How cool is that?

In this morning's Daily Oklahoman sports page there is a small segment called Welcome To My World and the featured athlete is Putnam City North football player David Lamb. He is a massive young man who plays offensive line for the Panthers. What caught my attention came early in the article. He says, "The morning of home games is my favorite part of game day. We have a team breakfast at the church next to our school. Eggs, bacon and biscuits and gravy. As a lineman, I love it. But it's also a chance for everyone to sit down and talk about what we're going to do to get ready."

That "church next to our school" is, of course, Lakeside. How cool is that?

2008 Fall Missions Explosion

Last night was the final event in Lakeside's 2008 Fall Missions Explosion. There were so many people who were involved, and they made it a huge success. I was so blessed last night at the involvement of so many men and women doing the cooking, the decorating, the sound work, the video work, the table and chair moving, and the clean up. Pastor Mike and Rebekah put on another fun filled children's banquet and the room looked so great. We have an awesome group of people at Lakeside.

We had a great group of missionaries who honored us by attending our dinners with missionaries and attending our banquet.

We heard a stirring report from Deborah Burke about what is going on at the Inner City Church, and Greg Mundis challenged and inspired us in both the morning service and the banquet.

I am anticipating that we will be involved in missions on a greater level in finances, but in an even greater measure on a personal level, as many of you are challenged to follow God's leading for your own lives in your own personal mission fields.

Dinner with a Missionary Report

Last night Carole and I hosted a dinner as part of our Fall Missions Explosion. Our guest works with Project Rescue in India. She is very involved in the whole arena of human trafficking, including sexual abuse and slavery. This is a huge issue not only in southern Asia; it is a big problem here in Oklahoma City as well. Statistics show that 1 in 4 of our children are being abused and abuse begins early in their lives. The discussion we had with the families who were there got heavy at times, but we left with a sense of determination to do what we can do to help.

Here are the conclusions we reached:
1. There is no reason to believe that our church children are any less likely than others to become victims of sexual abuse. We must assume that children we know today have already been victimized.

2. The Church has been unwilling to talk openly about this topic in the past, but there is now a greater openness to discuss difficult issues such as this, and a greater desire for the Church to be involved.

3. There is no better place for this discussion to take place than in the safety of the church family, so we must be diligent to create environments where those who have been vicitimized can come forward without fear of being ostracized.

I am confident that as we keep this issue as a matter of prayer, we will begin to see how we can become involved in sharing the unconditional love of Christ into this type of situation, and how we can become involved to break this horrible stronghold of sexual abuse.

What do I do with this stuff? Cont'd

As I said in the previous post, I am not planning a garage sale to sell all that I have. That is not because I am rebellious, and I don't think it is because I love my stuff more than God. I just want to do right. I think the reality of this is subtly direct. There is nothing inherently wrong with having stuff as long as we recognize that everything we have belongs to God. This is where it can get sticky. We can say that our house, car, church building, etc. belongs to God for Him to use in whatever way He seems fit, but if we don't use them in ways that might seem messsy or inconvenient to us, are we really living the way we are professing? How do we live in such a way that we use things entrusted to us as an answer without seeing them as the answer?

It is the same tension that we see in so many things. We are saved, but our salvation is not complete until we leave this life and are in heaven. We are more than overcomers, but we are still engaged in the battle with sin. By His stripes we were healed, but we still struggle with disease.

As I grow in the Lord I see fewer and fewer areas where I can look at an issue and see it as totally and easily black or white, even as my faith and trust in the absolute truth of God and His word grows stronger and stronger. If that seems to be as contradictory as the subtly direct reference I made earlier, I'm sorry. I may never get it completely figured out on this side of life, but I am loving the depth of the journey.

Look Who's Crawling

Well, he's mobile, now. Life will never be the same for Mark and Elizabeth.

What do I do with this stuff?

I'm really having a difficult time getting past some scriptures that seem to be ganging up on me. A few days ago I wrote a post on the rich young ruler. He was someone who had all of the externals, had spent his life in church, and the lifestyle down pat. He knew that something was still missing. He said he had kept all of the commandments, but he wanted to know what he lacked. Jesus told him to sell everything and give to the poor. The young man was sad because he had so much stuff.

Jesus said that it was incredibly difficult for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. This is not because wealth is evil; rather wealth just gives us so many options to play out prior to trusting God.

Luke 12 has Jesus teaching and he says not to be afraid of doing without food and clothing because our Father knows we need them. Then in verse 33 he again says to sell your possessions and give to the poor.

What is stirring up inside of me is this question. If I didn't have the savings and the income producing assets that "allow" me to work cheap and go to help other missions works, would I be limited in what I can do for Christ? In other words, if I didn't have those things to depend on, and God was truly directing my footsteps, might I actually be able to do more for God in a true faith life? Are the things I see as liberating because they are owned debt-free actually holding me back from God's best for my life? I really don't know, and at this point I don't have any plans to hold an enormous "everything goes" garage sale. But the question still nags.

Football Breakfasts

We just finished the final cleanup after our second football breakfast of the season. In case you didn't know, Lakeside prepares a hot breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy for the Putnam North football team on days that they play games at PC stadium. We arrive at 5:30am and scramble 16 dozen eggs, cook 21 pounds of bacon, bake 15 dozen biscuits and prepare 2 gallons of gravy. The team will usually drink 4-5 gallons of orange juice and a couple gallons of milk. They arrive at 7:30 and hang around until about 8:30. Some 75-80 players, coaches and managers come and eat breakfast in our family life center.

This is the fourth year we have done this. The first year, Sam Bradford (yes, that Sam Bradford) was the quarterback for PC North and ate game day breakfasts in our FLC. It most likely contributed to his success later in life.

This is a great time of connection with some of the students and coaches of one of the two schools in our square mile. If you would like to be involved in this, see Pastor Trent. We could use the help, and you will enjoy it.

New Missionary Friends

Wednesday night I had the pleasure of meeting a family of new missionaries. Steven and Kimberly Snow received their missionary appointment this past April and when their budget is raised they will be going to the Philippines to work in a children's home. They have three beautiful girls, Kylee, Karlee, and Katelee. They currently live in Fletcher, and they live next door to one set of grandparents. The sacrifices our missionaries make don't end with the family that moves to another country. They extend to the grandparents who won't get their daily hugs from their precious granddaughters, as well as siblings, cousins, and friends.

I sensed a wonderful heart of abandonment of everything but God's desire for their lives. We need to be prayer partners and financial partners with the Snows. Please pray with me as we determine the level we will be able to partner with them. They will be back at Lakeside for our missions banquet on Sept. 28. If you didn't meet them Wednesday night, be sure to look them up at the missions banquet. They'll be easy to spot and you'll enjoy getting to know them.

What if I really believed?

How would I live if I lived as though I really believe all that I profess? If I really believe that to live is Christ and to die is gain, shouldn't I be doing more things that appear to be risky for God? If I really believe that my God will supply all my needs according to His riches, shouldn't I be releasing more of what I have to further the spread of the Gospel? If I really believe that if I seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness that all the things will be added, wouldn't my decision process be a lot simpler? If I really believe that all things work for good for those who love him, shouldn't I spend less time asking "why" and more time asking "how"? And if I believe that miraculous occurrances come about only by fasting and praying, shouldn't I be spending more time fasting and praying?

What I have been praying lately is, "Lord, I want to live like I believe what I profess." I'm a long way from being there.

Conditioned Response

Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?

Coffee Slingers

A couple of weeks ago I asked you to tell me about locally owned coffee shops here is OKC. My daughter told me about Coffee Slingers located at 10th & Broadway so I went and tried it out. The feel of the place is kind of like a warehouse because there is no carpet, with lots of glass and steel. The floorspace is roomy and the tables have a good amount of space between them. That is good if you are having a meeting over coffee and don't want to be cramped or distracted by other conversations, but it is not so good if you go to coffee shops to strike up conversations with people you have never met.

I cappucino I had was excellent. It was real cappucino served in a real cup with the milk art heart setting it off. The guy who took my order and made the coffee was friendly. All in all, it was worth the trip. If you are a lover of espresso based coffee drinks, you should give it a try. I think you'll like it.

Go Thunder! Go OKC!

I am what is called an "early adopter".

GO THUNDER!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't blame the rich young ruler

I am prepared to let the rich young ruler of Matthew 19 off the hook, at least to some level. He came to Jesus and asked him what was needed to get eternal life. Jesus recited some of the ten commandments and was told that the young man did them all religiously. (my attempt at intentional irony) Then Jesus told him to get rid of his stuff and follow Him. As you know, the young man left sorrowfully because he had a lot of stuff.

It is at this point that we preachers get all sanctimonious and condemn the young man for putting his stuff before following Christ. But the young man is not totally to blame because he had never seen that lifestyle displayed by anyong else who had a lot of stuff. I imagine that he thought of all the guff he would receive if he took such a radical step. His parents would accuse him of wasting what they worked so hard to provide for him. The local church would see the lost tithe revenue and would caution him to think through such a major decision. They would be quick to tell him that he could do a lot of good over many years by continuing to "steward his resources" in such a way that they would continue to grow. He was being asked by Jesus to throw away the old model of the solid blessed believer and write a completely new model, and he was scared to do that. Small wonder. There was not an incubating environment for that kind of radical devotion to God.

We have a lot of stuff today. I am blogging on a church owned computer connected to a network and in an air conditioned office provided by the church. Does this stuff enhance or inhibit our effectiveness for Christ? I don't have that answer in this post, but I do have another question. What if we had a clear indication that God wanted us to sell our property and use the proceeds to finance micro-congregations who met specific needs for specific parts of town? Would our response be any different from that of the rich young ruler?

World Events Update

I took a few days off from blogging. During that time a number of things happened. I am grateful that the impact of Hurricane Gustav will not be as severe as feared. The levees held, people were evacuated in an orderly fashion, and everyone comes across as being very competent and responsible. Oklahoma City is taking care of some 400 evacuees and it looks as though they will not be here long because they will be able to return home soon.

In golf news, it appears that Vijay Singh has occupied the void left by Tiger Woods. How wierd is it that the only guys to win three tournaments this year are in their 40's? None of the twenty somethings with all of the good looks and athleticism have been able to step up to the forefront while this window of opportunity exists.

College football has begun and all of the madness that goes with it. OU, OSU and Tulsa all won their games. Texas A&M continues to fail to be even mediocre. Rick Neuheisel has sparked new hope at UCLA (my hope is that they can knock off USC) and we won't have to hear about Hawaii this year after their sound thrashing at the hands of Florida. Michigan may have found a long-term solution, but they didn't find a magic instant cure to their underacheiving ways.

In baseball, my New York Yankees will not reach the playoffs in their last year in Yankee Stadium. That's sad at so many levels. Maybe now they will be willing to pay their players enough to motivate them. (I need a sarcasm font for the previous statement)

At church, things are going so well. Pastor Darren is preaching with great freedom and the Spirit of God is moving in an awesome way. This week is Friend Day. Make sure that you come and bring someone with you!