Ah-Ha!

                Last week we attended a conference on orphan care, as my wife and I sat and listened we became very aware of how God has been preparing us for this ministry for a long time.  The focus of the conference, although talking about orphans, focused on the issue of Fatherlessness.  In other countries, without social welfare systems, the death or lose of a father is equivalent to being an orphan.  In many countries opportunities for a single mother to make enough to provide for a child are almost nonexistent. 

                But, the same can be said about fatherlessness even in our country.  God intended for children to be raised by both a mother and a father.  Our culture has devalued the male role model and has tried to make fathers seem optional.  While in Honduras it becomes quickly clear that children need men, 80% of Honduran children are raised in single parent homes.  But, these children beam when a man takes time to wash their hair or play with them.  It fills a hunger in their lives that they may not even realize exists.

                We sat and listened to how God challenges his people to care for the fatherless.  God makes 13 commandments in the law about caring for the fatherless, 7 prophets made charges against the people of Israel regarding their neglect of the fatherless. Read the example below, this was a big responsibility for God’s people.

 Deuteronomy 14:28-29  At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns,  so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. (NIV)  

Even Job talked about his care of the Fatherless in Job 31 to defend his morality.  Somehow this is what had captured my heart, not because I had read these Biblical texts looking for a cause but because God was at work transforming my heart.  Jen and I will often comment that people stand out as my kind of people; I have a soft spot for those that struggle through life.  But, a common thread is that a majority of these people are also fatherless.  God used passages like this to reconfirm what I felt God is doing in our lives.

                We thought it was odd that months before we are running off to work in an orphanage, we had this ah-ha moment.  The light bulb comes on and we discover that God has been shaping us all along to do this new ministry. I have been a Minister to the Fatherless for a long time, but have not connected the ideas together until this weekend.  The thing is God loves the Fatherless, and he has given me the same broken heart for these people. 

                I also believe very strongly that God shapes each individual by His spirit at work in our lives to accomplish very specific tasks within the Church that is why we do not have people fighting over filling our Sunday school teacher positions.  God has only wired some of us for that task.  Now I am not letting you off the hook, if you are not called to teach Sunday school I challenge you to discover what God has shaped you to do.  God does not call Christians to be idol or even retire from Christian service.  In fact I believe as you mature in your faith you should better understand exactly how you should be serving, I am still figuring it out! 

God has a Dream!

Ephesians 3:20-21 (NLT)

 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.  Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

Dreams, ideas, and plans not only are an escape, they give me purpose, a reason to hang on. ~ Walt Disney

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up,  ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

                The idea of having dreams captures us from an early age.  Last week I went to a field trip at the Fire Station with my daughter who is in kindergarten.  One of the firemen asked if anyone wanted to be a firefighter when they grow up, all the kids raised their hand.  He said he had dreamed of being a firefighter since he was 5 and visited the fire station with his class. 

                What is it about dreaming that is so powerful in our lives?  I like how Walt Disney noted that his dreams gave him a reason to hang on!  I have worked with students my whole career and I can see the difference between children who do not have adults willing to dream for them, and those with parents who have big dreams for their lives.  Everyone needs someone else to dream for us from time to time, the kids who lack this, “collaborative” dreaming often do not have a reason to “hang on” when life becomes hard and their dreams die. They easily lose hope and direction.

           The real question is: Are we dreaming big enough? When Martin Luther Jr.  stated his dream, it gave power to break down years of oppression.  People were given a new dream…  And our country was changed.   Even more than that the doors were blown open and people were able to dream bigger then they had before. 

                In this passage Paul reminds us that God’s plans for us are bigger, even bigger then we can imagine.  I have been told by several people that they have good jobs and like what they do, but do not feel like they are doing something that truly matters.  What if we allowed ourselves to live out another dream?  What if God's imagination drove our lives, and we lived out His dreams for us.

I have found that often life sidetracks our personal dreams and we tend to settle into our lives and our own dreams are quickly downsized.  But, God’s dreams for us are supersized!  I am moving my family to Honduras, this is not the dream I had for myself and I even had to let go of some of my dreams.  But, God’s dream for my family ignited my imagination, it gave me a new understanding of the way God has been directing my life.  It was bigger then I could ask or think!

The other reason I believe understanding why God’s dream for our life is so important is this:  I will be serving kids who have lost parents to dream for them and inspire them.  Serving at the Ranch gives care givers like my family the opportunities to help kids who may have never had a dream beside survival to learn, seek out, and understand the things that God is calling them to do.  As I think about our students at the Ranch, I am continually reminded of the story of Joseph and how his and his father Jacob’s dreams were taken from him, but God gave him new and bigger dreams.  This is my prayer for my children and all the children at the ranch that God would supersize their dreams through his mighty power at work within their lives and will accomplish infinitely more than what they might ask or think!

In a few short months I will get to live out God’s supersized dream for my life, while getting to inspire God’s dreams in the lives of these 27+ abandon Children. 

 

 

 

 

               

 

Amazed by Grace

                I just got back from one week on a Serve Team with World Gospel Outreach ( www.wgoreach.org ) in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  One thing that captured my attention this week was; I am amazed with God’s grace.  This week we spent lots of time sharing, one to one, God’s Gospel message to everyone who would hear.  It was for everyone freely given with no regard to the recipients merit or history.  It was powerful and freeing.  Then it hit me.  I am normally not so full of grace!

                Grace is not really a human characteristic…  I know we can be gracious but, just think about how many times you withhold grace even from yourself, and then think about those who have wronged you!  How freely do we give grace?  Or has there been a moment where you know you did wrong and it broke your heart, then you could not find the grace and forgiveness that you really longed for from people? 

                But at the medical brigades in Tegucigalpa, we had the opportunity to offer the same message with who ever sat across from us.  We saw:  Cops both good and bad, prostitutes, gang members, pimps, abused wives, abusive husbands, teenage mothers, adulteresses, gays, lesbians, sinners and the list goes on.  And time and time again, we offered the same life changing message without ever giving thought to the worthiness of the recipient.  We made no demands for a change of behavior before we took the time to love and care about them.  Most of the time we did not even ask, but they freely expressed their sin to us. 

                But, on the other hand I know how difficult it is in my home to offer the same judgment free grace to those I know.  Sometimes I saw team members offer free grace all day long.  Then withhold it from those whom they are serving beside because they already know who they are,  have judged their sins, and determined their merit.  I realized now how amazing it is to offer God-like grace… even if the only way I could do it was out of ignorance.  But, God goes a giant leap beyond my ignorant grace when he offers his free gift of grace.  He knows each and every one of my faults and your faults, he is not ignorant of our need for His grace!  God does not hold back his forgiveness from us.

Romans 5:6-8 (NLT)

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.  Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.  But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

              Last week I brought Christ to sinners, not good people, not upright people but sinners. Yes, these people who share this same distinction with us.  I wonder if that is why God sends us on short term missions?  Do we need of taste of His way of handing out grace so we will understand the grace we have received so freely?
              Lord, thank you for giving me the opportunity to hand out with out reservation Your free gospel message.  Please forgive me for not offering the same grace with others that You knowingly give me, an undeserving sinner. 

Check out the pictures from my trip at www.facebook.com/walkinginobedience