Ethiopia in 3 Days!

We leave for Ethiopia in 3 days (on Thursday) and I’m taking a break from our “California Idols” series to ask you to pray.  Pray big!  Don’t just think of us…call in the airstrike for us.

I’m very excited about this trip…here’s why:

• We get to talk to people about the Gospel in Addis Ababa for 3 days…3 days of getting to go with evangelists from the Akaki Church to share the hope that God, our King, offers them life and joy…if they rest in Jesus.
• We get to forge even stronger relationships with the Akaki church.  I’m excited to meet the elders and to be blessed by these godly men.  I’m also excited to fellowship with so many believers and be encouraged by them.
• We get to see life outside of Southern California.  It won’t always be easy to see things we see, but we will get to see what life is like for so many believers around the world.  I pray that God will use this to break my heart of my idols and to help me value Him above all else.
• We get to love some wonderful ladies that have been greatly and irreversibly affected by the AIDS epidemic.  Well…almost irreversibly.  We get to pray with them, be blessed by them, and be with them, while hoping with them in the day when God will reverse the grip that death is making on their frail bodies.
• I have the honor of getting to preach for the Resurrection Sunday services at the Akaki Church.  I’m going to preach from 1 Corinthians 15.  Death has lost its sting!

Will you please pray for these things with us?

Pray for Jill, Vinoj, Steve, Taylor, Ken, Theresa, Abby, Keanna, Beth, and Sarah.

It would be encouraging if you left comments below with some of the things you are praying for the team!

California Idols: Exposing Idols, part 1

I have an idol…actually, I have a few

…and so do you.

As long as we wait for God to perfect us, we will fight against the temptation to worship anything but God…the key is that we actually fight.  Believers have been freed from being enslaved to these idols and can actually worship God.  Those who haven’t put their trust in Jesus are still enslaved to these idols.

Are you fighting?

Part of fighting an enemy is actually knowing who your enemy is. It would have been hard to win World War II if we had invaded Antarctica instead of Normandy.  We must know our enemy to fight it.

It’s very easy to know your enemy when they’re dropping bombs on your boat.  But exposing the idols of your heart is actually very hard.  It’s hard because idols specialize in deceiving you.  At first, we are usually blind to the idols of our heart.  Even if we see them, we usually don’t see how deep they go…we only see the tip of the iceberg.  Jeremiah 17:9 says, “the heart is deceitful above all else, who can know it?”  Idols are great at hiding and are hard to uncover.  Yet, to fight them, we must expose them.

So…how do we figure out what the core idols of our heart are so that we can stop worshiping them?

We’re going to answer this question over the next several weeks.  But before I give my thoughts, I would love to hear what you think.

How do we find and expose the hidden idols of our heart so that we can fight them?

California Idols: Stuff

Although we laugh at cultures that bow down to wooden statues and stone carvings…calling them backward and archaic, we bow down to metal boxes on wheels and big wooden boxes on land.  We have made idolatry sophisticated…we’ve made it look good!  Yet, it’s still the same old idolatry.

Stuff…

Sinking $100,000 into a car that gets you from point A to point B?  Deciding to cut back on your giving/tithing to God so that you can afford the bigger house with the nice backyard?  Needing the newest gadget to stay up-to-date?  Dropping serious $ for a new phone when the old one works fine?

Is it wrong to have a nice car, a comfortable home, or a new phone?  No.  Is it wrong to not be satisfied unless you have those things?  Absolutely.

I’m not going to draw lines on what is excessive and what is ok.  It would be hypocritical for me to do that.  I have much more than most people in the world.

But I do know that it is way too easy for me to get seriously attached to possessions…they bring me comfort, they bring me status, they bring me approval from other people.  I do know that it’s hard to remain content with just having what I need…I always seem to want more.

The Bible does not say, “It is wrong to have a house that costs more than $1,000,000.”  Instead, it says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…but store up for yourself treasures in heaven.” (Matt. 6:19-21)  Again, we can’t say, “it’s wrong to have a nice car or a mac book pro.”  But we can challenge ourselves and each other to think about whether or not we are truly “laying up treasure in heaven.”  Are we using our resources and our stuff for God’s kingdom…to help the world see that the reign of God is better than anything else?  We can ask ourselves, “Am I seeking first the kingdom of God?”

In ancient (and even present-day) cultures, people don’t bow down to a wooden statue because they love that statue in and of itself.  Instead, they bow down to it because it represents a god and they want that god to give them something…to watch out for them.

Likewise, no-one really worships a car or a house.  Instead, we believe that the car or the house will give us something…maybe it’s comfort or status (honor) or approval from others.  That’s the real idol…not the stuff itself, but what we are seeking from the stuff.

What do you think?

What do people try to gain from lots of stuff or nice stuff?  What do they think it will bring them?

How do you help someone stop worshiping that idol?  What would you tell them?

Malachi: Waking the Dead

I can’t wait for this Sunday! We will be starting a new study of Malachi. I know this may not seem like the normal book to study in Sr. High, and you may not know how this applies to you…but, I think you’ll see it applies in more ways than you think.

Malachi is God’s messenger sent with a mission…He’s sent to go and “wake the dead.” He goes to a hypocritical people who claim to love God but don’t live like it. Their marriages are wrecked by unfaithfulness, adultery, and divorce. They are oppressing the needy, the poor, and the immigrants. They are getting tired of obeying God and serving Him. They are “dating” (even though they didn’t date back then) people who don’t love God. They are greatly influenced by the world around them and have lost any passion or zeal for God.

God sends Malachi with a message of love and with a mission to “wake the dead.”

I hope and pray that we will wake up as well as we study this amazing story.

See you on Sunday!

California Idols: Sports

I sat there as a scrawny 7th grader holding my breathe as my soccer coach announced the most valuable player on the team…would it be me?

No…that year I received the “Hustle” award.  Basically, I tried really hard, but wasn’t the best.

Even though the Jr. High soccer team I played for did not really matter to many…it mattered a lot to me.  I tried hard and worked hard to gain athletic success through soccer.  In high school, it meant playing club soccer in the spring, swimming for my school in the winter to stay in shape for soccer, swimming for a club in the summer to stay in shape for soccer, and playing school soccer in the fall…it was a year round process.

Enjoying Soccer as a gift from God…There was a part of me that loved (and still loves) to play the game of soccer.  The joy of competition and working with a team is a gift from God and is used by God to build character and teach life-lessons.

Turning Sports into an Idol…However, there as another part of me that had turned soccer into an idol.  It began to consume my thinking, my planning, and even my closet…all of my t-shirt had something to do with soccer.  I’m ashamed to say this, but I even got a specialized license plate that said “Socer2″ on it (Socer1 and Hattrik were taken!).  I gave soccer a place in my thinking, in my dreams, and in my schedule that revealed what I worshiped.

My Deep Idol…The game of soccer was not really what I was bowing down to.  Instead, Soccer was a way for me to gain approval from others for achieving success.  I thought if I gained that approval I would be happy.  I beamed with joy when I found out I made the Varsity soccer team as a freshman and loved game days, when we would wear our warm-ups to school…I loved that people knew I was on the team.

Enjoying sports…When I made soccer into an idol, I didn’t enjoy it as much.  I was constantly striving for success…to make the best team, to be the best, to impress coaches…and it was never enough, I always needed more.  Instead of enjoying it, it began to own me like it was my master.  It wasn’t until God became my source of joy that I actually began to enjoy soccer again and not be in despair if I wasn’t the best.

How do you think through this?

How do you make sure a sport has not become an idol?

What are some possible signs that a sport has become your idol?

What may be a Biblical principle that helps you think through whether or not you should skip Sundays or Tuesdays for sports?

What are other “deep” or “core” idols that people try to gain through sports? (my example was trying to gain approval from people for succeeding)