Providence or Parasite? (Sun Am Follow-up)

Sunday morning I had the privilege of leading our people to consider and apply Mark's version of one of Jesus' most famous and beloved miracles - the Feeding of the 5k (I can only assume because everyone loves food especially when super-sized miraculously!! Hollywood made their own version of miraculous food multiplication but Jesus' is the original). Mark's version focuses intently on the need for rest or, more broadly to include fun & play, "leisure" (6:31). Disciples of Jesus Christ are called to work hard and be used by Jesus (6:7-13), risk much for Jesus (6:14-29), but also plan to rest with Jesus (6:30-47). However, along the way, to increase our trust in Jesus, he may plan to satisfy you with a season of more work or more rest. The point is: Doing His will & letting his will, whatever it may be, satisfy you is the best R&R we can get. It was out of trust in His Father that Jesus himself said when his disciples were encouraging him to rest & eat: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish his work" (John 4:34). 

So plan for work for and be used by Jesus, plan to rest with Jesus, but satisfy yourself with whatever Jesus brings your way.

The set-up. That's about as far as I could get on Sunday. But I left out an important question when it comes to "whatever," or more specifically, "whomever," Jesus brings your way. Some thing or, rather, some ones come between the prospect of rest and the reality of more "work" for the disciples:

"Now many of them saw [the disciples and Jesus retreating by themselves to a desolate place] and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them" (Mark 6:33). 

Some of you know this scene from your own life. Understand, due to the position of the Sea of Galilee set in a bowl from which you could see people heading down from the hills and the relatively small size of the Sea, the disciples were watching as in slow motion the reality ahead of them developing. Tired, having given all you can give, people - perhaps some of them the same people you just ministered to - are U-turning back your way to ask for more. Is such a person part of God's providence - His gracious plan for every thought, action, and member of His creation - OR parasite - someone who has begun to look to you and depend on you for what only Jesus can provide them? Providence or Parasite?  (**Please note: I recognize each person as inestimably valued by God and created in His image - only that some persons begin to function parasitically in certain relationships)

Fleshy hearts are always the right start. Something happens when you trust your life to Christ and begin to walk with him: You wish to pass on the same love with which Jesus has loved you. You are not only gifted with a new kind of love but a totally new heart: 

Ezekiel 36:25-27   ²⁵ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  ²⁶ And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

You may have cared for people before, but there always a hint of selfishness - whether it be to 'have that good feeling,' elicit a response from another, or what at the time seemed like a wholly altruistic purpose but now you recognize: "that was mostly for me." When Jesus invades your life, you learn to love freely because He puts His free love into this free heart given to you. Something else happens: You learn that growth as a Christian continues along as you begin to help another along to further trust and grow in Jesus. It was as a young Christian I heard Dr. Howard Hendricks say: "We begin to grow when we begin to take responsibility for another person." All of this is good and right. But there is a seedy underbelly for taking responsibility for growth of others that begins to show itself when (not if) others exploit it. Please hear me: As a Christian you can't avoid being exploited and used - when you offer to others in word & deed a message of a free gift apart from works - some will take the free gift and rob your works. However, I'm talking about the occasional person you will run across who takes and takes and takes. How can you tell such a person apart from them being someone God has providentially put in your path?

Understanding shepherds. I think our first clue in answering this question comes in Mark 6:34: "When [Jesus] went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things." Jesus had compassion. Though the crowd was filled with liars, cheaters, hypocrites, users-of-people, holier-than-thous, it is toward such (like us) Jesus has compassion. Compassion is a fantastic word - the Gk. is splangnizesthai which lit means "a longing from the bowels." This suggests that Jesus' physical constitution was affected - their pain literally makes him sick to his stomach. Again, the tender, responsive, fleshy middle - where the heart is located - is exemplified in Jesus. Why is Jesus splangnizethai'd? "Because they were like sheep without a shepherd." So Jesus will be their shepherd, right? He will hold them in his arms, cuddle closely, feel the warmth of his heartbeat against theirs. Except that would entirely misunderstand what Jesus means here by "shepherd." The shepherd/sheep metaphor in the Old Testament is indeed a rich one, but also perhaps misunderstood. James Edwards notes in his commentary on Mark: 

"As a metaphor, the shepherd of sheep was a common figure of speech for a leader of Israel like Moses (Isa. 63:11) or more often of a Joshua-like military hero who would muster Israel's forces for war (Num 27:17; 1 Kings 22:17; II Chronicles 18:16; Jeremiah 10:21; Ezek. 34:5; Ezek 37:24; Nahum 3:18; Zechariah 13:7). It is, in other words, a metaphor for hegemony, including military leadership and victory. In his compassion, Jesus sees a whole people...without a leader." 

In other words, these aren't people looking to mooch off the disciples, tell their sob story for the umpeenth time hoping someone will finally take them in as their own, nor be adopted as the sole and consuming pet project of one of the disciples, nor stop by every so often fishing for affirmation and compliments - these in Mark 6 are looking for a strong leader to lead them that they might become strong. Another way to put it: Some are looking to stay coddled lambs always nursing on newborn milk, but not here - these are looking to be healthy functioning, and productive sheep - dare I say: Strong Rams. Such people approach you in weakness but also seek guidance toward deliverance and change. 

Don't get me wrong, these are all wonderful images of Jesus that you may find in any church nursery built in the 1970s.

Teach us to care through prayer. Jesus leads others to himself by teaching them "many things" (v.34). This is how he begins to shepherd people looking for genuine change. While teaching truth about Jesus has a critical place, we can begin to lead others to the Shepherd through prayer. One reason prayer I have found prayer not just spiritually but also practically so helpful is that early on in an encounter or relationship prayer begins shed light upon whether the person has come to find life or to rob it. 

A busy man once relayed to Oswald Sanders: 

"Up to some years ago, I was always annoyed by interruptions...then the Lord convinced me that He sends people our way. He sent Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch. He sent Barnabas to Saul. So when someone comes in, I say, 'The Lord must have brought you here. Let us find out why He sent you. Let us have prayer.' This does two things. The interview takes on new importance because God is in it. And it generally shortens the interview...pleasant but brief." 

What I have found fascinating is that often times people don't really want prayer - they get antsy when I suggest it or, upon saying "Amen," immediately continue on with the complaint right where they left off as if prayer were a sneeze or a yawn mid-sentence that has no bearing on one's stream of thought - not to mention attitude or perspective. Prayer then either: (a) Brings the person to the One who can give life, sustain growth, and transform weakness to strength; or (b) Exposes an unwillingness to change. I've found great assistance from the Psalms so that I'm not just praying my own words but God's and subtly teaching the person to develop their own prayer language with Him also. I've also found it helpful to have a "go-to" Psalm. Mine is Psalm 130 (It gives a person words to the need for both help from circumstances and forgiveness from sin, truth that God alone can forgive, insistence on how we are to wait upon the Lord, and why God alone satisfy us - all in 8 verses!). Sometimes I'll pray it out loud but if I have a second Bible handy I encourage the person to look and pray with me.

Eugene Petersen wrote a brilliant article years ago, which was also a chapter title in a book of his, called "Teach us to care, and not to care." His thoughtful expose really helped me answer the question: How do you help people who wish to be helped and how can you tell who those people are? I'll leave you with this lengthy excerpt:

I do not mean simply praying for people, although that is involved. I mean teaching them to pray, helping them to listen to what God is saying, helping them to form an adequate response. Teaching people to pray is teaching them to treat all the occasions of their lives as altars on which they receive his gifts. Teaching people to pray is teaching them that God is the one with whom they have to deal, not just ultimately, and not just generally, but now and in detail.

  Teaching people to pray is not especially difficult work — anyone of us can do it, using a few psalms and the Lord’s Prayer — but it is difficult to stick with it, for we are constantly interrupted with urgent demands from family and friends to, as they say, “do something.” And it is difficult to get the person who has asked for help to stick with it because there are a lot of other people in the intersection, offering short-cut approaches for providing care, shortcutting God and promising far quicker results. It is difficult for all of us to stick it out, for often in the confusion and noises of wasteland traffic, it is hard to stay convinced that sin and God make that much difference.

   But difficult or not, this is our calling. Whatever else we are doing is with our hands, with our feet, with our minds — bandaging, directing, giving. This is the core of what we are doing, getting them in touch with God, with neighbor, receiving love, grace. If we do not use these occasions of need to teach people to pray, we cave in to the pressures of care in which there is no cure.

8 reasons why enjoying God with others is better than you and Yahweh "doing your own thing"

This past Sunday I had opportunity to teach from Psalm 40 and try to explain why this prayer-song was a kind of pattern for David's spiritual life - and ebb and flow from worship in private prayer closet (in his case - fields and caves) and public worship with God's people (whether it be dancing before an Ark in his underoos or in the sanctuary). My emphasis for Sunday was upon how running back each day to the private prayer closet - alone with God - serves to re-fuel and sustain every effort of corporate worship.

However, I did make a brief comment: Public, corporate worship - hearing from God's Word together and singing it to one another and to God - protects and enlargens the prayer closet. This is the other side of the coin in developing intimacy with God. The impetus behind that brief comment largely stemmed from a sermon I read last week by David Clarkson.

David Clarkson (1622-1686) was a colleague and successor in the pulpit to the famous Puritan John Owen. His sermon is entitled: Public worship to be preferred before private from Psalm 87:2 and it contains an absurd number of Roman numerals that will cause you to either grow dizzy or begin to form a shape (various Star Wars or Lord of the Rings characters are common) if you look at them (or through them) for too long. 

Ultimately I disagree David's his overall assessment in part because of the inherent dangers of vanity that accompany overindulgence in worshipping God in the midst of others, which Jesus warned us about (Matthew 6:5-6), but mostly because it begs the question: Why would you try to pit two friends against each other?!. The private re-fuels and sustains genuine, lasting public worship while the public worship protects private worship from becoming introspective, selfish, heretical while spurring on insights in to God, the Bible, life that you wouldn't have noticed yourself. Each serves the other as a good friend would. But many of his points are insightful, well-girded by Scripture and so worth taking a gander.

Without further ado, here are 8 reasons (Clarkson gives 12 but 4 of them are, in my estimate, not well-supported) to stop telling yourself: "Oh, I'll just stay out later and spend time with God by myself on the beach when I wake up" or "Must...hit...snooze...button.  Sleep...better...than...preacher" or "God understands that I have ____ going on or ____kids or need to put in ____ extra hours at work" and instead enjoy the benefits promised in God's Word of gathering together to grow from and gladly respond to God's Word.

1. The Lord is more glorified by public worship than private. This first point by Clarkson should makes sense. More people means more voices singing, more gifts at the table, more testimonies of thanksgiving - but also more opportunity for the Holy Spirit, through the bond of peace (Eph. 4:1-3), to make unlikely unity out of such diversity of backgrounds, ethnicities, interests and seasons of life. For brining unity where there would otherwise be relational chaos, God receives maximum glory.

2. There is manifest more of the Lord's presence in public worship than in private. Clarkson argues for this beautifully: "The Lord has a dish for every particular soul that truly serve him; but when many particulars meet together, there is a variety, a confluence, a multitude of dishes. The presence of the Lord in public worship makes it a spiritual feast, and so it is expressed in Isaiah 25:6."

4. There is more spiritual advantage in the use of public worship. For instance, certain deeper spiritual truths which one tries to suss out on his/her own, can be apprehended more readily and precisely when he/she listens to good preaching and worships together with others. Clarkson rightly quotes Psalm 73:16-17 here. Asaph has just been querying GOd as to why the wicked and proud prosper - it all starts to make sense once he arrives to the sanctuary to worship God together with others. For one thing, you realize the true prosperity you possess in community and being a part of the church of the living God most acutely when you get there.

5. Public worship is more edifying than private. In private, you seek God merely for your own good, but in public you seek the good of both yourselves and others. Every person who trusts Jesus brings with them a gift "to serve one another" (1 Peter 4:10), "for building up the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:12), and "for the common good" (1 Cor. 12:7).

6. Public worship is a better security against apostasy than private. Heresy is a fun word, but apostasy - yikes. The former has to do with believing and espousing a false teaching or truth but often without contrarian motives. Apostasy, however, is the espousing of false teaching as an act of willful rebellion. Either way, when one locks himself or herself in the private closet without bouncing ideas about the Bible, truth, Jesus off someone else, it's easy to stray the course - often without contrarian or malicious intent. I remember years ago doing this once for the first sermon I ever preached during our preaching lab in seminary. The combination of wanting to preach something more 'original' and not really running my notes by anyone else made for an interesting teaching from II Corinthians re: how people should plant churches. There was some errant content in there. Lesson learned. "Where there is no guidance, a people fails / but in an abundance of counselors there is safety" (Proverbs 11:14).

8. Public worship is the nearest resemblance of heaven. A wedding feast, a banqueting table, a heavenly city are all descriptions that entail more than just you and J.C. over a candlelight dinner. 

10. Public worship is the best means for procuring the greatest mercies, and preventing and removing the greatest judgments. So next time you hear about your church conducting a prayer meeting, a prayer vigil, etc, I would caution against the "I'll just join in from home" approach. The number of verses to support the above statement are astounding. Joel 2:15-16: "Blow the trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly, gather the people. Consecrate the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, even the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room and bride her chamber" (you can read Joel 2:17-18 for God's response). II Chronicles 20:3-4 & Acts 4:31 are other poignant examples of God calling His people to come together or using His people as they come together to seek Him.

12. The promises of God are given more to public worship than to private. There are more promises to public, and even the promises that seem to be made to private worship are applicable and even more powerful in the context of public worship. A great example is Revelation 3:20 - often quoted as a most encouraging verse (ie. God is knocking at the door of your heart). But really this invitation is extended not to an individual but to a church. Jesus will come in and fellowship with the church body that hears His voice and invites Him through the door.

We need Sunday because all is not yet Sunday

I've been thinking and reading a lot this week about worship as I prepare to preach on this final avenue of how our church's leadership envisions carrying out our God-assigned mission to introduce people to Jesus and help them grow by his grace.

I am looking forward Zac Hicks leading us in praise and worship when myself and one of our elders attend the Liberate Conference in Ft Lauderdale, FL next month. He wrote a very thoughtful blog post entitled "Why the Tension between Public and Private Worship?" as to why we need to diligently drive ourselves to corporate worship every Sunday. His conclusion stems from the following quote from a book written in the 1960s (by a non-hippie named Jacques Von Allmen) called Worship: Its Theology and Practice. Von Allmen writes:

[Corporate Worship] is necessary because the Kingdom of God is not yet established in power. [Corporate worship] as such is necessary because the whole of life has not yet been transformed into worship. Thus it suggests that the Kingdom exists already, like the leaven in dough, but is not yet established. It shows that Sunday is other than weekday, that all is not yet Sunday. 

Hicks rightly relates Von Allmen's brilliant observation to the already/not yet tension of God's Kingdom that exists through Jesus Christ. One day everything will be perfect - including a perfected and constant community wearing white robes and worshipping the Lamb with no more hunger nor thirst to beset us (Revelation 7:13-17) - but until then we lean into little tastes of divine perfection to keep us going in advancing His Kingdom. God has called us to display saltiness to the world. What does this mean but a kind of set-apartness or difference that makes our lives attractive or 'taste good'.

"You are the salt of the earth" (Matthew 5:13)  

"Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?" (Mark 9:50)

"Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person" (Colossians 4:5-6). 

Blanding through Blending. However, Satan, through the wicked tripartite combo of sin/demonic/world, seeks to blend us in and remove our flavoring (consider, for instance, Paul's description in Ephesians 2:1-3 of lemmings following what most think is just the way of the world, but is really Satan's way and increasingly adopted as our own stubborn way). So when we chicken out of sharing a little bit of good news about Jesus with a co-worker, tell & then convince ourselves: "Hey, I have rights too!" (self-serving act to follow), throw in your coarse joke you would never say around church peeps, thoughtlessly use the person working on the project with you for your own gain (or use your child or spouse for that matter) - these are ways we lose flavoring as we begin to blend in with everyone else and, suddenly, voila! : "See! Christians aren't any different." Yet, it's always a struggle to prevent blanding through blending. In fact, it's probably why you are reading this blog entry now: You're feeling tired/blah at work or beaten down by the same ole circumstances at home and could use a pick me up. So you read this in your inbox or clicked on a link that brought you here.

Sustaining your Flava. Sunday corporate worship then becomes essential as the start-to-the-week push you need - a reminder that there are others like you on the same mission, at the same well in need of the same grace, and opportunity to remind each other of God's goodness through hearing and singing the Word of God. Likewise, M-F, private prayer closet worship re-fuels us for the day ahead. God uses time in His Word both corporately and privately to remind us of promises that HE is better, to re-focus us on His mission, and to drink in the amazing reality of grace and forgiveness through a return trip to the cross. He brings you to focused time of worship with the entire church on Sundays or with HIm alone to pray against (and in some cases for - see: people) and re-arm yourself against forces that seek to make your life blander through blending. 

The Forever Sunday. Psalm 34:8 is one of Katie's favorite verses (it hangs above our kitchen sink): "Oh,taste and see that the LORD is good! / Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!"
The provocative language in this verse is the "Taste and See" as it hints that the God of

the Universe can be experienced as sweetly and readily as a good steak is tasted or a Cayman beach is beheld. But I've often failed to meditate on the means of such blessed and experienced goodness - namely, "taking refuge in Him." A refuge is not a place a person remains or lives out his/her life (notice the Psalmist doesn't say: "residence" or "place of business"), but a place to which a person returns or even runs - recognizing their need for help, safety, and re-fueling. We are promised that one day we will have no need of certain now-essential-items like four walls and a roof because God will be our home (Rev. 21:3), no need for tissues or therapists or pastors for that matter for their will be no more crying or pain (Rev. 21:4), no more places of worship because God the Father and God the Son will be ever available to satisfy our praises (Rev. 21:22), no more Sun because God will bring light through the Lamb our lamp (Rev. 21:23, 22:5), no fear because there is no one bad (Rev. 21:27). 

So until our worship looks like that, we must (and we get!) to gather on Sundays, each of us bringing along a gift to serve and encourage the other, building one another up for the week ahead so that those we encounter M-F might so taste and see God's flavor in us - the difference in us - that they'd join us first for the following Sunday and then the forever Sunday. 

Talking Trinity with a J's Witness (or anyone else...)

This past Saturday was our last non-youth-sports Saturday in January so we were pleasantly enjoying the morning sun and the nonsensical notion of me building a tree fort (which, miracle!, happened much to the chagrin of two fingers on my left hand), r when I heard folks knocking at my office door. The gentleman and his wife were friendly, intelligent, and determined to ask me about whether I would want their literature. I admired their conviction and boldness knowing I can learn something from them about both. After saying, "I'll take it but my interest is mild in the literature itself but I'm interested in how it affects you," we soon approached a fork in the road when I admitted: "I think we share differences in what we believe about Jesus and the Trinity."

Jehovah's Witnesses espouse that all Christians believe, as the Mormons do, not in a Trinity but a Triad of gods (three separate gods with the same essence in various degrees). In fact, they'll try and convince you that the "Trinity" originates not in Christianity but from three ancient Egyptian gods: Osiris, Isis, & Horus. 

So I'm posting a wonderful little article called: Is God a Trinity or a Triad? from my friends at carm.org - not simply because I'm concerned how we respond to a Jehovah's witness but also because I'm finding little hints from dear friends in the church who are questioning if Jesus really is God or just a really, really blessed Son who is an important example and even died an effective death for our sake. The above article on the Trinity gives a simple yet brilliant analogy stating that the universe is composed of three elements - space, time, and matter - each of which reflects the Triune God who created them in that each has three manifestations. If this sounds complicated, it's not and I think you'll find it helpful for both yourself and to pass on. Check it out above.  

I recognize people are often afraid to ask such questions even if they are milling around in their own minds - but they need not be. We all have them, especially as we just begin to grow in Christ. So don't be afraid to ask your pastor(s) questions and, in conjunction, carm.org is also an excellent resource for reference.

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (II Corinthians 13:14).

Free Audiobook for January: THE Book (ESV Audio Bible)

There is something about hearing the Word of God that gets in people. In fact, even among pastor friends of mine when one is expected to get nuanced and talk through biblical concepts in often enigmatic, smarty-pants ways, I increasingly enjoy simply hearing the Bible quoted to me - to discuss it, chew on it, and ultimately be further challenged and edified by it. In fact, please never hesitate to think you are sounding somehow brown-nosing, overly 'spiritual', or "he-probably-already-knows-this" by quoting Scripture to me. It will be a gift every time that I will hopefully choose to receive as such (I mean a friend did just this past Sunday refer to me publicly using Genesis 3:10 "I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid, because I was naked, and hid myself" [p.s. - I was apparently the one in the garden in this scenario] - so I'm a little hesitant to receive wholesale all verses directed toward me).

The apostle Paul says it like this in Romans 10 as he quotes Deuteronomy 30:14: "The word of God is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so you can do it." Then later in verse 17: "Trust comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of Christ" 

It is so good to have His Word nearby to hear it & do it so that trust in our Savior grows as might the do-ing that so pleases Him.

So downloading this free version of the ESV Audio Bible is the ideal soundtrack to start the year. I should note that this particular audio version gives easy access to particular books and chapters as needed.

Danger of Christian Karma during the charitable Season of Christmas

Many of you - as we have recently done at SCC - have just recently completed filling bags for the hungry to receive a Christmas meal, purchased a Christmas gift for a child who has an incarcerated parent, or even assembled your family to collectively "give back" during this holiday season.

Speaking from a wealth of charitable experience, Peter Greer, President/CEO of Hope International gives us in this brief interview a prophetic warning and opens up about his own "buying-in" to Christian Karma (ie. if I do good, God has no choice but to bless me). These lines alone are well worth the read:

The only antidote that enables us to truly sustain our service is to constantly remember that our service is downstream from the gospel. We fight hopelessness and discouragement by constantly returning to the Cross and the empty tomb. Then we get to work loving our neighbors in response to the grace we've already experienced.

YES! "Constantly returning to the cross" - something I have to tell myself about a dozen times a day for my love to last and with pure, God-ward intentions.

May God richly bless your blessing others this Christmas as you return & respond to the greatest blessing of all - the bottomless fuel of the grace of God expressed through the cross of Christ and the empty tomb. 

Sun AM Follow-Up: How to dish out samples of God's unusual goodness

Yesterday we had opportunity to corporately examine four straight rapid-fire parables about God's Kingdom given by Jesus in Mark 4:21-34 - to which, having heard, some came to Jesus privately and asked for further explanation and understanding. I made the claim: Jesus uses parables like these to offer a sampler of unusual goodness so that those who taste might inquire within. 

Jesus used situations from everyday life to show that just as there is unusual goodness in everyday things like lamps, ingredients for baking, and the family farm - likewise life in Jesus' kingdom is both normal (lived out among marriages, work, schools, etc.) but infused with unusual goodness (eg., marriages are transformed, work becomes purposeful and redemptive, the aim of learning goes God-ward). Jesus' purpose seems to have been to doling out not an exhaustive understanding of life in the Kingdom but just enough unusual goodness that those interested might seek out Jesus afterwards for a better understanding.

As rich as our time in the Word was, I regret not having enough time to get to how those who have already tasted, seen, & taken refuge in King Jesus (Psalm 34:8) might likewise dish out little samplings of God's unusual goodness.

So here are three suggestions for giving others a taste of God's unusual goodness that might lead to further inquiry:

1) One's testimony. A couple weeks ago, we had our annual Testimonies of Thanksgiving Sunday and, per usual, it was so encouraging to hear the saints in our still young church see the pattern of God's plan and equipping in their lives, note how he was moving some of them into a season of trusting in Him alone, give praise for his faithfulness to sustain them with His Word and through Community, and trust Him to do miracles through prayer. 

I went back and re-listened to the testimonies last week. Let me share with you two powerful phrases people used & I want you to try to listen to them as if you were not yet a Christian (and maybe you aren't): "All I really need to be complete is God"; "Having made a hard decision that took some courage, God really opened up the floodgates in our lives."

"Complete in God" - there are all kinds of questions that might emerge. "What does she mean by complete? Family life, inner emotions, sense of purpose? And does this mean God guarantees to tie up all the loose ends in my life?" Those questions are good and can be asked during follow-up, but Lord willing and by the power of the Holy Spirit hopefully the person hears is, "Complete in God" and responds: "Completion sounds really, really good." "Floodgates?! I don't know exactly what that entails, but it sounds really, really good."

So testimonies rarely lead contain full explanations of the gospel - God's plan for salvation - but the Holy Spirit often uses them to give people just enough goodness to cause them to approach you about it later and inquire further.

2) Dole out a "what if" in the face of unbelief. In high school and later as a university student I was highly involved in an organization called Young Life, whose mission is to love unchurched teenagers for Christ. A Young Life club meeting consisted of games, wacky skits, some type of gross food being consumed for entertainment of the masses, fun songs, a short gospel message, and usually one serious or spiritual song. During my years of involvement in Young Life there was one song that I heard more than any other: "What if what they say is true"...

What if what they say is true? / What if you walked on water? / What if you healed disease? / Can you heal me?

What if what they say is true? / What if you rose on Easter? / What if you conquered the sea? / Can you conquer me? 

Looking back, this was a perfect song for a group of curious but unconverted people. A series of questions for people who still say: I don't believe in that stuff. But: What if you did? How would that change your life? Most have not thought through the implications to the question: What if Jesus did rise from the dead on Easter? Most haven't considered how their lives would be different if there was a man claiming to be God, offered life-saving news, predicted his body would rise from death, and then - according to all available accounts - DID! 
Asking "What if" in the face of unbelief is something I'm trying to do. I'll tell you why:

Everyone needs a carrot - a reason, reward, a clear motivating difference to invest even in investigating. I recently read the story of how advertising gave rise to the phenomena of brushing one's teeth. In America, for example, the rise of wealth in the early 20th century brought with it a concurrent rise in the consumption of sugary foods. So many American men drafted for WWI military service had rotting teeth, that the government officials declared dental hygiene a national security risk! And, yet, not even a declaration like this caused more than a few hundred people to brush their teeth. Nothing was working. So a company called Pepsodent hired a world-renowned advertising specialist named Claude Hopkins to try and popularize the use of toothpaste. There were all kinds of reasons to use toothpaste - but Hopkins was onto something - he recognized every person needed to immediately identify with a tangible reward in order to create in them a craving for it. So despite all the medical reasons for toothpaste, Hopkins zeroed in on the "mucin plaques on teeth" which he afterward called "the film." This film is a naturally occurring membrane that builds up on the teeth regardless of how much one eats or how often one brushes. In other words, the film is ultimately harmless. Nevertheless Hopkins pitch over the airwaves: Toothpaste will help get rid of that cloudy film you can feel on your teeth. He then would show people licking their teeth with their tongues and instructed his viewers to do likewise. What happened? People were immediately able to feel the film on their teeth even as they watched the ad. They immediately connected with a reason to buy-in to toothpaste. 

Likewise, if we can help people consider right away some tangible need or some attractive betterment to their life, they might buy-in to at least investigating further. Throwing back to an unbelieving person this question of "What if it was true" causes them to imagine, to visualize for themselves life with a resurrected Lord. The possibility all of sudden seems more possible. The carrot, the reason, the reward has gone from a vague romantic myth to an articulated, shared, "I just said that out loud" possibility of life change.

3) Share thanks for the smallest examples of unusual goodness in regular life. As mentioned before, Jesus used lamps, ingredients for cooking & agriculture because these were items one ran across in during regular life in 1st century Palestine. A parable in fact was, above all, culturally-relevant in its communication of truth. What are such common touch-points in today's culture that express a similar thread of uncommon goodness? This particular method takes some consideration, playfulness, and creativity. Here are just a couple examples that came to mind:

• GoogleMaps GPS. Recently Katie and I travelled to Costa Rica. We rented a car and about half way through the trip started to wonder if that was an unwise decision. Our directions took us off the paved roads and onto barely beaten paths that overlooked unprotected cliffs. And while I had no overseas data nor wifi access, the GoogleMaps GPS tracked my vehicle anyhow and gave us a way out, preventing our children whom we left at home from becoming orphans. It was a totally free service that costs Google money.
• University Scholarships. Recently my eldest stumbled onto this notion (kids are great by the way at helping adults rediscover how undeservingly good some things are). "So dad, colleges will actually pay you to go to their school." "Yes," I paused, "That's pretty great, isn't it." (I wanted to add: "And you may want to look into being a genius or a great athlete because your dad isn't loaded" - but refrained).
• Public Libraries. Books loaned out for free.
• Interest from a bank account. We will protect and insure your money plus we'll pay you for it.

Especially as we consider how accustomed people are to complaint, the hope might be to express: The King is still present here & showing Himself to us through uncommon goodness - if we would but open our eyes to see. I tested out the GoogleMaps GPS example this morning on a few people in a coffee shop I frequent - one of whom responded: "Never thought about that. That's a pretty positive outlook. Any more good news you can tell me?" Um....yes!!! I mean the Holy Spirit just opened the door to respond to the question: Any more good news you can tell me? 

Final Word. As I've tried encouraging you here with how you might give others a taste of God's goodness, I recognize the questions arise: But shouldn't I also explain about the costliness of following Jesus? Shouldn't I relate to them about how it's not always easy, that I still have doubts? Should we not also present to them a clear understanding of sin and the best news of all that trust in Jesus is the solution for sin against a Holy God? Of course, these essentials need explanation and there will be time for that - but in the knowledge that no one consumes a meal in one bite, let's first give them a taste of the unusual goodness of life in God's Kingdom that they might further inquire about these other essentials and so consume the whole message of the gospel.

Advent Guides for Families & Adults

Advent comes from the Latin adventus and simply means, "coming." It has served the church through the centuries as an intentional way for Christians to try to sense what it was like to anticipate the coming of the world's Savior - as predicted as far back as the Book of Genesis - and to anticipate the time when He will come again to restore all things. 

Advent begins today and culminates on Christmas Day. 

Here are a couple ways to intentionally celebrate the Savior with your kids during the Advent season and one way to go solo:

http://www.vergenetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/AdventBook2013.pdf. Advent 2013: The coming of the Rescuer is a FREE resource from the Austin Stone Community Church. It can be done alongside your regular Bible but also with The Jesus Storybook Bible, which we have available from the church. It also includes a coloring for each day which can be cut out and transformed into a Christmas Ornament to hang on the tree.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-expected-one-advent-guide/id736051191?mt=8.  The Expected One Advent Guide will cost you 99 cents in the App Store or alternately you can purchase it for $1.99 at Lifeway publishing. While it may cost you a buck 


Advent for adults: https://itunes.apple.com/cz/app/advent-devotions/id737013885?mt=8

Relating to my church when I don't have kids

Katie and I recently returned from an amazing vacation during which, for the first time in seven years, we were able to leave our kids behind. One of the nights we were away a single friend in our church body, who is very precious to us, was gracious enough to watch our children. In some ways, it might have been easier to have our boys stay "with a friend" that night - a typical nuclear family. But three factors opened the door: (a) Intentionally broadening our horizons (and conversations and things in common) to befriend our brothers and sisters free of children; (b) That person intentionally broadening their horizons to befriend a family with children. Katie, myself, and our boys were immensely blessed by our friend taking two nights (one to orient herself with their schools and their routines) to serve our family;  (c) Jesus Himself, through whom such possibilities of unlikely friendships become possible (see Ephesians 2:11-22). And so we reached out and asked a favor which she could meet and did...

As the years go by participating as a significant member of one's church and you are single without children or married without children, I recognize there exists a distinct possibility of feeling alienated or, at least, just that little amount of distance from those with children - enough to hinder friendship beyond the occasional handshake, hello, and hug.

I've pasted below (was having problems with the url link) a wonderful testimony by a woman named Erin Lane - who is both a significant member of her local church and who has chosen to be married without children. I think she gets somewhere near the heart of the right reasons to choose life without children or, if unable to have children or single, some ideas to connect and be a blessing without children. Both those with and without children might profit from her story...

I am a young Christian women who doesn’t have children. I suppose the more interesting thing to folks is that I am a married woman with no plans on having future children of my own. I have ventured so far as to call this choice not just a lifestyle preference but a sacrifice, and one that serves the common good.

The common good is a concept that is as illusory as it is necessary. I understand what it means and am able to give voice to it on a larger scale only in as much as I can witness it playing out locally. I could spout arguments as others have about how our remaining childless may be good for this reason or that, but the best argument I can give for our choice is that it’s good for my neighbor. This I’ve seen with my own two eyes. I’ve heard it with perked ears.

We were hiking along a leaf-littered path, making our way up to the hermitage. I was on the heels of our pack leaders, two women who looked to be in their early forties. They chatted easily with one another, and I eavesdropped behind them. This, I determined, was less awkward than side winding around them and forging a path to the top of the mountain alone. We were after all on a church women’s retreat. “Community time” was part of the point.

It didn’t matter that they were taking about their kids, and I had none.

The theme of our retreat was celebration. The context was the Sabbath. Jennifer, our speaker for the weekend, told us of her time living in Jerusalem as a Christian single woman and how the city became a ghost town on Friday afternoons as people scurried home to prepare for their weekly day of rest. Sabbath wasn’t just a day of self-care, as it is sometimes practiced today in the West. It was about a community resting in rhythm. Singles and marrieds came together to eat, drink, and bless each other as one family.

“You can join us, you know,” the one in the running jacket said looking back at me. “But you might be bored.”

I laughed, awkwardly, and propelled my pace. “I don’t mind hearing about your kids.” Women are always apologizing to me for talking about their kids. They want to assure me that they’re not “that kind of woman.” I want to assure them that I think motherhood is a vocation to mull over just as much as mine is as a writer.

The other woman with a fleece tied around her waist caught me up. “We were just saying how there’s no way we could take a Sabbath with small children at home.”

Running woman continued. “I can give Dan time off from the kids to relax, but that means I’m taking them to the park or dreaming up an art project or just supervising free play. And then we switch, and I go for a run or grab a glass of wine but there’s no way we can really rest together.”

She tilted her face up to the hills, as if she were talking to herself now. “Those young women talk like it’s easy to rest. But the weekend isn’t restful.”

I strained my neck further so that it stuck out ever so slightly between them. “That’s where I come in.” Even as the words came out of my mouth, it sounded like a strange thing to say to these strange women I had just met. I had only been going to this church a little over a year but, still, I said, “That’s where a woman without children comes in.”

Without kids of our own, we practice the ministry of availability. When the sign-up sheet at church goes around for our night of ministry to the homeless, my husband and I always take the slot no one wants – the overnight guests. We are the ones with back’s strong enough to sleep on couches in the church parlor but old enough to handle a crisis together between either male or female guests. We don’t have to arrange a sitter for the dog we leave at home, and we can catch up on sleep in the quiet of our house come morning.

Without kids of our own, we practice the ministry of flexibility. It is that season of life when many of our female friends either have a belly full of baby or breasts full of milk. Young ones with new names are popping up down the block and across town at rates we’ve never before witnessed. We are learning there are feeding schedules and sleeping schedules and nary a moment for the happy hours and dinner parties of yesteryear. Fine, we say. Let us come to you. Not doing dairy because Malificent has reflux? We’ll thicken our broth with flour. Not sure when Alastair will wake up from his nap? We’re just watching Nashville, so text us when you’re ready. We have time. We’re not going anywhere.

And finally, without kids of our own, we practice the ministry of hospitality. We welcome the stranger in other people’s children. “I don’t want to staff the nursery during worship,” a young mom once lamented to me. “I’m always at the nursery.” Just because I don’t have kids, doesn’t mean I don’t like them—or understand the gifts that they are.

It was like I said on that long walk up to the hermitage. Let me watch your kids. Let me help you to be available to your partner. Let me help you be flexible with your friends. Let me help you be hospitable to the stranger in me. It’s not that you can’t practice these ministries as parents, only that it looks different when you are committed to a nuclear family.

We’ve gotten some flack for our decision to remain childless that’s hard to understand. People argue it’s not natural. That it’s selfish. Or that it’s endangering the future of the human race. I don’t think the future of the human race has ever been served by all people making the same choice. It’s the diversity of our choices that allow for us to rest in rhythm as a church community. It’s when the music starts to play and we begin to tap our feet and after listening for a beat, we can say, “That’s where I come in.”

  

Sun AM Follow-Up: "Wisdom & Sabbath Rest" by Tim Keller

Hi friends. Yesterday's stop in working through the book of Mark was a bit more devotional and topical in nature looking at the importance of a taking regular Sabbath rest to obtaining a restful satisfaction with work well done. 

The following is a wonderful follow-up by Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC - entitled "Wisdom & Sabbath Rest." I'm especially grateful for his thoughtful point on avocational rest, which I borrowed for yesterday's sermon. There is a lot of practical wisdom here for your personal gain and mine.