Archive for November, 2008

While Caro rolled out of bed early for a Black Friday trip to Wal-Mart (where she claims she bought nothing), the kids and I snoozed our lives away until mid-morning. In fact, Caro had apparently come back and left for work at the Gift Shaker to face hordes of eager shoppers from the other side of the counter before I’d ever lifted my eyelids.

I do recall her asking me if I wanted to go to Wal-Mart this a.m. at 4:30-ish. However, it is so foggy that I cannot even remember whether I gave her an intelligible response. 

As soon as I’d downed a few cups of coffee and the kids had enjoyed a couple of hours of being kids, we began excavating the attic of Christmas stuff. I figured that we could have the bulk of Christmas supplies, lights, etc. down and set up when Caro got home as a surprise for her.

Sam and Adelyn were remarkably helpful the whole time the attic was involved. They never slowed down helping cart stuff up and down the rickety pull-down stairs. I think that perhaps they were hoping for a magical wardrobe to be concealed somewhere over our heads that might be their entrance to another world and an escape from this one.

As soon as the attic stuff was done, their enthusiasm cooled. Sam did get the tree assembled and helped me with the lit wreaths across the front of the house. Adelyn began sorting through/playing with Christmas ornaments. And it was then that Caro came home. Where did the time go?

We spent the rest of the afternoon decorating. I kept trying to throw away old Christmas ornaments, creating my own filter for what made a worthy, keepable ornament. Here were some of the criteria:

• A worthy ornament can’t be a non-Christmas-y trinket that simply has a string coming out the top to hang on the tree. Because of this definition, I attempted to throw away several clowns, miniature blue and brown buildings (Caro claimed they were “churches”), a dozen crosses (yes, I know they’re spiritually significant… but how many do we need of those?), and some wooden things.
• A worthy Christmas ornament can’t have glitter on it. Just to let you know, this criteria was totally vetoed by Caro, but I hate having to try to vaccum up glitter from cheap ornaments.
• A worthy Christmas ornament can’t weigh more than 3 pounds. Serious. We have some things that you could enter into the Strongest Man Competition. You need to use 2-3 branches and some rope to keep these babies on the tree. The eyebolt screwed into the wall with the steel cable holding up the tree is pretty distracting.
• A worthy Christmas ornament simply cannot have Hello Kitty on it.
• On the other hand, any ornament that has Donald Duck on it is worthy. In fact, the kids and I played a game called “Most Blessed One” in which we kept score of which kid was able to hang up the most Donald Duck ornaments. And they’re all very Christmas-y, so they don’t violate the first criterion.
• A worthy ornament can’t be a piece of construction paper that it appears one of our kids drew on unconsciously in their sleep and is labelled “Preschool” on the back of it. As a caveat, I assured Caro we can keep it in the ornament box, in case forensics proves that one of our kids made it, but it does not belong on the tree.
• An ornament that was worthy last year may not be worthy this year, based on whether the tree “theme” is different from last year. We had gallons of plastic icicles and dozens of prune-shaped glittery (see the second criterion) balls that may have been worthy because they fit the tree theme in years past. However, I was able to toss them this year because I convinced Caro that no 21st century Christmas tree would allow anything of the sort to adorn its branches. 
• An ornament, no matter how worthy, is not allowed to hang from the tree-topper angel’s wings. This was instituted by Caro a few years ago, and apparently still remains firmly in effect in spite of protestations that the Mystery Van from Scooby Doo would blend very well with this year’s theme if it was allowed to hang from the angel’s wings.
• While not exactly an ornament, Caro has decreed that all sorts of branches, berry-looking things, and dead weeds may be entwined around O Christmas Tree and be considered worthy. The overall effect with lights on is nice, but I still fight the urge to pull out the weedeater.
• If it’s an ornament that doubles as a picture frame that even came in a Hallmark box that says “Baby’s Second Chrismtas” – but has no picture of a two year-old baby (preferably ours) in it – it is not a worthy Christmas ornament.

In probably one of the most unusual interviews I’ve ever done, I recently responded to a series of questions for a news/blog site in Pakistan. I have no idea how they discovered my blog, but they sent me a very nice email requesting an interview. After I agreed, they sent a list of insightful and thought-provoking questions that I was to respond to.

You can see the interview here. Many thanks to The Pakistani Spectator!

I hope you’re all ready to enjoy this time of reflection and Thanksgiving this week. I know it’s a deeply special and significant time. I want to encourage you all to allow it to be one in which you spend time in praise for all that Christ is doing in our lives. For some, this season is hard because of the losses of family members, and for others this season will be hard because of relationships with family and friends not being where they need to be.

Our prayer is that we will demonstrate fully the Spirit of God during this week and that we will be overflowing with gratitude and thanksgiving. There’s a popular worship song out now that goes:

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I’ll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s ‘all as it should be’
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I’ll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

I especially like the last refrain. God is still good, and He has the right to “give and take away.” It’s in hard moments of discipleship and learning to follow Him that we can make the mental decision like the songwriter (Matt Redman) in which “my heart will choose to say, ‘Lord, blessed be your name.’”

I hope earnestly this holiday season that you will choose to praise Him. In the midst of a year that’s been very trying for our family, friends, church and our country, let us choose to praise God.

I haven’t made an entry in this series in some time now, and after stumbling on Grace Point’s website a few days ago, I was prompted to give them a quick shout out for their site.

First of all, I like that GP’s site is not too 2.0. These days, Flash sites with bells and whistles almost bore me. I’ll probably oooh and aaaah over one tomorrow, but I like the first impression of this site. While it first struck me as too busy, and all the rollover graphics were a little distracting, I immediately realized, “Hey, there’s a lot of stuff here to look at.”

Clicking on Virtual Church takes you to a site within a site that has the sidebar shown to the right. It offers all kinds of connections for those who may just want to check out Grace Point from a distance for a while. This is where you find the podcast, prayer requests, Facebook group, etc.

So much of GP’s site requires you to take that initial step of interest. From the main page (on the day I visited), I saw a Mother’s Day Out program, an upcoming concert with Natalie Grant, a missions endeavor and a baby dedication scheduled. Clearly, there’s a lot of fellowship and activity going on.

The only caveat to the site was the font and text style of many of the links. While many of the graphics were clearly Photoshopped and animated, the list of links on the front page that begins “I’m New” and continues through “FAQ” was just a little 1.0 for me. I noticed this same graphic disconnect on the sidebar on the Virtual Church page. 

I think the text of the links across the top of the page just don’t match the feel that the site intends to communicate. 

I was intrigued by the Need It/Got It page. It’s essentially a classified section for use by the church and its members and guests. Great idea!

I was impressed, however with the Global Missions link page. Seeing where this church is currently impacting and serving was a great encouragement.

Overall, it’s a very useful site that communicates and invites. One suggestion would be that the pastor needs to update his blog. It was over a month behind when I stopped by. For the time and effort this church has put into its site, he may be missing a great opportunity to connect with those who, like me, just stop by.

Just wanted to post a quick update on our health journey with Carolyn. Thank you all for emailing, asking and praying. 

She had an appointment today at 12:30 in which the surgeon reviewed her PET scan and medical history. After doing an ultrasound on two of the areas in which he was able to see the lumps, he and Carolyn’s oncologist are recommending an outpatient surgery. We scheduled it for December 8.

On a side note, his ultrasound machine was smaller than a standard laptop… I was dying to snap a picture of it but just couldn’t bring myself to do so. (I can take a picture of a cat funeral but not a sonogram machine… Go figure.)

Basically, he will remove the lump in the breast and do a biopsy of it first. If it proves to be Hodgkin’s or some sort of lymphoma, he will not remove anything else. If it’s not, then he’ll proceed to one of the other nodes and remove one of them and do a biopsy of it.

The reasoning is that since all this is happening at one time, that it’s most likely related and not separate cases of breast cancer and Hodgkin’s. We were very pleased with his professionalism, candor and sensitivity.

We’re trying to schedule things around Adelyn’s performance in the Arkansas Ballet’s production of the Nutcracker the weekend of the 6th. 

Again, thanks for your prayers and thoughts!

Hebrews 11.35 is a rather abrupt transition from a sublime chapter in scripture that some call the “Faith Hall of Fame.” After detailing the feats of faith accomplished by God through the lives of Abraham, Moses, Gideon, Barak, Samson (who I normally don’t associate with faith), and others, one is confronted with these words:

“But others were tortured…” (NLT)

Nice.

Just in case you were beginning to be inspired to tackle hell with a water pistol, God’s Word reminds us that faith is independent of circumstances. Faith is external to danger or fortune. Faith is unaffected by success or failure. Faith is.

That’s why the Hebrews writer began this section with the famous, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (ESV) The Message Bible puts it like this:

The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see.

The New Living Translation may be my favorite:

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

The only problem with this translation is that I generally don’t hope for… torture. I am generally a stickler about good things happening to me. In my mind’s eye, I imagine everything working out in the end (after all, there’s Romans 8.28, right?). I see nasty situations tied up with a nice bow. I envision, “Aaaah. It-all-makes-sense-now” moments.

Most of the time, this mindset is completely shallow and inadequate to confront the realities of life. In fact, a self-promoting interpretation of Romans 8.28 perhaps leads people to confidence in ultimate fiction rather than an Understanding Father.

What is it that we hope for? That’s the real question.

• Healthy children.
• Job promotions.
• Central heat and air (especially during Arkansas summers!)
• Patience from everyone
• Punctuality from everyone
• To be treated by others as we treat them like we want to be treated
• Happy homes

These hopes bounce around in our minds as entitlements more often than not. For some reason, we have believed that if we believe right information about God that all of the above will be given to us. There’s even a whole strain of “Christianity” that seeks to convince us that God wants us to be healthy, wealthy and own 2.5 homes and 4 cars.

Tell that to the Hebrews 11.35-38 folks. They would be sorely disappointed. You read here about another group of faith-filled believers. In fact, they were so filled with faith that “they refused to accept release.” When offered a chance to renounce their trust in God – for them a firm foundation that made life worth living- they opted for death (which would actually bring faith to fruition and hope to reality).

Hebrews 11.39-40 comments, “And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”

Essentially, their rotten experiences and horrible sufferings were examples for future followers of God. How would you like to know that what you’re experiencing is all for someone else? The way you choose to respond could enable someone else to stand firm.

Much of contemporary American Christianity struggles with Hebrews 11.35… “But others were tortured…” For me, it’s a surreal comfort to know that God’s Word does not shrink from depicting and predicting extreme hardship and agonizing cruelty. It addresses it head on. Yet it also offers a way through and out. It’s the way of faith.

Faith may bring you through the Red Sea… (v29) or it may get you sawn in two (v37). But our faith is not in “getting out of this mess.” Our faith is rooted in a Person. We trust in Him… not in some abstract deliverance.

In my family’s current faith journey, we are reminding ourselves once again that while life sometimes is not pleasant, our hope is not “in everything working out.” Rather, our hope and confidence is placed completely in Christ. He alone does not change. We (and you) can trust His character and rely upon His love. When things do not turn out as we would wish and hope, it may all be to remind us that the object of our hopes and dreams have been misplaced. Our current sufferings only sharpen our hearts to enjoy future fellowship.

Romans 8.18 says, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

And if you’re one of those who is currently having Red Sea Day… pause and pray for Christ followers around the world – the persecuted church – and others who are having another kind of faith experience.

Update (11/22): I’m coming to try this new theme for a while. It’s called Crybook and is a take-off on the old Facebook look.

I’ve got the blog redesign itch again. I’ve been playing around with various new looks over the past few days and haven’t come to any conclusion yet. So I’m tossing this entry out, hoping for some feedback. 

• What features do you currently enjoy about this blog as it’s currently designed? (i.e., Recent Comments, Lifestream, Recent Posts, Book List, etc.)
• What have you seen elsewhere that you think would make a nice addition?
• If I went with “simple,” what are the indispensable elements you would want to see?
• Other suggestions…

The following is from Michael Kelley’s blog. He gave me permission to post it in its entirety. I was wanting to do an OCC post since this is “collection week,” but his entry was so good, I thought, why duplicate? Thanks, Michael! -

Last night, our family went to Target to fill our Operation Christmas Child shoebox. This is a great organization with a great mission:

Operation Christmas Child brings joy and hope to children in desperate situations around the world through gift-filled shoe boxes and the Good News of God’s love. Since 1993, more than 61 million shoe boxes have been packed, shipped, and delivered across the globe. People of all ages can be involved in this simple, hands-on missions project while focusing on the true meaning of Christmas—Jesus Christ.

It’s simple – make Christmas better for a child by filling a shoebox full of gifts. But here are a few things you might not know about OCC:

- Did you know that there is a national leadership team in each country that receives boxes? Boxes only go to countries that have a National Leadership Team. This team is made up national volunteer Christians
that have a heart to see their country come to know Christ. They help raise funds to help pay for the transportations of shoe boxes into their country. They make the decisions about where distributions
happen and are responsible for creating opportunities for distributions to all kids by creating a strategic plan (meaning that kiddos get one box- not multiple boxes that they show up year to year
just to get the stuff- the goal is to provide the gospel)

- Every child is given the opportunity to participate in a 10 week discipleship program and plugged into a local church

- Shoe boxes have allowed Samaritans Purse to create roots in communities. OCC opens the doors to focus on relief and community development. Other SP programs include children’s heart project, instillations of water filtration systems/ feeding programs, HIV programs, and Medical Mission programs.

- A shoe box = gospel opportunity. For every box that is distributed a copy of “The Greatest Gift of All” is distributed in the language that the child speaks. So last year 7.6 million copies of the gospel was spread throughout the world. Think about how influential that is. One child gets a box- he/she goes home to his 4 siblings and his mom and dad.

- There are 11 sending countries. The US of A is not the only country giving- Other sending countries include Austria, Australia, Germany, The Netherlands, Canada, Finland, Ireland, Switzerland, UK and New Zealand.

This is national collection week. Click here to find out where to drop off your shoebox.

Carolyn got a call from the doctor’s office this afternoon to give us the results of the biopsy from Friday. He said, “I’ve got bad news…” Of course, no one wants to hear that after a biopsy.

Then he related that there had been a mistake made and the biopsy had been put in the “wrong pink solution” and so we will have to try again. He was very apologetic – appropriately so, and we are certainly accepting of his apology.

He said that we have two options… One is to do another needle biopsy. We’re not in favor of that simply because we are not confident in needle biopsy results (we’ve had negative positives before). The second option involves taking one of the lymph nodes for a whole biopsy when they do the lumpectomy of the spot that is in her breast. 

We are choosing the second option at this point since that will be conclusive. It will involve general anesthesia, so they’ll have to put her under. 

We’ll have to schedule that and then let you know from there. Just wanted to shoot everyone an update. The waiting game continues…

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even youths will shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40.28-31)

It has been a great wait so far, if I can say that. We have definitely experienced God’s peace and provision over the weekend. We’ve been able to spend time with great friends, including our church family, and our church renewal gatherings have fallen at a wonderful time.

We’d appreciate your continued prayers…

What I’ll be doing the next 2-3 evenings…

The Most Important Issues In the 2008 Election

Thanks to Kelly Rogers for posting this on her Facebook page.

Thanks to AJ for the design!

This Monday Carolyn went in for her checkup. About twice a year, she gets a CT scan because she’s a three-time cancer survivor. By God’s grace, she has been delivered from Hodgkin’s Disease three different times during our relationship – once while we were engaged and twice since we’ve been married.

Monday was a PET scan which is a better indicator of possible cancerous activity than a CT scan.

Tuesday she got the call. Three spots.

We are heading to Little Rock Friday (today for most of you) for a biopsy of two of those spots. I sent the following email out to our church family and friends yesterday:

Caro went in for her regular checkup this past Monday and got a PET scan. That’s a lot more accurate than a CT scan. She received a call from the oncologist yesterday at noon with results.

Basically, they’ve found three small spots – two appear to cancerous lymph nodes. There is also a suspicious spot in one of her breasts.

We go Friday for needle biopsies of the two lymph nodes. We won’t know until after those results what exactly we’re facing. It’s good news that we found them at this point, since all three areas are very small, but according to the test, they are most likely cancerous.

It’s been four years since her last go-round with Hodgkin’s Disease-lymphoma, and wildly enough, if this turns out to be cancer again, it will be her fourth go-round with cancer.

Obviously, we would appreciate your prayers. The Lord has already been faithful to supply grace and strength in the past 24 hours, and we are both deeply grateful. What with a crazy election night and this news, it’s radical to consider how much life can change in such a short time.

I began sharing “our story” last year in August. As I recall, I stopped before I shared about our second experience with cancer. Now that we may be on the brink of a fourth experience, all I can really say is that God has been faithful. He has demonstrated astonishing kindness and over-abundant grace in our lives. We have no reason to doubt that He will do so the same now and in the days to come. He does not change.

As we take timid steps forward into an uncertain future, we ask for your prayers. We want to be found faithful. Yet, I wrote in my journal the other day that we will most likely have:

1. #1 – Bad days: Days in which our mood and focus is not what it should be. Most likely this will be because our circumstances loom larger in our vision than our embrace of God’s truth.
2. #2 – Good days: Days where we may appear irrationally hopeful or even joyous because our awareness of Christ is heightened and our faith soars freely.

I am earnestly hoping that #2 days exceed #1 days. 

The strange thing (or not so strange) is that the weeks and days leading up to this experience have been filled with renewed urgency for leading God’s people into greater intimacy with Christ. We have been seeing remarkable life transformations in people in our church, and our passion for presenting Christ to our community and becoming a people of global mission has exceeded our resources. In other words, we have sensed a calling to do what would only be possible for God, and we are determined to step forward into the unknown as a church on mission.

So we ask that you intercede on our behalf during this time – that our circumstances and occasional sorrow would not eclipse the magnificent hope that Christ has laid out before us as we seek to lead His people. Ask the Lord for resources for our church and encouragement for our members during this time as they seek to be obedient to the various calls God has placed upon them.

So many folks in our church are longing to say “Yes!” to God’s call but have been confronted with brutal realities of their emotional, financial or health inadequacies. Pray for us all. For as we press on and press through trying times, I’m confident that the comfort that we currently experience from Christ will be used in manifold ways in the future to comfort others in similar struggles…

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. (2 Corinthians 1.3-5)

We’ll be heading out at 4:45 a.m. tomorrow on a journey of medical uncertainty. Pack your bags and join us if you will in prayer and fellowship. Whatever we discover along the way will hopefully be used as a light for your own path. While we’re not sure of tomorrow, we are assured of our future. 

Why are you downcast, O my soul? 
       Why so disturbed within me? 
       Put your hope in God, 
       for I will yet praise him, 
       my Savior and my God. (Psalm 42.11)

One thing that no one can deny any longer. It isn’t 1950 any longer. America is not like 95% of our churches. At the massive Obama celebration party in Chicago last night, it was a multi-ethnic, multi-socioeconomic, and multi-cultural blend of Americans.

For most of our churches, they find themselves on November 5 wondering how they grew to such irrelevance. They find themselves out-of-touch with the larger population, most wishing for a return to yesteryear. In pockets of America, there remains an ambivalence about true integration in worship.

The church of Jesus Christ can not be HIS church and not reach out to all ethnic groups, socioeconomic levels, and cultures. It has been content, for the most part, in preserving the comfort of its existing members. It has done this primarily by only reaching out to those that would help undergird its existing values and allow its current leaders to remain in control.

Just as the leadership of our nation was jerked radically away from one group on November 4, the church needs a radical jerk away from its love affair with complacency and selfishness. 

The heart of the Father is for all peoples, everywhere, to know and love His Son Jesus Christ. Our churches need to seek humility, forgiveness and begin the journey of joy by actively reaching out to all with the gospel of Christ. It’s not Jesus that people in our country have rejected. It’s the church’s narrow proprietorship of Him.

Other’s Voices: Mark DeYmaz