I just wanted coffee . . .

Customer service seems to be a dying art.  If you ever needed support with your cable, Internet, or cell phone provider, you probably can relate. 

I recently was at a local store for a meeting.  I arrived early so I was planning on grabbing a coffee.  But since there was only one employee working I never was waited on or even acknowledged that I was in the store.  It might be awhile before I return there.

For us, we often think of service in terms of our experience with a waiter at a restaurant or the phone call we make for technical support or in my case the lack of service at the local store.

But as we lean into God’s heart and discover what it means to reflect His character to the world around us, we soon discover something more about service. It’s not what people do for us or don't do for us, but rather what we need to be doing for the people around us.

This month's Life App in Inspire Kids is SERVICE.  We define it as lending a hand to help someone else. There’s something pretty great that happens when we decide to take the focus off of ourselves and lend a hand to help someone who needs it.

Service is such an important virtue for all of us to develop.  Today's culture is more about us than others.  Some of us take more selfies of ourselves than pictures of others.  Our kids need to move from receiving l the time to experiencing the joy of serving.

This month join me in praying that our kids are inspired to use what they have to engage in the work God is doing and make a difference in the world.

Secret Battles

There’s a story of a young woman who had been working on her two preschoolers’ scrapbooks during their nap times.  She finally decided that the project was complete.  She decided to search through her parents’ photographs and begin to document her family history for her children.

She quickly noticed that the photographs taken during the early years of her childhood were creatively arranged in the albums.  But there were no snapshots representing the two years of her parents’ separation.

Many of us have gaps in our photo albums that represent dark periods in our personal history.  They may even bring to mind a habit, or a hurt, or a hang up that you have.  

None of us ever wakes up one day and says today I’m going to be an alcoholic or I’m going to have a sexual addiction or I’m going to choose for gambling to ruin my personal finances.  Instead, it often starts with a slow drift towards destruction. 

This Sunday I'm looking forward to speaking from a passage in the New Testament that demonstrates the idea of freedom from the battle.  In John 8 it’s the narrative of the women who was caught in the act of adultery.  

Overcoming the past, overcoming our secret battles, experiencing freedom from the battle . . . takes faith . . . and something more . . . Courage.  Courage is what it takes to shed the problems and mistakes and secret battles of the past and dream again.

The best news ever is that hope remains.  No matter where you have been or what you have done, hope remains.  

"You are more than the choices that you've made.  You are more than the sum of your past mistakes.  You are more than the problems you create."

#UCC #iamchristian

Last week our days were interrupted by yet another mass shooting. A young man went to Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon and begin to shoot students and staff.

Multiple reports say that the shooter was asking them what religion they were.  The shooter may have been a Muslim that was specifically targeting Christians.  I wonder if the media would be reporting differently if the targets were Muslims or people of a certain Sexual Orientation.

These events are getting way too close to me.  I lived just an hour or so from Roseburg for about 10 years.  You might remember the shooting at Marysville Pilchuck High School last year.  Back in the the mid to late 90's I lived in Marysville and served on staff at a local church.

President Obama was quoted last week as saying, "We don't take the basic, common-sense actions to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous people.  what's different in America is it's easy to get our hands on (guns)." 

I have several friends that carry a gun.  Many of them would argue that if more people had a concealed gun than we wouldn't have as many as these shootings or at least there would be less casualties.

Each year more laws are added in this country but crime continues to rise and our prisons are overpopulated.  Some of the friends I have that carry a gun would act responsibly during a shooting.  Others I could see them causing more damage than good.

Others point out that we need to do a better job of meeting the needs of those that suffer a mental illness.  There's no doubt that we can improve in that area.

So what's the solution or what's the root cause?  I love what a friend of mine posted on facebook.

"I keep hearing 'guns are the problem' or 'mental illness' is the problem' and while there may a bit of truth to "all" the different excuses, I think that we are really seeing is simply the results of a nation that keeps turning further and further away from God."

Unfortunately there are no easy answers.  We live in a fallen world. There are so many hurting people.  Many of these hurting people hurt others wether its with their words or their actions. But hope does remain.  Check out this verse in 2 Chronicles 7:14

"Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land."

The root cause of these mass shootings aren't weak gun laws or not having enough people with concealed gun permits.  The root cause is a fallen world.  So how would the Lord have us respond?


Be ready to give an answer.  2 Timothy 4:2 says, "Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction."

Pray for our children, for our schools, for our nation, and for those affected by this most recent tragedy.  In praying circles around your children, author Mark Batterson states that "Our most powerful prayers are hyperlinked to the promises of God.  One of my favorite is found in Philippians 4:6-7.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Don't live in fear - but rather put our trust in God.  In 2 Timothy 1:7 Paul writes, "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline."

We can work for a more just society.  Isaiah 1:17 teaches us to "learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed.  Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow."

Yes, #iamchristian.