Then God Said...

I remember being a young Christian, attending a conference when the announcement came for all those who felt called into ministry to stand up. With great fervor, I stood as a declaration that I am responding to God's call on my life. Like Isaiah, I was proclaiming back to God, "Here I am. Send me" (Isiah 6:8). Shortly after this, I expected that God would launch me into ministry very quickly. I began praying, waiting, and watching for God to open doors for ministry. After some years went by I began to grow increasingly frustrated and discouraged that I was not yet in ministry. Did not God call me into ministry? Did I somehow miss the opportunity God had for me? Was I sure that God still wanted me in ministry? After some honest time in prayer with God, he began to speak some key scriptures to me: ...for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. - 1 Samuel 13:14 Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, 'Surely this is the Lord ’s anointed!' ...

My wife Haley and I had just found out that I lost my job. This was a huge blow to us because I am the sole provider for our home, including our two small children. I remember Haley and I being really confused about what God was doing. We had a lot of questions and mixed emotions about what would be next for us. I remember one of the dominate feelings was of fear. We were unsure about so many things: what would we do next, where would we go, would I be able to find another job, how will we pay the bills, will I be able to provide? These were some of the things that tried to dominate our internal world, and sometimes they did. It was during this time that God began to speak to us about what would be next. I remember reading about the Israelite's in their exodus journey: how God had given them a promise and fulfilled that promise. Similar to the Israelite's, God had given us a promise that he would prosper us so that we could prosper others. It sure did not feel like that...

If the love of a father will not make a child delight in him, what will? Put, then, this to the venture: exercise your thoughts upon this very thing, the eternal, free, and fruitful love of the Father, and see if your hearts be not wrought upon to delight in him. -John Owen  At the very core of us, who do we believe God to be? I bet that we see God through what we think we know about him, and not what he says about himself. Most of us develop our thoughts of God by what others tell us he is like, or our relationships that represent God to us (pastors, parents, ministers, etc.), and by lies that we believe. The above quote is so striking because it reveals that what we think about God is how we will interact with God. For instance, if we are afraid of him, then we will not come near him. On the other hand, if we know that he is loving, then we will come to him. Think of this in terms of the friends you keep. Have you ever kept a friend you did not love? God tells us that he i...

“so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders,” 1 Thessalonians 4:12 NIV How we live our life matters; life does not simply give casual moments to be squandered and thrown away or wasted in the passing of time. On the contrary, it is the moments of life that we can never gain again, even as you are reading this there is a moment passing by that you will never get back. For us, the question is, how are we living our life? Are we winning with our life or are we loosing our life? How we answer these questions is of utmost importance. The critical component to winning and loosing in life is determined by posture. What is our posture toward the moments of life: one that positions us to live from a place of power, or one that we feel that life is out of control and we're a helpless passenger along for the ride? I heard a phrase years ago by Mike Bickel that marked me life forever, "If you do not quit you win." Think about it: Rudy, the Norte Dame football...

"Your life is hidden with Christ in God." Colossians 3:3 What would the garden look like if Adam and Eve were good stewards of it? What would our life look like if we were good stewards of it? It would be something more beautiful then we could all ever imagine. There is more than what we are living for; we must labor with God to find it, cultivate it and live in it.   This was the thought running through my head this past week as I was driving down I-40. One of the mystical paradoxes of God is that he has given everything for life in him, yet it is up to us to find it; it has all been given, but we must seek it out to gain it; for, our "life is hidden with Christ in God."  If this is true, then it  begs  the question, what is required to find this hidden life with Christ in God? While there are many things we can use to search for this life, just as a detective has many ways to search for clues, so we too have many ways to search for the life God has gi...

If the Church is the Bride of Christ, then it should be good for our marriage. I want to give you three reasons the Church has been good for my marriage: 1. My wife and I have weekly quality time together. This is especially important since we have kids. We get an hour and a half to enjoy each other's company, sometimes we even snuggle and kiss! This is also a time where we get to connect on a level much different than any other time or place during the week. Our sense of oneness is increased as we both pursue God--there is a dramatic weaving together that happens with God who created us, our marriage, and the Church as his Bride.  2. My wife and I have community around us. The best relationships my wife and I have ever had have come from our church-going life. There are people who know how to love well: they know how to treat you with respect and honor, they are there for you in hard times, they are people you can count on when you need them, they are people who know...

Celebrating my recent 31st birthday in April and my son being born the same month, I have been thinking a lot of what life was like when I was a kid, how I will be a father to the two of my boys, and the wisdom that I will pass down to them. Today, I just want to write about five things I have learned over the past 30 years and how they have helped me: "The glory of young men is their strength" (Pro 20:29). We can spend the strength of our life on a lot of things: some things that yield great return, and some things that only turn to ash and nothing. I have spent my life on both and have found that when I have used my strength to work with the Father it was never wasted. In fact, there are decisions that I made when I was 18 that are still paying off for me today, and the reason they are still benefitting me today is because I chose to use my strength to obey God. There are also things I decided to do at 18 where I chose to spend my strength to serve myself and I am s...