Prayer: Our Requests Up or God's Will Down?

• Bob's back surgery tomorrow
• My aunt Ruthie's mom's sister's uncle lost his job
• The youth bake sale this weekend
• 17 unspokens

This is an example of a "normal" prayer request list that I have grown up with since I was a kid but it is something that I have been convicted of lately personally. I just feel like the prayers that we lift up to God are very "me-centered". We like to look to God as our cosmic Santa Clause as someone once put it.  

Jonathan Leeman sums it up what prayer should be when he says "praying is how God's people should grab hold of His Word and align their will and their hopes with His." Yet, how often, whether intentionally or not, we try to coerce God to align His will with ours? How often do we use James 5:16 as a way of "naming it and claiming it" when it comes to prayers? How often do "you ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions?"

I think that our prayer lives individually as well as our prayer lives corporately as a church are a perfect reflection of the self-centered, self-hep, consumerism culture that we live in nowadays. We all want our "best life now". We all want to look out for number one. It is the way that we are programmed in the 21st century. Even when it comes to church services, we are all looking to get something out of the message to help ourselves.

Our prayers should have one purpose and one alone and that is God's glory and His will. Our prayers, I believe, are a great indication of what is in our heart. If we are praying for help with our job or physical healing or for money while neglecting to pray for the lost or for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives or that God's glory will be made known through our lives, then we are no different than non-Christians asking God for help when they need Him.

We need only to look to Jesus on how to prayer in Matthew 6 where he says plainly "Pray then like this" and goes on to pray "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. (Praying for God's glory first and foremost) Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Ultimately, we want God's will not ours) Give us this day our daily bread (Pray for the necessities of life) and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (Repent of our sins) And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (Keep us from sin).

Now let me conclude this by clarifying that I in no way am saying that it is bad to pray for someone to be healed or for someone to find a job. We are supposed to lift our requests to God in prayer and we are supposed to pray for each other. However, when our entire prayers are focused on what we want and what we need, I think that our prayers have gone awry. Lord, help my prayers to be Your will down and not my requests up.

Generations

Christmas has always been a special time for my family. Nowadays it is pretty much the only time when my entire family gets together under one roof. I may not see or talk to some of my uncles or cousins for most of the year but every Christmas we get a chance to all sit down and catch up. As a kid I used to look forward to Christmas more than any other day, probably even more than my birthday. It was just fun getting together with all my cousins and opening gifts and then spending the rest of the night playing with them. There are many Christmas' that I remember very vividly still. Now as I see my Grandparents getting older and more fragile and my Aunts' and Uncles' getting a few more grey hairs every year, I wonder at how many more Christmases we have to spend together as a family.


It was cool this year though because a new generation is being formed in our family as myself and two of my cousins have little sons and daughters who played together and celebrated some of their first Christmases together and another cousin will have a baby by next Christmas. I remember just sitting there in the living room and watching the little ones play together and think that not that long ago that was me and my cousins. It made me think of all the wonderful memories they are going to have together like my cousins and I had. It was just one of those moments when you realize that you are officially in a new chapter of your life. Have you had those moments? When you look at someone or see something and you realize that a new chapter of your life is being written while another chapter has already had it's conclusion penned.

Life is good though, every sentence, every paragraph and every chapter. I look forward to seeing my daughter and God willing future children write the chapters of their life as they grow up and experience life together.

One good thing about music. When it hits you feel everything

Music is an amazing phenomenon. Just the way it effects your emotions (both good and bad) and invokes memories (both good and bad) is truly something to behold. I think of my own life and my own experience of music and Spotify has really just caused this to be in overdrive for me lately since with this amazing invention I have been able to seamlessly find any song that I can think of. I rank the inventors of Spotify right up there with the inventors of S'mores. I mean you have songs that you listen to that make you think you can take on the world or there are songs that make you want to help people who are in need or songs that make you worship God for who He really is or songs that cause you to cry or smile or laugh. Music is responsible for a rainbow of emotions.

I listen to songs like "Mo Money Mo Problems" and I can visualize my high school days when my friends and I made a music video around my house when we were probably supposed to be sleeping. I can still see that night crystal clear when I hear the lyrics "Throw your rollies in and sky. Wave em side to side and keep your hands high". 

Or when I hear Usher sing "You got it, you got it bad. When you're on the phone. Hang up and you call right back" I can still smell the chlorine from the pool that I danced with my then girlfriend who became my wife by with the flicker of candlelight illuminating our faces. As we disappeared to the world and it was just us and Usher.

Darius Rucker singing "It won't be like this for long. One day we'll look back laughin' at the week we brought her home. This phase is gonna fly by so baby just hold on. It won't be like this for long." I am taken back to the hospital for the birth of our little girl. I remember listening to this song the first night at the hospital right after Olivia was born and just thinking "I can't believe I am a dad" and then thinking how much I needed to cherish every moment because it is going to go so fast. Now 2 and a half years later I wonder where time has gone as my little baby is now my little girl.  

However, I have to wholeheartedly disagree with Bob Marley's assessment of music when he says "One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain." There are several songs that bring back pain for me.

Blessid Union of Soul's song "Nora" is a perfect example. When, towards the end of the song, the lead singer belts out "and when you died I didn't cry for long cause I believe I'll see you again" I am taken back to my great-grandma's funeral. She was my first experience with death of a loved one.

Finally, the song that spurred on this entire blog was a song that I listened to today of which I have included the music video below. The lines "Shine Your light so I can see You. Pull me up, I need to be near You. Hold me, I need to feel love. Can You overcome this heart that's overcome?" invoke memories of the daughter that I never had the chance to meet. The one that God called home before we even had a chance to kiss her face or hold her in our arms. I remember after we lost our baby, I just cried out to God the lyrics to this song. I just needed to feel His embrace and His love. I needed to be comforted by the ultimate comforter.

One thing about me is that I don't let things effect me. Whether that is good or bad, I just don't let things effect me. I tend to suppress any hurt or pain that I have and just move passed it because in my mind, what is the purpose of hurting? What good does it do to feel pain? However, when I listen to music, I have learned to accept all the emotions that come along with it...and I am OK with that.

The Little Years

The pattering of little footsteps is often the sound that brings me the greatest joy and anticipation. Yesterday I was standing in the kitchen and Olivia had just woken up. She must have heard me in the kitchen and I just hear her little feet running down the hall. I felt the anticipation build as the footsteps got closer. Then I see her, with her cute little monkey jammies on, turn the corner with a huge grin and her arms wide open running for me to hold her. I quickly scooped her into my arms and she just laid her head down on my shoulder and gave me the biggest and longest hug. At that moment, everything else in the world could have been falling to pieces and I would have still been filled with unimaginable joy. 

It was one of those moments that I will never forget and I will cherish as long as I can because I know that one day she will be grown up and hugs like that will be few and far between. In the meantime, I will cherish every minute of these little years because I know they go fast as they already have. 

Small Groups: Essential or Optional?

This is going to be a very short and simple blog...I think. I just got back from our monthly young adult small group that we have. Man it is just so encouraging to get together with other believers from different denominations and different backgrounds and just different mindsets on certain things, but to all come together with one thing that should unite us all and that is the cross and our dependency on God for everything. So now I am not sure the direction that this blog entry will take. My original thoughts were to blog about how encouraging it is to just come together with other people and just talk about God together. But now as I began to write this, I am tempted to write about unity and how churches easily become disunified (is that a word? I am assuming not since it now has a red squiggly line under it) over music style or preaching style or denomination or whatever but we need to focus more on what unifies us and not the little things that divide us. Which shall I choose, I cannot tell...

Ok I am going with the former. Perhaps unity will be a blog saved for a later date.

I just love how small groups supplement meeting as an entire congregation on Sunday mornings. Sunday morning's are crucial to our spiritual development but I wonder if Sunday mornings are enough. I honestly question whether they are enough. Sure, Pastor's preaching on Sunday mornings should be central and we should never neglect meeting together as a church family. However, I think without the relationships and the accountability that you get from small groups and one-on-one discipleship, our Christian walk will have a tendency to be shallow and stagnant. Perhaps I will take a lot of flak for some of what I say here but this is all based on my experience. I know that from meeting with other guys one-on-one and participating in small groups such as the one we have started, I have grown quite a bit more than before. I think, rather I know that God uses others in our lives to help us in our walk, to come alongside us, to keep us accountable, to further deepen our knowledge and more importantly our application of God's word in our life.

I think the problem is church has become this place where we come to receive. It is the place where we hire a "professional" to do the work of the ministry. It is the place where we bring our unsaved family members to get saved by the message our pastor preaches. The problem with this mentality is that the Word then stops with us instead of being spread through us, which was God's plan from the beginning. We are all supposed to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all that (Jesus has) commanded (us)" Matthew 28:19-20. That is the job of the body, not just the job of the hired Pastor. And what better place to do this than in small groups and meeting one-on-one with others?

The other great thing about small groups is it is a comfortable environment in which we can invite non-believers. It can be very intimidating for a non-believer to come to a church service but if we invite them to a small group, it is a lot less intimidating and can be an avenue in which the gospel can be shared and hopefully, by the work of the Holy Spirit, their eyes will be opened to receive the Word.

Small groups can be essential to not only our own walk but can be essential to making disciples. Either way, I firmly believe that God's design is for us to do this Christian walk together and not just come in on Sunday mornings and never talk to each other again until the next Sunday. I pray that the church will grasp this concept and truly function as a healthy body and reflection of Christ.

The Wisdom of Linus

Isn't there anyone that knows what Christmas is all about? I find myself often asking that question in a mirror. I have spent the last two days Christmas shopping shoulder to shoulder with irate and irrational people, setting up Christmas lights and Christmas decorations with my beautiful wife and daughter and watching Christmas movies, but I can count on one hand how many times I really have thought about the real reason for Christmas.

I was talking to a Jehovah's witness the other day and he was explaining to me that they do not celebrate any holidays. I had heard this before but never had really talked to someone who held these beliefs. After, asking him some questions, he explained to me that they didn't celebrate holidays because they had all become polluted with pagan things and had gotten away from the real reason for the holidays. Our holidays have become so commercialized that we can barely recognize them as the holidays that they once were. I wonder if the Jehovah's witnesses are on to something here, however like anything you can have two extremes, you can completely forget about Jesus in Christmas or you can just not celebrate Christmas because Jesus is not a part of it anymore.

I can suggest a third and far better response to Christmas. How about we bring Jesus back into Christmas? I feel like I need this as much as anyone. I get so wrapped up in the shopping and cookies (oh how I love Christmas cookies, or any cookies for that matter) and the lights and presents that I find myself not even thinking about the fact that Jesus came here on earth, leaving his heavenly throne, to become human so that He could truly be our mediator with God and we could become the righteousness of God in Him. The fact that this holiday was meant to celebrate that fact, needs to be at the center of Christmas. Sure, presents aren't bad, cookies certainly are not bad, Christmas lights and decorations are not bad, but when they take the focus and spotlight from Christ, then they can become bad.

I pray that this holiday season will be different for me. I pray that I will lead my family well in remembering Christ in Christmas and remember that, as cliche as it is, Jesus is the reason for the season. If you have any suggestions as to how to best keep Jesus as the focus for Christmas, please let me know.

animals with british voiceovers

The teens showed this one time at Fuse. One of the funnier videos I have seen. Good stuff.

let this mind be in you

So I've been reading Philippians a lot lately as I have been taking this class on the prison epistles and attempting to memorize Philippians. And the verse that have really just kind of been stuck in my mind are 2:3-10 where Paul says:

"Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;"

Man if we would just embrace these verses and live these verses out and have "this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" can you imagine how much different our families would look? Can you imagine how different our churches would look? I am convinced that if we are truly want to have an impact on the world, if we truly want to be salt and light in this world of darkness, if we truly want the world to ask us about the hope that we have within us, we need to embrace these verses.

Think about it, if we truly esteemed others better than ourselves and we not only looked onto our own things but on the things of others. When would we ever gossip? When would we ever fight with someone? When would we ever be stingy of our money? When would we ever be selfish?

Jesus humbled himself by laying down his crown and his place in heaven seated next to the Father and became a man, suffering as we do, being tempted as we are and even humbled himself so much that he became obedient to death on a cross. He had every right to call down the angels of heaven to take him off of that cross but He put aside His power and died in the extreme example for us all of humility. Jesus, the Son of God with all the power and majesty and deity. The one by whom all things were made came not to be served which was definitely His rightful position, but the Bible says he came to serve. Why? To be an example for us all.

This seems so straight forward and obvious but how many of us live like this? We are all selfish for our time. We are all looking out for our own interests at the expense of others. But man, this is exactly what the world would be impressed by. This is exactly the type of radical lifestyle in which we will truly be lights in this dark world so that the world will "see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16)

This video is just amazing. Click on "Read More" to be able to view the video. I don't really think there is anything that I can say about this video except just watch it!

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only

So tonight we had our young adult small group and we are watching Francis Chan's Basics Series. Tonight he was talking about Following Jesus and he made this great illustration that really struck a chord within me. In talking about following Jesus and obeying His commands he said something to the effect of this. Imagine I told my daughter to clean her room. I would expect her to go clean her room. If she came back a little while later and said to me "Daddy, guess what. I memorized exactly what you told me to do. "Go clean your room"." Or maybe she'd come back and say "Daddy, guess what, not only did I memorize what you told me to do, I also learned how to say it in Greek." Or maybe she'd come back and say "Daddy, my friends and I are going to get together every week and really study and discuss what you meant by "Go clean your room" and really dissect the words that you used so we can really understand what you meant by that.

His point being, that sounds ridiculous, right? But how much different are we when it comes to what God has told us to do in His word. I mean He has some pretty clear commands and yet sometimes, in fact not only sometimes but quite often, we resort to memorizing, meditating and studying His words and reason within our minds that those things equate to actually doing what He says. I am as guilty of this as the next guy. I try to spend time memorizing verses and really studying them and thinking about them but I don't spend enough time actually doing them.

James 1:22 says "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." It is so easy to passively read the Bible or to even actively read the Bible and yet not do what God commands us to do.

The scary thing is when you look at the Bible and time and time again it says that the way that you know that you are a Christian is if you obey His commands. If we aren't obeying the commands of Christ, we need to question whether we are a true disciple of Christ. Doing what Christ commands us to do, doesn't make us a Christian because we cannot earn our salvation by works. However, doing what Christ commands us is a natural reaction of a heart that has been transformed by the Holy Spirit so that our greatest joy becomes obeying Christ and bringing God glory.

imagination or lack thereof

Our little girl, Olivia has to be the most entertaining thing in the world. I find myself mesmerized by her imagination. I mean she'll just sit there and entertain herself for hours. It's just funny to watch her and to listen to her have a different voice for her doggy and her kitty and her turtle and so on. She'll just create conversations between them. Or it's funny how sometimes she won't eat or won't do this or that but if I create a voice to be her caterpillar or her monkey and tell her to do the same thing that daddy just told her to do, she'll do it (not sure if this is a bad thing or not). Or her new thing is to talk about the snakes or ants that are coming to get her and then we proceed to run through the house as they chase us. Or the "cute dinosaur" pet that she has. It's just crazy because you really wonder, does she see these imaginary animals? Does she hear them talk? What does it feel to have that kind of imagination? And the question I keep asking myself is, when did we lose this imagination?

At what point in our lives do we lose our child-like imagination? I mean, what causes us to lose that imagination? And as I search for the answers to these questions, I can't help but wonder, what would the world be like if we still had the imagination of a child? How many more things could we accomplish if we let our minds wander and we didn't set limitations on what we could accomplish?

Or perhaps that type of imagination for adults would lead to nothing more than us all having our imaginary friends to keep us company? Perhaps you'd randomly see grown adults running down the streets from an army of talking snakes? I mean how fun would that be? We wouldn't need TVs to entertain us because we could sit and play in a box all night and be content. We wouldn't need to waste all of this money on "big toys" and instead would find ways to use blankets, cereal boxes and rope to become MacGyver and build an entire town.

Sometimes I wonder if life would be better if we all had the imaginations that we had as kids. Perhaps there is a way to get imaginations back...if we could only figure out how we lost them in the first place...

We will remember (9/11)

9/11. Those three numbers elicit such vivid memories for everyone. Everyone can probably tell you precisely where they were on that infamous day. I remember that I was walking to my first class of the day at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. I remember getting there and the professor was late (which never happened). Then, he walked in and explained to us that a passenger plane hit the World Trade Center in New York and that class was cancelled for the day. I recall slowly walking back to my dorm trying to let my mind process what I had just heard. I remember sitting in our dorm suite with some guys watching the TV, our eyes becoming dry because we refused to blink and then we saw the second plane hit. Just then the words "terrorist attack" and "hijacked planes" starting being repeated again and again.

I had never experienced anything like this. Others generations remember Kennedy being shot or Pearl Harbor being bombed. This would become my generation's Pearl Harbor. This would become that day we would never forget. I remember watching TV for countless hours, taking in every word that news anchors had to say. All of the theories, all of the stories, all of the speculation. I couldn't pry myself from the television because my brain could not quite process what my eyes were witnessing. I was witnessing a day that would change the world as we know it. Airport security would change the way we travel. A select few of a certain religion that masterminded the attacks would provide new heights to stereotyping.

And today as we remember 9/11 and it's 10 year anniversary, we are all brought back to that day. I was confident that that event would always be the only thing that would come to mind when I hear 9/11. However, that all changed a couple of months ago. Now 9/11 means something so much more personal. 9/11 hits so much closer to home that it did before. Today (9/11) was the due date for our Gabrielle who we lost earlier this year. 9/11 will now always be the day my baby should have been born. I can still remember that day that we found out that we lost our baby and the doctor telling us there was no heartbeat. I remember walking down the hall to where my mom was to tell her that we had lost our baby but not being able to get any words out and just sobbing uncontrollably. I can still remember holding our tiny lifeless baby in my hand as if it were yesterday.

Today as we wait to bring home our baby from Ethiopia, I can't help but think of the baby we should have with us today. Yet, as I think of our baby, I realize that our baby is in a much better place. I realize that our baby is in the arms of a father that is far more loving and far more good than I can ever dream to be. I realize that even though it still doesn't make sense to me why our baby isn't here, God's ways are not our ways and God's thoughts are not our thoughts. I realize that 9/11 will always mean something different to my wife and me than it will to almost everyone else in the world. I also realize that God is good. I realize that He alone is my strength and He alone is my hope. I put my trust in Him alone.

I love you and miss you Gabrielle. I wish I had gotten to see you grow into a beautiful woman but I know that I will see you someday. Until then, I hope that by your death, God will be glorified. I pray that He will use the life that you had for such a short time to give a life to someone that only He could give.

But God...

So our friend's Jeff and Emily just got back from Ethiopia. They went there to meet the child  that they sponsor through Compassion International as well as to bring back video, information, etc to raise awareness of both the children that need our help in Ethiopia as well as for Compassion International itself. I am really excited to see how God works through them and the time that they spent there.

They had us over for dinner the other night and showed us a bunch of video and pictures of Ethiopia and man did it wake me up a bit. I mean, you always hear about the poverty in Ethiopia as well as other countries out there but until you see video and pictures from someone you know personally, it really doesn't quite sink in, or at least it didn't for me.

They showed us the "marketplace" which I imagined would be like a market place here in the states where you have people in booths selling vegetables and fruits and breads and such. They did sell the same things in the Ethiopian market place but their booths were replaced by the back of pick up trucks or simply on the dry, dusty ground. There was rotting food all over the place and dogs eating food out of dumpsters and everything.

Then they showed us video of the shacks that those lucky enough to have a house call home. Shacks that are about the size of half of my bedroom and they are the home to entire families. And then you have the countless others with nowhere to call home except whatever space they can find on the streets to sleep. Here in Ohio, you have to drive downtown to see any homeless and even then, you only see a couple here and there but in Ethiopia they just cover the streets. The poverty is unbelievable.

Then you hear the statistics of how many children die each day because of preventable things such as lack of clean water or diarrhea. Children die each day for lack of clean water meanwhile, how many of us (including myself) refuse to drink tap water but either have to have spring water or filtered water?

As they showed picture after picture and video after video of children there, I couldn't help but wonder if one of those children is our child that God has picked out for us. Even if one of them wasn't our child, I couldn't help but see our child in their eyes. I couldn't help but just want to fly over there and bring a child back with us right away so that they didn't have to go through the disease and hunger and thirst anymore.

But as I think of the destitution and poverty over there and how it seems like most of the children are in a hopeless situation with no chance of getting themselves out, it makes me think...I was once like that to God. I was once a orphan. I was once completely hopeless in my sin with no chance of getting myself out. Ephesians 2:3 says “we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” I had no way of being healed or rescued unless God intervened. I was a complete enemy to God and completely dead in my sin, but then in verse 4 we see two of the greatest words in all of the bible, "BUT GOD!"..."But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-" (Ephesians 2:4-5)

I thank God that he didn't leave me as an orphan but he came to me (John 14:18).I thank God that while I was dead in my trespasses, while I was dying from a far worse disease than malnutrition with a far worse future than living life in an orphanage, God chose me to be adopted into His family so that I can be called a child of God and not only that but a co-heir with Christ.

Adoption Journey Begins

Well for those who haven't heard, Steph and I just got accepted into American World Adoption Agency's Ethiopia adoption program. In the next year or two we will be bringing home our child from Ethiopia. It's crazy how things work out sometimes. Like, you have this plan for your life and then God just takes you a completely different way. Just like Proverbs 16:9 says "The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps." Steph and I had planned on having another "biological" child of our own and then talk about adoption. However, God had a different plan for our life and we are so excited.

We can't wait to obey God's command to care for orphans. It's so easy to just ignore the fact that there are millions upon millions of orphans in the world because they can't speak up for themselves. They can't get interviewed on TV and ask for someone to come help them. No, instead they are in orphanages crying out for help knowing that no one will answer their cry. They are being abused but no one cares because no one notices. In fact, countless orphans are kidnapped and sold into prostitution or slavery and no one notices because they have no one who cares.

More than the fact that we want to rescue a child from a life with no hope and no future, we want our adoption of this child to point him or her to the adoption that he can have into God's family. We can't wait to show them how "he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will." (Ephesians 1:4). We can't wait to share the love that God has for them that far surpasses any love than we could ever show them and how he made a sacrifice far greater than any time, money or effort that we can sacrifice and how He wants to rescue them from a far worse condition than being in an orphanage. Ultimately, we want to point this child to the God that he likely would not have heard about in an orphanage.

 Feel free to follow our blog (fitzadoption.blogspot.com). We are going to post where we are in the process, our thoughts and feelings as we go through this process, any fundraisers we have coming up, etc.

To teenagers: set an example

I've just been really burdened for the youth, specifically for the youth that I lead at our church but the youth in general. Not that they are bad kids by any stretch of the imagination but man I just remember growing up all of the junk out there throughout my high school years. The temptations are just so strong to drink, party and do just all of the stuff that the rest of the "cool" teenagers do. The temptations just keep coming like waves on a sandy beach, they just keep crashing against the shore of our lives and they keep coming and they do not stop. Once one goes away and we think we are in the clear, here comes another one crashing in.

And man they can just take a toll and the easy way out would be to just float in the ocean and let the waves carry us where they will instead of fighting against them.But the thing is, when we do that, when we let the waves carry us where they will, it will lead to our death by drowning for when "sin has fully conceived it brings forth death."

Man I just want to get this point across to the teens of our youth group and to really all teens out there, "resist the Devil and he WILL flee from you". Sin will lead to death, it is a certainty. There is no other outcome for sin other than death. You can't dabble in sin and expect everything to turn out OK. It won't. It will lead to death in one way or another. It may have its pleasure for a little while but in the end, it WILL lead to death.

The Devil is a roaring lion seeking someone to desire and I think his favorite targets are teenagers because they can be so impressionable. They desire to fit in, they long to be popular, they yearn to be loved and they are willing to do things that they wouldn't normally do or things that they know they should avoid in order to obtain a certain status that they aspire to. The Devil just feeds on that by enticing them with sins that seem like they will make them popular and make them feel good and once he gets them in his trap by luring him with something small, he continues to lead them down the slippery, subtle slope.

Man I want the teenagers of this generation to set a new path. I want the teenagers of our youth group to set a new standard for teenagers. I want them so bad to fight against the Devil. I want them so bad to just form an army where they use the Word of God as their weapon of choice to combat the Devil and to show Him that they will not back down and they will not give into his enticement of sin because they know that they have a better reward in heaven than He could ever offer here in this life.

I just want our teenagers to be a light in this dark world. I want them to just shine that light and that their friends would be drawn to God by their light and they would "see their good works and give glory to the Father who is in heaven".

I don't want them to settle for a life of mediocre Christianity in which they tip toe the fine line between sin and obedience. I want them to be so far on the side of obedience that they can't even see that fine line and when they do get a glimpse of it from the Devil, they run the other way because they don't want to even come close to thinking about sinning against the one who sent His only Son to die so that they could have his perfection placed upon them.

I so bad want our teenagers to set "an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." I want other older Christians look at them and their obedience and their unwavering dedication to the Bible and their undying love for their God and look up to them and to aspire to be like them.

God breathed

So one of my friends is going through a tough time in her life right now and the first thing I thought is, I got to send her some Bible verses. So I started flipping through the Bible pulling out verses and man is the Bible good. I mean, obviously the Bible is good and obviously the Bible "is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness" but man it's just amazing. I mean, as I was pulling out verses it was just so awesome to see how the Word is "living and active" even after 1000's of years. I just had to write a quick blog about this because it just has me all fired up and I figure the best thing to do when you are fired up about something is to get it down on paper.

You can pretty much turn to the Bible for any type of wisdom, encouragement, instruction, anything that you may need in this life. Unfortunately, most of us try to "rely on our own understanding" and do not "acknowledge Him" and go to His Word as often as we should. We like to rely on our own strength as if we are Superman or Superwoman (depending on your gender). We like to think that we can go it alone and only really turn to God when we really need Him, like if something major is going on in our life. But man God wants us to turn to Him and rely on Him all of the days of our lives. The Bible is so rich and so powerful that if we would rely on His Word and His strength as opposed to our futile attempts to be God, we would be so much better off. This is not to say that we won't go through trials and bad things in our lives, but it does mean that God will be there for us during those times so that we can "count it all joy" knowing that ultimately we will be made "perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

So I guess to sum it all up in 3 words...read the Bible

it is a girl/it was a girl

It was almost 2 years ago. I remember those words as if it was yesterday, "It is a girl". With those four words, my whole life changed. I was now a dad and I had a beautiful daughter. The elation that I felt at that moment cannot even be described with words. It's amazing how when you change one simple word to make that phrase past instead of present, the emotion it evokes changes everything. "It was a girl." Those are the words that are now resounding through my mind like an echo on a mountaintop. You were going to be my second daughter, Olivia was going to be a big sister but you never had the chance to live. We still have your picture up on our fridge and I look at it every single day. I remember first seeing you in that hospital, you were so tiny but you were our little baby growing every day. We could see your arms and your legs. You were our little baby. The doctors confidently informed us that you were healthy and everything was going as it should be but then in a moment, God decided to take you home to be with Him. I wonder what you would have looked like. Would you look just like your sister? I wonder what your personality would have been like. I'm sure you and Olivia would have been the best of friends. Playing with dolls together, wearing matching dresses at Easter. She would have showed you the ropes in this life and been the best big sister you could have hoped for.

I still recall the day that the doctor told us that we lost you as if it was yesterday. He told us "Your baby didn't make it." Those words play over and over in my mind every day. I just stared at that ultrasound, waiting in vain for you to move, waiting in vain for your little heart to start beating again. It seemed like hours but it was only a few minutes as I just stared at you. My mind refusing to believe what my ears were telling it, almost as if my mind had put a brick wall around itself for protection as it often does when faced with pain. Those words "Your baby didn't make it" took a long time to chip it's way through the barrier my mind had created but once it did the tears proceeded to roll down my face like raindrops down a window. How could you be gone? I didn't have a chance to show you this world. I didn't have a chance to hold you or to tell you that I love you or to watch you go off to your first day of school or to walk you down the aisle as you married the man of your dreams.

We miss you so much but we know that you are in a better place. It doesn't make sense to us at times but we put our trust in God. We trust that God's thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8). We trust that in our weakness, His strength is made perfect (2 Corinthians 12:9). We trust that He is sufficient and that He is our strength and our rock. We don't mourn like those who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13) for just like David we can with confidence say that we can go to you but you will not return to us (2 Samuel 12:23). We will see you one day in Heaven and we look forward to meeting you but until then, we will continue to be lights in this world of darkness in hopes that through your death, God will be glorified and that others will come to know this God that we have placed our faith in and the God that you are seeing face to face at this moment. We love and miss you more than you could ever imagine Gabrielle. We'll see you again someday.

Special K and Fiji

It's the simple things in life that really make me happy. For instance, today at the grocery store I bought Old Spice: Fiji. I needed some new body wash and it smelled good so I bought it and now I can't wait to use it. I still have some of my old body wash left so the Fiji bottle sits in the shower unused and lonely. I think I am going to use double or perhaps I am daring enough, triple the normal dosage of body wash for my showers until the old body wash is all gone and finally I can put on the body wash that is Old Spice: Fiji. They also have a deodorant but unfortunately I just purchased deodorant recently so that'll have to wait.

Oh and Fiji wasn't my only purchase that has me excited. Tomorrow morning I will experience Special K Chocolatety Delight for breakfast. I must admit, I was more than half tempted to eat it for lunch and/or dinner but I think the anticipation of waiting until tomorrow for breakfast was too much to give up so the box is still sitting there in the pantry un-opened...at least for the next 8 hours or so. Then, it will be mine! I'll make sure to let you all know my reviews of the cereal. I personally haven't eaten a bowl of cereal in who knows how long. I usually stick with the same 2 or 3 breakfasts every morning so tomorrow, I add another to the exclusive list of Bryan's breakfasts.

But it's funny how the simple things in life are almost always the best. Just thinking about my life I think of going to Disney with Grandma, Steph and Olivia this past year. All the rides were awesome but honestly, the best part of the whole trip was just watching our little girl's reaction when she got to meet Mickey, Minnie and the gang in real life. Man that smile and excitement that she had as she ran up to all of them with pen in one hand and autograph book in the other...priceless.

Or I think of Steph and my favorite date night hangout, Cafe Ah Roma. We have gone to fancy dinners or to the Art Museum and such but my favorite place to hangout with my wife is at Cafe Ah Roma where we can just sit, enjoy some caffeinated beverages, listen to Sirius Coffee Shop radio and play a game of Battleship or Yahtzee or Risk. Just the simplicity of the night makes it always the highlight of my week.

I could list a half a million "simple things" in life that honestly give me more joy than the big things in life sometimes (listening to good tunes around a campfire, making my little girl laugh or listening to her sing "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" or "Happy Birthday" to everything from momma or dadda to ball or blanket or Frosty the Snowman, reading a good book in bed, etc). It's always the simple things that make life fun and interesting. Make sure that you take time to enjoy them and don't get too caught up in the big worries of life.

oh summer how I have missed thee

There is just something about the month of April that I love. Perhaps it's because it's that month where you know that Summer is almost here and Winter is finally over (or almost over in the case of Ohio). It's like, you make it through December and January and you're all right but you get to February and the beating that you have taken from the winter finally starts taking it's toll. You set your desktop background to some sort of exotic island landscape and stare blankly at it in hopes that perhaps with your mind powers you can transport yourself to that island. You start looking into moving to places such as Florida, California, Arizona or anywhere really that you can feel your extremities if you are outside for more than five minutes. You hibernate under blankets upon blankets. 

Then March gets here and it is sort of a tease. You'll get a warm day here or there (relatively speaking). Or maybe the sun will finally peak out from behind the clouds and even though it is only 45 degrees out, you treat it like it is 90. You crack the windows in the car while, you go outside sans a coat for the first time since Halloween. You'd probably hop in the pool if you could find one that is open but ultimately, 28 out of the 31 days in March there is no sun and it either rains or it snows.

But then April comes and all seems to be on the right path again. The birds begin their melodious tunes again. Squirrels no longer have to use an ice pick to dig up the nuts they buried what seems to be years ago. And O.A.R. or Jack Johnson can now be played without a deep depression overcoming me when thinking about how far away summer is. Nope, summer is coming. Oh it is coming all right. Nights of bonfires, s'mores and acoustic guitar ringing through the summer air. Nights of having the windows open and the warm breeze just cut through the house and embracing me like a long lost friend that I haven't seen in years. Nights of going to the drive-in, playing cards or just relaxing on the porch enjoying some good conversation.

Oh summer how I have missed thee. Come soon so we can both see what we have missed these past months that I have had to put up with your evil brother Winter.

Trellis and the Vine - 1

So I have been reading this book "The Trellis and the Vine" by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne. The basic summary of the purpose of the book is to point out the fact that most people in churches today are focused on programs, how the church building looks, etc (the trellis) and very few are involved personally in others' lives (the vine) and making disciples. The illustration they use is how a trellis is basically a wall or a structure. It's easy to see results in tending to the trellis, we can paint the trellis, wash it, etc to make it look nice the same way that we can take care of the church building, organize events, etc. However, tending the vine is hard work and sometimes takes quite awhile to see results the same way spending time sharing the Word with someone and teaching them might take awhile to see real results or fruit in their lives.

I am in no way, and I know the authors in no way, are saying that trellis work is bad in and of itself because it is extremely necessary and a very good thing. However, we need to take Jesus' command to make disciples seriously and not ignore the vine work. The book I think hits home when it says "Many of us minister in contexts where the unspoken (or even spoken!) assumption is that it is the pastor's job to build the church, and the members' job to receive that ministry and to support it through involvement in a range of jobs and roles...The pastor is really the one who does the vine work and the rest of us do what we can do maintain the trellis."

How true is that? How often do we come to church to get something from the message? How often do we count it the pastor's responsibility to cause spiritual growth in the members or even to cause growth in attendance? What if, when we came to church on Sunday's and listened to the message our pastor teaches us, we listened to the message not in order to get something out of it ourselves (even though that is definitely important) but instead we listened to it in order to re-teach it to someone? First of all, in doing so, in listening to the Word in order to re-teach it, we would get so much more because we would really know the Word and have meditated through it as opposed to listening to it on Sunday and then by Wednesday not having a clue what the pastor taught on last Sunday.

The role of disciple-maker in the bible is not reserved for pastors or elders only, it is the role of every single Christ follower. It doesn't matter how young you are, how old are you, how much of the Bible you think you know, etc. Disciple making is hard work though. Sometimes you can spend years pouring into the life of someone and not see results. But you can spend a weekend painting the church or doing some other trellis work and you see the results immediately so that is the type of "work" that most of us tend to do. It's easy and we see results quickly. However, how much eternal value is that? We are all to be "making disciples of all nations" and "teaching them to observe all" that Christ has commanded us in His word.

glass head with blinds

So I am not sure where this blog is going to go, what I am going to write about or even if anyone is going to read my random non-sense that can be my mind at times but the way I figure it, I always have a thousand things going on in my mind at any moment of the day so why not put them down on paper or I guess it's not really paper...but you get the point. So I guess this blog will serve as an open window to my brain, except I reserve the right to close the blinds when I want and for however long I want.