Parents,

Let’s take this advent season as an opportunity to lead our families well. God has given us a great responsibility and privilege to lead our families. I know the challenges that we face in regards to this all to well. We work long hard hours, we get home and we are tired and exhausted.  We run through our checklist of things that need to get done before dinner, and we find our selves scrambling to play catch up on everything else after dinner before we go to bed just repeat the same thing tomorrow. In this process many of us, myself included, neglect leading our families in Bible study. Somehow, the most important thing we can do as parents becomes the most neglected. There is nothing more important that I can think of than opening up the beauty of God’s Word and sharing this marvelous Christ with our family.

It’s Time To Change Things

Rather than waiting for next year or for our “busy season” to die down lets take this Advent season as our opportunity to intentionally lead our families and enter into eager anticipation of the celebration of the coming of the promised messiah. I know some of the objections that may come up. Things like:

• I’m not a Bible scholar
• I don’t have any formal training in theology or studying the Bible
• We don’t have the time to add something else, this will definitely take a serious time commitment that I don’t have

There’s good news! You’re not on your own and there are some incredible resources that can walk you through the process of leading your family regardless of your knowledge, training, or time availability. This is something that we all can do!

My Commitment To You

During Advent I am planning on sending out a weekly Advent Bible study that can be a help to you as you lead your families through this season. Each week expect to see an Advent study that you can repurpose and use to teach your family or engage in conversation. These studies will build on each other and include some great visuals, background history and information, and discussion questions. Getting this each week is incredibly simple! Just sign up to my advent newsletter and you will be all set!

Further Resources

I’d recommend that you also invest in some resources to help you dig deeper and encourage you along the way. I’d highly encourage you to check out and dig into the following resources:

Good News Of Great Joy: Daily Readings For Advent (John Piper)

Prepare Him Room: Celebrating The Birth Of Jesus Family Devotional (Marty Machowski)

The Adventure Of Christmas: Helping Children Find Jesus In Our Holiday Traditions

*(All opinions are my own. I make a commission off of the affiliate links, however I do not endorse products that I do not use myself or believe in)

The post Parents, Lets Lead Our Families Through Advent appeared first on Joel's Travels.

Desire.

After just a little bit of consideration you will find that the best commercials speak to the hidden desire that fuels the person. These desires include:

• The uncontrollable need to have or acquire something
• The desire to consume and fill, many times feeding the desire of food or hunger
• The pursuit of material possessions
• Being placed in a position where you don’t have to do anything and can live a luxurious life
• Getting a sense of justification
• Discontent of what you have and wanting what others can provide
• Whatever can life you up and make you seem better then everyone else

If you stopped right now and turned on your TV and really analyzed the commercial that is in front of you, you would see one or some combination of the previous motivations being played out in the commercial. For the perceptive reader going through the list, you would have probably recognized that the list can be simplified and categorized as:

The 7 Deadly Sins:

• Lust
• Gluttony
• Greed
• Sloth
• Wrath
• Envy
• Pride

I was at a conference in California and was listening to a panel of leading technologists in the Christian space. One of the guys is a former executive of a large technology company. He said that in every marketing meeting and conversation of new product development the question that was asked goes something like this, “Does this product or campaign feed into one of the 7 deadly sins?”.

Ultimately, they found that the 7 deadly sins sell.

If we are not careful, we will find that the motivational factors behind our desires can also be categorically placed within one or some combination of the 7 deadly sins which is counterproductive and dangerous in every way to the believer.

A Theological Perspective of Desire:

Don’t get me wrong, having desires and motivations are great! In fact, it is a necessity for so much of what we do. However, without looking at the motivating factors we can find ourselves in a very dark and dangerous place. We don’t need to turn much further than the very opening pages of Genesis. We find in Genesis 3 the danger of desire being played out with an epic consequence for all of humanity. Specifically, in Genesis 3:4 we find that sneaky serpent exposing the idolatrous desire of Adam and Eve (the text says Adam was WITH her, so he is in every way guilty) to be “like God” and to “know good and evil” and to have their “eyes opened”. Sadly, when their eyes were opened, they came to see and realize the slavery that they subjected themselves to as a result of their disobedience and distrust in the goodness of God.

We’re No Better:

Don’t think we are any better. In fact, in many ways we have become much worse and more depraved as time has passed. We are able to creatively package ancient sin in new way’s which ultimately leads to our own slavery and demise. Take a look at Ephesians 2:3 and we find ourselves picking up where our first parents, Adam and Eve left off.

However, desire in itself is not bad. The object of our desire determines the positive or negative outcome.

However, desire in itself is not bad. The object of our desire determines the positive or negative…
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How the Gospel Informs Our Desires:

As we understand the Gospel and it does a work in our lives we are left in awe and amazement at how a righteous and Holy God would intervene in our depravity, and rescue us from sin and death to place us at the right hand of the father (Col 1:13). This deep and intimate understanding of the Gospel begins to inform and mold us into the image of Christ. Our depraved self is destroyed and we are made new in Christ. We begin to think, live, love, perceive, and act in a way that is reflective of this Gospel that has definitively transformed us. Our motivations come into alignment with the desires of God, therefore, our desires are really God’s desires.

I think Martin Luther says it much better.

Therefore, when the object of our desire becomes Christ himself, the outcome of our desires become Gospel saturated and God honoring.

Therefore, when the object of our desire becomes Christ himself, the outcome of our desires become…
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Further Reading – To dig deeper into this topic I would highly recommend Dr. John Pipers book, “Desiring God”.

The post The Danger of Pursuing Your Desires appeared first on Joel's Travels.

As the hours go by we are getting closer to the beginning of 2015. It is typically in these moments that many of us are reflecting on important events, moments, and lessons learned in the past year. I’ve always loved history and I am strong advocate of studying history in order to ensure that we don’t make the same mistakes of those that came before us. The same principle applies to reflecting on our own history in order to learn from and avoid making the same mistakes. So here are three important lessons that I learned this past year.

1. Time management is more important than we think

As you’ve read before on this blog I’ve done over 150,000 miles of air travel. Life has gotten more busy, there are more conferences than I could ever imagine, my kids are getting older and seemingly growing up in front of my eyes. This year I’ve learned the importance of time management. I’ve also learned the importance of being effective and efficient. Things that I wish were taught in more detail in school. Building effective time management skills will pay dividends to you in every area of your life. Its important, and something that I wish I learned and valued earlier on in life. Today, the most important area of my life is being a husband and dad. Learning to intentionally prioritize and be there for my family is of utmost importance, especially since I travel so much for work. You can read more about how I pursue this here.

If you want to read a great gospel centered book on being effective and efficient I recommend “Whats Best Next” by Matt Pearman. This book has been a lifesaver for me this year on so many levels!

2. Be the light and defend the light

I recently read a quote by a well known pastor that said, “our job is not to defend the light but to let the light shine through us”. I understand what he is trying to say but I believe the implications of this type of evangelism are detrimental to the believer. It is our responsibility to both BE the light AND defend the light. Using our mind in the defense of the gospel while living the gospel is always the most effective method of evangelism.

Using our mind in the defense of the gospel while living the gospel is always the most effective…
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I’ve seen this play out every time I am in an airport, shuttle, hotel room lobby, or restaurants eating. It is a given that I should treat those that I meet in a christlike manner. But more important, is for me to verbalize and clearly communicate the gospel to them. Lets not assume gospel, but be intentional to communicate it. An easy way to engage our culture with the gospel is to leverage what is happening in our culture. Recently, I wrote a post about Exodus: Gods and Kings. I was a little “edgy” with the title of the post and called it “Why I love Exodus: Gods and Kings“. Let me put it plainly for those that may have been upset with that title and didn’t take the time to read the post. The reason why I love the movie is not because of the movie but because of the opportunity the movie provides for us to engage our community with the Gospel. One critic commented and said, “why would we want hollywood telling the story of the Bible?”. I think the bigger question is why don’t Christians have non believer friends in their life so they can both be Christ and communicate the truth of the gospel to them? You can read the post here.

3. Don’t stop learning

One of the things that I love about working for Faithlife is the emphasis that is placed on ongoing education. Every year we have a program where employees are encouraged to read books that deal with their area work and we get paid for each page that we read. 2014 has been filled with reading for me. I find my self getting sucked into books and “binge” reading. I love focusing on different categories and genres of literature. Here are the categories and books that I’ve read this year (not including books I’ve read for seminary).

• Theology – Desiring God, To Live is Christ, Religious Affections, Edwards on Beauty, Authentic Christianity, Recovering Redemption, Spectacular Sins.
• Fiction – Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit, Chronicles of Narnia, Game of Thrones (books 1-3)
• Biography – Bonhoeffer, 7 Men, Phil Jackson: Eleven Rings

2015, see ya soon!

The post 3 Important Lessons I Learned in 2014 appeared first on Joel's Travels.

Some of you may have opened up this post simply because you doubt we can learn anything from Charles Darwin. In most cases I would agree with you, however, I recently came across a fragment of a letter he wrote to his children. I’ve been re-reading John Pipers, Desiring God. Piper unpacks Darwin’s comments to his children as they relate to church leaders. Darwin writes,

“Up to the age of 30 or beyond it, poetry of many kinds…gave me great pleasure, and even as a schoolboy I took intense delight in Shakespeare… Formerly pictures gave me considerable, and music very great, delight. But now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry: I have tried to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have also almost lost any taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did… My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone, on which the higher tastes depend, I cannot conceive… The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeedbling the emotional part of our nature.” – Charles Darwin

First, let me make an assertion that Darwin’s loss of awe and wonder of poetry, nature, and music are directly tied to his position on a creator and a life long pursuit to deny the existence of God. If we hold to a position that there is not a creator who masterfully crafted and spoke all things into existence, it is not difficult to gradually lose your amazement. Life begins to become apathetic and ultimately you begin to lose hope all together.

Dr. Piper correlates what Darwin experiences with what is occurring in churches around the world. It seems that somewhere along the way, we are in danger of losing our sense of wonder and awe as we become routine in our approach to church services and tradition. Piper says,

“For many, Christianity has become the grinding out of general doctrinal laws from collections of biblical facts. But childlike wonder and awe have died.” – John Piper

Dr. Piper is absolutely correct and his observation is something that pastors and church leaders should consider as they diligently prepare for their church services. The danger that Dr. Piper points out is the loss of childlike wonder and awe as we continue in the rhetoric of church and tradition without a sense of joy and exhilaration that comes from the daily pursuit of the Gospel. The question then remains, how can church leaders curb the tendency to fall into this routine that results in a numbness of sensation? As I’ve traveled and had the opportunity to meet with a variety of churches that span various traditions, here are two practices that seem to be helpful.

1. Create a framework that allows for creative expression

The challenge for some ministry leaders is the “tradition” that is created from doing the same thing over and over. Sometimes our processes become static which creates an environment where creative expression can be challenging. Creating a framework that allows breathing room for creative expression allows for various opportunities that can help to facilitate and reinforce that sense of wonder and awe when we are exposed to the beauty of the Gospel.

2. Have a creative team

Not everyone is creative. The great thing about the body of Christ is that everyone has a skill set. There are inevitably people within your church that have insane creative genius. Tap into that! As you prepare for a new sermon series bring that team into the creative process and consider ways to bring the Bible to life through various mediums. Last year, the best creative conference that I attended (in my opinion) was SALT Nashville. I happen to know the guy and team behind the conference and was able to be apart of the conference. It was incredible to see pastors and church leaders leaving the conference feeling equipped. Part of the equipping was stepping into a story that was unpacked in each session. Sometimes, we have to have an experience which in turn opens up an array of opportunities that could work within our own context.

If you are looking for some further ideas or resources here are some recommendations:

• SALT Nashville – This conference is quickly becoming the premiere conference in the creative space
• Stephen Brewsters Blog – Stephen is a creative genius who leads the creative team at Cross Point Church in Nashville. What I love more than his work is his desire to equip and help the church to pursue excellence in the area of the arts.
• Linger Conference – This conference is hosted by Shane and Shane. Shane and Shane have become some great friends and I love their passion for the church. This year at Linger they are creating a “Creative Day” before the Linger Conference. I would highly recommend this. Also, I’ll be there teaching a workshop on Logos Bible Software and how theology is the catalyst that empowers the creative. Make sure you come and say hi!
• Desiring God – Dr. John Pipers book is much more than a book for creatives. Through the course of its pages you will find yourself encouraged in your daily Christian walk. Possibly, the most encouraging thing about this book is the emphasis it places on making much of God which goes hand in hand with enjoying Him.

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