This Labor Day weekend, we took some time to talk about taking a day off…just like many of you are doing today. Life was meant to run at a certain pace, to play to a certain beat. If we don’t get the rhythm of life right, thing are much more difficult than they might otherwise be. Keep reading to learn a powerful tool that will help us keep on beat with the rhythm of life. Happy Labor Day.
Keeping the Beat
When playing the drum set, one of the first things you learn is how to play “time.” Indeed, much drum set music as a part in an ensemble will have several measures that are blank with the exception of a line with two little dots right in the middle which indicates you’re supposed to play “time.” Now, if you don’t know music lingo, you may be wondering why the drummer is supposed to beat on a clock. Let me explain. Read the rest…
In this third part of our series, Grace in Hard Times, we finally get a look at what God had to say to Job and his friends after all their questions and assumptions about who He is and how He works. The result feels hard at first until you look a bit closer. What we learn is that God’s job in running the whole universe is a lot bigger than we think and that if we’ll let Him do it, He’ll do it well. Keep reading to see how this unfolds. Up next: A look at how we can keep the rhythm of our lives adjusted to the right beat.
What If God Answered?
Do you remember the worst lecture you ever got from your parents? While I confess that I fall to it way more often than I should with my boys, my folks either weren’t much for lecturing or else I’ve forgotten all of them (which really isn’t very comforting news for all the wisdom parents depart to their children through the vehicle of a lecture…). Still, though, there are times when as parents we need to impart a great deal of important information to our children in a rapid-fire fashion. And, coincidentally or not, these times often happen in conjunction with something they’ve done that wasn’t perhaps totally on the up-and-up and when we are in a state of mild to extreme anger. Now, if that happens to come across as a lecture, is that our fault? Well…probably…but that much is not where I want to go this morning. I’ll come back to this idea in a second. Read the rest…
In part two of our series, Grace in Hard Times, we take a look at the conversation among Job and his friends as they wrestle with the awful tragedies that have befallen him. Their attempts at comforting gradually transform into attempts at condemning him when he won’t play ball with their notions of how the world works. Along the way, we learn an important lesson on how to approach getting our minds around the hard times we face. Keep reading to find out what it is.
How Not to Comfort the Hurting
Have you ever been sure you were right…until you learned you weren’t? Tell me if you’ve been here before. One day we were getting ready to go to the pool and I had asked Noah to go to the garage to get something for us to take. We weren’t planning on making it a long trip and so to the boys’ disappointment we pretty severely limited the number of toys they were going to be able to take. Read the rest…
Evil is present everywhere in our world. We can’t escape it. We can only try and deal with the aftermath. This fact has long seemed deeply at odds with the idea of a good and loving God. The problem of evil is one of the thorniest challenges that has long seemed a roadblock to the Christian faith. In this new series, Grace in Hard Times, with the help of the book of Job, we are going to examine through the context of this epic story one powerful answer to the problem. In this first part of the conversation, we start with a bit of perspective.
What to Do When the Wheels Fall Off
A few years ago the news came out that Elizabeth Elliot had passed away at age 88. Elliot had been serving the Lord in various capacities for nearly her entire life. What she is perhaps best known for, though, is having been married for a short time to Jim Elliot. Jim was every bit as dedicated a servant of the Lord as Elizabeth was, but his story did not end in the same way hers did. In 1955, Jim and four other missionaries, including Nate Saint, were attempting to make contact with the Huaorani tribe deep in the jungles of Ecuador. After making several initial peace offerings by lowering gifts in a bucket from their plane, the pair finally decided it was time to make personal contact with the tribe. On the morning of January 3, 1956, they landed and met with some of the tribe members for the first time. They were received with excitement and it was looking like things were going to go smoothly. This road for the advance of the Gospel was appearing most promising. But just five days later everything fell apart. When the tribe warriors came out of the woods that morning to the Amazonian beach the missionaries were using as a landing strip and campsite, they did not come for peace. They came to shut down this outsider intrusion into their private lives. Nate, Jim, and the three other men with them were murdered in cold blood, speared to death by the Huaorani warriors. They each left behind a wife and a total of 10 kids among them. These five men had committed their lives to serving Jesus and advancing the Gospel regardless of the costs. They were selflessly committed to this goal and yet this was their end. Read the rest…
In this final part of our series, Hard Sayings, we are faced with the ultimate reality: Following Jesus is worth everything. After blowing the disciples’ minds, Jesus makes this point rather graphically for them. Keep reading to see how and stay tuned for our next teaching series, Grace in Hard Times, as we walk through the book of Job.
It’s Worth It
Have you ever experienced the disorienting phenomenon known as sticker shock? Let’s say you’re walking through a department store and there you see it: the dress. What you might possibly need the dress for is entirely beside the point. What your husband might say about you buying the dress doesn’t even factor into the decision-making process. You must have this dress. Somehow you know that it will fit perfectly so you don’t even bother trying it on. You take it up to the counter, gently lay it on the counter, and smile at the cashier. Then it comes. The cashier scans the barcode, punches a couple of buttons on the register, and says, “That’ll be…” Well, I’m not sure what your price-point is, but whatever it is, this dress is beyond that…well beyond that. And it hits you: Sticker shock. It may be the dress, but…that price. Ouch. Read the rest…
The Nexus 