Parenting is Hard

Parenting is hard. In fact, it is very hard. Parents can pray, make wise Godly decisions, seek to protect their children from negative influences, communicate scriptural values, but some children still fall away into a life of rebellion. This truth remains; every child is born a sinner and that sinful nature will take over from time to time. [Rom 3:23] Even if your children trust Christ for salvation they will find what you and have found. We will battle the sinful nature all the days of our lives. [Gal 5:16-17]

Some parents are too strict as they seek to protect their children from the world. Some parents are too lenient. Neither is good. We all try to do the best we can but even the most devout parents who have tried to do things by the book have experienced heartache from wayward children.

I found myself seated on the back porch yesterday afternoon with my three oldest sons having a tough and honest conversation about their relationship with the Lord. We talked about loving Jesus. We talked about worship. We talked about quiet times. We talked about just showing up at church verses really coming to learn and to connect with God. We talked about my role as a pastor (and for the last two years as their youth pastor) and father. None of them said they resented my being a pastor.

I want for my children what most Christian parents want. I want them to love God and to serve Him authentically. I want them to hunger to know God all their days. This is easier said and done. I have preached way too many youth camps, retreats, and revivals to be fooled. The church is often failing when it comes to producing solid followers of Christ in their student ministries. The church cannot do it alone. Parents have to stay involved. When I think of the vast amounts of money being spent on teenager's spiritual growth it disheartens me when I see so many apathetic.

One of my sons told me he had a hard time hearing from God. He said he doesn't know at times if God is speaking or if he is inventing things in his head. Another son told me it is much easier for him when I lead him in quiet times to help him understand. Another repented of sin once his brothers had left to me privately. He had been convicted of something he did a long time ago but felt God wanted him to make it right with his mother and me. Through tears he spilled his guts. I brought him over and sat him in my lap. He is much bigger now and this does not happen too often. I told him I loved him looking him in the eyes and letting him know that my love for him was just the same as if he had not sinned. I also told him I was proud of him for being honest and doing the right thing. Another son told me about a failure he had and we worked our way through it.

Parenting is hard especially if you are trying to raise Christ followers. It would be easier to give up the fight and to just give in to the times. It feels like swimming against the current every day. That is exactly what we are doing. We are swimming against the current of a pagan world building a biblical world view.

Stay the course. Keep having those honest talks. Keep speaking Bible truth. Keep praying and pointing your children to follow Christ and build their lives on the foundation of God's Word even when it is not easy. Do it even when it seems like they are not listening or even interested.

In the end, all of our children have to own their faith for it to be real and meaningful. We can pray and pray that happens. Before that let us make sure Jesus is real and meaningful to us first. Parenting is hard but God is able to help us navigate the course.

God's Choice

Have you ever thought about all the choices God makes or has made. Choices of colors for flowers, grass, weeds, the sky, the ocean, zebras, cobras, giraffes, peacocks, and people. Then there are the choices of when and where to send revival and spiritual awakening. There are the choices to open foreign lands with the gospel. There are choices of whom will sit in leadership and how they be used to accomplish God's purposes of judgement or blessing.

What I am fascinated by today after reading the first chapter of I Corinthians is God's choice to save and to use people in His service. Unlike a business executive trying to build a strong team of associates, God does not choose the wisest, best looking, most experienced, and the most charismatic often. He selects people you and I would look past.

Paul writes it like this. "Brothers, consider your calling: not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world - what is viewed as nothing - to bring to nothing what is viewed as something so that no one can boast in His presence." [I Cor 1:26-29]

God often chooses the average person over the person of exceptional intellect and gifting because He gets the glory for it. I think of the uneducated shoe salesman who became a mighty evangelist in the hands of God named D.L. Moody. I think of the weakness and frailty of Mother Teresa to boldly speak out against abortion at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington many years ago in a room some of the most powerful people in the world. History is filled with the stories of average men and women who yielded their lives to God and were used in extraordinary ways.

From where I am sitting we all look pretty average and ordinary. We serve an extraordinary God. He puts His call on people to do all sorts of things. I am now thinking of a shy high school teacher who surrendered her life to go on a mission trip to Canada first and then a few years later to Africa. She is a bold warrior for Christ but she would consider herself very ordinary.

I do not think this world is going to be changed by the brilliant theologians and most talented preachers. This world will be changed by those ordinary followers of Christ who devote themselves to prayerfully making a difference where they live. Some are teachers, coaches, administrators, and small business owners. Others are mechanics, computer technicians, students, athletes, band members, and in drama. Others stay at home to raise Christ-like children. Through it all God uses each of them as missionaries in their own little corner of the world.

These very ordinary people can be empowered by God to do extraordinary things. I rejoice when I see God working mightily through vessels others would have passed over. God longs to pour His power through people the world considers insignificant. David was passed over for consideration to be King by his own father. Yet God had other plans in mind.

If you feel ordinary and rather average perk up. You are the exact candidates God loves to work through. You are a prime time opportunity for God to use mightily. God's choice is often different than what what the world would choose. God chooses people from all backgrounds, intellects, personalities, and economic status to accomplish His purposes. You just might be God's next choice to join Him on some Kingdom adventure if you have the courage and faith to say, "Yes."

Another Step of Faith

With much prayer and meditation Brenda and I took another step of faith this past weekend. We signed a contract to purchase a house. More than any single house we have ever lived in or looked at to purchase in the twenty years of our marriage, this house has all we have ever asked God for. For me that means one thing in particular. An office.

I have prayed for years that one day God would bless me with an office in our home so I could have a place to pray, read, write, and study. God has led us to such a house. We crunched all the numbers, negotiated the selling price, got our approval from the lender, but in the end we had three sticking points. The closing costs were more than we anticipated. We have to put up a fence for Annabelle. We need to construct one wall to complete a fourth bedroom. We wrestled in prayer and looked at the house a second time. It felt like home. We also waited on God and in the end He led us to step out in trust for those things we need. So we did what we have done countless times as a family. We took another step of faith. We  felt God nudging us to trust Him and we stepped out in total dependence on Him to come through.

I am thoroughly convinced this will not be our last step of faith. [II Cor 5:7] [Heb 11:6] both assure me that the normal life for a follower of Jesus will necessitate many faith steps. I expect to be taking additional faith steps until God calls me to my eternal home. Even that transition from finite life to everlasting life will be a faith step.

We could sure use your prayers over the next thirty days. God knows all about it and we trust Him to build another testimony for His glory. We have sought to be obedient and pray that when the Lord comes through it serves as encouragement for countless others to lean on God in their situations.

After two full years I had just about given up on the dream of owning a home here. It was only as I learned to be content in my present situation that God began to move to sell our house in Seminole and to give us His guidance in the quest for a home here.

There will be other steps of faith for my family, for Faith Community Church, and for you as well. We will always have the opportunity to trust God for something. It is in taking obedient faith steps that we get the chance to see the miraculous working of God. That is where I want to live and serve. I want to live and serve in the land of the miraculous and not in the land of miracle famine.

Where do you live today? Can you point to regular interventions of God as you step and have stepped out in trust? Are you residing in a land of miracle famine? No matter what God asks, no matter how impossible it seems, no matter how foolish obedience may appear in the eyes of others, I pray all of us are willing to take another faith step as long as we live.

The God of Hope

There are always situations that look hopeless. I spoke this week to a wife facing the difficult battle of her husband fighting cancer. I spoke with a young lady living in an impoverished situation. I was also privy to a conversation by a graduating senior wondering how college tuition will get paid for in the fall.

These situations and many others just like it appear hopeless. We serve a God of hope. "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." [Rom 15:13]

In whatever you are facing today, you can face it with hope as well as joy and peace. God has those things in abundance for needy souls like ours. Hope can also be translated "confident expectation." Our hope is rooted in this truth; God is always working. [John 5:17] We have hope because God is working in ways we cannot see or fathom.

Let me illustrate. After months of praying by many people, Paradise Independent School District hired a new Athletic Director from outside the district. Our one coach who applied for that job but was not given the position interviewed elsewhere and was just about to take a new position when the new Athletic Director resigned unexpectedly. This left the Superintendent and School Board scrambling at a school board meeting the same day. By the end of that meeting our Defensive Coordinator and Head Baseball Coach was named the new Athletic Director. I had spoken with and prayed with he and his wife about their future. They both trusted God and were willing to follow Him wherever He led. None of us saw things unfolding the way they did a week ago. God is the God of hope even when doors appear closed.

There is hope with God. Today, in the middle of your tumultuous life there is still hope with God. There may be consequences from a life of rebellion against God but there is the hope of forgiveness and restoration. There is the hope of answered prayers. There is the hope that God is always at work. There is peace that God is not finished working on us. [Phil 1:6] He began a great work in salvation in us and He will be faithful to complete that great work to the end.

After two full years of praying and waiting Brenda and I stand on the edge of purchasing our third home. Like the other two we have had to step out on faith. Like the other two we fully expect God will come through as we have sought to follow His leadership. We are supposed to close on selling our house in Seminole in mid-June and close on purchasing a house here in mid-July. Yes, God is at work. We need your prayers as we trust God through this process.

I have hope in God. You too can hope in God. He has given us front row seats to watch Him do bewildering things that defy our imagination. All I can say is glory to God and praise to His name for the hope He has given.

Jordan's Banks

On Jordan's flooded banks I am standing,
Asking Lord exactly what you're demanding,
What's Your desire, Your purpose, Your will,
How are you testing my faith to fulfill,
Your Sovereign plan so wisely designed,
To you I surrender - your will I'm resigned,
You will me to cross over to the other side,
The overflowing waters my way is denied,
Unless with courageous faith I take a step,
I will sink if my trust in You is inapt,
On the other side is my destiny laid before,
If I'm willing to lift my foot from the shore,
Taking a faith step where You're unseen,
Trusting where the triumphant have been,
Fear denied - confident trust now embraced,
After stepping out your hand I see traced.

A Step of Faith

Brenda and I are facing a major decision about purchasing a home. Our house in Seminole is under contract is supposed to close sometime around mid June. As we have looked at houses around here we have found one that is as close to the desires of our heart as any house we have ever looked at. It is not in Paradise but in the community of Runaway Bay not far from Paradise. It is reasonably priced for houses in this area.

We have made an offer and a counter offer. We have prayed and prayed over this issue. Not just in recent days but before we even left Seminole we prayed about this. Really what this has come down to is coming up with the money for the closing costs. We do not want to do anything without God's Spirit leading. We covet your prayers as we make a decision. We want God's decision.

Truth is I feel God prompting me to trust Him and walk by faith as we have done time and time again. Yet on the other hand, it makes me nervous. Many times I have walked up to waters edge like Israel to the Jordan River with the waters overflowing the banks and God said, "Step forward." Then and only then did Israel see the powerful hand of God stop the flow of water. In my case, only when I have stepped forward in faith have I seen the miraculous intervention of God in my life. The key is know the will of God and to be obedient to that will.

In Israel's case God's will for them was to cross the Jordan River and to take possession of the promise land. God tested their faith time and time again. That is how it is supposed to be. God tests our faith and in turn our confidence in God grows. In turn future steps of faith are not so difficult. We learn trust one faith step at a time.

Most of us want a settled life with few problems are challenges. God wills us to face challenges so we can trust Him more and more. So consistently He puts faith decisions before us. I have often thought of those first people in Joshua on the banks of the Jordan River at flood stage as they took those first steps. It must have been frightening.

I know first hand. I know that mixed feeling of terror and confidence in God as you totally abandon yourself. Honestly, we have seen God in work in astounding ways, but there have been other times when I bit the dust acting on my will and not God's. Knowing God's will in taking any step of faith is crucial. [I John 5:14-15] This is where Brenda and I covet your prayers so much.

 Thank you for your prayers. They are needed as we seek God's wisdom on how to move forward.

Our will is to do nothing but His will. I watch to see where God is working. I cannot clearly see that yet. I know He is working in one way or another. He could work to close a door, He could be working to test my faith and see if I will step forward in complete trust in Him or He could be working by requiring us to wait a little longer.

Prayers for direction are needed and prayers to see where and how God is working in this situation. Through it all, it is still well with my soul.

I Will Go

I heard your call gently in my ears,
To follow you through the many tears,
I packed and walked ahead in blind faith,
Grieving losses that time cannot erase,
You said, "Who can I send to go,"
At first I wanted to tell You "no,"
Then I said, "Here I am - send me,"
You broke chains of fear - I am free,
I follow - I serve - I still trust You today,
I will go - anywhere, anytime, anyway,
I will go when the path seems unsure,
I will go when money is not secured,
I will go to heed the Macedonian call,
I will go forward - my life, heart, my all.