Leaving a legacy of a faithful marriage.

        Came across an inspiring front-page article in our local newspaper a few weeks ago.  Here is a picture of the front page…

What a great celebration of marriage faithfulness.  What a great legacy that Edward and Ruth Bostrom passed onto their kids and grandkids, and great-grandkids, and great-great grandkids!  This article gave me pause to reflect on what my marriage right now is teaching my kids for when they get married.  I have a lot of questions and a few answers.

       The questions:    

-Are Heidi and I showing our kids the beauty of marriage?

-Are Heidi and I showing our kids the joy of marriage?

-Are Heidi and I showing our kids the challenges and struggles of marriage?

-Are Heidi and I showing our kids how to keep God at the center of the marriage?

-Are Heidi and I showing our kids the hard-work and sacrifice that both husband and wife need to make in order for marriage to work?    

-Are Heidi and I showing our kids that marriage is to be a picture of God's extravagant love for the church?                                      

-Are Heidi and I showing our kids that marriage was created and designed by God?

-Are Heidi and I showing our kids the importance of forgiveness in marriage?

-Am I showing my sons what it means to love and serve their future wife in the way Christ loves and serves the church?

-Am I showing my daughters a picture of a man who is worth being married to?  One who loves God, one who loves and serves his wife, one who takes initiative in leading the family towards God

The Answers

-God must remain the center of our marriage if any of the above questions will be answered with a positive reply.

-Our marriage and what makes it work over the long-haul cannot remain a mystery.  Our kids need to not just know that it worked, they need to know what made it work.  As they get older Heidi and I need to talk to them a lot about our marriage!  The good and the bad.  The joys and the struggles.  How to ask for forgiveness, and how to grant forgiveness.  How to love when the "feelings" of love are not present, and much more.

 -I need to begin praying now for the future spouses of my kids, for their future marriage.  I need to be praying that as they grow up they make choices that will increase the likelihood of a faithful marriage.  I need to pray.  I need to be praying a lot.

-Heidi and I need to continue to become more like Jesus.  We desperately need Jesus to continue to change us.  To make us more loving.  To make us more selfless.  To make us kinder.  To make us more patient.  To make us more gracious.  We need Jesus to continue to change us into people who can continue to give a better and better picture of marriage to our kids who are watching everyday.

There is no guarantee that my kids will get married.  There is no guarantee that they will never get divorced.  There is no guarantee that their life or the life of their spouse will not end long before they could celebrate 50 years of marriage.  I get that, but I want my kids to experience marriage as God has created it and desires for it to be.  I want them to experience marriage as a beautiful picture of God's unending love for the church.  I want them to experience a marriage that as a result helps both them and their spouse to be more like Jesus.  If you are married and you have kids, regardless of their age, you are teaching them about marriage.  They are watching us.  They are listening?  They are paying attention.  I was teaching my kids about marriage when I left home for work today, and when I get home from work I will be teaching again.  I want to leave a legacy of marriage for my kids!  How about you?
                                 

Picture of a changed life!

         I stumbled across a picture that was given to me after a sermon I preached awhile back.  The sermon was on living a life of thanksgiving and I focused on how the Gospel gives us the motivation to live a life of thanksgiving.  I talked about how Jesus changes everything!  Here were my five points.

1.) Before Jesus you were separated from God, after Jesus you have come into a relationship with God.          
2.)  Before Jesus you were dead in your sins, after Jesus you have become a new creation.
3.)  Before Jesus you were enemies of God, after Jesus you became friends with God.
4.)  Before Jesus you were under the wrath of God, after Jesus you became a child of God.
5.)  Before Jesus you were without hope for today and for eternity, after Jesus you have incredible hope      for today and for eternity.

         While I was preaching a young boy drew a picture of who we were before Jesus and who we are after Jesus.  Here was his picture on the back of the note sheet…. 

That sums it up pretty well!  We are a mess without Jesus, and when we enter into a relationship with Jesus he changes us, he makes us into a new creation!  Be thankful today for what Jesus has done in your life!  I am!

Faith Like a Child: You are dad!

      Becoming a dad  has opened up my eyes to some of the beautiful truths in Scripture that speak of God being our father, being our dad.  A couple situations that happened recently made me realize how beautiful it is that God is our dad.  On a Sunday morning when we were in church worshipping I was standing holding my three year old when she pointed at my name tag asking what it was and I told her that it told people what my name was.  She responding with a big smile and said, "daddy."  To my three year old that is my name, that is who I am.
     The other situation happened several weeks ago as we were playing at a park and my seven year old son was running around and playing with some other kids and I looked up to see him looking over the top of the play structure talking to his new friend, pointing at me, and saying, "That's my dad."  These two situations have given me pause in how to respond to the question who is God.  That is an extremely important question and it can answered in many different ways which are truthful and correct.  We can say God is creator.  God is holy.  God is just.  God is gracious.  God is love.  God is trinitarian.  God is glorious.  Those are all truthful statements of who God is.  However, as truthful as those descriptors are, sometimes they can be hard to grasp, to fully understand, and even harder to communicate to another person.  Maybe we would do better to begin answering the question "Who is God" by stating that he is my dad.  He loves me, he takes care of me.  When we see God working around us we can point to that and say, "that's my dad, he did that."  When we look at a beautiful sunset we can point to it and say, "my dad made that."
        God beginning in Genesis chapter three, where sin entered the scene and God's relationship with humans was broken, went on a relentless pursuit to restore that relationship.  The Bible is this massive love story where God is striving to make himself known to all people's and ultimately sends his own son to make himself known and to be able to restore the relationship that was broken.  God wanted to restore a father/son or father/daughter relationship.  More than God wants you to know that He is Holy, God wants you to know him as daddy.  More than God wants you to know that He is just, he wants you to know that he LOVES YOU and has done everything that needed to be done to restore this broken relationship.  It is in the context of a relationship that you will begin to understand what it means that God is creator, that God is holy, that God is gracious, that God is just, but the relationship is the starting place.  God is my dad!  God is my father!  That blows my mind!  "That's My DAD!"
     

Seeing our sin helps us to love well!

       It seems that within American Christianity we shy away more and more from talking about sin.  We have changed the vocabulary from words like sin, wickedness,  and evil, to words like mistakes, shortcomings, and "my bad."  Rarely do we talk about the magnitude of sin and sinners before a holy and perfect God.  Rarely do we pause to contemplate what it means to sin, what it does to our relationship with God and that is a problem.
       Last week as I was reading in the Gospel of Mark I read Mark 8 beginning in verse 36 where Jesus forgives a woman who had sinned much.  The context is that Jesus is eating at one of the phariseas homes and a woman who was described in the account as a "sinner" came in wiped and washed the feet of Jesus with her tears and hair and anointed them.  The Pharisees could not grasp why Jesus would allow a woman with the reputation of this woman to do this.  Let's jump into the story at verse 41, "A certain moneylender had two debtors.  One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  When they could not pay he cancelled the debt of both.  Now which of them will love him more?  Simon answered, 'The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.'  And he said to him, 'You have judged rightly.'  Turning toward the woman he said to Simon, 'Do you see this woman?  I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet.  You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.  Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven- for she has loved much.  But he who is forgiven little, loves little.' And he said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven.'"
       When we begin to minimize the magnitude of sin before a holy God we minimize our love for God.  When we begin to redefine the words sin, evil, and wickedness we redefine our ability to stand amazed at God's incredible love and grace towards us.  If God has only forgiven a "pretty good" person that does not motivate us to live the kind of counter-cultural, upside down, life that the Gospel calls us to live.  However, when God forgives someone who is a sinner, who has offended God deeply, who is wicked, who is evil, (which describes all of us) that gives incredible motivation and reason for that person to love God, to follow God, to live for Him.  That person is not following Jesus because they have to, they are following Jesus because they want to!  Understanding who we are in our sin, understand the magnitude of our sins before the God who created us, is the key to stop living a Christian life feeling like we have to serve God and to start living a Christian life where we want to serve God.
        Let us continue to talk about sin.  Let us continue to reflect on and think about the magnitude of our sin.  Let us continue to realize more and more how sin looks to our creator and sustainer.  When we do we will see more and more clearly how sinful we are.  How wicked we are.  How evil we are.  As we see that we will also see the amazing, astounding, unbelievable grace of God that has forgiven me and as a result we will love much!
     

Faith Like A Child: Toys, suffering, and change.

        Having kids allows you to regularly catch glimpses of Biblical truth coming alive in new and refreshing ways.  It has for me and I enjoy sharing them on here.  The other day our three year old, Anaya, said something that was absolutely shocking.  Something that I would imagine has only been vocalized by three year olds on extremely rare occasions.  So what did she say?  She said, "I think we need to clean up the toys."  Not a common phrase in our household coming out of the mouth of our children.  However, she had a reason why she wanted to clean up toys.  She wanted to clean up the toys because she had just stepped on one of them and hurt her foot!  Any parent knows the annoying and painful experience of stepping on a toy, and now Anaya had experience it and that experience made her want to do something she usually does not want to do, clean up!  As I was thinking about her response my mind quickly jumped to thinking about suffering and God.
         Suffering is one of those universal experiences that we all have.  Everyone of us suffers from time to time in life.   Suffering can be the result of a variety of different factors, but suffering is universal, and that is why it is such a prominent theme throughout Scripture.  In the New Testament when suffering is spoken of it almost always comes with a promise that God is going to bring something good out of the suffering.  The suffering itself is not good, as Anaya experienced, but it did bring about a good change in her wanting to clean up toys.  That is one of the good things about suffering.  It changes us for the better.  Suffering teaches us that we are not strong enough.  That we are not good enough.  That we are not smart enough.  That we do not have it all together.  That we don't have all the answers.  That we can't do this alone.  Suffering teaches us all those things, and much more.  When we realize those things all of a sudden we become people who are no longer depend upon our own resources, but instead depend on the unlimited resources of God.  Which is why Paul was able to say with such confidence in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, "And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.  Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." Suffering is never good, but what God brings out of suffering for those who trust in Him is always good!  

Discipline Leads to LIFE!

       I have a neighbor who might be the most disciplined person I have seen when it comes to exercise!  A little about this man.  I would guess he is in his mid to upper 50's.  We first took notice of him about a year ago when he would go running by our house, and what I first noticed was how incredibly slow he ran.  I am convinced that the average person could have walked faster than he was running, but nonetheless he would go running by our house everyday!  When it was snowing, when it was freezing, when it was windy, when it was raining, when it was hot and humid, he would go running!  I have seen him running in every weather condition that Minnesota can throw at a person.  He just kept running every day and you know what has happened?  He has lost a lot of weight, he has gotten much faster, and now after he finishes his run he jumps on his bike and goes on a bike ride!  This man has been given new life, he is a new person, a different person, in much better shape physically, but it came as the result of discipline.  Discipline where everyday, no matter what, he would go for a run.
       While being disciplined when it comes to exercise is important, I want to focus on Godly discipline.  Godly discipline leads to LIFE, life to the full that Jesus talks about in John 10:10.  When you make a commitment to get up early every morning to spend time in prayer and in the Word regardless of how tired you are that will lead to LIFE.  When you commit to serve and love others all the time regardless of the inconvenience it might be to you that will lead to LIFE.  When you commit to gather together with other believers in worship of God and to learn from his word regardless of how you "feel" that will lead to LIFE!  When you follow God, even when He is leading you to go somewhere unknown, scary, and foreign that will lead to LIFE.
       Having LIFE to the full doesn't just happen as we sit around doing nothing.  Having LIFE to the full happens as we put ourselves in situations where God changes people and we put ourselves in those situations and places day after day after day.  Like my neighbor my prayer is that people will look at you and I a year from now and see that we have been given new LIFE, that we are different people, that we are in a much better place in our relationship with God.  That will happen as we pursue Godly discipline no matter what.  Ask God to give you the strength to power through everything that would deter you from pursuing Him and pursuing life to the full!  Ask and it will be given to you.  Godly discipline leads to LIFE!

What to do when life hurts

       For Sr. High this year we are going through the book of 2 Corinthians.  2 Corinthians is a fascinating book in which Paul is attempting to convince the believers in Corinth that he is truly an Apostle and that what he has spoken to them is the true Gospel.  A group of people in Corinth have been spreading rumors and lies about Paul and changing the Gospel message that Paul taught to the Corinthian church.  Paul in his attempt to convince the Corinthian believers of his authenticity does so by time and time again in this letter speaking about what God has done through all of Paul's suffering, struggles, and weaknesses!  Paul makes it clear this is not about Him, but about the powerful God who has worked through him in unbelievable circumstances to do the unthinkable.
       As we were studying the first fourteen verses of chapter one theme came across.  The theme was this: when going through difficult times.... Run to God and Run to God's people.  You see clearly that when suffering comes into our life we are to run to God.  We see this in verses 3-4, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles."  We also see this idea of run to God in 9-10, "Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.  But this happened so that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.  He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us.  On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us."  Did you see in those verses that we are to run to God, cling to Him, depend upon Him when we face difficult times.  He is the Father of ALL compassion and the God of ALL comfort.  He is the one who raises the dead and the one who delivers us.  When life hurts run to God and hope in Him.
       These verses also reveal to us that when life hurts we not only run to God, but we should also run to God's people.  We see this in verse 4, "who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."  Did you catch that?  When any Jesus follower goes through a difficult time and they receive comfort from God they have now been equipped and trained and prepared to offer and give God's comfort to others.  Pain and suffering is a part of life and many people have walked through that pain and suffering and received God's comfort.  Go to those people because according to this verse they can offer to you the comfort of God Himself because they have experienced that comfort in their life.  We also see this idea in verse 11, "You also must help us by your prayers."  Paul wasn't telling the Corinthians believers if you feel like it, or if you think about it, or if you get around it your prayers would be nice.  Paul says YOU MUST HELP US BY YOUR PRAYERS.  Paul understood the role of prayer in suffering and because of that he called out to God's people and said, you have to help us by your prayers.  When you are suffering and life hurts call out to God's people and tell them to call out to God on your behalf in prayer.
      If life hurts right now.  If you are going through a painful and difficult experience I want to encourage you based on 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 to run to God and run to God's people.  Run to God and run to God's people.