consistency is not my middle name.  since my surgery in late July and family camp shortly following after that, I haven’t been here at all.  as usual, that isn’t to say that I haven’t been doing anything, on the photo phront =) it’s been very busy with quite a few production jobs for me to do and so I have been busy doing that, working my real job and being a dad, a husband, friend, computer geek, etc.

My focus this year has been on family worship, even before family camp, I was influenced that I needed to start doing this on a regular basis and most weeks, we have family worship 6 nights a week.  We might miss here and there due to late bed times or extenuating circumstances, but each night we read and sing and pray together as a family while we sit together, usually on our bed.  It’s a cool time and it’s fun to watch their minds work and for them to ask questions and for them to see things that we don’t and for them to get excited about things that are new.

I won’t make any promises to be here more.  my busy-ness dictates that some things have to fall off the plate and this is just one of those things.  One thing that I am working to put in my schedule is a weekly escape for a couple hours to read and pray and listen.  I’m so busy that I don’t do this, but I realize how much it is needed.  Not only on a weekly basis, but on a daily basis to some extent.  So often we think about the things we have to do.  read our bible, pray, serve, evangelize, etc.  Yet we often miss just being.  We aren’t Christians because of what we do, but because of what HE has done.  He has saved us and enabled us.  He invites us to join Him in His work and so it is not “we have to do this or that” but “we get to do this or that”.  God has made it so that we desire Him and to be a part.  We often mess this up by what we are taught and what we see because so many are performance based in religion, like the pharisees were and so the mark is set by what you do, not by what God has done.  If we spent more time considering and being awed by what God has done and not what we have done, then we might actually see what it is that God has placed before us to join Him in rather than all the duty we get wrapped up in.  Not that all those things we think we have to do aren’t good or need to be done, but our heart about them, my heart specifically, needs to change so that I hunger and desire and delight rather than carry them out in somber duty.  Like John Piper’s story about an anniversary night going home to get his wife.  He arrives at the door, rings the door bell and presents his wife with roses.  She responds “you shouldn’t have”.  He responds back ” oh, but I had to, it was my duty and I always carry out my duty”.  This removes the specialness of the event.  But if rather he responded “I know I didn’t have to, but I couldn’t help it, it is my delight and nothing would delight me more than seeing you smile and delighting you this way and giving you joy.”  That recount is not exact, but it sticks with me.  I am a duty bound person who hasn’t fully realized that my true duty is not the work but the delight.  without the joy and delight, duty is death.

I regress.  I’m busy, busy,  terribly busy, you’ve no idea what I have to do (veggie tales).  and such busyness can kill a person.  So I am working to balance and make things less busy yet again and spend time where it needs to be spent and so on and so forth.  that means I am not here much.  but that’s ok if that’s what I need to do.  an encouraging word here and there is likely to pop out, but overall, I’m attempting to attend to those things that are most important.  Like Martha and Mary.  Martha worked and Mary sat at Jesus feet.  Martha’s focus on work wasn’t evil, but like me, she was anxious and troubled over many things and busy, yet Mary chose the better portion which would not be taken from her.  Martha missed that opportunity to be in the presence of the Lord on earth, His time there was to be short.  May I not be so busy and task minded to miss the opportunity to be at his feet before He returns.

peace to you.

tom

today was a good day all around. we got some good relaxing and we got to hear some great speaking and teaching.

I’m humbled and overwhelmed at the duty of leading my family in worship at home. it is what is missing in most Christian homes and it is likely why we lose so many of our children to the world, because we don’t actually live what we profess to believe and love.  It is sad.

But I can make a difference.  Family Worship was not modeled for me, but there are many resources that can help us learn how to do it.  As men, we don’t like to move into zones where we are not comfortable.  But if we proclaim to be Christian, then this is an area where we cannot fail, fail our families or fail God.  God deserves our worship, in our homes, by our families.  Us men should lead them.

Donald S. Whitney spoke tonight about this.  I think that it impacted a lot of men there, I hope that it did.  I have been influenced indirectly by Whitney through my pastor, Jason Zellmer in leading my family in worship daily.  It has been for quite a while that I have been doing this over the past year.  I have read the bible with Brighton since she was 3, but usually in an inconsistent manner.  Family worship is a bit different, but not much.  Mainly you read scripture, you pray together and you sing songs.  10-15 minutes is all we spend before bed time with the kids.  It will grow to be more as they mature. I already spend extra time with Brighton in the bible.

It was good today to know that we are on the right track. We don’t do it perfectly and there are lots of areas of improvement, but we are doing something, in hope to instill knowledge that leads to faith by God’s Spirit working in our children with the Word that we plant in them.  I am hopeful that they will come to salvation.  I am thankful and prayerful that God has put this priority on me and that He will sustain me.

there is nothing as important as pursuing the Lord and seeking to glorify Him in our love and obedience for Him.  If this is so, and if we truly love our children, then shouldn’t we too be seeking God in family worship where father, mother, children and guests praise God together daily?  It sounds old fashioned to some.  There isn’t much new that is working great if you haven’t noticed.  Family worship can be traced back to Genesis.  you can’t get much more ancient than that.  It’s the way that God intended things to be.  let us pursue Him in family worship. Lets make it a continuous pursuit from now until He brings us home.

until the next time, if God wants.

tom

from the beginning, this seemed like such an awesome camp concept and we were excited to attend.  Like most things worthy and Godly, it is no wonder that so much spiritual warfare has taken place, not just in our family, but also in many families in attendance or in leadership in the various ministries and churches partnered with St. Louis Family Camp.  About 3 weeks prior to family camp, I found out that I would need to have surgery to repair a painful fissure or tear on my backside.  The surgery is not necessarily dangerous, but because of the location, it is a very sore surgery with a long recovery time.  Some other problems are that the drugs that you are on to fight pain, and the antibiotics that you are on to avoid infection all sort of work against you digestively.  You can get bound up and that can be pretty uncomfortable in itself.

Well, all that hit me yesterday morning before we headed to family camp, and I just couldn’t imagine how it was going to work out, getting to family camp and also just surviving the discomfort and dealing with consitpation and pain of sitting.  All those things weighed on me and tried to convince me that I just needed to stay home and forego attending family camp this year.  I was 10 days out from surgery and could have used the I’m not well card.  I could have.  I would have.  But my loving wife patiently convinced me of the reality of the spiritual warfare at work with me and with many others planning on attending camp.  She showed me that while I could stay home, I would likely regret it later, and that I would not have experienced the impact of being here and learning from the great teachers and being encouraged and encouraging others in talking with other families in the midst of same struggles of raising a family that one day will ultimately place their hope and salvation in God.

After all that, we got out of the house by noon, but after 20 minutes, we realized that we had forgotten Kiana’s meds and we had to head back.  Another notch in the let’s just stay home tree.  I was still not feeling well and we had to drive into St. Louis (opposite direction from family camp) to get my new drug prescription which was a whole other issue of communication between doctor and pharmacy and patient.  We finally got the prescription and by that time I felt that I could make it to camp with the 3 hour drive.  Note that we left by noon, it was a 3 hour drive to camp and we arrived at camp at 6:15. We had a few stops and a few hiccups, but we finally made it.  The trip down was gorgeous, with the exposed limestone cliffs and the flowing hills and the green fields and trees and the bailed hay ready to be picked up.

On arrival we quickly got everything thrown in our room and headed back out to the first session at 7pm with Voddie Baucham.  Voddie made several good points last night and brought to light a lot of things that people that have not read “family driven faith” would likely not have been exposed to before.  Here are some thoughts and notes I took…

Restoring the Family – the concept of family has been significantly changed in this modern age. We need to restore it and we cannot do that in isolation.

The basis for family driven faith, for bringing our children up with a biblical worldview can be found in Deuteronomy 6

Restoring the family is usually likened to returning to the golden age, like to the 1950′s.  The 1950′s were not good.

10% of Christians have a biblical worldview – this is bad

51% of Christian Pastors have a biblical worldview – this is very bad

You can’t give or teach what you don’t have yourself.

We are currently losing 75-88% of our kids as they go to college.

Deuteronomy6 is multigenerational vision for families.  - You, your sons and your son’s sons.

Today’s vision in America is Materialism.  Make enough money to send your kids to a good school so that they can give their kids more than you gave your kids who got more than your parents gave you.  It is all materialism mantra.

We need to fear God… how?

By keeping all his statutes and his commandments, all of our days.

We cannot do it or impart it thru “paint by numbers” spirituality.  Faith by numbers.

We have been given what we need, the word of God.  No action steps or silly methodology or innovation is needed.

Teach the Word & Magnify God

Why would we fear God? For what purpose?

That we may fear him and that we may have many days and that it would go well with us in the land.

This cannot be done in isolation. You cannot achieve this on your own. This has to be accomplished in Covenant Community.  We fail to see our failures, our blindspots, others can help us.  Do we want the help?

Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 on the greatest commandment.  The greatest commandment is 1-4 and the second greatest commandment is 5-10.

We need to understand God’s Law since it is that which Jesus told us to obey.  If we ourselves don’t understand it, then how will we teach our children.

Teaching our children what to do and what not to do without tying it to God and to His word accomplishes nothing but setting up of rules to be broken later when they leave our presence.

In Deuteronomy 6 it shows an awesome picture of how we are to raise our children and how we are to live.  The things of God should be constantly on our lips and we should teach them to our children at all times in our lives together.

The problem is that the industrial revolution has changed all this. We don’t live together like we once did.  Dad doesn’t work the nearby land or shop, mom has joined the workforce, kids are in school, being schooled by the government.

With less time together, how do we impart biblical worldviews to our children.  How do we do that if we don’t know the bible ourself.

We must be aware that our current culture and our current lifestyles go against the grain of bringing up children that know God.  So we must make hard decisions and efforts to see that we attend to this most important duty and responsibility of ours, given to us by God.

Saturday morning I woke up in a bit of pain at 7am, but was able to get it under control by about 10am with my meds and next dose at 9am.  We made it a bit early to the worship celebration service and it was a great time of songs.  Xander danced under my hand holding in the back of the gymnasium.  We sang and had a good time.  After that, Jason Zellmer taught some and led us through a prayer time for our families, for us as men to lead them and crying out to God to use our children in mighty ways.

After that, we had a 10:30 session on Enjoying your Marriage which was a great overview on how to enjoy your marriage and glorify God when so many people today struggle with the spouse they have and their level of satisfaction or happiness in marriage.  Some important points were:

you must be spirit filled and willing to surrender your control

You must submit to one another.j

you must honor your God given role in marriage as a husband or a wife.

Know your differences – prophet, king, priest / what-where, how, who

husbands must be like Christ.  Eph 5

die to self

suffer the most

take responsibility for what’s not your fault

forgive first

We must trust each other, respect the husband, love the wife

husbands must listen, wives must speak up

a Godly Husband facilitates and creates an environment where conversations can be open and honest.

Husbands set the tone of the household

We must rejoice in God more than our spouse

our spouse otherwise will be an idol and we are not to have idols.

Our spouses can’t save us, they can’t take sin

We as a married couple must have passionate and frequent Sex – 1Corinthians7

We shall not deprive one another

The bible is pro-sex in marriage – we should not hold out or use sex as a weapon or tool

We should have grace filled speech with and about each other Eph4:31-32

because it has been done for you

Gossip and Slander about your spouse is still Gossip and Slander

You need to ask your spouse if you are enjoyable.

Take Joy in Creation with your spouse

grand canyon

arts and theater

find things to enjoy together that point towards God.

Then we ran out, had lunch, everyone but me got their bathing suits on and we headed to the pool where I sat in the sun and watched everyone else have a good time.  Not ready for pool time yet.

lots of stuff has happened these past couple months, not the least of which a recent surgery that has sort of cast me out of sorts for a few weeks or more.  being absent from here has been a common pattern. it is hard to remain consistent in anything for long if it is not your treasure and your main desire. My treasure and main desire is to glorify God and love my family.  I don’t do those things well all the time, but they are where my resources and time are pointed whereas blogging, writing and other similar activities communicating what is going on inside is important to me, but something that falls off the plate when other priorities require more attention.

My wife has bought me a writing tool, a netbook that will hopefully allow me to spend time and precious moments writing from bed, from wi-fi spots, from all sorts of locations.  I am excited and thankful for this gift and I pray that it is used for God’s glory in writing and encouraging and loving other people, especially my own family.  That I will record memories, lessons and other things for us to grow and learn from.

I have been absent.  I will probably be again, but i hope that it is less often and that I can hone skills that God can use in all sorts of ways, in all sorts of places.  I am thankful to be feeling better, to be on the mend and feeling like things might someday turn back to normal.  God is and has been so gracious to me in so many ways, I have no response other than to glorify Him and tell others the grace I have received.  Not because I deserved it, but because He is gracious and loving. I have been favored, on no account of my own.  His grace is available to all who will accept it.

will you?

more on that later.

peace.

this morning I read psalm 142-144.  I came across these verses…

[Psa 144:12-14 ESV] – May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown,
our daughters like corner pillars cut for the structure of a palace;
may our granaries be full, providing all kinds of produce;
may our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields;
may our cattle be heavy with young, suffering no mishap or failure in bearing;
may there be no cry of distress in our streets!

Visiting the farm this week and the surrounding farmland and communities where my dad and mom grew up brings some of this to light.  However, for most of us, the references to farming and crops and livestock go over our head.  We don’t really have a clue about the importance and life dependence on these things, mainly because we get our stuff from a grocery store.  We are still dependent up on these things, it is just that we are often removed from them in this day and age and we purchase with desk work rather than land work in many ways.

As a parent,  I grapple with how to raise my children.  even  verse 12 is difficult for these days.  We don’t often see the importance of the health of a plant or the pillar in a palace.  A healthy, mature plant is not easily taken down by pests and pestilence.  It is strong and healthy, drawing deeply from it’s roots.  We don’t frequent palaces, but corner pillars support the building, these mentioned are polished and beautiful.  more on this later, the children (speaking of) just woke up… think about your children, now, or grown or future… how do you desire them to be raised?  It doesn’t happen by chance, but by a plan.