Podcast of my book, Read the Word is up
Recently, I recorded an audio version of my book, “Read the Word” thanks to the gracious people at the E2 network. This podcast will teach you how to study the Bible for yourself. If you would like to increase your own knowledge of the Bible in order to have a more fruitful devotional time, click on this link and I can help you learn the Bible step by step. Here is a list of some of the topics covered:
-Old Testament Law
-Old Testament Wisdom
-Old Testament History
-Old Testament Poetry
-Parables
-Comparing the Gospels
-Learning the Epistles
- NT Testament Prophecy
-Learning to Read the Bible Devotionally.
If you would like to learn more about the Bible, go to my podcast at the E2network.
Love -The Damage we do to Ourselves
My daughter Annabelle is in the middle of speech and debate season as a high schooler. Early this season, she crafted a speech about emotional purity among teenagers in their relationships with the opposite sex. Of course our teens need to be physically pure as Christians, but going deeper than that, is just physical purity enough? Or should we strive for something more? That is the subject of her speech. It’s a good one. But the other night, as she was practicing it, she told me that something was missing from it. So, I listened to it again. And then it hit me. YES, it was missing something.
Annabelle is a teenager, so she can be forgiven for not seeing a radical consequence of emotional purity, or a lack of it, in our teenage years and how that affects our 
adult lives. But as a pastor, I have witnessed it first hand dozens of times. The pattern begins simply enough. We get to the age where we can date members of the opposite sex and what happens? We go out with the people who we think are the prettiest, or the coolest, or maybe just the best we can get. Why? Because the goal seems to be emotional fulfillment, for us. We want to be loved, or liked, or noticed. When our boyfriend or girlfriend stops being exciting, or meeting our needs, we move on to the next dating relationship. This establishes a pattern that some of us are enmeshed in for more than a decade as we “decide” who will be the right one for us to marry, eventually. Little do we know that we are deepening a pattern behavior which will be VERY hard for us to break out of when we do get married. As a pastor, I have seen this cycle cause reckless damage and destroy marriages ALL over the place. I can’t tell you how many people I have had in my office telling me that “they just don’t love their spouse anymore” or that “Their spouse doesn’t fulfill them anymore” or “They don’t have any FEELINGS for their spouse any longer.” This is the dating cycle played out in spades.
As we grow up, our view of our relationships with the opposite sex is vital to our own growth and well being in Christ. If we continue to see the opposite sex as a means to fulfill our emotional needs, we will likely head down the wedding isle with that same thinking. We don’t just automatically become different people simply because we meet our future spouse. Here is what I mean. If we view the opposite sex as a means of inner fulfillment instead of an avenue for serving them, then when we finally do meet “the One”, we will view him/her the same way. We will run headlong down the isle without realizing that they were not made for out ultimate consumption, and eventually, when they do not fulfill our expectations, we will become disillusioned about our marriage. More than one half of all the marriages that end in divorce do so within the first two years, the majority of them because one or both of the partners was unable to move through the adolescent view that their spouse could not meet their emotional desires.
As Christians, it is so important that we master this idea NOW, so that we do not carry these infantile views of romantic love into our marriages, where we will be harming our spouse and possibly, our children. We must also teach this idea to our children and help them avoid a very dangerous cycle.
A wise Christian of ages past, Bernard of Clairvaux, reflected on the stages of love. Here is what he found:
1. We love because of how the other makes me feel. I love for my own sake.
2. We love because of how the other helps my life. I love for the benefits it brings me.
3. We love because the other for who they are in themselves. We love others for their own sake.
In the first two stages of love, we love because of what the other brings into our lives. It is selfish at the core, loving because of what we receive. Only in the third stage do we move into a view of love that loves the other based on other motives. It is important that we move from a childish and selfish view of love into a more mature view of love in order to ready ourselves for life in real marriage. I am not saying that romance and a fluttering heart is of the devil. Of course you should be attracted to your spouse, but what mindset do we want to cultivate among ourselves and our children? One that is hopelessly romantic and considers how others can satisfy us? Or one that takes the attitude of Christ and considers what is best for those we interact with? It is for this reason that the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 5 that the husband should love his wife as Christ lived the church and laid down his life for her. The wife is to submit to her husband as the church loves Christ and submits to him. Paul did not say that we are to emotionally use our spouse for how they make us feel or for what benefit they bring to us. Paul’s words are words of selflessness, not selfishness. Which attitude are we cultivating?
Think about the movies you watch, the books you read, the music you listen to, the daydreams you have and then evaluate them by the words of Christ through the Apostle Paul in order to decide whether you are longing for your own fulfillment or for the good of others in Christ. Being fulfilled in marriage is not wrong. In a godly marriage, both partners die to themselves in order to serve their spouse and this creates a very beautiful picture of Christ and the Church. It can be joyful, fulfilling and deeply emotional. But, this comes as a by product of seeing love as a commitment that drives an attitude of service made tangible by actions of loving service toward the other. But if we fall prey to the culture’s idea of lustful, emotionally charged, hopelessly romantic love, we are bound to be hopelessly let down. No one was made to fulfill us from the inside out. God provides our ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, our culture has replaced fulfillment in Christ for romantic escapades that only leave us emptier than before we began. Learn to evaluate the message being sent by our culture in regards to romantic fulfillment. Remember that love is a commitment to someone through Christ, not a means to have our love tank filled up for the moment.
The Tower of Babel
I was blessed to teach at our sister church, North Coast Calvary Chapel in Carlsbad this past weekend. They are teaching through the book of Genesis, so I taught on Genesis 11:1-9, the story of the Tower of Babel. One of the things that is astounding about the early chapters of Genesis is the major Biblical themes that 
re-occur later in the Bible. The creation and fall of Adam and Eve, the story of Cain and Abel, the flood and the genealogies all become rather large points which are picked up later on in scripture. The Tower of Babel is no exception. Listen to the sermon here.
Adoption has changed my family in dramatic ways. Many families begin the adoption journey with radical hopes and dreams but the reality of adoption soon hits them. This is true whether they adopt internationally or from the U.S. foster care system. Children need to be adopted because they come from backgrounds that are at best, very emotionally unhealthy, and at worst, complete horrific in all imaginable categories. Children who have been traumatized take their trauma out on their new families without even knowing it. It can be a painful cycle, but it is the reality of adoption. That being said, it is not the totality of adoption.
In this documentary, my daughter Annabelle sheds light on the painful side of what many adoptive families go through. But if you are considering adoption, take heart, the pain you experience is part of a process of redemption, the saving of a child from a life of brokenness and instead, opening them to a life of light and joy. I am so proud of how Annabelle was able to verbalize her feelings through this process in order to help others understand what adoption is like and how it affects families.
The Drop Box
Watch the trailer. Be inspired for what God wants to do in your own life as you open yourself to loving others the way He has loved us. God can use you just like he is using Lee Jong-rak to make a difference.
http://www.dropbox-movie.com/trailer.html
The structure of human relationships
David Brooks recently wrote an interesting op-ed piece for the New York Times about the changing demographic of families worldwide. It deserves notice and thought by those of us committed to reaching people for Jesus. You can read it here.
Let Go
Those words are pretty powerful. Let go. The phrase can be said in a variety of tones with a plethora of inflections. But when we actually “Let go”, it usually signals a release. We “let go” of something. We allow it to move away from us. We release our control on it or over it. It is free from us and we are free from it. And usually, we feel it right away. The struggle is often in the letting go itself. Once we let go, we sense in our very bodies or souls the monumental struggle we had been having just holding on to “it”, whatever it was.
Francois Felenon was a Catholic Archbishop in the late 1600′s. He was a reforming leader in the Catholic church and didn’t always have a great relationship with other Catholic leaders. His writings sometimes brought him into trouble with the current Pope or the Inquisition. However, he was a faithful Catholic throughout his life and did much on behalf of that church. Because of that, I can’t recommend everything he wrote, especially as a Protestant pastor. But, he clearly knew Christ as Lord, and one little book of his that both my wife and I (and many Protestants over the years) have gleaned much from lately is titled, “LET GO.” I want to quote at length something that he wrote almost 400 years ago in this little book:
“Even now my soul is suffering, but I am aware that it is the life of self which causes us pain; that which is dead does not suffer. If we were really dead, and our life hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3), we would no longer struggle with those pains in spirit that now afflict us….But when you receive your cross unwillingly, you will find it doubly severe. The resistance within is harder to bear than the cross itself! But if you recognize the hand of God, and make no opposition to His will, you will have peace in the midst of affliction. Happy indeed are they who can bear their sufferings with this simple peace and perfect submission to the will of God! Nothing so shortens and soothes suffering as this spirit of non-resistance….Because the stubborn clinging to life which makes the cross necessary in the first place, also tends us to reject that cross-at least in part. so we have to go over the same ground again and again. We end up suffering greatly, but to very little purpose. May the Lord deliver us from falling into that state of soul in which crosses are of no benefit to us.” -Francois Felenon, LET GO, letter 2.
Sometimes bearing our cross means being able to “let go” of whatever we thought should be happening in our particular situation and taking up what God seems to want for us here and now. When we hold on to our own desires for our circumstances, we resist God himself. When we “let go” we are released to bear the cross each day, walking behind our beautiful savior, Jesus, becoming his disciples.
About
Matt was born and raised in Carlsbad, Calif. Although he grew up in a devout Christian home, he struggled and rebelled against the Lord as a teenager. However, at eighteen, Matt gave in to God’s love and submitted to Jesus. Soon after, he met and married his wife Kelli. They now have six children and love the role that God has given them as parents.
In 1998, Matt graduated from Vanguard University with a degree in Ministry and Leadership. He is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Biblical Studies from Westminster Seminary, California. For the last eighteen years, he has worked for a variety of Christian ministries including Horizon Christian Fellowship, the Christian Research Institute, and Carlsbad Community Church.
In 2005, the Lord called Matt to plant Rancho del Rey Christian Church in Carlsbad, California. Matt’s heart desire is to help people see Jesus in all his glory. He and his wife are passionate about parenting, adoption, The Bible, missions, discipleship and helping people see Jesus in every aspect of life. His life’s calling is to present the Jesus of the Bible to people who don’t yet believe, and to encourage fellow Christ-followers to live in complete, life-altering obedience to God. He recently authored his first book, Read the Word: The Bible was written for you.
