my girls

Future Hope

On a side note, on Friday, January 23rd my second daughter was born. She is healthy and my wife and I are going to name her Eden. Thus begins this next chapter of my life. I am a father of two. WOW!

As i was reading the Bible this morning, I was thinking about my daughter and so was reading Proverbs 23 to see if I could get inspired with a middle name for her. But instead the Lord spoke to me of this desperate time I get to live in. Everyone is looking for someone to follow or something to believe in to give them hope and a better future. And I am everyone. I want to be taken care off. I want to provide for me and my family.

It seems like so many people have so much more than I do. Nicer cars or bigger houses or bigger paychecks. The things of this world can be so appealing. The physical things that we call our hobbies and toys. They are not bad in themselves and even bring some fun into our lives. But even the few toys I have gotten get old, especially when I see one thats newer/bigger/better. Proverbs 23:17-18 speaks to this ‘me first’, ‘if its broke get a new one’ generation.

     “Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day. Surely there is a future and your hope will not be cut off.”

The hope of my generation is not in getting out of our parents debt. It is not in having the hottest cars, hottest clothes and hottest women. It is not in being part of the biggest or newest ministry. It is not in any president or political/religious leader. It is not in overcoming religious barriers to join hands with other religions to fight whatever cause. It IS in God through Jesus. I’ll say it again, the hope of my generation is in God through Jesus. It’s an old idea that has always worked and will continue to work. Its the idea of propitiation. Christ exchanging his holy, pure, righteousness for my sinful, dirty, worthless live. Now you and I know that this is not an equal trade, but God so loved the world that he sent His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have a future and their hope will not be cut off. 

JESUS IS OUR FUTURE AND HOPE!

New Year

So, I’m a lousy blogger. I know. In my defense, a friend of mine is trying to set up my site (he’s been very busy with actual work) and I am not real happy with the ‘under construction’ mode. So, no pictures for now, but I will try to write more.

Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years have come and gone. Danielle and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary last month as well. I look back over the year and see all the ’stuff’ we did and how we were able to face adversity and trust in God. And, I know this doesn’t accomplish anything, when I think over each decision we made and the way we spent our resources (time, money, relationships), I do feel some regret. 

Above all else, my cry for my marriage from day one has been for Christ to be glorified and recognized. And I can’t help but feel guilty because in so many areas we are not set apart. There have been too many days in 08 where I relied on my own strength. Too many days when my heart was not broken over sin and only beating to please God. The real problem is that I do not act out of ignorance. I know what the best thing for my marriage is. It’s to seek God’s grace early in the day and every day and to pray for my wife and for God’s heart for her. I know what is right and wrong and sometimes choose wrong. How is watching movies or playing sports or any hobby beneficial to eternity? 

All that being said, I will enjoy this new year. God has given me certain blessings and has given them for my enjoyment. But I want this year to be marked not by what I do, I want this year to be marked by what God does. Why can’t this be a year of revival of hearts? Why can’t this year be a year when dear friends of mine trust in Jesus? 

So this year, I want to live radically for Jesus. And I know this will bring question marks. The scripture lets me know what that life has in store. It’s hardship, ridicule, rejection, joy, blessing, and Jesus. Praise God that His mercies are new every morning. His goodness has no end. He still answers prayer, His word is still truth, and He loves me.

May you experience the Shalom of God this year.

Christmas

j

Family

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Up where I live, it’s like 35 degrees out but the wind is blowing like 40 mph making it below freezing. We are warm inside, and are finding joy in this busy season. We have already taken part in 4 Christmas parties. And though we have been consumed by getting things ready to do ministry this season and planning/going to parties, I will not get lost this Christmas.

As I take time this morning to meditate on Christ, I don’t picture a baby in a manger. John 3:16 reminds us that God loved us so much he sent Jesus, and whoever believes in him will have eternal life. I don’t want to get into explaining propitiation, but Jesus is our Savior because He saved us from our sins. As I meditate on Christ at Christmas, I picture the cross. Without the immaculate conception, Christ wouldn’t have been perfect, but without the cross and empty tomb, we wouldn’t have redemption. 

This Thursday I get to preach to the Middle School ministry at my church (i’m the Middle School Assistant Director) and of course am going to preach Jesus. For my scripture, I chose 1 John 4:7-11. And in that passage it affirms what Christmas is about. It says, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Christ came and died and rose. Christ gave his life, the perfect human life, for you to live. He takes our lives, the dirty sinful lives, and kills them. We get to step into the love of the Son for the Father. This week, look to the cross for a reminder of what Christmas is about.

Thanksgiving

Tomorrow we celebrate my daughters 1 year birthday. That alone is enough for me to thank God for. I’m celebrating a year of health and joy for her. A year where I saw my 5 week pre-mature daughter have to stay at the hospital for an extra 11 days. She learned how to eat, sit up, smile and laugh, crawl, walk, say momma and dadda, grow teeth, and spread joy. She has been to Mexico once, Oregon 5 times, Hawaii twice. She has traveled on a cruise ship, a motor boat, a plane, a car and a stroller. She has been to weddings and a funeral. 
She has brought joy and revelation of God to her parents. We have grown up and become more of the people God designed us to be. I love her and am so grateful to be her father here on earth. I love protecting and providing for her. God has truly given me His Fathers heart, and I am ruined. The love of a father is so strong, there is nothing i wouldn’t do for my baby girl. I also love showing her how a husband is to love his wife. 
This thanksgiving season I am going to be posting of some things I am thankful for. I would be very encouraged if you would leave a comment of some of your blessings.
GOD IS GOOD.

God Is Able

It’s been an emotional couple weeks for me. I’m not sharing this to get sympathy, because I know my struggles seem hard to my understanding, but each of us is tested in our own unique ways. Late last week, my mom called to let me know a lump was found on my aunt and we are waiting to see if it’s cancer. I hate that word. Then, early this week, a friend of mine and I were catching up and he confided his tough scenario of unexpectedly expecting to be a daddy. At first I was just bewildered and pissed, but after talking with him, my heart was just broken. This wasn’t his plan, but these are the consequences. The next day my mom called again to let me know that one of my cousins was at Children’s Hospital because they found a tumor growing on a cyst on his brain and he was scheduled for surgery today. He’s a senior this year. We’ve been texting lately, swapping jokes and verses. He is truely one of the good young men out there, going to change the world. But, how is this fair? Then, yesterday, I got news that my father-in-law, a business owner, had to let some people go. The economy is affecting everyone, it’s horrible and hard, but those are the decisions he has to make as a leader.
Processing each hit as it comes, I am almost overwhelmed at how much sin there is. It’s rampant and it affects and touches all of us. It each case, the affects of sin are there. The only way to have hope is to know and believe that God is good. God is able http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5yRjIaN2ts. My hope is in Jesus. Though daily I walk through the valley of the shadow of death (physical and spiritual) I have hope because my Jesus conquered death. The last two days, all day, i’ve been telling myself over and over, that God is good. I’m on the brink of tears. I love my family so much and hate sin so much. I need to know that God is good. He is able, through that shed blood of Jesus and the empty tomb, to do his will.
Today as I went to my cousins site (http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jensbrynestad) I saw that his family had a verse posted and below it they wrote 3 words that i needed to see and we all need to know.
GOD IS GOOD

Eternal Life

From the dawn of humanity, God has been showing himself to his creation. And from the dawn of time, his creation (namely us) has been forgetting the supremacy and sufficiency of God. We have all forsaken our first love. Throughout scripture this is the case. Noah’s generation was godless. Moses had to go to wait through 10 super-natural plagues before Pharoah acknowledged his request was from the Lord Almighty. The vast majority of the kings of Judah and Israel forgot who gave them authority. The Pharisees and Sadducees totally missed that Jesus was God. And now, I live in “one nation under God”, where we can’t teach in our schools that God created the Earth and where it is legal to kill unborn babies. The trend that we have followed is that we have forsaken our first love.
Now, I am as much to fault as the past and present leaders of my government. It is a constant struggle for me to not forget what the Lord has done in my life. Life gets so busy, bills seem so important, success seems so important. And I start thinking that things are MINE, like my family or possessions or opportunities.
Let’s take a moment at remember what John tells us in John 17:3
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
The purpose of life is to know God through Christ Jesus. And that life is the one that God wants to give us not just here, but forever. Let’s get back to remembering God, to talking again about what he has done in our lives. Lets speak of the supernatural of God revealing God to us. This holy, BIG, sovereign, loving God who is embodied in Jesus and revealed so clearly in The Bible is wanting to be recognized. 
It has been me and my wife’s prayer for almost three years now that Jesus would be recognized and glorified in our marriage. I hope you will have the courage to invite God to be recognized through your life.

A Broken and Contrite Heart

Have you ever read the story of King Josiah? He is known as the Reformer. His story is prophesied in 1 Kings 13:2 and unfolds in 2 Kings 21-23 and 2 Chronicles 33-35.
He was not born into a godly legacy. His father and grandfather before him were kings of Judah, but they had done evil in God’s eyes. It was the kings responsibility to lead the people of God, but they had been leading the people in worship of false God’s. They had set up idols and alters even in the Temple of God. They had built living quarters for male prostitutes in the Temple of God. This is the legacy that Josiah was born into. This is the example he was shown, and no-one expected anything more of him. Except God. We are all accountable to God and will all give an account for our lives.
Josiah became king when he was 8 and he did good in the eyes of the Lord. He reformed the country of Israel and turned back to the Lord. He feared God, hated sin, and loved righteousness. He found the book of the Law and read it to the nation, making a vow that he would serve the Lord and leading the nation in prayers for repentance. Josiah, led by the Lord, tore down all the shrines and alters. He burned all the unholy sites with their relics and scattered the ashes. He fixed up the temple and once again made it a place of worship to the only God of Israel. 
Josiah broke the pattern of godlessness and started a new legacy. But where did he learn it? 
Each of us are responsible for our actions and for what we do with our lives. We will all give an account. And the thing I love, is that, with God there is forgiveness (Psalm 130). Josiah’s life was a miracle. An 8 year old with a soft heart towards the Lord. A boy without a father grow into a strong man with holy desires. A legacy of sin and bondage turned into a legacy of repentance. Bad leadership turned into a showcase of wisdom and discernment. Josiah turned away God’s wrath, if only for a time. 
How will I respond to God’s law? How will I steward that truth? How will I use my leadership? What legacy will I leave?

Discernment

I would rather have discernment than gold. Discernment is having a keenness of insight and judgement. Most of a young persons afflictions come as a result of lack of discernment. Often times, with wisdom comes discernment. There is discernment that helps one make wise choices in daily decisions and there is also spiritual discernment that the Holy Spirit gives that helps one know when something is of God or of man. So much of Paul’s letters in the New Testament are giving warnings to the present and future church. Warning of wolves that will come and try to lead the sheep astray, of preachers who will preach to promote their own following or bank account rather than the Kingdom, and of many other blasphemous and heretical teachings. Times are coming and are here when people who lack discernment will choose to not believe in hell and sin. 
The best way to get discernment is to constantly be in the word of God. Test man’s teachings against the word of God. Don’t let your ears be tickled by preaching that does not measure up to God’s Holy Word. Don’t live your life in a way that doesn’t measure up to God’s Holy Word. Disaster comes when we don’t listen to that little voice in us that warns against something bad. Compromise is at an all time high while discernment is at an all time low. 
I pray for discernment to know which boys I will need to run off my doorsteps as they try to prey on my daughter, I pray for the wisdom to follow Godly preaching/teaching and to know when it’s not. I pray for discernment to never offer someone more responsibility than they can handle and to know the difference between someone who wants to serve out of pride or out of overflow. I pray that I would have discernment to know when my own fears are threatening to stop me from doing or saying what God wants me to. I pray for the conviction to be able to pit my life and doctrine against God’s Holy Word and through discernment, see the changes I need to make. And I pray that everyone who reads this would want to, as James tells us to, ask God for wisdom because he gives generously to all without finding fault.
Proverbs 16:16 says, “How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver.”

Family

In a couple days I am going away for a week with some of my family to the beautiful island of Kauai. In my opinion, family is a gift we get to steward and give account for. Family is the training ground for learning how to become the man or woman God has called you to be. Now, obviously something isn’t working when young people come out of their families having an identity crisis, riddled with Father/Mother wounds and relying on culture to tell them who to be.
I was given a gift when i was born. This isn’t me bragging, but, like Hebrews 13 says, bringing a sacrifice of praise which is lips that acknowledge God. The gift I was given was a father who was in love with Jesus and in a covenant relationship with my mother. My father taught me how to be a man, how to be a husband and how to be a father. He modeled humility to me.
Society is getting corrupted all around me, and I am given a gift… I am made a father. How will I do? Just because someone is raised a certain way, doesn’t determine who they will be. Will I forget the godliness I saw growing up, or will I choose godliness for my house? 
I CHOOSE GOD’S WAY. My earthly father and I now share a responsibility of laying our lives down for the Families God has blessed us with. And like him, I don’t know what my kids will choose, or who they will grow up to be. But I will lead them. I will be an example for them.
“But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”