day no. 13,086: what happens when agape and phileo get married?‏

Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. (EPH 5)

 

What kind of love is that you ask?

 

Agape: the steadfast, never stopping, always, forever kind of love that is based on covenant and not on circumstances.

 

That is how husbands are called and commanded to love their wives.

 

Wives are called to love their husbands. (TITUS 2)

 

What kind of love is that you ask?

 

Phileo: the friendly, warm, helping, tender kind of love that experienced by besties.

 

That is how wives are called and commanded to love their husbands.

 

Men are called to lay down their lives and commit.

 

Women are called to orient their lives around helping their husbands in camaraderie.

 

That isn’t to say that men are not called to be friendly and warm with their wives or that women aren’t called to commit to and selflessly die to themselves in order to live for the well-being of their husbands.

 

Husbands and wives should both agape, phileo and eros each other.

 

But men are commanded to play the role of Savior to their wives. Not literally of course, only Jesus saves. But the role men are called upon to play in God’s production is Protector, Rock, Lead Servant, and Savior.

 

And women are commanded to play the role of helper, friend and companion. Not literally just a slave at the beck and call of their husband per se, but one who orients her life around helping him in his pursuits and making him feel safely loved as a friend who respects him. 

The role women are called to play in God’s production is Friend, Helper, Comforter and Counsellor.

 

Men often want to hang out and be buddies with their wives. That’s what men need.

Women often want to be wooed, pursued and romanced. That’s what women need.

 

If both spouses do what God is calling and commanding them to do, there will be no void or vacuum of needs going unmet.

 

Men need companionship, but more than that they need to extend loving kindness and adoration to their wives.

 

Women need romance, but more than that they need to extend friendship, fellowship and fun to their husbands.

 

Everyone gets what they want and need by dying to themselves and serving the other.

Too many husbands and wives respectively look outside of their homes for what they want and need rather than committing themselves to being what their spouse wants and needs.

 

Do unto others as you would have done unto you.

 

If husbands and wives embrace that, they will seek what their spouse needs rather than what they want and both will end up loved in the ways God commands and calls us to.

day no. 13,085 continued... not Christ comma Jesus‏

Too many people claiming to be Christians ignore the Christ.

 

Christ was not Jesus’ last name.

 

He wasn’t listed in the phone book as Christ, Jesus.

 

Christ is a title.

It means Messiah.

 

Jesus the Christ: the Savior, the Messiah, the Rescuer, the Promise One, etc…

 

The early gathering of those who believed that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection fulfilled the promises of God and completely provided the means by which to be saved and sanctified were called Christians.

Acts 11:26b

For a whole year they met with the church and taught large numbers. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.

 

Christian meaning “those identified above anything else by their association with Jesus

Christ.”

 

So it is curious today that so many people who call themselves Christians reject entirely their need for a Christ.

 

They don’t believe they are bad people in need of saving.

Many don’t believe that they are dead people in need of regeneration.

Most don’t believe that they are disqualified from Heaven on their own merit.

 

To call oneself a Christian is to confess, at the very least, that a Savior is necessary.

To call yourself a Christian is to confess that there is only One who can save.

 

God saves sinners and His Christ is the only means by which we are reconciled to Him.

 

Many in churches today are not Christians.

They are Moralists and Good Worksians.

1 Timothy 2:5-6

⁵ For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,⁶who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

 

To be a Christian means to confess a Christ and not just any Christ, but a very specific Christ named Jesus.

day no. 13,085: pop culture‏

A few weekends ago, Paige and I travelled to Chicago, attended a wedding, went to IKEA and drove home all in one day.

 

On the drive home after escaping toll booth purgatory, we exited to get some grub at Taco Bell (because they’re open late and it was late).

 

It was there that I first experienced Mt. Dew Sangrita Blast.

 

SO. GOOD!!!

 

It’s available only at Taco Bell, so it looks like I will be using my out-to-eat times on tacos and Sangrita Blast!

 

I know. I know.

 

I’m 35 and I drink pop (or soda depending on where and at what point in history you’re reading this).

day no. 13,084 continued... so that happened.

I prayed on Monday night that by the end of the day on Tuesday I would have a new job.

There was a phone interview scheduled with CBE for 1pm, so I had reason to hope that perhaps the interview would go well enough that a job offer would be made at the end of that interview.

I had also been asked to meet Paul and Stan for coffee at Panera before work to hang out and spend some time together.

What resulted was a conversation about the needs of Candeo Church and the gifts and skills Paul and Stan believed me to possess.  The cool part was that the church’s needs and my skills were one in the same.

Paul and Stan had come prepared to offer me a job working along their capable sides as the new Administrative Pastor of Candeo Church.

In addition to coming on board, I would also begin attending Cornerstone School of Theology to begin working on my MATS degree (Masters of Arts in Theological Studies) which will wrap up at the end of the summer of 2016.

The idea being perhaps after 2 years of experience in full-time vocational ministry and a completion of theological training, I may be asked to help plant the first church outside of the walls of Candeo (and perhaps the first 3C Network church to bust outside of the borders of Iowa).

I called Paige on the drive to work and in little to no time it was determined that I should respond quickly in the affirmative.

So as of late this morning, I put in my resignation at CUNA Mutual and accepted the offer of Candeo Church.

Amazing, right?

God heard my prayer and answered my heart’s desire.

It is not to say that this happened immediately.  In fact, I had been praying this for months prior to this day.  I felt like the widow relentlessly knocking on the door begging for resolve.  I don’t know how long she banged on that door, but I glean from the parable that it was after plenty of opportunity to stop knocking and to quit.

I can relate.

What relief, joy exhaustion, rest, etc… came when that door was opened.

It has been one of the more difficult seasons of my short life.

I’m glad it’s over.

I’m excited to move forward.

day no. 13,084: wisdom and worship‏

1 Corinthians 2:1-2

When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom.² For I didn’t think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

 

We are often told that you have to choose: would you rather be wise about worldly things or wise about Godly things.

 

Paul here states that this is a false contradiction.

 

If you are not wise towards God, you are not wise towards anything. There is a worldly wisdom good for gaining the world, but God calls that foolishness.

 

There is a wisdom rooted in Christ that seeks to orient all thoughts, actions, beliefs and behaviors under His Lordship, but the world calls that foolishness.

 

If you do not understand God, you do not understand the world.

If you do not choose God, you do not get the world as a booby prize.

You either get God and earth along with Him, or you get nothing.

 

Why?

 

Because Christ is and owns everything.

 

If you make Him your all, you will be called foolish by the world.

But you will inherit the earth by your meekness.

 

They will lose the very world they worshipped.

day no. 13,083: shut it down and shut it up‏

Proverbs 13:3

The one who guards his mouth protects his life;
the one who opens his lips invites his own ruin.

 

If you like your life, you should set up guards for your mouth.

 

If your lips are quick to flap, you invite ruin into your life.

 

Guards are given instruction on who and what to let in and out.

Guards guard valuable things.

 

No one pays guards to protect things that the payer doesn’t care about.

 

Do you care about your life?

Do more shutting up.

Put your money where your mouth is.

Guard your mouth.

Employ wisdom and faith to protect your lips.

Don’t just say whatever you feel or think.

Don’t blurt.

Don’t have diarrhea of the mouth.

 

It will cost you.

No more airing of each and every real or imagined grievance.

 

You will have to bite the bullet that is your tongue.

But it will be worth it.

 

Your life is protected when you guard your mouth.

Your life is vulnerable when you open the gates of your lips to every emotion and outburst you feel intensely.

 

Choose what you say by allowing wisdom and faith to guard you and determine if the thoughts of your mind ought to be published by your tongue.

day no. 13,082: 7 years in the books

Today marks 7 years of making it happen in marriage.

Happy Anniversary to my darling wife!

I’m not sure if it feels like we’ve been together longer than that or shorter than that and I’m not sure what either scenario says about a person per se.

I do know that I really enjoy being married to my wife.

I like the life we have together and I like knowing that even when life feels difficult, I have the comfort of knowing that I get to struggle through it with her.

My wife is amazing and I’d choose her all over again a hundred times over.

So here’s to you and to 7 years of  Van Voorst magic as well as to many more in the house of Voorst.