The Perfect Title

Rarely do the media get something right from a biblical perspective. Usually, what pop culture calls good, the Bible calls bad; and if the Bible says it’s bad, pop culture exalts it as good.

But the popular title for the day after Thanksgiving is biblically precise:

Black Friday

For it is the Friday after Thanksgiving when the dark night of the soul of our materialistic culture asserts its true allegiance, unashamedly worships its true god.

Here’s your Saturday morning headline:

Black Friday madness: Shopper pepper sprays crowd to get deal at L.A. Wal-Mart, shootings in CA, SC (Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/black-friday-madness-shopper-pepper-sprays-crowd-deal-a-wal-mart-shootings-ca-sc-article-1.982565#ixzz1epW5gq6E)

How else do you explain such bizarre behavior?

It’s idolatry.

And like all idolatry, it exposes the emptiness of life without Christ.

We’re raising a generation of idolators in homes where no one talks, but everyone has a screen to relate to. Junior’s in one room dedicating his life to the life-critical skill of flying angry birds to their objectives. Sister sits in another room texting her love and devotion to the latest pimple faced heart throb of her personal high school musical subculture. Mom’s trolling Facebook. This is all fine with dad because he has to get his fantasy team set so that he can compete in a league that only he and a handful of fellow fantasy players will remember…for about two weeks.

But, they gather often at the throne of the screen that really counts: The screen that presents pages and pages of the “stuff” they may want to buy. No, the stuff they must buy. No, the stuff they have to have. And the stuff they will get.

Even if they can’t afford it.

Even if someone else gets there first.

That’s why mom carries that pepper spray.

We’re all familiar with the usual roundup of holiday stories, and I’m sure you have your family favorites.

What’s on my mind is a different type of holiday story. Not the classics we like to read or watch every November through December: It’s A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34^th Street, White Christmas, or even Elf. I’m thinking of the holiday stories only you can tell.

Last week Judy and I were in a little cabin on the Oregon Coast with my daughter Aimee’s three children. We watched movies, played games, made peanut butter balls, and ate at our favorite Cannon Beach restaurants in between my preps and sessions at Ecola Bible School.

But this year I did something different. I told a different kind of story—a story about us—Judy and me and our faith in the Lord Jesus. I recounted to these precious grandchildren the scenes from when I was a young Lieutenant and I thought I was saying goodbye to Judy, their mom, and their uncle Bob in Germany. The report was that the Soviets had attacked and I was on my way to war, leaving my little family behind to somehow survive in war torn Europe.

Of course we didn’t go to war that night, but it was that night that God gave my bride and me our life verse—Psalm 138:8 in the NASB.

The details aren’t as important to you as the impact. All three sat on the couch in that little cabin, eyes transfixed by the real-life story of Boppie and Papa’s life and our relationship with Jesus. As I was talking it hit me.

These kids need to hear about their spiritual heritage.

Holidays are a perfect opportunity to pass on your stories of faith and the faithfulness of God to your family.

Question: What’s the one story you feel you must tell your children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews this Holiday Season?

There’s nothing like it:

A web of redemptive relationship sharing Jesus’ love in protective and nurturing ways.

I just wrapped up five of the most authentic community days I’ve ever experienced. I’ve been speaking at the annual Thanksgiving at Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center in Cannon Beach, Oregon. But it was so much more than a conference for my Judy and me: it was intimate community.

About thirty of our faith community in SoCal–Church of the Open Door–traveled two days braving the rain and snow just to experience it with us. A few families from our past–choice families God has privileged us to disciple now living all over the United States also joined us. Some of our dearest friends in the extended family of God lead the ministries of Cannon Beach–Ecola Bible School and CBCC. Finally, my daughter Celia with her husband David and little Zachary, and my daughter Aimee with her three children, Jackson, Megan, and Camryn were with us.

We ate Thanksgiving together, centered our thoughts on Jesus and His Word, worshiped Him, laughed, cried, prayed, played games, talked about our lives, watched our children draw closer together, and simply experienced the joy of sharing our lives with Jesus and one another.

It’s Sunday evening and everyone–including my Judy–has returned to their “real life.” I’m prepping to teach at Ecola Bible School next week and work on my next book. But before I move on, I have to tell you three reasons why this type of community enriches your Christian life:

It’s a taste of heaven. Judy and I have been coming to Cannon Beach for twenty years now. As we anticipated some of our friends arriving, we kept saying, “I can’t wait until they get here and we can show them this place and introduce them to our Cannon Beach friends.” Judy remarked, “We’ll probably have these same thoughts when we’re in heaven and the Lord Jesus tells us someone we love is about to show up in that wonderful place.” Heaven is going to be all about relationship with the Lord Jesus and one another. Community brings some of that experience to earth.

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Those of you who were a part of the Thanksgiving Conference at Cannon Beach Conference Center who would like a digital copy of our study together, here’s the overview and the attachments:

Deep Breaths of Grace

Here are some questions you may not want to answer in front of your Christian friends at church:

• Do you often feel judged and evaluated by other Christians?
• Are you afraid to let other believers know about the real you because the standard just seems so high and your shortcomings are so many?
• Do you wonder if God is as petty and fussy as Christians make Him out to be? And if He is, do you wonder what it will be like to stand before Him and be scorned? Or worse, if this whole thing about the believing in Jesus to receive His life, eternal life, is really true?

Tired of trying to measure up?

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A lot has happened since thousands of us 60s radicals trusted in a Carpenter from Nazareth and became a movement the world could not ignore–the Jesus Movement.

But what hasn’t happened is another revival. In my new book,Reborn to Be Wild, I challenge every Jesus Movement convert and all Christians who want to see another movement by Jesus to return to our Jesus Movement roots.

If you’re from my generation of Jesus Movement radicals or if you think your heart is radical enough to ask for revival, today is a very real indicator of just how much you mean it.

Forty years ago I remember connecting the dots between Thanksgiving and my newfound relationship with the Lord Jesus. For the first time in my life I knew what I was thankful for–mercy, grace, and blessings–and to Whom I was offering thanks–the God of the Bible who sent His Son to die for my sins. I was a counterculture follower of Christ. Thanksgiving wasn’t about food and football anymore, it was about humility and worship.

It’s time for a Jesus Movement checkup. What and Who were the focus of your day yesterday? And today, are you being swept along by our materialistic culture’s only followup to a day of physical engorgement–a day to engorge our materialistic appetites?

Just how black is your black Friday? Your answer to that will tell you a lot of whether your heart is truly ripe for revival.

“Because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:21-22).

This is your official invitation to have Thanksgiving dinner with Judy and me…at beautiful Cannon Beach, Oregon!

I’m speaking at the Thanksgiving Conference at Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center.

I promise you won’t be disappointed with the food or hospitality. This is our second Thanksgiving with our friends at Cannon Beach, and our family views it as a highlight.

We’ll be studying Psalm 103 in depth, eating a lot, celebrating Thanksgiving with some awesome worship, and, Judy’s favorite part:

NO DISHES!

Here’s all the info: http://www.cbcc.net/Conference-Fall09.htm