Resurrection Power

Dear Reader:

In December of 2000 I was resurrected from the dead.  Not all of me at once mind you.  As every believer in Jesus experiences, the “new creation” is a work in progress as God’s resurrection power reanimates His image and likeness in each of us.  At that time I was a compassion flat line.  That all changed in an instant through a chance encounter with a homeless child, whose name I will never know, on a street in the heart of São Paulo, Brazil. In one amazing moment of answered prayer my heart of stone was replaced with a heart of flesh. That is where my story began.

I came of age in the 1990’s, an era where so much had been written about what makes a godly man. He is courageous.  He’s a leader, a teacher, a provider and friend.  He’s a man of integrity.  He is a faithful husband and loving father.  I was deeply influenced by great Pastors and authors like Stu Webber, Dr. James Dobson and Josh McDowell.   Great men who woke me up to the high calling of fatherhood.  They helped me become a better husband and father and I thought that that was enough.  Until…

Exposure to the disintegration of civil society at home and around the world caused me to question if it is enough to simply care for, physically and spiritually, our children and the children in our church family. Or is God calling us to more?

Everything I have learned about children in our families and the church has led me inevitably to the answer. We must move beyond.  The greatest battle that the men and families of the church face in this new century is the knockdown drag-out fight with Satan for the next generation.

The fact is that the fatherless outside the church far outnumber our own children and seventy percent of the children born in the world today are born into non-Christian homes.

This is the story of my journey, as well as the story of many other families and children whose lives have been impacted by a simple truth. We are to be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and our God is a Father to the fatherless.  He places the lonely in families.  From the favelas of Brazil, to Washington DC, we share one conviction in common: the church of Christ is the “Last man standing” between the children and the plans of Satan.