Colton has confessed Jesus as Lord

Nicole and I are so excited that the Lord has given us a peace and confidence that Colton, 7.5, is now a Christ follower! We are in full celebration mode. Like almost all of life's most treasured occassions, it was a long journey getting to this point, but we are so glad we did it the way we did it.

Colton has been telling us since Sunday, November 16, 2008, that on that day, during an NEHBC worship service, "I asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins and be the boss of me". He can describe in vivid detail what was going on in the worship service, where he was sitting, and who he was sitting with when he prayed to Christ. Colton was four years old at the time so you can understand our doubt, or at least our hesitancy, to believe him. Our greatest fear is to ever affirm to one of our children that they are believers and it turn out they aren't. We had decided before we had kids that we would proceed with extreme caution and hesitancy about any spiritual claims they would make in life. In this case, we decided at the time to neither affirm nor deny his claim, but to keep sharing the gospel with him, keep calling him to salvation, and keep teaching him the Word of God and see what happens. It was a safe and prudent move--if he was a believer, he was reconciled to God even if we didn't affirm it; if he wasn't a believer, we'd still be sharing the gospel with him and calling him to salvation.

We have carefully watched his life and spiritual development and had many heart to heart discussions with him in an effort to accumulate mounting evidence of belief or unbelief in his life. It is so hard with a young boy to sift through his childishness, passion, personality, immaturity, and masculinity to see clearly what is going on in his heart. Is he an unbeliever, is he an immature believer, is he just being a 4-7 year old boy doing what young boys do? It is so hard and has required much prayer for wisdom and discernment.

But, we recently started becoming much more confident that we have seen enough clear evidence of salvation in him: 1. He has only become more and more passionate about his salvation--to the point that he started showing early signs of frustration and anger with us that we were not pursuing his claim of salvation. Over the last 34 months he has brought it up on numerous occassions without prompting. When we celebrate the Lord's Supper at church or he sees us baptize people, he gets very anxious that as a Christ follower he is not personally getting to observe these ordinances. He complains to Nicole and I for days afterwards. 2. He has only become more and more passionate about others coming to faith in Christ by attempting to share his faith with his peers and praying earnestly for lost family members. 3. He loves the Word of God and is hungry for it. 4. He can clearly articulate the gospel message when it comes to our holy God, unholy man, sin, hell, heaven, forgiveness, belief, grace and Lordship. 5. He has demonstrated genuine brokenness over his own sin. 6. While he is a long way from perfect, we have seen the fruit of the Spirit overwhelm the fruit of the flesh in Colton on numerous occassions. 

Still, we wanted to be extra certain; we wanted further confirmation. We don't want to be overboard, but his eternity is hanging in the balance....ok, so we do want to be overboard when it comes to being cautious about affirming spiritual decisions in our kids. One of the worst things a parent can do is rush/pressure/manipulate their child into decisions they are making to please dad and mom and not decisions they are making as a result of the Holy Spirit's conviction in their life. Many a 5-10 year old has walked an isle, been proclaimed a believer by his or her parents, and baptized and by 20 years old has demonstrated zero evidence of salvation.

So, to find the further confirmation, we turned to one of the greatest gifts the Lord gives a Christ follower...the local church. As parents wanting to be certain our child is born again and to safeguard against moving too quickly, we wanted the affirmation or verdict of our local church regarding the matter. This is one of the roles the local church plays in our lives...by living in community with a body of believers they can watch our lives and affirm whether they believe we are born again. The assurance of a local church is a big deal. So, I told Colton that Nicole and I wanted him to meet with a man at NEHBC that Nicole and I trust deeply AND who has regular interaction with Colton so that this man has watched Colton's life. He immediately requested our Executive Pastor, Sonny. Without telling Colton, Nicole and I decided before hand that if Sonny doubted Colton's claim of salvation, we would proceed ahead as if Colton is not yet born again. So, Colton met one-on-one with Pastor Sonny for a grilling session afterwhich Sonny felt good about Colton's claim of salvation.

With the peace of God about the matter in our hearts, hard biblical evidence of salvation, and the affirmation from our local church regarding the matter, Nicole and I feel confident that Colton is now not only our son, but also our brother in Christ.

When we went to his room to share this information with him, we were surprised by the depth of his response to our affirmation of his salvation. He beamed from ear to ear in a serene, but not hyper manner, which is not like him, then leaned over and bear hugged me for a long time without saying anything, and then leaned over to Nicole and bear hugged her for a long time. Then he lay back on his pillow with his hands behind his head and got this distant look in his eyes with that big 'ol smile on his face and just stared into space. It was one of the best moments of my life. Right up there with my own salvation and my wedding day.

I suppose it is entirely possible that his account of his salvation is true. That on 11.16.08, as a little four year old in a sea of adults in one of three Sunday morning worship services at his local church, without any forewarning to his parents, he came under the conviction of God the Holy Spirit while his daddy was preaching and he quietly gave his life to Christ while standing by his seat during the invitation. It is the pattern of his life that he doesn't like our help; he likes to think things through and handle his business on his own. It is the personal testimony he has steadfastly clung to for 34 months and it has born fruit in his life.

We are so excited to begin discipling our son. There are now three believers and three unbelievers in our home. We dream of the day all six of us are brothers and sisters in Christ.

Two lessons Nicole and I would pass on from this journey.  1. We are so grateful we waited almost three years to affirm his salvation. We had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Parents, don't succumb to the pressure and panic of wanting your child to come to faith so badly that you manipulate them into a decision that is made for you and not in response to the Lord's work in their life. 2. We started bringing our son into "big church" at three years old. What can a four year old gain in corporate worship? Isn't it better that they be cut off from the church body and put in children's church all morning? Our four year old boy, all by himself, with no warning to his parents at all, came under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and was compelled to give his life to Christ during the invitation. And his decision was so strong and deep that he stuck to it for three years in the face of strong questioning from his parents and evidence of his decision was born out in his life. Could he have come to faith in children's church? Of course. But did he need children's church to connect with God? No. He has been coloring books through expository sermons in big church since he was three, as do his two younger sisters. They have watched the adults of NEHBC worship God together through singing, prayer, missions moments, the Lord's Supper, baptism, response times, financial offerings, and other elements in the worship services. Colton was deeply affected by these experiences. We are so glad we bring our small children into big church. It is inconvenient and challenging, but their relationship with God is our number one priority during this season of life.

A big thank you to NEHBC, grandparents, uncles and aunts, and close family friends for the roles you have played in Colton's life. It truly does take a village. Your spiritual influence through verbal and nonverbal witness and praying for him to come to faith have played a big role in Colton confessing Jesus as his Lord, and Nicole and I are deeply grateful. He would not be a believer if it weren't for you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Glory to God.

parenting principles

I share this not as one who has it figured out, but as one sharing key principles Nicole and I cling to as we try to raise our four children:

1. Jesus is Lord. This is not only the profession that saves a person nor just the confession that identifies one as a Christ-follower, this is the Truth that causes the bible to become the final authority on all matters of faith and practice in our lives. To be sure, Jesus is much more than the bible, but as God, He is no less than the entirety of Scripture. From Genesis to Revelation, Jesus not only affirms and agrees with all of the bible, He wants you to also. To declare "Jesus is Lord" in your home means there is immediately One to whom everyone in the home submits and a document that is the final say on all matters of the family--the bible. Thus, right and wrong and values do not change with the tides of emotion or life's circumstances; instead, there is a singular, unchanging standard of Truth that governs the household. This is a critical piece, in fact, the critical piece to family and parenting. Your kids must know that what is right is right for you AND them and what is wrong is wrong for you AND them. One standard. They must see you submit your will to Jesus Christ--and I mean real life examples of you not doing what you want to do or you doing what you don't want to do just because the bible says so. They must see you cherish learning God's Word over a long period of time. They must believe you believe that Jesus is Lord.

2. Bible teaching. I really like Mark Dever's explanation of the importance of teaching/learning the bible as he describes it in 9Marks of a Healthy Church. The biblical pattern of life being created by God is through His Word: by His words He created the universe, by the word of His promise He created Israel, and by His Word, Jesus, (John 1:1ff) we are raised to life and brought abundant life (John 10:10).  Life in God is always found in His Word; cut yourself off from His Word (bible) and you cut yourself off from life. If you want God to breathe life into your children's life, you must teach them the Word. There are no shortcuts. Do not outsource this to your local church. Do not outsource this to audio CDs in the car. Do not outsource this to Vegetales. Maybe I should say you cannot outsource this responsibility. Nobody is a better teacher of the Word to your children than the parents to whom God entrusted them. You will do a better job teaching your own children the bible on your worst day than I ever can on my best day because you know them better than anyone except God.

3. Time. This is simultaneously the easiest and the hardest for me. It's the easiest because it requires nothing but me giving the kids my time. It is the hardest because I'm not good at giving them some of my best time. But, we must be in our kids lives. Just spending time with them. Time to have meaningful conversation. Time to laugh. Time to play. Time to cry. Time. Just time. And, strangely, there are no short cuts in this departments. Luxurious gifts from fathers chasing the corporate dream are no substitute. To our kids, time is not money. Time is time. Lots of leniency on the rules from a mother too caught up in a busy social life is no substitute. They may think you are cool for being lenient, but they will not see it as a tradeoff for time. You are still an absentee mother. They must know we are available to them. They must know we love spending time with them. They must know we think time with them is time well spent. We only have them for 18 years. It is only a season. There are no shortcuts. Time.

4. Honesty. We try not to blow smoke on the one extreme, nor do we try to be harsh on the other. We try to be frankly honest. Let me give you examples: we do not tell our children they are good kids--the bible says they are not. None of them are born again (maybe the oldest is--he claims to be, but we are in no rush to affirm it) and thus according to Scripture they are inherently evil. They only have the old nature. Just because some may consider them well behaved does not make them good people. They are not good so we don't tell them they are good. We don't tell our son he is a fast runner if we know from watching other seven year olds run that he is merely average. If our child is selfish, we tell them so. If they do something well, we tell them. For some parents, this honesty in parenting principle is hard because for it to work, it must apply to us also. Honesty means there are times that I as a parent get down on the ground so I'm eye level with my three year old daughter so I can properly apologize to her for something I did to her. Honesty means I acknowledge to my kids my wrong doings when they have seen me do wrong so that they don't think I'm ok with my wrongs. Honesty means I sometimes take my kids along to see me right a wrong. Honesty means they see me apologize to their mother and seek her forgiveness. Honesty means they see me apologize to God and repent of my sin and seek His forgiveness. The times in childhood I saw my father crying before God over his own sin impacted my faith in God maybe more than any other factor. I have only seen my father cry a handful of times in my entire life. He is not a crier. But, every time I did see him cry he was crying before God over His own sin or over gratitude for his salvation. If my father was distraught enough over hurting God with his sin to cry on the ground before God, God must be one amazing and holy being. Honesty is crucial for a parent-child relationship.

5. Be their parent, not their friend. Sometimes our tendency as parents is to so much want our kids to be our friends when they are adults that we let it affect the eighteen years they are in our home. The thing is, the bible never says successful parenting produces adult friends, it says that if we parent them biblically, they will not depart from God's Word when they are adults. Which is preferable to you as a parent? An adult child pursuing God that is not so close to you or an adult child that is your best friend and nominally follows Christ? Of course, we might prefer both, but if we can't have both, which would you honestly choose? I hope the former. It isn't that Nicole and I don't want our kids to be close to us when they are adults, we do, it's just that we believe that if we practice these six principles, they will be close to us in adulthood. We've seen it time and time again in other families who are years ahead of us in raising children. Our children need parents, not peers. They have tons of peers and friends, but they only have one dad and one mom and nobody else can have that role in their lives. We are the ones who know them best and know God's Word and thus know what is best for them. We are the ones who know when they need time, patience, and mercy and when they need a swift kick in the pants. We are the ones who must confront them in their wrongdoing. We are the ones who must be honest with them about who they are and life around them. We are the ones who must not let them blame shift when they sin. We are the ones who they must know will be there through thick and thin when others around them come and go. We are the ones who must be willing to let them suffer when suffering is needed and bail them out when it is needed. We are the ones they must trust to know what is best for them when their less than brilliant ideas and those of their fickle friends don't quite pan out. A friend cannot do these things for a person. Only a parent can. In our home, one person is my friend and her name is Nicole. She is my best friend. The other four people are my children. Nicole feels the same way. We don't confuse "best friend" with "child". Maybe one day the latter will also become the former. Maybe not. We trust the Lord with that part.

6. Dad + mom = 1. Never 2. When dad and mom are not one united, indestructable, undefeatable force with the kids, families teeter and totter, barely holding together, until they inevitably fall. Dad and mom must decide on a parenting plan and stick to it. By that I mean, on issues the Scripture is black and white about, be black and white on those issues. On issues where Scripture is less than clear, dad and mom need to agree on how those issues will be handled and stick to it. Children cannot grow up in a secure, stable environment if there are two sets of parenting philosophies simultaneously going on. The children will find the seam between the two and it is over. The children will try to divide and conquer. They will try to play dad and mom against each other. They will try to manipulate. They will test and pry and prod, seeking fissures in the authority in their home--dad and mom--they must learn that when it comes to raising them, dad and mom have each other's back no matter what. The kids must know that to hurt dad is to hurt mom and vice versa. They must know that they are completely secondary to dad and mom--that the spouses are first in each other's world. Here is how we practically do these things in our home: I regularly tell the kids, "if I ever have to choose between you and mom, I'm choosing mom. It wont even require any thought and I wont have to wrestle with it at all. When it comes to mom or you guys, you guys lose every time." Another thing I often tell them is, "If you and mommy are in the street and a bus is bearing down on y'all and I can only save one of you, it won't even require any thinking...I'm saving mommy every time; I'd let you die before I let mommy die." Another thing I frequently tell them is, "if you make mommy mad, you've made me mad." Another thing we do is never disagree on an issue about them in front of them. If we are not on the same page, we hash it out away from the kids. When we disagree on a matter related to the kids, we go through the biblical process behind closed doors--hear each other out, challenge each other's position, earnestly pray through it, and seek the Scriptures on the matter. If we still can't get on the same page, I make the call and Nicole embraces it and we go out and do it. But, as far as the kids are concerned, we don't disagree on any matters when it comes to raising them. Another thing I try to do is "fly to the ball". You've heard of football defenses being coached to "fly to the ball", that's what I do if I hear one of the kids challenging Nicole. I literally run to the scene and charge in and intentionally stand next to Nicole and take up her case, often taking over and doing my best to overwhelm the child who decided they had the right to challenge mom in our home. One time Satan decided he would challenge God in His own home. That didn't work out so well for the devil who put that same spirit in my children--a spirit of rebellion. God didn't lose. We won't either. The kids know I have Nicole's back. One final thing Nicole and I often remind the kids of regarding us vs. them is that they are living in our home and it's their privilege to do so. If they refer to their room as "my room", we correct them: "Nope, that's our room. We are letting you sleep in it." If they refer to their bed as "my bed", we correct them: "Nope, that's daddy and mommy's bed, we are letting you sleep in it". Along this same vein we'll talk about what we are going to do with the room they sleep in once they move out. ie: I'll be in Colton's room and say, "one day this is going to be mommy's scrapbooking room" or I'll be in Campbell's room and say, "right now we are letting you stay in this room, but one day I'm going to turn it into my mancave". We are very clear that it is them and us and that they are living in our world. We don't want that line to become fuzzy. Ironically, we have found this principle creates a tremendous amount of security for the kids. They love it.

Well, if you are still with me on this post, thanks for sticking it out. These are the six main parenting principles Nicole and I cling to and try to live out. We are not perfect at it. We are still learning. Parenting surely is complicated. Especially for a husband and wife who don't share the common confession that "Jesus is Lord". If you are not yet married, do not marry someone who doesn't love the Lord like you do. Parenting is flat hard if you and your spouse agree about Jesus and the bible. It's borderline impossible if you don't. If you are married to an unbeliever, you are not without hope: remember Pastor Timothy in the bible to whom 1 and 2 Timothy are written, whose faith is credited to his mother and grandmother, Lois and Eunice, with no reference to his "Greek", and thus likely, unbelieving father. Though you are going it alone, you can still do #s 1-5. If you do, I believe the grace of God will win the day. If you are a parent, I pray the Lord gives you wisdom and grace as your raise your child according to the training and instruction of the Lord. If you want to talk about how to do any of these six principles, give us a shout. nlino@nehbc.com.

your kids are like trained dolphins

Me: "Excuse me?"
The dad on vacation with preteens I can only describe as hooligans sitting next to me by the pool: "Your kids . . . they are like trained dolphins at Sea World. Your oldest looks at you regularly and you give hand signals he relays to your other kids in the pool and they all obey them. You are controlling them from way over here. How did you train them to do that?"

Me: "If I told you the secret, you wouldn't believe me."

Dad with crazy kids: "Try me."

Me: "No I'm serious. You don't want to go there."

Dad whose kids call him "idiot" to his face: "I'm serious. I want to know."

Me: "Ok, well there is this ancient Hebrew text called Deuteronomy that tells us how to parent....see I knew you would write me off."

Dad: "An ancient what?"

Me: "Hebrew text. It's called Deuteronomy. It's in the bible. God gives us child raising principles that if followed get past behavior modification and get to your child's heart. I mean, we don't want kids that don't steal and say "yes, sir" and yet are self centered brats, do we?"

Dad: "What?"

Me: "You want to know how to get your kids to obey you so you can get them to behave better. But that kind of parenting is only seeking behavior modification. It goes like this: teach your kids to behave and work hard so they can get into a good college so they can get a good job so they can earn a living. But, so what if they do all of that? That is meaningless if that's all they accomplish. Do you think Jesus Christ intentionally brought your kids into this world so you could raise them to earn a good living?"

Dad: "Ummmm...."

Me: "No, He didn't. He has an amazing plan for their lives. One He has for you also. He wants you to disover it and then lead your kids to discover it and live it out. That's what parenting is about: getting your kids to discover Jesus Christ and His plan for their lives and to live out that plan. You don't want to accomplish behavior modification in your kids, you want to shape and mold their hearts."

Dad: "Uhhhh...."

Me: "I thought you wanted to know why my kids are like trained dolphins. I'm trying to tell you."

Dad: "Ok."

Me: "For us, their behavior is secondary to what is going on in their hearts. As their heart changes, their behavior changes. You know, it's the same thing the Lord Jesus wants to do in our lives. We think He is just seeking behavior modification--don't get drunk, don't cuss--but seriously, do you think Jesus is pursuing someone for the end purpose of getting them to stop cussing? He isn't seeking behavior modification in you. He wants your heart. He wants to take your very broken relationship with God and restore you to God so He can have His way in you....and once we confess Jesus Christ as Lord the lights come on and we will follow His parenting principles which are...and if you want to talk about any of this more, I'm in unit #29 right over there. Just come knock on the door. Bring your wife. Maybe while your kids are watching tv in your unit and my kids are in bed me and my wife and you and your wife can chat about these things over coffee."

And that's how I got to share the gospel and some parenting tips with a man at the pool today. 

I was grateful to God for the divine appointment. I was grateful to God for the reminder that He puts His glory on display when we simply do what His Word says to do...like parenting His way. And by the way this conversation happened faster than it looks in writing. And yes, to my wife, former apprentice-pastors, and close friends....I'm sure this was one of those awkward moments I create with people that I don't know are awkward. But, it couldn't have been that awkward--I ran into him on the beach later and he told me he wants to talk more. Sweet.

vacation update

Things are going well on our vacation. We were rained in for the first 24 hours, but now the skies are clear, the sun is out, and we are hanging out on the beach. The kids are unsure about the sea so far. Maybe taking Colt out two hundred yards where presently a school of dolphins showed up to play was not the best way to get this party started. He hasn't left shore since our return. ;)

We are having quality time together as a family for which I'm very grateful. Managing four little ones who still can't completely care for themselves is a constant challenge, but it's a season of life out of which we are trying to suck every memory we can because, based on what everyone keeps telling us, it will soon be over. Either in many places people are chuckling over the fast one they're pulling on us or one day we really will miss this season of life. Nicole had an idea where each of the four kids would pick a place they want to go alone with me while she keeps the other three so they can have focused time with daddy. So far we have plans for one putt-putt outing (Colt), two ice-cream outings (Cam and Cass), and Chloe we aren't sure yet--all she keeps saying is "I lu da-ddy"--of course, I'll take that any day. Have I mentioned lately that Nicole is super-mom? Seriously, if I'm ever half the father that she is a mother, I'll be satisfied. The kids and I have no idea what a blessing she is to us. God is good.

Thank you for praying for us while we are spending time together.

why do we worship at a local church when we are on vacation?

Yesterday morning on the way to worship at FBC Navarre, FL, I reminded the kids of why it is important for us to go to worship on our sabbath day even while on vacation.

First, it’s the 4th commandment nestled in there with idolatry, murder, adultery, and stealing. Just because we are on vacation doesn’t mean we don’t go to worship. If the 4th commandment only counts when we are in Houston, which of the other nine also only count when we are in Houston? It's important for my PKs (pastor's kids) to know that even if daddy was not a pastor, we would still be in worship every Sunday. This isn't a pastor thing, this is a "we love Jesus so much there is nothing we'd rather do on our sabbath day than get together with a local christian community and worship Him" thing. Seriously--how could anything else compare to worshipping Christ? This first point ought to make us grateful we have so many local communities of Christians here where we live and ought to cause us to double our efforts to plant churches among UPGs. Never take the availablity of local churches along your domestic vacation routes for granted. It is an extreme spiritual luxury from God. Thank you, Lord.

Second, if possible, we need to establish a spiritual home even while out of town, and sometimes especially when we are out of town. Since we will be here for almost two weeks, if possible, we should establish a temporary church home; tie ourselves to a local community of fellow Christians. We never know what is going to happen to us while we are in town.

Third, in the early church, when Christians would travel by ship or overland, they were put up for the night by the Christian community in whatever town they were in at nightfall. They would also worship with the Christian community in whatever town they were in on the sabbath day--check out Paul at Philippi in the book of Acts: "being that it was the sabbath day, we set out to find a place of worship and finding none we went to the watering hole outside the city" (NLIV--"nathan lino international version). The early believers went to worship with a community of Christians on the sabbath day. Would Paul even recognize our convenienced based, man-centered, 21st century, American christianity in which we don't go to worship on our sabbath day because the Lord has blessed us with so much money and paid time off that we decide not to include Him in our vacation? Ouch! Call me legalistic....whatever helps you sleep at night. ;) Let me get back on the main trail here: today, a Christian community is the local church. Sure, due to our extreme wealth, we don’t have the tradition or culture of putting up Christian strangers for the night who are passing through our town--although we certainly should if the opportunity arises. Yet, we still must worship with the Christian community (church) in the town we are in. It’s good for us to see what is going on in other churches and it reminds us that we are all part of the KOG.

All in all, it was a good teaching moment in the car with the kids as we went to worship so I thought I'd share it here.

yesterday we worshipped at FBC Navarre, FL

A couple of weeks ago, Nicole was scouting out options for communities of believers with whom we could worship while on vacation in Florida. Her top choice was FBC Navarre and after we discussed it as a family, that's where we went to worship yesterday.

We had a fantastic time. They have two services, 9am and 10:30am, and we attended the 9am. The music was Christ-centered and meaty in content. The church welcomed home a mission team from Belize and commissioned out a mission team to Guatemala. The pastor, Jim Pennington, preached a great sermon on the 3rd commandment, "do not use God's Name in vain." I was challenged, convicted, confronted, and encouraged throughout the course of the sermon. Good stuff. It was a very meaningful worship service for me.

On top of all that, two things were very special for me during the worship service. First, I got to sit next to Nicole from start to finish with no stress and spiritual warfare over the responsiblity for the spiriutal lives of the congregation. Words cannot express how difficult that is for a pastor and so the 3-4 Sundays a year I just sit next to Nicole in worship as husband and wife are very special for us. Husbands and wives, don't take the special, weekly opportunity for granted. Secondly, I got to just be a worshipper that nobody knew sitting in the congregation. We dodged a bullet--just before the service began a staff member came over to me and introduced himself and went on about how he recognizes me and who am I, and all the while I'm just praying that the Lord will not let him know who I am and after a while of me giving him nothing but, "I'm a vacationer" he turned and walked off. Nice. Life is funny: people want to be known until a few people know who they are and then they realize how sweet it is not to be known. When you live a public life, any sense of privacy is a beautiful thing that gets closely guarded.

All in all we had a great day of worship together as a family in a local church.

family vacation

If you define "vacation" like I do: away from home, away from work, and not staying at extended family, then tomorrow the Linos are leaving on our first family vacation in three years.

We are headed to Florida and the beach. Nicole used her crazy haggling skills on a family she found on the internet and scored a deal on their beach condo. I can't tell you how excited I am. I grew up on the beaches of South Africa's east coast which are simply gorgeous--white sand, blue sea, and big waves. We even lived for three years so close to the sea, we could watch whales coming up to breath and from our front porch see the famous "seal island" that is often on the Discovery Channel. We were on the beach several evenings a week to eat dinner, play, and swim. We ate fresh fish, shrimp, crab, and squid as often as Texans eat beef. We were trained young to recognize the markers of the shark nets on the other side of which swam Great Whites and Tigers and to be aware of rip tides. Well before 10 we knew how to get beyond 15-20 foot waves that will slam a grown man into the sand, to the large rolls of water on the other side where we would float for long periods of time. Gale force winds blowing in from the sea and salty air were a way of life. I'd lie in bed on foggy nights and listen to the sounds of tugboat fog horns as they brought ships in and out of the harbour. Yep, it was rough living in deep, dark Africa ;). Then we moved to Houston and quickly realized that when God called us to Houston, beach living had become a thing of the past. But it is still in my blood. I think about the beach often. I miss beach life. I hope one day to retire on a great beach somewhere--like the Florida panhandle, South Africa's garden route, Cassis, France, the Cayman Islands. Any of those places would do. ;)

So, tomorrow we head out. I can't wait to get there to experience three of my favorite things at the same time: the Lord, my family, and the beach. For me, it's a hard combination to beat. The only thing missing will be NEHBC. But, I'll be back.... 

You haven't blogged since Feed the 5th...is everything OK?

I wish I had $1 for every email, text, or conversation in which I got this question. I'm grateful folks miss the action. Friends have prevailed upon me to say something here about why I haven't blogged since Nov 23.

1. Everything is OK, nothing is wrong. It is normal for bloggers who run single author blogs (no co-authors), especially those with "running blogs" instead of the kind of blog with weekly or bi-monthly articles, to simply take a break from blogging for 1-2 months. While my lack of communication about taking a break may be unusual, simply setting aside the blog for a couple of months certainly isn't.

2. I got bored with blogging the way I have been, which led to less and less posts from my heart, and more and more announcement type posts. That in turn led to the blog losing it's effectiveness and purpose. And like ministries at NEHBC or things in my personal life, when something loses it's effectiveness or purpose, it's time to "shut 'er down". (Don't be afraid to end something that is no longer effective--letting things suffer on endlessly is rarely the right thing to do.) I felt like my blog got to that point. So, I'm trying to decide what to do: quit blogging altogether, change the way it's done--IE: bring on co-authors, change what I blog about, change the nature of the blog, simply take a break to see if my passion for it returns, etc.

3. As for why Nicole quit blogging...she hasn't! Those that know her aren't surprised she hasn't blogged in a while. She'll blog as she really wants to post something, after thinking through it long and hard, and when she has time. Her success in blogging (her readership has grown to the 400-500 different people range and has led to an invitation to speak to minister's wives at a conference in Louisiana in April) would cause most to feel pressure to keep producing. Not so with Nicole--she is unfazed. Nicole has a personal system she doesn't verbalize to people and she sticks to it hard and fast. Her "system" is the reason she can effectively be my wife and help-mate, mother to our four children, manage our household, write NEHBC's children's Sunday School curriculum, manage NEHBC's sermon pod casts, minister one-on-one to various church members, family members, and friends, and maintain her sanity and joy through it all. So, she has not quit blogging...she'll post as she wants.

Thanks for checking in. Nicole and I love you very much and want God's best for you! We hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas celebrating our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Weekend Recap

On a surprising note, the highlight of my Saturday was not the incredible game at Kyle Field, although I'll get to that in a moment; by far, the highlight of my day was Saturday morning watching NEHBCers set up our new worship center. I had to keep from crying. It is only by God's grace that an eight year old church that strives to be New Testament, works hard not to be program driven, does not engage in modern church growth movements, and has sound financial practices is opening this kind of worship center. There is no human explanation for it. It testifies to what Jesus Christ can do thorugh a congregation that seeks to be New Testament and to what His plans are for NEHBC's future. Our greatest days for the Kingdom are still to come. It was awesome to see NEHBCers buzzing around setting up. Here's a shout out to the man who would kill me if I publicly acknowledged him, but who sat in our worship center all Friday night until morning, by himself, screwing bible racks onto chairs. Unbelievable. May your tribe increase.

And then there was Saturday night which actually began for us back in July or August. Each year we try to pick one conference game at Kyle Field to attend as a family. Back in July or August we reviewed our personal Fall schedules and the Aggie football schedule and realized the only conference game we could attend was the Nebraska game on Nov. 20, at 2pm. The season had not even started when we picked this game, so how could we know the Aggies would come into the game on a four win game streak including a win over a Top 10 team and play against another Top 10 team? But, the Lord knew and set this all up to bless our family. We are grateful. Kyle Field was slammed full of people, setting a new attendance record of 90,027 and set the record for the most students at a game in college football history. The environment was electric and somehow the Ags found a way to pull it out at the end. Our kids loved every minute of it which only made it even more exciting for Nicole and I. The only downer? Because the Ags came into the game as one of the hottest teams in the country and were playing a Top 10 team, ABC changed kickoff to prime time (7pm) which meant we got home at 2am. Folks who knew we were going to the game were worried about me having to preach three times on Sunday morning, but the next time I am able to sleep more than 3-4 hours on Saturday night when preaching Sunday morning will be the first time. My pregame jitters are terrible. We had a blast at the game and hope the Ags can get past the Longhorns on Thanksgiving night.

Yesterday morning was emotional for me also as it was the last Sunday, at least for a while, in three services. I'm ready to not preach three times on Sunday mornings, albeit nowhere near as ready as my doctor, but I will miss it because it was a great chapter in the life NEHBC. Preaching on courage when I feel like I need more of it made it a strange experience for me. Sitting on the blue seats and preaching from the new stage was awesome! I can't wait for 12.5.

Last night, my father's church had their annual Thanksgiving meal together and invited us and so we got to have Thanksgiving dinner round 1. It was fun to be around their congregation as their guests.

I hope and pray that as we roll into the Thanksgiving holiday that you will plan to have meaningful time with the Lord to express your gratitude to Him beyond your normal expressions of gratitude.

Jesus is Lord.

Survivor Dad: Day 10

Nicole lands in Houston in 7 hours and we are ready. The house is clean, the sheets are clean, her van is washed, and the kids are fixing to get their Sunday baths. The five of us had a great week in no small part due to the many who prayed for us. I am a big believer in prayer--it moves the heart of God so I'm grateful for those who sincerely prayed for the kids and me. I truly believe we had a great experience because you prayed. Until next time...

a nod to all you mothers out there

A friend sent me this today. I post it here as a nod to all you moms for whom I have a new found respect. I don't know how you do it!

http://www.coolestone.com/media/104/The-Mom-Song-Sung-to-William-Tell-Overture/

Survivor Dad: Day 5

Survivor Dad: Day 4

Day 2: Survivor Dad

Survivor Dad: Day 1

a high high and a low low

Saturday, Colton and I went to the A&M vs. SFA football game. Suffice it to say, I get just a little bit excited about game day at A&M. I have so many memories there from classes, to campus life, to lasting friendships, to the church where I worshipped, to meeting/dating/getting engaged to Nicole. A piece of my heart is in Aggieland. Going to a game is the only way we have left to tap into those amazing four years of our lives so I'm like a kid in a candy store. And to get to go to games there with my son is really amazing.

So, we got to the game a couple of hours early because Colt wanted to play in the game zone outside the stadium before kickoff. As you can imagine, the game zone is as much about food as games. Generally, our kids get very limited amounts of junk food--no soda, little candy, etc. But, of course, this was game day so I told Colton, "if you see it and you want to eat it, you can have it." So, he started off curbside outside Kyle Field mowing down a Chick-fi-La combo meal--chicken sandwich, chips, and a Gatorade. A little while later, we shared a Pepsi. In the first quarter of the game he ate a jumbo stadium dog and started on a large Mountain Dew. In the second quarter he mowed down a bag of kettle corn and finished off the Mountain Dew. In the 3rd quarter, he got a giant snow cone with about 6 different syrups poured on it. Intermingled in all of this is me throwing him in the air every time A&M scores.

At about 9:15pm, he told me he needed to lay down--I thought it was because he felt tired. So, I reminded him we had a long walk to the truck and then a two hour drive home and suggested we head out if he was too tired. He strongly objected leaving the game before it ended, but then about 10 minutes later he insisted we leave. He complained of abdominal discomfort all the way to the truck and all the way home. I had him in bed by midnight.

At 5:55am Sunday morning, I was sitting in Starbucks sucking down caffeine, when Nicole called me. Colton woke her up drenched from head to toe in vomit--I can't imagine the sight of him standing there next to her bed calling, "mommy, mommy" only for Nicole to turn on her lamp and see kettle corn, hot dog wiener, and chicken sandwich bits all over his body. Currently, we are on day two of trying to get his room smelling right again. Needless to say, I got in big trouble.

I supposed next time, we'll have to put a cap on the junk food intake--we'll at least dial the soda down to a medium and I'll get him the smaller bag of kettle corn.

Happy Labor Day!

please pray for Juan

This morning, there was a gentleman in our home doing some significant repairs. While Juan was working I intentionally offered him a cold drink as an opening to share the gospel. He politely listened, but I could immediately tell he wasn't interested. Yet, I kept going because it's the power of the gospel that brings people under the kind of conviction that leads them to faith in Christ. If I didn't share the entire gospel with him, how could he come under the conviction necessary to be saved? As I was sharing I was thinking of my recent message about the gospel ministry being a ministry of raising the dead. While I shared with Juan I was simultaneously asking the Holy Spirit to bring this dead man to life in Jesus Christ. Though he wasn't interested at all, I told Juan that if he ever wants to talk more about God's incredible love for him and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ he can just come over to the house and I'm happy to talk with him. I hope he one day takes me up on it.

Please pray for Juan to come to faith in Christ.

By the way, one other thing I was thinking when I went to share the gospel with Juan in my own house: our houses are no different than our church house. Just like we expect me as the pastor of NEHBC to present the gospel in our services in case there is anyone lost in the house, we should also expect each other to share the gospel with those that come into our houses. Our houses belong to Jesus Christ just like our church building does. We should not have a different expectation for what takes place at the church house than we do in our own house. Our houses are for Him and His agenda. As missionaries based in Houston, let's determine that at a minimum, no repair person should come into our homes with an intentional effort on our part to share the gospel with them. How much more obvious can Jesus be about whom He is wanting us to raise from the dead than by bringing people right into our houses!

NEHBC, let's be a living community of God that exists to make disciples from our city to the world, primarily through one-on-one encounters and church planting, because of the call of God to go and the cry of the lost to come!

the story continues

Below this blog post is the story of my encounter with William yesterday. Well, by the grace of Jesus Christ, the story is not over. This morning William showed up for the 8:45 worship service and then attended small group bible study at 10am. It was great to see him.

The Lord really encouraged me in our Glory to God vision through William. Our vision is for NEHBC to be a living community of God that exists to make disciples from our city to the world, primarily through one-on-one evangelism and church planting, because of the call of God to go and the cry of the lost to come.

Yesterday, the Lord let me personally test the process of our vision by letting me meet William in a one-on-one encounter through which I got to talk to him about the things of Lord which led to William showing up this morning at NEHBC. I introduced William to Greg, an NEHBCer, who immediately took him in, spent time with him, and befriended him as did the small group William attended. While at NEHBC this morning, William was taught the Word of God in depth, in our worship service and bible study class. He was moved by his time with us this morning and is committed to attending midweek worship on Wednesday night.

I'm grateful to God for yesterday's one-on-one encounter. I'm grateful William came to NEHBC today. I'm grateful I could introduce William to Greg who put aside his immediate plans to take the responsibility of building a relationship with him. I'm grateful for the small group that took William in. I'm grateful that through Greg and the small group, William was genuinely loved. I'm grateful NEHBC could systematically unpack the Word of God for William today--twice. I'm grateful William is coming back for more. I'm most grateful this all happened not because William got a flier in the mail or came to a big event at NEHBC, but that it all began with a one-on-one encounter out in the community. Not that trying to reach the unchurched through mail outs or a big event is bad or wrong, but ideally, we should primarily be reaching families and individuals through one-on-one encounters as we live out our lives. Gospel encounters are not supposed to be primarily programmed and scheduled, they should simply be a way of life.

I feel like through this experience, the Lord gave me a taste of where we are headed and evidence that our vision is going to work. Glory to God.

A big thanks to everyone who prayed for William.

inconvenient, unexpected, Christ honoring gospel ministry

This morning I was sitting at a Starbucks at 6am going over tomorrow's sermon when I over head a customer asking a barrister about the kind of sugar Starbuck's uses. Before I knew it, I had done a Nathan and participated in their conversation. Five minutes later, William was sitting next to me and I was irritated--here are the thoughts I was thinking: "I just want to practice my sermon, why did I go and butt into their conversation?", "I have so much to do today and I want to have quality time with my children which is why I came to Starbucks so early and now I've got to talk to this guy". But over the sound of my incredibly selfish flesh came the voice of the Holy Spirit saying, " I sent William here, I arranged this 6am gospel encounter, share the gospel with him." So I did.

William is a male in his early 30s and a brand new believer, but I'm still not certain how he came to faith in Christ. Prior to Christ, William was a Muslim. Raised in a Muslim home in Argentina, he speaks English and Farsi.

I got to disciple William for about 30-45 minutes. He is really confused about Christianity and rightly so. He's been told some really weird things about Christianity by some Christians. For example, William is trying to pursue a free-lance, fashion photography career, but some Christian told William that Christians shouldn't be in the fashion photography arena. WHAT? A guy comes to faith and Christ and one of the first things he is told is that it's immoral to be a fashion photographer? This is the problem with 21st century discipleship--it's about unbiblical moral rules (albeit, I believe, genuinely motivated by noble intent) instead of helping Christ-followers understand they have been raised from death to life (Eph. 2:1-8) and fanning the flame of their new life until it is a raging fire that consumes every arena of their life--and yes it involves moral guidance--but only biblical moral guidance is helpful, not the personal convictions of random Christians. Generally, discipleship that leads to Christians withdrawing from interaction with lost people instead of engaging with lost people is not biblical discipleship.

William is supposed to come to NEHBC tomorrow. I pray he does. I hope that in us he finds a living community of God that will embrace him and disciple him. I pray that at NEHBC he will find an environment where he is loved for who he is and where he will be taught that the Word of God is entirely true and trustworthy and the final authority on all matters of life, and what it means that Jesus is Lord. I pray he will begin to learn everything the Scriptures teach us because Christ is revealed to us through the Scriptures--from Genesis to Revelation--and so every bit of Genesis to Revelation matters. (If you think I'm soft peddaling the Scriptures, you haven't been to NEHBC where nobody in the community takes a stronger stand on Scripture than we do. We just try to go as far as the Scriptures go on Scripture--we don't stop short of how far we should go on issues and we don't go further than we should go on issues.) And I pray that in the process he will begin to discover he is a Christ commissioned, Christ sent missionary through whom the Lord Jesus wants to make as many disciples as possible.

I'm grateful to God for the opportunity to begin a relationship with William. I'm ashamed of my continued selfishness which is such a struggle for me to shake. I'm thankful the Lord keeps deciding to use me for His glory despite my weaknesses. I pray that one day I'll get over myself entirely!

Glory to God.

a great commission family

Of late, I've been thinking a lot about what it means that as a household committed to serving the Lord, the Linos are a Great Commission family. To fuel my fire in this arena, the Lord ordained that I would reconnect with a college friend over this summer who works for a large oil company and is getting transferred to Eastern Europe. He shared the news with me over chicken sandwiches and iced tea like we were talking about going to a football game. What blew me away was that here was an all-American guy, a rising go-getter in corporate America, married to an all-American lady, with an all-American child, leaving behind their entire support network of family and friends to live on another continent, and they immediately see it from the perspective of being sent by Christ as missionaries. That is what I call a Great Commission family who is living inside of their commission. This is what has been thinking about my family living inside our commission.

Each morning my family is together and we review everyone's schedule and assignments for the day, we talk about family things, and we just hang out together as a family enjoying one another's company. Take this morning, everyone was ready 30 minutes before it was time to leave (yes, I know, the Linos are weird) so the six of us watched part of the movie, Black Beauty. On the way out the house, I like to make a quick comment about how we are all going in our different directions today, but that Lord willing we'll all be back together again around the dinner table in the evening.

And then the Linos split up in all directions--school, work, play groups, grocery stores, public libraries, various ministries and meetings, etc. We are all over the place hopefully living out our lives--verbally and non verbally, for the glory of Jesus Christ. On the way to school, I try to find some way to frame the day for Colt and Cam in light of Jesus Christ. We must see our day in light of the person of Christ and His agenda for humanity and the Linos. When we leave the house, we are on mission.

And then at the end of the day, the Linos all come home in ones and twos and we are together again around the dinner table and it almost always happens that we go around the table and everybody reports in on their day in varying degrees of detail. Nicole and I give 10,000 foot views of our days. Colton will tell you anything you want to know--but you have to ask lots of questions to prompt him. Campbell gives up nothing. She is already qualified to work for the CIA. Her day is highly confidential and when she does give something up, it's because she is working an angle that you don't figure out until it's too late. Cassidy usually only gets around to telling us one little thing from her day because she describes it in such detail that by the time she's finished she has talked longer than the rest of us combined--her future husband better have the patience of Job. And believe it or not, Chloe will get into it. When we ask her about her day she immediately starts gurgling and gesturing with her hands!

I love that about my family--we are together in the morning before we go out for the day, hopefully we live on mission for Christ, and then we come back together in the evening and recap our days in order to love each other, encourage each other, affirm each other, take advantage of teaching moments to reinforce key principles, and frame the day's experiences in light of God's Word.

According to the Great Commission, as Christ followers, Nicole and I have already been commissioned by Jesus Christ as missionaries. Right now He has us based out of Houston, but what if in five years He surprised us and relocated our base to Madison, Wisconsin, or Hungary? We would be no more commissioned as missionaries than we are right now. So, I and my family ought to live inside our commission every single day.

Could you imagine a commissioned officer in the army waking up each morning and living outside his commission? As Christ commissioned missionaries, I pray the Linos live inside our commission every day; that we would truly be a Great Commission family who has as it's purpose the making of disciples for the glory of God.