My Three Sons

Things I have learned about my sons lately...

~Luke can read a lot of words but he is embarrassed to admit it.

~ Jack knows how to paint (real painting) with a brush making smooth up and down strokes. Last night we helped Jennifer down the street paint her chicken coop. Robin gave him one instruction and he was doing it perfectly on the first try.

~ Drew is very compassionate. He is always making sure others are okay if they are hurt or upset.

~ Luke can retain facts that amaze me. he will just spout off some fact about an animal that I had no clue about. Robin will have just read it to him once. He already knows more about weather, animals and planets than I do.

~ Jack has good balance. The other day he walked across a log over a marshy area keeping his balance.

~ Drew is one of the friendliest little guys you will ever meet. He waves at everyone. The other morning, he woke up and came into the living room and said, "Hey Robin!"

Death Shallowed Up

I was reading in Isaiah this morning.

"O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.... You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat...

On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.

In that day they will say, 'Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.' " IS 25:1-9

Tommorrow we will have a BBQ in Paul's memory. May it be a foreshadow if the banquet we will have together when death is fully shallowed up.

Paul's Homecoming

Yesterday a good friend of mine went home to be with the Lord. Paul Townsend, who had served with Campus Crusade and then Promise Keepers, had been one of our Associate Pastor. The last few years, he had started his own ministry called Frontlines where he used his experience and gifting in counseling to minister to others in full-time Christian vocation most of whom are serving internationally.

Robin & I got to know Paul and Martha when we started attending Cornerstone Church in fall of 2000. Very quickly our hearts knitting with theirs even though we were at different life-stages. Martha was the first to see Luke after us and the hospital staff. And she and Paul were some of the first folks to visit us after Jack and Drew were born. Paul was a good friend who spoke life into me. In fact, he did that to countless others as well. I have many great memories of Paul - meeting over lunch, in LIFE groups, co-leading a Men's Group, spending holidays together, etc. The best though was when we got to Asia together.

In January of 2001, I invited Paul and our head pastor, Gene, to come with me to a STINT Midyear conference in Thailand. Both of them have experience in counseling and I knew that would be an asset for meeting with our STINTers and others serving internationally. Because at the time, we had a gal from our church serving in China with OMF, we decided to visit her on this trip too. She actually joined us in Thailand and then we all were to fly in together.

Paul was in his element at the midyear. He met with folks from sunup to sundown. He 'ghostbusted' a few teams. This is what he was made for.

As we got ready to go into China, Gene got sick. He thought it was the flu but I think it was bad sushi. So Paul and I went alone with Angie to Kunming, China. Long story short but Angie had met these underground church leaders and when they heard her pastors were coming they asked if they could lead a training time. Since Gene was in bed back in Thailand, (later to rise up, run and play golf while we were working) I took his place in the training. So Paul and I tag teamed this training of underground pastors.

From this time, Paul & I went back and recruited our church's first mission team to go back and do more training. And this is what propelled Paul into the ministry he had for the last 5-6 years.

I already miss Paul. I got to see him Tuesday but he wasn't aware of my presence. But I still quoted a few scriptures to him and prayed for him. Yesterday I went back to see him and learned he had passed away an hour earlier. But I was able to be there with Martha and his kids Bryan and Natalie.

Paul had shared recently that he won't want to take his family through this cancer again but if it was just him, he would do it all over again just for the intimacy he experienced with the Lord. Now he is experiencing that to the full. He has no more pain. He has a new body. He is with His Savior. "Blessed are those who die in the Lord."

Experiencing Life - C & S

C & S are in East Asia in huge city. They are not far from the recent disaster. And the crisis is greatly affecting their students and teachers. Over the course of the past few weeks, they have seen God transform a number of students’ hearts. In addition, several of S’s friends have indicated desires to learn more about God and one said that she thinks that she may want to believe. C has gotten to know a student who already believes and is interested in studying further and growing in knowledge and fellowship. And one of the guys who has helped their team in thousands of ways has expressed interest in possibly believing.

About their city, they write, "Our city has a history of deeply rooted spiritual darkness. We see this everyday in our students’ resistance to the Gospel and the walls that are put up to try to prevent ministry from taking place. About a year ago, a Brother did some research on our city and discovered several ancient gates surrounding our city that were devoted to welcoming the gods and spirits into our city. Another gate has been the sight of several major battles in our city--many lives have been sacrificed at this spot. Another is the site of the sale of drugs and traditional medicine. Each of these gates to the city welcomed in something that goes directly against the Lord. As a city, we took time a few weeks ago to visit each of these gates and spend time praying over them. It was a powerful opportunity to learn the history of our city as well as cry out for God’s grace and mercy to our city. Our God is far more powerful than any forces of evil in our city. Please continue to pray for revival in our city--that all strongholds of evil would be demolished."

Maybe lately it has seemed like the world is gone awry. Wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, famines and earthquakes in various places. On a personal side, yesterday, a friend close to my heart who had been battling cancer on and off for over six years, went home to be with Jesus. One of my eloquent co-workers said this about Paul's passing, "Death is the last great insult as we were never created to die yet I find this juxtaposed against a strange envy for Paul."

In the Kingdom of God, there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. In the Kingdom of God weapons of warfare are refashioned into weapons of food production. In God's Kingdom, the hungry will be fed, the lame will walk and the blind will see. Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or a man who does not live out his years. Things will be the way God intended it to be.

Death is the last great insult. I saw a riveting scene on TV where a woman whose loved ones were trapped in a building after the earthquake. They first interview her and she has great confidence in her governments ability to rescue this loved one from death. But then when they tell her that the rescue was called off because of unsafe conditions, she loses it. Death is like this. It brings pain and sorrow. Death separates loved ones. Death causes grief. Death is the last great insult as we were not created to die.

Jesus, however, came to give us life.. real life. Yes, we will most certainly, and most fully experience this life after life here on earth but He also came to give us a life - a God life - now. Here's just a few gems from John's gospel...

~ In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
~ Everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
~ Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.
~ Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
~ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
~ I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
~ For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.
~ For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
~ I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
~ For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
~ I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.
~ I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
~ I am the way and the truth and the life.
~ For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
~ Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

This is what we are to experience. That is what we are lead others to. This is the hope we bring to the world. May today we experience the life He came to give. Today may we help people cross from death to life.

The Loft

We don't have any 'after' pics yet but here a few of Ken and I putting up the loft. More Ken... I decided to let him use his Spiritual Gifts of constructing things and played the goofer.

It's all built with carpet and cool shelf. Robin & I still need to stain it and move the boys' stuff in. The twins' twin beds will fit underneath and Luke's off to the side. The loft will be a cool place to play and keep toys.

Leading in Humility - Keith & Natalie

Okay how many people spend a year in France and yet take a trip to Romania? Well that's what Keith and Natalie Back did. They lead the team in Nantes, France. Over spring break, their team took their French students to Romania. In fact the pic of them is in Romania with the Carpathian Mountains in the background. While there, they spent 5 days working with CCC sharing Christ and helping with Josh McDowell outreach and then 5 days serving in 6 different State-run orphanages with a group called "Children to Love".

Keith writes, "What was most encouraging was that we had 6 of our students come on our trip, and most of them are going to be future leaders here in the movement. The trip was great but I would say the ministry here in Nantes, France is taking off because there has been a great passing the baton of leadership from the older students to the younger students this year. Next year in the ministry, we are looking at a strong core of young leaders eagerly waiting to step up in leadership. Praise God!"

If you didn't catch that, the Back's are re-upping for a 2nd year. they actually return to US this weekend to start back on support-raising so they can return.

Speaking of returning... Lucy, Peter, John and Susan return to Narnia this weekend... at least on film. Prince Caspian premieres in the US. I am sure in most places where you are its already out on pirated DVDs for a buck; copies with someone's head blocking the view part of the time, persistent coughing in the background and someone bumping the hidden video recorder while getting a refill of their bottomless popcorn bucket.

I don't have a copy of the book with me at the office as I type this so I am sure some Narniaphile will correct me. But near the end of the story (spoiler alert), Aslan is about to make Caspian the king. Caspian mentions he is not worthy and Aslan says that actually qualifies him.

I know I totally butchered that but the jest is that humility is a prerequisite to leadership. Think about it, if God resists the proud that means He resists the proud leader. Leading is being humble, serving, considering others more important than yourself, et. al.

In fact, Philippians 2 is such a great passage on being a leader of humility. I feel like I don't really need to point this out because I am sure you know this passage so well. There are three commands, that are worth another look nonetheless.

The first is in verse 3: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." In 1:17, we see that some in Paul's day were preaching out of selfish ambition. Some things never change. James says that if we harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in our hearts, we should not boast about it or deny the truth. He goes on to say that where you have selfish ambition, you find disorder and every evil practice. We know from Gal 5 that is an act of the sinful nature.

Do I have selfish ambition? Am I vain? Or do I choose to consider everyone I see better than myself - my team, my co-leader, the lost, the crowds, elderly, orphans in Romania, etc.?

The second is "Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." It's a given in this passage that we will look out for own interests. It's even given that we should. But Paul says we should look not only or merely for own interests. Interests could be just what we are interested in. You know that section in your facebook profile that no one read unless they are 'interested' in you. But interest also means 'something that contributes to or increases one's well-being'.

Do I look out for others interests? Do I really care about what contributes to their well-being? Or do I only care about what I care about? Am I only looking out for myself?

The last command is 'to have the attitude of Christ Jesus...' In one of the greatest passages that describes Jesus, we see that He - though God in the flesh - didn't hang on to that place of honor and glory. For our sake he emptied Himself. The Creator became creation. And that wasn't enough, He became a lowly servant. And that wasn't enough, the One who lives forever died. And that wasn't enough, He didn't just die. He died in the most excruciating way possible - on a cross. In fact the word 'excruciate' means 'to crucify'. Jesus' attitude was complete humility. No one can even come close to matching it because if you think of the most humble person they probably didn't die in such a painful sacrificial way and even if they did, they weren't God.

And yet, Paul commands us that our attitude should be the same at Christ's. Impossible apart from a greater source that goes back to the first part of the chapter. The 'if's...

if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ
if any comfort from his love
if any fellowship with the Spirit
if any tenderness and compassion

May we be so overwhelmed by being united with Him... so comforted by His love... so in sweet fellowship with the Spirit.. so inundated by tenderness and compassion... that we consider others as more important than ourselves, look out for other's interests and we take on the attitude of our Lord: a humble servant willing to give up all.

Scrapping My Ceiling

This week, my boss is giving me his boys loft. He has twins too but they are older and so they have out-grown it and want separate rooms.

So on Wednesday, Ken is coming over to reconstruct the loft for our boys. Because its so big, we are switching rooms with them. So Luke, jack and Drew will get the Master bedroom and Robin & I will move into the smaller upstairs bedroom. Part of the deal too will be that I will use the closet in the spare bedroom/office downstairs because the closet in the smaller bedroom isn't very big.

To get ready, Robin has been painting that room. Robin swears the previous color was prison grey and even said so on the can. (I guess I could have checked a few of the many cans I had to un-store from our garage. But I believe her).

Not only did it have prison grey walls bit it had ugly pop-corn ceiling texture. Sometimes referred to as cottage cheese ceiling. (But no quarter like the pic i harvested from internet.) I am sure it looked good in the day with those lovely grey walls in the master bedroom.

Saturday morning made a couple of errands with the boys to Home Depot and Sherwin-Williams. (S-W specially doesn't sell Prison Grey.) After lunch moved out our bedroom furniture with Robin's help and then I proceeded to bring down the cottage cheese. Robin took Jack and Drew to grocery store so they would be out of my hair. Luke stayed behind and was my helper. He refilled my spray bottle with water, went and got my protective goggles for me, held the ladder if he thought I needed it and even vacuumed some of the snow mounds with the power vac.

It's not that hard of a job especially if you spray pump water on it first. Scraps right off. Make sure you have a good tarp below to catch the 'falling snow' as Luke called it. But after looking up and falling debris for a while and after hours of helping a friend move on Friday, it wore me out. I made the mistake of not using goggles initially so until Luke ran and grabbed them for me, I accumulated thousands of tiny particles in my eyes. I think they all finally worked their way out last night. Just hope it wasn't asbestos.

Now all I need to do is apply joint compound to ceiling, sanding where needed and do same procedure to the old ceiling in the smaller bedroom after we build the loft and move the boys furniture into the big room.

Our Boys are Dressing Themselves These Days

Setting up ShareFest

Sharefest is in a few weeks. There are something like 300 churches in Boulder are doing it this year. (Does that sound right? I will keep it until corrected.) So our church, instead of working at a local school, is adopting homes in the neighborhood around us.

People had volunteered a few homes. So a few weeks, i went with Brian, our Associate Pastor, to meet these home owners and explained ShareFest and let them know someone referenced them. We told them someone would call them.

It was sorta old school for me. Like the days as a young pk when I would be riding with my dad and he would say, "I need to go visit this person. You can stay in the car or come with me". So I was forced into door-to-door evangelism unless I was willing to stay in the hot car with the windows rolled down.

Actually it was a good to see the master at work.

But those days are gone. Door-to-door evangelism probably rose out of the days of door-to-door salesmen and it was more normal. Like who is at home and unless you are a JW or a Mormon, we learned it was culturally irreverent to go door-to-door. If you are like me, you pretend no one's home when the JW lady comes through the neighborhood.

But Brian and I had fun. Most people were not home that day but we did talk to a couple of sweet older ladies. The response was usually, "well maybe I do have some yard work someone could help with. How much will it cost me?" "Oh, it's free." we would reply. "Well in that case my house does need painting."

Some of the folks were not home that day. (Sadly, one man had died and the person recommending him didn't know that.) So today we went back again to see if more were at home.

I have to say the lady we talked with today was the saddest case. Her front lawn was a junkyard. We realized right away why her next-door neighbor recommended her. Brian was real gracious. "Are you sure you don't have anything else you need us to do like take away some stuff or paint..." She showed us her garden that she needed help with and we walked by her car. From floorboard to ceiling in the passenger seat and all in the back was full of junk and rotting food. No lie. We saw her back porch and from floor to ceiling it was loaded with junk. We asked if she needed help with that and she said "no" she needed to handle that.

Oh man... we just decided that we would appoint a very firm but nice lady in our church to be project manager at her house. Hopefully someone can help her.

Leading with a God-sized Heart - Graham

Graham Bryant (in the back row with a beard) is leading the team in Bosnia. Spring as been a busy time for them. The 'Porn Nation' outreach that has been used all over the States came to Sarajevo - it was the first time it had been done overseas. Graham says, "About 150 students heard the gospel - by far the largest outreach in the 7-year history of the movement in Sarajevo. Many requested some sort of follow-up, but the coolest part of that was our believing students were excited to be a part of the follow-up. They went on many of the follow-up appointments with us and were able to share their stories with the students we met. It was exciting to see our students want to become a part of taking the gospel to the other students of their city. On top of that, we had a team of Albanian students and staff come and go on campus with us for a week. They really took every opportunity to share Christ here. It was especially powerful to hear Albanian believers from Muslim backgrounds challenge Bosnian Muslims to follow Christ."

About a month ago, the girls on the Bosnia team helped put on a women's retreat, gathering students from Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia for a weekend. (Sort of a reunification of Yugoslavia.) "The girls were really amazed to see how intently the students listened when spiritual truth was being shared", Graham writes. "This was a big answer to prayer!"

I think most of us know or have sung Micah 6:8.
"He has showed you, O man, (Women echo: O man)
what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."

This is what is required of us. This is what it means to follow Him. If we are launching movements of true followers of Jesus, this is what we should all look like. I am actually going to take these three last to first, because the progression I think goes from humility to mercy to just acts.

To walk humbly with our God - James writes that those of us who are rich should take pride in our low position because we will fade like a flower. I used the inclusive language of 'us' because we are so rich in comparison to most of the world. Humility says I have nothing except what has come from God above. There is nothing to take pride in. We humble ourselves before Him. It's not about us. We are in desperate need of Him. God dwells with a man who is humble. God delights in a humble woman.

To love mercy - Mercy comes from a big heart toward God. Mercy looks on people with compassion the way Jesus did and moves with acts of compassion that Jesus did. It is both loving the lost and serving the least. Mercy is always interpersonal. Mercy is forgiving 70 x 7. Mercy is like the Good Samaritan who puts himself in harm's way to minister to those in need. It is the fruit of a wisdom that comes from heaven. Mercy does not show favoritism. As pride is the opposite of humility, judgment is the opposite of mercy. Mercy triumphs judgment. And when you show mercy to the least of these, you show it to Jesus. (Matt 25:31-40)

To act Justly - Justice flows from the other side of a God-sized heart. Isaiah 42 tells us that Messiah Jesus would come to bring justice to the nations. Justice is crying out 'thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven'. Justice is seeing the oppression of people and taking what is wrong and making it right. Most often Justice in scripture speaks to the most vulnerable... the widows, orphans and strangers... those who are rarely experience justice. James says that what God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. The LORD himself goes one step further speaking about David: "He did what was right and just,so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" (Jer 22:15-16) . Justice is at the very heart of someone who knows God and follows Him.

Maybe you have had some of these thoughts: "This is a distraction from our higher calling" or "This is good for some but we are called to something else, something more noble" or "Good Deeds is a good strategy." But what if we saw that if we really want people to follow Jesus this is part and particle of what we call people to do? What if we did these things because that's what followers of Jesus do? What if we saw that it fits in win, build and send? What if we just desired that God would raise up men and women from every nation who would do what He required? Men and women who loved the lost proclaiming the Good News and served the least displaying the Good News?

Externally Focused Church Conference

I had a chance the last two days to attend the Externally Focused Church Conference just up the road in Longmont, CO. Basically a two-day conference on helping the church do what Christ did: love the lost and serve the least. It's actually still going on but I headed out early because I was at info overload.

A lot of cool highlights: lunch yesterday with the staff from my church, Alvin Bibbs, Rick Rusaw, Eric Swanson, reconnecting with friends, making new connections, lunch today with men who give me life, etc. But the highlight was two seminars I attended yesterday by Jack Jezreel. All-time!

Moses and Jesus

Drew: "I love God and Moses loves Jesus."

Yom HaShoah V'Hagvurah

Today is Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day. May we never forget...

The 10 holocaust movies/books that have had the greatest impact on me...

1. Night - Elie Wiesel

2. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank

3. A History of the Jews - Paul Johnson

4. The Hiding Place (book) - Corrie ten Boom

5. The Hiding Place (movie)
6. Schindler's List

7. Life is Beautiful

8. The Pianist

9. Holocaust (mini-series)

10. Sophie's Choice