What If I Don't Feel Like It

Part of me wants to sit down and blog some thoughts, but the other part of me really doesn't feel like it and thinks it's just guilt pushing me to blog something at all.  What to do?

Since I don't feel like it - I guess I'm done.

Storm Chaser?

Been thinking all week about the parallel I drew on Sunday between storm-chasers and Christians who work in and through culture instead of running for cover whenever something "dangerous" shows up.

Think about it.  Storm-chasers know the danger, and yet they move closer, not hoping to be drawn in and over powered, but wanting to know more about what's happening and maybe learn something that will allow them to make a difference.  There are Christians, like Mike Foster and Craig Gross, who recognized the pull and power of porn in our culture, but rather than run from it, they engaged the industry and attempted to help people who struggled with porn and wanted out.  They attended porn trade shows (to give out Bibles) created the nations #1 Christian porn website (to provide help, accountability and filtering) and along they way, they caught a lot, a LOT of heat.

Want another example?  Today it's estimated that there are at least 27 million slaves world wide, everywhere from India in Asia to Indiana in North America.  It's starting to get a little more traction, but many Christians hear about that and do what Christians do - they pray.  But that wasn't enough for one kid who started when he was 12 years old to chase this storm.  Zach Hunter is doing what he can to put an end to human trafficking - and he's only 15.  Gary Haugen is a Harvard educated lawyer who gave up working for the US Dept. of Justice to start the International Justice Mission.  Why?  Because there's a storm of people being destroyed by slavery and we shouldn't be hiding from that, but chasing it.

One more for you.  We hear about crime and hate the statistic and often the criminals that they represent.  This is another one of those storms.  Christians are often happy that they are just "off the streets" which really just means we're happy that we won't have to deal with them.  Prison Fellowship as an organization does a great job with prison ministry, but when Catherine Rohr toured a prison, she chased the storm and left a lucrative Wall Street job,  emptied her 401k and moved to Texas to start the Prison Entrepreneurship Program that recruits business leaders, MBA mentors and others to help train prisoners to be productive in business when they get out.  A lot of Christians whine about crime, Catherine chased the storm in an attempt to do something about it.

So here's the question I've been struggling with and figure you should struggle with too: what storm should you be chasing that you're currently hiding from?

Poll Closed

Thanks for those who voted and shared their opinions about whether or not Christians are too political.  You'd think after practically two full days of studying this that I'd have reached a conclusion and moved on, and for the most part I'm pretty sure I've reached a fair conclusion.  Just trying to figure out how to "package" it so it makes sense and isn't me just spouting off what I think, but deals accurately with what (little) actual directives God's given us in this area.

I do think it's interesting and would go so far as to say that for some in the Christian community, political activism and influence has become an idol.  And yet for others, the idea that Christians shouldn't really worry or spend time and energy in the political arena seems simplistic and weak at best.  All this to say it should be another interesting week.

Trying Something New

This week as we continue our series: "6 Things I Hate About Christians" we'll be talking about the perception that Christians are just too political.  So figured I'd ask for your input.  You can vote by texting (replace "keyword" with the number next to yes or no) or clicking your answer in the bottom box and results should update in real time.  The poll is only going to be open for a short time, but let me know what you think.

Make your own poll voting question with Poll Everywhere

Try this audience polling system at Poll Everywhere

Prize To The First Who Can Identify This Guy

I Love My Wife

Right about now, my wife and I are in New Bern having just finished up a horse drawn carriage ride around the old city and are making our way into a paint-your-own pottery place before heading to dinner and maybe a quick ferry ride before the drive home.

My wife is notoriously difficult to plan for and find gifts for.  She doesn't like when I spend money on her (some of you I know have the opposite problem), she's not big on dining out (again, why spend $30 when we could eat at home for $3?) and if I get her a gift that isn't practical, she debates whether or not it's worth keeping it, yet if I get her a practical gift, well, there's nothing really romantic about that.

But that's why I love her so much.  She isn't difficult to love at all.  It just requires a bit of thought to show her that I love her and express it in a way that she appreciates.  I'm really hoping this does that.  It's not often that we even go out so I hope the day has been nice, the weather cooperated, and my reservations don't get cancelled.

Lora, I love you.

I love your eyes, your smile

your hair

your smell

I love your sense of humor

your wisdom

your insights

I love your joy, your thoughtfulness

your prayers

your dreams

I love that your content with simplicity

that you dream big dreams for our kids

that you pray for me

support me

and love me too

Happy Valentine's Day to the one I love.

Kids Say Some Funny Stuff

Just a few comments that came out of the mouth of various Ebeling kids over the past few days:

On a walk, one of the kids was pushing Hannah (our youngest) in the stroller.  They were having a good time with her, running and driving crazy.  Slight problem - the curb stops forward motion and when that happens, strollers tip.  This stroller was no exception so it wiped with Hannah in it.  She screamed bloody murder but she escaped pretty much unscathed.  So later, when she sees the "offending" sibling she looks right at them and says, "Never do dat again!"

Lora and I were kissing in the kitchen in front of the kids the other day.  Really, we gave each other a peck and were just hugging.  Anyhow, one of the kids saw us and yelled from across the room to anyone who would listen, "If they keep doing that they're going to have a sixth kid!"

One of our friends who was visiting lost some sunglasses out in the woods.  He offered a reward if one of the kids found them and one did.  But when they found out that he had shot a gun and didn't let them come or shoot it too they started threatening saying, "When he comes back we're going to tie him to a tree and when we get paintball guns (which they don't even have yet) we're going to shoot him from this close (about 8 inches)"

Hannah came home from Lora taking the boys to wrestling and said, "I went to wrestling.  And I ate ice cream.  And it's GOOD!"

It was 2 in the morning and the dog woke me up so I let her out to do her business and was sitting there looking out the door in the dark in my underwear.  For some reason Tyler woke up and saw me and asks, "What are you doing up?"  Hmmmm.

We Need To Talk About Stuff Like This (part 2)

Here are some more questions in response to the "6 Things I Hate About Christians" message on the church being anti-homosexual.  You can listen to it here

A person living a homosexual lifestyle is constantly living in sin, but if they know Christ (such as the girl in the letter you read) are they set to live a life in hell if they don't turn away from that lifestyle?

• I wouldn't want to presume somebody's eternity because only God knows the heart.  That being said, we can often see evidence of changed life and attitudes towards sin as indicators of a relationship with Christ.  If we claim to know Christ but walk in darkness, or if we claim we don't sin, the truth isn't in us (1 John 1:6, 8) and the truth here is Jesus and is revealed in and through the Bible.  There's also an attitude of understanding involved.  Paul himself in Romans 7 spoke about struggling to do the right thing and not being able to pull it off (and I'm quite convinced he knew Christ).  That doesn't dismiss anything as ok, but there's a difference between a repentant struggling person who struggles to make the right choice (too often in their own power and not often enough in the strength of the Spirit of God) and the person who has quit fighting and not only gives in, but "approves of those who practice" the same things (Romans 1:32).  I know that doesn't answer the question, but it's not mine to answer other than to say sin separates us from God and puts us in danger of His judgement.

When kids do sleepovers, why is it wrong for a boy and girl to spend the night but not 2 girls or 2 guys?  But when you get older, marrying a guy is right but the same sex is wrong?

• I'm not sure that when we're talking about kids there's much thought of a couple of 7 or 8 year olds having sex with the opposite sex, much less with the same sex.  Some parents are just more comfortable with same sex friends spending the night, but there are others who are ok with both.  While not right or wrong, there may be questions of whether or not it's appropriate or beneficial (something Paul talked about, specifically with regards to sexual activity, in 1 Corinthians 6:12 and then generally in 10:23-33).  Sleepovers aren't specifically addressed in the Bible.  On the other hand, marriage is.  God created it, defines it and is part of it so he has a say in what it should and shouldn't look like.  When God's design is opposite sex monogamous marriage, anything other than that goes against His design and that's what makes it "wrong."

In the beginning you said, "We are not good." then in Romans 12:9 "Hate what is evil, cling to what is good"  God's creation is good - can you clarify?

• All mankind is marred.  Ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command which allowed sin to enter the world, mankind has been born with the same sin nature.  Marred, messed up and anything but good (just hang around some 2 year olds and you'll see), that's why Christ came to the world - to redeem us, restore us, and make us right again before God.  Romans 12:9 is specifically related to how we love, where earlier in the same verse it says "Love must be sincere" meaning without hypocrisy.[we talked about that here] Hate, abhor, stay away from loving evil and cling, cleave, unite yourself with what is good.  Really, only God is all good.  In dealing with people who are struggling with sin, we must be careful to be sincere in our love - having the same kind of compassion that Jesus regularly had when he saw the hurting, helpless and harassed people (i.e. Matthew 9:36) while not accepting or getting comfortable with the sin in people's lives. 

How should we be toward those that are not broken over their sin but are proud of it and continue in it?

• The same way we are (or should be) towards anyone who is in defiant sin, we should have compassion, understanding that sin is a symptom of a greater problem which is a lack of deep fellowship and relationship with God.  We should pray - for conviction, for repentance, for brokenness even.  And we should offer hope in whatever way we can (whether they recognize it or not) - sometimes that's through unexpected and undeserved kindness, sometimes it's by offering to pray, help, share, encourage, and sometimes it might be by waiting.  But generally speaking we still need to maintain the relationship at some level so we can maintain influence and make wholeness, health and life visible.

We Need To Talk About Stuff Like This (part 1)

On Sunday, we were exploring another one of the "6 Things I Hate About Christians" topics and it was that we are generally viewed as anti-homosexual.  It was a very difficult subject to deal with, not because I have any doubts about what God's design for sexual expression is, but because real people on both sides are seriously having to wrestle with this issue and all that comes with it.  That meant that just quoting Bible verses wasn't going to be enough (even though God's word speaks to this topic), and certainly my so-called wisdom isn't enough either.   What this topic takes is a willingness to discuss, dialogue and deal with the people that are often chastised and marginalized by Christians.  So that's what we tried to do, and as expected it raised a lot of questions.  I'd encourage you to listen to it for yourself, but here are some of the questions that I couldn't address on Sunday because of the time.

How do we help a homosexual recognize that they have an unfulfilled need for Jesus?

• Good question, but it makes some assumptions right off that the bat, one being that someone with a same-sex attraction cannot know Christ and still struggle in that area.  Another is that we (I'm assuming by that this person meant Christians) are responsible to point out people's needs instead of letting them realize on their own that they have a need.  When we talk more about brokenness and sin than we do about wholeness and life, we have very little to offer the world and people who are struggling.  Let's offer hope, love and peace and see if people who don't already have that might start realizing it for themselves without us needing to help point it out.  
  

If someone is a believer and homosexual, do you just let God deal with them?  We do our best to build up others [who are] in sin (porn, gambling, drinking, etc) How do you build up someone when the sin is so personal to them?

• I'm still convinced that God's kindness is what leads people to repentance (Romans 4:4).  So when we show kindness by treating someone as a person instead of just a problem, God begins to work.  God will deal with people (us included) whether we get involved or not so again, the question probably shouldn't be so much about what "we" can "do" as about what we're doing - in other words, are we actively seeking a deeper relationship with Christ and listening for the guidance of the Holy Spirit for what we should do and when we should do it?
  

You say you "forgive" our sins, and we can be "whole" by turning to Jesus because we are "broken".  WE are NOT broken, we didn't choose to love someone of the same sex.  We don't yell out you're wrong for whatever reason.  We accept that you say homosexuality is a sin, but we don't choose who we love.

• What I said is that we are all broken and we all would be better off if Christians started offering wholeness instead of constantly pointing out brokenness. I'm honestly not questioning who somebody chooses (or doesn't choose) to love because I can't and shouldn't make it my business to change that.  I'm more interested in people finding wholeness and life the way God has designed it.  Sexual brokenness comes in many forms, adultery, porn, homosexuality, sexual immorality of all kinds - and loving those sins and being drawn to them doesn't legitimize them.  God's design for sexual wholeness is either remaining chaste / inactive / celibate or in the confines of a marriage covenant between one man and one woman.  You may not choose who you love (feelings) but we all can choose how we express our love (behavior).  Temptation (feelings) isn't a sin, but participation (behavior) indicates our brokenness and reaffirms our need for wholeness.

I'll share some more later.  I know there will most likely be comments and I welcome them, but please be careful of your tone.

In One Day

In one day, it will be Sarah's birthday.  She'll be 5.  We're having a Princess Party (her 5th one) today.  She is one of my two real-life princesses and I love her so much and get so much joy from watching her grow up that I will sometimes cry when she says "I love you Daddy."

I remember the day she was born.  It was a hard delivery for Lora. We never found out what we were having with any of our kids and so the joy of her birth was multiplied with the fact that after three boys, we now had a GIRL.  I had always told Lora that if we ever had a girl her name was going to be Sarah.  It would have been part of our prenup (if we'd had one).  So the second after the doctor said "it's a girl!" I said, "I love you Sarah!"

In one day, my life changed.

In one day, I learned that there really is a difference in how you love a son and a daughter.

In one day, I went from two to three significant women in my life (my mom, my wife and now Sarah)

In one day, she went from drooling to smiling.

In one day, I realized she was no longer crawling but toddling.

In one day it seemed like her bald baby head turned into a crown of flowing blond locks.

In one day she learned to swim, and ride a bike, and ice skate.

In one day she'll be five years old . . . . 

                     . . . . and my life will never be the same.

Slammed

A couple of things I'm excited about

• We were slammed at church on Sunday!  Still haven't gotten over the energy and the size of the crowd and I'm still going through prayer requests and some of the decisions people made.  Highest attendance ever and if this keeps up we'll have no choice but to go to two services.  Great stuff.
  
• Second Annual Super Bowl Cornhole Tournament was slammed with 26 teams and last year's winners "The Holers" (aka Tim and Caleb Eagle) slammed every challenger and defended their title.  Congrats guys
  
• The Super Bowl game, for the second year in a row, was amazing.  Just when you thought the Cardinals might pull off the improbable, the Steelers marched down and slammed the door shut.
  
• Moved my accountability meeting to Denny's this morning because they were giving away free Grand Slam breakfasts and the place was slammed with the line out the door.  See  You've got until 2pm to get yours.
  
• Trying to nail down this week's message on how outsiders view Christians as anti-homosexual and I feel like my head got slammed in a door.  Tough topic, but necessary.
  
• Just saying the word "slammed" this many times makes me want to find a ring, jump off the top rope and body slam Claude.  I've been practicing (you can watch me HERE)
  

Just one more thought on the whole Denny's deal.  It really makes me wonder what would happen if the church really understood what it has to offer and presented it like the amazing gift that it is.  Would people be lining up outside our doors?  I mean, think of it, people are standing in line outside to get into Denny's because they can get a free meal worth what?  $5-6?  And the church that should be offering hope, life, peace, love and forgiveness(that's already been paid for) is hurting for customers.  Something needs to change.  What can we learn from Denny's?