Wilson Van Hooser

Interview with Asa Watson (Missionary in Germany and former Professional Football player)

One of the ideas that I was inspired by from some other youth workers was to do some interviews with some people for our youth to watch. In this interview with my good friend Asa Watson, we talked about how he went from playing professional football (with me at the New England Patriots in 2014), to working with a pit crew in NASCAR, to campus ministry, and now to being a missionary in Germany. Asa and I also got to talk about what it’s like to live on mission and how to be a Christian in an increasingly secular culture.

How I Survive Social Distancing (Paul Tripp)

Here is a helpful excerpt from a recent blog post from Paul Tripp:

Does this sound like your daily routine? When you wake up every morning, the first thing you do is check the news to discover the latest stats and developments:

How many cases of COVID-19 are in my town or state?How long is this social distancing predicted to last?What are the financial markets doing today?What does the latest expert have to contribute?

(If you’re anything like me, you’ll be tempted to do the same again before bed ... and revisit multiple times throughout the day!)

Staying informed and making wise decisions based on that information is a good thing. The problem is that we can develop an unhealthy habit in our hearts where we meditate on trouble and forget God.

When we do this, the crisis will loom larger and larger, and God will appear smaller and smaller.

Only one thing can result from such a habit: fear.

Paralyzing, panic-producing, anxiety-resulting fear.

Today I want to help you fight against fear and break that unhealthy habit.

For the full blog, click here.

What Should You Do When You Don't "Feel" Loved By God?

Feelings. Man, they’re weird. Like the winter in Mississippi, they don’t always seem to work the way they should. Dr. Kwasny once told me that feelings are like a car’s “check engine” light. They don’t tell us the whole story but they tell us that a story is there.

Feelings are like a magician. They show us one thing but the entire process remains a mystery. If we’re not careful, we can be fooled like the magic trick. We are tempted to “see” one thing when in reality the result has come about a totally different way.

One of the many different feelings that Christians “get” is when they don’t feel loved by God. As I often hear from young people (youth and college), “I understand it but I don’t really feel it.” Yes and amen to that! I’ve been there with you in this feeling before. There are still times that I don’t feel what I acknowledge to be true. It’s those 18 inches between head and heart that often feel like miles apart.

Head To Heart

The head and the heart have an interesting relationship within us. The heart cannot feel what the head does not know. The way to the heart is through the head. It is theology that fuels doxology. If you want to feel with your heart, you must think with your head. We will never have right affections for God until we are taught the truth about God. This means that truth comes to the head before it gets to the heart. But, the heart often feels like a memorable experience for me.

My mother is tall and, therefore, has long legs. When I was young, and obviously had shorter legs at the time, I would struggle to keep up with my mother when we walked. Not only was she tall, she also walked very fast. This was double trouble for young and short Wilson. One of my biggest memories from my young days is our trip to Disney World. I remember the rides, the food, and the Summer heat. I also remember one quote that was often repeated. “Keep up!” Yup, that was young Wilson’s biggest memory during those days. My mom would walk so fast and young Wilson would desperately try to keep up. Our head and heart are sometimes like my mother and young Wilson. The head often seems to be telling our hearts to “keep up!”

Can We Get Practical?

It’s important that we put our feelings in their proper place in an age that is all about “the feels”. As “indicator lights”, we need to make sure we use our feelings to search our hearts. One of the common feelings that Christians often get is the feeling that they’re not loved by God. We’d never admit that God doesn’t love us out loud but the feeling still lurks within. Our heads (aka our doctrine) tell us that we are loved but our hearts tell us that we’re not. So, why is there that head-heart gap? Why do we get that feeling of not being loved by God?

There are many different reasons that should be explored. This is the reason why we need solid biblical counseling in every season of our lives. There is no replacement for having someone regularly search the dynamics of your heart. But, there are some practical tools that we can use to help us truly know this love of God more.

Three Ways To “Feel” God’s Love More

  1. We need to understand the love of God more.
    In my first class at Tulane, our professor took our entire class to a restaurant for us to learn how to make gumbo. Having a father who grew up in Mobile, I grew up having my fair share of good gumbo. I loved gumbo but I had never made gumbo. Our professor separated the class into three teams for a cook-off. It was here that I had to actually learn how to make gumbo. After about two hours of cooking, I finally tasted a bowl. It was amazing!
    Now, here is the question: Was it really the best gumbo that I ever had? Or, did it taste better because I knew more about how to make it? In my most humble moment, I would say the latter. You see, it’s because I understood more about it that I tasted more of it.
    My wife works with John Wiggins and Mark Brown at Trinity Apparel. They work on tailored suits. I like suits but I don’t know the first thing about style. Then, my wife started to explain to me the different parts of the suit and what some look better than others. You want to know what happened after that moment? I began to see everyone’s suit totally different. I still don’t know much at all but even the microscopic knowledge that I do have made me love suits even more.
    In the same way, there are many times that we don’t feel loved because we actually don’t understand enough about God’s love. Your head might be telling you, “You already know that God is love and that God loves you. So, just get with the program buddy!” But in reality, you don’t know enough about God’s love. If God is infinite then the knowledge of God’s love can never be complete. It’s when we see a bigger God than we know a bigger love. The more we understand the doctrine of love the more we understand the majesty of God’s love.
    There is more to this. We need to understand more about who God is and what the gospel tells us. We don’t merely need to study the doctrine of love but we also need to study the entirety of God’s being. We need to see God’s sovereign love and His wise love. We need to see His gracious love, all-powerful love, unchanging love, everywhere-present love, and jealous love. It’s as I grow in my knowledge of who God is that I then can apply it to my knowledge of God’s love.
    Think about it this way. In cajun cooking, the onion is key. But, if you want to understand how awesome an onion is then you need to study how peppers, celery, thyme, and garlic interact with onions. It’s when you understand more about other vegetables and herbs that the wonder of the onion is seen.
    Maybe you don’t feel loved because your understanding of the storyline of the Bible is lacking. Maybe you don’t feel loved because your understanding of love is determined by the world. Maybe you don’t feel loved because your understanding of the Trinity is not correct. Our feelings depend on our knowledge.
    Apply: Find the resources to help you learn more about who God is and what the Bible says. We need to find the most helpful resources that grow us in our knowledge of God. We need more exposure to the Word, not less.

  2. We need to compare and contrast the love of God.
    Describe a dog. What would you compare a dog to? What would you use to show the contrast? Imagine trying to explain how a dog is an animal that also lives with us. If you met someone who had never seen a dog, how would you describe one? Those comparisons and contrasts help us better picture what a dog is like.
    It’s when we have better comparisons and contrasts of God’s love that we understand it better. For instance, there are many great comparisons of God’s love in movies, books, and TV shows. Think about the movie The Lion King where we see the love of Mufasa for Simba. Think about the book Harry Potter where we see the love of Lily Potter laying down her life for her son Harry. There are many fascinating examples of substitutionary love.
    It’s when we use these comparisons that we can have a better “picture” of that love. That’s why preachers and teachers use illustrations in sermons, lectures, and lessons. The best preachers have used great illustrations to paint mental pictures in people’s minds. Just read the sermons of Thomas Watson, Jonathan Edwards, Augustine, John Calvin, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Charles Spurgeon, and Tim Keller.
    Jesus was a master of using illustrations! He knew that it helped us to see comparisons to God’s love. Just think about the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Why didn’t he just say, “Hey guys, God loves you”? God created a physical world and gave us five senses. He created us inside His story. We were made to love stories, illustrations, and pictures.
    But, there are also contrasts. The best love of an earthly father fails to compare totally to our heavenly Father’s love. The best love of a friend laying down his life for another doesn’t totally encapsulate the loveliness of the sacrifice on Calvary. We need to be reminded that the best earthly examples are like the Sun. The Sun is massive! It’s so big and bright that we can see that burning ball from 92 million miles away (sometimes I feel like that’s how far away my heart is from my head). Even though the Sun is that big, we know that outer space is even bigger. Have we measured even half of space? Have we sent a satellite to each solar system? We have such a small view of the universe. God’s love is like outer space and the earthly examples are like the Sun. There is no example (including this one since outer space isn’t infinite!) that can fully contain the knowledge of God.
    Apply: Don’t shy away from comparing and contrasting God’s love with the things, events, and people that you see. Creation is crying out that we take notice. It’s when we find helpful illustrations that we can picture God’s love more. Natural Revelation gives us good pictures of truths in Special Revelation.

  3. We need to apply the love of God.
    What does it matter if we do all the studying and paint all the pictures if we never ask “so, what?” There was once a preaching professor who used to sit at the back of each class when his students would preach. He would sit and listen to students explain and illustrate the text. It wasn’t long until the students improved significantly in exposition and delivery but many would still forget to ask “so, what?” When there were 5 minutes left in the sermon, the professor would always hold up a giant sign that said, “So, what?” It was a reminder to the preacher that the people must not only see what the Bible says but they must also see how the Bible changes the way they live, feel, think, and love.
    We need to do the same thing to ourselves. When we study theology, we must do the painstaking work of asking how this truth changes the way we live. We need to spend time thinking about how it changes the way I interact with my micromanaging boss. I need to meditate on how a truth changes the way I respond to kids who pester me with questions whenever we’re on a retreat. I need to think deeply about how God’s love changes the way I respond whenever I’m reminded of how sinful I really am. We need to ask “so, what?”
    I remember one year for Christmas getting a set of plates from my brother and sister-in-law. I had the face of my wife when she was seven years old and she got clothes for Christmas. Let’s just say that she wasn’t happy. Here’s the thing, that was me and I was 27! Like all good Southerners, I put on a happy face and said “thank you” while I pouted to my wife about it later. Let’s just say that she was wise in how to respond to me. I didn’t see any use for these plates. We already had plates! Well, then I started to use them. I found that the semi-bowl/semi-plate looking thing was actually amazing. Do you know what my favorite dish in our pantry is now? It’s that Christmas gift! You see, whenever I actually used it and saw how it changed the way I could plate food then I realized how awesome it was.
    It’s when we see how a doctrine changes the way we live that we see more of the beauty of God’s truth. This is what good writers, preachers, and teachers do. They show us how God’s love actually changes the way we live. They say things such as, “If God’s love is sovereign then that means nothing and no one can stop Him from loving you.” Or they might say, “If God’s love is infinitely wise then that means that everything that God brings in your life will be used for you to know more of His love for you.” We often don’t feel loved because we don’t apply God’s love.
    Apply: Read books by people who show you how the gospel actually changes your thoughts, feelings, and actions. Read books by Tim Keller, Ed Welch, Heath Lambert, Kevin DeYoung, and Jerry Bridges. Find books by Sinclair Ferguson, Paul Miller, Paul Tripp, Tim Chester, and Michael Reeves. Read what John Kwasny and John Perritt have written!

I Know God Is Able To Do It; But Is He Willing? (Daily Devotion)

When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”

Matthew 8:1-4

Think of the 4-5 most powerful people on the planet. These people have unparalleled authority. These people have unmatched power to get things done. Who comes to mind? Is it Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos? Is it President Donald Trump? What about Russian President Vladimir Putin? All of these men are incredibly powerful and have unsurpassed authority. But here is the question: With such power and authority, can you picture any of them stooping down to the lowest of the low?

This isn’t a dig at any of them but rather just an observation. We rarely think of the most powerful people as those who stoop down to the lowly. Take a look at Matthew 8:1-4. Up to this point in Matthew, Jesus has been seen as the greater Moses, the Divine Warrior, and the King of the already/not yet kingdom. Matthew has painted a picture of Jesus as not merely a man but God in the flesh. This person is unusual. He is unrivaled. He is at the top of all authority and power.

Mountain Theology

In Matthew 5-7, Jesus has just finished preaching the now-famous “Sermon on the Mount”. In 8:1, it says that Jesus “came down from the mountain”. Why would it say this? Surely Matthew isn’t wasting words here. So, if he isn’t, then why does he want us to be reminded that Jesus is coming down from the mountain?

Did you know that there is such a thing as mountain theology? Mountains play a crucial part in the Old and New Testament. Mountains represent the presence of God. Think about the Garden of Eden that was on a mountain. Think about Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. These high and lifted up places have always been where we have seen God’s glory.

Listen to what biblical scholar T. Desmond Alexander says: “The concept of God living on a holy mountain is a significant theme in the Old Testament. However, this same theme frames the entire Bible.” The theme is that our God is high and lifted up. There is no one so glorious and great as our God! And here is what’s awesome, God’s plan is for His people to dwell on His mountain with Him. God wants us to be in His presence. God desires to glorify His people and redeem them from their sin. That’s why the Bible begins on a mountain and ends on a mountain. Have you ever noticed that?

So, how does this relate to Matthew 8? Jesus, God in the flesh, has just gotten done proclaiming the law of the kingdom on the mountain. Does this remind you of something from the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy (Hint: see Exodus 19-20)? Matthew is saying that the same God who proclaimed the Law from the mountain in the Old Testament is the same God in the flesh here. Jesus is no ordinary man. Jesus is Yahweh in human flesh!

Mountains and Mr. Clean

Because the mountain represents God’s holy presence, it means that the mountain also represents purity and cleanliness. Everything unclean cannot dwell on the mountain in God’s presence. Now, this is where it gets REALLY cool! In Exodus, God speaks from the mountain. At the end of Exodus, God tells Moses to build a tabernacle. The tabernacle becomes the “mobile version” of the mountain. In other words, it’s where God’s holy presence is.

So, in Leviticus (the next book after Exodus) God speaks to Moses from within the tent of meeting (the “mobile mountain”). In Leviticus 13, God tells Moses about what they should do with people with leprosy. Twenty-one different times (21!!!), God tells Moses that people with leprosy are unclean. Here is what this meant for them. Because they were “ceremonially unclean”, people with leprosy had to stay away from the “clean” people. God told Moses in Leviticus 13:45 that if people with leprosy went in public that they had to cry out “Unclean! Unclean!” to warn people to stay out of the way. Could you imagine having to do that for a long time? This wasn’t a disease that was easily healed. People who got it were those who would be socially shamed by others.

“OK, Wilson. What in the world are you talking about?” Wait for it. This is so cool! Jesus, the Holy One who speaks from the mountain, is now coming down the mountain to a man with leprosy. Jesus (aka Mr. Clean himself), approaches someone unclean.

I wonder if you feel your uncleanliness. Do you see the depths of your depravity? Do you understand how dirty and shameful your sin really is? If we’re honest, we’re spiritual lepers. In God’s presence, we should have to go around saying, “Unclean! Unclean!” We don’t deserve to dwell with the God of the Mountain. We are unholy and He is Holy, Holy, Holy (Is. 6:3). Did you notice that the word “clean” or “cleansed” was used three times in this short section in Matthew 8:1-4?

So, what’s Jesus going to do? Do you see the tension here? This guy doesn’t deserve Jesus to respond to him. Jesus doesn’t have to approach him. But, He does!

Mr. Clean and Mr. Unclean

Look what the leper asks Jesus. “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” Do you notice what he’s saying? He calls Jesus “Lord”. This leper is recognizing that Jesus is not merely a man. He is more than just a man! But then he says something else. “Lord, I know you’re powerful enough to clean me but I’m not sure if you are willing to clean me. I know you’re able to do it but I’m not sure if you really want to come near someone as unclean as I am.”

Haven’t you and I been here before? It’s easy to think about God’s power and even His sovereignty at times but it’s often harder to believe in His goodness, His compassion, and His desire to help us. Don’t our cries often sound like this: “Lord, I know you’re powerful enough to provide for me but I’m not sure if you are willing. Lord, I know that you are powerful enough to forgive me of my sins but I’m not sure if you are willing. Lord, I know that you are powerful enough to turn this past mistake into some form of redemption but I struggle to believe that you’re willing.”

So, what does Jesus do? Look at v3. This is wild! Jesus reaches out His hand and TOUCHES the leper! “Jesus! You’re not supposed to do that!” But, He does. And notice how Jesus responds. “I am willing; be clean.” Why didn’t Jesus just say, “Be clean”? Why did He have to also say that He is willing?

Jesus wanted to grow this man’s faith. The man had unbelief in Jesus’ willingness to stoop down to the lowly. He saw Jesus as Lord and someone of God-sized authority and power but he doubted that Jesus would want to take His time with someone as small and unclean as a leper. So, what does Jesus do? Jesus not only touches the leper but also speaks to him. Jesus shows him that He is more willing to stoop down low than anyone could ever imagine.

Jesus is like no one else! Jesus is simultaneously the Sovereign King and also our Compassionate Savior. Jesus is the Divine Warrior who fights the strongest enemy and He is also the Prince of Peace who goes to the lowest of the low. Don’t you see how different and amazing Jesus is? No one is like Him!

Jesus really cleansed this guy. There were eyewitnesses and everything! There was no denying that this happened. There was only a matter of how they would respond to Him in light of this happening. It’s the same with us. We must respond in faith in our all-powerful, all-compassionate King. We must trust that God is not only able but He is also willing. The reason why this moment in history is recorded in Holy Scripture is that God wants you to trust that He is the most willing person to cleanse you! The God of the Mountain is also the one who comes down the mountain to transform us.

So, What?

Take all your sin and shame to Jesus. Take all of your failures and faults to God. The Holy One deeply desires to cleanse you. The greatest yearning that you have to be cleansed doesn’t compare in the slightest to God’s desire to cleanse you.

But, how does He do this? He does this by coming down the Mountain into the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Jesus came to die. Jesus came to be declared unclean so that we might be able to cry out “Clean! Clean!” If you’re a Christian, you stand in cleanliness because of the Cross and Resurrection. Not only that; you are also being practically cleansed as you walk in faith.

There is nothing in the Christian that will remain unclean. All of your life will be cleansed and you will be brought home to the Mountain. That’s your destiny because Jesus took your place! This is what Matthew wants us to see. This is the Jesus that Matthew proclaims to us. He is simultaneously the Holy One of the Mountain and also the Suffering Servant who shows compassion to the unclean. Now that’s a Savior you can trust in these times and any other time!

How Do We Effectively Pastor During This Time?

This is the question the entire Church is asking today: How do we effectively pastor during this time? This is the question that Jared Wilson responds to in his very helpful blog:

A friend messaged me yesterday asking, “How do we effectively pastor during this time?” In this odd season of quarantining and social distancing and church service suspending, how can pastors maintain their duties to the flock?

In some contexts, perhaps the work of shepherding continues fairly normally. For many others, however, the daunting prospect of ministry in the season of COVID-19 entails more than simply figuring out how to live stream a service. If you can’t be near much of your congregation, how do you pastor them? Some suggestions:

1. Keep preaching.

Obviously, conscience and conviction may dictate whether you want to preach via the internet, but it’s still important to put the gospel in front of your people as many ways as you can. If that means broadcasting a full sermon each Sunday, do it. It may also mean publishing podcasts, vodcasts, blog posts, tweets, or Facebook updates involving devotional thoughts. Right now, your people are taking in all kinds of messages—some helpful, some not, some simply distracting. Don’t let other voices tempt them in their loneliness or anxiety to tempt their eyes away from Jesus. Figure out the ways that work best for your convictions and your context to “show them Jesus.” This is your prime directive.

For the rest of the list, click here.

How To Survive and Have Fun At Home During A Pandemic

One of the biggest concerns that I have been hearing recently has been what parents can do to keep their children active and not merely in front of screen during this time. How can we have some sort of “normalcy” during this time? I am sure that there are many helpful articles out there (and I will seek to pass several of those along as well) but here are some things that might help a family who has their children at home more than usual.

  1. Exercise
    Going to a gym or sports practice seems to be a “no-go” right now since things are touched by everyone. So, how do we stay active? Here are some helpful tips:

    1. Walk/Run/Bike around the neighborhood. You can still practice “social distancing” by walking around the neighborhood with your friends.

    2. Find good YouTube workout videos. There are TONS of people who have developed helpful videos for at-home workouts with no weights needed. Trust me, if you find the right video, it’ll get the job done.

    3. Walk the dog/cat/hamster. Just kidding. Don’t walk the cat. I’ve done that before. We hardly got 50 feet.

  2. Yard Work
    The grass is growing. Get out there and cut the grass! Look, you can even spread it out. Cut the back yard one day and cut the front yard the next day. As experts are telling us, it helps to be outside in the heat to defeat the spread of the disease.

  3. Pick up books
    This is the perfect time to replace the phone, Netflix, and video games with a good book. Pick up Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, or The Hunger Games. Read a good fiction book. Get immersed in the wonder of a good story told. Pick up a good book to aid in the Christian life. Check out books by John Piper, Tim Keller, Kevin DeYoung. Don’t do audiobooks! Get a real book in your kid’s hands. Matter of fact, I bet Amazon will still deliver books to you!

  4. Grill Out, Bake, Cook
    Teach the kids how to cook. Parents, what could be better than you taking time to teach the kids how to grill out, bake, and cook now so that when life gets back to normal you can get your kids to cook for you? Teach them how to cook the basics so that they don’t have to survive on Easy Mac and Ramen Noodles when they go to college. They’ll make more friends when they know how to make an awesome “White Chicken Chili”. Don’t microwave food (unless it’s leftovers). Enjoy the process of creating, putting together, and enjoying a hard-earned craft. Cooking can take about an hour to three hours from getting off the couch to finishing your last bite. Take advantage of it.

  5. Find a Hobby on YouTube
    I have seen several of our students who can woodwork, build stuff and every other synonym that goes with what I just said. There are tons of awesome tutorials and “how-to” videos on YouTube that our students have already learned from. I know students who have learned how to work on cars, knit, cook, bake, do magic tricks, play the guitar, and many other things off of YouTube. Take advantage of technology during this time to get them to do things that will take their eyes off of screens. Yes, it means that they’ll have to get on screens in order to find something. But, it’ll pay off in the end.

  6. Space Out Your Entertainment
    One of the best ways to promote boredom and complaining teenagers is if we watch all of our entertainment in only a few days (or hours!). Space it out. Don’t watch a movie every night. Don’t spend all the time in front of the TV. To be sure, we need to watch how much we’re in front of screens but let’s also be realistic that we will certainly be in front of screens a good amount during this time. This isn’t all bad. We just need to be good stewards.

  7. Board Games
    It’s time to break out the board games. There are some really fun games you can purchase or dust off:

    1. Bang!

    2. Pandemic (Yes, this might be the most fitting game during this time!)

    3. Forbidden Island

    4. Risk

    5. Ticket To Ride

    6. Settlers of Catan

    7. Exploding Kittens (don’t worry, it’s a fun and silly game)

    8. Superfight

  8. Keep a Normal Sleep Schedule
    Not every day is the weekend. Even though it feels different, avoid the late nights. Go to bed at a normal time and wake up at a normal time. This is definitely a time to get more sleep (as many youths get only around 4-6 hours a night) but don’t over-sleep.

  9. Don’t Wear “Lazy Clothes” All The Time
    When I was on my “paternity leave” with Knox, I quickly realized that if I put on jeans, shoes, and a decent shirt that I would not feel as drowsy and lazy. Get your kids to still put on decent clothes at times to help the mood. Now, to be sure, don’t make them wear their school uniforms or a suit. Actually, I’d love to see kids wear suits. Send me the pictures! But seriously, don’t go overboard but do figure ways to have them realize that it’s not the Summer yet.

  10. Get on FaceTime and Make Phone Calls; Don’t Just Text
    Get the kids off of texting during this time and get them on FaceTime, House Party, Instagram Live, or whatever else it is to get them talking with each other. Keep up social contact during this time but foster good conversations and not sporadic texting. Bring back the days where you might have a 30+ minute phone conversation with one person. That’s not bad!

  11. Don’t Overload Chores
    Some of us might be grinning from ear to ear like the cartoon Grinch did when he figured out how he could destroy Christmas. Don’t overload your kids with chores. Like the entertainment, space it out. Don’t burn them out. Dads, don’t burn your kids out of yard work. Get them outside but don’t keep them outside until the sun goes down. Moms, don’t worry if they take some time to sit down and watch TV or play games. Give them stuff to do but give them time to hang out. It’s very healthy for them to work hard AND play hard. That creates a good mindset. We don’t want workaholics. We want to create good stewards.

  12. Consider Buying “Table Topics”
    This is one of the BEST conversation starters. It’s a box of tons of questions that help you start genuine conversations. Grace and I have done these and one day we spent hours outside without phones going through some questions. There are tons of different options that they have. I’ll include some below:

    1. Original

    2. Family

    3. Teens

    4. Dinner Party

  13. Go Fishing!
    This is a great way to get outside and still have social distance. Get your hands dirty. Dig up some worms from the ground. This is a good way to get with friends without getting sneezed on.

  14. Make A Literal Bucket List
    Make a bucket list or a “jar” list that you write your own ideas on. Do one a day. Figure out some fun things that you know your family loves to do.

  15. Plant a Garden
    Plant some thyme, oregano, basil, tomatoes, peppers, and anything that you can consume. Plant some bushes, flowers, vines, or whatever else to decorate your home. If your kids help you plant the garden, I guarantee you they’ll think twice before running through it next time.

How Do We Love Each Other Well During A Time Of A Pandemic?

Many of you know Andy Crouch from his books on leadership, culture, or technology stewardship. Andy always seems to put his finger on the pulse of where things our in our culture. In this timely article, Andy Crouch talks about how we can love each other in leadership during this time. Here is an excerpt:

At this extraordinary moment, local leaders — people who lead groups of 10 to 1,000 people — have perhaps the greatest opportunity to shape culture in the United States that they have ever had. This is a guide for those of us who are Christian leaders at this moment.

Shaping culture is a matter of changing “the horizons of possibility.” Culture tells us, in countless direct and indirect ways, what we are able to do, and what we are not able to do. And leaders play an outsize role in moving those horizons, especially at times of disruption and crisis. They play that role through both symbolic action — what they say, how they say it, even how they hold themselves and respond to others — and through decision-making on behalf of others.

A leader’s responsibility, as circumstances around us change, is to speak, live, and make decisions in such a way that the horizons of possibility move towards shalom, flourishing for everyone in our sphere of influence, especially the vulnerable.

With the arrival of COVID-19 in the United States, we need to change the horizons of possibility extremely rapidly in two fundamental ways:

We need to change norms of social interaction literally overnight to minimize the transmission of the virus. I will outline below what I believe are the most important steps, based on the best public information about SARS-CoV-2 (the virus) and COVID-19 (the disease). These steps feel drastic. Crucially, implementing them early enough will require tremendous leadership because they will not initially seem necessary to most of the people we lead. When dealing with pandemics, the measures that will actually make a difference always need to be taken sooner than we think.We need to redirect social energy from anxiety and panic to love and preparation. This crisis presents an extraordinary opportunity to fortify small communities of love and care for our neighbors. That will only happen if we lead in a way that reduces fear, increases faith, and reorients all of us from self-protection to serving others.

There are several reasons that now is an almost uniquely important moment for local leaders. We have become accustomed to culture being shaped “somewhere else” — by elected officials, especially national ones; by celebrities; by media. But we are dealing with a virus that is transmitted person to person, in small and large groups of actual people. This is not a virtual crisis — it is a local, embodied one. Local, embodied responses will quite literally mean life and death for people.

For the full article, click here.

Dear Christian, When The Pandemic Hits, This Is Our Time (TGC Article Excerpt)

Once again, I would like to provide another article that might aid your faith in our all-Sovereign God who is completely in control of every molecule and disease in this world. I have been greatly helped by several articles and blogs this week and I am only wanting to pass these along.

This is a season where the “rubber meets the road” for our faith. How big is our God? What are the demands of the gospel? Do we really love our neighbors? What an opportunity for us at Pear Orchard!

Here is another helpful excerpt from a good blog post from The Gospel Coalition:

And so we’re wondering: how bad is this crisis going to get? Is our society going to pull together, and get through it together? Or is the panic buying a sign of things to come?

Will we be praising the bravery of our medical staff, like we praised the RFS during the bushfire crisis? Or will many of the hospital staff go AWOL if the crisis picks up, like they did in the Matt Damon movie Contagion?

How bad will this crisis be?

The truth is, we don’t know for sure.

And so as a society, we’re increasingly anxious. Anxious for our loved ones. Anxious for ourselves. It’s a time of fear.

But whatever happens, dear Christian, know this: this is our time. God has raised us up for such a time as this. It’s no accident you’re here.

This is our time to think not about ourselves, but about our neighbours. Many of whom are scared, and will only grow more so as the virus spreads.

For the full article, click here.

How To Encourage Young Adults To Drop Out Of Church (Yes, You Read The Title Correctly)

The stats are nothing new. We’ve seen the numbers for several years now. But, we saw again recently that the numbers have remained the same. Young Adults are dropping out of church when they go to college or when they enter into the professional world.

In his VERY helpful blog, Jared Wilson gives us six ways how we can encourage this trend. Yes, you read that right. In other words, if you want to see these numbers stay the same rather than get better then here are six recommendations he has:

  1. Attend church sporadically.

  2. Complain about your church.

  3. Insulate them from the rest of the body.

  4. Ignore their crucial questions.

  5. Church hop.

  6. Marginalize or muzzle the gospel.

If I might be so bold, I would add a couple more that would encourage this trend:

  1. Don’t talk to your children about the difference between going to church versus listening to a podcast or watching a YouTube video of a sermon.

  2. Don’t model vulnerability with close friends at the church.

  3. Treat Jesus as a means to an end rather than the end in Himself.

  4. Only attend what is “absolutely necessary” in order to keep up your membership at the church.

  5. Criticize the sermon every week in front of your kids.

  6. Teach them that doctrine isn’t important as long as they just “love God and love others”.

  7. Don’t prepare for Sunday worship like it’s an important day.

  8. Don’t talk about how Sunday worship applies to the rest of the week.

For Jared Wilson’s full article, click here.

How Would C.S. Lewis Respond To The Coronavirus?

In this phenomenal excerpt from C.S. Lewis provided by Matt Smethurst from The Gospel Coalition, it is helpful to replace “atomic bomb” with “coronavirus”. The reason why I wanted to post this helpful except is to show us yet again another man who has a balanced response amidst a crisis. Here is a man who reacts with faith in a great God while also using common sense. In this, we see how C.S. Lewis might respond:

In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

What Would Martin Luther Say About The Coronavirus?

As the tensions, panic, and severity of the coronavirus seem to be ramping up over the past 48 hours, Martin Luther is certainly someone who comes to mind in circumstances like this. Luther, the man who fired the theological shot that was heard about the world, was a man who also went through a legitimate plague.

In August of 1527, the infamous Black Plague visited Wittenberg where Luther lived. What was his take on the plague that had knocked out far more than our coronavirus? Was it to downplay the disease in light of God’s sovereign provision? Was it to overreact in fear and hysteria? No. As you might see, Luther has one of the most balanced responses in circumstances like ours.

In his helpful overview of how Luther responded, Marvin Olasky from World Magazine has shown how Luther might react were he to be alive today. Here is a helpful excerpt:

Luther’s step one was to follow Christ’s statement, “‘As much as you did to one of the least, you did to me’ (Matthew 25:40). If you wish to serve Christ and to wait on him, very well, you have your sick neighbor well at hand. … This is said as an admonition and encouragement against fear and a disgraceful flight to which the devil would tempt us so that we would disregard God’s command in our dealings with our neighbor and so we would fall into sin of the left hand.”

Luther went on to say: “Others sin on the right hand. They are much too rash and reckless, tempting God and disregarding everything which might counteract death and the plague. … They do not avoid persons and places infected by the plague, but lightheartedly make sport of it and wish to prove how independent they are.”

Luther concluded, “It is even more shameful for a person to pay no heed to his own body and to fail to protect it against the plague the best he is able, and then to infect and poison others who might have remained alive if he had taken care of his body as he should have. He is thus responsible before God for his neighbor’s death and is a murderer many times over. My dear friends, that is no good. … Shun persons and places wherever your neighbor does not need your presence.”

For the full article, click here.

Should Christians Feel Guilty All the Time? (Kevin DeYoung)

This article is one that was written in 2016 but the power of the gospel still speaks in this short blog. This blog greatly helped my own heart especially when feeling the guilt and shame of past mistakes that can go back as far as 10-15 years ago. So, for those of you who struggle with something similar, maybe this excerpt will help you too:

1. We don’t fully embrace the good news of the gospel. We forget that we have been made alive together with Christ. We have been raised with him. We have been saved through faith alone. And this is the gift of God, not a result of works (Eph. 2:4-8). Let us not be afraid to embrace the lavishness of God’s grace.

2. Christians tend to motivate each other by guilt rather than grace. Instead of urging our fellow believers to be who they are in Christ, we command them to do more for Christ (see Rom. 6:5-14). So we see Christlikeness as something we are royally screwing up, when we really should see it as something we already possess but need to grow into.

3. Most of our low-level guilt falls under the ambiguous category of “not doing enough.” Look at the list above. None one of the items is necessarily sinful. They all deal with possible infractions, perceptions, and ways in which we’d like to do more. These are the hardest areas to deal with because no Christian, for example, will ever confess to praying enough. So it is always easy to feel terrible about prayer (or evangelism or giving or any number of disciplines). We must be careful that we don’t insist on a certain standard of practice when the Bible merely insists on a general principle.

For example, every Christian must give generously and contribute to the needs of the saints (2 Cor. 9:6-11; Rom. 12:13). This we can insist on with absolute certainty. But what this generosity looks like–how much we give, how much we retain–is not bound by any formula, nor can it be exacted by compulsion (2 Cor. 9:7). So if we want people to be more generous we would do well to follow Paul’s example in 2 Corinthians and emphasize the blessings of generosity and the gospel-rooted motivation for generosity as opposed to shaming those who don’t give as much.

For the full blog, click here.

How to Raise Children in a ‘Be Yourself’ World (The Gospel Coalition)

Here is an interesting excerpt from an article that might bring parents some encouragement amidst the struggle to parent children today:

An advertising poster for vitamins was recently put up near our house. It has the singer Nicole Scherzinger telling me: “How you look and feel comes from within having that inner light. Whatever you do, give it your all and be amazing.”

What you make of that statement may well depend on your age. The older you are, the more likely you’ll smile and think, Uh, no matter how many vitamin supplements I take, I’m unlikely to ever look like a model and pop star. A younger audience, though, will tend to be less cynical and to cheer the sentiment.

We live in a world that tells us endlessly to look within, discover who you are, and be true to yourself. For parents, it can be bewildering how this message has been absorbed by our children. Let me therefore suggest five—admittedly broad-brush—thoughts on helping your teenage kids navigate the modern maze of messages.

Click here for the rest of the article.

Wednesday Night Preview

Tomorrow night, I will be leading us in our next talk in our series on “Through the Trembling Darkness: Thinking Biblically About Anxiety and Depression”. We will be talking about “The Fear of God vs The Fear of Man” and how this affects our understanding of anxiety and depression. We will be seeking to answer questions such as:

  1. How does the fear of man actually show up in real-life?

  2. What happens in our hearts whenever the fear of man takes over?

  3. What does it mean to fear God?

  4. How can I grow in the fear of God?

  5. How does fearing man affect my anxiety and depression?

Preview for Tonight's Teaching: God And the World We Live In

Here is a preview video of what we’ll be talking about tonight. Bring your kids to catechism and bring your 7th-12th grade children to the Youth Large Group. Dinner starts at 5:30 and the teaching starts at 6:30. There will be a teaching session for half the time and discussion in groups for the other half.