The Great Pumpkin

Last night, at youth group, we watched "Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin." For those of you unfamiliar with the cartoon, a boy named Linus waits up all night on Halloween to see "The Great Pumpkin." The Great Pumpkin sounds a lot like Santa Claus, flying through the air and bringing toys and whatnot. Everyone thinks that Linus is nuts, he misses out on trick or treating and also misses a party. To top it off, the Great Pumpkin never appears. But Linus is undeterred, he vows that next year the Great Pumpkin will rise.

In my small group we camped upon the idea of sincere belief. While it is good to have sincere and unshakable belief, that belief must be grounded in the Truth. While Linus' belief is sincere, he is believing in a lie. We talked about why Jesus is the Truth. How he is real and trustworthy and how we can know that. Then I put a challenge before them. I let them know that they are living in an age that is outrightly hostile to Christianity and that many people think that believing in Jesus is the same as believing in the Great Pumpkin. My challenge was this, I would be an unbeliever and they would try to convince me that God is real.

It was rough.

I started by saying, "I think believing in Jesus is the same as believing in the Great Pumpkin. He doesn't exist and you have much better things to do with your time than coming to youth group on Wednesday night or to church on Sunday morning."

Blank stares. Finally the other leader pipes up. "Do you believe that there is a God."

"Sure. I think that there is more to life than chance."

"So if there is more than chance, we could say that God is involved in things pretty closely. What do you think happens to bad people? Do you think they go to hell?"

"I don't believe in hell. I think that God loves everyone, regardless of what they have done." (Remember, I am being antagonistic here.)

"What about people who do evil things? Think of a parent, if their child misbehaves they punish them don't they? Hell is like that, God punishes us for doing bad things."

"But parents don't punish their children forever. Isn't that what you think hell is? Eternal punishment? How could a loving God do that?"

Lots of blinking. "I think this is where I say class dismissed."

Really? I don't mean to slander my fellow group leader. He is a faithful witness and a godly man, I just want to make it clear how unequipped we as Christians are when it comes to sharing our faith. We couldn't let it go at that. We had to show these kids how to be effective witnesses.

We in Christianity have tried to make the Gospel respectable and reasonable. We have made it try to make sense and address people on an intellectual level. If someone is already and Christian and has a renewed mind, the Gospel makes total sense, but for the unbeliever, the Gospel is foolishness. We need to share the Gospel in ways that most effectively allow God's Spirit to work through us.

My speech to the kids after the failed challenge went something like this. "Jesus is real. He is a real man. He came to earth, died, was resurrected and is seated at the right hand of God right now! The way we can be sure of this is because of the Holy Spirit. Jesus sent the Spirit to guide us into all truth and remind us of what Jesus taught us. The Holy Spirit also gives us power to work signs and wonders. So if you come up against someone who challenges your beliefs, pray for them. You need to know God personally really well. You need to have belief in God like Linus had in the Great Pumpkin. You need to know God well because He is speaking to you. So when you pray for someone, you need to ask God to work on this person's heart. You also need to ask Him to tell you something about this person - we call this prophecy. Because when you tell that person what God told you, it removes all doubt that God is real. It lets them know that God is real, that He does see them and that He desperately wants them to believe in His son Jesus and be saved. But you need to know God. You need to spend time listening to Him, reading your Bible and learning about Him. Not everyone you meet is going to believe that God is real just because the Bible says He is. That is like believe in Santa Claus because someone in the mall says, 'well this is his house...' Pray for people, God will work in their hearts at a much deeper level that you can get at with your words."

Needless to say, they were a little shell-shocked. I don't think anyone in their life talks to them this way. I am not saying that to glorify myself. I am saying that because it hurts my heart that our children are not being discipled. Our kids are growing up in a hostile environment to their faith. If you post anything about Christianity or morals on your Facebook page, you have half a dozen people crawling down your throat. We need to equip our children so that they can stand steadfastly on the Rock.

Please pray that God would raise up more people to do this. That God would use parents to train their children in the faith. Thank you for reading this.

Please pray for our youth

Last night was a pretty eye-opening experience for me. IHOPE led a healing prayer service at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) for a group called InterVarsity. We have built relationship with this Christian group over the last couple of months and they invited us to come and worship with/for them. Amy led worship with some musicians and I did Power Point and ministry team. Which brings me to the point of this post. Our youth need your prayers!

Last night I was able to pray for two women, one had tried to commit suicide earlier that week and the other had taken up cutting herself to try and cope with sexual abuse that she endured when she was a child. Both were professing Christians. Both were being harassed by the enemy. Both were not living in the fullness that God has for them.

And these are just a couple of many. In our Wednesday Night youth group I have talked to young girls who are using sex to get their relational needs met, a young man who struggles with his sexual identity and another gal who has an abusive and alcoholic father. The Kingdom of Heaven is crashing against the gates of Hell "And the Gates of Hell shall not overcome." But we need your help, we need your prayers.

Please take five minutes to pray for Wartburg, UNI and the kids in our youth group. Thank you.

The Power of a Focused Life

Our IHOPE internship has been listening to (and applying) a sermon by Mike Bickle called "The Power of a Focused Life." Quovadis Marshall ("Q"), a teacher at IHOPE, has also been giving us his insights. The basic premise is very simple and very powerful.

If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.

I have a very short time here on the earth. In fact, I am even a quarter done with it. But eternity is going to be a LONG time. That is what I am living for, eternity, so I don't have much time to waste here on earth. I want to attain a "better resurrection" (Heb. 11:35) if at all possible. I also want my life to mean something here on the earth. I want to impact people, I want to see God's Kingdom established more fully on the earth. None of those things will happen just by chance - I need to be pursuing them in a methodical fashion.

For instance, I want to be a writer. I want to write about Christian life, values, and responsibilities. I want writing to provide my full-time income in the future. I want these things because they are the gifts God has given me and it part of what God has called me to do in addition to pastoring, teaching and being a husband.

So, if my long term goal is to be a professional writer and derive a full-time income from it so that I can volunteer my time as a teacher and pastor, what do I need to do to make that happen? Obviously, I will need an action plan.

An action plan breaks down a long term goal into several short terms goals. Each short term goal is them broken down into easily achievable parts that build upon one another to produce a desired result. An action plan provides steps for how to achieve your goals and make progress over time.

Take a worldly example. How many people make a New Year's Resolution to "get in shape." Many millions of people do, based on the increase in gym membership in January and February. How many people accomplish their goal? How many people make the same goal the following year? How many people are actually further from their goal the next year?

Goals need to be clear and definite. And they need an action plan if they are going to be achieved. Why am I spending so much time on this?

Because in thirty years I do not want to have the same relationship with God that I do right now. I do not want to be a baby Christian my entire life on earth. I want my life to have eternal consequences. I want to store up as much treasure in heaven as I possibly can.

This will not make much sense to you if you do not understand the concept of living for eternity. If you think that we will all be equals in heaven, you wont see the point. I would encourage you to look at some teachings of Jesus and then of Paul.

Matt. 5:19 - Jesus differentiates between those who are least in the Kingdom of heaven and those who are great in the Kingdom of heaven. Both groups are citizens, but they are not equals. The difference is to be found in their earthly lifestyle.

Matt. 18:4 - Those who humble themselves like children are the greatest in the Kingdom.

The NLT translates Luke 12:33 like this, "Sell your possessions and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven!" To be fair, this is the only translation that puts it this way, but the other translations share the idea. We can store up treasure in heaven.

In 1 Cor. 3:12-15, Paul exhorts us to be careful about how we build and what we use to build. We will be tested, in what we have done with our lives stands, we will be rewarded. If our life's work burns away, we will still be saved, but only as "one escaping through the flames." This means that we will have nothing to our name in heaven. We will be assigned to lowly positions.

I don't want that. I don't want to just squeak into God's Kingdom. I want to be as close to Him as possible, not in the outer courts holding open a door! So I encourage you, my friends, to take an inventory of your life. Are you where you want to be spiritually? Are you doing what God has called you to do? If not, there is still time. He wants you to seek Him. He will reveal Himself to you. Good luck on your journey!

Wife extraordinaire

Most of you know my wife, Amy, pretty well. Some of you may not know her quite as much. All I can say is that I am a very blessed man.

Amy taught on Deliverance Ministry yesterday at IHOPE. She was great! Amy is a teacher at heart and I am very excited that she has an outlet for this gift. She is very clear, concise and tactful in her approach and I think she has some wonderful insights into scripture and the heart of God.

Amy has also been leading worship. A lot. To the tune of 1-2 hours a day for the majority of the week. She also mentors a youth band at church and teaches guitar lessons. I can't play the guitar for more than 10 minutes without my fingers hurting, so what she does on a weekly basis floors me.

Life is very busy here at the Dau house. I am loving this season of life and am so blessed to be doing things that I love and that are meaningful. Sermon preparation is still difficult for me, but I am learning and growing into my own style and people seem pretty receptive to it. Thank you Jesus.

Coffee house is tonight and Kent, the pastor who mostly heads this up, is out of town. So, it will be a long night with some college students tonight. If any of you who read this want to come and hang out, the doors open at 8:30 and we will have free coffee and desert. In the meantime, have a wonderful day.

P.S. It is beautiful outside!

Sunday's sermon went well. We discussed how tithing and fasting can be forms of worship. I don't have the time this morning to write out the whole bit, but I will share a little of the message. I also want to let you know that I am working on posting the entire sermon on this blog as a downloadable audio file. More on that later this week (maybe into next, depending on our sound guy).

Tithes and offering have always been a form of worship for God's people. Gen 14:20 is the biblical foundation for the practice. To put this in context, Abram has just rescued his nephew, Lot, from the hands of four kings who had captured him. Abram is on his way back home when he encounters a man named Melchizedek (lit. King of Righteousness) who was king of Salem (King of Peace) and priest of God Most High. Melchizedek blesses Abram and Abram responds by giving him a tenth of everything he had. This practice was carried on in Abram's family ever since.

Biblically, everything belongs to God. He gives us everything we have and He simply asks us to return 10%. Now, if we don't He will still provide for us, but if we do He pours out blessing upon us. The strongest words in Scripture about tithing are found in Malachi 3:8. "Will man rob God? Yet you rob me. Yet you ask 'How have we robbed you?' In tithes and offerings." God then goes on to say that the nation of Israel is under a curse because they are not tithing. But here is something really extraordinary.

"Bring the whole tithe into my storehouse... Test me in this," says the Lord "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."

How amazing is that? If we would simply do what God asks us, that would be enough. But here God challenges us to test Him and if we do, He will bless us beyond what we can imagine. That blows my mind.

So I encourage you to tithe. It is really for your benefit. I promise you that you will have more buying power with 90% of your wealth blessed by God than if you had kept the whole 100% to yourself. I don't know how that works, but it does. Realize, too, that this is a form of worship, this is not religious obligation. We give in response to what God has already done for us, namely, sending His son Jesus to take our place on the cross. God's extravagant love calls for equally extravagant devotion. Tithing is just the beginning.

Yep, I believe it

This adventure I am in, this process - it is refining me. Talking with many different people, some who have very different views from my own, shows me just how controversial Jesus is. To steal a phrase from secular culture I feel like I am "coming out." Let me share with you what I mean for these are my convictions and if you read this blog you will rub up against them often.

I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ and the Son of God. He was not just a good man or teacher, he is God incarnate.

I believe that Jesus lived, died and was resurrected. I believe that he is coming again (soon).

I believe that the Bible is the authoritative word of God. I believe that the Bible is the only objective Truth that we have available to us as humans. I believe that the Bible is the standard to which we must conform our own lives and experiences. I cannot judge by my own experience because it is so limited and if I wanted to have anything authoritative to say about any subject, I would have to experience all sides of it. This is impossible. But I trust in God's word and the character of Him who wrote it. The Bible is the standard for my own behavior, though I will readily state that I fall far short of what it desires of me.

I believe that the Holy Spirit is still alive and well and active in the church today. I believe that miracles still happen and that the gifts of the Spirit are still active. I believe that healing the sick should be Christianity 101.

I believe that humanity has an adversary, satan, who seeks to steal, kill and destroy the work of God in our lives. I believe that he is at work in the world creating a culture that is directly opposed to the will of God.

I believe that the church will be around for the Tribulation.

I believe that marriage is defined as: one man and one woman in the covenant of marriage for life. Any sexual relationship that does not adhere to those standards constitutes sexual immorality.

Folks, I really believe these things. I realize that some of them are unpopular and controversial, but God has not called me (or us as Christians) to make people comfortable. We are charged with sharing the Good News of our salvation and teaching people to obey all that Jesus commanded. I am trying to do this more and I wanted to be very clear on where I stand when I write future posts. Thank you for reading.

Success Revisited

God still has me in a place where He speaks to my about success on a daily basis. He constantly reminds me of HIS definition of success.

Success is not defined by how many people show up to a service or an event. Success is defined by how much a service or event changes people to be more like Christ over time.

This is the mantra I have been repeating to myself and telling to everyone who will listen. I don't mind repeating it because I think it is so important. If we let it, our culture will pervert that definition of success and have us pursuing the wrong goals.

Bigness is a problem to solve, not a sign of God's favor.

I am not saying that "bigness" is evil or bad, but it cannot, must not, be our primary motivation. God doesn't need a slick marketing scheme to get people to church. He needs a church that believes so fully in what Jesus did that we actually live it out! Yes, people will be drawn to such a church, we are made to worship God after all. But the challenge for the church is to maintain an atmosphere of healing an transformation and to not get side tracked with big budgets or fancy sound equipment.

The Gospel will change the world, of that I have no doubt. But God wants to work through the church to make that happen.