Life Hacks for Your Faith

I love "Life Hacks!" Those little tips or tricks of how to do things more effectively, efficiently, or for less money. There are many books written sharing life hacks as well as blog posts. Here are some Life Hacks I read recently:

• Use Elmer's Glue to take out a splinter. Put the glue on the splinter. Let it dry then peel it off. The splinter will come right out with it.
• Have a bug bite that won't spot itching? Try some toothpaste on it. Rub it in and the itching will stop almost instantly.
• Want kids to memorize your phone number? Make it their passcode on their ipad or phone. They'll have it memorized in days. Works for other numbers too.

(Thanks Keith Bradford for these Life Hacks)

There is even a Bible called NIV Lifehacks Bible - Practical tools for successful spiritual habits. It's really just a Bible with short devotional thoughts,  but I still like the title for being culturally relevant!  Here are some highlights:

• Unbelievers should be offended by the message, not the messenger. When you share your faith with others (you are sharing your faith, right?), try not to be rude, offensive, or use intrusive behavior. Share in common conversation. Ask questions. Tell your story without judgment. 
• Memorize the Bible. Start with a verse, then a chapter, and finally the book. James or 1 John are great places to start. Repetition is key as well as having the verse(s) where you see them on a regular basis. Good places include a bathroom mirror, car visor, and your cell phone lock screen. 
• Remove all distractions for a healthy prayer life. Let's face it, we are inundated with distractions and interruptions 24/7! To successfully pray seek three things: A quiet time, a quiet place, and a quiet heart. 

The NIV Lifehacks Bible is available on Christian Book Distributors 

Leave me Alone!

I love growth, but I hate change! 

Everyone likes to see growth. This spring people will purchase flowers to plant around their homes with the expectation that they will grow tall, strong, and beautiful. Athletes strive to improve their game showcasing a growing skillset. Artistic types all desire to grow more talented, more experienced, and more mature. New parents spend every waking moment watching the growth of their child as he learns to roll over, crawl, stand, and eventually walk.

Pews and Hymnals in church

However, here's the ugly secret...growth involves change. And most of do not like change. Change makes us uncomfortable. Change implies what we were doing could be done better. Change disrupts our schedule. Change takes more time and is inefficient.

Growth is cool. Change is, well, hard. 

Have you had to make any of these changes in order to experience growth?

• Change your glasses prescription? 
• Change your city? State? Country?
• Change how you watch TV? Internet provider?
• Change your job? Career?
• Change your diet? Exercise routine?

Change is hard, but it leads to growth. And quite frankly, if something isn't growing, it's either dying or already dead! 

The very act of becoming a Christian involves tremendous change:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" 2 Corinthians 5:17

As Christians, we must continue to grow in our faith.  

"Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation." 1 Peter 2:2

Ultimately, Christians will experience a change to the imperishable.

"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - in  a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." 1 Corinthians 15:51,52

Worship at Kalkaska Church of Christ

Here's the bottom line: In order for your church to grow, it must change. Remember, the church is not a building. The church is the people of God, those who follow Jesus Christ. People are continually growing thus continually changing. What the church did 40 years ago, even 20 or 10 years ago, to reach people, may not work today. Methods change. Strategies change. Structures change. They have to change! Otherwise, we die.

When your church makes a change in order to reach new people, instead of pushing back and complaining, seek to understand why that change was made. How will it lead to growth? How will it make your church more relevant to people today? How will it share the Gospel with those who need to hear it? And in doing so, God may just make one more large change to you - a change to your heart!

Church "Sale" helps Woods Apartment Families in Kalkaska

The Kalkaska Community came together last week to assist the former residents of Kalkaska Woods Apartments in a big way. 16 families have been displaced due to an apartment fire. Donations were collected early in the week. Reminiscent of Moses telling the people to stop bringing their offerings to the sanctuary (Exodus 36:5,6), so many donations came in that the church had to ask people to stop giving!

KCC Workers sort donations to help Woods Apartment Families

The families were invited to shop freely Wednesday and Thursday for clothing, household goods, toiletries, toys, books, and other odds and ends.

Gift Cards for the Families

About Wednesday afternoon it dawned on those working that the number of supplies compared with the number of people shopping was lopsided. The church lobby was still chock full of items after all the families had gone through.

The church decided to make an ad-hoc garage sale open to the community on Friday taking donations for the items that would be passed on to the Woods families. Any items left over by the end of the day would be picked up by Sean Dagenhart and trucked down to Missouri to help flood victims.

Donations from Friday's sale totaled $879.38. This money along with other cash donations earlier in the week was used to purchases gift cards from BC Pizza, McDonalds, Burger King, and Shell.

These gift cards were passed out to the families on Tuesday afternoon at the United Way gathering.

Thank you Kalkaska and the Kalkaska Church of Christ for helping the families at this time of their loss!

Life Lessons from Danger and Unrest

As a former missionary to Haiti I've experienced a lot of uncertainty and unrest throughout my life while on the mission field. I recall in 1985 when the Haiti people rose up against the then President for Life, Jean-Claude Duvalier or as he was better known, Baby Doc. They protested for months with the goal of ousting this iron-fisted dictator and his henchmen, the Tonton Macoute (which means "Boogeymen") from power.

Jeff Badgero talks about conditions during the unrest in 1985

Again in the early '90s President Clinton and the United States military decided Haiti was so bad that nothing short of an all-out invasion of the country could put them back on the road to democracy. So the US military along with the United Nations re-instated the democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Special American Armed Forces in Port-de-Paix

Most recently two teams from Kalkaska Church of Christ returned from Haiti with harrowing stories of the manifestations, roadblocks, and protests currently throughout the country. I lead a team up to Sonlight Ministries in Port-de-Paix and our exit was nothing less than a grueling 48-hour journey away from the turmoil. On February 14th, the US State Department increased the Travel Advisory Level to a 4, the highest possible, and wrote this on their website:

Do not travel to Haiti due to crime and civil unrest. 

There are currently widespread, violent, and unpredictable demonstrations in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere in Haiti.  Due to these demonstrations, on February 14, 2019, the Department of State ordered the departure of all non-emergency U.S. personnel and their family members. The U.S. government has limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Haiti.

Protests, tire burning, and road blockages are frequent and unpredictable.  Violent crime, such as armed robbery, is common.

What takeaways are there, if any, from such a situation? Here are some that come to mind.

Mission work in Haiti (or outside the US) is not a sanitized and sterilized endeavor. 

Tonton Macoute

Here at home, we have countless safety and security measures built into our everyday lives. Seat belts, speed limits, emergency services, health insurance, life insurance, food and drug administration, and the list goes on and on. When you sign on to a third world mission trip, most of those protections go out the window. 

No one knows the future. 

There are times when plans go awry. Flights are delayed or canceled. Roads are blocked. Offices are closed. Haitians have a saying in their language, "Si Die Vle." Translated it literally means, "if God wants." It comes straight from the Bible in James 4:13-15 "Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

Faith is required to trust in God's protection

President Clinton with Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Where does our protection come from then, if not the Government, emergency responders, and legal regulations? As a Christian, it comes down to our faith. We trust we are doing God's will and in doing so, He will protect us. Hebrews 11:6 says "And without faith it is impossible to please God..." In doing mission work, one witnesses incredible faith among indigenous people and those who minister to them from other countries. Faith is a prerequisite to pleasing God. Faith is grown through trials and the need to depend solely on God.  

God is good no matter what happens.

God's goodness never changes. Paul wrote, "To live in Christ, to die is gain." God doesn't just watch over us for this earthly life, but for all eternity. His perspective is not limited to our short time on the planet. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were being thrown into the fiery furnace, they told the King their God could deliver them if He wanted, but even if He didn't they would still serve Him (Daniel 3:16-18)!

Comfort is not the goal; Contentment is the objective.

Finally, we realize that nowhere in the Bible are we promised to be comfortable. Comfort is nice, but it is not the ultimate goal. Instead, the scriptures tell us we should learn to be content. Content no matter the circumstances. Paul said he had learned this in Philippians 4:11. And there may be some very trying circumstances on the mission field! 

Kalkaska Teams Prepare for Haiti Missions

Left to Right: Jeff Trabold, Andy Bratton, Sean Trabold, Sara Blasko, Shirley Webber, Madeline Ferguson, Kaylin Severance, Grace Rowbotham, Tim Severance, Michelle Price (Not Pictured: Brett Gallagher, Jason Teboe, Jaelyn Teboe)

This Thursday afternoon, January 31, 2019, the first of two teams will leave for Haiti. The second team will leave next week. One will be working with Sonlight Ministries in Port-de-Paix and the other with HOPE mission near Gonaives. Both teams will encounter culture shock upon entering this third world country. It's a mind-jarring trip that overloads the senses. Upon returning they'll find it a struggle to explain. Here are some scenes that those going on this trip will encounter:

• Hungry children yelling "blanc, blanc!" with bloated bellies and red-tinged hair from malnutrition
• Pitch black evenings void of electricity and technology causing introspection on life
• Men loudly playing dominoes in the shade of their porch
• Women carrying baskets overflowing with produce on top of their heads down the mountain
• Men with rock hard feet from walking barefoot along dirt paths
• Fishermen pulling in their nets before sunrise only to collect several small minnows
• Flies buzzing around trash piled up by the side of the road
• Clothes drying on dusty bushes outside tiny huts
• The smell of charcoal heating up to prepare the daily meal of rice and beans
• People crammed into a brightly colored pickup truck bouncing down a muddy, dirt road like an amusement ride

So many scenes hitting so many senses. How do you begin to process what you witness? You can't understand the language so you don't know what they are saying. The culture is foreign to you. The heat from the sun is blistering. You just want to get comfortable somewhere.

In Matthew 25 Jesus shares the only description of Judgment day found in the Bible. When Christ returns and all the nations are gathered before God sitting on His throne, people will be separated like sheep and goats. His basis of separating people? How they responded to the needs of the hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, and imprisoned.

While Haiti is a cornucopia of sights, sounds, and smells, it is also a beautiful opportunity to live out our calling as Christians. Namely, to meet the needs of the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, etc. To love the least of these. The kicker of Jesus' illustration in Matthew 25 about the sheep and the goats is when He says, "For whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for me."

Jesus mystically incarnates himself in the least, and the helpless, and the weak so that in helping them, we are helping him.

Please pray as our teams travel and minister in Haiti over the next two weeks. Pray that they see Jesus in everyone they meet. Pray that they maximize their opportunities to further the missions where they work. Pray that they when judgment day comes, they will hear the master say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into your rest."

Like a Child

Happy New Year 2019! Don't you just love new beginnings? Just wiping the slate clean and starting all over. It's refreshing. It's exciting. A brand new start.

When I think of the new year, I am reminded of what Jesus said in Matthew 18 about children. Why? I guess I just equate starting over with the time of being a child. Listen to this story:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" 

He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me."

Matthew 18:1-5 

The disciples of Jesus ask Him a question about who among them is the greatest in this new Kingdom He's been talking about. Is it one of the inner circle, Peter, James, or John? Could it be Matthew or Zacchaeus? After all, they gave enormous wealth away when they came to follow Jesus! Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven? Tell us, Jesus.

Jesus proceeded to do something that must have shocked the disciples. He singled out a child and began a simple lesson on greatness in God's eyes. He said whoever changes and becomes like this child...is great in the kingdom of heaven.

Notice that Jesus DID NOT SAY "become childish." He wasn't saying "you should play all the time," or "act immature," or "whine until you get your way." He said to become "like a child." Let's look at some attributes of a child that Jesus most likely was referring to.

• A child is dependant - Someone else must care for a child. Not only can he not meet his own needs, he usually doesn't even know what they are. Children depend on someone else to provide for them. 
• A child is trusting - You can tell a child anything and they will believe you. They trust people will be honest with them. 
• A child is humble - Children don't walk into a room and take over. Children recognize the world is a huge place and everyone else is bigger than them and know more. 
• A child is joyful - Everything is new and exciting for a child. He can hardly take it all in. It's fun to explore, to taste, to touch, to smell! 
• A child is content - A child is happy with what he has. He's not looking for more. He's content to occupy himself with what is right within his own circle. 

What does this mean for disciples of Christ? We must have these traits of a child in order to be great in the kingdom of heaven. Simple as that. 

• A disciple is dependant upon the Father - Peter wrote, "Cast your cares on Him for he cares for you" 1 Peter 5:7. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about the flowers of the field and the birds of the air. They don't reap or sow yet their heavenly father cares for them. How much more will he care for you! 
• A disciple is trusting - "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." Proverbs 3:5 It appears that the end of times could become so devoid of trust that Jesus is recorded as saying, "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" Luke18:8
• A disciple is humble - This is a theme that permeates the entire New Testament. The meek will inherit the earth. Don't resist an evil person. And ultimately the example of Jesus described in Philippians 2:1-3-11
• A disciple is joyful - "Consider it pure joy," says James, "when you encounter trials of many kinds." James 1:2. "Be joyful always" exclaimed Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:16. 
• A disciple is content - "If we have food and clothing," Paul writes to Timothy, "we will be content with that" 1 Timothy 6:8. Paul knew what it was like to be in need or to have plenty, but he said he learned the secret of contentment. That was totally trusting in Jesus knowing that He would provide the strength Paul needed to be content. Philippians 4:12-13

My New Year's wish for you is to become more like a humble child in 2019. Follow Jesus' example and in all ways acknowledge Him. Then, the Bible promises, He will make your paths straight! 

The Lawbreaker

God is a lawbreaker. In fact, he's guilty of breaking some of the most rigid laws we know.

God created the world and set natural laws in place so the universe would run in an orderly manner. Gravity dictates that when you drop an object it falls to the ground. The earth travels around the sun every 365.25 days. Kepler's three laws of planetary motion describe stars orbital movement. You get the idea.

Yet in reading the Bible, we come across stories of when God broke natural law. Remember reading about these in the Word of God?

• An ax head floats (2 Kings 6:6)
• Shoes don't wear out for 40 years (Deut. 29:5)
• The sun stands still (Joshua 10:13)
• Dead bones come back to life (Ezekiel 37:1-14)

If God created the world including natural law or laws of nature by which it would function, then why would he ever break those laws? Why? Because He could? Because He wanted to get our attention? Why does God break natural law?

When God breaks a natural law, which He has every right to do by the way, since He created them, He is in a sense saying, "There's something bigger going on here." Let's think of this in examples we can relate to:

When driving in your car and you hear a siren and see flashing lights, you pull over to the side of the road because most likely an emergency vehicle will soon be speeding by you. That vehicle will run red lights, exceed the speed limit, and may even fail to properly signal a turn! Why does it get to break all those laws?! Because there is something greater going on. Something more important. We don't always know what it is, but we trust laws are broken for the greater good of saving someone's life.

When God sent His son Jesus to earth - He broke natural laws. Look at what happened around the time of Jesus' birth.

• A virgin pregnancy (Matt. 1:18)
• Supernatural angelic visits to Joseph (Matt. 1:20; 2:13)
• Heaven host of angels appearing to shepherds (Luke 2:13)
• Prophetic words (Matt. 1:23)
• A guiding star (Matt. 2:2, 9)

Something greater than meets the eye is going on here

In the world we live in, babies are not born naturally without a man and a woman, angels don't appear to individuals nor shepherds, people can't predict the future, and stars don't stop over animal barns! 

These events were supernatural, conducted by the creator of the universe, all for the purpose of communicating with mankind that THERE IS SOMETHING GREATER GOING ON. God is entering human history in a miraculous way. This event would change the course of history for all time. 

When Jesus entered human history as an infant born in an animal's feeding trough, something greater was going on and God had planned it since the beginning of time (Gen. 3:15). Paul wrote about this advent: "But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship" (Gal. 4:4-5).  God is redeeming all of mankind back to him through His son, Jesus Christ. Salvation has come through God, the law breaker.