Website Change!!

GO TO WWW.SMOAKSIGNAL.COM FOR THE LATEST POSTS!

Our website has been radically changed and now I will be blogging on its homepage. I will keep this blog in place for the previous posts on it. I will continue to interact here with comments from the previous posts.

So, let smoaksignal.com be your place to go for updates and be sure to interact there.

The Uncommon Needs blog will continue and I hope to find new items to add there as well.

Thanks to all and I hope you enjoy the transition.

iGrace

This past Christmas, my seven-year-old son was surprised by his grandparents with an iPod Touch. It was amazing how quickly he figured out how to use it and where the “app store” was! It wasn’t long before we started downloading appropriate apps, games and music. It has been almost five months and this gift has not grown old. In fact, we have had to put time limits in place to prevent too much gaming. 

We have also tried to use this gadget as a tool for discipleship. We found there were many Bible apps available for it, but the other night, the concept of the iPod became a tool. 

What if God Designed __________________ to Make us Holy More than to Make us Happy?

I'm shamelessly borrowing a subtitle from Gary Thomas' book Sacred Marriage except I put a blank where the word "marriage" goes. Maybe there are some other things that can go in that blank. Gary makes a great point in this book that many Christians go into marriage with expectations which have been shaped more by our culture than by Scripture. When I share the subtitle of this book with folks and say, "What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy?" their brows wrinkle in repulsion!

Osama bin Laden Deserves a Special Place in Hell...and so do I

The news of Osama bin Laden's death brought mixed emotions. In one way, it brought a feeling that something had finally come to an end, though terrorism is still a threat. In another way, the anger over what happened on 9/11 and price our military has paid in the subsequent wars found a bit of satisfaction. But as I watched the reaction in the media and online, I also got a bit uneasy.

Extra! Extra!

So, my hometown paper, the Aiken Standard, did a story on the book The Lord Struck the Child. It was great and surprising that it made the front page!! The full story can be read here! Thanks to Michael Gibbons for doing the article and hope folks will find the book, be blessed by reading it and bless others by purchasing it.

Part of Me

The year is flying by. I suddenly realized the other day that May is fast approaching. That means May 22 is coming. That was the day Macayla was born and that was the day Macayla went Home. Nine years. In some ways it feels like a dream that we have woken from but the residual of its emotions remain. Other times it is all too fresh and real. There are times, more often now than before, that the memories are sweet and bring a smile to our hearts. But May 22 is such a mixture of dread, pain, love and hope.

I dread that we will have to walk through that day. Less than a month away and it brings pain already. But there is such love that stirs there too. Love for our girl who smiled when we couldn't and laughed in the midst of a hard road. Love for our girl who drew us and others closer to Christ. Love for our girl and her dry wit, a love for her brother, a love for music, a love for dogs, horses and cats. But there is hope also. As of May 22, we will have made it a year. We will have traveled this trail of grief for a year and survived. Hope because our girl is no longer in pain, but quite to the contrary, she is whole and full. She is in the presence of our Lord and if we could see what she sees and fully know what she knows now, we would be throwing a party.

Part of me wants to skip May 22. Part of me wants to hide on May 22. Part of me wants to celebrate on May 22. Part of me rejoices and part of me aches.

The Whirlwind of...Everything

My son asked if I had ever thought of living in an early time of history, like the first century and if it would have been better. It made me think about how full of distractions our lives are. We live in a whirlwind of digital and graphic information constantly bombarding us with noise, words, and ideas. So, I thought, why not add a little post about overcoming this problem. My phone just rang and pulled me away from writing this. While in that conversation, I realized I had not eaten breakfast and so I pulled out a bowl and milk for some cereal. However, the conversation went longer than expected and I never actually poured the cereal in the bowl. After hanging up, I came back to the laptop to finish this post, realizing as I sifted through images to add to it that I left the milk sitting out on the counter and I had not eaten anything. I also have to hurry up and finish so I can run to the paint store and get the stain to finish the second coat on our deck. Looks like a few more tweets, emails and facebook responses just came in too.

Being Heavenly Minded Makes us the MOST earthly Good

Special Offer on a Special Story

Here is the latest offer to save money on the book The Lord Struck the Child! If you already have a copy, buy one (or 2, 3, 4, 5 or so) for someone you know. Remember, every dime made above printing cost goes to a different charity each quarter. None of the money goes to me. Right now, we are supporting Camp New Hope in North Carolina. We are about 1/3 of the way to supporting a family for a week at the camp.

Reading the book will bless you, buying the book will bless others.

Resume of Rubbish

It seems my American upbringing has tainted my idea of success. Our culture promotes a go-get-em attitude and positive pragmatism. If something works, it is valuable and if it doesn't work, well it should be abandoned. Unfortunately, our patience to see weather something works or not tends to be short. No doubt our can-do attitude has helped us accomplish much, but so often it tends to be the Achilles heal of my spiritual growth and ministry. When I don't see results quick enough, I wonder if I am using the right methods or if I'm on the right path.

Get Rid of the Dys in Dysfunctional Prayer

I just read a blog post provocatively titled "Why You Should Stop Praying." I think it is worth the read and makes a couple of good points worth noting, but there is some caution required here.

One great point Nicolle makes in this blog post is that we need to inform our prayer life with Scripture. I agree. Scripture shapes the way we pray and even the words we choose. That in and of itself is transformational. Often God will give me pause in my prayer and make me consider why I worded my prayer the way I did. Why did I pray, "Lord, help me be more patient?" First Corinthians 13 states, "Love is patient, love is kind..." If I am lacking patience, it is probably because I lack love. My prayer needs to be that I will surrender to the love of God more and allow it to flow through me more to those around me. Patience is a by-product of love.

Connecting with Easter

Our son, Jacob, is excited about Easter a month ahead of time. Not because of a bunny, eggs or candy. He is excited about a sedar meal! Yes, my son, a seven year old, is excited about a Jewish tradition which we have modified to celebrate Easter weekend.

So, let me get this out of the way. Yes, I am a nerd! But this time, the nerdiness paid off! I was trying to figure out a way for Easter to become more exciting than Christmas for our kids. Our culture has made this extremely difficult. What developed in our house was that we built a tomb and found a crucifix with a removable figurine of Jesus. On Good Friday, the cross is up with Jesus on it until that evening, when he is taken off, wrapped in a cloth and left in the tomb until Sunday morning. Of course, when our son goes to find Jesus in the tomb, he is gone and then he has to search for a "risen" Christ figurine some where in the house. You can see more in this post from before.

But we also added the sedar meal and modified it to be meaningful to Jacob and this morning he was already talking about the rice krispie treat pyramid and finding the hidden bread. He wants to hide bread for Mom and Dad to find this year. He is looking forward to dipping vegetables in salt water (symbolic of the Red Sea and the tears of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt) and cracking the hard-boiled egg (symbolic of our and Pharaoh's hard heart that is softened by Christ) The meal tells the story of both the Passover in Egypt and the "Passover" at the cross. It tells of the salvation at the Red Sea and the tomb. But we want to make the celebration of these things connect even better.

What other suggestions do you have to make the week of Easter more fun, spiritually educational and point us and our children toward the wonderful message of new life in Christ?

Was God Wringing His Hands?

Today I read a blog of a family who has been trying to figure out what is wrong with their child for two and half years. Her symptoms have not clued doctors in to what is happening and she suffers so much. The parents are praying, of course and doing all they can to get some answers.

The pain of the unknown is difficult when it comes to your child's suffering. We were fortunate that it only took us eight months to get a diagnosis for Macayla. Of course we hated the diagnosis, but I often thought how much more difficult it would have been to walk that road 100 years ago. Macayla would have digressed much faster and actually died of starvation since there were no feeding tubes back then. There would have been no medical answer as to why this was happening. So many families all over the world today experience this all the time.

The Counsel of Others - God's Will Part II

As stated in the previous post, we are seeking God's will in the midst of multiple decisions. The major decisions being the move to New Orleans and adoption. Paul wrote of God's will in his letter to the Romans, but what experience did he have in this area? How did Paul's discernment of God's will develop? The Holy Spirit used Paul and his experiences to write this letter, so certainly it would be helpful to know a little more of his background.

The Will of God

Knowing God's will seems tricky sometimes. Many believers find themselves wondering what God's will is for their lives. Sometimes the question is about our life's calling and at other times it is about a decision or set of decisions. For us, it is about adoption, seminary, finances, etc. There is a highly quoted portion of Scripture often used at such times. Romans 12:1-2. The Holy Spirit reminds us through Paul to be a "living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God." This is a lifestyle, a life, which itself becomes worship with every choice. Further, Paul wrote we are not to be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of our mind. Then we can discern the will of God, "what is good, acceptable and perfect." He did not say we are to rely on sincerity or feel-good self-talk. We are to use our brains.

The Lord Struck the Child

O.k. This seems a bit strange to me. I have written a book and it is for sale. I wish I could just give it away, but for some reason, printing cost money. I am using a print-on-demand publisher for now, but it is not vanity that drives this project.

So, I've decided that since it will cost money we might as well let the money go toward something good. Each quarter, all of the proceeds will go to a different organization. My plan is for the money to help ministries and charities who help orphans, special-needs, or carry the Gospel to the world around us. I know that the amounts will probably not be very much right now, but if we get the word out through social networks and by word of mouth, then obviously more will follow. I am in the process of having it distributed to Amazon.com and Barnes and Nobel.com. I also hope to have an ebook version for sale on iBooks soon.

There is another way this can grow. If we can sell enough copies, then it will demonstrate to a larger publisher and distributer this project would be less of a risk for them to take on. Then even more copies could go out and hopefully generate more revenue to spread the Gospel and help the "least of these." My intention is not to get rich or famous from a book, which is hard to do anyway. It is simply to share what Christ has done in our life as a family. This was just the most efficient way and hopefully it will impact others beyond our immediate reach. Some of the ministries we hope to reach are Camp New Hope, Miracle Hill, Haven of Rest, Family Connection SC, BDSRA, Missionaries, and several others. We want to rotate to a new ministry every quarter. So, if this is going to be successful, get the word out.

By clicking on the book to the right, you should be able to go straight to where it is sold and preview the first few pages. I hope this book blesses anyone who reads it.

June 1, 1996

I was a groomsman. The wedding was in the chapel on the Citadel campus in Charleston. I was friends with both the bride and groom as we were all from the same hometown. My chief complaint was that the bride had no available women in the wedding party! All of the bridesmaids were either married or about to be. But just as the ceremony finished and the bride and groom exited the chapel under arched swords, a friend who was aware of my complaint, brought a beautiful woman over to meet me. This woman had not even planned to go to the reception, but she did and we danced. I knew I was going to marry her at that moment! Of course, anytime you dance to the "Chicken Song" as your first dance, you are going to get married!

I am so thankful Jennifer went to that reception. I'm so thankful she dated me in spite of me being me. I'm so thankful she married me. We have celebrated 14 valentines together, 12 of them married. Thank You, Lord, for putting us together.

Jesus Burped, Thus All of Me Belongs to Him!

John 1 shares with us the truth that Jesus is eternal and fully God, yet God became flesh and dwelt among us. The incarnation is certainly a brain-scrambler as it means Jesus was 100% God AND 100% human. He was not some mixture of divine and human where the divine part plus the human part equals the 100%.

For centuries, art has depicted Jesus in multiple ways. I remember the stain-glass portrait of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was located in the narthex of our church where I grew up. There was the Lord, looking caucasian, calm, hands folded as He stared up into the heavenly glow shining down upon His sweat-free, tear-free face. Not the picture of anxiety, sweat, stress and blood we read of in Scripture. Ancient art depicts Jesus and the apostles in flat, two-demensional expressions with ornate dinner plates behind their heads meant to represent their "halos." Contemporary art often focuses more on the humanity of Christ, as He joyfully plays with children in a flowery meadow or lets them pull His beard and long hair as they sit on His lap. Jesus obviously had long hair, right?

It is difficult. We either keep our focus on Jesus being God and lose sight of His humanity or vice versa. But it is essential to remember He is the God-Man. Just as a crime creates a debt to society, our sin creates a debt to God. This debt is infinite because it is to an infinite God. Needless to say, we are not capable of paying this debt; only God can. But He does not owe it. So, the only one who can pay the debt is God and the one who owes the debt is humanity. That is why God became flesh and dwelt among us. He lived a life free of sin. His humanity always submitted to His divinity, but it was by choice.

We may think Jesus had an unfair advantage at resisting sin. He is God and God cannot be tempted after all. But He was fully flesh, fully human. He assumed everything about our humanity. So, He was tempted in every way we are, and beyond because we cave in so quickly. He was truly tempted in the wilderness, the Garden of Gethsemane and at the cross on a level we cannot imagine. Yet, He did not sin. He assumed our humanity so He could save us. If He did not assume it, it is not saved. Thus, He felt pain, anger, love, stress, exhaustion, happiness and fun. He ate food, burped, slept, cried, got cold and tired. Because He assumed all of our humanity, all of me is saved! He assumed 100% and saved 100%. Why do I feel like I am "really" sacrificing when I give a tithe of 10% or less? Jesus did not assume just 10% of humanity. He did not die for just 40% of my sins. He did not bear just 90% of the cross. He bore all of the cross and all of the wrath my sins deserve. As His follower, He is not interested in portions of my time, talent and treasure, He wants all of me.

I Want a Spotlight, Not a Lamp

Psalm 119 is a long poem about God's Word. The 105th verse of this Psalm says that God's Word is a "lamp unto my feet." Having a lamp to light our way in the dark is helpful. However, oil burning lamps of the psalmist's day gave off just enough ambient light to show you the next step. They did not give enough light to show you the next mile of path and all its opportunities, obstacles or barriers.

If it were up to me, I would have wanted God to make His word a 30 million candle power spotlight, mounted ten feet over my head and pointed down the path He wants me to take. Oh, and maybe a few floodlights pointed to the left and right so that I can see what is along each side of the trail as well. I would also add radar with a heads-up display warning me of problems ahead and opportunities to not miss. I put these ideas into the suggestion box of heaven, but have not seen any changes yet. I'll let you know if I do.