Rarely post here anymore

I mostly blog over at Roots Run Deep: http://newbranchchurch.wordpress.com/

See you there.

The Vine and the branches

This video sermon clip blessed me this morning, by reminding me that my goal in 2010 needs to be Christ-likeness. Not just watching less TV, and eating better, and reading the Bible more, and being more productive, and hvaing more family devotions, and being more consistent in my own personal devotions, and a myriad of other moralistic transformations....my goal should be to be transformed by the power of the Gospel to be more like Christ on January 2, 2011 than I am today on January 2, 2010.

By the grace of God, by the power of God, for the glory of God, I will.

A Call to Men, to Fight!

Yesterday was Father's Day. Though my father has been gone for many years, Father's Day still holds a special place in my heart. When I say a "special place", I don't mean a place that is "moved" by quaint greeting cards or silly gifts...I'm talking about a place of quiet and solemn reflection....a place where I evaluate the kind of dad I am.

Ours is a world the diminishes the role and importance of fathers...to the great detriment of our society. I want to be a dad who loves the glory of God enough to point my children to Him. I want to be a dad who is more concerned with providing godly discipline and instruction to my kids than with being their friend. I want to be a dad who will be able to look my boys in the eye when they graduate from high school and college, and when they grasp the hand of their new bride, and when they hold their first-born child, and when they are my age....and ulitmately when we both stand before our Savior in heaven....to be able to look them in the eye and know with confidence that I lived a life of bold and courageous faithfulness for the glory of God that set a model before them that was worthy of being emulated.

O, to be the kind of man that will fight the good fight!

Men, I challenge you to pick up your sword and fight!
Check out this video of Paul Washer...doing a much better job articulating this than I ever could. Allow yourself to be challenged men!

If you're up for the challenge, then join me and other men from our church on Saturday, August 1st, as we go to FightClub '09 for a one-day training event, that will prepare you for the battle.Register for Fight Club '09

Blessed by my brother

Yesterday morning I had the privilege of riding to church with my family. Maybe that's something you get to do every week, but its been quite a while me.

As a pastor, I am usually out of the house by 6:30am at the latest on Sunday morning. I stop by Starbucks for a caffeine injection and then head to the office to begin final walk throughs of my sermon. I actually love that part of my job. I've done the work of study and preparation and have sought the Lord for His message and His direction for the day. But as I drive to the office on Sunday mornings, there is always the excitement of waiting to see how God is going to pull it all together. It often starts with a man-centered "anxiety" where I end up needing to confess that despite my efforts, the manuscript that lies in the manila folder in the seat next to me as I drive to church is paltry reflection of the magnificent revelation God desires to communicate through me. I admit to Him that I am incapable of such a calling, and surrender to Him...that's where the fun begins. I begin to prayerfully walk through the sermon, and slowly God unveils what His heart is for the morning, and I sense that anointing that only those who have done this can know of. Its quite amazing!

Yet, I had not realized the simple joy I have been missing. The joy of waking up my boys, and welcoming them to the Lord's Day. Of helping my wife with what she normally does all on her own each Sunday....getting out clothes for twins, ensuring the older boys look "presentable", cooking breakfast, and our usual favorite...."family worship time". Family worship takes on unique significance on Sunday mornings. What a joy I have been missing.

In fact, I had not been able to do this in so long, that even yesterday as I had the morning off, (thanks to Kevin Sanders who filled in for me - more about him in a bit), I got up early out of habit, and started making my way to church as usual. I made it about halfway to church (5 miles down the road), when I realized what I had done....I turned around, and headed back home. Needless to say, Susan was surprised to see me back, but a smile spread across her face when she realized it wasn't because I had left my Bible, but because I wanted to spend the morning with the family.

It wasn't a Normal Rockwell morning, but by God's grace, it was everything I needed to remind me how blessed I am to have such a wonderful wife and amazing boys. Thanks Lord, for all these blessings. Thanks, Lord for turning my car around, and bringing me back home. And thanks, Lord, for my brother and fellow pastor, Kevin Sanders who filled the pulpit for me.

Kevin did a marvelous job. Clearly, the Lord's anointing was on him yesterday as he brought a message straight from God's Word. It was such a blessing to sit next to my wife and listen to what the Lord wanted to say to me; to hear Kevin as he poured out to us what God had poured into him. Thank you, Lord, for both Kevin and Tyler...two young pastors who are maturing at a rate twice that of mine. I pray that He continues to use them in mighty ways to spread the fame of Jesus among the nations...and that He would grant us the privilege of seeing them continue to grow.

A wonderful Lord's day.....thanks God!

Evangelism Linebacker!

I think this is a super idea. Maybe I should stop preaching about evangelism, and bring this guy on staff!

...then again, maybe I should just start obeying the Great Commission myself! Afterall, if this guy were for real, he would be working overtime getting in my face....

Penn and the Bible

been too long since my last post - embarrassingly long. Anyways....

I ran across this today. Apparently it's been out there for a while, but I'm never one to deny that I am generally "behind the times".

On Sunday I delivered a message about the command within our Great Commission to "make disciples of all nations", and hit pretty hard on evangelism, or as Penn says in this video, "proselytizing". Wish I had seen this video before Sunday....I would have shown it in the service.

Talk about convicting! Don't enjoy this video. Let it impact you, and then do something about it.

Suffering for Christ

A couple of weeks ago we looked at the passage from Colossians that talked about as Christians we should expect to suffer for our faith. We talked about how we are most like Christ when we suffer for our faith and are persecuted for our faith.

I don't know what suffering is. Most of us in America don't. We don't suffer from a lack of the basic necessities of life (food, water, shelter, clothing), and we certainly don't know what it's like to be persecuted for our faith. To us, persecution happens when we are dismissed as irrelevant by society because of our faith in Christ. When someone laughs at us because we take the Bible literally....when someone smirks because we say Jesus is the only way to heaven....or when someone rejects us when we try to share the gospel with them. That's not really persecution is it? Maybe it's a mild form of it, but for lack of anything more harsh, that's what we know persecution to be.

When I think of Persecution I think of Paul, imprisoned for his steadfast insistence that Jesus was Lord. I think of people like Jim Eliot and those with him who were martyred by the Aucans for trying to take the gospel to that once unreached people group. But that doesn't happen any more, right? This is the modern era....the world is more civilized now, right?

WRONG!

Unfortunately, this still goes on, even today. Take this story for example. I get a weekly prayer update from Voice of the Martyrs , and this morning I received the following update:

CHINA- Prominent House Church Leader’s Sons Assaulted by Chinese Police – China Aid Association

On October 16, Zhang Jian, the elder son of Pastor “Bike” Zhang Mingxuan, was severely beaten by Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials in Beijing, China Aid Association (CAA) reported. Zhang Jian was at home with his mother, Xie Fenglan, when PSB officials entered their residence and secured the exits before severely beating him with iron bars for nearly half an hour. “As Zhang lay bleeding profusely, his mother called the ambulance, but the receptionist told her that a higher government authority gave a directive not to dispatch an ambulance to rescue Zhang because he is related to Pastor Bike,” CAA reported. “Xie Fenglan called her younger son, who rushed to the house and was also beaten by the same authorities,” CAA added. After some time a family friend took Zhang Jian to a local emergency room, where doctors said he was so severely beaten that he may lose sight in his right eye. The family has not been able to contact Pastor Bike, who was traveling at the time of the attack, and they fear he might have been detained by authorities. Pray for Zhang Jian and his younger brother’s quick recovery from the attack. Ask God to protect Pastor Bike and his entirely family during this challenging time. Praise God for this family’s faithfulness to risk their all for the sake of the gospel.

This happened in China, the day before my birthday...last Thursday. While I was getting ready to blow out 42 candles on my birthday cake, a brother in Christ was being beaten to within an inch of his life simply because he was a Christian, and simply because his father was a pastor of a church. THAT is persecution. And it happens every day in places all over the world like Sudan, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Iran, China, Myanmar, etc. Fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are being dragged out of their home and beaten, imprisoned, tortured, and in many cases murdered for their faith in Jesus Christ.

This drives me to two points of action. First of all prayer, and secondly, to live more boldly for Christ here in America.

The one thing that persecuted believers all over the world continue to ask for is prayer. They ask that we lift them up and pray for them....not to be delivered from persecution and not prayer for the poersecution to necessarily stop. They know better than we that throughout history, when the church is persecuted it becomes stronger and more committed and ultimately grows. What they ask is that we pray for them to be strong amidst the persecution. To be able to stand up under it and still keep the faith. They want us to pray that their faith would be stronger, and that they never give up. If you know the Lord, why not pause some time today and pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering for their faith right now.

Also, November 9th is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Spend time specifically on that day, learning about and praying for persecuted Christians throughout the world. For more information on the persecuted church, checkout these sites:

• http://www.persecution.com/ - Voice of the Martyrs website; informaiton about persecuted Christians.




• http://www.opendoorsusa.org/ - Open Doors, a ministry of prayer and missions to persecuted Christians.



• http://www.operationworld.org/ - a site based on the prayer resource by Patick Johnstone, "Operation World" detailing prayer requests for every country on the planet.

The second thing that learning about the reality of modern-day persecution of Christians drives me to do is to be more bold about my faith. I'm not persecuted for my faith in America. I don't know what its like to suffer for my faith like these brothers and sisters in China and the Sudan do. I shouldn't take for granted the freedom I have to read my Bible in public, to share the gospel with my neighbor, and to pray outloud in a restaurant without fear of persecution. One of the best ways I can honor the Christians who have been martyred and the Christians who are being persecuted at this very moment all around the world, is to live out my faith more boldly.

Who knows...perhaps this day may be the last day we have with this kind of freedom. May we not take it for granted!