This past June, Shannon gave birth to our second boy…Mason Lee David Qualls.  While Mars Hill Church doesn’t believe in Infant Baptism, we do have baby dedications.  This Sunday (Christmas), our church will be having baby dedications.  If you aren’t familiar with baby dedications, this is where the parents present the child to the church, the church and the parents promise to raise the child to know about Jesus, and they pray for the child and family.

There isn’t anything magical about a baby dedication. It doesn’t make the child a Christian (only Jesus can do that).  It’s actually more for the parents and the church.  This isn’t to try to secure the child a place in heaven, but it’s to set in the heart of the parents and church how the child should be raised. If it doesn’t save the child, why should you do a  baby dedication?

Well here are the three reasons, Shannon and I are doing it.

1. It’s Biblical

You see in the Old Testament that God gave Abraham a sign to show that he and his family were dedicated to the Lord (circumcision).  As we entered the new covenant, we see that this particular symbol was done away with as the sign. Baptism replaced it as the sign of someone that has believed in Jesus for their salvation.  While some would now say that we should now baptize infants because of this, I don’t see enough in scripture to support baptizing children (another topic for another time).  I see baptism consistently happening when someone comes to a personal faith in Jesus.

What I do see constantly in scripture though is parents being dedicated to raising their children to know Jesus.

• Deuteronomy 6
• Proverbs 22:6
• Luke 2:22-24

2. It’s Counter-Cultural

Where I live in Albuquerque, NM, it seems like you generally have three options when it comes to the subject of dedicating your child –   Abandonment, Religion, or Spirituality.  The majority of kids in Albuquerque will grow up without a dad in their house.  They will never know what it means to have the daily influence of a man in their lives.  They will grow up having daddy issues that only Jesus can save them from.  By the grace of God, my boys will not have to experience that.

To say that Albuquerque is steeped in Catholic tradition would be an understatement.  While I believe there are a lot of Catholics that love Jesus and I’ll be hanging out in heaven with, there are a lot of Catholics in this area that feel they have get in to heaven free ticket.  They will site that they were baptized as an infant and took their first holy communion at such and such an age.  There faith is based in a ceremony and not in Jesus.

If you’re not abandoned or religious in ABQ, then you’re left to be raised in some vague spiritual system.  Children are raised with a mix of various religious, spiritual, and demonic rituals.  This leaves the child finding their righteousness in anything and everything…other than Jesus.

I want Mason’s dedication to be a counter-cultural witness to the saving grace of Jesus alone.  We are dedicated to Jesus alone, and we dedicate Mason to Jesus alone.  By the grace of God, we are raising him to trust in Jesus and not religion or spirituality.

3. It’s Familial

Shannon and I want to build a legacy.  We want the name Qualls to decrease and the name of Jesus to always increase. When I hear the name Graham, Wesley, Spurgeon, and Edwards, I think of Jesus.  I want the name of Qualls to be synonymous with Jesus.  The sad thing is that it only takes one generation for this to stop.  Therefore, it is my hope that some day I will get to be at the baby dedications of my grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  But it must start with me.  So this Sunday I am pumped that we get to dedicate Mason Lee David Qualls to Jesus. Come join us if you are in town.

Police cars in front of the house.

My mind is still spinning as I constantly ask myself the question…why?  Why would a father shoot his own daughter.  Two days ago only five blocks from my house, a father shot his 9-month-old daughter in the head in revenge for his girlfriend being unfaithful to him.  (Read the story here)  I found out the vague information from one of my neighbors and friends as news helicopters where circling the neighborhood.  My heart broke today as I read the full news story of what had happened.

I’ve known for awhile the dirty soul that lies within Albuquerque.  My pastor has said that Albuquerque is a city that is so beautiful on the outside, but dirty when you take a closer look.  I couldn’t agree more.  We have the Sandia mountains, amazing sunsets, deep culture, incredible food, and stunning art.  When you look closer though you see our high crime, fatherlessness, drug abuse, drunk driving, and list goes on and on.

But the dirty underside use to be a distant aspect of Albuquerque to me.  That was until we moved into our neighborhood about a year ago.  I love our neighborhood.  It is a socio-economic, life stage, ethnic, and linguistic mixture of Albuquerque.  The neighborhood has retired couples and newly weds buying their first homes.  It has migrant workers that are trying to give their kids the life they never could.  The school across the street from me is bilingual to accommodate english, spanish, and bilingual students.  There is an active neighborhood association.  One of the main bike routes for the city runs right in front of my house.   It is also part of the International District of Albuquerque.

If I didn’t tell you anymore, you would think I lived in a picturesque suburban neighborhood.  But when you take a closer look, you see something quite different.  It’s called the International District because it use to be called the War Zone and the city didn’t think that helped with PR.  The park across the street that is part of the elementary school is used by prostitutes at night to service Johns.  This was made very clear to me when our Community Group pick up trash a few months ago and threw away over 15 condoms.  While riding my bike, there have been a few times that I’ve nearly ran over hypodermic needles.  I live less than a mile from a gay cowboy bar (I don’t even know how that works).  Five cars were stolen in the neighborhood last month and now homicide can be added to the list.

I live in this weird tension of loving and hating the neighborhood that I live in.  I love the progress and culture of my neighborhood, but hate the sin and depravity that is here.  The thing that keeps me from selling my house and moving to suburbia though is Jesus.  In a weird way, I love knowing that I live in a neighborhood in Albuquerque that needs the gospel the most.

Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” – Mark 2:17

Instead of getting mad when I find used condoms by the curb, I find hope.  I know that I’m in a neighborhood that needs Jesus.  I know the gospel gets to shine the brightest in the darkest of places.  My heart is breaking for the family of the little girl that was shot.  My hands are shaking in grief and anger as I type right now.  I take peace in knowing that the full wrath of God will be poured out on the man that shot that beautiful little girl.  But I ultimately hope that for the man to trust in Jesus so that wrath that he rightly deserves will be taken out on the cross.

Please pray with me for my neighborhood.  That God would be glorified as family after family are changed by Jesus.  Pray for me that God will open doors in this neighborhood for the gospel to be proclaimed.  Pray that God would send and raise up more leaders to reach this neighborhood.

I’ve only been a dad for about a year-and-a-half, but I must say one of my favorite things to do is to pray for Asa before he goes to bed every night.  If you don’t pray for/with your kids every, I would highly recommend it. I thought I would take a moment and share with you what I pray for Asa every night before we put him in his crib.

Father,

I thank you so much for Asa and the blessing that he is in our lives.
I pray the you help him to fall asleep quickly and to sleep the whole night through so he can get the rest that he needs.
I pray that you keep him safe through the night and send your angels to protect him and keep him safe.
I pray against Satan, his demons, their works and effects, and in the name of Jesus I demand that any demons that are in the house or in this room leave immediately and go to  pit for which they destined for all eternity.  I pray this by power and authority of Jesus Christ.
I ask Father that you would send your Holy Spirit to enforce this.  I pray that you would fill our house and hearts with your Holy Spirit.  I ask that your Holy Spirit would work in Asa’s heart; regenerating it and drawing him to You.  Make him a child of yours.
I pray the same thing for his future wife, and that the two of them would stay pure til the day they are married.  I pray that they would become parents and grandparents and great-grandparents who raise their children to be lovers of Jesus.
I pray the same thing for me and Shannon.  Fill us with your Holy Spirit and give us wisdom and strength to raise Asa to be a lover of Jesus.
We pray this all in the name of Your Son Jesus.
Amen

Shannon and I have developed this prayer over the past year-and-a-half.  The words aren’t always the same, but the general concepts are.  We’re constantly adding and changing it.

Do you pray for your kids every night?  Do you have a regular prayer, or do you play it by ear?

Jesus lived in community.  He grew up in a large family.  He spent his entire ministry with 12 close-knit friends.  He had larger groups of people who followed him during his ministry.  He constantly ate meals with people.  He healed people.  He prayed for people.  He preached to multitudes.  His life was marked with constant and continuous community.  Everything he did was within the context of community.

Jesus’ lifestyle of continuous community didn’t start with his ministry here on earth but was just an extension of his eternal relationship with the Father and Holy Spirit.  We are called to live in community because God lives in community with Himself.

God’s tri-Personal reality is intrinsic to his existence as the one God who alone is God.  He is a socially related being within himself.  In this tri-Personal relationship the three Persons love one another, support one another, assist one another, team with one another, honor one another, communicate with one another, and in everything respect and enjoy one another.  They are in need of nothing but each other throughout all eternity.  Such is the richness and the fullness and the completion of the social relationship that exists in the Trinity. [i]

In John 13:34-35, Jesus tells us the way that we image him to those around us is by living in loving community.  He puts it this way: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”[ii] When Jesus says we will have love for one another, he isn’t talking about the typical-everyday-pithy love that we come across.  He is talking about a deep, never ending, never failing, all-encompassing kind of love.  It is the same kind of love that he showed his disciples by loving them at their best and at their worst.  It is the love Jesus is talking about when he said; “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”[iii]

Because of this love, it is in community that we help each other grow.  It is in community that we pray for one another.  It is in community that we repent.  It is in community that we care for one another.  It is in community that we spread the gospel (more on this next week).  It is in community that we bear the image of God and ultimately bring glory to Jesus and find deep joy in our lives.  Spend this week focusing on how you are called to live in loving community with brothers and sisters in Christ.

[ii] John 13:34-35 (ESV)

[iii] John 15:13 (ESV)

As it’s already been stated, Bible reading and prayer are the two most basic spiritual disciplines of Christian faith.  Prayer in the simplest way is talking to God.  It is sharing with your loving Father your heart, thoughts, emotions, requests, needs, cares, anxieties, worries, praises, thanksgivings, hopes, and desires.  The list could go on for days.  God speaks to you through His Word and you speak to Him through prayer.  Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a discipline of prayer.

Tip #1: Set up “triggers” in your life. We talked about triggers last week.  Take things that you do everyday and make them triggers for you to pray.  Here are some ideas to help you get started: taking a shower, using the bathroom, getting in your car, making coffee, getting in bed, getting ready to read your Bible, finishing reading your Bible, driving to work, driving home, finishing lunch, eating eggs, sailing on a boat, scratching your nose, and buying a tambourine. You get the idea. Take things that you do everyday and use them as a trigger to pray.

Tip #2: Have a plan. If you don’t have a plan, you can easily become a random prayer. Whatever comes to your head at the time is what you will pray for. You will constantly be praying for the same things over and over. This isn’t necessarily bad, but there are a lot more things/people in your life that could be praying for.  So have a standard place where you keep track of all the things that you want to pray about. Then review this list at least once a day. This way nothing gets left behind.

Tip #3: Talk to God. 
This might sound dumb to some, but for others this will be an epiphany. I don’t know if you noticed this or not, but some people like to use what could be called “prayer talk.”  This is where a person suddenly embodies the spirit of a TV evangelist and sees how many times they can say the words God, Father God, Lord, or Jesus (whichever is the persons favorite) in a prayer.  It comes as a surprise to most that you can actually just talk to God. You don’t have to use His name as the punctuation to every sentence. You don’t have to speak in old English. You can just talk to Him. Just like you talk to your friends about your troubles and your successes, you can talk to Him. You can tell Him your struggles and failures. You can tell Him jokes. You can even be angry and cry out to Him (read a few Psalms and you’ll get the idea). Prayer is you simply talking to God. No flair. No technicalities. No special formulas. Just talking.

Tip #4: Write it down.   When you develop a habit of constantly praying, it becomes easy to forget what you’ve prayed about.  Therefore, you can lose track of whether or not God has answered your prayers. This is so you can look back and see how God has answered your prayers over time.  Keep it simple though.  Don’t set a limit. That means no minimum or maximum. It puts an unnecessary burden on you. Some days you will write pages worth of prayer to God. Other days it will be the simple phrase, “God help me.” The idea is to simply write it out.

Tip #5: Keep it simple. During the time of Jesus, Jews would have standard prayers for everything that they would do. You would have a standard prayer for plowing a field, eating a meal, drinking wine…even going to the bathroom.[i] The key was that most of these prayers were only a sentence long. The reality is that our prayers don’t have to be five minutes long for God to hear us. Sometimes the simplest prayers are the best prayers. If you can only think of a few things to say to God, then say them. God isn’t keeping a tally of how much you pray. He just wants to hear from you.

Tip #6: Keep it sweet. 
Remember whom you are talking to. While God is the King of the Universe, He is also the Lover of your soul. One of the reasons that David was a man after God’s own heart was because he was passionate and honest with God. He was open and honest as you can only be with a closest friend. The worst prayer isn’t a long prayer or a prayer said in Old English but a prayer that has no heart. If you aren’t praying out of a love for God, then are you really praying?  The reality is that this is the core of all prayer…to seek the face of God….to seek after His heart. Prayer is one of the most intimate times we have with God. Treat it that way.

Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith

As you saw from my post on Monday, I am in the begining stages of planting a church in Uptown Albuquerque, NM.  Over the past few years I have made some good friends who are also planning on planting churches in Albuquerque and across the U.S.  I thought I would take the next few days to introduce you to these guys so you can pray for them and follow them as they are on their own respective journeys.

Brook Sarver

Like some others, Brook and I met through the interwebs a little over a year ago through a certain Christian beer blog (I starting see a trend with church planters and beer).  Although I’ve never met Brook in person, I consider him a good friend.  Brook loves Jesus, has an amazing wife, and has some mad photography skillz.

Brook also has a huge heart for the people of Thailand.  After going on a several month mission trip a few years ago, they have had a passion to go back.  So they’re doing just that.  A few weeks from now,  Brook and Sara are moving across the world to spend 10 years preaching the gospel of Jesus.

To learn more about Brook and his journey, you can follow him on twitter or read his blog.

As you saw from my post on Monday, I am in the begining stages of planting a church in Uptown Albuquerque, NM.  Over the past few years I have made some good friends who are also planning on planting churches in Albuquerque and across the U.S.  I thought I would take the next few days to introduce you to these guys so you can pray for them and follow them as they are on their own respective journeys.

Brad Ruggles

Brad Ruggles and I met through the interwebs a little over a year ago through a certain Christian beer blog.  Although I’ve never met Brad in person, I consider him a good friend.  He is one of the top three creative people I know (yeah I number them…I have a points system and everything), has a wonderful wife, and some adorable daughters.

Brad left his job, started doing freelance design, moved 120 miles (through a 2300 mile journey) from Fort Wayne to Carmel, IN, set roots, and is in the beginning stages of planting a church.  He has an amazingly compassionate heart.  I can’t wait to see how God uses him in Carmel.

If you would like to learn more about Brad and his church plant you can:

• Follow his Blog
• Friend him on Facebook
• Follow him on Twitter
• Add him to your LinkedIn network
• Subscribe to his channel on YouTube
• Follow him on YouVersion
• Add him as a contact on Vimeo
• Check him out on Flickr
• Join his ROOV Community
• Find him on Smaller Indiana

As you saw from my post on Monday, I am in the begining stages of planting a church in Uptown Albuquerque, NM.  Over the past few years I have made some good friends who are also planning on planting churches in Albuquerque and across the U.S.  I thought I would take the next few days to introduce you to these guys so you can pray for them and follow them as they are on their own respective journeys.

Carlos Griego

I met Los a couple of years ago when we were going through Ed Stetzer’s book “Planting Missional Churches” at City on a Hill.  He is the director of the college ministry, The Well, for Desert Springs Church here in Albuquerque and is the chaplain for the Lobo basketball team.  He is an amazing husband, fantastic father, big reader, and a true UFC fan.

For as long as I’ve known him, Los has had a huge heart for the UNM campus area and Downtown Albuquerque.  His heart is to one day plant a church that will reach the lost of Downtown Albuquerque for the glory of God.

If you are interested in learning more about Los and his ministry, you can meet him at the Well every Tuesday night at 8:07 pm at Desert Springs Church.  You can also read his blog or follow him on twitter.

As you saw from my post on Monday, I am in the begining stages of planting a church in Uptown Albuquerque, NM.  Over the past few years I have made some good friends who are also planning on planting churches in Albuquerque and across the U.S.  I thought I would take the next few days to introduce you to these guys so you can pray for them and follow them as they are on their own respective journeys.

Clayton Bell

Clayton Bell and I met through the interwebs a little over a year ago through a certain Christian beer blog.  Although I’ve never met Clayton in person, I consider him a good friend.  Through reading his blog and a few online chats, I know that he is a wonder husband and loving father.

About four years ago, Clayton felt the call to plant a church.  Like me, about a year ago he felt that God was calling him off the bench to start his church plant.  This last Sunday, He left his job at Every Nation, Tallahassee, where he served as Family Pastor for the past year and is moving to the Tampa/Trinity area of Florida to start Trinity New Life Church.

If you live in in the Florida area and want to join Clayton on God’s mission to reach the lost of Tampa, you can email him at info@trinitynewlife.com for more information.

Please be in prayer for Clayton, his wife, and daughter as they follow God on this wonderful journey.