Sloppy Wet Kiss

If you want to get people's attention when you share a devotional or personal thought with someone, here's how to do it:

"I have a confession to make".

And, that's where I'm at. I have not even shared this with my wife yet simply because I have no idea where the Lord is taking this… or me. But what I can tell you that she does know ~ is that God is alive and working in our church body, perhaps like we have never seen before. When faced with hard times, and tough decisions, people who love the Lord and seek to serve Him band together in prayer and sacrifice. I can see and feel this happening. Sometimes God has to show us the end of the rope so that you know you really need to hold on to Him with all of your spiritual might.

So here's my confession: My life has been changed by a sloppy wet kiss.

Legalism is not me, and it is not becoming. I abhor legalism and God has given me the nose of a hound, and the eyes of a hawk to seek it out. But we must carefully balance the freedoms we have been given in Christ, with the irrefutable laws of the character of God and his commandments to us. To further complicate the problem, we, as believers, must also balance the power of Christ that compels or constrains us, with not only our freedoms but with the considerations of those weak in the spirit fighting for their souls.

These issues came to a head last week. My wife had been working hard on producing a new set of music that we can use for a worship service at church. Lacking the provision of a live worship band, we choose to use recorded music for our times of worship. It is generally well received by those who choose to make our church their home. But at the same time, producing a worship set can be difficult as very few recordings are actually produced with the idea of them being used in the setting of a corporate worship service. Needless to say, it takes a great deal of effort to put a set together. With all the effort that is put into it, you can also imagine how important it is that it is received well, not only by those at the service, but by our Lord.

In putting this set together Sonja found a song from a band I did not know, with a singer I had never heard of. This is nothing that surprises me, I like new music, and this band was good. I listened to the song, and it was wonderful! The music was melodious, the harmony was done well, and it was 'full' and strong. But something caused us both to question whether or not to use this song.

There is a line in the song that goes like this: "So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss"… Wow.

It makes you want to clear your throat and almost blush a little doesn't it? Well, it did us. We all have our own visions of exactly what a 'sloppy wet kiss' is, and what it means to us, and somehow those visions never seem to include God. So without going into the detail of the visions, suffice it to say, it gave us both some reason to ponder and seek the Lord.

I researched the band, I researched the song, I listened to the whole song and the lyrics in context. We weighed our freedoms in Christ with those who may be put off by such lyrics. I considered legalism; Am I applying it if I say no? I considered our freedoms; Am I abusing them if I say yes? Then I prayed about it, considered all that I could in my temporal mind and decided to go for it. I felt that the Lord must lead in this, and that He must be in it.

This was a stretch for me. It was honestly a bit out of my comfort zone, but you know what they say about God and our comfort zones; He never wants us to be in them for long. In the end, we played the song, I watched for reactions, and waited for the response. It would seem the Lord used it to bless the body.

So to continue my confession: Since that day, and the tears that it brought to my eyes considering the love that God has for us, I have not been able to get that song out of my head. I've been listening to it for 2 days straight now, and it is not growing old. I think this is the case because God has stretched me, and is growing me.

For your benefit, I have attached the lyrics to this song, and link to it being performed on Youtube. I pray that you will give it a listen, and allow God to work through it.

How often do we consider how much God really loves us? When I do it is usually, in fact almost exclusively, associated with Christ's death on the Cross. The fact that He loved us as much as He did is the reason that Jesus died. I get that, I get that in its totality; a love that cannot be surpassed. But here is why this song has blessed me, and here is why this song is changing my life:

God loves me THAT MUCH, just because!

He is my Father, I am His son. When He thinks of me He simply LONGS for me to be with Him. He loves me because He can, and because I am His son! I love my children because they are my children! Not because of something they did that was good, or something that I did as a service of sacrifice to them, but because they are my children! I love them most when they are closer to me! I love for them to desire to be near me and because they want to be around me. I long for them when they are not around, and wish they were with me, I love them without restrain or restriction. I love when they run across the field as I drive up the driveway, and I love how they will wait for me outside in the rain, just to be the first one to greet me that day as I come home from work. I always think that my love for my children cannot be increased, but it is increased all the time!

God loves us in all these same ways just as much. He desires us, loves for us to seek Him out and wait for Him. He loves that we run towards Him just because we long to be near Him, and in times of need. He loves us not just because we are good, but because we are His children. Let us show God that we CAN love Him more. That our love for Him can increase.

I have not been moved in such a way by prose or song in decades. I'm not only taken back to a childhood of innocence and child-like unconditional love, but my walls of indifference and apathy created by years of age, 'experience' and understanding have been crushed under the unbearable weight of the understanding of God's love for me. Oh, how He loves us, and until we understand this, love itself is somehow less than what He meant it to be, and God is not God.

I implore you to take 8:52 out of your day, and listen to this song and watch this video as you read the lyrics below. May God truly bless you with this song as a continuing answer to so many prayers in so many ways. May your heart be moved not necessarily to love God or your spouse or your children more (although that's a good thing), but to understand how much God loves you, His child. My prayer is that you are never the same. Love God. Fear God, and honor the King!

LINK TO YOUTUBE VIDEO

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us all,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we're all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And the heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don't have time to maintain this regrets,
When I think about, the way…

This song was written by John Mark McMillan, and is performed in the Video by a group called The Jesus Culture, featuring Kim Walker singing lead vocals.

But wait, there's more. Learn what the story is behind this song, click here.

The Universal Significance of our Universal Insignificance

Sometimes I have a specific spiritual experience. In this experience I come to have a sudden realization of the total pile of garbage that I really am. As a friend has told me time and time again, that you realize that you are nothing more than a wart on the backside of a hog. Seriously, when you truly recognize the gospel, and the 'bigness' of God, you realize that you are nothing.

Outside of a biblically foundational world view, this experience can be startling and hurtful. By worldly standards, this can be devastating, and entire lives are spent trying to 'recondition our psyche' to recognize our self worth and to grow our self esteem. But as a Christian, soon after this realization strikes, the real struggle begins That struggle is to use the experience or realization that God has allowed me to have (or has actually engineered) and to use it for good. We struggle against using it for our benefit, vs., allowing the enemy to use it to his advantage by bringing discouragement into our lives and pointing us towards a reality that does not exist: The one in which we are strong without Christ. Because that 'reality' does not exist.

Jesus is the infinite, loving caring God, who left total perfection in heaven to suffer for ME. As author Dick Staub wrote in his book Too Christian, Too Pagan; How to Love the World without Falling For it, "Few of us know what it really means to actually love the world with the kind of passionate , visionary love that sent Jesus from the heights of holiness into the depths of a sin-sick culture".

I journaled this a few weeks back:
"I'm fairly positive that it is impossible for us to understand our universal insignificance. In light of all that surrounds us, the endless mass of the universe, we are but a speck. We get a minor glimpse of this understanding when we are flying from place to place. At 30K feet everything is small, 'those cars look like ants' we have all said before. When we see pictures taken by the Hubble Telescope where in vast outer space galaxies are colliding like marbles on the floor, we get a glimpse of it. When we see these things, it brings some pause. But in spite of my significance, the God who created all that we see and all that we do not, the God that dwells in perfection, holiness, peace, constant love and in a place that can only be defined as Paradise, left all that comfort and perfection to become a human Himself ~ just to show me that such an infinite God can love low-life pieces of garbage, little specs like me as well."

After all, we are HIS specs and pieces of garbage aren't we?….

The problem here is that this runs in direct opposition to worldly understanding. Freud and Spock (the psychologist, not the Vulcan) tell us just the opposite. Dr. Ruth relating everything to the physical, and all of modern psychology tells us that we need high self esteem. Oprah has lived her life to make sure everyone knows that they too are to look at themselves and see how successful they are. Now she 'preaches' that we too can be gods, and that there are many ways to heaven outside of Christian dogma.

God loves us as specks and garbage. While we were yet sinners He left perfection to take on sin and die for us. We cannot do that. No 'man' can do that. Only a perfect man/God can accomplish what was required for our salvation. In light of that, we are insignificant, and just specs, or dirty rags. But to God we are SIGNIFICANT, because we are HIS.

Abba, we are failures, sinners all of us, but we sure love you. Take what worthless thanks we can offer you; our love and our lives.

Signed:

Speck

All things to All Men

Paul once said, "I have become all things to all men". Since those words have been spoken, they have been used to mean a great many different things to a great many different people. For the most part, this verse is referenced to show how a Christian must be willing to interact with the people of the world in order to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. As they should. For some, this verse is sighted to show that if we as Christians are going to be effective in reaching 'this generation', we need to 'do as they do', look as they look, and act as they act. Is this what Paul really meant when he wrote those words?

Let's work off the assumption that we all agree that the lost of the world need to be reached with the gospel. It's a good place to start. Christians are called to evangelize. "Go" unto the world, cannot be done from your desk, from inside your church, or even from your computer. You have to go and rub elbows as they say, and put some real work behind reaching people 'where they are at'. If we all sit around waiting for the world to come to us, or to magically appear in our churches one Sunday morning, not only will you be sadly disappointed, you will be living in opposition to God's calling for your life. I for one do not want to be found there.

So how far do we go? What is the line we cannot cross? Do we compromise in order to reach the Lord? Since there is no simple answer, I'll share with you what the Lord has put on my heart, and what scripture gives us as a guideline.

Looking at this most frequently used verse, here's what we do not see; Paul professing his personal liberties in Christ to act in a way that distracts from putting the focus on Jesus and Jesus only just so he can make his point. We do not see Paul defending his eating of meat that has been sacrificed to idols or drinking alcoholic beverages ~ just because it is his Christian liberty to do so. Don't get me wrong. He does defend it, but not for those reasons. What we do see is this: Paul taking his knowledge of scripture, his knowledge of the people he was addressing, and by applying God's grace boldly going to them the way God made him (fallible, poor, with thorn-in-side, weak yet strong, humble etc.), and reaching people by the thousands.

A bit more theologically, when we look at the text here in Corinthians, Paul's context is the spiritual. What Paul is saying is that when the people he is trying to reach are weak, he also would be weak so as not to offend and lose his opportunity, while boldly, yet humbly explaining the truth of the gospel. Though Paul was free from all men, he became a servant to them while boldly, yet humbly explaining the truth of the gospel. When with the Jews (under the law) he become like a Jew, while boldly, yet humbly explaining the truth of the gospel. To those outside the law (the law of the Jews, not the law of the land), he had become like them while boldly, yet humbly explaining the truth of the gospel. The context of what Paul is saying is spiritual, not physical or worldly. All that he is basing his freedom on is the spiritual guidelines of God, not worldly guidelines of those he is trying to reach.

As a matter of fact, Paul does exactly the opposite. Instead of reveling in his liberties, he lays his liberties aside in favor of making no offense to those who may be weaker. Paul says he has the right to drink, eat meat that was offered to idols and more. He and Barnabas had the right to take along with them a believing wife like the other apostles such as Peter did. But they chose not to do these things! Why? Because they did not want to stumble a brother, and wanted to properly represent the gospel they were proselytizing. They always put the gospel, its message, properly representing Jesus and not stumbling a brother, ahead of the defense of their liberties and freedoms in Christ. Others came first.

The context of Paul being 'all things to all men' is in a sense of spiritual understanding: Their understanding of religion and faith, verses the real understanding of grace and faith. How could Paul represent Jesus, if he participated in acts that detracted from his message, or caused others to question his integrity or that made him look like a hypocrite?

A friend recently pointed out that our youth today can smell a hypocrite a mile away. And they can. When I was their age, I could. Let us not be one. Let us not be one ourselves. Let us celebrate our liberty in Jesus not by conforming to the world around us so that we blend right in, in the way we look, the things we do, the music we listen to, the movies we watch and books we read. Let us instead go to our youth and to the lost of this generation with an understanding of who they are, and where they live.

Let us go out shining the light of Jesus, not reflecting the light of the world.

Moshing for Jesus. Really?

Matthew 5:14-16

¹⁴"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

In watching some worthwhile Christian TV last night, this verse was read to me. In the context of the show (Drive Thru History: America, You can become a Facebook fan of the show by clicking HERE), they were talking about the Pilgrims travails in getting to America. In that show it was mentioned that one of their driving forces was the verse above from the Sermon on the Mount. As the host read off this passage, the end of verse 16 stuck in my ears.

With all the talk the Lord has been giving me on making a difference as Christians, and applying God's will and righteousness to our freedoms, this verse played right into that theme. We have a calling. Not just to BE a Christian, but to make a difference as one. Our calling is not just to take dominion over the world, but to do so with Godly stewardship. Our commission is not just to make disciples, it is all of these things, and it is all of these things done in such a way that we reflect Jesus, and not ourselves.

Look at what Jesus says here. We cannot hide what we have, and what we are. We can try, but to do so, is to live a life contrary to what Jesus has called us to do. For those people who's Christian faith is "personal" to them (with personal meaning, I'll keep to myself, and my faith and fruit are none of anyone's business by myself), this verse obviously puts that discussion to a close. Jesus said, to show the world His light! We cannot do that while being hidden away, not going fellowshipping with believers, not breaking bread with believers, and not praying with other believers. If we think we can, we are denying the will of God in our lives, and creating a Christian-like faith that is not biblical.

But more to the point of what struck me last night. How do we decide about those gray areas? What biblical principals do we have to guide us in making those choices? The end of verse 16 helps us. "Let your light shine before men…" OK, we get that, we cannot be a self-sustaining Christian island. But Jesus goes on to say, "that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven". THAT is a tall order. What Jesus is saying is that whatever we choose to do as believers, that it must be done in such a way that people see it as Godly. Not just that it IS Godly, but that they see it and understand it to be Godly! The result of what we do MUST bring praise to God, not merely attention to ourselves.

A recent photo into the crowd of one of the largest "Christian" concerts in America showed a man in the front rows holding up a cast iron frying pan because the band playing was named "Skillet". I do not know much of the band, its members, or the music that they play. But if they are properly shining their light, using their talents, expressing their freedoms and liberties in Christ, the desired effect of what they would call 'worship' should have the crowd in prayer, meditation, reflection, or holding up bibles, rather than "moshing for Jesus", stage diving, and waving 6 lb. cooking utensils around like Sylvester hoping to whack Tweetie Bird. The effect was completely different, and the band made no attempt at adjusting it.

Don't get me wrong. I am not against us celebrating our freedom and liberty in Christ. We have been given it as a gift from God. It is ours to use, but let us not lose the understanding that we have a great responsibility to use it wisely, and in a Godly fashion There are limits and guidelines that too often get overlooked, all in the name of 'freedom' and 'liberty'. When this happens, Jesus' light ceases to shine, and any light that may shine from us at all, will be that of our self-exulted intellect in deciding that our way is better than God's. I say go for it! Go out and enjoy this life while we have it! But do not forget the life that Jesus has called us to and that you accepted when He became your Lord and Savior. Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Amen?

Discussing Christian Freedom

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

[Begin Rant]

OK, call me a crazy Christian conservative right-wing gun-toting whacko, but why in the world do we want to say it is OK to have our children, the next generation of Christians (or so we hope) fill their minds with stories of Vampires, the 'underworld', demons and magic? Whatever happened to filling our minds with the things of God and righteousness rather than the things of the world? Whatever happened to Philippians 4:8?

Why don't we encourage these things more, and work harder to protect our children and young and vulnerable believers from the attractions of the world which will prove to be distractions from Christ? Sure, we can debate the 'freedom in Christ' thing all day long, but why don't we instead debate commitment to Christ and His word, separation from the things of the world (2 Corinthians 6 and all through there)?
Psalm 14:2
The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.

Are there any who seek God? Shouldn't WE be one of them? Our job is to protect our children shelter them from the ways of the world and raise them in the way that they should go, not show them the things of the world and all their attractiveness, let them read it, watch it, participate in it with all the other kids of the world, and then try to tell them to be separate from them? Sanctified? For that matter 'children' in a Pauline sense also means those new to the faith. We owe it to them to protect them and shelter them just as if they were our own children!

When I say that I shelter my kids, it is not to say that they do not know what it going on. Sometimes we watch the news together, read the papers etc. We talk politics, social issues of the day and all of that. BUT, when it comes from me or their mother, WE control the spin on the subject, and get to take them to scripture to back it up. My children are more prepared for dealing with the world BECAUSE they are sheltered.

Call me goofy, but I think it is more important we teach them at a very young age the intricacies of sanctification and separation from the world and its ways. People tell me all the time that you cannot shelter your children from the real world. My response is your right, I can't totally shelter them, BUT I SURE CAN TRY!!, and God makes it clear that we are supposed to. It used to be that it was only the lost and secular of the world that asked me that question. Now it is other believers and PASTORS who are asking!

With regards to Christian freedom Paul said that all things are lawful… and this seems to be where the people who want to relish in their 'liberties' and freedom tend to leave it. But as leaders we must always be willing to step up to the plate of righteousness and finish the verse, "but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify." Why as leaders are we debating what we can do and still be 'OK with God', when we should be challenging our congregations to live a Holy and perfect life, because "[HE] is Holy!"? Why do we not respond when people ask us about Harry Potter and his minions of Satan worshipping witches and say ~ RUN AWAY! And as fast as you can, and rather, fill your children's hearts with the love of Jesus, and the word of God! And yes, you read it right because I said it strong, I said Satan worshippers: If their power is not clearly identified as having come from God, there is but one other source. If they desire and love these powers, which they clearly do, and they do not come from God, they are loving the power source as well.

Our children do not need to be culturally 'relevant' to be liked and well adjusted. Scripture does not encourage us to teach our children the ways of the world so that they can avoid sin, but feel free to walk the tight-rope as close to the world as they can so that all the kids at public school will 'like' them… Rather it tells us to protect them, and to raise them in the ways of the Lord.

Someone please explain to me why liking, even obsessing over a series of books or movies, waiting hours, even DAYS in line to get the next book or movie ticket, whose main characters desire to have supernatural powers that come from the underworld is helpful to our kids?? And we wonder why the secular world looks at Christianity and shakes its collective head!

I just do not get it. We debate these things, we allow our kids to participate in them, even promote them in the name of cultural relativity, and then we wonder why our youth are falling away from the church. We wonder why we have such a high failure rate of our young adults keeping their faith when they run off to college. Are we all this naïve? Or just kidding ourselves to that we can be 'popular' 'cool' or 'rad' parents to our kids? Then again, maybe we are moving away from actively seeking and teaching our flocks to seek the Holiness that God desires and commands us to live out in our lives?

In a recent conversation a pastor friend questioned the direction of Christianity in America. His point was that it is not about debating freedoms, it is about a trend in Christianity that only we as leadership can change. The question should not be CAN I do/read/drink/smoke something, the questions should be what can I do to please God? What can I do to make my relationship with Jesus better? What things can I do in my life that will bring Glory to God?

• Are we bringing Glory to God by leading a generation of kids into a fantasy world of Vampires, witches, demons?


• Are we edifying ourselves and lifting up the body when we participate in watching and endorse films filled with nudity, sex, violence and filthy language?


• Are we furthering the Kingdom and growing our witness when we go to the bars to have "a beer" and a smoke?


• When we do these things are we helping (Phil. 4:8) the cause of Christianity? Are we Edifying (Phil. 4:8) the body and bringing glory to God?

Picture this: You're sitting at home and just got done watching a Harry Potter film or some R rated 'classic' like Basic Instinct or [insert sex, profanity and violence filled movie here]. Your smoking a stogie, finishing off knocking back a cold one, maybe two… and now that the movie was over, you breath out a large lung-full of cigar smoke and belch out the last bit of carbonation from your beer you just finished. Then, you look to your right and say to the guest in your home that you share a couch with that just happens to be Jesus Christ Himself and say, "Holy [expletive] man, wasn't that a [expletive] GREAT film dude!? Buuuurrrppp… By the way, I love you Jesus, and thanks for coming over tonight."

[awkward pause…] You guys can answer that for yourselves. The thought makes me wretch.

[End Rant]

What He has Done For Us

John 17:4

I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.

It came to mind today something that Pastor Chuck Smith had shared with us at this year's Sr. Pastors Conference. I thought of it in part because of the celebration we had this weekend of the 40^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing.

President Kennedy, who had promised to take us to the moon within the decade (1960's), something we did accomplish, but that he did not live to see, started his term as President with a wonderful speech. In that inaugural address he said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." What Chuck Smith had to say was very similar in tone, but with much farther reaching effects. Chuck said, "Going through all of scripture I find a biblical emphasis that is not what we can do for God. But rather, what he has already done for us."

His point was, I believe two fold. Firstly that the work of the cross is finished. There is nothing we can do for or against that work. It is simply a matter of accepting and receiving it, or denying it and rejecting it. Secondly, that we have a responsibility after accepting Christ to live for Him with all we are worth.

Jesus uttered the verse chosen for today's devotional right before He prayed for His disciples, and was then off to the Garden to be arrested. By the end of the next day, Jesus would have done all that He could do… for us. He had finished the work that the Father had Sent Him to do. It is at that point that OUR work began. It was at that point that the responsibility to do the will of the Father in order to further His Kingdom, fell on us.

Unlike the lunar landing was to the world, an impressive feat indeed, we cannot do anything to impress God. We cannot say that within the next decade you or I are going to do something so totally awesome that God will want to create a new section in heaven just for us. Anything we do in our lives, we ought to do out of love, respect and a heartfelt indebtedness for what God has already done for us. What we need to do is all that we can do in order to bring glory to God here on earth in the time that He has so wonderfully graced us with. This day is the day that the Lord has made. We must rejoice and be glad in it, knowing that His work is finished.

Simplicity

2 Corinthians 11:3

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Last night, on a night when we normally have a family bible study, or a one on one study with the kids, I decided a change of pace was in order. I talked it over with my wife, and off we went to a 6:40 PM showing of the animated movie UP. Long story short, it was wonderful. Go see the movie. In the mean time, here's my experience.

I went into the movie just glad to have a weeknight open enough to be able to go. Usually, between study time for the mid-week and Sunday teachings, board meetings, general meetings, and the midweek bible study itself, there is not much time left to do anything. Last night was a wonderful and rare exception to have free time. We to the theater, and after figuring out that the Fandango kiosk was not working, and listening to the next guy cuss at the machine because it does not dispense cash (it's a FANDANGO kiosk, not a teller machine…) we got into the show, picked up our obligatory popcorn and "sodie-pop", and off we went into the theater.

The theater is for the most part empty save for us. My wife sits down beside me and gave me a smile. The kids all sat off to her right and we began the feast of popcorn gluttony. As the movie wore on, so did our tired bones. The older you get, the more difficult it is getting comfortable in these theaters. Your knees and hips do not move and shift like they used to, so relaxing ends up being more work than it should, and the attempt at relaxing only seeks to increase your heart rate and stress. Probably not a bad idea though, having an increased heart rate considering we just added 6 lbs and an inch of popcorn and Coke to your waistline!

The movie captivated us though. It was an incredible love story, albeit between cartoon characters, but it was touching and moving. As I have already shared with some, I was crying elephant tears in no time at the death of a cartoon character I had only been introduced to 10 minutes prior. For those of you who have not seen the movie, I'll leave out who actually passes away. Wiping my tears away, I looked to my wife's right side, and there are all three kids. Immediately, I was seeing all of them as toddlers once again. Faces buried in the popcorn buckets (yes, plural…), and cheeks sunken in like the bitter-beer-faced man from commercials years back while trying to get the last drop of Coke from the bottom of the 6 gallon cup. In spite of the feasting, tears were forming in their eyes as well. We laughed, cried, wiggled and sneered at the movie screen for the next two hours.

I could barely take my eyes off the kids, and my thoughts could not be moved. The movie was awesome, but life was so much better.

I have a loving wife who (after we settled on the fact that we were not going to get our knees to bend the way we wanted in order to reach a youthful level of comfort) cuddled in beside me as we raised the folding arm between the seats that separated us like we had just met. She was so warm, and smelled so nice!

I watched as the body of a thirteen year old showed the loving heart of a small boy. Army BDU cap and all. I know he'd just as well be outside jumping his bike, or flying an airplane (which he has done), or protecting his sister like the big brother he is. But I also know that, in spite of the fact that he knows he's growing up, that he still likes being a kid, teddy bears and all.

I watched a budding young woman - that I really came to know how much I really loved the day her brother flattened in her nose, because he had run into her with his tricycle and parked it, pedal down on her face, while he was still riding it with a totaling unknowing grin on his face – who was obviously understanding the depth of love between the characters, sit and stare. I was wondering what she was wondering, and yet knowing that cannot wait until she herself is a mother so that she can love in the same manner.

I also saw another young boy. The youngest of them all. I know he was able to weasel a few bucks out of mom on his way out to the restrooms, because he was chewing on a few Sour-Patch kids. I also knew that he did not have to beg very hard, because they are Momma's favorites too. He's harder to read emotionally. Yeah, he wears his emotions on his sleeve, but what's really going on in there? He tries so hard to please his parents, but makes mistakes long the way like we all have. What I felt as I watched him, was that he was my last child. They'll be no more. I just wanted to pick him up and squeeze him right then and there, and make sure he know how much I loved and appreciated him.

With that all said, life is, or at least can be so darn busy that the simple things in life get lost, and missed. Trying too hard to please, rather than trying even harder to raise a family in the way that it should go makes it easy to fall victim to the ways of the world, and to the world's version of how to raise a family. I just spent $300.00 on a fuel pump, the brakes need replaced in the Suburban that hauls all my dearest loved ones around, bills are due, and I'm broke. But I will not fall victim to the craftiness of the world. Our home will continue to be a one income home so that my wife can be ever devoted to the gifts that God has given us in our children. Right where she, and every mother belongs. I will work hard to see that the corruption of the world, which comes along as easy fixes to problems that are better solved by longsuffering love and faith in Christ and His deliverance, does not seek its way into our home.

I thank God for His love and grace, and for the family that He has gifted to me. I am THE most blessed man alive.