Author Archives: Jeff

God with us: the end of fear.

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Willamette lights by Jordan Chesbrough

Have you ever felt afraid? Even in the happiest of times, fear can haunt our hearts, nagging, keeping us from experiencing true joy and peace.

What if I lose my job? Did I get the present I hoped for? Why was my friend acting mean to me? Why wasn’t I invited to the party? Will I make the team? Will I get accepted? Will he always love me? Will we have enough? Will I be healed?

As you read the Christmas story in Luke 1 and 2, you’ll find angels appearing three times, messengers from God sent from heaven to give the world wonderful news about the Savior Jesus Christ. The angels appeared to a man named Zechariah, a girl named Mary, and a group of shepherds in Bethlehem. Each was occasion for celebration, for the angels brought the greatest news the world would ever hear. But do you know what happened each time the good news came?

Those who heard were afraid.

Zechariah was afraid (1:12). Mary was afraid (1:19). The shepherds were afraid (2:9).

And all three times the angels spoke these words:

“Do not be afraid.”

—

That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” —Luke 2:8-12 (NLT)

—

These heavenly messengers were the first to declare the Message of Christmas — that God so loved us that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will never die but will have eternal life.

Christ is the end of fear for all who believe. Why? Because Christ conquered the source of fear. He triumphed over sin and death, trampling Satan once and for all, delivering us from evil and delivering us into the God’s glorious Kingdom. But sometimes—just like Zechariah, Mary, and the shepherds—we can actually be afraid of the message of Christ. We can be afraid of really trusting Him. What will He make me do? we wonder. But Christianity isn’t primarily about what God asks us to do but what God has already done.

What has God done? He has loved us.

“This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him…. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear…” —1 John 4:9, 18 (NIV)

As you welcome Christ in your hearts and home this Christmas His perfect love will cast out all fear. (You know who wasn’t afraid in the story? The angels. Perfect love does cast our fear.)

Look to Him and hear His words, “Do not fear, only believe.” No need to fear; God is with us.

Merry Christmas.

For a Child is born to us, a Son is given to us.
The government will rest on His shoulders.
And He will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His government and its peace will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!
—Isaiah 9:6-7 (NLT)

Reflection questions for discussion:

  • When were you afraid this year? How did you respond when overcome with fear?
  • What are you afraid of today?
  • Is there any aspect of that coming year that makes you feel afraid?
  • How does Christ’s presence remove that fear?
 

The end of the world as we know it. (And the boy and I feel fine.)

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Take hope: even if the predictions aren’t true, it won’t be the end of the world.

It will be either mass hysteria or mass sarcasm today as the End of the World comes or passes on 12/21/12.

Whether it’s your last day or simply the first day of winter, let me be the first to mention Kari’s new ebook Plenty is free today for Kindle.

As for our family, 12/21/12 means celebrating the end of the world as we knew it six years ago.

20121221-061504.jpgThat day The Dutcher entered our lives, the boy with the Christmas Day due-date who showed his true colors in arriving four days early. Every since he’s been ahead of the curve. Until today 2012 has been marked by using fractions:

He was five-and-a-quarter by Spring…

became five-and-a-half in the Summer …

then five-and-three-quarters on the first day of Fall…

(and five-and-seven-eighths sometime in there…)

Is a full integer Six today.

LEGO Police Station 7498Our justice-loving boy has been hoping, waiting and asking all year to get the LEGO Police Station #7498. For ages 6-12. Did you read that? Six-to-Twelve!

Thankfully the boy has grandparents who listen well and give generously.

I haven’t had the talk with our son about the significance our society (and the ancient Mayans) placed on this date. He’s simply been learning to count in fractions on the way to whole numbers. No more decimals (for a day), no more fractions (for a season). The boy is an integer whole. Which, as he and I are both learning by experience, is like putting together the pieces of our brokenness on the way to integration — wholeness.

Sometime today this justice-loving father and son will talk about why his wanting to restore order and justice to the LEGO universe is a metaphor for the true Integral One, the Law-Giver and Mercy-Maker who personally came to right all wrongs. He will set everything right on the real Last Day. Everything sad will become untrue.

For starters he and I will busy ourselves building a three-story police station. Hauling off crooks to a holding cell, so they can consider the errors of their ways. Each will be treated with dignity, given a space to repent, and in the LEGO jail anthems of heaven will be happily pounded into their heads. Let’s start with the one our kids call “that whistle song.” Continue reading →

 

Life before and after cell phones.

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There are all kinds of benefits to having a mobile phone, the best of which is for safety reasons. Help is only a call away.

Yet as you wait in line to see The Hobbit this weekend, or partake in any routine daily activity, consider some of the subtle and not-so-subtle by products of being a mobile society. Here’s a fun depiction of “then” (life before cellphones) and “now” as digitally-connected ones.
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(Via Tastefully Offensive)

 

Speeding ahead, finding confidence, being protected.

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Last week Kari and I finished writing a letter to send to friends and family, including a little bit of an update on church planting with RENEW. Re-reading it yesterday caused me to pause and thank God, while considering the rapid change in our lives. This is a season of dynamic change, while other seasons are more like plodding or trudging through the mud. (Which season are you in? Are things moving fast, or really slow?)

I sat there and thought: “Who is up for this challenge? How can we not lose heart? We’re clearly not doing everything ‘right.’ No wonder most church plants ‘fail’ (on a human level). How can we gain the wisdom, generosity, courage we need for this journey?”

That’s a moment of searching for confidence.

Then this morning this Scripture leapt of the page:

“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord [the Gospel] may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”
—2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 (ESV)

All those verbs Paul uses jump off the page (or screen): pray … speed ahead … delivered … establish you … guard you …

It’s remarkable how a passage meant to encourage it’s first readers can also encourage us, while not really being about them or us. It’s centered on Jesus, the Hero. We gain our significance from being minor characters in His big Story.

Will you pray that for us, as we pray the same for you?

20121129-061852.jpg If you are curious about RENEW, there are three main ways to support this pioneering church plant, described briefly here. One way is to give financially at the close of this year. We’ve simplified the process, adding online giving to snail mail to the PO Box. You can also sign up to receive not-more-than-monthly updates.

Most of all we ask for your prayers personally, that the Gospel would race ahead of us, and this would clearly be God’s work and not merely ours.

 

11 ways to be unremarkably average.

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There are many ways to waste one’s life, even while appearing to be “successful.” One way is to reach one’s full “potential” in terms of talents and abilities, yet not cultivate godly character (true generosity, courage and wisdom). Another is to meet all the benchmarks of society where we’re told to “make something of ourselves.” This generally comes in the form of using society (and specific people) to cater to our preferences while carving out a comfortable life. It’s part of the reason why there is so much disconnection and poverty (especially relational poverty) in our nation, even though we are a land of “opportunity.” Too many of us are content to aim for “average,” getting in where one can fit in.

A little parody of this reality:
Continue reading →

 

Family first?

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“If our highest love is our family, we will ultimately choose our family’s good over the good of other families. If our highest love is our nation, we will choose our nation’s interests and ignore those of other countries. If our highest love is our own individual comfort and happiness, we will choose to serve ourselves over the needs of others. Only if our highest love is God himself can we love and serve all people, families, classes, and races.”
—Jonathan Edwards, quoted in Center Church: doing balanced, gospel-centered ministry in your city, by Timothy Keller

(reminded by Kris Zyp)

 

Whatever you do: finding God in our work.

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In the past week I’ve spoken personally with at least five men — good men who work hard — about their jobs. That doesn’t seem like a lot, given that many more than a handful of conversations take place in a given week. Yet, as the lead pastor of a church plant with about twenty-five adults these days, sitting down to talk with just about half the men in a congregation is significant.

These men have confided in me many of their hopes, dreams, fears, longings, frustrations, and prayers about what it means personally for them to be men at work. Some are at a crossroads in their career path, while others are seeking additional schooling and training to go further in their career or launch into a new field. While each situation is unique, there are some common threads:

  • Men wonder if their work matters;
  • they wonder if they’re in the “right” job, working for the best company or for the best cause;
  • they feel unsupported and lack the tools to get all the work that’s expected of them;
  • they find that few of their “higher-ups” adequately model a work-life balance they want to emulate, so if one wants to advance it’s implied families are sacrificed on the altar of the company;
  • some men feel more confident and “appreciated” at work, so they might linger there rather than hurry home to do things they don’t know how to do (like be a present father);
  • they feel guilty for working long hours (especially as overtime-exempt salaried workers);
  • they don’t see their workplace as a “mission field” very often, and when they do there’s a lack of confidence and drive to act like a “missionary” in the workplace; and
  • they wrestle with whether their job does more than merely provide for the material needs of their families.

What surprises to me is that these men would look to their pastor for wisdom and encouragement. That shouldn’t surprise me, except for two observations: Continue reading →

 

Most moms and dads think they are either the best or the worst parents around (and both are wrong).

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Here’s a fairly typical example of what gospel-centered attempts at parenting can look like in action (by Kevin Deyoung, a pastor):

Me: What’s the matter son?
Child: I want that toy and he won’t give it to me!
Me: Why do you want the toy?
Child: I don’t know.
Me: What’s going on in your heart when you desire that toy?
Child: I don’t know.
Me: Think about it son. Use your brain. Don’t you know something?
Child: I guess I just want the toy.
Me: Obviously. But why?
Child: I don’t know.
Me: Fine. [Mental note: abandon “why” questions and skip straight to leading questions.] Do you think he is having fun playing with the toy right now?
Child: No.
Me: Really?! He’s not having fun? Then why does he want that toy in the first place?
Child: Because he’s mean.
Me: Have you ever considered that maybe you are being mean by trying to rip the toy from his quivering little hands?
Child: I don’t know.
Me: What do you know?
Child: I don’t know!
Me: Nevermind. [I wonder how my brilliant child can know absolutely nothing at this moment.] Well, I think taking the toy from him will make your brother sad. Do you like to make him sad?
Child: I don’t know.
Me: [Audible sigh.]
Child: He makes me sad all the time!
Me: Well, I’m getting sad right now with your attitude! [Pause, think, what would Paul Tripp do?  Thinking . . .  thinking . . . Man, I can’t stop thinking of that mustache. This isn’t working. Let’s just go right to the Jesus part.] You know, Jesus wants us to love each other.
Child: I don’t know.
Me: I didn’t ask you a question!
Child: [Pause.] Can I have some fruit snacks?
Me: No, you can’t have fruit snacks. We are talking about the gospel. Jesus loves us and died for us. He wants you to love your brother too.
Child: So?
Me: So give him the toy back!

Then I lunge for the toy and the child runs away. I tell him to come back here this instant and threaten to throw the toy in the trash. I recommit myself to turning down speaking engagements on parenting.

Read the whole post, which is encouraging. A couple of lines that stood out:

  • The quip cited by Alistair Begg: “When I was young I had six theories and no kids. Now I have six kids and no theories.”
  • And from Kevin’s church secretary: “Most moms and dads think they are either the best or the worst parents around, and both are wrong.”

Here is Kevin’s upshot:

I just know that the longer I parent the more I want to focus on doing a few things really well, and not get too passionate about all the rest. I want to spend time with my kids, teach them the Bible, take them to church, laugh with them, cry with them, discipline them when they disobey, say sorry when I mess up, and pray like crazy. I want them to look back and think, “I’m not sure what my parents were doing or if they even knew what they’re were doing. But I always knew my parents loved me and I knew they loved Jesus.” Maybe it’s not that complicated after all.

 

VOTE: trade 7 incomplete reasons for one (possibly) good one.

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“Who can endure a doctrine which would allow only dentists to say whether our teeth were aching, only cobblers to say whether our shoes hurt us, and only governments to tell us whether we were being well governed?”
—C.S. Lewis

It’s not too late to vote! I hope you are an informed voter, doing research and weighing the sides of the issues, and of the character and policies of the candidates.

In the spirit of Election Day, here are seven poor reasons to vote, and one (possibly) good reason, by Kris Zyp (my bro-in-law).

I repost these with his permission (I think). All words are his [with some commentary by me, JP].

  1. “He (or she) is an idiot” – Politics easily devolve to an ugly game of character defamation which often have little to do with the real issues. Getting lured into the bickering not only distracts us from the real issues, but encourages the campaign and rhetorical negativity, that we pretend to detest. If you are falling for the name-calling, bashing, and drama, you are the reason for the wretched campaigns on display in America.
  2. “It’s my Civic Duty” – Perhaps the most commonly accepted, yet blatantly illogical idea in America is that two people can vote for opposing candidates (or issues), precisely canceling each other out, and both make a net positive civic contribution. When it comes to voting, Americans tend to mistake a right for duty. When we pretend that a right is a duty, we distort and dilute the privilege of that right. Failing to grasp the difference between a right and a duty undermines the value of our rights. [JP adds: I tend to think of it as your responsibility, given as a right or privilege. Duty in our day implies drudgery and doing the bare minimum and nothing more.]
  3. “Democracy depends on it” – Democracy relies on statistically accurate sampling, equal representation, and informed voters. In any federal election, even 0.1% voter turnout (real turnout is vastly higher) is more than enough for statistical accuracy. Thanks to numerous suffrage movements, most people have at least some representation. Poorly informed voters reduce the collective intelligence of the vote. However, you can contribute to democracy if you are representing an under-represented people (like minorities), or happen to be an unusually well-informed voter. (Kris wrote a post on this a few years back.)
  4. “It’s Christians’ duty to vote, to preserve a Christian nation” – The Bible says nothing remotely close to this. Governments, by their nature, are founded on coercion and power, precisely the opposite of the way of cross, servanthood, and humility. The Kingdom of God does not rest on a political nation. [JP adds: while I believe some of the founding fathers were committed Christians, and most believed in a personal Creator, there is not a Gospel-centric orientation to the founding documents. Religion shaped their their vision of the New World, yet I surmise it was less about establishing a “Christian” nation and more about leaving behind the quasi-“Christian” nation they fled. Was the United States ever a Christian Nation? That is a question worth thinking deeply about some more.]
  5. “Fear” – Fear tends to drive us to being irrational. There may be some people in history that truly faced dangerous circumstances if someone was elected. Unfortunately, exaggerating our circumstances to pretend that we are facing something similar to the holocaust or other large scale tragedies only makes a mockery of those who truly facing a desperate plight. The only people that come close to a real reason to fear the outcome of the results of a modern election in the US aren’t citizens, so they don’t have a vote anyway. [JP adds: anger is misplaced insecurity acted out on others. Do your fears drive you to trust God, or hate others?]
  6. “I am better (or worse) off than 4 years ago” – Economics is a complex field with hundreds of indicators, and countless influences. The government’s influence is just one, and is furthermore defined by a myriad of politicians, compromising, and crafting numerous policies. Making an evaluation based on a single sampling falls far short of any real economic analysis. [JP adds: what passes for “values voting” these days is often people voting with their wallets first. That’s their value: themselves. That’s an incomplete reason. If you have plenty but vote just to raise or keep your standard of living — but not raise your standard of giving — you may want to check yourself before you wreck yourself [selfish-foolish-greed].]
  7. “If you don’t vote, you don’t have any right to complain” – Nope. This is completely backwards, let’s get it straight: If anyone has earned a right to anything, it is those that stand up for justice the other 364 days that truly have a compelling claim on the right to vote on election day. [JP adds: voting is a vital part of democracy, in concert with the other strands we pursue every other day.]


One (Possibly) Good Reason:

  1. When injustice is taking place, when people are being exploited or unfairly disadvantaged, when their rights are being deprived, without power of recourse, we should stand up for them. If voting can be effectively used as one of the tools to stop injustice, to give voice to the disenfranchised and oppressed, voting can then be virtuous and noble use of this important and valuable right.

Well said, Kris. Still chewing on it. Need to finish my ballot.

Of the reasons above, which do you tend to slip toward?