Month: August 2008

Today I took about an hour and a half and just headed into the woods with my Bible, a journal, and The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. I wanted to just settle my heart before the Lord and give him space to speak to my soul. There were a few things that I felt Him impressing on me, but one that I meditated on and wanted to share here is from Psalm 46:10 which says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The thing that struck me was how often we think that God is exalted when we are active and busy. Yet this text seems to suggest that the opposite is true. It is when we are still before the Lord that He moves and makes Himself known. This is so that He receives all of the credit. The principle that I wrote down a while back considering this is: When we work, God rests. When we rest, God works. Selah!

Bible In A Minute – barats and bereta

Rachael Ray. She’s my 10-year old’s cooking hero. She loves watching the cooking channel after school. This summer she has been watching even more cooking shows. And now she is wanting to cook more. A few weeks ago she brought my wife and I eggs at 6 in the morning. We are so not morning people, but I got up and ate them anyways.

With each meal she makes, she is becoming more and more emboldened and confident. Lately we have had to harness her enthusiasm some because she’s getting into stuff in the kitchen and using the stove, and we have been working with her in understanding our need to be present to provide her with appropriate supervision.

Yesterday she decided she wanted to make brownies. My wife was around but didn’t really feel like cooking. After some pleading my wife said she could make them, but she needed to follow the directions very carefully. When the brownies came out they had a strange look and consistency. They were dry and had a strange taste to them. Claudia insisted that she had followed the directions. My wife was not convinced, so she grabbed the box and began going through the instructions step by step asking Claudia if she had done each step accordingly.

When she got to butter, she asked Claudia if she had used butter. Yes, she replied. Did she use 2 cups? No. She couldn’t figure out how to get two cups out of the butter container, and besides, she couldn’t find the measuring cup. So she put in 5 teaspoons of butter. That explained the look.

Eggs? “Well,” Claudia said, “I decided to take one egg out. It seemed like too much.”

Cocoa? “I decided to add more because I thought it would taste better.”

My wife sat Claudia down and explained to her that this was why she needs mom’s assistance as she is learning to cook. She also talked about the importance of measuring and following directions. Claudia said that the cooks on TV don’t measure. My wife explained that they had lots of experience and expertise and she cannot copy their techniques.

Here’s the part that was most beautiful to me. I did not know that this had happened. I came home for lunch yesterday and found a note in the kitchen. I took a picture of it and it is below. My favorite part is the last part that says, “I would rather do it with my mom.” It just underscored the truth that parents have far and away the strongest influence in their kids’ lives. It also was a beautiful picture of the mentoring relationship that should exist between parents and children. It’s also a foundational aspect of youth ministry.

I just finished reading Jesus-Centered Youth Ministry by Rick Lawrence. I really enjoyed the read, and more importantly, the challenge. I particularly enjoyed chapters 9 and 10 which dealt with Outreach and Culture respectively.

Here are a few quotes from those chapters that really grabbed me:

“Jesus rarely ‘closed the deal’ in his interactions with people.”

Quoting Tina Hickey … “‘I once read a definition of “old-school” evangelism described as “arrogant benevolence,” or the idea that we are nice to those who aren’t as good as us to get them saved so they can be as good as us. Yuck!'”

“[Service] isn’t how you achieve [a Christ-like walk] – it is the result of it.”

“In practical terms, ‘as-we’re-doing-it ministry’ means scaring kids – in a good way. Jesus-centered outreach is all about asking them to do something scary; create something new, or to reach our to people whose problems are beyond their ability to solve. In short, our job is to ask them to get out of their ‘boat’ and walk on water. This is what outreach is for – introducing managed crisis into kids’ loves so Jesus can access their deepest places.”

Walt Mueller (President of the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding) says there are 3 approaches to teaching and living out our relationship to culture. (1) Accommodation – ignorantly or deliberately believing and living out cultural values that are contrary to a biblical worldview. (2) Alienation – Our homes and youth ministries become places where we seek to protect and defend ourselves from the evil and offensive influence of culture by constructing “bunkers” in which to retreat and hide. (3) Engagement – This is the one modeled and commanded by Christ who calls us to “come and follow me” … yes, right into the culture. This approach sees the culture as a mission field ripe for redemption. Christ’s followers are called to infiltrate the world, live in the culture, and thereby exert an influence that God uses to transform individuals and institutions.

Both accommodation and alienation “essentially pivot around an Old Testament ‘us versus them’ mind-set.”

“We don’t need separation to be holy; in fact, Jesus asserts that his Father’s mission of redemption requires us to not be separate.”

“In biblical terms, we’re in danger of losing our ‘saltiness.’ Salt can’t season itself – it must infiltrate something foreign to itself before it makes an impact.”

“Jesus never modeled or advocated distance in ministry. In fact, he so closely attached himself to ‘worldly’ people and environments that some claimed he was ‘of the world’ himself. By those standards, most youth ministries could use a little more worldliness.”

“If we think we’re producing mature Christian young people by repeatedly damning popular [culture], we’re confused. Hiding kids … teaches them to fear it and distrust us. They either learn to adopt a ‘survival’ mentality … or they develop two alter egos to they can function in both the mainstream world and the church world.”

While those quotes can certainly sting and scare people I believe that is the good kind of “scaring” that we need. Tremendous words of challenge to the Church! Thanks Rick!

Today Adriana and I celebrate our 12th Anniversary! I must say that while I increasingly show my age, she gets more beautiful and graceful every day! 12 years used to seem like it would be an incredible achievement, but the time has absolutely flown by! We have made it through a lot together, and I am so thankful that God has given me such a wonderful partner to journey through life with. I believe that our best days and years are still in front of us, and I look forward to getting to know this wonderful woman more intimately along way. I thank God for the two beautiful daughters He has given us whom have brought us great joy and are such a blessing.