to no engagement with their world, outside a trip to the grocery story or gas station. I want to change the way we think about church. I am beginning with my students teaching them that church is not a place, it is the people, and that we have a mission to live, and that we can make a difference in this community, and even the world by living out what we claim we believe about Jesus. My kids that experienced this prayer endeavor have talked to their parents about how it has changed them in the way they view the work that takes place in the our compassion ministry.

“Lord, I am asking that you do big things through the lives of these kids who are stepping out into uncharterd waters and choosing to live what they believe instead of hiding behind the church doors. Give us a boldness that we never knew we had about proclaiming the name of Jesus. Lord, all of this work is for you and for your glory, not ours. Lord, we go and mingle with the sick, broken people in our community so you can be glorifed, so people will see Jesus as real and present in this world. Father, thank you for stirring within us all a desire to make a difference. In Jesus name, Amen.”