bless

I have been working really hard to orient my life around others. I have been using a model given to me by a friend who got it from someone else, which is how it normally works. The model is called B.L.E.S.S. missional rhythms. Bless is a way to think intentionally about your life here is the basics for bless:

Each week we respond to the identity that God gives to us in his grace by trying to
B. L. E. S. S. others through what we do.

B. We bless
Each week we aspire to bless others in our Christian community and our spheres of influence in word, action or gift at least three times. As a guide we seek to bless 1 believer, 1 unbeliever, and someone not like us.

L. We listen
Each week we aspire to listen to God, looking for him to guide us through his word and Spirit. And we listen to people around us to understand their stories and the story of our culture.

E. We eat
Each week we aspire to eat or have a drink with people outside our immediate family at least three times (1 believer, 1 unbeliever, and someone not like us) offering friendship and community.

S. We speak
Each week we aspire to tell people the story of Jesus and our story of Jesus, making Jesus a normal part of our conversations. And we speak to God through prayer, recognizing our dependence on him in all things.

S. We sabbath
Each week we aspire to spend time in rest, praise, play, partying and creativity.

I found this to be an amazing way to think about others and what it is that God has for me. think through this how would this fit into what you are doing already to be intentional about others.

when it all clicks

Have you had a moment lately when you feel like things have clicked together. I have these moments regularly but they are not when i have figured it out but when the Holy spirit works it out in me.

In the last three weeks my family has seen big changes we have welcomed a new child into our family, and now have three girls under the age of 4 figuring life out together. My wife and I were talking last night about what it is that God is doing in us as parents. The thing that has been overwhelmingly clear is that God desires to make us more like Jesus. I feel like marriage was a no big deal transition in life, but being a parent has been what God has used to make me more dependent on Him. I love the picture that parenting a toddler paints for me. you can instruct a toddler they seem to get it and then as quickly as there is a shimmer of understanding it falls away. This must be a wonderful picture of Gods interaction with us. We seem to get it and we are walking byt the spirit and as soon as we lose sight of our Savior we fall away.

So back to the click, I now feel like things fit together better, that my instruction and discipline of my children is just as much for me as it is for them. It is this beautiful reminder of how God wants me to respond to Him. To be soft and obedient to recognize when i have disobeyed and failed. This process is also for me to show my children a small picture of what God is like (see exodus 34 for the exact description) although it be really small picture. My desire is to be more like Christ but not by my effort but by the Holy Spirit shaping me through all that God has in store for me.

Generational Faithfulness

Generational faithfulness:
The original outline for Gods plan for parenting is found in Deuteronomy 6. God clearly describes the goal of our homes. God has allowed us to know how to continue our faith through our children. This is the most missional thing we can do, parent in Gods aproach, so that others will see our love for our children becasue of the love God has poured out on us.

3 things from Deuteronomy 6
1. God says to teach and talk to our children about who He is and what His statues are.
They way God commands us to teach and talk is diligently. This means with purpose and intent. Life is the classroom and God has provided the objects and the call of what to teach. Scripture has been for thousands of years the textbook for life. The first book most children until the last two centuries would have read first was the bible. God is very clear that is commands and statues are what guide our lives and set us apart from the world around us. God did not give us aimless things to teach our children He gave us they very things they need for life and to know Him.

2. God says make these things you teach and talk about apart of everyday life.
Teaching your children fits in to all the learning styles based on what God says in Deuteronomy 6:
Auditory –listening
Visual-watching
Tactile and Kinesthetic- movers and shakers
God knew exactly who He was talking to when He gave this commandment. God knows that His little creations are each individually unique, and need all of these approaches to teach His truths.
Modeling:
He knows that your children watch you. Your children will learn to worship what you do. They were designed to be followers, and Jesus has a strong warning for those who lead them astray. They have a high level of perception to the way you orient your life.
I.e. Computer, tv, phone, husband, wife, family, work



Teaching Moments: The world around you and things that happen everyday are perfect opportunities to talk about the Godly and biblical response. When our children see that our very first response is to seek the council of God they to in time will begin to act the same way, this does not mean they are believers. It is a step to talking about why we as there parents respond to God as our father.
TV- caillou and his whining problem
Grocery store and screaming children
Nature and Gods creation
Homeless people on the side of the road
Food for the hungry
Prayer is not just for food and bedtime
Books looking for places to point out sin and good behavior
3. God says these things happen out of love.
First for God, second for our children, Deuteronomy 6:20 is the answer to why we teach and talk to our children about these things. So that when your son asks why do we do all of these things you will have an answer. The reason is that they might know God and not forget who He is. When we remember God for all that he has done it shows our love for Him and proves our love for the one we are speaking to. If you found the perfect wrinkle remover wouldn’t you tell the people you love. You know how great our God is and you tell the people you love.
Here are a few questions about Deuteronomy 6:20 to probe the way you live.

What in your life is there to ask about?
Why would they want to ask you?
What about your life brings up questions now to your preschooler, elementary, jr high, high school students?
Do the answers to they questions they have point them to your God?

The reason the Israelites fall apart can be found in Judges 2:10: And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the work which he had wrought for Israel.
The older generation did not tell the younger. God has called us to be the front lines of discipleship in the world. This is the quickest way to share your faith. As moms and dads you are on the edge of evangelism everyday. If the people of Israel had truly taken seriously Deuteronomy 6 this could have been a different outcome.

God desires that the family be the strongest missional focus in the world. This passage gives us purpose to be set apart from the world. We are different: our parenting is not about us; it is for the God who saved and loves us. The reason that we spend time with our kids is because we love them and because of that we continually remind them about Jesus. When the world sees that they see that we live for a greater purpose then our selves and our kids.
A few Passages for reflection:
David knew well what leaving a Godly legacy could do. Listen to these two passages.
Psalm 78
Psalm 71
Proverbs is clear about children and parents. So perfect is the model of Godliness in proverbs 31 that we should all take note.
Proverbs: 1:8, 7:1, 3:26, 31:10-31
The New Testament even gives a glimpse at the heart of generational faithfulness.
Luke 1:17 John the Baptist job description
Luke 1:50 Mary and the magnificat

How sweet it is...

How sweet it is to think how much our Heavenly Father loves us. God has made it clear to us that when He called us His children at the conversion of our hearts He provided exactly what we need. 2 Peter 1:3-10 describes this reality, Peter declares that we have everything we need for life and godliness. What an amazing statement, all of this was granted by His divine power through the knowledge of the one who called us. If you follow this passage all the way through you will be blown away by how much God truly loves you. If you were in doubt about Gods provision let that doubt be washed away by the security of the Love of your Heavenly Father. God cares and loves you. You are his most precious creation. David Crowder writes a song called "everything glorious" where he describes Gods creation. The process of the song takes us down the road that God makes (everything glorious and I am yours, so what does that make me?). That makes you His prized possession. As a child of the King you are an heir to the kingdom and the promises the King gives His children, be excited today as you think about how loved you really are. God knows you, take joy in your Father.

what matters most...

Take some time and think about what matters most to you. I know you all want to say God or Jesus or wife and kids or something like that. Think hard what is it that you are striving for? How will you know when you have made it in this life? where are you going? Is what you are doing now what you are supposed to be doing?

OK i will stop with the questions. I am sure these are coming to fast to actually get them all straight. To be honest it should all come down to one thing. What is on the throne of your heart. All the questions are very purposeful questions when set in the frame of Jesus. Jesus is the guide for our life's direction He is G2. God, neighbor and world:s these three components only make sense when understood that only Jesus can make it possible to live them out. I am sure that you have answer for the above questions, but do you have the lenses and framework to answer them correctly. Any answer that is you or self focused, has a very skewed perspective. Its all because of Jesus I'm alive, it's because the blood of Jesus Christ that covers me. When this line of thinking invades us and sets our course then all falls into a great rhythm, Jesus rhythm.

Erasmus Quote

A friend of mine gave me this quote in regards to education and Sunday school. I thought of this in line with the potential of preaching and teaching.

"I admit that your vocation is laborious, but I utterly deny that it is tragic or deplorable, as you call it. To be a school master is next to being a king. Do you count it mean employment to imbue the minds of your fellow-citizen in their earliest years with the best literature and with the love of Christ, and to return them to their country honest and virtuous men? In the opinion of fools it is a humble task, but in fact it is the noblest of occupations."

The joy of caring for people through instruction in Gods word. The goal to change them on the spot. To preach and teach straight to the heart. We desire to have God through the Holy Spirit move in them that they leave different not by our words but by Gods. Our love of people and there souls compels us to speak with authority and direction to be more like Christ.

In Christ alone

In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow'r of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand.


No guilt in life, no fear in death from life's first cry to final breath