​Brynn Leigh,
This is such an exciting year as you join the school adventure in Kindergarten.  This is a great year of learning and discovering. Mom and Dad have already been in prayer and we are convinced that God goes before you.  We want you to know that wherever you go and whatever you do, God is with you!  We pray this blessing over you and your exciting year.  May God use your gift of joy to bring smiles and warmth to all of those around you.  There may be days where people around you feel sad or lonely.  We know that through your joy others will be lifted up and encouraged.  May God show His Spirit through your spirit.  You have such a fascination with life and you make all of our lives so fun and lively.  God will use your spirit to spread His love, light, and life.  Finally, may God pour into you His servant heart.  We love the way you help around the house and are so giving.  We pray that you will be a servant to many when given the opportunity at school.  We know that even though this is a big step, you are ready and up for the challenge.  You are going to do great in Kindergarten!  This year we pray this prayer together as a family, “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, Amen!”

​Brody,
This is going to be a great year!  Mom and Dad cannot believe that you are already in Middle School.  Time is flying way too fast.  We see how deeply you feel for others, your love of movies, your enjoyment of being around other people, and how you serve God and we are extremely proud.  As you get older, our desire is that you will continue to love God, follow Jesus, and be guided by the Spirit.  We believe deeply in these school blessings and know that they shape your year.  God is always doing a mighty work in you and we pray that you continue to listen to His calling.  Our blessing for your year in 5thgrad is this:  May God us your gift of humor to continue to bring laughter to the world. There will be times this year when our family and your friends will need a good laugh.  Your humor will quiet storms and bring light to others. May God expand your heart for the weak, the tired, the lonely, the hurting, and the new. We pray that classmates and teachers will find you as one who cares, and your heart will be guarded as you express empathy and love.  Finally, May God give you unwavering courage.  This year is a big step and challenges will arise.  However, The Holy Spirit will not let you down and your courage will be an amazing tribute to God and His power.  This year we pray this prayer together as a family.  “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, Amen!”

​Dylan,
This is going to be a great year!  Mom and Dad cannot believe that you are already in Middle School.  Time is flying way too fast.  We see how much you love to sing, read, be with your friends, and serve God and we are extremely proud.  As you get older, our desire is that you will continue to love God, follow Jesus, and be guided by the Spirit.  We believe deeply in these school blessings and know that they shape your year.  God is always doing a mighty work in you and we pray that you continue to listen to His calling.  Our blessing for your year in 5thgrade is this:  May God continue to work through your gift of leadership to draw others to good causes and to His name.  May your friends and classmates see in you the Jesus you serve.  May God give you an extra measure of His wisdom as you navigate a new system of school and the challenges of maturing.  The Spirit will guide your choices if you will listen and submit.  Finally, May God pour out on you His compassion so much that you cannot help but pour compassion out on all those around you.  May you be soaked in His love and others find comfort through you. This year we pray this prayer together as a family, “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, Amen!”

Ever since I was a child I have been taught by the church to control my sin.  I was taught to do the things of God and not sin.  Sin was always described more by actions that were against God's will.  You have heard these to.  Don't: murder, steal, gossip, slander, sexual immorality, greed, violence, hatred, malice, drugs, alcohol, and so on.  I don't remember if these were tied to God's heart or denying what God's heart was moving towards or if they were just the list that of things not to do.  So as a child, off to college, young adult and I still fight the urge to control my temptations and my actions so that I won't break God's list of do nots and sin.

Grace was loosely taught when I was a child.  We spoke of forgiveness, prayer, confession, baptism, salvation, and so on.  We didn't talk about God's heart.  We didn't talk about the why of God, just the what!  As I got into college and I understood better the idea of grace and mercy.  Probably nothing has taught me better about that idea than my marriage.  No one said that marriage would be somewhat of an experiment.  How to live with someone and through all kinds of differences and similarities put them above yourself and stay true to yourself and God.  That's not normal.  However, in this crazy adventure and I think that I have it best, my wife and our relationship has been a foundation of grace and love.

Control is an illusion.  That's probably not a new idea to us.  We never have full control of our circumstances, surroundings, and our very lives.  However, more than anything else, trying to control our spiritual lives is actually an act against the Spirit.  Self-control has been taught to us because of its place in Paul's list of fruit from the Spirit.  However, Paul wasn't trying to get us to be in control of our very selves.  Paul was saying that we cannot live a life where we do what we want to do when we want to do it and thus defy the working of the Spirit in our lives. So trying to have control over our spiritual lives is actually a direct offense of what Paul was trying to get us to do in the first place.

Grace is a reality.  We would actually prefer to try and control our sin and spiritual lives than allow for God to simply enact his grace.  Grace is a gift that you cannot turn away.  You can turn away God, Jesus, and Spirit.  But you cannot give away grace, because it is tied to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and Christ's defeat of the Powers of this dark world.  Therefore you (we) don't have the power to overturn grace and deny it or turn it away.  Our separation from God comes when we choose to turn the Trinity away.  Grace is still there. It is difficult to understand, but you cannot turn away grace, but it can become impotent in your life when you reject the Trinity and power of God.

All of this is rambling and musing.  Give up control and accept grace as a reality.  You cannot change the facts and realities of control or grace.  You can only humble yourself before God and come to new and faithful understandings that will give you freedom through the Spirit.  Jesus died for you to have freedom, not control.  God offers grace, not damnation.  The Spirit leads you to Christ and Christ leads you to God.  Take His prompting.  Live His blessing.
​

While working on a future sermon, I came across this incredible interview between Bono from U2 and Eugene Peterson (author of many books including ,The Message, Bible paraphrase).  If you have any amount of time, watch some or all of this interview. I found it truly inspiring.

My Son Dylan and I preached a sermon recently on the wisdom of praise.  He preached Psalm 145 and I preached Proverbs 8:22-31 (click here for sermon).  Together we made a case for praise even when it hurts.  During that sermon we played a song, Even When It Hurts, by Hillsong.  The song is wonderful and below:

The recent uproar over children being separated from their parents who are being considered illegal immigrants has been a source of angst for me emotionally and spiritually this week.  I'm not interested in getting into a debate over the merits of border patrol, safety, or even America's responsibility to the rest of the world.  My emotional angst this week after reading all sides on the issue and reading people I personally know, whom are personally involved with immigration and refugees has been how innocent children (who cannot possibly understand the weight of what is going on) are being frightened and taken from the embrace of their parents and our government's role in those actions.  I'm a father of 3 wonderful kids.  And as this story was breaking it was around Father's Day and my wife and kids celebrated me well.  I was peppered with gift cards, hugs, kisses, encouraging words, favorite things, and genuine love and care.  At that same moment fathers and mothers are separated from their children, ripped from their arms, and placed in other situations away from whom they know and trust fully.  It was a gripping picture for me and it saddened me for those children and those parents.  I thought about how just a few years ago I traveled to Russia to visit our missionary there.  At any point when arriving legally in their country I could have been approached and imprisoned, never to see my family again.  I took the risk in order to share the gospel and encourage other proclaimers of God's word.  In my youth ministry days, I traveled several times to Mexico to help build church buildings for Christians there.  We knew the risks of having our charter bus boarded and the high school students we had being taken, the group separated, and even having the girls sold into sex slavery.  In the end it was that last risk that changed our mission destination and we decided to say in the continental US.  Anyone who travels abroad knows that there are risks that could lead to never coming home.  Our risks on those trips, while for the cause of Christ, were really a luxury on our side to be able to travel and assist and let's be honest, sight-see as well.  What breaks my heart (even when done illegally) is that those being separated from their families (due to our border rules from April 2018 to yesterday) were taking the risks so that they could escape a dangerous, life-threatening life situation in their own country.  
 
Those of us who have lived in the comfort of America all our lives, have no grasp of what it means to be born and grow up in a life where your own country feels free to oppress, endanger, and kill if it suits them.  Most of those who will read this blog will never know and have never known what it is like to live in fear of our own country and want nothing more than to escape.  None of us will know the burden of being a parent who wants to make opportunities for their children and their children's children that will give them a decent quality of life, even if it means dying on the way.  That is what I love about America.  We are the place that is desired because we are safe and have reached a point of understanding (molded by our Christian heritage) and compassion that has led us to treat people with dignity and respect.  America values life, happiness, and freedom.  There was a day that those values (and I believe deep down, it is still there) were open to the entire world.  America didn't corner the market on its amenities.  We were a people who welcomed, not a fortress to protect.  [Side note: We have recently (maybe since 9/11) promoted a propaganda that says we are vulnerable to the world and could be attacked at any time and must protect our many borders from the danger of this big bad world.  History tells a bit different story.  Our most dangerous times besides 9/11 and Pearl Harbor have been from ourselves.  And as we travel the world-wide we can visit countless sights of war and battles.  As we all know, in the US most of our battle sites to see are from the Civil War, not enemies outside our borders, or from when we fought for our independence to begin our history as an independent nation.] Our fear of attack is a reality, but less a probability.  Readiness is necessary.  Fear is irrational compared to other parts of the world.  Again, this shows our distance from the realities of war and conflict that actually exists in other places of the world.
 
My spiritual angst lies in the rhetoric used to defend the actions of our lawmakers in the country. Romans 13 was used as a scriptural basis for falling in line with whatever is decided at the Capitol and if you don’t follow this text, not only are you close to treason, but you deny the commands of God as well.  Ok, that was a bit dramatic, but not terribly exaggerated either.  It is spiritual malpractice to take God’s holy word and use it to bolster your already held beliefs and especially to defend actions that could readily be deemed atrocities against God.  So be careful when using scripture that you understand its context and meaning in its own time, before you begin to use it to have meaning in your current time period.  And on a less spiritual note, we have no issue disagreeing with the policies and laws of our country when it is decided by the party we do not support or leaders we do not respect.  If you agree with our current President and Congress on the laws that they have created, or the ones upheld over time, then there is a chance that you would disagree with previous Presidents and Congress or even future Presidents and Congress when those laws are challenged.  In that time, it is very likely that you will use your American right and privilege to speak out against what you disagree with in a democratic process that is also protected by our constitution.  So, to say that we should just go with the current law because it is the law and Romans 13 says we should obey the laws of our land, doesn’t lay itself out so simply when Romans 13 read in that way should also protect the ability of free speech and to challenge current laws and vote in different directions.
 
So, what about Romans 13?
 
Before we can read Romans 13, we probably should mention other places in the Bible that mirror somewhat the idea of governing powers and whether or not they are what God intended for those following.  Not to go into detail, but to give us some evidential scriptural stories consider these:
 
The midwives save Moses’ life in disobedience to Pharaoh’s edict -Exodus 1
The entire book of Judges
Saul offers the burnt offering himself instead of Samuel -1 Samuel 13
David and Bathsheba -2 Samuel 11
David killing Uriah -2 Samuel 11
David’s sons vying for Kingship -2 Samuel
Solomon and his downfall for women and idols -1 Kings 11
The entire books of 1 and 2 Kings
King Nebuchadnezzar and Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego -Daniel 3
King Darius and Daniel -Daniel 6
Pilate and Jesus -Matthew 27
Apostles Preaching even when banned -Acts 4:18ff
 
 
In these stories would we really with legitimate voices say that God intended and desired for the people to worship other idols of Asherah and Baal?  Even though he placed these judges and kings into leadership, did he expect the entire nation of Israel just to follow them into idol worship? In the book of Judges, we see that those judges mentioned always helped bring the Israelite people out of their idol worship.  Those leaders had the heart of God.  In the Kings we find there are many more kings who lead with idol worship present than those who don’t.  God intends for his people to worship only Him.  So, if we take Romans 13 to its conclusion of following all government authorities with whatever they decide, then we are saying God wanted Israel to serve other idols.  God did not want this and would not stand for it.  When we get to Saul and David we see two great kings that both lead their people and yet Saul gives the example of doing things his way instead of God’s way and David who resorts to adultery, murder, and sin.  If Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had not protested the King’s decree they would have been bowing down to a statue.  And when they don’t, they are spared from certain death.  Daniel defies the king more than once. Daniel eats only vegetables and he survives the Lion’s den.  Pilate as a leader kills the Messiah.  Is that Godly leadership that should be trusted by the people? The Apostles disobey the preaching ban put on them from the Sanhedrin.  What if they had quit preaching to observe obedience to the law of men? Would God expect for His people to shrug off adultery, murder, sin, and disobedience simply because He placed those people in leadership and they should be followed?  God places humans in leadership roles and they do just what he expects; they act human. God doesn’t always agree with those in leadership and would not expect His people to blindly follow, especially if they know the rules and laws He has commanded.
 
Romans 13
 
While Romans 13 pursues the idea that God’s people have a responsibility to obey civil leadership, it is not an occasion to sit idly by and let sin abound or acts of aggression, violence, and rebellion against God go unchecked.  As God’s people our first allegiance is to Him and His ways, not our individual countries or human laws.  As God’s people it is our responsibility to stand up for God’s laws and ways.  We weren’t put on this Earth to find God and comfortably wait to go to heaven.  We were meant to be people who live a life for God with unyielding conviction.  Consider what theologian John R.W. Stott says regarding Romans 13:
 
“Yet the requirement of submission and the warning of rebellion are couched in universal terms. For this reason they have constantly been misapplied by oppressive right-wing regimes, as if Scripture gave rulers carte blanche to develop a tyranny and to demand unconditional obedience.” (The Message of Romans, John R. W. Stott, p.341)
 
“Granted that the authority of rulers is derived from God, what happens if they abuse it, if they reverse their God-given duty, commending those who do evil and punishing those who do good?  Does the requirement of submit still stand in such a morally perverse situation? No.  The principle is clear.  We are to submit right up to the point where obedience to the state would entail disobedience to God.  But if the state commands what God forbids, or forbids what God commands then our plain Christian duty is to resist, not to submit, to disobey the state in order to obey God.” (The Message of Romans, John R. W. Stott, p.342) *Italics is mine for emphasis*
 
He goes on to mention Acts 5:29, “27 The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.” 29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! -Acts 5:27-29
 
Oscar Cullmann in his book, Christ and Time. The Primitive Christian Conceptions of Time and History, 1957. P.55-57. says “Few sayings in the New Testament have suffered as much misuse as this one.  As soon as Christians, out of loyalty to the gospel of Jesus, offer resistance to a State’s totalitarian claim, the representatives of that State, or their collaborationist, theological advisers, are accustomed to appeal to this saying of Paul, as if Christians are here commanded to endorse and thus abet all the crimes of a totalitarian State….But as the context shows, ‘there can be no question here of an unconditional and uncritical subjection to any and every demand of the State’.”
 
So what does it mean. It means we trust in God more than humans.  It means we should not resist the laws that do not counteract God’s law.  We pay our taxes, we follow the laws that govern our nation.  We respect the people that are in a leadership role.  And when the leaders or policies of our nation lean or all-out oppose God’s heart and desire for His people we stand up and we speak up to help guide those leaders and those policies back towards God’s heart and design.  
 
Conclusion
 
We must constantly be careful that we are aligned with God over and above our country.  Many times this is not an issue.  However, I feel of late we have confused American values for Christian values.  I’m not worried or in fear.  However, I feel that polarization of our nation and how Christians are seeming to pick sides based on political parties we need to give much more attention to the word of God.  We need to look past certain proof texts and read to see God’s entire character.  We must be careful to not be blinded by individual thoughts or steered by simple group-think that we lose sight of God’s ultimate picture.  A friendly reminder that those who Jesus struggled with the most were not sinful, hateful, despicable characters.  Jesus struggled and differed most with the highly religious.  Why?  Because they had become blinded by the law and lost sight of grace, mercy, and love. Jesus comes with a message of hope AS the message of love.  If we truly to desire to be His disciple, then we must embody His love in our daily lives.  I don’t need America or any other country to tell me that.  I don’t need the republican or democrat party to tell me that. I don’t need a President, congress, coalition, or council to tell me that.  I have the word of God, the example of Jesus, and Incarnation of the Spirit guiding me in that principle and always bringing me back to the heart of God.  And you do too!  Seek and find! Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and render to God…ALL!