Life Quotes from Fiddler on the Roof

Growing up my dad was a big fan of fiddler on the roof.  Sometime in my early teen years my dad had us watch it on a new years eve.  I don’t remember if I was instantly hooked, but I grew to like it.  I even defended it to many who had a shallow view of the musical being only a Jewish thing.  Now looking back, there are a few great lines I go to often.  In the last few weeks, there have been two in particular that ring true.

Lately we have had our share of health problems, life stress, and the usual events of life.  In the movie, Tevye isi having one of those days as well.  He says:  “I know we are the chosen people…but once in a while couldn’t you choose somebody else?”  Words to live by.

Another time a friend of the family, a young upstart from Kiev exclaims that money is the world’s curse.  Tevye steps out of his barn looks up at the heavens as cries ,”may God smite me with it…and may I never recover!”

I have had opportunity to feel these quotes this week and thought I would share them with you.

What’s Your Mission?

Have you ever thought about what you were here for?  What your purpose is?  I suppose we all do, or people wouldn’t flock in the millions to purchase books about yoru life purpose, or living the life we’ve always wanted.

For those who follow Christ, the question can be answered in two ways.  The first is quite simple.  All of us are subjec to the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.  I think those should be renamed the “everyday” commission and commandment.  That would better reflect how it should be lived.  By adding the word Great in front, we tend to leave it for people we think measure up our idea of greatness, and usually that’s not ourselves (at least in our eyes).

This means we are to love God with all our Heart, Mind and Strength.  Love others as good or better than we love ourselves, and make disciples of all nations.  That means telling the world about Jesus and sharing the good news that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)

The second answer to our purpose statement is actually a question.  How do we do that?  You see our overall mission is a simple idea – tell people about Jesus.  But each of us has a distinct context (location, culture, style, need, etc…) in which to fulfill that purpose.  So here’s my advice:  Be an authentic disciple.  An authentic disciple is a follower of Jesus, one who seeks to be a copy of the original.  We actually try to live as he lived.  Not like him in the sense that we wear sandels and eat fish and bread a lot, but like him in essence.  Listening to the father and preaching the coming Kingdom of God.

So as you look at your life purpose, from a Christian point of view, you need to figure out how to be like Jesus if Jesus lived where you do.  It’s not just the same as WWJD (what would Jesus do?), it means looking at what he did, how he did it, and finding a way to do the same things where you live.  If Jesus was a student at your school where would he sit?  What would he talk about?  What activities would he be involved in?  Some of your answers might surprise you if you are seeking to follow his example.

So if you are a believer and follower of Jesus, find out what he did, then do that in your context…where you live.  If you aren’t, take a look at the life of this guy Jesus in  a Bible (you can find them around).  Decide whether this was the kind of loving, passionate, purposeful and free life you have always wanted (John 10:10) and decide for yourself if Jesus is worth following.

Proverbs 1:1-7 The Fear of the Lord

The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom (Proverbs 1:7).  In order to better understand this text, you need to also read Proverbs 9:10.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom and the Knowledge of the Holy One is the key to understanding.  In the book of Proverbs, the author uses a familiar form of Hebrew poetry called parallelism.  It means two lines of poetry either contradict or reinforce each other.  Most of the book of proverbs and many Psalms follow this structure.  In the case of Proverbs 9:10, they reinforce the idea.  In other words, the fear of the Lord = knowledge of the Holy One.

To know God, is the same as to fear God.  What is meant by fear here, is the idea of awe; being overwhelmed by the scope and power of God.  One of the students in a small group tonight used a great word to describe it:  Perspective.  If you understand who God is, and who we are in contrast, you will have awe, or Fear of God.  It does not mean we are like ants waiting to be squished by an all powerful tennis shoe.  Or that we are children dreading the abusive scolding of a vengeful father.  It simply means, he is larger than we are.  If we have the right perspective when we begin to look at the world, we will have wisdom.  We will be able to see His hand in things.

It is easier to believe in God as creator of the World, and how our world is dependent on His mercy and grace, if we have an awesome God perspective.  It is easier to understand how God can handle major world crises when we are aware of His Greatness.  If we know who God is, it is easier to understand how insignificant we are.  Knowing this will likely lead to less pride, Haughtiness (which is really pride), and lots of other negative habits of taking ourselves too seriously.

What may not be easier to understand when we know how big God is, and how small we are, is why he cares about us at all.  But a quick read of Psalm 139 tells us that this everywhere, all-powerful, all-knowing, awesome God, cares about us on a personal intimate and microscopic level.  If you get that, you are on the road to being very wise indeed.

7 Things that mark an authentic church from Philippians

The letter to the Philippians was likely written from Rome with Paul in Prison (house arrest).  He wrote to a group of people who supported him and, by the way he addresses them, he loved them dearly.  It is a very encouraging and passionate letter.  As I read through it, among the many things I see it saying, I see Paul’s encouragement to the church in Philippi and to Christ’s Church everywhere.  Here are 7 things I saw:

1.  Leadership 1:1-2 – the authentic church needs leaders who are stewards of the Mission of Jesus Christ in a place.

2.  Partnership in the gospel 1:3-5 – an authentic church needs to be a partner with the Church of all ages in the building of the Kingdom of Heaven through the sharing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

3.  Commitment of Life 1:21/ 2:30 – the Church is worth risking and losing your life for.  To live = Christ.  If anything else is in the way of that Christ focus, you will not be able to give your all to His Kingdom.

4.  Unity through Humility 2:1-11 – the authentic church is like-minded and focused on the work of the Kingdom and humble in regards to one another.  Humility gets us through our disunity without compromising the Gospel.

5.  Perseverence 3:12-16 – the authentic church perseveres through trial and presses toward the goal.

6.  Fearlessness 4:6  – the authentic church has nothing to fear.  If death is gain, you have no fear of death which is the root of all fear.

7. Gratitude 4:10 – the authentic church is driven and powered by a spirit of thanksgiving to God for the things He has done.

The question remains, in order to have an authentic church, we need to have authentic people.  How do you measure up to this list personally?  Have you stepped up to steward the mission of Christ, Partnered in the Gospel, committed your life, sought unity of purpose with other believers through humility, persevered through trial, given up fear, and thanked God for all He has done by giving him all he had given you?  The authentic church is led by authentic believers.  Are you one?

Johnny’s Drive In and Auction

 Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!  

Johnny’s Drive In and the Missions Auction were a great success thanks to the efforts of many of you.  I don’t make a habit of sharing exactly how much we raised over the internet, but it was enough for our Guatemala Trip Deposit, and some ministry trip deposits.  This will help us a lot.  Many of you went way beyond the call to make up for my lack of planning on the reset of the auction.  Considering we made a lot of changes, it really didn’t go all that bad, and the results were better than I expected. 

A special thanks goes out to a set of grandparents on whom I dumped a tremendous responsibility without much direction (you know who you are)  I truly appreciated your servant hearts and sweat.  You did way beyond the call amidst difficult circumstances.  Thank you.

Beware the Bald-headed Youth Pastor

Some of you may be temtped to poke fun at the bald-headed Youth Pastor.  It may seem like an easy target.  The mild-mannered man seeking to lead you to a saving knowledge of Jesus might just snap when provoked.  Don’t believe me?  Don’t believe it’s worth fearing? Consider this not-so-famous story from the Bible (2 Kings 2:23-25):

23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. “Go on up, you baldhead!” they said. “Go on up, you baldhead!” 24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. 25 And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.

 So seriously…BEWARE THE BALD-HEADED YOUTH PASTOR.

HAHA.  Have a good day!  and watch your back : )

How you really “trim” your Christmas Tree

We had a branch fall down the other day in our yard.  Not just a little branch, a main mast of our 40 year old Maple.  It was about 14-16″ wide at the base.  It had fallen across onto the other tree.  With help from Chad from church, It came down in my yard and I spent the day last Saturday and Monday cutting it up.  Chad’s shirt said it all “Fell Tree.  Limb.  CrossCut.  “  I was at it most of the weekend and still have piles of brush in the yard.

During a “break” in the action, my wife asked me to cut up the old Christmas tree.  In the past we have enjoyed lighting it from the bottom in our fire pit and watching the 15′ flames as the tree went up.  This makes Dawn nervous, and is one of the main reasons our fire pit is now a little further from the rear garage.  I started the 455 Ranger Edition Husqvarna Saw (courtesy of Chad) and said to Dawn, “this is how you really trim a Christmas Tree”, and proceeded to chop it up into small fire starters.

I couldn’t seem to get one of these to straighten up??

Swing Set Fun

The girls have been having fun on the swings lately.  They call it gymnastics.  They like to try and step from one swing to the next.  After Samuel’s incident (our friend’s son who broke his arm and needed surgery), I am not so sure I should allow it to continue.

Back to School Backyard Bonanza

These are pictures of our backyard campout Labor Day Weekend.  We had s’mores at night and cooked out.  In the morning we cooked bisquits in the “camper”, and had sausage links over the fire with Orange Juice.  It was a cold morning, the girls all wanted to get jackets on.  We had a good time.  I slept out with the girls, Dawn stayed in the “camper”.

Back to School

The girls went to school today and so did I.  I dropped off the girls this morning to their respective classrooms.  They were very excited about it.  It was a fun day I think.  We did find out that Erica will be one of those who when asked what she did today will say “stuff”.  She was short on stories and details about her day.  In fact, when asked what had happened to her finger tonight, she said, ”let’s not talk about it”.  They had a good day, and made it home on the bus.

I went to school today, too.  As is my custom, I hung out at the school today to meet with kids from youth group.  I attended the 6th grade and 8th grade lunches due to a mistake in the schedule from the office, I missed 7th grade.  Anyway, I will catch them later.  Tomorrow I will make an effort to get to see the High School students.

I enjoy spending time at the school, the students are pretty busy most of the time with their eating and socializing, but I find I am usually accepted at the table, not quite as one of them, but welcome.  Thanks to those of you who let me in to your circle!  Anyway, I like to hear the stories and find out what they are doing and thinking about.  I hear about school schedules, after-school activities, and the latest dietary do’s and don’ts for waist concious teens.  I helped contribute to that conversation given my recent efforts to drop a few pounds myself.

Anyway, back to school is here.  We just hold on until June.  But a lot of good will happen in these months between now and the summer.  Students will grow up, mature (we hope) and learn new things.  We have another opportunity to call students to a life of discipleship and following Christ.  We have a sustained weekly opportunity to build relationships with some pretty cool people and help them know Christ.  I look forward to the launch of youth groups next week.  Sunday for HS and Wednesday for MS.  It’s going to be a fun and, I think, amazing year.  So hang on, and see what God does.