Today, across the country, millions of Americans will worship freely in sanctuaries, auditoriums and homes. In Iran, though, Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani sits in a prison cell, not certain of what this day or the next few weeks will bring. His wife and kids wait at home. His congregants wait prayerfully, and wonder if they might be next to be arrested.
Thankfully, our Congress and our President are applying appropriate pressure on the Iranian government. And. we have been joined by other nations and individuals who realize the injustice and the persecution is not acceptable.
Many of our brothers and sisters around the world face the same oppression as Pastor Nadarkhani. As free believers, we have the responsibility to pray for them, talk about them, remember them.
"You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom. Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble."
Matthew 5:10-12
We sing about a silent night, calm and peaceful.
It’s a pleasant picture,
But just how quiet was that night?
In a crowded city,
People, shoulder-to-shoulder, back-to-back
And in each others' faces.
All the places to stay were full.
The frustrated innkeepers loudly proclaiming
That there was just no more room.
The only space to be found was a smelly stable,
Cattle mooing, sheep bleating, donkeys braying.
A young woman, an out-of-towner,
In labor with her first child.
The Child is born,
And cries out greetings to His new world.
A star gleams brightly right overhead
Making the night almost as bright as day.
And then, there's that rejoicing,
Voices of the Angels of Heaven themselves.
And then, of simple shepherds
Who only moments before
Had been shaken by all the other-worldly chaos.
Now, in harmony,
With one voice,
Fortissimo.
Silent nights may be pleasant,
But I’ll save them for the times
That I must have rest.
I want my nativities to be loud.
Filled with laughter and love,
With the underpinning of hope.
And then, there’s that rejoicing,
Unmistakable and attractive.
Music, lights, and decorations,
Each one purposefully declaring
The Glory of God.
So that each one who passes
Through the doors of our home,
Family, friends, neighbors,
And even strangers,
Knows that this day deserves
Much more than passivity.
His birthday calls for noise.
Happy noise, loud noise, invigorating noise.
This night, I will not be silent.
Exotic kings, bearing gifts. Unexpected, brilliant light from a star, moving low across a continent. And the night sky full of angels, singing songs no human ear has heard before or since. That’s the stuff a major event in the universe is made of.
That’s the part of the Christmas story that causes cease-fires, and brings nations and their rulers to their knees. That’s the event of the ages, and history and the future are changed forever because of it.
The glory of Heaven, folded and laid aside like a garment, exchanged for hungry shepherds, dusty and smelly from camping out with their animals for days on end,
a stable, with oxen and donkeys and dirt and earthy odors. That’s the stuff of poverty, all too ordinary even today, and though we try, not much has really changed it.
And so I hum along with my favorite carols on CD, and artfully arrange wise men and shepherds and angels and sheep in their gilded glory among the greenery and twinkle lights on my mantle, and plan for cookies and communion and family and alms, celebrating the event of the universe.
But from that box of straw where the King of all Ages slept in the form of a helpless baby, His road would lead him past a sea to a cup and a sword and a hill,
my hill, where He took my sin, my scorn, my disease and my shame, and died on a cross meant, from the beginning, for me.
And in the depth of my heart, far beyond even Christmas pageants and outreach and service and charity, I treasure the end of the story as much as the beginning. That’s the moment of redemption, and I am changed forever because of it.
This post is a little bit different than the others here. At the end, I’m going to invite you to become a part of something big that’s happening. But first…
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised when God does something out of the ordinary to emphasize a point. He’s done that often. But I’m still amazed when He involves Himself in the lives of people and weaves their stories together just so He can work His purposes through their lives.
When Martha and I wrote our new book, Let It Shine: Partnering With God To Raise World Changers, we were responding to an urgency we felt to encourage parents to build families with a mission in mind. We wanted them to create an atmosphere in their homes that allowed each person there to develop courage to live out their calling in the world where God has placed them.
In Orlando, Florida, Jason C. Dukes, a pastor and father of five is passionate about his church and his family “living sent” - being a letter from God communicating His love and hope in the message of their daily lives among everyone in their world. So, Jason authored the book, Live Sent: You Are A Letter.
Mark Russell is the CEO of Russell Media in Boise, Idaho, and, for him, it’s all about the "BAM". "BAM" is “business as mission”, Mark’s business model. He is eager to share with others the practice of using business to strategically accomplish missional purposes, bringing God’s heart and message into the marketplace. He has written a book, The Missional Entrepreneur: Principles and Practices for Business as Mission.
It wasn’t a coincidence that Martha and I have had the privilege of being connected with Jason and Mark. God placed within our hearts the same passion. And, New Hope Publishers has that passion, too. And we’re discovering that there are many others who do, too. I believe with all my heart that this is a theme that God wants to begin to infuse in all of us.
So this is where you come into the picture. As we’ve met people around the country, this summer, we’ve recognized that God is beginning to stir people to live a missional lifestyle. So many of you sense the same calling in your family, your church, your business, your everyday life, and New Hope has created a way you can participate with us.
During this coming week, if you buy two copies of our book, Let It Shine, New Hope will send you Live Sent and The Missional Entrepreneur, at no charge! The idea, then, is that you’ll give the second copy of Let It Shine to someone else who wants to live missionally, so that they can be encouraged.
Here’s a link to New Hope’s page that will direct you to the instructions about this opportunity:
http://www.newhopedigital.com/index.php/summer-special/
If you purchase the books on Amazon.com or ChristianBook.com, be sure that, after you read the books, you write a review there. If you have any questions, please email us at marthaandgreg@aol.com.
I woke up this morning with a great idea! If you buy two copies of Let It Shine, two of Live Sent, and two of The Missional Entrepreneur, you’ll have four copies of each book, twelve books total. That would be one set for you and three sets of the books that you could give to others.
Please share this opportunity with your friends, and post it on your Facebook and Twitter. The offer ends, next Saturday, July 30, so buy the books today! We’re so excited about what God can do through the message in these books and through your life as you choose to change your world!
There’s a dinosaur on my coffee table
Lurking right there behind the stack of imported trays
Piled with very expensive artificial apples and pears
His lumpy green plastic head lifted as a silent roar escapes his lurid mouth
I think my living room has never looked more lovely
There’s a dump truck on my kitchen window box,
Headed straight for the antique ceramic salt and pepper shakers,
Two metal star molds lying askew in its wake
With a plastic kid from the Fisher Price bus stuck underneath
An arrangement I find wonderfully uplifting in the morning sunlight
In the guest room, where one dark cactus green wall accents the deep gold of the others
And picks up the desert reds and rusts and blues of the designer spread,
Woody and Buzz Lightyear dominate from the Toy Story 3 sheets that cover the air mattress on the floor
And I think this might be the best room in my whole house
Precious clutter
Put there by a beloved little boy
Who will not play these games, with these toys,
For more than a moment
Before he moves on, with a speed that catches parents by surprise,
To Little League, and computer games, and first cars and first dates and dorm rooms and first jobs
And very rare visits where he makes his bed and hangs his towel and leaves by Sunday afternoon.
I know how this story ends, with perfect décor, and every detail in place
And empty drawers and closets with plenty of space
So now, I wander through the rooms my grandson left, taking pleasure in seeing how he played
Knowing that the hours he spends in joyful adventures at “G-Diddy’s house”
Are among the greatest treasures I will ever own.
As brand new boxes of crayons, tablets and colorful folders take front and center in stores, the excitement of new beginnings catches on, and parents begin shopping for book bags and blunt scissors and school shoes, eager to fully prepare their children for the approaching school year.
But for parents and kids alike, new situations also can produce new anxieties, and the most important preparation for every family member is prayer.
Whether our kids attend public, private, or parochial school, or we teach them at home, we need to remember that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but has in fact called us to take His message of redemption and hope to our neighbors and communities.
Discuss with your kids their individual roles, and your role as a family, in showing the love of Jesus. Let your children express their hopes and anxieties about the upcoming year. Talk about the needs you are aware of in your school and community.
Then, as a family, begin to pray for your elementary, middle and high schools. Pray for administrators, teachers, students and their families. Ask for God’s protection, His grace, His blessing, and pray that His truth will be evident in every class, and His love be revealed to the entire community. Even if you are active home schoolers, we would encourage you to make it a family project to pray regularly for your public schools.
An engaging, meaningful object lesson that will help your children visualize the effect of their prayers would be to read the story of Jericho in Chapter 6 of Joshua, and then in the evening walk the perimeter of your school, each family member silently praying for all who are connected with it, and for your own family’s interactions there. While it is certainly true that God will hear your prayers wherever you are, that mental picture can encourage your kids as they go through the blessings and challenges of the coming school year.
Make it a point this year to keep your prayers for your school and your passion for your neighbors and community as sharp as those bright new crayons, and see what beautiful things God will do in and through your family this school year.
Does anyone ever actually want to be a couch potato?
What is there to inspire or motivate us about a slovenly, overweight, crumb-covered, do-nothing, sitting around all day, stuffing all kinds of junk food, mindlessly flipping channels?
The food may be momentarily entertaining, but it serves only to slow him down, and there might occasionally be something worth watching on TV, but the constant channel surfing guarantees that she will never have a thought of her own.
There’s nothing in that picture that any of us would aspire to.
And yet, for many of us in America today, that is a precise description of what the younger generation sees of our spiritual lives. We should not be at all shocked that a large number of kids who grow up in the church are heading out the door the minute they are 18, never to be heard from again.
We are a bunch of spiritual couch potatoes. Sadly, too many of us are content to sit in our comfortable pews Sunday after Sunday, listening to music and rating it as if we were on “American Bandstand,” and flitting from congregation to congregation because “we’re just not getting fed.”
It’s no wonder that our young people want no part of that.
Paul himself shot down the idea that mature Christians are supposed to be “fed.” He pointed out that babies need to be fed, but adults are supposed to be out hunting and preparing their own meals…and providing for the babies. So, if we are regularly studying and applying truth we find in our Bibles to our own lives, what is it that we should be doing at church?
Like our couch potato who finally goes into the kitchen to prepare himself a nutritious meal, we may find, when we look into the New Testament, that we become energized to actually be the church in this world.
That would mean exercising our spiritual gifts and calling, by getting out of the pew and into our community—feeding the hungry, providing for widows and orphans, protecting the weak, giving to the poor, being friends to the friendless, visiting those who are sick or in prison, demonstrating to them that there is hope because Jesus loves them.
Today’s young adults, whether they are believers or not, have a deep concern about the needs they see in the world around them. Not content to just cluck their tongues and feel sorry, they want to take action. They live green, they volunteer, they raise funds for charities and disaster relief, they travel around the world at their own expense to dig wells and build schools.
They should see the church as a group of people more concerned with giving than getting, people who are responsibly training for spiritual fitness, people who are racing to meet the needs of the world around them with power and compassion, in the name of Jesus.
Let’s get off the spiritual couch, and invite the next generation to join us in running the race, intent on the prize of the high calling of life in Christ Jesus.
