Walking

Today I went to see someone that's in a tough situation.  Here's what kept going through my mind.  Walking with God happens when you're in a situation where you are completely helpless to change it, and your only hope is to give it to God completely and trust Him with the outcome knowing that it may not be what you hope it to be.  I felt a nearness to God on my way home tonight, but not the kind of nearness that we talk about much.

We like to talk about when God is speaking and moving and we're worshiping and all is swell.  I'm talking about the nearness when I'm doing my best to not argue with the Sovereign.  That's a nearness that's tough.  Sometimes applying my doctrinal views to tough situations is really hard.  Why? is a question that my heart screams while my mind says His ways are higher than my ways.  Sometimes God's Providence frowns at exactly the wrong time. 

As a pastor (especially a Southern Baptist) you can get caught up in things with your church like numbers and growth.  I couldn't possibly care less about that right now.  May we as pastors weep with those who weep.

 

So let me just end by saying pastors struggle with the frowning Providence of God as well.  I cry sometimes too.  I wonder sometimes too.  I ask why sometimes too.  It may be that all we can do in the really hard times is seek to give it to Him and then weep.  He loves His people.  One day we'll see that fully.

God Bless  

They're a blessing

It's been awhile since I last posted, and a lot has happened since then.  One of the things that happened is my wife gave birth to our fifth child, a baby girl named Grace Anne Bird.  It was an amazing experience, and we're really excited to have her here.  It always reminds me of a text in the Psalms that is familiar to a lot of us.

"Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.  Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth.  Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!"  Psalm 127:3-4

The man who fills his quiver with arrows is blessed.  I've often posited to my people that we live in a culture that believes the exact opposite of what the Bible teaches, and this is one of the main issues.  One of the things I don't feel led to do however is tell people they need to go out and have as many kids as they possibly can.  I'm not saying they shouldn't either however.  It's really a tough issue that brings strong feelings out when discussed, and I know what it's like to be questioned about the number of children you have.  In addition to that, there are people who have difficulty having children and that presents a whole different dynamic.  

A couple of things I would say about this issue.  I do think the Bible is clear about the blessing that comes from a big family.  I also think that we've bought into some lies about children.  We've believed that having too many children can cramp our lifestyle.  I've heard things like "if you didn't have so many kids you could have a bigger house."  Voddie Baucham says "our houses have never been bigger and our families have never been smaller."  We've also believed that children are a burden.  Many children have behavioral issues and thus cause their parents to not desire more because they don't really enjoy the ones they have.  I'm not at all an expert on parenting but I do know two things, disciplining them well is not easy and the Bible tells us all we need to know.  We must commit to following the Bible's teaching.  I think to some degree we've also believed that having multiple children deprives the others of one on one love.  I would suggest to you however that love grows best in big families.

The second thing I'd say about all of this is that what you do with the children you do have is the most important thing.  Training them in the way they should go is our job.  It's not our job to be their friend, and conversely it's not our job to be their slavemaster.  We are to train them.  We are to teach them about our Lord, and we are to discipline them when they are wayward.  Remember that the goal is to have arrows to shoot.  We need to desire godly arrows that will pierce the darkness of this world and will stand boldly for Christ.  That needs to be the goal of all that we do.  When they are born may we here the clock begin to tick until they leave our home.  

We don't have them in our home forever, may we live intentionally each day with a goal of bringing them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord!

God Bless