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Loving the Local Church!

I'm in Washington DC right now with several friends enjoying a "Weekender" conference at Capital Hill Baptist Church. There are people here from all over the world. It is amazing to hear what God is doing and be with fellow brothers in Christ who are devoted to shepherding God's folks.

Isn't the local church amazing? Despite what the media leads us to believe and what the Enemy wisphers in our ears, God is alive and well, and His church is spreading powerfully. My heart is thrilled and humbled to get to do what I do.

More to come...

The Scandalous Grace of God

In one breath Simon Peter is claiming, “Not even if I have to die with you! I will never deny you!” (Mark 14:31) and in the next breath telling a servant girl who accused him of being with Jesus, “I neither know nor understand what you mean.” (15:6ff), pretending to not even know Jesus. He would do this two more times with others. All less transpired in less than 18 hours! Before these denials took place, Peter couldn’t even stay awake to pray when Jesus had pleaded for prayer. What a tragedy. The shining star among the disciples has fallen.

It’s easy to condemn Peter for his actions, but remember Jesus was being rushed through a hostile, secrete ‘trial’ in the middle of the night, which would almost certainly lead to his death. All the disciples fled. It’s understandable, but it’s tragic.

Did Jesus know this would occur? Did he know one of his inner three disciples and friends would deny him at the moment he needed him the most? Did he know one of the disciples with the most potential, who had come so far, would in essence stab him in the back? Of course he knew. Not only did he know, he told Peter (14:30). But, what is shocking about this, is the other thing Jesus told him in the same conversation. The same man who was hours away from being a traitor, a backstabber, a coward after spending years at Jesus’ side, Jesus said to the same man, “I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen and build up your brothers” (Luke 22:32). What?! In the very same conversation in which he told Peter that he would deny him, Jesus prayed for Peter and told him ‘when you have passed through your failure and returned to me, lead the others.' This is stunning and has enormous implications. Sure it speaks to leadership, faithfulness, and the like, but what it speaks mostly to is grace. Even as Peter was arrogantly claiming he would never reject Christ, and Jesus knew he would, Jesus spoke to him out of deep love, passionately communicating the grace of God.

When you fail, and you will, repent and return to God. Jesus is right there at the Father’s side, pleading for you and through him you have the grace of God to stand up again and even to lead your brothers and sisters in Christ. Oh how great is the love of Christ: stand on his grace and stand strongly and courageously, knowing you can count on the scandalous grace of God!

Our Real Problem

Jesus faced a lot of trickery. It was not uncommon for people who thought of themselves as pious Judaic leaders to bring him questions – questions meant to ambush him. One day, a group of Sadducees did just that. They told him a story about a woman whose husbands kept dying, so the next brother would marry her. This happened seven times. So, then, who is the woman’s husband in the resurrection? What is humorous about this is the Sadducees didn’t even believe in the resurrection. They were merely trying to trick Jesus. While the answer to the question is interesting, Jesus’ diagnosis of these so-called ‘leaders’ hearts is most compelling. Mark 12:24-26 [NLT] Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God… haven’t you ever read about this in the writings of Moses…

The sting of that blow is felt even now! How could they be so foolish? But, am I different? Do I claim to know the Word and be a leader, yet my questions are full of ignorance? Do I am to lead people, all the while I do not read and study and know and grasp God’s Word? What about you? Maybe our problem isn't our questions: maybe our problem is we have the answers but don't read the book.

Doctor

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Abby, our three year old, heard Micah, our three week old, crying a few days ago. She was convinced he needed to go to the doctor, so she ran upstairs and got her doctor kit to "check him out." As you can see, he enjoyed the experience a great deal. If any of you are ill, I'm sure Abby would be happy to make house calls. Her patients usually cry for just the first hour or so.

Reputation

Everyone has a reputation: whether we realize it or not, we have things we are known for. Notoriety for certain characteristics is something we are all very familiar with. In fact, many people have one or two character qualities that are so dominant they’ve even earned nicknames. Think back to your school days: “Mooch” – for the guy who begs for food everyday (when you know he’s got plenty of money for food); “Teacher’s Pet” – for the kiss-up; “Cheater” – for the person who ‘mysteriously’ does better on the test but never studies “ and then there were those cutting names like “Easy”, “Slut”, “Dumb-Butt”, “White-Trash”…I’d better stop there. We are real familiar with the reality of reputations.

There’s a real interesting thing about reputations, almost no one develops theirs on purpose. Why? Probably because hardly anyone chooses to intentionally develop character qualities based on the convictions they hold. In other words, we don’t tend to go through life thinking, “My convictions tell me this needs to be my highest priority, so I’m going to relentlessly make sure it stays that way!” The demands, pressures, and desires of the world tend to crowd out the call to live by convictions; therefore, it is much easier to slip into the mode of racing from one thing to the next without giving any consideration to the deepest things in life. So we dash through life from one think to the next just skimming the surface but never getting any deeper, like a pebble bouncing on the top of a lake – skimming the top over and over and over again.

I think all of this begs the question, “If you could be known for one thing what would it be?” The answer to that question will reveal the convictions deepest in your heart. For example, if you say you’d want to be known as someone who is generous, then you have a conviction that loving and helping people is vital to reality. If you say you want to be known as someone who is faithful, then you have a conviction that being sacrificial for the good of people and causes is what makes a difference in the world. For as long as I can remember, people have described me as someone who is funny. Frankly, this bugs the snot out of me, because I hope the deepest conviction in me is not that life is a huge comic strip and we’ve just got to make the best of it! Reputations are sure hard to break.

There’s a guy in the Bible named Ezra who had a great reputation. His reputation was so impressive, God used him to do amazing things. Any time the Lord can take you and use you to turn the heart of a wicked King into one that would bless God’s people…that’s a pretty cool thing! Here’s a verse that summarizes his reputation well: Ezra 7:6 [NLT] (6) “This Ezra was a scribe who was well versed in the Law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given to the people of Israel. He came up to Jerusalem from Babylon, and the king gave him everything he asked for, because the gracious hand of the Lord his God was on him.” Ezra was known as a man who was well versed in the Bible and whose life was marked by the presence of God. Every Christian has the opportunity to have that reputation. Every single one of us. What if that happened? How different would your life, your family, your workplace, your lost friends, your neighborhood, … even the world look? What if...? Let's go for it, friends!

Spiritual Lessons from My 3 Year Old

Well, yesterday was Micah's second day. His big sister, Abby, spent the afternoon here at the hospital with him again. She had a wonderful time. Like the day before, she was smitten. About all she could say was, "Baby Micah is so sweet" and "Let's take him home" ... "Let's go home...whole family, let's go home." For her, it was love at first sight, but that love didn't go away. She still felt just as strongly the next day. She couldn't' quite tell how to express this love appropriately. Her expression of choice was to rub her cheek against his face and then kiss his head. She was literally overjoyed. To say he had no idea what was coming is a major understatement. Abby was just captivated to be with him. She would stare, do the lines quoted about, rub his face against her, and order everyone around the room to hold him. It was pure, raw, unorchestrated, authentic, genuine, heart-felt love. The kind of love people dream about experiencing and spend their lives chasing.

I learned some things watching my 3 year old over the last 2 days -- I learned some things about love and God and being a part of the Kingdom. Scattered all through the scriptures are these references to Christians being "brothers and sisters." When sinful people turn from sin and turn to God, they not only get connected to God, they get connected to his people. They gain not only a relationship with God, they gain relationships with all of God's people. Masterfully, God chose to help us understand that by the imagery of the family - brothers and sisters. I knew that in my head, but after watching Abby and Micah, I now know more of that in my heart. What if we, Christians, treated each other like Abby's been treating Micah? Not the face rubbing part (that might get really strange!) or the "so sweet" part, but the genuine, raw, self-sacrificing love. What if we loved each other that way? All too often we fight over dumb things, pretend like everything is fine, and tend more to our own needs than each other's. But what if that changed and we genuinely loved each other more than ourselves? I can only imagine how God would be honored and how much greater his kingdom would spread. Let's pursue that together, brothers and sisters!

"By this all people will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." - Jesus (Jn 13:35)

He's Here - Micah Andrew Newkirk!

More details (and pictures of course) to come but Micah Andrew Newkirk was born just a few hours ago. Jill shone through again. Micah was born at 4:03pm, 7lbs 9ounces and 20 inches long.

"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed." -Ps 139:13-16

Father's Love

Do you ever have moments that seem to instantly mark you deep inside? The kind of moments you know you'll never forget? The kind of moments that God uses to leave his imprints on your soul? I think we all do. Just a few days ago I had one.

Next Wednesday, Jill will be induced to give birth to our son Micah. I came home for dinner a few nights ago and about 2 minutes into the meal, Abby (our three year old), decided to show me pictures of Micah that had been taken during an ultrasound earlier that day. To say she was elated just doesn't do the moment justice. She kept saying, "Here's baby Micah. It's he sweet. I'm going to be a big sister." She is so fired up about having a baby brother. It was precious.

The love I felt for her as she held those pictures was incredible. The love I felt for my son, whom I've never met obviously, was incredible. The sheer joy and delight ... time seemed to stand still. And just think, that's only a tiny little glimpse of what our Heavenly Father feels when he looks at us.

Islam vs. Christianity - So What's the Difference?

On our recent mission trip to Dubai, one person told us the government has a goal of building a mosque within walking distance of everyone’s place of residence. Whether that’s true or not I have no way to verify; however, there are lots and lots and lots of mosques there already. It certainly seems possible.

We took a guided tour of one famous mosque, the Jumeriah Mosque. The man who led the tour seemed like an incredible guy – the kind of guy I could be friends with. He volunteers his days off work to share his faith by giving tours of the mosque and explaining the basic tenants of Islam. To say he was charismatic, amazingly entertaining, and compelling would be the understatement of the year. He put Islam’s best foot forward for sure. To some degree or another, he walked through the five pillars of Islam and the meaning of each, the calls to prayer and reasons for each, and even touched on where the Muslim faith came from and why Islamic extremists are a perversion of the faith and not the purest version of it. It was the perfectly wrapped package ready to be delivered to each of the seventy to eighty people who attended the tour...well, an almost perfectly wrapped package.

Here’s the deal. When it came down to explaining the core of his faith, this deeply religious, deeply devoted, deeply dedicated man described peoples’ hope for eternity in this way:

There’s a good angel on everyone’s right shoulder and there’s a bad angel on everyone’s left shoulder. They are there your entire life. Every time you do something good, the good angel writes it down. Every time you do something bad, the good angel writes it down. When you die and appear before Allah, ‘the one true God’, if your good angel has more written down than your bad angel, he will let you into heaven.
No, I’m not making this up. That’s almost word for word what he said. And the reason he went into a discussion that specific was to explain why people would interrupt their lives five times each day to go to a mosque to pray: in other words, they go to the mosque to pray because that guarantees at least five good marks by the good angel that day! They go because it’s crucial to earn the good marks to counter balance the bad marks of the day. Now, is that representative of every Muslim deepest motivation? Of course not (I wouldn’t think); however, it was his clear explanation for the faith he holds. Good deed – good angel writes it down. Bad deed – bad angel writes it down. It’s as simple as that. God looks at the 51% side and that’s it.

Step back for a moment and imagine what it would be like to actually live with that worldview. Every time you talk about someone behind their back – oops, that’s written down…forever. Every time you fudge a bit of personal email into work hours – oops, that’s written down…forever. Every time you snap at your toddler merely because he annoys you and is cutting into your football game – oops, that’s written down…forever. Every time you long for someone else’s house, or clothes, or hair – oops, that’s written down…forever. Every time you nurture sexual thoughts – oops, that’s written down…forever. And the only way to deal with that sin is to out do it by getting the good angel’s pen smokin’ faster? I don’t know about you but if I did only good from now on until I die, there’s still no chance I could tip the scales to the positive. My good simply isn’t good enough. The horrible wretchedness of living under a worldview that says I must earn my way into eternity with God, I can’t hardly bear the thought.

The truth is, this dear man is carrying his sin around his neck because the Lord Jesus has not released it from him through his death on the cross. On top of that, he’s carrying the burden of trying to earn right standing with God through self effort. Between the two, I’m not sure how he’s able to walk. What a wretched way to live. How freeing the Gospel would be for him. What joy he could know if he would meet the Savior…

Christianitiy and Islam. What’s the difference? Both claim to have their roots in the Old Testament. Both claim to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Both claim Jesus as a strategically important and historical figure. So, what’s the difference? One word – GRACE. My friends, may you live, and move, and breathe, and rest, and rejoice, and repent, and truly quit trying to earn, and consider giving your life to tell people like the guy giving tours every week at the mosque in Dubai that grace is for real. Grace has set us free.

Dubai: Now That's a Sacrifice

Dubai. A year ago you’d probably never heard of it. If you were like me, even 6 months ago you couldn’t point to it on the globe. Recently, though, it has been in the news. Dubai is quickly gaining steam as a strategically important city – for a lot of reasons. More than likely, you’ve seen its opulence in the news. A good friend and I recently went there on a short term mission trip. I’ll be posting several entries…as I process what we saw and did.

It’s hard to put into words what Dubai is like. It is visually assaulting. Imagine Phoenix’s temperature with Houston’s humidity. Imagine the most ridiculously wealthy city you can think of – now double it. Imagine all of Manhattan’s skyscrapers going up at exactly the same time. Imagine construction sites littered with hundreds of men from foreign countries working 10-16 hours a day for nearly nothing. The richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. Imagine a mosque within walking distance of every person’s home (sort of like Starbucks is trying to accomplish here). Imagine walking through the mall seeing Muslim women with their entire bodies covered (including their faces) while the women walking directly in front of them have on halter-tops. It is visually assaulting.

There are a number of things I want to write about but today I’ll focus on one: sacrifice. The purpose for our trip was to serve as one of several “storying” teams. First some details and then my point - As mentioned above, there are laborers throughout Dubai working on the construction sites. The volume of construction can only been accomplished through cheap labor on a giant scale. These laborers are from all over that side of the world, especially India. Many of them come to Dubai, work their first year for nothing (to pay for their trip to Dubai), and then work several more years without going home to see their families. They work 6 days a week in the harsh elements, well over a normal 8 hour shift, and then they sleep in tiny bunk houses (called “labor camps”) littered around town. The largest camp is called Sonapour Labor Camp. It is 8 sq miles. 200,000 men call this “home”. In this labor camp there are dozens of nationalities and even more language groups. Within this awful place, a church has sprung up among one of the Indian dialects. This group is studying through the Bible in a year using a “storying” method. Basically they are being discipled through learning the 72 major groups of stories in the Bible. Our role was to teach a few of those stories.

Alright, enough details and now the good stuff: I’ll never forget seeing these men walk in to worship and hear the Bible. They were literally covered in sweat: probably 60-70 men, many drenched from the incredibly high heat and humidity. I am not exaggerating – drenched. They had traveled by bus to sing, pray, and hear some white guys tell stories – on their only day off. Wow! Since they make this kind of journey every day to go to work, they knew what was coming when they got on the bus, but they came anyway -- they made a real sacrifice to worship. They could have stayed home. They didn’t have to come. A break was understandable, even deserved. These poor men looked exhausted. The physical demands, pressures, and stress they face daily are beyond what I can imagine. But they got in the bus and came anyway. Would you have come? Let me take it closer to home: would I have come?

To take it a step deeper – would we have been so irritated with God for giving us “hard lives” that we wouldn’t even consider going to church? I better leave that one alone for another day.

God tells us not to forsake getting together for worship. These former Hindus, these dear laborers challenged my level of sacrifice for worship like no one else on the globe. They make less money in a year than most of us make in a month, but they can teach all of us a thing or two about sacrifice. They were grateful for the opportunity to worship with God’s folks, regardless of how hard it was to get there. Let’s all learn from them. I know I can.