At all of our weekend services, this weekend, we will collect a disaster-relief fund for Haiti.  The organization that will receive our offering is called “Food for the Hungry” (www.fh.org).  This particular organization is Christian, is recommended by respected Christian leaders, and has very little overhead/administrative costs.  According to their website: “More than 91% of their total income, including commodities, goes to field programs,” (http://www.fh.org/who/finances).  They, in turn, will direct the money to Haitian relief as quickly as possible.

During our offering times this weekend, we are going to designate all loose change to “Food for the Hungry” as well as any designated gifts.  For instance, if you are regular contributor to Crossroads, and you give $200 every two weeks via our offering envelopes, and you would like to designate another $50 to Haiti Disaster Relief, then you would write $200 in the “current expense” box on your envelope, and $50 in the “other” box, and then include a check for $250.  However, if you are not a regular contributor to Crossroads, but you want to put a $50 bill into the offering plates, then your $50 will go to “Food for the Hungry.”.

This morning, as we were getting our oldest son ready for School, we asked him if he had his money for the book fair.  He said, “No.  I’m not going to buy that book.  I’m going to save my money for our Haiti offering at church.”  Although it is a book he’s been wanting, he decided to make a sacrifice for those in need.  At Crossroads, we do a lot to serve our broken neighbors in Joliet—and we will continue to do so—but now is the time to give basic food and water to our neighbors to the south, in Haiti.  I hope and pray that you will give with a cheerful and generous heart.

I was thinking about one of the kiddos a couple of blocks away who spends quite a bit of time at our house.  During the Summer time, he leaves his house when he gets out of bed, and doesn’t really go home until dusk.  Half the time, we’re feeding him dinner and giving him basic adult supervision.  And at least three times per evening during the school year he rings our doorbell, wanting to play.  He’s pretty respectful to my wife and I, but doesn’t play real well with our boys, especially when other friends are visiting.  If often find myself frustrated with him, and especially with his lone parent who spends more time with potential mates than with the kids.

Why do I have such a hard time acting like Jesus, at home?  When at Church, I get to help people in such circumstances all the time.  And I generally do it with a cheerful spirit.  When I see single moms, or struggling families, or broken lives, my heart breaks for them.  I want to reach out to them, help them, serve them, and hopefully restore them.  But when I’m home, it’s a lot harder.  Would hypocrite be the operative word?  I hope not.

Why do I have such a hard time acting like Jesus, to my family?  It’s not just toward the neighbor kid, but toward my family as well.  I’m much more gracious with the kids at church than I am with my own kids.  I’m much more forgiving with the people at church than I am toward my own wife.  And I’m much more generous with the folks at church than I am with the folks in my home.

So what’s the deal, anyway?  If you have good answers to any of these questions, I would appreciate your responses.  I don’t really know the answer.  But I do no that I’m not as much like Jesus as I’d like to be!  My most natural self is evident at home, and that’s the hardest place for me to live like Jesus; which means I’ve got a long journey ahead of me, in my pursuit of “Christ-likeness.”

“Hardly anything else reveals so well the fear and uncertainty among men as the length to which they will go to hide their true selves from each other and even from their own eyes.”

“Self-knowledge is so critically important to us in our pursuit of God and His righteousness that we lie under heavy obligation to do immediately whatever is necessary to remove the disguise and permit our real selves to be known.”

Rules for Self-Discovery (We may be known by the following):

1. What we want most.  “Ask your heart: What would you rather have than anything else in the world?”

2. What we think about most. “The true test is what we think about voluntarily.”

3. How we use our money. “We must pay taxes and provide for the necessities of life…, but whatever money is left to do with as we please—that will tell us a great deal indeed.”

4. What we do with our leisure time.  “Most people waste [free time] staring at the television, listening to the radio, reading the cheap output of the press or engaging in idle chatter.  What I do with mine reveals the kind of man I am.”

5. The company we enjoy.  ”Where we go, when we are free to go where we will, is a near-infallible index of character.”

6. Whom and what we admire.  “We can learn the true state of our minds by examining our unexpressed admirations.”

7. What we laugh at.  “Lacking a sense of humor we fall that much short of healthy humanity.  But the test we are running here is not whether we laugh or not, but what we laugh at.”

Warren W. Wiersbe (ed.), The Best of A.W. Tozer, Book One, (Camp Hill, PA: Baker Book House Co., 1978), pp. 109-111.

Frankly, I think all of these ‘national’ days are stupid—when did we start celebrating mediocrity?  Let’s celebrate when people do exceptional things; but let’s just keep moving forward when people do what they’re created to do.  It’s like they say in football: “When you score a touchdown, act like you’ve done it before” (feel free to apply this metaphor to anything men like to do).

So how about we chuck this whole man-day thing and be manly everyday.  Contrary to what our culture tells us, it’s okay to be a man (just saw a Gillette commercial telling men how to shave their chest and armpit hair, no kidding!).  Can’t our manhood be the rule not the exception?  Can’t we be strong and courageous, adventurous and daring, direct and honest, everyday?

Let’s take our friends fishing, our sons hunting, and our bikes onto the open road on a regular basis!  Let’s get out of our boring basements and onto the battlefields of spiritual warfare—that’s something our wives would love to see!  Let’s get out of our 9-to-5′s and keep one eye in the moment and one eye on the future.  Let’s be proud of “the Grind,” so long as “the Grind” is an avenue to greatness for our families and our faith.  In short, let’s boldly be what God created us to be: Men.

First, if truth does not exist, then Might makes Right.  If there is no such thing as truth, then whoever is the most powerful gets to determine what is right.  The top of the food chain gets to decide what is right and moral.  If they determine that they need your land, they get to confiscate it.  If they determine they need your money, they get to tax it.  If they determine they need your service, they get to enslave you.  If there’s no absolute truth then there are no inalienable human rights.  Right and wrong are relative to whoever is making the decisions.  The people with the most power decide what is right because there’s no truth to contradict, to contain, or to expose them.  If there is no truth then there is only tyranny.

Second, if truth does not exist, then everyday living is impossible.  Think about it: If you can’t know anything for sure then you can’t do anything for sure.  Francis Schaeffer “cites the famous example of the composer John Cage, whose commitment to pure chance was so strong that he believed that no one musical note or sequence or combination of notes is better than any other.  Thus he chose his notes by pure chance.  However, as a mushroom connoisseur, he knew he might die if he picked and ate mushrooms at random, regardless of their shape, size, or color.  Hence, when he gathered mushrooms, he went strictly by the book, in contradiction to his asserted relativism.”[1] 

Relativism simply doesn’t work.  Think about it like this: If you can’t know anything for sure then you dare not get inside your car because you can’t know if it’s going to blow up when you turn the ignition, or just start the engine.  Nor can you know if it will stop when you hit the brakes if you can’t know truth.  Every single time we get out of bed we do so with a set of assumptions and truths that we live by!  If truth does not exist then everyday living is impossible.

Third, if truth does exist, then we need to abide by it.  If truth does exist, and if we can know truth, then we need to abide by it.  At previous times we’ve established the fact that truth does exist.  And we’ve asserted that truth is knowable and that it’s most reliable source is the Scriptures.  Therefore we have a responsibility to abide by the teachings of Scripture.

Most people reject the idea of truth, not because they don’t believe in truth per se, but because they don’t want to abide by God’s truths.  They’d rather have it their own way.  And rather than acknowledging their contempt for God’s ways they simply disallow the idea of truth altogether.  Even the Bible says: “Where there is no law there is no transgression.”[2]  In other words, if we can’t know the truth then we can’t be held accountable for our sin.  But if we can know the truth then we are not only accountable for our sin, but we are responsible for following the truth.

 [These ideas are adapted from Jack Cottrell's book Faith's Fundamentals: Seven Essentials of the Christian Faith.]

[2] Romans 4:15

Except for today.  Today I’ve got the Melancholy-Monday Syndrome.

Maybe it’s because its dark and dreary outside.  Maybe it’s because I slept terribly and had crazy dreams last night; or maybe it’s because I haven’t slept well at all since the Exponential Conference in April.  Maybe it’s because there’s an emotional letdown after a very busy Sunday.  Maybe it’s because I’ve worked all day, every day, for 8 of the past 9 days (I’m not complaining, I prefer it that way).  Maybe it’s because my oldest son still has a week-and-half of school left before Summer vacation (unbelievable!).  Maybe it’s because of the 220+ people who died this morning on an Air France flight.  Maybe it’s because the notorious late-term abortion doctor, George Tiller, was slain in a church yesterday (I’m not shedding any tears for Tiller but neither am I rejoicing; in fact I’m rather conflicted spiritually about this).

For whatever reason, or maybe for all these reasons, I’m experiencing a very melancholy Monday.  But Psalm 118:24 says, “This is the Day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”  I’m going to rejoice in this day, but I may need a little inspiration.

I think the point is that we as parents pass our success, as well as our failures, onto our children.  They will succeed in some of the areas we have succeeded.  But they will also fail in many of the areas where we have failed.  In many cases, our habits will become their habits and our addictions will become theirs.  Therefore we have a responsibility, not only as people not to harbor and hold onto bad habits, but as parents to ensure that the legacy passed onto our children is honorable and godly.

What are you goals in life?  To experience romance.  To attain academic excellence.  To have a house, 2.5 kids, and a dog named Spot.  To make a million dollars.  To be the best at whatever you do.  To achieve fame and/or significance.  What is your life’s aim—what are you shooting for?

For the Apostle it is rather simple: to please God.

What I immediately notice is the unselfishness of his goal.  It’s not about getting stuff, proving something, living up to someone else, or being better than the rest.  He simply hopes that his life will be pleasing to God.  But he doesn’t just hope.  He makes it his mission, his passion, his life’s work.

Is your goal in life to please God?  Does it wake you up in the morning, lay you down at night, and govern who you are in between?  What you do with your time—does it please God?  What you do with your money—does it please God?  What you eat and drink—does it please God?  What you say to your coworkers—does it please God?  How you treat your spouse—does it please God?  Have you made it your aim to please God?

Sadly, most of us just try to please ourselves.

Making it our goal to please God is not easy.  But three verses might be an asset in this discussion.  The first is Hebrews 11:6 which says: “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”  The second is 1 John 5:3 which says: “This is love for God: to obey His commands” (NIV).

And the third is found in John 2 in a record of the events surrounding Jesus’ first miracle.  It’s during a wedding feast.   Unfortunately, the wedding-planner has failed to secure enough wine for the party (a pretty big social fax paux in 1st century Israel), and Mary asks Jesus to solve the problem.

Interestingly enough, Jesus doesn’t seem real keen on doing this but yields to his mother’s request, asking the servants to fill six large vats with water.  When they look at Him with confusion Mary says to the servants “Do whatever He tells you” (John 2:5 NIV).  Enabled by their obedience, Jesus turns the water into wine.

It’s a simple statement, yet profound in our discussion.  Do you want to make it your life’s goal to please God?  Then do whatever He tells you.

Therefore, I began the discipline of marking out time for God.  Thinking that I should begin and end my day with God, I began to get up earlier and stay up later so that my time with Him did not take away from my time with family, friends and work.  And what better way, then to start and end the day, with God?

And I must confess that it began only as a discipline.  The first morning, when my alarm sounded at 5:30am, was a rough one.  I hit the coffee maker before I hit the Word.  But the second morning was easier.  And the third easier still.  Also, spending an hour in prayer and devotional study was not easy.  What to pray?  What to read?  How to keep from falling asleep?  That’s why they call it discipline, I suppose, because it’s not easy.

However, my discipline is now being transformed into desire.  I’m anticipating my times with God in the morning.  I’m finding the television in the evening to be monotonous.  I’m looking forward to my prayer journal, and my devotional books, and maybe most, my Bible.  I’m reading things that challenge me—and I like to be challenged—things that could change me.  My passion for God is being renewed once again—and I find myself spending more time with Him throughout the day (and appreciating Him in my work and in my play).  Discipline has become desire.

I wonder how many other areas of my life need the catalyst of discipline.  It takes discipline to exercise but eventually it becomes a desire.  It takes discipline to love the unlovable, but eventually the unlovable become desirable.  How many areas of our lives could God transform if we were willing to accept His discipline and embrace self-discipline?  I don’t know for sure, but I do know that my spiritual disciplines have become spiritual desires—and for this I rejoice.