I Want Kindergarten Faith

Recently my son went to play at a friend’s house. One of the first play-dates he had ever had without one of his parents going along. His friend’s mother told us a very cool story the next day. It seems that while the boys were playing a video game together, my son equated something that happened in the game with the story of David and Goliath. Upon vocalizing this epiphany, his friend asked, “who is David and Goliath?” His friend’s father was sitting in another room overhearing the conversation and was quite embarrassed that his elementary aged son did not know the story of David and Goliath. That night, he got the Bible out and read the story of David and Goliath to the entire family. I was so proud of my son for talking about something from the Bible with one of his friends, but then realized that for my son, it was just a normal, unconscious thing to do - natural even. That does not diminish my pride in him, but made me think, I wish I were more like a kindergartner.

We, as adults, for whatever reason, shy away from Biblical conversations and discussions. Kindergarteners don’t sense any awkwardness or nerves; they just blurt it out as it is engrained in their culture if they’re being brought up in a foundationally Christian home. The coolest part of the story was that my son’s small vocalization led to a family sitting down together to read the Bible. God can use the smallest of events and people to make a large impact for him. Jesus says in Mark 10:15-16, “’I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.” Our faith is not complicated, our mission is simple, yet as grown-ups, we make it more complicated and bog ourselves down with periphery theological issues or relational complications. It may sound elementary, but I want to be more like my son. Living in ignorant fearlessness for Christ, being so wrapped in a relationship with Him that it is natural to speak of Him and live for Him in all of the relationships and settings I find myself in.

-Pastor Adam

Married Couples and Parents, Are You Companioning?

NOTE: THIS IS A SPECIAL POST FOR YOU PARENTS OF YOUTH AND CHILDREN. OFTEN TIMES PARENT'S PUT SO MUCH EFFORT AND ATTENTION INTO THEIR CHILDREN THAT THEY FORGET ABOUT EACH OTHER. THEN, WHEN THE KIDS ARE GONE, THEY LOOK AT ONE ANOTHER AND ASK, "WHO ARE YOU?" WE HAVE TO BE INTENTIONAL ABOUT COMPANIONING WITH OUR SPOUSES. THAT IS WHAT THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT:

I am currently taking a marriage counseling class as a part of my seminary coursework. In the course of reading a very good book about strengthening marital intimacy, I came across a term I had never heard before: companioning. The term does exist, as evidenced by the lack of a squiggly red line beneath it on my word processor right now, but what does it mean? Companioning is the term used to describe the intentional effort of a married couple to devote large blocks of time to the ongoing development of their friendship. Roland Hawkins, a very wise marital counselor, states that, “The strength of a marriage is directly related to the couple’s desire for togetherness. The average Christian marriage that fails does so because of the lack of appreciation for the importance of companioning.”

Notice the term intentional used above to describe companioning. It will not happen by accident. In fact, if a married couple, or a family, does not intentionally plan fun time together where their attention is undivided upon one another, they will not have time together. Life is busier now than ever. Between workaholic jobs, house chores, home-improvement projects, school schedules, youth league sports, business trips, retreats, and even Bible studies, we are pulled many different directions, none of which include our spouse. It is no wonder that marriages suffer once the children are grown and out of the house. The couple who fell in love years before, don’t really know each other because they haven’t taken the time to know each other when time was scarce.

Companioning is Biblical. Moses wrote in Deuteronomy this command to husbands, “If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.” (Deuteronomy 24:5). This command from God is not renounced or revised anywhere in scripture. Obviously we cannot take a year off from our jobs, but God’s plan for marriage was for us to companion together. He desires for us to be friends with our spouses. To be friends we must invest enjoyable time with one another to strengthen that friendship. Genesis 2:18 God stated that it was not good for man to be alone, showing us that He intended for us to have a relationship with our spouse that fulfilled the three-cord bond between God, man, and woman.

So what barriers are keeping you from companioning with your spouse? Is it relationships with your friends? Your job? Household duties? The kids? Does the wife go to a woman’s Bible study, the husband to a men’s Bible study, but neither attend a Bible study together or participate with one another in a devotional time? Sometimes churches are the best at pulling spouses in different directions. I cannot encourage you to enjoy one another as much as possible. It will mean saying no to other people and commitments. But our responsibility to our spouses is second only to our relationship to our creator. Please treat them like the priority they should be.

-Pastor Adam

Christ Knows Pain

Often times when we look at Jesus in the light of scripture, we recognize His miraculous works, wisdom, power, and compassion. We think of these attributes, however, with the mindset of His deity. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but we seem to miss the human nature of Jesus that is so evident in the record of His life. Hebrews 4:15-16 re-emphasizes this by telling us, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (NIV). We cannot forget that Jesus suffered in all the same ways we do, with one exception, He did not give in to temptation the way we all have at some point in our lives. Jesus still knows what sin feels like, however, as He bore the brunt of it while on the cross, not because He sinned, but because He took our sins upon Himself while hanging on that brutal tree. Jesus, at some point in His life, had to wrestle with temptation, grief, triumph, anxiety, betrayal, and loneliness. Do any of these afflictions or emotions resemble anything you’ve had to deal with in your life?

Jesus was tempted at His weakest point, when He was “hungry” after fasting for forty days (Matthew 4:1-10). Satan waited until Jesus was at his most vulnerable as a human to introduce the one thing Jesus craved the most at that one point in His life: food. We learn from Jesus to lean on scripture during those times of struggle, not our own abilities. All of us have been tempted and cannot claim that Jesus doesn’t know what that feels like, as he obviously had a three-round bout with the devil in the desert, at the end of which God the Father sent His angels to tend to Jesus’ need.

Jesus, surprisingly, experienced grief as we do when a loved one passes away. Jesus’ knew well where Lazarus was after he passed away, but the grief Jesus saw in Lazarus’ family and the loss of His own friend caused Jesus to weep (John 11:35-38). Jesus knew He was going to raise Lazarus back to life again, but yet allowed Himself to feel the grief we all feel when we lose a loved one.

Not all of the emotions Jesus felt as a human being were negative. In the story of the Triumphant Entry (John 12:12-15), Jesus was adorned as a King. He did not deny or tell those honoring Him to stop; he accepted the accolades, in one of the few cases people praised Him while He was on earth. So like Jesus, we at times triumph in our lives – something Jesus knew quite well what it felt like.

Some people disagree that Jesus felt anxiety, but the case is strong that He indeed felt the strong emotions associated with dread. Jesus, in the garden before His arrest, was almost overcome with anxiety while praying over what was ahead of Him (Luke 22:39-46). Jesus was dreading the temporary disconnection from His heavenly Father that He was about to experience while on the cross. Jesus did not want to be separated from God the Father, but willingly did so on our behalf. We all battle anxiety over small and large things in our lives. Jesus tells us in Matthew, chapter 6, not to worry, as the Father in heaven is in control. Jesus had to put this into practice Himself as He faced the cross.

The two final hurts that Jesus experienced before the physical and spiritual pain of the cross were betrayal and loneliness (Luke 22:47-48 & Mark 14:66-72). Yes, Jesus knew that Judas Iscariot would betray Him, yet Jesus spent approximately three years with Judas and developed a friendship with Him. To have one of Jesus’ twelve closest friends be the one to bring armed soldiers to arrest Him was the ultimate betrayal. Following this betrayal, Jesus experienced loneliness, as His arrest prompted the disciples to flee. John stays in the vicinity and observes the trial from afar, then rejoins Jesus at the cross, but Peter actually denies Jesus while cursing emphatically. Jesus went through the most terrifying experience any of us could have in our lifetimes – an unfair, completely biased trial founded on trumped up charges, followed by torture, all by Himself. We go through periods of loneliness and trials, but none of us can claim to be as lonely as Christ was as He went through the last hours of His human life prior to death and resurrection.

Jesus overcame all of these human struggles, as well as defeating death for the atonement of our sins. He was not required to do this on our behalf, but chose to make this journey to earth to suffer and die (Phil. 2:5-8). So as you battle on your journey through whatever challenges you face, remember that Jesus has traveled that road as well. He is there by your side, even if you can’t see or feel Him, and He will be waiting at the end of the journey to greet you with arms open wide if you hold fast to Him on the ride we call life (Psalm 84:5-7).

Relationships Matter

I just turned 33 last month, and now feel strongly that a person’s 30’s should still be considered young. But one of the lessons I’ve learned in my short life is, your relationships matter! Some of the largest mistakes and biggest successes in my life can be chalked up to the relationships around me at the time. Don’t get me wrong; I am not trying to blame other people for my mistakes. My mistakes are mine to own. But I surrounded myself with negative people and then made negative choices.

The same can be true for some of the biggest successes in my life, they have come when I have surrounded myself with quality, upstanding people - namely my wife and some men I have strong bonds with now. See, those people who share my belief in Christ and the moral compass the scripture offers as a guide hold me accountable to live as Christ would like me to live. Those people with whom I made bad decisions did not share the same set of convictions as I, so they flat did not know any better. We cannot expect non-believers to behave as believers if they lack the Holy Spirit. This is why who you take into your closest relationships matters so much. You’ve all heard 2 Corinthians 6:14,which warns us not to “yoke” ourselves with non-believers. A yoke bound two oxen together where one could not move in any direction without the other moving in the same direction. If you yoke in your friendships, romances, and emotional bonds with those who do not share your worldview, that yoke will pull you away from Christ. At the same time, yoking yourself to a strong believer will guide you on the path of righteousness. We must have relationships with those who do not share our values, so that we may be a light to them and evangelize. We cannot, however, confuse association with participation and fall into the dangerous trap of desiring approval from those who do not approve of our Biblical worldview.

Surround yourself, adults and teens, with people who will encourage you to do right, not tempt you to do wrong, and who will hold you accountable before Christ to live as He’d have you live. Do not be offended or defensive if someone calls you on your sin and label them judgmental. If they are doing it in love, they are doing you a favor. Luke 15:7 expresses the joy in heaven over a repentant sinner. Take time to examine your relationships. Who are the parasites to your spiritual health and who are the vitamins strengthening your convictions?

-Pastor Adam

Queasiness and THE Cause

My family has dealt with all sorts of sickness over the past month. The most recent foray into the land of germs was God allowing me to experience the best diet on the planet, the stomach flu. What does this have to do with THE Cause? Many people blame God for many of the evils, pain, and suffering in the world. God does cause some things we perceive as bad to happen, but we need to remind ourselves of the nature of God’s original creation. It was “all very good.” (Gen. 1:31) God’s original creation did not know illness, pain, death, or tossing cookies. It was our fault, not God’s, that these bad things made their way into our world. Don’t just blame Adam and Eve. Yes, they fell, but nobody other than Christ has been perfect since. As a part of God’s earthly punishment for sin he enacted turmoil and strife upon all earthly creation.

So next time someone tells you that there can’t be a loving God because of all of the evil in the world, remind them that God did not create evil. In fact, evil really isn’t a “something.” Evil is the lack of good. All that God created was good. He created mankind with the capacity to express our love for Him through voluntarily obedience. This left the possibility for rebellion. Satan exploited this void and man rebelled and fell short of the potential we had to be obedient to God. God knew this would happen, but valued a relationship with mankind enough to create us anyway. He even knew He’d have to send Jesus to atone for our sins in order to restore all creation to its original state, and yet He created us anyway because He loves us and loves the relationship we can have with Him. That’s the good news. For those that believe, the curse of sin, sickness, conflict, and death will be removed and we will again commune with God as Adam and Eve did before they fell. This is the Good News that we share, God’s love shown through the sacrifice of Christ will undo the curse we brought upon ourselves and we will spend forever living face-to-face with our Savior.

The Void, Thanksgiving, and THE Cause

One of my favorite verses, and one of the hardest to abide by, is 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, which says: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (NIV) The hardest part to abide by is “Be joyful always.” People want circumstances to fulfill them and make them joyful. If life isn’t the best it can possibly be, we whine and complain and want more of something to make us feel better. This void that we feel is a natural one, created in us by our Creator with the intent that we fill it with Him.

We all desire something more in our lives, whether it is companionship, success, meaning, or just to feel good. We have a desire to be fulfilled. Many people try and fill that void with narcotics, alcohol, relationships, sex, work, money, entertainment, or made-up religion. All of those things still leave us empty and we still have the desire to want more. In Christ, we should all be “joyful always,” as our Creator desires a relationship with us and has plans for us bigger than we can comprehend. Those plans, more than likely, are not your plans. Those plans will include pain, stress, possibly illness, hard work, discipline, but ultimately, a heavenly reward to which earth cannot hold a candle. I once heard a pastor say, “Instead of thinking ‘why is God doing this to me,’ we should be asking ‘what is God doing through me.’”

As genuine Christ-followers, we will suffer. We will suffer more than non-believers, as we are targets of Satan in the spiritual battle for people’s souls. Paul, who went through hell-on-earth at times, tells us that the secret to contentment is a relationship to Christ, regardless of circumstances (Philippians 4:13). To be able continually fight for THE Cause you must understand that resistance and trouble will come; otherwise it wouldn’t be described as a war (Ephesians 6:10-19). Do not allow that fight to rob you of your joy. Christ came so that you may have life and have it to the fullest, while the Satan is trying to steal, kill, and destroy you. This Thanksgiving, don’t look to your earthly blessings for contentment and joy, but look to the sacrifice your Savior made for you, and realize that no matter what life, or the Devil, throws at you, Christ is stronger and will uphold you if you hold on to Him.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-Pastor Adam

THE Cause

In November the youth and I traveled on our annual trip to the Dare 2 Share conference in Denver, CO. It was an amazing and life-changing trip for many who attended. The theme was BLAZE, based upon Isaiah 6:1-8, when God commissioned Isaiah and he was basically set ablaze by God almighty. Being passionate for our faith means that we sell out for THE Cause. There are a lot of causes that we can become a part of, socially, morally, and politically. Some of those causes can be very noble and worthy causes for which to fight, but they all pale in comparison to the importance of THE Cause. THE Cause is the cause of Christ. Luke 19:10 tells us that Christ’s cause was to “seek and save the lost.” Furthermore, Christ’s cause was also to make us “fishers of men.” (Matt. 4:19) Christ’s Cause was two fold. He desired to make disciples who make disciples. That is what we are called to do as well. The actual Greek translation of Matthew 28:19 says, “As you are going, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” There is no final destination at which we are to share our faith. We are called by Christ to share our faith all along our life journey. Once those disciples are made, we are to bring them along in the faith and to train them in how to make disciples.

So take a few moments to consider the causes for which you burn and fight. Abortion? Gun-rights? Save the rain forest? None of them are nearly as important as Christ’s cause, yet for some reason we are willing to go to the mat and fight tooth-and-nail for our politics, but our passion for our faith is sadly non-existent. All other causes are empty without first dedicating your life to Christ. Not just a component of your life, but your entire life to Christ. John 14:12a tells us, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.” Are you living for THE Cause? Do you even want to live for THE Cause? Because if you say, as Isaiah did in Isaiah 6:8, “Here I am Lord, send me,” and God takes you up on your offer, life will be flipped upside-down for you. Your priorities, lifestyle, time, activities, entire life will change. It will cause fear, suffering, frustration, struggle, temptation; but will also bring you fulfillment, joy, and an intimacy with Christ that you may have never experienced before. Sell out for THE Cause, everything else is fruitless.

- Pastor Adam