Prayer Request

I would like to ask for anybody that reads this to remember by brother in prayer. Michael and I have a long history and at one time he actually wasn't my brother. We first met in the 2nd grade playing ball together. We later became best friends in the 5th grade and stayed that way until we were about 16. Michael's past is full of tragedy and confusion and I'm just thankful that he has come out of it with a good head on his shoulders. Michael had always joked about coming to live with us one day when finally one night he called and asked if he actually could. Long story short, michael had family issues that he and his twin brother needed to get away from and knowing that, we accepted. Michael's dad forfeitted his parental rights and my parents became his legal gaurdians. Hence, we are now brothers. Fast forward to now. Michael is going through a bad divorce from his wife. She has just given birth to their daughter and Michael rarely gets to see her. We talked for a while the other day about how hard it was for him to not be able to see her when he wanted to and his wife is making things even more difficult according to him. My heart really goes out to him. I come from a divorced family and know the effects it will have on the child but I can't imagine what he is going through now. I was reminded of our message a few weeks ago about how the gospel can transform even the most jacked up of relationships. I think about all the relationships that are going to be jacked up because of this divorce. Michael's relationship to his wife, to his daughter, to God, to the rest of his family. His wife's relationship to him. His daughter's relationship to him. So many people are affected by this and I just pray that somehow michael could see the redeeming power of the gospel through all of this. I'm trying to get him to come to visit NCCd with us but more than that, I'm trying to show him a non-judgemental, loving attitude from a person who just wants to see him make it through ok. I want him to know that Jesus is our rescuer and he can rescue him from even this. So all that to say would you please pray for michael and his family.

In defense of the Gospel

An opportunity presented itself thsi week as I got into a discussion with a professed atheist about different religions. It seems as though more than just religious people equate the gospel with rules as the atheist continued to compare christianity with having the same god and generally the same rules as other religions. So i began to unpack some of the gospel for him in hopes to give him a different perspective than what he had formed for himself. We spoke about the freedom in the gospel from law and how Jesus and the gospel was the real difference in Christianity. We spoke about God's amazing grace and provision and how we don't have to live guilty, burdened lives measured by rules. It always came back to rules though and even as I tried to steer it away from that and show the beauty of a gospel the frees you rather that burdens you, I'm not sure the point came across.
So it got me thinking about just how big the gospel is. How in this one conversation we only talked about a portion of the gospel. We could have talked about the redemptive work of the gospel or the transforming power of it or event the saving power of it. Maybe a faith that is not defined by rules is what he needed to hear at that point. This was really the first time that I was really intentional with my faith...it wasn't nearly as scary as i thought it would be. God is good, maybe he'll provide another opportunity with the same person adn I can unpack the gospel a little better.

Gospel Parenting

So, to say that I have had writers block would be an understatement. But this is something that we may need some help with so here goes...

We (melissa and I) have changed, er...adapted, our way of parenting. Since being at NCCd and learning about the gospel and the difference between it and what we have been taught we decided to apply this knowledge to the way we parent Caleb. So basically it's like this...We want to raise our children to know that we love them...period. There is nothing they can do to earn our love or make us love them more or less. There may be times when we are more proud or more disappointed but our love is constant. Kinda like the gospel. We want Caleb to obey us because he loves us not in order to gain our love. Compare that to the gospel, we are obedient to Christ as an outpouring of our love for Him. Not because we are trying to do something in order for Him to love us.
This works pretty good for us in most parts. When Caleb gets in trouble, we always assure him that we love him but his behavior is not acceptable. When we discipline him (because believe it or not, 19 month old boys are not perfect angels as some would believe) our love for him is the center of discipline. The hard part comes in praising him. Because we do not want him to desire to do good things, instead we want him to do good things because he loves us and knows we love him. We hope that progresses when he is older to doing good things as a result of his relationship with Christ. We try to steer clear of the word "good," as in "Caleb you were good today" or "Be good at day care." The struggle is this...how do you praise your children and encourage good behavior without associating good works with acceptance? I'm beginning to wonder if instead of avoiding "good" we should emphasize "Jesus" more...Any ideas?

"Man Up"

Above everything else heard today, those words resonated with me the most. I love my wife very much, i treasure her, she is beautiful and caring and patient and loves me much more than i deserve. Men can be pretty sorry in today's society. We are lazy, prideful and don't want to accept responsibility for our actions so our women end up doing our jobs for us. Why should they take the burden of our jobs on top of the jobs they already have? It's not fair to put that off on them.

So all that to say that our message today was on NCCd's stand on women's role in the church and from that i was convicted to be a better husband to my wife.

We (men) are the ones responsible for leading our families and churches. We are the ones who should stand up and take the responsibilities God gave us. We should "man up."

So many people misquote Paul in saying that wives should submit to their husbands and never look at the next line that says husbands love your wives as christ loved the church.


Not that i think that i am a bad husband but i know that i can do better. i can love my wife as christ loves the church...a sacrifical love where her wants and needs are always put before mine.


I pray that god would help and guide me to be the man of my family and the man in the church that he has called me to be. that he would teach us as well as our wives to glorify him by being obedient to the roles that he has set for us.

funny but true

a good day

i had a really cool experience tonight. my best friend growing up, who i haven't spoken to in almost a year called me out of the blue to share with me the news of their pregnancy. me and josh shared everything growing up, we were very much inseparable. but as you grow older relationships fade as life goes on. we still speak but rarely. it was more than a catching up conversation though. the last time i saw josh was at my ordination last year. i was very much the religionist then. tonight i shared with josh the joys of not only our new church but more importantly what the gospel was doing in my life and my desire for him to experience the same. we talked about traditional church, contemporary music, the work of christ and the need for humility in most churches. great conversation. he is like me and has grown up in traditional church and i pray that god would open his eyes and show him the magnitude of the gospel. it was a great conversation and i think he and his wife will join us at new city soon.

also had some anxiety today. we have a funeral to go to tomorrow for a good friend of my wife's family who was also somewhat of a "patriarch" at our last church. he was a wonderful godly man who from i could tell in the short time i knew him loved Jesus very much. with the funeral though comes being face to face with many of the reason's we left the last church. it's tough to be humble and love some people regardless of any feelings we have about them. Jesus said that the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves. who is our neighbor? these people would certainly qualify as mine. if the gospel is going to work through us we have to move past our issues with our neighbors. Jesus moved past our issues so we really have no choice but to look past theirs if we desire to be like christ. pray for me that god would cover me with humility and allow someone to see the gospel working through me.

On a different note