The first day of summer has come and gone! What does that mean? Vacations to the beach and mountains; family trips to visit family; the smell of hotdogs burning on the grill; the sound of cannon balls in the pool; trips to WalMart to get more sunscreen; and long summer nights cooling off on the deck. Summer is great and we love it for many reasons. One of the reasons I love it so much is that it is a change of pace, and I like changes every once in a while.

Summertime also brings a different pace at church. People pop in more often. We have more activities and trips planned. Kids are out of school so this is the ideal time for camps, Bible schools, and mission trips. It just seems that it is a very busy time of year for us at Calvary. So, we’re changing the rhythm up a little; the ebb and flow of everyday life is just a little different.

With these seasonal changes we need to be guarded in our diligence about our walk with God. It would become easy for us with trips, vacations, barbeques, and parties to put God on the backburner and tell Him, “I’ll get back to you later when life slows down a little.” Resolve today, at the beginning of summer, that you won’t be that Christian. Be faithful to God everyday. Maybe you change up your routine with God, but God is still a major part of your routine. Maybe you approach your daily time with God differently, but God is still part of your day.

David hotly pursued God.

“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1)

This is the sort of passion we need for God. It speaks of being utterly and only satisfied in God. Nothing and no one can satisfy us like God can. Is that our desire this summer? I hope it is!

Grace & Peace,

We need to persevere in a lot of things…believing the gospel, taking God at His word, battling disease, building a marriage, raising kids, managing money, paying bills, mowing the grass, being a faithful friend, getting the gospel out into the community, and praying. Even when we don’t see something (or somebody) change we still stay at it. We just don’t know what God is up to; we don’t know how God is working; and we don’t know when God is going to do something. We just keep enduring, and that is what I want to remind us all about in the area of prayer…

Don’t give up! Go to God day and night. Pray on your knees (if they can take it and you know you’ll be able to get up again) and on your jog. Pray at work and at play. Pray while you’re getting ready and while driving to work (just don’t close your eyes). I’m a firm believer in people not texting while they drive, but I’m an avid believer in praying while driving.

Here are a couple of thoughts from the Apostle Paul on persistence in prayer:

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” (Romans 12:12)

“Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Now a reminder from me what I want us to be persistent in prayer about:

In the words of Winston Churchill, “Never, never, never give up!”

Grace & Peace,

Happy Father’s Day! This is a pretty awesome weekend for us guys, right? No lawn work, don’t have to wash dishes, forget about washing the car, fixing the broken stuff around the house, no way; but you’re saying, “Ok, I get it, but who’s going to do all those things?” My answer: that’s why we have the week after Father’s Day – catch up week! Just kidding.

Being a dad is great but it’s also hard work. I’ve always believed that if you put in the time, energy, blood, sweat and tears early then as the kids get older it’ll be easier. So, if you’re a dad of “ankle bitters” fight, work diligently, put in every ounce of effort to raise those kids in the fear, love and admiration of God. They are worth the time.

Think about it this way…usually you’ll work at more than one place in your lifetime; you might even have more than one career, and one day you will walk away forever from a perfectly good job (it’s called retirement). But we still put so much effort into work; we spend exorbitant amounts of time at the office, and still jobs come and jobs go, but kids – that’s a different story. They are yours for life. Shepherding a child’s heart is one investment that is worth the exertion, determination, sacrifice and risk. Dads, you can do it because God has given you everything you need to be a good dad. He’s given you a father-shepherd’s heart and He’s given you a manual from which to teach – the Bible.

On a personal note…I have loved every stage of fatherhood and I am learning a new one now. It is exciting and a pleasure to be the dad of adult kids. I really have a great time uniquely interacting with each of our brood. For one it’s be a tearfully deep conversation in the car over coffee; for another it’s a weekly FaceTime Bible Study; for another it’s catch up texting or a 3 mile run and talk; for another it’s Sunday lunches with her new husband. The relationships never end; they just take on a different and, may I say, “deeper” dimension.

What I would say to you dads today is: enjoy Father’s Day and let it remind you that you have a God-given opportunity to shepherd your children’s hearts. Do it well, do it with diligence and do it through the Word!

Grace & Peace,

Scott

God’s Word is cleansing. Here’s how it works…

The Holy Spirit takes the revealed words of God (the Bible) and washes us from all the filthy junk that we get attracted to. Like, the addictions and the words and the thoughts and the patterns of sin and the images. The Bible scrubs us clean through replacing our sinful desires, thoughts and actions with holy and godly desires, thoughts and actions. The Holy Spirit gives us a bath through the Word.

David put it like this,

“How can a young man keep his way pure?

            By guarding it according to your word.

With my whole heart I seek you;

            Let me not wander from your commandments!

I have stored up your word in my heart,

            That I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:9-11)

Paul, speaking of Christ, makes it super clear in Ephesians,

“…Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:25-27)

In both of these passages we can clearly see the agent God uses to cleanse us – it’s His Word!

Thinking we are going to get rid of the filth in our lives without getting into the Bible is like thinking we are going to take a bath without soap and water. We need the Bible; we need its cleansing power in our lives to gain the victory over sin.

Let me add a word of warning: we can’t rely on someone else’s teaching and preaching alone to clean us, we need to get into the scrubbing power of God’s Word on our own. Now, when I was a little boy my mom would give me a bath and scrub behind my ears and in all the right places. But, I quickly outgrew that and could eventually do it on my own. Wouldn’t it be tragic for a mom to be giving her 51-year-old son a bath? It is doubly tragic for mature believers to rely on someone else to give them a spiritual bath.

So, let’s get into the Bible. Study it; fall in love with its stories and teachings and poems. The Bible is trustworthy, reliable, clear, relevant and authoritative. Let the Holy Spirit wash you with the scrubbing power of God’s Word!

Grace & Peace,