This summer my prayer for whoever goes on this trip is this… “Lord Break Us”…Lord would you give us a dose of you that changes the way we do life. That’s a “risky” prayer but one that I pray we see come to life

I’m reminded of Proverbs 7 (it’s great on this subject…check it out). One line of that chapter in which the story of a young man is told says this: “All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter”…. Here is the young man being seduced…a young man being tempted and then him giving in to that temptation.

I don’t want to make headlines for falling to sexual immorality. I made a copy of Catherine Rohr’s resignation letter and I put it on the wall of my office. It’s a reminder that my wife, my children and they ministry in which God has me, are on the line and that Satan would love for me to fall in this way. He loves it when leaders, whether they be leaders in their schools, or churches, or among their friends; Satan loves it when leaders, when people of influence fall. “God I pray you’d protect the leaders in Oasis. I pray you’d make our student and adult leaders ruthless in their pursuit to be connected intimately with you and your purposes.”

Let me pose some questions as I end this post: What temptations could sideline your future hopes/dreams? What decisions in High School will hugely impact your future? What are you doing to resist the temptation of pornography and immorality? Do you have anyone in your life that asks you hard questions on a regular basis…do you have accountability in your life?

The past few days my picture of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus has been clarified.  If you’ve walked in Christian circles for a while you’ve heard this phrase: “Becoming a disciple of Jesus”.  But what does that mean?  How do you become a disciple? 

Back to what God has been teaching me.  The other morning my son came into the bathroom as I was getting ready and he said, “today I’m going to wear my white shirt too.”  I asked him why he was going to do that and he said this, “I want to be just like you.”  He then proceeded to show me his pants which were the same brand as mine…he calls them his “daddy jeans”.  He then asked me what color socks I was wearing…I told him black so he went to his room and came back with his black socks.  I put on some cologne…he requested the same. I then went out to iron my white shirt and he insisted I iron his as well. 

Aiden’s behavior at 4 years old models “discipleship”…when you become a disciple of Jesus you are saying to him continuously: “I want to be like you.” ”I want to think like you do.” ”I want to act like you do.” ”I want to love like you do.”  

I’ve been challenged to think more and more about who I want to be like?  Do I long to be like Jesus…because that’s the road to being His disciple.  This idea hasn’t ever been so vivid.  To be a disciple is to “imitate” someone else.  Might it be our desire to “be-like” Jesus Christ.

So I’m walking my two kids to the park that is across the street from our house the other day and as we get to the end of our driveway I notice a car that had just gone down the street putting on it’s brakes and stopping in the middle of the street. I then look out directly in the street at the end of our driveway and I see this squirrel on its back kicking, and flailing on its back. I thought…”O’ boy, this isn’t a good site for the kiddies.” About that time the squirrel, now a few feet from its pool of blood, has gotten up and it’s trying to run…one small problem…it’s head isn’t fully attached and it’s running towards us. More specifically it’s heading towards Ashlyn who now sees this squirrel and wants to “see it”. The squirrel didn’t make it to us and it “breathed its last” there in the street a few moments later. So now I’ve got a problem…what do I tell the kids? In a moment of desperation all I could think to say was…”that’s what happens when you don’t look both ways before crossing the street.” Needless to say we looked both ways before we crossed . Ashlyn kept repeating all day: “Squirrel, dead”.