The Clover Patch

The Frozen Chosen Are Better In Spring ^{0}

It warmed up enough today to go on a bike ride. I took the Indian Creek Trail until it dead ended into 69 Highway Construction. A few weeks ago there was a big snow storm. According to Standard Texas Snow Measuring Protocol it was about 50 feet of snow.

As I rode I was interested today in how all that was left on the ground was the solid stuff that has been piled up and packed tightly. I was impressed with snow just for existing when so much of the other snow was gone.

Then one particular portion really caught my eye, there was a pile on the left side of the trail of solid snow, it was melting and it made a little stream of water across the trail that was pouring on to pretty dormant looking little trees.

I’ve not spent much time thinking about snow in my life so maybe I’m way behind on this concept, but at that moment I realized unless the snow melts it’s of no worth to the trees and flowers and bushes that need it to grow green in the Spring.

It’s just a silly image, but it reminded me that as a Calvinist I’m often referred to by critics as the Frozen Chosen. We are called this because unfortunately too often reformed people appear cold and callous, lacking love for others. Like most stereotypes it’s partially true, though a whole history of missions shows this accusation far from being 100% accurate.

Anyway, we are like the solid piece of packed snow on the side of the road and unless our hearts are melted by the light and heat of God’s Word we will fail to be a benefit to the world at large.

My prayer at that moment, was for God to melt my heart, to be turned into the flowing water that flows down the river to the yet dormant seed or young tree that would benefit from the water.

It’s not a perfect analogy, but it does bring me back to 1 Corinthians 3:7 where we see the place of planting and watering, but more than that we see the growth belongs to God.

“So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”

God, transform me from the frozen chosen, to a stream of soverign grace flowing to those in need of the Gospel.

By futuregrace Category: Devotional, Feature, The Clover Patch

Obedience > Sacrifice ^{0}

This is a devotional, it’s not a theological paper. It written with a small portion of text in mind and meant to challenge and encourage the body of Christ beginning with myself. I share in the hope that you might be challenged as I am. I’ve been reading in 1 Samuel this week.

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I know many of you will be annoyed at any talk of obedience, especially from an Old Testament text. But even Romans 1:5 Speaks of the coming of Christ bring about the “obedience of faith” But lest I be bring an unbearable yoke let me be clear again that obedience is a result of God accomplished and given faith, not the cause of it. If you read this in regards to how to be right with God, you’ve misunderstood. To get it right you must read even this through the lens of the New Testament and thus how those right with God respond to God.

In 1 Samuel 15:3 there is a commandment from God to Saul regarding what they should do with with the people of Amalek after God gives them victory over them. They are to destroy them completely. Man, Woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, came and donkey. It seems odd that God would command such a thing, but he does and God has his reasons.

After God gives them victory though, Saul chooses to keep the best animals to sacrifice to God at a later point. This is a seemingly noble act, but contrary to God’s command.

How many times do we disobey our authorities on the grounds that what we are doing is really a good thing. Or disobey God’s Word because we think we know better?

I found it interesting after David is confronted about his disobedience God speaks to this through Samuel.

“And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord ? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.” (1 Samuel 15:22 ESV)

That is a statement of the value of obedience. Obedience even when it seems odd at the time, when we want to second guess God’s thinking on the issue.

I see this in my children and I see this in myself.

I see it in my children when I ask them to go put on shoes cause we are leaving and I come find them cleaning up toys in the basement. What they are doing is good, it is helpful, I commend it, except by choosing to clean up at this moment they have also chosen to disobey what I am really asking them to do.

I see it in my life too. God makes it clear in the Ten Commandments and all over the place that He is to be first in my life, first in everything. Yet, I find myself doing the work of ministry, serving others, teaching, visiting people, etc. All without taking the time to be in God’s Word, to be in prayer asking for wisdom throughout the day. I find that even in these good things they are sometimes ultimately disobedience as I put my family or friends or youth or entertainment or all number of things in a position of value and importance above God.

What of the Amalek’s are you holding on to today? What good thing are you choosing over the call to be satisfied in God as you pursue Him in His Word? Preparing food for a church event? Making sure your house is super clean? Working more than is truly necessary to the neglect of your family?

God give me clarity today of what obedience to God looks like and give me resolve to be about that because “you have stated that to obey is better than sacrifice.”

By futuregrace Category: Devotional, Feature, The Clover Patch

To Do List: Bless ^{0}

There are a number of words which I know how to use in a sentence, but I don’t know what they actually mean. I might say I received a document, wasn’t able to read all of it, but did “peruse it.”

We think that word means to skim through something. It actually it means, “to read through with thoroughness or care.”

I can also tell you when something is ironic, but please don’t ask me to define the word ironic.

In the text below there is a word we use and I’m not sure we really understand it. As you peruse this text consider what the word “bless” means.

1 Peter 3:8-9, “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.”

I know we hate to bring the Word of God down to a simple list of dos and don’ts. I agree with that usually, but this text in 1 Peter has already done that for us. We are shown here what to do and what not to do. Very simple.

Do:

• Have unity in mind.
• Do show sympathy to those who need it.
• Do show brotherly love
• Do have a tender heart
• Do be humble on the inside.

Do Not

• Respond to evil with more evil
• Do not fight back verbally against someone fighting you verbally.

Then we are again given a “Do” action item.

Do…Bless.

But why should we bless? God gives an answer to that here as well. Bless because God has called you to bless and called you to receive a blessing as a result of our blessing others.

This ties back to Genesis 12:1-3 where God makes a covenant with Abraham, to bless him and included in this is a statement that through Abraham all the families of the earth will be blessed.

This covenant is fulfilled in Christ as we are made Children of Abraham because of the faith we have been given. So here we see in 1st Peter this call to Christians to bless others.

I think our first thoughts after reading a text like this is to look for how we can bless friends, bless family, bless co-workers, bless other students, bless in the ministries we serve, bless in the neighborhoods we live, bless people you text and email, bless people working behind the counter at Price Chopper and so on.

But at some point in that excitement if you are like me you begin to wonder what this word bless even means. Is it as simple as making them happy? Because I could make them happy, at least for a time, by giving them whatever their idolatrous heart desires.

The word “bless” here in 1 Peter is from the greek word, Eulogeo. Eu meaning “Good” and logeo meaning “word.” Thus a “good word.”

It’s to ask God to bestow a blessing on someone with the implication that the verbal act itself constitutes a significant benefit.

So there is a sense of being a benefit to someone. So if God blesses us, it is that he has been a benefit to us. We have received the benefit of our sins being forgiven in Christ and we have received innumerable other benefits along with that supreme beneift.

If you bless someone financially you give to them money that helps or is a benefit to their need.

For us to bless people today is to ask God to show and empower us by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us to be a benefit to those we know, even those who may hate us and treat us terribly.

I think the question I’ll keep asking myself today is this, “Is there any benefit for “X” in their knowing me, have I been a benefit, a blessing to them today in anyway?”

I also hope to spend various times of prayer asking God to show me how to be a benefit to others today. How others may benefit from my acts of service, from my times of prayer for them.

How I might be a benefit to them by kind and loving and truthful words flowing out of my mouth or in thoughtful questions showing them real interest in their life. Perhaps I’ll be a benefit by simply lending listing ears, or letting go of my money or giving some of my time to help another with a project.

Maybe my prayer this morning can be yours as well.

Lord, I am not often a blessing to others because I am too concerned with being a blessing to myself. I desire to see others receive a benefit from my being in their life, but often my place in their life is of no affect, white noise at best and disruptive at times. Please grant me obedience to complete in various degrees the To Do List seen in 1st Peter 3:8-9

By futuregrace Category: Devotional, Feature, The Clover Patch

Soma: The Body of Christ ^{0}

This year in Chapel we’ve been using Matthew 22:36–40 as a theme for all that we teach. Here is that text, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.””

This past Friday we looked at the second statement of that text, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

This second commandment is restated and elaborated on in Galatians 5:14–15 where Paul is writing and ultimately God says, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”

This command has to do with how we function in unity as the Church or if we fail in this commandment how we function in disunity.

I had a few students come up front then and make paper airplanes, two students were permitted to use both hands, the other two only their weak hand. By the time they finished Alexis with her two hands had made a pretty good looking airplane while Sam Sipp with only his weak hand had created something destined for failure, flying these planes further confirmed this.

What we saw was it was easier with two hands working together than one hand working alone to be productive and successful. Remember the hands are functioning together as the body.

This all leads to the Greek word, “Soma.” This is one of my favorite Greek words ever. It means body and it is used often in the New Testament to refer to the Church. As an illustration of how the people of God should work in unity together always directed by the head which is Christ himself.

This illustration is fantastic as we see how the body actually works together in so many seamless ways. I asked the students to do a series of motions to see how this worked, “put your hands out in front of yourself. touch your nose. clap them together, scratch your eye. Squeeze your cheeks like a grandma would.”

There were two things to see in this exercise. First the hands worked together to do what they had been asked to do and they actually were able to touch their noses and squeeze their cheeks.

The other thing we see in this is that we were not worried our hand might try to attack or harm us at any point.

That’s because that’s not how the body works. You don’t don’t go to sleep at night with one eye open because you are so afraid your right hand is going to try and choke you to death while you sleep.

Cause your body works together, for good. Your hand is helpful and your leg is helpful and they various parts of your body are all working together under the leadership of your head for betterment of every part.

So the word “Soma” means body and it’s used in Scripture to explain how disciples or followers of Jesus should interact together as the Church.

We see this in 1 Corinthians 12:12, 14, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”…“For the body does not consist of one member but of many.”

We all make up different parts of the Body of Christ. Jesus Christ is the head and we are called the body each functioning in different, but important ways.

Again in 1 Corinthians 12:17–27, we see this image of the body.

“If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”

What happens if your hand gets burned, does that affect the rest of your body? Absolutely it does, even if the pain is felt the strongest in your hand it affects the rest of the body. You feel the pain.

In fact considering how we don’t fear our hands or feat attacking us, what if when you went to bed your hand did decide to choke you to death. How would that affect the rest of the body? How would that affect the hand? Yes, because the body is all connected and interdependent.

Look at Ephesians 5:29–30, “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.”

So I really wanted them to understand that as a body we should be nourishing each other rather than destroying each other. So I called Nathan Bailey to come to the front and I asked him to attach himself. Nathan tried to choke himself and then punched himself in the kidney. I stopped him after that for fear we might have to invoke Fight Club Rules.

I asked the students, “That’s nuts right?” and it is. Nathan did a great job of illustrating how ridiculous it looks when you see someone beat themselves up. Can you imagine going into McDonalds and watching some guy waiting in line start being himself up, punching his own face and banging his head into a wall?

See, that doesn’t really happen, the body cares for the body, your hand will scratch and itch on your head, but it shouldn’t punch your face.

In Romans 12:4–8 we see again this image of the church being a body and how we are to work together.
“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”

So how does this apply at HCA? Admittedly HCA is a school geared towards being a tool of discipleship and not a God ordained Church. The students do not all have faith in Christ which again limits how we apply this. However there are believers at HCA, there are students who are members of the Church universal.Many of the students are disciples of Christ, their faith is in Christ and so they are a Christian and so they are the body of Christ being spoken of here.

Which is why it can be disappointing to see how we interact with each other at times and I get the feeling we look just as crazy as Nathan did beating the snot out of himself.
We attack each other verbally.
We go behind each others backs speaking cruelly.
We are willing to make someone feel terrible just to make ourselves feel good or to be funny ourselves. Humor is good, but not at the expense of attacking our brother or sister in Christ.
It just shouldn’t be that way and if you know that this is true of you then some of you will need to repent.
You’ll need to repent to God and you need to ask those you’ve sinned against to forgive you for the way you have treated them.

See my hope and my prayer in all this is that we would work together as a body.
So that we are helping each other and so that we are able to work together for serving others, for glorifying God. To use our freedom to be servants of God (1 Peter 2:16).

Cause we know what we should look like, Jesus even tells us what about us will show others that really are followers of Jesus. In John 13:35 He says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””

So today I want you to consider a few things.
1st. If you need to ask someone to forgive you, find them after we finish here and ask them to forgive you for whatever you said or did that was not loving.

2nd. I want you to consider your words and your actions today. Picture us all functioning like a body and ask if you are the hand helping and working together or if you are the creepy hand causing harm to the rest of the body.

3rd. Pray to our God and ask Him to give you strength to love those who need it even if it’s the unpopular thing to do.

So, we are Soma, let us live as one.

By futuregrace Category: Devotional, Feature, The Clover Patch

I Taught Sadie Piper Psalm One and She Ruined My Day ^{0}

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.  Psalm 1:1–4

Sadie Piper made a very interesting point about ministry to me today and she has no idea she did. Here’s how it happened.

When Beckham graduated from Children’s Church they gave him an ESV Children’s Bible. It’s the actual text of Scripture rather than an abridged version with only stories. Problem is he reads at a 12th grade Arkansas level, which of course is a 1st Grade Kansas level so there are not many words in it he has a grasp on.

He likes to bring it to the Worship service at Redeemer and flip through it, but he has really wanted us to read it to him during the service. I told him we’ll read it later and then for awhile in a disappointing father way did no read it to him. Mostly just forgetting about it, but also with some dumb idea that he wouldn’t be able to track with what I read.

So this week at Breakfast I began to read and explain Psalm 1 to Becks and Sadie Piper. It’s only day two and I cant guarantee day three will happen so don’t be too impressed. Anyway, the plan was to read them a chapter a day. Day one we finished two verses and I only kinda think they understood.

Best I remember the first two verses by the end of talking were reduced to… the man who wants to be happy should not listen to the bad advice of people we don’t love God. But they should love God’s Word and they should think about God’s Word as much as they can.

This morning was day two and we read verses 3 & 4. I’ve learned already that they learn better from my asking questions about the text than just my talking.

So our verses read like this, “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.”

I told them God is comparing one thing to another to teach us something. Like I might say Beckham is as fast as a lion. Do I think Beckham is a lion? No. I’m just trying to tell you I think Beckham is really fast.

The following is lacking rabbit trails and completely unrelated comments that make the whole experience funnier. 

So I asked Beckham and Sadie Piper…

- What do trees need to grow? Water

- So what happens if I plant a tree in the desert? It won’t grow cause there is no water (don’t get caught up in the details)

- Do you know what a stream of water is? lakes, ponds, creeks, “really really really long lakes”

- So if a tree needs water and you plant it next to a lake what do you think will happen? It grow big big big, Becks even rose in his chair to show me how big they grow.

So God is telling us that the person who loves God’s Word and who thinks about God’s Word all the time will grow up strong like a tree planted next to water.

- What would happen if you went outside and tried to push our tree over? It wouldn’t move because it’s too big.

- Y’all know what chaff is? No.

- Me neither, but I know It’s kinda like those leaves (we are looking out back window at leaves we’ve failed to rake up at this point, they may even be from Fall 2011), dead pieces of plant that are not connected anywhere. What would happen if you pushed on them? We could pick them up.

- What happens if the wind blows a tree? Nothing. Why not? It’s big and strong.

- What happens if the wind blows those leaves? Crazy Talk, I lead them to see that the leaves will go where ever the wind blows because they are not strong.

So that was fun, but then Sadie Piper kinda ruined my day when she said this afterwards,

“Dad we could fill up buckets of water and pour them on our tree so it will grow bigger.” (because our tree is not planted by a stream of water)

Hmm… My head is already thinking analogies and it occurs to me what she just said is a bit of what we actually are doing.

I think of how much time I spend in God’s Word (sometimes great, others pathetic) I think about the way many of our youth at Heritage and Redeemer function in this analogy.

We talk about being in God’s word, being planted next to a stream of water like we see in Psalm 1 and while we aren’t necessarily in a dessert (some of us at some times yes) we are often planted in fields away from water.

So what do we do to minister to youth who are not delighting in God’s Word and who are not meditating on God’s Word (Psalm 1:2)?

In a sense we fill up a bucket of water, of God’s Word and we pour it on them. We pour a bucket on them Sunday morning, we pour a bucket on them if they come to youth group, we pour a bucket on them in Chapel and a bucket in Bible Class.

I know this well because I fill these bucket and I lug these buckets and I pour out these buckets along with many others and I see that it is good for some, they grow, but for other students it’s like throwing water on hard soil where only some of the water ever soaks in. My prayers are often filled with a plea for God to soften the soil and cause growth. If you’ve actually read this far I ask that you would pray too for covenant children, particulary those in their teens.

So, all this lugging of water works ok, but I guess the real concern here is what happens when we are no longer there to pour buckets of Scripture on them a few days a week?

Maybe you see now why Sadie Piper ruined my day.

I want so badly to see our students like trees planting along side streams of water, rooted in the Word of God. Delighting and meditating on that which gives vision to what really matters in life. I desire this for our students and the lugging and pouring and lugging and pouring of water while good, is not the end goal.

The bigger question is this. How do we help to dig up these trees where we find them and plant them next to the river?

I’d love to hear other people’s ideas on this, but here is where I’m at right now. 

1. We’ll need prayer, for illumination, for soft soil, for love of God’s Word.
2. We’ll need parents who read the Word with their children, who will encourage their children to spend time in the Bible with as much diligence as they encourage finishing homework and sports and cleaning their rooms.
3. We’ll need older believers and younger christians and peers in their life pointing them ever back to Scripture for everything.
4. We as parents will need to be sure we are planted personally next to the river, after all the normal way God works is a lot like an acorn falling from a tree. Be planted near the water that brings delight.
5. And we’ll need more buckets and more people lugging it to the trees who simply aren’t planted near streams of water.

Note: I admit there may be errors in this analogy, I don’t hold on to it like I do Scripture, but I find analogies help me understand and felt I ought to share it with you as well.

By futuregrace Category: Devotional, Feature, The Clover Patch

Devotional: The Watering Can ^{0}

James 4:13-14

“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

The main point of this verse in James is to not arrogantly proclaim what you will accomplish by your own strength, but rather to state that your plans are conditional upon God’s will. If God wills something it will happen. This is a great contrast from our thoughts that if we will something it will happen.

However, what God reveals in this text of Scripture goes beyond the main point teaching us something of the nature of our lives. He says we as men and women are a mist.

What a beautiful image of how short life is. If you’ve ever watered your yard in the summer you’ve seen the life span of a mist. Maybe you had a fancy nozzle that made the mist or perhaps you just mashed your thumb over the end of the hose making a spray. Either way the mist is that smallest of water that almost floats in the air it’s so tiny. That mist exist only a few seconds as it floats to the ground or because of the heat is evaporated entirely.

God says that’s you. You are the mist. Your life is that tiny piece of water that is going to quickly vanish.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this image over the past six months or so. The realization that my life is short and Laura’s life is short and everyone we know is also living a life that is quickly misting away.

As Laura and I were sitting in the backyard one afternoon this realization of the vapor like reality of life gave rise to another image or illustration that has been rolling around in my head. The image is of me being given one watering can and sprinkle spout that is already partially empty. Then before me is a giant yard filled with grass and flowers and bushes and trees and cement pathways and some of the plants are bright green while others are withering and others still are brown and near death.

So there I stand with one watering can and I’m trying to decide where to pour out my water to make a difference in the life of this yard which clearly represents the world. When it is gone, it is gone.

I can’t water everything, but I can pour this water out in one place and make a big difference or I can pour a little everywhere and make a little difference in many places. But where do I pour?

If I pour it on the path it’s an absolute waste, nothing is growing there anyway, if I pour it on myself it would be wasted as well. That may mean different things to different people. I do know that spending my time on entertainment is like a concrete path.

The other options are pretty legit.

The bright green portions do need to be watered or they will eventually wilt and die. Yet there is not immediate threat there.

The wilting portions are heading towards withering and death, but with water they may be soon be bright and green and healthy and growing and fruitful.

The brown and near death grass and plants are desperate, they need water, they need attention, but even my entire watering can may not bring them to a state of bright green.

I can’t decide if it’s depressing or encouraging, but I soon realize that even after making this first choice I’ll need to find others with watering cans and convince them of the value of pouring out their water in places where it is needed, people to pour along side me, people to pour in other needed areas and people to pour once my can has poured out it’s last drop.

I know it’s just a stupid analogy, but this is what each of us is facing.

This water is our life and we ought to consider that it is a gift of God and that He has given us time and knowledge of the Gospel and hearts to love and make a difference in the is world. At some point we have to realize that we can’t change everything everywhere, but praise God that you do have one can and you can make a difference somewhere. So pray and think and ponder where you will pour out the life you’ve been given.

For some you will pour on self and on paths of concrete making zero difference with the years you’ve been given. In fact too many of us will do that.

For others we’ll see that value in keeping the green…green. We’ll pour out where water is plentiful and yet still more needed to preserve that. Others of you will see people who are struggling and wilting and you will pour into their lives, giving time and money and prayer and all that you have to bring them to good health.

Others still will be broken when you see those on the edge of death or those who are desperate for water and you will pour out your life there bringing them to some degree of greenness.

I think the point is this. Do something, don’t stand there as your water evaporates trying to decide where you pour out your life or simply admiring the can holding the water or watching others pour out their cans. Focus somewhere knowing you can’t pour it out everywhere, but you can pour it out somewhere and that is the reason God gifted you the water to begin with. (Ephesians 2:10)

By futuregrace Category: Devotional, Feature, The Clover Patch