God's love changes everything

Caris Dennehy

Young Life Capernaum is a ministry that shares the love of Christ with young people with disabilities. Share the joy with me. Check out this slide show from this week's camp. Our daughter, Caris, is one of the enthusiastic participants.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc8186iVCBc

The Moon is a Liar: Packing for eternity

The Moon is a Liar: Packing for eternity: "How would you feel if your task for this week was to sort through all of your earthly belongings and condense them down to 50 Rubber Maid tu..."

Packing for eternity

How would you feel if your task for this week was to sort through all of your earthly belongings and condense them down to 50 Rubber Maid tubs? And what you couldn't fit into that space would have to be sold, given away or trashed?

Well that's exactly what my friends April and Scott Salvant are doing this week. They, along with their five children (3 biological and 2 adopted from Haiti), have answered God's call to serve Him in Haiti. The boat full of their stuff leaves in a few weeks and now the joy that comes with saying "yes" to God is being temporarily muted by the reality of saying good-bye to loved ones and the stuff of this World.

April has been thinking a lot about these words of Jesus this week: "Don't hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it's safe from moth and rust and burglars. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being." (Jesus, Matt. 6:19-21, message).

Most of us Christians would readily assent to the wisdom of this verse. Most of us probably feel like we try to live this way. Mike and I spend most of our income to feed, clothe, house and otherwise raise to adulthood our eight adopted children. We are investing our treasure in souls that are eternal. But still, we live in a big comfortable house, have more clothes than we can wear and don't lack any good thing.

The Salvants, on the other hand, are experiencing the extreme of this idea. The family is selling their seven bedroom house, Scott is giving up a lucrative job and the family will be relying on support from other believers to live.

God doesn't call everyone to take this path. It may seem impossibly hard to some of us; but Jesus does promise that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. The Salvants know that they are losing their lives to save them. And what a glorious day it will be when they experience the treasure that's waiting for them in Heaven.

This is TRUE Freedom

Should I Teach My Kids to Hate Me?

I know, the title is provocative, but they are Jesus' Words, not mine. He says in Luke 14:26, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple."

I think American Christians are in danger of making family and family time an idol.

This may sound contradictory coming from someone who highly values family and spends most of her waking hours dedicated to her family. And it may sound counterproductive in a culture that is struggling to keep families intact, a culture where families are hard pressed to find time in a week to sit down to a family meal together and peer activities can threaten to steal all of our children's time. But let me explain.

Mark D. Roberts says in his post today in The High Calling, "... one prevalent barrier to Christian discipleship is too much attachment to family, especially as defined by cultural, traditional and personal values. During my parish ministry, I watched good church-going parents use the 'priority of family time' rationale to get in the way of their teenagers' growth as disciples of Jesus. Family time would preclude the regular involvement of their kids in Bible study groups. Family vacations kept their teenagers from being part of life-changing mission trips."

We parents have so much control over our kids. It feels good to be surrounded by our offspring. We feel like royalty when we're surrounded by them at the table--especially on the sentimental days like holidays. We send subliminal messages that our approval and even financial support is tied to expected behaviors of family loyalty above all else. But Jesus speaks a better Word.

Yes, the word hate is hyperbole, but he is making the point that our children are His first and ours second. That we should be raising them in such a way that their obedience and their first priority is Him and His kingdom, not me, as a parent, and my kingdom. We should be teaching them that serving Him is our highest joy and that familial love is an added gift.

If I, someday, am sitting alone with a book on Mother's Day because my children are elsewhere occupied with my Father's business, I will consider myself a success.