From the Zebra Bag   Musings from a follower of Jesus, husband , father and pastor

My first experience of depression and fatigue and I do not like it never thought I would have to take anti depressants!

• The realization dawned that this is the first week in January and some form of treatments stretch ahead for a year. Seems like a mountain to climb!
• How grateful I am that God has given me such good health for the first 57 years of my life
• Strange to receive a call from a doctor at 2:30 am asking that we visit the emergency because of a strange reading of my potassium level in a blood test the day before. Thank you God everything was ok just a hemolysed reading (Never thought I would use that word in a blog!!)
• How good it was to laugh really hard with friends on Thursday evening
• The 21 day fast is confused by the fact that nothing tastes the way it should to me and so I don’t really want to eat anything
• Not a good idea to park on the street outside Kaiser South San Francisco. My step-daughter was kind enough to drive to my treatment on Thursday and some body totaled her car while it was parked!

What a blessing to have leisurely conversations with friends who are good enough to sit with me during treatment

One more blog post that caught my attention was from Shannon Cunningham. Towards the end of last year she wrote a very insightful post entitled, “ Bloom Where you are Planted”. I was challenged by her reminder of how easy it is to look at what is happening to others and to wish that were me. Unfortunately there were more occurrences of that type of thing in my life than I like to remember. The most powerful of all was when I was looking for a church where to begin my time in the pastorate. I applied all over the place and came pretty close to a job on a number of occasions. On more that one occasion I wondered why the successful applicant got the job rather than me! And then I was introduced to little Pacifica Christian Church, not apparently looking for a pastor but needing someone to preach. OK I could do that but since they only had about 15 in attendance it would not be a place I could stay!! But God had other Ideas and within a couple of month I accepted the call to be their pastor. Yes God planted me here in Pacifica! I was a little reluctant to take root but I am so glad I did. God has blessed me beyond what I could have imagined in this beautiful little coast-side town. I used to joke that I was God’s most unfruitful plant as we experienced so little growth at first. But He found ways over and over again to reassure me that He had planted me and that was all that mattered. The last few years have been amazing as we have seen New Life Christian Fellowship birthed in the heart of God and begin to grow. Thank you Shannon for reminding me of the importance of blooming where God plants us. We are so looking forward to having you, Drew and little Carsyn blossoming with us!

It’s done! It took me just about 120 days because I slowed up at the end, but I finished as I read the final chapters of Revelation in the early morning of the first day of 2010. It sure has been an adventure and I have learned so much. I saw the reality of “The Big Story of God” in ways I never have before, its unity, its uniqueness and the unfolding revelation of the nature of God.

A few days ago I said I wanted to draw your attention to some blog posts from members of the New Life Family that had caught my attention. Well undoubtedly New Life’s most prolific and gifted blogger is Andy Lie. If you have followed his daily posts through the Ninety Day Bible, I know you have been blessed. But the post that caught my eye was the one he wrote entitled, “Ninety Days, Afterward”. In it he quotes Mark Batterson’s new book Primal as it refers to the amazing promises of God on the pages of scripture just waiting to be claimed.

As I read this, my mind turned to what, for me, was one of the most powerful themes to come from the 90 Day Bible; God’s overwhelming desire to be present with his people. I remembered the excitement I felt when I saw the repeated promises. First that He would be with the people of Israel. Then, at the ascension, Jesus’ promise He would be with us always. And finally those glorious verses in Revelation 21 that I read again this morning!

Rev. 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Rev. 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Rev. 21:5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

Over the past few weeks I have needed to remind myself of the promises of God’s presence repeatedly and I know that even when my trust wavers He never mov

Over the next few days I want to draw your attention to some recent posts from members of the New Life family that have captured my attention and challenged my thinking recently. The first is a post from Liz Howeth on the subject of fear. This honest account of the ways fear has prevented her from trying some things was powerful for me as I face what has been my greatest fear.

Ever since a close friend in the UK was diagnosed with leukemia and I watched his long fight and finally saw God call him home, fear of cancer has haunted me. Walking with Sarah (my first wife) through her four-year battle with the disease, only served to amplify my fear . . . and yet Jesus tells his disciples, and therefore me, repeatedly and in every sort of situation to “fear not”

Well I got “the call”, I had no choice but to face my fear, and I am grateful to have discovered in these first few weeks of living with my greatest fear, that everything Jesus tells his disciples is true. He does walk with you; He does reassure you that He has not forgotten. He surprises you as He picks you up at the down times and brings you peace when you need it most.

So it really doesn’t matter whether your fears are large or small. Whether you choose to face them or are forced to face them by circumstances outside your control, you will discover the amazing faithfulness of God and that He does not just say ”fear not” but He walks beside you, helping you to do just that.

““Don’t over do it!” Over the past few weeks I have heard this familiar phrase from many who love and care for me. When I started thinking about it, I found myself entering one of those ‘more questions than answers’ zones!! How do I know when I am about to…”over do it”? Where is the boundary between “under” (is there such a thing?) and “over” doing it?

Last Friday I think I experienced the consequences of “over doing it”. I was looking forward to going to my friend Josh Howeth’s graduation from Seminary (Congratulations Josh!!) but found myself in considerable discomfort when I came home from the office. Maggie and I decided that it would not be wise to go. Now how do I know that I overdid it or if the cause was something entirely different? Can you only recognize this phenomenon as you look in the rear-view mirror as you travel through the uncomfortable “ I overdid it “territory?

Whatever the answer to these perplexing matters, I was reminded that, although I don’t understand the vagaries of such things, someone else does! I confess I lay in bed on Friday wondering if I should cancel the leadership seminar I was to take on Saturday and (almost unthinkably!) find a substitute preacher for Sunday. However, God clearly had other ideas and I awoke on Saturday ready to teach the seminar and I was able to play a full part in Sunday’s service.

On Sunday afternoon I wondered if I was once again approaching the “unknowable line” of over doing it, but I am just glad that even in the land of the unknowable, I am in the hands of One to whom nothing is unknown!

I am sure most of us have heard at some time or another that quote from Socrates “ “The unexamined life is not worth living” It would seem that the writer to the Hebrews was sensing the same danger when he wrote “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away”. Hebrews 2:1. The challenge there is to live an examined life, an intentional life, as we have examined this idea over the past few weeks at New Life we have seen that a good way of training ourselves to be intentional is to make a habit of regularly asking ourselves a number of questions. I promised last Sunday that I would list the questions we have identified as important incase anyone missed them

What is God saying to me? Am I being obedient?

Where am I growing in my Christian life? How is it evident?

What has God asked me to do? Do I have the “holy chutzpah” (audacity, courage) to do it?

Are my eyes fixed on Jesus? Have I crossed or am I approaching the finishing line for today?

These questions will of course become all the more effective as we ask them of each other, share the answers and lovingly hold each other accountable in the effort to avoid “drifting”

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Hebrews 10:24

So do share your experiences are you asking the questions? Is it making a difference?

I continue to be challenged this quote that I used when I shared with you our vision
“The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs”.        Vance Havner
……so how do we make a start and  “step up the stairs” of the vision God has given us?

Well what I believe to be step one may surprise you. I am convinced the first step in any new call from God is to make sure we do what we are already doing with excellence. Growth happens when we build on what God has taught us not alongside it. So we must greet with excellence, we set up with excellence, we will take a personal interest in making sure every guest feels welcome, we will attend to every detail of what happens at NLCF. Whatever task we have, large or small we do it to the absolute best of our ability….Why? Because we are doing it for Jesus! 

Have you considered that when you greet someone at the church door on Sunday morning you do so as Jesus’ appointed representative for that morning. As you participate in preparing for our service it is because Jesus is planning to meet people there. Good enough just isn’t …. when we are doing something for Him. So let’s be sure to encourage each other towards the highest of standards because we want the very best for Him.

When we caught God’s vision for the birth of New Life six people stepped up to lead. They have given (and continue to give) their very best. They have taken risks and tried new things from carol singing, and video teaching in “ One Prayer,” to the introduction of a unique church family covenant. And the rest of us followed and did so really well! God has blessed in so many ways we have almost forgotten what it was like to be two churches. We have doubled our attendance, celebrated baptisms, and more than fifty people signed our covenant together. We have launched a brand new website and been blessed by two new staff in our office…….

But now we look to the future, God will be calling more people to step up, both to lead and to be outstanding followers. Many of us He will call to do both. He will be calling more people to participate in greeting teams, set up teams and fellowship teams. He will be calling people to run ourresource and information table, coordinate our Missions involvement and our Servant Evangelism initiatives. And that is just the beginning!

Remember this; New Life Christian Fellowship does not believe in the “warm body method”! God has given YOU gifts; He will enable YOU to do amazing things with those gifts, if you let Him!  Do you know what they are? If so, I urge you to come and see me so we can seek God together as to how He wants to use them. You don’t know what your gifts are?…. Well we will seek God together and He will show us. One thing is certain when the gifts were distributed nobody was left out! (Romans 12:6)

One last thing, when God gave us a vision he gave it to us so He can fulfill it using US! Our call is to be His church not His spectators. So let’s step up the stairs together “holding our forks”* because we KNOW the best is yet to come.

*If you can’t remember this reference listen to Perry Noble’s messagewith which we finished “One Prayer”

Can you picture it?…The scene is the quad at Cal Berkley (but it could be any such institution of higher learning!) The sun is shining and the grass is littered with students working on their tans. Amongst them is group of Christians with guitars seeking to share their love of Jesus with their friends. Their plan, to use a bold act of worship (joyful singing!!) to arouse the curiosity and prompt questions from listening sunbathers ………but nobody had any questions in fact nobody was really interested .
This experience prompted one of  the worshipers to observe “our bold worship had grown our faith, but it made for weak evangelism. Our fatal flaw? We came up with our evangelistic strategy while we were alone in a room together with a bunch of Christians
……..and it prompted such questions as:
What is it like for those who are lost to take steps toward Jesus?
How can we be helpful to them on the journey?
Over the next ten years, while working amongst students Intervarsity workers Don Everts and Doug Schaup asked these and other similar questions and documented their findings. The results have been published in a book entitled “I Once was Lost”. The subtitle for the book is” What postmodern skeptics taught us about their paths to Jesus” and the lessons are remarkable and illuminating.
I hope to write in more detail about their challenging findings in the future but for now just a few “appetizers

“Each individual path to faith was a unique mystery ….and their collective paths had remarkable similarities”

I am convinced if you are serious about sharing your faith you need to read this book ……and you need to have it on your shelves to refer to regularly!