The Seed of Hope

Inviting Him in...

Inviting Him in…

Wouldn’t you agree that it’s common courtesy to welcome an invited guest into our homes when they arrive for dinner, or maybe a party? I mean, after all, we invited them, right? It all began with an invitation to join us.

I wonder how many of us do the same thing with God. We invite Him into our lives, and into our hearts, and we long to feel His presence in us. How about our homes? Do we invite Him in?

Danna’s text.

A couple of weeks ago I received a text message from Danna, a good friend and awesome Christian that just so happens to be a member of Church of The Highlands here in Birmingham, which also just happens to be the same church that my wife Jackie and I attend!

Danna’s text read:

Hi! I have a problem!!! It’s a good problem, but a problem nonetheless! I’ve had to get the church to take my summer group off of the list because it’s wayyyy past full! ….I have 18 participants and only a 2 br condo in the Narrows! I’m having serious space constraints! Any chance you or anyone you know in the area would be willing to open your home to us for the first two sessions until we can get a feel for how many will actually come????

My first reaction to Danna’s text was to pretend that I’d never gotten it!

You see, for the previous ten months Jackie and I had been home sponsors to a ministry student from North Carolina, and I had served as the co-leader of the Hospitality Team at one of our satellite church campuses. I had recently given up my position at the church a couple of weeks earlier, and our ministry student had moved back to North Carolina just two days before I received Danna’s text message! Jackie and I were ready to be empty-nesters for a few months, and I was ready to have a Sunday with no “commitments”.

Then I get this text message from Danna! I told her that we’d pray on it, and at the same time search for someone that could host her small group for six weeks. Truth be told, Jackie and I had already made the decision not to host our own small group because of the time, preparation, and commitment that accompanied it.

True to my word, Jackie and I prayed for clarity. Strangely enough, I don’t know that we actually talked about what we should do. We’ve been married for over twenty-one years, and we’re so closely linked that at times one of knows what the other is thinking!

The time for a decision was drawing near (the first meeting was two days away). Jackie and I were in the bathroom getting ready for work, and it was one of those moments when I was gonna ask her a question, and she knew what it was gonna be and had the answer ready before the last word passed over my lips….

“So, are we gonna tell Danna that….”

“Of course we’re gonna have it here. But make it clear that it’s just for this one time.”

“Awesome!” I replied.

I sent a text to Danna and informed her of our decision to open our home “to a bunch of God-seeking Christians….” And I emphasized that the offer was just for one week. We didn’t want any more commitments.

In Prayer…

Everyone was invited to show up at our home at 5:30 on Saturday evening. The plan was to have thirty minutes of introductions and fellowship, which would be followed by dinner. Brian, another member of our group, would lead us in worship (song), and then we were going to watch a 10 minute video on discipleship. This would be followed by a group discussion on the topic. We’d close the evening out in prayer.

Danna arrived around 4:30 with the food. We spent a few minutes setting things up, and then the three of us (Jackie, Danna, and me) sat down at the kitchen table to offer prayers for the needs of our group, and to ask God to help us as leaders.

I remember inviting God into our home, asking that His presence fill every square inch of it…to make it a sanctuary for those seeking Him, for those in need of Him. I asked Him to make our home worthy of Him…

Our guests began arriving at the appointed time…

Let me just get to the point here.

It was an amazing evening. It was a powerful evening. God showed up! I could feel His presence. I could sense the Holy Spirit touching lives, opening eyes and ears, and softening hearts. There was an anointing in our home; the presence of God was so strong that it was palpable.

I was so humbled and grateful that God had come into our home to touch the lives of those seeking Him. And I sat there, tears welling up in my hearts as a lump formed in my throat, thinking about the path that God had lead me down, and all the changes that had taken place in my life, that allowed me to even consider our home to be worthy of His presence.

Why hadn’t I invited Him in sooner?

Fear.

Foolish fear. Unfounded fear.

Every day I invite God into my life, into my heart, and into my mind. Why wouldn’t I invite Him into our home? Did I really think that He might see something that He didn’t already know was there? Or that inviting Him into our home would be an invasion of our privacy? If I invited Him in would I have to be more accountable for my every thought, word, and deed while I was at home?

It’s my belief that you already know the answer to those questions. Besides, why would He need an invitation anyway? Isn’t He everywhere?

Yes, He’s everywhere. He is our Omni-Present God. There’s no place that He’s not!

Let me ask you something…

Have you found yourself in the position of being an uninvited guest? Perhaps you tagged along with a friend to a party that you weren’t invited to attend. Or been in a group where you felt like the proverbial “fifth wheel”? Or hung out with some people where you just really didn’t fit in? You can relate to at least one of these, can’t you? In each of those situations, you just wanted to feel welcomed, right?

Maybe, just maybe, God is waiting for you to invite Him in. Perhaps he doesn’t want to feel like the unwelcomed guest.

Every heart is worthy of His presence. So is every mind. And so is every home.

Invite Him in. I promise you that He’ll show up!

See you next week.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you.

As you may or may not know, every day I ask God to allow me to be a light that shines for Him. Every day.

I’ve come to realize that a shining light is wasted if there’s no one there to see it. Before the end of that very first night, Jackie and I made the decision to open up our home to our small group for the remaining five weeks. And of course, we invited God to come too. J

In a Box

In a Box

It’s five o’clock in the morning and I’ve hauled myself out of my warm, toasty, comfortable, bed, and the company of my wife Jackie to sit in front of this laptop and write this post for The Seed of Hope.

I’m a little aggravated because I’ve been trying to write this thing all week long and I’ve had neither the time nor the inspiration to do so. Oh, I’ve had the desire to write, because, as I’ve said before, I love sharing what God has done in my life. Be that as it may, until this point, it’s just not been there; nothing.

There is something that I want to tell you about, something that’s really good, but I feel as though I should “set the table” for it, and in order to do that I must first talk about something that’s a bit uncomfortable.

It’s what I often refer to as the “box of life”, and it contains many smaller boxes of various shapes and sizes. The thing about these boxes is that, much like life itself, they are a mixture of easy and difficult, bad and good, bitter and sweet.

Boxes

There’s the box of “conventional thinking”, and it controls many of the decisions that we make in life. This box is usually representative of our parent’s ways of thinking, the values that they instilled in us as children, and a bit of our own personalities.

There’s the “family box”, which includes spouses, children, and parents. This box contains relationships built on and surrounded by love. It is because of that love that when problems arise (and they do), this box also holds the most amount of hurt.

There’s the “job box”, which includes the careers we’ve chosen, and all the responsibilities (and quite often headaches) that come with it.

The “box of limitations” is a good one. It’s the box we dwell in that tells us that we have limitations, that we’re not good enough, that we’re not capable of doing something, or not worthy of it. I spent years in this box.

Then there’s the “how did I get myself in this situation?” box. It contains things that we agreed to do for others, situations that we’ve put ourselves in, and responsibilities that we’ve agreed to take on. I find myself in this box quite frequently. As a matter of fact, as I was getting out of bed this morning to write this post I came to the realization that in making a promise to myself to write a post every Monday morning, I had unconsciously put myself in yet another box!

I’m sure that there are many more boxes that I’ve failed to mention. You can probably relate in some way to all of those that I’ve listed, and even add to that list. Like I mentioned earlier, what I was trying to do was set the table for the next box that I want to talk about, and it’s definitely my favorite. It is….

The God box.

I know, I know, that term sounds almost sacrilegious, doesn’t it? I could’ve called it “the religion box”, because it does contain religion, or what I consider my faith to be as it pertains to religion. But that’s the thing.

It’s not about religion at all. It’s about God. And yes, there is a difference between religion and God, just as there is a difference between religion and spirituality.

You see, I spent years in the God box. In this box with me was everything that I’d learned in twelve years of religion class, in a church that was steeped in tradition. I knew what I should do, and what I shouldn’t do, and when I should do it, and when I shouldn’t.

I didn’t know the Bible, but I knew what was in it. I knew about Adam and Eve, their fall from grace, and that Jesus came to restore that grace. I knew right from wrong. I knew the Ten Commandments. I could recite the Lord’s Prayer frontwards and backwards.

I knew what faith was because it was taught to me. Got a problem? Pray to God. Need something? Go see God. Want a miracle? Get on your knees. Want to go to heaven? Be a good boy.

Do you get what I’m saying here? I knew all the right stuff. And I knew most of the answers to most of the questions.

Questions.

I want to ask you a few questions….

Do you believe that you can have a real relationship with a living God?

Do you believe that God is all-forgiving; that there is nothing that you can’t be forgiven for?

Do you believe that God will provide you with everything you need?

Do you feel the Joy of God’s presence in your life every day?

Do you look forward to going to church, or do you attend out of obligation or fear?

Do you believe that with God, all things are possible?

There’s so many more questions that I could pose to you right now. Here’s the thing: If you can’t truthfully answer yes to all of those questions, there’s something missing in your relationship with God. Believe me, I’ve been there, done that, and walked that walk for too many years.

Get out of the box!

Do whatever you have to do!

Work towards having a relationship with God. Go after Him every day! Invite Him into your life!

Talk to him, just as you would your father. Don’t be afraid to ask Him questions, or to share what’s on your heart with Him. Don’t you think that He already knows what’s on your mind?

Believe that He is a mighty God, and that He wants to do mighty things in your life.

You want to know all there is about God, and who He is, and His plan for us? Look in the Bible. Everything else, and I mean everything else, that you’ve been taught about God or religion, or what you should or shouldn’t do, are things written by men for men.

Try a different church. It’ll be scary, but you’ll get over it. You never know what you may find.

Get out of your religion box. It won’t be easy. It’s hard to set aside certain things that have been ingrained in our minds since we were children. Ask God for his help in allowing you to see, think, and feel what’s most important to Him, and what will become most important to you.

When you do get out of that box, and it’s both my prayer and belief that you will, you’re gonna realize something that has eluded you for years: God will be there with you in all those other boxes, helping you in all of them.

Oh, and there’s one more thing that you’ll discover, and it’s the best one of all…

God is not in that box at all. He’s in your heart.

See you next week.

THE little THINGS

The Little Things

For the past nine and a half months, my wife Jackie and I have been a home sponsor to Stephen Popadich, a young man that has been enrolled in 24/7, a personal growth, leadership, and ministry program offered by the Church of the Highlands here in Birmingham.

Having Stephen in our home has been an absolute blessing for Jackie and me, in more ways than I would even attempt to describe. He’s become a part of our family during his time with us, and neither of us has been looking forward to the day when he leaves us to head back to his home in North Carolina.

That day, sadly, is today. While both of us are excited for, and proud of, Stephen as he prepares to launch a 24/7 program for his church this August, we are saddened by his departure. I think that in some ways we’re reminded of the days that our sons Brian and Christian left home.

Today, as I reflect on Stephen’s time with us, I don’t want to talk about his departure. Instead, I want to talk about something that his arrival brought into our home.

RULES

24/7 is a rigorous program that strengthens the mind, body, and soul. Though I’ve never been in the military, I would liken 24/7 to a spiritual version of boot camp.

As with all programs of this nature, 24/7 came with a bunch of rules! Dress codes, curfew, promptness, and submitting to spiritual authorities were among a long list of do’s and don’ts given to the students.

I’ve always believed that in order to be an effective leader, one must first learn to be a follower. Bearing that in mind, I was of the opinion that the curriculum and rules given to the students would definitely increase the odds of doing exactly that.

There were a couple of rules, however, that I didn’t totally understand…

First, the kids (well, they’re actually young adults ranging from their late teens to middle twenties) couldn’t watch an R rated movie (or worse, of course). At first glance, you might think that there would still be a host of popular movies for them to watch, and you would be correct in your thinking. But you’d also be surprised (at least I was) at the number of box office hits that were on the forbidden list because of “adult content”, i.e. violence, partial nudity, language, etc.

Secondly, secular music (classified as any music other than sacred, or church) of any kind was completely out of bounds! I have to tell you, I could understand some hip hop, rap, heavy metal, and reggae music being questionable. But all secular music? I found that to be a bit extreme.

Like I said, I didn’t understand the why of some of the rules, but it wasn’t my program, and I wasn’t one of the students, so what difference would it make to me in regards to what they could or couldn’t watch or listen to?

A Lot

When Jackie and I made the decision to be home sponsors last July, we also made a commitment to our yet unnamed student to offer more than just room and board. We viewed home sponsorship as not only a means of serving God and our church, but more importantly as an opportunity to be mentors to an individual that had set aside ten months of his life to grow in Christ.

We also wanted, with his permission, to share his journey with him. Something told us that in doing so we would somehow be served in our attempts to serve this young man. It’s what I like to refer to as “being blessed by be a blessing to others.”  

Sharing that journey with him included observing many of the rules that were placed upon him, including what we watched and what we listened to.

So, beginning on September 1^st of last year, few, if any R rated movies were viewed in our home, and nothing but worship music was played in our home or in our car. It didn’t matter if Stephen was around or not; we honored what he was going through because that was part of our commitment to him.

Well, to quote authors Shevelove and Gelbart, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Our home became even more peaceful than it was before. The absence of questionable language and music in our home filled me with a sense of, not necessarily being in a church, but being in a safe haven…a sanctuary, if you will. Taking those things out of our home made more room for God’s presence in it, or at least it did for me.

And something else happened that I want to share with you; but first, a confession. I used to have this really bad habit of cursing, especially when I was angry. When I began this “walk” a couple of years ago, I made a conscious effort to…no, it was more than that…I made a promise to myself to quit cursing.

I wasn’t applying for sainthood or anything like that. I wasn’t trying to be better than anyone else. And I didn’t believe that cursing would keep me out of heaven. It’s just that among the many things that I strive for each day is to be Christ-like, and I have a hard time believing that Jesus ever cursed, even casually or in fun, so I didn’t want cursing to be a part of my vocabulary. I want to remove any barriers that stand between me and God, and I believe that cursing, for whatever reason, is one of those barriers.

Well, through the years I’d almost totally eliminated cursing. Almost, because every once in a while I’d let something fly, not because it accomplished anything, but because, I don’t know, old habits die hard. And because, for a split second, I took my eyes off of God.

So all this time that Stephen had been with us, and we weren’t watching questionable movies or listening to secular music, I hadn’t cursed. Call it a coincidence, if you’d like.

Until…

The calendar year for the 24/7 program ended on Saturday, May 29^th, and with it, all of the mandatory rules for the students. That following Monday night we watched an R rated movie. No violence. No nudity. Definitely contained questionable….check…make that “definitely contained offensive” language.

I don’t know how Stephen felt about the situation, but I was a bit embarrassed by it, but didn’t have the nerve to say anything. Knowing him, he probably felt the same way.

Here’s the worst part: The very next day I probably cursed three or four times. Oh, I didn’t really say anything that bad, but the fact remains that I cursed. Trying to downplay it would be like saying that God doesn’t mind me hitting someone if I don’t hit them that hard.

The good part about all of this is that I feel so badly about it what I did. What some may consider being a small offense against God was, curiously enough, a huge offense against me. I was ashamed of the fact that I had cursed, and if there is such a thing as “good shame”, well, that’s exactly what I felt.

So…

Will I ever watch another R rated movie? Probably so. Will I ever curse again? As much as I’d like to tell you that I never will, I’ve learned to never say never.

And I’ve learned yet another valuable lesson in life…

There are rules in life that we may not understand, or completely accept. We may even question the reason for their existence, or how they could possibly apply to us.

Perhaps they’re there to help us in our walk. Perhaps they help us to become better people. Perhaps, just perhaps, they help us to pay attention to the little things; the little things that help make us big.

See you next week.