Porter Briggs – Living Life Well

I was able to spend the last week in Honduras with a medical mission team from both Amarillo and Madison, WI. It was a great week for many reasons, but one of the best was that I got to reconnect with an old college friend, Porter Briggs, from UMHB. Porter and I were in school together for three years (87-90) and haven’t seen each other since about 1991-1992. I want to tell you a little bit about his story and ask you to pray for him and the ministry God has called him to in Honduras.

About 7 years ago, Porter was living in the Dallas area and working for a large bank when God began to move in his heart regarding missions. He had just bought his first house and gotten a pretty nice promotion at work. His missions pastor at his church called him and invited him to lunch while at the same time Porter picked up the book Wild at Heart and read it over the course of about three days.

The next week Porter met with his missions pastor and was asked this question. “Would you consider giving your life to full-time mission work?”. When was the last time a pastor asked you that? Because of what God was doing in Porter’s heart – his answer was – yes. Over the course of the next year, he went on three short term trips to Honduras and then pretty much liquidated his life here in the states and moved. He built a home and supported himself for the first year he was there and is now supported by a small group of people who believe in what he is doing.

Porter runs three day care programs for single mothers in one city. The uniqueness of these day cares is that the only charge for using them is that the mothers go to work or go to school. In the Honduran culture, there are many women with multiple children who have been left by their husbands. There are between 35-50 children in the daycares at any one time. He also is the director for an orphanage in another city which is in the process of building up to a four house facility for 40 children. Currently one home is complete and the construction began this week (June 1, 2009) on the second home which should be finished in a few months. He works with the state and local government to house children who don’t have a home anymore.

Porter has chosen to live a simple life. I won’t tell you the US dollar amount that he lives on each month, but the sad reality is, most of us spend more on our monthly entertainment that Porter does to live. When he gets extra money, he gives it away to people he is ministering to. The orphanage is funded through a US foundation. I’ll be posting the information for anyone who would like to contribute to either Porter or the orphanage here as soon as I get it.

So how can you pray for Porter. You can pray for these things:

• Opportunities and the personnel who will help him love and disciple the children God has given him in the Gospel.
• Money to build out the orphanage.
• An ever growing closeness to the Lord Jesus.
• Opportunities to share the Gospel.
• Safety & Protection (He’s been robbed multiple tens of times, once at gunpoint)

He lives primarily (60%) in Comayagua (where the daycare’s are) and spends the rest of his time at the orphanage in Yaramanguila. Click here for a map.

View Santa Rita in a larger map.

Transparency and Friendship

What does it mean to be a friend? To have a friend?

I spent this past week in Honduras on a medical mission trip with one of my best friends and some dear new friends. I think that God is so good to put people in our lives that shape and form us, round the edges off, knock the hard edges when necessary and softly sand when needed. I saw a very old friend who is serving in Honduras as a missionary to the people there (more on Porter in a future post).

All this along with some conversations on marriage, friendship, accountability and trasnparency got me thinking and here it is.

In the Christian church, there has been a great emphasis placed on the idea of male friendships and transparency. I would argue in some cases an over emphasis. I certainly have a few men in my life that I treasure and value highly and consider to be great friends. And along the way the Lord has been so good to me and given me friends at every stage in my journey that I would consider to be of the highest value. So what does it mean to be transparent with them? And how does this friendship affect my primary friendship with my wife.

I think many men value their male friendships above the relationship they have with their wife and I would argue that this is trouble. The Bible is clear that the most important human relationship a person can have is the one with their spouse. Yet many men seem to thrive on exposing the darkest secrets of their heart with a group of men while leaving their wives almost completely out of the loop.

Why does this happen? How does it happen?

I would make the argument that most men get married based on heat. Let me define that. Most men are attracted to a woman physically and romantically, but don’t give much thought to her spiritually and emotionally. Therefore they don’t know if they really have a deep connection based on the things they value most and hold at the center of their lives. However, this is most often how men choose their friends. We tend to be friends with people who value and hold dear the same things we do. So the buddies we hunt, fish, drink and hang out with are the ones who share the deeply held values in our soul.

So you wake up some months down the road after getting married and while there remains some residual heat from the romantic and physical relationship, you look over at your wife and wonder why she doesn’t really get you and you wonder why you don’t really get her. Now, I’m not saying that this situation can’t be remedied, by the grace of God and a true commitment to love your wife as Christ loves the church. Christian men and Christian women do have the same horizon – an overarching passion to love, serve and glorify Christ. So ultimately that will bring them together in a common pursuit that will supersede all other relationships.

But if a man remains committed to his male friendships above the relationship with his wife, this will leave her feeling, at best, in second place all the time. And as an added bonus, she will not trust her man, because she will always wonder what he is sharing with those men about himself and about her that he is not sharing with her.

If you really want to find transparnecy and genuine friendship, look for it first with your wife. The partner God has given you and then it will spill over onto a few others.

A must read for dads

This is a great article by my friend Steve Wright.
http://thelastingdivergence.ning.com/profiles/blogs/over-my-dead-body-son

Family Worship

Treasuring Christ in Family Worship

One of the things that I want to encourage every family I know to do is to have regular family worship. You might call it family devotions, family bible reading or whatever you like. While the task might sound intimidating at first, it really is very simple and only a few things are necessary to make it work: Your family, a bible, a leader and the Lord. Let me give you some ideas that might help you get started in your home.

For Families with Younger Children

I really like the One Year Bible for Children (Tyndale Kids) for readers or The Jesus Storybook Bible (ZonderKidz) for pre-readers. Gather your family and start at the beginning, reading through the scriptures. The One Year Bible for Children is already broken into daily pieces. The Jesus Storybook Bible is broken into stories. Take one story at a time and then ask questions based on the story. Don’t worry if your children ask questions or get a little off point to start. You are training and teaching them every time you sit and read to them and teaching them to listen to God’s word and more importantly to the Holy Spirit. With really young children it is helpful to begin to train them to sit in mom or dad’s lap while the story is being read. Now, be ready, your first few attempts may go south quickly and your child may get distracted and not seem to pay attention. But don’t give up, don’t get discouraged and most of all, don’t get frustrated. Show patience and love with firmness so your children will learn to listen. After reading the story and spending some time talking about it, then take time to pray for each other. This is really important because here is where you will train and teach your children how to pray. Mom and dad, you take time to pray for each other personally. Pray scriptural themes for each other, don’t pray childish prayers or your children will learn to pray childish things. Pray real God-centered, Christ-exalting prayers and teach your children how to approach God’s throne boldly seeking grace. Pray for your child’s salvation. Let them hear you ask God to save them. As you are first starting out, this time together may just be 10 minutes or so. But there may also be times when it is hard to quit because you are having such a sweet time of grace together.

For Families with Older Children & Teens

For this age group, I also like the One Year Bible for Children (Tyndale Kids), or an adult one year Bible or any of the scripture reading plans that have a systematic way to read through the scriptures. These are really helpful to keep you moving along through the scriptures so you don’t repeat the same stories and also experience the whole counsel of Scripture over the course of time. Don’t worry about missing a day or two, just pick up wherever you find yourself and don’t get caught trying to catch up. As you read the scriptures, talk about how they apply to life. Get a one volume commentary like “The MacArthur Bible Commentary” which covers the whole Bible or ask one of your pastors for help choosing something to assist you. It might be awkward at first to talk about spiritual things with your children, but it won’t take long before you are diving deep into the ocean of faith. What you are teaching your family is that your true treasure is the Lord Jesus Christ and His kingdom. And then be sure to spend time praying for and with each other. The older your children grow, the more personal and specific your prayers can become and you can really begin to share together in the joy of lifting each other up to the throne of God for mercy and grace.

In addition to the Bible reading and prayer, some families might want to sing together. You can sing your favorite hymns or worship songs and let that musical family member have an opportunity to use their talent. Just remember not to let it be a showcase for their talent, but a real expression of worship to God.

There are plenty of great resources on family worship to help you if you decide you want to dig deeper. The main thing is to get started. If you do it once a week, that will be 52 more times this year than you did last year. Don’t be legalistic. For some families, this might be something you decide to do every night. For others it might be once a week. Just be consistent. Your children will begin to treasure what they see you treasure, so don’t make this an add-on to an already busy and crowded schedule. Show them the importance of your faith by crowding something else out and making this a priority in your home and family.

Just stopping by

Just stopping by. I love it when people stop by. It’s easy. There’s no preparation, no frantic cleaning of the house, no making food, and all the assorted getting ready that goes into a full blown visit. Not that I don’t like the full blown visits, but there is just so much more work that goes into having one of those. But have I just been stopping by my greatest treasure?

This past weekend, I had the great privilege to attend the “Connecting Church & Home” conference in Brentwood, TN at Brentwood Baptist Church. There were about 100 people in attendance representing 70 churches from around the country who are pursuing a Biblical ministry to families. It was a great experience and apart from the great speakers, there were some great times of fellowship and networking between the men who were there, sharing our common love for the Gospel, the church and the home.

The first two presenters were from Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC. Their pastor, David Horner, spoke on Friday evening and then Steve Wright, their student pastor, spoke on Saturday morning. (Steve is coming to Trinity Baptist May 2-3 to share his ideas about student & family ministry)

They both shared their stories of how God has worked in their own lives and homes to bring about change and growth towards the Gospel and then how that has worked out in their churches. But one thought that really struck me was this – what do we treasure in our homes.

I think most families who attend church, and probably a majority of people where we live, would answer this question by saying that God is the most important thing. But this weekend, the Holy Spirit really began to dig into my heart and soul to examine how I am treasuring Christ. We have regular, almost daily family devotions, and I think if you asked my family members what the most important thing in our home is they would say God, but then I had to look at how we lived and how we ordered our life.

Our family devotions are done usually after the rush to get everyone ready for bed and sometimes with haste so we make some semblance of a regular bedtime on school nights. We work on our scripture memory plan at church, but most weeks, I don’t even learn the scripture with his children, let alone review what they have learned in the past. And I could go on with a whole list of failures – which is not really the point.

The point is I have a true treasure in the Lord Jesus Christ, but in my daily living, if someone were to just watch, they would probably say I treasure trash more than Him. And I want to change. I love Christ too much, I am too thankful for what He has done for me to stay the same here. So we’re going to be making some changes at our house and I’m going to be making some changes in my life.

And I want to encourage you to give some thought to this as well. Jesus told the parable about a man who found a treasure hidden in a field and so he went and sold all that he had so he could purchase the field and own the treasure. I think most of us just like knowing where the field is and stopping by at least a couple of times a week while holding on to all of our things because we aren’t really sure if the treasure is worth it.

The Blind Hog and the Acorn

My dad has lots of funny sayings, well, I didn’t think they were very funny, but people his age laugh at them. (sorry dad). One of those sayings that was usually used when we did something really well or at the right moment goes something  like this, “Even a blind hog sneaks up on an acorn every now and then.” I’m still not sure if that was a compliment or a slight nod to our lessening foolishness. I’m going to take it as a compliment.

Sometimes, community in the church can be like the proverbial acorn. We occasionally find it, but its not because we did anything intentional. We just blindly stumble into it and boy it sure does taste good, but then its gone and we go back to stumbling around hoping we might find some more.

True Biblical Community, however, is not like an acorn you eat, it’s like an acorn you plant. And after its planted, it begins to grow its roots down deep and then it springs up into a tree that grows branches with leaves and eventually it produces other acorns. It becomes a tree that gives life to others.

The problem it seems is, we are too quick to eat the acorn and not so quick to plant it. Because when you plant something, it takes time, patience and energy for it to grow. And who has time for that today? Why not just enjoy a quick bite of community at the fellowship and hope it holds you over until the next one sneaks up on you down the road. Because true community – life changing, spirit shaping, emotional, dig into your life, prying into your soul, because I love you community is costly, time-consuming, sometimes painful and yet, one of the greatest gifts God has given his people to enjoy.

Would you join me in planting some acorns and see what kind of forest we might plant, right here on I-40?

There’ll be teeth, hair and eyeballs…

Do you remember that phrase your parents used to say that just sent you over the edge? And the more they said it, the more you resolved in your mind that you would never say it. The phrase that my dad used to say when I would do something worthy of his discipline, but that required his restraint until a later moment was this one, “When we get home, there’ll be teeth, hair and eyeballs all over the place”. To my dad’s credit, I only received what I deserved, a good spanking, but that phrase was so over the top that I swore to myself I would never repeat it to my children who of course would benefit from my much superior parenting skills.

Wow – how foolish we are when we’re young.

I think everyone goes through that time when the last thing you want is to be like the people who have raised you. But then, something happens and 15 years down the road, you suddenly realize…you said it. That phrase you swore you would never say. Or you did it…that thing you resolved you would never do. And I’m afraid that I’ve done it. I’ve said the phrase I swore I would never say. WHY?

Because our families have tremendous influence and formative power in our lives. They shape and mold us in ways that are unseen until far later in life. We think we are counteracting their influence by listening to OUR music, watching OUR TV, hanging out with OUR friends, but nothing is as strong as the family in its ability to shape, mold and influence a person. Or is there?

I think there is – it is the church. Not necessarily the institution of the church, but the church that is the family of God. The church that gathers in classrooms on Sunday morning or in homes at different times during the week. The church that is made up of small groups of people committed to each other for the long haul in dependent relationships to pursue the glory of God and the good of each other.

This means that our fellowship as Christians is more than just membership in the same club. It is radically different. It is familial. And there are things about a family that are not true of clubs and organizations and should not be true of churches.

Just look at the early church – did they treat each other like members of a club? No, the community they belonged to was radically different than the world. They shared their possessions freely, taking care of each other. They were committed to each other deeply, sharing their possessions and lives.

The people in the church are your family and they have been adopted by God into the family for His glory and for your good. And if you exclude family members from your life because you wouldn’t choose them as friends or because they aren’t in your social strata, you are doing damage to yourself and to the body. God is using them to build up the body – and to refine and shape you in ways that you might otherwise never be made into the image of Christ. And if you exclude them, you have removed yourself from his shaping, transforming process of sanctification.

This takes us back to where we started. The power and shaping influence of family. You become like the people you spend time with. That is the reason our family had such formative impact on our lives: Time.

Many Christians wonder why they see so little transformation in their lives. They wonder why there is so little progress towards holiness and Christ-likeness. Even Christians who spend time reading the word, praying and going to church.  There is an aspect to the formation of Christian character that is only accomplished “in the family”. And it takes time.

A small group of people, joined together in a bond that goes deeper than blood, caring for and loving each other in spite of each other, through the tough stuff, in joy, sorrow and pain, accomplishing what no other organization, group or process could ever do – teeth, hair and eyeballs…everywhere.

So as we start the New Year, spend some time with me considering your spiritual family. Who is shaping and molding your spiritual life? Who has the kind of access to you that could result in growth, glory and good?

Thoughts about Heaven

Bud Burk, a pastor at Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis, recommended the book to me, Altogether Lovely. It is a collection of sermons by Jonathan Edwards on the beauty and excellence of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have just finished reading the first sermon entitled, “God the best portion of the Christian”.

At the end of the sermon, in typical Puritan form, there are a series of application questions and statements. They are spurring my thoughts and helping me think more clearly about my love for Christ. I hope they do the same for you.

1. “What is it which chiefly makes you desire to go to heaven when you die?” – Edwards makes the point that many people don’t want to go to hell, but that is not replaced with a desire to go to heaven. Do I long to be in heaven so that I can be with my Savior, with God himself? Honestly, I don’t think about heaven that much. I am too entangled in the affairs of this world. Planning, preparing for this life rather than the next.

2. “If you could avoid death and might have your free choice, would you choose to live always in this world without God rather than in His time to leave the world in order to be with Him? – Am I attached to this life and world in such a way that I might actually prefer to go on living here rather than leave and go on to heaven to be with my Lord?” This question is particularly penetrating, because there are many things about this life I love – my family, friends, food, the pleasures of this world. Do I really believe that Heaven holds a much greater joy, something that would make all the things I love here seem trivial in comparison to its reality. In the body of the sermon, Edwards writes about taking a journey and how it is the joy of seeing the person at the end of the journey which makes all the hardships of the journey worthwhile along the way.

There are a couple of other questions, but these two really were the ones which I had to wrestle with. At the conclusion of the sermon Edwards asks two evaluating questions to help diagnose the condition of your heart. First, is your spirit moved inwardly in affection towards Christ and his doctrine. And secondly, do you prefer God to all other things in practice, i.e., when you have occasion to manifest by your practice which you prefer…when you must either cleave to one or the other, and must either forsake other things, or forsake God…to which things are your heart most wedded?

Last night, I rented Prince Caspian and stayed up late to watch it again. I love the stories in print and also the big screen adaptations. One thing this particular picture captures well is this idea. As the children are first seen on the train platform, Peter is put out that he has not been called back to Narnia yet. He is put off with being in the world and wants to be out of it. But his reasons are less than noble. He simply wants to be a king again. Edward and Susan seem to think there time in Narnia is over and that they ought to just get on with their lives while Lucy remains hopeful. But when they return, throughout the story, it is Lucy who is looking for Aslan. The others want him to appear, but primarily to rescue them, to give them guidance or help them in their time of need. But it is Lucy who seems only to want his presence. And when he finally appears – it is absolute joy.

I know – it’s just a story. But someone got this part right on.

Am I looking for God or am I just hoping he’ll show up and help me with my problems so I can keep doing what I want. When he comes, will my heart be filled with joy because He is here?

Goodbye Leapfrog

When I was a child, we often played the game of leapfrog. And I quickly learned that the best leapers were the ones who figured out how to take those extra couple of steps after they hit the ground. Now, I’m not really sure what the real point of leap frog actually was, except that it was probably just another activity that adults use to keep children busy, but as in everything there had to be winners and losers, so the winners were the ones who could “leap” or actually leap and step without actually getting caught the best.

Last week in my meeting with Kempton Turner, the Young Adult Pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church – and a Texas Native!, Kempton said something that has really stuck with me.

“We can’t leap over our theological convictions when building programs”.

Just let that settle into your mind for a moment.

Every church has programs. We use them to achieve our purposes. Whether they are formal “at the church” programs or informal “in the home” programs. Everyone uses some system to accomplish their goals. The question then becomes, how do you decide what you will do? Or rather, why will you decide how you will decide what you will do?

Unfortunately, it is a lot easier to play leapfrog here than to really do the hard work of thinking theologically. We fall into the pragmatic trap of using the end to justify the means. But can we really do that and call ourselves a Bible driven, Christ centered, God glorifying, Gospel proclaiming ministry? I don’t think so. There may be some near misses, but how much better would it be to really do the hard word up front and think theologically about what God is doing, what God has said, what God blesses and then, and only then begin to design and build programs, systems and processes that help move people into and towards Christ.

I liked leapfrog as a kid, and as a minister, I’m afraid I’ve played it a little to often, taking a few too many steps after my leaps to achieve ends that I thought would make me a success. But the reality is, I can’t do that anymore. It’s time to put childish things away.

So, goodbye leapfrog. Hello Convictions!

The Advent Conspiracy

I’m sure you are gearing up for the holiday season at your house and if this year is anything like years past, that will mean family, friends, presents, decorations and all the things that go along with the season. But wait – have you stopped to really consider lately what does really go along with the season. In our culture, much of what we celebrate as Christmas has been co-opted by worldliness and consumerism to the point where it is has become difficult to distinguish what Christmas is really about – a history changing event where Christ came to earth.

So what can we do?

My friends at Imago Dei Community church in Portland, Oregon have been working for the last several years to help their people restore Christmas to a higher place through what they call, “The Advent Conspiracy”. It’s a simple collection of thoughts and ideas that taken to their natural end will help you reshape how you live out your faith in Christ this season. Here they are: Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All. Let me give you a few thoughts about each one.

Worship Fully – We’ll all attend our fair share of parties this year. Family events, office events, gatherings of friends, but how many of those will really be about Jesus. The whole reason for Christmas is Jesus. He is the one who this party is about. Do we have a great passion to celebrate what Jesus has done by coming to earth to be our Savior or is this just another excuse to get together and celebrate ourselves?

Spend Less – Fruitcakes, ugly sweaters, useless gifts that no one really needs. How many presents have you bought over the past few years just because you felt that you had to get someone a gift even though there was little meaning or thought attached. It’s time for a change. What if you took that money and gave it to a cause where it would make a real difference in someone’s life who really had a need. There are many places to give including our world missions offering where your money will go to spread the gospel throughout the globe. But don’t stop there. Do something personal – get your whole family involved in the conspiracy to change your thinking about Christmas and change someone’s life.

Give More – This isn’t about money because it is probably the least valuable thing we have. This is about you. Give yourself to your kids, your wife, your family (yes, even those sometimes irritating people you only see once a year). Make an investment in something that will last forever.

Love All – This is the hardest one in my opinion. It’s easy to love those who look like me, talk like me and dress like me. But that isn’t the principle here, nor is it what Jesus did when he came to earth. Jesus came to the poor and the rich. He came to the outcast and the society types. Jesus came to reach into every corner of society and bless people regardless of whether they received him or not. What about us? Be a blessing this Christmas – and for the rest of your life. And if you Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, you will have the resources to Love All like you won’t believe.

I invite you to join me and my family this year in a conspiracy to take back Christmas!