Come Follow Me, Come Die for Me

I was recently listening to a podcast featuring Rick Warren and he madethis statement which has been rolling around in my head ever since. For regular readers, things that roll around in my head for a while usually find their way out through my fingers into some sort of article. This statement is no different and has found its way to print.

When Jesus met the fishermen who would become his disciples he invited them simply to ‘Follow Him’. There was no great master plan given to them at the time. There was no discussion about salary, career path, stock options, pension plan, just a simple request – ‘Follow me’. You can read the whole story in Matthew chapter 4, but essentially Jesus sees these guys fishing, stops and talks with them and tells them to follow him and he will make them fishers of men. That’s it, that is all the information he gives. Would you have followed him? Do you follow him now?

It struck me that the same simple request that Jesus made to those first disciples is the same request that He makes to everyone today – Come, follow me. As I considered this it became apparent that when we first meet Jesus and first hear that call that we do not have a 5 year plan given to us as to what ‘following Him’ will look like, yet for many of us we took a step of faith and followed.

As you follow the lives of the disciples you see that the simple request to ‘follow me’ is quickly changed to ‘Come die for me’. In Matthew chapter 16, we see the disciples and Jesus who have been travelling through the land and spreading the Good News about the Messiah. They have seen Him feed thousands from little more than a bag lunch. They have seen countless people healed and set free from all manner of afflictions. They have seen miracle and they have seen heated discussions and attack from some of the religious leaders. However, in Matthew 16:24 they see that Jesus simple request to “Follow Me” actually has more to it. The act of following requires sacrifice – complete sacrifice. Matthew 16:24-26 says,

"Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny  himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

How many of us in our Christian walk have lost the eagerness to simply ‘Follow Me’ and now demand to know what is in store if we follow? How many of us have refused to ‘Follow Me’ because we think it unwise to do something that we don’t know the outcome of that activity? How many of us will only ‘Follow Me’ if we know the outcome, and will actually refuse if the outcome does not appear to be beneficial to us? How many of us count the cost first before accepting the call to ‘Follow Me’? How many of us justify our refusal to ‘Follow Me’ by saying that it would be unwise, or too expensive, or too difficult, or too painful or too whatever to simply ‘Follow Me’?

How many of us have not read Matthew 16?

We answered the call to ‘Follow Me’ and now we must answer the call to ‘Die For Me’. We need to set aside our own wants and desires, our own wisdom, or own way of doing things and get back to the child like faith where we said “YES!” when Jesus whispered ‘Follow Me’.

Following Jesus is not safe. Following Jesus is not comfortable. Following Jesus is painful. Following Jesus is difficult. Following Jesus brings rejection. Following Jesus brings separation of brother from brother, or from children to parents. Following Jesus costs – a lot.

Does this describe your Christian walk?

Are you really following?

Are you really dying?

Do You Hear That? - That is the sound of family time

As we wake on another beautiful new day of snowfall, school closings, government shut downs, icy roads, treacherous travel conditions, what are you thinking? It struck me last night that the past five or six days have probably for many been the longest period of time that families have spent together, unable to go anywhere or really see anyone else. So how is that going for you? Are you ready to strangle someone? Or have you found that this gift of time with your family has been an opportunity to strengthen your family?

When you look back at the snow of 2009/10 what will your memories be? When your kids look back at the snow of 2009/10, what will their memories be? Will your kids eyes light up as they recall the day when daddy crawled through the snow with them to build that snow fort or snow man? Will their memories be of the fact that mom and dad were home with them for a long time and each day was a new adventure? How have you taken this enforced family time to build your family and strengthen your bonds with your kids?

If you are like me then you have probably had those times when you just wished the roads were open enough for you to slip slide your way to a store just for a break from the noise that kids can generate. Sadly, when I think of these types of thoughts my heart aches that I miss the opportunity to see the potential in giving my kids all of my time and attention and wish for 'peace and quiet'.

Today, I will do the work that I need to do when my kids are asleep, but when they are awake I am going to give them all of my time. I want my kids to look back at this snow fall as the time when daddy and mommy just hung out with them, played with them, did cut and stick projects and were a family.

Today, let's be family, let's create good memories, let's laugh with our kids, let's fill our family with love.

Ready, steady, love on your kids.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

I am constantly amazed at my girls. Usually I am amazed at how much volume two little tykes can create, that and their ability to turn a perfectly organized and cleaned up play room or craft room into a scene from "Earthquake!". How can they not just take one toy out, play with it, then put it back where it came from? Is it really that difficult? Then I looked over at my home office desk and realized that this little trait was genetic and they had no hope of maintaining a neat and tidy play-room, but they would learn to clean it up every week.

Last night we reached a whole new level of amazement. This week, Julie and I have started a new venture with our kids - they get a nickel for helping out around the house with the daily necessities like making the bed, tidying the aforementioned play room. There is a sticker chart now adorning their bedroom wall and each night they recount the activities they have done to be good helpers. We are trying not to use the word 'chores' because it has such negative connotations and 'child labor' might get us arrested - so helping around the house it is.

Well, last night was payment night - we were late by a couple of days due to a lack of nickels - and Cara sat with three little jars in front of her. The first jar was for the Church, the second was for Savings and the third was for Spending. Our plan is that on 'pay-day' we will begin to teach them now how to handle their money so when they get to our age they might be better than we are at it.

$2.70 was placed in front of Cara in nickels (did I mention child labor?) and Julie began to explain that 10% immediately goes to the Church, 20% immediately goes to Savings and the rest does not go to Spending - it goes in a pile from which Cara can decide which of the three jars it goes to. Julie and I sat there as the wheels were turning in Cara's little mind and she reached out, grabbed a handful of her coins and poured them into the Church jar. Julie asked Cara if she realized that once the money went in the jar she couldn't take it back out again, and that if she took Emma to the store to spend some of her money and Cara could only spend what was in her 'Spending' jar. My little 5 year old never skipped a beat and looking at her mom said, "I want all this to go to Haiti. I dont need to buy anything this week. I have enough. Can I give it all to Haiti?"

My heart melted. My wife and I looked at each other across the kitchen table and were nearly overcome that here our little angel was old enough to realize that she is blessed and that there are children in the world who have nothing, and whatever she could give to help them out, she wanted to do.

Wow!

Moments later, our little one came into the kitchen, she had been in another room and hadn't been a part of the previous discussion with Cara. It was time to settle our account with her too. She had been equally as busy and had earned the grand total of $2.65. Once again, three jars were set out with Church, Savings and Spending on them. The pile of nickels was laid out in front of Emma and the same explanation given. Julie counted out 10% for Church, 20% for savings and the remaining pile was once again hers to decide over. She looked at the nickels in front of her and then looked at her mom. She reached out her hand, grabbed a handful of nickels and said, "I want to give this to the homeless people, where is the 'homeless people' jar?" Once again Julie explained that once she had given it away, she couldn't get it back and if we went to the store for Cara to spend her money then Emma would not have anything to spend. "That's ok mom, I want to give it all to the homeless people, which jar does it go in?"

My wife and I sat with 6 little glass jars in front of us, 3 for Cara and three for Emma. Two jars marked 'Savings' had approximately 50c in them, two jars marked 'Church' had approximately $2.20 in them and two jars marked 'Spending' were empty. My girls may not be good at cleaning up their rooms, but I will trade that for the rest of their days if they continue to live with generous spirits that see the need that others have as far superior to any need they may have.

I love my kids, and I love my wife for teaching and modeling these principles so well. After all, the girls had to learn this from somewhere.

Whats in a Name?

I have the privilege of speaking at an upcoming winter retreat for Faith Community Church in Crofton in a couple of weeks. It is kind of weird but from the moment I was asked the passage that I have felt was right for the weekend was the passage in Matthew 16:13-20 where Jesus asks Peter who people say Jesus was. Jesus is not looking for the names that they called him, but more what they were saying about him. Were people calling Him the Son of God or a prophet, or simply just a carpenter? Jesus moves from the general to the specific really quickly in this passage and asks Peter who he says Jesus is.

What name does Peter have for Jesus? What description does Peter choose? These questions led me to consider how the answer Peter gave Jesus was a strange one. Peter doesnt respond by saying Jesus' name back to him, he uses words that describe what Jesus has done and who he is through demonstration and not description.

Peter says, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God..." He doesnt even mention Jesus' name - just His character. I wonder how many of us have become defined by our character as opposed to our given names, and how many of us have the character worthy of such a description. Or I wonder how many of us have given up the truth of our birth names with all of their meanings and have accepted the names that peers have given us, or that society has given us. How many of us have given up our names and accepted names like 'loser', 'dummy', 'idiot'. How many of us have accepted those names and have become defined by the names that we have been called? How many of us have been called stubborn and therefore remained inflexible? How many of us have been labeled as losers and believed that we will never amount to anything, and therefore we have given up and stopped trying?

I think God wants to change some names at this retreat. What about your name? Does it need changed too?

Mustard and Ketchup?

There is an interesting group that has caught my eye, and my heart at present. This capture came about in a God designed whim when we attended a session at Catalyst 2009 that we were not planning on attending. The speaker at that session described the simplest of things which struck home with the magnitude of a lightning bolt.

He described how God had ordained two institutions in the scriptures - the church, and the family. Throughout the bible the Lord has a special place for these two groups. He repeatedly refers to them, declares His love for them and states His intention to rescue each of them. God loves families and God loves the church.

The simple question is, does the family love the church and the church love the family?

This seems like a simple question from the outset, however if we really consider what we do with these two institutions then we might be a little concerned over what we find. In church we are very pro-family. In fact, we are so pro-family that we have employed staff who's job it is to reach out to our children or our youth or our adults all with the purpose of connecting them to church. However, there is one missing link. We do a great job trying to reach and connect these three groups SEPARATELY, however we are not that intentional about reaching the whole family at the same time.

Is it even possible to do that? Is it possible to somehow do church together in such a way that we effectively reach the entire family at the same time - together? There are some great folks at a group called Orange - if the family were a color it would be red and the church would be yellow, mix those two and you get Orange - who believe that it is not only possible to blend the church and the family, it is essential. If we were somehow able to intentionally reach the whole family through church then we would have somehow been able to blend these two God ordained institutions. Wouldn't that be a good thing?

I think I will read some more of the Think Orange book and see what the Lord has to say. Why dont you check out the folks at Orange and see what God says to you. Post your comments and let me know if you get any insights.

How Can We Help?

If you are like me then you will have sat in silence, dumbstruck at the events of the past few days in Haiti. For many we may not know much about this little country or its people. We may not even know where Haiti is, but the devastation that has occurred there must move us. I have a friend who works with the Community Coalition for Haiti (web site link is above) and he has traveled to Haiti for week long medical missions twice a year for a number of years. He has been busy working with INOVA Fairfax hospital in preparing to send three teams to Haiti this coming weekend.

While we may not be able to do much ourselves, we can support those who are helping. I want to encourage you to make a donation to CCH by following this link Give to Haiti Relief and please continue to pray for the people in Haiti and the rescue of those still trapped.

You can follow CCH on Twitter by going here

Be Still ...

Today I am working on next Wednesday's theme for our week of prayer and fasting - BE STILL ...

If you have any bible knowledge then there are probably a couple of verses that jump to mind when you hear those two words. The first for me is the passage in the book of Psalms where we are commanded by the Lord to 'Be still, and know that I am God". The second passage that comes to mind is when Jesus was asleep in the back of a boat having preached all day and a storm blows up. Jesus is sleeping, the storm is raging and the disciples are panicking - hmm, a common occurrence in the bible I think. The disciples are so afraid that they are going to die that they wake Jesus up so He can save them. I always found it interesting that fishermen would wake a carpenter up in the midst of a sailing crisis, but I digress.

So we join the story with Jesus, just being woken by a bunch of scaredy-cat fishermen whining about the wind and the waves. Mark tells us that Jesus, 'got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.' Then he shared a few harsh words with the disciples about their lack of faith and presumably went back to sleep - the story doesn't tell us that part.

Be still - two simple words, spoken as commands in two places in the bible - once by the Father in Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God" and then by the Son in Mark 4:39. When Jesus spoke the words there was an immediate threat to the safety and welfare of the disciples, at least as they perceived it. Have you ever considered that the same two words spoken by the Father in Psalm 46 were spoken with the same authority and command as those spoken by Jesus to the wind and the waves. Have you ever considered that the command given in Psalm 46:10 should be responded to by us in the same way that the wind and the waves responded to Jesus.

Is it possible that when the Lord says, "Be still ..." that we are actually supposed to BE STILL? Is it beyond the realm of possibility that when we read the rest of Psalm 46 and the trouble that the author describes the children of Israel being in, that this command to BE STILL was the LORD telling the children of Israel to quieten down, to stop thrashing about and causing a commotion and to allow Him to be God? Could the same be true for us today?

Next Wednesday I want to encourage our church to obey the command of Psalm 46:10 and to BE STILL. I want to encourage myself and our whole congregation to stop trying to come up with the solution to our problems, to stop getting all agitated about situations around us, to stop, to BE STILL.

That will be an interesting day of surrender.