The battle for freedom
"The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly." John 10:10
There it is. Simple. The battle lines are drawn. The thief is out there - he has been there long before Adam & Eve. After he tried to overthrow Heaven, he was thrown out with 1/3 of the angels who joined him in his evil plot. Ever since, he has prowled around looking for someone to destroy and he first reappears in the Garden as a serpent whispering to Eve, "You don't need God, you need knowledge."
Even today, he is there (perhaps more so today than ever) - looking, prowling, sneaking...hunting. As I do all I can to sneak into my deer stand and position myself just right for the right shot at the right moment to take the prized buck down and out, so too the thief sits in waiting. He sits hidden, camouflaged, covered over...waiting. Don't kid yourself men, he sits and waits for the right chance to take you out. Be it another woman, alcohol, power, self-accomplishment, greed, you name it - all weapons are fair game to him.
And yet, there is Christ who came to give us life. LIFE. And importantly to give us life that we "may live it abundantly". What this says to me is He wants me to live life with a passion that draws others in. So often, we think coming to God means installing a bunch of rules on our life - "don't do __________". The church has done a disservice in this regard by encouraging a bunch of "don'ts" on man and by encouraging men to "be nice".
We wonder why the men are checked out in church and the reason is pretty simple, Jesus came to give us life and give it to us to live abundantly with great passion and enthusiasm and the institution has tried to smother that. John Eldredge visited a mega-church in Texas a few years back to do a seminar and went downstairs to pray. He went into a 3-4 year old classroom and noticed a sign in the corner that read "How to make God happy" and it listed 9 things...1) Sit still 2) Don't talk out of turn 3) Don't touch any other child ...
John said it made him so mad he wanted to throw a chair across the room...a bunch of "Do Nots". Right there at an early age the church is sitting on the passion of a child - snuffing it out. Conform. Behave. Be nice. The most holy are those that best keep the laws - those that are so in control of their life that they somehow sin less than others. Comply. And we wonder why the men are drifting off.
Jesus came to free us. He ransomed us from a life of captivity so we might have freedom. William Wallace when he was being gutted alive was told, "just pay respect to the King and we will end the pain"...in other words, give in, sell out. Refusing to comply he shouted his last words, "FREEDOM".
Erwin McManus says this, "This is how life is supposed to work - it's an adventure, a journey, a trek filled with uncertainty, excitement and risk. I am convinced there is a voice in each of us crying out, a confession waiting to be declared without shame, "I want to live!". We were created with a passion to live. So many of us have abdicated our passions for obligations, as if passion is a luxury for the young and we all must grow up. The drive to eliminate sin has more than contributed to the problem of passionless living. We have come to believe (let me interject that the perhaps the enemy has lied to us) that human passions are adversarial to God and corrupting in their nature. We've been taught that the solution is to restrain our passions with His commands. The result has been a Christian religion based on rules, rituals and obligations. When this is the case, Christianity is essentially like all other world religions - all of which instruct their follows to restrain their passions - this is the essence of Buddha - to exist without desire."
Is that what Jesus taught? That we should exist without desire? No! Whatever else Jesus came to do, one thing is clear - He came to set you free. God is not a warden; He is a deliverer. He so cares about your freedom that He was willing to be taken captive and crucified on your behalf just so you can run free.
Soar!
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Wild at Heart
Having returned from Colorado and John Eldredge's Wild at Heart boot camp, I can easily say this was the most significant spiritual time of my life. I cannot yet put words easily around what all I took in. It was simply incredible - God used this weekend to open my eyes in ways that have never been opened before.
I see my life in an entirely new context - my life is part of a grand design. We were born into an epic. We play a key role in the "play" and the enemy is looking for chances to take us out. I understand spiritual warfare better than I have ever understood it after this weekend. I see now - clearly - the ways the enemy has been trying to take me out all through my life. I see the battle for my wife. I see her struggles and see how the enemy is scratching away at her, wearing her down, attacking her in an attempt to take her down and, as a result, take me down. Satan went after Eve in the garden - not Adam. I see that he will come after my wife.
I see my role in my daughter's lives clearly. I learned how to pray for them. Frankly, I learned how to pray in general. I've been a "hey Jesus, you're great, I need ________" prayer person. John taught me how to pray - how to get on my knees, call the Spirit in and do business with God.
I see spiritual warfare oh so clearly. We are at war. We were born into a world at war. John uses video clips from secular movies to make his points. He showed the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan - perhaps the single most intense, graphic movie scene ever filmed. When I left that movie years ago, I said "every American needs to see the first 10 minutes of this movie to fully appreciate what our forefathers did for our freedom." I now say, "every Christian needs to see those first 10 minutes because it captures - perfectly - the image of being born (riding the boats symbolizes the womb and the doors dropping symbolizes the birth) into a world at war". If you will remember that scene, as soon as the doors opened, the men were slaughtered.
Satan sits on the beach with a machine gun looking to take us out. He'll use whatever he can and play on our sin to drive us over the edge. Guilt, shame, competition, anger, a father who didn't meet our needs, lust, the internet, television, alcohol...you name it, all is fair game as a tool for the enemy.
Perhaps the driving point of this weekend is our critical need for a band of brothers to walk with us through this war and help us "unpack" the battles we are facing. No wars are won by a single soilder charging up hills. Wars are won by men banding together to fight the enemy and watch each other's backs. So it is true for the spiritual wars we fight.
I will write more - much more - on this. What a weekend! We hiked to the top of the mountain at YoungLife's Frontier Ranch to watch the sun come up over the Rocky Mountains. We rappelled down a 125 foot cliff. We prayed together. Men wept as they came to terms with the wounds on their hearts, the agreements they've made with these wounds and their desperate need for a Savior. What a weekend!
I soar as never before!
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Chasing the Adventure (2 of them)
I named my blog "Chasing the Adventure". As the fall sets in, I am starting to chase 2 new adventures. Thursday, I leave for Colorado to spend 4 days with John Eldredge and his team for the Wild At Heart boot camp. This will give me a chance to hear John, first hand, teach Wild At Heart. We'll be at Frontier Ranch - the YoungLife camp - in the Colorado mountains. The forecast is for snow. I can't wait. If you have read any of my posts where I reference Eldredge, you will know how in tune I am with what John is trying to teach.
My second adventure is deer hunting (and I hope later in the season, turkey hunting). I've bird hunted a lot but I've never hunted for deer. I love the outdoors and feel one with God when I am in the quiet of the woods. Deer hunting gives me a chance to spend some quality time early Saturday mornings alone with God.
I didn't grow up in a family that hunted. My father never hunted. Neither did my brothers. Yet, this is always something I longed to do. I wish my family owned land and I wish my father had been a hunter/fisherman who would have taught me about the sport growing up.
While that didn't happen, I decided last year to do this myself. I didn't want to get to the end of my life and say "you know, I wish I had hunted..." I'm setting out on the adventure - I'm "chasing the adventure". A great friend took me to Barrows to buy my rifle and scope. He sighted it in for me and got me set. I bought a nice stand from Cabelas and 2 weeks ago scouted the land I hunt on and found a great spot to plant my first stand. There are signs all around my stand of deer activity and I spooked a big one that day near my stand. I'm ready to go.
Who knows if this will stick with me. I might hunt this season and never hunt again but the important thing for me is that this is something I wanted to do and I am doing it. No one is showing me how, I'm just going to do it and I am looking forward to my mornings alone with God in the stand watching his sun come up and seeing the forest come to life. Let's hope I get a shot at a nice buck while I am at it!
Soar!
I named my blog "Chasing the Adventure". As the fall sets in, I am starting to chase 2 new adventures. Thursday, I leave for Colorado to spend 4 days with John Eldredge and his team for the Wild At Heart boot camp. This will give me a chance to hear John, first hand, teach Wild At Heart. We'll be at Frontier Ranch - the YoungLife camp - in the Colorado mountains. The forecast is for snow. I can't wait. If you have read any of my posts where I reference Eldredge, you will know how in tune I am with what John is trying to teach.
My second adventure is deer hunting (and I hope later in the season, turkey hunting). I've bird hunted a lot but I've never hunted for deer. I love the outdoors and feel one with God when I am in the quiet of the woods. Deer hunting gives me a chance to spend some quality time early Saturday mornings alone with God.
I didn't grow up in a family that hunted. My father never hunted. Neither did my brothers. Yet, this is always something I longed to do. I wish my family owned land and I wish my father had been a hunter/fisherman who would have taught me about the sport growing up.
While that didn't happen, I decided last year to do this myself. I didn't want to get to the end of my life and say "you know, I wish I had hunted..." I'm setting out on the adventure - I'm "chasing the adventure". A great friend took me to Barrows to buy my rifle and scope. He sighted it in for me and got me set. I bought a nice stand from Cabelas and 2 weeks ago scouted the land I hunt on and found a great spot to plant my first stand. There are signs all around my stand of deer activity and I spooked a big one that day near my stand. I'm ready to go.
Who knows if this will stick with me. I might hunt this season and never hunt again but the important thing for me is that this is something I wanted to do and I am doing it. No one is showing me how, I'm just going to do it and I am looking forward to my mornings alone with God in the stand watching his sun come up and seeing the forest come to life. Let's hope I get a shot at a nice buck while I am at it!
Soar!
Friday, October 06, 2006
What is truth?
We are struggling with our school over the way they are teaching our kids. The work load is enormous - hours of homework and tests stacked one on top of the other. The school has significantly ramped up its pace in order to keep up with the other independent schools in the South. We've seen a disturbing trend in private education over the past few years. Schools are gearing themselves toward only the very brightest students. The push is on.
My wife and I wrestle with just what it is we want for our kids. We want our kids to be educated - but - we also want them taught values, character and integrity. We want them to work hard - but - we also want them to be kids. As a 10-year old, I remember coming home and playing in the woods, building forts, playing football and riding my bike. My 10-year old comes home eats a snack and does 1-2 hours of homework every single night. There is no play. There is no laughter. There is no downtime. There is no riding bikes with her friends. There is just school work.
Can't you see what is happening by just reading the above paragraph? The world is taking away, bit by bit, chunks of my daughter. A death by a 1,000 cuts. Is it any wonder our society is heading toward destruction? When a 10-year old is so stressed by her school load that she can't enjoy life itself? Jesus came to give us life. Life. And yet our world and our schools is slowing stripping life out of us.
The world is lying to us. The world haves us believe these things are important...Harvard, Yale, global competition, what the Indian children are doing, what the Japanese kids are being taught...if we don't run, if we don't push, our kids will fall behind. It's a LIE.
You know it is a lie when you fall into the trap and don't see a way out. I can't pull my kids out ... "what will everyone think?" or "what will they miss?" It's a lie because the schools are keeping up with the Joneses and the parents are following right along.
To boot, the school is teaching creationism and challenging kids by saying "you can't prove any of what you read in the bible whereas scientists can prove..."
The pros will tell you that advanced education is all about opening up the students mind. Challenging them to not accept the status quo - to reach and question their basic beliefs. It is about becoming "evolved". It is - in it's very basic sense - a lie.
Think about all the things we hear that go on in education today. God is stripped out. Harry Potter is being read. The occult is being studied. Godless teachers are telling children "you can't prove this..." Prayers are forbidden at school events. All in the name of "freeing" up the children to explore their beliefs. Freeing children up to "evolve". If you think about that...sounds a lot like what Satan whispered to Eve in the garden. "You don't need God...you need knowledge".
The world (satan) is lying to us. It is telling us "this is important". It flies in the face of God. Our kids are being taught/trained to go in another direction from God.
I am just coming to terms with what is going on around me and my kids and I don't like what I am seeing. More to come...
We are struggling with our school over the way they are teaching our kids. The work load is enormous - hours of homework and tests stacked one on top of the other. The school has significantly ramped up its pace in order to keep up with the other independent schools in the South. We've seen a disturbing trend in private education over the past few years. Schools are gearing themselves toward only the very brightest students. The push is on.
My wife and I wrestle with just what it is we want for our kids. We want our kids to be educated - but - we also want them taught values, character and integrity. We want them to work hard - but - we also want them to be kids. As a 10-year old, I remember coming home and playing in the woods, building forts, playing football and riding my bike. My 10-year old comes home eats a snack and does 1-2 hours of homework every single night. There is no play. There is no laughter. There is no downtime. There is no riding bikes with her friends. There is just school work.
Can't you see what is happening by just reading the above paragraph? The world is taking away, bit by bit, chunks of my daughter. A death by a 1,000 cuts. Is it any wonder our society is heading toward destruction? When a 10-year old is so stressed by her school load that she can't enjoy life itself? Jesus came to give us life. Life. And yet our world and our schools is slowing stripping life out of us.
The world is lying to us. The world haves us believe these things are important...Harvard, Yale, global competition, what the Indian children are doing, what the Japanese kids are being taught...if we don't run, if we don't push, our kids will fall behind. It's a LIE.
You know it is a lie when you fall into the trap and don't see a way out. I can't pull my kids out ... "what will everyone think?" or "what will they miss?" It's a lie because the schools are keeping up with the Joneses and the parents are following right along.
To boot, the school is teaching creationism and challenging kids by saying "you can't prove any of what you read in the bible whereas scientists can prove..."
The pros will tell you that advanced education is all about opening up the students mind. Challenging them to not accept the status quo - to reach and question their basic beliefs. It is about becoming "evolved". It is - in it's very basic sense - a lie.
Think about all the things we hear that go on in education today. God is stripped out. Harry Potter is being read. The occult is being studied. Godless teachers are telling children "you can't prove this..." Prayers are forbidden at school events. All in the name of "freeing" up the children to explore their beliefs. Freeing children up to "evolve". If you think about that...sounds a lot like what Satan whispered to Eve in the garden. "You don't need God...you need knowledge".
The world (satan) is lying to us. It is telling us "this is important". It flies in the face of God. Our kids are being taught/trained to go in another direction from God.
I am just coming to terms with what is going on around me and my kids and I don't like what I am seeing. More to come...
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Teen Advisors
I had the honor to sit with members of the board of Teen Advisors yesterday to discuss the future of this wonderful ministry. I have previously served on the Board and they invited me back to "consult" with them on their future. We met for 2 hours and it was a great meeting. Men and women gathered around desperately seeking God's direction for this ministry.
Richard & DeeDee Stephens started this ministry 20 years ago. What a legacy! From a bunch of mothers sitting in a sandbox talking about how hard it is to raise kids to a ministry today that is reaching 300+ kids a year in Columbus area schools. Over 20 years, I'd guess that more than 5,000 kids have been touched in some way by TA. 5,000 kids! My 13-year old daughter was at Double Churches School this morning volunteering for Velocity (TA's ministry to the middle school). She witnessed and talked about peer pressure and standing firm in her beliefs. She is now counted as one of the ones touched by Richard & DeeDee's love.
This has been a labor of love for Richard & DeeDee. They have prayed, cried, sweated, anguished, trusted, leaned on, depended on and funded this ministry for 20 years. Richard is a successful businessman that has tithed from his business his money, time and love for TA. DeeDee is a mom that rolled up her sleeves and dreamed an impossible dream and made it happen. Most of us when our kids graduated and moved on, we would have moved on too. Not DeeDee. Her kids have been out of high school for a decade or more. She is grandmother 8 times over and is still in there fighting and sweating and loving for those kids. Our kids. My kid.
I feel most assured that the Lord is well pleased with how Richard & DeeDee have given so generously back to the Kingdom. What a sacrifice. What an example. What a labor and what a reward. 5,000 kids. Imagine the trickle down impact on 5,000 kids. Imagine the lives that have been saved. Imagine the good, solid marriages that are now in place because these kids got grounded and found the Lord through TA. Imagine the former TA's that are now teaching Sunday School, leading TA chapters, volunteering on YoungLife committees, raising their own kids in Godly homes and ministering in the workplace.
Man cannot quantify the impact. Only God knows. Again, I am sure He is well pleased.
So now, TA moves on. DeeDee is transitioning her Executive Director roll to Nick Cash. We sat and prayed with Nick and he wept because he realizes the big shoes he is about to fill. Please lift Nick up in your prayers.
Lastly, we talked about fundraising. It is hard for TA to raise money. Year after year, the budget is a challenge and a call to lean on God. We were struck by the realization that over the past 6-7 years - RiverCenter, CSU, Brookstone School, YMCA, PAWS, National Infantry Museum, the Library - that Columbus has raised more than $300 million for bricks and mortar ... building campaigns. $300 million. Yet, TA has a hard time raising $300,000 a year. People will give money to build buildings that in 100 years will be torn down.
TA builds lives. TA builds souls. TA is eternal and exponential in its impact.
Pray for Teen Advisors. Lift the ministry up and Nick Cash up and pray that eyes and ears and hearts will be opened across the city to meet TA's needs.
I had the honor to sit with members of the board of Teen Advisors yesterday to discuss the future of this wonderful ministry. I have previously served on the Board and they invited me back to "consult" with them on their future. We met for 2 hours and it was a great meeting. Men and women gathered around desperately seeking God's direction for this ministry.
Richard & DeeDee Stephens started this ministry 20 years ago. What a legacy! From a bunch of mothers sitting in a sandbox talking about how hard it is to raise kids to a ministry today that is reaching 300+ kids a year in Columbus area schools. Over 20 years, I'd guess that more than 5,000 kids have been touched in some way by TA. 5,000 kids! My 13-year old daughter was at Double Churches School this morning volunteering for Velocity (TA's ministry to the middle school). She witnessed and talked about peer pressure and standing firm in her beliefs. She is now counted as one of the ones touched by Richard & DeeDee's love.
This has been a labor of love for Richard & DeeDee. They have prayed, cried, sweated, anguished, trusted, leaned on, depended on and funded this ministry for 20 years. Richard is a successful businessman that has tithed from his business his money, time and love for TA. DeeDee is a mom that rolled up her sleeves and dreamed an impossible dream and made it happen. Most of us when our kids graduated and moved on, we would have moved on too. Not DeeDee. Her kids have been out of high school for a decade or more. She is grandmother 8 times over and is still in there fighting and sweating and loving for those kids. Our kids. My kid.
I feel most assured that the Lord is well pleased with how Richard & DeeDee have given so generously back to the Kingdom. What a sacrifice. What an example. What a labor and what a reward. 5,000 kids. Imagine the trickle down impact on 5,000 kids. Imagine the lives that have been saved. Imagine the good, solid marriages that are now in place because these kids got grounded and found the Lord through TA. Imagine the former TA's that are now teaching Sunday School, leading TA chapters, volunteering on YoungLife committees, raising their own kids in Godly homes and ministering in the workplace.
Man cannot quantify the impact. Only God knows. Again, I am sure He is well pleased.
So now, TA moves on. DeeDee is transitioning her Executive Director roll to Nick Cash. We sat and prayed with Nick and he wept because he realizes the big shoes he is about to fill. Please lift Nick up in your prayers.
Lastly, we talked about fundraising. It is hard for TA to raise money. Year after year, the budget is a challenge and a call to lean on God. We were struck by the realization that over the past 6-7 years - RiverCenter, CSU, Brookstone School, YMCA, PAWS, National Infantry Museum, the Library - that Columbus has raised more than $300 million for bricks and mortar ... building campaigns. $300 million. Yet, TA has a hard time raising $300,000 a year. People will give money to build buildings that in 100 years will be torn down.
TA builds lives. TA builds souls. TA is eternal and exponential in its impact.
Pray for Teen Advisors. Lift the ministry up and Nick Cash up and pray that eyes and ears and hearts will be opened across the city to meet TA's needs.
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