Men's Forum Week 3: Strength

Strength week...

As I prayerfully looked at how to write this blog about week three of the 2014 H.U.G.E. Men's Forum, I felt led to look in to my past. I know for me, a recently saved follower of Jesus, the past is where I have to look to confess things to God, it's where I look for forgiveness and it's where I look to forgive others.

Looking in to and meditating on the past for me is far and away the best way to take biblical principles and truly think about how I would have applied them in different situations to help me move forward in relationship with Jesus.

Fear, strength's adversary

This act is how week three has hit me. Pastor Aaron Thompson of Marysville New Life Church was our teacher for the evening. Aaron is a man after my heart, I can tell you that. Any man who can properly apply sports analogies to biblical principles is no doubt going to have my attention. He talked about a football game that he played at Lake Stevens High School, about how he had a great game against his former school and was named MVP that night. Sounds great and all, I've had those games, it's a great feeling to be on fire during a big game.

What he talked about next was the punch that hit me though. After all of that, he couldn't even remember the 10 solo tackles he had that night, they didn't matter. He remembered one play, where he let fear get in his way for just an instant and the opportunity of that moment was gone forever. He let fear win on that play, that's why it stuck with him. I think we can all look back and find moments where we let fear get in the way of doing something that God intended us to do.

This night was about finding that strength.

Finding the strength to overcome these fears to listen to God's plan for our specific lives and to take action on them in my life is one of my biggest hurdles. That's where the time to look in to my past comes in. I looked at things that hold me back, the things that allow fear to win, wrote them down and asked myself what could have been possible if I'd handled this the way that Jesus would have.

I looked at close relationships, ones that I've felt jaded by, I think we all have at least a few of those. I looked at those relationships that effected who I am today and applied love, applied strength to do what I know now is/was right and it felt amazing.

You see, I'm a firm believer that you can make a choice each day when you wake up to be a better person than you were the day, month or year before. Jesus gives us that hope. That through Him, all things are possible. And if all things are possible, I can certainly gain the strength needed to follow Him in any situation. We have the blueprint, we have The Gospel at our fingertips to teach us how to solve any situation.

Leap without fear!! Jump straight in to whatever God has planned for you! Don't shy away from an opportunity and NEVER, NEVER be afraid to fail. God is in our weakness and in our failure, He will lift you back up if you seek Him, we must never forget that fact.

Today I will find the strength to follow Jesus wherever He leads. 

My small group after Aaron's awesome message was exactly what God had intended for me. You see, I stopped to say hi to a friend in the aisle on the way to small groups and ended up having a deep discussion with him and with Rick Thiessen. It was unreal, I don't want to disclose everything that came of that meeting, I just want to portray to you just a little of how it made me feel.

You see, the fear that has held me back from leaping on faith is deep. It's of this world and I didn't really know where it came from. The discussion in this group, the prayer in this group made this thing that has held me back fall directly in to my lap. I felt like Wiley Coyote getting hit by an anvil while chasing The Road Runner. It was so clear, I had to dig far, far in to my past and all throughout my life and apply Jesus' sweet forgiveness, I had to let go of something that was poisoning my thoughts of strength and decide to follow a new path.

Only time will tell how significant this moment really was, right now it feels like I just threw that anvil across a calm river like a good skipping rock and have been freed.

I'm pumped for the Men's Forum, week four is upon us. Loving God with all of our mind, this should be a crazy ride.....Join us at Word of Life Church in Marysville, 7 PM!!!

The Story, From the Inside

In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God.

 

Our Christmas service at AC3 this year will feature 'The Story', an awesome, modernized musical rendition of the Christmas story. In true AC3 fashion it's imaginative, creative and filled with talented people expressing their love of Jesus through song and theatrics.

Our ironic God

 

For years, I've known that God gave me a voice for singing but I never knew what I was supposed to do with it, and frankly, I shied away from it as I have ZERO technical training and was afraid to get on stage and sing. Well, with some pushing from my immediate family and my church family (you know who you are!), I decided I would put myself out there and see what happens.

The audition was a few months back, I received good reviews and was told that they would let me know when there was a spot for me. A few opportunities arose but there were other family events on the weekends preventing me from singing on stage. When I received that fateful email asking everyone their availability for the month, I looked at the family calendar and realized that the only week in December that was available was the week of Christmas.

This is the way God works in my life, he finds my worldly shortcomings, like this one of being timid about getting on stage, standing behind a microphone and singing and gives me no choice but to put my faith in Him and push strait through my limiting beliefs.

So here we go, a child of the one true God, not singing harmony in the background of a worship service for our church (like I would have chosen), but thrown right in to sing a lead vocal in the musical climax of our CHRISTMAS MUSICAL PROGRAM!!

Thank you Jesus and thank you AC3!

 

With 3 rehearsals in the books, I feel incredible, like I'm doing exactly what God had intended for me to do, much like loving my family, completely changing my career path and starting this blog have felt since AC3 led me to the truth about our Savior. There's no possible way that I could feel like this without the amazing production team at AC3. It's unimaginable to have a more patient, talented, loving and passionate group of people than these.

The first 3 days, there's been a lot of "hand holding" so to speak, there's no doubt I need it as this is all new to me. On day one, I couldn't find my cues, I was running in the wrong direction half of the time and felt lost yet EVERYONE stayed calm and coached me to where I needed to be.

Tonight, after day 3, I'm filled with confidence and excitement to share 'The Story' of Jesus Christ, our Savior coming to earth in the flesh to redeem us from our sinful bodies. Being a small part of this story, His story in this powerful house of God that my family calls home is a great honor and I'll be praying diligently in the coming days for strength to perform well and to honor God well this weekend.

Go, tell it on the mountain...

 

So, AC3er's and non AC3er's alike, please join us as we tell this amazing story, the story of Christmas and how Jesus came to us in the flesh to save YOU! These people are amazing and 'The Story' will be enjoyed by all.

Now go! Let's fill this house up all weekend! Make sure everyone you know is invited, in person, on Facebook or wherever else that anyone will listen, it's a story worth knowing....

Click here to go to AC3's website for details on times for encounter services this weekend.

Is Christmas OK to celebrate or does the "No Christmas" stance border on legalism?

These days, you'll get two groups of people telling you that Christmas is a sham Christian holiday, because it's origins are pagan.  The first group are the irreligious agnostics you might know who seem to take some Grinchy delight in exploding your sense of Christmas specialness.  The second group are the very religious, very rigid Christians who condemn anything that is directly or even remotely associated with paganism, witchcraft and spiritualism.  Also, the second group is often having a hyper-protestant overreaction to Catholicism.  The effect is like that of the militant ex-addict we all know, who no longer sees any difference between a beer and a binge. Ironically these two groups share arguments for completely opposite reasons, and yet the result is the same:  make everyone feel lousy about celebrating Christmas.

So is December 25th Jesus' actual birthday?  No one knows for sure when Jesus was born.  Some very creative biblical study can be done to make a case for December 25th. But after reading all the arguments for why Jesus was possibly born in December or September or even the Spring, you find all of them lack this one thing:  explicit biblical support.  They are all cases built on circumstantial evidence and Scriptural inferences.  Which doesn't mean these theories have no merit, it just means we DON'T KNOW for sure.  And that means it doesn't matter, for sure.  

Clearly, Jesus was really born.  Anyone who celebrates that event, is going to be doing so on a somewhat arbitrary date.   We celebrate the births of presidents on days that do not correspond to their actual birthday's.  It doesn't mean they weren't born (Mr Agnostic), and it doesn't mean we're being sacrilegious (Mr No-Christmas Christian).

But why on that date, and why with the trappings we do, like trees and holly are yule logs and stars?  A lot of these traditions have unclear beginnings.  It's true the Romans had a mid-winter celebration, and they lit fires and lights to Saturn.  The pagan Germans used evergreen trees at the winter solstice and yule logs and holly.  So should we assume that if these things began as part of idolatrous worship they should be forbidden?

Well, the Bible nowhere forbids people to put a tree with lights in their living room in December.  The principle some Christians imagine forbids this, is that of God's people separating from pagan beliefs and practices - in Jeremiah 10:1 for example.  This is an important Christian principle to honor.  But let us have a complete understanding of how this principle played out before we apply it to Christmas.  Jeremiah 10:2 says, "do not learn their ways".  What were those?  The same Prophet lists these in chapter 7:5-9:  idol worship, murder, infanticide etc.  Idol worship is clearly a huge concern, but are the symbols and trappings of Christmas idols?  No one I know, who puts a tree in their home or holly on their door, is doing so to appeal to a god who is not the Lord.  They don't do so to gain favor with that god and they surely don't support the immoral practices that God detests in Jeremiah 7 - which pagan idolatry did.  So the principles forbidding the occult can't apply to Christmas traditions as MOST people practice them.  

A case might be made that the commercialism we attach to Christmas IS idolatrous, since it elevates acquisition and materialism above God in our heart's affection.  There's plenty of Scriptural principle forbidding that.  And in that area, we might say Christmas gift giving can lead us into real temptation.  But in and of themselves, that, and other traditions are harmless.  As music is harmless, depending on how it's used.

Both Christian and non-Christian Christmas debunkers admit a certain amount of strategic thinking on the part of the church as it accepted and changed pagan rituals and infused them with Christian meaning.  One author claims, "the Church said, 'bring your gods, goddesses, rituals and rites, and we will assign Christian sounding titles and names to them...'".  Well, let's be clear:  the church, even at it's lowest point, never told people to bring their gods into the church to worship along side of Christ!  It did however, accept many pagan rituals.  Rather than the great compromise, this has to be seen as great genius on some level.

Without compromising the truth about Christ, it showed that the Christian message had deep relevance to the spiritual lives of pagan hearers.  It showed (as Paul did with the Athenians in Acts 17) that what they did in ignorance, the Gospel would fully explain/fulfill.

So for example, having Christmas at the winter solstice, might have been done because the Church retained a distant memory of the actual date, or it might have simply been done for strategic reasons.  But if the latter, what shame in that?  Since no one can deny it's a beautiful natural expression of what Jesus birth represents:  Light coming to a dark world.  What a great teaching vehicle!  Same with taking the German's evergreen tree and seeing in it the promise of eternal life, or taking holly and seeing the blood of Jesus and the crown of thorns.  Same with the lights and fires that point to the Light of the World, and same with gift giving showing us how God so loved the world that he GAVE his only Son.
 

In this way, the Church was saying the Gospel didn't repudiate paganism as a whole but rather FULFILLED it.  A more liberal view perhaps, but a better one for making converts, and also a view more attuned to the reality that God is the author of the Nature pagan's worship.

Yes, many perversions about God are in paganism - but it's basic instinct was to see spiritual reality in the cycles of nature the Creator made.  Well, do we think it's for no reason that Resurrection is celebrated in Spring?  The date of that event is known with certainty (unlike Christ's birth) and I see God's perfect touch in the timing.  God is a romantic!  We propose to our girlfriends in the place we first dated, or first kissed or first saw each other.  You can propose anywhere, why do it there?  Because the time and the place and the setting add weight, symbolic significance to the moment - which enhances memory and affection.  That God was raised from the dead in Spring is perfectly consistent with that same God calling for New Moon festivals, the sacrifice of animals, and who had palm trees and flowers carved into his Temple, and who created festivals around the cycles of the harvest.

We follow in His example then, when we freely use symbols, settings, and rituals to add weight to our memory of his work and his love.

Uptight Christians have this lesson to learn:  because a thing is from nature, doesn't automatically make it pagan, or demonic.  And the truth is, just because the devil will use some natural thing, animal worship or a physical ritual to imprison people to himself, or expose his power or dumb down our view of God (Romans 1:23) nature finally doesn't belong to him!!  If he is using it to promote his power or obscure God, then it is the right and privilege of the people of God to relieve him of it!  If it's the devil's rituals, they are stolen goods and we, the children of God, rightly steal them back!  He holds no ground in this world that's rightfully his.  He only perverts what isn't his originally.  Evil is a merely a parasite, as Lewis once said. 

So I would not approach the use of formerly pagan trappings with fear, cowed by their former meaning, former owner, former usage, or former evil associations.  The earth is the Lord's and I am the Lord's and so the earth is mine.  So a Yule log is mine to burn in the fireplace and my redeemed heart remembers the warmth of God's grace coming to a cold world.  A wreath is mine to hang on the door and say to my neighbors, eternal evergreen life is promised!

Yes, I think the no-Christmas stance not only borders on legalism, it marches right on in!  

Making of a Champion: Seattle Seahawks

The Making of a Champion...

 

The Seattle Seahawks are on the best run in the history of the franchise on the field. They haven't lost a home game in the past two seasons and are one win away from locking up home field advantage throughout the playoffs. 

I'm here to argue that they're on an even better run, off of the field.

 

Everything about this team, on and off the field starts with Russell Wilson. The quarterback of the Seahawks has defied odds his entire life to get where he is right now, and where he is right now is among the best players in all of the NFL. He's breaking all time records in his first two seasons and has never lost in the confines of Centurylink Field in Seattle. 

He's quickly become as beloved of a figure as there ever has been in Seattle sports history, and he's doing it while wearing his faith and his heart on display for the world to see. He's not afraid to show who he is, he's outward in his love of Jesus and is quick to give thanks and all of the glory to God for every blessing he has. 

Russell Wilson, the dynamic QB of the Seattle Seahawks

God strategically placed him here.

Seattle and surrounding areas have the smallest amount of Christians per capita in the United States and I've witnessed personally some real animosity coming from people in our region directed at Christianity. Needless to say, our region is in need of some Christian leadership, some bold Christian leadership led by real love of our neighbors and by men like Russell who can really make a difference. 

Russell Wilson is the embodiment of a leader, his character sometimes nets him the mantra of being a robot, that he's programmed to be a man of integrity. A man who loves his neighbor unconditionally, a man who embraces the idea of greatness and gives the glory for all of his accomplishments to God. The quote below is from Russell Wilson last January, at a press conference before the Seahawks playoff game against the Falcons.

“It’s an unbelievable opportunity. As some of you may know, it’s kind of ironic I ended up here (Seattle) because I put all the teams in a hat. I told my wife, I’m not normally like this. But I put all the teams in a hat, and the one team I pulled out was the Seattle Seahawks. I’m not sure if God or my Dad or somebody had something to do with that. But just to be here is a great opportunity. I’m trying to take advantage of every opportunity I get. You’ve got to cherish these moments."

  Asked what he thought when he was drafted by the Seahawks after he pulled their name out of the hat, Wilson said, “Just I knew I was in the right place at the right time. God’s always done that for me in my life. It’s amazing how that works out. The biggest thing is continue to work and have that work ethic and determination to be great, and don’t shy away from it at all."

Literally gives me chills to read this looking back on the past two years and what this kid has accomplished. He also spends every single Tuesday at Seattle Children's Hospital, brightening the days of little ones that can always use a smile, he never waivers from his efforts to give back to this community and he never waivers in his efforts to make sure the world knows that the glory belongs to God, not to Russell Wilson.

The film.

 

In early October, 2013, a group of Seahawks including our star QB started to publicize something they were calling "The Making of a Champion". I along with thousands of other Seahawks fans were obviously intrigued as with conventional thinking, we've never been "champions" here in Seattle and sports fans have been awaiting that precious moment for a long, long time.

What ensued was far more than this follower of Christ could have imagined. The Making of a Champion was much more than a short film about football, it was a story of these men, leaders in our community and insights in to their personal walks with Jesus. These men put themselves out there, in the middle of a broken world, a broken city with broken culture and declared that they love Jesus. Courage and conviction in every one of their eyes and in their hearts. They explained what led them to God and that even though they'd obtained their worldly goals by playing or coaching in the NFL, that the glory is God's for every gift that He's given them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where they go from here.

As for the Seahawks, they're on the verge of the best season in franchise history and have the best record in the NFL with the playoffs in just a few short weeks. To say that I'm excited about all of that would be an understatement, I'm equally excited to see what this group of champions will do in the off season in our local communities and our local churches.

You can go to their webpage, here for more information on what they've got going on or connect with them on your favorite social media network.

 

One Follower of Christ's Jackpot!

A Christ Follower's reward

I heard our leader, our Senior Pastor Rick Thiessen say at the end of the night, " To you AC3 regulars, use this as your pay day, know that this is why you spend the long ours serving, giving your time and your creativity to God and to this church and let it fuel you until the next".

Amen! That's what baptism night is all about for the people following Christ, it's the reward of sharing our faith so that others may know Him and can find their own walk with Jesus and ultimately accept Him as the leader of their lives and forgiver of their sins. This is the culmination of our work in the community, changing lives for eternity through the power of Jesus Christ.

This night was more than that for me, much more... 

It all started earlier this week, I knew my Mom was going to be attending the baptism class to learn what baptism means according to the bible and according to AC3's leadership. In typical Rick Thiessen fashion, he had the wheels turning in my Mom's head when she left the meeting. She knew her heart had been changed by the Holy Spirit, she knew that she'd accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior, but her thoughts went to how to tell the story of how God had touched her life and how she came to know Him.

Mom's Testimony 

 

I certainly wasn't prepared for the story that she would tell, Mom's a bit of a crier and knew she'd struggle with reading it in front of the crowd on the night of the baptism so she wrote it down for Rick to read.

There were four main points, the first, that my Grandma decided to break from the baptist church that she'd grown up in and let my Mom decide for herself about her religion, looking back, she was incredibly grateful for this as it was all part of God's plan to reveal Himself in her life. 

The second and third were holding the hands of two of her favorite people as they took their last breaths on earth and joined Jesus in heaven. My great-aunt passed on a few years back and my Grandma just this past February. These two ladies were the kindest, gentlest most loving people you will ever meet and both of them knew that they were headed to a room that the Good Lord had prepared for them. There is no doubt about the profound affect that these two women's faith had on my Mom, she was next to my Grandma for her entire fight with cancer and eventually watched it consume her best friend. One of the toughest people she'd ever met became as frail as could be and her faith in God never wavered.

Completely Breathtaking

 

The fourth, well the fourth was me. She said that in the past few years she'd watched me completely transform. The fact that I could even be mentioned in this testimony with two women whom my Mom loved dearly and witnessed them passing on to their eternal life is still blowing my mind as I write this.

She said that she'd watched me become a "true believer" and that the peace I'd found in my life was the final piece she was looking for from God to accept Jesus in to her heart for all eternity. My mind is seriously blown by this, all I've done is try to follow God's word. Try to be the best man I can for my family, my community and try every day to be full of faith that God loves us and sent His Son to save us. I'm certainly not perfect, my walk has had it's ups and downs like any other, sometimes more ups and downs.

Mom honored me in such a way that is unfathomable to my former self. She asked that I be the one that baptize her, that I get in the tub with her and not only witness her public declaration of faith, but to be right there with her through the beautiful display. I was infinitely blessed to do so.

There were 11 baptisms tonight, all are special, I love every one of God's children that proclaimed their obedience to Jesus today, but this one will stick with me for all eternity. The energy in the AC3 building was unlike any I'd ever felt, the music, Dan's sermon, all of it had amazing energy. The Holy Spirit was as strong as I've ever felt it at our church. Thank you for this night Jesus.

God's lesson in all of this for me...

Whether it's your Mom, a coworker, a friend, possibly a foe or just a passer by, how they see you living matters and it matters greatly. Be the light on the hill that Jesus called us to be, be the salt in the community and in our culture that desperately needs it. You never know who is watching and you just may be the reason that someone's eternal life is saved. Don't underestimate the power of just living the way God intended you to in a community that needs you.....

This wasn't your average Christian pay day, this Christian hit the Jackpot tonight!!

Thank you so much to my church family for being there to share it!

AC3 Men's Getaway - What Does Love Require of Me?

What Does Love Require of Me?

In years past, I would have thought that 18 men headed for a lodge up in the mountains would need to start with a common activity, fishing, hunting, skiing, snowmobiling, partying or maybe a mix of those in some form. The mere thought of this getaway, the fact that all of these men are here to just get to know each other better, to get to know God better and to just take a refreshing break from every day life was unfathomable for the first 30 years of my life. Maybe just weird, yeah, I definitely would have thought it was just weird.

I went anyways....

Maybe it is weird, maybe we are weird, with all of the things in today’s world that are genuinely strange and often harmful to humanity, I’m ok with this kind of weird. I’m now firm in the belief that it’s this kind of weird that today’s world lacks, desperately. The kind of weird that allows us to be different, to stand out in the crowd like the light on top of the hill that Jesus called us to be. Not the look at me, look what I’m doing and crying out for attention standing out but the kind of weird that allows time for men to grow in to the leaders that our generation is looking for, the kind of leaders God intended us to be.

 

18 of God's Men, AC3 Men's Getaway 2013

Selah....

The Selah lodge is owned by a friend of AC3, we are blessed that he opens the doors of this wonderful place to us for this men’s getaway. It’s meant to be a house where The Lord is present, Selah is used in the book of Psalms 71 times, it’s closest translation is “pause, and look at that”, or it’s referenced as a musical interlude/pause within a psalm. To me, it’s a sacred place to pause and be with God and to be with the men that God has put in my life.

Our opening prayer is to take in the name, Selah, to use this time as a pause, to take in God’s rejuvinating power and let it fuel us to lead our families better as well as our community. To me this hit as soon as I parked the truck, I don’t know about you but everyday life can at times beat me down, mentally and physically. Recharging my battery and my passion for discerning God’s will in my life are vital in my Christian walk, a large gasp of the fresh mountain air when I stepped out of the truck was all it took for me to find the peace within the weekend, before it really began.

A safe place...       

The theme of the weekend, was based on The Book of Matthew 22:37-40.

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The question proposed by our elders/teachers in attendance for the weekend was “what does love require of me?” This struck me, the entire weekend hung on this question, in fact, when you read the words of Jesus, our entire walk as disciples of Christ hangs on this question.

Clay’s story....

Well you see, for me, I’ve had a problem in the past with letting society’s cliche’s get in the way of me actually knowing someone. Before the trip had even started, we were all gathering in the parking lot looking to take off and I see this rough, tough looking dude, tattoo on his neck with the look of a man who’d been to hell and back on this earth. I remember thinking, “oh great, I have to spend the whole weekend with this guy”. That thought was real, it is how my mind has operated for many years, possibly my entire life. Clearly I’ve been distancing myself from some meaningful relationships due to preconceived notions that somehow I was better than this person, or in some cases, this person was better than me.

As is God’s way of teaching, Clay rode in my car on the way over and I was instantly drawn to him. Clearly God was at work in his heart and clearly he was here with us to make himself a better servant of God. As our teaching session was coming to a close the next morning, Clay told us his life story leading up to that day. I must say, some tears were shed by all. For a man to overcome as much violence and addiction as Clay had, to find redeeming power in the grace of God is absolutely nothing short of a miracle. A man that had been through more than 15 years of what would have and has killed most people whose path had crossed drugs, anger, violence and prison to be here today in the presence of God at Selah lodge, clearly God has more plans for this man. I pray that he never loses sight of the fact that God has placed him exactly where he is today to make an impact on this world, and to be a light within it.

How it hit me...

When the group separated for some free time after Clay poured his heart out to us, I wanted to grab my computer and find a quiet place to write. My instant thoughts went to the question, “what does love require of me?” and how does this pertain to Clay?

I had barely written two sentences when the door popped open and in walked Clay. He sat down on the floor below the bunk bed that I was on the top of and grabbed his iPad, seemingly to settle in for a bit like I was. We talked for more than 2 hours, I won’t divulge in to what the conversation was all about, but I will tell you that I love that man as Jesus does and as I’m called to by our Lord and Savior. The notion that there was a time in my life that I would have never known a story like Clay’s, that I would have never been around to be a friend, a brother in Christ if he needed me and had thoughts of sinking in to his old life genuinely frightens me to my core. I’m so thankful that I decided to be in that place, with those men that weekend with an open heart, God poured in his love and I’ll never judge a book by it’s cover again.

My advice...

As with most thing’s God sees as good, you have to leave the easy road behind. Think outside the box, get weird and get involved with people who will make you a better servant of God. Take a chance and go on a retreat, getaway or just call somebody and find a group that will help you grow, it’s the lone sheep that get’s slaughtered by the enemy.