Love Your Wife as Christ Loved the Church

Have you ever stopped to consider what God meant with this statement?

For me it is clear, we are called to love our wifes sacrificially. Love them in a way that they know you are willing to make their needs more important than your own. With this in mind I volunteered to lead a children's ministry class at my church this weekend. You see my wife was planning to attend a womens retreat as were many of the ladies who normally volunteer in this ministry.

So I agreed to lead a classroom. This may seem like no big thing to you after all its just two hours whats the big deal. Well I volunteer in a number of other capacities closer to or in my gifts. Leading a bible study for kids, no that is not in my gifts. I have been known to say I have no intention of volunteering in Children's ministry. Gods sense of humor at work again, never say never.

You know it was fun. A lot of the facilitation and leadership skills I use with adults worked equally well with the 40 ten year olds I was trying to lead. It was messy and certainly I did not have everyones attention the whole time. There were some connections though, places where eye contact belayed a new friendship. Someone looking at me as a teacher not just some old guy. The kids were respectful and anxious to be. They wanted to be heard and to test out their fledgling Christianity.

A Lot like adults

I was honored to serve Gods children this day

What fun

I just might have to return and lead in the Children's ministry again

Praise you father
praise your providence your wisdom
Thank you for the opportunity to serve your people
thank you

Amen

Anticipation

Last week I was faced with a delicious opportunity; sacrifice. I was encouraged to take part in a church wide activity to draw closer to our heavenly father. Imagine several thousand believers all denying themselves in a form of personal worship to our savior. As I entered into this time I had a joy in my heart I had never before experienced. It was anticipation of something remarkable.

It is very much like my favorite verse of the bible Isaiah 40:31

“those that wait upon the lord with renew their strength, they will mount up on wings as eagles.”

The only thing is, as the week progressed each day I felt weaker. I would get short tempered, light headed, irritable. All these negative things yet each moment I experienced negativity I would pray. It is hard to describe the comfort I felt in these moments. It is what baby must experience in its mothers womb. There is a sense of a warm liquid enveloping you. You feel perfect contentment, perfect comfort and capture. You are secure. You know no pain, loneliness, fear, hunger or temptation. You are cared for, you are loved you are connected. This week I felt like this in God. Each moment of panicky desperation I would cry out to God in prayer and my father would answer. He would wrap me up in an embrace a supernatural embrace.

The devil prowled around the edges always looking for an angle of attack. A lustful thought here, an angry frustrated thought there. Yet he had no entry point. God was my rock and my protection. He would allow no attack to succeed. For five days I denied myself and God showed up so powerfully. He showed up in prayer comforting my soul, he showed up in a warm sunshine of a fading California afternoon. He showed up in a light breeze, in a business meeting going better than could be hoped for. He showed up in a confrontation that turned into peace. He showed up in worship and in love. He showed up in my children’s eyes as they watched their Dad sacrifice all week.

God showed up.

He renewed my strength.

He taught me a lesson I will never forget. Last post I wrote about how the end of our breath is the start of his. This week he showed me how it would work. All week I fasted. All week I was hungry. My body rebelled; my mind picked up its game everything in me save my soul fought against me. My flesh wanted me to live the lie of the world. The flesh is in control. You must eat, you must obey. You must be human. This lie, so cleverly disguised.

"It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' Matthew 4:4

This week I learned that no matter where we are in life we can cry out to God and he will answer. He will comfort, he will show up. When we reach the end of our self he will be there. He is our guide, our leader, our salvation our everything.

What an awesome lesson.

Yesterday after five hungry frustrating days my small group attended a church wide night of worship and prayer. We were there for the first two hours praising and praying.

The Lord is in the house!

No question. As I prayed I had a clear sense that the Holy Spirit had come upon me. He was in my prayer. What power, what an awesome God.

So the week ended. A week of sacrifice, a week of obedience a week of worship. Wow. What absolute joy, what revelation what an awesome God.

I cannot wait to do this again!

Father

I have no words, only the longing of my heart for you

Praise you

The Trip Part I

Last week, as I flew off to Canada to be with my mother I reflected on my favorite book of the old testament; Jeremiah. This post and the next address this intimate love story of God for his chosen people Israel and why it is so meaningful to me.

Jeremiah 29:11

In the Christian circles I navigate, I am often faced with one of the more well known quotes from the bible. It is Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the plans…

What a great verse full of hope and promise full of the brightness of life and the opportunity to fulfill a life’s purpose. This is the faithful’s foreshadow of the New Testament verse “well done good and faithful servant”. I love that verse and its obvious significance.

He shoots he…is tripped?!

In my life I have not been the brightest, the most popular, the most agile, the best hockey player. I have had to earn every toehold, every acknowledgment. Affirmations in my life have been in short supply.

About 10 years ago, one of my best friends and I played pickup hockey on an early Sunday morning. This was the first time he and I had played hockey together. I knew him to be a pretty talented hockey player. In Toronto this is saying something. Everyone there plays. It was 5am in Toronto. I still remember the mist covering the ice as we cut the first blades of steel into the frozen surface. As the game progressed the friendly banter subsided as heart rates and breathing quickened, Canadians take their hockey seriously even at 5am on a Sunday morning. Even in a pickup game with no significance at all.

Since my early 20’s I have played defense. I think this started because I was, as I stated above, not the most skilled. My goals and assists were earned. My bruises fought for. My pride was always hanging in the balance. So I played defense. After several years I became quite proficient at it. I did not have to be the fastest, the strongest, the most skilled. I learned that if I used my intellect, my heart, my stamina in concert I could compete. Some days I could even win. Every once in a while I could shine. Safely locked away in the deepest part of my human heart are those few memories of soaring. (There was a time in a playoff game where we lost 3-2. I scored two goals and was a +2 playing 40 minutes of a 50 minute game. If you know hockey this is more than good. There was another time when my Farmington Hills MI over 30 team won the league championship. I was recognized by that team as one of our best defense. No sacrifice was too great that season bruise concussion, sprain; the team would win if I had anything to say about it. We did. This is my private Stanley Cup)

That morning in Toronto was no different. I worked hard to keep the stars of the other team from scoring with only mixed results. Toward the end of the game I had a break away. Just before scoring (well I thought I would) the defenseman on the other side tripped me from behind. I was enraged. It was a pickup game; there are no referees just an honor code to play the game for the love of it.

Only in hockey have I faced giants fearlessly. I got in this guys face and screamed at him. What are you doing?! This is a pickup game!!! Luckily my friend got between us and calmed the situation down. This guy was about 6 inches taller and 100 pounds heavier (all muscle) I would have lost it gone any further.

My friend said something to me on the way home that has burned itself into my memory. You are a scrapper. You are not the most talented but you work really hard. This observation was as close as my friend could come to an authentic compliment. I know I am not that talented, so did he. I find great release in the intensity of trying with all my being to win.

This worldly perspective seems incongruous with Jeremiah 29:11. I was not made to play in the NHL or even in an elite amateur league. Hockey for me is a passion that will never be more than a hobby. All the same it has taught me about the plans my maker has made for me. He gave me an ability to enter into a state of fiery passion, a capability to live in a controlled rage of energy and concentration. Yes it has at times tipped beyond the point of sanity but only rarely. Only when injustices are leveled against me or those people or causes I care deeply about do I lash out.

It took two decades for me to make the connection. Only in the past few years has it become clear. He was preparing me, giving me glimpses of what I was called for while I was far from him. He was foreshadowing the promise I had in him, if I could only submit to his will.

Fiery Passion

This is the clearest and most sought after state of my mind. I want to be on fire for him. I have learned to get to a point where I am hyper alert, energized to the limit, conscious of every detail, and fully emotionally engaged. What an elusive state! When I am there I feel like anything the Lord wants me to do is possible. What was most profound to me about this state was what it signified. This was the fire the Lord set in me to be a leader.

Through the elegant and violent game of hockey my heavenly father revealed to me that he had bestowed upon me the gift of leadership.

For me leading is now as necessary as breathing. It is not about the need to have power and control, inexplicably it is about giving it away. I love to do the Lord’s work through leading, I cannot, not lead. Jeremiah said something early in his ministry that was very much on point to this yearning inside me when he said.

20:9

But if I say “ I will not mention him

or speak any more of his name”

His word is in my heart like a fire

a fire shut up in my bones

I am weary of holding it in

Indeed I cannot.

This is what leading is to me, a fire in my bones, a fire from our heavenly father.

Father

I praise you for your revelation in my life

You are my Lord of my life

Holy one, you who knew me before I was conceived

You had plans for me before the beginning of time

Father, words cannot express my wonder at you omnipotence

Help me to fulfill the destiny you created for me

Speak to me father

Share your plan to me so that I might honor you

Allow me the pleasure of living totally committed in your will

Your will be done in this life

In your son’s victorious name I pray

Amen

Ron