In the last couple of posts I have taken opportunity to address my FBCG family with some reflections on our recent Life Action Summit. This event in the life of our church will no doubt be an important marker in our journey as a Body. My focus in these short deposits has been to identify the battle we face with our flesh and with the strategies of the evil one. These posts are offered as pastoral reminders of the importance of pressing on in obedience in the Christian life, and especially in specific areas that have come to us in the recent Summit.  How often Jesus spoke in simple terms on our need to follow Him,  “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46)

In this final post-Summit article, I want to focus on the issue of guilt and how that can hamstring faithfulness to Christ. When we face setbacks and challenges in our lives, we can harbor guilt as our struggles remind us of failures that drag stubbornly.   We don’t even meet our own expectations, let alone God’s.  In this recent season of refreshing, the struggle with sin in our lives can bring guilt and condemnation.  These struggles can breed a hopelessness which is a fiery missile from the evil one to derail us off mission.

For such evil strategies, when Satan seems to put his slimy boot on our throats, we find hope in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In Romans 8, Paul begins this “Mount Everest” text with lifegiving hope for believers battling with guilt, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1). This promise should be employed by every believer as a “grace ambulance” when we battle the issues of heart and life.  With simple confession, and the grace Christ supplies, we are called to begin again.

The work of an unknown poet captures this truth well. The scene is an elementary classroom, and it is called, “Beginning Anew”: (more…)

Rembrandt van Rijn was a brilliant painter who, among other subjects in his career, captured biblical scenes with magnificent clarity.  His painting, “The Return of the Prodigal Son,” portrays the return of the wayward son to his father based upon Jesus’s parable in Luke 15.

The painting captures that life had been hard for this young man, as Rembrandt presents him with a missing shoe, and with the remaining shoe in tatters.  His clothes and hair are disheveled, and his body emaciated and spent. It had been a mad race leaving him empty, exhausted, and ashamed.

We know from Luke 15 that this son had demanded his inheritance from his father, and in so doing was communicating that he wished his father was dead. The father yielded to the request, and subsequently this brazen rebel squandered it all on wasteful living.

The parable fast forwards us to this son who had spent all his money and was now starving in a pig pen far from home.  The turning point in this rebel’s life is found in Luke 15:17 where the text says in an economy of words, “he came to his senses.” As he reflected on the good nature of his father, he acknowledged to himself that his behavior was indeed crazy.

This is a very helpful commentary on sin and rebellion. In short, it is insanity. The narrative of the Bible underscores that rebels never live “happily-ever-after” if they carry on in their rebellion. From the earliest pages of the Scripture, the Lord God of heaven expresses hatred toward rebellion and pledges to judge it. We also learn that this God who abhors sin is also a Father who forgives and restores those who come to Him with their brokenness and failure. God is the ultimate rebel lover, but we must come on His terms.

One of the memorable rock anthems of the 1970’s was from Kansas entitled, “Carry on My Wayward Son.” The song speaks eloquently of the pride, confusion, and lostness of a prodigal in search of truth and meaning. (more…)

Growing up I was blessed with a father who could fix most things and was not afraid to build anything. You would think that some of that skill would rub off on his son, however my interests were elsewhere. From the time I was five until the age of twenty-two, I was on a ball field or in a gymnasium either playing or training for the next game.

Consequently, when it was time to take care of repairs and other life skills, I was woefully deficient. Filled with some regret that I had missed opportunities in my youth, I vowed a vow that I would do my best to pass on some trade, or skill, to my sons.

What do you pass on when you have such a lean resume and you can’t fix anything?  Well, as I was thinking about that one day, the thought came to me that I do know how to push a lawn mower, and so with that seed thought our family lawn business was launched about twelve years ago.

This venture has opened many doors for ministry, as well as a steady stream of life lessons for my sons. They have had to face the trials that come with broken equipment, with customers who do not pay for services rendered, with working in the Louisiana summer heat, and with an occasional wasp sting.

It is the last of these mentioned that comes to mind when I think of the importance of staying on task. Wasps abound in south Louisiana, and when my sons were younger, their curiosity and intrigue when they found a wasp nest was fun to watch.  A newly discovered wasp nest could shut down work for ten or fifteen minutes in order to see that the execution was carried out thoroughly. (more…)