Well, Today You Are Five

Do you remember the evenings when you couldn't sleep, and we walked the house together in the early morning hours. You were wrapped up tight, lying on your side being slowly rocked as we moved from room to room. Well, today you are five.

Do you remember the day you lay on the living room floor, playing with your soft snail toy, and you realized that with enough effort and a little assistance you could roll over on to your back? It took a while for you to learn how to roll over on to your tummy again, well, today you are five.

Do you remember the time when you first held a spoon and smeared mashed up sweet potato all over your face as you learned to feed yourself? Well, today you are five.

Do you remember the time when you first pulled yourself up to stand at the side of the sofa? You know you wanted to take off and run, but your unsteady legs would not permit you then, well, today you are five.

Do you remember the time we took you to see grandpa Eric and grandma Carol and you were so small that you slept in the basket of the luggage cart at the airport? Well, now you are five.

Do you remember the day when you stepped away from your mommy and began to walk, ever so wobbly, but once you were up, there was no stopping you. Well, now you are five.

Do you remember the time when you came to the hospital to visit mommy and you met your little sister for the first time? You were just 2 years old when Emma came, well, now you are five.

I have so many wonderful memories of you my sweet daughter. Each day you provide me with a new memory, a new story to tell, a new lesson to learn and each day you provide me with a new reason to fall to my knees and thank God for the beautiful blessing that He gave to us when He brought you into the world. I watched you today with your friends, as you played and laughed and ran around with them. There were times when it seemed like chaos, and then there were times when you saw that someone wasn't joining in, or wasn't happy for whatever reason and you lived up to your name - you my little 'friend' would talk to the unhappy guest, or find them another toy to play with. You truly are a good 'friend' to everyone you come into contact with.

Well, now you are five - you are not all grown up just yet, but you are becoming a beautiful young lady, with princess tendancies, as long as the princess is ready at a given moments notice to climb a tree or race across the monkey bars. You have a sweetness in your smile that comes from the purity of your heart that brings warmth and comfort to everyone you meet. You have a strong personality that we will do our best to teach you how to use for great good. Even this evening you realized that you can lead and teach as you and mommy talked and you remembered that you taught Emma how to pump her legs when she is on the swing. You have a great future ahead of you and that will all fall in place in God's timing. You will have great adventures that will make me proud. You will take the gospel to places that I could never go to and you will see God's kingdom come wherever you walk.

Well, that is to come for you, but today you are five. Today you are still my little princess who climbs up on my knee for cuddles, who says, 'carry me' at the end of a long day, who climbs into our bed when you cant sleep - which means that your mommy and me dont get much sleep, but at least you feel safe.

My continuing prayer for you is that God will keep you safe and keep you close to Him as you grow up. God has great plans for you, and I pray that we will see them come about together.

Cara, I love you dearly, and as I said to you when we were first introduced in the delivery suite, I'm your dad, and I love you with everything I have. Never forget that, and never believe that there is anything that can come between us. Sleep well little princess, because today you are five.

I love you.

Dad

Get On Your Knees and Fight Like a Man

How many of you can date yourself and your music selection by knowing where that lyric came from? It is a simple line yet one filled with tremendous power and challenge. On first reading it appears to be a contradiction in terminology. If we are really going to fight then why would we do it from our knees? Why would we not position ourselves in the strongest stance or the place that would afford us the greatest advantage over our enemies? Well, the contradiction in terms is actually a truth that confounds and confuses, yet if followed releases tremendous power and opportunity.

“Get on your knees and fight like a man” could be translated as this – “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chron 7:14) We fight for lots of things, we fight for our families, we fight for our rights, we fight for the things that we believe in. We fight in our own strength and our own power and we live in a world where the dominant win and the strong survive. However, we serve a Lord who does not follow those rules, we serve a God who is the strongest, who is the greatest, yet He does not use that force to accomplish His tasks. We serve a God who “…chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” (1 Cor 1:27) We serve a God who asks us to rely on Him. We serve a God who asks us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, we serve a God who asks us to humble ourselves and pray and seek His face. When the God of the universe asks us to do something as simple then shouldn’t we just do what He says?

So why don’t we?

The stumbling block in this statement from 2 Chronicles 7:14 is this – ‘humble themselves’. Have you ever wondered why that is in there? It must be in there for a reason, and the reason has to be because the people refused to humble themselves. They were a “proud and stiff-necked people”. Does this verse apply to us today? Are we a proud and stiff necked people who need to humble ourselves and pray? Are we a people who desperately want to see the Lord do a marvelous thing in our church and in our community yet refuse to bend our knee and lower our heads in submission and humility to the King of Kings? I don’t know if you have thought about this, but God has been challenging me about this recently. God has been challenging me on the things that I ask Him to do for our church and yet the lack of time I spend seeking Him with other people in the church. Recently Pastor Ray challenged us on our walk with the Lord and our personal prayer life. While mine is not perfect and could do with some help, I have been convicted over our corporate prayer life at Mt Oak, or at least my lack of personal involvement in our corporate prayer life.

We have a faithful and dedicated handful of saints who gather each Wednesday night in the sanctuary of our church and every week they pray for our leadership, they pray for our children, they pray for our ministry, they pray for our church, they pray for our city and they pray for our country. They pray faithfully because the truth of the statements above has gripped their hearts. Over the past few months I have been challenged to join with them, and that is what I intend to do. On Wednesday evenings after our church family dinner I have decided that it is time for me to humble myself, time for me to pray, time for me to turn from my wicked (and selfish) ways and time for me to seek His face. Is God asking you to do the same thing at your church? Is God asking you to humble yourself and pray and seek His face? Maybe it is time for more than just me to join with faithful prayer servants and spend time on our knees fighting like warriors – prayer warriors.

Do you think that corporate prayer should be a priority for a church? Do you think that corporate prayer should be a priority for you? Would you give up just 6 Wednesday evenings from 7-8.15pm to learn about prayer and spend time in prayer? We are planning to run a 6 week training series to teach us and encourage us to pray. Why don’t you come to our family dinner on Wednesday night, drop the kids off at Awana or youth small groups and come join me as I join our faithful prayer warriors and seek the Lord together. In the immortal words of Nike – Just do it!

Do the simple, ask the question.

I have been thinking a lot recently about our recent summer mission trip, our upcoming Saturday StreetReach micro-missions, our pumpkin patch, our trunk or treat event, and a couple of other events that are in the planning stage and I cant get away from a recurring and nagging fear - "What if nobody else in the church gets what we are doing? What if nobody invites their friends? How can we be successful in reaching this city?"

Instead of getting depressed by these questions or focusing energy on events from the past that have really been disappointing I have been thinking about what the potential fundamental reason might be for a lack of excitement about church. I have come to think that this is really where we are at - there is no excitement about church. There is excitement about a lot of things that we are doing in our lives, but there does not seem to be much excitement about church. A quick trawl through Facebook status updates and you find all sorts of messages about the things that interest us, but rarely a simple message inviting people to join us for church. Now some folks may suggest that a Facebook status update is an ineffective way of inviting people to church - if so then why do people use their Facebook status update to invite people to the town center for coffee, or to the park to hang out?

Reaching people for Jesus involves one simple thing - inviting people to go where they will encounter Jesus - church. If I have friend visit me from Belfast and I ask if they would like to see some baseball, then the obvious place for me to take them is to the Baysox. If we want people to see Jesus then the obvious place to invite them is to church. Yet we do not do it.

I am convinced that the reason we have not reached this city with the love of Jesus is very simple - we haven't reached out. We have not asked the simple question like, "I know this may sound crazy, but would you be interested in coming to our church on Sunday morning?" Could it really be that easy? Could it really be as simple as asking a question? What about some great training in evangelism? What about bringing in a well known speaker? What about spending a lot of money of literature and posters?

What about just dropping a hook in the water and seeing what bites?

When we go to the lake (SML) on vacation I go to the dock with my girls to catch blue gill fish. A little piece of cheese, a small hook and a Barbie rod with flashing lights is all that is required to catch fish. No special training, no special equipment, no expense - just a willingness to put a hook in the water and wait.

It is time for the church to rise up in all of its humility and put some hooks in the water. It is time for us to ask our non-christian friends and neighbors a simple question - "Would you like to come to church with me this Sunday?"

What a difference a simple question can make.