Here Comes Summer!

"A lot of parents pack up their troubles and send them to Summer Camp."

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Yesterday it hit 100 degrees here in Fort Worth for the first time.  Nothing special.  That's how it'll be until Thanksgiving.  HOT. 

Working with High School students, it seems more and more that my life revolves around the school calendar, and it is officially summer vacation.  I've already been sunburned, my flip flop tan is alive, and my steering wheel is almost too hot to touch.

But summer brings something into my life that I CRAVE each time it rolls around: A break in the routine.  Not that my life would ever be defined as routine, but the summer is so different from the other nine months of the year, that it is just about the opposite of routine.

Here is just a brief glimpse of the summer of a High School Pastor:

GRADUATION WEEK: Yep, that's right, I get to go to graduation.  And not just graduation, but all of the celebrations that come along with graduation.  This year, we graduated 27 seniors.  That's a lot of parties and shuffling between houses and hanging out with ten times that number of students.  It's always a fun time watching these guys and girls you've worked with for three years reach one of their goals.  This year, I made it my goal to congratulate each of them for finishing the easiest part of their lives.  I don't know if they appreciated the encouragement or not.

MFUGE: In two days, I'll spend 12 overnight hours on a 56 passenger charter bus with...yep...56 people.  It's going to be crowded.  We will make our way to New Orleans for a week of camp.  But not just an ordinary camp.  It's a camp and mission trip mashed together into one incredible week.  We will have students ALL OVER the city.  Building, cleaning, working with their peers, hanging out with elementary kids, and so much more.  It is by far my favorite week of summer, and something you look forward to again once it's over. 

ADVENTURE WEEK: If MFUGE is my favorite week of summer, this is definitely the craziest.  Our church will be filled with 700 kids in what can only be described as "Organized Mass Chaos." Singing, Dancing, Crafts, Bible Stories, Water Balloons, Snacks, and my favorite, Rec.  Each day I'll be in the gym with the kiddos playing dodgeball or tag or any number of games to keep them from attacking me.

MISSION TRIP/WEDDING/VACATION: For two weeks in July/August, I'll be back home in Colorado for a mission trip, and then a quick mountain vacation with the incredible Raven, and then I have the honor of officiating the wedding of one of my best friends. 

FUNRUNNERZ: Once a week throughout the summer, we go to an apartment complex in Ft. Worth and work with refugees from Africa and the Middle East, and put on a sort of day camp for the kids there.  It's hot, but it's awesome.

POOL PARTIES, PICNICS, AND THE OTHER CRAZINESS: And, as always, there is the random craziness that will be a part of our summer as we welcome in the new freshmen and officially say goodbye to the graduating seniors. 

Then school starts, and the "routine" begins again.  But between now and then, I'll spend about 14 minutes in my "office", and I couldn't be more excited.  It may be hot in Texas during the summer, but we will be going too fast to notice.

Marriage: One Year Later

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." (Ephesians 5:25, ESV)

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As I write this, I have been a husband for 363 days.  It still feels weird to have a ring on my hand.    It falls off my finger when it's cold outside, and I'm still afraid to stick my hand out of the rolled down window because I'm convinced it will fall off and roll down the road.

I'm still not used to sleeping on a little sliver of the bed.  I was dreaming when I thought I'd get a half and she would get a half.  That's not how things work.  And the knee! The knee poking me in the back is not that great.

It is still funny to me to use terms like "sister-in-law" and "wife" and call her parents by their first names.  At the same time, it sometimes is a relief when my mom calls to talk to her instead of me.  I just get to smile and pass the phone off.

Above all of those things, it still gives me chills reading Ephesians 5.  It's a passage I had heard and read a hundred times in my life, and understood the basic premise: We are called to love as Christ loved the church.  An undying love, unfaltering, unconditional love.  A love that cared more about others than about self.  A love that would be willing to give everything up for the better of someone else.

The illustration of husband and wife, bride and bridegroom, however, had always eluded me.  I couldn't grasp it, couldn't quite understand it.  Until May 19, 2012. Until this exact moment:

The door in the back of the church opened, and there stood my bride.  Then it clicked.  I love this woman with every ounce of who I am.  There isn't a wall I wouldn't run through, or a sacrifice I wouldn't make for her. 

We have argued.  We have cried.  DEFINITELY cried.  We have struggled and fought and laughed and made up nicknames and gone on dates and been to different countries.  In all of those things, we are learning to love, and learning to communicate.

We are learning to do ministry together, and I've come to realize that means so much more than the ministry I actually get paid to do.  How do we exemplify Christ to our apartment complex? To our family? To dating couples who struggle with purity? How do we minister to each other? What does that look like? MARRIAGE IS A MINISTRY.  It is the biggest ministry we will ever have, to each other, and to anybody we will ever be around.

Perhaps the hardest lesson I have started to learn, and am still so far away from aceing the test, is that I am not my wife's ultimate provider.  Sure, it's my Biblical responsibility to make sure there is food on the table, to make sure the roof stays over her head, to make sure her physical needs do not go unmet.  But it is not my job to provide her joy or the ultimate contentment.  It is simply my duty to point her everyday to the One who does.

As a man, understanding there are some things I cannot give my wife, is maddening.  I want to give her everything she wants and desires, and, confession time, sometimes want to be her Hero. Sometimes I want to be the one she praises for our life.

And it is in those times, I have found, when I personally am least satisfied in Christ.  Husbands, it is not your place to be the one your wife praises.  If she glorifies you, exalts you, you're doing something wrong.  You should be pointing her to Jesus, praising Jesus with her, encouraging her to sing her life to Jesus ALONE.
 
Loving my wife as Christ loved and loves His Church makes total sense to me now.  Seeing my wife as Christ sees His Church is a total reality now, yet I will never be able to match His love for my wife, and that brings me joy.  To know the ends I will go to to love her, and then to realize Jesus went infinitely farther than that, HOW GREAT IS OUR LORD!

The knee-in-the-back-in-bed thing may never be comfortable, but it is a constant reminder of the blessing Jesus has given me, and at the same time the responsibility to make Him known and praised in our house.


HE IS THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE AND GLORY OF OUR MARRIAGE. 

Ninjas In The Plan of God

"For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles..." (1 Corinthians 1:22-23, ESV)

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 I've done a lot of reading this past week of "obscure" bible stories.  Not stories we'd tell our children in Sunday School.  Noah's Ark is fun, and Jonah makes for a good felt board.  But there are stories in the Bible that we wouldn't dare tell our children.  While I don't think that's a bad thing, I do believe it's important to share these stories with people as they are older, and have a better understanding of the entirety of the Gospel.

I'll be the first to admit: During my study time this week, I came across a few stories that I had NEVER heard before.  It was incredibly humbling, and made me realize just how little of the Word I have actually committed to my heart.  At the same time, it made me sit in awe and praise Jesus, for He is far bigger and greater than I will ever be able to comprehend.

I wanted to share one of these "new" stories with people this week, for a couple of reasons.  First, it's awesome.  Who knew the Lord used ninjas to accomplish his plan? Second, this story from Judges 3 is a beautiful example of how, from beginning to end, the Word of God weaves together to form one beautiful picture: The GOSPEL.

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The Israelites got themselves trapped in a dangerous cycle.  They would obey God for a period of time, then turn from Him when they got bored, and God would punish them by delivering them into the hands of their enemy.  After a period of time, when they got tired of being oppressed, they would cry out to the Lord who would deliver them, only to have the sad cycle repeat itself.

Judges 3 is right near the beginning of these cycles.  The nation of Israel is handed over to the Moabites and their king, Eglon, because of their disobedience towards God.  This particular time, it takes them 18 years to cry out to God for deliverance. And, just as is promised in Jeremiah 29, the Lord responds, and he responds by raising up a left handed man named Ehud. (Judges 3:12-26)

I want you to read the story for yourself, gory details and all.  This man is sneaky, gets himself alone with the king, and sticks a sword in his gut.  Then escapes unnoticed.  A ninja.  In the Bible.  Used to accomplish God's plan of delivering the Israelites.  Way before Rush Hour 1, 2, and 3, our God had the ninja thing DOWN.

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I read accounts like this from Scripture, and my immediate reaction is "why?" Why include this in the Word? Why include so many details, when the next guy after Ehud literally gets one verse about his life? Why is this important? And this is when things get AWESOME.

How did God, up through the Old Testament, deliver His people? Through blood.  Animal sacrifices forgave them of sins, drowning Pharaoh's army was the final escape from Egypt, and the kings and oppresors who they would be delivered from throughout their hopeless cycle were killed, just as Eglon was killed by Ehud.

They were used to their oppressors being killed, or conquered.  They were used to someone coming from God to deliver them through attacking their enemy.  That's what they were waiting for when Jesus came: Someone to defeat their persecutors.

Jesus didn't fit the bill of what they were used to, how they were used to God performing.  Jesus didn't fit the bill of a Samson, or an Ehud, or even a Gideon.  Jesus wasn't what they thought they wanted.  Even when he was killed on the Cross, they didn't recognize the blood sacrifice.  Hebrews 10:10 tells us once and for all God has delivered us.  No more blood sacrifices, no more burnt offerings.  Jesus was enough.

Paul knew that to both Jews and Greeks, Jesus didn't add up.  For the Jews, it wasn't the "sign" they were used to having or even wanted to see.  For the Greeks, they just couldn't figure out the logic to what Jesus did.  But Paul said these words: We preach CHRIST CRUCIFIED.

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Are you still waiting to figure out how to be rescued from trouble? What about fear? Or doubt? All these things, Jesus has delivered us from.  If you're still waiting for the answer, waiting for a better sign, you're not going to get it.  If you're waiting for someone to tell you that the answer isn't Christ crucified, you're going to end up disappointed.

Don't miss what Jesus has done for you.  Don't keep looking.  Jesus is ENOUGH.

What Freedom Really is

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." (Galatians 5:1, ESV)

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Each morning, I head to the Starbucks right down the road to work.  Most of the faces in there are familiar, so I tend to have similar conversations with the same people each day.  Yesterday, I sat down in my usual spot (yep, I'm one of those) and began my routine.  There was a guy sitting next to me, about my age, that I had never seen before. We said hello, and that was it.

Half an hour later, he leaned over and apologized for asking the question he was about to ask, but he needed me to look up a phone number for him.  When I googled the place he told me, I found the phone number, and realized it was some sort of treatment center or halfway house.  Before I could even recite the phone number to him, he explained what came up: It was a halfway house he had been living in since January, when he was released from prison after four years.  At that moment, my heart and mind clicked that I was sitting next to him by God's design.

We continued our conversation, and I found out a lot about this guy: He is 29 and grew up in Plano.  He spent 4 years in prison because of drugs, and confessed the only reason he got out so early is because his dad is wealthy and "knew people."

His next question to me was one that is usually a conversation killer: "What do you do?" When I tell people that I'm a pastor, more often than not the conversation usually dribbles out.  Not this one.  It opened the floodgates. He immediately began asking about the church I worked at, what kind of ministry I do, if our church had any recovery programs, even if we had a website.  When I answered all of those, I was a little curious, so I asked him if it was required by the state to go to some sort of "religious" center as a part of his release. 

The best way I can describe his answer is that it felt like listening to a live version of Galatians 5.  Halfway through his sentence, after having been moved around to a dozen different prisons because of safety reasons, he got involved with a ministry called Ransomed Heart Ministries, and Jesus wouldn't let him get away.

He said that for the first two years, there wasn't a day he woke up in prison that he didn't fear for his life.  He felt abandoned, his parents and girlfriend and friends had quit communicating with him, his lawyer quit on him, the state kept shuffling him around, he had nothing. 

Then, all of a sudden, he had everything:
Grace. 
Love.
Forgiveness.
Hope.
Freedom. 
JESUS. 

The next thing he told me amazed me.  When people find out he just got out of prison, they always ask if he is enjoying his freedom.

His response was this: "Yeah, I enjoy being free from prison.  Free from my cell, from the guard, from being locked up.  But that freedom doesn't come close to matching the freedom I felt IN prison when Jesus told me he loved me."

THAT is an incredible testimony, a beautiful definition of the freedom Christ longs to bring each of us.  Getting out of prison, regaining your personal freedom can't begin to compare to the knowledge that Christ has made you free from sin and alive in Him.


Christ has set us free! What is there to look back at? Why would we want to put that yoke back on? Jared basically told me he would rather go back to prison, daily fearing for his life, than to put back on the "prison sentence" of not knowing Jesus.  THAT is the power of grace.  That is the beauty of our Savior. 

How furious must Satan be at Jared, my friend from Starbucks? Just when it looked like the enemy had him exactly where he wanted him, the power of death and sin lost again to the beauty and grace of Jesus?

I pray that you experience the freedom that Jared has.  I pray that the forgiveness and grace and hope and love of Jesus has given you LIFE.

Pray for Jared as you read this, that the Lord will continue to strengthen and encourage Him, and that his excitement about his freedom in Christ will not be quenched.

Why Did Something Bad Happen to the Someone Good?

I get no greater joy in watching students grow from believing in Christ simply because their parents do, to believing in Christ because THEY come to know there is nothing greater.  But in order to arrive at that life-altering moment, you've got to go through the tough stuff, and that is what my students and I are doing this month.  We are looking at some questions the world poses, some issues that simply keep people from following Jesus because they can't love a God who does __________.

Last night, we went head on with perhaps the toughest question any person (believer or not) asks at some point in their lifetime: WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE? I have had a friend look me in the face and say he will not love a God who allows such bad things to the people he "loves."  So that's what I want to take a look at here: Why do bad things happen to good people?

The foundation for this question lies in two simple verses, Romans 3:10-11, which say this: "As it is written: 'None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.'" (ESV, emphasis added)

To even begin to answer this question, we must redefine the things we consider GOOD.  The word of God clearly states that NO ONE is good, or does good, or seeks good.  When I stack my life up against what the world considers good, I come out looking ok! So why does the Bible say I'm not good? Because the good talked about here is good from God's point of view, a perfect good...a good that we fall miserably short of (Romans 3:23). 

When I stack my life up and compare it to God's definition of good, I find out one crucial thing: I AM NOT GOOD.  YOU ARE NOT GOOD.  No one is good.  Therefore, bad things cannot happen to good people, because people aren't good.

I heard this answer before in a sermon, and it stopped there.  I think that stops way short of fully answering the question people struggle so big with.

So here's how I answered this question to a my students just last night: I want you to make four separate lists: 1) Good things that you have DONE 2) GOOD things that have happened TO YOU 3) Bad things that you have DONE, and 4) Bad things that have happened TO YOU.

Once you make those lists, think about this: I would be willing to bet that for the vast majority of the good things, you have given glory to yourself.  It's human nature.  When something good happens, we call ourselves the cause.  And the two bad lists, look at them.  This time, taking an honest look, I would guess that for 99% of them, you have given credit/blame to GOD.

There it is.  We think all the good things that happen are because of us, and God only brings about the bad things.  Adults, students, old adults, all have to continually learn to give God the glory in all things.  Check out Isaiah 45:7: "I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things." (ESV)

 The Lord, Creator of everything, created light and dark, created well-being (good things) and calamity (bad things).  No where in the Scriptures does it say that He delights in the bad things, but it clearly says He created them.  And one thing that we know about Our Creator, is that He is intimately involved in His creation.  How?

Near the conclusion of the story of Joseph and his brothers, more than 20 years after Joseph's brothers wanted to MURDER him, Genesis 50:20 says, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good." (ESV) Another translation uses the word "intended" instead of "meant". 

The word meant, or intended, is crucial.  God does not just take the bad things in this world, and say "Oh gosh, now I've got to make some sort of good work in this."  The Bible says that the bad, horrible, awful things of this world were intended by our Lord from the beginning. 

What man, what Satan, intended for bad, God intended for good.  From the beginning.  He doesn't flip bad things and make them good, He intended things that we call bad for a perfect, only God can understand, GOOD.  If we look at it through our lens of good, we miss Jesus altogether.

It's not a nice, fluffy, complete, satisfying answer.  Lots of times, I don't think it's a fair answer.  And that's when I have to remind myself of what an incredible, just, HUGE God I serve.  There are so many things about God that I don't grasp, don't understand, and won't understand, Romans 11 tells me just that.

But I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that "For those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28, ESV) God's good, a good I can't comprehend, is at work in all things for those who love and are called by Him. 

I'll leave you with the same challenge I left my students with: Instead of asking "Why do bad things happen to good people?", begin asking yourself a completely different question: Why did something so bad happen to the ONE GOOD PERSON?

Jesus Christ is the only person to walk the earth who fits in God's definition of good.  And 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us why something so horrible happened to him: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin,  so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

Why did the Lord allow Jesus to be murdered? To give us hope in the midst of things we can't figure out. 

I love you, and pray you see Jesus in your life today.