A prayer for teens

 I have three teenagers at the moment.  And so I love Kathleen Nielson's book, Prayer of a Parent for Teens. (P and R Publishing) In truth, the whole 4 book series is good and highly recommended, but I am in the teen phase of life right now and so for me and my wife, this book in particular has a lot of meaning.  Today I want to simply share an excerpt of one of those prayers - "For Identity in Christ" with you. 

"May she know you knew her from before creation, Father God, and that your perfect hand knit her together in the womb.  May she understand her fallenness, and may she know your Spirit breathed new life into her heart, creating her anew, and clean from sin, through faith in Christ.  And may she know the Spirit as your constant presence with her - Spirit of the risen Christ who lights the meaning of your Word and gives us power to obey." (p. 19)

Prayers for students and teachers

 As school is starting back up, I thought it would be fitting to remind us to be in regular prayer for the students and teachers within the context of our local churches.  Schools have been a battle ground for ideology for some time and it would seem that our culture is striving at a younger and younger age to indoctrinate our children and so they are using the schools as a place to fight for lies and for what the Scripture calls evil.  

I believe that this is in line with what the Scriptures say will happen in our world, and so we as Christians do not need to respond with panic or alarm, but we can respond with the calm assurance that all that God has promised He will do is going to come to pass.  But as we watch His plan unfold, He calls us to lift up one another in prayer.  And so we pray for our students - that they would be able to tell right thought from wrong thought.  That they would have boldness they have seen in us to proclaim that which the Scriptures say is right.  That they would have courage to go against the grain.  That while they do this they would do so with love and respect so that no one can speak ill of them.  

Pray for our teachers.  Pray that they would have moments when they can speak the truth to the lives of kids who are misled by so many others.  Pray for courage and boldness when these moments come.  Pray that God would provide for their families and take care of their needs should they lose their job over a stand that they have taken.  

May we as God's people be faithful to lift up those on the front lines of the battle, and may we realize that the battle is in our schools, in our homes, and even in our churches.  God strengthen us for the task ahead.

Selfish

 If we are all being totally honest, we are selfish.  I don't mean mostly honest where we all think we are good people and all think that we surrender and give more up than we take, I mean totally honest.  This means we look at each moment of each day and honestly consider am I doing this for me, or for someone else.  In fact, I have been testing this theory in my own life, and it would seem that each time I even try to do something selfless, I fail.  I fail because when I do it I want gratitude and recognition.  When I don't get those I pat myself on the back for how patient I am with people who clearly are blind to see how great I really am.  When that is not enough I tell them all the things they need to work on in order to be able to see just how lucky they are to know me.  Of course I do not do these things out loud, that would be boastful, and mostly think I am a humble person.  But not when I am totally honest.

I have also found that it is hard to see selflessness in others.  When they do something nice for me, I don't see it as service or selflessness, I see it as expected and I want more of it!  I feel the need sometimes to reciprocate, but it is not because I am honestly selfless, but because I want some of the glory that they got from me when I said thank you.  

I wonder if you face the same thing?  Are we truly so selfish we find it hard to be even the slightest bit selfless without expectation?  How can we truly say, "to God be the glory" when we want so much of it for ourselves?  I am selfish.  God help me.

Untethered

 This weekend we had our church campout.  I noticed that for myself when I got out of a place where my cell phone worked constantly, and instead found myself in a place where I had no service, a few things happened.

1. I looked around more.  I saw more things, more people, more of the creation that God so beautifully made.

2. I talked with others more.  I asked them about their lives.  We had conversations about things that matter and not just small talk.

3. I chose to participate.  There were many events we could do and suddenly I found I had time and energy to do them.  

There were a few more things that I noticed, but I wonder if you notice this too when you unplug.  Maybe it would be wise to force an unplug every once and a while.  We are so connected that we have become unconnected.  So maybe we can connect again by unplugging for a bit and getting back to the basics of shaking a hand instead of holding a phone.  But what do I know - I have been off the grid for a few days!

God is my Creator

 We are running our VBS program at our church this week and we are learning about the character and nature of God.  We saw on day 1 of VBS that God was our Creator and we belong to him.  I think that this is a foundational thought.  I think that because it is where God begins when revealing himself to us in His Word.  I think that because much of what we see in our world today is because of a failure to see ourselves as accountable to our Creator.  The word accountability may even be out of fashion in a world that wants us to center solely on ourselves.  But it is a truth that the Bible presents early and often - I have to do what God says because God made me and I belong to God.  But accountability is not the only issue.  

I think that we have lost a proper perspective on the center of our value.  We place our value in all the wrong places- in what we do, in what others think of us.  When in reality, we are valuable because we are created in the image of God.  And we as Christians often talk about the value of human life (and this has certainly been in the news lately) but then often devalue those that disagree with our positions.  We dehumanize those that disagree with the Bible and it makes it easier for us to dismiss them.  But we who hold that all are created by God in the image of God MUST admit that we should value the lives of those we argue most vehemently against because of the fact that they too have value and are made in God's image.  So we have accountability and value because of our creation.  But a third word comes to mind.

Dependence.  We strive against this from the time we are little and keep striving against it until we die.  We do not want to accept or admit that we need help, and yet our creation tells us that we are perpetually in a state of need.  A state in which we rely on our Creator to provide for us that which we cannot provide for ourselves - which points us to salvation in Jesus Christ.  

I wonder if you would consider your role as a created being today.  To whom are you accountable?  Where are you placing your value?  Are you acknowledging that you have need of things.  May God use your dependency to point you to Him.

1 Timothy 6:11-12

 "But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.  Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses."  1 Timothy 6:11-12

I am most interested in one thing for the purpose of this blog today - the movement.  Notice that we must flee from something.  You will have to go back into the earlier parts of 1 Timothy to figure out exactly all these things, but one of them is the love of money spoken about in verse 10.  But whatever all these things are we are to flee from them.  I think that we have to flee because on our own we would find ourselves in the midst of these things.  These things come naturally to us.  And so we are told to run away quickly from them.  You do not flee something casually, or carefully, you simply run away.  But we are also told to run toward something - movement.  We are to pursue 6 things.  And notice that pursuit implies chasing until they are caught.  And since these things (at least most of them) are demonstrable to not be caught until we are glorified, we will be pursuing them for a lifetime!  So do not give up - keep pursuing the things that God tells us to pursue!

The writing is on the wall

 We use the expression - the writing is on the wall every so often to mean that there is an end coming - something bad usually.  As we look at the origin of this expression we use this expression all wrong.  What I mean by that is that usually we think of this as something beyond our control - someone or something has made it so that we cannot complete or do what we wanted to do - the writing is on the wall.  In reality, the story (you can read it in Daniel chapter 5) is all about the fact that the king did not honor God properly.  There was something he could have and should have done that may have led to a different outcome.  He had all of the warning he needed - his father had made the same mistakes.  (the author points this out in verse 18 and following)  He had all of the wisdom that was required and he had all of the information he needed to evaluate and realize that God is truly in charge and that he should follow and surrender to God - the one true King.

Secondly we often use this in the context of a warning of potential doom.  The writing is on the wall.  In reality, the biblical narrative indicates that the writing is a matter of impending doom - unavoidable - the choice has already been made.  There is not chance for repentance, the matter is settled.  In other words, if you are not honoring God in the here and now, there may not be a chance for you to repent - the writing on the wall is a writing of judgment.  And we are going to be judged.  The only way out of judgment is through and the only way we avoid being judged for our own work is to accept the work of another - Jesus Christ - in our place.  

May I encourage you this day to see the work of Christ as standing in your place.  His hanging on the cross means that the writing that God does on your behalf does not have to be on the wall in judgment, but in the book of life in grace.