Fatherhood

Image source: sheknows.com

Today I was thinking back to something I wrote 17 years ago.  It's just as true today.  God is a good Father... and He loves His children.  

Last week my wife gave birth to our 2nd child… a little girl we named Ashton.  It didn’t come soon enough!  Nine months… it doesn’t seem too long.  Unless you’re in school awaiting summer break, or away from your loved ones, or pregnant.   Then nine months can seem like an eternity.

I remember the first time I held her… she was wrinkly and cried a lot.   She was incapable of showing love and affection or appreciation.  She didn’t ask to be born and certainly didn’t seem to like the experience much.  She brought nothing to the table.  She had nothing to offer me… well, nothing I needed anyway.

But I had this incredible, overwhelming emotional experience.  I was so excited and so in awe all at the same time.  I was filled with such pride… this was MY little girl!  I would do anything to make her happy.  Nothing was too good for her.  I would give my life to keep anyone from ever hurting her.  Here she was, not even 15 minutes old yet, and my life was forever changed!  I would never be the same.

Driving home a few days later, I began to think of how God, our Heavenly Father, must feel.  We have absolutely nothing to offer Him.  He revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush experience as “I AM THAT I AM.”  He is totally self-sufficient!  He doesn’t need humans to make Him feel important.  He doesn’t keep us around for self-esteem purposes.  He chooses to use us for the fulfillment of His plan, but He could easily invented with another way.

I’m convinced that He created us because He wanted someone to share His love with.

But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. – Titus 3:4-5

The Apostle Paul wrote that it is not because of good works that we have done, but because of God's great mercy that He has chosen us (Titus 3:5).  We could never be good enough, or good-looking enough, or do enough or be loveable enough to earn a relationship or favor with Him.  He loves us because He has decided to love us.  HE LOVES US BECAUSE WE ARE HIS CHILDREN!  How His heart must beam with pride over us, even when we mess our pants or spit up or cry (spiritually speaking).  No matter what we do - even if we choose a life without Him - He claims us as His children and loves us unconditionally.   How incredible!  And how totally unlike us!  His mercy never wears out or comes to an end (Lamentations 3:21-23 and 1 Corinthians 13:8).

You are completely loved by your Heavenly Father.  He could never love you any more or any less.  And He invites you to live in a deeply connected relationship with him.  It's up to you.

Becoming a Better Lover

Image source: pixshark.com

Like that title? I thought it might pique your interest. I want to take a few moments and consider how growing in your relationship with Jesus can make you a better lover.

I guess maybe I should give you some background. A number of years ago I taught a series called “Redefining Relationships“ to a college group. As usual, we talked about everything from friendships to sexuality. Since this church was made up primarily of singles, this subject hit home with many of the group members. Those that weren’t facing the battles of purity were still surrounded by sexuality from the media and pop culture at every turn.

Anyway, in this series, I made a passing reference to the fact that becoming more intimate with Christ can make you a better lover. I got quite a bit of response from that statement, so I decided to develop the thought further. I thought this would also be a good subject for married couples. A healthy marriage is like a healthy garden… it requires a lot of effort to weed, water, feed and nurture, but the results are well worth it.

So, I want you to drop your religious inhibitions, take off your holier-than-thou glasses and track with me as we delve into the subject of becoming a better lover. Maybe it would be best if we started with a verse or two from the Bible, so you won’t think I’ve gone off the deep end.

How to deal with disappointment

A friend of ours died a few weeks ago.  He was a fellow missionary living here in our area.  Actually, we had the privilege of helping his family get established here in Germany.  But it really got me thinking about how we react when things don't go the way we planned.

As I was praying for his family (wife and four girls) I was reminded of this verse...

Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.  Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” - 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 NLT

Many church-goers know that this is in reference to what Paul called, "a thorn in his flesh," something the devil sent to make his life difficult.  We're never told exactly what this thorn is, or why he had to deal with it.  Some think this refers to a physical problem.  I believe it refers to the opposition he experienced in many cities.  Either way, things weren't as he would like.

Many times when things don't go the way we planned, we blame God... almost as if He has some sick sense of pleasure in our pain.  It can feel as if He's left us all alone, that He just doesn't care.  Many people speak of these verses that the Apostle Paul penned as proof that God wants us to suffer through some things.

I see it from a totally different angle.  In these verses I don't see a God that is uninterested or that leaves us alone to deal with our pain.  Rather, I see a God that gives us a special grace to deal with tough situations.

My friends, He is PRESENT in times of pain, disappointment and frustration (See Psalm 34, especially vs. 18).  He is actively involved -- although it may not seem like it.  And He provides us what we need to not just survive, but overcome such circumstances.

Snowflakes

Today we took the kids across the border to France for a grocery shopping/day trip.  While I packed the bags of groceries into the van (lots of American and American-ish stuff), Emma was amazed at how cool the snowflakes looked on the window.  It was still cold, so they hadn't melted off yet.  And each one looked so perfect!

It got me thinking about God's creativity.  Every snowflake is different (and there were a bunch of them falling today).  How strange that God would "waste" His creativity on something as insignificant as snowflakes.  Yet He does it with a flair!

We are also unique... each of us has unique fingerprints & retinas -- even in the case of biological twins -- and DNA!  Not only are you different from every other person alive (nearly 7 billion people), you are different from every other person ever to walk the face of this planet.  God made you special!  He created you on purpose, for a purpose!

Not only do we each have a unique purpose, but we also have a unique way in which we connect with God.  Of course, there are the normal ways: praise & worship, Bible reading, prayer, solitude, etc.  But since we're one-of-a-kind creations, we are to have a one-of-a-kind relationship with God.  I encourage you to spend some time this week asking God to reveal your uniqueness to you... and how He has designed your one-of-a-kind relationship with Him to be.

I'm home!!!

My USA fundraising trip was crazy, but amazing! In three weeks I traveled a little over 17,500 miles, counting 14 flights. I spoke in 15 services and did 3 leadership training sessions. The coolest part was that I was able to pray with four students to give their hearts to Christ.

Now I'm back home and trying to ease back into the Central European Time Zone. It hasn't been pretty so far, but sometimes that's the way it goes. I have one week of down time with my family before heading to Frankfurt (Oder), Germany for four days to do evangelistic school and street outreach, as well as leadership training and a service for the host church. For an updated ministry schedule, check out our website: www.perrinministries.org.

I wanted to thank all of you that supported this trip with your finances and prayers. We continue to be amazed at our partners and friends... You're helping us change the spiritual landscape of a planet!

Missions thoughts from Robin (part 3)

No matter where you are on the earth, in God’s will is the safest place to be. With the political uncertainties that are going on right now in the country you're headed to, it’s important to know that God is in control. We came over here two weeks after 9/11 and things were very uncertain. But, when we got here we knew that this was the right place.

Missions thoughts from Robin (part 2)

Remember the call of God. Write down what He is telling you to do. When the times get tough -- and they will -- you can look at what God said and it will keep you there. There are some extremely lonely times on the mission field. Times where you are in the middle of many people and feel completely alone.

I remember a time when I was at a hardware store and couldn’t figure out how to ask for a concrete screw so I could hang a picture on the wall. I just started crying in the middle of the aisle. Then, I had a good laugh. Many times were frustrating just trying to decipher the bills and the kids' homework. But they all add up to a wonderful and challenging experience that I wish everyone could have.

Missions thoughts from Robin (part 1)

Some friends of ours are leaving in a few weeks for the mission field.  Robin wrote this for them and I thought it was good advice for anyone interested in being a missionary.

I am so glad that you are obeying God and taking this challenge. We are praying for you and your children! I was thinking about what I wished other people would have told me before I left for the mission field and what advice I did receive that has helped over the years.

The first part of the journey is all so quick and exciting that even the frustrating parts are fun. It’s amazing to watch the children learn and adapt to their new environment. Learn from them. They are watching you to see if this new place is okay. As I read about others’ experiences on the field, I am so convinced that the difference between a bad and good experience for the children is the attitude of the parents.

I think one of my biggest challenges is to keep positive about the cultural differences that bug me. Patsy Cameneti once told me that if we continually talk about all the things that we don’t like about the mission field it frustrates the grace of God on our lives.

I am so proud to be an American. There are so many freedoms that you will give up to serve in another country. Many Europeans that I have met long to live in America. Even if they don’t really understand the politics …they understand that America equates with freedom. Because of that, many will be excited to get to know you. They want to know more about you and God will use this as an opportunity to lead them to Him. On the other hand, some people will not like you just because you are an outsider. Their long time prejudices will come out in strange and hurtful ways. This is an even greater chance to show the love of God. Your neighbors will be watching you. (When we meet people in our village, they usually tell us all about our family.)

Those we leave behind

I was reading a blog from some of our dear friends that are moving to Russia to become missionaries for a season. It brought back some memories I had completely forgotten.

I can still remember the “OH MY GOD!!!” feelings as we were preparing to leave. It seems as if there’s not enough time to do what needs to be done. And then there’s all the people that don’t want you to go, etc. Our friend wrote about her concern for those they are leaving behind.

In actuality, the very best thing you can do for those you leave behind is to model what a sold-out life looks like. It’s one thing to tell people that Jesus is our Lord… it’s an entirely different thing to actually live it out in our daily lives.

I finally made peace with the feeling of leaving people behind by understanding that our lives are constantly in motion. And we move in and out of the lives of others, as they do in ours. Some relationships are with people that are simply passing through, while others are permanent… and they leave a permanent mark on us.

As we obey what God calls us to do, we position those we leave behind to understand God’s greatness and His grace. I say “position them” because it’s entirely up to them how they choose to react to change. If they react correctly, their hunger to find God’s plan for their lives will grow. And then the Plan of God moves forward... All because we've decided to trust God enough to obey Him.

Insights from moving

The moving process is often so surreal. You find all these things that you saved or filed for one reason or another. It's amazing how much of this is stuff (read: junk) accumulates on our shelves, in our drawers and on our desks.

Most of the papers, magazines, letters, etc. were filed away because they had value of some sort. Now, in some cases many years later, we look at them and think, "I don't even know why I saved this."

And then there's all the trinkets, cables, connectors, parts to various toys, electronics and office stuff that serve no purpose because either the devices or toys are now dead, given away or thrown away.

It's a true parallel to our lives. We accumulate so much stuff... hurts, disappointments, broken dreams and pain, which lead to unforgiveness and bitterness.

Every now and then we need to reflect on our lives, and the things we've accumulated (emotional baggage). Ps. 139:23-24 is a prayer asking God to reveal the things we've accumulated that will hinder us from becoming who He's created us to be. It's a prayer God will answer. And then He'll help us to work on what we discover.

Tact

As I said before, we found a house in southern Germany and will be moving there next week. But while we were down there looking at houses, we stayed for a week in a vacation apt that was owned by a sweet older farming couple.

They let the girls help them gather eggs from the henhouse and pick cherries. They even gave us over $15 worth of cherries from their trees. She took us to show us their orchards, he showed me the "Still" he had in his barn, which he uses for making Schnapps (see picture, right), and took the kids on a tractor ride for Ashton's birthday (don't worry Granddad, you won't be replaced!)... they even helped us look through the want ads for houses.

We really enjoyed talking with them (only in German!). On one of the last days we were there, I mentioned how beautiful one of the roadside crosses was. She said it was an old German custom to bless the roads by building a roadside shrine.

Then she shared how she was confused by the last couple they met (Christians) whose children were going to the same school ours will attend. This lady had told her of how Germans shouldn't have these crosses everywhere. To paraphrase this lady's own words, "Jesus is not on the Cross anymore, so why should we make all these shrines."

I shared with our host that the lady was probably only trying to point out that she would rather celebrate the resurrection, and not just the death of Jesus Christ. This seemed to make sense to our host, and it opened up a short opportunity to share about how the Cross brought us forgiveness of sins. This happened because we invested in a relationship with them, and were willing to accept them for who they are.

It's important to always use tact when seeking to communicate spiritual truth to a lost person. Paul exemplified the use of tact in Acts 17:16-31... we should do the same!

WE FOUND A HOUSE!!!

We FINALLY found a house! If you've followed our blogs, you've seen that we've had a lot of trouble finding a place. Although the house we settled on wasn't our first choice because of the size, we got it for a good price and it's incredibly convenient - only a few hundred feet from the girls' school and a few minutes from Ryan's school.

So... bottom line: God is good! He doesn't always work on our time schedule, but it definitely pays to trust Him!

Sometimes life stinks

Okay... so this house that we were promised (in a handshake agreement until the contract could be mailed to us) was rented to someone else. It's really frustrating, but sometimes life just stinks.

One of the things I've learned is that although I can't control the way people treat us, I can control my response to them. As is the case with most of us, our first reaction was a desire to go help this man rearrange his priorities (if you know what I mean)... but we have instead chosen to see it as God protecting us from having a landlord with a serious lack of character. And for that, we're thankful!

So the house search goes on...

America, here I come!

Tomorrow morning I take the 15 hour long trip from Bonn to Dallas. I'm excited to get to see many of you. You can check out my travel schedule at:


http://www. perrinministries. org/pm-xp/html/modules/agendax/index. php?op=cal

or

http://www. myspace. com/jeperrin

See ya!!!
Jon

Finally!!!

Exciting news... we found a house! We found a house that is a lot bigger than our current apt, and cheaper as well. It's only about 10km (a little over 6 miles) from the kids' school. The local train takes only 15 minutes to get to Basel (with its international airport and further train connections) and runs every 30 minutes.

We're really excited about it! It has a bedroom or each of the kids and we have a big bedroom. And although our bedroom is unfinished, we get to finish it out however we want to (within reason) at the owner's expense. It's set in the quaint German village of Wintersweiler (Efringen-Kirchen).

Hard Drive Funeral

After a valiant fight, my laptop hard drive gave up the ghost. It finally succumbed to a worn ball bearing. Fortunately, my supergeek friend rescued not only my data, but my laptop and my pride as well. Moral: Backup, backup, backup!!! (or to quote a cheesy Christian saying, "Jesus saves, so should you!")

Anyway, I'm going to give my old hard drive a proper funeral with a big hammer and a pair of pliers!

Residence visa

On Monday I got confirmation that our German permanent residence visas have been approved. Instead of having them put in our passports, we've opted to try for the EU permanent residence visas... just in case we may someday want to relocate to another EU country. It would totally streamline the process.

We take the test (on German culture, politics, business, etc) right after I get back from the USA. In order to get an EU visa, we have to prove that we are acclimated to the local culture. And even if we don't pass the test, we will still get our permanent German visas. We'll keep you posted...

Coming to the USA!

Coming soon to a city near you!

Jon will be doing a month-long trip to Texas and Indiana from May 22 - June 16. If you're anywhere near those two states, he'd love to see you. Robin and the kids will be in Germany preparing for the move to southern Germany while he is in the US raising money for it!

Check out our website calendar to see where and when we'll be near you... http://www.perrinministries.org/pm-xp/html/modules/agendax/index.php?op=cal. Or check out Jon's band myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/jeperrin.

Russian Space Shuttle

Today Robin and the kids got to see a barge carrying an old Russian Space Shuttle go by our apartment (on the Rhine River) on its way to a museum in Speyer, Germany. We'll try to put some pictures on our perrinsingermany.blogspot.com page.

The dreaded black tongue!!!

On Monday night I went to bed with a bit of an upset stomach. I awoke in the middle of the night with stomach pain and took a couple of Pepto Bismol chewable tablets. They took care of the problem and I went right back to sleep.

The next morning I awoke with the absolute worst taste in my mouth -- and breath to match. I was a walking biological WMD!!! (Anything THAT bad HAD to come from the devil himself!) When I went to brush my teeth I noticed that the entire surface of my tongue was covered with a black film. I was freaking out! I had no idea what this was from. I thought it might be from the stomach flu that Robin, Ryan and Emma had been fighting, or I had picked up some sort of parasite from the Döner Kebab sandwich I had eaten the day before, or something worse...

Well, the night before last I had some really spicy food before bed. Again I ate a Pepto Bismol chewable tablet... and again I awoke with the horrendous taste and venomous breath!!! Lo and behold... the dreaded black tongue had returned! To quote Forrest Gump, "I may not be the smartest man...", but I was able to put two and two together and figure out the source.

The moral of the story: Don't eat spicy food before bed!