Back to the Basics

When I was playing football at Florida State, Coach Bowden would always give us a speech on Friday night. This was the speech that we would sleep and meditate on before the game the next day. If any of you ever wondered what Coach Bowden would say to his players before even the most important games here you go.

The Speech would go something like this:
- Now men to win tomorrow we must play our best. We're not going to be able to win unless we give it our best. Everyone must know their role and play it so as a team we do our job. Everyone must know their plays. Receivers you need to catch the ball. Running backs you need to run the ball. O-line you need to block. Quarterbacks you need to make good passes and handoffs. D-line you need to push the line of scrimmage back. Linebackers you need to get off your blocks. Defensive backs you need to cover. And all defense needs to make tackles. -

Now you think the speech would be a little more complicated than that, yet that is what Coach Bowden always said. He never spent time to focus on a fumble rooskie, double reverse, statue of liberty, or any other trick play. He talked about what was most important and vital to us winning the game. Running, passing, catching, and tackling.

The same is true in our Christian life. Sometimes we can over complicate things with theology classes, 3 step plans, rituals, and other stuff. Yet what is important is continuing to focus on the basic and elementary areas of the faith. IE. Reading the word (daily), praying, repentance, baptism, and faith.

So here is my question. Have you read your word today? If not take time right now to read your word and pray it will a great difference in your day and Christian walk.


Love you all

Where Is My Brother?

In Nehemiah chapter four, Nehemiah is leading the Isrealites in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah was able to rally his people to enter into this task in spite of knowing that it would take lots of time to finish and opposition was sure to come. We see in verse 12, opposition came and the Jews were terrified. What I find interesting is Nehemiah's response:

verse 13 'Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families with their swords, spears and bows. After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."

First thing I see is that he posted them by families, second he charged them not to be afraid but to remember the Lord, and finally to fight for their family members and their homes.

Many times we believe that we are busy doing the work of the Lord, but, at the same time, we are neglecting our families. You wonder if family is a random institution by God seperate from his call on our life to build his Kingdom. Nehemiah didn't think so. He didn't seperate the family to do the work of Lord. That would have been counterproductive to tear the walls of the family to build the physical wall the city.

Nehemiah was also carefull to remind them what they were really fighting for, their family and their home. We often pray for revival, which, in our mind, can look like millions of people raising their hands to the heavens. While that is a good start, we have yet to see an awakening of people to love one another, especially their family.

We can so easily miss it. As soon as we think 'serving the Lord', it can be an immediate thought to be on the campus, do a service project, go on the mission field, etc. While these can indeed be a good service to the Lord, we can't miss what is most important to God. When Cain thought he could just offer sacrifices to the Lord, God came to him and first asked "Where is your brother?"

I would like to encourage all of us to ask ourselves that question daily. "Where is our brother?" Not just in a physical location sense, but also in the sense of where is our brother in relation to us. Are we in good relationship? Do I need to forgive or do I need to repent to him/her for something? How can I encourage by brother, sister, wife, husband, son, daughter, today to spur him/her on to do great things.

This brings pleasure to the Lord and is the very work of God.

I love you all.

learning young

Our niece has been with us for the past seven days. It has been a joy to have her around the house. She is thirteen years old and loves to cook and be around young children. She has the sweetest heart and is very loveable. It was a great time for me because I spent so much time asking God to help me be a good male role model in her life. This experience was also helpful in giving me insight in the responsibility I will soon have as a parent. God is showing me that it is going to take work to be FIT as a family. Over the seven days I learned how easy it is to make the oversight of my niece nothing more than keeping her busy with activity. While keeping young teens involved in constructive activity is very important because they have so much energy, it will never supplement the important role I have as a parent to shepherd their heart. I had to work and overcome the laziness and selfishness of my own flesh to make time to engage with her and ask her about life, dialogue about her walk with Lord, and teach her how to have quiet time and how to hear from the Lord. Teressa felt the same way. She did a very good job making time and debriefing our niece about a movie she had watched. It's amazing when you have these times to realize how many different messages your child receives in one day through various billboards, shows, movies, things at restaurant, etc. These messages are constantly, and subconsciously, interpreted by our young teens and impacts their worldview and most importantly their heart. If we don't make the time to get involved in this process of our teens life we will not understand the changes that are going on thier minds and hearts and ti will be very difficult to fulfill our responsibility to shepherd their hearts to the Lord.

In short, I learned... Don't just keep them busy with activity, include activities that incorporate the family and those that train them for life. Make the time for family time, constantly test their spiritual temperature and encourage them to have intimacy with God, finally teach them the word of God. We'll keep a lot of influence over them if we are their main teacher in this area.

Love you all

Jean

The Power Of Parents

I've heard it said before that overall parents are losing influence on their children and are unable to guide them in the way they prefer. Yet, I still believe that parents are the number one influential people in the lives of young people. Parents make a huge impact. When a father is absent there tends to be dysfunction in the child. If parents didn't make an impact on their children then the absence of a parent wouldn't have an impact either. But we see that it does.
This is especially true when it comes to the spiritual development of our children. our children will tend to follow your passion and heartbeat after Jesus. If Jesus consumes our life, in so that the reality of it manifests in our actions, our speech, our attitude, and motives then that power will impact our children. However, if we only try to guide them in word and our lives are void of power, passion, and holy pursuit, then that too will impact our children.
Malachi 4:6 shows us what must happen before we can expect the youth to change: the fathers must repent. That will be the most impact thing towards getting a young person to turn to Jesus with a passion. That is to see their father repent. To see his/her dad lay down his own personal agenda and ambitions and live to serve God and guide his children's heart in the same way.
Our influence as parents is not gone. It's only that our influence is not in our words, but rather our actions, our thoughts, our motives, and attitude. That is what is impacting our children.


Love you all

Time To Shine!

Coming to year 7 of serving this youth ministry and being in our Shine Series, I am convinced that it is time for our youth to shine. I believe God can rock this city with this young generation. We as parents and ministers of God's word have a mandate to raise and train our youth to shine for God's purpose. Here are three practical things to focus on in getting our youth trained up to Shine for Jesus.

1) Have them read their word daily.
2) Make sure they are praying to God Daily
3) Ask them what they are hearing from God to make sure that they are learning to hear from God for themselves.

All these are very important, however not as a legalistic ritual that we'll hang our hats on by any means. Jesus needs to be the passion of our students. As parents we need to taste test this constantly and guide them as needed. Great things are waiting to happen on the other side of those inconvenient, uncomfortable, and confronting conversations we will have with our teens.

Love you all


Jean