"One sows and another reaps..."

One Sunday, I was talking with one of the Sunday school teacher from our church and I asked him how his class was this morning. He was encouraged to be able to teach the children the word of God, but I could tell that he was burdened by something. I waited a few moments thinking that perhaps he might share what was burdening him. And then he spoke. He said, “I just don’t think the kids get it. I put all this time preparing, which I love to do, but I don’t know how much they actually walk away with.” I was so thankful to the Lord for allowing me to be in John chapter 4 this past week particularly verses 36-38, which reads; "Already the ones who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

This was the passage the Lord brought to my attention for this brother who was burdened by the lack of visible fruit in the children’s lives. I reminded him that perhaps he had been called to sow and someone else was going to reap his labor later on down the road. This was exactly what happened with the disciples as Jesus promised. The disciples would enter into the labor of those who had gone before them. In Acts chapter 2 after Peter’s powerful sermon, 3000 souls were added to the Kingdom of God. In Acts chapter 4 another 2,000 souls were added to the Kingdom. This was the fulfillment of what Christ told them they had entered into. This is no different for us today. Some will be called to reap a harvest of souls and others will be called to faithfully sow the seeds of the word of God with no visible fruit. In a ministry to children, the primary calling on the teacher’s life is to sow the seeds of God’s word into their hearts. This is also a primary principle in parenting. Much of what teaching children and parenting is all about is sowing the seed of God’s word into the lives of children.

It’s tempting to become discontent or discouraged when you continually labor to sow seeds of God’s word and see no visible fruit. Those who are called to a labor of sowing must keep in mind the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:58, "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." You see, in the end, both reaper and sower will rejoice together. The whole purpose of having sowers and reapers is so that their will be much rejoicing when we join together in giving the Lord praise for His incredible work of saving sinners from His wrath for all eternity.

Let these words encourage your weary soul to press on to joyful and faithful ministry. Let these words encourage you to faithfully proclaim the Gospel to those you come in contact with.

"Do Hard Things"

I’m reading a book entitled Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris (younger brothers of Joshua Harris – Senior Pastor of Covenant Life Church and author of books such as Not Even a Hint; I Kissed Dating Goodbye etc…). This book is aimed primarily at the teen culture of today, but since I have been regularly meeting with teenagers and will be leading a team of teens this summer during one of our outreach events, I thought I should read something that may help me get in their world a little bit. As I started reading this book, I came to realize that parents should read this book well before their children become teenagers.

Let me give you a brief summary as to how this “do hard things movement” was started. During the summer of 2005 Alex and Brett Harris were unsure as to what to do with their summer. This was unusual for these young men because they were self motivated and had been taught to make good use of their time. In fact for years they were involved in debating and they often spent their summers doing research on particular topics of interest. On this particular summer, they were at a loss. Their parents challenged them that they needed to move on, but they were unsure as to what this would look like for them. Finally, their dad came to them with this statement, “I’m putting you two on an intense reading program this summer.” As he made this statement he placed a large stack of books on their kitchen counter. This stack included books that ranged from various topics such as: history, philosophy, theology, sociology, science, business, journalism, and globalization. During this process of reading they came up with this idea to start a blog to start sharing their thoughts and ideas. This is when they came up with the idea of challenging teens to rebel against the low expectations our culture places on them; and so the term rebelution was birthed. This word is a made up word and is a combination of the word rebel and revolution. The summer of 2005 started a growing movement of young people choosing to “do hard things” for the glory of God. Now Alex and Brett Harris take this message to do hard things to parent-teen conferences all across the nation.

This book captured my attention because I realized that the only reason why these young men are the way they are is because their father and mother didn’t buy into the lie of the so called “teenage” years. The parents of Alex and Brett Harris taught them that they would transition from boyhood to adulthood without the “teen” years. They didn’t buy into the lie that somehow the age of adolescence means a vacation from responsibility.

I was challenged by this book because I think this idea of doing hard things shouldn’t start during the “teen” years, but should start when our children are young. We expect so little of our children. We make excuses for their disobedience with the words like, “O, they must be tired.” Since when does being tired give anyone a license to be disobedient. Or when we ask our child to say hello to someone and they turn away. We make excuses for this child’s behavior by saying, “O is Johnny shy today…” NO Johnny is not shy he’s just plain rude, and he needs to be taught that rudeness is unkind. Since when is it ever appropriate for us to turn away and ignore someone who is trying to say hello to us? The easy thing to do is to excuse the child’s behavior, the hard thing to do is to make it a sinful heart issue and then have to discipline for it. Here’s another example; two of your children are fighting for the same toy. The easy thing to do in this situation is to give the toy to the one who was able to attain the toy first, but the hard thing to do is to evaluate the hearts of both children and ask why child number one is unwilling to give up his toy and evaluate why child number 2 wants to possess the toy so desperately. It’s a hard thing to think through these issues and then evaluate because after thinking through this particular scenario thoroughly the parent will have to conclude that both child is clearly displaying sinful actions that needs to be disciplined.

After being challenged by this book, we as a family have decided that we are going to do hard things this summer. Oh, we’ll have plenty of fun, but we are going to incorporate hard things with the fun. For example, one hard thing our children were challenged by already this summer is riding their bikes up the hill to grandma and grandpa’s house. They live on Browns Mountain so it is quite a ride up hill for these short legs. Last week was their first attempt, and they all succeeded with a little bit of encouragement. We went a second time this week, and they admitted it was a lot easier the second time compared to the first. Another hard thing I am asking the kids to do is to make friends with the kids in our new neighborhood. One of the things they have not been able to do in our previous neighborhood was make friends with neighborhood kids because there weren't any. Another hard thing the kids decided to do was start an early morning exercise program. They decided that they were going to follow mom and dad’s example and exercise every morning after they do their quiet times. They started jogging one mile a day. Cade wanted to step outside his comfort zone by requesting to take golf lessons. This summer Cade will take golf lessons for the first time. It’s a new sport for him, so it is a hard thing. He and I will also attempt to play 9 holes on a par 3 course after his one week lesson. This will be a hard thing for me; to try and coach him. Kailyn and Claire are going to be involved in competitive swimming this summer. All the kids will be required to read several classic books during the summer (LaNae is still working on their reading list). I have plans to read a book that is not theological or spiritual in nature called Escape from the Deep. It’s a WWII submarine story. This will be a different type of reading for me since I finished seminary. It will be hard, but I am looking forward to it. LaNae and I have started the hard road of adoption. We don’t know what to expect, completely, but we have prayed and sought the Lord regarding the next hard thing we were to do after we were done with seminary life, and the Lord keeps directing our hearts towards adoption. We registered, by faith, with an international adoption agency by paying the $200 registration fee this week. The average cost for an adoption from the Philippines is $20,000. Read LaNae’s blog for periodic updates on this topic.

Parents, let’s not waste our families life. Let’s challenge one another to begin a pattern of modeling the act of doing hard things for the glory of God before our children.

Redeeming Family Vacations - Addendum

Recently I posted about my plan on how to redeem our recent family vacation through Utah's national parks. I came across this post from C.J. Mahaney's Blog that is probably more helpful than mine. Men, I highly encourage you to check it out before you even begin packing your bags for vacation. I think it will help set the tone for your family. Enjoy

Family Prayer Time

I love blogging about various things we do during our family devotions, because I want to be helpful to those who may be having a hard time trying to figure out what to do with your children. Because of our study through 1 Thessalonians the topic of prayer has been fresh in my mind. Do you ever have a hard time trying to figure out what you should pray for as a family? Well, here's a suggestion. I got the idea from the prayer calendar I put together for myself.

Each night after our family devotions, we devote a time of prayer together. When we first started doing this all we would do was pray for each other, and I started to think, “surely, we could be praying for more than ourselves.” So I laid a schedule for our prayer times so that each night of the week our prayers have a different focus. On Mondays we generally pray for any pressing needs related to our family, on Tuesdays we pray for our missionaries, on Thursdays we pray for our friends and/or for those who need Christ, and on Saturdays we pray for all the teachers in Sunday School and for the preaching of God’s word.

Here’s a suggestion for how to keep your friends in your prayers. Do you ever wonder what you should with all those family pictures you receive during the Christmas season? Sometimes they get placed on your fridge and other times they get thrown into the garbage. We have all the pictures we receive during Christmas in a drawer, and every Thursday night is our night to pray for friends. So we take 10 pictures from the drawer and divided it among the five of us and each of us take turns praying for the families represented in the picture we are given. It’s a great way to remind ourselves of the many friends that God has brought into our lives over the years, and when we get together with these friends during the year or when we correspond with them in some way we are able encourage them by telling them that we are praying for them as a family.

The Heart of Paul

Sunday nights is always a special time in the Sanchez family home. This is the one night of the week where we journal as a family what things we are thankful for. The topic of thankfulness has been brought out to the forefront of our minds in the past couple weeks because of our study through 1 Thessalonians. You can't walk away from this letter without realizing that Paul was a thankful person. In the opening chapter he tells the Thessalonian church that he (and his cohorts) gives thanks for the Thessalonian church in 3 ways. He says he gives thanks to God for them when he continually makes mention of them in his prayers. He says that the times he gives thanks for them is when he remembers their work produced by their faith, their labor produced by their love, and their perseverence produced by their hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then he says that the reason he gives thanks for them is because he knows that they were chosen by God. And he knows they are chosen by God because they believed the gospel when it came to them and it changed their lives.

Last Friday we had the leaders of FBC's Family and Children's Ministry in our home for our final leadership dinner for the year. We had 11 couples in our home who serve as ministry leaders. As I was giving a short lesson on this passage on this particular night I looked througout that room and realized, these people emulate what Paul is describing in 1 Thessalonians 1:2-5. Every single one of our leaders have full time jobs and families to provide for and care for. Yet, they devote a large part of their week in leading Bible studies with the teachers in their department, caring for needs the teachers may have, and they make sure their department in Children's ministry is appropriately staffed so that Sunday mornings run smoothly.

Paul's words in 1 Thess 1:3-5 reminded me that I need to be constantly on the hunt to find things to be thankful for in my family and the people of FBC.