What Do You Need To Say To Him?

Let’s face it – all of us have challenges each day.  For some of us, we simply need support to just maintain our prayer lives.  That’s certainly true of me, as I can easily forget to talk to our Father.

Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10 NIV)

I move around too much.

I can get unfocused all too easily.

I want to watch TV.

I want to read.

I want to write.

I don’t want to be still.  But He commands us to be still.

Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act. (Psalm 37:7 NLT)

I really don’t want to be patient, either.

The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.  I will advise you and watch over you.” (Psalm 32:8 NLT)

If I am still, I will hear Him. And when I hear Him, I will know that He knows what’s best for me, He will guide me.

What do I need to say to Him?

What do you need to say to Him today?

How can we pray for each other today?

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So with that, Prayer Request Fridays are back.  Leave your requests below.  Or if you’re on Facebook, you can leave your prayer requests there, too.

Blog Tour – Not One, Not Two, But Three Books.

Being the book freak that I am, I opted to review 3 books as part of this Father’s Day blog tour for Waterbook Multnomah.  The books I received were Eyes Wide Open, by Jud Wilhite, The Disappearance of God, by Albert Mohler, and Sir Dalton and the Shadow Heart, by Chuck Black.

Of these, I read the entirety of Eyes Wide Open and about half of The Disappearance of God. Alas, I’ve not had the time to crack open Sir Dalton yet, so the review in that case will consist of the publisher’s marketing description of the book, which does look to be an intriguing work of fiction. I do plan on reading it later this summer as my reading shifts from the more theologically inclined non-fiction I’ve been reading to straight up fiction.

As to the theologically inclined non-fiction, both Eyes Wide Open and The Disappearance of God are interesting contrasts, when read back-to -back as I have done.  Wilhite’s book is a basic look at God’s grace and how it works in our lives.  Wilhite, senior pastor of Central Christian Church in Las Vegas, writes:

Embracing God’s perspective of you – living with eyes wide open – is so important because it allows you to become the person God created you to be. Not the you your critics claim you are. Not the you who pretends to be perfect in order to satisfy others’ expectations. Not the you who feels guilty before God about your past and who lives with chronic spiritual remorse. Not the you who looks in the mirror and sees a failure….
…Some of the most “together” people I know have admitted to going through incredible struggles to accept God’s grace, to see themselves with their new identity in Christ, and to make an impact in the world as a result of that. One of the greatest joys in my life has been to see them look at God and themselves with new eyes, freed to discover the person God designed them to be.

What follows throughout the book are chapters that take us on a journey from having eyes wide open to God, to having eyes wide open to identity, eyes wide open to change, and eyes wide open to influence. He effectively uses appropriate Scripture and vignettes from his own life, from the lives of various denizens of Vegas who have come to know Jesus, and even some well-known folks (Evel Knievel anyone?) who have experienced the transforming power of Jesus’ love. He reminds us to view “spiritual growth more like a spiral that’s gradually moving toward a destination of becoming like Jesus.” This book is written in a conversational tone, but is theologically solid as Wilhite reminds us:

If you only have grace, you’ll be forgiven, but you won’t be challenged by the truth to become the person God desires. You’ll be stuck in a rut. So truth must be there as well. Yet if you only have truth, without grace, you’ll wallow in guilt and condemnation. And all of this takes significant time. The change doesn’t happen overnight.

I recommend this book, as Wilhite gives us the truth of the Gospel without falling into legalism.

On the other hand, Mohler’s book The Disappearance of God falls into dangerously close territory to legalism, and flirts with elements of American nationalism, both of which made me uncomfortable as I read the book.  He writes to a specifically American audience (whereas Wilhite’s audience isn’t necessarily limited to North American Christianity), denigrating his perception of elements of American society and the American church as falling away from a typically conservative American political viewpoint associated with a particular political brand of Christianity.

However, Mohler does address some basic theology very well, particularly at the outset of the book.  He effectively defines the issues that all Christians should agree on, and defines lesser issues which separate Christians without disagreement on primary issues.  He suggests that primary, first order issues include “the Trinity, the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, justification by faith, and the authority of Scripture.” Lesser issues would include baptism (infant baptism, full immersion) or the ordination of women – issues that have caused the disagreements among denominations (and even some congregations within denominations) without jeopardizing the truth of first order issues.

That said, his writing evokes a certain anger towards those who oppose or disagree with the primary/first order issues, and there does not appear to be much grace and love in his writing style.  It is much more heavy handed, less conversational, and tended to leave me cold as I read.  It was not as accessible as Wilhite’s book, nor did it make me want to agree with his subject matter, intriguing though it was at times. I can’t recommend Mohler’s work, unless you’re willing to work through it and wrestle with his dogmatic style.

Two interesting, yet very different reads, with two different recommendations.

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Book: The Disappearance of God

Author: Dr. R. Albert Mohler

Dates: June 15th – 19th

Summary:

More faulty information about God swirls around us today than ever before. No wonder so many followers of Christ are unsure of what they really believe in the face of the new spiritual openness attempting to alter unchanging truth.

For centuries the church has taught and guarded the core Christian beliefs that make up the essential foundations of the faith. But in our postmodern age, sloppy teaching and outright lies create rampant confusion, and many Christians are free-falling for “feel-good” theology.

We need to know the truth to save ourselves from errors that will derail our faith.

As biblical scholar, author, and president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Albert Mohler, writes, “The entire structure of Christian truth is now under attack.” With wit and wisdom he tackles the most important aspects of these modern issues:
Is God changing His mind about sin?
Why is hell off limits for many pastors?
What’s good or bad about the “dangerous” emergent movement?
Have Christians stopped seeing God as God?
Is the social justice movement misguided?
Could the role of beauty be critical to our theology?
Is liberal faith any less destructive than atheism?
Are churches pandering to their members to survive?

In the age-old battle to preserve the foundations of faith, it’s up to a new generation to confront and disarm the contemporary shams and fight for the truth. Dr. Mohler provides the scriptural answers to show you how.

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Book: Eyes Wide Open

Author: Jud Wilhite

Dates: June 15th – 19th

Summary:

I had it all backwards. The main thing was not my love for God, but his love for me. And from that love I respond to God as one deeply flawed, yet loved. I’m not looking to prove my worth. I’m not searching for acceptance. I’m living out of the worth God already declares I have. I’m embracing his view of me and in the process discovering the person he created me to be.

In Eyes Wide Open, Jud Wilhite invites you to discover the real you. Not the you who pretends to be perfect to satisfy everyone’s expectations. Not the you who always feels guilty before God. Not the you who secretly feels God forgives everyone else but only tolerates you. Not the you who looks in the mirror and sees a failure. The real you, loved and forgiven by God, living out of your identity in Christ.

A travel guide through real spirituality from one incomplete person to another, Eyes Wide Open is a book of stories about following God in the messes of life, about broken pasts and our lifelong need for grace. It is a book about seeing ourselves and God with new eyes–eyes wide open to a God of love.

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Book: Sir Dalton and the Shadow Heart

Author: Chuck Black

Dates: June 15th – 19th

Summary:

Sir Dalton, a knight in training, seems to have everything going for him. Young, well-liked, and a natural leader, he has earned the respect and admiration of his fellow knights, and especially the beautiful Lady Brynn.

But something is amiss at the training camp. Their new trainer is popular but lacks the passion to inspire them to true service to the King and the Prince. Besides this, the knights are too busy enjoying a season of good times to be concerned with a disturbing report that many of their fellow Knights have mysteriously vanished.

When Sir Dalton is sent on a mission, he encounters strange attacks, especially when he is alone. As his commitment wanes, the attacks grow in intensity until he is captured by Lord Drox, a massive Shadow Warrior. Bruised and beaten, Dalton refuses to submit to evil and initiates a daring escape with only one of two outcomes–life or death. But what will become of the hundreds of knights he’ll leave behind? In a kingdom of peril, Dalton thinks he is on his own, but two faithful friends have not abandoned him, and neither has a strange old hermit who seems to know much about the Prince. But can Dalton face the evil Shadow Warrior again and survive?

Hah. So Where Does Blogging Fit Into This?

So I’m an ADHD narcissistic stalker.

How about you?

C.S. Lewis, Baseball and Faith.

For as long as I can remember, I was a San Francisco Giants fan. More so than any other Bay Area sports team, including the 49ers, the black and orange of the Giants has taken root deep in my soul.  From the bright orange road jerseys of the 1978 team with manager Joe Altobelli, to the 1981 and 1982 Frank Robinson teams (especially the 1982 team that gave the NL West to the Braves), the 1985 team that lost 100 games, the resurgence in the late 80s with Will Clark, Kevin Mitchell and Jeffrey “One Flap Down” Leonard, the near-move to Tampa in 1992, the signing of Barry Bonds in 1993, and the ill-fated 2002 World Series, the black and orange have been a large part of my life from childhood to adulthood. The Giants have been the team by which I choose to enjoy the game of baseball.

If baseball is a house complete with a large hallway with many rooms, I found myself in the hallway knocking on the door that led to the Giants.  Some of you found doors that led to the Cardinals, or the Athletics, or the Pirates, or the Cubs.  And others of you who I would deem to be a bit misguided knocked on the doors of the Yankees or (gasp) the Dodgers.

Each door, however, leads to a variation on the same theme…baseball.  We’ve merely chosen to enjoy the game from a slightly different perspective – with different “laundry” as Jerry Seinfeld would say.

Our Christian lives are no different.

It  (mere Christianity) is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meal. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in. For that purpose the worst of the rooms (whichever that may be) is, I think, preferable. It is true that some people may find they have to wait in the hall for a considerable time, while others feel certain almost at once which door they must knock at.  I do not know why there is this difference, but I am sure God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait.  When you do get into your room you will find that the long wait has done you some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise….

…When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall.  If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them.  That is one of the rules common to the whole house.

C.S. Lewis, from the Preface to Mere Christianity

Hmmm.

I guess Dodger fans need my prayers all the more. 

Authentic

It’s one of those words that in my prior church experience was perhaps not taken seriously enough.  What does it really mean to be “authentic” in the Christian context?

According to Merriam-Webster to be authentic is to be “not false or imitation : real, actual“.

Until recent years, I hadn’t really understood what that meant or how to do it.

And then I read Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz. I read Mark Driscoll’s Confessions of a Reformission Rev. G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy. And suddenly, I started to understand – I saw how each grappled with their faith, with Jesus, with their church, with how they perceived themselves and how they were perceived by others in the Christian community and I could relate to their issues.

However I still didn’t know how to do it myself. It was not something that I grew up learning how to do (nor, in retrospect, was that encouraged, but that would be the subject of a much lengthier post), and to be honest, I’m not sure that I knew that I needed to be able to do it in the first place.

Until…I came face-to-face with men in my local community who encouraged me to be real with them.  Perhaps encourage is the wrong word.  These men demanded it of me, and I demanded it of them.  More to the point – our faith demanded (and still demands) it.  If I am to grow in my walk in Jesus, I need to confront my own weaknesses and be held accountable by Him – and He does that through other folks.  With me, He has certainly done that in the company of the brothers I now keep.

In recent weeks I have seen many of my brothers be very real about their lives, the way I have been with them.   In each circumstance…

…we listened.

…we encouraged.

…we prayed.

It was real.

It was authentic.

It was Jesus meeting each of us at his moment of pain.

And it was very good.

More Servolution

A few quick key takeaways so far from Dino Rizzo’s Servolution…

The goal of our servolution has always been to demonstrate the love of Jesus, not to make people feel like they now owed it to us to come to a service.Serving people is not just something we want to do; it’s something we need to do. People discover personal healing through helping others.

When we focus on caring for people, God takes care of the church.

Servolution is about expanding the kingdom, not just our church.

Every Christian needs to serve…through serving…staff, leaders and congregation have matured deeply in their spiritual walk, in their marriages, in their finances, in their relationships, in their emotions, and in their personal lives.

We don’t want to be known for our average generosity; we want to be a church that gives with extreme generosity.

Our understanding of “the poor” has to include any person in any kind of bondage or under any kind of oppression who needs the freedom of Christ shown to them.

A servolution costs those who ignite it.

Servolution reminds us that this is all about Him and not about us.

Thinking ’bout a Servolution

My latest read is Dino Rizzo’s Servolution, a book that is completely challenging my viewpoint of how to love others unconditionally.  From the official website of the book and movement:

A Servolution is not an event; it is a culture. Infusing this culture into the DNA of your church will change the view of the world and your perspective of the needs of those around you. This movement is rumbling throughout the body of Christ – a revolutionary army of people ready to take up this mandate. We are actively pursuing the lost, the forgotten, and the poor to show them a God who is passionately in love with them. We stand ready with one heart, saying, “I will serve others and show them the hope they can have in Jesus.”

I want to be a Servolutionary.

I’ve started to take small steps over the past year, but now that I’m halfway through this book, I’m convinced that I want the attitude of this culture embedded in my everyday life.  I want to love as Jesus loved.  I want to serve as Jesus served.

The challenge has begun in how I and my brothers in Christ are planning ways to love our community creatively and passionately.

Last summer we washed cars for free.  We also handed out $2.00 bags of quarters at a local laundromat, at the local dollar store, and in front of a national coffee shop chain with a green circle in its logo.

About a month ago, we purchased a $50.00 card for that same national coffee shop chain and told the workers at the counter to use that card to pay for the coffee of subsequent visitors early one Thursday morning while our men’s small group met to discuss the prior week’s sermon message.  When we left a little after 7 am, the manager came out to tell us that the card had lasted for nearly 2 hours…several customers added funds to the card!  Others came in blown away that their coffee that morning was free.  One woman had remarked that she didn’t have enough money for coffee that morning (I assume she was planning on charging it) – so the act of kindness had touched her that day.

So what’s on tap?

Likely another free car wash.  We’ll probably give away bottles of water to runners and joggers at a nearby trail.  We’re going to give away gift cards to the local dollar store, to a national sandwich chain, and to that same national coffee shop as well.  Free gas cards are being considered, and you just might see some of us giving away bottles of water and juice to inebriated bar customers as they leave at 2 am.

You see, when Jesus says to love the poor, it isn’t just the economic poor.  It’s the emotionally poor.  It’s the spiritually poor.

It’s you.

It’s me.

I’m joining this Servolution.

How about you?

Forty Days Later

…fasting is the secret key that unlocks heaven’s door and slams shut the gates of hell.

- Jentezen Franklin, “Fasting”

I have never refrained from anything for 40 days before.

I’ve never given up anything during the 40 days of Lent.

Never.

Have I fasted?

Yes…partial fasts, having gone vegetarian for a week, or the occasional workday fast wherein I’ve chosen not to eat during the working day.  I’ve also fasted from blogging as well – typically for a week at a time, and usually as part of a church-wide week of prayer and fasting.

But this time, I sensed the need to go longer…to fast from online social media like blogging, Facebook, and Twitter.  I saw the hold that this technology held on me when I began this fast, and I didn’t like what I saw about myself.  I also found myself drifting a bit in faith, and knew that by giving up online social media I would have more time to focus on my faith and my family.

I have to admit, it was a bit of a struggle the first week not blogging, not reading Facebook, not updating my Twitter feed.  I battled the need to always be in the know, or the need to come up with some really clever tweet or status update.  I did, however, find myself reading assorted resources about social media from both sides of the divide:  from those who believe that online social media is not real community to those who believe that it is a new form of community (I’ll discuss this in a future post).  I spent more time in the Bible and in prayer, tried to be more intentional about the time spent with my wife and kids, in addition to time spent with friends locally, and reading quite a bit more than I had.

So what did I discover?

1)  I was able to hear God’s voice in my life with greater clarity.  That doesn’t mean that I heard this booming voice from above, but rather I could sense an impression on my heart, confirmed typically by others unsuspecting of the answers to prayer that I had been seeking.

2)  One of the “impressions” I got was to spend more time with Hank.  While I have been spending time with him coaching baseball, I hadn’t spent a lot of one-on-one time with him.  I purchased and read “Raising a Modern Day Knight” at the suggestion of a fellow brother, and as a result, I now spend time with him each evening reading a chapter of the Bible (we’re reading Exodus together), discussing each chapter, discipling him in faith on his journey to manhood.

3)  I have spent the better part of the past 40 days reading, re-reading, and praying through Ephesians 5:21-33.  How can I love my wife sacrificially, the way Jesus loves His church?  Too often men stop reading after verse 22 – but the fact is that there are three times as many instructions for husbands (9 verses for husbands, 3 verses for wives) than there are for wives in that passage – so who’s got more work to do in their marriages?  I know I don’t always get this right, but I know that if I am to be the husband that God has called me to, this is how I am to love my wife.  And I want my son to one day love his wife sacrificially.

4)  For several weeks I had been meeting with 2 other men in my church for accountability early on Thursday mornings.  We shared our struggles and challenges, but as we talked, we got the sense that more men needed this kind of relationship.  So what began with 3 of us has now doubled in size (and may continue to grow in number) as men from our church come together every Thursday morning at a local coffeeshop to discuss the prior week’s sermon message and challenge each other to apply those principles in our lives.  The first time that newer faces came to our group, we saw instant transparency – clearly a confirmation that more men needed to be in these kind of relationships to become the men that Jesus has called us to be.

Those are but a few of the things that occurred while I was away – more to share in coming days and weeks.  In the meantime, one final and very cool thing to share – Hank’s baseball team, the team I coach – has advanced in the playoffs.  Big game tonight – winner moves on, losing team goes home!

It’s good to be back.  Thanks for your prayers.

Blog Tour: Hero

Book: HERO

Author: Fred Stoeker & Jason Stoeker with contributions by Mike Yorkey

Summary:

You already know it’s not easy being a single man in this culture today. But it is easy to be overwhelmed, to feel helpless and hopeless about living by God’s high standards for singles. It’s easy to cave in to the pressures of this sex-soaked world and accept defeat—blaming the media, the culture, even girlfriends who don’t know how tough it can be.

But many men have read books like Every Young Man’s Battle and Tactics and have committed themselves to stand strong and pure in the power of God, and to go on the offensive against the onslaught of negative stereotypes. Some have suffered. Some have fallen. But many have experienced victory—and you can be among them.

What makes those committed men so desirable to women? Be Her Hero is their motto. From best-selling author Fred Stoeker, along with his son Jasen, come the straightforward insight and real-life examples you’re looking for to help you take personal purity to its logical conclusion. Here’s straight truth with irrefutable evidence of what makes an ultimate hero to women who long for men of faith—men who stand by their convictions and make their world a safer and better place.

Are you ready to accept the challenge?

Author Bios:

Fred Stoeker is a best-selling author of several books, including Every Young Man’s Battle and Tactics, the president of Living True Ministries, and a popular conference speaker who challenges men to become sexually pure, to reconnect in true intimate relationship with their wives, and to train their sons to become godly men. A graduate of Stanford University, Fred lives in Des Moines, Iowa with his wife, Brenda, and their children.

Mike Yorkey, a writer living in Encinitas, California, has collaborated with Fred Stoeker in all his books for the Every Man’s series.

Jasen Stoeker is a popular conference speaker who challenges young men to be heroic in their relationships with women and to be a Christian, rather than just seem like one. Jasen is a graduate of Iowa State University with degrees in Computer Engineering and Computer Science and now lives in Minneapolis, MN, with his wife Rose.

Unplugged.

Online social media has really taken off this past year. With the rise of Facebook and now Twitter, we are now more connected to each other than ever before. I’m not suggesting that it’s a bad thing, mind you, but for me, I’m reaching a point where I am facing my own narcissism, and I’m not sure that I like what I see.

Do I need to be liked? Absolutely not. I like to be liked, I enjoy being liked, I have to be liked, but it’s not like this compulsive need to be liked. Like my need to be praised.

- Michael Scott, “The Office”

I carry a Blackberry. For work. But it’s all too easy to have the mobile Opera browser and check in on Facebook Mobile. Or use Twitterberry to update my Twitter status (which automatically updates my Facebook status, too). The tool, in and of itself, is fine. But I’m becoming addicted to the “2 people like this” thumbs up on some comment, and the various amusing comments that others might write in response.

This was an offshoot of blogging for me. I started blogging here at The Beach over 3 years ago, random musings on life and faith. I wrote a lot in the earlier days, and enjoyed the various comments from readers, many of whom stumbled upon the musings of this husband and father living a mile from the Pacific Ocean. I couldn’t help but be excited when a particular post elicited a wide variety of comments, and seeing the comment counter tick upward was a rush. The discussions, too, were enjoyable to read, with some even sparking interesting debate.

Yet over the course of the past couple of years, the frequency with which I’ve been writing has slowed, and I have reached a point where I’m usually okay if no one comments. The main thing is that the blog has been an outlet to write, and if anyone actually responds to what I’ve written, that’s a bonus.

Note the word “usually”.

I would not be honest if I didn’t say that sometimes I wished there were more interaction on some posts. But that’s a function of my ego… “What, this post was awesome! Why didn’t y’all comment?” (And stroke my ego, right?)

Fast forward to the rise of Twitter and Facebook.

Now you don’t need to write anything substantial to elicit a response. A snarky comment, a random 140 character musing about what I’m doing, or even some quote (whether thought provoking or amusing), is much more likely to generate a comment. Photos uploaded, tagged to include friends in the photo, will certainly generate comments. That interactivity is fun, especially when it is with old high school and college friends (in a couple of cases, old teachers), and even with local friends.  Social media, in and of itself, is a useful connectivity tool.  After all, we humans were created to live relationally, and this is an easy way to do it.

But because we are in community (online) with X number of friends, now we come to expect those comments, and I think our egos get slightly bruised when no one comments on a tagged photo…or there’s a delay in a response. We want to be recognized for the things we share on Facebook or Twitter, don’t we? For instance, I was sending field trip photos of my son and his class to Twitter and to Facebook…while ON the field trip – all in the name of “sharing” – when I should have been enjoying the moment WITH the kids after taking the photos (and not worry about a real-time update to Facebook).

It’s all about me, isn’t it? Me and the collective “me”.  We’ve each become “stars” in online worlds of our making.  We like the feedback that comes from the comments.

The reality is that I’m finding myself online too much looking at other’s status updates and the relevant comments. I’m hunting for the “thumbs up” or the comments on a 140 character status update. I seek the comments on my blog.

Maybe it’s time for me to unplug for awhile and live “offline”.

Therefore…the Beach will go dark for the next 40 days as part of a fast from online social media (although I admit that I will break the fast for one day in mid-May for a book review as part of a blog tour that I previously committed to.)   I will not be active on Facebook nor Twitter during this time.  Aside from the one post mentioned, I will not be writing nor commenting, although since some of your blogs are in my Google Reader, I may read a post here or there.

You might think I’m taking this to an extreme.  Well…maybe…after all, I dove in headfirst into Facebook a couple of months ago, using the medium, connecting with friends past and present, sharing thoughts and ideas in 140 characters or less.  For me, this 40 day fast will allow me the chance to slow down, hopefully connect some of you by voice or even face to face.

It’s interesting that the current message series at my church is focused on the idea of having “One Month to Live”.  How would I live my life differently – today – if I knew that I had one month to live?  What changes in relationships would I make if I had one month to live?  What about myself would I want changed so that I could leave this world with a clean slate?  Somehow I don’t think spending an extra hour a day on social media would be what I would choose.

So…it begins today.  I will make one last round on Facebook tonight, one last round on Twitter, and sign off until June 10.

See you in forty days.

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Note: I can still be reached via email and phone…I’m not going completely dark.