My Hero, Sarah Howes

Sarah Howes is my hero. Back in April or May when we were forming the new church, it didn't look like we were going to be able to put together a Vacation Bible School this summer. Sarah decided to do something about it. She came up with a plan for Splash, a water-themed VBS, which she organized for the kids of Lifepath Church at Bear Creek Park. At 13 years of age she is already an amazing person.

39 kids from age 4 and up have registered. They come in bathing suits for water games and Bible stories. Here is Rhonda Armor telling the kids a Bible story. I didn't know Rhonda was actually a professional story teller back in Louisiana.

Sarah recruited lots of help. Here she is with Jenny Snyder. They are either doing sign language to a song with the word Lord in it or or possibly telling the kids they're losers. No, I'm sure they're signing....

Sarah got a lot of help from other youth in the church. Here are three of them with the biggest water gun I have ever seen.

Josh Holl is prepared to learn the Bible and commit some water-based violence.

Here are a couple of people we know getting into the spirit of things.

Two of my favorite kids. I wonder what happened to Jake's glasses?

Our Director of Student Ministries, Nicholas Jones, looks like he lost the water gun duel.

It's all about the kids. And the early reports are they are having a blast. Thanks to all who are helping and especially to Sarah. I'm so proud to be a part of a church with a person like her in it!

I Think Someone is Confused

The Pew Forum recently did a massive survey of religious life in the United States. It made headlines a couple of weeks ago so you may have noticed. Many of the findings were interesting and I've had several requests to preach on the results which I will no doubt do in one form or another.

But in the meantime I've noticed one little quirky result:

9% of all atheists surveyed are absolutely certain that there is a God.

source: http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/table-belief-in-god-or-universal-spirit-by-religious-tradition.pdf

Do you think someone is confused about the concept of atheism?

Response to Questions about Fenelon's The Seeking Heart

Before reviewing N.T. Wright's book, Simply Christian, I want to try to answer some of the great questions Bud Reed left in the comment section about Francois Fenelon's writing, The Seeking Heart.

Bud, bear in mind that I'm not an expert on Francois Fenelon or on 17th century Catholic theolgy, but I'll do my best. If anyone has any wise words for us, they are very welcome to leave a comment.

You ask what Fenelon means when he says we should separate ourselves from restless thoughts that grow out of self-love.

My understanding is that Fenelon is talking about the stress we feel when things happen to us that we can't control. The negative feelings you mention - anger, envy, and worry - are exactly what Fenelon means. Fenelon believes that these feelings are a sign that our faith still needs to grow. Our fear and worry when we can't see how things are going to work out exposes our lack of trust; our anger when our will is blocked shows how we desire our will to be done rather than God's; our envy of others shows our lack of contentment in what God has given.

Fenelon believed that we should see God at work in our daily circumstances, especially those that force us to confront our self-love in painful ways. Allow God to kill this self-love and learn to love God instead. This is what he means by receiving our cross.

Here's an example. Let's say you are publically maligned. People say unfair and incorrect things about you. You make an effort to tell them the truth with patience and gentleness but the attacks continue. People not only attack your actions but your character and your motivations. They lie about you. Does it hurt? Why? Because we human beings want others to like us. We want people to respect us. We want people to look up to us.

According to the Bible this is a form of self-love. The Bible makes it very clear that you should care much more about what God thinks about you and not worry to much when people hate you for doing what is right (Luke 6: 22, 26, Matthew 22: 16, Galatians 1: 10 etc.) Fenelon would say that you should do what you can to set the record straight but beyond that, it is out of your control. If their hate causes you pain or anger, see that as God teaching you not to depend on the love of people but rather on his love for your happiness. Let your need to please people die.

Make sure to spend time in prayer, asking God to teach you to care more about serving him than you do about your reputation with men and women. Fenelon's constant advice is to sit quietly in prayer with God.

Accept the lesson with gratitude. Once God has set you free of your need to be respected an enormous burden is lifted. People no longer have power over you to make you miserable. You no longer have to defend yourself from every attack like a defendent on trial. You can endure the scorn of others and it no longer affects your joy. Remember that God's purpose is that you have freedom and joy. Any pain along the way will be worth it.

Accepting the cross of daily circumstances doesn't mean doing nothing. You mention working hard to find a job when you were out of work. Fenelon would approve of working hard to find a job. But he would also say this is a great opportunity to learn to trust God while you are without one. Do what you can. Then be at peace and trust in God to do what he can. If you are not at peace in the midst of the struggle, see that as a sign that you need to put your worries before God in prayer.

Fenelon also counsels repeatedly that we should be patient with our failures. Dying to our self-love is a life-long process. Being patient with yourself is just as much an act of love and humility as being patient with someone else. Be able to laugh at yourself.

As another Christian once wrote, angels can fly because they take themselves so lightly.

The Best Worst Movie of All Time

Okay, it's Monday, which is my day off but probably your least favorite day of the week. I thought I'd brighten your day with some moments from the Best Worst Movie of All Time.

There are bad movies and then there are movies that are so bad that they're fun to watch and then there's "Plan 9 From Outer Space."

It has it all - a plot involving aliens who use zombies to stop humanity from accidentally blowing up sunlight and thereby destroying the universe; a dead leading actor (Bela Lugosi died after filming his first scene and the rest of his scenes are played by another actor); constant production mistakes such as flying saucers that are described as "cigar shaped" which are actually shaped like.....saucers; and some of the most amazing dialogue ever written.

Here is a 5 minute clip of some of the best lines:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHRq80QNnJM

Happy Independence Day

I don't have many customs when it comes to secular holidays, but every July 4 I sit with the Chronicle and read the Declaration of Independence, which it reprints every year. Enjoy:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Review of Epic: The Story God is Telling

In recent years academics and popular writers alike have come to a conclusion which any child knows instinctively: Stories are important. We don't just tell them for entertainment. We use stories to make sense of the world. Ask someone to tell you who they are and it's very likely that you'll get it in story form. "I was born in Dallas in 1964......"

And we don't just have individual stories. We tend to fit all of life into one overarching story. All the facts of life, our daily experiences, our way of looking at the world are all shaped by what we think "life is all about."
The crucial question is, What is the Big Story All About? If the story of the universe was a book, what would the chapters be called?

John Eldredge thinks that many Christians don't know what story we are living in. And because we don't understand the story, we miss out on what's important. Imagine Frodo telling Gandalf, "I don't really care about a silly Ring. Sauron Shmauron. Let's go to the Prancing Pony for a pint." Imagine Luke telling Obi-won, "Save the Princess? Restore the Republic? That's so old fashioned. I'm going back to my uncle's farm." But Eldredge argues that is precisely the attitude of many Christians who settle for much less than being a part of God's Epic Story.

Using the Scriptures, Eldredge lays out the chapters of the Big Story and where we fit into it. I could quibble at the way he structures some of his chapters. (For instance he gives the angels a much bigger part in the story than I think the Bible gives them.) But overall, he does a wonderful job of helping us understand our world by understanding our story - or rather, God's Story.

The book is quite short, simple, easy to read, and worth your time.

My Big Debut in Family Worship

With Greg gone on the youth mission trip, I filled in during the Family Worship Service last Sunday. That service is normally high energy but as you might imagine, the level of chaos went up a bit with me doing Greg's part. At one point I had to tell the story of Naaman from 2 Kings 5, using Mike Brentari, Jack Schloz and Dalmo Barros as human puppets. Someone with an Iphone grabbed a few pics.

Above, you can see me putting Brentari in the position I wanted him in. For some reason I had to grab his ears to do it.

This scene evidently called for Brentari to wear an apron and carry a feather duster. I'm sure that's in the Bible.

Dalmo was the king of Israel and he really got into his part. He's the one wearing a crown and rolling all over the floor. The kids were howling with laughter most of the way through our story. The adults in the service had fun too.

The guys were good sports and I think they have a great future on the human puppet circuit.