Category Archives: Sacred Mundane

• Mini-pumpkin pies with graham cracker crust and fresh-whipped cream on top. Oh. My.
• Dolloping leftover whipped cream on my coffee the next morning. Pretty much heaven in a cup.
• Family day.
• A date with my son speaking his love language: A morning, just us, playing Legos.
• Cleaning out the cabin!
• Throwing things away!
• Organizing every closet in our house. Is there any better feeling?
• House bustling with activity. Kids, couples, conversation.
• Trusting God every step of the way.
• Our dear, dear house-mate. What a gift she is to us.
• Paul & Pam Hunter. No way to convey what a gift their wisdom and truth is to us.
• The legacy of a faithful servant of God. 93 years old and still preaching the Word!
• Looking forward to Volviendo tonight.
• Provision. Miraculous provision.
• $1,000 “short” on our paycheck. God miraculously providing $1,000 to cover our needs. He is so gracious!
• The ladies of TCF.
• Sleep.
• Organic, local Fuji apples on sale!
• Learning to trust.
• Pioneer Community Center, RENEW’s gathering space in OC!
• Learning together.
• Grace.
• Friends.
• Leaning on each other.
• Faithful servants who wash dishes.
• Moms seeking Him together.
• Generous gift of Beyond Organic food!!
• Lauren.
• Danielle home!
• His Word.
• His presence.
• His patience with me.
• Oh how He loves us.

Have a blessed weekend, friends. He loves you. Thanks for reading.

Sometimes my house feels like a train station.  Between our community garden, house-sharing, life-sharing, and hosting a home church here for several months, you never knew who would be here at what time. I love that. In the book Missional Mom, Helen Lee talks about seeing our homes as a “Missional Outpost.” I love this! Lee writes,

[Home] is a place to give you inspiration and direction, as you seek with your family to discover how God wants to use each of you in His grand mission.

Rodney Clapp, author of Families at the Crossroads, writes:

Christians in our society must retrain themselves to see faith as no less public than private … In a real sense, and like the homes of the NT church, our houses must go public. Our call is to live not in private havens or retreats, but in mission bases.

Now, just as each of our secondary callings are different, so will each of our “Mission Outposts” be different, cased on our individual needs, gifts, family dynamics, and temperaments. So, just for fun, I asked each of the women these questions. Perhaps they may be food for thought for you today as well…

1. What kind of missional outpost will yours be? How would you want people to describe your home when they come? What qualities do you most want in your home? What kind of activities do you hope take place in your home? What kind of children do you want to raise there?

2. What gifts, talents and passions has God given you to use for His mission? Which has He given your husband? Which has He given your children?

3. In what ways can you include your children in activities of knowing God, seeking God, and fulfilling His mission to reach out to the world?

4. This week how can you use a mundane task to turn your children’s hearts and minds to think missionally and encounter God in the daily activities of life?

As I reflected on question #1 I realized my desire is to have a home where

everyone who enters feels at home. I want our friends to all feel comfortable dropping by unannounced, opening the fridge if they’re hungry, unloading the dishwasher if they feel so inclined, taking a nap on the couch if need be.

At the same time, I do want our home to be a haven. I want my husband to know He has a refuge, a place to retreat from the pressure and stress of ministry life. I want my children to know there is a place to rest, to sit quietly with a book and just be.  So, I want our home to be both a hub and a haven.  A place where everyone feels comfortable coming, a place where paths cross, a place that is bustling with life and activity. And yes, a place where I can unapologetically turn off the porch light and lay low when my family needs calm and quiet.

I believe this is how Jesus lived. 

Even though He didn’t have a home, Jesus’ very presence was a home. And He was able to make it both a hub and a haven. He was always with people, always surrounded, meeting needs, showing love. And yet He drew away for quiet moments to pray. He felt no pressure and didn’t stress when He couldn’t meet every need. He walked with the Father, and so was able to be both a hub and a haven all at once.

I pray for that for our homes as well. I pray we would not seclude ourselves from the world, protecting ourselves with walls of isolation. And I pray we would also not overcrowd and lose the precious margin from our homes. Let’s pray for homes that are both hub and haven. A bustling center of ministry and life and a sacred retreat for the soul. Amen? Thanks for reading.

Yesterday morning I sat with some dear women and seven of our small children. The noise level in my little house was a force to be reckoned with, but as all moms seem to have the unique ability of tuning out chaos and focusing in, we maintained a conversation through wiping bottoms, serving snacks and soothing owies.

We were discussing the book, Missional Mom. Helen Lee’s message on motherhood and calling have put to into words what my heart’s been feeling and wrestling with for quite some time. I’ll let her speak:

[When we have children] the circumstances of our lives change [but] our calling remains teh same. We are still primarily called to know and love God, then love our neighbors as an outflow of that relationship. Our mission remains to “bear witness” and “make disciples,” both activities require our continuing participation in the world. The calling and mission God has for us remains unchanged once we become wives and mothers… Sometimes we replace our primary calling and mission by saying, “Motherhood is my highest calling.” When a secondary call displaces a primary one, the confusion begins. … I do not mean to devalue motherhood in the least. Motherhood is a critical secondary calling for those of us who have been given the privilege of playing that role in a child’s life. But we always need to put our role as mothers in the right context and never prioritize our secondary calling as a mother over our primary calling to know and love God” (23-24)

Now, if we aren’t careful, of course we can sacrifice the welfare of our kids in the name of “ministry” — that happens all too often. While we aren’t “only” moms, it’s true that the primary people God has called us to disciple are the little lambs in our home. But elevating Motherhood as the highest calling above all others is dangerous. We all have the same primary calling, whether we are married, single, work, stay at home, live in Cambodia or America, wherever we are and whoever we are and whatever we do, we are all called to love God, know Him, enjoy Him, worship Him, and witness of Him to a lost and broken world.

The reality is there will always be an endless list of “good things” we can do. And we cannot just say that all activities in the home are “godly” and all activities outside the home are “worldly.” God doesn’t make that distinction so neither should we. The Proverbs 31 woman was busy at home and outside the home. The bottom line is we must seek God and His heavenly wisdom. We must hear from Him. We must spend so much time pursuing Him and getting to know His heart that we are able to discern His voice and know His particular plan for us to fulfill our primary–and secondary–callings in life. We cannot compare or judge ourselves against each other. Before God alone do we stand or fall for how we spend our time as moms.

I pray we can be freed from the “mommy guilt” and the endless comparisons of what a “good mom” looks like. I pray we will make our decisions based on God’s Word,  His Holy Spirit’s leading in our lives, and the wisdom of our husbands as we  joyfully submit to them as to the Lord. I pray you are free to live the Sacred Mundane where every detail of life is an opportunity to know God and make Him known. Thanks so much for reading.

Last week I gathered with some dear women for a mom’s group. The topic: How to help our marriages flourish. As I prepared my notes, studying and praying and gathering information, I kept being haunted by one question.

Why do you want your marriage to flourish?

If we only want our marriages to flourish so that we’ll be happy, or fulfilled, or satisfied, or because it fills some need we have, then as soon as our marriage is no longer making us feel happy, fulfilled, and satisfied, we’ll quickly give up and move onto something else. If we’re really going to have the energy, motivation, enthusiasm and perseverance  to tend and cultivate a healthy, thriving, flourishing marriage, we’ve got to have a greater reason why. And I would suggest this is the reason why:

Because your marriage is part of a far greater mission.

I believe that the reason our marriage has flourished (it’s not perfect, but I love it!) is because “good marriage” isn’t the end goal. We didn’t enter into marriage for the purpose of marriage. Here’s what I mean:

Our marriages are less important and more important than we realize. By less important, I simply mean that nowhere in Scripture does it say that your sole purpose in life is to get married and be a “good wife”. We are certainly called to be a helpmeet (ezer) to our husband and to be fruitful and multiply, BUT the greatest purpose of all humankind in scripture is to glorify God, to go and make disciples, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Our ultimate purpose—showing the love of Christ to a lost world—is not dependent on whether or not you are married.

 However, IF you are married, then our marriage is part of that mission, and it’s a far more important part than we may even realize. Here’s what I mean:

Our marriage was meant to nourish us and the world around us by its beauty and spiritual fruit.  Fruit that we can enjoy, that our children can enjoy, that the world can enjoy—and that most of all puts on display what God is like. So our marriages are more important than we realize because our marriages are a picture of what God is like. It’s a picture of Jesus Christ and His church (Ephesians 5).

God is for our marriages. God created us to thrive in our marriages. He created marriage to be a picture of Christ and the church, a picture of His extravagant love for us. He wants the world to look at our marriages and say, “Wow! Now that’s love.” Our marriages are actually God’s evangelistic tool. He wants our marriages to be so beautiful, so lovely and strong and enduring, that everyone will want to know the God of our marriage. They will want a love like that.

And personally, I believe that this is the scheme of our enemy who wants to do whatever he can to discredit followers of Jesus and tarnish the beautiful picture of God’s love, by making their marriages are weak, wilted, defeated, discouraged. In other words, the health of your marriage is even more important than you think.

But as long as our goal is merely to “have a good marriage” we’re aiming too low and missing out on the deeper motivation, the God-given drive that will fuel our devotion and inspire us to grow in selflessly loving, respecting, submitting to, and honoring our husbands.

What if your marriage was the only picture of God’s love someone ever saw? What would they think? I pray God would grant us strength and grace to grow such grace-filled and sacrificially-loving marriages that the world can look and see a picture of God’s love. That’s a lofty goal. There’s no way we can achieve that on our own. It would take a miracle, a supernatural work of God to achieve a marriage like that. Which is why it’s the goal we need.  He’ll get all the glory.

Praying God’s grace for a God-glorifying marriage that only His power can achieve. Praying for you! Thanks for reading.

I had never been to the Lake Bradley Christian Conference Center, but always heard it was beautiful. So Friday morning, my parents, kids, and I piled in my dad’s truck and headed down to Bandon, Oregon to meet with the beautiful ladies of Trail Christian Fellowship for their women’s retreat. They had graciously arranged a hotel near the conference center for my parents and kids to enjoy so that I could spend time with them during free time.

So we made the five hour drive, and just when we thought there was no way it could be any farther away, we spotted the small sign “Lake Bradley Christian Conference Center.” I did think that it would be a bit bigger, but we pulled in and followed a narrow gravel drive, around a bend, and found ourselves in front of:

A trash heap.

An old warehouse/barn had shelves of old boats and recreational gear. Broken down cars sat there, along with an enormous trash heap piled high with debris and even an old Lazy Boy recliner. 

My mom was the first one to speak: “I am not leaving you here.”

Now my mind raced. “They had said Lake Bradley, right? I really thought this place would be nicer!”

Finally, of course, I got a hold of the Retreat Director and she let us know we had pulled in one driveway too soon.

We were in the backside of the camp.

We drove a 50 yard farther up the road and found the real entrance, and yes it was much bigger. We pulled in a wide and grand entrance to see acres of lush, perfectly manicured grass. Everything was immaculate. Remodeled, updated, spotless. The place was beautiful. My special cabin was even more impressive with a large stone fireplace and deck stretching out over the Lake. Breathtaking.

How interesting, I thought.

The difference between the front and backside of the camp. 

The truth is, we all have a backside of the camp. And I don’t just mean those days when we wear sweats and no make-up. We all have a backside in our behavior too, in our character, in our heart, where we battle the flesh and struggle.

Where, if we’re really honest, there’s a trash heap.

(And maybe even an old Lazy boy recliner.)

The deal though is that all too often we’re afraid to let anyone see the backside of the camp. The trash heap. The embarrassing part where our fallen humanity is so glaringly obvious and we’ d rather die than let someone see that broken place.

I’ve sat in discussion circles with women where everyone just shared what they were doing well. “Well, this is what I do in that situation.” In other words, we’re just going around the circle taking turns showing each other the frontside of our camp. And then we ooh and aah over how beautiful each other’s frontsides are, but we’re never feeling free because the truth is we’ve got trash heaps in our backside but we’re too afraid to let anyone see them!  I’m talking to myself too, just so you know.

This past weekend I was amazed by one thing in particular: All of our trash heaps look so much alike. Without fail, one by one, as I heard stories from different courageous women who were filling to step forward, confess sin, repent, share struggles, allow me and others to see the the backside of their camp, I was amazed that I could relate and identify to all of them because parts of their trash heaps looked just like mine.

And then I came home and yesterday morning my dear housemate and my dear husband had an awesome conversation, in essence discussing the backside of their camps, how God sets us free from fear and leads us into wholeness and healing.

It’s freeing–so freeing–to quit hiding the backside of the camp and start allowing others to walk with us as we deal with the trash heaps in our lives.

But here’s what keeps us bound: We’re embarrassed. The truth is, it’s embarrassing to let people see our trash. It’s humbling. The enemy loves to keep us bound in things that embarrassing to confess.

But here’s the thing: There’s no need to be embarassed because we all have trash heaps. We all have a backside of the camp. And by God’s grace He is making us new and slowly cleaning out the backside so that we live and walk in wholeness. And I’m not saying we should take pictures of our trash heaps and post them all over the web, but with those closest to us, we must let them walk close enough that they see the backside, and help us as we clean out the trash. 

What about your trash heap? Are you allowing those closest to you to walk through it with you? I pray we would find the courage to walk in humility and let God do business in the backside of our camp. Thanks for reading. 

Because I was unplugged all weekend, teaching God’s glorious Word to some beautiful women in Southern Oregon, I wasn’t able to write Week’s End With Thanks.  But I cannot begin the week without it–praise God for His faithfulness, His blessings to us can’t even be counted! Thanks for letting me begin the week this way–perhaps you will too? Thanks, friends, for reading.

• Swim lessons with my squirrels. The only kids in the entire OC swim complex because no one else signed up for the class. Three lifeguards, one instructor, and my two Littles. Ha! Thank you, Lord!
• 150 AMAZING beautiful women from Trail Christian Fellowship, good soil, humble hearts, so open and receptive to God’s Word! Hallelujah!
• My cousin, Matt, and his wife Angie, in Arizona going to get baptized next weekend! WOW, GOD!! Hallelujah!!
• Going to visit them next week!
• That God is always at work in ways we can’t even fathom.
• His mysterious ways.
• Ministering with The Sonflowerz! this weekend. Amazing girls with such hearts for the Lord and His women. So honored to meet them and serve Jesus with them!
• RENEW family all pitching in–the meal, the service, the kids, the worship, the tear-down. SO incredibly blessed by their servant’s hearts. We so do not deserve to have these beautiful people with us. Thank you, Father.
• Abraham’s worship.
• Melody’s voice.
• Sarah’s strumming.
• Listening.
• Cyndi.
• Trea’s sweet kindness to my mom.
• My mom getting to hear me teach for the first time ever! Tears. (mine!)
• Debra’s prayers, texts, love.
• Melissa’s generosity. So humbled.
• Letting go.
• Surrender.
• Barb, Jennifer, Nikki, Margaret, Stephanie.
• Seeing Lauren & Kelsey!
• Freedom! If the Son has set us free, we are free indeed!
• Tired children.
• That His mercies are new every morning.
• Holding my Little’s hands on our 5-hour drive. Precious hands tucked in mine, want to remember these moments forever.
• Tickles.
• A big hamburger after the retreat.
• My cabin overlooking the Lake. Really?! I get to do this?
• Aaron & Candi.
• Praying, trusting, praying.
• My heart moving to Oregon City.
• Entering a slower season. (I think?)
• Home sweet home.
• My own bed.
• Firewood.
• A fresh week and less-crowded calendar. Thank you, Jesus! 
• That He’s worth it. Whatever “it” is — He’s worth it.

{Bless you, and I pray God’s presence FILLS you this week. Speak your praise to Him this morning and begin your week with thanks! Thanks for reading.}

“Community” is a popular concept these days. We want to be in community, live in community, be part of a community. And make no mistake, this is awesome! We do too! We so desire our little church family to be a place where we grow and live in community. We also now have a fifth family member, our dear Debra with whom we share home–and life. Together we are learning, daily, what it means to grow together, and do life together, in community. Two things God has been showing us and challenging us with:

 1. True community means making decisions for the good of the whole.

“In our experience, people are often enthusiastic about community until in impinges on their decision-making. For all their rhetoric, they still expect to make decisions by themselves for themselves.  We assume we are masters of our own lives.” (Total Church)

Isn’t this the truth? Especially in America–we want to belong, we want the support and camaraderie of community, but we still want to make decisions for ourselves. We don’t want anyone to tell us how to spend our money or our time. We don’t want to have to lay aside our own preferences or desires in order to meet the needs of others. But this is absolutely essential if true community is to take place. While I still have so far to grow in this, I see often how our housemate does this. She always is making choices and decisions in order to bless us, when it would be way easier for her to only think of herself. She inspires me in this.

2. True community means loving people in the community, not the idea of community. 

“He who loves his dream of community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial” (Bonhoeffer, Life Together, p. 15).

We are still just so stinkin’ idealistic, right? We all have these grand dreams about what “community” should be, where we all share perfectly, love perfectly. Where our kids play nicely together all the time and we never irritate each other. The reality is no matter how awesome the community we all still sin. No community is the picture-perfect idea we imagine, where everyone is funny, engaged, where there are no awkward silences and no comments that rub us the wrong way. The reality is that true community is more challenging than we ever imagined, but better than we ever dreamed.  Because really knowing real people, and really seeing true life-change, and really serving each other and loving each other and fighting for each other is what God intended His Body, the Church, to do.  We see Christ in each other. We hear from God through each other.

This week a friend–who knew I had a very busy week–came over and picked up all my dirty laundry, took it to her house, and did it all for me. This was such a picture for me of community. Nothing glamorous or sexy about stinky, dirty laundry. But she recognized that part of “doing life” together means “doing laundry” for each other. It also was a picture for me of how community means humbling ourselves enough to let others SEE our dirty laundry. I cringed a little as I handed over baskets full of who-knows-what!  But the truth is, we all have dirty laundry, right? Living in community means letting down our guard and letting others help us, even though it means they get to see our grime and smell our stinkiness.

{What does this mean for you this weekend? Who are you “in community” with and how can you make decisions for their good today? How can you let go of any idealistic dreams and simply embrace the real people God has placed in your life? Thank you for embracing ME and allowing me to walk this road with you. I’m teaching a women’s retreat this weekend and would SO welcome your prayers! Thanks so much for engaging in this little online community together.}

Every October this question comes up:

How are Christians to relate to our culture with regards to Halloween? Are we to shun Halloween, celebrate it, dress up as Bible characters? Hand out gospel tracts to the kids that knock on our door? Turn off our lights and hide in the dark? Further, what do we do with all the OT feasts and celebrations. For example, our Jewish (non-Christian) neighbors are preparing to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles while my Christian friends are buying Halloween costumes. What’s up with that? What are we to do? What is the Christian’s relation to holidays and holy days? Here are a few biblical principles to consider, to help as you navigate this issue for yourself. (Click here for audio of this message.)

1. We are free.

Colossians 2:16-17 says, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”

It’s clear that Christ fulfilled the law, and that all the OT festivals, feasts, and sabbaths are a shadow of Christ. They all speak of Christ. So we are not to let others pass judgment on us for not observing them, because they are just shadows, and the real thing is here now. The wrong isn’t necessarily in celebrating something, the wrong is giving in to the the fear of man and not the fear of God.

2. We are to do all things “in honor of the Lord.”

Romans 14:4-6 says, “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.”

Again, we read that the command is to “not judge one another!” We often get so concerned in what Christians should or should not do, when the real thing we should be concerned about is not judging! But who are we to judge, if you will? Ourselves. Be “fully convinced in your own mind.” That is, figure out your convictions and stick by them. And what you decide to do, do it “in honor of the Lord.” If you can honestly say that the choice that you make is “ in honor of the Lord,” awesome! Praise God. You stand and fall before Him and no one else.

3. We are to do all things “for the sake of the gospel.”

1 Cor. 9:19-23 explains that Paul became like the Jews to win the Jews to Christ, he became like the Gentiles to win the Gentiles to Christ. Everything he did he did “for the sake of the gospel.” Paul’s guiding principle, with regard to culture, was, Is this the best route to win people to Christ and spread the gospel of grace? The question then, for us to be discerning culturally, is “Am I doing this for the sake of the gospel?”

For our family, our personal conviction is that we don’t celebrate Halloween. Honestly, I hate Halloween. I can truly see no redemptive value in it. Plus, I spent several years discipling a girl who came out of a background of the occult and horrendous witchcraft practices. Knowing, from her, what the “real” Halloween is all about has made me detest the holiday. Plus, since Christ conquered sin and death, we do not celebrate sin or celebrate death.

However, note THIS: It is possible to engage in Halloween festivities for the sake of the gospel and in honoring God. It’s fun to watch my kids engage and wrestle with this as well. When they see our friends with Jack-O-Lanterns or costumes or what not, they will say, “They’re just celebrating Fall, they’re not celebrating death.” I smile and say something like, “Yes–celebrating Fall is great! Let’s thank God for this wonderful season and celebrate His beautiful creation!” Again, It is possible to engage in Halloween festivities for the sake of the gospel and in honoring God.

Also note: It is also possible to celebrate Easter (or Christmas) in a way that doesn’t honor God or further the gospel at all. It is possible to celebrate Passover and the feast of tabernacles, as a family, in a way that celebrates Christ and honors God and furthers the gospel. It is also possible to observe those same things in a spirit of legalism or the fear of man. It is possible to observe certain holidays in a spirit of thinking we’re somehow spiritual superior because we observe them. And it’s possible to NOT observe certain holidays in a spirit of thinking that we’re somehow spiritually superior because we don’t observe them.

The key, as always: the heart.

–

{Response: How does your family celebrate or not celebrate in honor of God and for the sake of the gospel? I would love to hear your thoughts and perspective. Thanks, friends, for reading.}

“And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Cor. 6:11

~

Sunday night we sat under the birch tree for one last outdoor gathering of church.  We were discussing–as a church family–where we wanted to give money globally. We were discussing wells and water, micro-loans and mosquito-nets. We all had blankets around our shoulders, excited that because we’d stayed outside one more week we had saved $235 (the weekly cost of a rental space) that we were then able to send overseas to those in need.  Jeff was sharing that his dream is to give 50% of all our church income to meet urgent needs around the world.

As I sat there, I thought: Am I dreaming? Do I really get to belong to a group of dear, humble saints who get giddy over mosquito-nets and micro-loans? Who are really willing to give their lives away? Afterwards, I walked into my house, only to find my kitchen FULL of people doing dishes. Laughing, talking, up to their elbows in suds. Really? Do I really get to be part of this family, where everyone pitches in and cleans the kitchen when we’re done?

When everyone had left I watched as Debra–our housemate and fifth family member–tidied up before heading downstairs to bed. Living in community with her has already proven such an overwhelming gift of grace and love. Who knew? I, who used to say I never wanted anyone to live with us. Who knew God could change our hearts–by His grace–so much?

I looked around at my funny house. I remember the first time I saw it I thought it was the ugliest thing I’d ever seen. I remember the process, of letting go and selling our “dream” home. I remember weeping over The Hole in Our Gospel and adding a couple more dear little sponsored children to our family.

Oh, of course we still have so far to go. This is not an “I’ve arrived” post. *smile* But Jeff often reminds me that occasionally glancing back over our shoulder long enough to marvel at the grace of God is really a good thing. He has done so much. He has changed us so much. I am a different girl than I was just two years ago. 

You are different too, right?

What has He done? Speak it! Share it! Tell the world the testimony of what God has done for you.

God has set me free from being anxious over money. He’s made me not care about keeping up with the Jones’s or achieving some white-picket-fence American-dream life. He has given me courage where I used to be bound by the fear of man. He’s given me joy with my kids where I used to feel stress. He’s breaking me down–over and over and over–and emptying me out. I can feel it. It doesn’t always feel good, but I can feel it and I know it’s Him.

A simple, brief reflection like this gives me courage to know that He will continue His good work. He is not done with you yet! Often I look and see how far I have to go. How selfish I still am. How anxious I often become. How frustrated I still sometimes get.

But He has done mighty things in my life and I rejoice in them and believe that He is not done with me yet! 

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” Phil. 1:6

Can I get an Amen!??

Friend, He is not done with you yet. Where have you been? How has He changed you? Where has He set you free?

Glance back today, just for a moment, and rejoice in all the good He has done. 

And be glad … He isn’t finished yet.

Just thanking Him today. Thanks for reading.

We talked last week about Moses’ leadership, and if we really want people to see God move, we have to lead with transparency and courage, embracing ambiguity and learning to live by faith. In short, Moses had to answer a lot of questions with a simple and humble, “I don’t know.”

But in the midst of all the “I don’t know” responses, there were a number of things he did  know. There were some thing God spelled out for him loud and clear:

Moses knew the kind of people God wanted the Israelites to be. 

God didn’t spell out the map, the gameplan, the agenda, the schedule. Again, no coordinates or timetable are indicated at all. But God spent a whole lot of time communicating to Moses how He wanted His children to be a people set apart, glorifying Him with everything they did. He spelled out how He wanted them to live, to live as a shining example of God’s provision. He made it clear they were to live on manna, trust Him for their daily needs, absolutely refuse to mingle their beliefs with the idolatrous nations around them.

Though they had no idea where they were going or how long it would take, they knew plain well what God expected of them along the way. 

In other words, we as leaders (of 3 small children or 3 million adults) cannot spell out exactly what the journey will be like or how long it will take or exactly what the destination will be. But we can lead people to live as Christ-centered, God-glorifying sojourners, glorifying God in every step we take along the way.

(I didn’t say it’d be easy.)

God made clear to Moses how He wanted His children to be distinct. They were to stand out, to be different, to be marked by a radical departure from the ways of the world. This included both behavioral standards and dietary laws. We are no longer “under” these dietary laws and behavioral standards that were specific to that time and culture, but God is continuing to lead His children to live different, to stand out (and not because we’re obnoxious!), to be marked by a radical departure from the ways of the world. So you, as a leader, are responsible for leading your 3 children or 3 million people in how God wants you to live out His mission in this world. All of us have the same mission: To love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength. And we’re to love our neighbors as ourselves.  That’s my mission. That’s your mission.

How will you do that? 

That’s what we need to know.

The most common question Jeff and I are asked these days is this: “What makes this new church-plant any different from all the other churches all over the place?”  This is usually asked by people who are fed up with church or frustrated, or who have been hurt or who are searching (aren’t we all?). Most recently someone asked me to answer that question in 4 sentences.  Here is what I said:

1. We exist to spread the gospel, making disciples, furthering God’s Kingdom, rather than spreading our church name, making followers of us, furthering our own empire. 

2. We equip people to go live for God where they already are, in their workplaces, communities, families, and current spheres of influence, rather than programming frequent events and asking people to come to us and support our activities.

3. We let resources flow through our church, keeping our operating expenses as ridiculously low as possible so that funds can be used to bless and serve a world in need of hope, rather than on creating a comfortable environment for ourselves.

4. We encourage multi-generational family-modelled ministry, where all ages and life-stages are learning and serving together, rather than dividing people into homogeneous and unnatural groups. 

Now here’s the thing–while God’s word clearly spells out how He wants us to live, exactly what that will look like is going to vary with each person, church, family, situation.

But we must think long and pray even longer to ask God Who He wants us to be. 

We won’t know the exact length of the journey, or even where we’re going, but we can know who God wants us to become along the way.

He wants us to become more and more like His Son. 

Would you spend some time today thinking and praying about who God wants you to be along the way? What are your distinctives? How will you seek to glorify Him in your family, church, workplace, sphere of influence? Think, pray, and jot down ideas.  Yours will be different from mine, but we can each glorify God along the journey. Have a blessed Monday; Thanks so much for reading.