Great Question

     Why doesn't God show Himself to us? Was a question I got from one of my Good News Club kids. Kids ask such simple but such profound questions sometimes. This particular kid has a mom who is Buddhist and decided to accept Jesus last year at Good News Club.
     So then why doesn't God show Himself to us? Well, if he did we would all die immediately from the presence of pure holiness, righteousness, justice, and Godness. So incineration, kaput, kapooie! We as sinners would not survive that kind of revelation of God to His creation.
      Kid: What about Jesus?
      Me: Well, Christ kept at bay that part of himself that was able to destroy all of human kind. He kept the fullness of his glory and power in check so that we would not be destroyed by His presence. Why? Because he can.
     If He hadn't done that there would have been no drinking of God's wrath and no promised Savior. So in a sense he did this because he had to in order to pay the price for our salvation. (This is close but probably not word for word to how I answered the question at Good News Club. It was pretty hard core like that though.)
     Since answering the question above live however I have had a chance to really look at the question and think about it as Old Testament stories come up in my Church and in my devotional life. Sometimes the Bible can get really big and complicated.
     God showed Himself to many in the Old Testament including but not limited to these specific times:
 Abram -Gen. 12:7 'Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.'
 Isaac -Gen. 26:2 'And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you.'
 Jacob -Gen. 28:13 in his dream and again in Gen. 35:9,10 'God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him. 10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he called his name Israel.'
 Moses -Ex. 3:2 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.
 Gideon -Judg. 6:12 And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor."
 Samson's parents -Judges 13
 Samuel -1Sam. 3:21 And the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.
 Solomon -1Kings 3:5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.”, 1Kings 9:2 the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.
 And more times throughout the Old Testament.
God was not just interested in letting "people do their thing" and not getting involved. He made us to be in relationship with him.
     So why doesn't he appear to us today? One reason probably has to do with us having the revealed word of God in the form of the Bible today. He does not need to show Himself because He already has.
     He still is a very personal God and wants us to have a relationship with Him like Abraham or Moses did but He does not need to physically be there in order to do that. He wants us to pursue Him and be willing to give up ourselves for Him. He wants us to come as we are, whether that means you are broken and needing to run to Him right now or whether you are having a good day and just need to take a moment to remember who it was who made the day.
     It's hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that the God who created the cosmos and thought of every little detail down to the smallest sub-particulate piece of matter that's out there would even be interested in me. But He is. The least I could do is be interested in getting to know Him.
     Don't know if that's much of an answer. It's something. If I can come up with something better I'll be sure to post it but for now that's my answer. It's different from my original answer, not that the original one was completely wrong but I didn't take into account that God had come down and talked with different people before Christ came and lived a life among us.

Do We Judge Them Too Quickly?

     Homeschooling parents everywhere are doing are doing a good thing. It is a very good thing to homeschool, it's a better education, it can be hand tailored to the students interest and learning style, homeschoolers are generally more self motivated, there is better retention of what was learned.
     There are lots of reasons why people should homeschool but if your brother or sister in Christ cannot or will not homeschool I do not believe that it is necessarily wrong. If the situation is handled correctly it does not have to be the automatic wrong choice.
     I babysit for a lady who is honoring her husband by putting her kids in Public School. She goes and volunteers once a week at her kids school so that she can be involved in their lives and can kind of keep an eye on what is talked about in class. She discusses with her kids why they believe differently and why as Christians we need to stand for what is right. This particular mom when she comes across curriculums that she disagrees with in the school will go and complain to the teachers and/or the principal and does what she can to raise awareness among the other parents. Even though its not the best option I think this particular mom is doing the best she can in the situation that she is in.
     I help out a a Good News Club. The reason that it got started was because a little girl told her mom that she wanted to know how she could share her faith with her friends at school. Her mom looked into it and found out about this program that could be taught after school. As I have helped to teach this group it has been so cool to see kids get the gospel for the first time. This ministry is affecting lives, sometimes weekly. The Good News Club has now been in that school for 9 years. If this little girl hadn't been in that school I wonder if the Good News Club would have existed at all.
     Was it the parents best option to public school their kids in this instance? Probably not, but there were more people affected that probably wouldn't have been affected if this particular family hadn't public schooled their kids.
     I strongly believe that homeschooling is the way that I would want to educate my children but I do not believe that all Christians who put their kids in Public School are doing the wrong thing. I think as Christians we need to be careful that we don't get up on our high and mighty horses and say that all Christians who choose to Public School their kids are "doing it wrong." It's really easy to get in that mentality.

    Here are some questions that I ask myself when I meet a Christian parent who public schools:
-What is the parent involvement/interest in their child's education?
-Are they Public Schooling out of necessity?
-If not, what is the hesitation with homeschooling?

     These just help me to more fully understand the situation.
     I do not have to agree with the choice made but I do not have to let this be a separating point between me and a brother or sister in Christ.

The Joy and Pain of Volunteering

      I have been volunteering this past year for a couple of programs but the school year is almost over and so are the programs. In one sense it's a relief but in another sense I will be sad to leave (mostly sad).

     In one of the programs (Cubbies) I have had the privilege to work with preschoolers. These kids are not only cute but they are also busy, naughty, and needy. They need to know that someone cares.
     I find that I'm not that much different from these little ones in comparison to God. I just am able to hide it a lot better from those who are around me. I guess it helps in me being able to relate to them since I'm just a big kid in an adult body.
     I'm going to miss seeing a whole room full of wiggly, energetic preschoolers sitting on a carpet doing their best to listen (although we did have a few who could care less, there are some in every crowd) to the Bible lesson this week and waiting for the teacher to call on them to be up front helping her.
      I also help out at a Good News Club which is an after school program that is in one of the local public elementary schools in our area. Because its free we get kids who come who have  never heard about Jesus. It has been really cool to be a part of these kids lives and be able to answer their questions and help them understand who Jesus is. I'm going to miss this group. They have done so much to help me in my own walk in asking me questions that both encouraged and challenged me. Hopefully I can finish some of the blog posts that I'm working on based on these questions over the summer. We shall see.

     These were both opportunities that God put before me. He led the opportunities to me and then I felt called to be a part and followed that calling. It truly has been a blessing to be a part of each of these ministries.

     If you are a Christian and have some desire to get involved in something that has eternal impact think and pray about getting involved in children's ministry in some way. You might be surprised at how easy it is to get involved. If you have a plate that is already full see how you can pray for a local group somehow or if you can support a local ministry somehow. Anything helps even if its "only prayer" it's still important.

Mom.

          Since Mother's Day is this Sunday I thought I would take a moment to talk about my mom. Every mom who stays at home and chooses to spend time with her kids is a very special person. They have chosen to sacrifice spending more time with friends, holding down a professional job, and really following an earthly legacy that the world will be able to see and applaud. Why? Because she has chosen to pour her life into something that is eternal. 

      My mom I no exception. She could have decided that she didn't want kids or that she wanted to put us into school. She could have decided to only have two and that was going to be it. (Or even stopped at 5, number that both my mom and dad said they would have.) She could have done these things, but she didn't. 

     It doesn't make her choice more right than someone else's choice but it was what she decided to do, it was what she decided to be. I am very thankful to have a mom who is so dedicated to being at home and teaching her kids because she finds that it's important to her and for her. She also was told by my father that when they had kids that she would stay at home but even so she didn't have to make all of the choices that she did. 

     She could have decided to pursue a career in the fashion industry or gone and started up her own restaurant. Instead she carves out time to create art for herself and family to wear and teaches her daughters how to sew (and a few sons who show an interest). She still dreams of opening a restaurant but for now she cooks awesome gourmet food for her family and is able to pass down some of that fabulous cooking to her children (cooking: a skill of survival on a tight budget plus it tastes better).

     She has days where the hustle and bustle of life gets to her and she gets tired of being a mom. There are days when it's hard for her to get through this day because of all of the stress of all of the things that she sees that aren't done and the irritating "mommy, mommy, mommy" of the clingy 3 year olds also vying for her attention. There are days when being a mom is so hard it would seem that climbing Mt. Everest would be a less tiring occupation. (You at least wouldn't have all of the stuff and people there calling for you to take care of them right now!) 

     But being a mom is beautiful too. I've seen my mom stay calm in the midst of chaos and be able to help kids with school, keep them fed, make sure the babies have clean diapers, and on top of that deal with a daughter who is PMSing (that would be me). She has helped in cultivating in us a spiritual foundation which has been critical for us as we reached adolescence and adulthood. The countless hours that she takes to pour into our lives is a beautiful gift and it isn't because of anything that we did to make her make those choices but because she listened to God's guidance and submitted to His will. She is beautiful not because of anything that she has done to make herself that way but because of the Work that God does through her. 

    Thanks Mom <3

This post is dedicated to Lara Dickson, the most amazing woman in my life. 

Saul, a Good King

     I've just finished reading 1Samuel recently and it struck me how the people respected Saul in his death; so much so that they were willing to risk their lives in order to get his body and deal with it properly. I ended up going through and looking at his life as a whole and really seeing how he wasn't that bad of a king.
     The story of King Saul is such an interesting story. Here is a man who at first was scared and hiding among the baggage during the "presenting" ceremony where Samuel would proclaim him king of all of Israel. (If I was in his shoes I would probably be scared too.) He was a good king. He genuinely wanted to protect the people of Israel from their enemies he just didn't always do it exactly the way that God wanted him to. Here is a man who might have been considered a good man he just had this thing against one guy who happened to have God's favor.
     We see the same thing in the relationship between Cain and Able where Cain is jealous of his brother because God has given Able favor and not him. So often I read the Bible and just read over it quickly and don't really pay attention to the stories. When you pay attention you see so much more and the people become real people, not just some person who lived a long time ago and did things that happened to get into the Bible. You can come to know who this person was and not just what they did. That's something that a normal history book just doesn't seem to be able to do (at least not as effectively).
     Saul is a man who started out as a really good king. To the people of Israel he seems to truly want to be a good king for them. He looked pretty good before men but before God his heart was not right. We see in 1 Samuel 13 that he was afraid that he would lose too many troops and so instead of waiting and trusting that God's timing was the best timing he went ahead and offered a sacrifice that he wasn't supposed to offer.
     In the circumstance it makes sense from man's perspective because if you lose too many men then you are guaranteeing your defeat but from Gods perspective it doesn't matter how many troops you have because His army is so much greater and so much more powerful than what we even know (2 Kings 6:8-19) (Genesis 19:1-25).
     Being a king though you would feel responsible if the people were attacked and you had sat by and done nothing. Saul may have been feeling the weight of his position and instead of seeking God he decided to do things his own way. He thought that if he offered the sacrifice and led people in worship his way that somehow that was ok. And instead of repenting of what he had done and recognizing that he hadn't put his trust in God for the victory instead he makes an excuse for what he did to make it sound like what he did was ok. How often are we guilty of the same thing? Maybe we don't have a whole kingdom to protect but how often do we excuse the "minor sins" that we do just because we want to feel better about what we do? In Saul's case it got his kingdom taken away. From man's perspective what Saul did probably wouldn't have been considered such a big deal but from God's perspective it was a really big deal.
     Throughout Saul's life he is fighting the enemies of Israel and trying to protect the people. He seems to genuinely want to help Israel, he only has one wife, he has a great son in Jonathan (we don't know very much about his other two sons except for the fact that they die with him, 1 Samuel 31:2,8, and that they are mentioned in 14:49). Saul seems to be one of the better kings of Israel from what we know about him he just had this jealously against David because he first saw God's favor on him and then figured that he was going to be king after Saul instead of his own son.
     The funny thing is if he hadn't messed around and gotten so jealous of David he may have been able to have one of his grandsons on the throne. He may have been able to help David to make better choices when it came to women and been able to encourage him to only have one wife. As it was he couldn't see past his own nose and was allowing his power and jealously to corrupt his relationship with his son-in-law making it impossible for him to speak into David's life. I don't know that this would have happened for sure but it would have been more likely had he not allowed himself to be overcome by himself.
     Now I know that some of what he went through had to do with this evil spirit who would torment him and the reason he even became Saul's son-in-law was due in part to his jealousy and wanting him to die at the hands of the Philistines but still if he hadn't been so jealous it would have only been a matter of time before Michael and David came to him telling him of their love for each other. Things would have probably worked out better but we as humans tend to let things get in the way and even though God's way is the best we tend to do things our own way because we are so shortsighted.
    Seeing past ourselves is so hard to do in the moment. It is so easy for us to be like Saul and so hard to be David where we look good and are good to most people there is just that one person who we don't like. Or maybe we are scared that our whole vision of how things are supposed to happen is falling apart and we end up doing things our way instead of seeking God and desiring to do things his way even if its hard.
     Anyway I just saw these things and thought I would pass these thoughts along. (The whole thing between David and not having other wives is all purely speculation. I don't actually know if this is true it's just the place that my mind wandered to.)