Knocking On Doors

Last week, we had our annual "Staff Retreat" also known as 3 days of fishing on the coast and making sure everyone on our team truly understands humility. Pastor brought an old missionary friend, Ralph Hyatt, to do devotions with us each morning. Ralph is 79 years old and has touched thousands of people through his life. He began sharing with us on Thursday morning about the work he did in Argentina as a missionary. When he got to Argentina, he found parts of the country that had never been touched with the Gospel. He talked about going on a boat from island to island, village to village, house to house just telling people who Jesus was. People were saved and Ralph took it as a responsibility to disciple those people and start a church for those people. He told stories about driving a boat and loading it up with people to go to church. He told us of a time he carried 44 people on a medium size boat because he didn't want anyone to miss out on the opportunity to come to church. I immediately felt convicted by his stories.

All to often I find myself stressing over petty things in my church, job, or family. Someone says something about the nursery policies or someone is upset because someone else wrote something on facebook that may or may not have had anything to do with them. It is almost always something small and petty. I still have to be careful because it is those things that keep me from going from island to island, village to village, and hut to hut.

I know I am not called to some country that is full of unsaved people... but I am called to that. I am called to tell as many people as I possibly can that Jesus is alive. I mean think about it. How many people are missing the point of being a Christ follower? How many people do we come in contact with that have no church or even concept of what being a Christian really is? Jesus sent out his 12 and his 72 was that all that was supposed to go? Is that a calling for all of us. I do know this. As a pastor, I have to be very careful that the people in my life aren't all "church" people. I have to be careful that all my friends aren't just Christians. I have to understand that it is my job to knock on doors and tell people that Jesus is coming. It may be while I am at my son's baseball game or at my daughter's ballet class. It may be while I am in the grocery store or sitting at starbucks. It may even be while I am out riding my bike on a Saturday morning. I hope that as I go out of my house, that God sends people to me. So, I can share him.

Blessings

Each day we are given blessings. Some days they are obvious. Some days, we completely miss the blessings that are out there. We catch the obvious ones but by the way I see it, the ones we miss are so much more important. I have been blessed in obvious ways (I realize that may sound a tad conceited). I remember when my wife was pregnant with Scout, our first child and a family in our church walked up and blessed us with a couple hundred dollars in small unmarked bills. I remember when Cooper was sick as an infant, we were blessed to have great doctors and a great church family that ministered to us during that tough time. I can honestly say I have had some major blessings in my life.
I just want to make sure that the small blessings, the ones that tend to pass us by. I want to make sure I appreciate those too. The word of encouragement that someone gives in passing. The idea the random worker gives me. The friend that is willing to listen to me vent. The family member that is praying for me daily. I want to be appreciative of those little things just as much as the blessings that to everyone else are huge.
So, I hope all of you are blessed and you remember the people that have blessed you.

Teamwork

Last night, I was honored to speak at our youth service because our youth pastor was in Houston for a minister's meeting. His planned speaker was out of town for the week leading up to the service so he was unable to prepare. It left Derek without a speaker for the night. He asked me on Tuesday morning if I could do it. I ribbed him for a little bit about it. I always knew that if it needed to be done I would step up and get it done. That is part of being on a team. Doing stuff like that is part of being a pastor.

Teamwork is a part of life. As a kid, you play sports and learn this. You learn phrases like, their is no I in the word team. You are told the chain is only as strong as the weakest link. In school, they give you projects to work on with other kid's in your classes. You are expected to play well with others. I see a problem with many people today though in ministry and in other fields, teamwork is hard to achieve.

One, people have self esteem issues. People will either think to highly of themselves to stop what they are doing and reach out to others. They get to big and to busy to let worry about others. Some people have self esteem issues the other way and they worry so much that others will hate their ideas. They worry that being compared to someone else they will look bad. People also forget about teamwork because of business. Everyone gets so busy doing their own thing that stopping and combining ideas and effort is almost impossible for many. It is sad because so much more stuff can be accomplished when we work together.

I can honestly tell you the things that have been most rewarding in my job life or ministry have been things that I have been able to work on with friends as a team. Working on overnighters with other kid's pastors, Upward basketball in Cleburne, finishing a room with our youth pastor, and countless other things that I can not take credit for as this was Darrell's thing. I know many of those things would never have happened if others had not said, "hey, I want to be a part". It is silly to take off and try to do anything on your own because you are limited by yourself. When you work as a team, your capacity to do more grows by leaps and bounds.

Today, take a few moments and look at the things in life you want to accomplish. Are you so worried about doing them by yourself that you are going to miss out on being successful? Or are you in a spot that you can ask a friend or be a friend and help? If you help someone or become a part of a team then you will always do so much more.

What Happened?

Yesterday, I went to Barnes & Noble on my day off. I walked around looking at random books in christian inspiration, biographies, history, and leadership. I love reading people who are in business or other fields about leadership and then trying to apply them to our life in the church. I enjoy history and biographies because I think there is so much we can learn from choices made by leaders. So, as I am going through I run across a book by Deepak Chopra called "Jesus: A Story of Enlightenment". Knowing a little bit about Chopra, I was curious as to what he was saying about Jesus because it isn't like he is a Christian. He has been know for his new age beliefs for years. This book he wrote was Chopra's take on what happened to Jesus from the years of 12 to 30. I think it is interesting how many people have come with different theories about those years in Jesus life.

Christopher Moore wrote a very funny, very irreverent book about those years in Jesus life. It had Jesus going all over the world doing different things and learning things in order to prepare himself for the ministry. But yet again, another author that would probably not describe himself as a Christian writing about the "untold years" of Jesus life.

I find it interesting, people that don't consider themselves Christ followers pondering the life of Jesus. As a kid's pastor, I know I have wondered what Jesus was like as a child and a teen. All we really have from the Bible is, "And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." from Luke 2:52. Okay, but what kind of sense of humor did Jesus have? Did Jesus play practical jokes? How was Jesus at in school? Did Jesus ever sleep in after a night of studying? Was he ever late for synagogue school? What kid like stuff did Jesus do that gets pinned only on "bad" kids? I think it is fun to consider what Jesus was like. I also think it is important that we think about Jesus as a kid. I think it is important because we spend time thinking about Jesus and it makes it easier to apply it to our lives. I just think it is good to think about Jesus. Read about who he was as an adult and consider the people that influenced him as a youth.

Spend some time considering Jesus. Spend some time considering who he was and how that should shape your decisions in life.

Christmas Verse

I will never forget the Christmas message I taught when Margaret was 5 months pregnant with Scout. We were working at a small church in Waco. I think we may have had 20 both preschool and elementary in kid's church. We met in a school's music room using a karaoke machine for sound. (I think back to those days and just realize how spoiled I am now with all the lights, equipment, and space we have now.) It was still one of those days in Ministry I don't think I will ever forget.

I decided I was going to use John 3:16 as a text to teach the kids about God's love for us at Christmas. I had written out the lesson. I spent time in prayer about it. I was ready to teach it. We went through the normal parts of our lesson. We played some silly Christmas game. Sang some fun songs. Had a puppet come out and taught the memory verse. Worshiped. I got to the lesson and began talking about this verse that we all have heard a thousand times.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I began crying right there in Kid's Church. It hit me. I don't think I really understood what God gave up for me that Christmas until I was teaching that room of kid's that day. I realized, I would not be willing to give up my unborn daughter who I had not even met yet for anything in this world. I realized my love for her was so strong that I would do whatever I could to keep her from any harm. I realized that instance what God gave up. I knew the verse. I thought I understood what it said. I knew at that moment I couldn't do what God did for anyone. That is why, to me, John 3:16 is the most important Christmas verse. He gave up the most important thing to him for me. He knew the pain Jesus would go through. He knew the kind of death Jesus would have to go through. This Christmas, think about that. If you are a parent, you know what I am talking about. If not, one day you will know exactly what I am writing. God sent his son that Christmas morning for each of us.

Scattershooting

How come when we start thinking about random things the first thought is weather? or food? I think about food all the time. The problem though is when I eat without thinking about food because that is when I don't know what I am eating. I wonder how many calories we consume just because people leave food out on their desks? I can stand there and eat and eat as I am talking. Does that count as multitasking? I think one of my favorite things about Christmas is hearing kids talk about what they want. It is truly a passionate thing. They may not tell you the same thing every single time but every time they have passion about what they want. I find it funny when a kid knows all the details about whatever it is he wants. I find it sad when a kid wants something that is totally inappropriate for them. It is even more sad when a kid gets that gift... I love how people have expectations from the past but they don't want to take charge and make it happen...

Date of Infamy

Today is "Pearl Harbor Day", it is "A date that will live in infamy" as President Roosevelt Said. We have plenty of days like that: 9/11 (Twin Towers), 11/22 (JFK's assassination), 1/28 (Challenger Explodes) are just a few that I remember. We remember these days for the wrong reasons. We have personal days of infamy too. Days that loved ones pass away or are diagnosed with an illness, days a relationship crumbles, or just really bad days are all examples. These are scary days that we remember in our history both public and personal. In every one of these cases, people lives are altered and shaped. How they are shaped is up to that person. When effected by such an event we have many options how we can respond.

Some people respond through service. Think about Pat Tillman after the twin towers crashed. He decided to join the Army and defend his country. Even though, he had a great position of influence at home as a football star. He gave a great sacrifice for our countries safety. He gave his life.

Some people respond through anger. Think of Peter and all his actions as Jesus was being tried and tortured. He began the night by cutting off a soldiers ear. He cursed people. He was very angry with the entire situation. It was his way of dealing with the trauma at hand.

I remember sitting in a 6th grade science class in January of 1986 when the challenger exploded over the Atlantic Ocean. Our teacher said, "hey, let's turn the tv on and watch the shuttle take off." It was a sad day. I was shocked. I think it was the only time ever the teacher went without getting on to us for talking as a class because my classmates and I just sat there dazed. Something that had become common place for all of us was now a super sad event.

I remember sitting in the lobby at college, the day the twin towers came down and the plane flew into the pentagon, just anxious about life. My wife was expecting our first child. I had a million things going on in my head. Questions that I had no answers to. The thing I remember about those days is it caused many people to turn to God and pray.

As I look through scripture, I tried to find the one correct way to handle tragedy. I wanted to find if God wanted us to rise up from the ashes and become strong warriors. I wanted to see God say, "Thou shalt not be saddened by the events that have taken place". I wanted to see a specific answer of what to do when the crap hits the fan. An emotion to have when shocked by a single days horrific events. I couldn't find anything like that. I did find two things.

First he said trust me. Acts 1 is very clear. Jesus is taking off and leaving his crew behind. I can see that being a horrible day. Imagine the emotions these guys have gone through in the weeks leading up to the event. One moment your life is rocked because your leader has passed. The next it is saved because your leader is alive. Just as soon as you get used to him being back, he says I am leaving again. He told them "You don't get to know the time, that is just the Father's business" He expected him to have faith. He expected them to put their trust in his promises. When we have a moment of crisis, God wants us to trust him. Trust that his promise to take care of his people is true.

Then he sent them to pray. God expects us to pray in those moments. It almost comes off as a secondary nature. It should. I pray that we don't lose that nature to stop and pray either as a church or a nation. I hope my kid's both personal and church learn that from me. I hope that I live out an example of prayer for them so that when something horrible happens. They turn to God in prayer. I hope that they learn to spend time in prayer for the daily stuff but in a time of crisis, I pray that they pray.

In times of trouble, I don't know if everyone should jump in service. I don't know if everyone is supposed to get angry. I don't know if everyone should be scared or shocked. I don know we need to stop and have faith that God is still in control and pray for everyone that is affected that day.