The event was somewhat tragic yet beautiful and endearing to behold. Placement is one of those rare historical events that defies easy classification. There is grief and joy on both sides of the equation. You might be puzzled at this description. Why should there be “grief” you may ask.

There is sorrow and grief for a variety of reasons. First, the entire event is transpiring in the wake of a sad situation. The only reason the child is living with a foster family is because the biological parents have either abandoned him, abused him, traumatized him, been killed, or in some other way been declared as unfit parents to raise this child. That’s sad. The abused child is often removed against his wishes even though he knows he is abused. Despite the abuse, the child still has a deep love for mom and dad and doesn’t want to be separated. The fact that the child has to be placed into foster care at all is a sad event.

Second, the child is now being removed from his foster home. After having spent months, possibly even years, with the foster family and having developed lasting friendships and bonds with foster parents and foster siblings the child is now being removed from this temporary family and placed into the home of yet a new family that he does not know. There is a second round of suffering comparable to what you might find at a funeral. Except one person has not died. It feels like an entire family has died.

Then there is the grief of the adoptive family who is ready and eager to love the boy and take the child home to be their own special little person. They have spent several weeks, possibly a month or more, developing a personal relationship with the foster family and learning all about the boy and preparing to adopt the child. Now as child and foster family hug each other in tears and crying saying their ‘goodbyes’… the adoptive family experiences a sensation of guilt and sorrow for breaking the union. They often feel as if they have intruded into a families home and are now seperating loved ones from each other. They begin to second guess their decision and wonder if it is right to take the child home with them. Guilt and sorrow cloud over what should be a happy occasion. Yet there is still happiness. Everyone is relieved that the boy has finally found a stable home and loving parents. Emotions are chaotic and wild, ranging from joy to guilt to sadness, but there is still a sense of relief and an unmistakable hope for the future. Adoption is brimming with optimism.

I observed all of this transpire today. I realized afresh today that when parents act selfishly, sinfully, and with disregard for the safety and well-being of their children -the ramifications of their sin ripple forward into the lives of dozens of others and hurt many. The consequences of their behavior are life-altering for their children and for many others who step in to make a bad situation tolerable.

In all of this I also see Grace. God’s love is so wide and so deep that He works to cover over many of the ramifications of sin in these situations. He is truly a Father to the fatherless… As I watched the sad and joyful scene of “Placement” unfold today I had to ask myself: what motivated the social workers to investigate and make the hard decision to remove the child from the unsafe home and to take custody away from the unfit parents? Love. Not money. Social workers don’t make any money to do the hard work that they do. So what motivated it? Love. Who gave them this love? God did. What motivated the foster family to foster? Love. Who put this love into their hearts? God did. Who touched the hearts of the adoptive parents to adopt with love? God did. 

From the social workers to the foster family to the adoptive parents, everyone made a choice to step into a nasty situation filled with unpleasantness and to take action to love the orphan among us. They all took steps of love. They all embraced a nasty situation. They all knew that great sadness and hurt and heartache would accompany them on this journey, but they did it anyway knowing full well what was in store.  What motivates this kind of love? Only God moves like this. Only God can grant this love, and it is a love that works through faith.

As I observed “Placement” today, I beheld the wonder and glory of a gracious, merciful, and loving God. I praise the Father for what I was allowed to witness today. Today was a day of Grace. Today was “Placement” day.

Allow me to expand on this promise for a moment.

1. God promises to give you shepherds. The first observation I have is this: shepherds must be rather important from God’s view of things, or else He wouldn’t have wasted His time promising them to us. Therefore, it is very important that you find a man to be your shepherd. God says so! Having a shepherd is critical to God’s eternal redemptive plan for your life, so you need to make it your top priority to find one. Some may say that this passage is teaching about Jesus being our shepherd. While that is certianly true, I dont think that’s what this passage is saying. The noun, “shepherds” is in the plural. While Jesus is our great Shepherd, this passage is clearly indicating that there will be multiple shepherds. I’m tempted to use this passage to argue for a plurality of elders in the church, but to be fair to the text I think I would be pushing it a little too far if I did that. I safely conclude, however, that God is talking about modern day pastors and elders -not Christ, and He promises that you need them, and that He will give them to you. What about those who have taken the time to look for one, but have come up empty handed? Good question. There are many, even now, who may be wandering around looking for a place to be cared for, looked after, and nourished –where they know they will be loved and taken care of. This may have been going on for years, and they just might be on the brink of despair. Don’t despair! God promises that He will give you a shepherd. Do you need to stress over whether or not such a man exists? No, because God has spoken and promised that He will provide such a shepherd for you. The man exists; you merely have to trust God and search for him. God says that He will give him to you. The man exists, and he is a gift from God. There’s nothing you need to do but love and trust in God. You don’t need to do the Christian equivalent of a rain dance to make the sky pour down rain, or a pastor-chant for a pastor to pop up out of nowhere. All you need to do is love God, trust God, and wait on God. Maybe you have already searched for a man to call Pastor and have not found him yet. Maybe you have been through all the churches in Kamloops, and still you have not found him. Be patient. God will keep His promise. He will give you a Shepherd.

2. God promises to give you a Shepherd. God has promised to give you a shepherd. Do you want a place to be loved and cared for? Do you want the gift of having a man in your life who will look after you? Do you want someone around that will offer counsel and guidance, a stirring and encouraging word in times of distress, a friend that will love you and take care of you no matter what mess you might inadvertently get yourself into? Do you really want that? Most people will say “Yes, I’d love to have a friend like that.” But, truthfully, they really don’t. A friend like that will love you in such a way that he will not be able to bear it when he sees that you are making decisions which have as their inevitable outcome the sure destruction of your life and the harm of many of those around you. A true friend will speak. He must speak if he loves you. Like a shepherd, he will use a rod and a staff (Psalm 23:4). What’s a rod for? It’s for whacking the sheep when they need some motivation. What’s the staff for? The staff usually has a crook on it so that the shepherd can loop it around the neck of the sheep from a distance and tug him in the right direction. The Psalmist says that the rod and staff are comforting to him. Here’s a modern day translation: “The whackings and neck-jerks that you give me are a comfort to me. Thank you for whacking me and jerking me by the neck on occasion.”  I find it incredibly odd that so many should pine away longingly for a shepherd convinced that God hasn’t provided one for them when clearly He promises that He will. Could it be possible that you’ve said “no” to God’s shepherd due to your hard and rebellious heart? Could it be that you’ve said “no” to God’s shepherd in your life because you refused to listen to the warnings and admonition that he gave you? Could it be possible that you’ve said “no” to God’s promised shepherd because you didn’t want to be shepherded?  God promises to give you a shepherd. If you really want to have a shepherd in your life, and you want to see God keep His promise of giving you a shepherd, then perhaps you should get busy being a submitted sheep. Perhaps you need to work on your humility a little bit, and try a little harder to being open to the gentle corrections and appropriate admonitions from a Godly shepherd.

3. God wants you to have a shepherd after His own Heart. This is where the Word of God begins to cut both ways. It’s easy from a pastor’s perspective to exhort people to find a place of worship and get involved in a local church, and it would be too easy for me to recommend that they come to the Bridge. Before any such recommendation can be made two pivotal questions must be asked: What does it mean to be a shepherd after God’s own heart?Are the pastors here at Bridge Church shepherds after God’s own heart?  I think I’ll save the previous questions for another post for another day. I think that the encouraging word that we can draw from this portion of the text is that God promises to give godly shepherds who are men after God’s own heart. I know that God has demonstrated Himself faithful in this regard. All throughout history the shadows of deception have threatened to plunge humanity into a dark age where there would be no understanding of God, yet God has always preserved a spokesman to speak to His people on His behalf. ALWAYS! So we can trust that if He did it once in the past, He will do it again in the future. He has, and He will! From my own personal experience, I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve seen the leadership from one church stray from God’s heart and suddenly another is lifted up to a position to speak truth to God’s people. God always begins a slow and tedious process (slow and tedious to us because it usually takes four or five years at a minimum, but five years is nothing from God’s perspective of eternity) of removing the offending shepherd and raising up a new shepherd in his place.  So if you find yourself in a church where it is apparent that the leadership has strayed from God’s heart, then take courage in the promise of God to provide a shepherd after His own heart and start searching for a man who follows God’s heart. He’s out there! And if you haven’t found him yet, then be patient because God will keep His promise. **For me, this is a special moment of introspection. Am I a man after God’s own heart? I hope and pray that this is the case. As Paul says, “I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted.” (1 Corinthians 4:4) Likewise, I am not aware of anything against myself. But what should I do if the day comes that I fall before the Lord in failure? What should I do if, after preaching to others, I myself become disqualified? (1 Corinthians 9:27) I have watched so many pastors, deceived by the allure of sin, insist in the middle of significant moral failure that they still deserve to shepherd God’s people. They have clearly fallen from the Heart of God, and they now insist on continuing in a position of leadership. These men only further compound the problem. The church is always harmed, and the advance of the gospel is always slowed down in such situations. Here’s what I’ve decided to do if I am ever caught in moral failure and it is necessary that I must resign my position (I pray that I will follow through with this plan if that day, God forbid, should ever come.): I will use what standing I have left to guide the church towards the shepherd that God has promised to raise up, the shepherd that is a man after God’s own heart. If I sense that God has departed from me and has chosen to raise up a new leader, I want to get on board with God’s plan. I don’t want to be consumed with murderous rage like King Saul. I hope that I will have the heart to trust in the promise of God which is to give a shepherd after His own heart. I pray that I will have the heart to believe this promise and to obey this promise by guiding others towards the shepherd that God lifts up. It is this desire that actually prompted me to put my morning devotion into writing via this blog post, because I would like others to be able to use this blog posting as a tool of reasoning with me should the day, God forbid, ever come that I need to step down. If I fall from being a good pastor, a shepherd after God’s own heart, then may I have grace enough to guide others towards the promised shepherd who will replace me. When you, the members of Bridge Church, pray for me, please pray that I will always strive to be a man after God’s heart, and pray that I will always have the grace to step aside, should the day come, but still use my God-given intellect and knowledge of scripture to guide us toward the promised Shepherd. This is what I want you to pray for me for.

4. Who will feed you knowledge and understanding. This is where the Word makes things easy for both of us. What should you look for in a pastor? What should I try to do as a pastor? There are a lot of different items involved with the job description of a shepherd, but first and foremost is this: a shepherd after God’s own heart should always strive to preach the Word!!! A godly shepherd’s first order of business is to always be ready to proclaim the truth of God’s Word! This passage of text reveals to us that a sheep who loves God and wants to be a sheep after God’s own heart is going to be a sheep that searches diligently for a shepherd who preaches the word and seeks to give knowledge and understanding of the text. A good sheep is hungry for God’s Word. A good shepherd will find a way to deliver a tasty morsel of Word for the sheep to eat. Both the sheep and the shepherd are intricately bound to God at this point because as the one is, after God’s own heart, striving to feed knowledge and understanding of God through His Word, so the other should be striving to consume and digest knowledge and understanding of God. What a wonderful way to arrive at an understanding of godly shepherds and godly sheep: both the shepherd and the sheep, if they share a passion for God and can be described as individuals with a heart after God’s own heart, will be consumed with a love for the text of Scripture, for knowledge of the text, and for understanding of the text. Wow!  This passage makes me want to study scripture even more, and helps me pray that the members of the Bridge would have an ever increasing and insatiable appetite for knowledge and understanding of God!

 I want to close with an exhortation. For those of you who have not found a church home, I’m not exactly recommending us, but I know our church will love and care for you. For those of you who are searching for a pastor after God’s own heart, I’m not saying that I am that man, but I do strive to be that man every day. But here’s my real exhortation: you must be hungry for God’s word. You must have a soul craving for it! If you lack a soul craving for knowledge and understanding of God, then you need to get busy cultivating a healthy appetite, and you need to be in the hunt searching for a shepherd who can feed you. So get hungry, and then get busy looking for a good shepherd.

Seek to build within your child a Biblical worldview, that is, a Biblical filter for seeing the world.  We all have certain lenses by which see all of life through. For the Christian, these underlying assumptions about the world should increasingly conform to the truths of Scripture.  As parents, you play a vital role in shaping those assumptions for children, and therefore in answering questions, as in all conversation and instruction with your child, you must consciously strive to help children and teens see the world through the truth contained in God’s word.  The Bible is your ultimate authority in instructing your children.

Welcome the questions! Your child’s inquisitiveness is a gift from God and a vital part of their learning and discovery process. However, if you sense that they are asking questions to challenge your authority or avoid obedience, deal with this appropriately.  For example, if a simple explanation to a “why” concerning a request does not satisfy a child, say to your child, “First, do what I’ve asked, then I’ll answer any questions you have about it.” This  shows your child the importance of obedience, as well as your interest in answering any legitimate questions.  A similar answer can be given if the questions come at times which it you are unable to answer. Return to these questions later for further instruction.  The time you spend addressing your child’s curiosities, not only teaches them about the world in which they live, but also about how much you love and care for them.

If you don’t know the answer, find it out! Not only should you be honest when you don’t know the answer to your child’s question, but you can also use this as a time to show your child where to turn for answers.  Is it a question whose answer can be found in Scripture?  Open your Bible, consult a Bible dictionary, or call your pastor or trusted Christian friend for help discovering the appropriate passage.  Is it a question about how something works? Check out a book from the library, find a reliable website with information, or call a friend knowledgeable in this area.  By so doing, you model to your child the importance of life-long learning as well as share a fun and meaningful learning experience with them.

For more on answering children’s questions, check out the other “When your son asks…” posts:

Part 1: Why Should I Answer Why?, Part 2: The Healthy Lifestyle, Part 3: Death & Tragedy

It is true that obedience is the result of a heart that loves God. If you love God you will keep His commandments. But obedience is not the same as love. So how do we cultivate a heart that loves God? Because if we can find out how to cultivate a genuine love for God then obedience will be easy. I am persuaded that 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 gives us instruction on how to begin cultivating our heart for a genuine experiencing and expressing of love both to God and our fellow man.

How to cultivate a Heart for Love:

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 teaches that there are a series of actions that you can do which will help to cultivate an emotional affection in your heart which is known as love. Let me be clear here. Doing the following does not equal love. To have love in your heart requires that your soul be healed and helped after years of spiritual malformation which is the result of a lifestyle of sin. Ultiumately, the following disciplines do not produce love in your heart. But by doing the following, Love can be cultivated and grown:

Step 1: Always be patient.

Step 2: Always be kind.

Step 3: Do not envy others.

Step 4: Do not brag about yourself.

Step 5: Do not think highly of yourself.

Step 6: Do not be rude.

Step 7:  Do not be self-willed. Do not insist that it’s “your way or the highway!”

Step 8: Don’t be easily offended. Don’t be offended at all!

Step 9: Don’t hold grudges against others for any reason. Be forgiving.

Step 10: Always be learning what is right and what is wrong.

Step 11: Do not be pleased or happy when someone does something that is wrong. Be extremely dissatisfied and express your dissatisfaction.

Step 12: Be happy at knowing and doing the truth! Seek contentment in Honor and Integrity.

Step 13: Bear difficult things. Carry them on your shoulders so others don’t have to. Be Noble in service to others. But the moment you think you are noble, return to step 4!

Step 14: Trust everything in the Bible, and believe in it! Be sound in your faith.

Step 15: Hope in the promises of the Bible. Have a confident expectation that they will come true!

Step 16: Trust in God’s sovereign control over every situation knowing that no matter what He allows you to go through, He is using it to refine your character for a greater purpose! Be glad in it, for this is the day that the Lord has made!

If you follow that outline as you interact with people and situations in life, you will find that you love those people and you are happy in those situations. Though certain individuals may annoy you and grate on you, you will find that at the end of the day something interesting happens in your heart. You will find God is slowly growing a heart-felt affection in your heart for those people. It’s surprising to behold.

So let’s return to John 14. Obedience to God is not the same as love for God. However, obedience to God will help cultivate a heart that loves God. Only God can change a person’s heart. However, God doesn’t force Himself on anyone. A person’s heart can only be changed when a person yields his heart to God and cooperatively steps out in basic obedience to God to allow God to reform his spiritual character.

Perhaps you’ve been tempted to spare your child heartache through similar means.  But the reality is, death is unavoidable and each encounter with it provides an opportunity to learn, grow, and place faith in our all-loving, all-powerful, Father.

In understanding the answer to this question, we return once again to the three-part story of God’s creation, man’s sin, and God’s redemption.

When God first created the world, it was good, actually He called it, “very good” (Genesis 1:31).  There was no death or decay. Violence, disasters, and heartache were unknown to the world. Man experienced perfect fellowship with their Creator.  However, in man’s deliberate rejection of the Creator, sin entered the world. This sin changed everything.  As God said, “in the day you eat of, you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17), and thusly death entered the world.

This death is two-fold: a spiritual separation from the Creator and physical death (which also brings with it aging and illness).  A few weeks ago at the Oatway Children’s Life Group, we learned about the devastating effects of sin, making a “Death came through sin” collage which included pictures of people, places, and animals demonstrating some of the effects of sin. Pictures included dangerous animals, buildings destroyed by disaster, people fighting, dead plants, families plagued by famine, and signs of war and pollution—all of which were not a part of God’s design for Earth but brought on through our sin.

When facing the issue of death in your family, it is important to explain to children that this is not how God intended the world to be.  As a loving God, His plan was for us to experience paradise—not pain and suffering.  Those came into the picture when we rebelled against His created order. Children (and us adults too!) need to understand God’s love in times of tragedy.  Explaining the underlying reason for death and heartache can be a helpful first step in building trust amidst sorrow.

And it doesn’t simply in there.  As Paul says, “But thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15). Mankind is not left in a cycle of heartache as consequence for our sin.  Although we fully deserve to experience death and separation from the source of life, God provided a solution.  He sent His son, Jesus, to take on our sins through death on the cross and then conquer death through His resurrection. Because of this sacrifice, we can have our sins forgiven and enjoy a reversal of its effects.

Yes, we will still experience pain on Earth, but we have the promise of something more.  We have the opportunity to have a relationship with Him right now. We also have the promise that through accepting this gift, we will be with Him for eternity (Luke 23:43). And one day, He will recreate the Heavens and Earth, restoring it to its original state of perfection; we will have new bodies, ones not subject to death, pain, or sorrow.

Explaining this hope to children can provide comfort in the face of death or fear of their own death.

The subject of death does not need to by shied away from and may be a topic to consider discussing with your child before faced with it personally, as it provides a great opportunity for you to speak openly and honestly with your child, helping them to see God’s bigger picture, including His love and mercy. Explore the Scriptures with your child, discovering His promises about Heaven.  A book I highly recommend on the subject is “Heaven for Kids” by Randy Alcorn (the adult version is fantastic as well).  In this book, Randy Alcorn builds hope and anticipation through understanding the realities of an eternity with our Creator, something that we all need a good reminder of!

I want you to give yourself and everything you have –give it all away for the sake of the Gospel this Christmas season and every day of your life thereafter. I want you to completely surrender your fortunes, families, and lives this Holiday season for the sake of God. Give Him everything. Give Him –EVERYTHING! Did I just say ‘families?’ Yes- give Him your kids! Did I just ask you to lay down your life? Uh-huh -I want this Holiday season to be remembered as the year you committed a lifestyle suicide! Am I talking about that vacation fund you’ve been saving for three years to go to Italy? Yes. Am I talking about that new big screen TV you were hoping for? Yes. Am I talking about your entire lifestyle and the basic way you even budget your money? Absolutely. Am I referring to a complete reorientation of your life’s principles and priorities? Yup, and then some. Am I about to waffle at this point and indicate that it’s okay to have lavish vacations and big screen TVs as long as you ‘go to church and love Jesus’? No way! I’m being dead serious. Why do I make such a bold request? Because icy hearts are warmed by sacrificial generosity and loving giving. It is possible to excite a humble joyful heart that will turn to embrace the Father with love, and then turn to thank you as a brother or sister -if you are willing to give with a sacrificial generosity and loving heart. So know this: I’m about to ask you to give your life away. I want you to consider your life as cheap and easy to give to others. But before I make my request let me remind you about the reason for the season as I was reminded of it a few years ago in a Hospital ER:

Christmas is really about a Painful Execution as God’s Gift to You under the Christmas Tree

I was startled from my revere by the blood curdling groaning and gasping of a man in extreme agony. I had driven my brother to the E.R. to get stitches in his scalp (that’s another story). As I was sitting bored in the waiting room glancing reluctantly at the bad selection of reading material and thinking about my high school finals that would take place the next week, an ambulance pulled up and harried paramedics were wheeling the gurney through the sliding doors directly into trauma care. It was a graphic site to behold: the man was strapped to the gurney laying on his left side with a four foot steel rod pierced through the right side of his body. His right arm, twisted behind him, was also impaled on the sharpened metal. As I stared transfixed, a lady next to me whispered, “It must have been an industrial accident.” They wheeled past quickly and in an instant he was gone. The horrible image lingered.

Because it was the Christmas season and I had recently renewed my relationship and committed to walking afresh with God a few weeks prior, I couldn’t help but start imagining the horror of the cross in that ER waiting room. It was an amazing time of worship for me in that waiting room. Have you ever taken time to try and grasp the horror of Calvary? Have you ever lingered on the hill of Golgotha?

Can you smell the blood and the rancid odor of vomit? Can you hear groaning and crying? Can you hear laughter and mocking? Try to hear the sounds of the crucifixion. The nails would have been heavy and large, far heavier and larger than nails that are used in construction today. There may not have been a sharpened point at the tip of the nail. Do you hear the grunting of the soldier as the hammer swung home to the loud report of the nail’s ringing? Can you hear the squishing sounds of tissue tearing and blood squirting across an open palm? I thought of the man that had just wheeled past on the gurney. Lord, have mercy…

Can you imagine the rough grain of wood and bark? The idea of wood splinters digging deep into my backside always gives me pause… but only for a moment. Splinters were probably the least of His agonies as the flesh and muscle of his back was flayed from his body, spine, and ribs by the cat-tail whip-beating that He endured previously. Lord, have mercy…

My hand touched my brow as I tried to imagine the scraping of thorns into my head. I remembered my brother who was having stitches sewn into his head in the room next door. With Jesus they certainly didn’t gently place the razor-barbed thorns on his head. They would have lassoed that wreath of thorns around the back of his noggin and forcibly jerked them down his face. Perhaps they gave the thorns a quick clockwise yank rotating them deeper into His scalp to better secure them so they wouldn’t fall off as He gasped for breath on the cross. Lord, have mercy…

Poisonous carbon dioxide would trap in His lungs by the nature of the position in which He was suspended. The build of this poisonous gas in his lungs would result in a pounding migraine headache -if He didn’t have them already from the lack of sleep, the thorns driven into His skull, the loss of blood from the beatings, and the beard pulling that took place through the long night. As the intensity of the migraine grew, He would have been very sensitive to light and sounds. Ultimately, He would be choking to death. He must alleviate the choking. Heaving with all His might He would try to pull Himself up supporting His body weight on the hook of the nails driven into His hands and feet… just so He could exhale and take a fresh breath of air. The nails would pull on his nerve endings and flesh sending sharp stabbing pains up his arms and legs, causing the muscles in His neck to tense, exploding neurological sensory impulses into his skull as a terrible pain that would be felt just behind His eyes.

The tension in His neck would produce lactic acid in His muscles and cause Him to stiffen. It would have been hard and painful to swing His head around from side to side… Crows would have circled overhead surveying the situation, waiting until their victim was weak enough, then they would swoop in for an easy meal beginning with the softest tissues, probably the eyes.

It really didn’t matter what He did. He could hang helplessly and allow poison to build in His lungs resulting in choking, throbbing body aches, shooting pains in his arms and legs, migraine pain, and tension. Or He could pull up and exhale, an action resulting in exploding migraine pain and wracked torture sensations all over His body. What lovely options He had to choose from. Lord, have mercy…

Of course, He did have options. He did have a choice. He chose the nails. He chose the thorns. He chose the beatings. He chose the cross. He chose to be executed. He was rightfully executed. When I say rightfully, I don’t mean that He did anything wrong to deserve execution. I say rightfully because He endured the just punishment of rebellion and endured the legal sentence necessary for sin. He paid the price so that all those who are truly guilty are now set free. Lord, have mercy…

And He did. He had mercy on me and you. God’s gift to us under the Christmas tree was a Painful Execution just waiting to happen. This is the meaning of Christmas. A man died for you. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! What makes Christmas so merry?

Merry Christmas… Christ’s divine omniscience was aware of all of this suffering and agony from birth. His birth. The moment that a baby cried out in a cold and dark manger is that moment that we all celebrate as we wish each other a Merry Christmas. As we think about a baby in a manger, we probably don’t stop to consider the God-child living with a powerful God-ordained destiny. As the child grew into the stature of an adult man, the God side of Him would already know while the man side of Him would shudder in anticipation. The God-Man would spend His entire human life looking forward to this cataclysmic moment. That was why He was born. God could send any number of prophets to teach us the things that Christ taught us. God could have used any number of people to work the miracles that Jesus worked. But only His Son could die for us. Only God could make us right with Him. Being right with God means we now get to truly live like never before.

Christmas is about life and living. We were all dead, but now we get to live! Now we are called back from the grave. As I ponder the life of Christ, I’ve concluded that living is giving. To truly live is to freely give. Free giving is true living.

What does it mean to Give?

With these thoughts always on the horizon Jesus would teach some amazing truths: love your enemy, love your neighbor as yourself, turn the other cheek, forgive as you have been freely forgiven, glorify your Father in Heaven.

He also taught this: give. He said specifically, “Give, and it will be given back to you.” In order to clarify Himself, He further elaborated: “For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” Many today twist this teaching into an idea of wealth and prosperity in this lifetime. The Messiah who gave us this teaching never knew wealth and prosperity. He taught the virtue of sacrificial giving as He approached a horrible tortured death –not a luxurious lifestyle. 

And that’s the meaning of Christmas and life: giving. When we understood what He gave for us it is hard to justify our stingy hearts before Him. We are most like Him when we are giving. We are most like Him when we are generous. We are most like Him when we voluntarily and sacrificially give ourselves away for the sake of the Gospel. It is hard to be a Christian if you do not desire to give. It is impossible to know Christ and to join with Him as His disciple if you are not willing to sacrifice. To be a Christian means that based on God’s gift of forgiveness and redemption you are also willing to freely give: willing to grant forgivness, willing to freely offer grace, willing to be kind, willing to be friendly, willing to turn the other cheek, and willing to give of our meager possessions.

Here’s the truth: giving shows love, and when giving is done sacrificially it shows a confident trust in the One who provides all things. When you give forgiveness you show trust in the cross. When you give friendship you show belief in the eternal love of the Cross. When you demonstrate kindness you show agreement with the kindness of the cross. When you

At Bridge Church, I hope and pray that we will be a people that are giving, sacrificial, and generous with everything that we have and with everything that we are knowing the heart of the One who gives it to us. I pray that our church trust God with our entire lives. Rather than saving and spending our money for ourselves, I pray that we would radically give it away and entrust ourselves to the care and provision of the Father. Rather than spending lavishly on toys, I hope that our church would remember the many less fortunate who have never heard the gospel and never met the Father. I hope and pray that every member of our church family would prayerfully calculate how much they could do without so that they could give to the cause of advancing God’s kingdom, and take an active role as members of God’s family in directing those funds to those parts of the World that are desperately hurting to know the Father and to begin a relationship with Him. I dream of a day where we can give away half (50%) of our church budget for advancing the Kingdom all around Canada and the world. I dream of the day when the average church member asks me, “How much do you think I should keep for myself,” instead of, “How much do I have to give?”

Giving Breaks an Icy Heart’s Idolatry

You want to know the real reason we should give? It breaks our heart’s cold death grip on our trust in our money and our trust in ourselves. But sacrificial giving also shows the watching world that we place no value on self-reliance, and this is truly shocking to the watching world that knows nothing except self-reliance and independence. Sacrificial giving blows the watching world’s paradigm out of the water. Sacrificial giving demonstrates a love and trust in God that defies any logical or reasoned explanation. It defies the natural order of survival of the fittest. It is breath-taking to behold.

Sacrificial Giving is the meaning of the cross. It’s the meaning of Christmas. Only as we approach the cross in similarity to Christ –and that means total surrender of self and dying for something greater than ourselves- can we hope to win the hearts and minds of the masses. This thinking shouldn’t just touch our money. This thinking of dying-to-self-for-something-greater-than-ourselves should impact every aspect of our life. But it should also touch the way that we spend our money.

A lot of different attempts have been made and will continue to be made to explain away the significance of Christ and the Cross. But the Cross still stands. There are still many who behold the wonder of God’s Christmas gift to voluntarily take on the body of a man and willingly die, and they follow His example and give their lives up sacrificially for the opportunity to stand before kings, governors, judges, and executioners. They gladly trade their lives for opportunities to share the gospel. Having encountered the risen Christ in all His glory, they hold their lives cheaply. They hold the lives of others who do not know Him as extremely valuable and precious. And they make their trade based on that understanding. I hope and pray that Bridge Church would hold itself cheap.

He left his position at Prestonwood, said “no” to a lot of really amazing offers at large and prestigious churches, and chose rather to step into the pastorate of a dying church in Flower Mound, Texas at the age of twenty-eight. There were less than eighty people at this church. Close friends and family said that he was throwing his life away, and making a horrible career move. But he felt God’s call, and he couldn’t turn back from that.

Within six years that church grew from eighty people to about six thousand. The church grew by about a thousand a year for the last six years. This man committed to giving away more than half of his church’s budget to foreign missions, and he led the people of his church to live bold sacrificial lives that gave generously to their neighborhoods and communities for the hope of gaining an audience to share Christ. This man led his church to begin engaging in church planting, and over the last three years they’ve planted or assisted with five different church plants. The ministry of this church has reached out and touched every continent.

On November 26, 2009, as this man stood in his kitchen helping his wife prepare thanksgiving dinner he experienced a sudden and unexpected seizure. He is only thirty-five years old. He fell to the floor striking his head on the way down. He was rushed to the hospital. Tests were run. Blood was drawn. MRI and CT scans were ordered. By the end of the day, a neurologist and a brain surgeon sat across from his bed and gave him the bad news: “You’ve got a tumor about one inch in diameter and about two and half inches in length in the right front of your temporal lobe. We need to operate immediately or you will die.” The surgery was scheduled.

The day before his surgery, my friend whom I love, recorded a video for his church. With his wife and three small kids standing by this is what he said:

“For the past six years we’ve seen some amazing things happen. God has moved and worked in our presence and many have come to enjoy and embrace a personal relationship with Him. I’ve had more fun than ever, and I’ve enjoyed being your pastor. I love all of you. There’s a passage in Hebrews 11 that talks of the amazing things that God’s people were able to accomplish through faith and trusting in Him. Hebrews 11:32-34 says, ‘…time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jepthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets – who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight, received back their dead…’ This is what we’ve seen in our once small and dying church. We’ve seen God work. We’ve seen miracles happen. We’ve seen spiritual Kingdoms conquered. We’ve seen the enemy put to flight. We, though were weak, became strong in God. Praise God for the amazing things He has done in our presence!

People have said to me, ‘You celebrate and praise God just because of all the amazing things you’re getting to see Him do. You’re just enjoying God right now because your church is exploding and growing.’  I’ve often wondered if they were right. The passage in Hebrews goes on in verse 35, ‘…some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. Of these the world was not worthy.’ Now, I’ve seen miracles. I’ve been present to observe God do some amazing things in this church. Now God is allowing me to suffer. Now God is afflicting me with a brain tumor that may keep me from ever stepping into the pulpit ever again.

And I still thank Him. I am glad and grateful for this tumor. Thank you, God, for giving me this tumor. Do you want to know why I am happy to have this happen to me? Because now I am given the opportunity to show the world that God is more than enough. I don’t need all the wonderful things that He has given me in my life to be happy. I don’t need a clear and sharp thinking mind to be happy. I don’t need all these idols to be happy. All I really need is Him. Knowing God is more than enough to satisfy my heart. And I thank Him for this miraculous opportunity to prove it.”

That’s what my friend said to his congregation. He was actually grateful for the tumor. I hope and pray that if God gave me such an amazing opportunity to show to the world that He is more than enough to bring joy and happiness in my life –I hope and pray that I would be worthy of that opportunity and that my faith and trust in Him would not fail. My hope and prayer for all of Bridge Church and for all of our communities in Kamloops and Logan Lake is that we can show the world that God is more than enough for us. In the midst of depression, suffering, death, disease, and heart-ache, please, I pray- let God be MORE THAN ENOUGH in your life.

Here’s the recap: a bunch of atheists who have philosophically examined the truth claims of religion [read Christianity] have come to the logical conclusion that God does not exist. As a result of this clearly logical and perfectly reasoned conclusion- they’ve decided that they should organize themselves and conduct a national atheistic holiday of blaspheming God. There’s a contest to see who can come up with the wittiest blasphemy, and the winner gets a T-Shirt. No, I’m not making this up! Check it out for yourself here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/09/30/first.blasphemy.day/

The event has all kinds of different things, including blasphemous art and paintings, that may “inadvertently,” make evangelicals uncomfortable. I wonder if these philosopher atheists are on the verge of arguing against their own existence? If they are half as smart and logical as the philosopher atheists who have preceded them in the 15^th, 16^th, and 17^thcenturies –it is only a matter of time until they start to argue against their own existence. The atheistic philosophers have already done this once before and when left to their own devices –they ended up arguing against their own existence. This must surely seem absurd, but believe it or not- there are actually people who havebeen so self-absorbed with their own cleverness that they came to question the legitimacy of our existence. Just browse through the writings of the major philosophers of the 15-17 centuries. If you’re reading this… they might argue that you do not exist, and they might argue further that you can’t prove your existence to me or anyone else. A bunch of individuals have, in the past, sat around and argued for the simple fact that none of them actually exists in reality. This would be laughable if it was merely hypothetical, but sadly and tragically –it is true. And, if history is any guide, it’s likely to happen again. Once philosophers argue God out of existence [i.e. atheists], there are no restraints and the seat belt that holds them to the chair of sanity magically disappears. As a result, their argument shifts away from God to their own selves, and they proceed to arguing themselves out of existence! If man rightly derives the significance of his existence from the significance of his Creator then any refutation of the Creator must logically descend into a pit of self denial, and a refutation of man’s own significance. Is it any wonder that Communist Russia had the highest suicide rate in the world during the 70’s and 80’s? What was the end of these philosophers’ theories about their own non-existence? One simple statement: Cogito ergo sum.

Rene Descartes, the famous French philosopher, theorized “I think, therefore I am.” He originally wrote this statement in Latin, “Cogito ergo sum.” Descartes summarized that because of his ability to have cognitive function, intellectual capacity, logical analysis and reasoning, and imaginative processes he must surely exist. Descartes attempted to prove the reality of our own existence by offering thought processes as an undeniable proof. He did this in response to some of his atheistic philosopher contemporaries. Descartes faced an interesting and absurd challenge to rationality, to which he responded simply – “Cogito ergo sum,” I think, therefore I am.

How do you suppose God responds to atheists and philosophers who deny Him? There’s an interesting little verse that you find at the end of Exodus chapter 2. Exodus 2:25 says, “God saw the people of Israel – and God knew.” I again came across this verse, and again, it gave me chills.

Is there any aspect in your life that you’re ashamed of? Are there some shortcomings that you are glad no one knows about? Guess what. God knows. Have you had a rough day? God knows. Are you secretly plotting the take-over of the entire world? God knows. Are you tired of people picking on you with their sarcastic witticisms at work? God knows. Are you tired of the neighbor because their front yard looks like a used car lot? God knows. Are you attempting to suggest that God does not exist? God knows. Are you taking a national holiday to blaspheme God? God knows.

Is there anything? God knows.

He makes two statements very early in the book of Exodus: “I AM” and “I know.” [Whew, both of those statements continue to give me chills.] For all the atheists who have attempted to argue God out of existence, who continue to swing their sledge hammers at the indestructible ultimate truth that we refer to simply as GOD, who have moved on to less complicated philosophical and atheistic gymnastics such as arguing themselves out of existence (LOL), you should know- He IS and He KNOWS.

The atheists are NOT arguing against a silent invisible infinite ultimate God. They are in a room arguing with a God who is and who SPEAKS BACK! But the atheists are choosing to ignore Him. They are like little children who refuse to listen. They’ve stuck their fingers in their ears, and they walk around screaming, “La, La, La, La, La, I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you!” As soon as God stops arguing with them (because He knows how silly, foolish, and immature they are) they can then safely proceed to their allegedly logical arguments. They are really no different than the philosophers of the 17^th Century against whom Rene Descartes refuted simply and easily.  

Once they become satisfied with their own arguments against God they will move on to arguing themselves out of existence. Sadly, the end result of this train of ‘logic’ is suicide. I pray for all those who took part in National Blasphemy Day. I pray that God has mercy on them and reveals to them His goodness and His love.

But sometimes that just doesn’t happen. And God is glorified in those late arrivals.

Today is one of those times. Today, I awoke to an overcast morning, and an overcast attitude. Somehow, as I was drifting off to sleep last night I had a sudden epiphany of how I could have done a far superior job of trying to illustrate the church’s need to be a demonstration of God’s glory. And it was staring me right in the face the whole time. But I missed it! I missed the moment to preach that helpful teaching illustration by about 12 hours. The good news is that I can still blog about it!

If you need background, listen to the sermon on Galatians 1:18-24. Then come back to this post. God’s glory is what is paramount to Him. Glory may be understood to be praise, joy, and respect given to a person or object because of the way the person or object has, in an exemplary manner, distinguished itself from the ordinary. Something that is exemplary, or is worthy of praise, is glorious. To glorify something is to give praise or acknowledgment to that object because of an internal recognition of its distinguished goodness.

God deserves to be glorified. He demands to be glorified in the church! (Ephesians 3:21) Now, one way of illustrating this concept is by picturing a crusty old combat Marine or soldier who walks around with a chest full of medals. His medals show exceptional valor and courage on the battle field. I don’t know of anyone who has seen a soldier with a stack of medals on his chest who doesn’t -on some level- feel a deep respect and appreciation for that person.  The Medals are not in themselves exceptionally glorious. Really, they are nothing more than a piece of ribbon with some hunk of metal attached to them.  The glory of the medals is the man who wears them. He was the one who actually fought and accomplished heroic feats of valor –not the medals!  The man is distinguished and is clearly marked out from ordinary soldiers by the simple fact that he has a stack of medals on his chest. But the soldier didn’t obtain those medals at a local gift shop. He fought for them. He earned them.

I spent much of my time during the sermon bouncing around off this idea of looking into a dark well verses staring at the bright shining sun. I tried to illustrate God’s Glory this way, but the problem with the analogy/illustration is that it doesn’t quite do justice to the truth that we as a church have a responsibility to glorify God. I knew walking into the sermon that I had a less-than-adequate illustration. But my mind had failed me in terms of coming up with a decent illustration for the occasion. I do spend quite a bit of time praying and asking God to show me how to illustrate and explain Biblical truth, but sometimes those perfect illustrations don’t come. Sometimes I just don’t get it. And God is glorified in my failures.

Here’s my new illustration: the medal on the soldier’s chest marks the soldier out as being distinguished and glorified. It has nothing to do with the medal, literally, but the medal merely serves as an indicator of the valor and courage of the soldier. A better way of illustrating God’s glory and incorporating the crowning achievement of His glory, i.e. the cross, into the sermon would be to compare each of us to a medal that God wears on His chest. Let God be the conquering hero who valiantly saves us from our sins, and then let each of us become an adornment to Him as a marker that signals who He is! Each of us should shine brightly as medals upon God’s chest as a means of reflecting His glory, indicating past achievement, but also helping to signal future glory by shining brilliantly for him in the moment. Quite literally, the church in this day should serve as a medal that adorns God’s chest and speaks of His glory. We are a part of his glory in that we each tell a story about how God fought to save us from our sins. Ah, with a little work -it could have been a perfect illustration.

But to take it a step further: Not only do we now, as Christians, exist as medals adorning God’s chest and indicate His conquering triumph on the field of battle, but our ability to shine as a medal is determined by Him. Ah… now it get’s interesting. We should think of ourselves as markers or medals that reflect His glory, but we should remember that our ability to do the work of reflection is helped, assisted, and empowered by Him.

Yesterday, I illustrated with an analogy to a deep dark well and bright shining sunlight. It wasn’t a total flop, but it wasn’t crystal clear either. But why do I spend my Monday afternoon blogging about this? Because I wanted to take a moment to offer some more reflections on God’s glory, particularly with His ability to help us shine more brilliantly. I’m a preacher, so I’m going to look at it from a preacher’s perspective. With preaching, preachers still need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to explain a text, to illustrate that text, and to apply that text to their local congregation. Too much of preaching is devoid of reliance upon God. The preacher has used his personality and personal charisma to shape the message in such a way that God is removed from the equation. If the preacher preaches a good sermon, we all say- “SEE! He’s such a great preacher!” If the sermon flops, we all say- “Well… you can’t preach a grand slam home run every time.” But this puts all of the glory of a sermon on the preacher, and leaves God with no credit. As I reflect on the need for the preacher to rely on the Holy Spirit to help illuminate and clarify a text, I wonder if congregations realize their need to rely upon the Holy Spirit to illuminate and guide their hearing, and most importantly to illuminate a text to them despite the preacher’s poor or outstanding preaching of that text.

Both audience and speaker need to realize that the words and ideas that are being transmitted back and forth are entirely to the glory of God, empowered and enabled by Him. He relishes the truth about Himself being communicated to people that He loves and died for. He shines light into the heart of the preacher, and He carries the words of the preacher into the heart of the congregation. He enables and facilitates the enlightening of souls on Sunday morning. He helps the preacher who relies on Him to prepare the sermon… and it is His prerogative at times to wait until the Monday after to clarify some things. Why does He do this?

As far as I can tell… one simple reason: to continue to remind us that it’s all about Him. We communicate well only in His power, and we listen and hear well –only in His power. So we should constantly think of ourselves in our every day pursuit of life as medals upon God’s chest that exist to glorify Him, and we should ask Him every spare moment that we get that He would take a little time to polish us up a bit so that we can shine more brightly for Him, i.e. create those moments to shine, and give us the words to say that will reflect His glory. And we should thank Him for His goodness to us, even in those moments when He decides not to give us a good sermon illustration until it’s too late, knowing that He wants to constantly challenge us and remind us to rely upon Him for our ability to shine.

Thanks God, for the reminder. Thanks for not letting me forget You. Your faithfulness to me despite my many shortcomings is awesome. I appreciate it. God, I pray that You always be glorified in Bridge Church. In Jesus Christ’ name, Amen.