Summer Activity Book

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ESV)

Summer time is officially here regardless of what the calendar says. That means that over the next couple of months family schedule's will be a bit different with a lot of activity and travelling. The Village Church in Texas has put out a great Summer Family Activity Book to help you and yours make the best use of your summer filled activities with the above charge from Deuteronomy in mind. 

This is a great free resource that my family has already taken some great ideas. We look forward to planning some of these activities from the book this summer where we will have fun, but also take the opportunity to help our son see the things of the Lord.

How The Gospel Affects Parenting

Being a father of a now one year old, I decided that it was time to finally break out some parenting books to get some helpful tips on figuring out what in the heck I am doing. Three books have been most highly recommend to me so my wife and I have purchased all three and finished reading the first one this week, which is Gospel-Powered Parenting: How the Gospel Shapes and Transforms Parenting, by William P. Farley. In his book, Farley suggest seven ways in which the gospel affects parenting.

SEVEN WAYS IN WHICH THE GOSPEL AFFECTS PARENTING

    1. The gospel teaches Christian parents to fear God.

   2. The gospel motivates parents to lead by example.

  3. The gospel centers families in their male servant leaders.

 4. The gospel teaches and motivates parents to discipline their children.

 5. The gospel motivates parents to teach their children.

 6. The gospel motivates parents to lavish their children with love and affection.

 7. The gospel is the solution for inadequate parents.

The other two highly recommend books are:

Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp and Give them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids With the Love of Jesus by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson. Also another helpful free e-book specifically for fathers is Pastor Dad by Mark Driscoll. I am obviously very new at parenting, but these have been the most recommend books given to me, any others out there that I should be aware of?

Seeing Through Different Lenses

Let me start off by saying that as followers of Christ I believe we need to see and examine everything through the lenses of Scripture. But I think that in order to reach the people in each of the context that we are called to that it would not hurt if we would walk a mile in someone else's lenses. Not in order to embrace their particular point of view or lifestyle but in order to minister to them appropriately.

It is very easy to stay bunkered down in our own camps of belief and shout from the tops of hills at people that are different from us, often trapped in sin, but it takes a more mature and truly missional Christian to practice passion on people. This has been called by some the incarnation of the heart.

Incarnation of the heart causes one to have a certain level of intimacy with those they are trying to reach. This allows one to truly love others as themselves as God commands us to do. I think about the recent vote of Amendment One and how from afar I read so many hateful things that people were saying to and about each other. I think those in my own circle responded well and biblically, but not everyone in the church did such. 

Regardless of where you were on that vote, think for a minute if you could incarnate your heart to the people on the opposing side of you. This would require you to feel their stories, their lives, and their pain. In order to truly reach a people or sect within our society we have to be able to feel the pain of what they are going through, especially those in the GLBT community, which the church historically has not responded or ministered to in a loving way.

I want to encourage you to look around your church this weekend and see the makeup of the people. And then make a list of the groups of society and the demographics that your church has struggled in reaching. Now take the time over the coming weeks to get to know some of the people in that demographic by befriending them and try putting on their lenses for just a mile in order to see what it is they see, how they see you and the church, and to learn how it is that you can practice incarnation of the heart in order to reach them.

Dependent vs. Co-Dependent Disciples

In the church we hear and talk a lot about making disciples, but the reality is that often what is happening is we are creating a group of dependent consumers. I heard an analogy to capture this idea this week when referring to a child growing up. For example my now one year old depends on me and his mom in order to get fed daily. And a large part of his nutrients comes from his mothers breast. This is perfectly normal as this is the pattern for any one year old as they cannot feed themselves, at least if food is not placed in front of them.

But my son as he gets older and matures will learn to feed himself and eventually others. Now, what would look funny and get at least mother and possibly son committed to a psyche ward  would be if my son were still breast feeding at twenty years old. 

But the truth is that many of our churches are treating discipleship exactly in this way. Instead of producing self-feeders we are creating dependent consumers. This is perhaps no clearer than with the idea of the paid professional Christians and the non-paid amateur Christians. The distinctions themselves naturally exist as one is getting paid and the other is not, but it has also created the idea of different classes of Christians, which ultimately has hurt the church and its mission.

Instead our churches need to re-think the "priesthood of all believers," and start taking it seriously. As Alan Hirsch says, "Every person that is a follow of Christ is a minister and needs to be released as such, seriously." Perhaps instead of a person being converted and sticking them in a Sunday school class or a church program or new members class we need to immediately commission them into full-time ministry.

In my now context of S. Asia we are training and equipping church planters to think in this way. We teach them that the only requirement for one to get out and share their faith is to actually have faith. And recently a guy captured the idea of the priesthood of all believers beautifully when we were studying baptism as he looked at the group and said, "Every believer a baptizer." This guy and group were starting to get it as most of the traditional churches here only allow degree holding, ordained ministers to baptize.

The truth is that if we want to see our cities changed with the gospel that we need every disciple to be a self-feeder that is also feeding others. Every disciple is created to be a minister, but that idea must be communicated from the pulpit in our churches in order to get that idea across. There will never be enough paid ministers out there to reach your city, but if every disciple is embracing their role as a minister then quickly a movement can take place in which a place is changed by the gospel being lived out in front of them.

The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself

This week I finished reading, Note To Self: The Discipline Of Preaching To Yourself, by Joe Thorn. Thorn wrote the book to help others develop a theological understanding and real-life practice of the discipline of preaching to ourselves.

This book is a short read that is made up of three parts: the gospel and God, the gospel and others, and the gospel and you. The three parts consist of 48 chapters that read like letters to your self, each starting with a truth from Scripture and then proceeding with "Dear Self." 

This is a book that I highly recommend to anyone who is a follower of Christ as preaching the gospel to yourself is a discipline that we all need to practice more, which is exactly what "Note to Self," helps one do. There were parts of this short book that caused me to be convicted in areas that I did not even realize I needed to practice repentance and apply the gospel in my life.

Here is a few of the noteworthy quotes just to give you a small taste:

It is only when our thoughts are challenged and conformed to the principles of God's Word and our hearts are energized to make choices consistent with God's revealed will that a human being is transformed. (12)

In others words, for the Bible to be of value to us it must actually function to shape how we think, feel, and act, as well as what we believe, value, and teach. (12)

Many who value the preaching of Scripture by pastors and teachers are not benefiting from the kind of preaching that should be most consisten and personal-preaching to ourselves. (22)

Preaching to ourselves is the personal act of applying the law and the gospel to our own lives with the aim of experiencing the transforming grace of God leading to ongoing faith, repentance, and greater godliness. (23)

At its core, the gospel if Jesus as the substitue for sinners. (29)

When we get to the business of preaching this good news to ourselves, we are essentially denying self and resting in the grace of Christ in his life, death, and resurrection. (30)

Therefore preaching to ourselves puts us into a cycle of law and gospel where we move from our guilt and need to God's grace and provision and then back to the law as joyful and free obedience. (31)

To preach to yourself is to challenge yourself, push yourself, and point yourself to the truth. It is not so much uncovering new truth as much as it is reminding yourself of the truth you tend to forget. (32)

You must learn, relearn, and remember your Savior's love and sacrifice for the wicked, the rebellious, the black-hearted-for the people like you. And when you see the Holy One's sacrificial love for you, you not only see what love looks life, but also you find strength and power to love like him. (35)

Creating a Monument for a Mountain Top Experience

And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah"-not knowing what he said.

Luke 9:33

This verse comes in the middle of the passage in Luke on the transfiguration of Christ, which provides a glimpse into the future of the glory of Christ. A glimpse into the future here is key because as Peter indicated he wanted to stay in the moment as we all would, but Luke indicates that this is a mistake. 

What Peter was trying to do is create a monument for his mountain top experience. A monument where he could stay and bask in what was taking place through the glory of Christ. Although the passage indicates that it is a mistake, I believe that we all would make the same mistake and often do make that mistake.

Take for example any true revival where the Spirit of God has fallen on a place. What usually happens? We try to stay there and take it further then what even God intended for it. We like to get stuck there by creating a monument when often the Spirit of God may have moved onto other places.

An extreme example of this is often seen in what I will call "Charismatic Movements." And before you accuse me of anything, recognize that I do fall into the Reformed Charismatic camp. I think of the Toronto Blessing that started in 1994 and had many good things come out of it, but what eventually happened is an extreme version of what the people were seeking themselves void of the Holy Spirit. Some such as Hank Hanegraaff even believe that the revival has gone on to do more damage than good.

I will let God be the ultimate judge of that, but I do recognize that these people were trying to do just as Peter and creating a monument for their mountain top experience. But the truth is that we are meant to stay in those mountain top experiences, not yet anyway. 

Part of the reason that we are not meant to stay in these experiences is that this is not the reality of the Christian life here on earth. The reality is that we face hardship and as this same chapter earlier in Luke refers to us taking up our cross and following Jesus. Taking up your cross does not leave you on a mountain top experience very long.

It is not that there is anything wrong with a mountain top experience, but what often happens when the experience is over is that we either attempt to create a monument where God no longer is in it or we dry up in our faith because we based it on the experience itself instead of the person and work of Jesus. The true and better mountain top experience is the Gospel, your salvation through Jesus Christ, and this of all places is where your monument should be.

Free Download - Church Clothes via Lecrae

Okay I admit it...I have always been a little of an in the closet fan of different rap/hip-hop artist, but honestly most out there have lyrics that are so distasteful that it has been difficult to official endorse any particular artist. There is finally not only an artist, but a group of them that I feel like have both creative and good quality music in the 116 Clique.

In particular I have become a huge fan of the artist Lecrae. This week his new album, "Church Clothes," dropped and it is currently a free download. I have enjoyed listening to this album all week so thought it was worth sharing for others to receive their free download of the album by clicking here: Church Clothes.