Author: Bryan

For the last few months we’ve known it was coming. Noel – our 13-year old Maltese was losing her battle with cancer.

We took Noel to the vet in September of last year to have a fairly large growth removed from her abdomen. By November, it had begun to grow back and much more agressively. In December we took her to the vet because of an eye infection and the vet told us she probably had 2 or 3 months at the rate the cancer was growing back.

Here it is, the end of February, and the poor girl has really gone downhill fast. For the last two weeks she’s lived in and out of severe and continual pain, causing her to yelp anytime anyone came close. Many nights she would wake us in the middle of the night yelping in pain as she changed position in her sleep.

Noel has been a good friend to us for the last 13 years. She is the only dog my children have really known. My oldest (bio baby) was a 1 year old when we got her. Knowing that we would have to put her down has been a difficult and painful decision. We made arrangements with the Vet to take her in this morning. I’ve talked for the last few weeks through this with the kids, especially the three biological kids because they grew up with Noel, and we’ve explained how painful it is for her and how unfair it would be to keep her in pain just so we could see her laying on the floor. The cancer has really taken it’s toll on her body over the last few weeks. She just can’t get comfortable and she’s withering away. Sometimes she just stands in the middle of the floor for over an hour as if she’s lost or totally confused. It is sad.

I paint this picture to tell you that although I could logically reconcile why putting her down is in her best interest, it is still somewhat emotional. I have done well in letting the logic overrule the emotion of it all… until this morning…

My middle biological child, a daughter – who is by far the most sensative child we have – said her “goodbye” to Noel before she left for school. I could see the tears welling up in her big brown eyes and the hurt in her heart. Seeing my child hurting tipped the scale to push emotion beyond the logic involved. I began to weep with her. I hated seeing my baby hurting. I’m crying now, as I write this just remembering her hurt.

After she left for school, I asked Father what was the lesson in this. He told me this:

“Just like you hurt when your child is hurting, I hurt when my child is hurting. I hate to see my children hurting.“

As I’ve learned to do this past year, I went straight to the Word. I always find comfort there. I have another blog to post as an addendum to “Standing Firm in Weakness” that I posted a week or so ago and it has to do with comfort.

I consider myself a good father. I love my children deeply. But, God is teaching me that my love for my own children IN NO WAY compares to His love for me (and you).

Matthew 7:11 (NIV)

11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Luke 11:13 (NIV)

13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

God can give so much more to His children than I can give to my own children. I can try to give comfort, and sometimes it helps, but I can’t give The Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Only Papa gives that.

John 14:16

16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

In the King James Version, the Holy Spirit is also referred to as the Comforter in 14:26, 15:26, and 16:7. The point is, this is one of the ways God does “…immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine… (Eph 3:20)”

In Acts 9:31, the church grew in “… the comfort of the Holy Spirit…”

Reflection:

1. How do you comfort your children when they are hurting?

2. How did your father comfort you as a child?

3. How does Father comfort you now?

4. Does your relationship with Father bring you comfort or make you uncomfortable? Why?

Pray with me:

Daddy,

I know you love me more than I can ever imagine. I know you hurt when I am hurting. You are a good Father. You lavish gifts on me that I cannot even imagine and gifts that I cannot often see. I know you have sent your Spirit to comfort me and to be my Comforter. Help me today in my hurting. Help me lead my children to comfort in The Comforter and not in earthly things that make them feel comfortable. You are my hero and I want to be like you. Amen.

Running After Papa…

Mark 6:53-56 (NIV)

53 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. 54 As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. 55 They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

Have you ever wondered how people recognized Jesus when he traveled?

I’m in San Antonio today, sitting in my customer’s cafeteria (where they have wireless internet) waiting for my 1:00 meeting to start. While checking my email, I read my “Daily Manna” email that I get from the International Bible Society. When reading this passage, God just really started stirring my heart. My customer is a very LARGE company and there are thousands of employees all across America. People walk in and out of the cafeteria all the time, but I have no clue who they are. Even though I have studied the org chart and I know who all the major players are and what their responsibilities are and lots of information about them, I don’t recognize any one of them.

So riddle me this Batman… in this day of electronic information, 24×7 news coverage, the world wide web, newspapers, magazines, ezines, websites, email, instant messaging, the ability to take a picture and send it across the world in moments, why don’t I recognize these very important executives that are so important to my profession? I cannot recognize someone I have never met. I cannot recognize someone who has not been pointed out to me.

Next question: How did the people in all these remote villages, towns and countrysides recognized Jesus? There was no newspaper. There was no TV. There were no cameras or photographs. Puzzling isn’t it? I’m not sure I have the answer to that, but that’s not the point of this blog.

And get this… there was no New Testament. There was no Scripture to study or commetaries to read. This was all real-time!

Would YOU recognize Jesus if he walked in your office? If he bumped into you at the market, would you immediately know who he was? That’s a sobering question… isn’t it?

Here’s the rest of the story… When Jesus showed up to the villages, towns and the countryside, “… they ran throughout that whole region…” begging him to touch the edge of his cloak. If Jesus was coming to your neighborhood, would you run to meet him? (I hear many of you say “yes… Of course!”). Would you drive to the next city to see Jesus? Would you drive to the next state? Would you hop a plane to go to another country to see Jesus face to face? Of course we would! Really, think about it! Suppose your browsing the USA Today website for the headlines and you read that Jesus incarnate is in some location. I’d drop everything and go to that location to see Him! How exciting that would be! That would be alot like the people of the villages “… running throughout the whole region…” to go to see Jesus!

So, why won’t we get out of our beds to meet him in our kitchens each morning? We don’t have to run throughout that whole region begging to touch His clothing. We are so privaleged to sit across the kitchen table and commune with him any time we want to. Our house is not a “tour stop” for Jesus. He is ALWAYS here… waiting for us. I don’t know about you, but to me He’s worth losing sleep over!

Running After Papa….

Here’s the whole chapter – in a separate window… (I Cor 5 – NIV )

Paul, in this chapter, uses the example of one immoral man among the congregation to teach them about purity IN the body.

Upon initial reading, it seemed to me a bit harsh and callous to expel this man from the fellowship of believers, a.k.a. the church, and turn him over to Satan. However, after I read it (a few times) it seems to me that the bigger fear, and hence the reason to expel him from the church is primarily two-fold.

1. to bring the immoral man to repentance
2. to keep the purity of the congregation

1. The expulsion serves as a “wake up” call and a consequence of this man’s immoral behavior. Paul knows that the natural consequences of his behavior AND the conviction of the Holy Spirit will eventually lead to this man’s repentence.

2. Perhaps more importantly, Paul knows that “accepting” this kind of behaviour – even in the name of love – is like the yeast that works its way through the dough. It doesn’t take long for that attitude, the pride, the “acceptability” of willful sin and immorality to quickly permeate through the body. Before too long people start thinking “well… so and so did it….” In the opening verses, Paul even says that the Corinthian church was “proud”. I believe the yeast had already begun to have it’s effect. They were proud that they were not so sinful and that they were much more “holy” than him. How dangerous it is for us to live in the land of comparison!!! That’s worth repeating… How dangerous it is for us to live in the land of comparison!!! Lest we forget that any sin is repulsive to Father God. None of us are any better than anyone else. Jesus died for Osama bin Laden and he died for me. Without Christ, we are ALL covered in sin. Without Christ, we are all putrid to the nostril of God. He is so Holy that NO SIN IS TOLERABLE… only perfection is acceptable. Only Jesus was perfect and consequently acceptable. In God’s eyes there is no varying degree of sin. There are no shades of grey, there is only black and white. We are with sin or without sin. Period… and we are ALL with sin.

This attitude of pride among believers does two things:

1. It corrupts the body of believers
2. It ruins the name of Jesus to the unbeliever.

1 Corinthians 5:11

But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

NOTICE: This verse is not saying we cannot engage the world. These kinds of sins we would expect of those the world – the unbeliever. This verse is very specific to those who call themselves believers and followers of Christ and yet willfully engage in these “sins of character”. This is by no means the “out clause” or evangelizing the “undesireables” or the “I’m not comfortable with their beliefs or lifestyles“… like I said before… Jesus died or every one of us.

I think this whole chapter is not as much about the physical sin of this man, as it is about his attitude and how it was affecting the church. Think about it… this man was obviously proud of and touting his conquest of his “father’s wife” because it was reported at least enough for Paul to hear of it wherever he was at! There was no brokenness, no repentance, no changing of his way. He was arrogant! The church body wasn’t much better, they were not only accepting his living arrangements, but growing in their own pride that they weren’t “as bad” him.

The book of James tells us that “God opposes the proud.” Have you ever really thought about God OPPOSING you? Pride is the only sin in the bible that God opposes us on. That means he stands in front of us, blocking the way, getting in the way and hindering all our progress. I do NOT want to be there!

So how do we balance the “Love the sinner, hate the sin” delimma for the believer? I believe to Papa it’s all about our hearts – our attitudes. Of course we will sin. We all do. It is not my job to convict someone of their sin. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict people (believer and unbeliever) of sin. It is my job to encourage holiness in the life of the believer and to point the unbliever to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. It’s my job to pray for my brother to brought to repentance under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. It’s my job is to express Christ’s love to the unbeliever and to live a life worthy of the name of Christ. It’s my job is to be so in love with Jesus that the world sees Him in everything I do.

Running After Papa…

Ephesians 1:4-5

4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he^[c] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—

Last year I memorized the book of James. It was one of the most awesome things I’ve ever done. One of the things I realized is that in memorizing large amounts of scripture, there was a new meaning to meditating on the word and letting the power of the word resonate and get deep down inside. With the new year, I decided to memorize another book. I have picked a new book to tackle… Ephesians. I imagine, you are going to see several blogs from me on bits and pieces of Ephesians.

As I’ve worked throught the first 10 or so verses of Ephesians, this verse suddenly came to life. God “… predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and his will…”. Did you see that? The preceding verse tells us that God chose us, before the creation of the world. Before Genesis 1:1, God chose us to be holy and blameless in his sight. (Eph 1:4) His pleasure and his will was that we would be holy and blameless before him, even thought it meant Jesus would be crucified.

God pleasures in you and me. It is his pleasure that we are his children. Honestly, I have a difficult time wrapping my arms around this one. As you know I have adopted children. They were already half-grown when we adopted them. We didn’t adopt infants. I can tell you that it is not as easy for me to pleasure in them as it is for me to pleasure in my own biological, flesh and blood children. It pains me to say that, but it’s the truth. They came into my family with baggage – baggage that Dawn and I didn’t give them. They came into our family with wounds – wounds that we didn’t inflict. There are many of us who come into God’s family with our own baggage – baggage he didn’t give us. There are many of us who come into Papa’s family with wounds – perhaps wounds from our own earthly father – that we attribute to our heavenly Father.

I think God wants us to know that from the very beginning – even before the world was created – he longed for and created us for his pleasure and he has great joy in us, as only our heavenly Father can. I believe, even though we screw up and will never be perfect (until we are in Heaven), Daddy God smiles when he looks at us.

This verse has completely rocked my world the last several days as I’ve meditiated on it and repeated over and over. I’m not halfway through chapter 1 yet – and it may take a while – and already I have a few blog entries to make. I’ve just not had the time to complete my all thoughts.

Pray with me today,

Daddy, I pray today that you let the truth of Ephesian 1:5 sink deep into my heart. Help me know that I know that I know that you pleasure in me. Papa, there are days I want to throw it all in because I feel so sad, depressed or lonely. When I feel that way, I pray that your truth would rise up within me and that I would look up to see you smiling at me. Help me to know that because you pleasure in me, I am never forgotten nor forsaken. I am overwhelmed with the thought that you knew me and took pleasure in me even before you created the world. I thank you for your never-ending love and devotion. I thank you for your perfect example of Fathering. Help me share that love and that example with my own family.

Running After Papa….

Galatians 4:4-7 (New International Version)

4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. 6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

How do you view Father? How do you view your earthly father? Are they similar?

In a recent meeting with some of my brothers in the faith in a time of accountability and prayer, we began to discuss the concept of God as our Father. One man began to share how God had been trying to teach him this past year to bring everything to him in prayer. He said he has struggled with taking what he sees as the insignificant, meaningless details and “petty” requests to God. “I have what I call my 9-1-1 list, but the little stuff is just so… little.” He gave an example of praying whether or not to go hunting one weekend, for the mere reason that he likes to hunt. In his view, this was not a significant, meaningful, or life-changing thing to pray about. There are more important things to pray about.

Now my friend is not someone who only turns to God in a time of crisis. His view was that this was much to trivial and insignificant to “take up bandwidth” with God. It wasn’t going to emotionally shatter him if he did or didn’t go hunting that weekend, so don’t misunderstand the context of his rationale.

I love the above passage in The Message Version. It says that we cry out “Papa!” I just love that phrasing and I think it’s something we miss in reading the Greek word “Abba!” in the NIV. In the last several months, God has really stretched me in my view of who he is as my Father and my understanding of how he views us as His children.

Three of our children were adopted from Russia two years ago. Our older children spent the better part of 10 years in a Russian orphanage, where they had no father and had no father-like role model at all during their most formative years (from 5-15). They, in particular, struggle with relationships of all kinds. When they came over to the states, they had no concept what relationships exist in a family, with a mom, a dad, a sister or a brother or any of the associated relationships. I only bring this up because one of the barometers of “how they are doing” in terms of relationship building with us, is how much conversation my wife and I get from them.

Unfortunately, these two were brought up in an environment where they were taught “shut up, stay out of sight (especially the orphanage worker’s sight), do what you are told and wait for me to tell you what to do. Don’t tell me anything I don’t ask about.” Consequently, that’s the way their 10 year stint in the orphanages in Russia went and that’s what they still live today.

As I was saying, one of the ways my wife and I measure the progress of our relationship is by how much detail of their daily life we get, without our having to pry and prod it out of them. As their father, I yearn for meaningful conversation with them. I want to know the details of their lives. I want to know they value me and our relationship and that they want to spend time with me.

This is what I shared with my brother. Our Heavenly Father wants to do the same thing! Papa – our Heavenly Daddy – wants to know our every detail. He wants us to converse with him because we have an intimate relationship with Him, just as I want my kids to converse with me because we have (or will have – I pray) and intimate relationship. He doesn’t just want to be the ‘go to’ guy or relagated to a “genie in a bottle” mentality.

He already knows all of my hopes, dreams, fears and everything about me. He knows more about me than I do. He wants my heart. He wants my affection. He wants (and deserves) the my full attention. He wants to be my Daddy.

Put away your 9-1-1 list and just talk to your Daddy. He’s always waiting and ready to talk.

Running After Papa…

Submission (John 14:30-31, John 5:30b)

I’m in the day 5 of 21 day devotional series called “The Battle: 21 Rules of Engagement” that our church has published. Today’s topic was on “Submission to God’s Mission”. It has been excellent.

Something today really rocked me during this devotional. The second paragraph of the devotional (which I will put parts in) really stirred up some thoughts that relate to so much I’ve learned and studied this past year.

One of the things I learned this year is about the 3 “parts” of a man (as in mankind). We’ll define them as:

• Spirit: That eternal part that distinguishes us from the rest of creation

• Soul: What we will define as the mind, will and emotions

• Body: The physical body (actions, habits, addictions)

When we accept Christ as Savior, only our spirit is saved. It is the only part of man that is eternal. Both other parts, the soul and body, are temporal and will die.

Did you see that? (Think the 3 parts of a man) God works IN us to WILL (soul) and to ACT (body) according to His good purpose.

The verses in part of today’s devotional were:

So check this out from today’s devotional:

“The devil had no hold on Jesus because nothing within Him was submitted to the devil. All of His thoughts, feelings, and decisions were submitted in obedience to God. Jesus didn’t have any self-serving attitudes that Satan could use to drag Him down and pull Him away from His purpose.” p.16; The Battle: 21 Rules of Engagement; Book and Audio CD; Copyright ©2007 by <a title=”‘Gateway Create Publishing; Written by Amy Cook.