Living in a Pattern

We are so surrounded by our culture that we don't even notice it.  The culture we live in is the air that we breathe.  It is nearly impossible to make a decision that isn't informed by or shaped by our culture.

Our culture, and perhaps cultures is the better word, forms patterns that we follow either willingly or blindly.  There can be positive aspects of culture and negative aspects.  There can ironically be counter-culture cultures and mainstream cultures.  But whatever culture or cultures we ourselves are a part of will have an impact in the way we live our life.

Merriam Webster defines culture as: the customary beliefs, social forms and material traits of a racial, religious or social group.
also: the characteristic features of everyday existence shared by people in a place or time.

Culture is everywhere.  Our own culture seeps into our D.N.A. so much that we can even live in multiple cultures and switch our very behavior based on our settings without even noticing it most of the time.

As Christians we are not to be primarily shaped by our culture.

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is... His good, pleasing and perfect will."  Romans 12:2

How do we make decisions that are not blindly shaped by our culture and instead make decisions shaped by God and His ways? 

We see in this verse that we are not to conform to the pattern of this world.  We are not to simply conform to the American pattern or the Iowa pattern or the jock pattern or the Millennial  pattern.  We are to do something different.

What are we to do?

We are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.  See, we are so engulfed by our culture that our minds must be renewed so that we see the world differently.  We must be in our Bibles and learning what God's culture is so we can transform ourselves into citizens of that culture.  Our minds have to be renewed, to be rewired to the cultural norms of His Kingdom.  Then we will be able to test and approve what is His will.

You follow?  We will have a hard time understanding what a normal thing to do in a situation based on culture norms is versus what is the correct thing to do based on what God wants until we commit our minds to the transformative effort of understanding His ways.

The Bible is our filter.  Through the leading of the Holy Spirit in the understanding of what the Bible says, we can make day-to-day decisions that are good, pleasing and perfect... a.k.a. God's will.

But how do we do this when we've already established that we breathe the air of our culture?

"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5

Our minds think fluently in the patterns of this world and that is why we must slow down and take every thought captive.  We must arrest our thoughts until we put them through the filter formally described to find out if it matches the will of God or simply the pattern of this world.

For instance, buying a new house.  Do we want to buy this house to do as the rest of the culture does?  To move from renting to a starter home, to a larger home, to a larger home, to a larger home...?  Or do we purchase a new home that fits God's will or stay in our current home for the glory of God?  One line of thinking follows the pattern of our culture and the other flies in the face of that in pursuing God's will. 

Living like this might at times look very similar to the culture around you and living like this might make you look downright weird to the culture around you.  Do not conform to your culture alone, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can do the will of God today.

How to Help Foster Children

Christine and I have recently become certified foster parents.  We had thought about this since we were first married and finally began the process this Winter.  We want to share the love of Christ in a tangible way to children and their parents.  We want to show off the Gospel in the ministry of family reconciliation and/or adoption.

Right now we are very excited and a little fearful.  We have not gotten a phone call yet about taking a child but that day will come.  We ask for your prayers that we wouldn't make decisions based on pride or fear.  We don't want to pridefully think too much of ourselves and we know that:

"God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self control." 2 Timothy 1:7

Please pray for us.  Pray for wisdom and pray that we aren't controlled by pride or fear.  Pray also for our extended families and their worry about this life-changing certification.

The process of becoming foster parents is not a short one.  There are home studies, background checks, reference checks and a 10-week class (to name a few of the hurdles).  For ten Thursdays in a row we had a 3-hour class in Mason City (which is an hour away).  So, for ten consecutive weeks we needed a babysitter for Joshua for five hours.

We didn't have the money to pay for fifty hours of babysitting, so we relied on some amazing friends and family.  Marc and Becky Harken, Emily Walrod, Amber Drilling, my mother-in-law and my mom all pitched in to help us for free.  We cannot thank them enough.

To those of you that helped babysit, we want you to know that you have made a difference in the lives of children.  We haven't fostered or adopted or done respite care at all yet, but we never could have done anything without you.  What you did is a major work in answering our Lord's prayer, "Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."

What Christine and I aren't looking for here is applause, especially since we still have yet to do foster care of any kind.  What we are doing in this blog is asking for your prayers and calling people to action.  We're encourage you to consider doing foster care.  And we encourage you to do something like what Marc, Becky, Emily, Amber and our mothers did.  Helping children in foster care can be something you can do even if you aren't taking in foster children yourselves.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

There is an enormous need in our country.  Please consider doing something in your community to help, because we're talking about children made in the image of God.  And finally, please pray for God to guide us in this and pray for the 437,465 children in foster care in the United States today.

Poison or Rocket Fuel?

When reading narratives in the Bible always be aware of how stories are arranged.  Authors when writing a narrative or a history have a motive or a lesson behind which stories go together.  It is easy to read Biblical narrative and simply think, "Well, that's how it happened."  It certainly is how it happened but there are many other good stories or vignettes that could have been shared.  Always ask, "Why did the author choose this story and why did he place it here?"

The book of Acts is Biblical narrative.  The book is completely historically accurate and Dr. Luke does arrange his stories in chronological order, but he writes about a huge segment of church history and includes only some of the stories that are bound to have occurred.

This all brings me to Acts chapters four and five and a bit of six (this will sound familiar to those who were in the most recent adult discipleship class at Grace Baptist or those who have been through Tim Keller's study on Acts ).  There are two vignettes placed side by side.  One ends chapter four and the other begins chapter five.

After praying for boldness this is said of the believers:

"All the believers were one in heart and mind.  No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.  With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.  There were no needy persons among them.  For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need." Acs 4:32-35

Can you imagine what the community thought about these believers? 

Acts chapter six also tells us how the believers came up with a way to make certain that widows of all racial backgrounds were taken care of within the church.  As a summary to that section Luke wrote, "So the word of God spread.  the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith." Acts 6:7

Why does Luke mention that a large number of priest became Christians?  Well, it is Luke's way of highlighting that the actions of the Christians in living out their faith convinced the Jewish priests that this faith was a fulfillment of the Old Testament commands.  The nation of Israel was commanded to be doing what the Christians were in deed doing. 

As Tim Keller said, "Luke is saying that the power of the apostles' preaching was both backed by and enhanced by the practical sharing of the Christian community."

So, following the story at the end of Acts chapter four, Luke tells a story that seems quite strange and inordinately violent to many of us.

"Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles feet.

Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property.  With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet." Acts 4:36-5:2

This man and woman seemingly wanted the adulation from doing what Joseph did but didn't want to make the same commitment (I mean the man even got a nickname out of his lifestyle).  The Apostle Peter later says that keeping some for themselves wouldn't have been wrong, but they lied.  They gave the pretense that they were making a bigger sacrifice so they could get the glory from others noticing.  Ananias and Sapphira were being hypocrites.

Peter confronted each with their lie separately and each lied again to his face and each dropped over dead on the spot.  Now, this has always struck me as a bit of overkill, pardon the pun, on God's behalf.  I've often thought that maybe he overdid it; not that God could ever overdo it, but it just didn't seem to me to match up to what I thought I might do if I were God.  But this is a powerful statement by God against hypocrisy.

As G. K. Chesterton was reputed to have said, "the greatest argument against the truth of Christianity is the lives of Christians."  Or for my dc Talk fans they may remember this quote from Brennan Manning "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle.  This is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."

Dr. Luke arranged these stories side by side for a reason.  I believe the reason is to tell us that how we live out our faith either helps the spread of the Gospel or hinders it.  Our lives can either be a living proof of the change the Gospel makes in the hearts of those adopted by Christ or our lives can shout that Christ's death doesn't change much at all.  Hypocrisy is poison to the church, whereas radical obedience to Christ's call to love the least of these and to trust Him with everything including our finances is rocket fuel for our witness.

Which is your life: poison or rocket fuel?  Does your life enhance the message of the Gospel or make Jesus out to be a liar?  Does your church live out the commands of Christ in a way that attracts people or does your church look like a white washed tomb?

Watch your life and in doing so watch your witness to a lost world today.

Happy 5th Anniversary

Christine and I have now been married five years.

Five years is a major milestone in that all the fives and tens seem to be, but overall we've not been married very long.  Yet in this short time we've had some major milestones and changes and many very ordinary days.  My alma mater's loyalty song says that Wartburg is the college of my brightest days, but my days with Christine Marie Ray have been so much brighter.

In our five years we've had:
two homes
infertility
two kids (one still cooking)
five funerals of family members
many weddings
some tough days
many great days
some ordinary days
some extraordinary days
some days in Bremer County
some days in Europe

We've done a number of things in our 1,826 days together (thanks Leap Year!).

On August 17, 2013 my bride walked down the aisle to a song I recorded with the help of some good friends.  That song was called "I Will Be Here" by Steven Curtis Chapman.  Five years later I understand that that song is the perfect wedding song.  Through all the good days and the bad the only real promise I can make my wife is that I will be here.  Jason Mraz's "I Won't Give Up" is the same idea.  It may not have sounded all that romantic then but today that's the best promise I can give my wife.  We've been to a lot of weddings since ours and I've heard a lot of outlandish vows and I think the ones we promised each other are ones we've kept well in the brief five years we've been together and ones we can keep for sixty years.

Christine,
I won't give up on us.  I will be here in good times and in bad, when the laughing turns to crying, I will be here.  I've been here to watch your beautiful body change.  I've been here to watch you grow in confidence and strength.  I've been here to watch the many ways you've forgiven me.  And I will be here for so much more to come.

I love you.

Thanks for putting up with me for five years.

To be continued,

Matt

"He who finds a wife finds a good thing
and obtains favor from the LORD." Proverbs 18:22

Happy Birthday Mom

Today (Wednesday, August 15th) is my mom's birthday.

One of the best parts of being a parent is watching your parents being grandparents to your child.  Though with all of Joshua's grandparents there are conversations about who is their parent and who gets to make the rules (they all hate to hear him upset and love to spoil him), we love watching them with him.

My mom is such a great grandma to Joshua, Adelyn, Nolan and Ian and I'm sure she will be to the two others on the way.  Grandmas only have to have their excitement tempered at times; you never have to coax more love for them out of her.

Mom, it is so great to watch you love my son.  Thank you for loving me so well all of my life and for loving my children.

I love you!  Have a great birthday!

Enjoy Your Children While You Still Can

So many people around me are having children or have young children.  A buddy and his wife just had their first today.  I talked with a friend due in November tonight and then saw another set of friends and their two little ones.  My wife and I have Joshua and one more on the way in February.  

This stage in my life is about having young children in the house, whether they're mine or my friends' kids or my nieces and nephews.

There are times when this seems like a pretty amazing stage of life and some when it's downright rotten.  Joshua has been what we call a crankybutt the last couple of days.  He's been angry and sad and frustrated for no apparent reason.  There are times, when he's screaming at me for no reason, that my mind races to think what I would be doing at that moment if I didn't have an angry child.  I remember times when we could decide to do something last minute and just do it.  We could stay out late.  We could go places without bringing half the house.  We could go to the bathroom... alone.  We didn't refer to ourselves in the third person.

But then I think about how darn cute he is.  I think about how he's given me my favorite name.. Dad.  I think about what a privilege it is to be the earthly father of a creation of God.  I think about how I get to model in that madness the love of the Heavenly Father to my child.

Parents of young children, we don't have that much time with them.  They grow up way too fast.

I recently saw a stat on Twitter that made me think about Joshua and this little one growing in Christine.  It said, "When your child graduates from high school, you will already have spent 93% of the time you will spend with them over the course of your life."

93% of my time with Joshua will be spent with him before high school is up.  Over 5% of that time is already gone.

We have to remind ourselves that children are a blessing from God.

"Children are a heritage form the LORD,

offspring a reward from Him.

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior

are children born in one's youth.

Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them." Psalm 125:3-5a

Parents, soak in this time with your children.  Take advantage of the time you have to point those arrows at a target.  Parent in ways that don't just teach our children morality, but that teach our children the Gospel.  Enjoy the good gift that God has given you and steward that gift well today.

Saul Didn't Become Paul

One common misconception, and one that I had for many years, is the Saul became Paul.  If you remember the story of the murderous man named Saul that became the Apostle we call Paul you may have heard that Saul's name was changed to Paul, but it wasn't exactly.

Abram became Abraham.  Simon became Peter.  Saul did not become Paul.

In the book of Acts we do meet this man Saul and in the book of Acts his name is also Paul and there is a point when he is only called Paul, but his name did not change. 

"Then Saul, who was also called Paul..." Acts 13:9a

See, Saul and Paul are interchangeable names but there is a great lesson to be learn from these names.  Saul is the Jewish name and Paul is the Greek language equivalent of the same name.  Saul is a very formal name and Paul literally means small. 

See, Paul didn't get handed a new name, rather he adjusted himself to reach the audience to whom he was preaching.  In Acts Saul begins to be referred to as Paul during his first missionary journey and is always called Paul thereafter.

The Apostle Paul was willing to be flexible in culture in order to preach the Gospel to many.  Paul had the freedom and right to continue being called Saul.  He was not divinely re-named.  Instead he chose to change a very intimate part of his very identity in order to identify with the lost souls he was intending to reach.

"Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.  To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews.  To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.  To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law.  To the weak I became weak, to win the weak.  I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.  I do all this for the sake of the Gospel, that I may share in its blessings." 1 Corinthians 9:19-23

Do you see this?  Paul/Saul was so dedicated to being a part of God's saving lost people that he was willing to adjust his life in order to win souls.  He was willing to change his very name.  He was willing to change his very customs.  He was willing to NOT exercise the freedom he had if need be to win souls for Jesus.

Do you have that mindset?  Are you willing to sacrifice your preferences in order to share the Good News?  Do you become a slave to others on your own accord, disregarding the very freedom you have in order to approach those in need?  Do you immerse yourself in the culture of your neighborhood in the pursuit of gaining an open door to share Jesus' victory tale with them?

Saul did not become Paul.  No, Saul went by Paul for the sake of the Gospel.  Paul intentionally gave up a piece of his intimate identity to achieve the goal Christ set before him.

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.  Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.  No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Our faith is about dying unto self and living for God and others.  How can you be like the Apostle Paul and die unto your self to share in the victory with Jesus today?