the things that scare me

I'm not too big to be scared.  Shoot, I'm barely too big to play in the play land at McDonald's.  The things that scare me, though, go way back to my childhood, and the reason they scare me may not be what you think.

Clowns
I find clowns scary, because I saw an evil depiction of one in a movie when I was a little kid.  No, it wasn't It. It was this scene that did me in.  I've been afraid ever since.  I am highly suspicious of all clowns now.

Ventriloquist Dummies
My fears were first realized when an evangelist held a dummy on his lap that told me about Hell.  Great idea!  My fears were confirmed when I read Night of the Living Dummy.  Much like the Frog brothers saw vampire comics as survival manuals, I think Night of the Living Dummy is based on true events and can save your life.

Mr. No-good
You may not know who this is, but you've seen him.  You may not have even known he had a name, but he did, or at least my mom gave him a name.  I found out it was a made up name when I told Sarah about my horrible nightmare featuring Mr. No-good when I was a child.  Who is he?  None other than the man on many neighborhood watch signs.
Kidnappers
It doesn't seem like I would still be afraid of this, but my behavior betrays me.  When I take garbage out after dark, I run back inside.  If I am leaving a basement, I always run up the stairs.  There is no thought process involved; it's just an impulse.  But why should I fear kidnappers more than anyone else?  I'll tell you why.  My mom.  She's never kidnapped anyone, but she did tell me often that I was a prime target.  I was a tiny little kid with blond hair, blue eyes, and fair skin.  According to my mom, this made me just the kind of kid a pedophile would kidnap.  I didn't even know what a pedophile was, but my mom wanted me to know the severity of this topic, so she scared me out of my mind with I Know my First Name is Steven.  How old was I when it hit the small screen?  Seven.  I watched it at seven.  I'm still waiting for Mr. No-good to kidnap me.

Other milder fears include spiders, big dogs, wetting myself, and going bald.  It appears as though my list of mild fears will all be realized by the time I'm 30.

Happy Halloween.

who are you following?

I was really looking forward to teaching on the Rapture at youth group yesterday.  I was planning on it since early August.  What's more fun than teaching eschatalogical positions to teenagers?  That's right!  Studying the two other positions on the Rapture that differed from what I was originally taught, and therefore had never been looked at too closely.  But alas, God was not with this lesson.  I may reprise it later.  I really want to figure out where it belongs in my Spring teaching.  I felt Him pushing me last weekend to switch it, which is pretty cool, because that meant He was giving me a whole week to write my other lesson!

I had my lesson finished by Thursday.  I looked over it and felt like something was missing.  I was teaching on why we come to church, what we should be focusing on when we come to church, and the error we make when we allow someone else to supplant Jesus in our lives.  We looked at the story of Jesus' Transfiguration, where a select few of His disciples were present.  Then, all of a sudden, Moses and Elijah appear.  As it said in the story, Peter didn't know what to say, so he said the dumbest thing possible.  I, of course, can relate to this.  So can you.  Don't pretend you can't.  Anyway, he suggests that there be three memorials built: one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.  God the Father chimes in at this moment, because He doesn't want anyone putting anybody else on par with His Son.  He said, "This is my dearly beloved son.  Listen to Him."

I knew where I wanted to go with the this part, but I didn't have a good story to tell about it.  Then I visited The Edge Urban Fellowship on Saturday night, where I stood out like a sore thumb.  They have two pastors there, who took turns giving parts of the message.  Donny was talking about how early in his walk with Christ, his dad was the one leading him in his Christian life (a great thing for his dad to do, of course).  His dad passed away, though, and he went off the deep end back into sin.  Looking back, he realizes, his loyalty wasn't to Jesus at all, but to his dad.  That's a big mistake that I think many of us make, and I used this story to make the point more strongly.

I talked about how commonly we make this error without even thinking about it.  This was the most fun part of the lesson, too, because a sixth grade boy wasn't paying close enough attention to hear what I really said.  I said, "I love working for and with Pastor Dave.  He's awesome, but if he turned in his resignation next week, I would not quit my job."  I'm not quite sure what he heard, but he quickly blurted out, "Wait!  What?"  I then clarified that no one was planning to quit their job next week.  It was pretty funny at the moment, but perhaps less so today as you read it.  After everyone stopped laughing at this crazy moment, I finished and challenged the students not to follow other people so closely.

I ended challenging the students not to follow anyone as though they were God Himself.  When your friends want you to do something, and it conflicts with what God says, you go with God.  Doing otherwise is to seat your friends in God's seat.  If I, as their youth pastor, were to teach them something that is clearly contrary to the Word of God, they should listen to God and feel free to call me on it.  It doesn't matter who it is.  Choose God's Word.  If you choose someone else's words over God's, you have made it clear that you follow that person, not God.  That's a mistake.  Listen to Him.

standing in the fire

Many of us would avoid the fires in life if we could.  If you asked me today if I wanted hardship tomorrow, I would decline your offer.  I say that even knowing the benefit of it.  I've been in the fire before, and I have always come out better than I went in.  Every impossible situation God has allowed me to be in - or even directly placed me in - has shaped me into who I am now.  I did not enjoy the heat of the fire while I stood in it, and I don't think I have the chutzpah to choose to stand in it again, but it does have significant value.  Fires reveal the true measure of our faith, and they give us an unrivaled opportunity to see that God is indeed there.

In Daniel 3, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah found their faith put to the test.  I know, you call them Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but I will stick with their Hebrew names.  Deal?  Okay, back to the action.  They were required to bow to a statue of King Nebuchadnezzar, but they declined.  They would not bow to any other than God.  In faith, they told Nebuchadnezzar that God was able to deliver them from the fiery furnace, if he chose to throw them in there.  They believed that He could and that He would deliver them.  Now, they did go into the furnace.  They were in the fire.  Who did they see?  God Himself (or Jesus, as it would have had to have been, Who I know is God, but I wanted to distinguish between He and God the Father).

Two things stand out to me in the story.  First of all, their faith was validated.  Had they not been thrown into the fire, they may have had a sense of relief and a vague sense of God's intervention, but they would not have had something tangible to point to and glorify God with.  The second thing is that God was there, and He was revealed to them, but He was only visible to them once they were in the fire.

It is important for us to allow ourselves to go through fiery trials, for it may be in the very fire we fear that we come face to face with God.

 

be still

Be still.
Be quiet.
Be silent.
Stop moving.
Stop fighting.
Stop ignoring.

God keeps bringing me back to Psalm 46.  I cannot tell you how many times I have read it in the last month, but it has been pert near every day.

But why?  Why does He keep making me read this.  It has consumed my devotions.  It has consumed my mind.  I think of it as I go to sleep, and it is still there when I wake up.  Why?

Because I am not good at being still.  I cannot sit still most of the time.  I struggle to still my mind.  He wants my attention - when I read, when I pray, throughout my day - but I struggle to stop thinking of conversations, details, scenarios.  My mind drifts to things that make me happy, things that make me sad, people that make me angry, and what I want to do about all of those things.

I need to be still.  I need silence.  I need solace.
I need to empty my mind, so I can empty my heart to Him.
I need to stop talking to God, so I can listen to Him.
I need to cast all of my cares on Him.
That means no more worrying about finances, no more worrying about defending myself, no more worrying about what others do.  I can't waste another minute on the things I cannot control.  Whatever is nagging at me belongs to Him.  The less time I spend worrying, the more time I can spend accomplishing the things God wants me to do.

Be still.  Be silent.  Listen and hear.  Watch and see.

Psalm 46

For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A song. ^[a]

¹ God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.

² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

³ though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
Selah

⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.

⁵ God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.

⁶ Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

⁷ The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah

⁸ Come and see the works of the LORD,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.

⁹ He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields ^[b] with fire.

¹⁰ "Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

¹¹ The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=rEnriY1sg6U]

what really used to make me angry

I've always liked lyrics to be explicit - not explicit in the Eminem sense, but I like to know exactly what the singer is talking about.  I don't like using my imagination when I listen to music.  It's all I can do to understand all of the lyrics and not botch them when I'm singing alone or with my wife in the car.  She has caught me many times singing the wrong words, and she has laughed at me every time.  So I don't need to be figuring things out.

What used to really burn me up inside was when I would listen to a Christian rock song, and I knew they were talking about God, but it seemed vague enough that others may not get it.  I was quite judgmental over this issue, but that was a direct result of being judgmental about all secular music (and all other things), as well.  I decided as a young, misguided pharisee that listening to any form of secular music was a sin, and I wasn't bashful about telling you (especially if you were my brother Dan).  I will admit, though, to having had a secret admiration for Roy Orbison, even if he is lame.  On a side note, I actually saw a Roy Orbison bumper sticker on the way home from church on Sunday.

Now it doesn't really upset me.  A lot of things no longer upset me that used to.  You know what really helped me turn the corner, though?  I went to a concert.  I went to see Kutless, whose lyrics are unabashedly about God.  A band that I wasn't quite sure about at the time opened for them.  The band was Thousand Foot Krutch - who I am excited to be seeing on 10/17! - and the reason I was unsure was because they seemed to keep it purposely vague.  They seemed to have more fans than Kutless, which I immediately attributed to their watered down lyrics.  Of course people like them, because they never say anything.  Then their lead singer did say something.  He gave one of the most heartfelt, compelling versions of the Gospel I had heard in a long time.  He prayed, teenagers prayed, people accepted Jesus, and my Pharisaic heart of stone was broken.

They were reaching people who I wasn't going to reach as an uptight youth pastor's intern.

One last side note: happy one year anniversary to me!  Today is exactly one year since I started on staff at KCC.  How am I spending it?  Well, I'm having an appreciation dinner and meeting with my children's ministry staff.  What else would I do to celebrate a great year than spend it with many of the people who helped to make it great?

alien invasion

In October, we'll be doing an alien themed series in YG.  We start on the premise that by definition Jesus is the Ultimate Extraterrestrial (one operating and existing outside of earth and its atmosphere).  This week, we did "Alien Invasion" (the incarnation of Jesus), next week, we'll do "Alien Inception" (salvation),and on the 24th, we'll do "Alien Abduction" (the rapture).  Below are the slides from this weeks lessons.







Jesus had divine attributes that He gave up while He was on earth.  What sorts of things do you think He gave up?  Omnipresence (He was only ever in one place at a time), omnipotence (He acknowledged before going to the cross that His physical body was weak.  His miracles were done through the HS, as He was enabled by God to bring Him glory), and omniscience (didn’t know when He would return, but only the Father knew) for starters.  He gave up His inability to be in the presence of sin, as we see that He took our sin upon Himself.

What attributes did He retain?  Impeccability (there was no way He could sin), thus maintaining His perfection/holiness, Godly love, authority



Grasped – He was equal with God, so He did not see as it as a concept that needed grasping.  It was His reality.



Therefore, He is extraterrestrial, because He existed and occurred outside of earth and its atmosphere



The fancy term for Jesus’ taking on flesh is “incarnation.”  That is why He is referred to as God Incarnate, because He is God in the flesh or God with skin.



Discovery, conquest, necessity?



Jesus came to provide light.  It says earlier in the chapter that the world was in darkness.  The darkness is courtesy of our sin, and it kept us from being able to see God.

He came to provide us with grace and truth.



Yes, Jesus came to provide light and the only way to God Himself, but He also came to provide an example for us.  What was that example?

He came to teach us how to put others before ourselves.  He showed us that we should love in such a way that we always put others first, no matter the cost.

Based on your life, did He invade in vain?

the greatest pastors I've ever learned from

Today is October 1.  You may not have known this, but October is Pastor Appreciation Month.  Since I know you are all so grateful, I will just go ahead and say, “You’re welcome.”

I want to take today, the first day of this great month, to talk about the greatest pastors I have ever learned from.  I know what you’re thinking already.  “He’s sucking up to Dave and Todd.”  They’re great guys, and I am very appreciative for what I have learned from them over this last year – or I should say what will be a year in 5 days – and I look forward to what I will continue to learn from them as we continue to work together and sharpen each other.  They are not the subject of today, though.

The greatest pastors I have ever learned from are John and Bev.  They are a couple that has been married for 41 years.  They have been in full time ministry for 37 of those years, although they have never collected a paycheck for their work.  Their work is endless, tireless, and regretfully for me, it has at times been thankless.  They will never retire, and their impact will continue well past the day when God calls them home.

They are my parents.  They are my heroes.  They are my pastors.  They trained me the way Proverbs 22:6 instructed them.  They taught me to love God with all that I am like Deuteronomy 6:6-7 instructed them.  They showed me what it looks like to pastor my own family, and that is why their ministry will continue on.  I want to pastor Jakob with my Godly wife Sarah.  I want us to train him in the way, teach him to love God, and prepare him to be the greatest pastor our grandchildren will ever know.

Happy Pastor Appreciation month.  Please be sure to encourage your pastors, wherever you attend.