Happy Mother's Day!

Thank you Mom for all you did for me!

Thank you Julie for doing this many, many times and for each blessing you have brought to us.

#7

Say "Hello" to Abigail.  Born on April 30th at 9:44pm and weighing in at 6 lbs and 12 ounces.

Waiting...

For those of you around the world wide web who follow, read, or just stop in on occasion to see what we Zilkies are up to, we have some news.  Most folks local to St. Louis already know, but we recently realized that some of our friends from a distance don't yet know.  (Drum roll please...)

The Zilkies are expecting child #7 here any day.  On Monday, Julie will be 38 weeks along in her pregnancy.  At any moment there could be a blog post with what I know will be an adorable picture.

Anyway, please be praying for Julie, the baby, and a smooth delivery.  Thus far everything has been fine minus a lot of discomfort and some non-pregnancy maladies that Julie has endured.  She is a trooper for sure!!!

James 4:8

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. - James 4:8

These words from the the book of James in the New Testament have been of great importance to me since I first read and internalized them back in my youth.  God gives us a promise here--one of many incredible promises in the book of James--that His presence is available to those who will seek after Him.  This verse reaffirms another verse from the Old Testament which I have also loved since my youth...

You will seek Me and find Me when you seek for Me with all of your heart. - Jeremiah 29:13

So what does it mean to "draw near to God" or to "seek God"?  This is a great question because these terms can seem opaque and not achievable since God is God and we are not.  Yet, God has given all mankind a pathway to come near to Him through Jesus Christ, His Son.  Sadly, many folks, even those who have believed in Jesus for salvation from their sins, struggle daily due to an absence of God's presence in their lives.

This is where the ancient practice of Lent comes in and can provide you and I in 2014 a wonderful opportunity to draw near to God.  The author of Hebrews, after discussing the amazing glory of God and the grace of God given to us in Christ Jesus, exhorts us to seek after God..

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 

-Hebrews 12:1-2

We are instructed to "lay aside" those things that get in the way, weigh us down, distract us, consume our time and affections, in order that we may run the race God has set before us...looking to Jesus.  The world in which we live is always competing for that which is most valuable to us...our time and our affections.  

Part of the expectation of being a Christian and following Jesus is to willfully deny ourselves of the lesser things we "want" so that we will have space and hunger enough to "want" and "desire" Jesus and communion with God through His Holy Spirit.  Because we are human and our lives fill up with lesser stuff, we must make room and put aside these things because God is not going to squeeze Himself into the cracks of what is left.

So on this Ash Wednesday, maybe God is calling you to draw closer to him with tangible steps that:

• combat our natural desires and impulses...
• and tell ourselves and Him that we are serious in our desire to be closer to Him.  

Jesus' words in Luke are a great reminder and capstone for this post, because the love of God in Christ should compel us to nothing less...

 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny 

himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. - Luke 9:23 

Retro Child Training - Parts 4,5

These two videos cover the last two parts (4 and 5) of the first parenting seminar we hosted at Rooftop Church. There was a second seminar that built on this one that we hope to post in the near future.  Reminder that the first three three sections are in a previous blog:

Part 4 - The Great Commission and Raising Global Christians

Part 5 - Creating a Faith Community

***The resources we mention can be found In these two earlier blog posts:

Parenting Resources - Part 1

Parenting Resources - Part 2

Retro Child Training - Parts 1,2 & 3

I say "RETRO" for two reasons:

(1) These are the first three segments of a parenting seminar Julie and I did in 2012...

(2) Some of these are "old-fashioned" approaches to parenting that have stood the test of time, yet presented in a manner applicable for our modern day.  We hope they are an encouragement to you in your journey as a parent or parent-to-be.

Part 1 - The Importance of a Christian Worldview

Part 2 - The "Big Picture" About Faith

Part 3 - The Importance of Godly Wisdom

***The resources we mention can be found In these two earlier blog posts:

Parenting Resources - Part 1

Parenting Resources - Part 2

The Jesus Storybook Bible

For many years now, Julie and I have been recommending "The Jesus Storybook Bible" as a great children's Bible for your family:

We still think so and wanted to provide some additional information and background from a great article written by the author Sally Lloyd-Jones.

A couple years ago, Rooftop sent dozens of these books in Spanish with our Reynosa, Mexico short term mission team to distribute while serving there.  If you don't yet have one...you may want to consider getting one as well.

What Is Heaven Like?

I recently preached a message on Heaven at Rooftop and I wanted to post it your viewing pleasure.  As a little teaser, I talk about what the New Heaven will be like and a "cubic city" that is as high as it is long and wide...right there in the Bible.

A Long Time Coming

This past Sunday I finished reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, a journey I began back in July of last year.  I hadn't read the Bible from cover to cover in a long, long time.  The Holy Spirit lovingly convicted me that my reticence to do so was an indicator of my reticence to make time in my life for God, to quiet myself on a daily basis and to listen to Him and what He would have to say to me in His word.  This feeling was amplified last summer after listening to this podcast by Jerry Bridges which I would recommend if you have 15-20 minutes to listen.


Along with the Bible, I wanted to read and review the resource "How to Read the Bible Book by Book" by Gordon Fee & Douglas Stuart.  There are some parts of the Bible that are just plain confusing.  Basic questions like who is writing?  To whom are they writing to?  What is happening in their world that would give context to their writing?  How does this passage fit into the larger story of God?  These are all important questions and ones we should not just brush aside when reading the Bible.  We should ask them and this book is a good resource in answering many of them.

A Whole Decade

Today was our son Jonathan's birthday...he turned 10.  Wow!!! A whole decade of life for the young man and what a blessed decade it has been. Jonathan, being our second child, is our natural joker. Whereas David plays the traditional "straight man" as the oldest child, Jonathan is full of hi-jinx, humor, and hilarity. He does not take himself very seriously and has already learned to play along with my fatherly jokes and friendly teasing.

Working the Phones

When I was 24 years old and finishing up my bachelor's degree after my time in the Marine Corps, I worked a number of different jobs.  One of them was as a customer service representative for Penske Auto Centers.

What does a customer service representative do you might ask???  You answer the following type of calls:

• If one of our auto shops forgot to put oil in your engine after an oil change, or forgot to secure the oil plug in your oil pan (yes that did happen and more often than you would think possible) and your engine seized up 5 miles from the shop due to a lack of oil...
• Or, if a technician did not remember to put the lug nuts on the wheels after changing them, or didn't tighten them enough to secure them, and then while a you the customer were driving down the highway some time afterward and suddenly your wheel literally flies off and bounces into oncoming traffic (I can only picture this one in my mind...but it did happen...more than once)...

Finally

And I, when I was with you brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.  For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and much trembling, and my speech, and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

After many months of saying I would do it...I finally did.  The above passage is 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 and for some time I have intended to memorize it.  Today I did...I completed it...and hopefully will remember it tomorrow.

Looking In the Mirror

I am a complicated person...but then again aren't we all?  In reality, I am no more complicated than anyone else, yet I like to think so because it makes me seem special.  Through most of my life I have needed to seem special.  Do you ever have similar thoughts???  By God's grace and His gentle guidance, I continue to learn more about myself with each passing year.  I can honestly say that this surprises me.  While we all will ascent to the reality that we continue to grow and learn throughout our lives, when I was younger I truly believed that at some point I would graduate and reach some level of self-knowledge, a "knowledge of God & life", or more clearly understand the "ways of the universe".  This ultimate knowledge or maturity would propel me past the daily struggle of looking in the mirror and struggling to understand, WHO is that person looking back at me?

Thoughts on Heaven

Our church--Rooftop--just began a new series on Heaven this past Sunday.  We have been preparing for the series for several weeks with music, promotions, decor, and  clouds suspended in the air...it looks really cool!  In several weeks I will be preaching the message "What Is Heaven Like?" and as I have begun reading and studying I realize what a tall task this is going to be.  Think of all the descriptions of Heaven or the different perspectives of Heaven, or all the attributes of an infinite God that are on display in Heaven.  A difficult task this is sure to be!

That being said, this morning as I was reading I was presented with a perspective of Heaven which I haven't considered at length before.  Heaven is the home of God the Father...our perfect and loving Father.  This might not be "breaking news" to any of you, but this struck me as important.  There is a relational component to Heaven that I seemed to have overlooked that may in fact be the greatest thing about Heaven--it is the one place that is truly home, where my/our true Father lives and waits for our arrival.  My primary problem is that I am broken and I struggle to trust, love, and cherish relationships as God intends for me to experience.

A Great Question

Early one morning this past week as David and I are sitting together in the living room, reading our Bibles and writing in our journals, I look over and see him fervently writing and then looking off into the distance. Interested in the thoughts of my eldest son, I asked him, "What are you thinking about?" Now David is an internal processor and often does not respond quickly with what is on his mind, but not this morning...

Morning Habits

For many months now our eldest child David, who is now 11, has been getting up most mornings at 6:15am, 30 minutes earlier than the daily morning wake-up time in the Zilkie home.  He has been doing so in order to spend time praying and journaling.  I invited him to try this daily practice at some point last year while I was up doing the same, and for incentive I offered him a cup of coffee from the pot I make and drink each morning.  Initially he said "yes" because I know he likes to drink coffee and also because he was intrigued by my invitation to do what he saw me doing in the morning when he woke up.

(***Let me step up on my soapbox at this point and encourage you parents to model the important things that you do in your life...for your children to see.  You may not know it, but they are watching and for a time in their life they do look up to you and trust what you invest your life in is of potential value to them as well.  Don't be afraid to let your children see you do virtuous things. I do not believe the words of Matthew to "hide in your closet so that your acts of righteousness are not on display" apply in this context.  How else will our children learn the necessity and value of these same things in their lives if they don't ever get to see you and I doing it?)

Happy New Year!

I wanted to send out a quick "Happy New Year!" to all our friends and family, as well as a prayer for you to experience the fullness of God's grace and truth in your lives.  This morning I read Daniel 2-4 and how God is the great "Revealer of Mysteries".  May God reveal very clearly to you His mysterious yet wondrous love for you and His perfect will for your lives this 2014.