I love to preach and teach the Bible. For me there is nothing really like it. The Bible has so much information, it is so packed full of wisdom, and wonder. And every week, as I preach through the Bible, I always have to leave something out. There is just so much stuff there, but there is only so much time.

So today, as we were looking at 2 Kings chapter 2, I felt I had to cut out the last part of the chapter. Up until now, I would just let it go, and hope at some time in the future I would be able to preach on it – but we live in the age of the blog.

2 Kings 2:23-25
²³ From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" ²⁴ He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. ²⁵ And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.

Elisha has taken Elijah’s place as the prophet, and God’s mouthpiece. He was the man who was responsible for representing God. Elisha, has performed two miracles up to this point. He rolled up Elijah’s cloak, struck the Jordan, and he cured the water that the people needed for their crops.

In this section of scripture something very interesting happens. Elisha called down a curse upon some teenage punks who were harassing him as he walked along a road. On the surface this seems to be cruel and excessive on the part of Elisha. But let’s go a little deeper.

First, the punks say, “go on up.” Like Elijah went up in a whirlwind, they are yelling that God’s representative, should just go away, because not only were they not respectful for God, but they were not at all respectful for His messenger. And they added, “you baldhead.” Those of us whose hair is not as thick as it used to be understand how Elisha is feeling.

2 Chronicles 36:15-16 “The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. ¹⁶ But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.”

Second, Elisha curses them, “in the name of the Lord.” Elisha was God’s man – and the youth completely disrespect him. So, by disrespecting him, they are disrespecting God. So when Elisha speaks, he speaks on God’s behalf. The main point of this passage is that we must have respect for God, for the things of God, and for the people of God.

It happened to be a bear, but it could just as easy have been a lion, or lightening, or whatever – the youth died because they showed no respect for God. As a parent I need to understand this. Not only must I show respect for God (and his representatives), but so must my children.

Tonight was our first evening of using the “Building Blocks” journals and the time went really well. I want to do this most nights as our quiet time, but I realized afterwards that we did not read any of the Bible. So, next time, we will read from their Beginners Bible, and spend some time praying and filling out our journals.

I found some of their prayers very interesting, so I pass them on to you.

Dear God,

I love you because,

Hannah-Grace – “You make my bad feelings go away.”

Caleb – “You are powerful”

Joshua – “You listen to my prayers.”

I am sorry I,

H-G – “yelled at Caleb.”

C – “hit my brother, Joshua.”

J – “accidentally hurt Isaac.”

Thank you for,

HG – “my ballerina, and my pencils”

C – “daddy, mommy, Granny, Nanna and Pop-pop, and Grandpa Bunny.”

J – “the toys I got for Christmas (R2-D2), and for making the earth.”

My prayer requests are,

HG – “please bring me a prince.”

C – “keep Santa safe, and the reindeer.”

J – “keep everybody in the whole world safe.”

I have learned tonight that my children are going to be teaching me some things about praying. Isaiah 11:6 “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.”

Vintage Faith

vin·tage adj. of high quality, especially from a past time period n. the date or time period when something was originally produced or existed

faith n. reliance and trust in a person or thing

The rethinking of my faith…

There is a rising feeling among followers of Jesus, that in many modern contemporary churches, something has subtly gone astray in what we call “church” and what we call “Christianity”. Through time, church has become a place that you go to have your needs met, instead of being a called local community of God on a mission together. Through time, much of contemporary Christianity subtly has become more about inviting others into the subcultures of Christian music, language and church programs than about passionately inviting others into a radically alternative community and way of life as disciples of Jesus and Kingdom living. We want to change this perception, and we are going to start with ourselves.

In our next series, we are going “old school,” as we look at how the prophets of old lived out their faith. Invite a friend and experience Vintage Faith together.

This exciting series will start January 30^th and go to February 17^th.

I wanted to make you guys aware of a resource that my children received for Christmas. It is called “Building Blocks” and is a journal for children aged three to seven. It is divided into three sections (My Daily Prayers, Counting My Blessings, My Personal Diary). The journal is designed to encourage and show children how to pray.

My children can not fully read and write yet so I am planning to have a time when we sit down and ask the various questions, and I will write down their response. I am looking forward to beginning with them. It asks them questions like: “I love God because . . .”, “I am sorry I . . .”, and “My prayer requests are . . .” and some others. On the back of the pages is an area for the children to draw a picture, paste a photo, etc…

If you want to check it out you can go to www.penmanpaper.com/index.php?cPath=34_40_47, plus their pretty cheap ($4.95). If you get one and try it out with your kid/s let me know how it goes, and I will give you an update in a few weeks.

It’s been awhile since we had a program designed just for our kids at church. But on Christmas Eve we abandoned our traditional candlelight service in lieu of allowing our kids to remind us of the meaning of Christmas. They came dressed in costume, so the Delaplaine was filled with sheep, wise men, Joseph, Mary, baby Jesus, shepherds, singers, and readers. There were also grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, friends, etc… Sara T. reminded them that they were not there to be cute, but to bring glory to God but telling the Christmas story (and they did a wonderful job!) The funniest event of the night was when Callie T.(who was dressed as an angel) sat in the box/manger and was stuck right there in front of everyone.

The program was filled with a lot of flash photography! I believe that room could have been seen from the moon, because of the flashes (yes I was one of them). It showed me that sometimes we just need a time to celebrate the gift of children and what they teach us about the Lord. Usually we think of how we can show them spiritual truths, but they understand more than we often give them credit for.

The following is a portion of an e-mail that Sara T. sent out to the children and I couldn’t agree more with her comments:

“Hi guys! This is Miss Sara. I just wanted to say that I thought you all did a wonderful job on Monday. You all looked great and sounded great too! And you behaved beautifully! I am so proud of all of your hard work. And I know that on that night, God was looking down on all of you and smiling because of the beautiful worship you gave him and the wonderful blessing you were to everyone who was there. Thank you so much for being a part of our Christmas Eve service!”

Whewwww. . . its’ over. We started the day at the top of the stairs of our home, asking a series of questions (what is Christmas about? “Jesus” – typical pk’s response, -- and what’s the best gift? – “Jesus.”) They know the right answers, and they are showing signs of living those answers out.

Then they ran downstairs, and it started. You know what I’m talking about. The craziness! Christmas day was a whirlwind of wrapping paper and bows. Well, ok not a day, but at least a good 20 minutes.

The day settled down to me opening and assembling various children’s gifts and making sure that no tiny parts went into the trash piles. Why do they have to put those twisty ties on everything?

The boys favorite gift this year was a star wars jedi light saber that cost us around $8 (when will we learn that the best is not always the most expensive?) Hannah-Grace’s favorite gift was a Barbie princess island doll. I have started a tradition (last year) of giving her a dress up outfit, so I found a Barbie princess island dress that was her size. She wore it all day, and we had to fight her to take it off for bed. We also found a Barbie princess island dvd – so she is set. The grandparents went crazy with gifts, but I won’t complain too much. I believe that if I were to ask them, they would say that that’s what grandparents do – especially since we live so far away.

We called and were called by various family members around the country, and over all it was a wonderful day spent together.

Merry Christmas!

Sometimes people ask me, “Drew, do you ever miss Alabama?” and images such as this pop into my mind, and I think, “You know, sometimes I do.” In suburbia most houses look alike, most people dress alike, and even those “angsty teens” who are so individualistic look amazingly similar. But in Alabama, believe it or not these type of “displays” are not so infrequent as to draw anything other than a second look. Can you imagine the outcry of this Santa ride in some of Frederick’s suburbs? So, yes, there are some things that I sometimes miss about Alabama, like the sound of automotive chains rustling in the breeze, the smell of wedding cake at a wedding of too close of relatives, and the outright creativity that is shown everywhere. We call it “folk art.” Who in suburbia would have thought, “you know I have a car, and it is Christmas, why not make the car a little festive?”

Merry Christmas

PS- Dad, thanks for the picture of your new “display” in our yard.

Mark 4:37-41 “A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. ³⁸Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" ³⁹He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. ⁴⁰He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" ⁴¹They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"

Today it was supposed to be a icy, cold, very bad day.

We face decisions every day. We choose what to eat, what to wear, and even more impacting things like whether or not to have a worship service. There are temporal things to consider like the exertion that goes into setting everything up and breaking it down. We tell ourselves that we are doing it for the Lord, but let’s face it, it’s hard work. There have been two occasions when I decided to have church on an inclement weather day, and the only people that showed were those setting up the service. That’s a morale kick in the pants.

If few people show, then it looks like we are a smaller church than we are to guests. (Yes, perception is important). There is a much smaller offering than normal, and if we cancel then there is none at all. There is the danger of accidents if you don’t and there is a missed opportunity to share the gospel if we do. I used to think that there might be a person, who would have come, and their life may have been changed forever – but we canceled instead.

When making these decisions I have decided to let God be God. If Daybreak were a church located in remote Alaska then snow and icy weather would be a way of life. Even in Maryland we are often not equipped to handle a storm. So, God controls the weather, He knows where we are, He knows what we need, and He is control. If He allows a storm to come, I believe He understands our need to not have a service.

I also believe that storms lead us back to asking the question of, “Why do we assemble anyway?” I mean, “Why have a church worship service?” Many times in life we go through the motions, even things that we have done our whole lives, but forget their purpose.

Obviously, gathering as the body of Christ is important (and commanded). I believe that I will soon do a sermon on this exact question, because storm or not there are those who find something far more insignificant than an ice storm to keep them away. I also become focused on lights, sound, media, chairs, etc…when my focus should be worshiping God instead. Sometimes storms help us to re-focus on what is truly important.

Today was Hannah-Grace’s last day of dance for this cycle. She will start dancing again beginning in January. Today was also the one and only day when the instructors would allow the parents to actually sit in the room and watch them dance. After several of the girls would suddenly bolt and ran back and forth, and back and forth to their parents, I understand the restriction.

In the next round of dance we will have our first recital – I’ll let you know how it goes. But for now Hannah-Grace loves to put on her pink tutu, pink dance shoes, pink dance outfit, pink Cinderella backpack, pink, pink, pink, …. (you get the idea). Her face lights up when it is time to go and to be only three she shows great potential. (I know all parents say that about their children, especially daddies about their little girls.) She wants to get married, and asks Jesus to bring her a special boy soon. I am in the background praying the exact opposite – Lord let it be many, many years from now. I want to hold on the pink ponies and dance lesson Saturdays as long as I can. In a house where the guys outnumber the girls (4-2), Hannah-Grace is all girl, and that’s ok with daddy.

Today was the second annual Gingerbread House Building morning. We had well over 80 people to attend and it was a wonderful morning. Everything went very smoothly, and Karine planned everything exceptionally well. Thank you to all the volunteers who helped to make this a wonderful time for families. There were several requests from people from the community asking, “Are you guys doing this next year?” We had several families that even returned from last year.

Our goal was simply to give families in the community and in our church an opportunity to have fun with their family. So everyone went home with their very own Gingerbread House, smiles on their faces, and a little gift from us. I wanted to give people another entrance to our church other than a Sunday morning worship service.

I also didn’t want to hog all the fun, so Craig G. got to wear the Gingerbread Man outfit. He looks pretty snappy in a giant green bow tie. Our volunteers were outfitted in brown felt aprons, complete with red buttons – very festive. All of my children had a sugar rush at some time during the two hours, and they all crashed in the car on the way home.

I know that there are much larger churches, and far busier pastors than I, but this past weekend was very busy. It’s the end of Monday and I am still pretty tired. Friday evening was the Kris Kringle Parade in downtown Frederick. Saturday was Respite, and this event had two additional hours than normal. Sunday we have our normal two services, there were the regular afternoon meetings, and I attended youth Sunday night. You could say, “Drew, that’s why buy you get the big bucks!”

Yes, perhaps, but there were several people from Daybreak who don’t get any compensation for this high level of involvement. They believe in what we are trying to accomplish so much that they are willing to serve at this level of sacrifice and commitment. I know of one person who came from work, served pretty much the whole weekend and then went back to work on Monday. This person’s weekend had to only have been a blur.

I am so blessed and thankful to be a leader of a church where so many people understand that there is more to life than being compensated or getting personal gain from service. Daybreak people understand that there are eternal issues in everything that we do, especially as a church. This past weekend was a time of physical exertion and eternal kingdom growth. Both seem to go hand-in-hand.

When it comes to ministry, numbers aren’t everything. There are times when I have been able to minister to one small child, or young person that truly means more to me than when I have been able to preach before hundreds. But increased numbers do sometimes indicate that you are being effective at what you are doing, or that you have identified a need that you can attempt to help with. Today at our Respite ministry we had over 200 people involved. This was the largest one so far. We partnered with several churches, community groups, and various individuals who helped to make this massive event a huge success. With special needs children you need just about one-to-one attention. We had some special Christmas events this year like licensed beauticians/hairstylists who cut the children’s hair and Brody the therapy dog (who is a huge malamute).

I want to thank the two Kims (they know who they are) for being the organizational superstars behind this ministry. They met with close to twelve new families that were apart of this event. They took the registrations, organized the volunteers, and pulled it all together (and they made it look easy!) I would also like to thank all the volunteers from all over Frederick who helped today – we truly couldn’t do it without you.

I was very encouraged that a church from another county visited our Respite simply for the purpose of taking notes. They had heard of what we do, and had felt led by God to begin such a ministry themselves. Daybreak’s Respite ministry cannot get too much larger led by volunteers and located where we are. There is really no need for it to continue to grow larger. While the need is greater, (we did have a waiting list) it is my prayer that other churches will get the vision for beginning their own Respite Ministry, thus multiplying the impact. It looks like God may be answering our prayer in this way.