Winter Reading List

We usually have a few books recommended here on the website (you have to be logged in to see it) during the year, but this winter everyone from the staff pitched in and we compiled a Winter Reading List. Here it is, put 'em on your 2011 reading list, and enjoy!

1. On Christian Liberty by Martin Luther. (Peter's pick) Easy to read, historically important, theologically significant, wonderfully concise; you can finish the book in an hour or two. This book is worth reading, especially given its historical significance and the fact that it succinctly summarizes Luther’s thoughts on justification. Why read about Luther’s thoughts from either his detractors or defenders, when you easily can read his translated works? Here, Luther sets forth the whole of the Christian life in two theses: "A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all." Some of his other more poignant thoughts of the book are as follows: "One thing, and only one thing, is necessary for Christian life, righteousness, and freedom. That one thing is the most holy Word of God, the gospel of Christ." And again, it is the "wedding ring of faith" which unites believers to Christ. "So let him who wishes to do good works begin not with the doing of works, but with believing, which makes the person good, for nothing makes a man good except faith, or evil except unbelief."
2. God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew. (Chuck's pick) As a boy he dreamed of being a spy undercover behind enemy lines. As a man he found himself undercover for God. Brother Andrew was his name and for decades his life story, recounted in God's Smuggler, has awed and inspired millions. The bestseller tells of the young Dutch factory worker's incredible efforts to transport Bibles across closed borders-and the miraculous ways in which God provided for him every step of the way.
3. Radical by David Platt. (Nathan's pick) It's easy for American Christians to forget how Jesus said his followers would actually live, what their new lifestyle would actually look like. They would, he said, leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. They would abandon everything for the gospel. They would take up their crosses daily...BUT WHO DO YOU KNOW WHO LIVES LIKE THAT? DO YOU? In Radical, David Platt challenges you to consider with an open heart how we have manipulated the gospel to fit our cultural preferences. He shows what Jesus actually said about being his disciple--then invites you to believe and obey what you have heard. And he tells the dramatic story of what is happening as a "successful" suburban church decides to get serious about the gospel according to Jesus. Finally, he urges you to join in The Radical Experiment --a one-year journey in authentic discipleship that will transform how you live in a world that desperately needs the Good News Jesus came to bring.
4. True Sexual Morality by Daniel Heimbach and 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible by Robert Plummer (Matt's picks) * Daniel Heimbach examines the biblical teachings on sexual morality in True Sexual Morality as well as four counterfeit views that have crept into our "sexually revolutionized" society. He gives us an in-depth look at the moral relativism that has spread through our culture and opens our eyes to the effects that nonbiblical sexual choices have on individuals, the family, the church, and the culture. * In 40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible, New Testament Professor Dr. Robert L. Plummer tackles the major questions that persons ask about reading and undestanding the Bible. Questions include: Does the Bible contain error? Were the ancient manuscripts of the Bible transmitted accurately? What is the best English Bible translation? Is the Bible really all about Jesus? Do all the commands of the Bible apply today?
5. BONUS PICK: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

New Years and the Gift of Gab

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

I'm making a New Year's Resolution. And it has to do with a gift that I was born with (I hope that doesn't sound too arrogant!). You might have heard of this particular gift: it's known as the gift of gab.

This gift manifested itself early. As a child, I could talk my way out of anything. There was once an incident in middle school where I ate some pop tarts that were not mine and somehow talked my way out of what would have been swift and just punishment. My mouth would run at 100 mph as I filibustered and did my best to deflect. I know I must have driven my parents completely mad, and it's probably why, even now, they still look at me and wonder how in the world a beautiful girl married me and I have four kids (technically, the fourth is still being fearfully and wonderfully knitted together!).

I remember in college, going to different spiritual retreats, where I was contemplating my future, and being asked, "What kind of gifts do you have?" or "How will the Lord use your gifts in His Kingdom?" All I could think of was that I had the gift of gab and that was about it.

Now, as I've grown I've matured in my thinking and know that God has blessed me in so many ways. He's allowed me to have experiences that have shaped my life and He's equipped me every step of the journey so far. So, I've been thinking lately, "What kind of legacy do I want to leave for my kids? What do I want them to remember about me?"

I definitely don't want to be remembered as a man who had the gift of gab! That would be depressing. Instead, my New Year's Resolution is to be known as a man who followed Christ radically. What if my kids remembered me as a Dad who followed Jesus with all of his heart, no matter how difficult! That would be awesome! So, how do I get there? Practially speaking, I love David Platt's Radical one year challenge (you can read more about it in his book, Radical):

1. Pray for the entire world during one year.
2. Read through the entire Word in one year.
3. Sacrifice my money for a specific purpose.
4. Give my time in another context.
5. Commit my life to a multiplying community.

So, that's my New Year's Resolution: to be a radical follower of Jesus!

Bonus New Year's Blog Feature: Here's a great song from Charlie Hall on the New Year!

Approaching the Manger

Another Christmas thought from Bonhoeffer:

For the great and powerful of this world, there are only two places in which their courage fails them, of which they are afraid deep down in their souls, from which they shy away. These are the manger and the cross of Jesus Christ. No powerful person dares to approach the manger, and this even includes King Herod. For this is where thrones shake, the mighty fall, the prominent perish, because God is with the lowly. Here the rich come to nothing, because God is with the poor and hungry, but the rich and satisfied he sends away empty. Before Mary, the maid, before the manger of Christ, before God in lowliness, the powerful come to naught; they have no right, no hope; they are judged.

Thou Who Wast Rich Beyond All Splendour

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

Happy Christmas Day everyone! I hope it's a special one with your family! Check out the words to this Christmas hymn by Frank Houghton:

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,
All for love's sake becamest poor;
Thrones for a manger didst surrender,
Sapphire-paved courts for stable floor.
Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,
All for love's sake becomes poor.

Thou who art God beyond all praising,
All for love's sake becamest man;
Stooping so low, but sinners raising
Heavenwards by Thine eternal plan.

Thou who art love beyond all telling,
Saviour and King, we worship Thee.
Emmanuel, within us dwelling,
Make us what Thou wouldst have us be.
Thou who art love beyond all telling,
Saviour and King, we worship Thee.

The Twelve Words of Christmas

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! This is a short little video that talks about the first broadcast ever on AM radio. Pretty cool!

Future of Forestry - O Holy Night

This is my favorite version of the Christmas classic. Check it out!

I Heard The Bells

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men."

An Un-Christmas-Like Idea

An excerpt from Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

When the old Christendom spoke of the coming again of the Lord Jesus, it always thought first of all of a great day of judgment. And as un-Christmas-like as this idea may appear to us, it comes from early Christianity and must be taken with utter seriousness...The coming of God is truly not only a joyous message, but is, first, frightful news for anyone who has a conscience. And only when we have felt the frightfulness of the matter can we know the incomparable favor. God comes in the midst of evil, in the midst of death, and judges the evil in us and in the world. And in judging it, he loves us, he purifies us, he sanctifies us, he comes to us with his grace and love. He makes us happy as only children can be happy.

Snow

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

Here's a video of a song called "Snow" by Sleeping at Last. It's a great Christmas song, particularly if you love the movie, "It's A Wonderful Life." It has a lot of allusions and nods to the movie including the line, "Like the petals in our pockets may we remember who we are." (Speaking of Snow, will we have a white Christmas? I do not remember one from NC in my entire life. We've had rain and we've had 70 degree days, but no snow. Could this be the year?) Enjoy:

The Death of Life

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

This is one of my all time favorite quotes on Advent. It comes from Augustine and I think it captures the mystery of the Incarnation perfectly:

 Man's maker was made man that He, ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother's breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey; that Truth might be accused of false witness, the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Foundation be suspended on wood; that Strength might grow weak; that the Healer might be wounded; that Life might die.

That Holy Thing

That Holy Thing
by George MacDonald

They all were looking for a king
To slay their foes and lift them high;
Thou cam'st, a little baby thing
That made a woman cry.

O Son of Man, to right my lot
Naught but Thy presence can avail;
Yet on the road Thy wheels are not,
Nor on the sea Thy sail!

My how or when Thou wilt not heed,
But come down Thine own secret stair,
That Thou may'st answer all my need-
Yea, every bygone prayer.

Highway Hypnosis

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor 

Me: "I have no idea where we are."
Kristi: "We're on Bells Lake/Hilltop Needmore/Optimist Farm/etc. Your turn is coming up at the next light."

For some reason, I tend to zone out in my thoughts when I'm driving, especially when I'm traveling those old back country roads heading home (I guess they're not so country anymore, but they used to be). All of those bends and turns in the road tend to blend together and look the same in my subconscious. I literally will suddenly come out of my reverie and have absolutely no clue where I am. Dangerous, I know. I'm sure you're excited to be on the same road as I am. Fortunately, Kristi always knows where we are so if she's with me in the car I'm in luck. If not, it might take me a few minutes to remember where I am, where I'm coming from, and where I'm going.

They warned us about this in Driver's Ed. I don't know how you did it in your day, but I took the one-week class during summer after my Junior Year of High School. In between all of the videos of accidents they showed us, my instructor told us about a mysterious phenomenon called highway hypnosis. It sounded like a bunch of mystical mumbo-jumbo at the time, but I was wrong.

I have been the victim of highway hypnosis over the years many times, and not always on the highways! Country roads, back roads, dirt roads, alleyways, it doesn't matter. The hypnosis sucks you in: the cars flying by, the yellow lines, the trees all a blur.

The concept of highway hypnosis got me thinking seriously about a few verses from Scripture. The first is from Hebrews 12:

"Therefore, since we also have such a large crowd of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God's throne."

Also, from Proverbs 4:

"Let your eyes look forward;
fix your gaze straight ahead.
Carefully consider the path for your feet,
and all your ways will be established."

I really wish that I was so into Jesus that it would be literally impossible for me to take my thoughts off of Him. That my heart would be constantly in tune with God's heart, and that His love would so consume my waking hours that I would be immune to distractions. Not that Christ would hypnotize me or that I'm out in some la-la land (like I get when I'm driving), but I'm compelled because of the Cross to fix my gaze straight ahead, to carefully consider the paths that I walk on, and to keep my eyes on Him. Wouldn't that be awesome?

Prophets

Prophets
by Ann Porter

Once in the Advent season
When I was walking down
A narrow street

I met a flock of children
Who all came running up to me
Saying that they were prophets
And for a penny they
Would prophesy

I gave them each a penny

They started out
By rummaging in trash-cans
Until they found
A ragged piece of silk

It's blue, they said
Blue is a holy color
Blue is the color that
The mountains are
When they are far away

They laid the rag
On a small fire
Of newspaper and shavings
And burned it in the street

They scraped up all the ashes
And with them decorated
Each other's faces

Then they ran back to me
And stood
In a circle 'round me

We stood that way
In a solemn silence
Until
One of the children spoke

It was the prophecy!

He said that long before
The pear tree blossoms
Or sparrows in the hedges
Begin to sing

A Child will be our King.

Advent Summons

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

Another Advent Poem...

Advent Summons
by Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C.

Come forth from the holy place,
Sweet Child,
Come from the quiet dark
where virginal heartbeats
Tick your moments.

Come away from the red music
Of Mary's veins.
Come out from the Tower of David
Sweet Child,
From the House of Gold.

Leave your lily-cloister,
Leave your holy mansion,
Quit your covenant ark.
O Child, be born!

Be born, sweet Child,
in our unholy hearts.

Come to our trembling,
Helpless Child.
Come to our littleness,
Little Child,
Be born unto us
Who have kept the faltering vigil.
Be given, be born,
Be ours again.

Come forth from your holy haven,
Come away from your perfect shrine,
Come to our wind-racked souls
From the flawless tent,
Sweet Child.

Be born, little Child,
in our unholy hearts.

The Risk of Birth

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

I thought I'd kick off December and the Advent season with an Advent poem from Madeleine L'Engle (probably best known for her A Wrinkle in Time series). I'll try to post some more of these as Christmas approaches.

The Risk of Birth (Christmas, 1973)
Madeleine L'Engle

This is no time for a child to be born,
with the earth betrayed by war and hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out and the sun burns late.

That was no time for a child to be born,
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
Honour and truth were trampled by scorn-
Yet here did the Saviour make His home.

When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn-
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.

The Lazy Blog

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

I have a confession to make as November draws to a close and December peeks its frosty head around the corner: I'm lazy by nature. It's a roaring grizzly bear that I've had to wrestle as long as I remember, although I think that as I've gotten older and matured some of that laziness has been tempered. At least, I hope so! I don't know where it came from; my Dad and Mom are some of the hardest working folks I know. My work ethic must have been a genetic mutation.

Here's an example of my sorry lazy self. When I was in high school I was given the all important job by my Father of mowing the grass on Saturdays. Now, this was back in the day before there was a neighborhood behind my parents' home and our backyard was much larger. (That was my one mitigating comment.) I would literally take our mower and mow a small square in about fifteen minutes and go back inside to cool off for an hour or so. Then I would head back outside and repeat the process. Ad infinitum. What should have taken me maybe two hours would literally take all day. My Dad would come home and stare incredulously at his half-cut grass. (Wait, I do have one other mitigating comment: One time our lawn mower was broken and we borrowed Mr. Jones' riding mower. I knocked that job out in no time and forever lobbied for a riding lawn mower to no avail.)

It really shames me to dredge up those memories, but maybe some of you can identify. The challenge in my life is, how do I overcome this slothful inclination in my heart when I study my Bible? Because really studying the Bible, getting down to the nitty and the gritty of it, is hard work. We went through Living by the Book in our Life Groups this past Spring and Howard Hendricks gives an example of Acts 1:8 when he discusses the art of observation. It's one verse and he mentions that over the years in his classroom students have come up with over six hundred observations on Acts 1:8. Did I mention it's only one verse?! Six hundred observations!

In my Bible study, I have to develop my powers of observation and that requires hard work! It doesn't come naturally to me. My constant prayer has to be Psalm 119:8: "Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law," and 2 Timothy 2:15: "Be diligent to present yourself to God, a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth."

Into the Deep

Part Seven in a series of Thanksgiving Blogs...

Here's Part Two of the last word-picture in Psalm 107:

"Others went to sea in ships,
conducting trade on the vast waters.
They saw the Lord's works,
His wonderful works in the deep." (verses 23 & 24)

It's important to realize that navigation was so little practiced amongst the Israelites that if you were an Israelite sailor you received major props--the occupation of sailing was looked upon as one of incredible danger. Anyone who had survived a journey on the sea was given respect and an ancient mariner was listened to with great reverence. Voyages were looked on as descending to an abyss ("going down to the sea in ships"). Israelites tended to avoid the sea unless they had business to attend to. Solomon didn't even keep a pleasure boat. The Mediterranean was "the great sea" to David and his countrymen.

"He spoke and raised a tempest
that stirred up the waves of the sea.
Rising up to the sky, sinking down to the depths,
their courage melting away in anguish,
they reeled and staggered like drunken men,
and all their sill was useless." (verses 25-27) 

He spoke...God's word is enough for anything. All He has to do is say it, and the tempest rages. The glassy surface of the ocean is broken by waves and it rises up in fury.

We would probably need to have been on the ocean in a violent storm to appreciate how accurate these frightening words are (verses 25-27). The sailors rise up on the crest of the wave and it's like they're being lifted into the sky, but it's only for a moment, because then they quickly fall back down to the depths. They are tossed up and down, up and down (are you feeling sick yet?). If you have ever been in the spiritual depths of a great storm in your life you can identify with this verse. There is no heart left for anything. Your courage is gone; your hope is almost dead. They were like men intoxicated. All of their skill was useless; they had tried everything.

"Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and He brought them out of their distress.
He stilled the storm to a murmur,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
They rejoiced when the waves grew quiet.
Then He guided them to the harbor they longed for. (verses 28-30)

Though they had come to the end of themselves, these sailors still had the wits to pray. And again, God heard them. God hears us in the thunder and answers out of the storm. When we call out to Him we honor who He is: His Sovereignty, His Wisdom, His Rescue, His Faithfulness. John Trapp once wrote, "He that cannot pray, let him go to sea, and there he will learn."

When they prayed, look what happened in verse 29: The waves bowed in silence at the feet of the Creator. There was peace. It's hard to appreciate these verses unless you've been in a storm at sea, but the principle is this: the rougher the voyage, the more the sailors long for port; and likewise for us as believers, heaven becomes more and more a desired destination. Phillip Henry Gosse said, "Blessed be God for the gift of His beloved Son, the only Harbor of Refuge for poor tempest-tossed sinners."

"Let them give thanks to the Lord
for His faithful love and His wonderful works for the human race.
Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the people
and praise Him in the council of the elders." (verses 31 & 32)

Have you ever seen a movie when the characters have endured something at sea and they finally get to land and they just jump out and lay in the sand? Sometimes they kiss the shore? That's the picture I see in verse 31. And then in verse 32, the Psalmist teaches us that our thanks to God for His mercies should be public; in the place where men and women gather for worship. When you have been in a great spiritual storm and have at last found peace, the acknowledgment of the Lord's mercy before His people should follow.

This fourth word-picture speaks not of our guilt before God, but of our smallness. The hurricane, the storm, shakes us into seeing that in a world of gigantic forces we live by grace. The point is made in verse 27, "all their skill was useless." There are wonderful works both to humble man (verse 24) and to save him (verse 31). 

We, as the redeemed, should be filled with thanks. One of the marks of an unbeliever is given in Romans 1:21: "They neither glorify God as God nor give thanks to Him." If we are followers of Jesus then our lives should be characterized by thankfulness! By hearts filled with joy for whom God is and what He's done in our lives!

Shackleton's Amazing Voyage

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

Part Six in a series of Thanksgiving Blogs...

Let's take a two-part look at the last word-picture in Psalm 107:

One of my favorite books in the past few years is called Endurance by Sir Alfred Lansing. It's the true account of Shackleton's amazing voyage to the Antarctic in 1914-1916. Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men became stuck in the ice and had to abandon the ship, which eventually sank. This would not be heartening for a sailor I don't believe:

They were stuck on the ice, but eventually made their way to Elephant Island. Their only hope for rescue was to get to a whaling station on South Georgia Island so Shackleton and five of his men boarded the James Caird (one of their three remaining lifeboats) and proceeded to attempt the crossing of one of the roughest stretches of water in the world. Here's a photo of the James Caird:

Not only were they in this tiny boat that was in constant peril of capsizing, but all they had for the journey to navigate to South Georgia Island was a sextant, which is not easy in calm waters much less the stormy and incredibly rough South Atlantic.

In fact, two of the men would hold the navigator up over their shoulders while he tried to sight the sun. The horizon could only be estimated. Over the seventeen day, eight hundred nautical mile journey they were only able to take four readings because of the ocean and the weather. The slightest mistake could have caused them to miss the island. Amazingly, they made it and not one man was lost. Check out the route of the James Caird (and you can see where they drifted on the ice as well, previously):

When I was reading verses 23-32 of Psalm 107 I couldn't help but be reminded of this part of Shackleton's voyage! A lot of commentators say that the most beautiful, the most poetic, and certainly the most stirring section of Psalm 107 are the verses that describe the peril of God's people while at sea. It might have been descriptive of the difficult sixty-five day, late-fall cross of the turbulent North Atlantic by the Pilgrims as well.

Stay tuned tomorrow as we dive into the text of this fourth word-picture!

In a Dry and Thirsty Land

Part Five in a series of Thanksgiving Blogs...

Let's take a look at the first word-picture in Psalm 107: 

"Some wandered in the desolate wilderness,
finding no way to a city where they could live.
They were hungry and thirsty;
Their spirits failed within them." (verses 4 & 5)

I can't think of too many things more depressing than for a man to be lost in a desert. How could they find a city? There were none! And they weren't just passing through. These people are actually wandering aimlessly, nowhere close to any path or any road that might lead them out.

It's easy to see how these verses would have resonated with the Pilgrims. They had been driven from their homes and were hounded from place to place. At one time escaping England for Holland before finally setting sail for the North American continent. According to William Bradford they were: "hunted and persecuted on every side...Some were taken and clapped in prison, others had their houses beset and watched night and day, and hardly escaped their enemies hands; and most were constrained to flee and leave their houses and habitations, and the means of their livelihood."

Their spirits failed within them. When your body is exhausted it sure is hard to have courage and to keep pressing forward. No food, no water, no streams in the desert. Nothing. Total despair.

"Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He rescued them from their distress.
He led them by the right path
to go to a city where they could live." (verses 6 & 7)

Did you notice there wasn't any praying happening until things got bad? But, in the midst of their trouble they finally did pray, and to the right person: The Lord. It was all that they could do. They couldn't help themselves, or find help in other people, and so they cried out to God. Many of us are never going to pray until we're half starved and desperate, and it's really in our best interests to be empty and faint than to be full and brave. Someone once said, If hunger brings us to our knees it is more useful to us than feasting; if thirst drives us to the fountain it is better than the deepest drink of worldly joy; and if fainting leads to crying out to God then it is better than the strength of the powerful.

So, God hears the people's prayer and not only does He find the right way for them to escape from their wanderings, but he made the way, and gave them the strength to walk upon it. He gives them a place of rest; a city where they may dwell.

"Let them give thanks to the LORD
for His faithful love
and His wonderful works for the human race.
For He has satisfied the thirsty
and filled the hungry with good things." (verses 8 & 9)

We would have to be criminally ungrateful to not honor a Deliverer who rescued us from the wilderness and from cruel death! As believers, we should be stirred to praise the Lord again and again. Lives characterized by Thanks-Living!

One of the really cool things about this first word-picture in Psalm 107 is that the themes of lostness, thirst, hunger, and exhaustion are all pictures that Jesus uses to describe Himself as the Way, the Bread and Fountain of Life, and the Giver of Rest. The scene in this word-picture unites all these parts of salvation and crowns them with that of a city to dwell in.

Cultivating a Life of Thanks-Living

Melody Merritt
Women's Ministry Director 

Part Four in a series of Thanksgiving Blogs...

What is the difference between giving thanks on one day and living thanks every day? Thankfulness should not be expressed just at Thanksgiving or when everything is going good for us, but giving thanks should be a part of our lives every day. Cultivating a life of gratitude and thanksgiving should be who we are as believers in Christ Jesus. 1 Chronicles 16 says, "Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever."

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 reads: "Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." The Amplified Bible states verse 19 this way: "Thank God in everything no matter what the circumstances may be, be thankful and give thanks, for this is the will of God for you who are in Christ Jesus, the Revealer and Mediator of that will."

Paul writes in Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

How do we cultivate this life of thanksliving? By spending time with God in His Word, and in praising Him. Take time to thank God for everything everyday and begin living a life of Thanks-Living today!

The Pilgrim's Psalm

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

Part Three in a series of Thanksgiving Blogs...

To many, Psalm 107 is known as the Pilgrim's Psalm. Maybe more than any other passage in the Bible, this particular Psalm describes the perils the Pilgrims experienced prior to, during, and after their crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Pilgrims came ashore on Monday, December 11, 1620 and many believe they spent the prior day worshiping and using Psalm 107 as the basis for that Sabbath's meditation. Governor William Bradford, in his account of the founding of the Plymouth Colony explicitly referred to the Psalm:

May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: "Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness, but they cried unto the Lord, and he heard their voice and looked on their adversity. Let them forever praise the Lord, because He is good: and His mercies endure forever. Yes, let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, shew how He hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord His loving kindness and His wonderful works before the sons of men."

Psalm 107 is in all reality a praise song! It was written after Israel had returned from its Babylonian captivity. It begins with an introduction and finishes with a conclusion, but in the body of the Psalm are four word-pictures of human predicaments and divine interventions. These four adventures aren't necessarily specific Israelite situations, but since this Psalm was written to help celebrate the return from exile these four pictures are perhaps different ways of picturing the plight from which Israel was delivered. (It's interesting to note that the number four connotes totality, all the possible varieties of rescue.)

As we read Psalm 107 we can see ourselves in these different situations as well! Charles Spurgeon once wrote that this Psalm may be sung by any man or woman whose life has been preserved in times of danger.

Over the next few days we'll be looking at two of the word-pictures, but go ahead and read the Psalm in its entirety by clicking here.

Public Thanksgiving and Prayer

Matt Wyatt
Youth Assistant Extraordinaire

This is the text of a proclamation for a day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer, issued by George Washington in January of 1795. The text is copied from Rediscovering God in America by Newt Gingrich (Integrity Publishers, 2006).

When we review the calamities which afflict so many other nations, the present condition of the United States affords much matter of consolation and satisfaction. Our exemption hitherto from foreign war, an increasing prospect of the continuance of that exemption, the great degree of internal tranquility by the suppression of an insurrection which so wantonly threatened it, the happy course of our public affairs in general, the unexampled prosperity of all classes of our citizens, are circumstances which peculiarly mark our situation with indications of the Divine beneficence toward us. In such a state of things it is an especial manner our duty as people, with devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God and implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experience. Deeply penetrated with this sentiment, I, George Washington, President of the United States, do recommend to all religious societies and denominations, and to all persons whomsoever, within the United States to set apart and observe Thursday, the 19th day of February next, as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, and on that day to meet together and render their sincere and hearty thanks to the Great Ruler of Nations for the manifold and signal mercies which distinguish our lot as a nation, particularly for the possession of constitutions of government which unite and by their union establish liberty with order; for the preservation of our peace, foreign and domestic; for the seasonable control of the which has been given to a spirit of disorder in the suppression of the late insurrection, and generally, for the prosperous course of our affairs, public and private; and at the same time humbly and fervently to beseech the kind Author of these blessings graciously to prolong them to us; to imprint on our hearts a deep and solemn sense of our obligations to Him for them; to teach us rightly to estimate their immense value; to preserve us from the arrogance of prosperity, and from hazarding the advantages we enjoy by delusive pursuits; to dispose us to merit the continuance of His favors by not abusing them; by our gratitude for them, and by a correspondent conduct as citizens and men; to render this country more and more a safe and propitious asylum for the unfortunate of other countries; to extend among us true and useful knowledge; to diffuse and establish habits of sobriety, order, morality, and piety, and finally, to impart all the blessings we possess, or ask for ourselves, to the whole family of mankind.

The Legend of the Four Year Old Indian

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

The first of a series of Thanksgiving Blogs over the next few weeks...

I know we all have a lot of warm Thanksgiving memories as we look back over the years. Well, here's one that's a bit chilly:

It's tough being a four year old. You want to be taken seriously. You're independent. You're processing vast amounts of information and are trying so terribly hard to remember the difference between an oval and a circle. Oh, and you can't sit still. Sitting still literally makes your brain feel like it's going to spontaneously combust. If you have an older sibling you want to do whatever they get to do. You want to be in elementary school. You're ready for the school bus and can't understand why you still have to take those awful afternoon naps. Life is tough.

I was four years old, once. Hard to believe, I know. I have several four year old memories that I still hang on to, and one in particular that I wanted to share as Thanksgiving approaches next week.

I didn't have an older brother or sister, but my best friend was five and he was already in Kindergarten at Baucom. I remember being extremely jealous that he got to go to school. But Thanksgiving rolled around back in 1981 and I was invited by his teacher and our two mothers to come take part in his class Thanksgiving play. Oh, if I could only convey the giddiness and the sense of accomplishment and pride that I felt when I was approached concerning my role. I was to play the part of an Indian coming to eat with the Pilgrims and had absolutely no lines. I quickly and readily agreed to the plan.

That is, until the day of the class play. Until I was dressed in my costume. My memory is a bit fuzzy on this point, but I think I had some soft-soled Moccasin slippers for my feet and a loin cloth. That was it. Nothing else. I remember my Mom applying some war paint while I shook my head and tried to get out of it all. I mean, I liked the slippers, but the loin cloth was a bit much. I felt cold.

Thinking back, I don't think it was because I had a highly advanced sense of modesty. At this same period of my life I would run around our yard in nothing but my Batman underwear chasing bad guys and untying trussed up babysitters (who still delight to remind me of those moments). Modesty wasn't it.

I think I just got cold feet. Too much pressure. There was too much riding on my performance. And so, to my everlasting shame, I refused to go into the classroom.

Anyway, that's one of my earliest Thanksgiving memories. How about you?
 

Completely Other

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

He is:
the blessed and only Sovereign,
the King of kings,
and the Lord of lords,
the only One who has immortality,
dwelling in unapproachable light,
whom none of mankind has seen or can see,
to whom be honor and eternal might.
Amen.

These words from Paul written to Timothy are powerful and awe-inspiring. God dwells in unapproachable light. Mankind has never seen or can see. He is completely Other. He is Spirit. He is Sovereign and He is Pure and Set Apart.

The beautiful thing is that this God has chosen to make Himself known to us, humankind, through Jesus Christ, the Word incarnate, for His own glory and for His love for us. It's the beauty of Christmas:

The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into our neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.

No one has ever seen God,
not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made him plain as day.

A Hard Pill To Swallow

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

I love my grandparents for so many reasons: they are kind, compassionate, loving, godly and prayer warriors. They've really set an example for me in my own life as I try to walk with God. Whenever you need to talk, or just to decompress, you're always welcome at their house to come sit in a rocking chair and visit. I love them dearly.

My Grandmother also has quite the stash of horse pills at their home.

I'm not sure where the horse pills came from. Probably from the traveling horse doctor. I know what they're designed for: horses, not humans. They're some kind of powerful antibiotic, but that's about all I've been told. I also know that whenever someone gets sick and comes over to the house they are offered one of the horse pills. I, myself, have taken quite a few over the years. Let me describe these pills to you: You're familiar with the gel tabs or the yummy chocolate flavored advil or the small and easy to swallow normal pills for all symptoms, I assume? The horse pills have none of these frills. They are easily the size of my thumb. I tried once to cut one in half, but the pill became so jagged that it literally lacerated my throat as I attempted to swallow it down. So, you've got to do it whole. And, let me tell you, there's a lot of gasping and gagging that goes on before that thing goes down your gullet. My palms get sweaty whenever I see one. They are a literally a hard pill to swallow.

And hence the expression: "That's a hard pill to swallow."

On Wednesday nights we're studying the book of Malachi, and the Israelites in Malachi's time had some hard pills to swallow. The Holy Spirit, through the Prophet Malachi, basically tells the people that if they are going to come to corporately worship and just go through the motions with their hearts elsewhere it would be better if they just didn't show up. If they were not going to give cheerfully or out of a heart of joy then it would be better for them not to give at all (that's a New Testament interpretation of Chapter 3). If they were going to come to worship and just do the same thing they had always done because it was what they had always done with no heart change it would be better for them to just close the doors of the Temple.

That's a hard pill to swallow! To think that if we're not living as a New Testament Church--loving the poor, caring for one another, walking humbly with God, doing justice--we'd do just as well to shut the whole thing down and quit playing games and bringing dishonor to the name of God.

So, what's our alternative? What kind of lives do we lead? The Prophet Isaiah says it well:

This is the kind of fast I'm after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.

What I'm interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.

Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of Glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You'll call out for help and I'll say, "Here I Am."

Dominion and Awe

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

A few years back I was struck by a revelation:

I use the same word to describe how I feel about cheeseburgers and to describe the Creator God of the Universe.

That word would be: "awesome". In fact, I use awesome to describe a lot of other things as well: computers, movies, automatic doors in vans, Mac products, books, experiences and trips, etc. I sometimes use it even if I don't really mean it. How can that be right? How can I describe how I feel about God accurately?

In Job 25:2 we read: "Dominion and awe belong to God." Awe belongs to God, and is due him and to no one else. Especially Five Guys. That causes me to pause and re-evaluate the language that I use to describe a cheeseburger! My prayer and dilemma is perfectly summed up in an old David Crowder lyric:

I need words
As wide as sky
I need language large as
This longing inside
And I need a voice
Bigger than mine
And I need a song to sing You
That I've yet to find

(You can hear the song by clicking here)

Christmas Presents, Bill Cosby and the Gibeonites (The Sneaky Blog)

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

Describing me as a sneaky kid would be an understatement. Case in point: I knew all of my Mother's secret hiding places for birthday and Christmas presents, and there were many. I would wait till she was asleep and then slip out of my bed to either the crawl-space or the laundry room. With stealth-like precision I would tear a little of the wrapping paper away so that I could catch a glimpse of what treasure lay inside. Could it be a new Transformer? I would then try to arrange the present to make it look like there was no rip in the paper or that it had ripped itself naturally when it was set down in its hiding place by my Mother. I'm telling you, I was bad! And I was good at it.

It reminds me of the one Cosby episode where Bill Cosby sees that Claire has baked a cake and he proceeds to partake of said cake while little Olivia watches in amazement. He then tries to cover up the missing piece by adding paper towels and spreading the chocolate icing to make the cake look whole again. Here's the clip in all of its sneaky hilarity!

Speaking of sneakiness, there were some inhabitants of Gibeon in Joshua's day that were downright deceptive. They took sneaky to a new level. Joshua 9 talks about how the Gibeonites heard how Israel had taken down Jericho and Ai and decided (wisely, I think) that they did not want to be obliterated. So, the Gibeonites put on their old, patched up sandles and pretended to have come from a far away land. Israel didn't consult God and established peace with them and made a treaty to let them live (when they really should have killed them all). The Gibeonite's sneakiness saved their lives, and they eventually became woodcutters and water carriers for the people of Israel. Not high profile work, but better than being permanently wiped off the face of the earth!

A Vocabulary Test

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

I used to love vocabulary tests when I was in school. I always thought it was cool when the teacher would tell us to exchange papers with someone around us and then we would grade each others' work. Oooooh, I would think to myself, the power that is in my hands!

Did you know the average person has a vocabulary of 20,000 words, but linguists have shown that in that person's lifetime he or she will express four to five million different ideas? The words must be used in many different combinations with many different meanings in order to meet the need.

So, what is your vocabulary like? What ideas do you express with that vocabulary? It's an important question. James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote in his letter: 

For every creature—animal or bird, reptile or fish—is tamed and has been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things should not be this way. Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening? Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers, or a grapevine [produce] figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.

What kind of influences do you allow in your life that shape the way you speak? What kind of influences do you allow in your childrens' lives that affect how they speak?

The best influence on our vocabulary is the Word of God!

Let Psalm 119:9-16 be the declaration of your life and your speech will reflect the calling of God on your life:

How can a young man keep his way pure?
By keeping Your word.

I have sought You with all my heart;
don't let me wander from Your commands.

I have treasured Your word in my heart
so that I may not sin against You.

LORD, may You be praised;
teach me Your statutes.

With my lips I proclaim
all the judgments from Your mouth.

I rejoice in the way [revealed by] Your decrees
as much as in all riches.

I will meditate on Your precepts
and think about Your ways.

I will delight in Your statutes;
I will not forget Your word.

Two Are Better Than One

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Volunteers and Mentors needed for Christian Women’s Job Corps

Are you looking for a way to use your gifts and skills to glorify God? Are you an encourager? Do you enjoy teaching and guiding others? Christian Women's Job Corps has a place for you! Apex Baptist Church has partnered with CWJC by offering classroom space for our life and job skills classes and bible study. We have many volunteer needs to get this site going at your church.

One of the key elements to the CWJC ministry is the mentor relationship. A mentor helps a woman in need through encouragement, goal setting, listening, modeling Christ like behavior and holding the participant accountable to their goals. A mentor is not a baby-sitter, financial supporter, taxi driver or a genie available to fix problems. This relationship and ministry is designed to help empower and equip a woman in need in her quest for economic self-sufficiency and in developing a relationship with Jesus Christ. Get involved and allow God to equip you to serve Him through serving others!

CWJC volunteer needs:
• Mentors to attend class & mentor a woman in the program (training provided)
• Class leaders to teach budgeting, parenting, stress management, etc (materials provided)
• Bible study leader (material provided)
• Leaders willing to serve as teacher and on site mentor in small groups (this model is used when we do not have enough mentors for each woman in the program)
• Get a group of friends together to provide lunch on class day
• Child care workers

If you are interested in volunteering or mentoring or want to know more about what is involved please contact Cynthia Thelen at 231-3995 x 113. Phase I classes begin Thursday, Sept. 30th 9:30-1:30 at Apex Baptist Church. Please call ASAP to learn more and get involved.

You will be amazed at how God can work through and in your life as part of this ministry!

The Stationary Activity Center

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

Ahhhh...the Exersaucer. Six years ago I would have had no conception of such a thing. But now do I ever. It is one of the greatest inventions of all time. It's close on the heels of the boppy pillow, wheel and the iPod. I'm not sure of the etymology of the term, but it does resemble a saucer and I guess it does provide the baby with some sort of "exercise". Or maybe it's meant more in the lines of, "You can get some exercise while your baby plays happily in the little saucer contraption." I've also heard of it described as the "Stationary Activity Center". Well, that might be the technical description, but to Tobin, our seven month old, it is known as Freedom in all of its new-found glory.

Tobin is our third child and we're used to the pattern and progression by now. This is a time in the life of our baby that we cherish. These are the "stationary" days.  He is going through a period where he's content in the Exersaucer (for hours, even!) but pretty soon that's going to change. Very soon. Tobin is going to get bored with being "stationary" and he's going to need to be down on the floor where he can crawl and get into trouble. That means no more reading for Daddy on the couch watching the little fellow out of the corner of my eye to see if he threw up on himself. No more running into the next room to grab something that I forgot or to look something up on the computer. Those days will be gone. They better be, or the next thing I know he'll be trying to crawl up the chimney.


As I was thinking about the term, "Stationary Activity Center," it made me think about the local church. Is that an accurate description of what we're all about? Is the church just a building where folks can come and play with different toys and be entertained? That kind of stings a little bit just to think it might be the case, doesn't it? Are we just a big, grown-up exersaucer with a few bells and whistles? Some mirrors and soft chewable objects. Completely harmless and safe?

Or...are we the People of God, the Temple of God, the Body of Christ? As a church are we actively engaged in loving our community and those around us with the Gospel? It might be a little bit more dangerous. We might get into a little bit of trouble. We might crawl to where (according to some) we're not supposed to go. We might occasionally get hurt. But that's part of growing up and it sure sounds to me a lot more like what we're called to do as followers of Christ!

In a few weeks it's going to be time to take the exersaucer back up into the attic. Tobin is going to start roaming the floors and we're going to have to blockade the kitchen and the stairs. I'm going to have to start paying better attention. It won't be long after that when he'll take his first steps. And the next thing I know he'll be wanting to wrestle. Then he'll be wanting the keys to the 2000 Camry. It's all a part of growing up and as much as I'll miss the exersaucer days I can't wait to see what kind of man he grows up to be. So, as much as I'll miss you, goodbye, Stationary Activity Center. Better things are yet to come!

Nursing Home Ministry Begins Tomorrow!

Tomorrow night (September 16) is our first opportunity to go love on residents for Jesus at area Retirement/Nursing Homes. We'll be meeting from 6:30-8:00 PM at Brookridge (Atwater) in Apex (312 Lynch St. Apex, NC 27502) and we'd love for you to come and join us! This is a GO project you can be involved in with your whole family!

Here are a few suggested donations that you might like to bring along:

Children can make cards, or any kind of artwork for residents at Atwater.  We also need donations of magazines, sample or full-sized shampoo, toothpaste, lotion, etc., toothbrushes, combs, slippers that are appropriate for those who are not so sure-footed, new or gently-used clothing (including pajamas or nightgowns) for folks who like to relax, new socks, individual snack-sized boxes of raisins, Goldfish crackers, individually-wrapped bite-sized candy bars, Go-Gurt tubes,  items that are easy process without many, or any, teeth.  We need any and every one who would like to see how bringing the Body of Christ to people who don’t have many, if any, visitors can be a blessing! Youth can pray, hand out magazines, candy/treats, lovingly offered clothing or necessities such as soap, sing, paint fingernails (we need to bring our own supplies).

If you have questions please contact Margaret Lawrence! Also, if you'd like to go ahead and put it on your calendar we'll be heading to Rex Rehab in Apex on Thursday, October 21.

We'd love to see you there!

Songs From Locked Up

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

This past weekend we had our Fall Retreat for the youth: Locked Up (you can see some of the photos by clicking here). Some of you asked about the music so I've listed below the songs we did and where you can find them on iTunes:

1. Stay Beside Me by Future of Forestry (they also have 3 new EPs called Travel that are pretty good)
2. How Great Is Your Faithfulness by Matt Redman
3. Came to the Rescue by Hillsong United
4. Death in His Grave by John Mark McMillan
5. Carbon Ribs by John Mark McMillan
6. All That Really Matters by Matt Redman

Check out the video for Death in His Grave:

Forward Motion vs. Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

There he is, standing beside me. I'm sitting in the sand, watching quietly. His body is tensed and his little forehead is crinkled in concentration and determination. Directly in front of him lies the ocean. Millions of square miles of waves and rip tides and hurricanes and fish that just might find him delicious. Does he think about those things? Nope. He crouches down and points his body like a torpedo at the breakers. At this point, my little three year old is a perfect example of potential energy. He's like a rubber band that has been stretched out to the max.

And then, from deep within his throat, comes some sort of hybrid ancient barbarian roar mixed with a grizzly bear growl. He hurtles himself towards the surf. Now he is pure kinetic energy. I watch (and laugh) as he makes it a few glorious yards into the water and then is completely overcome and tossed aside like a little rag doll by a one-foot wave. He emerges, goggles askew, waterlogged, caked in wet sand and seaweed, bathing suit half off, choking on all the salt water he ingested, but still triumphant and cackling like a rejoicing warrior. He comes back to the sand to do it all over again. And again. And again.

In 1887 a song was written that I know you've heard. The chorus goes like this:

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms.
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

In one sense I think this song is spot on: Spiritually speaking, we are safe and secure in the arms of Christ. That's true. But in another sense I think the imagery of this song can be misleading. It makes us think of leaning backwards into God's arms where nothing can hurt us.

First, the perspective given in Scripture is that we're to be a people who are leaning forward. A people who are filled with a spiritual kinetic energy, if you will. We're not to be on the sidelines, uninvolved in the Kingdom. Second, if we are Christ followers, we are not going to be safe and secure from all alarms. We will be persecuted. We will suffer. It's a guarantee.

In my walk with Christ am I comfortably sitting up on the dunes watching the waves and currents from a safe place, leaning back and relaxing in the status quo? Or, am I leaning forward, racing towards the great big unknown, but confident in my Maker and Savior, that He will be glorified by my life?

Let's run to the waves. Let's give it everything we've got. Let's embrace the kinetic energy of forward motion.

Baptism and the Resurrection

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

This past Sunday we went to Jordan Lake and had our annual "Church at the Lake". It was loads of fun and a great time of celebration as we were able to witness twenty-one lives who have been forever changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Recently, I've been reading N.T. Wright's Surprised by Hope, and he speaks powerfully on the subject of Baptism and it's meaning:

The important thing, then, is that in the simple but powerful act of plunging someone into the water in the name of the triune God, there is a real dying to the old creation and a real rising into the new--with all the dangerous privileges and responsibilities that then accompany the new life as it sets out in the as-yet-unredeemed world. Baptism is not magic, a conjuring trick with water. But neither is it simply a visual aid. It is one of the points, established by Jesus himself, where heaven and earth interlock, where new creation, resurrection life, appears within the midst of the old. The idea of associating baptism with Easter always was, and still is, a proper Christian instinct. Just as for many Christians the truth of Easter is something they glimpse occasionally rather than grasp and act on, so, for many, baptism remains in the background, out of sight, whereas it should be the foundational event for all serious Christian living, all dying to sin and coming alive with Christ.

What a perspective! Speaking as one who has grown up in the Church and participated in Church activities over the decades I can readily confess that it's far too easy for me to become jaded towards the Sacraments, and to just go through the motions. But if we saw Baptism as a time where heaven meets earth, as an overflow of the Resurrection, would that change how we, as the Body of Christ, view Baptism? Would it change us from being unengaged spectators to worshipers and celebrators of our Risen Lord?

The Skin Map

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

One of my favorite authors over the past twenty years has been Stephen Lawhead. He mainly writes historical fiction and has written everything from a series on King Arthur to a book on St. Patrick to his most recent trilogy on Robin Hood (my favorite all-time book by him though is called Byzantium). He's a believer and I've loved his depth of insight into the early days of Celtic Christianity. He has a new book releasing next week and if you like to read fiction you might want to give it a try! Check out the trailer for the book below:

What's My Reflection?

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

As the water reflects the face, so the heart reflects the person.
(Proverbs 27:19)

One of the best books I've read on marriage is Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas (it's actually one of the classes being offered through Life Institute this fall).  A major theme of the book is that marriage is a lot like a sin-mirror. It enables us to see our sinful behavior for what it really is so that we can change and become more like Christ.

Have you ever said something or done something, and then as you're replaying the situation over again in your mind you realize what a fool you've been when at first you might have felt justified in your behavior? And you realized that your attitude was less than Christ-like? That the way you handled yourself was an embarrassment? I sure have. More times than I'd care to recount.

The writer of Proverbs 27 (ultimately the Holy Spirit!) says that my behavior is a reflection of what's in my heart. That's a sobering thought for me. Jesus chastised the Pharisees in Matthew 12: "For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart."

What is in my heart? Is it filled with pride, envy, materialism, lust and selfish ambition? Or is it filled with peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control?

And what is my reflection? Do people see selfless love or vain conceit in my life? Do folks I work with see a life of integrity or someone that they could never trust? Do my friends see mercy or a haughty spirit of judgment? Does my family see a man of faithfulness or someone who breaks his promises?

God, we pray that our hearts would be so flooded by Your Goodness and Mercy that Your Grace and Love would overflow out of our lives to bless others and to point them to Jesus Christ! May we reflect Christ in everything that we do!

A Little Perspective

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

Over the past few weeks we've noticed that Tobin, our six month old, has really started to notice what's going on around him, not just in his immediate surroundings, but also in other rooms. It's always entertaining to look into a baby's eyes and wonder what they're thinking and what they're seeing. Recently, I did a little bit of reading on developmental milestones for babies and came across a few interesting tidbits that I wanted to share using Tobin as a case study.

As a newborn, Tobin's eyes were physically capable of seeing at birth, his brain just wasn't able to process all of that visual information. Consequently, things were pretty fuzzy outside of 8 to 15 inches. He could detect movement, light and shapes past that distance, but that was about it. As his brain has developed, however, so has his ability to see. When he was one month old he started to be able to consistently focus both of his eyes. At two months old, he began to distinguish between colors. When Tobin was four months old he supposedly started to develop some depth perception (I'm not sure about this one since our middle child at three years old still has no depth perception, but this could be a genetic trait passed down from his mother's side of the family). And now, at six months old, Tobin has begun to understand object permanence, which I can believe since he now loves to play peekaboo with me.

Both Tobin's perspective on life and his awareness have changed! As I was thinking about perspective it reminded me of an example that Philip Yancey once shared in his book, "Reaching for the Invisible God." The following is a rough paraphrase:

Our spiritual life is often like hiking through the mountains. When we start out on the trail head we have an idea of where we're going (following the trail), but we're surrounded by trees and ridges and can't see much of anything. As we walk, we'll occasionally come across a stream or find a view of a mountain lake, but still we can generally only see what is right in front of us. Eventually, the trees will begin to thin out and the way will become more and more rocky, as we begin to make out giant boulders and cliff faces that we couldn't see when we started. And then comes the moment when we come above the tree line and make our way, finally, to the peak of the mountain. All of a sudden our perspective changes. We see what was around us all along. The forests and the distant mountains, the rise and fall of the land, it's all laid out before our eyes like a beautiful tapestry.

It seems like our walk with God is a lot like a baby developing the ability to see or someone walking up a mountain trail. It's a dynamic process. Though we can't make out much at first, we gradually begin to be able to see more and more; we start to care about the things God cares about and to love the things that God loves. And then comes that day of all days when the curtain is lifted and we no longer see as in a mirror dimly, but see face to face. For now we know in part, but then we will know fully, just as we are fully known.

And I'll Give Until There's Nothing Else

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

"So I'll offer myself and I'll just give until there's nothing else."

How many of you have heard of Adoniram Judson? He and his wife, Ann, were the first Baptist missionaries to Burma and, in fact, spent their "honeymoon" in 1812 on the long boat voyage to Calcutta (it took them four months!). Read what Adoniram went through during his years of missionary service:

• His wife, Ann, underwent a stillbirth on the voyage to India and was bedridden for quite some time upon their arrival.
• Ann and Adoniram spent up to twelve hours a day in language study.
• Fire ravaged where they had chosen to live and drove them to live in an out-of-the-way missions house.
• They both suffered frequently from tropical fevers.
• Their baby, Roger, who was born one year after they settled in Rangoon, died of fever at six months.
• In 1822, Ann had to take an extended sick leave back to the United States.
• War broke out between Burma and England in 1824, and all foreigners were suspected of being spies. Adoniram was arrested and confined to a death prison, where he awaited execution for most of a year and a half.
• In prison each night the "criminals" were hoisted from their ankle fetters to a pole suspended from a ceiling until only their heads and shoulders rested on the ground.
• His wife, Ann, died of fever after he had been released from prison along with their new baby, Maria.
• He retreated for a while into the jungle, built a hut, and lived as a recluse. He dug a grave where he kept vigil for days on end, filling his mind with morbid thoughts of death (I can't blame him!). He wrote during this time, "God is to me the Great Unknown. I believe in him, but I find him not."
• He eventually recovered and remarried a woman named Sarah. During their ten years of marriage, he and Sarah had eight children, and buried two. After their last child was born in 1845 Sarah passed away on their way back to the United States. It was the first time in thirty-three years that Adoniram had seen his homeland.
• While in the U.S. he married again and with his new wife, Emily, returned to Burma in July of 1846. He left behind three of his children whom he would never see again (three of his other children had been left behind in Burma and one of those died while he was away).
• Adoniram and Emily were married for three years and even had a baby girl. But in 1850 (with Emily expecting another child) Adoniram left on a sea voyage, died, and was buried at sea. Ten days later Emily underwent a stillbirth and she herself died three years later back in the United States at the age of thirty-six.

When I first read an account of Adoniram's life, all of his pain and loss (and the suffering of his family!) seemed an awful price to pay. Why did he do it? "If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings," he wrote. And later, "In spite of sorrow, loss and pain, our course be onward still. We sow on Burma's barren plain, we reap on Zion's hill."

He gave until he had nothing else for the sake of Christ and the Gospel and for his love of the Burmese people. What have I given to God? What have I suffered for Christ? I'm much better at keeping things for myself than giving them away, and yet that's what Christ bids me come and do: "If anyone wants to come with me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it."

Are you willing to give of yourself until there's nothing left?

"If you do nothing in a difficult time, your strength is limited. Rescue those being taken off to death, and save those stumbling toward slaughter. If you say, "But we didn't know about this," won't He who weighs hearts consider it? Won't He who protects your life know? Won't He repay a person according to his work? (Proverbs 31:8-9)

Everything I Learned I Learned From...

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

...Kindergarten. We just dropped off our eldest boy for his first day of school. On the drive over I think he was most excited about his lunchbox and all the snack that Mommy had packed him. I can't blame him. I get excited about the same things. I was thinking about Kindergarten the other day, and although I don't remember much, I do have three distinct memories:

1. The playground. I always loved recess time. That is, until the day that I was chased around the slides and swing-sets and teeter-totters and eventually caught and held down by a girl named Jenny who forced me to kiss her on the lips. Traumatized, I refused to talk to girls for the rest of my elementary school career. This also might explain why I have a lingering aversion to playgrounds.

2. Sitting in the corner. I still remember those words, "Mr. Stam, please go take a seat in the corner." Or, "Nathaniel Edward Stam, stand in the corner this instant." I became very familiar with "the corner". I would count tiles and look for cobwebs, but was rarely repentant for whatever offense had sent me there in the first place.

3. The Infamous Jesus Controversy. One evening my parents received a phone call from my extremely-offended Kindergarten teacher. Apparently, I had corrected her on some questions dealing with certain quotes coming from Scripture and she was not appreciative. I had also used the name of Jesus, which was not "appropriate". It was my first call home from a teacher to my parents. Notice I said, "first." Shortly after, I was transferred to a different class and teacher.

As I nostalgically reflect upon "those good old days" I sincerely hope that my son doesn't get pinned down by a girl and kissed on the playground (or anywhere else, for that matter). I also hope, for different reasons, that he doesn't spend an inordinate amount of Kindergarten time sitting in the corner (or the time out chair, or whatever else they do these days). But I do hope he's not afraid to say the name of Jesus and talk about the Bible! I wouldn't mind getting a phone call for that!

Alright...let the Kindergarten adventures begin!

Counting Stars

Nathan Stam

Children/Communications Pastor

Please, please go out and buy Andrew Peterson's new album Counting Stars! You can order it here and listen to all the tracks, or can also get it from iTunes. It's an album that you will love, filled with timeless music and melodies and faith that is born in the valleys of confusion and the upper atmospheres of Hope! I promise that you will love it! Check out the music video below of "Dancing in the Minefields."

My Weedeater Complex

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

I have a problem. Not a serious one, but I still think it's an issue. A character defect, perhaps.

I want to cut people's weeds.

Let me explain. Occasionally, I like to run around the neighborhood for a little exercise. Usually, it's more of a leisurely walk though if I'm being honest. As I walk/run (slowly) I tend to notice people's yards. Some are well-kept and manicured. Others are not. And the latter are the yards I have difficulty running past. My palms start to itch and my hands start to shake as I see their weeds towering into the sky. I wonder to myself, Would they mind if I took care of this for them? Would they even notice when they came home from work tonight?

You see, I received a weedeater for Christmas a few years ago and I love using that piece of machinery. There's something about the satisfaction of swinging it back and forth and watching the vegetation fall in front of me that gladdens my heart. I don't have a green thumb and I can't grow a thing, but I sure do enjoy chopping things down!

It's kind of an irrational urge. I don't have the same feeling whenever I encounter a leaky toilet or a dirty microwave or someone's vinyl siding that has cracks. It only occurs with weeds. It might be a chemical imbalance.

The Bible mentions weeds quite a bit ("They speak words, taking false oaths while making covenants. So lawsuits break out like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field."), but it never mentions someone having a weed complex and what to do when you discover you have one. I guess it's one of those gray areas open for interpretation.

So, if you ever come home and your weeds have seemingly spontaneously disappeared from your yard, you don't have to look far for the culprit or his weedeater.

Check Out Our Missions Blog

Be sure to check out our companion Missions Blog by clicking here to stay up to date on all things ABC happening around the world! Right now, we have an India team currently on the field, a Mexico team preparing to leave and a Ukraine team with updates and lots of great photos.



Make sure to leave comments on the blog because the teams read those and they are a source of great encouragement!

Have You Been Re-Purposed?

Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor

Life can be hectic and the larger our family (and extended family) becomes the crazier it gets. Consequently, birthdays sneak up on you and you may find yourself occasionally having to improvise on the way to familial birthday parties. The other day we were driving and Kristi "repurposed" a birthday card. I won't mention any names. But I was intrigued about this whole "repurpose" idea and I so l looked it up in the dictionary. It literally means to convert for another purpose. To change.

We were born in the kingdom of Satan; in the domain of darkness. The Bible is clear about that awful truth. But on the Cross something happened. Something mysterious and magical and wonderful tangled up all at the same time. God worked out His Rescue Plan through the death of His Son when Jesus actually became sin for us. When the last breath left his lips and then three days later when air filled his lungs again.

So, here comes the change. The rumbling underneath your feet lets you know it's happening. The stirring of something special. Can you feel it? Like a stadium when your team is building momentum for the comeback of the century.

God rescued us and brought us into His Kingdom. We've been repurposed; again. Originally made in the image of the invisible (we're more than carbon and chemicals!) we've been converted as adopted sons and daughters of God. Called back to life. No longer do we live under the control of the prince of the power of the air, but we live instead for the glory of God. We live for the love of our Redeemer. And there's no going back to that dark pit from whence we were brought out!

Sailing the High Seas

This past week we had an awesome week of Vacation Bible School. There were pirates, tickling with feathers, treasure maps, Bible buddies, boats, vast voyages, water games, yummy snacks, Chadder the Chipmunk, spiders, dramatic music, painted pillow cases and tons and tons of kids. Thanks to everyone who prayed and participated, and we're trusting God to water the seeds that were planted in kids' and families' lives.

You can click here to view some pictures from the week (you have to log in to view them) and make sure to check out the video below for one of the highlights from the week. The Pirates Scally and Wag vs. Captain Jana, the First Mate and Lola.