Father Thought:        

 

             If you attended Church with us Sunday than you know that my family and I watched the movie "Elf" on Saturday evening.  What you don't know though is –I didn't really want to. You see Notre Dame was playing Stanford Saturday evening, and I really wanted to help cheer the Irish to victory; they lost by the way, and my cheering probably wouldn't have helped anyways.

                So as the day was progressing on I was thinking about what I was going to do, would I watch the game, or would I spend the time with my family?  What I think God, in fact it must have been God, reminded me of is –what's more important, the Irish or my family?  Sounds simple enough, but many of us struggle with that one, or to actually live out what we know to be true.  As fathers (or parents in general, but it seems as if fathers struggle with this more than mothers) we need to make sure that we are never in danger of sending the message that, anything besides God Himself is more important to us than our families.  I've made that mistake in the past, and certainly don't want to ever again.  In a sense me saying to my wife and kids, "you guys enjoy family time with the movie, but I'm going to watch football by myself", is a lot like me telling them that football is more important than family time. 

                Big lesson: don't ever give your family a reason to question their level of importance to you.  If that means shutting off the game or staying out of the woods, than by all means do those things.  Watching less football or doing less of other "manly" things, in no way decreases your manhood.  In fact, putting family first actually increases you manliness.  In the words of Red Green, "We're all in this together, I'm pulling for ya".  

Lostness

There are times in life when we just feel lost.  Not necessarily lost, as in lost our salvation, but lost, as in confused.  This kind of lostness (the confused kind) (and yes I'm aware that "lostness" is not technically a word) for some reason difficult to define; some describe it as a funk, slump, or even a dry season.  The confused kind of lostness generally seems to be a time when we simply forget to remember that God's love for us is large enough to gently overpower our own feelings of lostness.  The causes of this lostness are equally difficult to pin down.  For some of us the feelings of lostness are caused by our own guilt at our past mistakes, a temporary belief that perhaps God has abandoned us, a feeling of complete hopelessness because in our eyes our current situation is impossible to overcome, or just an overt feeling of weariness caused by any number of things.  Whatever the causes may be, whether a cause mentioned or unmentioned, this lostness can be devastating.  So is it possible to overcome this kind of lostness, can Christ set us free from this?

                The short answer to the above question is yes.  The longer and hopefully more helpful answer begins with this: understanding that our feelings of lostness are exactly that –feelings.  The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Church in Rome reminded the believers there that nothing, and by nothing he meant absolutely nothing, could separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:35-39).  This means that whatever our cause of lostness may be, it can't separate us from the love of Christ, which is a large part of the Good News.  Secondly, the Apostle John in his letter which was sent to multiple Churches reminds us that God is in fact bigger than our feelings (1 John 3:20).  This point is actually pretty important, because many times our perceptions create our reality.  So, our feelings of lostness become so large and overpowering in our own mind that the truth of God's love has little to no room to work in our lives.  If this perception isn't what creates the feeling of lostness than it certainly adds to it, due to the fact that this thought creates a barrier between us and the loving savoir who longs to free us from ourselves.  If you are feeling this kind of lostness then you may be thinking, "all of this sounds well and good, but how do we actually live this?"  Good question.

                One of Jesus' first disciples, Peter, seems to have faced a similar problem.  Towards the end of the Gospels of Luke and John we read the story of how Peter denied Christ, wept bitterly (a fancy way of saying he felt really bad), and was later restored as a leader in the early Church.  How did all of this come about, and what was the turning point for Peter?  I think, like all of us, Peter was offered a choice, trust in Christ for forgiveness and life, or go about his life attempting to do things his own way.  So if you are feeling that lostness, perhaps the solution is as simple yet difficult as making a choice.  A choice to completely trust Christ, not only for salvation from lostness as it relates to our eternal destination, but salvation from lostness from the confusion that clouds Christ in the here and now.  Easier said than done, I know.  

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blessings

Psalms 10

(Psalms 10:1-18) When times are difficult, and it seems as if those who ignore God prosper while His people suffer, it's easy to allow ourselves to start feeling like David did in the first part of this chapter. David almost seemed depressed, kind of like God had now abandoned him. Be careful not to fall into this trap, take the whole counsel of scripture, and know that God always comes through for His people.

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blessings,

Pastor Adam Carroll

Psalms 9

(Psalms 9:1-2) As we prepare ourselves to worship the Lord on Sunday, let this verse soak deep within you. We worship God, not necessarily because of our circumstances, but simply because He is God. Our worship is not tied to the Stock Market or any other temporary aspect of this life; our worship is tied to the eternal goodness of God.

Psalms 6

(Psalms 6:1-3) Does this sound like you? Here's a suggestion: this Sunday, come/go to Church expecting God to show up in your life, in a big way, not kind of sort of, but a big way. As already mentioned, God longs to move in our lives. Many times He doesn't, simply because we aren't expecting it. Expectancy is one of the keys to experiencing God's move in your life. Thanks to Ben Robbins for the thought starter.

(Psalms 5:1-3)

(Psalms 5:1-3) I would just like to take this opportunity to thank God, for the simple fact that He hears us and He loves us.  The love of God, shown through Christ for us, is at the very center of the Good News; yet somehow when life goes sour we lose sight of this.  We get caught up in issues of life and lose sight of the beautiful simplicity of the Gospel: God loves us.  In light of the negativity of the politically charged 24/7 news cycle, and the simple fact that life is full of turmoil and pain, which many people are dealing struggling with at a more critical level than many of us can even imagine, don't ever forget the simplicity of God's word.  That is He loves us, and He hears us.  In spite of what you may have heard, or the way you may feel right now –God's love is real, tangible, and He is longing to pour it out on you and your situation right now.  Allow Him to wash over you today with His love.   

No Middle Ground

Luke 13:22-26: This passage of scripture is one of those in the Bible that often ends up leaving people with more questions than answers; quite frankly, that's okay. 

 There doesn't seem to be a middle ground with Jesus.  Tim Keller calls this middle ground, "the mushy middle", and it is slowly going away.  Christ calls us to a complete and total commitment to Him, a reckless abandonment for Christ.  This commitment is played out in various ways: our commitment to Him is shown in the way in which we handle our business, handle our family, handle the frustrations of business and family, basically the way we show our commitment is shown in the way we live our life.  Christ desires to be the center of all that we say and do, to the point that at times we don't say or do things because they go against the way Christ would say or do them, basically they don't represent Christ well.  This kind of life sounds crazy.  This kind of life sounds like giving control of who we are to someone else, and to be honest –it is.  That's okay though, because the only way to truly live life the way God intended it is to live a life totally committed to Him.  That doesn't mean we don't spend time with our spouses, take our kids too little league practice and other sporting events (one more year until t-ball for Aiden), or mow our yards.  What that kind of means is, that at the center of all it is –Christ.  A life focused on Him brings joy, hope, peace, and all those things Christ promised us, in the midst of this crazy life.  A life devoted and committed to Him brings freedom.

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