Walking and Wondering

My favorite definition of POTENTIAL on dictionary.com is ..."a latent excellence or ability that may or may not be developed."  A close second is ... "capable of being or becoming."  I really like those definitions!  I started thinking about POTENTIAL yesterday as I was picking my 7-year old son up from school.  As we were walking back to the car talking about his day, I noticed his shoe next to mine.  I know ... crazy thing to think about right?  But I noticed how his size 4 was dwarfed by my size 12.  And yet, it struck me that he wouldn't stay a size 1 for long.  Sooner or later, that size 4 would become too small to handle the growth he would be experiencing. The fact is that he has incredible POTENTIAL for growth already built inside of him.  And not just growth in the physical realm, but emotional, spiritual, relational, and so much more.  It's all packed inside of him by the Lord, who "knit him together in his mother's womb."...

     My good friend Edmund Kee passed away suddenly last weekend.  At 31, no one saw his death coming.  After all, strong, influential, entrepreneurial Christian men like Edmund don't die young.  They build an amazing legacy well into their retirement years for others to experience, learn from and carry on after they are gone.  Right?  Someone who saved himself for his wife like Edmund doesn't pass away 10 months into his new marriage.  Right?  Not so.      I couldn't have been more surprised last Tuesday when I received the call telling me that Edmund had passed away leaving behind his new wife Charlotte.  How do you process that?  How do you come to grips with the finality of that moment?  It all seems like such a waste of talent and passion for the kingdom of God. But I've found that questions like these don't often get answered, at least not with any satisfaction.  Even our best attempts...

One thing I love to do is spend time talking to my kids at night before they go to bed.  I love those moments when life slows down enough to communicate at a deeper level than the hectic pace of life normally allows.  And it's in those moments where my kids amaze me with the wisdom they possess and the purity of faith that they walk in. Recently, as I was talking with my 10 year old and my 12 year old sons, I asked the question.  "If  evolution was in fact true, what does that mean about the bible and about who we are as humans."  Okay, not your normal bedtime conversation, but I love to challenge them to think deeper.  The reality is that, as students in public school, they are going to be presented with blatant anti-Christian beliefs.  Our job then is to help them spot the lie, discern the truth, and understand the implications on what they believe.  And as always, my sons answers amazed me.  You don't have to look any farther than Genesi...

Whenever you see the word therefore, go back and see what the therefore is there for.  Before we can get to the "going", we need to have a good understanding of the conditions in which we are called to go.  Let's back up to verse 18 in Matthew 28.  There Jesus said ... And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." This statement by Jesus is huge.  How often are we guilty of running off to accomplish something without seeing the full picture?  Jesus didn't call us to go in our own might.  He didn't call us to go in our own wisdom.  He didn't call us to go in our own authority.  He called us to go with His!   Authority is defined as 'the power to determine, adjudicate or otherwise settle issues, the right to control, command or determine.'  Our movement for the kingdom is driven by the authority of God Himself.  We are no longer under the authority of Satan, the en...

Ever have one of those days where every time you turn around, you keep hearing the same thing over and over.  Every conversation makes its way to the same subject somehow or another.  That's what happened to me this week.  In fact, in one day, I had 4 conversations and 1 dream all about the same thing.  Okay Lord ... I think I got it!  But the tricky part is acting on it. In the end of the gospel of Matthew, Jesus leaves the disciples (and us) with this statement: And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.   Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Go ... Make ... Baptize ... Teach!  Pretty clear instructions for the disciples wouldn't you think.  The problem comes ...

   Talked at Surrender about PRAYER tonight.  In reading Jesus' prayer before going to the cross in John 17, it struck me how prayer is like a flashlight AND a laser pointer.  (My son was actually just given a laser pointer with a flashlight built into it.  Very appropriate to this analogy.)  Here's what hit me.    In John 17:9, Jesus says, "I am praying for them. (the disciples)  I am not praying for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours."  That's laser-like focus ... very specific and very focused.  I wonder if often God doesn't respond to our prayers because they're just not specific enough.  What if the Lord is waiting for us to get so focused in our prayer life that we hear what's on His heart and pray along with Him.  Often my prayer life can be so scattered and so broad that it lacks any specific focus.  Jesus' focus ... faithfulness with the relationships God had given Him. ...

   Here you go ... my top ten reasons why I love being a Children's Pastor and why I love Kid's Church so much : (drum roll please ............................ hey .................................. DRUM ROLL!) 10.  Because we get to play "old fashioned" dodgeball again.   Believe it or not, the dodgeball that those of us who are ages 35 and up used to play is nearly extinct.  You know ... where two people, officially called "enders" stand on either end of the field and throw overinflated rubber kickballs at a mass of people in the middle who have to avoid being hit by the ball or they are out.  And oh yeah, you can't catch the ball and get the ender out ... nice try though.  Apparently this game is no longer being taught in our schools and it is to our nations detriment that it isn't.  Somebody needs to call somebody ... just saying! 9.  Because it's church with themes.   That means we get to dress up and act like kids again. Cowboys...