God With Us

I recently heard a story about a guy named Farshid who is currently in prison in Iran because of his faith in Jesus.  I was touched by a letter he sent to some of his friends a few days ago…  This is what he wrote:

To the fathers and mothers who lost their precious children in the Connecticut tragedy, I really don’t know what word in the

world could comfort you, what relief could be helpful for your broken heart, and which hand could clean the tears which

fall from your cheeks. I just want to say: I am so sorry and you are in my prayers. I am sure these high walls cannot stop my

prayers for you. Before this tragedy happened, I was thinking about my suffering that I’m going through because of my

Lord Jesus Christ, especially being far from my lovely kids. But when I imagine how hard your pain is I forget my

sufferings. Because I know by God’s grace I will see my kids at the latest in 2017 when I come out from prison. But

unfortunately you have to wait a bit longer. So I would like to express my deepest sorrow for your loss. I believe we will have

enough time in heaven with our lovely children forever. There is no gun there, there is no prison, and there is no pain. In the

hope of that glorious day. Your Brother in Christ from prison in Iran, Farshid Fathi 17 December 2012

The Christmas promise is that Jesus would be “Immanuel,” which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).  In crisis, we are called to prove his love in ours.  Why are you grateful for God today?

When The Honeymoon Ends (6/10/12 Revisited)

Revelation 2:1-7

 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

TIME CAN MAKE LOVE BORING.  BUSYNESS CAN MAKE LOVE STAGNANT.  SUCCESS CAN MAKE LOVE COMPLACENT.  These are all warning signs for newlyweds.

The tragedy of honeymoons is that at some point they must come to an end.  Often times the honeymoon ends too quickly.  But for some people, the honeymoon never starts.

What do we do when our love for Jesus grows boring?  When the newness of our faith wears off?  How do we continue to love God with our heart, mind, soul, and strength?  How do we continue to love our neighbor as ourselves?

These questions are not new.  They were the subjects of Jesus’ letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation.

Four Things We Must Do To Keep Jesus First

1. 1.     YOU’VE GOT TO LISTEN TO JESUS.

“Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecies and heed the things that are written in it for the time is near.”   Revelation 1:3

“O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it that it may be well with you and you may multiply greatly just as the Lord the God of your fathers has promised you in a land of milk and honey.”  Deuteronomy 6:3

“They did not listen to Me or incline their ear but stiffened their neck.  They did more evil than their fathers as a result.”   Jeremiah 7:26

“This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”  Matthew 17:5.

What does he say to the disciples?  “Listen to Him.”

How do you listen to Jesus?  How do you develop that?

I.     Quiet solitude and reflection in our lives, in prayer and in God’s Word.

II.     Through wise counselors and friends.

III.     A message that you hear.

IV.     Steps of obedience.

1. 2.     DON’T HIDE BEHIND A BUSY CHRISTIAN LIFE.

“I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance that you cannot endure evil men.  You put to the test those who call themselves apostles.  They are not and you found them to be false.  You have perseverance and you’ve endured for My name’s sake and you’ve not grown weary.”    Revelation 2: 2-3

1. 3.     ACKNOWLEDGE THAT OUR FIRST LOVE IS JESUS CHRIST.

Revelation 2:4 “But I have this against you that you have left your first love.”

“Every Christian would agree that a man’s spiritual health is exactly proportional to his love for God.”  C.S. Lewis

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”   Philippians 3:8

1. 4.     TAKE STEPS TO RETURN TO YOUR FIRST LOVE FOR CHRIST.

Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.  Revelation 2:5

“Pay attention to what you have heard lest you drift away from it.”  Hebrews 2:1

So… What happened to the church in Ephesus?  Did they repent?   Did her believers return to Jesus as the first love of their lives? Was their church restored to greatness? No. In fact, today there is no Ephesus and there is no Ephesian church. There are only ruins—ruins of her stadiums, her temples, and her theatres. Ruins of her church. The lampstand has gone. Of all the churches in Revelation, she was the greatest, and now she is gone.

The church in Ephesus had only one problem, and a crucial one at that.  One that many churches I suspect have today.  They had forsaken their first love.  A massive spiritual malignancy had formed in their hearts.  “They we consumed with the doing and had lost the being”.

Are you in a honeymoon period in your life?  Have you lost your first love?  If you’ve lost your first love, it’s not too late for you. At least, not yet!

Record Breaking Grace

Recently, Josh Hamilton, hit his record breaking 4 homers in one game. Here’s a video of all four of his killer home runs. A-mazing!!

Hamilton is only the 16th player in Major League history – and the only currently active player – to hit four homers in a game. I know Josh has had his ups and downs, but I’m a Rangers fan, so of course I am cheering for him. There is no way that I could be more proud of him. I am not sure if you’ve ever seen his “I Am Second” video but if you haven’t seen it you’ve got to watch it. So powerful.

I’m so thankful we worship a God of second, third, and fourth chances.

Aren’t you?

Jeremy Lin: Rise To Stardom

Over the course of the past week, there has been a player in the NBA that has gone from geek to sheik in just 5 games.  Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks has become a bench player, to the starting point guard of this Eastern Conference powerhouse.  I came across this blog on the Knicks website by Jonah Ballow and I wanted to share it with you:

“If you want to test a man’s character, give him power” — Abraham Lincoln.

There is one thing I can tell you about Jeremy Lin watching him walk on the Knicks team plane after a mano-y-mano battle with Kobe Bryant on a night where he dropped a career-high 38 points on the Lakers.

It’s the same guy.

The same second-year point guard that waltzed on that plane prior to a Charlotte trip on January 24 following a brief stint in the D-League when he was not considered a household name.

At the moment, national scribes are pounding their keyboards to illustrate the remarkable Disney-esque story.   Twitter timelines are dominated by Lin-related comments and puns on his name.  Celebrities are fascinated, fellow NBA players are intrigued, and the world-wide audience is consumed with this breakout star.

The one person who seems remarkably poised in the midst of the tornado of attention is Lin.  Need proof?  Listen to his postgame comments directly after a jaw-dropping performance against the Lakers, a game in which the Madison Square Garden crowd was chanting M-V-P when he attempted free throws.

“I’m not really too worried about proving anything to anybody.  I think as a team we are growing and just trying to build on this momentum and I think that’s what everybody is buying into and that’s why we are becoming dangerous,” Lin stated in front of a horde of media members on Friday night.

You will never hear an ego-driven postgame commentary from Lin, even though he is garnering a tremendous amount of admiration.  The Harvard graduate receives the focus on the floor without Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony in the lineup, yet he blends in nicely off the court as just one man among a group of professional athletes.

“I love it.  I’m glad this happened to him in all honesty, it couldn’t have happened to a better guy because he’s one of the guys that can take all of this that’s going on,” Tyson Chandler explained with a bright smile on his face.  “Every time I open the paper, every time I turn on the TV, you know I went to a fashion show and I’m not getting questions about Amar’e or Melo, it’s about this Lin kid.  It’s very exciting but the way he comes around and the way he goes about things, you would never know all of this stuff is going on.  That’s what I love about him.”

At 23 years old, Lin is experiencing a life-changing week that included a 25-point game against New Jersey, 28 in a win over Utah, 10 assists to lift New York past Washington, a historic 38-point outburst to topple the Lakers, and a clutch free throw to sink Ricky Rubio and the Wolves on Saturday night.  Over the last week, Lin is averaging 26.8 points, eight assists, 4.2 rebounds, and two steals per game in 39 minutes of action.  Additionally, after defeating Minnesota, Lin has totaled the most points of any player in his first 4 starts since the ABA/NBA merger, surpassing Allen Iverson.

These ridiculous numbers would make the most humble person take a step back and bask in the glow of their own accomplishments.

Not Lin.

This has really caused me to think.  As a pastor I have realized that there are people on the bench that are waiting to be unleashed, ready to be used by God.  It is our role to equip them.  Their are other people in this world who have been “un-noticed, un-drafted”, just like Jeremy Lin.  As believers it is our role to constantly share our faith with all people.  Start by simply establishing a relationship.

Who do you know that is sitting on your bench?

H O S T

I was thinking recently about what it means to be a great HOST. I have just been feeling a little convicted as I have encountered several passages about Jesus reaching out to different types of people. It is so easy for us as Christians to live in our own little world… a bubble. What would it look like for us to truly be great stewards of our resources, and begin to practice faithfully inviting people into our homes. So I began to look at what it means to be a great host, and stumbled upon this:

HOST:  Have a heart

Open your home

Serve a snack

Tell your friends

Are you a great HOST?

Are You Thirsty?

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;

When shall I come and appear before God?

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.
Psalm 42:1-2; John 7:37,38

Often times we lose track of our walk with Christ.  It is so easy to get in a place of mundaneness, where we live by routines and are overwhelmed with the business of life.  If I were to ask you how your spiritual walk with Christ was right this second, how would you answer that question?  Are you in a spiritual place of mundaneness, where everything is a blur?  Or are you thirstily like the deer who pants for streams of water?  Does your soul thirst for God, THE LIVING GOD?

May we live our lives as ones who long to be with Christ every second of every day!  May we pursue Christ with a vengeance.

Her Name Shall Be… (Baby M has a name)

LUCY Grace!

We have decided to name our little girl LUCY! We are so excited that she will be here very soon. April 22 can’t come soon enough for us, yet we are also very nervous.

Listen to what LUCY means: “bringer” or “bearer” of LIGHT!

Our prayer is that God would use Lucy to be a bright light in this world and that God would use her in MIGHTY ways. Matthew 5:14 says, “You are the LIGHT of the world…”!

God, use our little LUCY to be a light into this world. May she bring you great joy!

“Wiki” Discipleship

I recently read an article on Ed Stetzer’s Blog about a book that Steve Murrell wrote, entitled “Wiki Church: Making Discipleship Engaging, Empowering, And Viral.”  I found his blog post intriguing.

The “wiki” part of Wikipedia is from a Hawaiian word meaning “quick,” as Wikipedia’s format allows for the quick and widespread dissemination of information online. While it may be an imperfect source, Wikipedia has made information widely available by simply empowering volunteers. However, it did not begin this way. In 2000 Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger started an online encyclopedia called Nupedia whose contributions were written solely by experts. Before an article could be posted, it had to go through an extensive scholarly review process. When Nupedia unplugged its servers in 2003, only twenty-four articles had been posted, with seventy-four still in the review process. In 2001, one year after Nupedia launched, Wales and Sanger started Wikipedia as a feeder system for Nupedia. The idea was to allow non-experts to write articles that the Nupedia scholars would review. By the end of the year, volunteers had submitted more than twenty thousand “wiki” articles. At the time of this writing, contributors from around the world have submitted more than nineteen million Wikipedia articles, and according to an independent survey, most are as accurate as traditional encyclopedia entries. Unfortunately, many churches today function more like Nupedia than Wikipedia. They allow only credentialed professionals to lead evangelism and discipleship efforts while volunteers are expected to show up and pay up but not engage in serious ministry. Imagine if the church functioned more like Wikipedia. Imagine if every believer, not just paid leaders, were empowered to minister. That’s a Wiki Church.

You can read the entire blog post HERE.

Did you here his challenge here?  Imagine if the church functioned more like Wikipedia. Imagine if every believer, not just paid leaders, were empowered to minister. That’s a Wiki Church.  What if we lived our lives this way as believers?  What if we actually did what we are called to do?  What if we lived our way that encompasses the true live as a disciple? What if we lived to make disciples?

This really hit home with me.  I want to live my life to make disciples.  How about you?

An Incredible Truth

Ephesians 2:1 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—”

Just in case you didn’t have your Bible handy…

Jesus In The Background Of Christmas

Yesterday I read a blog post from a guy named Ian Cron.  It was so incredible that I wanted to share it with you.

A year ago Rob and I were sitting in a Starbucks in Connecticut, drinking lattes and catching up when he turned his gaze toward the ceiling.

“Do you hear that?” Rob said, his expression darkening.

“Hear what?” I said.

“Listen,” he said, glaring at the white speaker grilles above our heads. “Do you know that song?”

I closed my eyes and strained to hear the music over the hiss and gurgle of milk being steamed for someone’s cappuccino.

I shrugged. “Nope,” I said. “I can’t make it out.”

Rob threw his hands up in the air. “That’s a cut off Miles Davis’ record Kind of Blue,” he said, his voice rising with indignation.

“Alright,” I said. “Apparently this bothers you.”

“It’s MILES DAVIS!” he said, slapping the tabletop with his hand.

I’ve known Rob for 30 years. He’s talented. He’s smart. He’s not afraid to speak his mind.

“When brilliant compositions are used for background music it desensitizes people to their genius,” he continued.

I paused. “You mean familiarity breeds contempt?” I said.

“Precisely. If an amazing piece of music is constantly playing in the background your admiration for it doesn’t increase, it diminishes. It becomes no big deal,” Rob said, imitating someone trying to speak and yawn at the same time.

At the time I thought Rob’s remarks were insightful but overstated, and yet something about them rang true. They stuck with me.

Last week I was sitting in another Starbucks, this one two blocks from my home in Franklin, TN reading Max Picard’s The World of Silence and drinking coffee when I made a connection between what Rob had said and the world I live in.

Is Jesus becoming background music in my life?

No matter where I go someone is talking, singing, arguing, writing a book, blogging, putting on a conference, or making a record about…Jesus.

(Yes, I’m aware I’m guilty of doing this right now.)

Not a day goes by when I don’t see tee shirts with Bible verses printed on them or a tattoo of Jesus’ crucifixion inked on someone’s arm. Billboards with warnings about hell dot the highway. I can’t turn on the radio or television without someone talking at me about Jesus; he’s quoted (or misquoted) on bumper stickers, and recently while standing at a urinal in the men’s room at a restaurant I looked up and discovered a framed print of John 3:16 hanging on the wall in front of me. Some people don’t do subtle.

If Rob is right my experience of constant exposure to all things Jesus isn’t increasing my admiration or devotion for him, it’s diminishing it.

Read the entire post HERE

What a great post written in a timely fashion.  We are on the brink of Christmas that is really all about Jesus.  But somehow, we manage to forget what the true meaning is all about.  We have become so materialistic that all we look forward to is presents.  It is almost like Jesus has become some sort of background music.  I don’t know about you, but I refuse to allow the commercialization of Christmas, along with my self centered, ego-driven, materialistic desires to push Jesus from his rightful place.

So how do I make this happen? It takes a lot of focused intentionality but let me give you one practical example that I saw Pete Wilson give recently.

Over the next four weeks you’re probably going to see hundreds and hundreds of nativity scenes.

One of my Christmas traditions is every time I see a nativity scene (as biblically incorrect as it might be) is to pause and say, “Wow! That really happened. That REALLY happened. God actually stepped into human history and gave us what we really needed, a Savior who bathed us in his life changing, soul shaping grace.”

It’s easy to allow all of these nativity scenes to get lumped into the same category as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy… but it was an actual event that changed everything!

How are you going to keep Jesus from becoming background noise this Christmas?