Dear 20 Year Old Me

(Yes, Miss Joni, I stole that title from you, but my content will obviously be from a different perspective...)

If only I'd been around when I was 20. I mean me, the 41 year old. I'd have a few things to say to myself, such as:

*You know far less than you think you do, so stop being so cocky.

*You will always regret THAT stupid thing and THAT stupid thing, etc., so don't do it.

*Stop taking your parents for granted.

*When you become a parent, you will realize how awesome your parents are.

*When you're driving home from the hospital with your first child, you don't need to be afraid that the wheels are going to fall off the car.

*Marriage will not be a gauzy dreamscape like in the movies.

*Marriage will be the most amazing thing you'll ever experience.

*Don't ever be mean to your wife. Ever.

*Don't use that one lady for a realtor when you sell your first house.

*Pray more than you think you should.

*Never let a day slip by without Scripture.

*God is bigger than you've ever imagined.

I wonder what my 80 year old self will have to say?

SIN(s)

I know that I tend to grieve and be troubled over specific instances of sin in my life more than I do over the fact that I am truly and fundamentally a sinNER. Of course I realize that being justified in Christ profoundly and forever changes my identity, but I'm thinking that even though it is a wonderful and beautiful thing to be granted forgiveness for individual transgressions, it is an even greater and more amazing thing to be paroled and pardoned for my entire sinful nature. It's not just that the thief is forgiven for stealing, but is also forgiven for being a thief!

"There is a tendency to think that our sins are bigger than our sin - maybe because it's that rare case of language when the plural is smaller than the singular. Sins are those individual acts of rebellion - symptoms of the bigger problem. Our sin is the bigger problem: it's our condition or state which is in hideous rebellion toward a holy and good God. When Christians feel that sins (acts) are bigger than sin (condition), they see evangelism as an effort of moral reform rather than explaining the steps that need to take place to rip our our wicked hearts and replace them with new hearts - that amazing work of God that Jesus called being born again." ~excerpted from Marks Of The Messenger by J. Mack Stiles.

Our Love Saves Us - Blindside

I am a fan of the Swedish band Blindside, and I'm really liking one of their recent songs, "Our Love Saves Us." It's a declaration of hope and commitment in a relationship (marriage, presumably). So, here it is for your enjoyment! (I'm only so-so about the video, but the song is fantastic)

When Nice Is Sin

Sometimes being "nice" in order to not offend can, in truth, be a sin. When we pull a punch or soft-pedal the Truth (notice the capital "T"), we are, in a very real sense, lying. And we are lying to the potential peril of someone's very soul. I think we (at least I) should begin to see Truth and Compassion as the best of friends. If Jesus was ever harsh with the Truth, it was because He could not, would not, lie.

As fallen creatures prone to self-preservation at any cost, it's vitally necessary that our defenses-turned-dungeons be broken down so that we can see the light of truth burning through the darkness.

"Sentimental love bleeds into the Christian mind in a form of niceness. It's easy to confuse nice with compassion, kindness or love. But nice is not a biblical word. Jesus was extremely un-nice at times, because He wanted to go deeply into people's lives, into their sin with the truth, and that's never nice." ~ J. Mack Stiles, Marks Of The Messenger

I Know What Love Is...

For many, many reasons, I can't fathom loving any other woman than my wife. It's not because I'm the perfect husband, but "I know what love is, Jenny." I wonder sometimes if I'm as faithful to my Savior as I am to my spouse. In The Good News We Almost Forgot, Kevin DeYoung writes about the exclusivity of our relationship with God:

"Loving God is like loving your spouse: When you choose your mate, it is to the exclusion of all others. You can't do both. You can't tell your wife, 'Honey, here's my other lover. I really wanted you to meet. I know you'll be great friends. You both mean so much to me.' Your wife will say, 'It's me or her. You take your pick.'"

My Children Have Done Something "Fowl"

My kids love to give goats and soccer balls and especially chickens through World Vision. Today we gave 5 ducks and 2 chickens, which is almost a paltry little thing to us, but will soon mean a daily supply of protein and vitamins for an impoverished family somewhere on the planet. That's cool. If you have children, or even if you don't, please check out the really neat, easy and sensible opportunities World Vision has to help people in need. I promise your kids will get excited about choosing something to give! From rabbits to mosquito netting to water filters to garden seeds to a Mongolian Ger, there are possibilities to bless no matter what your budget is.

Need Of Grace

When I was younger, I had fanciful dreams about my grown up self:

I imagined I would be the trophy husband, perfect, and adored by my wife.

I imagined that my marriage would be one to write books about.

I imagined that whatever children I had would never be caught up in sin or tempted to stray.

I imagined that my ministry for the Lord would be grand and secretly envied by others.

There was an awful lot of ME in me, back then. And not nearly enough of Christ. Now that I've lived in reality for a while, I know that Christ is all, and all that matters. I know that imperfection, failure, and temptation are the featured flavors of nearly every day.

The following prayer from The Valley of Vision is a sigh of blessed resignation and surrender:

O Lord,
Thou knowest my great unfitness for service,
my present deadness,
my inability to do anything for thy glory,
my distressing coldness of heart.

I am weak, ignorant, unprofitable,
and loathe and abhor myself.
I am at a loss to know what thou wouldest
have me do,
for I feel amazingly deserted by thee,
and sense thy presence so little;

Thou makest me possess the sins of my youth,
and the dreadful sin of my nature,
so that I feel all sin,
I cannot think or act but every motion is sin.

Return again with showers of converting grace
to a poor gospel-abusing sinner.
Help my soul to breathe after holiness,
after a constant devotedness to thee,
after growth in grace more abundantly every day.

O Lord, I am lost in the pursuit of this blessedness,
And am ready to sink because I fall short
of my desire;
Help me to hold out a little longer,
until the happy hour of deliverance comes,
for I cannot lift my soul to thee
if thou of thy goodness bring me not nigh.

Help me to be diffident, watchful, tender,
lest I offend my blessed Friend
in thought and behaviour;
I confide in thee and lean upon thee,
and need thee at all times to assist and lead me.
O that all my distresses and apprehensions
might prove but Christ’s school
to make me fit for greater service
by teaching me the great lesson of humility.

And Can It Be

Currently loving this:

Why Star Trek Is So Unbelievable

Multi-level touch screen controls? Got that on my phone.
Phasers? Military is working on that.
Light speed? Sure, theoretically.
An earth where people don't use currency and are basically morally upright? Never.

I love watching Star Trek, and really like that I can watch DS9 on Netflix. Gene Rodenberry's vision was extraordinary, if not a little bit pie-in-the-sky. The problem isn't about the high tech gadgetry and complicated science we've seen from the original series all the way to the present permutations of that futuristic vision.

The thing that will never happen, no matter how much technology advances, is a society that has solved the problems of poverty, crime, racism and religion. Mankind might make a good ray gun, but men will never make themselves good.

Scripture is clear that we're wicked to the core, and we've proven to ourselves over the centuries that whether we're stamping cuneiform characters in clay or use a text to speech app on our smartphone, our hearts haven't changed. We might be smarter, but we're no better. I'm convinced that people confuse technological advancement with morality, but men are just as they always have been: depraved and in need of a Savior outside of themselves.

The only time we'll see everything set right is in a renewed heaven and earth, where wickedness and unrepentance (and those who practice such things) will be forever taken away. And beaming from one place to another will be easy.

Murmuration

And God smiles....

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

Altars For Sinning

In preparing to preach to our teenagers about the need (present & urgent) for repentance, I was reacquainted with this startling verse of Scripture:

Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning. Hosea 8:11

The truth of the matter is that our very hearts which we at first offered to God openly, freely and exclusively can become places where vile worship occurs, places where we affectionately caress the sins we've come to cherish. Altars for sinning. Large or small, the idols have to go and the altar needs to be cleansed. Let's make this a day for repentance and renewal.

Worship That Rocks...Not What You're Thinking

I pastor teenagers. Some folks call that a "Youth Pastor", but that can carry certain connotations I'd rather not be associated with. I'm to shepherd and disciple these young people, and with God's help, I'm doing my best to fulfill that calling...and I'm digressing.

I pastor teenagers, and you wouldn't believe what some of their favorite songs are. Among the songs they clamor for and request more often than anything else when it comes to our times of worship are: Come Thou Fount, How Deep The Father's Love For Us and Before the Throne of God Above.

I know, I know, it sounds ridiculous, but these are really teenagers (I've checked their I.D.s) and they have a real hunger for truth. And they love to sing it loud.

Another thing that's so neat about this group is that they're just as happy singing these songs with our full band and fancy lighting or just sitting around on a concrete floor with an acoustic guitar.

I'm sure they could be fed a steady diet of marshmallow-Jesus-fluff and wouldn't know any better. At least at one time. Now they now what Truth sounds like. And they know that declaring Truth in song is God-honoring, edifying, and powerful.

Sovereign Grace songwriter Bob Kauflin has some great thoughts on modern worship, and they're worth noting (here's the blog where I found these comments):

"...Bob lamented the worldly ‘rock concert’ culture that has infected congregational singing in many churches around the world. We see that influence, he pointed out, in a number of disturbing trends:
■People value the power and effectiveness of the performance over the participation of the congregation.
■People value musical skill (and good looks!) in musicians over character and biblical understanding.
■People value musical experiences over word experiences (that is, experiences which are a response to the truth, not simply a response to the power of the music). Music doesn’t really change people; it’s the word of the Bible and the Spirit working through it that changes people.
■People value singer-songwriters over pastors as the people who write our songs. Songs should be written by people who are theologically deep and driven.

Bob also sharply criticised the idea that somehow music brings us into the presence of God; or that music is a way of bringing God down to us—as if ‘God enters the building’ or ‘shows up’ when we start to feel the emotional power of the music.

Bob said lots of other helpful things, such as the central thesis of his first talk: that singing is not a peripheral or unimportant aspect of our church meetings that deserves little thought or quick delegation, but instead is a very significant way in which a pastor leads, feeds, cares for, protects and sets an example for his flock. Singing is an important ministry that can be powerful—for both good and ill. He was urging us as leaders and pastors to take that responsibility seriously.

There were plenty of other worthwhile points made. In no particular order:
■that singing involves the head as well as the heart;
■that singing has a ‘vertical’ aspect (towards God) as well as a ‘horizontal’ aspect (towards each other); this is nicely captured in Ephesians 5:19—”addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart”;
■that we need to balance the already and the not-yet in our experience (we don’t yet see Jesus face to face, and yet we do respond to him now with a “joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” as 1 Peter 1:8 puts it);
■that we need to hold in healthy tension (as the Bible does) both the transcendence and immanence of God; that is, not lapsing into over-familiar, Jesus-is-my-boyfriend kind of songs, but also not missing the fact that God has invited us to draw near to his throne of grace.