we are celebrating the coming king this sunday with 2 services of worship + teaching.
we are also taking a special offering to help complete the remodel of our building .. if you are interested and want to learn more, watch the video below.
fake news isn’t good news
i love most things about being a dad. i hate elongated bedtime. the last request for water + change in lighting really annoys me. even worse, is the constant debate over what a ‘fair’ bedtime might be. it’s common for me to say something like,
‘fellas, you have 3 basketball games tomorrow and we need to leave the house by 7.30, let’s go to bed.’ even with that concise logic and gracious tone, they still usually don’t want to go to bed.
we do the same thing with God’s commands of course. we tend to view restraints or guardrails as a reduction in fun or experience. yet, God wants to give us good and his rules are to help us. my dad used to say it like this:
‘when God says don’t, what he’s really saying is don’t hurt yourself.’
all of that was to build to this chart i saw online this week, taken directly from CDC data (not that it should matter, but posted by a ‘secular’ source)
take a second and digest it.
these self reported assessments are the opposite of what culture is selling. culture wants us to believe that the more varied + more often you sexually express yourself the happier you will be. yet teenagers report the opposite.
freedom is not the absence of all restraint,
freedom is safety inside a wall of protection
we want to love well which means not being loud + proud about the truth, but it also means being willing to acknowledge it. i have written in this space many times about how the way we communicate the truth needs some work if we want to love well. but we also need to be honest that the cultural desire to redefine gender + sexuality does not bless people, it hurts them.
fake news is never good news.
Do you ever have those days when you feel like your head is in the midst of cumulonimbus clouds? Whether you turn toward your left or right there is this grayness and that surrounds your thoughts. It’s that feeling of not quite getting it right, there’s not an end in sight and there isn’t a path that makes sense from where you are standing. It may not be one large thing that seems all wrong but it’s a bunch of small things that have piled up and you can’t seem to find your way out of them.
For me this is what it feels like in the midst of discouragement. There’s that loss of confidence and ability to articulate or plan as I survey the lot. My courage tank is on the verge of empty. There’s so many reasons for discouragement in life no matter the season of life you find yourself in. Parenting can certainly discourage you. You could have your work organized and tasks in place and then something can go awry so that the end result is different than you hope or thought. A valuable relationship can shift with one swift decision or series of conversations. You could be walking through a trial and wonder if it is always going to be this way.
Often, in the midst of discouragement we can wonder where God is. I think the world tries to tell us that the antidote to discouragement is someone saying the exact right thing or being handed a bottle full of courage that will last you the whole day. When in reality, for most of us there’s a hole in our courage cup. In no time, your courage will inevitably drain and you’ll need more tomorrow.
I read last week that the antidote to discouragement is holding onto and remembering God’s promises. They are the only thing in this world that are always true and never fail. If your courage cup is lacking or your head feels like it’s in the midst of the clouds put these reminders everywhere you can so that you are holding onto the very thing that can give you courage in the midst of your day. I’ve found it helpful to see them on my car dashboard, bathroom mirror, laptop and phone wallpaper. I’ve shared some promises below that might just fill you with the courage you need today; because they’ve done just that for me on the ‘cloudy, courage-lacking days.’
Promises from His Word that you can hold fast to.
He won’t forget you. Isaiah 49:15
His control over all things – significant or insignificant. Isaiah 55:8-9, Psalm 125:2
He won’t leave you or forsake you. Hebrew 13:5
He forgives us for all our sins. 1 John 1:9
He gives strength to the weary. Isaiah 40:29-31
He cares for those who trust in Him. Nahum 1:7
He is at work in His children. Philippians 2:13
He’s coming again! 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
Super Christian Guy
Cup of Leadership
dewey defeats truman. ‘mission accomplished.’ ‘not 5, not 6, not 7’ .. some of the most infamous moments in history are moments of presumptive understanding.
when kristen first met me, she thought i was a dork .. now we have been married 15 years.
they said tiger would never win the masters again. i never thought i would get to minister with my friend tara again. i thought he would never marry her and now he’s a wonderful husband and father. their marriage seemed like a terrible idea and 15 years later they are happy and have 9 kids. peter denied Jesus, no way he could be the foundation of the church.
life is filled with comebacks + setbacks. people that seem like they will ALWAYS or NEVER do XYZ and surprise us. we do better when our conclusions + verdicts are written in pencil so that when people change, we can change along with them.
Saturday Morning Book Review
terms of service: the real cost of social media
most people see that the internet has shaped our society more than we ever could have imagined. as we pivot into the 2020’s and whatever God has for us next, we must understand how to use the tools not let the tools use us. Chris Martin (not the Coldplay one) has written a simple book detailing everything we know about social media from a Christian perspective, this book is both clear + not fear mongering. rather than taking a separatistic mentality, the author aims for clarity and hands responsibility back to the reader.
if you are a parent looking to try and equip a young person to handle the internet well, this is a great option.
Things to Click On
1. if you would like to learn more about the content i shared above about teenagers, Derek Thompson has a podcast i really like … newest episode ‘it’s not just you: america’s epidemic of bad behavior.’
2. my general conscience rule about tv / movies / music is i try not to consume things that glorify sin, but don’t mind observing sin when God’s principles are followed … i have loved the breaking bad / better call saul saga for that reason as the bill for deception always comes do on this show .. last season teaser had very pleased :) —
have a great weekend …
luke + kristen