Maturity & credit cards

Recently the Crossover Youth & Uprising Young Adults came back from a summer retreat in which most (if not all) of us were heavily blessed!  Ask just about anyone who went–it was not only fun, it was spiritually invigorating!  Good thing, right?

Unfortunately, an all-too-frequent part of the retreat experience is the gradual-but-sure “crash” that happens after the event.  In fact, for some young church-goers, it’s so inevitable that it discourages them from going to retreats or such events at all.  It’s sad but true.

But I think this “crash” comes, at least in part, from a misconception of the real impact of a retreat experience.  I’ve come to believe (& I think it’s true in my own past experiences) that retreat attendees believe having had a retreat experience, they’re now mature.  They learned so much, felt so much, cried so much, now they MUST be mature (or insert whatever synonym applies: now they’re “strong,” “spiritual,” “God-centered,” “committed,” “focused,” etc., etc. ad nauseum–we Christians have all sorts of synonymous spiritual lingo).

But the obvious simple fact is…that’s simply not true!  The retreat experience doesn’t MAKE you any of these things any more than a credit card makes a kid mature.  A credit card to a kid doesn’t make him or her mature; it’s an invitation to pursue maturity!

So, the encounter that people have with God & even the commitments/dedications they make having experienced His love, grace & presence are now an invitation to put that into real life.  A one-time retreat, for the most part, doesn’t make a person mature.  God makes people mature & He normally does that in the experience of real life.  But God affords times to retreat, be with Him, be reminded & renewed so that now we would walk in the things we felt & learned.  We are to realize that we have incredible spiritual resources at our disposal & incredible rewards should we pursue them consistently & passionately.

So my hope is that for all our attendees, having been so blessed at this retreat, we’ll fully embrace the invitation we’ve received from it, the invitation to “spend” ourselves on God & grow in maturity!

“Teach us to pray”

Y’know, working with younger people, there’s a certain simplicity that’s needed in how I speak & model the spiritual life.  While that would seem, er, simple, actually it can be pretty difficult.  I want our young people to go deeper but it needs to be understood in relatively simple terms.  One particular area is their prayer lives.

If you don’t know, the Crossover Youth & Uprising Young Adults have a monthly time of extended corporate prayer (the fourth Friday of each month).  That means we pray together…for extended periods of time.  And we found that for some of our younger people, they simply ran out of stuff to pray for.  This happened at retreats, too.  So they just sat there, looking around, talking to each other, waiting for what was next.

The title of this blog post comes from a request by the disciples upon seeing Jesus’ prayer life (Luke 11.1).  It’s followed by Luke’s version of ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ (or ‘The Disciple’s Prayer’ or ‘The Model Prayer’), considered more of an outline rather than something to be recited.  What it did was to force the disciples to think more about what they were praying.

In addition, Jesus says in Matthew 6.7-8a: “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them…” Then follows Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer.  He’s moving us to thoughtful, engaged & deeper prayer lives.  Y’see the connection with Luke 11?

With these things in mind, I shared 3 principles with our youth that will hopefully help them (& us) in our personal & corporate prayer times so we can engage more & go deeper.

Empathy: Often times, our prayers are somehow directly connected to people–family, friends, church members, co-workers, military, civil servants, political leaders, all of whom are…people.  As people, they think things, feel stuff, act & react, all from limited perspectives & information–& all things we ourselves might think, feel & do given the same circumstances.  Therefore, it helps to consider & empathize with THEIR  thoughts & feelings as WE pray.  Step into their shoes, yet with the perspective of someone on the outside, so as to pray with more personal investment.

Environment: The people we pray for are “trapped” in certain situations, things they can’t just simply hop in a car & drive away from.  It may be sickness, financial difficulty, broken people & relationships around them.  Much of their burdens & hurt come from stuff in their environment.  That’s not to shirk personal responsibility for how their situations have turned out but it is to say that environmental factors can weigh heavily on the people we pray for.  Consider those things & direct your prayers that way, too.

Exalt: While not always immediately considered, there is the potential for God to elevated & exalted in the very burdensome, painful situations that people go through.  How could God be exalted in the life of the particular people & situations I am praying for? If you think about it, that’s ultimately why God would allow these things.  For many non-believing people, Christ could be exalted by them seeing their need for Him.  For that matter, that could apply for believing people as well, just deeper.  And don’t just think in terms of quick fixes: healing for sickness, a job or pay-raise for financial situations, politicians to do what we think they should, etc.  Sure, God COULD be glorified in this way but is that the only way or the best way?  Is that even how God USUALLY works? Of course that’s hard for us to know for sure in every situation but what we should know is that it isn’t always through the cut-and-dry, “waving of the wand” means.  God does desire to be exalted but often times right in the midst of the messiness of life where He is still seen as worthwhile in spite of the circumstances.

In the end, I’m not just trying to encourage us to pray longer but, if we do, I hope that it’ll come from praying more fervently because we’re invested more deeply.

-pb

Something worth getting riled up about

Well, it happened again: A professional sports team won a championship.  As you can see though, I’m not referring to the Mavs; I’m talking hockey.  The Boston Bruins won Lord’s Stanley’s cup, apparently the first time in 39 years.  But let’s not forget, when the dust of a championship battle settles, there’s a winner & there’s inevitably a loser (that’s usually how it works).  In the end, it’s great to have rooted for the winning team but of course not so much the losers, in this case, the Vancouver Canucks.

And in this case, the loss turned ugly for Vancouvans when, distraught over the less, a riot broke out in the shopping district consuming the area in chaos, looting, flames & bloodshed.  According to this article (dated June 16), almost 150 had been injured in rioting, all without a tornado in sight!  Nope, through the very intentional acts of frustrated Canucks fans, “Rioting and looting left cars burned, stores in shambles and windows shattered over a roughly ten block radius of the city’s main shopping district.”  From the article: “Vancouver city councilor Suzanne Anton said the rioting has shaken the city and overshadowed the hockey team’s playoff run.”

Losers' meltdown!

Again, Anton: “I would never have believed that Vancouver would be a city where there would be looting.  I just feel such a profound sense of disappointment. We like to think we live in paradise here in Vancouver.”

Talk about trouble in paradise!

The big question is “Why?”  For crying out loud, what makes people act out like this in ways that are obviously foolish (to put it mildly)?  In a word, it’s ‘passion.’  When you’re passionate about something, you get riled up.  I dare say, you’re supposed to!  And that includes us as Christians.  Really!  In fact, I feel we’re often not passionate enough.

Now, right away I want to take care that this doesn’t come across as advocating extremism.  We must be self-aware & cautious enough so that our actions/reactions aren’t about our own pride &/or security as much as what’s good & honorable (namely, God himself).  So we have to pause to filter HOW we express, among other things, “righteous indignation” (frustration & grievance).  After all, who can argue with the words of James 1.19-20…

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

That said, if we care about something, we’ll get “riled up” about it/him/her.  I mean it stirs something in you, ignites a fire within, “gets you going!”  What gets you going?  And among those, is God somewhere in there?  Do you get riled up for God? Among all things, He’s the most worth it.

-pb

A semi-happy marriage? GOOD!

Read an article about a book that recently came out.  The book is by one Pamela Haag, Ph.D (History) from Yale U.  She authored the rather longish (title & content) “Marriage Confidential: The Post-Romantic Age of Workhorse Wives, Royal Children, Undersexed Spouses, and Rebel Couples Who Are Rewriting the Rules.” From the article, Haag discusses the historical trend of couples who are increasingly opting out of marriage–i.e. divorcing–because of a low sense of satisfaction in the relationship.  These marriages she labels, “semi-happy.”

According to the article, “a semi-happy marriage is one of low conflict, low passion, and low satisfaction.”  Haag says, “It’s these kinds of marriages that…contribute the lion’s share to divorce court each year.”

Well, for most of us, this may not be news.  What was surprising, at least it was to me, was the closing quote by Haag:

“There’s a part of your soul that isn’t nourished in marriage, and it’s too big a part to live without.”

THAT’S RIGHT!!!  There IS a part of our souls that marriage can’t fill!  Well of course!  That’s because we were ultimately made for relationship w/ the infinite God.  Our spouses were never meant to nor capable of giving us the deepest & fullest satisfaction by him-/herself–they’re just not, only God is.  But in God’s loving & gracious plan, He’s written in, yes, a spouse, but only as part (albeit a significant part) of the satisfaction equation.

So dumping marriage is hardly the answer.  Talk about “throwing the baby out with the bath water!”  The answer is, as husband & wife, to seek our ULTIMATE satisfaction in God!  And that actually makes our marriage relationships that much better!  Ha, we DO get our cake & eat it, too!

-pb

Brokenness: A place of soul refreshment?

At any given time in our lives we find life fires its arrows, pierces us to the soul & brings us to our knees. You may be in such a time like that now, you may not. If not, you will. In those times, we struggle with so many things in our hearts & minds, not least of which is God’s presence & place in all “this.”

But y’know what? I’ve come to learn the place of some of our deepest spiritual refreshment happens right in the midst of our brokenness. In my own growth, I realize now better than ever that it was precisely as I struggled, even wrestled w/ God & was broken, that I was actually close to God & Him to me & in the heat of it, my soul was “quenched” despite my discontentment–I just didn’t know it! All I could think about were the issues I was wrestling with while failing to see & savor God’s presence in it all. Thing is, this is CLEARLY biblical. Take a look…

Psalm 34.18: The LORD is near to the brokenhearted…

Psalm 51.17: The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Isaiah 57.15: For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Isaiah 66.1-2: Thus says the Lord:
“Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look [i.e. "show favor to"] : he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

That said, the issue(s) we’re wrestling with or struggling/broken under are still there; they’re the reason we’re hurting! God graciously provides some relief & resolution but we have to be careful that THAT’s not what we’re ultimately seeking—just to “feel better,” for our problems to be resolved or our situation to clear up, our spirits to be lifted, people to like us, etc. There’s more & it’s better—it’s a deeper relationship w/ Him! One where life becomes less about our material circumstances & much more about a soul-connection w/ the greatest “Thing” there is, GOD. Our souls are refreshed w/ HIM!

And so Jesus declares, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” (Matthew 5.3) i.e. the very dwelling place of God!

So look for God in your brokenness, past the circumstances, past the pain, past the questions & confusion. And whether you see Him there or not, He’s there & you are in the very presence of God.

-pb

Pastor Stidham

Pastor Richard Stidham, ELM Pastor from July 2006 – June 2011.
God bless you on your new assignment!

We are currently in search of a new ELM pastor.  For more info, please see our ad here.

Past sermons by Pr. Stidham:

The Call of Leadership

• The Call of Leadership (Part 1)
• The Call of Leadership (Part 2)
• The Call of Leadership (Part 3)

Fear-Filled Faith

• Fear-Filled Faith (Part 1)
• Fear-Filled Faith (Part 2)
• Fear-Filled Faith (Part 3)

God Provides so Don’t Steal

• God Provides So Don’t Steal (Part 1)
• God Provides So Don’t Steal (Part 2)
• God Provides So Don’t Steal (Part 3)

The Cost of a Stubborn Spirit

• The Cost Of A Stubborn Spirit (Part 1)
• The Cost Of A Stubborn Spirit (Part 2)
• The Cost Of A Stubborn Spirit (Part 3)

Saturday prayer walk (2011.06.04)

Went out into the neighborhood immediately surrounding the church.  Jun Chea & I partnered up to pray for our neighbors as we passed out flyers for the upcoming VBS, July 5-9.

The area we covered was minimal bordering, on the south side 86th St, on the north, 84th, on the west, M St, & on the east, J St (click the google maps link or the map pic, left).  We shot up 85th St between J & Thompson also.

Both of us had the same thoughts: There are SO MANY homes (& thus, families) in our neighborhood we’ve NEVER had contact with.  Downright alarming.

-pb

“Here we go!”

Hello, ladies & gents, this goes out as a reminder specifically to all our college/singles folks of our adjusted service beginning this Sunday.  As most of you know, beginning this Sunday, ya’ll will have a separate message (given by ‘yours truly’) in Bethlehem.  Again here’s how it’ll run:

• TOGETHER: We start off in Antioch with worship & offering;
• TOGETHER: We go over announcements;
• SEPARATE: Message;
• SEPARATE: Reflection time.

So if by chance you come late (say, after 11:30-ish), go straight to Bethlehem & join us.

That said, I wanna REALLY encourage ya’ll to help maintain the ties we’ve built w/ our brothers & sisters in the youth ministry & even build on them further.  So let’s worship God together (@ 11am sharp!) & outside of Sunday services, let’s grow, serve & play together as a diverse but united body of believers.

Can I get an “Amen!”?!!

pb

Wonderful Mother’s Day Service

Thanks all for making a wonderful Mother’s Day Service possible. We had a wonderful and a blessed time. We’ll be posting photos from the service within the next couple days. Please check back!