Over the past year or so the some of the men at church have been helping drive another man to dialysis several times per week because he could no longer drive and his wife has “night blindness” and he was required to be at the clinic in the very early morning hours when it was still dark out. I learned so much about him and from him in those short drives over to the clinic. He died last week and we buried him last weekend. During the funeral service, the pastor described his life with scripture. Psalm 1: 1-3 to be exact.
1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
During that funeral service and for some time thereafter I was really dealing with a lot in my head and my heart. I was thinking about the man I am today. I also thought about the legacy that I am leaving. Will I be a Psalm 1 man? Do I delight in the Lord and meditate on Him all day?
Bear with me as I gush for a moment. This morning as I was reading, praying and beginning to start off my work day I began to think ahead to the weekend. We have a very busy weekend planned, and my wife has really been working hard in preparation. We are celebrating our son’s first birthday as well as our fifth wedding anniversary.
As I thought about the preparations and the upcoming events I was suddenly overtaken by a feeling of joy. I had to immediately thank God for all of the blessings He has given me in my life, but especially in the realm of my family. I have had only a few minutes today to reflect back on the first four years of our marriage. God has really brought us through a lot of difficult times. Two days after we were married I began law school in North Carolina (four hours from our families and our home), two months after that Stephanie started working in Greenville, South Carolina (our home), and we basically lived together on weekends for three years. In the midst of that separation Stephanie’s father was diagnosed with cancer and eventually passed away. Now that I’m back home there are the constant pressures of our jobs and other responsibilities that draw us away from time together.
This past year, we welcomed our first child - a beautiful baby boy - into our lives. I never thought there would be such a change in our lives and our marriage. There was such an infusion of love and joy into my life when Cole was born. I can’t even explain.
So now, this is one of my favorite times of year. A lot of celebration for the truly excellent things in my life that God has given me.
This week my church, Cross Roads Baptist Church, is hosting the Revolution Student Conference. I just love the tag line: “a complete change in the way we think and act.” One cool new part of the conference this year is that we are taking up a special offering for Blood: Water Mission who helps to build wells for villages in African villages.
There have been some awesome speakers and challenging messages and the worship with Dan Carroll has been outstanding. Each night there is a drama/skit, but the drama the first night is always awesome. Check out this video of “Everything.
CRBC Student Drama “Everything” from Tripp Atkins on Vimeo.
Tonight is the last night of the Revolution so if you are a junior high or high school student in the Greenville area, come check it out. Visit www.crbcsc.org for directions to Cross Roads.
There are times in our lives where we are just blindsided by something bad. You don’t see it coming and you don’t know where or how it got to you, but now it’s here and it isn’t going away for a while. Sometimes I feel guilty because the bad things in my life aren’t nearly the same scale as what other people endure; however, it is still a shock to my system and something for me to get through. I’m working through a situation like that now. Now really isn’t the time for details, but I received a word today that gave me a much brighter outlook because I really have no control over the outcome.
The Bible says in Romans 5: 3-4:
3Not only so, but we[a] also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
I can’t say it better than Paul did, but I know that I have always seen this progression in my troubles. I learn what it takes to get through them (perseverance/endurance) which builds character and character builds hope. We learn to be “hope-full” because of how God has delivered us in the past.
On it’s own, this verse helped me today but when I continued reading in the Psalms I immediately had that “A-ha” moment.
But as for me, I will always have hope;
I will praise you more and more.
Because of what God has done for me and because of how he has proven Himself over and over I should always have hope and praise God more and more. Times of trial should lead to “more and more” praise because we know God will teach us more about perseverance and character and lead us to more hope.
As an aside, I think the Message version of the Bible translates Romans 5: 3-5 in an awesome way:
There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!
Praise God that he never short changes us; rather, we can’t produce enough containers to hold everything GOd wants to pour into our lives!
As Iron sharpens Iron,
so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27: 17)
During my life there have been times when I have felt extremely close to God and where he has placed me on earth. There are other times when I have felt very far from God. Those times where I felt extremely close to God, I was involved with a small group of men who held each other accountable for the things we struggle with, we studied God’s word together, we helped each other through tough times, we hung out together all the time, and were best friends.
I would encourage everyone to have a group of people who can help keep you “sharp” and accountable.
Some days are just good days, and then other days the sky might as well fall in. It happens to everyone. We just can’t have great days all the time. I guess that’s human nature. Because so much of our happiness in life is from our relationships with other human beings - and we know that there are enough trials to go around so we are bound to run into someone who is at their breaking point every now and then.
Even David, a king and "a man after God’s own heart" felt like this sometimes. In Psalm 57: 4 David says:
I am in the midst of lions;
I lie among ravenous beasts—
men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.
The world can try to bring us down with lots of stuff. But just like David, we take refuge in God, for great is [His] love, reaching to the heavens; [His] faithfulness reaches to the skies (Psalm 57: 10).
I was struck by a passage of scripture today and by Pastor Steven Furtick’s (Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC) message this week about parenthood and my role in my son’s life. The scripture is Mark 1: 9-11:
At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.
Before Jesus ever began his ministry on earth; before he ever gave a sermon or performed a miracle, his father made sure everyone knew that this is HIS SON, whom HE LOVES, and the he is WELL PLEASED with him. If you are a parent, then you know that you have never loved anything more than your child - sometimes I wonder where all of that love came from that I feel for Cole. Make sure you tell your children (and everyone else for that matter) that you love your kids, you are proud of them, and nothing they do can change that. It is so important that your kids don’t feel like they have to prove themselves to you in order to earn your love.
Follow the Master’s example and love your kids unconditionally, and never make them prove anything to you to earn your love.
I heard a story recently about a friend who has a couple of kids and a pet fish. Recently, one of the little guys thought it would be fun to pet the fish while he was swimming around peacefully in his fishbowl. Apparently, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for the fish and he leapt from his fish bowl onto the ground below.
Maybe he thought he was diving into bigger, deeper waters. Maybe he thought there would be something better on the outside. Who knows?!? But we all know that what awaited him on the floor below was not a better life, but suffering.
I meet with a lot of clients who are suffering. They are really going through a hard time. Whether it is because of choices they made in business, or at home, they are suffering. A lot of times, it is extremely hard to ask for help in these situations because you got yourself into a mess and you can get yourself out of it. Plus, you don’t want to go around telling everyone about your bad decision or daily struggles.
My problem seems to be I have these urges to do something different. Something "better." You know, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. And I see that in a lot of my client’s lives. They decided they can do their job better than anyone around so they go out and start a business doing it on their own. Many times they are blessed/cursed with extreme and immediate success. But then their lack of planning and poor business choices lead to their struggles. Many people are extremely good at what they do, but they are terrible businesspeople. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be in business for themselves, however. I would suggest that you do what you are good at and have someone help you with the things that you aren’t good at. That way, it relieves you of the stresses you face when you try to handle something you don’t like to do and you know you have competent people helping you in your business. (As an aside, this is not necessarily a call to have employees, but to properly hire independent contractors to handle certain business tasks).
While the grass may look greener, I would encourage you to thoroughly do your research. Get your plan together up front. This is something that cannot wait! If the plan doesn’t look good, then maybe you need to answer some more questions, or back up and change your plan.
It’s Not About Me; It’s About Bringing Fame to God
22 Jul
Posted by Tripp as Bible Study, Church Life
I am currently reading through the book of Acts, and when I got to Acts 20: 24
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.
I am always amazed at the apostle Paul’s perspective and intense passion for his calling in life. I also totally respect how he served God full time, but did not take anything from the church for his service. He gave, gave, and gave for the cause of Christ and saw his ministry become blessed.
I am constantly amazed at how people are afraid to change. Things are comfortable and people don’t like the possibility of doing something different. Some churches are still doing things the same way they did them 50 years ago. In my opinion, a choice to stay the same is a choice not to pursue the younger generations for Christ because they expect more from "church." Technology is not from the devil. We are not letting "the world" into the church by using technology and new methods for reaching people as long as the Word of God is not compromised - that is never an option.
I think churches will struggle and fail to reach people until they get the same mind set as Paul. A kingdom mind set. That life isn’t about you, but it’s about reaching people for Jesus, and bringing fame to God’s name. Not about the next program or what church can give to us, but what we can give to the service of God.
Once we get into this kingdom mind set we won’t talk bad about what the church down the street is doing that is working because will be rejoicing with them in their successes and we will be reaching out, and being effective for God.
While reading through the Psalms recently, God spoke to me when I reached Psalm 37: 7:
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him to act.
One of the things that I battle is getting to far out ahead of myself. My mind is always racing and I get impatient wanting things to happen NOW! I am sure that everyone deals with this. There are times in life when you just want God to act and take something difficult away or to give you something you need; but it seems like God is just not in a hurry to do anything.
Everything is done according to God’s plan and we don’t know exactly what that is, but we are comforted in knowing that God has good plans for us:
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29: 11.
