Category: Thoughts

Feeling the Time Squeeze

Last time, we introduced you to this diagram that provides the background for our “balancing family, work, and church” discussion.

children-drawing

The categories on the left represent life before kids.  We have our personal time; hobbies and other interests.  We have our work commitment, time as a couple, and spending time with friends.  Other categories are our extended family, ministry pursuits, and some time for margin in our lives.

What I tried to show in the drawing is how all those areas get squeezed when the kids come along.  One of the few exceptions is our work.  That time requirement generally stays the same after the children arrive and I showed that with the thickness of that category staying the same.  But what about the others?  We are just going to have less time in them.

For example, when I was in college I did a lot of reading.  When our family was growing, I probably did not read one book a year.  That is just a snapshot of how things naturally change when you are raising a family.  There will be less knitting, less fishing trips, fewer dates, and fewer outings with friends.  This change is not a bad thing, because someone new is in your life.  The key to health in these areas is that while they cannot stay the same, you do not want them to go to zero either.

Thinking about just one of these areas for example, if you let your time as a couple go to zero in those busy years with children, what will life look like when you come out the other side; when the children leave the house?  There will be no spark, no fire, no romance, and you will look at each other and wonder, “Who are you?”  No, we cannot let these areas go to zero.  So how do we balance the “they can’t stay the same” and “they can’t go to zero”?

We will talk about some practical ideas to do just that…next time.

Finding a Healthy Balance

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to share with the men of Cypress Bible Church a presentation on finding a healthy balance in our family, work, and church responsibilities.  The talk was a mix of biblical admonitions and life experience.  As our five children have moved into adulthood, it has afforded us the chance to look back and reflect on where God has taken us as a couple and as a family over the past 35 years.  Over the next several posts, I would like to continue the conversation started at the men’s breakfast and write about the experiences and principles that guided us as a way to encourage you on your own family journey.

beach familyI have included a family photo to introduce you to the cast of characters.  Rhonda and I started life together with a simple trust in seeking God’s voice and wisdom in building our marriage and raising our family.  By God’s grace, we have been blessed by a family that loves and serves and is loyal to each other; a family that truly enjoys being together.  There have been plenty of rocky ups and downs along the way, but God has kept us on a consistent path of growing closer to Him and closer to each other.  In a  way, the photo above is the goal.  Not to be just like the Lehmans, but to find your own family identity and create your own family legacy.  And the beauty of the process is that YOU CAN DO IT!

Now to get us started, I have a diagram designed to give you a visual on where we are going as we explore some of the keys to a healthy balance of family, work, and ministry in our service to the Lord.

children-drawing

The left side of the chart represents some of the ways we spend our time prior to having children.  As we move to the right, we add children to the mix.  With this new joy (and the busyness and time required that comes with it) the old areas of how we spend our time get squeezed.  And we will dedicate several posts to how we are to manage this “squeeze”.  We will also look at our new responsibility of children as much more than babysitting or child care.  It is investing in your family legacy.  The categories branching out to the right of “Children” show how we invest in our families.

With this short and simple overview as an introduction, we will dive into the nuts and bolts of each category starting with our next post.  See you then.

He Made a Wretch His Treasure

A few Sundays ago we were visiting Josh and Erica’s church in Southlake Texas.  We sang one of my favorite hymns, How Deep the Father’s Love for Us.  I don’t know of another song that carries so many powerful lines.  Lines that describe the depth of the Father’s love, the pain the Savior endured on our behalf, our sin that held Him there, our mocking voice, the complete assurance that it is finished, our boast in Christ alone, and the firm knowledge that His wounds have paid my ransom.

But one line stood out to me in a particular way on that Sunday morning and I began to dwell on the idea “that He should give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure.”  A wretch… His treasure.  And the timing of this is amazing.  In one swift moment, Christ’s death in our place on a cross paid the price and set in motion the opportunity for us to go from wretch to treasure.  Then when we, by faith, embraced His sacrifice on our behalf, it only took another instantaneous moment for our transformation from wretch to treasure to be complete.

The beauty of the gospel message is that this change in status is immediate.  We may not feel it, but in an instant we went from enemy of God to friend – no even more – to child of God.  There is no probationary period…there is no proving our self worthy by our works…no waiting period.  In an instant we went from wretch to treasure.

Do you know you are God’s treasure?  Wretch is in your past.  If you have embraced His gospel message, treasure is in your now and in your future forever.  It is not a question of pride (our boast is in Christ alone).  It is not a thing of thinking too highly of ourselves.  It is only embracing and letting soak in what God Himself is calling you.  He calls you His child.  He calls you His saint.  He calls you His holy and beloved.  You are indeed God’s treasure.

Here is the music for your edification.

Here are the song’s lyrics for your meditation.

How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure.

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory.

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders.
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers.

It was my sin that left Him there
Until it was accomplished.
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom.
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection.

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer.
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom.

Sin in Remission

Last post I suggested that there is a “cure” for ongoing sin in the life of the believer.  I want to make sure we do not confuse “cure” with “eradicate”.  Cure, in the biblical sense, is more like sin that is in remission, not sin that has been totally eliminated.  Sin will only be completely abolished in that glorious future when we are free of sin’s influence forever!

In the world of cancer treatment, we generally use the word cure to identify the remission of cancer, not necessarily its complete extermination.  Under the cure, we are now free of cancer’s rule.  We are now free from the rapid growth of malignant cells.  But even in remission, some cancer cells may still be making their home in our body.

It is a similar scenario for the child of God.  The power of sin – the power of cancer cells to ruin our lives – has been defeated.  Sin is still bothersome – some malicious cells remain – but it is not ruling the day.  Anyone in cancer treatment knows that in its aggressive growing stages, cancer is in charge.  It is threatening your body’s very existence; ruling your days, your thoughts, your health, your schedule, your plans.  And it is running roughshod over your hopes and dreams.  But in remission, the focus on cancer diminishes and takes a back seat to your returning health and your moving on with your “life after cancer”.

So in the spiritual world, free from sin’s power, do we see our lives as “life after sin”?  Yes and no.  On the “yes” side, our sin is in remission due to the reality (whether we feel it or not) that our sin nature has been put to death with Christ on the cross.  And our Christian life should be the experience of sin in remission, the experience of more and more victory and growth over the annoyance of sin.

But there is a “no” side as well.  I hesitate to embrace the finality of the phrase “life after sin” somehow suggesting that sin has been eradicated.  It is simply not true.  Sin is still present in us.  It is still awakened (even from the dead) by our enemies; the world, the flesh, and the devil.  Sin still nips at our heels.

But thanks be to God that those malignant sin cells are not attaching themselves to each other, rapidly growing, and ruling over us.  No, sin has been stripped of its power, and may “sin in remission” describe your victorious walk with the Lord today.

Is There a “Cure” for Sin?

It is easy to get all excited about the theology of the New Covenant.  But what does it do for us in practice?  Does it really make a difference in how we live?  If you have been reading these posts for some time, you know the answer is a spectacular YES!!!  I believe the provisions of the New Covenant as described in Scripture are literally a “cure” for sin.  C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “God’s love for us does not come and go.  It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.”

My pointed question to you is, “Do you really want to be cured?”  I have to ask because in my interaction with fellow believers I sometimes wonder if we really want to be cured.  When we marry our own disappointing experience with sin’s power with our misinterpretation of Romans 7 believing there is a biblical basis for being overwhelmed by sin, we get dragged down to a place where a cure seems out of reach.  When I think of the word power in the lives of believers, I feel like discussions of a woe-is-me acceptance of sin’s power is much more common than expressions of our experience of the Spirit’s power to influence our lives; even though the New Testament is clear in its teaching that the power of the Holy Spirit is far superior to the power of sin in the life of the believer.  It makes me wonder, “Do we really want to be cured?”

In our flesh mode, sin is comfortable.  The apostle Paul called various sins by the term “deeds of the flesh.”  Sin fits our fleshly desires.  But in a breakthrough of supernatural dimensions, God says we no longer have to live according to the flesh.  For the believer there is a “cure” for sin.

The cure is the new identity.  The cure is walking in your new identity.  The cure is walking in the Spirit’s power.  “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Gal 5:16).  Sin is “crouching at your door” as it has been since the time of Cain and Abel.  But you do not need to answer the door.  You do not need to open the door.  You do not need to invite him in.  For the believer, sin cannot crash the door down.  He must be invited in, and you have the power to say to the crouching sin, “No thanks, just move along, there is no one here that you would be compatible with; you are no longer my master.”

Sin is not an incurable disease for God’s children.  May you experience His cure in your life today.