Dads - Lead the way! A letter from your Pastor

Dads, 

Again this Thanksgiving, my family will base our expressions of thankfulness to the Lord on the five "L's" of our family motto: Love, Lord, Learn, Laugh and Leave.  I recommend this very practical way you can facilitate sharing and prayer around your table this year.  You can tailor this to the ages and stages of your family members.

Where to start?  I introduce our time by providing a card with the five L's written on it. Prompt with a question related to each word, and then give a few minutes to allow family members to jot their thoughts down. (Young children may enjoy drawing pictures instead.)  As people share aloud, I record their thoughts and emailed them to turn these thoughts into prayers for the coming year.

Laugh. Begin with lightheartedness:  "What made you laugh this past year?" (An embarrassing moment, a favorite TV show, a favorite sport's event.)

Love.  "What do you love more at the end of this year than you did at the beginning?" (Sleeping in, school, daily personal worship, unhurried family time). 

Learn.  "What life-lesson did God teach you this year? (Maybe a lesson related to one of the Fruit of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.)

Leave.  "What did you leave behind this year? (Middle school, a sport or hobby you used to live for but now have outgrown, a friend who was not such a 'good' friend, etc.). 

 

Lord.  Taking it deeper:  "How have you grown in your love of Jesus this year?"  Or, "What did you leave behind in order to follow harder after Jesus this year?"

Men, this may seem risky!  You may need to lead in an area that does not come naturally for you. Listen, it will be worth it. Inevitably, the five L's not only promote personal sharing about the past year- they help give direction to our discussions and prayer for the coming year.  Regardless of a family's season of life, much of our human experiences relate to Love, Lord, Learn, Laugh and Leave.  Keeping notes over the coming years will provide a book of remembrance to God's faithfulness in each others lives as we prepare our children to "leave" our homes and establish new families where Christ is central.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Pastor Tim Kirk

PS - Ask family members to TURN OFF all electronic devices during sharing and prayer time!

 

Thanking God with Empty Pockets

Thanksgiving. 

The purpose is in its proper name, but it's a day that can go against the grain of our nature.  

Thanksgiving is a spiritual discipline in that it trains or teaches us.  The Bible commands us repeatedly to "give thanks."  But what about when a thankful heart is not naturally emerging?  What do we do with those pockets in our hearts that hold fear, bitterness, shame?  During a time of thanksgiving, we don't dare bring that out because there is no gratitude to be found hiding there.  I battle the pockets.  Especially one that formed a few years ago.  

Thanksgiving of 2011 commenced with some anxiety:  A specialist was predicting that I had thyroid cancer and treated my neck like a pin cushion for a biopsy, the results of which were due the week after Thanksgiving.  1 Thessalonians 5:16-19 is a doozy of a Scripture:  "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit."  Well, with some tears, my family, particularly my dad, welled up with thanksgiving for my life!  (Aw shucks!)

While my results were negative, anxiety heightened:  My symptoms were eerily similar to some my dad had been experiencing. Dad got biopsied; the second week of December, learned that it was cancer.  Then, it was terminal cancer.  On January 10, 2012, my dad died.  My heart was like cargo pants- pockets were many and deep.

Approaching Thanksgiving 2012 was a bit terrifying at worst and dreaded at best.  How do you honor God in giving thanks when you are not thankful?  Hurt, fearful, angry- yes, but not thankful.  Enter spiritual disciplines.  When you have trained your heart to God's commands - especially in easier seasons with lighter burdens - then the discipline is in place in your life when the season is hard and the burden is heavy.  So that holiday, a trepidacious, now smaller family gathered for Thanksgiving. The unspoken was that we would "give thanks."  (I had 36 years of training on this one.)  With fear and a measure of faith, we shared around the table our thankfulness. Tears were flowing, but so was grace. Not every deep pocket was emptied, but it was a start. The spiritual discipline that honors God blesses us.  Our hearts need to give thanks. 

The lighter side to our Thanksgiving that year (because this post needs some levity):  A decision made that evening as a family (my widowed mom included).  Dad was fun!  We needed fun, as in, "God bring back some fun or we die of sadness."  And so the idea came that we should buy a ping pong table.  Black Friday, my mom bought one (who knew she was so good!?).  We played, and played, in laughter and smiles and spirits refreshed.  Even Great-Grandpa played (not too shabby!). 

Obedient hearts and ping pong were grace that God gave on that day, but the ongoing provision is the beckoning to empty my pockets. You and I were never created to live with hearts full of hurt.  The year my dad died, the tears I cried were fierce and many.  I saw pockets shoved full and then (sometimes) emptied before the Lord day after day.  But this spiritual discipline of coming before Him gave my heart and mind necessary training.  A  sensitivity emerged to the weight of heart-pockets harboring hurt, anger, fear. I saw how trustworthy Jesus is with vulnerability.  I felt how free I was to question and doubt and not be condemned by my God.

What does this have to do with Thanksgiving and our everyday lives?  The command to "give thanks" is a beckoning by a gentle Savior, not a drill sergeant.  We don't give thanks with tight fists and clenched jaws to a demanding master.  We come to Jesus, emptying our pockets, to bring the hard and hidden things into His light. To lay bare that which we would rather hide. Because He cares and is safe. When we trust Jesus enough to bare our souls and empty our pockets, there is grace.  Because to empty ourselves in the presence of Christ means to receive his fullness.   

From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after the other. 
John 1:16

Grace and peace to you this Thanksgiving.

Feed My Lambs (not "Baaaaa humbug!")

How serving others nourishes you, too

I like to think and can be guilty of over-thinking.  Awhile back, I was not thinking about feeding lambs, but the Holy Spirit led me to someone who had:  Charles Spurgeon.  Think with me!

To give some context, pretend being a beachcomber (humor me!):  Peter and Co. had just finished night-fishing with fishermen’s worst fear - empty nets.  But the Resurrected Jesus is on the shore and directs the men to the other side of the boat, and alas the nets were drug in bursting with the catch of the day!  “‘Come and have breakfast!’  ...Jesus...took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish” (John 21:13).  (Reminds you of another meal they had recently partaken of together, yes?)  Following this soul-satisfying fish-fry, Jesus has poignant words with Peter, the recent three-time deny-er.

“Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs” (John 21:15, ESV).

You know this account!  The Lord probes three times.  What I did not know is scholars’ teach that the first command to “feed my lambs” refers to teaching those young in the faith, both children and “baby” Christians.  Spurgeon emphasizes the teaching of children in the church.  

Do you know what catches my attention and fills my net?  Spurgeon maintains that [teaching and training children is a] most beneficial work to ourselves.  It exercises our humility and helps to keep us lowly and meek.  It also trains our patience; let those who doubt this try it.  Let me name some who experience this:  Mike and Doris Alderink in Preschool Community; Nene Akinbola and Randa Nader in Children’s Worship; Patti Fraley in Kids’ Community.  If you want big-souled, large-hearted men or women, look for them among those who are much engaged among the young, bearing with their follies, and sympathising with their weaknesses for Jesus' sake.

Be encouraged!  Jesus’ encounter with and command to Peter is for us all:  The fisher of men comes to find us; he beckons us to come to Him.  He himself nourishes us for the purpose of nourishing others!  What a Good Shepherd!

Listening for his voice together,

Sara Nist

All words in italics are direct quotes from Spurgeon, Come Ye Children.

To read the chapter, Feed My Lambs, copy and paste this link:  www.spurgeon.org/misc/cyc.htm