A Proud Papa

A couple of weeks ago, my daughter came onto the platform at the end of the service and (in front of the whole congregation) whispered in my ear, "Daddy, I'm ready to be baptized." It caught me completely by surprise and made me very proud. On Sunday Lauren followed through with her commitment and I had the privilege of baptizing my own daughter. How many people get to do that? It was really cool. Another thing that was cool was how a video clip we showed in the service a few weeks ago influenced another little boy in our church to get baptized. After watching the video, he told his mother, "I want to be baptized." We are living in a visual generation, so why not use what will reach them, and challenge them to live for God? When I think about this world, it has nothing good to offer our children. We have to teach our kids to be in the world, but not of the world. We have to lead today's youth to follow Christ because serving Him is the only thing that will bring lasting satisfaction, both here and in eternity. I don't know the future, but my daughter just took a step in the right direction - and for that, I'm a proud papa.

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Where Is the God of Elijah?

I promised to blog about the end of our Elijah series since we were running short on time two weeks ago. I mentioned that God wants us to have hearts like Elisha in that he would not leave Elijah's side no matter what. We need to have some holy ambition and hold on tight to God, even when it might seem like God is the one pushing us away (Matthew 15:21-28 and Luke 11:5-10). But beyond seeing ourselves in Elisha, I believe we see Jesus in Elijah. There are many similarities with both of these powerful prophets. Elijah and Jesus performed many miracles, stood for righteousness, walked closely with God (though Jesus is God), finished their earthly ministry, were taken alive into heaven (of course Jesus was resurrected), had witnesses that watched their ascension, and both will return in the last days (John 14:1-3 and Malachi 4:5). The real question is, do you believe we are living in the last days? Do you agree with Peter's words in Acts 2 when he said, "Save yourselves from this perverse generation?" If we are living in the last days (and I believe we are) then it should cause us to have a sense of urgency when it comes to sharing our faith with others. All around us are lost people who will spend eternity somewhere, and we have the message they need to hear to be saved - saved from a perverse generation. We might live to, one day see Christ's return for His church. And on that day, all believers will be like Elijah and Jesus, called up to be with God for all eternity. What a day that will be.

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Elijah picture from Crossroads Fellowship in Raleigh, NC