Every ministry has a preparation

For the past couple of months, I've been struggling intensely with desiring to know and begin the good works that God has prepared for me to do (Ephesians 2:10). (This struggle was intensified by needing to decide about an opportunity to join a Christian metal band, which I ended up turning down.)

And, then it hit me: Jesus didn't begin his ministry until he was thirty years of age (Luke 3:23). I'm only twenty-four year of age.

Perhaps now is the time for me to prepare for ministry.

So, here's what I'm going to do over the next three years:

• Read God's Word
• Pray
• Teach and lead my family
• Serve my local church
• Learn Greek
• Pay off forty thousand dollars of debt

Those last two are the most functionally relevant to the inklings that I have of what God might want for me to do. I want to be free to serve God wherever He might send me.

After those three years, I would like to obtain some high quality formal theological training.

So, three years here, learning Greek and paying off debt; four years of theological training. That's seven years. At that point, I'd be thirty-one years of age.

Little decisions in the fear of God

Adeline has not been easily falling asleep, lately. She'll cry vehemently when we leave her alone for the night. Normally, we come in a few times, sing or rock her some more, and then eventually she'll go to sleep. Tonight, that didn't work.

Lisa suggested it could be that we fed her yogurt, but she didn't drink much water. Right after Lisa said this, Adeline stopped crying and fell asleep.

At this point, I was faced with a dilemma. Should we wake her up and feed her some water? Or, should we let her sleep? I didn't want her to have digestion problems from lack of liquid in her tummy, but I also didn't want to put her (and us) through any more pain of crying (waking her up will probably cause more crying). I didn't know what to do.

But, then, I was reminded of Proverbs 9:10. When I stand before God for judgment, I don't want to hang my head in shame and admit that I consciously chose to not provide for one of her needs. The right decision is to care properly for my daughter, even if she doesn't initially like it, even if it causes her to cry some more, even if it is inconvenient for me.

Christmas gift giving theology

Lisa and I have made some changes to our theology of gift giving at Christmas.

My overarching goal is for us to be satisfied in Jesus Christ alone. And, because we treasure Jesus, I want us to please him and obey him by using our money to serve him. We also want to draw Adeline (our daughter) in to seeing Jesus Christ as the only thing worth having and to learn to treasure him and serve him in the way we desire to.

For ourselves, Lisa and I are going to request everyone around us to give money to a charity (which we have yet to choose) instead of buying us gifts. We want a heavenly reward.

For Adeline, the goal is different. We still need to draw her in to knowing Jesus and loving Jesus. We want to demonstrate God's goodness (i.e. his generosity) to Adeline by giving her good gifts. Rather than giving many gifts, we intend to give her one gift that will meaningfully and generously meet a legitimate need. We are going to ask everyone else who gives her a gift to give her only one gift and that it meaningfully meet a legitimate need, and that it not be excessive. We want to bless her, as God blesses us, but we will also teach her about why her parents do not want earthly gifts at Christmas, and we hope that she eventually will also see the eternal treasure in seeking to be satisfied in Jesus Christ rather than herself or earthly things and make a similar choice of her own.