Good Parents are Teachers…

When I was a kid I had a book called My Father Can Fix Anything, by Mabel Watts. I liked the book, but it kind of ticked me off that the writer thought that her father was as good at fixing things as my father.

The things that parents teach their children serve them in everything from getting them out of binds to helping them save money by making things last longer.

I heard a story this week about a young man who picked up a broken flat screen television. They took it home, did some research, and put an $18 capacitor in it. It works great. You wonder, “How did that guy know how to do that? Where do you learn that stuff?” He learned it from his father.

Parents teach their children.

This mp3 helps parents know how to be good teachers to their children.

Walking the Tightrope Between Two Worlds…

Tightrope_walkingThe Bible teaches that as citizens of heaven, we’re to behave as citizens of heaven. Separate from sin. Separate from a self-absorbed existence. Separate from practical atheism – by that I mean the common outlook that if there is a God, he doesn’t matter much.

We’re to be dedicated to something more than these things. Dedicated to God. Dedicated to helping people find him. Dedicated to living for him. Seeking and saving that which is lost. We are part of the Kingdom of heaven.

However, while we’re not “of the world,” Christians are “in the world.”

This podcast speaks of our need to walk the tightrope between the world in which we reside and the Kingdom of our citizenship.

How to be Used by God…

I’d like my life to have some meaning. More meaning than pleasing myself and the people I love. Even pleasing the people I love is pretty selfish, if you think about it.

Years ago Christians used to speak of being “vessels” for God. The idea was that Christians carried God’s love, grace, healing, and message to the world. Vessels carry things. In this podcast, I propose a different word: faucets.

Occasionally, when one is emphasizing the power of God and his sovereignty, you can get the impression that people are not important to God at all. But that’s not the case. People are very important to God. He honors and finds pleasure in it when they serve him. No one can count the amount of work God’s had done through people like you and me. God uses faucets. And some of the vessels he’s used weren’t exactly gold-plated faucets. He doesn’t always use Herbeau fixtures.

You know what Herbeau faucets are, right? Looking online, I learned that the least expensive faucet Herbeau makes is 3001 Royale, priced at $1,349. The Herbeau 3405 Royale Deck Mounted Exposed Thermostatic Tub & Shower Faucet goes for $8,987. Their most expensive one goes for only $9,106. God isn’t looking for Herbeau faucets. The vessel conveying the blessing of God is important, but it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Mark Dricsoll, a fairly radical, but extremely biblical pastor in the northwest notes that God uses some vessels – some faucets – that almost anyone else would disqualify. You can read a quote from him in this post.

This sermon podcast talks about having the faith to trust God to use you to deliver his message to a needy world.