Today, I got a letter from Jesus

It was posted to my Facebook wall.

The top half was written in a language I don't understand.  Underneath, however, was the written translation in English.  It said:

"Beloved David and family,

My name is Tejaswini and by grace of God and your prayers and support I am studying well.  I have no one on this earth, but God has given me a beautiful family.  I am very excited about this.  I believe God gave me new parents.  I never write letter like this before.  Waiting here for your arrival.

Yours,
Tejaswini

Tejaswini is one of the orphans that lives in our Catalyst orphanage in India.  My family sponsors her monthly, and we write to her occasionally.  This letter, however, was completely humbling to me.

Here is an 8-year old girl with no one to call family.  She has no mommy, daddy, brothers or sisters.  She is completely alone in the world, apart from the wonderful people who run the orphanage.  The new family she was referring to in the letter is my family, thousands of miles away.  The new parents she was referring to are myself and my wife, thousands of miles away.

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a parable where He gathers all of humanity before Him at the end of the age.  He separates the good from the bad, as a farmer separates sheep and goats.  He says to the righteous ones, "Come into heaven, all of you, and take your reward.  For I was hungry and you fed Me, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was sick and in prison and you came to visit Me."  The people respond, "What are you talking about?  When did we ever see you like that?"

Jesus replies, "Whatever you did for the lowest, the least, the most vulnerable- you have done this for Me."

Orphans are the most vulnerable people in society, with the possible exception of the unborn.  They have no one- no one to tuck them in at night, no one to show them how to brush their teeth, no one to read them stories at night, no one to protect them from evil people.  They have no one providing for them, sheltering them, encouraging them, complimenting them, or teaching them life skills.

They are not adults.  They do not have the ability to care for themselves or provide for themselves.  They are children.  Children who were created by God but who have been denied the blessing of loving parents.  They are the most vulnerable people in society.

They are also Jesus.

When I send sponsorship money each month to our orphanage, I'm actually sending it to take care of Jesus.  When I write a letter to encourage these children, I'm actually writing to Jesus, for as the Scriptures say, "Whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for Me."

When I receive a letter from one of my sponsored children, I am actually receiving a letter from Jesus.

So many people in this world say that they would love to hear from God.  They would love to see God.  They would love to know Him intimately and personally.  Here's the point- It's very easy to see Jesus:  to hear Him, touch Him, see Him face to face.  Jesus is found wherever people are vulnerable.  Wherever people are uncool, marginalized, orphaned, neglected, and handicapped, Jesus is there.

The Son of God went to a cross and died for me.  He did the most selfless and wonderful thing that's ever been done for me in my whole life.  Nothing else compares.  Jesus has given me life, eternal life, blessing upon blessing upon blessing.  I am so happy that I am able to give a little bit back- not out of obligation, but out of love.  So can you.

I love receiving my letters from Jesus.  I love the childlike wonder and simplicity that He sends in His letters to me.  Last month, Jesus sent me a letter from Haiti.  In addition to the letter, there were childlike drawings of a little Haitian girl holding hands with her American mommy and daddy.

It may be that the Christian life is no more than searching out and finding Jesus in the most vulnerable ones in society.  He is there, waiting to be loved in the people we are least likely to interact with.  He exists within the uncool, the unpopular, the invalid, the elderly, widows, orphans, handicapped, and abused.  Whatever you do for the most vulnerable in society, you do for Jesus.

God bless all of you- go out and love Jesus.

Being left out of the gay marriage conversation

I can already see it happening.

Today, the Supreme Court struck down some provisions in the Defense of Marriage Act.  All political posturing aside, what it did was pave the way for the legalization of gay marriage.

Within thirty seconds of the ruling, Facebook and Twitter lit up with posts defining the two camps:  Either you hate gay people (and so does God) or you support gay marriage.

I'm not in either camp.  And the vast majority of Christians I know aren't either.

However, I feel like I have no voice.  Unless I embrace either extreme, I am labelled as a "homophobe" or a "sellout."

But here's the truth.  I don't hate gay people.  I don't hate ANYONE.  I didn't even hate Osama Bin Laden (someone we were supposed to hate, right?), and I was sharply critical of the celebrations of his death.  The Bible says, "Do not gloat when your enemy falls, when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice; or the Lord will see and disapprove and turn His wrath away from them."(Proverbs 24:17-18).

I don't hate anyone.  I have gay family members- I'm heading to a 4th of July cookout with some of them next week and I'm really looking forward to it.  There are gay people that attend my church.  I'm happy they are there, and I hope they truly feel a part of the community.

I also don't support gay marriage.  I believe it is wrong.

Unfortunately, now, I am hated by both sides.  This is where a majority of Christians find themselves in this issue.  We don't hate anyone.  We don't believe God hates anyone.  We don't believe gay marriage is right.  Where is the representation for that voice in the current dialogue?

Where is the voice that is saying, "We don't have to agree with everything you do in order to love you?"  "You don't have to agree with everything we do in order for you to love us?"  Where is that voice?  Where is the semblance of reason where a Christian can love someone without agreeing with 100% of what a person does or says, and where is the semblance of reason where a non-Christian can love a Christian without agreeing with 100% of what THEY say or do?

There is none.  

There is only the neo-McCarthyism speech and thought police that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, falls into one of the two extreme camps.  Either you hate gays or you support gay marriage.  If you don't support gay marriage, you hate gays and so does God.  Or worse,  you "fear" gays and are stoking more fear. If you support gay marriage, you're a sellout and an apostate.  

Well, I'm getting tired of being forced into either of those camps.  Neither of those camps represent me.  Most Christians I know feel the exact way that I do (the ones that don't tend to think gay marriage is okay.  There isn't anyone I know that hates gay people or thinks that God does).  

So, here's my statement:  I don't support gay marriage, and I think gay people are wonderful.  I believe that God created all people in His image, and are therefore worthy of dignity and respect.  I also believe that marriage was created by God, and He set it up between man and woman, and therefore IT is worthy of dignity and respect.  That's why I believe what I believe.

I don't have to agree with your political or lifestyle stands to extend love to you, and I would appreciate it if you would extend me the same courtesy.  There.  I've said it.  

I'm not sure if I will get a firestorm on this one, but whatever you do, please try to avoid the automatic default mode of pushing me into one of the two previously culturally established camps.  I'm not in either one of them, and I'm tired of being accused of being in one of them.  Read my statement above and ask yourself, "Could there be room for people who don't support gay marriage AND don't hate gay people at all?"

The Kibler Adventure: 2013

Most of you know that I have a strong burden on my shoulders to care for orphans.  I truly believe that people, and societies, show their true character in how they treat the most vulnerable people around them.  Orphans continue to be the most vulnerable (with the possible exception of the unborn, but that's another issue) people in our society.

My family moved to our current house in 2005.  Our house was built in 1987, and still had the original A/C units.  In 2007, my wife and I wisely decided that our A/C units were on borrowed time and we began to save money so that we could pay cash when the old A/C units flew south for the winter.

This summer, our upstairs unit finally died.  So, the immediate assumption was that we take the money we saved, which was enough to get a whole new upstairs unit, and make ourselves comfortable all summer long. 

The very day that I was going to call the A/C guy, I get an email from the director of the Catalyst Orphanage in India (for those of you that don't know, our church sponsors an orphanage in Dommeru, India that houses 42 orphans) asking for prayers for the children.  A venomous snake had gotten into one of the rooms during the night and was actually curled up around the pillow of on of the boys.  An adult happened to walk through, see the snake, and kill it before it hurt any of the children.

Needless to say, the children were terrified.  I don't know about you, but I would be very hesitant to fall back asleep after seeing a snake curled around my pillow.  Ravi, our orphanage director, simply asked for prayers so that the children would be safe and be able to go back to sleep without worrying.

I found out that the children were sleeping on the floor on little more than tarps.  I also found out that when it rains, two of the rooms in the orphanage leak, and the children have to crowd into two rooms, laying side by side. 

I asked Ravi how much beds would cost for the children.  He told me, and sent me a picture of beds that he hoped he could get for the children to sleep in.  These children had NEVER slept in a bed before, and by getting them up off the ground, they would be safer from insects and snakes that might endanger them.

My wife and I sat down and discussed this need.  We had enough money to do either A/C for ourselves or beds for 42 children, but not both.  So, we were faced with a dilemma- do we spend the money on ourselves to make ourselves more comfortable, or do we spend the money on orphan children to keep them safe?

Now, believe me, this has been a difficult decision.  I hate hot weather.  It gets hot upstairs in our house, sometimes 90-plus degrees.  I hate falling asleep when it is hot.  I like a nice, cool breeze flowing over me, and I like to sleep under the covers even in July and August.  I don't think the temperature should ever get about 60 degrees . . . .  EVER.  The colder the better, in my opinion.

However, several thoughts ran through my mind.  First, the Bible says, "Do to others as you would have them do to you."  If I were an orphan sleeping on the floor, and I knew that a Christian man in America had the money to buy me a bed (we're not talking about an iPad or a video game console or designer jeans.  We're talking about a BED), what would I hope he would do?  I would certainly hope he would buy me a bed.

Second, Matthew 25 says that whatever we do for the "least of these"- the most vulnerable and helpless- we actually do for Jesus.  I realized that it wasn't just 42 children sleeping on the ground, fearful of snakes- it was Jesus sleeping on the floor fearful of snakes.  It was Jesus who, when it rains, went to sleep in a crowded room.  It was Jesus who needed a bed.  Has Jesus ever done anything for me?  Oh, just a few things- created me, sustained me, provided me with everything I have, saved me from an eternity in hell, forgiven me, led me, guided me, blessed me with more than I could ever need.  You know, little things like that.  What could I do to help Him?

Third, I realized that God was giving me and my family an opportunity for adventure.  Yes, an adventure.  We would sacrifice this summer, and then in November, when we go over to India as a family, see the results of our sacrifice.  My children will get to see 42 children sleeping safely in beds- beds made possible by their inconvenience and discomfort during the hot nights of a Kentucky summer.  I will be overjoyed to see the children, who have never slept in a bed before, hopefully jumping up and down on the beds and going to bed safe at night.

That would bring me more joy than making myself comfortable all summer long.  So, we chose to forego getting a new A/C unit and instead to send the money to get beds for the children.  I can't wait to see the orphanage in November, and see the children.  I know all the sweltering nights that are coming up will be more than worth it when we see the children this fall.

Even more beautiful, I have had so many people come up to me and offer to pay for our A/C unit themselves.  Isn't the church wonderful?  I've never seen a group of more wonderful, sacrificial, loving, earnest, forgiving, kind, and generous people.  Although the offer is tempting, I had to decline, because I wanted my family to go on an adventure.  I want my kids to be uncomfortable; I want them to know what it means to sacrifice, I want them to know that A/C is really not that big a deal.  I want this journey to be one that we take together. 

The sacrifice of this summer will make the reward in November that much sweeter.  The cool thing about it?  My wife and kids are completely on board.  There's been no bellyaching or whining or complaining at all.  They are entering the adventure willingly.  I am so blessed to be able to write about it.

After we had made this decision, the Lord woke me up at 4 am one morning and called me to prayer.  It was a beautiful time with God, and when I was done, I sent a text message to a friend of mine who is a strong believer in Christ.  We pray for one another quite often, and I wanted to share the prayer request of the orphanage with him.  He asked more about it, and I told him about our decision.  He said, "I'll split it with you."  At first, I said no.  I wanted this to be a thing that my family and I did.  However, in that moment, the Holy Spirit chided me, "Don't let pride enter the picture.  Don't make this about you.  This is about the children." 

So, I agreed.  It truly is amazing how the body of Christ works.  God brings in people from different skin colors, cultures, languages, and geographical locations and makes us into a family with one purpose.  My friend from New Jersey and my family from Kentucky are buying beds for orphans in India, simply because it's the will of God.  There is nothing more amazing than the body of Christ.  There is nothing better than His church.  How beautiful and amazing His church is.  And how beautiful is the adventure that God sends His children on.  There's nothing better.

A man is at his best when he is a protector

There's no doubt that men aren't doing so well in America these days.

Boys are medicated at vastly larger rates than their female counterparts and are continually outperformed in schools.  This continues past high school- males now account for just over 40% of college graduates.

Many of our younger men are having trouble growing up.  They are experiencing difficulty in accomplishing the previous generations' marks of manhood- financial independence, marriage, fatherhood, and career.   

Many of our middle-aged men have failed in the areas of husband and father.  This is seen in the increasingly popular term "baby daddy." 

One of the reasons for this is simple selfishness.  Yes, there are many men out there who are just flat-out selfish.  They want what they want, with no commitments or sacrifice or cost or perseverance, and once they get what they want, they're gone.  This might explain some of the problems with guys.  However, I think there is something bigger at play.

Men are simply confused.  We really don't know what it is we are supposed to be doing.

An increasing number of men have never had an example of a man to follow.  Many grown men have been raised by women, women, and more women.  They were raised by a single mother, who then took them to daycare with female workers.  Then they went to public school with an overwhelming majority of female teachers.  Maybe a music teacher or gym teacher was male, but that was about it.  Couple that with the fact that they go over to their friends' houses, all of whom live without a dad in the home- is it any wonder that our boys are growing into men without any idea of what it means to be a man?

Men learn by example.  We learn by observation.  When there is no example, there is no learning.  Single mothers can do their best, and many of them do, to raise their sons, but they can't do everything the boy needs. 

To make this confusion worse, so much of what previous generations have considered "masculine" are simply laughed at and mocked in today's contemporary culture.  Men are portrayed in media as confused buffoons, needing their wise and all-knowing wives and female counterparts to straighten them out at every turn.  I believe this has been bad for both men and women.

I believe that the solution to this crisis of manhood is to go back to the beginning- back to the dawn of creation when men and women were created.  What was the man created to do? 

Why was the man created to be physically stronger than the female?  This isn't being sexist- this is reality.  Men WERE created to be physically stronger.  The question is: why?  Why were men created with an innate sense of risk and adventure?  Why were men created to be less emotional and more objective?  This was not a mistake, and this is not belittling to females.  Men ARE different, and I think it's time we stop trashing and belittling these things, or worse, seeing them as dangerous (something to be controlled and medicated out of existence), and start realizing these are wonderful gifts men can bring to the family and to a society.

I believe the reason men were created the way they were is summed up in one word:  PROTECTOR.  That's why men were created the way they were.  I believe a man is at his best when he is a protector.  Men were created physically stronger, desiring risk and adventure, because God gave him his role to protect and provide for his family.

Men are at their absolute best when they take the role of protector seriously.  What woman wouldn't give anything to have a man who loves her enough that he would give his life to keep her safe?  What child wouldn't want a strong father to keep him or her safe day in and day out, year after year?

I don't believe that this role is an accident.  I believe that God placed me on this earth for many reasons- to lead people to Christ, to be a church planter/pastor/missionary, to leave this world better than I found it, etc.  However, my primary role on this earth is to care for and protect the four people God has given me in the form of my family- my wife and three children.  I am to ensure that they are physically safe, physically provided for, and in need of nothing.

However, I am also to ensure that they are emotionally safe.  I am here to ensure that they know what love truly is.  I am here to ensure that they know who God is and what His plans are for them.  I am at my best as a man when I take my role as protector seriously.

Does this mean that I hover over every aspect of their lives like a bodyguard?  Sometimes.  But not very often.  The young and the weak need protection more than the strong, so at certain times I will have to be "a bodyguard."  However, the goal of parenthood is to train our children for adulthood- to prepare them for independence.  This is the ultimate way of protecting them- to ensure that they have the life skills to stand on their own two feet, to be strong and independent, to be able to take life's challenges head-on and conquer them, to be able to take disappointment and keep going, and to always remember that faith is the key to it all.

I believe this society would be far better served with men who take their role as protector seriously. When this happens, it changes everything.  A man cannot be self-centered and be a protector at the same time.  A self-centered man is concerned about only himself; a protector is concerned about others.  Seeing yourself as a protector, men, changes the entire way we view our time, our money, our energy, our free time, our words, and our priorities.  It changes the decisions we make, the words we say, and the way we run our lives.

How different would this world be if we had fewer self-centered men?

Men, we are at our very best when we are in our role as protector.  Our wives and children need that from us.  Our society needs it from us.  Our churches need that from us. 

The most important thing, however, is that is brings us closer to the image in which we were made.  We were made in the image of God.  We were made strong, brave, and adventurous with a desire for sacrifice and duty.  That's the way men were created.  That's what our families need- for us to be strong, brave, adventurous, and to take seriously the sacrifices and duties that come with leading a family.  We were made in the image of God- let's start leading our families like we know it.

Government Scandals re-awaken America's sense of right and wrong

Nothing awakens the awareness of right more than the overwhelming presence of wrong.

Put another way, the presence of evil awakens a person to the value of good.

Our government is swimming in scandals.  We can't even count the number of things that are being daily brought to light- Benghazi scandal, IRS targeting of conservatives and Christian groups, EPA scandals, IRS lavish spending scandals, DHS causing ammunition shortages by buying up enough hollow-point bullets (illegal to use in warfare by Geneva Convention) to shoot every man, woman, and child in America 5 times, and most recently the mining of data by the NSA on cell phone carriers, websites, Facebook, Google, etc.

For many years now, America has been in a moral slumber.  There's no doubt about it.  Issues that would have grieved our grandparents barely even get noticed now.  There has been no real concern over the prevalence of porn in our homes, the breakdown of the family, the lack of honesty in classrooms and businesses, the lack of character demonstrated in our public officials, the ignoring of faith, the war on religion, the Kermit Gosnell abortion scandal, the gross misuse of money and the crushing debt incurred by Americans living above their means, etc. 

We have been asleep at the wheel.  We have been lulled to sleep by cultural forces that tell us that there is no objective right and wrong- that right and wrong are outdated concepts used by bigots and racists and knuckle-dragging Neanderthals to oppress the disadvantaged and disenfranchised.  We have been dozing on the lullaby sung by popular culture that God is irrelevant, judgment is bad, and that nothing is really "wrong." 

Not so any more.  We have been hit in the face with the 2x4 of true wrong.  The lullaby has ended, and in its place is a screeching alarm clock that has awakened us like a hydrogen bomb. 

The overwhelming magnitude of evil coming out of Washington (yes, I said the word "evil," because that's exactly what it is) has stopped the momentum of the secular humanistic forces wanting to fundamentally change our society.  We are seeing the fruit of a society without moral foundations.  The veil has been ripped away from our eyes- the veil that said, "People are basically good- we don't need faith in God, we don't need the Bible, we don't need strong churches, we don't need character, we don't need to be taught right and wrong.  Those things are detrimental to our society, and the "new" society will be a secular humanistic utopia without these outdated, archaic meanderings."

Well, we now know, as a nation, what happens when a nation loses its moral foundation.  We now see the value of faith, the value of objective right and wrong, the value of (gasp- dare I say it?) judgment.  We now see the value of a society that is able to judge right and wrong.  We now see the results of power without character, power without morals, power without a living fear of God.  We see how people without a fear of God will abuse power, how they believe they are above accountability, how selfishness and personal agenda rise to the top when unchecked by a strong faith in God.

This is a good thing.

It is a good thing to be confronted by evil.  It is a good thing for evil to smack a nation in the face, because without it, we would never know what "good" truly is. 

We, as a nation, have been like a naive teenager coming of age in a home where there is a strong, loving dad.  Dad has laid down rules that are to be followed, and the teenager resists.  He criticizes the old man, calls him "outdated, stupid, irrelevant" and runs away from home, determined to experience "real life" away from the repressive laws of his dad.  He wanders the streets, enjoying his new freedom.  He falls in with unsavory characters, who take advantage of his naivety and get him hooked on drugs.  He wastes away- doing their bidding, waking up in dirty rooms next to people he doesn't know.  He is beaten, robbed, and abused.  Finally, wearing threadbare clothes, penniless, broken, and depressed, he realizes that things were so much better when he was living with his dad. 

That's where America is right now.  We are literally the prodigal son.  We have left our Father and wandered to a foreign land and placed our fate in the hands of people who have no character.  We have been taxed to death, robbed, and oppressed.  We have watched our families fall apart, our sons and daughters raised without values, our churches become politically correct, the Bible absent from homes, and our schools become cesspools of misbehavior.  We have indulged in pornography and sensual delight, and it has left us broken and empty.  Now, in the face of the evil in our country, we are realizing how good we actually had it when we, as a nation, followed God. 

We are realizing that a society cannot exist without personal character and faith.  We are realizing that our homes are happier when they are based on the word of God.  We have been awakened to true evil- we have been awakened to the path that we as a nation have been on for years.  We are beginning to get what we paid for, and it doesn't look all that great.

Right now, it is time for Christians to call this nation to repentance.  We have to make changes, and we have to make them now.  We now see clearly what happens when a nation thinks it doesn't need God.  We now see clearly what happens when a country removes God from the picture- government scandals, Chicago-politics-gone-national, breakdown of the family, lack of honesty and character, and the list goes on.  Only by bringing 2 Chronicles 7:14 to ourselves, our homes, our communities, and our nation will anything change. 

"If My people who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray to Me and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land."  2 Chronicles 7:14