Walking the Rocky Road of God's Call

"Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you." (Gen. 12:1)

God's unusual calling. It can strike in many ways and is rarely conducive to our own convenience. Abram was a man of some means, and the heir of his father's fortune as the oldest son. However, God asked him to trust the calling on His life to leave His father's house, leave his inheritance, and venture out to a new land.

Now, Abram wasn't a poor guy and apparently he had many servants and livestock from his launching point in Haran, but it was still a big risk to go to a new place with no assurances of success other than God's calling.

And that reminds me (as it always does) of my personal obligation to the Lord. Do I trust Him? Am I willing to sacrifice everything that I have built up in this place to go to another at His call?

When my wife and I were praying on whether to move here to California, we were relatively set in Seattle. We had a really good life with the prospects of buying a new home, and a good steady paycheck. Everything we had was growing in a way that promised us a nice, secure future. But we felt a pressing from the Lord to move. We tried to suppress the calling for a time because we didn't have any arrangements in CA and we were fixated on maintaining our material security, but the Lord kept at us, telling us to move and to trust.

And so we moved and doing so was a huge weight off our shoulders, and we were confident that the Lord would provide. However, now that we have settled in here, we are finding that the job market is tough and our provisions are being met by our savings. So where is God?

I am confidently writing today, in the middle of this quandary, and I can say that He is with us still. I don't know how it will all play out, and there times of frustration and heavy prayer, but my wife and I don't feel like we made a mistake at all. We may have had a good secure life in Seattle, but our spiritual life was slowly decaying. What we have found here in our new place is a renewed love of the Lord. Again, not all the pieces of what the Lord will do for us here is known by us (in truth, we know nothing except today), but still our faith and confidence in Him is renewed.

One of the key truths that I have learned during this time is that God's path is straight and narrow, but it isn't without its difficulty with steep inclines and deep valleys. It has become fashionable in today's Christianity to think of God has one who rolls out the red carpet for His servants, but I believe the reality can be the direct opposite, where He increases the level of difficulty in our lives in order to develop our characters.

I think again to the story of Abram, and we see that although he reached the land of Canaan, a famine there pushed him into Egypt where the Pharaoh temporarily took his wife as his. Although God's calling and promises were still intact, they did not flow absolutely perfectly. Things developed over time, and even the fullness of the Lord's promises took generations to fulfill. (Gen 12)

In Gen 14, we also see that in the context of the world at the time, Abram was not a major player. The major political battles were being fought by the Kings of the various cities, and they kidnapped Abram's nephew Lot. I was reminded that God isn't looking to use the world's most powerful men, as they usually have their own selfish agenda on their minds. But, He will use the most humble, faithful and obedient instead.

Sometimes the mission we are on doesn't end with us. And it shouldn't. God isn't planning for just my family, but He is planning for generations of our descendants. So I sit here writing, knowing that I may not do anything of worldly note with my life (actually, I am certain I won't), but as long as I keep my children focused on the Lord, I will be setting my generations up for a large kingdom work. And that is my heart's deepest desire.

Lord Jesus, I know that You have a greater plan that just my life and my generation. Our job isn't to gain worldly power, but instead to simply be obedient to Your word and Your calling as You reveal it to us. My heart's prayer is to remain true to You and to that truth. Help me to focus my eyes on You and be a good parent to my children. In Jesus' name, AMEN.

Family is Important to God; Climate...not so much

"As for you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it." (Gen 9:7)

"While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease." (Gen 8:22)

Today as I was reading through the Genesis account of the early earth, I am reminded of what God considers important, and what is unimportant.

Looking at Gen 8:22 first, God made a promise that the earth will have a regular schedule under which we will harvest and live and till the soil. This is one of the reasons that I don't really worry about global warming, H1N1 or any other faddish media scare. God regulates our lives here on earth. Yes, it is true that we live on the point of a needle in terms of the delicate nature of our existence, where (relatively) slight changes in any number of environmental variables would make our lives unliveable. However, if we believe in the Lord for salvation, we must also believe in His promises to maintain liveable conditions here on earth. He is the Creator, and his creation has been far more durable than any foolishness we can reap upon it. We must remember this as the world goes around losing their heads over an imagined catastrophe that will never happen. After all, we've gone from the fear of the ice-age (70's) to the fear of the ozone layer (80's) to the fear of global warming (00's), now to the fear of global climate change (fear of any kind of change in the weather...???) God is calming us down and simply saying, "Chill out, because these things are not important - I am in control."

The verse that I find God's important commandment however is where God reiterates his "be fruitful and multiply" command originally given to Adam, and now given to Noah. What God is telling us is that our first duty as worshippers of Him, is to go out and have children.

In this day and age of carefully constructed family planning, it seems odd to hear the Lord calling us to multiply. I believe that as Christians, we have a specific calling to have children based on this Genesis verse. We are to reproduce and raise our children in a Godly manner, teaching them Godly principles first, above all things. In this way, we are to create a new generation of Christians, who will then beget more Christians. It will only take one generation to fail in their obligation in order to have the world forget Christ. Right now, we have witnessed our European Christians essentially lose their faith in the span of only two generations (or so), and we are in danger of seeing American and Canadian Christians meet the same fate. What will go a long way to fighting this trend will be for Christians to make a concerted effort to multiply Christians in the next generation through a deliberate and concerted effort.

Those who do not follow Christ are pulled by a different ideology - that of walking a path where only 2-3 children are acceptable by society because it will be easier to care for this number of kids. Mixed with the growing environmental sentiment that people destroy the environment, there is a lot of pressure for families today to minimize their number of children.

As Christians, we are faced with a pull in decidedly opposite directions. Which way to go? Do we follow the commandment of God, or do we instead follow the ways of the world?

Our answer and direction is found in the Bible:

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever." (1 John 2:15-17)

Essentially, God is saying this - where the world conflicts with His ways, if you are a Christian, you must choose His will. Essentially everything that we know as men is finite and temporary. We mostly live as if the world started the day we were born, and we flail about with our small slices of knowledge although we will never really see the big picture outside ourselves. However, the Lord knows all and He has detailed the way we should live in the Bible. So our choice ultimately as believers is to either decide to commit to following God with everything we have (believing that He knows all), or to live in accordance with the current fashion of the world (believing God doesn't know squat). And ultimately, if we choose the latter, we are really exhibiting that we believe that God knows nothing...and then, where is our faith?

Lord Jesus, thank You for Your word. That You have taken the time through the generations to give us Your wisdom and guidelines for living. The command to be fruitful is one that my family does embrace, but at the same time, we have struggled to live it out completely for fear of things like proper insurance coverage and the like. Please help me to work through these struggles of unbelief and to simply place the future of our family into Your hands knowing that each child is a gift from You. Although I hardly know what that future looks like, I know that I can trust in You because You have always kept Your promise to maintain the earth season after season. And if You can do something that large, I know that maintaining our lives is a simple task indeed.

May our family's worship of You grow deeper with each season. In the mighty name of Jesus I pray, AMEN.

Children Are A Gift From God

³ Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.

⁴ Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one's youth.

⁵ Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

(Psalm 127:3-5)

Before I had my daughter, my life centered around me and my wants. Even though I had a lot of angst about this or that small issue, in retrospect, I had it easy. Yes, there was much of my personal time that I've had to sacrifice, but God really did give us a gift in our daughter. She is a precious life that was entrusted to my wife and I to steward into adulthood.

Even more than that, she adds color and wonder to our lives everyday, and through her exploration, we see the world anew. The love we are able to impart to her, and receive back has really created a family for us that is complete with her -- and we could never imagine going back to our lives as only a couple.

I had no idea what being a parent was like, and it was often hard to sympathize with a fussy baby when I had no clue what parents were going through. There is a softness and patience for all types of situations that develops through parenthood that creates a better person, that I never realized that I needed that kind of improvement.

Children are an integral part of our lives, and the act of procreation is part of the fulfillment of our purposes. There is a completion with children, that cannot be experienced for those who opt not to pursue parenthood.

Today, as I usually do, I rocked my daughter to nap (I generally pace rhythmically to music - recently we've been using Hillsongs "Hope" album), I realized that I have not been fully appreciating my time as an unemployed person. Yes, my family is draining a nice chunk of our bank accounts in order to survive until I can find a job, but I have had all these wonderful days hanging out with my daughter and being her buddy. Together we rise early and watch "The Wiggles" on DVD and share a bowl of cereal together. Then she plays with her toys and we have alphabet time together going through her Winnie the Pooh ABC book that she loves so much.

These are invaluable moments that we won't get a chance to share when I go back to work and the busy life that it inevitably entails. Today as I rocked her to sleep, I danced her a bit as I often do, and she giggled softly as we spun around to the 6/8 timed music. Then she snuggled into my shoulder and promptly fell contentedly asleep. Tears welled up within me as I realized that I have been given such a gift from the Lord.

You see, I have been so concerned about my job search and the frustration of not finding a job, that I didn't realize that perhaps the Lord was withholding employment from me to give me a bigger gift. He gave me this exclusive time to spend 24/7 with my daughter that I'll never have again in such plentiful amounts. In His wisdom, He knew that money will be had over time and through hard work, but these special moments with my daughter -- they are numbered and only last for a season. In a blink, she will be old, wiser than me and ready to conquer the world on her own. With another blink, I'll be walking her down the aisle where she will take on another man's name, and I will cease being the most important man in her life.

But my heart will always remember this day when I danced my daughter to sleep, hearing her giggle as she drifted off to rest. Thank You Lord, that Your wisdom is so much higher than mine. Thank You for this special time with my daughter - what great love You have for our little family! In Jesus' name, Amen.