image courtesy of Dosso Dossi

Many in the liturgical tradition are celebrating Saint Bartholomew today. This is one of the lesser known apostles as he doesn't have a speaking part in the Bible. Tradition of him is also limited although there is some indication that he went north into present day Turkey in the region of that was once part of Armenia. There is also some indication he took a copy of Matthew's gospel to India. What we do know is that he took to the message of Christ out from Jerusalem.

With that awareness the liturgical church takes inspiration from his example and prays for the same behaviors and attitudes in them. I think it is a beautiful aspect of the Christian life that many of us are not exposed to. Below is an except of the Book of Common Prayer for this day. May you find inspiration and help in your prayers through the history of the church that has gone before us.

The Collect.

O ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who didst give to thine Apostle Bartholomew grace truly to believe and to preach thy Word; Grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church, to love that Word which he believed, and both to preach and receive the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Epistle. Acts v. 12.

BY the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.

image courtesy of Jason Upton's website

I recently heard Jason Upton's adoption story repeated and loved how God strung together different events to show His love. Jason Upton is a worship leader often compared to Keith Green - whose passion for the Lord comes clearly through his music. His story is that he is adopted, and recently as he had gotten older decided the need to pursue finding his birth parents. What he found out was the amazing hand of God fulfilling his destiny.

Jason's mom became a Christian in the late 60's early 70's in the Jesus movement. She loved Jesus then fell for this man who was "not yet" a believer. In Jason's words he was the fruit of evangelism gone bad. A few months into the pregnancy his mom decided she wanted to get an abortion. Jason's dad talked her out of it.

Three months after Jason was born, Jason was placed in the home of his adoptive parents. During this time his mom put together a box of memories for Jason. She included pictures of him, the house, and his parents. She also included his story and a prayer she had written out.

This adoption was considered a closed adoption. This is where the only way for Jason or the parents to find out who the other was is through mutual consent. So some time after Jason contacted the adoption agency with his request, he received this box. He opened the box, looked through the pictures, and read the prayer. His mom had prayed that Jason would one day become a worshipper and lead others into worship. God had answered her prayer without Jason knowing it was prayed for him and without his mom knowing it was fulfilled.

After getting the box, Jason called his mother. All the adoption agency had told her was that her son was looking for her and may call. So when the call came through Jason said, "My name is Jason Upton, and I believe I'm your son." Her husband then came on the line, said she could not talk now, and hung up.

What had happened after putting Jason up for adoption was his mom went through some tough emotional pain during which she abandoned the Lord that took many years to come out from under. When she finally started to come back, she had a lot of unresolved issues for the Lord to heal. She had noticed that there was one musician that her church had played that really spoke the words on her heart. She asked around to find out who it was and bought that CD. She did not know at that time was the music she had bought was from the son she had given to adoption.

I am sure there is more to this story I missed in the retelling. But what I did gain was how the hand of God was at work in a situation that at points had been very traumatic for Jason's mom. God is powerful enough to turn all of our darkest moments into signs of His wonderful goodness. No situation is too bad that can't be redeemed. Jason is who he is because his mom allowed him to be adopted by his parents. It has affected his life and affected his ministry. And through it all, God's hand was at work redeeming and blessing. God works through all things for good.

Additional resource:

• A Treasury of Adoption Miracles by Karen Kingsbury

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image of Fakarava dock courtesy of Rotoava

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest. - Matthew 11:28

For many the Christian life is anything but rest. We are encouraged each Sunday with spending daily time with God in prayer AND Bible study. We have two or three meetings a week at church. Of course there are prayer meetings, men/women's groups, accountability times, etc. Then we have our day jobs. And, don't forget to spend time with the family. Where are we to squeeze in the promised rest?

Jesus' example doesn't give us much hope either. He spends long hours ministering to people then pulls away for extended prayer. He seems constantly busy.

He also seems to lead the disciples into the same busyness. Look at Mark 6. Jesus sends out the twelve for them to try some ministry on their own. They see success, but when they come back to share their success stories, they hear news that John the Baptist is beheaded. Unfortunately there were too many people around for the disciples to get time with Jesus, so Jesus promises them some time alone and rest. As they go to separate themselves from the crowd, the crowd followed them and Jesus gave a day long sermon. The disciples try to encourage Jesus to send the crowd away, but Jesus gets them to feed the crowd. After this miracle, Jesus tells the disciples to go across the lake. The simple act of rowing was even difficult because of a storm that Jesus knew was coming. Battered, tired, and confused the disciples get to the other side to be rushed again by the crowds bringing the sick to Jesus. Where is the rest?

The problem with rest is that we have the definition wrong. When we think of rest, we see ourselves on a hammock at the beach sipping a drink with an umbrella. We think rest is doing nothing.

Jesus' definition of rest is different. He says come to me and I will give you rest. At the very least we have to have motion towards Jesus. It is not the absence of doing anything. Rest redefines work, not replaces it.

• Work has been our striving to accomplish tasks.
• Rest is allowing Jesus to lead us into the work He wants to accomplish through us.

Jesus exemplified this rest by doing only what He saw His Father doing (John 5:19).

None of the items at the beginning of the post are bad. In fact it is good to to spend time with God in prayer and Bible study. It is good to do your day job well and spend time with your family.

The problem arises when you see these things as tasks to check off in hopes of getting to your rest. Invite Jesus into your tasks. Look for Him. When you find Him, your tasks will no longer be a burden but will be a source of life.

John 4 starts with Jesus tired from His journey (ever think of Jesus being tired?). The disciples are off trying to find him some food. Jesus starts to minister to a lady by the well. Revival starts. And, Jesus is refreshed. Jesus says our food is in the spiritual not the just the natural. O Lord, open our eyes that we may see the work you are doing around us. Help us to do only what we see You doing and not strive to do things in order to find you. You are a good Father. We believe You will take care of us as we follow You.

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I came across this video today and wanted to share it. It seems to come from the Ministry of Education and Science in the Republic of Macedonia. Hope you enjoy.

image courtesy of Beverly & Pack

Our Heavenly Dwelling

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5:1-7

I have been stuck on this passage the last couple days enjoying things I was getting from it. For instance, the line about longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked brought up some interesting thoughts. Were Adam and Eve clothed with a heavenly dwelling before the fall? Later the verse says that the Holy Spirit is a deposit of this clothing of heavenly dwelling. So were Adam and Eve clothed with the Holy Spirit as a deposit or did they have the full thing?

While I find this line of thinking interesting, I am inspired by the phrase that we were made for this very purpose. This gets us beyond theological musing into the intent of God for our lives. We were made to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling and the Holy Spirit is a partial deposit of what is to come. So what does this mean? If we were made for this, I want to know what it is.

I think Paul follows with a practical explanation of what it means. He uses two analogies of contrast to bring light to this concept.

1. Home in the body; away from the Lord
2. Live by faith, not by sight

This second phrase is something I have heard throughout my Christian experience with varying levels of understanding to what it means. At times it has had the mystical weight that is often put on the phrase, "faith as big as a mustard seed". Is this faith in whatever we want to happen? How much is enough faith? Should we ignore the things I see because it is all about whatever I am imagining in my mind?

Obviously those questions do not lead into what God has for us and often takes us off track in our Christian walk. I think that following the flow of the entire passage brings clarity to what Paul/God is trying to communicate.

Being at home in the body is equal to being away from the Lord. Being home with the Lord is being clothed in our heavenly dwelling. Therefore it is important to know what being at home in the body looks like. This is allowing the things of our physical lives to take precedence over the things of heaven. Or, to put it another way, it is allowing our understanding of how the world operates take precedence over what God says is true. It is trusting in our five senses instead of the leading of the Holy Spirit... that deposit of the heavenly dwelling.

Our five senses are not only sight, but hear, smell, taste, and FEEL. I know that the fifth sense is touch, but calling it feel opens it up to more. Touch tells you stepped on something sharp; feel is the pain mixed with worry of how bad it is cut. I have highlighted feel because this is the level that fear resides.

These five senses are based and controlled by the circumstances of life and our past experiences that define those circumstances. For instance, when you touch a hot stove, you learn not to do it again. Therefore if you have tried something in the past that has caused you pain or embarrassment, you are not likely to try it again. If a circumstance in your life comes up that feels like a past experience that caused pain, you will approach it with caution. If you have had a friend betray you in the past, you are not as likely to open up to someone else. Similarly if you have done something in the past that has made you feel good, you are likely to go back to do it again (e.g. addictions).

God is saying that basing our lives off our five senses keeps us away from Him.

Isn't that irresponsible? Isn't that the definition of futility, to try the same thing over again and expecting a different result? There is something different here. If Peter had trusted in his five senses, he would not have gotten out of the boat to walk on water. The difference of faith is God calls us to something different, and as soon as He calls us to it, that is to be our new reality. And, since He has called us to it, we can and should expect different results.

So faith is not in whatever we want to get. Faith is living by what God says is true, not what we have experienced as true based on the past.

As long as we believe sight as our true perspective, our prayers will be limited. When we operate on sight we think:

• that person will never come to Christ
• we can't afford to take time off work to spend time with my family
• I'll never overcome my sin
• the doctor said she only has 6 months to live

God may just have a different reality. Do not be limited by sight, but ask God for His will and pray accordingly.

What situation in your life are you trusting in sight and not even asking God His perspective?

Several months ago I (Kevin) wrote a post on 10 things to pray for your wife. I’m finally getting around to complete those thoughts with a list of prayer items for your husband. For the wife I followed closely to the Proverbs 31 passage, not wanting to assume I know what I wife would need. However for the husband I took liberties. Here are things I would like my wife to ask God these things for me.

1. Grant him more than enough income to provide for your family.
2. Give him success in all that he puts his hands to.
3. Recharge him at home more than at work or play.
4. Help him develop friendships with other men that would encourage, validate, bless, and focus him on who God says he is.
5. May he will see you as his helpmate and may you be his best friend, supporter, and lover.
6. Make your image the model of beauty for him. (This is a concept I got from Gary Thomas' book, Sacred Marriage)
7. Help him to know that you believe in him, trust his decisions for the family, and are proud of what he is able to accomplish at work.
8. May we take every opportunity to bless each other and allow the Holy Spirit to be the one to convict of sin.
9. Allow him to truly enjoy time with Jesus and look to Him for direction and life to give to the family.
10. Open his eyes to God’s plan for his life. The plan he was created for and would stir up energy and passion in him.

Additional resources:

• The Power of a Prayer Wife by Stormie Omartian

image courtesy of FamilyLife

In the garden God said it was not good for man to be alone. Man had perfect communion with God, but God said He was alone. Then He creates woman as a help-mate for him. The answer to man’s loneliness was not more of God; it was woman. Isn’t that strange?

Unfortunately, it did not take long for the oneness between man and woman was jeopardized. The forbidden fruit was eaten, and shame and blame enter the garden. Separation occurs between God and man, but it also occurs between man and women. “This woman, she…”

So many of us thought that marriage would be the answer to the pain in our lives. We saw our spouse as the miracle drug to end all of our loneliness. Unfortunately, marriage is often the source of greater loneliness.

The point is God created marriage for oneness, but sin distorts God's plan. Sin and shame keep us from moving out of our shell we have created to protect us of exposure and pain. As we remain isolated from our spouse, additional pain and shame are added to it. Then we pull even more away into our protective shell. We are on a deadly spiral, and we need something or someone to stop the bleeding.

God in His masterful plan usually puts two people together that are perfectly matched to heal all of the pain. The thing is that in order to enter into that healing there needs to be tiny deaths to self along the way. Are you going to choose to deny yourself to allow healing to flow? When your spouse shares their struggles with impure thoughts, are you going to offer grace or shame? When your spouse tells you about their eating disorder, do you offer love or condemnation? When your spouse confides with you their fears, do you offer words of life or dismiss them as unrealistic?

The right choices above are usually not easy because it is those areas of hurt in your spouse that fed the areas of hurt in your life. You have to choose life for your spouse because even though attacking them feels like protecting you, it will hinder any chance of either of you to find freedom. Take your fears to Jesus. Allow Him to protect you. Then offer life to your spouse.

Jesus is better at protecting you than you are anyhow. Therefore you are able to move toward oneness.

• Additional Resource: When Opposites Attract in Marriage (via FamilyLife)

image used courtesy of Project M: Marriage Blog

Recently God is putting a lot of people in my path that are struggling in their marriages. There is a consistent encouragement that God has been allowing me to share that I think appropriate here.

Many people with marriage issues face an emotional rollar coaster. Good days and bad days. The good days are encouraging, but they are also emotionally draining because you just do not know what you are going to get. Some days your spouse thinks you are the source of everything wrong; other days they are offering hope to something better.

What is going on? Is your spouse bi-polar? How come you do not know what you are going to get?

On those good days, your spouse is living out of their true self. All God’s works are wonderful therefore when our lives reflect the fruit of the Spirit, we are living out of who God created us to be (Psalm 139:14 and Galatians 5:22). Even if your spouse is not a Christian, deep down God has created in them the desire to have a good and healthy marriage with you.

Since this is God’s will for your spouse, the enemy will try to steal, kill, and destroy it (John 10:10). He is feeding lies into your spouse about you, them, and your marriage. Therefore the ups and downs in your marriage are your spouse’s choice over which voice they will listen to.

Now before you think this is only a matter of spiritual warfare, your spouse does have responsibility in the matter. And, choices they have made in the past allow the enemy greater influence.

Let’s say your spouse had a father that constantly berated them saying they would never amount to anything. Therefore they grew up with many lies about God and themselves. One would be that God would never come through for them. What happens when there are difficulties in the marriage? The enemy feeds into those lies saying it is not going to work out. God is not going to protect you. You might as well give up. Your spouse is out to get you. They don’t believe you will amount to anything anyway. You don’t need that kind of pressure.

Because of the events of the past and the lies they already believe, the enemy’s lies are now amplified to a degree that they cannot hear the voice of God.

What are you to do? Choose not to respond in like form. When they speak these lies to you, do not get angry. Do not defend. Respond in love. Always proclaim your commitment toward the marriage. In prayer take authority over the enemy reducing his ability to speak to your spouse and to you. As you deny the enemy’s ability to speak, then the voice of God will be able to penetrate easier to your spouse.

This is not a magic pill. Your spouse still has the choice of whose voice to listen to. But you will be preparing the ground for a better harvest. You can plant the seed, till the ground, and water the plant, but only God causes it to grow. It is the pleasure of God to change lives. And, even if your spouse decides not to change, God blesses those who choose to give life to others. Rest in His ability to protect and provide for you.

• Additional Resource: 10 Things to Pray for Your Wife

Obviously this will not be an objective book review as some of the other ones since I’m the author. At the same time I wanted to let you know about Church Search because I believe that many of church leaders reading this blog will find information helpful for them.

Three years ago, Christianity Today wrote an article on the church online stating 80 to 85 percent of people are finding their church based on websites. This percentage has only increased over time. Unfortunately, what I have found is that many churches desiring to attract new people have purchased a nice website but have not thought through how people find that website. Therefore most churches and ministries are missing free advertising and prospective visitors by neglecting some simple search engine optimization tactics for their website.

The goal of this book is to educate ministry leaders on the importance of having a presence online for their church or ministry, how to leverage the power of search engines to help people find that online presence, and how to determine if people are viewing the pages desired once they find that website. This book is not intending to take the place of the work of the Holy Spirit in drawing people to Jesus, and it is not intending to steal from the work of other ministries that churches are engaged in for the benefit of the body of Christ. Rather I desire that the tools received from this book would enable non-believers to stumble upon churches’ websites—to discover the work Christ is doing through the church and to be drawn to investigate further at that place of worship. Similarly, I hope this book will help Christians who have just moved to a new area to more quickly find a church home by selecting some potential places through a few minutes online.

Church Search is packed with practical steps to get your ministry to show up in search engines and lead to new visitors. As with everything you do, pray through the suggestions. Ask God to point out the ones He has for you. Online tricks will never replace the work of God through you, but as a co-laborer with Christ, these tips can help grow the effectiveness of the time and money invested in reaching your target audience.

One of my professors in school started his first lecture with the question, “Who are marketers?” The simple answer was we all are. Everything you do leaves an impression on those around you. Therefore, as ministers of the Gospel, marketing implies being wise in the way we act to outsiders and making the most of every opportunity.

• For the next couple months, I will give a free copy to anyone who agrees to read and write a review of it on their blog or publication. You can just request a copy from me either by DM on my Twitter account @KevinShorter or emailing me at (my first name) @praytel.net.
• You can also purchase Church Search at Barnes and Noble for $9 or at Westbow Publishing for $10.

When I was first on staff with Campus Crusade, we were trained to ask people the following question to initiate a gospel conversation: "Have you come to know the wonderful adventure of knowing God personally?" While I did know God personally, I lacked the experience of it being a wonderful adventure. Sure I was grateful for knowing my sins were forgiven and that I would enjoy eternity in heaven, there was still a little disconnect between eternity and the here and now besides just keeping me out of bad choices and a fall back when I did not know what else to do.

Looking back on my life and experiences, I can say that it is definitely a wonderful adventure. The things God had led me to do and go are for me exciting. As a quick example, I have been married for 13 years during which we have moved 10 times... with several month long stays in between. All this has come up in my mind again because next Monday we are moving yet again.

He may not make you move at all as you journey with Him, but I have found that He is unpredictable in His predictableness. I may count on His love and faithfulness, but the way He chooses to show them to me are rarely the same.

I believe the book of Joshua is a good example of how we are to live out this adventure. Joshua is one of the two spies that go into the promised land and comes back ready to take it. He knew God's call for the Israelites and wanted to move forward in faith. Unfortunately he had to wait 40 years in the wilderness because of others unbelief. Finally, he gets the green light and also gets tapped to lead the people in. He gets the clear directive on how to cross the Jordan in the land. As they followed the clear directives, God miraculously stopped the flow of water. God was leading them into Canaan.

God then delays the first battle to get all of the men circumcised leaving them in enemy territory vulnerable to attack. Again following God's directive and not man's wisdom.

Then as they prepare to take Jericho, Joshua seeks God's direction and finds a new plan. Again Joshua had clear directives and again God worked miracles causing the walls to fall down before them.

Now the Israelites' confidence was running high, so as they went to fight the city Ai, they planned out what seemed best. Unfortunately, this time they did not seek out God's direction and lost many lives. It turned out that someone was carrying around plunder from Jericho that they were told to leave. After seeking God's direction, He lets them know the issue and they correct it. Now they sought God's direction again about how to fight Ai and they completely destroy them.

Feeling good about themselves again, the Gibeonites came up to them and easily deceived them. Not seeking God's wisdom, they make a treaty with a nation they were to destroy. But then mercifully, the other nations find out about the treaty and attack the Gibeonites.  This time instead of trusting in man's wisdom, they sought God and found out that they were to maintain their treaty and go protect the Gibeonites.

The point I am trying to make is that even though Joshua could rest in the promise that God was giving them the land, he still did not know how God was going to give it to them. And the real adventure was not taking the land God had given them, but finding out how God wanted them to take the land.

The Christian life is an adventure because we are following a God that is creative in how He deals with us. Sometime he wants us to walk around the city; sometimes He wants us to go out and fight; sometimes He wants to make the enemies fight themselves; and sometimes He wants to throw huge stones from the sky. We just don't know what He wants to do, so we live the life of faith continually asking Him what is the next step. We can trust that God wants to lead us into winning our battles, but He wants us to win on His terms.

For me and my family, following God has meant a lot of moves. Each step along the way He has had something new and different for us. New people to meet, new experiences to develop us.

Don't be so wedded to your conception of what is next that you become angry and confused when He takes you on an adventure and even more blessing. Others have also been led on crazy adventures, but you only get to the Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11 by being faithful building boats in deserts.