An Indescribable Gift

My message from Sunday, December 16.  The manuscript is below.

When I talked about never receiving an earthly gift that was truly indescribable, I remembered a picture from Christmas 1978 when I got a Stretch Monster.  It came to me as I was talking, so it's not included in the manuscript.  Here's an old commercial for Stretch Monster .

I haven't seen this picture in over 20 years, but I remember this.  This week I asked my mom about this picture.  She looked through boxes of pictures and found it.  She lives in Indiana, so she took a picture of the picture with her phone and texted it to me.  This is as excited as I ever remember getting, and it's why I included it in my message on Sunday!  Notice the awesome Green Machine in the back.  Here's a commercial for the Green Machine .  Oh how great were the toys in the 70's!

AN INDESCRIBABLE GIFT

2 Corinthians 9:15

2 Corinthians 9:15  Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (NIV)

Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words! (NLT)

Don’t these words sound PERFECTLY CHRISTMAS-Y?  It might surprise you to find that 2 Corinthians 9 is about an offering Paul had been collecting during his third missionary journey for the Jerusalem Christians.  The Corinthians had promised to contribute, but they’d failed to follow through.  Paul was encouraging them to make good on their promise, and he closed his plea by reminding them about GOD’S GIFT TO US, which should’ve been very motivating!

Have you ever received a gift that was too great for words?  The greatest and most expensive gift I ever GAVE was an engagement ring to Kelley.  It was one of the best moments of my life.  But it wasn’t INDESCRIBABLE!  We described it to everybody!  We put it on Facebook!

I got over all the gifts I ever received, no matter how great they were.  I no longer feel the same about the bicycles, video games, guns, baseball gloves, clothing, shoes, tools, TV, golf clubs . . . . But anyone who TRULY UNDERSTANDS what God has done for us CAN NEVER GET OVER IT.  Yes, we can put some words around the significance of the Cross, what Jesus means to us, and what He’s done for us, BUT OUR WORDS ARE LIMITED BY OUR EARTHLY PERSPECTIVE!  We don’t REALLY understand what we’ve been given, and we won’t until we see Jesus in heaven.

Four Reasons God’s gift is INDESCRIBABLE:

1.  GOD’S GIFT IS PERSONAL

Don’t you love those Christmas cards you receive from the car dealership, your dentist, and your insurance agent?  It’s great that they think of their customers at Christmas, but do those card make it to your fridge?  The fridge space is VALUABLE; it’s reserved for people you love, the cards with personal notes and pictures!

Have you ever received an unexpected gift that was JUST WHAT YOU WOULD’VE ASKED FOR? Somebody has to KNOW YOU to give you a gift like that.  They don’t have to give you an Outback Gift Card, AS GREAT AS THOSE ARE! 

When we went to Wears Valley Ranch to hand-deliver Christmas presents to 26 children, it was a PERSONAL experience.  We already knew most of the kids and WVR staff, and they were excited to see us.  We played KICKBALL!  And then we gave every kid a personal card with $100 inside.  As they opened their cards in unison, there was a delayed reaction, and then laughter, smiles, tears, and exclamations like, “I’ve never even SEEN a $100 bill!”  We’d never met one 13-year old boy who hadn’t been at the Ranch very long.  He hugged me so hard it hurt and said, “I just met you but I love you!  Thank you!”

Mailing the cards would’ve been cheaper.  We wouldn’t have had to miss school/work and it wouldn’t have changed the monetary value of our gift, but it would’ve changed the PERSONAL VALUE.  Long after all that money is spent, the memory of that day will remain for all of us.

Try to consider just how PERSONAL God’s gift is.  He gave up His DIVINE Son so that we SINFUL HUMANS could become HIS CHILDREN.  It was PERSONAL for God all the way around!

Galatians 4:4-7  But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. ⁵ God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.  ⁶ And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”  ⁷ Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.

2.  GOD’S GIFT IS USEFUL

One Christmas a lady made a short and simple wish list and stuck it to the fridge.  All it said was, “I want something that will make me look slim and beautiful.”  On Christmas morning, she couldn’t wait to see what her husband picked out, hoping it was just the right size, color, and fit.  But the box was really big and when she opened it she found an exercise bike.

God didn’t give us something ORNAMENTAL to sit on a shelf.  He didn’t give us something only to be used for SPECIAL OCCASIONS like Christmas and Easter.  He didn’t give us something for EMERGENCIES only, hoping we’d never even have to use it (like a handgun or flood insurance).

You know how it feels when you find something that used to be important to you, and you didn’t even know you’d lost it?  Like, you discover a pair of boots in the back of the closet, and think, “Man, I forgot I even had these!  They sure would’ve come in handy last year in that snow storm!”  We’ll KNOW that we TRULY have a relationship with Jesus when we stop having that kind of experience with Jesus. 

If Jesus doesn’t affect every day of our lives, we obviously aren’t very close to Him at all.  GOD’S GIFT IS PRACTICAL!  Salvation COMPLETELY CHANGES who we are, how we operate, who we serve, and where we’re going.  If Jesus isn’t DOMINATING your life, are you really comfortable claiming to know and love Him?

3.  GOD’S GIFT IS ETERNAL

Do you still have your favorite presents from childhood?  Do you even REMEMBER them?  Eventually, even our most favorite gifts get forgotten, replaced, outgrown, worn out, used up, lost, outdated, or broken.  But God’s gift is permanent.  Salvation NEVER ENDS.    

Is it possible for Christians to move away from Jesus?  Absolutely.  Every time we sin, we have to turn away from God to do it.  But do our sins SEPARATE us from God?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!  When we sin, we break FELLOWSHIP with God, but not our RELATIONSIP with Him.  NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US FROM GOD’S LOVE! 

Romans 8:39a And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.

Hebrews 7:25  Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.

Hebrews 10:10  For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.

But what about all those people who claim to be Christians but live any old way they want?  Does THAT prove that we can LOSE our salvation? 

No.  That proves that, JUST LIKE JESUS WARNED, many people who claim to be Christians AREN’T.  The Bible doesn’t teach that believers can move away from Jesus for such an extended period of time that they no longer think about Him or experience conviction.  If that describes you, here’s your safest bet: surrender to Jesus.  If you did something in the past that you were able to STOP, it sounds like what happened was a work of YOU and not a work of GOD. 

God’s gift of salvation begins when we SURRENDER to Him, and lasts ETERNALLY. 

4.  GOD’S GIFT IS COSTLY

I heard about a grandmother who didn’t know what to give her three grandchildren for Christmas.  She decided to send them each a card and a $50 check, and she wrote in each card, “Buy your own gift!”  A few days later she found three $50 checks under the newspaper on her kitchen table.  Her grandchildren were shocked when they received empty cards that said, “BUY YOUR OWN GIFT!”

If a gift doesn’t cost the giver anything, doesn’t it diminish the gift?  The cost doesn’t have to be MONEY.  A perfect gift can be purchased with time, energy, talent, creativity, thought, etc.  For a gift to be MEANINGFUL, we just need to know that the giver was INVESTED.  If Kelley gave me a bag of dirt for Christmas, it wouldn’t mean a thing to me.  But if she said she broke into Sanford Stadium and dug that bag of dirt from the end zone, it’d be the best gift ever! 

There’s never been a more costly gift than Jesus, and there’s never been a more invested giver than God. 

John 3:16  “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

Isaiah 53:5  But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.  He was beaten so we could be whole.  He was whipped so we could be healed.

This Christmas, let’s not lose sight of these facts.  And even as we celebrate the BIRTH of our Savior, let’s keep in mind that His birth was just the beginning of His earthly mission: it ENDED with the Cross. 

God always knew what creating mankind would COST Him.  And He created us anyway.

2 Corinthians 9:15  Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (NIV)

So You're Telling Me There's A Chance!

I haven't posted anything in a while, so I'll share an exciting turn of events that happened this past weekend.  It's exciting for me, anyway.

I'm a Georgia fan.  My family moved to Lavonia, GA in February 1981.  I was in the 2nd grade, and to that point, the only sports team I cared anything about was the Dallas Cowboys.  I didn't have any reason to care about college football.  My Dad liked Dallas and that's why I was a fan.  The only college game I'd ever paid attention to was the 1979 Peach Bowl.  All I remember was that the local team, Clemson, was playing some team called the Baylor Bears.  And apparently, lots of people where we lived at the time, Upstate South Carolina, liked Clemson.  But Clemson lost that game.  I had no reason to be impressed or attached.  Had they won, my life as a fan might have taken a much different path.

Back to 1981: When we moved to Georgia, I saw Georgia Bulldog stuff EVERYWHERE.  Stuff like this:

 

My elementary school sold Georgia Bulldog pencils, notebooks, etc.  I still have one of the pencils - unsharpened an unused - and it's about 30 years old.  See, less than two months before we moved to Lavonia, Georgia had just beaten Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl for the 1980 National Championship.  And they had this freshman running back named Herschel Walker who had taken the sports world by storm.  He was the man, and he was the main reason for Georgia's success.  Georgia coaches said they had three basic plays: Herschel left, Herschel right, and Herschel up the middle.

I was a 7-year old kid with a natural affinity for sports, so I was quickly overtaken by the Georgia storm.  All my friends at my church and my school were Georgia fans.

I thought Georgia was supposed to win all the time, so I didn't think anything about missing out on the 1980 National Championship season.  I watched my first Georgia games that fall.  Not many games were on TV back then, so I actually listened on radio, saw a few highlights on the local news, and read the sports page.

The very first game I actually remember listening to was the third game of the 1981 season.  We were in Anderson, SC visiting my grandparents that day, and I laid in the back of our station wagon and listened as we drove to and from Anderson.  Georgia lost to Clemson 13-3.  My first Georgia game memory is a heartbreaking loss to the eventual 1981 National Champions.  The rest of that season was the stuff I had expected, and they finished 10-1, ranked 2nd, and played Pittsburg in the Sugar Bowl.  A second straight national championship was within reach, but it required a Georgia win and a loss by #1 Clemson to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.  Some people from our church came to our house that night and brought their TV.  We set it beside our TV and watched BOTH games at the same time.  Both games were close and exciting, and we were ready to celebrate.  Instead, I cried.  Literally.  Georgia lost on a last-second TD pass by some guy named Dan Marino, and Clemson beat Nebraska 22-15.  1981 was the year I learned to HATE the Clemson Tigers, even though they were just 30 minutes east from my house.

But 8 months later brought another season, another chance at glory. Herschel was now a junior and was expected to win the Heisman Trophy after just missing out the previous two years.  Georgia started the 1982 season on Labor Day night at home versus, yep, the Clemson Tigers.  The week before the game, Georgia fans woke up to a shocking headline, "Walker Breaks Thumb: Out For Clemson."  Without Herschel, this season looked ready to start out like the 1981 season ended.  Herschel did manage to play - a little - in that game, with a big cast on his arm that made holding the ball difficult.  He carried the ball 10 times for 20 yards - his worse collegiate performance ever - but Georgia managed a 13-7 win and all was again right in my world.

The rest of that season was a dream.  The Dawgs destroyed the hated Florida Gators 44-0 and finished the regular season undefeated and ranked #1.  Herschel won the Heisman Trophy.  THIS IS HOW I THOUGHT BEING A GEORGIA FAN WAS SUPPOSED TO FEEL.  Now I was going to get to EXPERIENCE a National Championship, not just hear about one.  Georgia played #2 Penn State in the Sugar Bowl for all the marbles.  I had no doubts who would win.  No big deal.  Just give us the trophy.  But that's not how it went.  Penn State scored first and had a 20-3 lead in the second quarter.  I fought back tears.  Georgia scored to make it 20-10 at the half, and then Herschel scored in the 3rd to make it 20-17, and I figured it was only a matter of time before we were ahead and . . . then Penn State scored on a long bomb and a diving catch into the end zone to go up 27-17 (Todd Blackledge and Greg Garrity, I've never forgiven you).  Georgia scored again, went for 2 so that a FG would WIN instead of TIE, didn't make the 2-pt conversion.  Georgia had a kicker named Kevin Butler with a big leg (as Clemson found out in 1984 when he made a 60-yard fg as time expired to beat the Tigers in Athens).  So we kicked off, hoping to get the ball back with enough time to attempt a field goal.  And we never got the ball back.  Game and dreams over.

That was January 1, 1983, and until this weekend, that's the last time Georgia controlled its own destiny for the National Championship.  It's been a long 30 years.

Back to this past weekend: Georgia was ranked #5 behind #4 Alabama, #3 Notre Dame, #2 Oregon, and #1 Kansas State.  Two of those top 3 teams had to lose at some point in the next few weeks for Georgia to have a shot at something besides just a great season.  Georgia and Alabama will meet in the SEC Championship game (assuming a Bama win over Auburn this week), so they can control that part.  But hoping 2 of those other 3 teams lose?  Good luck.

And it happened.  #1 Kansas State got destroyed by a 4-5 Baylor team (thank you again, Baylor!  You kept me from possibly becoming a Clemson fan back in 1979, and now you opened a door for the Dawgs in 2012!).  #2 Oregon and their unstoppable offense managed just 14 points versus Stanford and lost 17-14 in OT.  In a matter of minutes (both games ended within an hour of each other), FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE JANUARY 1, 1983, Georgia has a straight path to the National Championship and it's completely in their own hands.  No more scoreboard watching hoping other teams lose.  Win 3 games and they're the champs.

I'll be able to look back at this in a few weeks and tell you where/how it all went wrong, but as I type this, I'm a happy Georgia fan.  The Dawgs may lose to Georgia Tech next week and kill the dream.  Or they may beat Tech and then lose to almighty Alabama in the SEC title game.  That's what everybody (even some Georgia fans) expect.  Or they may win both of those and lose the BIG GAME to Notre Dame or whoever it's going to be.

But right now, in the words of Lloyd Christmas in the movie Dumb N Dumber, "So you're telling me there's a chance" that for the first time in my life as a Georgia fan, my Dawgs can be National Champions.

With all this said, aren't you glad your eternity isn't like being a fan of some team?

New Kids On The Block

Kate has been saying "Ewwwwwwwwwwwww" and "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" a lot lately, and the other day I found myself singing to her:

Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohOh, oh, oh, oh
She smiled and tried to copy me so I kept going:
Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohThe right stuff
She loved it!  You must know that I don't sing in front of people.  Kelley wasn't home, and yes, Kate is a person, but she doesn't count!   She doesn't care how bad I sound and she smiles, claps, and tries her best to sing along.
The next night I did it after I fed her and she started bouncing in her high chair.  So I plugged my iPod into the sound system and played the real song for her.  She danced the entire time, sort of bobbing up and down.  
Here's the video to the song (the year was 1989).  Sorry, there's a 15 second advertisement.  And I'm not embarrassed to say that I owned the tape "Hangin' Tough."  And I have a few of their songs on my iPod.  And Backstreet Boys.  And NSYNC.  And 98 Degrees.

Kate - Guarani Indian

A few weeks ago we had a visit with Kate's birth mother and birth grandfather.  While the birth mother played with Kate, I spoke with the birth grandfather.  He told us more details about Kate's birth mother, who was adopted, herself, out of Paraguay as a baby.  She is 100% Guarani Indian.  We knew she was native Paraguayan, but we didn't know what that officially is.

So, Kate is 1/2 Guarani Indian.  For the next several days I asked Kate, "Are you a Guarani Indian?" and she'd EMPHATICALLY shake her head no, as if she knew what I was asking her.  Then she stopped doing it.  It was so funny, like she didn't want to acknowledge her background!  But she just stopped doing it, and I wished I'd recorded it.

A few days ago in the car, I tried it again and recorded with my phone just in case.  Here's what I got.  You may not think it's funny, but this is my blog and I do!

What Are You Reading?

I haven't posted anything in over a month.  I've been too busy reading.  I have lunch with a good friend, Ken Vickery, about once per month.  We discuss sports and life, but also ministry and what we're reading.  Ken was my pastor for a year as I served as his youth pastor.

I've always been impressed with Ken's READING, and without him even knowing it, he pushed/challenged me to read.  During the year I worked with Ken, I was in seminary and HAD to read constantly.  I had so many ASSIGNED books that I never got to read stuff I CHOSE to read, but also, much of what I read was simply to get it done and complete the assignment involved.  Even with the books I enjoyed, I didn't take the time to absorb the material because there were always several more books waiting to be read and written about.

Not long after starting as Ken's youth pastor, he walked in my office and checked out my library of books.  I think his opinion of me became a little inflated because of some of the books he saw.  He asked, "Have you read all of these?"  I said, "Most of them.  I didn't have a choice."  He then told me how many of them he also had in his library.

I was in seminary through July 2010, taking at least 2 seminar classes per year, so I had lots of assigned reading until just 2 years ago.  But as soon as I finished, I started reading more of what I WANTED to read.  And Ken has been the primary source I've used for my new books.  Let me say now before I forget, we all need someone to challenge, inspire, and mentor us, regardless of our vocation.  We NEED someone in our lives who has been doing WHAT WE'RE DOING longer than us.  I have several of these people in my life, and their wisdom keeps me from wasting energy by learning things the hard/uninformed way.

In the past 2+ years, I've read many of the popular books on ministry, the books "everybody else" has read (Radical, Crazy Love, Christian Atheist, UnChristian, Not A Fan, etc.). It's easy to get caught up in just reading "the latest, greatest thing" by this "latest, greatest pastor," but I refuse to read a book just because "everybody else" is doing it.  If I don't want to become like somebody, why would I read their book(s)?  I had to do enough of that kind of reading in college/seminary - reading books just to tear them apart and show where they missed the mark biblically.

I've read or re-read a few classics (Pilgrim's Progress, In His Steps, Mere Christianity . . . ), some adoption books (Adopted For Life, Orphanology [currently] . . .), and some harder books that weren't FUN (The Church by Mark Dever, Jesus Among Other Gods, Desiring God, Doctrine by Driscoll & Breshears . . .).

Ken told me about a guy named Avery Willis a while back.  I finally checked him out, and I couldn't do that without checking out a guy named Jim Putman.  Ken mentioned him, too.  He's the pastor of Real Life Discipleship in Post Falls, ID.   He was a wrestler in college so his athletic/coaching approach is appealing to me.  Jim started a church that grew from infancy to over 9,000 in about 10 years.  He didn't do it with flash, an entertainment-based worship service, or any type of gimmick.  He did it through discipleship.  He said they wanted to put their resources and energy into making disciples, not a Sunday show.

You can read about it in two books Putman's written: Church Is a Team Sport and Real-Life Discipleship.

As I read the second book, Real-Life Discipleship, and Truth That Sticks: How to Commuicate Velcro Truth in a Teflon World by Avery Willis and Mark Snowden, I learned about the Bible storying method of teaching.  Willis served as a missionary in Indonesia working with primarily ORAL LEARNERS - people who learn through stories and spoken words, not through reading.  Interestingly, most Americans are also ORAL LEARNERS, even though most Americans can read at some level.  But most church teaching is presented in a way that appeals to LITERATE LEARNERS.  These books have changed the way I think about teaching/preaching.

If you're in ministry, I encourage you to read these two books:  Real-Life Discipleship and Truth That Sticks.  I don't know if these books have ever been on anybody's best seller lists, but when did popular opinion EVER get set as the standard for value/truth?

My Perfectly-Matched Wife

God couldn't have matched me with anyone more suited for ME.  Since I'm such a , uh, "unique" person (or maybe, difficult, demanding, determined, tunnel-visioned . . .), it took Him 34 years to get it done.

I thank God daily that I was patient.  Speaking of patience, that's not one of my virtues, either, at least not when it comes to the monotonous, daily stuff like traffic, lines, etc.  But with BIG STUFF, I think I've got a pretty good record.  So, I'm a complete failure on the daily side, and a pretty big success on the BIG STUFF side.

I came home from a mission trip with my youth recently and found a jar decorated with pink sitting on my dresser.  I thought Kelley must have put it there accidentally because it sure didn't look like anything I'd want or need.  I checked it out, anyway.  Inside the jar are large popsicle sticks of various colors, each with a "date" written on them.  Not like a calendar date, but a boy/girl date.  One color requires some planning and money.  One color less planning and money, and one color requires little or no planning or money.

I had read several sticks before I thought, "Maybe I'm not supposed to be reading these."  Glad I stopped.  I'm not supposed to know what they are.  They're supposed to be surprises - I just pick one randomly using the color codes based on how much time/money we have to spend.

I only remember one of the dates I read.  It requires planning and money, and fortunately, it's already taken care of for this year - a Clemson away game.  We're going to Boston to see Clemson play Boston College in a few weeks.

I usually work out after work and try to be finished before 6.  I pulled a muscle in my back last week and have had to reduce my workouts this week.  So I finished early a couple days ago and said, "Wow, I don't have anything to do."  The grass was cut.  Clothes were  folded.  Braves didn't come on till 10pm.  I said, "Let's go outside and throw a baseball."  (Kelley doesn't even own a glove.  She's thrown with me MAYBE TWICE in our 5 years of marriage.)  Kelley replied, "No, but that IS one of the things in the date jar!"

No matter what else I find in the date jar, I don't think any of them will make me happier.

"Lord, Keep Us Safe."

 

While on a mission trip with some youth and adults from our church two weeks ago, I told our group one night during our devotional that we need to stop praying for safety all the time.  I confused them, and more than one person talked to me about it privately.

Each morning after breakfast and each night before bed, we met and had Bible study, and primarily, I took us through the last three chapters of Not A Fan by Kyle Idleman.  Those last three chapters are titled, Whenever, Wherever, and Whatever, and Idleman talks about the cost of following Jesus.  

I couldn't recall my source when I talked about this, but I remembered reading something CONVICTING about our constant prayers for safety, as if safety is the greatest thing in life.  Our desire for safety probably keeps us from following God to lots of places He's trying to lead us.  We think, "God doesn't want me to do that!  It's DANGEROUS!"  

If Jesus was primarily concerned about our safety, He never would've sent the Twelve Disciples out.  He didn't promise them physical safety.  Instead, He told them:

Matthew 10:16-21  “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves. ¹⁷ But beware! For you will be handed over to the courts and will be flogged with whips in the synagogues. ¹⁸ You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are my followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell the rulers and other unbelievers about me.^[e] 19 When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. ²⁰ For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

When we got back home, I located my source:

From Crazy Love by Francis Chan, p. 133:

"Haven't we all prayed the following prayer? Lord, we pray for safety as we travel.  We ask that no one gets hurt on this trip.  Please keep everyone safe until we return, and bring us back safely.  In Jesus' name we pray, amen.  The exact wording may vary a bit, but that is the standard prayer we recite before leaving on mission trips, retreats, vacations, and business trips."

"We are consumed by safety.  Obsessed with it, actually.  Now, I'm not saying it is wrong to pray for God's protection, but I am questioning how we've made safety our highest priority.  We've elevated safety to the neglect of whatever God's best is, whatever would bring God the most glory, or whatever would accomplish His purposes in our lives and in the world. "

"Would you be willing to pray this prayer?  God, bring me closer to You during this trip, whatever it takes . . ."

People who are obsessed with

 Jesus aren't consumed with their

 personal safety and comfort above

 all else.  Obsessed people care

 more about God's kingdom coming

 to this earth than their own lives

 being shielded from pain or

 distress.

Not that I agree with everything any author says, but Chan's words are powerful and convicting, as are David Platt's in his book, Radical.  If you have the book, see pages 164-165 and 174-175.  Platt also talks about following Jesus in spite of the risks and dangers, in spite of the fact that it might get us hurt or killed.  

John F. Kennedy once said, "Do not pray for easy lives.  Pray to be stronger men."