The school bully is a smoldering stump

Isaiah 7:9.  King Ahaz and the nation of Judah were facing a formidable foe. The school bullies at the time were Syria and northern Israel who were trying to force them into an alliance to take down an enemy. The result: they “shook like trees”.  The enemy had a plan to decimate them yet the prophet Isaiah said that they only needed to be careful, be quiet and not fear. Their enemies were merely smoldering stumps. “It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. If you are not firm in faith you will not be firm at all.” (v. 7)

This is a promise that has been purchased for us by Christ on the cross. We are saved by grace through faith. So let us have faith in God to work on our behalf and trust in the Romans 8:28. He will work all things together for good to those that love him and are called according to his purpose. O may this move us to give generously, joyfully and sacrificially. May this move us witness boldly to our neighbors. May this move us to kill a thousand other sins that lurk in our heart that are born out anxiety.

Adoption Road

A couple months after Taylor was born my mind began thinking about adoption. Johanna and I had talked about this before, however; we had both thought that it would fit in to our plans after we were finished with having biological children. I asked Johanna, “What is keeping us from adopting right now?” She could not think of a good reason, and I agreed with her. The ball began to roll and we began to pray.

After that we both began coming across information and blogs that seemed to be pointing us down this road. I read a statistic in WORLD Magazine that African-American children are the less likely to be adopted than any other ethnicity. Johanna read a blog about a family that adopted from the Congo, which said that 1 out of every 5 children in that country die (I think before the age of 8). My heart was stirring.

A week later I read a very compelling blog post at The Resurgence on why a couple had considered adopting from Africa.

1. We are called to help the least of these. (Matthew 25:37-40)
2. God honors the care of widows and orphans. (James 1:27)
3. We are blessed so that we can be a blessing.
4. This life will be profoundly changed. (Romans 6:4)

I began to think, “Why not adopt?” It simply seemed to make sense in being obedient to Jesus for our family. At that time I was finishing the book Bloodlines by John Piper. This quote is from the last chapter and was extremely helpful in overcoming my anxiety about adoption and the hard things we will face.

“Christ does not call us to a prudent life but to a God-centered, Christ-exalting, justice-advancing, countercultural, risk-taking life of love and courage. Will it be harder to be married to another race, and will it be harder for the kids? Maybe. Maybe not. But since when is that the way a Christian thinks? Life is hard. And the more you love, the more painful it gets…

“We are not interested in diversity for diversity’s sake. We are not interested in being popular or politically correct. We are interested in moving toward the visible experience of Colossians 3:11…

“We will not underestimate the challenges of interracial marriage and biracial children (and transracial adoption- they go closely together). Rather, we will strive to nurture churches where such marriages thrive. We will celebrate the beauty, and we will embrace the burden. Both will be good for us, and good for the world, and good for the spread of the gospel and the glory of God.”

Transracial adoption for our family will be the fulfilling of Colossians 3:11. For us, Christ is all and in all. He purchased us as sinners and enemies to God and brought about reconciliation. This wells up a joy towards my God and a desire to obey his command to help the fatherless. The thought of investing my life in a child through adoption for the glory of God and the advancing of his kingdom is nothing less than exhilarating to my heart. That is worth living for.

Heavenly Father, please help our family in this endeavor.

Thoughts From A Road Trip

Our family just completed an 8 day loop from Minnesota, through Ohio, down to Tennesse and then back to Minnesota. During that time we put 2,000 miles under our feet and saw many of Johanna’s extended family members. Here are some of my thoughts as we drove through the plains of Indiana, the rolling hills of Kentucky and the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

1. All of creation is shouting the glory of God. That thought stuck in my mind from beginning to end. Flying on a plane tends to be numbing to me while driving mile after mile through the expanses of this country that God spoke into existence is exhilarating. We drove through the plains, the hills and the mountains; all of which are upheld by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3).  This creation exists to display the glory of God and I felt it in an unusual way.
2. I am really small. We drove through tiny towns, suburban neighborhoods and the gigantic metropolis of Chicago. There are a lot of people in this world- we know that. But I felt it on this trip. I am just a speck in it all. Everyday 14 lanes of traffic carry nearly 2.8 million people through the city of Chicago while I live out an existence in a town of 10,000. It was a reminder that my life is not about myself and helped me see that there is so much that goes on in a 24 hour period. God knows it all. He holds it in the palm of his hand.
3. I really love and like my family. While traveling we sang songs, listened to Adventure in Odyssey, listened to sermons, laughed and just had fun being together. I would look in the rear view mirror and see Johanna, Jack and Taylor all smiling and I thanked God for this tremendous blessing he has granted me to be a part of.
4. I like Indiana and Ohio’s courthouses. Each town had a courthouse built of stone that stood in the middle of that town. They had character and were unique.
5. Farmers are really important. We spent the night at one of Johanna’s cousins. He farms 1800 acres and told us stories of barely surviving through the years financially. I forget the amount of sweat equity that is involved in moving that head of lettuce from the field to the grocery store to my table.
6. Hiking invigorates me. We walked up to Clingman’s Dome (the highest point in the Smoky Mountains) and Laurel Falls. With camera in hand I enjoyed capturing the landscapes that are utterly amazing. There is so much entertainment that has been built up in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge over the years, but the real amazement is found just down the road in the Smoky National Forest.
7. Finally, the Adventures in Odyssey series is timeless.

 

Dug Down Deep

I had not read anything from Joshua Harris since I was a teenager and heard about I Kissed Dating Goodbye. This book unexpectedly grabbed my attention from the first paragraphs and carried me through all 230 pages. The book is tremendously helpful for new Christians or those Christians wanting to begin to dig deeper into the doctrines of their faith. It is a systematic theology for those who would never read systematic theology.

This isn’t a book on systematic theology proper. It’s more like a mixtape of biblical truth that I’ve found personlly significant (34).”

Harris’ syle of writing is easy to understand and lends itself to those types of people I just described. He uses helpful stories to describe docrtines he is talking about. Many of these stories are honest and humble confessions of his journey through the Christian faith. Through 11 chapters he talks about the doctrines of God, Scripture, Jesus, the atonement, salvation, sanctification, the Holy Spirit, and the church.

There were several things that I was helped by in this book. His chapter on the role of the Holy Spirit was insightful and his chapter on the importance of the church was powerful. I plan on sending this book to one person that has expressed interest in wanting to know more about her faith. This book fits that need perfectly.

All I Know

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Philippians 3:20

All I Know- Building 429

All I know is I’m not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong

So when the walls come falling down on me
And when I’m lost in the current of a raging sea
I have this blessed assurance holding me.

All I know is I’m not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong

When the earth shakes I wanna be found in You
When the lights fade I wanna be found in You

All I know is I’m not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong

Piper and Carson

 

A short read that had some helpful insight into John Piper’s life and ministry.

“Writing became the lever of my thinking and the outlet of my feelings. If I didn’t pull the lever the wheel of thinking did not turn. It jerked and squeaked and halted. But once a pen was in hand, or a keyboard, the fog began to clear and the wheel of thought began to spin with more clarity (29)”

 

The Overflow of Romans 5

Romans 5 was the hardest chapter I have tried to memorize in the Bible. It just wouldn’t stick in my mind. There are many verses that seem to say the same thing in different ways but use the same words. By God’s grace it clicked with me and I have come to love this chapter. There are phrases used consistently that reveal how extravagant God has been in showing us his love and sparing us his wrath. This is the benefits package for those who are this children:

• We have not only been declared good in God’s eyes through faith, but we are also looked upon by God with favor. And we can rejoice in him. (Verse 1)
• If that weren’t enough, we can also rejoice in all the hard stuff we go through in life. Trials produce hope which then gives us confidence in God’s love. (Verse 4-5)
• How much love has God given us? He has poured it onto us like a refreshing spring rain that washes away the dirt and grime of winter. (Verse 5)
• We have been declared good because of Jesus’ death. Much more, we will we be saved from the wrath of God. (Verse 9)
• God reconciled our sinful account while we were still his enemies. Not only that, but how much more, now that we are his children, will we be saved by Jesus’ life? (Verse 10)
• Even more than this too, we rejoice in God through Jesus. If there were no Jesus, there would be no rejoicing. (Verse 11)
• One man’s sin brought death into the world. How much more will Jesus bring life? (Verse 15)
• Sin increases. Grace abounds.

Death, sin and Satan are no match for the over-powering grace of those who are found in Jesus. It is like an avalanche surging down a mountainside that catches everything in its wake. Look to Jesus for the abundance of grace that can be found only in him.

Unjustice

“When justice is done it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.” Proverbs 21:3

My phone beeped. It was my partner on the north end of our county with some interesting information that would keep us busy the rest of the shift. He had discovered from an informant that a certain person was violating his probation by drinking alcohol. This person was a frequent flyer in our agency. He had been convicted of a manufacturing methamphetamine and had been the recipient of a SWAT warrant a couple years prior. He was not a nice guy.

He had not served jail time for the charge but had time hanging over him if he violated his probation. Twelve years. The thought of putting this guy away for 12 years was like placing a big, red sucker in front of a three year old. We began developing more information about his location. We called his probation officer, explained the details of what we had and received a verbal arrest and detain order from her. When dealing with a possible probation violation the probation officer has to give the direction to place the person under arrest. Our ducks were beginning to line up.

Our team set up a perimeter on his house and we could see lights on inside. After being their ten minutes I saw a man leave the house and begin walking across the street. After stopping and interviewing him we were able to confirm that our guy indeed was in the house and indeed had been drinking. We took his phone and detained him in our squad car to ensure that he wouldn’t contact his friend to give him the heads up on what was about to go down.

We shrank our perimeter and closed in on the house. Knocking on the door we could hear a dog on the other side that sounded like he wanted a piece of whatever was on the other. After repeated knocks and yelling the door continued to remain shut. The next option would take some time to put in place. Two of the deputies went to complete a warrant and wake a judge up while the rest of us kept a perimeter on the house to make sure he didn’t leave. One and a half hours later, warrant signed, we kicked the door in and put our guy under arrest. Case closed; or so we thought.

A month later we received court notices that he was contesting our arrest. At the hearing we testified to the facts of our case, which were air tight, but we were not prepared for what the probation officer was going to say. Despite the seriousness of his original charge and failing to test clean during his probation, the probation officer said she still believed he was amenable to probation. The prosecuting attorney was obviously surprised and we shook our heads in amazement. This probation officer had just thrown a major curve ball and blind sided everyone.

The judge was persuaded by the probation officer and put him back on probation. Later he would (off the record) say that he was ready to execute the 12 year sentence until the probation officer gave her statement about him being amenable to probation. We left frustrated, but not surprised. It was another page written of unjustice. The silver lining in this gray cloud was that our guy was the type who would most certainly provide us more chances to put him away in the future.

Average Joe is Average

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Troy Meeder draws from his own personal stories and the stories of people he has known over the years in his book Average Joe. His stories serve as the analogies to a man’s life and how he relates to God. For this reader, some were more engaging than others.

The book felt as if it came across as written with two different world views. Section Two is entitled Guts, Grits and Sand. The overarching theme of these stories was that men who count are the ones who do good. It is good to be an average Joe who works hard, remains faithful to his wife and children, and possesses the qualities of courage, honor and perseverance. He says, “Words like covenant, honor, perseverance, and loyalty are the hallmarks of these men. Our nation is stronger, more moral, and steadfast because of them (71).” While that may be true, it is not what I expected to hear from a Christian author writing a Christian book. Isn’t there something more to being a Christian man?

Meeder answers that question in a little more depth in Section Three entitled The Carpenter And The Wood. He uses his stories to point more towards being a man who does not find satisfaction in entertainment but in God. He cites more Scripture for his appeal to men and in doing so presents a more compelling case. It still felt as if he could have gone deeper though in his appeal to average Joes to live a life worthy of the gospel.

The book had interesting stories and an important mission but did not go deep enough. I think readers would have been better served if Meeder would have relied more on what the Bible has to say to men about living average lives. From the book trailer I was also hoping that he would spend more time citing examples from the Bible of average Joes who were sold out for God.

Bloodlines

I just finished reading Bloodlines by John Piper. God has used his books to shape my life in a huge way. Suffering and the Sovereignty of God pointed me towards the biblical view of Calvinism. Desiring God  plunged me into the joys of Christian Hedonism. And Bloodlines helped me see that the Bible is massively relevant for helping us with the racial issues our nation has faced and continues to face today.

This book starts out as a history book, going back to the turmoil of the 1960′s. I admit my embarrassment in being blind to some of the things that happened during that time period. He admits to his own racist teenage years. Piper then uses the five points of Calvinism to show how the Bible strikes at the foundation of racism, ethnocentrism and prejudice. It is a devastating and revealing blow to the state of our sinful hearts, yet it offers the hope of reconciliation that only the gospel can give.

The big idea of the book is that all ethnicities can unite under the bloodline of Jesus Christ. We are all equal sinners in need of a Savior who died to redeem people from all ethnicities. The book has some sentences and paragraphs in it that pack a wallop and are extremely helpful. The first half of the book is highly theological and the last few chapters are highly practical and relevant for today. One of the most helpful chapters was on prejudice. How do we differentiate between helpful generalizations and sinful prejudice?

When we feel or think or act with disdain or disrespect or avoidance or exclusion or malice toward a person simply because he or she is of another race or another ethnic group, we are in effect, saying that Jesus acted in a foolish way toward us. You don’t want to say that. (217)

Finally, I did not see how God was going to use this book to move my heart towards a stirring for transracial adoption. But that will be for another blog post.