You're Welcome, Dad!

You're Welcome, Dad...

I confess:  I'm not the neatest person in the world.  I sometimes find it beyond my ability to put my clothes away, do the dishes or take out the trash.

So, it wasn't a surprise when I saw how terrible our boys' room was.  Noah and Jackson hadn't really been cleaning.  The floor was completely covered with clothing--dirty and clean tossed indiscriminately around the room.

Toys, DVDs, books, and other flotsam and jetsam (not Ursula's hench-eels) were strewn about the room.  I told my boys to clean up their room.  Wii was off-limit my s until such time as this massive task was completed.

Hours passed.  I assumed that the room was clean and failed to do the proper inspection.

Later that evening I entered their room to put our youngest, Jackson, to bed.

As I feasted my eyes upon the complete disaster that still remained before me, my son smirked with confidence.

In my head my fatherly anger began to burn.  I asked myself if I was dreaming telling them to clean up the room.  I wondered as my eyes darted to and fro amongst the landscape of ruin in their room if even one thing was cleaned up.

Jackson, however, being the over-confident six year old that he is, took my shock and awe in a different way.

The shocked look on my face gave way to a "Jackson, YOUR ROOM!"

This statement was meant to convey my horror.

Thinking I was impressed with their cleaning skills, Jackson beamed with pride and said confidently, "You're welcome, Dad."

You're.  Welcome.  Dad.  

For a room that was just as disastrous as before the alleged clean up.

I quickly informed Jackson that he and his brother would have to clean this room again and that I was not in any way thanking him.

They were both puzzled the next day when Operation Clean-up Version 2.0 commenced.  I had to give them additional direction and they obediently spent hours cleaning up.

This time it was a success and the Wii was enjoyed by all.


Colossians 3:23-24

23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.

It was no mistake, then, the very next Sunday when I was preparing to deliver the story at our Kindergarten to 5th Grade Large Group at church, that I read Colossians 3.  I realized that like Jackson, so many times we smile with confidence to Christ and say "You're Welcome." when in fact, we should be cringing in fear.

The Bible bids us to come to the throne of Jesus with confidence, but it doesn't mean this kind.

We need to work at EVERYTHING we do as if working for the LORD.  That includes BOTH the effort we put forth AND the attitude we have internally about doing it.

We need to resist the temptation to exalt in mediocrity and always strive for better.  Under grace we may be but JESUS demands our very best EVERY TIME.

Let's not rest in our own strength or lull ourselves to complacency under the shadow of grace.  Let our service reflect our worship to Him.

Calvary Chapel Gloucester County Kid Min Blog: The Determination of Moses!

This Sunday your child learned about the determination of Moses.  We looked at the adventures of Moses' life through the lens of needing to finish what you start and working with GOD to do that.  

Moses accomplished a  lot of great things during his life.  He led the Exodus of God's people from oppressive slavery in Egypt.  He parted called down the plagues on Egypt.  He parted the red sea.  He led the Israelites for 40 years in the wilderness and he met with God personally on top of the mountain and brought down the Ten Commandments (not the movie) to God's people.

He intervened time and time again for God's people when they lacked the determination to keep following God.

Through Moses, we saw that another aspect of developing a life-changing faith determination is to keep doing what is right because God is AWE-some.

To read the rest of the post, visit our church Kidmin blog by clicking below...

Calvary Chapel Gloucester County Kid Min Blog: The Determination of Moses!: 

Fix Your Cistern & Stop Baptizing Yourself in Soda

 Jeremiah 2:13:  "For my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water."

Reading in Jeremiah today, the Lord revealed quite a telling truth to me about many Christians today.  In the verse above, I believe we find much of what is wrong with the Christian church today.  That's not to say that this post will be all church-bashing and negativity.  It's just to say I believe this is a major area of concern that we should recognize.

In the above passage from the Old Testament, the Lord is identifying two major "evils" committed by His people (in this case the Israelites.)

The first is forsaking God, the "fountain of living waters" as described here.  Living water is a reference that is also found in the New Testament.  Water is also kinda a major player in baptism.  

Staying with the baptism/water analogy before my notoriously short attention span distracts me, I'd say that many of us are essentially baptizing ourselves in soda.  Not content with the purity of God's Holy waters, we are reaching for a sugary, syrupy treat and splashing about in fizz and chemicals.  We're soaking ourselves in man-made unnatural sugary chemicals with all of the appeal and desire of the world and none of the purity or cleansing power of Jesus.

In essence, we're forsaking God and the holiness and devotion that He requires of us in order to become more like the world.  We tell ourselves it is to reach the world but the reality is that the world is reaching us far more than we are impacting it.  This is something that the writing of Francis Chan really challenges believers on.  We're getting away from studying the Bible and instead embracing cutesy phrases and pop culture.

I'm not saying being trendy and cool is necessarily bad.  I can't really fit into skinny jeans, but I am not a total fuddy-duddy!  I am saying, however, that we need to make sure that we haven't forsaken Jesus and a daily connection to His living water  Without renewing our hearts and minds in His cleansing purified water-filled fountain, we will be useless.

As a result of losing that connection and forsaking our fountain, we've allowed ourselves to become broken cisterns.  Without a deep and meaningful connection with the Lord, we find ourselves hole-y instead of holy.  Unable to fill in the holes with anything else, we become frantic, distracted and useless.  

We need to be about fixing our cisterns.  We can't do that without returning to the fountain and splashing around like the cast of Friends in the opening credits.  Without Jesus, we can't get clean and we certainly can't hold anything to offer the world beyond indigestion.

May the words of Jeremiah remind us of what's really important.

God's Got It: 2013 & Isaiah 25

The nation is abuzz with talk of fiscal cliffs, the stench of the slaughter of innocents from the Sandy Hook school shooting still hangs stagnant in the air, and millions of Americans are out of work indefinitely.

January 1 is typically of day of tremendous promise and hope.  A new year.  A new beginning.  A fresh start.  A do-over.

And yet two weeks after the Mayan apocalypse, many find that hope elusive this year.

Many of us had a not-spectacular 2012 and find believing and expecting for something better in 2013 difficult to do.

And yet God is good.

Praying and reading the Bible in the early hours of this new year, the Lord has directed me to Isaiah 25:8-9"

"He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; The rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken.  And it will be said in that day: 'Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us.  This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His Salvation."

And just like that the Lord refocuses my sight on Him.  He IS my God.  I need only to wait for Him and trust in Him.  Government is not the answer.  Church leadership is not the answer.  Financial provision is not the answer. A life of comfort and ease is not the answer.  Every day is not a Friday in the way that this world defines Fridays.  Every day IS a FRIDAY as God defines it.  That does not always promise ease and comfort in this life.  It does, however, promise PURPOSE, HOPE and a step closer to HIM spiritually and chronologically.  

He has swallowed up death forever.  He will wipe our tears.  He will take away our rebuke.  He will deliver us and HE HAS WON OUR SALVATION.

There is much to hope in indeed.  Christ is Lord.  And HE IS OUR GOD.  We will wait for Him and He will save us.

To that end, let us seek Him in the new year and join with countless citizens of America in praying for our nation the prayer of 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 I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

Let us pray and seek Him.  Let us put Christ first and let all concerns pass away.  We were chosen for such a time as this. Now let us redeem the time that we've been given by surrendering it back to Him and trusting Him to guide our steps and secure our future.

Hope indeed.  Happy 2013.

Imagination Vs. Faith

Is Jesus just your imaginary friend or is He an unseen constant reality of your life?

You just might want to think about that for a minute.  The next generation may hinge on that answer.

Generational faith training requires that parents take an active role in shaping the faith of the next generation.  It is following the Biblical mandate from Deuteronomy 6:1-12 where Moses commanded :

“1 These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all His decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. “3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you. 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and  when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. 10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you--a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not  dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant--then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

Now, I have talked ad nauseam about this passage.  I've blogged about it.  I'm writing a book about it.

A new aspect, however, has come to my feeble-minded attention span via AW Tozer's The Pursuit of God.  While laying out the case for incorporating a deeper and passionate relationship with God that many Christians miss, Tozer notes the following:

"Imagination is not faith.  The two are not only different from, but stand in sharp opposition to, each other.  Imagination projects unreal images out of the mind and seeks to attach reality to them.  Faith creates nothing: It simply reckons upon that which is already there.  God and the spiritual world are real.  We can reckon upon them with as much assurance as we reckon upon the familiar world around us."

Tozer goes on to say that we can't really comprehension the realness and authenticity of God and the spiritual world because of our sin nature:

"But sin has so clouded the lenses of our hearts that we cannot see that other reality, the City of God, shining around us.  The world of sense triumphs.  The visible becomes the enemy of the invisible; the temporal, of the eternal.  That is the curse inherited by every member of Adam's tragic race.  At the root of the Christian life lies belief in the invisible.  The object of the Christian's faith is unseen reality.  Our uncorrected thinking, influenced by the blindness of our natural hearts and the intrusive ubiquity of visible things tends to draw a contrast between the spiritual and the real; but actually no such contrast exists.  The antithesis lies elsewhere: between the real and the imaginary, between the temporal and the eternal; but between the spiritual and the real, never.  The spiritual IS real."

Those of us entrusted with cultivating the faith view of the next generation (see all of us) must keep these truths in mind.  Our Homeboy Jesus often chatted about the importance of child-like faith.  He chastised the crew to let the little kids come to him.  Kids have that natural ability to believe in the unseen.  You've got your Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and monsters under the bed as just a few examples.

A clear distinction needs to be made here though.  God is not an imaginary friend that you talk to when you are bored.

How you interact with God on a daily basis will impact your child's view of God.  If you treat Jesus as a mystery person that you talk to about once a week that becomes the reality for your kids.  Jesus joins the holiday posse of Santa and the E Bunny as imaginary beings that do nice things for you on occasion.

One of the great challenges of faith training the next generation is incorporating Jesus into every aspect of life and making kids realize that HE IS REAL.  Kids need to understand that faith is not the same as imagination.  We don't project our version of Jesus.  We learn to see the truth Jesus through His Scripture and communion with the Holy Spirit.  Through faith we can see the invisible as it actually exists not as our imagination crafts it to be.  Sometimes that truth is uncomfortable but it doesn't make it any less true.

If one of the sad truths of the modern church era is that statistically the largest percentage of folks who walk away from church do so upon entering college for the primary reason of faith not being applicable to their lives, we need to do a better job at helping kids uncover the REALITY of Jesus before its too late.

Sadly, for many of us (myself included) this means uncovering the REALITY of Jesus for ourselves first.  Too often we compartmentalize and allow the temporal physical aspects of this world to define our ambitions, our priorities and our lifestyle.  Like Adam and Eve's feast on forbidden fruit (and quite frankly like cats chasing a laser pointer) we get easily distracted by the newest and brightest shiny object in front of us.

That veil of "imagination" shrouding the true reality of the spiritual world needs to be torn down.  We can't afford to continue to drape our beliefs into warm and cozy images that we construct ourselves.

Jesus came both to bring a SWORD and ABUNDANT LIFE.

So Deuteronomy Six-ize your faith first and then your kids will follow.  Pray for deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit and deeper revelation of who Jesus is.

Don't settle for Santa.

Imagination is great and fun and provides for hours of entertainment.  It does not, however, provide salvation.  Only spiritual truth can uncover that reality of God found in Christ.

That is the ultimate adventure that no fairy tale could touch and it ain't hopping down no bunny trail or shimmying down the chimney.

Peter: Dissing Jesus One Minute & Loving Him The Next

"Feed Me!"  

You have to love Peter.  Or maybe you don't.  I don't know you so I won't presume to tell you what to do.

Anyway, Peter is a man of high highs and low lows.  Dude jumped out of the boat when he saw Jesus walking on the water toward them when everyone else was messing themselves and shaking like a leaf.

Then he sank into the water because his fear and lack of faith got the best of him.

He was also eager to build tents for Elijah and Moses when they networked socially with Jesus during the Mount of Transfiguration experience.  They weren't planning on hanging out long enough to need the digs, so he never got to build them.

Then during the Last Supper when Judas was all-Satan-ed up, Peter dramatically declared that he would never betray or leave Jesus only to have Jesus rebuke him by predicting his betrayal as a prologue to the exciting event of a rooster crowing.  Me thinks the burly fisherman doth protest too much.

You get the sense when you read John's Gospel that there was a friendly rivalry between these two.  John-boy was the "beloved disciple" and often subtly refers to himself as such when writing his Gospel narrative.  I guess it's a way to try to remain humble about the honor.

To read his account, you see that when Jesus was arrested and Peter was warming up for his betrayal performance of a lifetime, John was also there:

"And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high priest, and went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest.  But Peter stood at the door outside. Then the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to her who kept the door, and brought Peter in."  JOHN 18:15-16

Now, it's true that the account doesn't specifically say it was John, but among the 10 possibilities (let's go ahead and rule out Judas) for this mysterious other disciple, only John is recorded at being at the cross during Jesus' crucifixion.  John and Peter are almost ALWAYS referred to as being together.  Pretty much any major narrative involving one of them involves the other.  Symbolically their partnership serves as a glimpse of the collaborative relationship between FAITH & DEVOTION (John) and ACTION (Peter).   Additionally, John ALWAYS refers to himself in third person, but typically names the other disciples. 

If it is indeed John (and since I'm the author of this blog, I'm declaring that it is) it is interesting that the only disciple to see Jesus through to the cross and the one who bore such a deep and abiding love for Jesus was probably a first-hand witness to at least one of Peter's denials.  According to the text, Disciple X (see also John) was allowed into the courtyard but the salty rough and tumble Peter was not.  Physically, John-boy was probably not nearly as menacing as Petey and yet he doesn't deny Jesus for fear of peer pressure the way Mr. "Rock" does.  Anyway, John used his street cred with the door-lady and "brought Peter in."  Then the very next verse says, "Then the servant girl who kept the door said to Peter, 'You are not also one of this Man's disciples, are you?' He said, 'I am not.'"  

So, John went to get Peter, vouched for Peter and then "brought Peter in" and in that very same instant, Peter was questioned by this door-lady and denied Jesus.  Ouch.  

That my friends is a literary contrast.  And this English teacher likes it.

So, after Peter denied Jesus and runs from the courtyard weeping, John stays and watches his Savior die for the sins of the world.

The two then also face off in racing to the empty tomb.

And then there is Peter's restoration.  Peter was previously described as a "rock" by Jesus and then he had that epic rooster-crow-inducing FAIL of denial.

So when Jesus appears to the disciples after His resurrection, it should be no surprise that He makes a special point to restore Peter's rock-ness. And just as John gave Peter access to the courtyard that night, it's again John that confirms to Peter that it is Jesus speaking to them from the shore in John 21:6-7:

"And He said to them, 'Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.' So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. 7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, 'It is the Lord!' Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment (for he had removed it), and plunged into the sea."

After Peter gets to the shore, Jesus engages him in a little game of "Do You Love Me" where He asks Peter THREE times whether he loves Him or not.  Peter basically answers that he likes him a lot.  And each time Jesus commands him to feed and tend His sheep.  This is to restore Peter to his rightful position as a rock of the faith that will help lay the foundation of the early church.  Jesus knew that Peter had the tenacity and the ACTION to get it done, but here He's restoring Peter's love and devotion (see also relationship) with Him after the nasty denial episode.

Again, interestingly enough, Peter will now get his wish to follow Christ even to death as Jesus predicts that Peter will also die via crucifixion.  Jesus is allowing Peter to truly go where He has gone even after Peter dropped the ball and cajoled a rooster into breaking the serene morning hours with his obnoxious wake-inducing melody.

And even still Peter is comparing himself to John.  He wants to know about John's type of death.  Perhaps because he now feels like he's in the inner circle of relationship again and wants to confirm that all folks in the "in crowd" will suffer and die like that.  Jesus' answer is to again turn the wayward eye of Peter back to Him and not on others.

(Side note:  It's always troubled me that Jesus seems to suggest that John would live to see the end times and the typical "Jesus was just redirecting Peter's attention" explanation never quite cut it.  Thankfully this time reading through the Holy Spirit reminded me that John did in fact see the end times when he wrote the book of Revelation.  Mystery solved.)

John and Peter represent the need for faith and action to work together.  Peter may have had shortcomings and failures but Jesus demonstrated through his story that He is all about restoring broken people by giving them opportunities to learn from their failures and grow closer to Him as a result.

As parents and world-changers in the lives of children, we need to understand that our kids are the same way.  We need to build up both a deep and abiding love of Jesus AND the boldness to act and rock this world to the foundation.  There's a lot to learn from the lives of Peter and John.  

And there are a lot of the Master's sheep to tend and feed.  And if we truly LOVE HIM we will do just that!

Every Day a (Good) Friday

On this holy day where we remember the painful trek to Golgotha that Christ made for us, it's important that each believer stop and calculate the cost of his or her salvation.

I'm personally not good at calculating costs.  Don't tell Dave Ramsey but an accountant I am not.

So, being a more free-spirited kind of person, I don't usually count the cost.  I'm usually in the camp of least resistance.  Not, however, when it comes to my faith.

In a day and age where there are many high profile pastors proclaiming that Jesus is essentially a magic genie that will take every problem away from your life and make your life the stuff of fairy tales, many folks don't have the first clue as to what being a true follower of Christ means.  They've been robbed of the true power behind Good Friday and the walk of a Christian.

Yes, the life of a believer does have every day as a Friday.  It's just that every day is a Good Friday.

That's not to say that Jesus will not bless you.  He will.  It's just that our narrow constructs of what "blessing" means seems to translate into our modern narcissistic worldview of "me me me."  God blessing you does not mean that you will have a mansion, the model family, no history of sickness and virtually no strife.

God's mansion for you comes in the next life.  This life is quite simply not about you.

We are so conditioned thanks to the carnal nature of our world to put our own comfort and ease above all else.  If something is hard, hurts our feelings, or makes us struggle we shrink away from it.

And so, those who cling to Jesus solely as a "get out of jail free" card and magic charm to erase all of their hurt, are missing out on a much larger life-altering blessing.

That's why when pressed for the greatest commandment, Jesus told us in Matthew 22:37-40:

Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

Notice Jesus didn't mention that iPads and fancy new cars would be falling from the sky.  He didn't say that the most important thing in life was your personal comfort or happiness.  He did, however, lay out a plan that would leave you fulfilled and whole.

Jesus is talking about the priorities necessary in order to live the Christian life and be a true follower of Him.  It's.  Not.  About.  You.

You don't even make the list.

Your first priority in all that you do, think and experience should be your all-encompassing love of your Lord Jesus Christ.  Your love and relationship with Jesus will not only determine your eternal destination but also the fullness of your wisdom and experience in this life.  He is the "solid rock" on which you stand "all other ground is sinking sand."  Any theology or teaching that starts without Jesus as the first priority and center of everything is false doctrine right from the pit of hell.

The second priority is again not you.  It's other people.  Jesus is telling you that in order to be successful in this whole Christian experience, you need to put Him first and others second.  You come somewhere after that.

In our culture, many in the church are trying to gain favor in our self-centered culture by focusing on your needs and your wants and how you can feel better and become more comfortable by citing verses that refer to Christ giving you whatever you ask for in His name.

That is a distortion of reality and one of the subtle ways that the enemy can warp our thinking and thwart our witness in this world.

Again, this is not to say that Jesus wants you to suffer in this world.  He doesn't.  The world and the enemy do, however.  He wants you to stand with Him and not with the pleasures of this world.

And that involves a choice.

You would think that if Christianity was the secret formula to riches and a life of ease that the disciples and early New Testament believers would have been on Easy Street.  And yet, despite the miraculous world-changing witness that they bore, we find the opposite: people being boiled in oil, crucified, stoned to death, hanged, exiled, beaten repeatedly, mocked, scorned and rejected.

This is why Jesus didn't promise us to "live offa fatta the land."  (A little literary reference to my Of Mice and Men scholars!)

Jesus counts the cost for us.  Right after He predicts His own death on the cross, He tells us in Luke 9:23:

Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."

ANY basic understanding of God's purpose for your life begins and ends with this verse.  Your life is not your own.  The Bible talks repeatedly of being bought with a price.  We are slaves either to self or Christ.  The Christian life is not about what you can get, how easy you can make life for yourself, or how every day will be like a Friday to you.

It's about understanding the reality of your salvation.  The cost involved in liberating you from an eternity in hell.  The proper response of a freed soul.  It's about following the Master, walking in His steps, and finding your contentment in serving and loving Him.

Every day is literally a Good Friday for the Christian.  We must pick up our cross to follow our Lord.  We must enter into a world at war with our Savior and shine His light for others.  We must put God's plans and desires ahead of our own.  Heck, we must even put other people ahead of our own.  And not just our kids or spouses.  The life of a Christian is one of sacrifice.

And in that sacrifice and diminishing of self comes the blessing.  Not in iPads, new threads and McMansions.  It is the blessing of a life (and a choice) that Jesus laid out in John 10:10:

"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. "

The more abundant life is one of purpose, wholeness and blessing.  It may not be the path with the most material wealth.  It may not be the path with the most popularity or earthly power.  It may even not be the path with the least amount of sickness and struggle.

The truth is, however, that one day you will see your Redeemer face to face.  And in that moment when you are basking in His glory and the freedom of being whole in His presence for eternity, you will understand what His definition of a blessed life truly is.

So today, take a moment and think about the sacrifices that Jesus made for you.  He denied Himself His throne in heaven (and refused to seek a throne here as well) and lived a life as the stone that the builders rejected.  The man of sorrows, who was mocked, scorned, beaten and savagely slaughtered on the cross for sins that He never committed.

Fair?  No.  Right?  Yes.  His example showed how He intends to bring about freedom, purpose, restoration and salvation.  And this Good Friday, may you find the abundant life of Christ by embracing the "every day a Good Friday" mentality about your very important mission on this earth.

Lives are hanging in the balance.  Live like it.