A Very Berry Teaching by My Little Reagan

Princess Reagan seeks & finds some nice strawberries!

Today we braved the 90 degree heat to go pick strawberries.  This is something that we have never all done as a family.  Reagan and I went on our own into an uncharted section of berry world while the rest of the family stayed pretty close to the front.  Reagan and I were looking to find the best berries that we could find.

Unfortunately, Miss Reagan tripped and fell at one point sending her berry selection careening into the poop-laden dirt.  After recovering from her stumble, Reagan continued the search for new fresh berries.

As we were walking along, Reagan, ever mindful of what God might be teaching her in her everyday life, decided to tell me what God had to say about the strawberry picking.

She told me that Satan was trying to trick us into picking the gross squishy berries but that God wanted us to look and find the real nice fresh ones.  She told me that we're not listening to Satan.  We're not picking his gross squishy berries.  We're picking the good fresh red ones that God is telling us to pick.

I chuckled and thought about what a funny little story this was.

Then I began to think about the meat to Reagan's berry ramblings.  Little Reagan seemed to stumble upon quite a truth.

We talk all the time about making the wise choice and trusting God no matter what in our kid's church program.  And apparently it's sinking in!

Reagan understood that the more easy to find gross squishy berries are being put in our path to entice us by Satan.  Picking these berries is the easy thing to do.  They are right out there in the open and they require no real effort.  Most of them aren't even attached to the plant anymore and you certainly don't have to look for them.

She also understood that to find the good ones, we had to do a little more effort.  We had to search just a little bit harder.  And God's desire was for us to search for the fresh berries.  His desire was for us to have the very best, even if it might take us a bit more time and cost a bit more effort.

Little Reagan has more understanding than a lot of folks who go to Bible College.  Consider just this smattering of biblical references on the importance of seeking the Lord and His Will/Counsel for our lives:

1 Chronicles 16:11
"Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always."

2 Chronicles 7:14 
"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

Deuteronomy 4:29  
"But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul."

Matthew 6:33
"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

Our seeking for His kingdom should be FIRST.  Our seeking should be with "all of our heart and with all of our soul" and it requires humility and repentance.  Seeking isn't easy, but it's so central to living the life that God has for us.  It is impossible to please God without first knowing Him intimately.  It is impossible to know Him intimately if we accept the squishy berries and don't earnestly seek the fresh vine-ripened fruit that only God provides.

What a nice lesson from a 5 year old little girl and a day in the berry patch!

Chicken Monster Theology

Imagine this face crashing into you and vomiting...

"Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, the God who is our salvation."  Psalm 68:19

Our family has had issues with birds recently.  We have a random bird of prey that likes to circle our house in the afternoons.  The kids have named him Aerial Ace (or "cutie" if you ask Reagan as apparently birds who swoop down to kill unsuspecting cuddly animals are cutie-pies.)

Ace is kind of a mascot for our house.  However, about a week ago as I was driving to work, a ginormous hideous monster of a bird almost killed me.

Picture the scene:

An unsuspecting high school teacher is driving during the early morning hours when nobody in their right mind would be.  As I pass by an empty field, a bird the size of California comes flying out into the road and on a collision course with my truck.  In fact, if this beastly bird of terror collided with my truck, he was going to slam into the driver side window.  The window was up, but with his size and speed, methinks his nasty face would have burst through the glass and slammed right into me.

I have no idea what kind of bird this thing was.  I looked up in a fanciful birds of prey children's book that we have and to my best guess it was a vulture.  Have you seen these things? They are the ugliest things this side of Satan.  In fact, when I picture what the prince of darkness looks like without his temptation-laced stage make-up on, I picture vultures.

Apparently, had this nefarious bird hit my truck and thrust his homicidal beak in my face, I would have been in quite the predicament.  According to the kids' guide to predatory birds, vultures tend to throw up in your face when you "scare" them.  All manner of decomposing roadkill would have spilled out upon me as I sat in my workday finest and basked in the horror of a vulture attack.

It would have been the single worst bird terrorist attack since Fabio.

Thankfully, and inexplicably, the vulture somehow pulled up at the last minute and missed my truck.

That takes me to a family dinner from earlier in the week.

We had a rotisserie chicken dinner, as we were running late as usual.

We never serve chicken on bones.  It's nasty and caveman-like.

However, on this particular evening my wife decided to put the chicken legs on Reagan and Jackson's plates.  Reagan followed in her grandmother's footsteps and devoured hers within seconds.

Jackson, however, stared at the unsavory chicken leg and refused to consume it.  When prompted, the ever eloquent Jackson added to his famous lexicon by declaring that he wasn't going to eat that "chicken monster."

Chicken monster.  Yum.

Of course, as soon as "chicken monster" was given to his carnivorous sister, Jackson was sad that he couldn't eat it.  Re-christened as "mutton" by older brother Noah, the "chicken monster" leg suddenly became irresistible to Jackson.

Where's all this talk of scary predatory birds and chicken monsters going?

Well, the enemy flies around like a predatory chicken monster.  And he is hellbent on destroying you.  And one of the things he's most effective in using against you is fear.

Reading Psalm 68 earlier today, I was reminded that not only is the Lord our salvation, but He carries our burden daily.  Daily.

I was also struck by reading the account of the transfiguration.  Chilling atop the mountain with Jesus, Moses and Elijah must have been awesome.  When Peter, James and John heard the voice of God, they bowed their heads to the ground in fear.

And yet:

"And lifting up their eyes they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone."  Matthew 17:8

Jesus touched them.  Fear left them.  Their eyes beheld Him.  Only Him.

Additionally, 1 Chronicles 11:9 says of David that he "became greater and greater, for the Lord of hosts was with him."

His success and victory was not due to his own personal coolness, but rather that "the Lord of hosts was with him."

Life serves us chicken monsters and sends careening vultures toward our truck.  And our response to that is the gateway through which our faith bloodstream flows.  When we are afraid of chicken monsters, we can turn away choice blessings (and succulent meat?) when we should be chowing down.  When the crippling fear of a vulture smacking into your face and vomiting roadkill on you hits, you lose focus.  Fear minus focus equals failure.  It means a picking up of your daily burdens that are meant to be carried by your much stronger Savior.  And that weight holds you back from what God has for you.

And yet, just like Peter walking on the water, if we keep our eyes on Jesus, and push away the fear, God will daily lift our burdens.  Philippians 4:19 reminds us that "My God will meet all you needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus."  Those riches are where?  In Jesus.  Alone.

As I read to my kids today out of the Jesus Calling for Kids Devotional, God is telling us:

God wants to save you from careening birds of prey and open your eyes to choice meat, riches and blessing.  He wants to become greater and greater because He is with you.  In order to do that, you are going to have to lift up your head, block out the chicken monsters and predatory birds and see Christ alone.  And if you do, you'll see Psalm 68, 1 Chronicles 11 and Matthew 17 made manifest in your life!

Embrace chicken monster theology and grow your faith!

Samson 90210: Why Do We Admire This Dude?

So, I recently re-read the book of Judges.  And it was really judgmental of me, I know, but I've decided that I'm not a big fan of Samson.  He's kind of like the Old Testament Charlie Sheen.  I can imagine him in full-on wide-eyed crazy, shouting "Winning" as he canoodles with the latest "goddess" of the week.

And yet somehow this Charlie Sheen doppleganger is one of the great judges of Israel.  Judge Judy he is not.

First of all, it should be noted that Judges is a book full of weirdos.  It reads almost like a cutting edge satire that God has written to poke fun at how ill-equipped we are to govern ourselves.

There are exceptions.  I dig the Deborah story.  She was awesome.  I also like how the big bad military leader Barak (Obama?) won't go to battle without Deborah in a keen observation of the power of God's anointed!  It's also real nice and Old Testamenty in its judgment and wrath when the bad guy takes a nap and has a tent peg driven into his temple by...a woman!

I also enjoy Deborah being the leader because she helps give my daughter someone to look up to.

I do also like Judge Ehud smiting the fat king in Judges 2:

"16 Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. 17 He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man... 20 Ehud then approached him [the king] while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his summer palace and said, "I have a message from God for you." As the king rose from his seat, 21 Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king's belly. 22 Even the handle sank in after the blade, which came out his back. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. 23 Then Ehud went out to the porch; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them. 24 After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, "He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the house." 25 They waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their lord fallen to the floor, dead."


I've taken the liberty of bolding the portions that entertain me the most.  So, Ehud made a blade that was a foot and a half long that totally disappeared into the fat of the Biggest Loser contestant Moabite king.  I love how he just kills him and then slips away, leaving a humongous dead dude rotting on his throne.  I further love how the king's attendants think he's relieving himself and don't go in for a long time, beyond "the point of embarrassment."

I mean, this is epic.  This is an Old Testament smiting done right.  Not quite on the same level as Elisha having bears maul mockers of his baldness, but right up there with the best.

Then there is the famously indecisive Gideon who needs about a thousand reminders of God's power.  He did play a mean horn that Gideon, but decisiveness seemed to elude him.  Ain't that just like us?  And by "just like us" I don't mean awesome bugle playing or the age old debate of dry vs. saturated fleeces and the mysterious workings of morning dew.  I'm more thinking of the many times that God speaks, confirms and re-confirms to us something from His Word that we keep refusing to fully believe.  (Side note: Aren't you shocked that an English teacher just used "ain't"?)

There is also father of the year Jephthah who recklessly makes a vow to God that he'll kill whatever he sees next and then mournfully goes on to sacrifice his virgin daughter to fulfill that vow.  Yikes.  Consider that a lesson on being careful with how you speak and how you sport with the lives of your little ones.  Your careless priorities, vows and words can cause the death of your children.  

The book ends with the story about an "unnamed Levite" who is so offended at the animalistic wicked men who raped and tortured his concubine that he cut her up in pieces and sent a bloody piece of her to all of the areas of Israel.  Again with the Old Testament justice.  Again a disturbing picture of the debased and immoral condition of mankind and a kinda weird way to show it.  No wonder "unnamed Levite" asked them to withhold his name from the story, as he kinda sounds like a serial killer himself.

There is also a gaggle of other "he judged Israel for such and such a year and then he died" judges mentioned as well, but no judge is more famous than Samson.

Explain why it is we look up to him?

Samson's parents dedicate him to being a Nazirite, meaning he never cuts his hair and he devotes his life to serving the Lord (among other things.)  And yet, his life is a dismal failure in so many ways.

I get that Samson is pretty impressive in the areas of killing people with a donkey jawbone, eating honey out of the carcass of a lion that he recently killed, and tying fox tails together and having them run around with a torch in between them to burn the town down.  I also understand that he pretty awesomely pushed down the pillars and made a building collapse on himself and the Phillistines.  I'm just thinking that his heart wasn't that often focused on the things of God, particularly for a "judge" of Israel who is supposed to be serving the Lord and all.  His story is more of an example of what no to do in your walk with the Lord.

God uses Samson's Phillistine wife as a motivation to get him into smiting season with 30 or so of those whily Phillistines.  (Will they ever learn?)  His first wife betrays him to her peeps in a pretty obvious way.  And even after that, Samson attempts to "go into her room"and is horrified to find out that pooky-bear has been given away to one of his pals.  I think we can guess what he wanted to do in her room and it wasn't Scrabble.  Then in Gaza, Samson "saw a prostitute" and "went in to spend the night with her."  (Judges 16:1)  He gets away from that situation only to fall in love with deceitful Delilah.

There is no mention of marriage, and yet again Samson seems to be sleeping with the salty lass.

In between their loving embraces, somehow old Samson doesn't seem to catch on that all she ever wants to talk about is how to get rid of his strength.

He also doesn't seem to figure out that every single time he tells her some whopper about how to get rid of his power, miraculously the local Phillistines come charging in with just that type of weaponry.

Seven fresh thongs?  Check.  Tied with new ropes?  Check.  Weaving seven braids of his head into the fabric on the loom and tightening it with a pin?  Check.

He even eventually tells her the truth and his head is shaved and his power is gone.  Dude even has his eyes gouged out.

Samson's actions make our most embarrassing televangelist sex scandals look tame in comparison.  His life was one of self-destruction and lust.  I'm sure some people love them some Samson, but I'm not a big fan.  I'm just not sure why he is someone worth looking up to.

Samson's story is more of a cautionary tale of what not to do.  The next time you are tempted to do something exciting like eat honey out of a dead lion carcass, don't.  It's just not worth it.

A little less of Samson, and a little more of Deborah might be in order for our leaders.   Maintaining your walk with the Lord and making wise choices is really about the condition of your heart.  If you don't guard it, it will be taken by force by the usurping power of sin.  That is a lesson Samson never really seemed to understand.

What are your thoughts on the muscled judge?

UPDATE:  My wife informs me that she was always taught the Samson story as a cautionary tale of what not to do.  Kudos on that.  I grew up with him being taught as one of the heroes of the faith for all of his feats of strength.  Apparently not everyone taught him as such!