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Archive for the ‘Formation’ Category

The Secret to a Long and Happy Marriage

Posted in Formation, Marriage on November 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This past weekend, I had the honor of performing a wedding ceremony for a young couple.  The bride is the daughter of some of our dearest friends.  The ceremony was beautiful and the night went well.  But one of the most meaningful experiences of the night was at the reception when the grandparents were given the opportunity to offer some advice as to how to have a long and happy marriage.  Both sets of grandparents have been married 55 years – what an accomplishment!

The best advice I heard was in order to have a long and happy marriage, you have to keep Christ central in your lives and in your relationship.  I believe that is very true and obviously, the grandparents are living proof that it works.

So how do we do that?  Here are some ideas.

The first thing I would say is that God planned marriage as an institution.  That is the way we are wired – for a relationship.  So we are made to desire and need a mate.  However, God also gave us an identity as a person.  So even though God’s plan includes becoming tied to another person, we were never intended to lose our identity through the marriage relationship but rather the relationship should complete our identities.

The second thing I would say is joined to the first – as individuals united by marriage, we can never disregard our own individual faith.  If we ever look to our partner to be the person of faith, then we are hindering our marriage relationship.  We must constantly be growing in our individual faith in order that our faith together as a couple can grow as well.

Once we understand these two principles, then we can do some things together to continue to focus our relationship as a couple on Jesus.

  1. Pray together – set aside time as often as you can to pray together.  Pray for your relationship.  Pray for one another.  Pray for your family.
  2. Worship together – experience times of worship together.  Go to church together.
  3. Study together – read a passage of scripture and talk about it together.  Read a book together and discuss it.
  4. Make time to be together – it is impossible to grow a relationship if we don’t spend time with the other person.  Have dates.

These are just a few suggestions as to how we can make and keep our marriage relationship centered on Jesus.

I must confess, I don’t do a great job of these.  But being a part of the wedding on Saturday reminded me of their importance.  So starting today, I am going to make these things a priority.

Have a great week!

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Stretching is Necessary

Posted in Formation, Humor on October 27, 2010| 3 Comments »

With the weather being so pleasant over the past two weeks (and partly due to the inspiration of my youngest son) instead of getting my cardio exercise done on a machine in the gym, I have been beginning my workout each time by running outside.  I mapped off a mile and decided I would start with that.  For the last two weeks that has worked well.

Until yesterday.  I was in the home stretch – the last 100 yards, when my right calf began to tighten.  I finished my run but my leg was beginning to really hurt.  I went back into the gym to finish my lifting routine but couldn’t do the leg press station because of the pain in my leg.  I finally gave up and took a shower.  I limped the rest of the day.

Last night, I was giving my son a hard time by blaming him for my pain.  He took it in stride but then asked me, “Did you stretch before you ran?”

I have to admit, I grew up playing sports and we always had to stretch before we did anything.  But yesterday I did very little stretching before setting out for my run.

He is probably right – the pain in my leg may very well be the result of my failure to prepare to run.  Stretching loosens the muscles and warms them up before they are put to use.  Had I stretched,  I might not be limping today.

As I have reflected on my experience, I was reminded that God sometimes stretches us.  And similar to the athlete stretching before activity, God’s stretching is preparing us for what is to come – making us ready to be of use in God’s plan.

So if you are going through a period of “stretching” today, just remember, God just might be preparing you for important service.  Take heart – God is in control.

And – if you see a fat guy limping around today, please have pity, it’s probably me.

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Encountering God

Posted in Formation, Hope on October 21, 2010| 1 Comment »

In my reading this morning, I was reading excerpts from A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God.  I ran across this quote from Edward Hays.  He said:

If we are to experience God, we must be open to God, to the mystical, to the divine, appearing in our lives.  And we must have an openness that is free of any preconditions about how that will happen.  Looking for God in a godly form is the great historical mistake.

How do you expect to see God today?  Maybe a precursor question might be “Do you expect to see God today?”  God is at work all around us.  But often we miss that encounter because we are not looking – or maybe we miss it because we are expecting to see God in a certain way.

My prayer for each of us today is this:  O God, I know you are at work right now, all around us.  Help me to see you today in a fresh way.  I want to experience your presence as never before!

May God bless each of us with eyes to see and ears to hear!

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Unfailing Love

Posted in Formation, Hope on October 20, 2010| 3 Comments »

I have been preparing for the funeral of my friend Ettie that will be held Thursday.  I met with the family yesterday to make the arrangements and discuss the service.  I asked to see Ettie’s Bible in hopes that I could get a glimpse of what passages she held dear.

One of her grandsons went to get it from her night stand and when he got there, it was opened to the book of Psalms.  He brought it to me as he had found it.  As I looked over the chapters on those open pages I noticed there are 4 or 5 chapters visible on those two pages so I have no idea what Ettie was reading the last time she picked up this book.

But the chapter that caught my eye was chapter 13.  The chapter is only 6 verses long but it is amazing!  It begins with a heart-wrenching cry:

How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Do you ever feel like that?  I am always transparent here and today is no different.  I feel like for the better part of the last 2 years,  I have been where this author was when he wrote this passage.  God has been working on me and it has been painful.

Maybe you are there today as well.  Maybe your cry is the same:  “How long O Lord must I endure . . .”

My encouragement for you (and me) is this – hang in there.  God is still in control.

The psalmist continues in this same chapter by saying this:

But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.

I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.

God will continue to take care of us.  God has a plan!

Don’t give up but rather trust in God’s unfailing love!

Be blessed today!

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Discipleship Challenge

Posted in Formation, Hope, Leadership on October 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

We started a college and young singles Bible study class at our church two weeks ago.  We are going through a study that focuses on what it means to truly be a disciple of Jesus.

The study is called In the Dust of the Rabbi and it is written by Ray Vander Laan.  Our lesson yesterday painted a picture of what being a disciple meant in the first century.   It was a life choice – a commitment to dedicate one’s life to follow a rabbi (in some cases, 24 hours per day) in order to become like him.  When Jesus selected his disciples, they gave up everything to follow and learn from him.

As we worked through the study, a statement came up that has haunted me since.  It is this:  “If I am not completely and passionately committed to following Jesus with everything I have, then I really cannot call myself a disciple in the Biblical sense.”

Has the term disciple become so common that we forget the significance of the word and the ramifications of its meaning?

I challenged the class to do something this week that will bring them closer to Jesus – to being more like him.  I then assigned one of the class members (thanks Coe) to hold me accountable to the same challenge.

Will you take the challenge this week?  What will you do to become more like Jesus this week?

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Trust Is the Key

Posted in Formation, Grace, Hope on October 13, 2010| 1 Comment »

I am getting really close to finishing the book of Romans.  Today I read further into chapter 15 and was reminded that I need to work on trusting God more.

Paul offers a blessing right in the middle of the chapter which I find a little odd.  Normally, Paul opens his letters with a formal greeting and then somewhere near the end he closes with a form of a blessing.

But here it is right there in verse 13.  He reminds us that one of the characteristics of God is hope and that God will fill each of us with joy and peace as we trust.

It would be easy to read over this verse (as I have done before) and miss the implication of Paul’s words.  He says that God will fill us with joy and peace as we trust God.

How many times do we pray and beg God for peace about something.  Or how often do we pray for God to make us happy or make things “good.”  And then as soon as we finish praying, we sit there and expect God to make it happen immediately.  We often expect some kind of Godly intervention to miraculously happen that makes our lives alright.

What Paul is saying is that the joy and peace will come but it will come when we let go of our expectations and trust that God really does know what we need.

Speaking from first-hand, real-life experience – that is very easy to write in this post but much more difficult to put into practice.  But today – that is what I am going to do!

So, in the words of Paul (Romans 15:13)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.


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Writing Your Own Obituary

Posted in Formation, Leadership on October 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I have already mentioned that I had the opportunity to speak to the college students at On Campus last week.  It was a wonderful time and I always love the chance to pour my life into theirs.  One of the things I challenged them to do was to think about their life and the difference they could make in the world – an impact for Christ.

I gave them an assignment and I thought I would give it to you today.

I am asking you to take some time today and give this some thought.  Spend a few minutes thinking about what you would like to see in your obituary.  When someone stands up at your funeral someday, what would you want them to say?

Make a list, a few bullet points, of qualities and accomplishments you would like to read in the paper after your death.

Some of mine include:

  • amazing husband and father
  • passionate Jesus follower
  • visionary
  • honest
  • compassionate

You get the point.  So make your list.

Now look at the list.

Go live that list today.

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It All Comes Back to Godliness

Posted in Formation, Hope, Leadership on October 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Last night I had the blessings of speaking to college students at their weekly worship service On Campus.  My topic was a challenge for them to take the reigns of their generation and rise up to make a difference for Jesus in the world.  I used 1 Timothy 4:1-12 as the text.  In this passage of scripture, Paul addresses Timothy, a young follower, and tells him, “don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young.”  He goes on to tell Timothy to live by example.  As I went through this passage with the students, I was reminded that what Paul was telling Timothy was not only good insight for a young person, but it is a challenge for all ages.

In verse 7, Paul says we should train ourselves to be godly.  And then in verse 12 he says this: “set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”

If we are to live godly lives, we must do it by example and our godliness should be visible in everything we do – specifically in the way we talk, not only the words we use but how we use them and the attitude behind them.  Our lives should be an example of godliness – the way we live, our priorities and our passions.  The way we love is a reflection of our godliness as well.  Do you love others as Jesus does, or is your love geared more towards what you can get out of the relationship?  Godliness is obvious in where we put our faith.  We can tell people all day long that we are followers of Jesus, but if we put more faith in our money or our own abilities than in Jesus then who are we fooling?  Purity also reflects our godliness.  Are your intentions pure in your dealings with others?  How honest are you as a person?

If we are truly to impact this world with the hope and love that following Jesus has to offer, then we must lead godly lives and our godliness (or lack there of) will be reflected in the way we live.

Live godly today!

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Be Still

Posted in Formation, Grace, Hope on October 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Monday’s are normally busy days for most of us.  We have an entire week in front of us with lots of appointments, tasks and things to get done.

But what if we started this week a little differently?  What if we started this week with a realization that God is in control?  What if we started this week with being still?

Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

I want to encourage you, no matter the time of day or even the day of the week in which you are reading this, stop.

Pause right here and be still before God.  Know that God is present.  Know that God cares for you.  Know that God is in control.

Be still.

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What Kind of Reflection?

Posted in Formation, Leadership, Missions on October 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

In my reading this morning, I read about Jesus sending his disciples out into the communities to minister and share the good news of hope.  It is remarkable to think that the birth of a movement began in a little known country by a handful of common folks.

What is remarkable about the Christian movement is that it is still dependent on common folks to spread the good news of hope in a world that desperately needs it.

In the midst of my meditation on these thoughts this morning, this verse – Luke 10:16 – stuck out to me and continues to convict me.  I realize that Jesus meant to encourage his followers with what he said – and it does.  But let the weight of the verse fall on you for just a minute – “He who listens to you, listens to me.”

I have to ask myself, “In my daily journey through this life, are the things I say a good reflection on Jesus, or do they hinder more than they help?”

There is great encouragement in Jesus’ words, but don’t miss the implication of great responsibility as well.

As we go through the day today, may this be our prayer: “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.”  (Psalm 19:14)

Be a blessing today!

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