By Pastor Rocky

As Evergreen Church prepares to hear from special guest Pastor Chris Mueller this Sunday, October 9, we thought it would be great for Pastor Rocky to share more about how Pastor Chris Mueller has been a particular source of encouragement to him and to our church family.

Who is Pastor Chris Mueller?

Pastor Chris Mueller has been married to Jean for over 40 years. They have two adult sons and three grandsons. Chris has been serving in pastoral ministry since 1979. He is currently the teaching pastor at Faithful Bible Church in Murrieta (Faith Bible Church | God-centered, Bible-saturated (faith-bible.net). He has earned a Master of Divinity from Talbot Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry from the Master’s Seminary. He is passionate about discipleship, and he has left a lasting impact upon every local church he has been associated with. He believes that the local church is the most effective training environment from which to disciple men and women. His main aim in the local church is to preach God’s Word and train up leaders. He has recently published two books that are pictured.

Please share how you first got to know Pastor Chris Mueller?

Providence brought Chris Mueller into our lives. In 2019 as I was researching how to implement a discipleship culture into the local church, I was having lunch with Pastor Harry Walls of Grace Community Church, and I asked him what discipleship looks like at their church. Harry gave me a staggering answer as he said that I needed to call Chris Mueller. Harry said, “I am happy to share with you how we go about discipleship, but Chris Mueller is the greatest discipler that we know!” That says a lot coming from Harry who is also passionate about discipleship. Therefore, I contacted Chris, and he was happy to talk to me about how their church goes about discipleship.

How has Pastor Chris Mueller been an encouragement personally to you? To the church?

Firstly, Chris is a very relational man and has been a great big brother to me as he has personally taken an interest in me and our church. Chris has encouraged me through our friendship. He is always encouraging and affirming as we talk through various personal and pastoral issues. He has met with me along with various groups from Evergreen Church. A group of us went to visit Chris in Murrieta to share a meal together.

Our staff took a field trip down to Temecula in January of 2020. Pastor Chris and Pastor John Pleasnick invested two whole days with our staff. They talked to us about how the Lord transformed their church to one with a strong discipleship culture. I was blown away with their intentional efforts to care for us. We felt how much our Lord loves our church by sending these men to care for us.        

The main take away that I gained from our visit with them was that the entire church family is necessary to experience a fuller picture of Jesus Christ. The Lord has gifted every local church with diverse members. Each member brings unique talents, experiences, passions, strengths, and weaknesses to help one another become more like Christ. Therefore, diverse relationships are critical to be able to experience all of this. The church must be connecting with one another. Various life stages must be intertwined with one another. The local church must coordinate formal opportunities to meet in the hopes of informal relationships being birthed.

As I reflect upon our staff trip to visit Chris and John, I am reminded of this picture taken during our Temecula trip. The gardeners pruned the local vineyards to allow the vines to be fruitful for the coming season. This reminds me of the wisdom Chris and John shared about Discipleship. It is challenging work, and it will require much patience. There is a season for everything.

What are your hopes for Pastor Chris Mueller’s time with Evergreen Church on Sunday, 10/9?

Pastor Chis has agreed to preach at our Church and to record a podcast with us. I know that we will be blessed by the sermon on discipleship out of Matthew 28. It is always good to hear from different outside voices who have been fatherly to our church. Our church family will be encouraged to see how our Lord has provided us with relationship to help build up Evergreen Church. Our Lord deeply loves Evergreen Church. The Church will be able to see how Pastor Chris and influenced us.

If you've ever read the book of Genesis, you know it starts off as a fascinating and colorful read. The early chapters (Gen 1-2) are what every children's Bible loves to portray —the world, lush gardens, animals of all sorts. There's the unfortunate bit about the snake (Gen 3), but at least Noah's ark (Gen 6-9) has lots more animals!

You journey along through the book. Abraham is interesting enough. But then you get to Genesis 22 where God calls Abraham to kill his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice. Uh oh. We're not in Children's Bible Land anymore. (Quick! Skip ahead to Joseph's colorful coat!)

Difficult passages like the sacrifice of Isaac give us pause in our reading of Scripture. It no longer can remain a nice story with fun pictures. Unless we skip over it entirely, we are faced with a difficult challenge of understanding the message of this passage. Here's where thoughtfully studying the Bible becomes necessary so that we will not make some of the following mistakes.

1. Reading Our Culture into the Text

The first mistake we can make is to read our own culture into the text. We assume that the culture of the people in the Bible is the same as ours. But what was the culture of the peoples in Abraham's day? What did child sacrifice mean? Was it practiced by other peoples with other gods? What would Abraham's experience of this request have been? How might help us interpret what God was doing there?

2. Reading Our Values into the Text

Another mistake we can make is reading our own values and priorities into the text. We (rightly) abhor the idea of child sacrifice, but then think that a good God could never command such a thing. "God is a moral monster", some would say. He asks Abraham to do something horrific and thus he cannot be good or trusted. But what was God's actual purpose in doing this? What was he accomplishing through this act? Were God's values and priorities higher and greater than our own?

3. Reading Too Narrowly in the Text

A final mistake we can make is not reading enough of Scripture. The Bible forms a unified testimony of God's redemptive plan for the world. Reading broadly and widely will help us see how each piece fits together into a whole and give us a larger picture of God's character that can inform the individual passages we read. What place did this event play in Abraham's life in the long run? How did this play into God's plan of redemption for the world?

When we guard against each of these mistakes through cultural study, careful interpretation of the meaning of the text, and reading broadly in the Scriptures, we are given a fuller picture of what a given passage means and its significance. As these pieces come into focus, our understanding of God's revelation to us becomes clearer and we benefit from a growing knowledge of who God is and how he's acted for the salvation of all peoples.

This level of Bible study is not confined to only pastors or professors. This can be done by each one of us if we take the time to learn how to do it. Let me encourage you to pursue a growing knowledge of not just the Bible, but how to study the Bible. In such study the riches of God's word can increasingly meet you and bring transforming truth into your life, unleashing its impact not only on you, but also on the lives of those you touch.

Consider attending our ACE Class "How to Study the Bible" if you'd like to grow in the practice of studying the Bible!  In it you'll gain tools to study the Bible for yourself, so that you can more faithfully read and interpret the Scriptures and encourage others through it.

I was asked to write a blog article on “3 Healthy Habits for a Healthy Praying Life” and as I thought about it, I decided to emphasize just one healthy habit. The one healthy habit that I long for ALL believers to establish for themselves is a daily prayer time with our Lord.

Unfortunately, it’s rare to find a believer who has a consistent prayer time. I’m not talking about saying grace before a meal or saying quick prayers when you’re stressed out. I think those kinds of engagements with the Lord are more common amongst Christians but what I’m referring to is a specific time set aside each day to talk with the Father.

Now you might be thinking, “Do I really need a daily time to talk with the Lord? Isn’t the blessing of faith in Jesus the fact that I can talk with God anytime and anywhere?” Well, yes, that’s true. Jesus has certainly brought us into the continual presence of God through His Spirit that dwells within us. However, his presence in us doesn’t create an immediate intimate communion with him and knowing of him.

Paul Miller opens chapter 5 of his book, A Praying Life, writing this, “You’d think if Jesus was the Son of God, he wouldn’t need to pray. Or at least he wouldn’t need a specific prayer time because he’d be in such a constant state of prayer. You’d expect him to have a direct line to his heavenly Father, like broadband to heaven. At the least, you’d think Jesus could do a better job of tuning out the noise of the world. But surprisingly, Jesus seemed to need time with God just as much as we do.”

When I first read that chapter years ago, it completely tweaked my understanding of my relationship with God. I thought exactly what Paul Miller had written. I thought Jesus was in constant communion with the Father (which he was), but I didn’t make the connection that in his humanity, his intimate communion with the Father was facilitated by the very human practice of one-on-one time with the Father. Intimacy with God didn’t just happen for Jesus. (Throughout the Gospels, we read that Jesus regularly spends time alone with the Father - Matt 14:23, Mark 1:35, 6:46, Luke 4:42, 6:12, 11:1, 22:39:40).

Jesus spent time alone with the Father because all significant relationships require undivided attention and time together if intimacy is to grow. And so, if Jesus made space for his relationship with the Father, we also need to do the same. There’s more to say about this but for now I pray you’ll begin the practice of having a specific prayer time with the Lord. It’s the primary habit that must be established in order have a healthy praying life.

The wilderness is no fun! It’s hot, it’s dry, it’s barren. Food is sparse, beauty is lacking, and danger is real. Granted, there are some hardy, adventurous folks who find delight in the challenge of hiking or camping in the wilderness, but even for them, it’s only enjoyable because it’s temporary—very few would be inclined to settle in and live there.

So also for the people of Israel, after God delivered them out of Egypt, the wilderness was not their destination of choice. Rather, because of their disobedience and their lack of trust in God, they wandered and hungered and thirsted and complained for forty long years in the wilderness. It was not fun.

But God says something to his people through Moses, as they are about to leave the wilderness and enter the Promised Land. God gives them a different picture of the wilderness than perhaps how they were viewing it. They likely saw the wilderness as a punishment for their sinful grumbling and disobedience. But God tells them it was a test. “And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.” (Deuteronomy 8:2, italics added) 

Notice that God says he led them in the wilderness. God was present with them, intentionally leading them, not just through it but in it. And the purpose was to humble them and test them, to reveal what was in their heart.

That is what any kind of test does—it reveals. When I failed my DMV behind-the-wheel driving test as a 17-year-old, it revealed (much to my chagrin at the time!) that I was not yet ready to be driving a car on the road. I’m thankful (now) for that test—it’s possible that it saved my life or others’ lives by making me wait and learn further before driving on my own. Tests, whether in school or the workplace, reveal whether or not we have mastered the skills or material we’re learning.

Hardship. Suffering. Loss. Pain. Grief. These are all tests for us, like the wilderness was a test for the people of Israel. God leads us in them—though we may not feel his presence—not to punish us but to reveal what is in our hearts. Will we trust that his heart is good, even when we suffer like Job did? Will we hold tightly to Jesus in our pain, or will we seek relief outside of relationship with him? Does our loss or grief start revealing self-centered beliefs that everything should go our way? Do the everyday pressures and stresses of a life that is hard prove our determination to live independently from God?

Or…are we learning to lean on the wisdom of God when that unexpected diagnosis comes our way? Will we train our hearts to truly know it is well with our soul even when the “sorrows like sea billows roll”? Can we trust in the mercy and kindness of our Lord rather than running after empty escape or relief? Are we reminding ourselves of all that Jesus suffered on our behalf, in order to give us life and hope beyond this broken, sinful world? Tests also reveal the ways that our hearts are being transformed to reflect the glory of Christ more and more.

As God reminded his people of his faithful presence in the wilderness, he also warned them that the comfortableness of the Promised Land would be another test. Thus, he instructed them not to forget the Lord their God… “who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.” (Deuteronomy 8:16, italics added) May we who are in Christ also rest in that assurance that the hard things in our lives are given by God to do us good in the end.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

(2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

“Daddy, I’m done!”

I was about to bust. I had just sat down, thinking the kids were finally asleep. So, naturally, I paused and – as absurd as it sounds – hoped those words came from the television. The nagging words came again, “Daddy, I’m done!”

Sitting deep in my favorite spot on the couch, I thought, “I worked a long hard day. I had to manage the family at dinner. I had to put the kids down.   And I just plopped in front of the television. Now this?!” 

The words came a third time: “Daddy, I’m done!”

Down the hallway I stomped and there I stood in front of my kid on his porcelain throne. This must have been the thousandth time I needed to wipe his rear end. And frankly, I didn’t want to! I looked up to heaven, and threw my hands up and yelled (in my head and heart at least), “Surely God, I was made for something greater than this!” 

Though that was years ago, I still feel the sting of from that incident.

Without a doubt, that was one of my low points in parenting. I wanted so badly to embrace passivity and reject responsibility- by not caring for my little one. And I wanted so badly to lead and invest selfishly- by caring for myself instead! 

Sadly, my prayer protest to God revealed what I really thought of my God-given mission to care for my son in that moment: 

I want to abandon my God-given mission because serving myself is of greater importance.

Whether you have children or not, you may be able to identify with such behavior.

Here’s a breakdown of what was in my heart:

“Surely God…”   Anyone who starts a sentence with the word “surely” is in for trouble, especially if that sentence is directed towards God. I’m pretty sure demanding that God answer our rhetorical questions is not commended in the Bible. Nevertheless, my question/statement revealed my pride, a complaining heart, not to mention a deep distrust in God, His plan, and His mission. My heart said, “Surely God, you made a mistake on this one! It must be that you wrongly assigned this task to me.” 

“…I was made…”   In my pride, not only did I protest, but I followed up my protest by reminding God what He had made me for. Clearly, I thought I knew better than the Creator. My heart said, “Don’t you know God, I am underutilized and not being used to my full potential? If you would just align your opinion of me, with my opinion of me, we wouldn’t be having this problem! 

“…for something greater than this…” In my make-believe kingdom, the task of cleaning and wiping my son’s butt was clearly beneath me. In my own estimation, I was destined for “greatness”—going about church ministry, solving the world’s problems, world hunger, the sex trade, and whatever else I couldn’t think of at the moment.

What a fool I was!

I was so proud: wanting to run my own life, according to my own desire, thinking I knew best.

I was so selfish: hijacking God’s mission for me to bless others, and instead seeking only to bless myself.

I was so hard-hearted: God cares for the helpless, and there I stood in front of my helpless son, finding such care dull, tedious, and mind-numbing.

Thank God for the Spirit who brings conviction. And thank God for His grace, mercy, and forgiveness. As I said, He certainly helps the helpless—namely me!

What can help us pursue our God-given mission to live freely and fully for Him?  

1. Ditch your delusions of earthly grandeur. I’ll be honest, my protest prayer stemmed from a cold heart that didn’t want to be inconvenienced —and that, by my own son. In the moment, caring for someone other than myself was an inconvenience. And all the grand things “greater than this”, basically amounted to: a) being left alone, b) to watch my show, c) with an ice-cold beverage in one hand and the remote in the other.

But, even if God calls us to far-reaching positions of leadership, He never intends for us to neglect our most foundational responsibilities—loving Him and the family he has given us. Even King David, though he had a kingdom to protect and enemies to confound, created a tender family atmosphere that left a lasting impact on his son Solomon (Prov 4:3-4).

Reject passivity. Let’s ditch our delusions of grandeur. Instead, let’s joyfully and determinedly accept our God-given mission, relying on His power for strength to fulfill it.

2. Trust that true significance is found in God’s design and mission for you. I don’t think it’s too difficult to make the point that we’ve reached a personal low when we think greatest significance is found in doing what we want, when we want, and taking no junk from no one as we do it. Chasing significance rooted in our own designs will only take us as high as our heads will reach. 

But true and ultimate significance is found living for God and fulfilling his mission for us.

Every opportunity to interact with our kids is an opportunity to display a little bit more of the character of God, even when cleaning up after them. Can you believe it? That’s why God made men and women in “His own image”, to image Him to our children, and the world (Gen 1:26)

As fathers, we are to image the Father, to our children. Now that’s a weighty calling. As Christians, we are to love our children, as God has loved us: self-sacrificially, personally, and passionately for the sake of Christ.

Living in that reality, standing in front of a helpless and needy 3-year-old on his porcelain throne, becomes an opportunity, a calling, and mission to display the Father’s always selfless, always patient, always-gonna-show-up love.

What a mission! God has called all Christian fathers to invest in their children with the intention of seeing eternal fruit born for His glory. Let’s lead courageously, in the strength of Christ, who loved us needy and desperate people, and who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross to clean up our mess, once and for all.