Simple Reading Idea for the Married, Dating, or Just Friends!

In year six of knowing each other, we have had more fun and grown closer than ever!

The first year of marriage for Beth and I wasn't bad relationally at all. In fact, it was great! We were very well prepared for the challenges of living with someone else and were extensively prepped on how to handle and resolve conflict that may arise by those who mentored and counseled us leading up to our wedding. We didn't have the, “pure hell” experience that some of our friends did.

But we did struggle to connect on a spiritual level daily. We have been involved at our church and the youth group at Gracespring Bible Church, where I work, since we started dating. But, we have never been great at connecting daily on a spiritual level. It's so easy to get caught up in the business and hurry of life that you barely get time to connect with God on your own, much less with your significant other!

So, after four years of dating and one and a half years of marriage, we have been purposeful about fixing that! We have decided that the best thing for us is to read a chapter of a book of the Bible a day and then talk about it throughout the week. We don't schedule a time or spend more than 10-15 minutes discussing it. But, it has been a huge encouragement to Beth and I. We are connecting in a way that we never have been before.

Again, this is just an idea and different things work better for different people. But for Beth and I, we really enjoy the practical and sustainable. We believe this is both.

Right now we are reading through the book of Nehemiah and we are on chapter 10. After that, we are reading Ezra together.

What kinds of things do you do with your significant other to stay connected spiritually?

Newton's Law of...Dominoes?

Tweet: "I am very excited to be teaching in Ignite tomorrow. Our Domino Effect and an 8 year old king!"

Have you ever played dominoes? Or, as I recently learned, Mexican Train?

If you haven't, you're not alone -- I haven't either. The only thing I've done with dominoes is stack them in a row and then pushed them over to create a sick train reaction that is awesome for about 23 seconds at the most.

But I never did anything like this...

Sir Isaac Newton developed three laws of motion in 1686.

1. First law: The velocity of a body remains constant unless the body is acted upon by an external force.
2. Second law: The acceleration  of a body is parallel and directly proportional to the net force F and inversely proportional to the mass m, i.e., F = ma.

Basically, what happens is something stands still unless it’s bumped, shoved, run into, jolted, smashed, etc. Also, the amount of force put onto an object determines the impact it has the on the other object.

So what does this have to do with an eight-year-old king? Stay with me, I promise it'll all make sense!

2 Kings 22 records the surprising story of Josiah. At eight years old, he becomes king of Judah. I can't imagine an eight-year-old running a Wal-Mart much less a kingdom! 18 years into Josiah's reign we see him making some amazingly wise decisions. He humbles himself before the Lord and does what is right. He has all the power in the world, he can control people with a few words from his mouth, and he decides to honor God with his actions. Not bad for being eight.

Josiah's story reminds me of the domino effect because throughout his story, Josiah makes decisions that effect others immediately, later on, and after his lifetime. One of these decisions is when he finds out that, 'The Book of the Law' has been discovered. This was most likely the book of Deuteronomy. As soon as Josiah learns this, he orders the entire book to be read to the entire nation! He knows how important the Word of the Lord is and he wants his people to know the same.

This brings us to Newton's third law.

     3. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Further into the story we learn that God is going to bestow disaster upon the nation of Judah because of their disobedience to God before Josiah's reign. But (I love that word in this story), because of Josiah's humility and obedient response to God, God promises to spare Judah the judgement while Josiah is still alive. Judgement has to be brought upon Judah for its action of disobedience, yet God spares Josiah because of his reactions to Him.

Our domino effect is this:

We live in an incredible individualistic society here in America. We believe in individual rights, beliefs, responsibility, ability, etc. We are so focused on ourselves that we don't realize the effects our actions can have on others sometime. When we interact with people, there is always an equal and opposite reaction. But, if the force of our actions overwhelms them, then they can end up like a bug on a windshield. Broken.

Why not turn our individualism into a strength of ours? We need to individually make the choice to try and be a positive reaction to others. When people encounter us, their reaction should be a feeling of love and encouragement. Because you never know what effect your action in that moment is going to have on someone (or a nation) down the road or down the Mexican Train. :)

I'm a Hypocrite.

patheos.com

Without fail, I frequently seem to hear a story about how a Christian chewed someone out for either not believing in creation, not believing in God, or a myriad of other reasons. This breaks my heart. This flies in the face of how Jesus approached others when He physically walked the earth.

I think it’s time for Christian’s everywhere to realize something about themselves, we’re hypocrites. With our words we claim to follow Christ, but our actions don’t always represent that. We don’t have it all figured out. We aren’t perfect and we never will be.

The apostle Paul understood this when he claimed to be the sinner of all sinners. Yes, he did live a life before Christ where he persecuted those who claimed to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, but then he met God and went on to become the most famous missionary of Christianity. Yet, he makes that claim about his sins. He’s right. He is the chief sinner among sinners, and so are you and I. In the eyes of a perfect God, we are out-of-control children throwing a temper tantrum in the mud. If we lose sight of that, we are in danger of forgetting how to talk about our faith with others.

If we are dirty sinners and the only way to be cleansed is to humbly offer ourselves to God as his slave, how should we talk to someone else about this God? How should we talk to someone else about ourselves? How should we talk to someone else about them?

“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” - Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Phillippi.

I’m a horrible sinner.

But, I’m saved by the grace of God.

It’s NOTHING I did.

Sometimes I forget that.

Because, I’m a hypocrite.

Holy?

I recently heard about someone who was struggling with the concept of holiness. For them, 1 Peter 1:13-16 is a paralyzing passage because it brings about an impossible standard.

1 Peter 1:13-16 reads, “Therefore, get your minds ready for action 29  by being fully sober, and set your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1:14 Like obedient children, do not comply with 32  the evil urges you used to follow in your ignorance,  1:15 but, like the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in all of your conduct, 1:16 for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, because I am holy.’” (netbible.org)

What's your first reaction to this verse?

No, seriously, what do you think it means?

I'll give you some time to think about it....

My first thoughts were that this was more of a suggestion than a mandate. God is full of love and grace, right? He knows that I can't be holy like He is holy. So why does he ask/expect it? I feel like this is an impossible standard. I'm honestly not sure that I have a great explanation for this passage yet. I will continue to research it and keep you posted.

But, what came to my mind next was: how many of us are striving for holiness?

Are you striving to improve yourself? Are you trying to be a better wife, husband, father, mother, friend, employee, boss, etc.? Do you wish you could improve your three greatest weaknesses? I hope you answered yes to some part of all three of those questions. But, we must all ask ourselves this question: am I longing for holiness?

Am I living in such a way that others would see it has holy? Am I trying to act like Jesus would. I know it's cliche, but are we? My goal usually is to not sin, my focus should be on becoming holier like Christ.  

I know this means we don't have to be perfect, but, do we use that as an excuse? I know I have been.

What are your thoughts?

Prepared Out of Their Nakedness

If you missed my last blog, I talked briefly about how Beth and I have been reading through Nehemiah together a chapter at a time. Last week we read chapter four and were once again blown away by Nehemiah and his leadership.

Real quick side note: Nehemiah is based on the personal memoirs of Nehemiah and was probably edited and put together by Ezra. Beth and I have both commented on how much we love the writing style of this book. It’s a very fluid and personal book. You really feel like you get a glimpse into the mind of Nehemiah.

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Chapter four begins with Nehemiah’s enemies coming against him. Specifically this guy named Sanballat, from Moab. He starts joking around with his buddies about how pathetic the Israelites are. His buddy even says,“Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was close by, said, ‘If even a fox were to climb upon what they are building, it would break down their wall of stones!’”

Obviously the Ammonite and Moabite cultures weren't the funniest in the world, but they did have armies (4:8 “All of them conspired together to move with armed forces”)!

Naturally Nehemiah takes this threat very seriously and does three actions.

1. Prays “So we prayed to our God...”

Whether you are leading a nation, a company, a classroom, or a family, prayer must be first. Like a typical guy, first response to a crisis is usually not to just stop. But, that’s the wrong view of prayer. Praying doesn’t mean that we’re not acting. Prayer is the action. Acting without praying is acting without involving the Guy who knows how the crisis/story ends.

2. Prepares “...stationed a guard to protect against them both day and night.”

After they prayed, they began to prepare for an attack. Nehemiah takes the threats seriously and uses his God-given knowledge to station guards at the most vulnerable spots in the wall. The enemies of Israel hear that Nehemiah has prepared the people for a fight and they back down from their threats (for now).

Why did they back down simply from a few guards at the wall? Remember that whole praying thing? It says God frustrated the intentions of their enemies. God sees Nehemiah’s devotion to him and his action to prepare for whatever may happen. Once again, God blesses Nehemiah while he is striving to accomplish something for God’s glory. Now, this doesn’t mean that God couldn’t have used an attack on the city to bring Him glory, but in this instance, God chooses to keep the enemies of Israel away.

3. Stays Committed

At this point comes one of my new favorite parts of the Bible. It says that they were so prepared and dedicated to the cause that they never changed out of their clothes while they thought there was a threat of danger to the city. They carried their spears day and night. They were even armed while eating and drinking.

It’s so easy to start something out strong. This has always been the case for me with exercising. I start out strong for the first few weeks, last year I made it two months into the year! But then, I get lazy. I get distracted by video games, TV, people, great tasting fatty food, and many other things that distract my focus.

Such an incredible story.

Pray
Prepare
Stay Committed

What area of your life do you need to immediately apply these three actions?

20 Seconds Of Insane Courage

Last night my awesome mother-in-law Betty took me, Beth(my wife), and my brother-in-law Tim out to dinner at Chin Chin's in Mattawan, MI. If you haven't been to Chin Chin's, go tonight. Incredible Asian cuisine. 

White fish on blackened coconut rice.

Awesome looking steak covered in an awesome looking steak sauce.

And...

The vegetarian mixed vegetables! 

After dinner we went and saw, We Bought a Zoo, starring Matt Damon. Great family movie with a few cheesy lines mixed in. In the movie Matt Damon's character courageously and adventurously buys a nearly deserted zoo and several times throughout the movie talks about how sometimes in life all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage. This reminded me of the story of Nehemiah.

Beth and I have been reading the book of Nehemiah together over the past week or so and we have been fascinated by this story. 


Nehemiah is a Jew who has been taken captive by Persian king, Artaxerxes I. Nehemiah must have found some favor with the king because he appointed as his cupbearer. 


While Nehemiah was serving as cupbearer, some of the Jews had been released from their captivity in Babylonia and allowed to return to Jerusalem. Nehemiah hears of this news and  that they have rebuilt the temple, but he also hears that the walls of Jerusalem are in ruins causing Jerusalem to be virtually defenseless against any neighboring enemy. If you've read even five chapters of any Old Testament book, you probably know that the Israelites are attacked quite frequently and having walls around their city would greatly help(although if they would remain faithful to God, He was willing to fight most of their battles for them, but that's a struggle for most of us as well).


Nehemiah is overwhelmed with sadness when he hears this news. So much so that the king notices Nehemiah's mood swing(the king may have thought it was 'that time of the month'). The king asks Nehemiah whats wrong. Ok, hold up, why does the king care about this random cupbearer guy? I mean come on, this isn't a time in history nor a society where everyone had equal rights, the king held Nehemiah's physical life in his hands. Yet, something about Nehemiah's character set him apart. It appears to me that God honors Nehemiah for his faithfulness and loyalty to the king in the midst of captivity. 


Nehemiah proceeds to tell the king what's troubling him (the lack of walls) and what he believed needed to be done. The king then grants Nehemiah permission to go and rebuild the walls! If that isn't crazy enough for you, Nehemiah then proceeds to boldly and courageously ask the king for a ton of the resources he would need. 20 seconds of insane courage. Well, it pays off. The king grants ALL of Nehemiah's requests! When we purposely line our goals up with the goals of God's kingdom, God provides the resources we need to accomplish those goals. 


So Nehemiah heads back to Jerusalem in 444 B.C. to rebuild the walls...then the story starts to really get good. 


Next Blog Post: Prepared Out of Their Nakedness.


What's your 20 seconds of insane courage story?

My run in with the law in Richland and Pennsylvania

Tweet: In New Jersey for the week. Family, Settlers, rest, and studying the book of Esther. #myperfectvacation

I was pulled over by the Richland cop the other day for my passenger side brake light being out and it reminded me of Beth and I's trip home from New Jersey this past Christmas. 

Let me back up a little bit, my wife Beth (BWE) is from New Jersey originally and every year around Christmas we take a week and head out to the land of The Mob, loud gum chewing, and Snookie. This year was no different, except for the way home.

We left New Jersey around nine in the morning on Dec. 23rd, so we could make it home in time to spend Christmas Eve with my family. We stopped to grab coffee from Dunkin Donuts and make sure we were stocked up on Arnold Palmer Monster energy drinks (yes they make them, yes they are delicious, and they have less than 3g of sugar and only 20 calories...life changer).

After that we set out on I-80 West and headed home. I usually set the cruise control around 75 MPH and only pass other cars when I have to. I have learned that rushing home gets you no where. Well, I soon was very grateful for the fact that I wasn't rushing home. Once we crossed over into Pennsylvania you would have thought Osama wasn't really dead and that he was driving a car through the state. There were cops everywhere! I kid you not, every ten miles through almost the entire state, there was either a cop waiting to pull someone over or one that had already pulled someone over. I soon realized that because of this, I was in the same pack of cars for nearly 60 miles. Here's why.

Beautiful Pennsylvania on a cloudy day in December.

Every time someone in the front of the pack would slam on their brakes we would all slow down to pass the cop and then proceed to go slow for about another mile and then begin to slowly speed back up to 75-78 MPH. The same thing would happen over and over and over again. Cop - Brakes - Slow - Speed Up. It was comical, yet quickly saddening.

I realized that this wasn't just a rare glimpse into the transportation minds of every-second-counts Americans, this was an accurate reflection of our natural tendencies. We push the envelope just enough to feel safe, then as soon as we feel like we're going to get caught or be held accountable we slam on the brakes, change course, or begin our rehearsed personality to cover up our true intentions. Time goes by, sometimes it only take minutes, for us to revert straight back into the secretly rebellious life we are leading. The best way I have ever heard character defined is that it's "who you are when no when else is around." 

Jesus calls us to walk in the light because one day everything done in secret will be brought back into the light. What are you struggling with that you wouldn't want posted on Facebook for all your friends to see? What area of your life do you not want others to ask you about? There's freedom in confession and in Him there's forgiveness and grace, but we have to walk towards the light, and I'm not talking about the red and blue flashing ones. :)