The next morning he still wasn’t feeling good, and was complaining of a stomach ache, so we decided that he would need to stay home from school and rest.

A few minutes later, though, he was experiencing severe stomach pains. When my wife rubbed his back to comfort him, it brought on excruciating pain that continued in his stomach. We knew what this meant.

We brought him immediately to the doctor’s office where he began a cycle of throwing up that wouldn’t stop until later that afternoon. The doctor pressed on his abdomen above his appendix, and with pain, our fears were realized.

We were sent to the hospital for a pain-ridden ultrasound. And with a concerned look on her face, the ultrasound technician called in a doctor. The doctor told us that Zion would be having surgery that day.

We were sent to the pediatric unit where we would wait a long time for a surgeon who would be available to remove our six year-old son’s appendix. There, our son suffered with horrible pain, hunger, and thirst.

We prayed and prayed all day for Zion’s pain to go away. Every time the pain overcame our boy, no matter where we were, who we were with, or what we were doing, he asked us to pray for him on the spot. We prayed in front of nurses, receptionists, doctors, medical assistants, and anesthesiologist.

And around 4:00pm we experienced a miracle. Our son’s pain went completely away, and an amazing sense of peace came over him, until he had his surgery around 9:00pm! It was a wonderful answer to prayer.

Before his anesthesiologist wheeled him back to the operating room, we laid hands on him and prayed. The anesthesiologist laid hands on his head and prayed along. He was in good hands in all senses of the word.

He came through his surgery without a hitch and our prayers that his appendix would not be ruptured were thankfully answered.

He is home in his bed tonight as I write this. He is still stiff and sore; wobbling to and fro to avoid stretching his stomach muscles near his incision when he walks. Tonight I gave him his first shower since the incident, scrubbing off bandage marks, iodine stains, and examining the bruises and cuts he incurred during his surgery- careful not to scrub around his bandage covering his incision.

While drying him off and dressing him, I carefully inspected the incision, making sure it was not red or swollen in the slightest. Wanting to make sure we were diligent in watching for, and preventing, any kind of infection.

I needed to write all this out, it’s therapeutic. I wanted a record of what we went through. It all happened so suddenly, that I’ve already forgotten key details.

But the main reason I wanted to write about it was to share how I felt as his father. I felt so helpless. I wanted so badly to cry for my son, but because I was so in shock and had to be brave for him, I was numb to the feelings and couldn’t cry if I forced myself to.

I wanted more than anything to take on my son’s pain. To experience all of it so he wouldn’t have to. To go through surgery instead of him. To take weeks to fully recover while he played outside. I would have in an instant if it were possible. That’s what true, unconditional love would do- how it feels.

That got me thinking. This is exactly what God has done for us through Christ. Doing for us what we were unable to do ourselves. Bearing all of our sins. Taking on the full wrath of the Father, on our behalf. Experiencing death, and defeating it. All so we wouldn’t have to experience what we deserved to begin with. He loved us so much that He took on our pain so we wouldn’t have to.

God loves me like a son. Yet He was willing to give His Son, so that this son could escape death and experience life to the fullest.

That’s the kind of love I want to be loved by. That’s the kind of love I am loved by. That’s the kind of God I can give my life up for to serve. Because I am God’s son and through His Son He is pleased with me.

Anyone can grasp the Gospel, but now that I am a father I can see that it takes having children to be able to grasp, understand, and appreciate the Gospel more completely.

If you are an undependable employee and call in sick whenever you have a sniffle or are tired from a long weekend, chances are your children will have an even harder time holding a job than you unless they beat the odds and make a conscious decision to not follow in the footsteps of your bad example.

If you binge, constantly over eat, don’t monitor what kind of food you are eating, and get no physical activity; chances are you will have children even more obese than you unless they beat the odds and make a conscious decision to not follow in the footsteps of your bad example.

If you smoke around your children in your house, in your car, and whenever you’re around them; chances are they will smoke more than you do and will have more health problems associated with smoking than you do unless they beat the odds and make a conscious decision to not follow in the footsteps of your bad example.

Likewise, if you claim to be Christians in front of your children, but keep them out of church for any and every sporting event, birthday party, or community children’s activity; the chances that your child will attend church, or even be a Follower of Christ, when they’re adults are minuscule.

So, like my post yesterday, loving the Bride of Christ is so crucial to following Her Groom. Keeping your children around the Bride and teaching them to respect Her is vital to them getting to know and developing a lifelong relationship with Her Groom.

So model the impotence of gathering with the Bride for your children. Keep it consistent. Prioritize your time and don’t allow other women to ruin your family’s date with the Bride.

People are almost offended when they find out- as if we are living in sin for not obeying the rules of culture. People say things like,” how can you afford…?” Usually the answer is,”we can’t.” We make sacrifices in order to have our kids raised by the one person they should be; their mom. We may not have a big house, two cars, or as many night’s out as the typical two income family, but we do have our kids at home with their mother. And that’s worth every sacrifice.

Now I don’t want to belittle or condemn for a minute the moms out there who work. Some of you do not have a choice and some of you simply may not be the stay at home type and for that you and your children’s lives may be better off.

But I do think that in almost all cases, moms staying home to raise their children is ideal. While I don’t believe it’s a Biblical command for mothers, I do believe it’s God’s plan for them and the precident set in Scripture.

And the amazing thing about our decision is that God keeps providing for us, often times giving us extra money to be able to do the things other two income families are doing. I believe that is attributed to is doing his will, part of which is keeping our children at home with their mom. It’s what’s best for us.

One final thing to consider is that often times having a mother work is no benefit to a family at all. After the expenses of childcare, transporatation, wardrobe, food, and higher tax bracket, working-mother-families can have a difficult time getting ahead at all. When you put it on paper you may only be making several hundreds of dollars more per month to miss some of the most important stages of your child’s life. Is that worth it to you?

So if you are a mom, soon to be mom, or considering becoming a mom, prayerfully consider what God would have you do in regards to raising your children. And whichever way He leads you, if you remain faithful, He will provide.

People wonder why on earth we would do such a thing and assume I must be taking advantage of my employer and making large sums of money illegitimately in order to make such an offensive decision. It causes them to treat my children differently, me differently, and especially my wife differently. They think that she is either an oppressed slave of a woman by her husband, or a lazy bum who sluggardly spends her husbands vast coffers of money.

What is this controversial decision we have made? I’ll tell you sometime tomorrow.

Almost all scientists agree that our overall avergae global temperature is rising and that polar ice caps are melting at alarming rates, but many die-hard anti-global-warming advocates even deny the facts.

For the most part, the argument is not really about ‘whether or not’ the globe is warming, as much as it is about ‘why’ the globe is warming.

Global warming proponents mostly agree that the main reason our temperatures are rising is because of increasing carbon emissions by power hungry mankind.

While global warming opponents, who believe that the earth is indeed warming, mostly believe that the warming temperatures are a result of natural warming and cooling cycles that the planet goes through every several thousand years.

Warming opponents who see the trend as being caused by natural cycles tend to scoff at any attempt to reduce carbon emissions because they think we have no control over it.

All the arguments aside; there’s other huge issues that the global warming opponents are basically ignoring all together- Pollution! Stewardship! Conservation!

Whether or not our pollution causes global warming is not the only issue at hand. I enjoy living in a clean world with clean air and clean water. A polluted world leads to tremendous health problems and dramatically decreases the natural beauty of the world around us!

Even if logging, and drilling, and damming don’t cause global warming; we still have to be good stewards of the creation God has given to us.

Over-logging causes erosion and dirty water, not to mention countless other problems.

If drilling doesn’t cause warming, it does up the risk of an oil spill which ruins water quality and only adds to our expensive oil-based economy and smog that can cause major breathing problems and even death.

Even if damming doesn’t contribute to global warming; it destroys the beautiful natural flows of our rivers, along with land both up and downstream of the structure, and can have huge effects on the fishing industry of a local economy.

With a few of the issues associated with pollution and stewardship mentioned, one of the biggest issues being ignored by warming opponents is Conservation.

Our pollution, our logging, our drilling, our damming, our urban sprawl, our farming, and our fishing, if not extremely mindful of the natural cycles of nature, will radically reduce the habitat of our animals and/or will cause health problems with them or their food sources.

We only get one chance with the animals God has made us vassals of. Once they’re extinct, they’re gone forever. It is our pleasure to watch and care for these God-created creatures, why would we want to lose any of them? Most of these creatures have been here (on earth or in the areas we live) much longer than us, what makes us think that they’re lives or not valuable and that these creatures don’t have the capacity to feel and the will to survive?

So the biggest issue I have with the right-wing anti global warming crowd is that they’re not thinking of the future; particularly the future that our children will inherit. Why should we care about what benefits us and makes our lives more convenient if it’s at the cost of our offspring’s future?

The patriarchs of the Old Testament lived for their promises to be fulfilled through their descendants, nut we’re to greedy to even look a few years into the future.

I want children and my grandchildren to inherit a clean world with innovative power solutions and the opportunity to witness wildlife while it is still alive and well.

I choose to look to the future. And however this whole ‘new heaven and new earth’ thing pan out, God’s mandate for us to be good stewards of this unique planet hasn’t changed; and certainly His love and affection for life of all kinds has not either- afterall, His eye is on the sparrow.

It’s sad though to see sin in the life of a little boy.

Last night my son was giving my wife a run for her money. She got him in trouble and then found him sometime
later hiding under his covers sobbing uncontrolably in shame for the way he had treated his mom.

How awful to see you small children coming to know shame- coming face to face with their own sin. It’s depressing, but it also caries hope that one day they will turn to Jesus.

I know that God is a sovereign God, but lately I’ve been praying that God will save my children someday. Sure they have ‘faith like a child’ now and love Jesus. And I know with all my heart that if they were to die at this young age that they would surely go to be with Him.

But as they get older and the effects of sinful man start to weigh heavily on their precious souls, I hope that they call out to God to save them and give to them His righteousness and His Spirit to live according to His will.

I hold the verse to heart that says,” teach your children in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it.” And I believe that teaching them the Gospel from the Scriptures from a young age will make a great difference for them when they go out into the world on their own.

Because the day when my son exits his shame behind his blankets and embraces new life in Christ will be better than any day I could ever imagine.

Like always, the book was better than the film, but the film did not disappoint.

The movie was able to retain the plot, purpose, and feel of the novel. It was beautifully done and gave a new depth to the already perfect book.

The book, and the movie, are about a man and his young son in a post-apocolyptic America trying to make it to the Southeastern shore to find possible warmer weather, food, and maybe even a bit of humanity. They have to fight hunger, sickness, thieves, and cannabilistic marauders in order to make their journey.

The essence of the story, without ruining it for anyone, was, “How far would you be willing to go to protect your child?”
And in the story, the dad, has to be willing to take his own son’s life with the mercy of a bullet through his brains in order to protect him from pediphiliac cannibals.

All along as I rea this book, I was the father, and my son was the boy.

It made me realize how much I love my family, the unique love I have for my children, and the horrific lengths I would go through to protect them from agonizing harm. What would I be willing to do? And whether it is right or wrong, I think I would be willing to do anything. But yet in order to protect my children’s future integrity and relationship with Christ, I would have to make sure that the lengths I would go to protect my children would be honoring to God and be in the best interest of not only them and my family, but my fellow man as well.

I pray to God I never have to make any gut-wrenching decisions like this, bit having to do so, and making the right ones, are often ‘The Road’ less traveled.

I believe that God has shown me the Mission, Vision, Purpose, Beliefs, Values, and Methods for the church and now I am beginning to fill in the holes.

One such hole that I am trying to fill now is Small Groups. One of our Core Values is Authenticity. It states that,” We believe that real, open, honest, and accountable relationships create community and foster growth. We are committed to a Biblically based Small Groups ministry where this can take place within our church. Small Groups are the best way for people within the church to connect, do ministry, and for pastoral care to take place.”

I believe this with all my heart, but I am trying to figure out how to structure this Small Group Ministry. Our church is very small (50-100 people) so we will have to start small with our Small Groups and build them as the church grows.

The plan is to start with 3 Small Groups organized by age: 18-35; 30-55; and 50+. As the groups grow, they will split into two Small Groups and so on, and so on. As new people join the church, we will have to create new Small Groups.

As the number of Small Groups grow, we will have to have more options: life situations (divorced, married, college, new parents, etc…), locations, and times to meet the growing needs of the church.

I just ordered three books on starting Small Groups today: 2 by Nelson Searcy and 1 by the amazing Andy Stanley.

But I have many questions that maybe you, the reader, can help me sort out:

1. What do you do about children?

Do you allow them or not?

Do you organize some kind of babysitter at the church?

Do you have everyone find their own childcare independantly?

2. What about Splitting?

When the group grows, how do you split?

What is  a good size and time to split?

What if the two new groups don’t mesh as well as the original?

3.  What about input?

Is it an idea free-for-all?

Is there a teacher, or a facilitator?

If someone is pushing ideas that are not Biblical or do not mesh with the Vision and Mission of your church, do you call them on it immediately in front of the group, or individually?

4. What About Time?

Do we start all groups out on the same evening and time?

5. What about location?

What if one of your start-up core-committed leaders doesn’t have a home in a convenient location? Do you meet at a public place, or the lounge area of your church for the mean time?

These are all thoughts that I am working through right now. Please email, call, or comment me with ideas or any philosophy you think I may have wrong about Small Groups. I look forward to your input.