As Father's Day Approaches

This past Sunday, I was asked to give the message at a small farm church in Waterloo called Mount Hope United Methodist Church. It was a great experience, as it reminded me of my grandfather who often was asked to do the same during his preaching days. The following is what I talked about with my new friends. Much of it comes from ideas learned in the Emerging Journey’s course Katie and I took at Orchard Hill, and the book Knowing God by J.I. Packer.

As we are coming up on Father’s Day, I wanted to talk with you all about our relationship to God as our father. Father’s day has a special significance to me, because 2 years ago, July 31st, my father unexpectedly passed away. The relationship and experiences I shared with my father greatly affected the way I relate with God as my heavenly father, just as the way everyone relates with their own father, or parental figure, affects the way they relate with God as well. In some ways, and in some circumstances, these earthly relationships strengthen our ability to understand and relate with God, and in other ways and in other circumstances, these earthly relationships greatly hinder our ability to have the relationship that God wants to have with us.

I want to back up a bit, and ensure that we are all on the same page of understanding the adoption process that God has gone through to ensure our place in His family as his true sons and daughters. Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” In Roman law it was a recognized practice for an adult who wanted an heir to carry on the family name to adopt a full grown man as a son. This is a lot different than the common infant adoption of today, but the apostles saw Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross as a way for them to be purified and able to be adopted by God. This same adoption is the offer that is given to everyone who places their faith in Jesus. When we can really begin to realize that God is our adoptive Father, we then can begin to understand Him, and the relationship He wants to have with us, in a very tangible way.

We have all had different experiences with our earthly father’s, or parental figures. Some good, some bad, some loving, some hateful, some present, and some virtually or literally non-existent. My father was a cold, quiet and angry man for the majority of his life. I had trouble relating with him on any level, because I was afraid anything out of my mouth would not be worth his time. However, no matter how much I resented him, there were two things that I always wanted: to know about him, and to make him proud. I think that is pretty common. We want to know our family history, and that starts with our parents. We want to know their passions, the story of how they met our moms, what they did when they were our age. We want to know what makes them who they are. We also want to make them proud. We want to know that they are happy we are their kids. We want them to see the best in us. I think that if we can have those same two desires in our relationship with our heavenly father, we will be on the track to a truly amazing relationship with our savior.

First off, we need the desire to know our Father. I don’t know about you, but my biological father was a complex man. The last few years of his life threw everyone for a loop, as he became a practicing Christian and actually started smiling, crying and liking people. But, even before that, I could never figure out really who he was or why he acted the way he did. One thing that made him a little different than most dads was he was obsessed with instruction manuals. This is pretty counter intuitive to the normal manly concept of, “Who needs directions?” When he brought home my first car, he made me read the instruction manual from cover to cover, and then gave me a test on the material before I could drive the car. He not only made me pass the test, but get 100% of the answers correct before I could touch the keys. What I really wish was that he would have written and instruction manual on how to interact with him. You may already see where I am going with this, but our heavenly Father gave us an instruction manual. He gave us His Word, the Bible. It tells us His history, it gives us insight into why He does some of the things He does, it gives us a firm knowledge of His love without having to wait for an awkward hug at your high school graduation or your wedding day. So, if we realize that God has adopted us into His family, and we want to know about our Father, than lets read the instruction manual. Let’s read His word. Let’s make time to get into the Bible and find out all we can about our Father.

Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that the bible is deep and often times very hard to comprehend. It has many layers and intricacies that know lay person, pastor or theologian will every fully understand. However, we have been provided with an opportunity to see into the heart of our Father, and it is our responsibility, as His children, to take Him up on the offer.  Also, the bible is the main source of our knowledge of God, but it is definitely not the only source. One thing the Bible tells us that God created everything. He is omniscient, omnipotent, ever present and timeless. Once again, the verse Jeremiah 29:13 comes to mind that says “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” The key point for this message is that if you seek you will find. There are no boundaries of where to seek, only the call to seek. The promise is that no matter where you look, if you are looking for your Father, you will find Him. As you know if you commonly read this blog, I could write forever just about that idea, but I better move on for now.  

I believe it is an inherent instinct to want to make your father proud. I know that no matter how much I disliked my father’s actions or words towards me, I still wanted to make him proud.  Back to that first car. I remember one night sitting at the dinner table and my dad began to tell me how proud he was that I had been driving the car for a little over a year and had done no damage to it. This was pretty spectacular since it seemed pretty much any gift given to my brother or me was broken within the first couple of months. What he didn’t know, or maybe he did knowing my father, was that the night before I had been trick-or-treating for cans for a high school food drive and brushed up against a post in a person’s drive way with the side view mirror on the car. It left some scrapes that were really no big deal, but my heart sunk to my stomach when I knew I had to squash his prideful thoughts of me.  After I told him, he said that it wasn’t a big deal and he was just happy I was honest.

 A lot of my friends throughout the years have had a tough time reconciling James’s words in the second chapter of his book that, “faith without works is dead.” I think that we have a tendency to take this verse out context and assume that James is saying that if you aren’t putting enough money in the plate, or you aren’t volunteering every spare moment at the food bank, you might not make it to heaven. Well, if we really believe that we have become adopted children of God when we put our faith in his Son, this just cannot be the case. I believe that when James talks about faith, he is talking in some ways about our relationship to our heavenly Father. Let’s look at my first car as our faith, or our relationship with our heavenly Father. The scrape on the side mirror is an act of disobedience. This could be a sinful action or an omission of a good deed when the opportunity was made available. By going to my father quickly and telling him about the scratch, he is able to comfort me and fix the damage. Now, if I am constantly ignoring the commands of God, I am outwardly living in sinful nature, and I am constantly ignoring opportunities to feed the hungry, help the sick or provide comfort to the widow, it is like taking a sledge hammer to my car. The windshield is broke, the tires are flattened, and the bumper is torn off. It is a lot harder to go look your father in the eye at that point and ask him to fix the car. The relationship has been damaged, your faith has been damaged, and now there is this awkward space between us and our heavenly Father.

Those situations when we feel like we have messed up beyond repair are when our relationships with our earthly parents can really get in the way of what God desires us to know about our relationship with Him. We may fear that God, like some earthly parents, won’t fix the car, they won’t forgive us, maybe what we have done is so damaging that they kick us out of the house, remove us from the family, sever our relationship and retract their love. The amazing thing is that is not how our heavenly Father works. Once we are His children there is nothing we can do that will take away His love. There is now damage that is beyond repair. We have an eternity warranty on our relationship with God. He will always be there with His arms spread open, running towards us like the father to the prodigal son. However, what James wants us to know is that we have an opportunity and a responsibility to have a close and gratifying relationship with our heavenly Father by making him proud. To figure out how to make Him proud, we just turn to one of the hundreds of pages in His instruction manual that tells us how. My favorite is when Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is.  He responds with an answer of how we can make our Father proud, and strengthen our relationship with Him. Mark 12:30-31 says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

So, with Father’s day quickly approaching, remember that you have a Father that loves you beyond any love we can ever comprehend. Then out of respect and  honor of that love, begin to get to know Him more by reading His word and make Him proud by honoring His commandments through loving Him and loving your neighbor. The relationship, and eternity of forgiveness, that is offered in return will be well worth every second spent worshiping your Father. 

Quick Rant

***I have amended this post to hopefully remove any personal shots at the radio station or DJs. Using negative comments about fellow Christians as a base for my writing is not a path I want to begin, and is completely unnecessary in sharing my beliefs. I apologize to any staff or listeners of the organization that were offended.***

I wouldn't normally post anything so quickly after a previous post, but I heard something this morning that I just have to write a quick rant about.

I was listening to my local Christian radio station on my way to the River Bend Food Bank this morning, and they were talking about  as an abundance of media coverage of "natural disasters" lately.

One of the morning DJs was feeling anxious about the number of natural disasters that have occurred lately, and was asking callers to help her with her anxiety. I believe this topic to be an extremely worthwhile discussion to have, and is a constant conversation in many Christian circles. However, the comments from callers were driving me up the wall. One man called in and literally said when he hears about earthquakes, sink holes and floods that kill massive amounts of people he gets happy and excited because he knows the rapture is coming! I think there are a couple of HUGE issues with this comment, and others that were said on the show.

1. Natural disasters occur all of the time, and it does not mean the rapture is going to happen in our lifetime. I completely agree with the callers in there equating the disease of sin to the gradual decline of the earth. However, somewhere the callers missed a couple of important facts about God and his timing. First of all, I am not talking in Pat Robertson terms that the direct action of a specific group of individuals causes an earthquake in their community, but in terms of the overall sin of every human being having an effect on the earth since the first bite from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. However, remember that God has said his return will be like a thief in the night. Mathew 24:42-44 says, "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." So, if he is coming like a thief in the night, do you think He is going to give a bunch of blatantly obvious warning signals before he shows up? Is a thief going to sit in your drive way and lay on the horn a few times before he busts down your door?

2. "So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." If Jesus did happen to show up right after a natural disaster, do you think He would be happy if He found you reclined in front of a television grinning at the despair of Haitians who were killed in masses by a horrific earthquake? Do you think He would commend you for predicting His return, and deciding to just be happy that his children, your brothers and sisters in Him, were starving to death because you knew it meant the end was near? This complete ignorance of our call from God boggles my mind. How Christians can sit back and delight in the pains of others because they see visions of God's return in their moans of agony is absolutely disgusting and sacrilegious.

Stop waiting for God to return from your living room, and start serving the people who God has called you to love. Whether His plan is to return tomorrow or a million years doesn't matter. What matters is what you are doing to show your love for Him and His creation TODAY!

Plans for the Summer

Just so you know, I actually began writing this on May 6th, but once again busyness got in the way. For those of you who don’t know, I have a new job as the State Director of the Iowa Food Bank Association. So far it has been an exciting change, and I look forward to seeing how God can use me to serve those in need in Iowa.


I want to give everyone a glimpse into my plans for this summer. Well, not all of my plans, but the ones that will affect this blog. I always enjoy the summers when I don’t have class, because I can actually read what I want. This year I am deciding what to read through a slightly different method than normal. I have asked two of the teachers at my church, who have had a large influence on my faith journey recently, to share their top 10 favorite books with me. They graciously gave me there list, and there looks to be some great summer reading ahead. I am basically deciding the order of reading by when I get the book. I order some every once in awhile on Amazon, and then number them in the order they come. As I read, I am confident that God will bring to light ideas in my head about Him and His Word that I hope to share with you all. I know that if I seek Him in any book that I read, whether it is C.S. Lewis or Steven King, I will find Him and want to seek Him more.

The first on my list is Knowing God by J.I. Packer. I am over half way in, and it has already challenged me. I can’t say as I agree 100% with every word written, but that is the glory of God’s word. He allows us free will to interpret His word, and I do not think that was a mistake. In our own interpretations come our own opinions, and through discussing these differences in opinions we are forced to strengthen our knowledge in His Word. We get in to trouble when we dismiss others opinions because they are not our own. Instead, we should listen and research other’s opinions. We should find the verses that make these opinions real to them, and really think about how those verses affect our own interpretation of His Word. If something drives you to looking deeper at God’s Word, it cannot be a bad thing. So, if you disagree with me PLEASE share. I would love to look in to your opinion, and be forced to know the Word of God more.

The Basis of Packer’s book is obviously knowing God, and he does a great job at using scripture to share with the reader a comprehensive view of what God shared about Himself in His word. Once we know God, we cannot help but want to know more about Him and desire to be closer to His presence. One of favorite concepts of Packer is what I will term our degree of celebrity status given to God, or how we see ourselves in relationship to God.

It is no secret that the majority of American’s are celebrity crazed. Whether it is actors, musicians, athletes, or politicians, we are obsessed with every part of their lives. There are books, magazines, movies and television show chronicling the lives of these individuals, and millions of dollars are spent just trying to be informed on what celebrity is dating, marrying or divorcing another celebrity. So, imagine a time when you were going to meet a celebrity. For this example, let’s use the current or past President of the United States, depending on which one you would be more excited to meet. You would probably try your hardest to make a big impression, and hope that for some reason this person who you feel is “above” you would take an interest in you. If he decided to only say hello and ask minimal niceties, you may be disappointed but would understand that the President has no responsibility to be your best friend. However, imagine if the President took and instant interest in your knowledge and ideas, and continued from the first meeting to ask you to be available to continue to share ideas in the future. You may feel like your life has made a turn. You would want to tell all of your friends and family of the new friendship you have made with the President, and may feel like you have “arrived.”

If this is how we would feel about coming into a friendship with the President of the United States, how should we react to being asked to come into a relationship with the God of every living thing, the God who can crush all nations with the snap of his finger, the God who created all? 1 Corinthians 3:9 says, “For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.” God has asked us to be his partner. He has asked us to do His work, and to be His co-worker. He doesn’t need to even bother with the niceties because He knows us to the core. However, instead of treating God with the nervous anxiety and constant desire to impress that we would treat a celebrity, we take His desire to be in relationship with us for granted. We want Him to know us from the inside out so that He can answer our prayers and support our desires for life, but we stop short of a reciprocal relationship. We make excuses for why we don’t know Him. We assume that His words are hidden from us because we are confused by certain scripture; we can’t find the time in our busy lives to read His word and search for Him in our lives, or we just think that the creator should be more concerned with His creation than we are concerned with Him.

Jeremiah 9:23-34 says, “This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD. “

I know it is hard to believe, but celebrities mean nothing in God’s eyes. Their riches, fame or political power are worthless compared to knowledge of God. The best thing about it is that you don’t have to be in the right place at the right time, go to an Ivy League school or be born in to money to have knowledge of God that is worth more that all the money in the world. The knowledge is offered to everyone who searches. The power of God is available to all of those who ask. God, the most famous entity to ever exist, want you to be His partner, His coworker, His friend, His child. Please don’t take advantage of this offer, please don’t expect everything from Him but offer nothing of yourself, please begin to seek Him. Your knowledge of Him will give you more happiness than any celebrity tabloid I have heard of, I promise.

-P.S. – The running season is here, and the Des Moines Marathon is on my horizon. Be prepared for the next blog to have more details about the amazing opportunity you have to help us build a school in a community in Mozambique, Africa.