One More Thing

Hi Five Oakers, The weekend's coming and I have a few things I want to share with you.

The Weekend

It's Father's Day this Sunday so I'll be continuing the "To Raise a Family" series. Here are some highlights from past sermons in this series. Invite someone to come who could benefit from more of these kinds of thoughts.

• Raising a family is something we can’t do alone. We need God and we need each other. Especially since we’re preparing our kids to launch into eternity.
• You love your kids best when you love God most. But not by loving them less, but by growing deeper love for God.
• You lead best when your heart burns brightest for God.
• Your faith will be more compelling when your home is marked by fun and laughter.
• God’s loving parental leadership took him all the way to the cross. We reflect that love to our kids the more we reflect on his love for us.
• A heart for God must be trained by the grace of God.
• I don't have to be the expert on what I teach my kids. God's power is made perfect in my weakness.
• Pray for what you most want for your kids.
• As a follower of Christ, sometimes it’s easy to forget what it is that produces all those good things that we want for them. We become focused on those things themselves. But eternal life, true joy, true fulfillment, a moral life are all produced by living in a faith-based relationship with God. God produces those things for us and in us through an on-going relationship with us.

By the way, this weekend's sermon will be based on what we can learn about God and us when Jesus reveals God's Fatherhood to us in the Lord's Prayer.

And guys, don't forget to wear an ugly tie.

FYI

D. L. Mayfield on "Why I Gave Up Alcohol: In a rush to shed our separatist past, have young evangelicals forgotten to love their neighbors?"

In the past few years, though, my beliefs have changed—or been changed. My husband and I joined a Christian order among the poor, inspired by the likes of Shane Claiborne, who seek the face of Christ among the most marginalized of society. Our first shock when we moved into our low-income apartment in a Midwestern inner city was the amount of substance abuse that surrounded us.

Rachel Marie Stone on "Richard Dawkins Has Reason to Fear the Fairy Tale"

Frankly, it's hard for me to think of a fairy tale, or a canonical work of children's literature that doesn't in some way touch on "deep questions." A professor friend who teaches a course on theological themes in children's literature at a Christian university told me that it's "really a class about the meaning of life."

Kelli B. Trujillo on "Kick Your Husband Out of the House: Trust me, it’s good for your marriage"

I know I'm a better me when I'm connected with friends. But when I'm lonely or isolated or disconnected from community? Let me be honest: In those seasons, I'm more stressed, I'm crabbier, I'm impatient, I'm critical, I'm less happy. And I'm less me. While friendships enrich, loneliness depletes. And this is why I, every so often, kick my husband out of the house: because he, too, has a deeply-ingrained, God-given need for friendship—a need that isn't suddenly erased by marriage.

One More Thing

I'll be in Cuba next week with Lois and Dave Baar. Dave is leading our Global Leadership Summit international initiative. This will be the first ever Summit in Cuba and it will take place in Havana.

I haven't been there since I was a toddler, my second trip and last trip to Cuba. I was there with my grandmother and she was there for surgery. About that time the country was closing to travel and my mom was concerned about having trouble getting me back to our home in Miami. My grandmother was still recovering, so she asked a flight attendant friend for help, and she brought me home on her very next trip to Cuba. Hoping for lot less drama this time around.

Please pray for us. Next year we plan to be the primary church working with Willow and the churches in Santiago, Cuba. The plan for this trip is that we will meet some of the key leaders for that Summit as they attend this year in Havana. Pray for those meetings. Pray also for the effectiveness of the Summit (it will be last summer's dubbed into Spanish). And pray as we begin to discern what kind of ongoing role Five Oaks can have in Cuba.

10 Tweets & Weekend Communication Card Comments/Questions

Hi Five Oakers: Here's the weekend sermon in 10 Tweets, "You're killing me!" (Galatians 4:8-20)

1// What if the way you approach Christianity—the way you live out your faith—is taking you farther away from God instead of toward him?

2// “Knowing God is important but being known by God…that’s even more important!”

3// You become a Christian the moment Jesus asks us into his heart and you respond by faith.

4// Being a Christian is about being invited into the life of God.

5// Spiritual growth is not a private affair. The Galatians would be lost without Paul speaking into their lives.

6// Going to Galatia was not part of Paul's strategic plan. He came to them because of an ailment. God doesn't waste our suffering.

7// Why should others weaknesses in faith & falls from faith cause Paul so much emotional turmoil? Could it be because that’s what ministry is.

8// Somebody ought to tell Paul being anxious is a sin and that he should be above it all.

9// Do you get frustrated and irritated and despondent and anxious...? GOOD! YOU’RE NORMAL! Welcome to ministry!

10// Are you showing yet? ...in baptism? ...in dating? ...in compassion? ... in sports (as a family)? ...in worship?

And here are most of the comments and questions from the Communication Cards:

Good to be back for a visit!!  Jason & Traci Schroeder [Wonderful to see you guys! Come back to visit whenever you can.]

• Wow – the new sound system is fantastic! All encompassing worship! [I know!]

• Love the worship team! Service was awesome! Thank you! [I agree. Way to go Libby and team! Nathan, great job leading the band and rehearsal.]

• Good to have the scripture text listed. Thanks. Helps for referral during the week.

• Well done Henry!

• I also so appreciate your affirmation of my ministry over coffee! Encouraging message – followed content of Jude from Warren Coe on Saturday. Labor pains – oh my! Great reality check – God speaks through others.

• Really loved the worship set. Loved Tim’s reading of Peter stepping onto and into the water, leading into the song closing the opening set. Made it very meaningful. Ice cream good ice breaker, lots of discussion! Henry you need to bring water with you every week! Great message Henry – continue to be solid.

• Is Jesus showing in me? Great illustration! [Thank you, Pete Briscoe, for that one.]

• The praise songs were awesome today. I’d like to see some dramas again. We used to have them. I do think we did too many then, but once in a while it really gives impact. [Quality dramas require a strong drama team. A strong drama team requires frequency. We don't have plans to use drama for now, but trends change and a day may come when we do again. Thanks for your comment.]

• Way too much drum (volume) on opening song!

• On message slides – when referring to God or Jesus, please use caps! He, Him, His. Lower case it’s not respectful and feels wrong. It’s a small thing I know, but it stands out glaring at me. [Thanks for the letting us know how you feel about this. You might notice that the ESV and the NIV do not capitalize pronouns for God. Most Christian book publishers avoid it as well. Here's Crossway's explanation for why they don't capitalize pronouns for God in the ESV: "The ESV does not capitalize deity pronouns mainly for two reasons: (1) The capitalization of deity pronouns in the Bible is a recent innovation that began less than fifty years ago. For example, the KJV Bible and its later revisions (except for the NKJV) did not capitalize deity pronouns. Given the legacy of the KJV, the ESV translation thought that this would be best. (2) Also, the original Bible manuscripts in Greek and Hebrew do not capitalize deity pronouns. Hebrew manuscripts do not have capital letters. In Greek manuscripts, the letters are all either capital or lower case." It's a fine practice, but it is a matter of preference.]