Children

The Lord has been dealing with a lot on the way I treat my kids. Let me explain; children do not receive a junior version of the Holy Spirit. Period. The same Spirit living in me is in them. That means they have access to everything that I have access to in Christ. In fact, you can make the argument that they may have more access. Jesus defended the children when the disciples said he was too busy. We are to come to Jesus in child-like obedience. The bible is clear about the status of children in the eyes of our Savior.

I have been an advocate for family worship and family discipleship. This is good, but I am seeing that I have been missing something. Let me explain:

I was reading a book this morning by Karen Barnes entitled: "Kids Can HEAR*DO*GO." Here is a quote that got me this morning:

Psalm 127:3 says, "Behold children are a gift from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward" (NASB). Unfortunately, many times adults think of them as too immature, too little, or not ready for the deeper things of God. A typical Sunday morning class might be teaching a Bible story, maybe doing a craft, singing a couple of songs, trying to memorize a Bible verse, and making sure they have their take home 'hand out' as they run out the door. For a few kids, they will gain head knowledge, and might even be able to quote Scripture, but for the majority of the children, the material will be lost to them.

Why is this? Because they did not connect the 'truth' they memorized with the person of Jesus. There was no encounter with Christ to further deepen and solidify their experience. In Jesus' parable of the sower and the seeds in Matthew 13:19, He says, "When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart."

There has to be a better way to bring children into a deeper relationship with God. How can we get kids to consistently and honestly seek after God and encounter Him? We want their lives to be changed, and for them to fully understand WHO God is, HOW He loves them, WHAT kind of power is available to them, WHEN they can access His presence, and WHY it's so much fun getting close to Jesus.

This can only be accomplished through relationship with the Father. It has to be more than just a corporate prayer at the beginning and end of class. Although grounding in the Word is vital for growth and necessary to nurture and maintain a healthy relationship with the Lord, it has to be more than head knowledge that they MIGHT or might not take away from classes. Children need an intimate close, encounter with God that they just cannot get through lesson plans alone. They need to be taught how to sense His awesome presence, and be able to 'tune in' to His voice.

Dads

You are not God. You should never pretend to be God to your kids. You should regularly admit your shortcomings to your kids and how you fail to measure up to God's standard. One way that you can glorify your Heavenly Father is to stand up for your kids the same way that God does for you. This will also show your kids that self-defense may not be something to aspire to, but coming to the defense of others is.

The Impact of Missions on Kids

I want to encourage you to think about taking your kids on a mission trip. This can be highly formative for them. I have often thought of our kids as highly cautious yet in Berlin we saw them come out of their shell to a degree. This part is still coming into focus as we continue to debrief as a family on all that God has shown us.

One of the things Emma was doing that we did not know about was that she was making lists of people we had spoken with and how she could specifically pray for them. She collected the slips of paper in an empty 'Bubble Tape' container that she bought in a little German store.

I pray that my kids never grow accustomed to 'normal American Christian life.'

The Seductiveness of the City

Today is our last full day in the city as we fly home tomorrow. There are a lot of things stirring in me, some good and some not so good. This morning, in prayer, I think The Lord was pleased to reveal some things to me. There is a real danger of getting sucked into a culture (any culture). Even a primitive or strange culture. We all have different tastes and fascinations, so any time there is a cross cultural missions experience there is a real danger of getting caught up in the culture.

It would be easy to fall prey to that here. To get lost in the possible romanticism of this place and miss what is going on. There is a danger of falling prey to looking at or being mesmerized(literally) the history and uniqueness of this culture and embrace far more than you should.

I have talked to so many people who will tell me about the inherent skepticism and intellectualism of the German people. This is usually said with an air of pride and sophistication, not understanding that this is embracing something that is keeping you from seeing the light of the gospel of Christ in the face of Christ Jesus. This is a spirit that is choking the life out of millions and millions of people. It is why blessed in spirit are the poor. When the props have been kicked out from under you, you readily embrace good news.

I think some people speak of 'redeeming culture' and really have no idea what they are speaking about. It is almost as if they use the term so that they can engage in the same sort of debauchery but have it dressed up so that it does not cause radical wholesale change.

Here is where it hit for me. All week I was been bothered by the intense amount of graffiti in Berlin. Most see this as a cultural thing. It is really part of the identity of Berlin and even a hallmark of urban dwellers everywhere. Yet have you stopped to think that this is an outward manifestation of deviant and rebellious heart. This means that a city is taking an identity in what is being manifested of deviance and rebellion. This is not art but rather evidence of a heart that needs to be transplanted with a new one from Christ.

When we carry our sin for so long, it becomes part of our identity. We see the destruction and all but it is familiar to us and quasi-comfortable. So we come to what Jesus said, "the reason you will not come to the light is because you love you sin."

I have wondered by The Lord would call me to urban ministry when I am anything but fascinated by urban living. But if you put me into suburban lifestyle or even rural lifestyle I would gladly embrace isolation and being cut off from people. Yes The Lord knew what was good for me. This is only partially about reaching the people in Berlin. I am seeing that this is just as much for my sanctification as many.

Our aim is to see Jesus reign on earth just like He does in heaven!

Friday Morning In Berlin

It is Friday morning in Berlin, the weather is cold and it is about 4:45AM local time. So many things are on my heart right now that I do not know exactly where to begin. I hope you will allow me to kind of 'free-flow' these thoughts. You would be a tremendous help to me if you would grant that. First off there are some things that are just kind of weighing me down. We have ridden the S-Bahn and U-Bahn for what seems like a million miles. We have seen people of every tribe, tongue and nation. Yet one overwhelming factor that we have seen a a dominating consistency is a lack of smiling in this place. Oh sure there are some smiles but by and large, if you judge by facial expressions, then it is a very very somber place. It became somewhat oppressive the other day and we played a little game of 'who can make some one smile?' Our friend's sweet 7 year old daughter was the winner twice over. Once by creating a "Fat Booth" Image of me on her parent's phone. The second by demonstrating that she was able to touch the tip of her nose with her tongue. I was impressed!

Now I am not so naive as to think that a person has to be giddy smiley all the time to reveal joy in their hearts, but I am convinced that the eyes are the window of the soul. You can smile with your eyes and have nothing showing on your mouth, this much I know. The ones we have seen freely smile are the ones who openly profess Christ. I assure you that this light does shine in the darkness. I do not want to make blanket statements or assume I can see the heart, I am just making an American Centric observation.

Last night a dear brother, Christoph (definite joy on this brother's face) who is the pastor of a church plant in Prenzlauer Berg part of Berlin (www.diekreative.org east Berlin -- extremely difficult area to minister) noted that there are less than 15,000 known born again believers in Berlin. A city of 3.5 million people!

Yet I do not want to paint too bleak of a picture. There is something stirring here, especially among the smaller congregations. According to a dear brother living and laboring here in the city, there is a movement afoot in which Christians are starting to take stock and see that what has been done in the past is not working. Trying to carve out individual territories and being disconnected to the wider body of Christ does not work. Independence and pride have gained nothing. If we have seen anything this week, we have seen these people coming together to worship and pray for their city. Hear me say this, lest you think I am understating this: This is not like anything I have seen in the states! This is not a "we will pray when we think about it." This is not a general desire to seek the good of the city as we so tritely hear in our comfortable churches. This is a desperation of crying out to God on the behalf of the city, walking in repentance and knowing that something has to change. This is encouragement to my soul. We know of European Initiative who are sending multiple short term teams to this city. We ran across First Baptist of McKinney last night who brought a team of 76 people to this city. The Lord is doing something. This is not something that we are doing rather this is something that God is already working. Already.

Wednesday night we had a time of worship with a group of people here at the Gnadenhaus. I can honestly say I have never been so sad to see 2.5 hours end in my life. The worship was just amazing. We sang many songs in English, but even as a non-German speaker I could completely understand the words "Helig, Helig bist du Herr!"

Our team is continuing to grow and for this we are extremely thankful to The Lord. We cannot state in this blog the exact details of this growth due to current security concerns of the ones involved, but this is a sobering and exciting addition to our team and an answer to months and months of intensive prayer.

I think that all of us would agree that the thoughts we had before have been radically altered. What we thought we knew, we now know that we do not know. Our plans are continuing to be re-shaped and altered, but in a very good an positive way.

In Jesus, we believe that the nations (gathered in Berlin and Beyond) will be glad and sing for joy in Berlin. I see Jesus moving in this city. I am so excited to get a front row seat to what He is doing!

Family Discipleship and Missions

Many have asked us about missions and how that impacts our family. In order to understand our stance on this you must first understand that discipleship is a process whereby a teacher teaches a student to do what he/she does. See Luke 6:40. Part of the way that we disciple our children is allowing them to see us disciple other people. Our kids have seen numerous people in our house, over dinner, or in many other situations as we have walked with them and pointed them to our Lord Jesus. It is not uncommon for us to speak with our children about why we do what we do. We have discussed mistakes, failures, successes, puzzling situations. They are with us in evangelism and in difficult situations. They see us pray with food servers and others in public. They have seen people prayed for and healed. They, themselves, have experienced miraculous healings!

Once, when B-- was 3 years old he found my razor in the bathroom (parent fail) and decided he would shave, like I do. He was bleeding profusely and we were quite frightened. It was difficult to know the extent of the damage due to the amount of blood. Through his tears and screaming he was asking us to pray. So we stopped and prayed over him. Then cleaning the blood off, we saw that there was no cut. At all. Nothing. There is not even a scar. That was something that made a HUGE impact on all of us. To this day, when there is sickness or pain, our kids do not want medicine or to be comforted, they want prayer. The other night, E-- came into our bed room saying that she felt nauseated. We would tell her to run to the bathroom if she was going to throw up. We also placed a trash can by her bed. Several times she came into our room to announce that she was nauseated. Finally, in frustration, I said, "honey there is not a lot I can do for you." Her response said volumes, "you can pray."

Our aim is to teach our kids to do what we do. There is not a separation between family and ministry. Our family is our ministry and our ministry is our family. There is wisdom to be applied as to when, where, and how much we allow our kids to see/participate in. Just as our heavenly Father walks with us through life allowing us to go through various 'lesson' when it is appropriate. He never allows more than is right for us at the time. As we walk with our Father, He is telling us how to walk with our kids.