Are you really reading this?  Is there actually a post from Kurt after all this time?  Yes and Yes.  This is my final post in this series, and then I hope to start afresh.  I honestly cannot tell you what happened to my initial energy with writing for this site, but it went somewhere.  So I will try to reawaken myself.

In the next few weeks, you should begin seeing some changes to design etc as I work to improve the site. 

Regarding our tripod for church growth- Our tripod is complete.  Prayer, Fellowship, and meeting needs.  However, there is one more aspect which is part of fellowship that I wanted to highlight.  In John 17, Christ prays for us believers.  In it He prays for us to have unity.

He prays for us to have unity so the world will know we are His.  How often do people leave churches over music style or carpet color?  God has called us to be unified.  In fact he prayed for us to be unified.

I truly believe if the American church would follow the tripod to church growth, and be unified in it endeavors, there would be a spiritual explosion in the U.S. that would light the world on fire.

Speaking of fires, hopefully the writing fire has been reignited and you will hear from me again shortly.

I am not sure why, but ever since I can remember, I have always had a sensitivity towards divorce.  Not in a judgemental, God will punish you sort of way, but in a heart breaking way.  Few things will mess me up more than hearing about someone I am close to getting divorced.

About three years ago, a couple who were dear friends of my wife and I separated.  She left him for another guy.  Even after three years, this brings me great sadness.  Looking back, there were warning signs, but we never said anything.  We just kept on being friends and never brought up the red flags.

American Christians are very territorial about their privacy.  We do not want someone poking around in our business, and as a courtesy, we will not poke in anyone else’s.  Well, that has ended.  I speak up now.  Granted I still slip into some of my old tendencies, but by and large, if I see something that even smells like a problem I will bring it up to you.

As Christians we need to love each other to the point where we are willing to sacrifice our friendship for the sake of pulling a brother or sister out of Satan’s schemes.  That is one of our purposes here on earth, so let’s start practicing it.  And if you hear me start a sentence, “I am not sure how to say this.”  Please know it is coming out of a love and concern for you.

All that being said, I have been working on today’s post for about two months now.  Not that I have been writing it for two months.  Some of you may look at the length of the post and think that I write one word an hour if it took me two months to write this.  For two months I have been meditating on the scripture, and how it relates to us.  I would come to write, and then God would lay something more pressing on my heart so I would write that.

Last week, after I had written the post for the week, I started chatting with a friend in California.  She had left her husband to go to California to take classes.  It then boiled down to basically a power play between the two of them, he stayed in Lancaster, and she went.  So back to our conversation, I asked her how things were going between the two of them, and she mentioned that he had filed for divorce.

Hearing that, the weight of this post grew in me.  I am going to use them as an illustration in this post.  I can do this since you do not know who I am talking about, and because I hope that God will redeem their marriage.  One more thing to clarify, these folks and I are friendly, but not close friends.  I say this to let you know that I do not know all the ins and outs of their story.  I know the basic outline I already gave you, and that is about it.

Those of you who are familiar with the scriptures are probably guessing that the passage we are going to discuss is Ephesians 5:22-28.  If you guessed this, you win a prize.  See the prize attendant at the prize counter on your way out to claim your prize.

In verses 22-24, Paul addresses the wives.  These verses are every husbands favorite verses to quote when he wants to sleep on the couch for the night or maybe the week.  Not a lot of explanation is needed in these verses.  God says that the wife is supposed to submit to the husband in everything.

As a guy who has difficulty submitting to authority, I can somewhat understand the weight of these verses.  It makes it even harder the times that you as the wife, know you are right, but the husband is still pushing ahead.  I am certain a history of men using these verses to billy club their wives back into ‘their place’ makes them all the more difficult to bear.

That being said, regardless of reasons you have against it, the truth is that God commands you to submit.   That is it.  Not kicking and screaming, because that is not how the church submits to Christ, but out of love.  You love them so much that you will submit to and follow them as a picture of the church’s response to Christ.  And yes, you will pray your heart out for your husband, because lets be honest, we men can be quite boneheaded at times.

Taking this home to my friend in CA, when your husband said do not go, you should not have gone.  It does not matter if he is being an idiot, and you are right and justified in your mind, you need to submit.  The question you have to ask yourself is, “Do you love God more than your desire to be in CA?”  ”Do you love God more than what you believe is your destiny?”

For any woman, do you love God more than ____________?  You fill in the blank.  If you have trouble saying yes, then you have to ask yourself, do you trust Him?  You see, this is no longer a husband/wife issue, it is a God issue.  Do you trust God enough to submit to your husband?  The question is not, do you trust your husband enough?  You husband will screw up.  Your husband will break your trust.  Your husband will be a bone head, but still you must submit.

Love and trust are intertwined.  So look at your life.  Has God ever given you a reason not trust Him?  Then why not trust him on this one and see what happens?

When you make this a husband/wife issue, submitting sucks.  When it is a matter of loving God, it becomes easier, because God’s yoke is not burdensome.

Well, I have gone longer than what I thought I would have on this half of the passage.  The husband of CA friend and all the rest of us husbands get a pass until next week.  Be warned, I will not be pulling any punches.  We actually have more required of us, and we better start delivering.

To the husband of my friend, the title is for you.  Go west!  I will make the case next week, but as of now my only advice is to Go West!  Trust God and go west.

Technorati Tags: marriage, submit, wives

Ok, I had this weeks study all prepared.  It was about husbands and wives, and then God changed it, so that is saved for a future date.  This week we are doing something new and laying down a challenge.  Asking you to put your faith where your mouth is, quite literally.

Step One: Talk to God about how much you can afford to give.  Talk honestly.  No sense lying, he already knows the truth. (no this is not to give to me, remember the dancing elf from a few weeks ago?)

Step Two:  Go to McDonald’s during a busy time sometime during this next week, and wait until there are some cares behind you.  Go through the drive thru and order food for yourself and/or your family .  (yes McDonald’s, not Arby’s, not Wendy’s, not BK.  I chose fast food because statistically speaking, the odds of making a difference in someone’s life is much higher at McD’s than at Houlihans.  I also limit it to just the one to increase the likely hood of the God’s glory to spread if the activity is all concentrated at one chain.)

Step Three:  When you get up to the window, pay for the cars behind you.  However many you can afford to based on your discussions with God.

Step Four: Drive home and eat your food.

One more rule:  If, against the odds, you happen to be behind a payer, and you get paid for, then you need to increase what you were going to give by the amount you save by not paying for your own.

Just imagine the impact this could have.  I agree that there is a good chance these folks will not be needy, but you never know.  And this assignment is more for us than them.  This is a conditioning exercise.  Just like when you want to run a marathon, but you weigh 493 pounds.  Odds are you will need to do a little (or a lot) of conditioning first.

If we want to be God’s army of love, we need to condition ourselves to give up.  The days are getting more bleak by the day, and God’s Army needs to step up and shine His light as a beacon of hope.  We do this through love, so let’s start loving.

Technorati Tags: challenge, faith, love, mcdonalds, needy

Tonight, I want you to take a moment to take on the mind of God.  Imagine sending your child to die for someone who hated you.  If I stretch my mind, I can almost imagine this.  I can almost imagine sending my son to die for those that hated me, if I knew he was going to be resurrected again, but then it hits me.  Could I ever concieve sending my son to suffer to the degree Christ did?  Could I allow my son to go through what Christ went through for people who hated me?  Heck, I couldn’t even do this for people who love me.  This is what God did for us.

He sent His Son to be beaten, to be whipped, to have his skin ripped right off his back.  He sent His Son to have huge thorns pressed through his scalp.  He sent His Son to have nails hammered through His hands and feet.  He sent His Son to be rejected.

He loves us that much.  Thank you Father.

Technorati Tags: christ, Easter, Father