Tonight, as I was tucking my son into bed, we read our stories, each talked about our day, and said our Bible verses.  Then it was time to pray and my son asked a very insightful question, “Daddy, why do we pray?”

“Well,” I said, trying to think of something simple enough for a 3 1/2 year old to understand, but more substantial than the “talking to Jesus” answer I’ve given so many times before.  “Praying is one of the ways we show God that we love him.”  I felt a little complelled to make sure he understood, so I continued. 

“Does daddy love you?” I asked him.  He nodded.  “How do you know?” I asked.  He was quiet.  “When daddy plays with you, does that make you feel like he loves you?”  He nodded.  “What about when daddy reads you books?”  He nodded.  “How about when daddy listens to you about your day and daddy tells you about his day?”  He nodded.  I wondered now if he was just nodding and not really thinking about it…I had to see.

“How can you show mommy and daddy that you love us?”  I asked.

After thinking for a moment, he answered, “Draw pictures, play together, obey…” trailing off.

“What about telling mommy and daddy that you love us and helping with your baby sister?”  He nodded again.  Maybe he’s just too young to understand.  I better just wrap up the lesson…

“See buddy,” I said, “praying is one of the ways we can show God that we love him.  God likes for us to share with him about our day and to say ‘Thank you’ for all the things he has done in our lives.  We can tell God we love Him when we pray.”  I paused, trying to think of a way to get him to respond.  “What are some other ways that you can show God that you love Him?”  I asked.

“Hmmm,” he said, tapping his index finger on his chin, “I could make funny faces at God.”

Not sure how to respond, I asked, “Do you think God would like that?”

“Yeah,” he said with a smile, “I think funny faces would make God laugh.”

“I bet you’re right, son….I bet God would laugh if you made a funny face for him.”

“Daddy, let’s make funny faces for God right now.”  So we did.

As I finished tucking him in and closed his door, I couldn’t help thinking how pure this worship was.  My son thought of one thing he did really well:  making funny faces.  He does this with his baby sister all the time and she LOVES it, so he wanted to share that with God.  Isn’t that really what worship is all about?  Taking the things that God has given us and then offering them back to him?  If only more of us sought to make God laugh by making funny faces….

Just thought I’d take a few minutes to drop a few lines at the end of the workweek.  Did anyone else feel like this week was overly crazy?!?  I don’t know if it’s just because it’s the summer or what, but work for me lately has been a mixture of stress, chaos, and worklists.  Just when I’m about to explode, it’s Friday and time for a brief reprieve before it starts again on Monday.

The “in” thing right now is to blame the Economy.  My company, like many companies across the country, has had to make some difficult decisions financially and the resulting layoffs ultimately mean that most of us are asked to “do more with less” or, at the least, pick up and help carry the workload left behind by former co-workers.  I’ll be honest: I’m burnt out.  There are days when I wake up so tempted to call in “sick”, but I know that doing so would be lying and “I don’t feel like coming in to work today” doesn’t seem like it would be too well received.  So, just like every other day, I put on my suit and tie and head off to Corporate America, with hopes that today won’t be too much worse than yesterday.

Lately, I’ve been wrestling with the spiritual implications of these feelings and frustrations.  As a Christian, how should we respond in times like this?  Am I in sin by feeling this way?  Does being burnt out mean that I’m ungrateful for this great job that God has provided for me to do?  Have I even any right to have a say in the matter at all, or should I just continue laboring each day?  Is this where God wants me to be?  If so, then why do I feel this way?

In uncertain times, it can be incredibly tempting to focus on what we don’t know and allow floods of doubt and fear to drown out any hope for light in the midst of gloom.  Yet, I would submit that it’s in these times that we ought to focus on what we do know, particularly with regards to work.  So, towards this end, and for as much my benefit as yours, this post will be Part 1 in a short series called “What We Know about Work”.  I’ll do my best to update each part quickly, but realize that most of my time for this late at night, when coherency and literary skill are often at odds with one another.

So, without further ado, here is “What We Know about Work, Part 1″

Work is not the enemy. There’s a mistaken view among believers that work is a consequence of sin, i.e. The Fall.  This idea suggests that work is a punishment that we all inherited from Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden.  However, this is not true.  Work existed before the Fall.  In Genesis 2:2, we’re told that God rested from the work he had been doing, so obviously if God worked, then work cannot be sin.  Also, God gives Adam a job: naming the animals (Gen 2:19) and even commands him to “fill the earth and subdue it…” (Gen 1:28), which is not by watching TV and playing video games all day.  Also, the Bible contains much instruction on work (more on this later), so if work was bad, we would expect to see much teaching against it instead.

The Hebrew word used of God’s work in Genesis 2:2 occurrs numerous times in the KJV based on a search at BlueLetterBible.org. Here are a few examples:

• Exodus 20:9 ~ “Six days you shall labor and do all your work….”
• Exodus 31:3 ~ God had filled Bezalel with special knowledge to work on the Tabernacle.
• 1 Kings 11:28 ~ Solomon notices that Jeroboam is a good worker.
• Jer 48:10 ~ Cursed is the one who does the Lord’s work negligently…”
• John 9:4 ~ Jesus said, “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.”
• John 17:4 ~ Jesus prays, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.”
• 1 Cor 3:14 ~ If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.
• 1 Cor 15:58 ~ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not {in} vain in the Lord.
• Col 3:17 ~ Whatever you do in word or deed, {do} all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

There are tons more references to “work” and “doing God’s work” and “working hard” all throughout scripture, so we cannot, even for a bit, conclude that work is evil, work is sin, or work is somehow punishment, especially since we see Christ himself referring to his food as “doing the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.” (John 4:34)

So the first thing we know about work is that work itself is not the issue.  In fact, scripture tells us repeatedly that work is connected to our walk with God.  The OT wisdom literature (esp. Proverbs & Ecclesiastes) uses the character of the “sluggard” as an example of what to avoid.  One thing is clear: we are all supposed to work, whether that’s in a boardroom or in a laundry room, whether on Wall Street or Main Street or even down a dirt road.  Work is part of our lives for a reason.

Having beaten this dead horse to a pulp, we’re left now with new questions: Why work?  How should we work? Where should we work?

Hope you’ll stick around for the rest of this journey in the weeks to come….

As you can tell, it has been a long time since our last post, so it’s probably a good idea to give a status report.  Let’s see….where to start?

The last year has been incredibly encouraging to the Young Adult Ministry…in fact, part of the reason for the lack of posts and content on the old site was simply that we’ve been busy….I just forgot.  I guess that’s a good problem to have, but I do apologize to those of you who were trying to stay connected from other parts of the country.  Hopefully it won’t be necessary, but if I start slacking again, please email me to let me know that you notice.  It’s kind of hard to prioritize blog posting at the top if you’re not sure anyone is even reading it.  Anyway, I digress….where was I?  Oh yes: It’s been busy. (Probably doesn’t help that I’m easily distracted by shiny objects )

We have seen amazing growth both in the Sunday Morning Study and the Midweek Study…we’re now averaging about 20 on Sundays (including both the MYA 1.0 and 2.0 classes) and about 16-17 for our current Midweek Study.  Those of you who know me know that I’ve never really been that concerned about the numbers, but it is a good indication of how God has been blessing this ministry…especially since all we had were 2 guys each week in “The Monestery” when I first started teaching Sunday School almost 4 years ago…has it really been that long?

Anyway, God has been displaying his glory in lots of ways.  In the past few years we’ve seen friends come and go, whether by moving away or other reasons, and it’s been amazing to me how God has always been faithful to bring just the right people into our group at each step.  We’ve seen God at work developing a solid core group of members to build the rest of the ministry upon.  By God’s grace, we’re experiencing a deepening of intimacy within our group and are beginning to move towards community, which an exciting place to be in ministry.  Just this last weekend we had a Retreat/Lock-in where we studied the importance of Spiritual Gifts within the Body of Christ and were challenged to begin looking for the gifts in each other.  A HUGE THANKS to Dr. Mike Lawson of Dallas Theological Seminary for his instruction this weekend and to Matthew Hungerford for leading us in worship.  I am so excited about this next chapter of the Young Adult ministry at Metropolitan, but above all, I’m thankful that along each step of the way, we’ve been able to continually focus on keeping the main thing the main thing: bringing glory to God in our submission to Christ’s headship and in our building up of one another.

In Christ,

~~Johnny

“Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the blessings you have heaped upon this ministry in the past few years and for the work of the Spirit within each member.  As we look back, thank you for allowing us to clearly see your faithfulness…may it be a constant reminder of your presence here as we continue to pursue your calling for this ministry in the future.  Amen.”

Slight change of plans for the weekend…we will NOT be eating dinner at the Faulkner’s on Saturday Night 5/16/2009. We decided that this weekend was full enough with the Quarterly Singles’ Fellowship following the 11am service on Sunday and College kickoff party on Sunday Night, 5/17/2009 at 6:30 pm. Email me at living2serve@gmail.com for directions or if you have any questions.

Again, dinner at the Faulkner’s has been postponed. The Quarterly Singles Fellowship will be Sunday 5/17 after the 11am service at the FLC as planned. The Welcome Back College Students Cookout will be Sunday Night 5/17 at my house around 6:30p.

See you then!!!

Johnny

I must say, however, that these last few months have not been without their share of fun and excitement, though. God continues to bless our small gathering, now averaging 10-15 regularly in attendance. I know that to those of you looking in from the outside, 15 doesn’t seem like much to sneeze at, but when you consider that when I first was approached about young adult ministry, the class I took over had 1-2 people coming maybe every other week. From there, over 3 years ago, to now having 6-8 on a low day is really something to give glory to God for.

This ministry has also been a stretching time for me as a Christian and as a leader. For the first time in a very long time, I find myself wrapped up in a ministry that fuels my soul and propels me onward into the future with open-eyed optimism at what God has in store for me and the men and women of the young adult ministry. I am constantly faced with the reality that I cannot manage this completely on my own and so looking for opportunities to connect members of the class with roles that compliment their giftedness has been both exciting and challenging (mostly because I have a difficult time handing over responsibility to others….it’s a weird personal thing that I struggle with and have for quite awhile).

I wonder if instead of the obligatory weekly posting of outlines, this blog may be more useful as a tool to share my heart for ministry with the readers. Initially, my goal for this site was to provide a place to host outlines, notes, etc. for people who had to miss a lesson but wanted to stay caught up. Since then, it’s really lost its focus and I’m really finding myself, even more as I type this, wondering if perhaps the purpose of this blog needs to be re-evaluated. I do think that it’s helpful, but perhaps a document repository would be too weak.

Hmmm……that’s something to think about. Guess I’d better let that marinade in my brain for awhile. For anyone who is actually reading this blog regularly, please accept my apologies for getting behind. Thanks for continuing to stay connected.

Until next time,

Johnny

The last month has been a crazy one to say the least. We premiered our study on Creation vs. Evolution, but decided to go a different route and so last week we began our study of the book of John.

We are steadily trekking through Numbers on Sunday Morning and just finished up studying Balak’s request to Balaam and how God allowed Balaam’s donkey to talk to him.

Outlines are now on the right side of the screen so that you can find them easily.

Sorry that this is short, but hey, at least it’s something, right?

Johnny

Just a quick note to remind everyone that we will begin our new series this week on January 15th at 7:30 pm. Hope you can make it!!!!

~Johnny

Numbers 14

Ultimately we’re reminded that in our own lives God may bring us to what appears to be an impossible obstacle along the journey as we’re following him, but if God has led us there and is leading us through it, then we can trust that he will give us what is needed to succeed. God is not in the business of setting his children up with high expectations just so they can be disappointed. Let us strive to live as men and women who walk in faith with God, even through the difficult times.

Numbers 12 & 13 Outline

I began class on Sunday by reading an excerpt from a commentary by Ray Stedman (you can read it here via Blue Letter Bible) and one of the things that stuck with me was how the first books of the Old Testament can be seen to portray the life of a person who becomes a believer. If Genesis establishes our depravity and our bondage to sin, and Exodus depicts our being freed from the bondage of sin, then Numbers illustrates our sanctification, the process by which we are shaped into the likeness of Christ by the Master Craftsman. It’s a growing-up time, a time where we are refined and stretched as the Holy Spirit does its work within us that we might be made into the likeness of Christ. This is an ongoing process, one that takes time, experience, and faith. This parallel between the sanctification in the life of a believer and the sanctification of the Children of Israel in the book of Numbers is key in understanding the specific application that I am making in this article. Let’s continue.

In Numbers 11 we find an account of yet another Israelite pity party. There were some among the people who, being tired of eating manna, began to complain about the lack of meat and other variety in their diet, even going so far as to reminisce of their “free” meals back in Egypt. Here is where Stedman points out a very keen and important observation: Manna was not intended to satisfy them completely, but was meant to sustain them on their journey to the Promised Land, a land that flowed with milk and honey. They were promised so much more than manna, but were not ready to take possession of the land; thus, we see that in addition to God’s judgement here in Numbers 11, they also will face delay after delay as they wander in the wilderness, through their time of sanctification in preparation for taking hold of what God had promised them.

Two parallels (among many) worth mentioning here are the tendency for man to be unsatisfied with what they have and the fact that they had to grow into their spiritual readiness prior to entering the Promised Land. First, let’s agree that although I’m sure manna gets old after awhile, it sure beats starvation! God provides them food miraculously with the dew each morning, enough to sustain and entire nation of more than a million people, but some have the audacity to complain? Secondly, part of the reason that they’re stuck eating manna for so long is their own spiritual immaturity. God is using this time to prepare his Children to receive what he has set aside for them and yet their stubbornness, pride, and disobedience just extend the time needed to prepare them. God had a land that flowed with milk and honey waiting for them not that far away, yet before they can have a life of abundance, they must learn how live without.

So, you say, that was a great recap of what’s going on, but how does that affect us today? How is this account of God’s methodology for sanctification relevant for us? While I can’t speak for you, I will share what I have come to realize from my own life.

Today was my 3 year anniversary at my job. I started working for my company exactly 3 years ago today (Dec 1). Starting about a year or so ago, however, I started to become frustrated and “burnt out” of doing the same thing each day and my attitude changed, seemingly overnight, from optimistic and motivated to frustrated and ungrateful. I was tired of eating manna. So each day got a little worse and a little worse until I found myself very cynical and negative about the people I’m supposed to be helping and serving each day on the other end of the phone. Every “dumb” question became an opportunity for me to criticize privately instead of showing grace publicly. I did a great job of keeping up appearances to customers, but inside I just kept sliding deeper and deeper down into the mire of negativity and cynicism. Day after day I became more and more tired of manna. I tried fixing it a different way, but let’s face it: manna is manna, no matter how you dress it up. I found myself in this time really asking God (from a genuine heart, believe it or not) to allow me to have more. In my heart, I felt like that would mean either a better job opportunity with my same company, better-suited for me and my personality, or a change out of the corporate world completely and into some type of full-time ministry. I remember praying and asking God for something different…telling him that I’m so tired of manna and that I could really use a quail or two. Yet despite the occasional quail here or there, satisfaction eluded me and left an ache in my stomach for more and more of something different….just no more manna.

Then Sunday we studied Numbers 11 and after reflecting on it before and after class, I was met head-on with a sobering truth: I have been ungrateful for the manna that God has provided to sustain me on my journey. I’m an Israelite!!! In my yearning for the Promised Land of an abundant life filled with passionate pursuits in ministry, I despised the very thing that God intended to get me there. O wretched man that I am!!! (Rom 7:24) My job, no matter how much I eat of it, is still a blessing of provision from the Lord. Who am I to demand more when I have yet to give thanks for my daily manna? How can I look into the face of my Heavenly Father and say, “I’m so tired of this blessing! Can you please give me something better?” How arrogant I must be to speak so flippantly to the Sovereign God of the Universe who saw fit to show grace and mercy to me by sending manna for me to gather each day so that my family and I may survive another!!!

So, as I hope you can tell, I am right in the middle of my repentance and I have begun the work of putting to death my old habits and attitudes in exchange for a thankful heart. It is not and will not be easy…even just today I found so much gravity pulling back toward my old habits. Yet I am confident that he who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. (Phil. 1:6). Pray for me in this, for it is a heart issue and those seem to take an extra measure of perseverance and faith to mend. Finally, I challenge you to look upon your own life through these glasses and ask yourself whether or not you’re gathering your manna with a thankful heart. I hope that you will find this transparency from me as your leader motivating to pursue the holiness Christ has called you to in your own life.

Father, I see now how much like the Israelites I have been and how ungrateful I have been for the blessings of a family and a job with which to support them, for a home and for the ministry you’ve allowed me to shepherd. In truth, much of this would be next to impossible without the manna you’ve provided to sustain me through this journey of sanctification. I press onward, Lord, in faith that this work is not in vain and that you have a Promised Land ahead where I will live in abundance. And whether that abundance comes in my time on earth or not, help me to gather manna each day and to be thankful for what you’ve provided. Amen.