Family Devotions: 1 John 5:2-3

     One of the things we're hoping to accomplish through our 5-10 minute Bible study time at home, is to help teach Chase respect for God's Word so that he'll adapt better to a Worship Gathering in a church setting (or Bible study for that matter).  Of course, it's not the primary goal...but it is one of the benefits of our time.

     As much as I love teaching and preaching the Word, contextualizing for an audience of 3 that includes a 4 month old, an almost 3 year old, and my beautiful wife who is much smarter and more spiritual than I am presents its own challenges.

     As we set out to tackle 1 John 5:1-5, an interesting parallel came to mind for Chase specifically as he was staring at me as if I had a specific early church gift of the Spirit and he did not possess the other gift required to make it work.  Anyway, we were on the thought that our love for God is demonstrated by our obedience to God.  James got into this a bit with faith and works (i.e. don't tell me about your faith yet you possess no good works); you get it.  Our obedience to God is its own reward.  We told Chase that Josiah would know how much Chase loved his mom and dad by the way that he treated us with respect and obeyed our instructions.  

     Now, as much as I can tell, he seemed to get it.  Josiah even made a noise (though I'm not certain from whence it came if you catch my drift...I think I caught his).

     Then, I looked at Ashlie as I reminded both of us that obedience is better than sacrifice, because obedience is its own reward.  God owes us nothing - we cannot breathe without his permission.  Disobeying him is totally insane...and there's enough of that to go around.  As for me and my house, we will set out to obey the Lord (and marvel at His grace in the process).

Family Devotions: Eph 4:11-16

     Our first official night of Family Devotions, we tackled a bit of Ephesians 4:11-16.  We've seen our share of interesting ministry assignments as a family.  As I have recently transitioned from primarily local church ministry/service to a parachurch assignment, I've had to get to the core of what my "calling" is.

     Here's what I'm thinking...My calling is like your calling; they're the same.  We're called to faithfulness to the King and to make disciples.  While my calling is specifically general (or generally specific, whatever it's supposed to be), my assignment(s) may fluctuate quite a bit actually.

     Even as God was setting up the early Church and subsequent offices of service to the body in Ephesians 4, the intent is the same from all them.  And as a family, that's what we're here to do.  Regardless of the office, the title, the organization, the local church community, or the assignment, we're to "equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ."

     God help us to live that out at every level of every role in every function that we find ourselves in.

11And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

It's tough being away from home...

I miss my family when I travel

I miss my wife and my two boys when I'm gone

Though I love what I do and know it's right

I'm trying to catch an early flight home.

Passion

While I'm not one that says would define passion as another term for over-emotionalism, I do feel like passion manifests in different ways.  Just because I'm passionate about my wife doesn't mean I'm "all over her" in public places - there's no question of passion, just different manifestations in different settings.  My passion for evangelism and equipping others to share the Gospel cannot compose my entire preaching library if I'm a Pastor committed to preaching the "whole counsel of God".

All that being said, am I as passionately in the moment when I'm ministering as Duffy in Warwick Avenue?  It was said of an old preacher that when his topic was Hell, you thought he'd been there the entire week when he stood to proclaim.  If it was Heaven, you felt as though he'd just been dropped down for a moment to tell you about it before he was to be raptured back up.  God help me to minister convincingly and the full measure of passion...

What's a BC Cardboard?

 

What a God!

Celebrating Freedom

Yesterday afternoon, my wife and I had the privilege of attending a "graduation" ceremony of sorts for a friend of ours who had successfully completed 9 months of a Teen Challenge program. It was a fitting cap to a great weekend for our family of celebrating freedom.

Saturday, we were out and about at our local Megalomart (Target).  As we were about to enter the store, we picked up a conversation that really began the previous night.  "What freedom have you most realized over this past year?" she asked.  I replied and returned the question.  

We have so much to be thankful for on this journey.  God has redefined for us, from His Word, so many definitions, preferences, and convictions this past year - it has been an amazing journey for us.

2 questions linger for me:

How will I celebrate freedom today?  Where are other pockets of bondage that need to be dealt with, so there are more verses to next year's freedom song?