Eleven years.  For eleven years I have been preparing to be ordained.  Four years I spent in college, three of those at Central Bible College.  I had the privilege of studying at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary for 3 years additional years.  For the past four years, I have been serving at Calvary Christian Church in Lynnfield, MA, as an associate pastor.  Eleven years of preparation, and it will all pay off next week.  With my ordination service quickly approaching Tuesday, I have been giving much consideration to what it truly means to be ordained.  One place I have ended up in searching for that meaning is back in the book of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah was given a very specific task to accomplish by God, to give leadership over the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.  Although Nehemiah was given this responsibility by God, in Nehemiah chapter 2 we see that the King of Persia, who Nehemiah was a servant to, gave him a letter stating that he approved of Nehemiah's mission.  The letter gave Nehemiah safe passage back to Jerusalem, it allowed Nehemiah to utilize the king's resources in rebuilding the wall, and much more.

Now as soon as Nehemiah starts rebuilding the wall there were some who starting ridiculing Nehemiah, saying the walls couldn't be rebuilt and doing everything they could to stop the work from being completed.  These same complainers even make the accusation in Nehemiah chapter 2, "What is this you are doing?…Are you rebelling against the king?"

Now at this point I would probably pull out my letter from the king, and rub the whole letter with the king's signature and royal seal in their face.  But that is not what Nehemiah does.  Nehemiah does something completely different, he does something profound.  Nehemiah doesn't respond by mentioning the king or his letter at all, he simply states, "The God of heaven will give us success."

To me that is amazing response.  Nehemiah's letter from the king was his Ace of Spades, he could have thrown it down at that moment and ended the conversation, but he realized he had someting better than that letter…he had God's backing.

As I think about my ordination, I sort of feel like Nehemiah.  I will be receiving a very imporant "letter" that says that I have all the blessing and support of my denomination, but as great as that is I, like Nehemiah, have something more important…I have God's backing.  No matter where God calls me I know that my great source of strength, protection, help and so much more.  Nehemiah lived his life with this undrstanding.  I hope I can as well.

Tonight we had another amazing time at Home Care Group.  We continued our study of The Ten, a fresh look at the ten commandments.  This evening we were on the third command to not misuse the name of the Lord.  Growing up I always felt like I had this commandment figured out and nailed down, it was simply yelling God’s name when I hit my thumb with a hammer, or threw a wild pitch in baseball.

Tonight we took a closer look and discovered that misusing God’s name happens any time we leverage God’s name to accomplish something he is not really in.  Maybe that is something as small as being involved at the church not to bring glory to God by serving Him, but to draw attention to ourselves or to feel important.  Or perhaps is going out to a Bible study and telling people you are there to learn more about Christ and to deepen your relationship with God, but really your are there to find a date (for the record, looking for a date at church is probably the best place to look….it just shouldn’t be our primary reason for going to a Bible study).  The reality is that most of us probably take the Lord’s name in vain every day, as anytime we do something using our relationship with God as cover, but we are really doing it for a selfish reason, we break this command.

I just finished up Lost and Found by Ed Stetzer the other day.  Great book on what several churches are doing to make a deliberate effort to reach people in their 20’s.  Any church staff that is serious about reaching out to this generation should read this book.  I am stoked that we are taking the time to read through it as a staff at Calvary.

Much of what I write comes from what I have read. In fact, pretty much
all of it does. I am not that creative of a person, and when it comes
down to it most of the good ideas I have I have taken from someone
else. So, if you ever think I have a great idea you should just look
for the footnote.

But being a fairly uncreative person keeps
me looking for good ideas all around me in all sorts of areas of life.
One of those areas is pastoring. I am not sure I know exactly what the
future holds for me, Becky and our family, but in chance that God would
move us into a senior pastor role somewhere, I am always looking and
thinking about what would be the core values of my church and ministry.

Recently I have been doing some reading and from that reading I
think that at least four core values I want to have are community,
depth, responsibility and connection. Community in that I want people
to connect in meaningful relationships. Depth in that I don't just want
to "do church" but tackle tough real life issues and not settle for
Sunday School answers. Responsibility in that I want my church to be
concerned for the needs of others in our community and in our world.
And finally Connection, I want people to be connected in mentoring
roles, for people to have someone who will walk beside them and teach
them because they have gone through something similar themselves. I am
sure there will probably be a dozen more core values, but these are
four that I see as non-negotiable. 1

1. Stetzer, Ed. Lost and Found page 67-68.

We do it all the time. Almost every day our attention falls off of God
and goes to other things. For some people their attention gets focused
on a relationship. For others, they find themselves spying out a newer
and better job, a bigger house, a nicer car. It doesn't much matter what it
is, the point is that we all let our attention veer from God time to
time.

I think the Israelites in the old testament get a bum rap….or maybe more precise criticized by people who should take a look in the mirror themselves.
We tend to look at them and say, "how could you guys be so stupid. How
could you on one day see God do these amazing miracles to bring you out
of slavery in Eygpt, and the next day be complaining that God has
abandoned you." Perhaps the greatest moment where we look down on the
Israelites is when Moses goes up on the mountain and the Israelites,
with Aaron's help, build I giant golden calf…an idol. It is at that
moment that we say, "how could you guys put anything between you and
God, how could you let your attention fall on something else. You know that he parted the Red Sea for you, you know that he has
been providing food and water for you in the dessert, how could you
ever build an idol and put it in the place of God in your life?"

Here
is the reality though….we do the same thing every day. No, most of us
our not running off and melting down our gold necklaces and earrings to
make an idol, but almost every day we let our attention fall of our God
and on to other things. We let God slip down to a number 2 or 3
priority in our life. We let important things like family, our jobs,
our friends, become not just important things, but the most important
thing.

The truth is we are not much different from the Israelities at all.  Our attention focuses on an idol, that thing we put between us and God.