LifeChange

One Year Ago - Two Girls That Changed Our Life

Today is our one year referral-versary.  This day last year was when we received the phone call from our adoption agency that would change our lives and set the trajectory of our family forever.  We learned that we would be adopting two little girls named Irene and Jeannette.  Thought I'd share a before and after picture of how each of them have changed over the last 365 days.

Maya

Last Year This Time Today
    

  

Keira

Last Year This Time Today
 

God has blessed us in more ways with these two little girls then we could ever have imagined.  We are very fortunate.

Favorite Father's Day Song: Lead Me by Sanctus Real

I just started hearing this song about a month ago on Air1.  An amazing song appropriate for Father's Day that talks about the important role we as father's have in our family.  The story behind the song is in the second video.  I encourage you to watch it as I think the struggle that led to this song is one many of us face.

We Lost Noah & What I Learned About God

Two weeks ago it happened... Courtney and I were standing in our garage talking to a friend from church and Noah disappeared.  The kids were all playing in the garage around us while we were talking and we didn't notice that Noah snuck off.  It was probably five minutes before we realized he was gone.  At first we went out into the driveway looking for him and asking the neighbor kids if they saw him, he was no where to be found.  We then got more worried and a frantic search began.  All the worst case scenarios start going through your mind... what if he is hurt, what if someone took him, what if he is lost and wondering in the middle of some busy street.  You immediately start thinking through all the scenarios of him getting hurt or worse and how bad of parents we are.  Our frantic search lasted about 10 minutes until a neighbor from the next street over came carrying him down the street.  It was the most scary event so far of my life as a parent.

Later I was reflecting on how it happened.  Then I thought about the stories Jesus told in Luke 15 to demonstrate how God the Father searches for us as His children.  He talks about a shepherd that leaves 99 sheep to go find the one that is lost and a woman who looses a coin and searches her entire house, turning it upside down to find the lost coin.  I now understand these stories and the point Jesus was trying to make in a way that I never have before.  I realized that as desperately as I was searching for Noah, God my Father pursued me in even a greater way before I knew Him.  The great thing about God is that He never stops pursuing you and me.  If you're far from God right now, God is searching for you in the same way.  Will you turn to Him and be found?

Who are you praying for? Don't give up!

Who in your life that doesn't know God do your pray for regularly?  Are there people that seem far from God or seem so opposed to Jesus that you're certain they'll never have a relationship with Christ?  It can be tempting to give up on these people after months and even years of praying for them, loosing any faith or hope you have that they would one day know Christ.

Today I want to encourage you to keep hoping and believing in faith.  All it takes is a single word or encounter with Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God to change a person's life forever.

I read today about Saul.  If there was anyone in the Bible that seemed so opposed to the early church, such an enemy of the followers of Christ, such a lost cause then it was Saul.  We are first introduced to him Acts 8:1 where he is watching and approving the stoning and death of a man named Stephen.  Then a few sentences later it says Saul began to destroy the church.  To remind us that this wasn't just a short lived hobby of his, in Acts 9:1 it tells us that Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples.  If there was ever a person that one would loose hope for ever knowing Christ, then Saul was that person.

As Acts 9 continues though we see a beautiful sequence of events.  Saul has a powerful encounter with Jesus Christ and his life is changed forever.  In Acts 9:19 we see him being baptized, and then in verse 20 it says that at once he began to preach that Jesus is the Son of God.

Saul goes from an enemy of the church, to it's strongest supporter.  From persecutor to proclaimer of the resurrected Jesus Christ.  From murder to a man who one day will be a martyr for his faith.

If it's possible for Saul to have his life radically changed and to become a follower of Christ, then it's also possible for the person you're praying for.  Don't give up.  Keep hoping, believing and standing in faith.  All it takes is one encounter with Christ... maybe today will be the day!

Decide Not To Worry... Yeah Right!

One of the challenges people have with the Bible and Jesus' teachings is they seem unrealistic to many.  I was reading what Jesus did today in this Holy Week and came across this statement He made to His disciples in Luke 21:14-15:

But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves.  For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.

I've struggled with worry a lot in my life.  When I was younger I used to worry about everything.  A lot of it came from insecurities, living my life for the approval of others, and fear.  For Jesus to tell His disciples to just make up their mind not worry seems simplistic and out of touch with reality. For those of us that struggle with worry, worry isn't just something you replace with positive thinking or ignore, it often times has a stranglehold on your mind, thinking and life!  

So why did Jesus say that?

When I came to Christ in college, I discovered that statements like the above are impossible to live out (some of you are thinking, "I knew it!")  I still couldn't do them.  Both before coming to Christ and afterwards... the same result:  I couldn't stop worrying.

Then I learned the reality that Romans 8:11 talks about "the Spirit of him [God] who raised Christ form the dead is living in you."  I discovered that I no longer had to make statements like "make up your mind not to worry" happen.  I discovered that the Spirit of God now lives in me, and it's Him that will make this a reality.  

Romans 8:6 also says "the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace."  If my mind is controlled by the Spirit of God, then making up my mind not to worry is a possibility.  I don't make it happen, I just agree with the Holy Spirit and allow Him to make it happen.  

This is one of the benefits and power of living your life with Christ.  Non-Christ followers don't have this, and that is why statements like Jesus' above seems foolishness and impossible to many.

He Wept Over It

Today I started my reading of the events Jesus went through in the days leading up to His sacrifice on Friday.  Luke's accounts in Luke 19:28-44 really spoke to me.  Luke describes Jesus' approach to Jerusalem and how the people were worshiping Him and honoring Him along the way.  Then Jesus gets to the place where he can see the city and it says this: 

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."

Here Jesus is in the middle of being praised, worshiped and honored, just days away from His death, and His heart still is for the city and people that have not yet discovered the Father who sent Him.  Jesus' focus was always for those far from God, those that didn't get it, those that were suffering, the forgotten, left behind, marginalized, those that everyone else ignored or overlooked.  Those very people that days later would yell for Him to be crucified, He wept for them!

Here is the prayer I prayed this morning:

Father, forgive me.  Forgive me for not having the passion You do for those that don't know you.  Forgive me for getting consumed by myself and my circumstances.  Forgive me for forgetting others.  Change me.  Give me a heart for those that do not know you.  For those that others have forgotten and overlooked.  For those that I ignore.  Soften my heart where it's become hard.  Open my eyes where I no longer see. Let me see as You see, feel as You feel, weep as You weep.  Make me more like your Son.  Amen.

Passion Week Scriptures & Timeline

This week is Passion Week, or Holy Week as some call it.  It's the week leading up to Jesus' ressurection on Easter.  The gospels give us a very clear picture how Christ spent his final days before His sacrafice on the cross.  This week as a church we are reading through the events that Christ went through each day.  Perhaps you will join us?  Here is what to read each day:

Sunday (today)

• Matthew 21:1-11
• Mark 11:1-11
•  Luke 19:29-44
• John 12:12-19

Monday

•  Matthew 21:12-19
•  Mark 11:12-19
•  Luke 19:45-48
• John 12:20-50

Tuesday

• Matthew 21:20 – 22:40
• Mark 11:20 – 12:34
• Luke 20:1-40

Wednesday

• Matthew 22:41 – 26:16
• Mark 12:35 – 14:11
• Luke 20:41 – 22:6
• John 12:2-8

Thursday

• Matthew 26:17-46
• Mark 14:12-42
• Luke 22:7-46
• John 13:1 – 18:1

Friday

• Matthew 26:47 – 27:61
• Mark 14:43 – 15:47
• Luke 22:47 – 23:56
• John 18:2 – 19:42

Saturday

• Matthew 27:62-66
• Mark 16:1
• Luke 23:56

Sunday (Easter)                               

• Matthew 28:1-15
• Mark 16:2-14
• Luke 24:1-43
• John 20:1-25

The Awe Factor - God loves me, really?

There are certain times when you see something that just blows your mind.  I remember standing on the side of the Grand Canyon for the first time.  It was amazing.  Almost surreal.  That experience gave me a whole new appreciation for God, His creation and a realization of how small I am in the scheme of things.  

We've been talking about love and relationships this week.  While this may not seem on topic, I've realized that as my relationship with God grows stronger, matures and deepens that my love for Courtney does the same.  Perhaps the greatest thing we can do to work on our marriages is to pursue a deeper relationship with God.  

I want to share a video with you from a book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  The first time I saw this video I had one of those Grand Canyon experiences and came away amazed that the God who created everything, cares about me.  This God, who is over all creation and all the universe wants to have a relationship with me, be involved in my life and desires my love.  Wow.

How do you keep love alive?

“Love must be learned and learned again and again; there is no end to it. Hate needs no instruction but waits only to be provoked.”
 – Katherine Anne Porter

How do you keep love alive?  I've only been married 5 years so I'll admit I'm still fairly new to this marriage thing (that's one reason we rely on God's word and the truths found in it so much... we don't have nearly as many experiences to draw from as some of you!)

So far we've established that love is something we learn, not something we find.  It's hard and takes work.  Today I want to ask the question, how do you keep love alive?  Here are a few things we do, or have discovered, over the last five years to keep our love alive and growing:

• Get Away Overnight - this has become even more important with kids.  Every year on our anniversary we get away for two nights ALONE.  
• Date Nights - we try to do at least 1-2 of these a month.  No kids, no one else (sorry friends!)  Just Courtney and I.
• Book - we try to go through one book a year together on the topic of marriage.  Some we've done in the past are:  Sacred Marriage, 5 Love Languages, His Needs Her Needs.
• Other Couples - we try to be intentional about spending time around other couples that are making it.  We glean wisdom from their relationship and know they are a positive influence on us.
• Pray Together - Tony challenged us all to do this a few weeks ago.  I'll be honest, Courtney and I were really good at this before kids.  We have not been doing this very consistently since, it's something we're working on.
• Worship & Communion Together - Unfortunately my role as pastor, and Courtney as a mom of three kids and volunteering almost every Sunday at Life Church makes this difficult.  However, about 1-2 times a month we do get to worship together on a Sunday and take communion together.  We cherish these times.

So, how do YOU keep love alive in your relationship?  I'm looking forward to your responses as this is a question Courtney and I are asking ourselves. We look forward to learning from you.  

Men are from Mars, Women from Venus

Do you remember the book Men Are From Mars, Women From Venus that came out in the early 90s?  I've never read it but the premise of the book is that men and women are very different, and it gives advice on how to recognize and handle those differences.  I don't think it takes much convincing, men and women are VERY different in many ways.  

One of the beautiful aspects of marriage is we are forced to learn to love a spouse that is different from us.  Jesus calls us to love those different then ourselves, even our enemies (which our spouse may seem like sometimes.)  Here's the catch though... we CANNOT love God and not love our spouse.  1 John 4:20-21 says:

"If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."

The often times difficult job of loving your spouse is a treasure, that when discovered will lead you to a deeper and more passionate love for God (who is also very different then us.)  The better you learn to love your spouse the more you will love God.

Loving your spouse well doesn't just enhance your relationship with God, it will also help you love others better.  If we can't learn to love our spouse (who we've chosen to be with) then how can we love a prostitute, annoying co-worker, homeless person, obnoxious neighbor, orphan, know-it-all classmate, or that person with a lifestyle opposite yours?

Marriage is designed to call us out of ourselves and to love the different.  How have you seen the love for your significant other affect your love for God or others?