Our Son

In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge.

Proverbs 14:26

This is the number one thing God has taught me so far about being a father. My ability to be a good father, to be a refuge for my son, is rooted in the confidence I have because of my fear of the LORD.

The Greatest Treasure Ever Found

This sermon was given by Pastor Pat Bennett of Westview Community Church last Sunday.

We are always looking for treasure, but we get fooled pretty easily into look for the wrong kind of treasure, or looking in the wrong places.

The Greatest Treasure Ever Found by Pastor Pat Bennett

What treasure are you searching for? What will happen when you find it?

10 Ways to Encourage Missionaries

I found the following list at The Gospel Coalition Blog on this post by Mark Rogers. There are some great ideas in here, I bet any missionaries you know would be really thankful for support like this. These are great ways for us to act out Hebrews 10:24-25 and "spur one another on toward love and good deeds." If you have any other ideas, leave a comment and help us to learn to encourage our missionaries! If you are/have been a missionary, what have people done for you that was encouraging?

Here is what Mark Wrote:

In an effort to learn how we can best encourage missionaries, I emailed some and asked how they would most like to be served and encouraged. This list is drawn from their responses, including many direct quotes.

1. Pray for them and let them know that you are doing so frequently.

“One of the most encouraging/inspiring things we receive from people is a quick note via email to say that they are ‘thinking’ of us.”

2. Send “real mail.”

“Send a small care package. Some little fun food items that we can’t get where we serve is a good idea.”

“One idea is to send a special package before an American holiday (like Thanksgiving) filled with things that we can use to decorate for that holiday.”

“Send us a birthday card. This doesn’t have to be some long handwritten note, just a little card – maybe even printed at home.”

“Real mail is always special. Really, the thing with real mail is more than just getting some nice stuff from home (which is nice), but it seems a more tangible reminder that the people I love and miss love and miss me too and are thinking of me.”

3. Pray for the people the missionaries serve and not only for the missionaries and their families.

4. Recruit others to pray for the missionary’s area of service (city, people group, etc.) or for the missionaries themselves.

“This can be an amazing thing to have a person or group of people actively supporting the work that we are doing overseas – becoming an advocate for our city/work. It really encourages us to know that there are people going to bat for us and raising more prayer support for the work.”

“Become an arm of our work in the United States. Some ideas include handling our newsletter distribution, website hosting (i.e., hosting a virtual website for the city), logistical arrangements, or short term team orientation.”

5. Go visit them with the purpose of serving and encouraging them in their work.

“Have a group of your people come to minister to us as we are seeking to pour out our lives to others. This could be hosting a small retreat in country for our team or something similar, or coming to prayer walk the city we live in.”

6. Send them updates and pictures of you and your family (by mail or email).

“It would especially be nice to receive end of the year updates or Christmas card pics. We want to stay connected to you! We love hearing from friends and family and enjoy keeping up to date on what’s happening in your life!”

“If you have a friend overseas, stay in touch with them. Don’t let cautions about being careful with spiritual language keep you from talking about the day to day “un-spiritual” things you would talk about if you met up for lunch one day. Sometimes the least spiritual emails are the most helpful, because somehow I feel less distant when friends talk to me like they always did before I left. Share updates on family, school, work, life, sports—whatever it is that you used to talk about with them.”

7. Ask questions about their work.

“Ask not only how we are doing, but ask about our work and try to learn all you can about the people or city where we are serving.”

“I know that this has been said, but truly CARING about the work is the best way to encourage us.”

8. Continue to be a Christian friend and continue to minister to them.

“Don’t stop being the church to us when we leave. Whenever security allows, spiritual conversations are good for our hearts. Missionaries struggle with the same sinful attitudes that plague Christians everywhere. Leaving home to live among unreached peoples, may be a step of faith in the process of sanctification, but it is not a step that roots out all sin. It is likely to lead to and expose all kinds of previously unnoticed and unexpected sin. Having friends that know me, are patient with me, and expect me to be the same struggling sinner I was when I left helps me stay humble when tempted toward arrogance, and hopeful when tempted toward despair.”

“Even for us with strong member care, it is helpful to receive pastoral care from the stateside church’s pastor who many times will know the missionary personally and have the history with them to be able to invest and mentor them and their family and marriage.”

“Ask us those hard questions. Do a little pastoral counseling with us.”

“Please don’t elevate us onto some false pedestal. We are normal people too who have been forgiven much and for some reason God called to live and minister overseas.”

9. Support them financially.

“Finding out if we have any specific needs and meeting those needs is great.”

10. Seek to encourage them when they are on stateside assignment.

“Let us talk to you and your congregations, and small groups. We want to share what God has been doing and would love the opportunity to talk about it, raise awareness and hopefully gain more prayer support.”

“Invite us out to lunch or dinner. Nothing fancy is needed. Remember we’ve just been in places where we may not have been able to even enjoy a little Mexican food.”
No missionary mentioned this to me in emails, but I know it is a blessing when someone shares their summer home or cabin for a missionary family to get away and relax for a few days.

“Let us know about any good books that are must reads. Tell us about any good resources that may benefit our personal growth or ministry work: things like conferences, training for ministry/leadership, and so forth.”

This material comes from a post by Mark Rogers on The Gospel Coalition blog on January 6, 2010.
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2010/01/06/10-ways-to-encourage-a-missionary/

Why Did Jesus Speak in Parables?

This message will definitely challenge a lot of the thinking we get from some contemporary "missonal" or "seeker-friendly" churches. Even if you already feel uncomfortable with some of those ideas, listen to this, you probably have bought into more falsehoods than you thought.

Why Did Jesus Speak in Parables?
D.A. Carson

About 2/3 of the way through listening to this, I realized something great: Carson was able to take a seemingly "side note" kind of question, one like many that we are counseled to avoid when trying to present the gospel to someone, and shows how it can only be answered by the good news, and uses it to help us understand the gospel even more. This skill--being able to turn every question to Christ--is, I think, at the heart of true evangelism. And not just to turn the question to Christ, but to show how the purpose of the question was to turn the asker to Christ.

Have you ever read a really good book meant to teach something? I saw this first in reading C.S. Lewis' books on theology: he not only explains the subject well, but anticipates questions and responses that the reader will have, and answers them also. You can see it too in Romans. The mark of a good book is the author's ability to guide you to the questions whose answers will teach you what they want you to know. As you read, you think "well does that mean that ..." only to read next, "now don't get this confused with ..., the answer is actually quite different."

After listening to this message about parables, you see that not only does thinking about parables lead you to thinking about Christ, but God specifically designed the Bible in a way that would lead you to ask, "Why did Jesus speak in parables?" And then He tells you the answer, and it is much more glorious than you imagined.

I think there are more questions like this being inserted into us by God's word. Questions He gives us to guide us to marvelous answers. I'm excited to find them.

Treasuring Christ - A Desiring God Video

This video really impressed me for two main reasons.

One: The message was true, and it challenged me. This is the kind of message that will stir something in a man's soul, helping him see the glory of Christ and the wonder of following Him.

Two: The people who put this together know how to use technology, engage the culture, and keep a sound theology that challenges the culture. This is a rare but hard-hitting combo. Most messages devoted to preaching the truth are bland or downright boring. Most message aimed at "staying up with technology" or "engaging the culture" or "meeting people where they are at" are lame. And by lame, I mean that they can't walk, can't move, are unable to make any change in the world. They start with the idea that in order to keep a person's attention, you have to give them what they want. First, they give the person what they want visually or audibly with fun videos or effects, etc., but then they also slip into basing the message itself on what the audience wants. By the time this happens, you might as well not have a message at all, because without challenging the audience you'll accomplish nothing. You can have all their attention and approval, but no change of their hearts.

An effective message will engage the culture in a way that grabs attention, meets people where they are at, and tells them squarely "You can't stay here. Move." In essence, a good message will use culture against itself, using the neutral things that people want and like to get them to see that the negative things they want are killing them.

And, of course, I like this video because it reminds us that the only sound way to live is with Christ as head, and all else should be submitted to His service.

Gideon

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit. (Judges 21:25)

The Judges -- The Origianl Superheros

Gideon lived during a time in Isreal's history shortly after they escaped from Egypt into the land that God had promised to take them to. After Moses took them to the land, Joshua took over and led the people in taking and settling the land. After Joshua died, the Israelites were left pretty much without a leader, but there were still many nations around them that wanted to take advantage of them, and with no leader they were pretty helpless. God's solution to this situation was the judges. The judges were like temporary leaders who God raised up from among the people to pull the people together enough to fight off whatever enemies were currently threatening Israel. The judges also helped the people of Israel to know better how to serve God, and would hold them accountable to doing so. They had no official authority--people would rally to them when they saw God working in them. When a judge would come, God would use them to defeat the enemy and draw God's people back to him, them when a judge would die the people would start to fall back to their sins.

Gideon was one of these judges, and God empowered him to deliver Israel from Midian. God had sent the Midianites against Israel as a wakeup call, to let Israel know He wasn't pleased with how they were acting (see Judges 6:1-6; they had been worshipping idols, particularly Baal and Ashera, a god and goddess of fertility and agriculture from what I understand). Midian starts to terrorize Israel, coming mainly around harvest time to steal the food that Israel planted and worked for. After seven years, the people of Israel cry out to God for help, and God prepares Gideon for the job. First, God had Gideon tear down his town Baal altar and its Ashera pole, replace them with a real altar, and sacrifice a bull on it to God. This establishes Gideon as a servant of the LORD and a judge in the eyes of the people (and earns him a sweet nickname, Jerub-baal, "let Baal contend with him").

Next, God has Gideon get an army together. The army starts out as 32,000 men, but God has Gideon dismiss those who are either afraid or drink funny, bringing the number down to 300. With these men, Gideon sneaks down to the Midian camp at night. They surround the Midianites, then all at once break jars, wave torches, and blow trumpets. The Midianite army wakes up too scared to think straight--they kill most of each other, then run away. After this, Gideon is pretty popular among the Israelites (understandably), so they ask him to be their king. Gideon turns it down (we find out later that God never wanted Israel to have a king), telling them neither he nor his sons will ever be kings over them.

Zero to Hero

One of the most notable things about Gideon's life is the way that God calls him. Take a look at Judges 6:11-16. It starts with God sending and angel with a message to Gideon. Gideon is threshing wheat--but not in the normal way. To thresh wheat, you throw it up in the air and let the wind blow away the chaff, which is lighter, so that only the kernels of wheat, which are heavier, fall back down. Out of fear of the Midianites, Gideon was hiding in a winepress while doing this, which would severely cut down on the wind available. We can often be put into similar situations, doing things that don't work very well because we fear the consequences of doing them the right way. While Gideon is doing this, God gives him this message: The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.

What's so interesting about this that there is no reason for God to call Gideon a "might man of valor." He hasn't done anything yet. So far, Gideon's role has been one consisting entirely of hiding from the Midianites. When he hears this, Gideon has trouble believing it, asking 'How can you say God is with us, when Midian is totally dominating us? Isn't this the same God that our fathers told us brought them out of Egpyt and did all sorts of miracles? That God has abandoned us.' God tells Gideon, 'I have not abandoned you or your people. And I will be with you as you lead an attack against Midian.' Even though Gideon was living in fear and blaming his tough times on God for not helping him, God came to him and told him that He would use him to work His will on earth. God tells him "Go in this might of yours" even though Gideon knows he is the weakest man in a weak clan (see Judges 6:15). So what might is God talking about? What valor is God talking about? The might and valor that come from the very first statement made to Gideon: The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.

When Gideon had no might (he was weakest of the weak) or valor (fear had him threshing wheat in a winepress) of his own, God took him aside and spoke a word into his life: I declare you to be a mighty man of valor. This is not a word of recognition for what Gideon has done--he hasn't done anything yet. We would expect this statement to come from God after Gideon defeats Midian, not before. But God can and does speak it before Gideon has earned it.

Fireproof

This comes to the core of the story of Gideons life. When a person reads this story, and sees the way that Gideon lived his life, it makes us ask, "How can I live a life like that?" And as we look, we see the key lies in God's word that He spoke to Gideon that changed his life: The LORD is with you, mighty man of valor. To live like Gideon, we need that same might and valor spoken into our lives. So how does that work? The Bible tells us it rests on being told "The LORD is with you." The life of a person that destorys idols and leads a nation depends on the the LORD declaring His prescence in their life. This is where this Old Testament story brings us: we need the LORD to declare his prescence in our lives if we are ever to really live. Reading about Gideon makes us ask, "How can I have the LORD declare that of my life? To say to me, 'The LORD is with you, O mighty man [or woman] of valor'?"

Shadrach - Meshach - Abednego

These three men together show us a solid example of how God can be trusted to stick to his promise that his people will not be burned. This story is from Daniel 1 and Daniel 3.

Thier story starts when the people of Judah are defeated by Babylon. These three, along with many others considered to be "worth training" by the Babylon government were taken to Babylon to be educated and made into men that would strengthen the Babylonian empire by their service to the king. Soon, they earn high ranks among the king's officials.

The King's Idea

Then the king gets a great idea: if he gets all of his officials to get together and worship the same god, that would really improve the unity of the empire, and improve the loyalty of his officials to him. So the king erects a ninety foot tall statue made of gold, and commands that everyone come stand in front of it, and when the band starts playing everyone has to bow to the statue. Anyone who doesn't get's thrown into a furnace.

It's impressive the way the king sets this up. He puts this statue out on a plain so that as tall as it is, you could see it from miles off, and he also puts together a huge band (Daniel 3:5) of all the most popular instruments, so everyone will know just how big of an affair this is. This king knows how people are so strongly affected by music and by impressive size.

Refusing to Bow

Next, the king strikes up the music. Imagine hundreds of government officials all standing out on a plain, bowing to an idol as music plays. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abegnego were in that crowd, and as hundreds of the people they work with everyday and the people they answer to or give orders to all bow down around them, they don't bow. It doesn't take long to find three guys standing in a crowd that is bent over, so these three are taken to the king, and the proposal that the kings gives them is something we would do well to pay attention to.

In Daniel 3:13-15, the king gives them a second chance, and if they will bow to the statue the king made this time when the music plays, the king will forgive them, but if they refuse, the king will throw them into the furnace. He finishes by asking them, "who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?"

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego respond to this by telling the king that the God can deliver them from the furnace, and will deliver them from the king’s hand. (Daniel 3:17) They add that no matter what God does, they will not compromise their service to God by bowing when the king commands.

A Son of the Gods

For their refusal, the three men are thrown into fire, but as the king watches, he stands up in surprise and turns to his counselors, and asks them, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” “True, O king,” they tell him. He replies, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”

The king orders them to be brought back out, and everyone sees that the fire didn’t even affect them enough to make them smell like fire. When he sees this, the king praises the God that delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and decrees that nobody is allowed to ever speak against Him.

A Challenge We Face

The challenge that the king gives to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is one that is put each of us as well. The king tells these three that if they don’t bow when they’re told, he will throw them into the fire. In the same way, Satan creates a fire and threatens to throw us in it. He delights in finding what we are afraid of, and then telling us that the only way to avoid it is to bow when he tells us. If you’re afraid of loneliness, he tells you that you must make compromises in obeying God or else people won’t like you and you’ll be alone. If you’re afraid of failure, he tells you that you must make compromises in obeying God or else you’ll fail at the things important to you. Whatever it is, he will threaten you that the only way to avoid that fire is to obey him instead of God. Often, he will take you out to that open field with so many other people, showing you how everyone else is bowing on his command, and thus avoiding the fire. When he does this, he challenges us, “who is the God that can deliver you from my hand?”

In Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s answer to this challenge, we can learn how to answer as well. They respond that God is able to deliver them from the fire, and definitely will deliver from them from the hand of the king. What’s the difference between the fire and the hand of the king? These men knew that even if they burned up in the fire, the king would still have no power to control them, and that their lives would be in God’s hands if they died. So, whether the fire burned them or not, they would be delivered from the king. This story is not meant to tell us that we’ll never have pain if we obey God, but that He will always deliver us. So, we can answer the king of this world that even if we are subjected to whatever he is threatening us with, and even if it tears our life apart, the devil has no power to control a servant of God, and we will be delivered from his hand.

Fireproof

The method of that deliverance is of even more importance. In John 5:38, Jesus gives the Pharisees the key to interpreting the Old Testament, saying that the Scriptures “bear witness about me.” When the king looks into the fire and sees a fourth figure, he says it looks like a son of the gods. Later, he calls it an angel (messenger) of God. There is a lot of debate about what this figure was, an angel or a pre-incarnate Jesus. I personally think it was really the Christ, but either way, when the king says it had the appearance of a son of the Gods, one of the main purposes of this story becomes clear to us: in order to walk through fire and not be burned—to be fireproof—we must walk through it with one who has the power to keep us from being burned. That figure is meant to point us to our need to walk through the fire with the Son of God, and thus this bit of Scripture bears witness to our need for Christ. The purpose of this story is to show the reader the challenge that we are faced with and the possibility of overcoming it, and to force us to ask ourselves, “How can I know that when I walk through the fire, I’ll be walking with someone who can make me fireproof?”