whom then shall I fear?

It is not a new thing to be afraid. The Bible doesn't hide from us the fact that people are naturally afraid -- even people who at times walk very closely with God.

As I sit here typing, several stories of those who were afraid (and those warned not to be afraid) come to mind, stories of people like [no order here . . .] Moses, Joshua, David, Gideon, the apostles -- people we see listed as "heroes" of the faith.

Humans are a fearful lot.

People in our times are afraid of a multitude of things: getting old, becoming unattractive, getting sick, losing a "significant other," ridicule, poverty, death, not having a good retirement, crime, boredom, and the list goes on.

There's only one fear that is consistently missing: the fear of God. It's not really even in our fear vocabulary. We don't fear Him in our entertainment choices. We don't fear Him in our lifestyle choices. We don't fear Him in our vocabulary choices.

We -- at least culturally -- just don't really think He's that big of a deal.

While the Bible is replete with commands NOT to fear, it is also clear that there is one type of fear that is non-optional.

Psalm 34 vividly presents the contrast:

1 I will bless the LORD at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul shall make its boast in the LORD;
The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
3 Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
And let us exalt His name together.

4 I sought the LORD, and He heard me,
And delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked to Him and were radiant,
And their faces were not ashamed.
6 This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him,
And saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him,
And delivers them.

8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
9 Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints!
There is no want to those who fear Him.
10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger;
But those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.

11 Come, you children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 Who is the man who desires life,
And loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil,
And your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.

15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their cry.
16 The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears,
And delivers them out of all their troubles.

18 The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the LORD delivers him out of them all.
20 He guards all his bones;
Not one of them is broken.
21 Evil shall slay the wicked,
And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.
22 The LORD redeems the soul of His servants,
And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.

I won't pretend to understand fully what the "fear of the LORD" means, but I think that it has something to do with an acknowledgment of His holiness and hatred for sin, and the wrath that we all deserve for rebelling against Him.

It has something to do with His glory as the Creator of the universe and the One Who holds it all together -- the One in Whom all created things live and move and have their being.

It has something to do with His steadfast love that extends mercy to a people who have been nothing but covenant breakers for thousands of years -- love great enough to make the biggest sacrifice the universe could ever know.

The paradox is that only by living out this fear do we escape all of the other fears that plague us. If the fearful, awesome, all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-faithful God of the universe is with me, who can be against me?

How can I fear the winds and waves while I sit at the feet of the One Who can stop them with His word?

tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow

Today's guest blogger is . . . Jonathan Edwards.

Click here to read Edwards's sermon "Procrastination, or the Sin of Depending on Future Time."

Most of the time we don't treat procrastination as a sin, but Edwards shows how procrastination stems from misplaced trust and dulls our hunger for God and our effectiveness for Kingdom work.

In my own struggle with procrastination, I have noticed it playing out not only in smaller things (e.g., I will wash my car tomorrow, or eat less tomorrow, or write that paper tomorrow), but in the way I look at my life as a whole.

Being relatively young, I assume that I have decades still to live and to work on this earth.

Or, worse yet, looking out at my life I define it by things I will do "someday," ignoring that today is all I have been given. I may never arrive at that season of my life where I am a wife and mom, or when I have the job I'm working toward, or when the door of that opportunity I've always wanted finally swings open.

Is the life I'm living "in the meantime" (knowing that there is no "meantime"!) worthy of the calling of my Heavenly Father?

The Bible: Not Your Convenient Book of Quotes

What is the Bible?

What do you expect when you sit down to read God’s Word?

I am convinced that the way we think about Scripture is crucial to our full experience of it. How many times have you opened your Bible, wanting, longing, even panting for some extraordinary word spoken to the heart of the your struggles only to be disappointed to read words that seem to offer no relevant help?

Our disappointment, and hesitancy to turn back to Scripture, is a symptom of expecting Scripture to be something far less than what it really is. When we come to Scripture looking for a good quote to share with our friends, we make nothing more than a tool with which we prove our ideas. When we look to Scripture demanding it answer the immediate questions on our minds, we treat the Message of the Living God as if it were a magic eight ball bought at the local toy store.

The miracle of Scripture is that it is God’s special revelation of Himself. In it we see what He is like. Reading it we find out how and why He does things. Knowing the Bible is our only way of knowing its Author. No time spent in it is wasted time. Some days you will find a verse that powerfully speaks to one of your deepest questions. Some days you will read and will come away from a quiet moment with no special verse that “really spoke to you,” but you will have interacted with the revelation of God to man, and there is the value of reading and knowing Scripture. In it we see the beauty of our king in broad strokes and in minute detail.

Stay in the Word! Don’t just read the sections your comfortable with. Don’t just read or search for verses that will speak to your most immediate need. Honor it by reading it fully, completely, and at length. Read it for what it is and you’ll see that over time your mind will be transformed.

for still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe

Satan doesn't like our church, our college/career group, or our individual pursuits of Christ.

But he does consider them an opportunity.

He thrives on planting discord and disunity, encouraging grumbling and complaining, and advertising the allure of gossip and backstabbing.

To quote Martin Luther,

Groß’ Macht und viel List
Sein’ grausam’ Rüstung ist,
Auf Erd’ ist nicht seins Gleichen.

Er . . . or, loosely translated . . .

His craft and power are great,
And, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

At the same time that we thank God for the blessings of fellowship that He has granted us, let's pray for unity, and examine the way that we are working towards unity as church members, Christian family members, and Christian friends.

Today I was reading some of what Paul had to say about Christian unity, and noticed that he -- not suprisingly -- premised His discussion on the ultimate sacrifice of personal desires that we find in Christ, and concluded it with a call to join together in glorifying God:

We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.” For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
-- Romans 15:1-6

Prayer Meeting

Don't forget to come to the prayer meeting on Friday!

When: Friday, 5/25, 7PM
Where: church sanctuary

summer reading

Proverbs 13:20 says, "He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed." This verse has reinforced for me the importance of reading biographies of those "who so walk," so that we may have them for a pattern. To this end, the short biographies and sermons at Desiring God have been a great encouragement.

So one of my summer projects is to read Christian biographies. What is the rest of the C&C planning for summer reading? Does anyone have recommendations? (Yes, this is an invitation for comments, but I think it may actually work this time . . . help me out . . . please.)

knocking down non-essential barriers

It was brought to my attention today that the old template for this blog, where the writing was light on dark, was hard to read. Is this one better? Was anyone staying away from the C&C blog just because you were having a hard time reading the words?

Anyhow, I hope this is better. If anyone is allergic to this template, do complain at your earliest convenience (I'll be accepting complaints in the courtyard between 300 and 400 at 2000 hours tonight).

trivial pursuit

Today I was poking around Facebook, checking up on friends from highschool, and beating myself up for being a failure.

I had a friend who had a dream back in highschool to be a PR and marketing rep for a big exciting company. She followed the dream, got the college degree, and has an exciting job in LA doing what she's always wanted to do. Another friend had a dream to be an actress. She, too, followed the dream to college and has since landed a job with a prestigious acting troupe. Another friend has spent the last half of his life wrapped up in a passion to be a journalist. From his first publications back in high school to an internship at a major paper in Washington, D.C., to a Master's in journalism to, now, a regular job as a reporter, he has followed his dreams and accomplished his goals.

I never really had a dream in high school -- not one that centered on one career, anyway. So it shouldn't come as any surprise that there was no career dream to be my guiding star in college, or that I still can't define life in terms of "I am going to be THAT when I grow up," or "I will be satisfied when I accomplish A, B, and C goals."

This struck as a depressing realization -- at least temporarily.

It's probably no coincidence that a quote from David Brainerd has been playing through my mind all day: "Life is too precious to squander on trivial things." Or that I'd clicked a link to this message to college students from John Piper.

I started to think about the way that God's people are described in the Bible -- the way that their lives are measured. Although people's professions are an important part of their stories and their reflection of God's glory (e.g., Joseph was an excellent manager, David was a shepherd, Jesus was a carpenter, Peter was a fisherman), God doesn't define His people by their worldly measure of success in a profession. He defines them by their obedience to and faith in Him.

This changes so many things.

In the world's economy, it may be important how many college degrees you have or what kind of car you drive or what your salary is. In God's kingdom economy, it's important that you obeyed Him and didn't say that unkind word to your brother or sister or parent yesterday. In the world's economy, it may be important that you have a 5-year career advancement plan, charting your way up the ladder to a better position. In God's economy, it's important that you obey Him if He tells you to get up early to pray tomorrow morning.

Not to say that those other goals don't have their place. Or that Christians shouldn't appreciate earnest dedication to a job and the diligent work that goes into it. And often obedience to His calling will lead us into excellence in a given career path. But our progress along that path is not how our success is to be measured.

Am I following my dream more earnestly than I am following Christ? Am I holding my dream more precious than I hold Him? Do I work to please and glorify Him or to please and glorify me?

Following Christ wholeheartedly will probably mean taking a path that is crazy by worldly standards. It will mean learning to operate in a whole different economy than the one the world encourages us to accept. It will mean pouring your all into something . . . and still being willing to lay it obediently at His feet and walk away.

But, oh, will it be worth it.

Blessed be the Lord,
who daily bears us up;
God is our salvation.

* * *
O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God;
sing praises to the Lord,

Selah

to him who rides in the heavens,
the ancient heavens;
behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice.

Ascribe power to God,
whose majesty is over Israel,
and whose power is in the skies.

Awesome is God from his sanctuary;
the God of Israel--he is the one
who gives power and strength to his people.

Blessed be God!

Psalm 68:19, 32-35

being the grown-ups

This is a good article:

The Fruit of Immaturity

It is written primarily as a challenge to guys, but is not a bad reminder for girls.

The Faith Door

On campus at my university there is an automatic door that I have come to think of as The Faith Door. For some reason I haven't been able to pinpoint, I habitually doubt the promise of automatic doors, expecting one day to barrel straight into a deceitful supposedly-automatic door and hit the glass full-on. I just don't trust them to open.

And when it comes to automatic doors that come close to convincing me that they really really have no intention of opening [to borrow a Southern-ism:] The Faith Door sure do beat all.

That door waits to open until the absolute LAST second -- until your nose is a millimeter away and your breath is making fog on the glass.

During the first half of the semester I'd approach The Faith Door tentatively, hoping if not to avoid the collision at least to minimize the impact. But lately I've been trying just to walk through it without any hesitation, trusting in it to open.

On Monday, as I made my reckless approach, I tripped on a doormat, slid, and ran nose-first into The Faith Door, which, sensing my approach, graciously opened and let me out (just like it said it would).

It was a close call.

But it made me think about what living by faith is all about.

Like the automatic door, God has made promises about what He will do. Unlike the automatic door, He leaves us with absolutely no doubt that He will.

So often I count myself as "walking by faith" when I am still approaching the faith door haltingly, tentatively, and full of doubt. How can I, instead, trusting fully in His promises, continue full speed ahead?

Reading the Gospels recently, I've been struck by how often Jesus commended and responded to the faith of those who approached Him. To have faith in Him is to recognize His Godhood, His powerfulness -- it is to bring Him glory.

Then on Monday night Nate pointed out that in many of the psalms the psalmist looks forward to what he will do in the future in response to God's fulfilled promises, which he takes as a given in verses like Psalm 42:11:

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.

All over the psalms we see a pattern of trust in God and expectation of His deliverance and His blessing -- no matter how dark things look in the present.

The true test of our faith is not what we say but the way we live. Do we live second-guessing His provision in the present and doubting His promises for the future? Or do we live in sure-footed reliance on those promises, trusting Him to do wondrous things?

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1-2

ready or not . . .

The other night on the way back from a FAITH visit, Nate and Brendon and I saw a couple big flashes in the sky (BIG flashes!). In the aftermath of the big-flash-sighting, something came up about the sky lighting up when Jesus comes back.

Thinking about His coming, my heart sank.

I want so much to see Him, to know Him, to be with Him in heaven. But in that moment I heard myself think not now, not tonight, I'm not ready . . .

C.S. Lewis wrote about this thought in his essay "The World's Last Night":

The doctrine of the Second Coming teaches us that we do not and cannot know when the world drama will end. The curtain may be rung down at any moment: say, before you have finished reading this paragraph. This seems to some people intolerably frustrating. So many things would be interrupted. Perhaps you were going to get married next month, perhaps you were going to get a raise next week: you may be on the verge of a great scientific discovery; you may be maturing great social and political reforms. Surely no good and wise God would be so very unreasonable as to cut all this short? Not now, of all moments!

But we think thus because we keep on assuming that we know the play. We do not know the play. We do not even know whether we are in Act I or Act V. We do not know who are the major and who are the minor characters. The Author knows.

Lewis concludes:

We cannot always be excited. We can, perhaps, train ourselves to ask more and more often how the thing which we are saying or doing (or failing to do) at each moment will look when the irresistible light streams in upon it; that light which is so different from the light of this world -- and yet, even now, we know just enough of it to take it into account. Women sometimes have the problem of trying to judge by artificial light how a dress will look by daylight. That is very like the problem of all of us: to dress our souls not for the electric lights of the present world but for the daylight of the next. The good dress is the one that will face that light. For that light will last longer.

Each of us will face that light. It may be in the glorious moment of His second coming. Or it may be the other side of a moment of horror like so many experienced last month at Virginia Tech. Or in a car accident or in a hospital ward.

I don't want my heart to sink in that moment.

"Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.

"But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Matthew 24:44-51

the waves and winds still know

Today's (yesterday's?) post is from Brendon. It has been exciting this week to compare notes with a number of people at church and see that God is teaching us each about varying aspects of trusting Him fully.

Over the past month or so, I've had a sudden powerful urge to learn.

The main problem I face is that I don't know where to start. By that, I don't mean that I don't know where to go to get an education, or where to go for any prerequisites. What I mean is that there are so many different things I want to study, that I don't know what order to pursue them in.

This is something I've often been in prayer about, asking God to reveal his plan for my life to me. I've been blessed in that whenever I get overly frustrated at work, with the feeling of time being wasted, God gives me an opportunity to do His work. Each time, it feels like a reminder, "I'm still using you here. Persevere."

God is showing me, bit by bit, that my knowledge isn't relative to His ability to use me. Although I can't stem the desire to learn (nor do I want to), I have God encouraging me to be patient. I've found trusting Him to organize my education, finances, and long term goals to be the hardest thing I've ever done. After so long of doing everything my way, to meet my ends, and by myself, relinquishing control is tough.

It feels like God is calling me to walk on water with Him, as Jesus did to Peter in Matt. 14:29. But like Peter, I constantly look at the wind and the waves, lose faith, and begin to drown. What a gracious God, that every time I cry out "Lord, save me!", He stretches out His hand like Jesus did for Peter, and pulls me from the waters.

Verses 32-33 say, "When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshipped Him, saying, "You are certainly God's Son!"

The boat and the worshipping at the end of the trial are a strong reminder of what is to come. A reminder of why God asks me to persevere.

Because one day, the wind will stop and I'll be the one getting into the boat. One day, I'll be the one who gets to worship at the feet of my saviour. Until then, I'll have to rely on God's love to keep me from the wind and the waves.

crazy stewards

I settled into a night of travelling tonight with a couple Puritans (including this one) and Through Gates of Splendor, which opens with a familiar quote from Jim Elliot, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Then as we touched down for a long layover in Las Vegas I saw all the lights flashing in this dark, dark place and thought of Philippians 2:14-16:

Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.

You can't hide a light in the dark.

Why do I try so hard to hide mine? To dim it so that I fit in?

Then, thanks to YouTube and free wi-fi, my sister and I watched this documentary on the life of singer Keith Green. It's about an hour long (in installments) and definitely worth the time it takes to watch it.



Not everyone's light will shine the same way Jim Elliot's did, or the same way Keith Green's did. And that's a good thing (I'm exhausted just reading about the energy of those guys!). But does my light shine as brightly as it was created to? Am I a faithful steward of the life I have been given?

Where would my stewardship fit into this story?

praying Scripture for each other

[Note: As I read through this post I see that it could be understood to tend toward a brand of legalism that relies a particular formula to come before the Lord in prayer. This is not at all how it is intended. My intent is to, in writing praise to God for giving us His Word, encourage this blog's readers to experience the wealth of His Word in a new way.]

This year I've been learning about praying Scripture for people in our lives. For some reason I'd either missed all previous teaching on this or had never heard it and it just had never occurred to me. But it's been a treasure trove for some of those times when I don't know what to pray for as I ought.

So, on the off chance that I haven't been the only one in the dark about this, I thought I'd post about how it works.

It's simple. You take a passage of Scripture and turn each phrase into a prayer for a person or persons. So, the other night I thought that I should pray for a friend who needed wisdom to make a decision. I ended up reading Ephesians 1 and praying through verses 15 to 20. Here's how those verses go:

Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

Paul here basically gives an outline of what he prayed for the believers at Ephesus, which makes it even easier to follow. So you might begin by giving thanks to God for the person you're praying for, and for that person's love for the saints, and then take each of the rest of the phrases and break them down into a prayer.

In praying through the passage, more than in my previous readings of it, I noticed the magnitude of what God has promised us in Christ, and the amazing gravity of the things we can pray for each other.

What would happen if we were constantly bringing our brothers and sisters to the Lord in prayer asking

- that they would see ever more clearly the lordship of Christ and the glory of the Father
- that they would have a spirit of revelation and wisdom in the knowledge of Him
- that their prayers to know Him more would be answered
- that the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened
- that they may know the hope of His calling
- that they may know the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints
- that they may know the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe
- that they may know that the power we have in Christ is the same mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead

???

And that's only one passage.

He is good!

Peter

Having arrested Him, they led Him and brought Him into the high priest’s house.

But Peter followed at a distance.

Now when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. And a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and said, “This man was also with Him.” But he denied Him, saying, “Woman, I do not know Him.”

And after a little while another saw him and said, “You also are of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not!”

Then after about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, “Surely this fellow also was with Him, for he is a Galilean.” But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are saying!” Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.

And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.

Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”

So Peter went out and wept bitterly.

Luke 22:54-62

For the disciples, the night of Jesus' trial was a disaster. All their dreams had fallen to pieces. Their fellowship was broken, their Lord was arrested, and they scattered.

Peter's version of the story hit me hard tonight. Peter was full of energy and verve and bravado and plans -- plans to be at the right hand of the victorious Messiah, brandishing a sword and seeing that what was wrong was made right.

Then in a couple of hours everything changed.

Bravado and plans changed to denial and shame.

It is hard to imagine the heartbreak contained in the sentences, "Then the Lord turned and looked at Peter," "Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord," and "So Peter went out and wept bitterly."

* * *

How did the Peter of that night become the Peter we meet in Acts 2, or the Peter who wrote 1 Peter and 2 Peter?

Re-reading Peter's story tonight made me think differently about a passage from his letters that we seem to hear a lot:

Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.

1 Peter 3:13-17

Something happened between "Woman, I do not know Him," and "always [be] prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you . . . with gentleness and respect."

* * *

Let's not take this Easter week lightly.

fellow laborers

A couple Saturdays ago I got to be part of a great conversation with Mary and Lisa (two of the most cheerful servants I know) about Christian service and the joys of serving others. Also that week I was able to talk with Elsa about taking time for private worship. Then on Monday with Aura about missions, martyrdom, and complete surrender to Christ. Thursday with Don about evangelism and the beauty of working together in the body of Christ. Friday with Paul about discovering new things while reading Genesis and Exodus. Yesterday and today with Becky about prayer and hanging in there even when it seems like God is not answering.

Looking back on each of these conversations, I see how God has been filling out my understanding of the spiritual disciplines we've been studying on Thursday nights through the living, breathing examples He has placed in my life.

Has anyone else been having similar experiences? What have you been learning about spiritual disciplines as you put them into practice during the week? How has the practice of spiritual disciplines impacted your days?

Yup, this is an invitation to comment!

See you in the comment box!

heads up

Here's a link to the Department of State page for how to get a passport:

How to Apply in Person for a Passport

It's always a good idea to apply when you're not rushed for time, especially right now while there is a passport crunch and some delay is inevitable.

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam

Last weekend the youth had a discipleship weekend where they studied and practiced some of the spiritual disciplines that we've been learning about on Thursday nights.

On Saturday morning they went out for service projects -- cleaning windows, planting flowers, and pulling weeds.

I spent some time with them on Saturday afternoon and heard from members of all three service groups (window-cleaning girls, flower-planting boys, and weed-pulling boys) what a great experience it was. Some things the kids noted were that

- it felt good to help someone
- they were able to meet people they'd seen before at church but didn't really know
- the people they helped really appreciated being helped
- they were encouraged by the responses of those they'd served, so that they walked away remembering smiles or kind words or cookies shared, not dirt or sweat or weeds

It was encouraging to me to see the true joy experienced by younger brothers and sisters in Christ who were able to share His love in service to others. While so many youth activities cater to "what will the kids get out of it," this was an opportunity to learn firsthand that it really is better to give than to receive.

It made me think about the ways that the life Jesus calls us to live is fundamentally different from what the world offers us -- but infinitely better.

He calls us to live for Him and not for ourselves, but in the process we find true freedom and the joy that comes from being a channel of His abundant love.

He calls us to abandon worldly pleasures in obedience to His commands, but in the process we find that the world's pleasures are only cheap imitations of His good gifts.

He calls us to discipline ourselves in service to Him, but along the way we come to know the exhilaration of running wholeheartedly toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

May His call change the way we look at every aspect of our lives -- the way we interact with people, the way we spend our time, and, yep -- the way we wash windows and pull weeds.

promise

For a month now I've been thinking about God as "the Faithful One who has never broken a promise."

Instead of the thought getting smaller and more manageable and familiar and sorted out with the passing of time, it keeps getting more awesome and incredible and weighty and earth-shaking.

He has never broken a promise. Never. Not in the thousands of years of human existence. Not ever. And He never will.

He gives THAT much importance to His Word.

He is the Faithful One who has never broken a promise.

How can our lives show that?

Hello, my father just died.

Here's a link to the article that Don read from on Thursday night.