The “NOT” New Year’s List 2012

On New Year’s Eve, 2009 I posted a story about our long-time family friends Mary Jane and Terry Martin who had a New Year’s tradition of  writing out their individual predictions for what they thought the next year would hold for each of them, seal them up and save them for exchanging and reading until the following New Year’s Eve to see how close they had come … and then start all over again for the next year’s predictions.

When I wrote about that in 2009, it was more of reflection for me of what I would not have ever predicted would happen in the prior 12 months. As I look back at this past year, it’s amazing to me the things that would NEVER have ended up on my prediction list for 2012 (had I actually sat down a wrote out a list on December 31, 2011). I would NOT have predicted… … that at 43 years old my family would grow by one more son as our family brought home beautiful bouncing teenage boy.
… that the Lord would be so faithful in stretching our income beyond what is actually possible, enabling us to provide for our expanded family.

… that despite our already stretched budget God would bless us so abundantly that we were able to buy a house 3 years ahead of schedule.

… that I would never once doubt or waver in my commitment to tithing … and then some.
… that Edward, who has resisted the idea of teleworking his job for years would finally give in to the concept and find that he loves it.

… that after pouring great effort into my blog for 3 years, posting 1 – 3 times a week, that I would let it collect dust for almost the whole year, posting only twice (this being the second).
… that there would be NO HOCKEY SEASON
… that after years of managing my Carpal Tunnel pain, that a brief encounter with a moving box would result in 2 months of unbearable pain, finally ending in the first of two surgeries (that I now wish I'd done years ago).
... that my oldest son, who had been committed to one career path for 5 or more years would suddenly change majors and would have to start the college search from scratch.

The list could probably go on and on which tells me it’s probably a wasted effort to try and predict the future. No matter how well you plan and no matter how much you think you know, God’s the only one who’s got a shot at penning that list. And as much as I’d love to rip His list open on January 2nd to see what this next year will hold, I know he’ll only let me see it one line at a time … and I’m okay with that.

The Gospel According to Twilight

Velocity Student Ministries (the youth group at Fair Oaks Church) is getting ready to launch a new sermon series exploring message of Jesus through eyes of the characters from the best selling book Twilight.

When I first saw the promo for the series (below) I was very excited, but not for the reasons you might think. I'm not one of the die-hard-book-series fans (I've not read any of them). I did see the movie, however... when it came to Pay-per-view.

I have no objections or anything, I just haven't gotten around to it so it's hard to get into it. If my mom hadn't fallen in love with the series and passed it along to the kids, I'd probably have no idea what the big deal is (sad, I know).

My real excitement is for the youth pastor, Christian Gaffney, whose unending supply of creativity and passion for meeting the youth where they're at to share the gospel with them has birthed this opportunity to take a solid ministry up yet another notch.


Twilight Promo from Fair Oaks Church on Vimeo.

The Velocity services are for the youth only so no adults allowed. I'm hoping they will record the series because I'd like to at least listen to it. The Twilight element aside, Christian is a gifted, natural preacher. I've had the opportunity to see him preach two or three times while Pastor Skokes was out of town and he has a conversational style that makes you feel like he's just talking to you, yet the presence of the Holy Spirit moving through him in the message are permeating. 

If you're in the Northern Virginia area and you have teenagers, it will be a great Saturday night alternative - check it out! Should they record the series, I'll be sure to post an update for all the interested adults who join me in wanting to hear The Gospel According to Twilight!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

…and into the fiery pits of Hell.

At some point in my life (not soon, I imagine) my time in this world will be over and I will head home to be with my heavenly father. I have frequently imagined (start humming MercyMe here) what this might be like - knowing that my limited mortal brain cannot begin to conceive of its glory (but I’m sure chocolate is involved). All my mental pictures were recently replaced by a less pleasant scenario…

I arrive at the gates of heaven to be greeted by Jesus, a few choice angels and God Himself who is holding a DVD of my life in His hands. He pops it in the DVD player, but there’s really no point in watching it all, I lived it and He wrote it. We both know what’s on there – so just skip to the good stuff: The Blooper Tracks.

As He scrolls through Bonus Features to find the Blooper of choice and hits the play button, I look around to the ground below me to see if I’m standing on a trap door that leads straight to Hell, but attention is drawn back up to Jesus who is laughing so hard tears are running down His cheeks as we watched the clip below.

Yes, yes. I’m the parent who was out SHOPPING while my 12-year-old son sat in the front row as a shining example for Pastor Stokes as the future of the church. As I wrestled past the mortification (the horror, oh the horror) right through justification (I tithe, I serve, I’m there every Wednesday, do I really have to be at all 3 weekend services?) take a pit stop at guilt (what kind of message am I sending the kids, they’re here for all 3 weekend services, what a horrible model for them, I should be doing more) I was finally able to appreciate the humor.

My friend Tracey Dowdey (who is a pastor’s wife and has surely heard it all) said it was truly one of her favorite church moments of all time. Tracey’s words often make me feel all warm inside, but I'm afraid the flush of heat I feel is from the pits of hell this time.

Or perhaps those flames warming me from below are from the parent-sin-pride from hearing Pastor Stokes say such lovely things about my youngest angel and his heart for the Lord (yeah, yeah - if I hadn't been out shopping, I could have heard it all first hand instead of having several of my brothers and sisters in Christ call me after that service to tell me all about it and send me links to the webcast so I can watch it over and over again).

Thank God I’m saved, ‘cause I’m sure not perfect!

Faith Deficit Disorder – Our Teens at Risk

This afternoon I got my Christian Counseling Today magazine in the mail and was immediately drawn to an article by Josh McDowell called “The Crisis of Belief - What Teens Believe.” As the mother of two teenage boys myself, teen-faith issues are near and dear to my heart. I count myself blessed that both my boys are (little) men of God, actively serving in ministries at Fair Oaks Church but I’m not so naïve to think that can’t change and it shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Kids really have so much more of the world to resist than we did at their age. Yeah, yeah… sex, drugs, violence, pornography all existed when we were their age – this is nothing new – but the ease of access and prevalence is just frightening.

“While we need to be aware of what our children could be tempted to do, we need to be more concerned with what they are tempted to believe.”

So true! As a Christian parent you think you’re doing a good job and covering all the bases until a 4th-grade teacher unravels what you thought was a firm understanding and belief in Creation with her day’s science lesson. Some day I’ll write a blog called “Deconstructing Darwin” about my journey of equipping the boys with the Truth. It paid off a few years later when my oldest stood up in his 7th grade science class and told the teacher that Darwin was wrong and proceeded to give her and the class a lesson on the science of Creationism. No threat of expulsion could kill that proud-parent buzz!

The reality, though, is that Darwin (and other evil influences) are around every corner, waiting to whisper their lies into our kids’ ears. Worse yet, what about the ones who don’t know the Truth, have never heard the Word, walking alone in the world with nothing to compete with the Devil’s whisper? Check out some of these statistics from the article:

Studies reveal that young people who lack a basic biblical belief system are:
• 36% more likely to lie to a friend;
• 48% more likely to cheat on a exam;
• 200% more likely to steal;
• 200% more likely to physically hurt someone;
• 300% more likely to use illegal drugs;
• 600% more likely to attempt suicide.

The article goes on to talk about the three ways our teens’ beliefs become distorted: adopting distorted beliefs about God, embracing distorted beliefs about Truth, and accepting distorted Beliefs about reality.

Not surprising to any parent of a teenager, today’s teens have a tendency to just make up their own belief systems and promote them to others as reality… and those “others” accept it as fact without question.

The Barna “Third Millennium Teens” research found that 82% of teens surveyed identified themselves as Christians, 70% reported being in some kind of church youth group, 80% believed God created the universe, and 84% believed God was personally involved in people’s lives.

That’s good, right? Worthy of a praise God! But somewhere there’s a disconnect with the application of those beliefs. Of the same survey group:
• 63% believed that Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and Jews are all praying to the same god;
• 46% believed Jesus committed sins while he was on the earth;
• 51% did not believe Jesus rose from the dead after the crucifixion;
• 48% didn’t believe it mattered what religious faith you practiced because they are all essentially the same;
• 58% believe that all religious faiths teach equally valid truths.

WOW! Reading that made me immediately appreciate the strong faith my boys have and (not to minimize the hard work Mom & Dad have done to get them there) how blessed we are that our church prioritizes youth ministries and recognizes that these kids are our future ministry leaders.

But let’s not lose sight of those teens out side our immediate reach – scripting their own belief systems - who need to be reached so they can hear the Truth and know the difference when they hear the devil’s whisper. Let us all start with a prayer (it’s the least we can do) but we need to be deliberate and active in recognizing opportunities to whisper louder (or shout) into the heart and faith of a teen with distorted beliefs.

By the way, Josh McDowell has some great resources for teens on his website … you can also follow him on Twitter: http://twitter.com/josh_mcdowell