Roaring Shepherd

Confide

February 20, 2012 Dan No comments

Drinking: Thousand Hills Chiang Mai

Listening To: The Civil Wars–Barton Hallow

Pray: Dear Father, today is like many recently. I am painfully aware of my inadequacies. There is brokenness and hurt in everyone I know, and it seems like I only make it worse for those closest to me. I want You to make everything better, but I know You do not move swiftly for my comfort if it inhibits your formative work in me. The chisel pounds today. I wait for your hand to guide, to heal, to destroy. I am surrendered to Your will. Make all things new.

Read:Psalm 25:8-14 (NIV1984)

⁸ Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
⁹ He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way.
¹⁰ All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful
for those who keep the demands of his covenant.
¹¹ For the sake of your name, O LORD,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
¹² Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD?
He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.
¹³ He will spend his days in prosperity,
and his descendants will inherit the land.
¹⁴ The LORD confides in those who fear him;
he makes his covenant known to them.

Think:

(ask, analyze, apply)

Write: I am drawn to several phrases in this passage. The reminder that God is good and upright is a comfort, especially when I consider that as a result He instructs sinners like me in His ways. The fact that He guides the humble is a challenge. If I am to be led by God, I must be surrendered, ever mindful of the fact that I do nothing without Him. There is an interesting truth in verse 14. It says that the Lord confides in those who fear Him, making His covenant known to them. It is as if those of us who fear Him are close to him, able to know the mysteries of His covenant for them. In other words, things now hidden are made known as we draw near to Him. I want to know God to draw near to Him in the depths of His mystery. I believe that journey will be filled both with joys and pain.

Do: Today, I carry a heavy burden, one that I have further weighted with my own misunderstanding. My ongoing act of surrender is to cast my burden at the feet of my King. May Your grace overflow and Your strength abound.

Wasting Circumstances

February 10, 2012 Dan No comments

Where: My new reading chair.

Drinking: Orange Juice

Listening to: Foo Fighters–Wasting Light

Pray: Dear Father, I feel overwhelmed. My perception of what I must do has eclipsed my own memory of your everlasting faithfulness. May Your light shine through all darkness and accomplish your will in and through me.

Read: Philippians 4:11-13

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Think:

(Ask, Analyze, Apply)

Write:

Looking back on the life of Paul, it is very easy to forget how difficult his circumstances were. He spent a lot of time in prison, was betrayed by his friends, endured physical danger, continually dealt with stomach pain (we believe), and spent a lot of time alone. Paul’s life was painful. However, in looking at the New Testament, it is not Paul’s struggles that stand out, it is his immense effectiveness in spreading the Gospel. This reminds me that our circumstances are less than secondary to our task to accomplish the gospel. Spreading the gospel will bring fruit regardless of our circumstances.

Do:

Today, I am going to let God accomplish His purposes regardless of my circumstances. I am going to work faithfully but put my trust in Him and watch Him work providentially to accomplish His will. I believe he wants to do miracles and work providentially. I intend to enjoy the experience of working in tune with Him.

Family Garden Initiative

December 31, 2011 Dan No comments

Many of you who follow the site know that I am involved in a project called Family Garden Initiative. Filtrexx Foundation and Church of the Open Door have created a program that empowers families to feed themselves. I am bias, but I believe it to be one of the best tools for eliminating hunger across the US and beyond.

Here’s why:

FGI is committed to serving the gospel, education and nutrition to urban families, empowering them to feed themselves, their famlies and their neighbors for years to come.

Here’s how it works:

Year 1:

FGI partners with a local church to start a Family Garden Initiative in their city.
FGI provides the knowledge and tools they need to make it happen.
The local church leads the community to collect the names of recipients and volunteers.
The local church leads the community to serve the gardens to families (donations and delivery).
The local church leads other organizations to educate recipients to get the most out of their garden.
Recipients feed their families and neighbors with produce from the gardens.

Year 2:

The process multiplies as recipients from previous years bring their neighbors into the program.
Year 1 recipients who now understand the gospel and gardening start gardening groups to spread both.
FGI fosters community leading to reduced crime and increased responsibility.

Year 3 and beyond:

More nutrition.
More education.
More gospel.

Getting Involved:

Family Garden Initiative is a national program, started in Lorain County, OH and multiplying to 3 more cities in 2012 (Cleveland, OH, Columbus, OH, and Houston, TX). We need your help as we grow. Consider a year end donation to support the project’s national expansion. Click Here to Donate.

Church Culture

December 31, 2011 Dan No comments

This is a LifeGroup Leader training about preserving healthy culture as the church grows.

Training LifeGroup Leaders

December 19, 2011 Dan No comments

Discipleship happens in community. It’s how Jesus did it, and we use LifeGroups at Open Door to reflect Jesus’ discipleship model. As you can imagine, the leader is the most important factor (other than the Holy Spirit) determining the success of a LifeGroup. In order to keep our LG Leaders trained in a day when schedules are overwhelming, we use YouTube. See this link to the RoaringShepherd YouTube channel. The training are specific to Open Door but are full of transferable principles.

LifeGroup Leader Training: Growing and Multiplying Groups

http://www.youtube.com/user/RoaringShepherd

Reformation

October 03, 2011 Dan No comments

We are coming into October, which means it is about time to celebrate Reformation Day (Oct. 31st). Hopefully, we all understand that reformation is something that God has been doing across history and continues to do in us. However, I thought it might be good to celebrate with some conversations about reformation. Look for some more posts these coming weeks.

Heresy happens when we allow our version of the truth to trump God’s revelation of Himself.

Admittedly, there are valid debates to be had on some of the less important issues in Scripture. In most cases, the less important the issue, the less detail and subsequently the less clarity we have. However, when it comes to important matters like Salvation and the deity of Christ, God is never unclear. Unfortunately, across the centuries we have found ways to read our culture, selfishness and tradition into the revelation of God, leaving ourselves susceptible to or affirming of false teaching.

While we can be wrong about some things without causing too much damage, things get pretty harry when we start denying what I call the “essentials” (“fundamentals,” “orthodoxy,” etc.).

I have heard some debate about the essentials, because everyone describes the essentials differently. The accusation is “If you guys can’t agree on what doctrines are essential, then how essential can any of them be?” While there are some who simply deny the essentials and make up their own false ones, most orthodox Christians list the essentials with different language to describe the same things. Often, various denominations list the essentials differently, lumping some together with others for communication purposes.

Essentials:

Jesus Christ (His deity, humanity, death, burial, resurrection, and all that comes with it)

The Bible (Inspired, Inerrant, etc.)

The Trinity (One God, Three Persons)

Humanity (Created for good, corrupted by sin, headed for hell, can’t save themselves, only God can save them, got to know Christ, etc.)

Note: see how I already snuck hell in there?

Also: see how a bunch of stuff about Christ keeps sneaking in?

Hell (Eternal punishment for people who deny Christ)

Heaven (Eternal life for people who know Christ)

Church (God’s team for spreading the gospel on the earth. Some leave this one out because it is inherrant in that you are usually reading a list of essentials on a church website. Adding this is like starting cooking directions by saying, “open up the book you are already reading…”)

Return of Christ (He’s coming back, details are debatable, etc.)

Different Lists:

It is really amazing how many essentials are built in to faith statments, but aren’t always listed with specifics. For instance, the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation is really important. However, we already list Him in the Trinity. We could talk about what He does, but it is already built into a lot. Other times, people get carried away listing essentials. They take an essential, and flesh out all kinds of details that aren’t essential. For instance, the fact that Christ is coming back is very important. When and how is up for debate. Sometimes, overzealous writers list timing as an essential. We’ve got to watch that.

Here’s what I’d like to do:

I’d like to have a discussion about the essentials on the comments page. List one essential (no one is asking you to make a comprehensive list), cite Scripture for why it is true, and explain why you think it is an essential. If you get on the board and feel like every essential has been listed, pick one that’s already listed and add some verses or logic to explain why it is essential. Maybe someone lists a non-essential. Lovingly explain why it isn’t.

So, when putting together a list of essentials, there are a few things to keep in mind about the attributes of essentials:

Endurance. Essential doctrines are not new, but they aren’t aging.
Clarity. Essential doctrines may at first glance seem impossible when described in our limited, space-time logic. However, they are never unclear.
Centrality. Essential doctrines are thematically central in Scripture. The important things have top billing. You don’t have do dig into obscurity to find the most important things God wants us to know.
Unity. Essential doctrines are interconnected as they relate to the person and work of Christ, they work together in that taking away one will negatively affect all others.

So, what are the essentials?

Often this happens because we think God is too weak to reveal Himself.

Knowing and Knowing About

September 25, 2011 Dan 2 Comments

I believe it is possible to know much about God without knowing Him, but I don’t think one can know God without knowing about Him.

I pastor friend from a slightly less conservative theological position once told me that we shouldn’t be too focused on declarative truth statements when the Truth is a person and not mere facts. I understand his point. As finite humans with finite logic, the reality of the personhood of God and the relationship He wants with us is more than mere words can fully describe.

However, the fact that Truth is a person (Jesus Christ) doesn’t mean there cannot be absolute truth statements made about Him. For instance, my wife is a person, and I have a relationship with her. My love for her cannot be described in mere words, nor could I describer her fully with words. However, could I really say I loved my wife if I didn’t know her favorite color after years of marriage? Are adjectival statements not valid and true? I can say that my wife has brown hair. I can say that she is a mother. I can even say that she is beautiful. While my words are limited, they are in fact true!

We do ourselves and our Savior a disservice when we opt out of knowing “about” Him simply because words aren’t enough. Heresy’s have had their inception with the lie that we cannot speak truth statements about God.

God is not an amorphous force or a theologically gelatinous cosmic being. He is God. He is a person. He has revealed Himself in Scripture and in Jesus Christ. Should I ignore the words of my wife as she speaks about herself? No! How much more we should know the words of the God who made us.

Undeniably God

September 22, 2011 Dan 2 Comments

The Necessity of Miracle in Conversion

Encounter precedes relationship. This is a simple, even obvious concept that I hadn’t given much thougth until today. Every friendship I have started with a meeting, an encounter, a first interaction that resulted in something more. The importance of encounter is reflected in the importance we place on “first impressions.” Our experience when we first meet a person significantly affects whether we ever want to meet them again. Postitive first impressions can set the tone for the entire relationship. Negative first impressions can be very difficult to overcome.

I’ve considered the importance of first impressions as it relates to evangelism. However, I’ve always related it to what people thought of me. While I am representing Christ, I hadn’t fully considered that it is much more important that people have a positive ”first impression” of Christ. In other words, how I introduce Christ is even more important than how I introduce myself.

This has a shattering impact on evangelism when I consider the fact that evangelism isn’t just telling people about Christ; it is indroducing them to Christ. Imagine arraging a business meeting to connect one of contact to another. It would be inconcieveable to bring two friends to the table and spend all your time telling about the person without actually saying “Mark, this is David. David, this is Mark.”

We know this because knowledge does not necessitate relationship. I can share the facts about my friend in hope that another friend will like him, and while this might help prepare the way for relationship, my friends can’t know each other until I introduce them.

How much do I talk about Christ without actually facilitating an encounter with Him?

Further, hoe does one facilitate an encounter with Christ?

I’ve realized that we behave as if evangelism is merely talking about Christ. We forget that our relationship with Christ did not begin with knowledge about Him; it began with an encounter with Him. Knowledge about Him followed. At some place in each of our lives, we encountered Christ for the first time. For all of us, that encounter was miraculous. Somehow, He entered space and time, met us personally and we knew Him. Not just knew about Him. In that encounter we met Him and responded.

In the first century, each of the apostles began their relationship with Christ when they met Him. Hearing about Him wasn’t enough. Perhaps the most significant of these encounters was the Apostle Paul. Here, a man who had heard plenty about Christ hated Him until he met Him. For Paul, knowldege didn’t lead to relationship. Relationship led to knowledge. Paul became a great theologian because he knew God. Knowledge doesn’t necessitate relationship. Relationship necessitates knowledge.

A man can know truth and not know God, but a man cannot know God and not know truth.

What if we focused more on introductions than on information. Understand, truth is vital. The basics of the faith, the inspiration of Scripture, the nature of the Triune God are undeniable realities that must be known. However, the desire to know about God comes when a person knows Him.

It is important to talk about Christ, to let people know the information about the gospel. However, I’ve realized that the presence of miracle, especially personal miracle puts the person in a position of undeniability. When introducing Christ to people, what if we allowed God to meet a need that only He can meet? What if we knew their needs and asked God to meet them? What if they encountered God personally through a miracle?

A miracle is an encounter with God. Personal miracle involves relationship. The miracle is directly related to a need, things that only that person knows. Coincidence becomes impossible when someone sees you ask God to show Himself and then He does. Personal miracle is relational, because it requires that God knows them to reveal Himself in their need. The God who already knows them reveals Himself personally to draw them into relationship with Him.

So, what are we attempting that requires miracles? What are we asking of God that only He can do?

If we are serving people in ways that can be shown to be our own doing, then we aren’t inviting God to the introduction?

Let’s start asking for miracles.

Things to say.

September 18, 2011 Dan No comments

These last few months have been busy, but not busy enough to keep me from writing. I have taken some time of late to consider things of value to write about.

Dan

Fortitude

July 19, 2011 Dan No comments

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried. - Gilbert K. Chesterton

Few of us realize just how serious a thing it is to “surrender your life to Christ.” When I first gave my life to Christ, I was 5. I hadn’t experienced a lot of the sins that adults struggle with. Girls were gross to me at the time, so lust wasn’t an issue. Greed wasn’t really on my radar either. My big sins were fighting with my brother and lying (not to diminish either of those). When I committed to follow Christ. I really didn’t know what that was going to mean 10 or 20 years down the road.

The reality is that I don’t know what following Christ means 10 years from now either. I would imagine that just as when I was 5, the road ahead has unknown temptations, trials and blessings. The same is true for all of us. Commitments are made for the unknown. That’s why they are commitments. They can never be contingent upon change. They are meant to be constant in the midst of change.

This past Sunday, I preached on how fortitude is contingent on trust in God. I noted that as a pastor, people come to me when they are in crisis. I hear from people who are losing their jobs, spouses and even their lives. Regardless of the crisis, the conversation goes the same. They talk. I listen. We grieve. But, before they go, we talk about what’s next. We decide together what’s going to happen. Are they going to fight for their marriage? Are they going to trust God for provision? Are they going to use their last weeks to love God and love people?

Almost everyone leaves committed to obey whatever biblical principle applies to them. Not everyone follows through.

The ones who follow through let me know about it days, weeks or years later. The ones who don’t…don’t.

Recently, I was able to make contact with one of the latter. It was disheartening to hear him say that he had left his commitments. It wasn’t that he had misread Scripture and had now accurately aligned his commitments. He felt that it hadn’t gotten him where he wanted to be. It was too hard, so he gave up. He took the path that seemed to have the least pain. He was wrong. The sad fact is that his life is a wreck. He is suffering, his family is tearing apart, and its only the beginning.

In contrast, I recently had a conversation with another friend who had been in a similar circumstance. He had opportunity to take the “painless” route or follow his commitments. He took the road less traveled, and his life is better for it.

What would the Church be like if all of us did what we said we would do? What if we all stayed surrendered? Sseriously, let me know what you think.”

The Cross

Truth Wins

Hope for the Church

Ride the Lion

Confide

Wasting Circumstances

Family Garden Initiative

Church Culture

Training LifeGroup Leaders

Reformation

Knowing and Knowing About

Undeniably God

Things to say.

Fortitude

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